When the handsome gray colt Jack and Noah won the Atlantic Beach S. with ease at Aqueduct on November 9, he represented what might be a first wave of invaders by the young Dansili stallion, Bated Breath. North Americans may not be aware of Bated Breath, but he is a beautifully bred sprint specialist (five and six furlongs were his best distances) from the truly admirable Juddmonte breeding program.

Bated Breath entered stud in 2013 at Banstead Manor in Suffolk, England, and he is a bargain at £12,500. Jack and Noah isn’t his only big horse to appear on North American shores. Daahyeh finished second in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf-G1. Simply Breathless won the Grade 3 Wilshire S. at Santa Anita. Feel Glorious won the Memories of Silver S. at Aqueduct. Flying under the radar in this country, but on the map in the UK with the same number of winners as Galileo and Sea the Stars, behind only Shamardal, at Ascot in 2019, this appears to be a young stallion to pay attention to.

Bated Breath’s pedigree features the usual suspects in Juddmonte’s spectacular breeding program. They are committed to the Nijinsky II/Blushing Groom cross, which creates stakes winners with ease, and Bated Breath’s pedigree actually features two doses of Blushing Groom, 5 x 4, through Kahyasi’s granddam and Nashwan’s sire.

Juddmonte’s homebred stallion Distant View was by Mr. Prospector, out of the Irish River mare Seven Springs, and she was responsible for his turf ability. She brings the ubiquitous Never Bend to the table, through Riverman, and also that all-important dose of Klarion, which nicks so well with his close genetic relative, Turn-to, through Roberto and Sir Gaylord in Bated Breath’s pedigree. He is also inbred 4 x 6 x 6 x 6 to Northern Dancer, twice through Danzig, and once each through Nijinsky II and Lyphard.

The signature of Juddmonte breeding is the presence of a tail-female Blue Hen, in this case through Bated Breath’s fifth dam, Best in Show. Other important mares can’t be ignored, however, such as Spring Adieu (by Buckpasser, out of Natalma herself, Northern Dancer’s dam), Razyana (by His Majesty, out of Spring Adieu), and of course Somethingroyal (through Best in Show’s daughter Monroe).

The 1933 mare Feola, found twice in Nashwan, calls out to the Round Table in Hasili, and therefore complements the Princequillo mare Somethingroyal as well, as Round Table was a son of Princequillo. Lest we forget, La Troienne, through Buckpasser, has a significant effect on Jack and Noah’s pedigree.

Jack and Noah’s female family was represented by 2012 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf-G1 winner, Flotilla, who was by Mizzen Mast, Jack and Noah’s broodmare sire, out of Louvain, Jack and Noah’s third dam. Jack and Noah is therefore double bred Caro, through Cozzene and the dam of Maria’s Mon, Carlotta Maria, a daughter of Caro, making this inbreeding on the valuable zigzag, so that Jack and Noah gets the best of what Caro has to offer from these male and female relatives.

Through Mizzen Mast we get a dose of Graustark, His Majesty’s full brother, with yet another dose of their sire, Ribot, tail female. This pedigree oozes grass ability. We also get another dose of Buckpasser, through Wavering Monarch, two more of Somethingroyal through Secretariat and Sir Gaylord, and yet another dose of Never Bend through his son, Mill Reef. Two doses of Djebel and his close relation Tourisma reach out to the Turn-to and Klarion in the sire.

I’m always interested in where the gray coat coloration comes from, and of course the doubling of Caro on the dams’ side is a natural source, but it is its connection with Grey Sovereign, In Hasili’s dams’ side, that cements the gray coat hat trick.

Bated Breath’s other stakes winning and stakes placed offspring come from very different pedigree lines than Jack and Noah’s, so that none of them resembles the other on the page. This is a very good sign for this young stallion, as he seems to cross successfully with so many different lines. Perhaps the relatively inexpensive, little known Bated Breath may be a star in the making.

-- Roberta Smoodin