Timberlake descends from storied Aga Khan family
Into Mischief colt is a member of Beatles branch through Jude
By Frances J. Karon
In a post on here yesterday, my colleague Sid Fernando touched upon the resurgence of the Caro sire line through Uncle Mo. Today we’ll touch upon the N. American introduction of the Mumtaz Mahal female line through Alruccaba, a daughter of Crystal Palace—a Prix du Jockey Club-winning son of Caro.
The link to Alruccaba is last weekend’s G2 Rebel winner Timberlake, who is from the “Beatles branch” of that mare’s family through her daughter Jude (Darshaan). We don’t know if Timberlake is named for Justin Timberlake, but we like to think it’s an homage to the musical theme of equine Timberlake’s immediate family.
Timberlake is fourth foal and only black-type earner out of listed stakes-placed, Irish-bred Pin Up (Lookin At Lucky), who is out of Jude’s daughter All My Loving (Sadler’s Wells).
All My Loving produced dual 12-fur. Group 2 winner Thomas Chippendale (Dansili) and is a full sister to Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Yesterday and Group 1 winner/triple Classic-placed Quarter Moon (as well as to Beatles-themed Magicalmysterytour, Hold Me Love Me, Because, and Loveisallyouneed). We’re not sure how a title from the Rolling Stones slipped in there, but All My Loving has an unplaced Galileo half-sister named Ruby Tuesday, and she’s the dam of a Group 3 winner, Midnight Mile (No Nay Never), whose name was supposed to be Moonlight Mile, another Stones song, but was left as Midnight Mile after an error was made.
The Alruccaba family has been consistently well known, often for its grays, in England, Ireland, and France for some 30+ years, but Timberlake—the winner of last year’s G1 Champagne and fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile—is just the second graded stakes winner in N. America to descend from her female line, following Claiborne sire Demarchelier, a son of Dubawi. Demarchelier won the G3 Pennine Ridge in 2019 and has his first 3-year-olds now. His dam Loveisallyouneed is one of the full sisters to Timberlake’s second dam.
Dam Pin Up was a winner at 12 and 14 furlongs, so there should be no question that Timberlake is bred to handle the Classic distances. She has a 2-year-old colt by Army Mule and a yearling colt by Known Agenda, and it’s possible that she’s out of production since no further breeding report has been filed.
Timberlake is currently heading the Kentucky Derby points list with 66, and connections are hoping that he can become Spendthrift’s leading sire Into Mischief’s third winner of that race, now that Mandaloun, also trained by Brad Cox, is (as of this week) officially recognized on the race chart as the 2021 winner, to go with Authentic in 2020. Authentic, Mandaloun, and Timberlake are all bred on the broad Into Mischief/Mr. Prospector cross. Timberlake is one of 145 stakes winners (18 at Grade 1 level) by Into Mischief and is the only Northern Hemisphere graded stakes winner out of a Lookin At Lucky mare, although Lookin At Lucky’s daughters have produced two Southern Hemisphere graded winners by Into Mischief’s son Practical Joke.
TIMBERLAKE (2021 Into Mischief – Pin Up, by Lookin At Lucky)
B: St. Elias Stables, LLC
O: WinStar Farm LLC (originally owned in partnership with Siena Farm LLC)
T: Brad Cox
Record: 6-3-1-0, $1,094,350
Highest achievement: Grade 1 winner
Last Auction Price: $350,000 yearling at Keeneland September
Bred by the Aga Khan, the gray Alruccaba—Timberlake’s fourth dam—was born in Ireland in 1983, one of eight foals produced from Allara (Zeddaan), a winner of one race in France. None of Allara’s foals earned black-type, and none of her daughters besides Alruccaba produced any black-type horses. Allara was a half-sister to two minor stakes winners, all out of the winning Nuccio mare Nucciolina, and her fifth dam was the great champion and producer Mumtaz Mahal—like Alruccaba, a gray, although with two bay generations in the direct female line, she’s not responsible for Alruccaba’s gray coat. Mumtaz Mahal was a 1921 daughter of the important gray influence The Tetrarch who had been bought by the Aga Khan as a yearling. (I wrote about The Tetrarch for Trainer magazine in 2015, and if you’re interested, you can read it here.)
One of Allara’s half-sisters, Alannya (Relko)—a Listed winner in France—went on to greater glory in the broodmare band of the current Aga Khan (grandson of the Aga Khan who purchased Mumtaz Mahal) as the dam of English champion Aliysa (Darshaan), who was first past the post in the 1989 Epsom Oaks but later disqualified after a positive for the prohibited substance 3-hydroxycamphor. A Group 3 producer, Aliysa was the granddam of 2003 Irish Derby winner Alamshar (Key Of Luck).
Alama (Aureole), a winning half-sister to Allara and Alannya, produced 1978 Poule d’Essai des Poulains winner Nishapour—by Allara’s sire Zeddaan—as well as Canadian Grade 1 winner Nassipour (Blushing Groom), the sire of Caulfield Cup- and Melbourne Cup-winning mare Let’s Elope.
The Aga Khan cultivated, and continues to cultivate, many generations of the family from Mumtaz Mahal forward, and countless descendants became excellent sires and broodmares for him. Mumtaz Begum (Blenheim), one of Mumtaz Mahal’s daughters, produced the influential U.S. sire Nasrullah (Nearco); was the fifth dam of New Zealand’s great broodmare Eight Carat (Pieces of Eight), the dam of five Group 1 winners including Australian sire Octagonal (Zabeel); the fifth dam of 1988 U.S. champion 3-year-old and Belmont Stakes winner Risen Star; the eighth dam of 2015 Derby and Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Golden Horn (Cape Cross); the ninth dam of Australian champion stayer Vow and Declare (Declaration of War); and more notables. Another Mumtaz Mahal daughter produced Derby winner Mahmoud (Blenheim). And Mumtaz Mahal was the ninth dam—all generations bred by the Aga Khan—of Zarkava (Zamindar), a dual French Classic-winning filly who won the Arc as a 3-year-old in 2008.
But Alruccaba, who won a maiden at Brighton at two from four starts, was the proverbial one that got away. She was bought with a blank dam and a nondescript race record for 19,000 guineas by Kirsten Rausing of Lanwades Stud and Sonia Rogers of Airlie Stud, two savvy women with an eye to the future.
ALRUCCABA (1983 Crystal Palace – Allara, by Zeddaan)
B: His Highness the Aga Khan’s Studs S.C.
O: H.H. Aga Khan
T: Sir Michael Stoute
Record: 4-1-0-0, £2,512 ($2,886 USD)
Highest achievement: winner
Last Auction Price: 19,000 guineas at Tattersalls December 1985
Inbred 4x3 to Grey Sovereign—a son of Nasrullah who was responsible for the male lines of her sire Crystal Palace and her broodmare sire Zeddaan—Alruccaba, under the custodianship of Rausing and Rogers, produced four stakes winners: Group 2 winner Last Second (Alzao); Alleluia (Caerleon), a Group 3 winner who was highweighted in England at 14 furlongs and up; listed winner Arrikala (Darshaan), who was placed in the G1 Irish Oaks; and listed winner Alouette, a full sister to Arrikala who was also Group 1-placed. Three of these four daughters were top producers: Alleluia was the dam of G1 St Leger-winning filly Allegretto (Galileo) against colts; Last Second produced Aussie Rules (Danehill), Classic winner of the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and is the granddam of 12 fur. Group 1 filly Coronet (Dubawi) over males; and Alouette was the dam of two fillies who won Group 1s over colts, the Alzao full sisters Alborada and Albanova.
Albanova, who also produced four stakes winners, is the granddam of Alpinista (Frankel), another filly in the family who won the Arc. Alpinista was recently in the news for producing her first foal, a gray Dubawi filly, for Rausing. Alpinista will be traveling to France to visit the Aga Khan stallion Siyouni, who is not from the Mumtaz Mahal family.
All 13 of Alruccaba’s foals raced, and eight of them were winners. Only one didn’t hit the board—that Darshaan filly Jude, who had been sold by her co-breeders as a yearling. Alruccaba and Jude are good reminders that a mare with a deep pedigree need not show much talent on the racecourse to make an impact on the breed. As a broodmare for Richard Henry’s Premier Bloodstock, Jude became a distinguished member of the family, with two group winners and three group-placed horses among her six stakes horses, and she’s now the granddam of a colt who has the U.S. Classics in his sights.
Alruccaba’s branch of the Mumtaz Mahal family is still pretty new to N. American racing, but it’s hitting all the right notes and Timberlake is just the latest of many top horses worldwide to represent this family known for class and stamina.
