The third of our series is the 1990 winner, Kingston Rue
Kingston Rule had a total of only eighteen starts in his career, all in Australia. He was part of a cutting edge breeding program by Kingston Park Stud, and its owners, the Haines family. Their great mare, Rose Of Kingston was sent to the US as part of their plan to access the world’s best bloodlines where she was mated with the mighty Secretariat, America’s most famous racehorse. Kingston Rule was foaled in March of 1983, bred to Northern Hemisphere time, but managed to have his first race start in May of his 3yo season. Even though he finished a dismal last in a field of thirteen at Warwick Farm, beaten some 35 lengths, it was part of his education that was to take him to Melbourne Cup glory. Returning from a spell in January of 1990, Kingston Rule was to run a narrow second to another KingstonPark bred horse in Kingston Heritage. He was then to win his next two starts, and was to finish this campaign with a second to Marwong in the Group 2 Carlyon Cup, and then seventh to the great Vo Rogue in the Group 1 Australian Cup. Kingston Rule was to win the Melbourne Cup in only his third preparation, in a campaign that also included a win in the Moonee Valley Cup and a great second in the Dalgety the Saturday before the Cup. Kingston Rule was to have only three starts early in 1991 before injury led to his early retirement to stud duties at his home at Kingston Park Stud.
Kingston Rule was a son of the wonderful Australian mare, Rose Of Kingston, by Claude; a son of Hornbeam who himself was a son of Hyperion. Many forget just how good a racehorse this mare was. She ran third in the Golden Slipper of her year behind Full On Aces, having earlier won the Group 2 Bloodhorse Breeder’s Stakes and placed second in the Group 3 Riesling Slipper Trial. After the Slipper, Rose Of Kingston went on to win the Group 1 Champagne Stakes. At three, Rose Of Kingston was to stamp herself a champion. She won the Australasian Oaks, VRC Oaks and AJC Derby, beating the colts, as well as running third in both the Caulfield Guineas and One Thousand Guineas. At four, Rose Of Kingston won the Craiglee Stakes and Coongy Handicap to retire with ten wins from 25 starts and almost $600,000 in prize money.
The family was a very good Australian one, being a regular source of winners since the imported Levity from Great Britain arrived on our shores. Incidentally, she was by a stallion called Kingston, and was to produce a son called Don Juan by Lucifer who won the 1873 Melbourne Cup. Among the long list of winners from the family are such notable horses as 1961 Caulfield Guineas winner, King Brian, Breeder’s Plate and Tramway winner, Ghost Story, Rooney, the Craven A Stakes winner, and in fact one of only four stakes winners for the son of Star Kingdom called Royal Artist, and even Toulouse Lautrec, the Danewin gelding who won the Queensland Derby. Rose Of Kingston was also a half sister to another good stakes winning mare in Spirit Of Kingston who won the VRC Oaks, Canterbury Guineas and Rosehill Guineas, and went on to become the dam of VRC Derby winner, Portland Pirate.
In terms of pedigree, we see that Kingston Rule had only a 3x5 cross of Nasrullah, as well as a 6th generation duplication of Teddy in his profile. His dosage profile read [0.54/2.11] for four generations, again interestingly not as high as we would imagine for a Melbourne Cup winner. As we have regularly seen with the imported winners though, it is this more versatile range that seems to see them adapt to local racing.