Go for Gold

NURLAN BIZAKOV’s thoroughbred interests have grown exponentially since his early forays into ownership with the likes of Askar Tau, winner of the Lonsdale and Doncaster Cups in 2009.

The following year saw the Kazakhstani businessman purchase Hesmonds Stud in East Sussex before the acquisition of Haras de Montfort et Preaux in 2019. The historic Haras du Mezeray was added to the portfolio in 2021 and the trio have since been united under the Sumbe banner, which takes its name from Bizakov’s place of birth.

The owner’s pale blue and yellow silks have been carried to some notable victories down the years, with talented fillies such as Altyn Orda, Nausha and Tomyris bred at Hesmonds, and Sumbe listed as the breeder of last year’s Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère hero Belbek.

When Bizakov bought Montfort et Preaux his team stated their intention to add to the stallion roster, which at the time was led by Le Havre, who died in March 2022, and the royal homebred Recorder.

Sumbe’s first new stallion acquisition was the Group 1-winning Golden Horde, who will pass the next important milestone in his second career when his debut crop of yearlings reach the sales later this year.

Under the tutelage of Clive Cox, Golden Horde was among the best juveniles of a generation long on two-year-old talent.

His biggest win at two came in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes at Glorious Goodwood, but he ran to higher figures in defeat on his next two starts.

First, he finished third, less than 3l behind the French champion Earthlight, in the Group 1 Prix Morny before narrowing the gap to that rival to just a neck in the prestigious Middle Park Stakes (G1).

The Al Mohamediya Racing colour-bearer didn’t reappear until the Royal Ascot of his three-year-old season, but duly produced a performance well worth the wait. A field of 16 contested that year’s Group 1 Commonwealth Cup but Golden Horde proved a cut above as he quickened clear from a prominent position to score by a length and a half from the Wesley Wardtrained Kimari.

He ran with real credit against his elders thereafter, finishing third to Oxted in the July Cup (G1) and filling the same position behind Dream Of Dreams on his swansong in the Haydock Sprint Cup (G1). Connections had planned to keep Golden Horde in training for another season until meeting with a minor setback that forced a change of direction.

Taking up the tale of how Sumbe came to stand the Group 1-winning sprinter, general manager Tony Fry says: “There’s only a very small handful of people who own the types of horses you’d like to stand as sires. They’re all in the hands of two or three owners and they don’t sell them on.

“We’d been following Golden Horde though and we’d enquired with Clive early on in his three-year-old career.

“The owners were saying he would stay in training as a four-year-old until he got a little tweak on a tendon and that’s when Clive said the horse was on the market.

“I went over and saw him the next day, and he’d been in his box for maybe ten days at this point. Clive was in there brushing his tail and picking his feet out – I told him not to do too much as he’d be pushing the price up!

“He came out of his box and as he walked up and down the yard I just thought ‘wow!’. He doesn’t have your typical sprinter’s walk and he clearly had a great mind on him so I phoned the boss up and told him this is the type of horse we want to have because he sells himself. It’s hard enough trying to stand stallions so we needed to have a horse that we believed in. He’s that sort of horse; a great racehorse, powerful-looking, athletic and with a great mind on him.”

Bizakov and his team were quick to put their money where their mouth is as they committed 20 members of their blue-chip broodmare band to Golden Horde’s first book.

“When you’re doing that you have to have faith in them,” says Fry. “It’s all well and good telling everyone else they should send their mare to your horse, but you have to have faith and confidence in what you’re standing.

You’ve got to put your money where your mouth is and that’s why we’ve sent our best mares to Golden Horde.”

Among the Sumbe mares who visited Golden Horde in that first season were the likes of Albanka, dam of Bizakov’s Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes scorer and multiple Group 1 place getter Altyn Orda, Melilot, dam of the Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches-placed Mageva, Ollie Olga, who defeated Sky Lantern to win the Group 3 Prestige Stakes, the Listed-winning Frankel filly Qazyna, and Tomyris, winner of the Group 3 Chartwell Fillies’ Stakes.

Quality is the one commonality among the mares Sumbe have supported Golden Horde with, but as Fry explains they wanted to explore a range of different options to gain a better understanding of what kind of mare suits best.

“We sent big ones, small ones, grey ones, anything – we want to see what he’s going to throw for us,” says Fry. “We’ve been delighted with our first batch of foals and now our first yearlings.

"There’s plenty of chestnuts, but the one thing with them is they all have a great mind. That makes them very easy to deal with and I’m sure will make trainers’ and pre-trainers’ lives easier. They all walk too; they have that powerful back-end and they’re just athletic-looking horses.”

FRENCH BREEDERS also got behind Golden Horde, with the likes of Guy Pariente, owner of Haras de Colleville, amongst those who supported the up-and-comer. Another was Didier Blot, who sent Shao Line, dam of the star stayer Trueshan. Shao Line produced a filly in mid-May last year.

Golden Horde is the best runner produced by Lethal Force, the son of Dark Angel who was also trained by Cox to win the Diamond Jubilee Stakes (G1) and July Cup (G1) during a productive 2013 campaign.

Although Lethal Force would not figure among the stallion ranks’ most in vogue names, Fry remarks that a former Montfort et Preaux resident shows an unfashionable sire of sires need not necessarily be a hindrance to success at stud.

Le Havre, the Group 1 Prix du Jockey-Club-winning son of Noverre, rose from a humble introductory fee of €5,000 to sire five Group/Grade 1 winners and at one point was one of Europe’s most sought after stallions.

“When Le Havre started out he wasn’t fashionable,” says Fry. “Nobody wanted him. Yes, he was a good racehorse but everyone said he was by the wrong sire. He showed it is doable though.

“People will look at Golden Horde and say it’s Lethal Force, but why not? It’s about giving them the opportunity and believing in them, then sending their progeny to the right trainers.

"That’s the thing with our own homebreds, and I think plenty of our clients will do the same, we’ll send them to the sort of trainers who will help make your stallion. That’s a really important point.”

There are, though, two sides to every pedigree, and Golden Horde has plenty to recommend him on the female side.

He was bred by James Cloney of Clara Stud in County Kilkenny under the CN Farm banner. He is the fifth foal out of Entreat, a daughter of Pivotal from the family of American champion Serena’s Song, which makes Golden Horde a sibling to the Listed scorers Exhort and Line Of Departure. He is said to bear more than a passing resemblance to his influential dam sire.

“There’s a lot of Pivotal about him,” says Fry. “Far more educated people than me have been to see the horse and as soon as he comes out they’ve said ‘He’s Pivotal all over’. The French are trying to improve their two-year-old scene. Well, he’s a stallion that can help breeders on that front.”

The first Golden Horde yearlings will hit the market at the Arqana August Sale with Anna Sundstrom’s Coulonces Sales offering the colts out of Qamka (Lot 29) and Supporter (89).

The former is out of a sibling to no less than five black-type winners, including the Wolferton Handicap scorer Perfect Stride and Au Revoir, winner of the Group 2 Zipping Classic in Australia.

The colt out of Supporter boasts an even bigger pedigree – his third dam is none other than the Juddmonte blue hen Hasili, meaning her offspring Banks Hill, Cacique, Champs Elysees, Dansili, Intercontinental and Heat Haze appear on the page.

This pair will be followed into the Deauville ring by seven catalogued for Arqana’s V2 Yearling Sale.

Sumbe added to their team of Golden Horde youngstock at last year’s foal sales and Fry says they will look to do so again this year, should the right opportunity present itself.

“It has to be the right horse, but we’ll certainly go and look at everything by Golden Horde at the sales,” he says.

“We’ll definitely look to support him in the ring, as we would with any of our stallions.

It’s important that people have confidence you’re with them for the journey. It’s not just an in-and-out situation.”

Golden Horde is not the only new name Sumbe has added to their stallion roster with the Group 1 Prix du Jockey-Club, Sheema Classic (G1) and Juddmonte International (G1) hero Mishriff joining ahead of the 2023 season. Unfortunately injury prevented Prince Faisal’s homebred from commencing covering duties this year, although his loss has been Golden Horde’s gain with a number of mares bound for the son of Make Believe rerouted to his barn mate.

“Golden Horde covered another nice bunch of mares in years two and three and we had a few mares that we’d bought for Mishriff who moved on to him this year,” says Fry.

We have a good batch of mares to support Mishriff, Golden Horde and hopefully there will be another new stallion or two.

“We’ve 50-plus mares now and you need that sort of number to support your own stallions, as well as sending the odd one or two out to the outside sires such as Kingman and Showcasing and Siyouni.

Fry confesses to being a little queasy about the kind of marketing gobbledygook that tends to surround the launch of any new sire. Fortunately for him and the team at Sumbe, the time for talking is almost over. Before long it will be up to Golden Horde to show the world what he is capable of.

“He’s going to have every chance, and that’s all you can hope for,” says Fry.

“It’s like having kids; when they go off on their own you want them to do their best.

“If you’ve given them every chance and done everything you can then the ball is in their court.

“That’s what we’ve done with Golden Horde.”

“There’s a lot of Pivotal about him," says Fry.“Far more educated people than me have been to see the horse and as soon as he comes out they’ve said, ‘He’s Pivotal all over.’“