Juddmonte's Kingman colt strikes gold in the Craven

Field Of Gold (Kingman) produced a devastating burst to seal the Gr.3 Craven Stakes over a mile at Newmarket yesterday, and in doing so propelled himself to the head of the betting for next month’s Gr.1 2000 Guineas.

Taken from the European Bloodstock News, 17th April 2025:

The John and Thady Gosden-trained colt was patiently ridden towards the back of the nine-runner field by Kieran Shoemark. Travelling powerfully and exuberantly off the pace set by The Waco Kid, he was switched right with three furlongs left to run as it became crowded towards the stands’ side rail. Wimbledon Hawkeye set sail for home as they passed the two-furlong marker, just as Field Of Gold was forced back inside in search of racing room, but the race was over in a matter of strides when the Gosden colt found clear air. He quickened in eye-catching fashion as he met the rising ground and eventually crossed the line three and a half lengths in front of Wimbledon Hawkeye, who lost nothing in defeat, with Aomori City (Oasis Dream) just a head further away in third.

Joint trainer John Gosden said: “Instead of staying up the middle where the stalls were, they brought the race over to the stands’ rail and then immediately you are down on the rail with about eight horses in front of you. So, Kieran has done the right thing as between the four and the three, he has thought I have got enough horse and I am going to go out, out, out. He circled the field in the end even though it did split, but if he hadn’t made that move then he would have been boxed in and we’d have been beaten."

“He’s had a good blow, this is a trial, it’s not the Guineas and you’re not fully wound up for this. The race puts them where you want them, that’s the idea of the trials. I think he’ll get a mile and a quarter, but I don’t see him getting a mile and a half. He showed a lot of speed today. I probably haven’t had a colt win a Guineas trial like that before, he did it in splendid style.”

Not a homebred but rather sourced for €530,000 at the Goffs November Foal Sale from Roundhill Stud, where he was born and raised, Field Of Gold won two of his four starts last year, most notably the Gr.3 Solario Stakes at Sandown, and was also fourth in the Gr.1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere. He is a half-brother to the Listed winner Zanbaq (Oasis Dream) and they are the pick of three winners out of Princess De Lune (Shamardal), who made a winning debut in a 7f three-year-old maiden at Newbury in 2017 when ridden by Kieran Shoemark, then a 3lb claiming apprentice.

The mare is a full-sister to the Gr.2 Middleton Fillies’ Stakes winner Queen Power and the Australian Gr.2 hero and multiple Gr.1-placed sire Puissance De Lune, and a three-parts-sister to the Gr.1 Prix d’Ispahan winner Zabeel Prince. This exceptional family also includes the Gr.1 Coronation Stakes winner Rizeena, the prolific US Gr.1 winner Serena’s Song and Field Of Gold’s Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere conqueror Camille Pissarro (Wootton Bassett), amongst many others.