Drakenstein Stud’s exciting new stallion Lancaster Bomber must rate as one of South Africa’s most exciting young sire prospects.
Not only is the G1 winner a son of outstanding sire, and increasingly successful sire of sires, War Front, but Lancaster Bomber’s own race record continues to get boosts from horses who finished well adrift of Lancaster Bomber himself.

Lancaster Bomber’s formline got a double update this week, when his beaten rivals Blue Point and Defoe both impressed at Royal Ascot.
When star sprinter Blue Point (third behind champion Churchill and Lancaster Bomber in the 2016 G1 Dewhurst Stakes) pulled off the rare feat of winning both the G1 King’s Stand Stakes and G1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes this week, the son of Shamardal became the first horse since Choisir in 2003 to complete that Royal Ascot sprint double –and the first European trained runner to pull off the feat since 1920!

Now a four time G1 winner (Blue Point having gone back to back when winning the G1 King’s Stand Stakes) Blue Point is unbeaten in five starts this year and has earned in excess of £ 2.6 million.

(Remarkably, Blue Point is not the only horse who raced in the 2016 Dewhurst Stakes to have captured a major prize this year –with the mighty Thunder Snow (fourth in the Dewhurst) having made history when landing the G1 Dubai World Cup for a second time when victorious in that showpiece feature back in March.)

Recent G1 Investec Coronation Cup victor Defoe (who finished no less than 3.5 lengths adrift of Lancaster Bomber when the pair ran 1-3 in the 2018 G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup) picked up his second group win in a row (and fifth overall) when he downed a high-class field to land the G2 Hardwicke Stakes on the final day of the Royal Ascot meeting.
The Roger Varian trained gelding, who has now banked over £730 000, is now likely to be aimed at the 2019 G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

By way of comparison, industry giants Timeform gave Lancaster Bomber a rating of 113 as a 2yo, 122 as a 3yo, and 123 at four.
Blue Point was rated 118 at two, 124 at three, and 129 last year, while Defoe has been given a rating of 95, 119 and 124 respectively for the past three years.

One can but speculate as to quite how highly Lancaster Bomber would have been rated, had he stayed in training, but recent results clearly highlight how exceptionally talented he really was!