by Michael Burns

Irish-based sire King’s Best will shuttle to Argentina for the first time to stand the upcoming Southern Hemisphere season at Pablo Zabaleta’s Haras Vacacion under a one-year lease agreement.
 
The ten-year-old Kingmambo horse will ship from Darley’s Kildangan Stud in Ireland, where he currently stands for $34,000. He previously stood at Darley Australia.

King’s Best has sired 161 winners, including 12 stakes winners, from 580 foals in four crops of racing age. His 290 starters have earned $$7,686,271, according to Jockey Club statistics. King’s Best’s top progeny include Group 1 winners Proclamation and Dubai Surprise.

“With the great international success of South American bloodlines, in particular at this year’s Dubai World Cup (UAE-G1), we are pleased to be in association with Haras Vacacion, undoubtedly one of Argentina’s premier farms. King’s Best will be returning to Europe in time for the 2008 covering season,” said Sam Bullard, Darley’s director of stallions.

Out of Allegretta, by Lombard, King’s Best is a half brother to 1993 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Fr-G1) winner Urban Sea, dam of 2001 Epsom Derby (Eng-G1) and Irish Derby (Ire-G1) champion Galileo (Ire) and Group 1 winner Black Sam Bellamy.

In a racing career shortened by a fractured right front cannon bone sustained in the 2000 Irish Derby (Ire-G1), King’s Best won three of six starts, including the Two Thousand Guineas (Eng-G1) at Newmarket.

Michael Burns is a South America-based Thoroughbred Times correspondent