ITB_July-August 2024

FEATURING: Haras de la Perelle | Applewood Stud | Haras du Mont dit Mont

Laura Vanska | France Galop’s Guillaume de Saint-Seine

Take a bow KINGMAN

NOW

THE SIRE OF

Invincible Spirit - Zenda (Zamindar)

Mark Twain

PALLADIUM Winner of 2024 IDEE 155. Deutsches Derby, G1

Colt

29 Circus Maximus (IRE) - Mystic Sunshine (Maxios) • 25.02.2023

37 Alson - Patna (Adlerflug) • 03.03.2023

49 Japan (GB) - Suada (Maxios) • 07.04.2023 • Agent

73 Too Darn Hot (GB) - Guajara (Montjeu) • 15.05.2023

77 Palace Pier (GB) - La Saldana (Fastnet Rock) • 13.02.2023

98 Oasis Dream (GB) - Win for life (Dubawi) • 26.01.2023

113 Teofilo (IRE) - Conscious (Maxios) • 12.03.2023

156 Alson - Shiramiyna (IRE) (Invincible Spirit) • 16.04.2023 • Agent

183 Saxon Warrior (JPN) - Goiania (GB) (Oasis Dream) • 22.01.2023

184 Sea The Moon - Hargeisa (USA) (Speightstown) • 19.02.2023

196 New Bay (GB) - Paragua (Nayef) • 17.03.2023

204 Persian King (IRE) - Weichsel (Soldier Hollow) • 25.04.2023 • Agent

Filly

41 Japan (GB) - Realeza (Maxios) • 22.04.2023

54 Alson - Wunderblume (Lomitas) • 08.04.2023 • Agent

173 Night Of Thunder (IRE) - Campea (Kingman) • 28.02.2023

187 Time Test (GB) - Lacy (Authorized) • 16.02.2023

209 Waldgeist (GB) - Amona (IRE) (Aussie Rules) • 06.02.2023

212 Alson - Bandama (Frankel) • 05.02.2023

Can you afford to miss our yearlings at BBAG Premier Yearling Sale on 30th August 2024?

SUCCESS BEGINS

THE BREEDERS’ CUP WITH

THE BREEDERS’ CUP CHALLENGE

WIN & YOU’RE IN PROGRAM

The Win & You’re In global stakes program features 82 graded or group stakes in 12 countries. All international starters receive a travel award of $40,000 upon starting in any Breeders’ Cup World Championship race. All Win & You’re In Challenge winners receive free entry fees and an automatic selection to the Championships. You can’t win if you’re not in!

BREEDERS’ CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

November 1-2, 2024

Del Mar Thoroughbred Club Del Mar, CA

14 Grade I Championship Races

Over $34 Million in Purses and Awards

Pre-Entry Closes Monday, October 21

Date Racecourse Race Name BCWC Division Region

11-Aug Deauville Prix du Haras de Fresnay-le-Buffard Mile France

Jacques le Marois

18-Aug Deauville Sumbe Prix Morny Juvenile Turf Sprint France

21-Aug York Juddmonte International Stakes Classic United Kingdom

21-Aug York Tattersalls Acomb Stakes Juvenile Turf United Kingdom

22-Aug York Pertemps Network Yorkshire Oaks Filly & Mare Turf United Kingdom

23-Aug York Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes Turf Sprint United Kingdom

24-Aug GOO William Hill Prestige Stakes Juvenile Fillies Turf United Kingdom

14-Sept Leopardstown Coolmore America ‘Justify’ Matron Stakes Filly & Mare Turf Ireland

14-Sept Leopardstown The KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes Juvenile Turf Ireland

14-Sept Leopardstown The Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes Turf Ireland

15-Sept Curragh Al Basti Equiworld, Dubai Flying Five Turf Sprint Ireland

15-Sept Curragh Moyglare Stud Stakes Juvenile Fillies Turf Ireland

6-Oct ParisLongchamp Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp Longines Turf Sprint France

6-Oct ParisLongchamp Prix de l’Opera Longines Filly & Mare Turf France

6-Oct ParisLongchamp Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe Turf France

6-Oct ParisLongchamp Qatar Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere Juvenile Turf France

6-Oct ParisLongchamp Qatar Prix Marcel Boussac Juvenile Fillies Turf France

19-Oct Ascot QIPCO British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes Filly & Mare Turf United Kingdom

19-Oct Ascot QIPCO Champion Stakes Turf United Kingdom UPCOMING EUROPEAN

48 All systems GO!

It has been a whirlwind of social engagements for Leo this summer 16 Ted talks

Ted enjoyed his recent trip to the US, capped off with a successful selling venture at Fasig-Tipton July Sale 18 Girls aloud Cathy at Newmarket for July week

20 Race iQ

Page Fuller takes a look at stride data from the racing at Newmarket

24 Stream ran fast

Amy Bennett reviews the July meeting and saw a deserved Group 1 July Cup victory for Mill Stream 34

James Thomas talks to consignors Haras de la Perelle, Haras du Mont dit Mont, and Applewood Stud ahead of the Arqana August Sale

50 Arqana debut for Barton Stud

Jocelyn de Moubray chats with the stud’s manager Tom Blain

56 A long time planning

Laura Vanska trains Birthe, winner of this year’s Group 2 Prix Saint-Alary. Jocelyn de Moubray caught up with the ambitious trainer at her Chantilly stables

62 A new man at the top

Guillaume de Saint-Seine is the new president of France Galop, he outlines his plans for the future of French racing

68 80 years ago

The Battle of Normandy raged across the bloodstock region of France, devastated the city of Caen, caused a massive loss of civilian and military life as well as the death of the stallion Prince Rose, writes John Gilmore

74 Normandy landings

We follow in the footsteps, after they landed on Normandy’s beaches in 1944, of four ancestors of those working in today’s bloodstock industry

84 Photo finish

Jockey Callum Shepherd has had both a good, as well as an injured, time of it at Ascot racecourse this summer

Arqana

Laura Green

the team

editor sally duckett

publisher declan rickatson

photography trevor jones design thoroughbred publishing

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00 44 (0)7767 310381

declan.rickatson@btinternet.com

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laura green scoop dyga courtesy of stud farms courtesy of sale companies family collections the printers micropress press

the writers

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A social butterfly

Leo Powell catches up with his summer diary, which, seemingly, revolves around a whirlwind of social events. He also remembers friends we have lost in the recent months.

THE THEME SONG for the movie Love Story was a hit more than half a century ago for Andy Williams, and the opening line asks “Where do I begin?”

I asked myself the very same question when I sat down to consider what the content for this month’s column should be. With a short hiatus from publishing, and last month’s contribution being an article about mental health provisions in the racing and breeding sectors, I realised my last diary filing was just after the end of the Cheltenham Festival. Much water has passed under the bridge since then.

I raced at three great NH Festivals, Fairyhouse, Aintree and Punchestown, and this was some consolation for missing out on Cheltenham due to a hospital stay, while a week at Royal Ascot tested my stamina, but I am pleased to say I lasted the pace. The Curragh has seemed like home with the Guineas, Derby and Oaks meetings.

There were so many breeding and racing highlights during this time that I could not possibly start to choose a highlight, or even half a dozen highlights. Suffice to say that congratulations are offered to all breeders who rejoiced in a big race success at any of these meetings, and that extends to those of you who are based in France, Britain or Ireland.

Two of my away trips provided highlights for me.

“I love the Royal week, and again can count myself very lucky to have been entertained there this year on a couple of occasions (don’t tell my GP who has given me strict instructions to lose 10 kilos!)

Fortunate to be a guest of the Aintree directors on the opening day of their meeting, and of Randox on Grand National day, suffice to say that I was well looked after. My guest on the Saturday was a friend, David Letts, and he has done sterling work over recent years in many areas of racing in Britain. My introduction to him came about through a most worthwhile, friendly group.

Racing With Pride is a network designed to support people who work in British racing and its fans who identify as LGBT+, as well as allies of the LGBT+ community who would like to demonstrate their support regardless of their own identity.

The goals of the network are to offer a safe space for LGBT+ people to meet, have fun and support each other, as well as promoting a better understanding of LGBT+ inclusion, and provide a platform for the LGBT+ community to have a collective voice.

We had a most enjoyable day at Aintree, and celebrated yet another amazing training achievement by Willie Mullins, now the champion trainer in both Britain and Ireland.

Royal Ascot week is a busy one for me, both in a working and social capacity. I have learned, from bitter experience, to limit my social activity, and this allowed me to last the pace better than I had expected to do.

The week starts with the Goffs London Sale, an event this year that brought with it sunshine, a large crowd

and sale ring excitement in the gardens of Kensington Palace. I stood close to the principals as bidding for that weekend’s Group 1 Prix de Diane winner Sparkling Plenty rocketed to an astounding £8.1 million.

All present let out a collective sigh when Henry Beeby dropped the gavel, but quickly it became clear that all was not as it seemed, and you know the rest. Beeby described the situation as “complicated”, but he and his team moved quickly to secure a deal for half of the filly at £5 million. Funny old world when such a price is almost considered a disappointment!

I have one regret in life when it comes to Royal Ascot, and it is that I never attended the meeting with my late parents. My mum, something of a fashionista, enjoyed that aspect of the meeting, while for dad it was about identifying potential stallions to use in the years ahead.

My father had a spot, as I recall, by a tree in the saddling area which was his favourite, but my first visit to the Berkshire track was after the “new” Ascot was unveiled.

I love the Royal week, and again can count myself very lucky to have been entertained there this year on a couple of occasions (don’t tell my GP who has given me strict instructions to lose 10 kilos!).

Saturday of the five-day meeting provided some never to be forgotten moments, thanks to the hospitality of His Majesty’s Representative, Sir Francis Brooke. I was seated for lunch with the charming Alex Jones, one of

It is a funny old world: after the sale-non-sale and then half-sale of Sparkling Plenty, her final price settled down to £5 million at the Goffs London Sale

Leo enjoyed spending time with stars such as Henry Winkler [aka The Fonz] at Royal Ascot

the hosts of The One Show on BBC, and also got to meet and speak with stars of stage and screen.

What a privilege it was to spend time with a hero of my teenage years Henry Winkler, who was played the star role of The Fonz in Happy Days, with Dame Prue Leith, and the subline actor and generous mental health advocate David Harewood.

Carberry becomes a new elected MEP for Fine Gael

Recently we saw elections to the European Parliament, and there was a very high-profile victory for a lady whose own achievements, and those of her family, have made her a household name. Nina Carberry has now embarked on a new career, one that she could hardly have imagined when she sparkled as an amateur jockey.

Nina, who has just celebrated turning 40, can now add the fact that she is a Fine Gael politician who has become a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for a large constituency in Ireland. Her campaign to become elected was directed by Martin Heydon, an Irish Government minister who has a strong connection to the equine world.

A former champion amateur NH rider with seven Cheltenham Festival wins to her name, Carberry’s name was well-known outside her chosen sport, and this was an undoubted help during her campaign. Not one to

“Nina, who has just celebrated turning 40, can now add the fact that she is a Fine Gael politician who has become a Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for a large constituency in Ireland

rest on her laurels, she has certainly pushed boundaries since she retired from the saddle, and has won a reality television programme and become a published children’s author.

The daughter of jockey and trainer Tommy Carberry, she also can boast of having successful riders as siblings, while her maternal uncle is Arthur Moore. At school she excelled in athletics and at basketball. In July 2001, she rode her first winner, Sabrinksy for Noel Meade in the Ladies Derby at The Curragh, six days short of her 17th birthday.

Carberry enjoyed her first win at the Cheltenham Festival on 20/1 shot Dabiroun for Paul Nolan in the 2005 Fred Winter Juvenile Novices’ Hurdle, the first time in 18 years that a female jockey had won at the Cheltenham Festiva meeting.

In the 2005/06 season, she became just the second woman after Frances Crowley to win the Irish amateur riders’ championship.

This was just the start of a litany of achievements in and out of the saddle. Carberry became the first female jump jockey to win a Grade 1 race in Ireland or Britain with victory in the Champion Bumper at Punchestown in 2006 on Leading Run, trained by Noel Meade, and the same combination won the race again with Mick The Man the following year.

She had a habit of winning the Cross Country Chase at Cheltenham for Enda Bolger, doing so on four occasions. She also won the hunter chase at The Festival twice.

It was a special moment in 2011 when Carberry won the Irish Grand National for her uncle Arthur Moore on Organisedconfusion, while six attempts at the Aintree version saw her finish the course four times. She won over the Grand National fences in the 2015 Fox Hunters’ Chase. Carberry retired from the saddle on the final day of the Punchestown Festival in 2018, after a winning ride on Josies Orders, appropriately for J.P. McManus and Enda Bolger, with whom she enjoyed many great days.

Four years later, Carberry took television by storm when she won Dancing with the Stars Ireland, while also taking the role of a coach in Ireland’s Fittest Family.

She is married to Ted Walsh, brother of Ruby.

It is all about the next generation

I am now of an age to be able to say that I have seen more than a couple of generations of young people embark on careers in the bloodstock industry. Quite often these men and women do not garner the same headlines that their racing counterparts do, simply due to lack of exposure for their achievements.

A young breeder of a winner will usually end up with a line in the press after a race, while the young trainer

Nina Carberry at the Punchestown Festival 2024 with the Taoiseach Simon Harris

or jockey will be feted. Talented stud managers will enjoy success with stock raised and sold, but the stud owner will be named in the reports. So many young people work behind the scenes in sale companies, stud farms, veterinary practices, and more; they are often unheralded.

One of my pleasant tasks each year is to go and lecture the students at the Irish National Stud Thoroughbred Breeding Management Course. My talk is about Blue Hen broodmares, and this is specifically about the 10 mares in history who have produced four or more Group/Grade 1 winners. Afterwards, the students are tasked with writing 500 words about one of four subjects I give them, and the winner receives a trophy and a cash prize from The Irish Field

This year’s class of students, numbering 28 in all, came from all corners of the world. Ireland, Britain, the USA, Venezuela, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Germany and Brazil were the nations represented, and the prestigious gold and silver medal winners were Ireland’s Shane Loughnane and the US’s Grace Hamilton.

Loughnane completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Equine Science at the University of Limerick prior to joining the Irish National Stud course. During that four-year period, he spent summer holidays and his college work placement in Luke Lillingston’s Mount Coote Stud, where he developed a passion for the breeding industry and gained valuable foaling experience.

He also spent time working at Ballyphilip Stud where he gained experience in all aspects of stud work, especially yearling prep and sales, with breeder and pinhooker Paul McCartan.

Loughnane’s long-term goal is to gain experience abroad and work alongside industry leaders prior to returning to Ireland with the aim of stud management. He has started his career journey well, and ended the Irish National Stud course with a number of additional awards.

He was honoured by Cathal Beale with the CEO award for Best Equine Business Exam, while I was happy to have selected his work for The Irish Field Blue Hen Award. He chose to advocate for His Highness the Aga Khan and his family being considered the greatest breeders of all time.

The course’s education manager Anne Channon was delighted with this year’s cohort of graduates.

She said: “Our graduates this year have shown an extraordinary commitment to their studies. We are incredibly proud of their achievements, and excited to see them contribute to the future of the thoroughbred industry.”

I was honoured, for the second time, to chair the Irish

“So many young people work behind the scenes in sale companies, stud farms, veterinary practices, and more; they are often unheralded.

National Stud presentations, and this ceremony came days after the 2024 Godolphin Flying Start graduation ceremony took place at Kildangan Stud.

Five countries were represented among the dozen class members, and there was a familiar name when the top trainee was announced. Megan O’Leary is a daughter of Eddie and Wendy [Hyde], and here is a young lady turning in a performance in keeping with her bloodlines.

RIP: Jean Pim, Tony O’Reilly, David Power

There has been no shortage of sad news during the past few months, with the deaths of some friends and industry personalities. A few were of people I had a particular respect for, and I would like to pay tribute to a trio.

My first contact with Jean Pim, mother of the Tattersalls and Tattersalls Ireland auctioneer Alastair, was in June 1976 at the Derby Sale in Ballsbridge. Her husband David was one of the founding auctioneers at the sales company, later to become Tattersalls Ireland. It was the first day of my working life, straight out of school. A friendship was born that was only severed following her death.

Jean was loyal, fair, never judged, navigated troubled waters, and saw you for who you were. She had opinions, expressed them, but a different view did not mean you

INS student Shane Loughnane receiving his Irish Field-sponsored award from Leo

Photo: Irish National Stud

could not be a friend. She faced many health difficulties and found a way to overcome them. She inspired loyalty, was very supportive and encouraging, and there is no better example of that than the respect and fondness she had from young people.

Jean and Fanny O’Rourke were for many years the welcoming faces for everyone attending the sales at Fairyhouse. Everyone knew them, and they knew everybody. Sadly, Jean’s passing came shortly before the 50th anniversary celebrations of the Derby Sale, but she was remembered with great affection by the many.

I trawled through the replies posted after I paid a tribute on social media to Jean, and the following words came up time and time again. Wonderful, amazing, welcoming, helpful, beautiful, a gem, vibrant, elegant, incredible, friendly, a legend, witty, remarkable, lovely, a mover and shaker, and much more. One friend wrote: “Sleep well lovely Jean. You were, and still are, a very special soul.”

So soon after the untimely death of his wife Chryss, Tony O’Reilly died after an illness. While Lady O’Reilly was totally immersed in racing and breeding, her husband had a lesser, though significant, involvement. He was an owner, breeder and a leading race sponsor. He had winners trained by Vincent O’Brien and Mouse Morris among others, and he owned the famed Castlemartin Stud in County Kildare.

One of the greatest-ever Irish rugby players, O’Reilly

“Dad was an incredibly humble man; he was always grateful. One of the many things he loved about the racetrack is that, as he said, it was a great leveller. You wouldn’t know who you were rubbing shoulders with...”

was hugely successful in business, heading the Heinz Corporation. Knighted by Queen Elizabeth, he was a charismatic character, larger than life, and someone whose philanthropic nature was most often handled privately and with discretion.

As I pen this column, the news emerged of the death of David Power, a man of great grace. A founder of the Paddy Power betting company, David and his wife Sabena enjoyed some memorable times as racehorse owners, not least with the Eddie Lynam-trained duo of Sole Power and Slade Power. Yet none of these achievements changed him; he was a gentleman in every sense of that word.

I can personally attest to his kindness, generosity with his time, and be thankful for his wisdom and advice. David Power kept it simple, and his son Paddy, in a heartfelt eulogy after his dad’s passing, said it well. “Dad was an incredibly humble man; he was always grateful. One of the many things he loved about the racetrack is that, as he said, it was a great leveller. You wouldn’t know who you were rubbing shoulders with.

“One bit of advice that he often gave was to behave in a way that you can walk into any room, at any time, anywhere in the world, and look every person in the eye. He was a values man: integrity, loyalty, generosity, humility, kindness, ambition, work ethic, discipline, courage and gratitude.”

May they all rest in peace.

Sir Anthony O’Reilly: seen here in 2007 at the opening of a new printing plant in Newry. O’Reilly was a highly successful businessman who also played international rugby for Ireland, as well as the British and Irish Lions. He died in May seven months after his wife Lady O’Reilly passed away

© Agence G / Z. Lupa

TED TALKS...

Good times to be had in the US

IHAVE SPENT TIME in Lexington this year looking after Stonereath Farm for Imad Al Sagar and it has opened my eyes to the vibrancy of the US thoroughbred industry.

When sitting down to chat with the many expat residents, as well as the Kentucky hardboots, they all praise the state incentive breeding programmes.

The Kentucky breeding programme provides almost $40,000,000 prize-money at Kentucky Downs, a racetrack that suits European-skilled jockeys to navigate its undulations twists and turns.

My good friend, ex-colleague Dr Scott Pierce, has invested in the New York programme, foaling down mares on Rood and Riddle’s farm in New York State to gain eligibility and to keep the cheques rolling in once a week.

The programmes only work in

numbers, giving you critical mass.

At Fasig-Tipton I bumped into Alex Cole, one of the only Brits at the Fasig-Tipton July Sale and he had flown in especially.

He has already plundered the Kentucky Downs KY-bred prize-money for his owner Jim Hay, and is always on the lookout for the Kentucky-bred racehorse.

Fasig-Tipton in July has changed considerably from when I sold yearlings on the other side of town at the last Keeneland July Sale.

The sale company has created a Horses in Training Sale to rival the Tattersalls horses-in-training sales, which has dominated in this area.

The times are shifting and the American sales companies and online sales are becoming a threat to the British sale that has been so dominant.

Tattersalls did send over representatives to remind the buying bench that the world’s leading horses-in-training sale

The times are shifting and the American sales companies and online sales are becoming a threat to the British sale that has been so dominant “ “

The Fasig-Tipton sale ground in July, and, inset, Informed Patriot who was bought by HRH Prince Saud bin Salman for $1,055,000

is still at Newmarket before they had to jet back to look after international clients at home through July week.

Early this year I saw a joint inward trade mission from America, working hard in Saudi Arabia, Dubai, Qatar and Bahrain – both American sales companies had sent heavy representation to entertain, sponsor and meet the Middle Eastern buyers.

This resulted in two of the main agents in Saudi Arabia locking horns for the Fasig-Tipton wild card entry Informed Patriot, who had run third in the Grade 3 Indiana Derby two days previously.

Informed Patriot was entered by Taylor Made on Sunday morning with full videos and testing completed ahead of selling late Monday evening.

The heavyweights from Saudi Arabia – HRH Prince Faisal bin Khalid of Najd Stud and HRH Prince Saud bin Salman – locked horns,

Photos courtesy of Fasig-Tipton

the latter emerging victorious at $1,055,000.

We did dip the Blue Diamond toe in the water and entered our Justify colt Wonderful Justice, who had been trained by Brad Cox to win a small Turf stakes race.

We shipped in after the July 4 celebrations and the one-horse consignment had some great viewings over the weekend which resulted in numerous vettings.

It was our first foray in selling ourselves and chosen carefully against entering the market place at a yearling sale – we currently use a consignor for the US yearlings.

Erin Dilger and Jenn Laidlaw managed proceedings resulting in Blue Diamond Stud selling to Three Diamond Racing with Ibraham Rashid lurking as the underbidder.

THE COLT will be trained by Mike Maker, who has a reputation of getting the best out of second-hand horses and he should go on to make someone a fun horse.

I had a quick few days in Lexington on the farm checking our own stock and those of our client’s.

We’ve done some quarantine for ourselves and had some amazing clients join the quarantine back to Europe.

Imad Al Sagar, though, doesn’t want many boarders and the head count is set to stay around 50 in order to maintain the excellent pasture on the 250 acres that were nurtured by Darryl and Lindy Brown and Peter Bergler in the decades before us.

It’s an expensive place to run at the level Imad encourages us to aim for.

The farm also has 100 head of

cattle for R W Hicks whose wife Judy bred and races in partnership the Kentucky Oaks winner Thorpedo Anna.

The farm took a leaf out of the Denali Stud book and applied for a solar panel grant, which has just been approved for one of the barns.

With the 95 degrees heat I hope we can run the barn virtually free with a surplus being purchased by the grid.

July is also a great time to see the US-based stallions after their busy season. A relaxing first stop was Ashford to see Uncle Mo, Justify and Practical Joke all stallions we used at Blue Diamond.

My personal favourite is Uncle Mo – he is a solid citizen who continues to push out the graded stakes winners.

Justify looked no worse for wear after seeing 245 mares, 145 of those from the home team. We have three mares residing at

Stonereath in-foal to him.

Together with Practical Joke both horses started trading nominations much lower at the start of the season, but Justify changed all that on Breeders’ Cup Day and went up to $300,000. It is something the Americans understand, but the Europeans needed time to absorb realising they had missed the boat on the early-season opening stud fee.

The ability to increase stud fees and re-open the book at an increased stud fee is fair game in the US; if you snooze you loose and to make these stallions costs a lot of money.

I was not able to see Quality Road, who had a severe bout of cellulitis, but I will catch up with him in September.

We went to Three Chimneys to see Gun Runner, who is, a neat horse, well balanced, and would suit a lot of mares.

Although his first stakes winner was on Turf, he hasn’t had much opportunity to prove himself on the surface but I was told that Coolmore sent him 40 mares last year so you must be encouraged he will have some emerge over time.

Good Magic and Not This Time are the other emerging sires who we got to see although Good Magic is more Dirt-orientated.

The current biggest progression in the US is the online sales.

Interestingly, I used the Tattersalls monthly online sale for an unraced three-year old colt and we got 5,500gns from a good trainer in Newmarket.

Nawara Stud sold a winning colt at the physical July sale for 7,000gns which I found remarkable considering the date of the former – I’ve always said the more you let people look at these horses the more they go off them!

Not This Time: sire of the impressive Royal Ascot-winning Shareholder and viewed by Ted on his US trip in July

Photo courtesy of Taylor Made Farm

T....Girls aloud

HE BLOODSTOCK AND RACING COMMUNITIES rolled into Newmarket for July week.

With a major, three-day sale overlapping with the three-day racing festival on the July course, there was much action and activity in Newmarket.

Every year racing and breeding people from around Europe, and even further afield, flock to Newmarket on a summer pilgrimage or rather a busman’s holiday.

Covid has definitely left its toll on the week with the many social events that once were annual fixtures now no more, but there was still plenty of action for those in attendance.

We were very lucky to be invited to the EBN clay pigeon shoot on the Monday evening, which was a fantastic evening of hospitality at Six Mile Bottom Shoot. Some of our party had never shot before, yet after expert tuition they were soon hitting the clays with ease. The afternoon was a great way to catch up with people and also blow off some steam after a long day looking at horses on the sale ground.

Tuesday heralded the start of the sale and it was my busiest day of the week with two gorgeous fillies purchased on behalf of Bert House Stud, adding to the farm’s growing broodmare band.

Bert House Stud is owned by Richard Young, of Ark Equine products, and his wife Ciara. Kirsty MacCann, equine nutritional manager for Ark Equine, is also stud director on the farm and it was great to have both Richard and Kirsty on hand in Newmarket.

I also tried hard to purchase for a number of other clients during the week but it was not to be and we hit the woodwork on a few occasions. We will move on to the sales later in the year.

Every morning during July week the gallops are full of visitors catching up with progress of horses they may have with Newmarket trainers, or out and about to see if they can spot a horse they may have sold or bred being put through its paces.

We were very lucky that trainer Kevin Phillipart de Foy allowed us to visit his new base in Induna Stables to view a yearling that he purchased from Newtown Stud at last year’s yearling sales.

The colt is a now a smashing two-year-old called Without Burlington, is by the exciting young Newsells Park sire Without Parole, and we are looking forward to seeing him on the track.

There was some exciting racing on show for the week with promising two-year-old Whistlejacket hitting the headlines on Thursday in the colours of Peter Brandt and trained by Aidan O’Brien, while the Marco Botti-trained Giavellotto put in a tough performance for owner-breeder Scuderia La Tesa in the Princess Of Wales’s Stakes (G2).

Simon and Ed Crisford bagged a double on Friday with Involvement and Arabian Dusk, but plaudits of the day went to star filly Porta Fortuna, who gave her young trainer Donnacha O’Brien

Cathy Grassick, chairman of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association

The beautiful parade ring on the July course, Newmarket

his seventh top-level victory as a trainer.

The highlight of the week’s racing for July is, of course, Saturday’s July Cup and this year it did not disappoint with Mill Stream putting in a very special performance to land the Group 1 for delighted trainer Jane Chapple-Hyam and owner Peter Harris, himself a Group 1-winning trainer.

It was lovely to see his famous colours grace the winners’ enclosure for this special race.

Sadly, this week was not all glamour and glory as it also featured the most tragic and terrible of incidents, and the cruel way in which the lives of Carol Hunt, Hannah Hunt and Louise Hunt were taken has hit everyone in the racing community.

The outpourings of sympathy for BBC commentator, husband nad father John Hunt and his surviving daughter Amy, came from every corner of the industry and the respect for one of racing’s true gentlemen brought many to tears at the loss of his family.

Nothing feels suitable or sufficient to say in the face of such violence and tragedy. Thoughts and prayers no longer feel adequate.

Women deserve to feel safe in their own homes and everyday lives.

Gofundme: www.gofundme.com/f/the-family-of-john-hunt

BLUE POINT

What an incredible start! Sire of first-crop G1 winners Big Evs and Rosallion. His second crop is already excelling, too, with Tiego

The First, a classy seven furlong Stakes winner at Deauville.

The next Blue Point?

Victor Ludorum is by Shamardal, from his family, and won similar races. His first yearlings are selling now.

Understanding stride data

It is not always the fastest horse who wins the race, writes Page Fuller of Race iQ

IT IS GIVEN THAT THE FASTEST HORSE from start to finish is the horse that wins a race. This, however, does not necessarily mean the quickest horse will win a race and that was particularly apparent at this year’s July meeting at Newmarket.

Stride data hasn’t been introduced yet within our analysis, but this seems an appropriate moment considering the focus on speed within this piece.

Hopefully, many of you will be familiar with this, but for those of you who aren’t, here is a quick explanation as to why it is so important.

Stride data is effectively the two components of a horse’s speed. Stride length determines how much ground a horse can cover with a stride, while frequency is how many strides a horse can take every second (strides per second or s/s).

The faster a horse can turn over its stride, or the longer it can extend, the quicker it can go.

Why is this relevant when looking at a horse’s performance?

Let’s have a look at Whistlejacket’s effort

in the Group 2 July Stakes.

Whistlejacket’s time may have been underwhelming in comparison to the 6f handicap run 35 mins later, however, it was the fashion in which he won that impressed.

Arabian Dusk was sharp out of the stalls, only taking 2.35s to reach 20mph, which meant she could sit handy without too much effort

No Nay Never has proven an effective sprint stallion with a strike rate of 14 per cent for his offspring’s races over 6f (Racing Post).

His best offspring have been seen to best effect over 6f, and has Whistlejacket given an insight, but why?

Jockey Ryan Moore set steady fractions in front for the first 3f, and then quickened rapidly from an 11.31s furlong in the third furlong, to a 10.88s furlong in the fourth.

He then motored into the dip with an 11.08s furlong (Billboard Star could only manage an 11.20s furlong) and stayed on strongly to the line with a Finishing Speed Percentage (FSP) of 101.66 per cent.

Stride data becomes relevant here

because it illustrates how Moore was able to make better use of Whistlejacket’s stride to quicken than the second horse, Billboard Star, and could reflect why he was able to maintain his speed so well to the line:

From the two graphs below, you can see how Whistlejacket was able to make better use of his stride, specifically as he ran into the dip in the second last furlong.

His stride length increased from 7.7m and a frequency of 2.35 s/s to a stride length of 7.9m and a frequency of 2.33 s/s. It takes more energy to operate at a higher frequency so it was a benefit to him that he was able to roll into the dip and use it to his advantage by lowering his frequency. Thus enabling him to sustain his run to the line having quickened so far out.

Stride analysis – length and frequency – compared between the Group 2 July Stakes winner Whistlejacket and the second horse Billboard Star

Whistlejacket

It could also be argued that he won because he handled the dip better than the runner-up.

Instead of lowering his frequency, Billboard Star increased from 2.43 s/s to 2.45 s/s in the same two furlongs as his stride length deteriorated from 7.51m to 7.42m. This would have put extra strain on his energy resources and sabotaged his challenge.

Later in the card we saw the return of Giavellotto, who gave the red hot and in-form jockey Oisin Murphy a quick double on day one of the meeting.

Mastercraftsman’s progeny can take a little while to mature, and it seems that may be the case with this horse, too.

It was a shame to miss him at the Royal Meeting last month, but the five-year-old entire was expertly placed in the Group 2 Princess Of Wales’s Stakes by trainer Marco Botti, the horse showing why 1m4f was a far better option for him than the marathon trip of the Gold Cup.

It became a tactical affair with the two groups splitting up the home straight and Kieran Shoemark kicking for home on Arrest with three furlongs to go. This set the race up perfectly for Giavellotto.

From his previous runs we knew the horse stays further than the 1m4f he was running over on Thursday, the biggest question was did he have the speed?

This was his first run over shorter than 1m5f in over two years, but his Top Speed of 40.29mph in the second last furlong showed that he had plenty of pace for this trip –when the race is run in the right way for him.

He was the only horse to record a Top Speed higher than 40mph and quickened up to an FSP of 104.15 per cent.

Best time performance came on Day 2

Moving onto the second day, we saw the best time performance of the week within our RaceiQ Time Index when Arabian Dusk landed the Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes. Her sire Havana Grey is another stallion who has stamped his mark on the sprint division, but it wasn’t his daughter’s speed that won her this race.

Arabian Dusk was sharp out of the stalls, only taking 2.35s to reach 20mph, which

meant she could sit handy without too much effort. She needed that advantage though, as she turned out to be the “slowest” horse in the race.

She had the lowest Top Speed of the field, only hitting 41.40mph in the third furlong. For context, Maw Lam was the fastest of the field hitting 42.57 mph in the second furlong.

This is representative of how strong the pace was early doors and this filly was classy with her ability to maintain this speed to the line. She finished the race with an FSP of 98.36 per cent and clocked the fastest final furlong of the field, too. This makes her time performance all the more impressive.

William Buick was in excellent form at the meeting and his ride in the Superlative Stakes was a great example of him harnessing Ancient Truth’s speed at the perfect moment.

Some warning bells may have been ringing for the favourite backers as the field quickened up in the fifth furlong, but William allowed the winner to find his stride before they ran into the dip and up to the line.

He managed to hit 41.46mph at this point, the colt producing a potent turn of foot,

similar to his sire Dubawi, to put the race to bed. This made him by far the quickest horse in the race with Wimbledon Hawkeye the second-fastest horse only managing 40.88mph.

Just over an hour later that we saw William Buick work his magic again, making full use of Mill Stream’s father’s stamina for the 6f trip of the Group 1 July Cup. Gleneagles himself stayed a mile, he was a Classic winner of the English and Irish Guineas; his son’s stamina proved invaluable in another strongly run contest.

Swingalong broke very sharply, clocking the fastest 0-20mph of the meeting at 2.17s and, along with Art Power, set quick fractions. In fact, Art Power was already 0.45s, or two and a half lengths, in front of Mill Stream by the end of the first furlong.

The whole field clocked sub-11s furlongs for the second and third furlongs and it was this point that Mill Stream’s powerful combination of speed and stamina kicked in.

He recorded the fastest times for each of the last three furlongs, and was the only horse to finish his final furlong in under 13.00s (12.87secs).

He was another winner who didn’t need to be the fastest to win the race, but maintain his pace best to the line, with seven horses recording speeds quicker than his 42.54mph. Jasour was the quickest, running keen and reaching 43.36mph in the second furlong.

Glossary

Finishing Speed Percentage (FSP): uses the sectionals to calculate the speed a horse covers over the final furlongs of a race, as a percentage of its overall race speed.

For races up to a mile, the final furlongs are the last two furlongs, for 1m1/2f and above it is the final three furlongs.

RaceiQ Time Index: This assesses a race time compared to the time we expect that race to be run in.

This includes the effects of race class, course, distance and official going. We then allocate it a score out of ten to give us context about how much a race has over or under-performed on the clock compared to what we were expecting.

A race run in the expected time would score around a five or six.

0-20mph metric: The time it takes for a horse to reach 20mph after leaving the stalls

Giavellotto: well placed by trainer Marco Botti

These Champions and Group winners sold in recent years could have been yours!

LINDY

G1 2nd Poule d’Essai des Pouliches

G1 2nd Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup

ETOILE

G1 E.P. Taylor Stakes

G3 Prix Cléôpatre

SPARKLING PLENTY

G1 Prix de Diane

NOBLE TRUTH

G3 Jersey Stakes

G1 2nd Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère

WAR CHIMES

G1 3rd Epsom Oaks

WHO KNOWS

AUDARYA

G1 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf

G1 Prix Jean Romanet

MEDITATE

G1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf

and G1 runner-up on three occasions

OLMEDO

G1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains

G1 2nd Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère

BORNA

G2 Derby Italiano

G1 2nd Deutsches Derby

PURPLEPAY

G2 Prix de Sandringham

G1 3rd Criterium International

WELWAL

G3 Prix de Fontainebleau

BERNEUIL

G3 Prix François Boutin

DAME DU ROI

G3 Prix Miesque

CHESHIRE ACADEMY

G3 Prix Noailles

G3 Prix du Petit Couvert

G2 2nd Prix du Gros Chêne

CHACHNAK

G3 Prix du Prince d’Orange

G3 Prix de Guiche

Stream runs fast

Mill Stream (right) sees off Swingalong to claim a first Group 1 success with victory in the July Cup, the Group 1 sprint run on rain-softened ground. Inset, jockey William Buick in the winners’ enclosure congratulating the victorious son of Gleneagles

The four-year-old Mill Stream backed up his consistent form this season to win the Group 1 July Cup, writes Amy Bennett

AS EVER, the July Cup was jam-packed with top-class sprinting talent, including no fewer than five previous Group 1 winners. But out of the fray emerged a new star –Mill Stream, who powered home to land his first victory at the highest level.

Bred by Redpender Stud, the four-yearold Gleneagles colt is the property of long-standing owner and former trainer Peter Harris and was trained to the minute by Jane Chapple-Hyam.

Fourth to Chaldean in the Gimcrack Stakes (G2) at two, and successful in the Prix de Meautry (G3) at three, Mill Stream claimed the Duke of York Stakes (G2) by a nose over subsequent recent Group 3 scorer Shouldvebeenaring (Havana Grey).

Mill Stream went on to finish third to Khaadem (Dark Angel) in the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot, with Swingalong (Showcasing) splitting the pair that day.

On the final day of Newmarket’s July Festival, Khaadem could finish only tenth of the 11 runners, while Mill Stream turned the tables on Swingalong to win by a neck.

The unseasonably cold and damp "summer" in Britain this year may not be popular with many, but his trainer stated that the rain in Newmarket had helped Mill Stream.

Chapple-Hyam went on to outline targets for her star, saying: “He likes three weeks between races, if you look back, so we’ll go to Deauville next for the Prix Maurice de Gheest (G1); he’ll love the six and a half furlongs there. As a young horse, he got six

there very well, so six and a half – bring it on!”

Mill Stream was a 350,000gns purchase by Stroud Coleman Bloodstock at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, making his sale ring appearance less than three months after his half-brother Asymmetric (Showcasing) had landed the Richmond Stakes (G2) before finishing third in the Prix Morny (G1).

Their dam, Swirral Edge (Hellvelyn), won twice in handicap company (including her nursery victory), but never made a bid for black-type.

However, the same year that Swirral Edge retired to the paddocks, her halfsister Fashion Queen (Aqlaam) landed the Listed Westow Stakes and was also Group 3 placed in France, before going on to produce the dual Italian Listed scorer Noble Title (Siyouni).

They are out of a Shamardal half-sister to the speedy juvenile Wunders Dream (Averti). Swirral Edge was among the many to visit the court of Mehmas three years ago, and she has an unraced juvenile colt by the flying sire.

Mill Stream became the fourth individual Group 1 winner for his sire Gleneagles, and by far the speediest top-level scorer for his

Classic-winning sire. In fact, Mill Stream’s victory came just six days after Palladium gave his sire the hat-trick when triumphing in the Deutsches Derby (G1) in Hamburg.

The Coolmore resident is enjoying a banner season so far, with five stakes winners on the board and, although his fee has gradually moved down to this season's €17,500 from its 2016 entry level

Double up for Camelot

The son of Gleneagles most widely expected to collect a Classic victory this season had looked to be Ambiente Friendly just a couple of months ago, but, having finished runnerup to City Of Troy at Epsom, the Gredley family’s colt took third place in the Irish Derby (G1).

Instead, the Epsom third-placed

The Camelot Group 1 two: above, Los Angeles (left) going clear to win the Irish Derby, and, below, Bluestocking, winner of the Pretty Polly Stakes

carried the Westerberg colours to victory for a partnership including the usual Ballydoyle triumvirate, and adding to his top level success in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud (G1).

A full-brother to the Group 3-placed duo Be Happy and Hector De Maris, they are out of the Dansili mare Frequential, who hails from the talented family of the Group 1 winner and sire Anabaa Blue.

Los Angeles’s Classic victory marked a red-letter 24 hours for Camelot with the Coolmore stalwart also responsible for Bluestocking, who stayed on well to triumph in the Pretty Polly Stakes (G1) a day earlier.

Juddmonte’s homebred had finished runner-up at the same venue in last year’s Irish Oaks (G1), but had a frustrating Classic season overall – she rounding off her year with two runner-up spots by a neck, including in the British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (G1).

Her 6l romp at York on her seasonal debut in the Middleton Stakes (G2) marked the filly as one to watch, and she has a number of mouth-watering entries in August.

Los Angeles’s victory brought up a seasonal Group 1 hat-trick for Camelot, with Luxembourg having landed the Coronation Cup in June. Now 15, the son of Montjeu has seen his stud fee fluctuate over the years, but his mark of €50,000 this year is still double that of his introductory price in 2014.

Sons of Scat Daddy still scorching

Twelve months ago, this column made much of the rise of the sons of Scat Daddy and, a year later, the song remains the same.

Justify may have hit the crossbar in stakes company with some of his runners in recent weeks, but his star performer City Of Troy stayed on to land the Eclipse Stakes (G1).

The colt may have blotted his copybook in the Guineas, but his Derby victory anointed him a middle-distance star, while success in the Eclipse will further boost his future stallion appeal.

While less visually impressive than his Epsom success, the rain that fell at Sandown gave something of an excuse. It is likely that the Juddmonte International (G1) will be next on the agenda, with a trip to the Breeders’ Cup still the ultimate seasonal goal.

When the Coolmore partners unleash a juvenile with a “famous” name, it is usually a good idea to pay attention

Also doing his bit to maintain Scat Daddy’s legacy in recent weeks was his son Caravaggio, whose daughter Porta Fortuna landed his third career Group 1 success when triumphing in the Falmouth Stakes (G1).

Her only seasonal blip came when beaten a neck into second in the 1,000 Guineas (G1), but she atoned in style in the Coronation Stakes (G1), before coasting home by nearly 4l on the July Course.

Bred by the O’Brien family’s Whisperview Trading Ltd, she was conceived during her sire’s third and final season at Coolmore in Ireland, where, unusually, his fee actually rose for that year, to €40,000.

As has been well documented, Caravaggio departed for Ashford Stud in Kentucky in 2021, clocking two seasons at stud in Kentucky alongside his paternal half-brother

Justify, before departing for his current home in Japan.

Only a day after Porta Fortuna’s success, Caravaggio enjoyed a second top level success when his daughter Whitebeam, a Juddmonte homebred, repeated her success in last year’s Diana Stakes at Saratoga.

Among the sons of Scat Daddy currently standing at Coolmore in Ireland is No Nay Never, who welcomed a new star turn during Newmarket’s July Festival.

When the Coolmore partners unleash a juvenile with a “famous” name, it is usually a good idea to pay attention, and so is the case with Whistlejacket.

Named for the iconic painting by George Stubbs, the real-life equine version was bred by Camas Park, Lynch Bages & Summerhill, and carries the colours of Peter Brant, in partnership with Sue Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith.

Purchased for 500,000gns from Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 1, where he was consigned by Camas Park Stud, the colt got off the mark at the second attempt when winning the Listed First Flier Stakes at The Curragh in early May.

Only beaten a length and a quarter when fourth in the Norfolk Stakes (G2), he bounced back in style at Newmarket to land the July Stakes (G2) making all to

The impressive Whistlejacket, the full-brother to Little Big Bear, winning the July Stakes (G2)

win by a length and three quarters.

A full-brother to the Phoenix Stakes (G1) victor and young sire Little Big Bear, he is out of the 1m2f winner Adventure Seeker, a daughter of Bering, who has largely faded from modern pedigree pages.

Another No Nay Never juvenile to take the eye was the filly Truly Enchanting, who bounced back from finishing 13th in the Queen Mary (G2) to land the Airlie Stud Stakes (G2) at The Curragh.

Bred by Coolmore, she is a half-sister to the Group 2 winner Lily Pond (Galileo) and hails from the all-conquering line of Urban Sea, being out of a great-granddaughter of the mighty blue hen.

Over in France, No Nay Never was also responsible for the Listed Prix Yacowlef winner, the Juddmonte homebred Apollo Fountain, who hacked up by 3l.

The filly was adding further black-type to an already saturated page – she is out of the Group 3 winner Fount (Frankel) from the clan of multiple US Grade 1 heroine Ventura (Chester House).

It is also worth noting that No Nay Never’s son Ten Sovereigns added a new stakes scorer to his tally when Ushdi Atohi was the apt winner of the Listed Tipperary Stakes, sponsored in her sire’s name.

Juvenile crop beginning to take shape

Ballydoyle clearly continued its artistic theme for the year when naming Henri Mattise, who took his unbeaten record to two when landing the Railway Stakes (G2) at The Curragh on Irish Derby day.

The colt made up ground and stayed on well to land the 6f contest and looks to have more to come.

He is out of the dual three-year-old Group 1 winner Immortal Verse (Pivotal), who was purchased for a cool 4,700,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mare Sale in 2013.

Since then she has produced the top-class Tenebrism (Caravaggio) and the Group 2-winning juvenile Statuette (Justify), before returning from her sojourn in Kentucky to be bred to Wootton Bassett in his first season at stud at Coolmore, following his big-money transfer in the summer of 2020.

Another notable talent for Dubawi

Darley stalwart Dubawi is leading the sires’ table in Britain and Ireland, as well as Europe, by number of black-type winners, and he added another to his tally with Ancient Truth in the Superlative Stakes (G2) at the July Festival – 20 years after capturing his own first stakes victory in the same contest.

Now unbeaten in three Newmarket starts, the first on the Rowley Mile, Godolphin’s homebred colt will no doubt venture off his home turf now and is likely headed for the National Stakes (G1) at The Curragh.

A full-brother to the minor winner Great Truth, he is out of the Australia mare Beyond Reason, highlighting once again the potency of Dubawi over a Galileo-line mare. The mare in question triumphed at two in the Prix du Calvados (G2), as well as the Prix Six Perfections (G3), having been purchased by Rabbah Bloodstock for 370,000gns as Book 1 yearling.

Also at Newmarket, Dubawi’s sons Night Of Thunder and Frontiersman both sired winners, while Dubawi himself was also responsible for the well-bred handicap

winner Lord Of Love, out of the top-class Star Of Seville (Duke Of Marmalade).

Dubawi was also responsible for the Bahrain Trophy Stakes (G3) winner, on the opening day of the July Festival, in Ancient Wisdom, a Group 1 winner at two who was last seen when eighth in the Derby at Epsom.

First season sire watch

Things continue to move a tad slowly with this year’s freshman class – Sergei Prokofiev and Sands Of Mali still the only two sires off the mark with stakes winners.

Unsurprisingly, the pair lead the field by prize-money, too, with Whitsbury Manor Stud’s Sergei Prokofiev over £130,000 clear. He is also the only one to have made it into double digits with winners – 10 on the board to the end of Newmarket’s July Festival.

Ballyhane Stud’s Sands Of Mali is on eight, with Darley’s Earthlight on seven, and Tweenhills Farm & Stud resident Kameko just behind on six. Hello Youmzain, Shaman and Without Parole are the only other firstcrop sires in Europe so far to have sired five individual winners.

Godolphin’s Ancient Truth (Dubawi) retained his unbeaten record in the Superlative Stakes (G2)

We’ve got an eye for an individual.

The highest % of 2YO winners of any major European yearling sale over the last five seasons. We know you do too...

DONCASTER PREMIER YEARLING SALE

27 - 28 August 2024

UNITED KINGDOM

Standing

ovation

The Group 1 Deutsches Derby was won by Palladium, the second year in succession that a Liberty Racing-owned colt has won the Classic. The three-year-old also backing up the great year that sire Gleneagles is enjoying, writes Jocelyn de Moubray

AT THE BEGINNING OF JULY it is, more often than not, obvious who the best middle-distance three-yearolds in Europe are.

This year it is perhaps not so clear cut as, although City Of Troy has two Group 1 victories to his name already, the form of the Derby and the style of his win in the Eclipse means that Coolmore’s son of Justify still has something to prove.

Look De Vega, the unbeaten winner of the Prix du Jockey-Club (G1), could well turn out to be the generation’s leader.

The son of Lope De Vega has only run three times and so has more scope for improvement than his more experienced rivals. In addition, those he beat at Chantilly include Ghostwriter, who was only 2l behind City Of Troy when third in the Eclipse, and Sunway, four and a half lengths behind at Chantilly and only three-quarters of length behind Los Angeles when second in the Irish Derby (G1).

A third real possibility is the Aga Khan’s Gleneagles gelding Calandagan who, after winning his two-year-old maiden by 10l at Chantilly, won two Jockey-Club trails most impressively in France and then the King Edward VII at Royal Ascot by 6l.

If Calandagan was still an entire he

would probably have started favourite for the Group 1s at Chantilly or ParisLongchamp.

Justify and Lope De Vega are well established among elite stallions, but Gleneagles has had a different career path.

Gleneagles’ fifth crop, conceived in 2020 at a fee of €35,000 currently includes three of the best middle-distance colts in Europe

A son of Galileo, out of a full-sister to Giant’s Causeway and a half or full-brother to several other Group 1 performers, Gleneagles retired to Coolmore in 2016 at €60,000 after winning four Group 1 races over 7f and a mile at two and three.

His first crop did not live up to expectations, so much so that in 2021 he covered only 35 mares. Since then he has built up a solid reputation and has covered full books at a reduced fee of €17,500.

However, Gleneagles’ fifth crop, conceived in 2020 at a €35,000, currently includes three of the best middle-distance colts in Europe – the aforementioned Calandagan, Ambiente Friendly, who finished second in the Derby and third in the Irish Derby, and Liberty Racing’s Palladium, the surprise winner of the Deutsches Derby when getting the better of the long-time leader Borna to win by a head in the very last stride.

In addition, the 6f sprint winner Mill

Stream added himself on to the sire’s 2024 success list with his deserved win in the Group 1 July Cup at Newmarket.

Gleneagles himself was a top miler, and, despite the emergence of the Group 1 sprint winner, many of his progeny stay further and his three-year-olds have an average winning distance of 1m1f, and this year of 9.5f.

Palladium had won only a maiden race in five starts before the Derby and had been beaten just over 2l by Narrativo when fourth in the Group 2 Union Rennen on his previous starts.

His trainer Henk Grewe’s other runner Wilko was far more fancied and Palladium went off among the outsiders at 23-1 in an 18-runner field.

As is often the case the Deutsches Derby attracted a large competitive field, including horses trained in France and England but for once there was no early pace, and most unusually the first four horses home were

the first four from start to finish.

When the field took the first turn out of the home straight with 2000m ahead of them, Borna was leading from Alleno, Augustus and Palladium, and none of the other 14 runners were ever able to get into the race.

The early pace was so slow – they ran the first 600m in 42sec – that when the leaders finally accelerated at the top of the straight they had the race between them as all of the others has given them far too much of a start.

Palladium ran the final 400m in just over 23sec, 13 per cent faster than his race average, and was taken across the track to the stands’ side by his young jockey Thore Hammer-Hanson. The pair passed the trio on the far side of the course to win by a neck from Borna with Augustus a head back in third and Alleno in fourth.

The final time of 2m37.18sec was one of the slowest of recent years on ground which was officially good to soft, and the race was

seven seconds slower than Sea The Moon’s win in 2014.

The circumstances of the race make it hard to tell just how good a performance this was but Borna, a son of Saxon Warrior bred by Francois Doumen’s Haras d’Ecouves, had been a good winner of the Derby Italiano (G2) on his previous start comfortably beating the Andrew Balding-trained Royal Supremacy, who was later third to Calandagan at Ascot. The third and fourth had both performed consistently well in the domestic Derby trials.

A more truly run race may well have produced a different result, but Palladium is clearly a gifted stayer well suited to a 1m4f trip.

More significantly Palladium is the second consecutive Derby winner purchased by Lars Baumgarten for his Liberty Racing Syndicate at the BBAG September Sale.

Last year’s winner Fantastic Moon had cost €49,000 in 2021 and a year later

Baumgarten went to €80,000 to buy Palladium from Gestüt Fährhof, which was significantly more than Gleneagles’ yearling average in 2022.

The colt’s dam Path Wind is out of a full-sister to the dam of multiple Group winner Wild Coco and was bought in training by Fährhof in whose colours she finished second in the Group 1 Premio Lydia Tesio on her final start.

Palladium, her seventh foal, is by far her best to date, and she has a unraced two-yearold Soldier Hollow colt and a colt foal by Japan.

Fährhof is enjoying an outstanding year as a breeder – two of Germany’s best threeyear-old milers Penalty and Ghorgan were also sold from their same September draft.

Even before this latest triumph, Baumgarten’s Liberty Racing has had a significant impact on German racing attracting new investors from Germany, Australia and all over the world, and

The Group 1 Deutsches Derby winner Palladium returns in triumph at Hamburg: the colt was always up with the pace in a slowly run race

showing that partnerships are able to win the best races with horses bought at auction.

Owner breeders are still more important in Germany than in any other major racing country but these days the leading producers Fährhof, Röttgen, Karlshof and Brummerhof offer most, if not all, of their yearling colts for sale. Liberty Racing’s syndicates were hugely popular last year and this year there will be long queues to join Baumgarten’s happy band.

Jean Prat won by Starspangledbanner colt

The Prix Jean Prat is the last of the five French Group 1 races for three-year-olds (there were six but the Prix Saint Alary was downgraded to Group 2 in 2024) and for the second consecutive year all five were won by French-trained horses – Rouhiya, Metropolitan, Look De Vega, Sparkling Plenty and Puchkine.

Alain Jathiere’s Puchkine, a homebred son of Starspangledbanner,was a surprise winner of the Jean Prat as, after winning his first four starts and looking like a future top horse, the Jean Claude Rouget-trained colt had disappointed three times – he was unplaced in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1) and only fourth behind Lazzat, Havana Cigar and Sajir in the Group 3 Prix Paul de Moussac.

The good ground in Deauville suited Puchkine better than the heavy ground earlier in the season and his jockey Ioriz Mendizabal used very different tactics jumping out of the stalls to track the Juddmonte pacemaker Zandy before going on with 400m to run.

Soon clear of his rivals, Puchkine stayed on to win by two and a half lengths from stable companion Havana Cigar. Beauvatier and Sajir, who all come from behind, finished together in second, third and fourth.

The sectional times suggest there was no fluke about Puchkine’s win. There was a strong pace from start to finish and the final time of 1m21.49s was only 0.2s slower than when Too Darn Hot recorded the fastest Jean Prat-winning time since the race moved to Deauville in 2019.

British trainer Karl Burke is the only non-French-based trainer to have several black-type successes in France this year

Jathiere has become an important owner in France with 45 horses in training including Flat and jumping horses

Puchkine ran the final 200m in 11.98s, three per cent slower than his race average, but the whole field was slowing at the end.

Puchkine is a fast horse, a worthy Group 1 winner and is likely to be competitive in top sprints in the future. His unraced dam is a daughter of So You Think and he comes from the Meon Valley family of Reprocolor, who is his fifth dam.

Jathiere has become an important owner in France with 45 horses in training, including Flat and jumping horses. This was his first Group 1 winner and he is also the part-owner of the Saint Alary winner Birthe. Another French-trained three-year-old likely to be competitive in Group 1 races in the future is the Wertheimer brothers’ Bright Picture, an Intello gelding who was an easy winner of the 1m2f Group 2 Prix Eugene Adam at Saint Cloud.

This was a slowly run race and Bright Picture showed impressive acceleration –he ran the penultimate 200m in 10.9s and the last 400m some 12 per cent faster than his race average – to win comfortably by three-quarters of a length. The André Fabretrained gelding has won four of his five starts to date and was beaten over a length by Calandagan in the Group 3 Prix Noailles.

Arqana October Sale, Bright Picture’s dam Lucy The Painter won five of her 36 starts in Britain and comes from a Ballymacoll staying family – her second dam Royal Bounty was by Generous out of a Troy mare.

why French-trained horses have become more

competitive or why British and Irish trainers are winning fewer Group and Listed races in France, particularly those at a mile or further.

At the time of writing British and Irish trainers have won 14 of the 102 black-type races run in France and six of these were over a mile or more.

Karl Burke with four wins is the only non-French-based trainer to have won several black-type races in France this year. There appears to be less interest in winning in France §– for instance, John and Thady Gosden have only had two runners this year in the country, while Aidan O’Brien and Charlie Appleby have had only five each.

There has also clearly been a virtuous circle of better stallions based in France producing better horses and encouraging inward investment and so keeping new stallion prospects in France and raising the quality of the horses presented at Arqana, too.

Of the current top ten stallions in France the only ones not standing there are Wootton Bassett, who did for many years, Kingman and Lope De Vega.

Golden Horde on the winners’ board

Sumbe’s stallion manager

Tony Fry reports on the first-season sire and the farm’s young stallion roster

GOLDEN HORDE, the first stallion acquisition for Nurlan Bizakov under his stallion banner Sumbe and standing at the owner’s Normandy farm Haras de Montfort & Préaux, has got off the mark as a sire.

Moorea, trained by Louis Baudron, won on her second career start at Aix-les-Bains over 6f, the filly out of the non-winning Poet’s Voice mare Sampaquita.

Golden Horde, a son of Lethal Force and winner of the 2020 running of the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot, joined the Sumbe team at the conclusion of his racing career after placed efforts in that year’s July Cup (G1) and the Sprint Cup (G1). Winner of the Richmond Stakes (G2) as a juvenile he also twice collected Group 1 form at two with a third placing in the Prix Morny and a second in the Middle Park Stakes.

Tony Fry, stud manager for Sumbe, said: “He has had five runners so far, he has got a winner and all have run well.

“The horses who have run to date wouldn’t have been the strongest pedigrees he saw, and though we are certainly not going to take any credit, there is a lot of him in the stock, while it is also nice to see him with a winner at this point in the season.”

He continued: “He saw a book of around 70 in his first season, with around 15 of the stud’s own mares. The best mares he saw were our own and for us no mare was off limits for him – there was no talk that a mare might be too good or that she might be too valuable to go to Golden Horde.”

Most of the stock is in training in

Some people, whose judgement I respect, and who certainly don’t have to blow smoke up my backside, have been very complimentary about him and his stock

France, but the farm has sent a homebred filly to England and Roger Varian’s yard.

“She is a lovely filly and out of the blacktype Frankel mare Qazyna, who is out of First, one of the original mares Nurlan bought when he purchased Hermonds,” reports Fry.

Of Golden Horde’s stock in general he says, “They all seem to have great minds, like he does. I think they will be a pleasure for

the trainers to have and I think they will take their racing well physically.

“He was a sprinter, but he’s got a lovely walk about him and he doesn’t walk like a sprinter, he’s very Pivotal. His stock also walk well, they have a great hip and strength, and they are very balanced horses.”

He adds with a laugh: “Certain people, whose judgement I respect and who certainly don’t have to blow smoke up my backside, have been very complimentary about him and his stock.”

And now with that first winner written in the stud book, what are Fry’s hopes for Golden Horde’s year?

“It will be ideal if he can produce a steady run of winners with hopefully one of two black-type performers in the mix to keep his name in the papers,” he smiles. “It will, though, be next year that really counts for him.”

Of some of the younger horses on the ground by the chesnut seven-year-old, Fry reports: “Raushan, the dam of the Group 3 winner Ramadan, had a lovely foal by him this spring, as does Ligira, who is a Showcasing mare from the family of Lazzatt.

“Lastochka, the dam of Lazzat, has an outstanding yearling filly – all the sales companies saw her and we could have gone to whatever sale we wanted, but she is going to be retained.

“She is the mare’s second foal after Lazzat and is the sort of horse we want to breed.

“Lastochka is a lovely young mare who has produced a cracking yearling – there would be a certain value that this filly could make in the ring, but we have to put an amount of trust in the stallions and see what happens.”

Fry also gave a good end-of-spring report on the rest of the Sumbe roster – the Group 1 winners Angel Bleu and Belbek, both new to the farm, both who raced for Bizakov, the latter also a homebred, as well as the Prince Faisal-owned four-time Group 1 winner Mishriff.

The son of Make Believe missed his

Golden Horde: has a “great mind” says Fry

anticipated first year in 2023 after an injury in January that kept him from the covering shed, he commenced activities this spring.

To get three new stallions off the ground in the same year must have been something of a challenge, but Fry reports that he was pleased with the books, albeit in a competitive year.

“It was a different year in France – in 2023 when Mishriff was due to start there were just a handful of new sires in the country, this year there were a number of them – and we were standing three!

“So it was a very altered market place, but Mishriff and Angel Bleu both saw around 120

mares, and Belbek had a book of 90 so I am pleased with those figures.

“And again we supported them all well. For instance, Mirakova, who is from the Wertheimers’ Goldikova family and whom we bought last December, was covered by Belbeck.”

Fry also updated with the latest plans on the Bizakov-owned and Varian-trained Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes winner Charyn.

“We hope to run in the Prix Jacques les Marois, and options are open for next year.

“We might keep him in training, he’s that sort of horse and we could have some fun travelling around the world with him.”

City Light: a Listed-winning sire and a model of consistency

CITY LIGHT, the Haras d’Etreham-based son of Siyouni, concluded 2023 as the leading European first-season sire by winners-to-runners percentage, his 15 winners from 30 runners producing an impressive strike-rate of 50 per cent.

As we enter the busiest point of the 2024 Flat season, the secondseason sire looks to be repeating his consistent feat in year two –his 30 winners from 69 runners so far producing a healthy 43 per cent strike-rate.

He once again heads up that statistical marker for his generation of stallions, who have

had double digit runners (page 36), while he is third-leading second-season sire by prize-money and winners.

Perhaps, even more notably, he is also in second place by winners-to-runners on the top 50 leading European sires’ table behind Night Of Thunder.

And, as we went to press in July, the 10-year-old got his first Listed winner on the board – the two-year-old filly La Guapisima successful in the Listed Prix des Jouvenceaux et Jouvencelles.

She was a €50,000 Arqana V2 yearling, is part-owned by Tony Parker’s Infinity 9 Horses and is trained by Christopher Head.

City Light: has impressed with his continuing high winners-to-runners rate

The son of Lethal Force stands in Normandy alongside Angel Bleu, Belbek and Mishriff

Photos courtesy of Sumbe, by Suzanna Lupa

Photo courtesy of Haras d’Etreham, by Suzanna Lupa

STALLION SCENE

The filly is fairly typical of her sire’s stock – she has now run five times, won her last three races and finished second on her first two starts.

Etreham is obviously delighted with the sustained progress the stallion is making with his early crops.

“Being the European leading first-season sire on ratio of winners-to-runners last year was a very promising result,” reports Alice Lemal from Etreham’s nominations division.

“The challenge then lies in his ability to sire good three-yearolds as well and he is doing very well so far.

“His second generation on track this year is already showing good quality. We couldn’t hope for a better start at stud for him;

City Light’s stats (to 04/07/2024, equineline)

we believe that the future looks bright, and we are not the only ones to think so!”

The consistency City Light is achieving has been duly recognised by breeders – the dual Group 3-winning sprinter saw a book of 140 mares this spring building on the 112 in 2023 and returning to his first book of 137.

“He was full this year and we had to refuse a lot of requests

for him as all our stallions are limited,” says Lemal, adding: “He has also covered good mares this spring and saw 77 sisters to 121 stakes performers, including a granddaughter of the four-time Group 1 winner Ventura.”

This spring City Light stood at €7,000 and consistency has been key again – the fee has been Etreham’s go-to price for the stallion since he retired to stud.

Of City Light as an individual, Lemal enthuses: “He is a nice horse who is naturally athletic. He has good size and is elegant. Mentally, his trainer’s description was correct: he is a warrior, and his progeny seem to be as well.”

City Light has eight yearlings entered in the V2 section of the Arqana August Sale, including a full-brother to his debut stakes winner (Lot 493).

Profitable and Elarqam popular with breeders in Turkey

PROFITABLE has lived up to his name so far through this European Flat season with 52 winners on the board and dual Group 2 success courtesy of the Weatherbys Ireland Greenlands Stakes winner Mitbaahy, who is now the sire’s leading earner with career prize-money of $282,804, and the Temple Stakes winner Kerdos.

The stallion is no longer resident in Ireland, the son of Invincible Spirit having moved from Kildangan Stud to be domiciled in Turkey having been purchased for stud duties by the Jockey Club of Turkey.

He stands alongside the former Shadwell stallion and 2024 first-season sire Elarqam, who made the move eastwards for the 2023 season from Haras de Saint Arnoult in France.

And the first-season son of Frankel has a first winner under his belt (from just three runners in the UK) thanks to the Mick and David Easterby-trained two-time winner

Profitable (red silks): gets fast horses, and the Jockey Club of Turkey thinks they will suit the country’s racing

Scatter Penny, successful at Nottingham and at Pontefract, her two starts to date.

There are around 250 thoroughbred stallions in Turkey with 15 stallions standing for the Jockey Club of Turkey and Kutay Yusufoglu, breeding manager for the Jockey

Club, explained why the two stallions were pinpointed for duties in the country.

“In Turkey 60 per cent of the races are on Dirt and over the last decade we have invested strongly in stallions from the US for those Dirt races, so we need to focus now on Turf sires in

order to fill a bit of a gap in that division,” he reported.

“Two years ago we lost Powerscourt, the three-quarters brother to Frankel, and we wanted to replace him with a son of Frankel.

“Profitable was a fast horse and gets fast runners on Turf. The largest proportion of our races are over shorter trips, while we have 24 Group 1 races, 15 of them are on Turf.”

The Jockey Club of Turkey is able to stand its sires at fees attractive to breeders, the aim being to improve the quality of stallions that breeders can patronise.

Yusufoglu explains: “We subsidise the breeding sector in the country and Profitable and Elarqam both stood this spring at TL100,000, which is equal to €3,000.

“Victory Gallop is our most expensive sire at TL250,000, around €7,000.”

The Jockey Club owns seven farms, four of which are focused stallion stations, with Profitable and Elarqam standing at Izmit Farm.

“The main breeding region is in the Marmara region around Istanbul, Izmit and Bursa, and we have six farms there and close to breeders – we want them to spend money on horses not on transport!” reasons Yusufoglu.

The Jockey Club’s investment in both stallions has been well received by private breeders – Profitable covered 113 mares this spring with 82 already reported to be in-foal.

Of the younger sire Yusufoglu adds:

“Elarqam saw 118 mares and in 2023 was the busiest stallion in Turkey. Many of the owners are very happy with the yearlings they have by Elarqam – generally they look well put together, look sharp, have bone and are strong.

“We have a saying in Turkey that ‘praise comes one by one, but criticism comes 100 times!’

Elarqam saw 118 mares this year, while in 2023 he was the busiest stallion in Turkey

“We are happy to see good comments from the breeders with the stock that they have.”

The long-term goals for the Jockey Club are two-fold – to increase the number of Turkish-bred horses possessing the ability to compete on the international stage, and to improve the quality of homebred fillies who will form the country’s future breeding stock.

Stallions able to be imported to the country have to meet certain criteria before they can

take up duties in Turkey, and either must have run to a certain stakes race level or have produced progeny of that standard.

Of course, the Turkish Jockey Club has not just acquired stallions, it has sold too, and notably in the last eight months Authorized, who had four covering seasons in Turkey, has found a new home in Ireland at Capital Stud.

“It was a tough decision, we had lots of interest in him for some time,” reports Yusufoglu. “He saw around 80 mares each year and did a good job for us. However, as he is perhaps more successful with his older progeny, we decided that maybe it was a good time for him to move back to Ireland.

“We are happy to see him be successful, and he opened up a new budget for new investment, which has been helpful – for both sides it was a win-win!”

Elarqam is a son of Frankel and the Jockey Club of Turkey was keen to tap into the champion sire’s bloodlines

Leading European second-season sires 2024 (by prize-money earned to July 15, 2024)

Courtesy of Weatherbys

Darley's pair of leading European second-season sires: Blue Point (left) whose 2024 progeny

and, right, Too Darn Hot

A RICH HISTORY OF

Current BALLYLINCH GRADUATES include:

AL AGAILA

· Prix Miss Satamixa LR

· 3rd Fleur De Lys EBF Fillies' Stakes LR

CARL SPACKLER

· National Museum Of Racing

Hall Of Fame Stakes Gr.2

· Kelso Stakes Gr.3

· Saranac Stakes Gr.3

CLASSICAL SONG

· 3rd Musidora Stakes Gr.3

FIVE TOWNS

· 2nd Gallorette Stakes Gr.3

GOING THE DISTANCE

· King George V Stakes, Royal Ascot

IBERIAN

· Champagne Stakes Gr.2

· 2nd Vintage Stakes Gr.2

OPERA MUNDI

· Prix Zeddaan LR

PLACE DU CARROUSEL

· Prix de l'Opéra Gr.1

· Prix Foy Gr.2

· Prix Cléopâtre Gr.3

· Prix Gontaut-Biron Gr.3

· 2nd Ranvet Stakes Gr.1

DON’T MISS

SHUWARI

Gr.1 Placed

ROSE BLOOM

· €200,000 Arqana Series des Pouliches

· 2nd Prix Marcel Boussac Gr.1

· 2nd Prix de Bagatelle LR

ROYAL SUPREMACY

· 2nd Derby Italiano Gr.2

· 2nd Bahrain Trophy Stakes Gr.3

· 3rd King Edward VII Stakes Gr.2

SHUWARI

· Star Stakes LR

· 2nd Fillies' Mile Gr.1

· 2nd Rockfel Stakes Gr.2

SPIRITUAL

· Coral Distaff LR

· 2nd The Michael Seely Memorial Fillies' Stakes LR

our yearling consignments at & ,

ROSE BLOOM Gr.1 Placed

PLACE DU CARROUSEL Gr.1 Winner

IBERIAN Gr.2 Winner

CARL SPACKLER Gr.2 Winner

Leading

European Flat Sires 2024 (by prize-money earned to July 15, 2024)

Courtesy of Weatherbys

Leading stallions based in France 2024 (by prize-money earned to July 15, 2024)

Courtesy of Weatherbys

FRIDAY AUGUST 16th will be the first of three monumental days for the French bloodstock industry. Over the course of three sessions, France’s biggest and best commercial breeders will offer close to 300 of the country’s finest

yearlings at the prestigious Arqana August Sale.

Last year’s renewal of the blue-chip Deauville auction witnessed unprecedented trade as turnover reached €55,099,000.

That was a 12 per cent increase on the previous record set 12 months earlier.

Haras du Mont dit Mont: is set to consign four yearlings (three fillies) at the Arqana August Sale

Walking yearlings at Haras de la Perelle: the farm has four catalogued in this year’s August Sale

Ahead of this year’s Arqana August Sale, James Thomas catches up with consignors William Rimaud of Haras de la Perelle, Jennifer Sassier of Haras du Mont dit Mont and Philippe Brosset of Applewood Stud.

Tom Blain of Barton Stud is looking forward to debuting at the sale and explains to Jocelyn de Moubray why he decided to offer a couple of yearlings in France

All systems GO!

Photo: Laura Green

Average and median prices also scaled new heights, with the former up 12 per cent to €233,470, while the latter figure made a 21 per cent gain, up to €170,000.

From 283 yearlings offered, 236 sold, meaning a clearance rate of 83 per cent, which was also a best-ever for the August Sale.

For buyers there is the opportunity to unearth the next star graduate who will join the likes of Ace Impact, Ancient Wisdom, Bucanero Fuerte, Little Big Bear and Look De Vega on the sale’s Group 1-winning roll of honour. For sellers, this is the culmination of years of planning, months of hard work and considerable capital investment. Suffice to say, the stakes are high.

“This sale is the biggest yearling sale in France,” says William Rimaud, stud manager of Jürgen Winter’s Haras de la Perelle. “We’re exclusive to Arqana and we usually sell half of our yearlings through the August Sale.

“The strategy of La Perelle is to sell all our colts and to select as many fillies as we can to keep in training. There’s economics to consider as well, so we always sell a few fillies when we have too many members of one family. The sale has a big part to play in the business model of the farm.”

Haras de la Perelle is an established

We have 17 yearlings this year and the staff all have their favourites, that really helps during the prep

source of talented runners, having produced Group 1 winners such as Gentlewave, Giofra, High Jinx, Mille Et Mille and Simca Mille. Other studs bringing horses to market in Deauville are still building their reputation.

“For us, the main goal is not to just produce yearlings for the sales but to produce racehorses,” says Jennifer Sassier, breeding manager at Haras du Mont dit Mont, the breeding arm of Prime Equestrian. “Selling them and trying to make money for the farm is just one step in the process.

“At the end of the day, selling yearlings who don’t race makes no sense because the mares and the pedigrees won’t be valuable enough to continue to make money.

“We’re very mindful of that, so the stallions we use have to be commercial but at the same time they have to produce racehorses. I started with the farm three

years ago, but before that we were selling through another consignor, so the challenge now is to make a name for the farm.

“We know that breeding is a long process and people need to build their trust in us, and the only way that will happen is when they see that we breed racehorses, and not just yearlings for the sales. In the last two years people who bought from Mont dit Mont in the first year came back the second year, which hopefully proves that we’re doing the job right.”

An even newer name on the consignors’ index is Applewood Stud, albeit the man at the helm, Philippe Brosset, possesses a wealth of experience.

Brosset spent 20 years as the manager of Haras du Mezeray before establishing Applewood Stud with his wife Ciara O’Connor in 2022. Applewood presented its first Arqana August yearling in 2023, and returns this time around with a three-strong draft.

“I’ve worked the sales in Keeneland when I was in America and when I was at Mezeray we used to take horses to Tattersalls as well as Arqana,” says Brosset. “So I’m used to the pressure, but when it’s your own place there’s more of that pressure, for sure.

“Especially for us as it’s a young, family-run operation. The farm is quite

Applewood Stud’s three fillies catalogued in the Arqana August Sale: by Hello Youmzain, Kingman and Space Blues

small, we’re not even 60 acres, and we’re producing less than ten yearlings each season, so to have three going to the August Sale is great. It’s very rewarding for us.”

Haras de la Perelle presents four yearlings at this year’s August Sale. Rimaud says the draft is a case of quality over quantity after the farm ended up with a smaller than usual yearling crop.

“This year we aren’t selling as many,” he says. “We’ve only got 18 yearlings on the farm and only three of those are colts, which is pretty uncommon. It’s a small draft overall but a nice draft, and of all the yearlings we’ve got this year, pedigree-wise, this is the best.

“We have some good-looking fillies on the farm who we believe will be good racehorses, but their pedigrees aren’t particularly commercial and the boss has no interest in selling low value yearlings.”

FIRST UP is the Zarak colt out of the Listed-winning Bilissie (Lot 74). The youngster is a half-brother to two winners, most notably Prix du Jockey Club runner-up First Look.

This deep Wertheimer pedigree has undergone other updates this season as Bilissie is a half-sister to Prix Vermeille heroine Left Hand and to Aventure, winner of this year’s Group 3 Prix de Royaumont and a close fourth in the Prix de Diane. There could be further updates in store as First Look is due to contest the Prix Jacques Le Marois five days before the sale.

“First Look has done incredibly well and hopefully there’s better to come this year,” says Rimaud. “That pedigree has improved so much already this year. The colt is a typical Zarak. He’s not over tall but has that nice Zarak head and a very nice physical. The sire needs no introduction and this colt is really very nice. He’s really shaping up into a beautiful yearling.”

Next is a Mehmas filly out of Cladocera (Lot 97), who carried the Perelle silks to victory in two Group 2s at Meydan, as well as finishing second to Legatissimo in the Group 1 Matron Stakes. The daughter of Oasis Dream has bred three winners, including the highly rated Centrical.

“The dam was an incredible racehorse,”

ARQANA AUGUST SALE ENTRIES

Applewood Stud Lot Horse Sire Dam Dam sire

34 f. Space Blues Woodland Scene Act One

288 f. Hello Youmzain Rose Et Or Iffraaj 301 f. Kingman Serienheilige Holy Roman Emperor

Haras du Mont dit Mont

60 f. New Bay Auriga Teofilo 137 f. Mehmas Front Contender Teofilo 191 c. Mehmas Lady Galore Raven’s Pass 317 f. Acclamation Stardevote Starspangledbanner

Haras de la Perelle

74 c. Zarak Bilissie Dansili 97 f. Mehmas Cladocera Oasis Dream

124 f. Siyouni Endless Joy Showcasing 148 c. Siyouni Grace Spirit Invincible Spirit

Barton Stud

82 c. Havana Grey Bubbly Excelebration 107 f. Sea The Stars Dhabyah Australia

Arqana is always working super hard to offer the best horses to the best buyers, so hopefully people will keep on playing the game

says Rimaud. “This filly is an amazing walker and a very good physical, too.

“She’s very racy, not too big but has everything. She always has her head down and is really athletic. Mehmas is flying at the moment as well and, when Arqana visited, the company really liked her. There’s something in this family that’s working, so hopefully she’ll be another good one.”

The draft is completed by two lots by Siyouni. Rimaud speaks with particular affection about Lot 124, the filly out of the Group 3-placed Endless Joy.

“The filly is beautiful,” he says. “She’s very racy. If she doesn’t bring what she needs to bring in terms of her value then we’ll race her without any problem.”

Lastly there is the Siyouni colt out of Grace Spirit (Lot 148), a Listed-placed daughter of Perelle’s superb producer Gracefully. The dam is a sibling to four black-type performers, most notably Falmouth Stakes (G1) heroine Giofra.

“It’s a great family that has produced so many high-class winners,” says Rimaud. “The grand dam, Gracefully, has had an amazing black-type-producing career. The colt is your typical Siyouni; walks well, has scope, isn’t that tall but has everything you need in a runner. I’m sure if the mare had produced a filly then we’d have kept her.”

Haras du Mont dit Mont also presents a four-strong offering. Sassier says the closeknit nature of the team – equine and human – makes for a seamless period of sales prep.

“The boss doesn’t put pressure on us but we still have to try and make money, so that means sending the horses to the sales looking the best as possible,” she says. “As a team we enjoy all facets of the breeding season and because these horses are raised on the farm, it’s a smooth process to get them ready for the sales. We all know the horses and the staff are very connected to them. We have 17 yearlings this year and the staff all have their favourites, and that really helps during the prep.”

Mont dit Mont’s first lot is the New Bay filly who is the first foal out of Auriga (Lot 60). There is plenty of speed and precocity in this family as the dam is an unraced daughter of Temple Stakes scorer Look Busy, and therefore a sibling to Listed-winning Keep Busy, who also finished second in the Group 1 Flying Five Stakes. The New Bay filly is closely related to Keep Busy, with both being by sons of Dubawi.

“All that family are precocious, racy types,” says Sassier. “The filly has a very good attitude and walks well, she’s got a good shoulder too, so we’re hoping buyers

Mont dit Mont’s Mehmas colt out of Lady Galore (Lot 191)

Barton Stud set to make its Arqana August debut

THIS YEAR the main August Sale has 325 horses catalogued and the follow-up V2 Sale another 189. One difference compared with recent editions is the number of yearlings presented by foreign studs under their own name.

The August Sale has 47 catalogued, 15 per cent of the total, the largest number and proportion since well before covid. The foreign vendors includes Gestüt Ammerland’s last-ever draft, as well as sizeable numbers from regular consignors such as Ballylinch Stud, Baroda Stud and Camas Park Stud.

Amongst newcomers is Barton Stud, whose first August draft includes a Sea The Stars filly from the family of the recent Grand Prix de Paris winner Sosie, and a colt by Havana Grey.

“It is,” explains Tom Blain, manager of the British Bury St Edmonds-based farm, “a toe in the water but if it works out I can see us going to Arqana more often in the future.

“This is a sale which is going places, and Arqana attracts a great buying bench to the sale. At Barton we are looking to grow our business and so it makes sense to have a position in all of the available markets.

“They are two high-quality yearlings who could have sold

anywhere, but who I felt would be particularly well suited to the August Sale.”

Lot 107 is a Sea The Stars filly, the first foal of Dhabyah who was rated 91 when winning her maiden as a three-year-old for William Haggas.

This is the family of Sacarina, which has produced the Derby winners Samum, Schiaparelli, Sea The Moon and Goldenas, the Diana winner Salve Regina and now one of the best three-yearolds in France, Sosie, a son of Sea The Stars and the winner of this year’s Grand Prix de Paris (G1).

Like Barton’s Sea The Stars filly, Sosie’s third dam is Sacarina, who produced several daughters by Monsun including Sanwa, the dam of Sea The Moon, as well as Sahel and Sola Gratia, the second dams of Sosie and Barton’s filly.

“‘Yes, I enjoyed watching the Grand Prix de Paris very much!” laughs Blain. “Not only is this a top-class middle-distance family, but Dhabyah is a daughter of Australia who is beginning to make a mark as a broodmare sire, too.”

Barton also offers Lot 82, a Havana Grey colt who was purchased as a foal at the Tattersalls December Sale.

“He is,” outlines Blain, “one of the best-bred sons of Havana

will be pleased with her. There’s been some good updates in the family recently and, hopefully, Auriga is going to be a good broodmare as there’s plenty to come.”

Mont dit Mont offers two lots by Mehmas, namely a filly out of Front Contender (Lot 137) and a colt out of Lady Galore (Lot 191). The filly is the third foal out of her dam, a Teofilo sister to the Group 3 winners Royal Empire and Scottish. Other siblings include the German Group 2 scorer Combat Zone, Zut Alors, dam of Poule d’Essai des Pouliches winner Precieuse and the granddam of Meydan Group 1 winner Hypothetical, as well as Bikini Babe, who bred Group 3 Somerville Stakes victory La Barrosa.

“She walks well and is a little trooper. Hopefully being by Mehmas means she’ll be popular,” says Sassier, who adds of the colt out of the Listed-winning Lady Galore: “He was born in January and is a very nice, strong type.

“Mehmas can throw them on the neater side but that’s not him, he’s a powerful colt and walks well, too. He’s very laid back and

They are two high-quality yearlings who could have sold anywhere, but who I felt would be particularly well suited to the August Sale

whatever you want him to do, he does it.”

The quartet is completed by an Acclamation filly, who is the first foal out of the winning and Group 3-placed Starspangledbanner mare Stardevote (Lot 317).

“The mare is by Starspangledbanner so we were going for speed on speed and trying to

Grey from this crop [the Whitsbury Manor sire’s fourth when he was standing at £6,000]

“He comes from the family of the Group 1 winners Marsha, Ribbons and Soviet Song. He is a good-looking, forward type who I think could stand out in the August Sale.”

The Havana Grey colt out of Bubbly is one of only two by his sire in the catalogue.

Looking ahead to the whole European sales season Barton will consign somewhere between 80 and 90 yearlings.

“Around half of these were raised and will be prepped on the farm,” Blain says, “but most of the others are prepared at home by our clients with our help and supervision.

“I visit regularly and they are free to contact our team if they have any questions or need any help. It is a system which works well and which suits both our clients and the farm itself.

“For the yearling sales and the horses-in-training sale we have regular clients with whom we have been working for some years now.

“For the future the aim is always to raise the quality of the mares on the farm and the horses we consign for sale. We want to do everything possible to breed, raise and sell as many good ones as possible.”

By Jocelyn de Moubray

Tom Blain: confident his “Arqana two” will suit the August Sale

produce something that can go early,” says Sassier. “She really looks like an Acclamation so hopefully the people who know about the stallion will like her.”

Applewood Stud sends three fillies to Deauville, all of whom have plenty to recommend them on pedigree.

The first of the trio is the Space Blues filly out of Woodland Scene (Lot 34). Not only is the youngster a sibling to the Group 3 Firth of Clyde Stakes scorer Nazanin, but her dam is a daughter of Car Colston Hall Stud’s foundation mare Wiener Wald. The famed producer is the ancestress of five top-flight winners in Beauty Eternal, Brando, Crowded House, Reckless Abandon and Ticker Tape.

“We have three fillies from nice, active families so we’re very happy to be bringing them to Deauville,” says Brosset. “They’re all straightforward, correct individuals. The Space Blues is a nice filly and is typical of what people say about the progeny of this family. It’s a lovely pedigree that’s always getting lots of updates.”

Another pedigree that received a recent enhancement is that of the Hello Youmzain

Photo: Laura Green / Tattersalls

filly out of Rose Et Or (Lot 288). The dam is a sibling to six winners, including the Prix Saint-Alary winner Coquerelle, the Group 3 scorer Spring Master and Winning Sequence, whose granddaughter Fair Angellica landed this year’s Listed Prix Amandine by clear water.

“The Hello Youmzain looks very sharp and is a lovely filly,” says Brosset. “We had a lovely update at Deauville recently when Fair Angellica won a Listed race for Richard Hughes. It’s an old Mezeray family but year in, year out, it’s always coming up with nice horses.”

KINGMAN HAS enjoyed a sensational 2024 season, with his daughters Elmalka winning the 1,000 Guineas (G1) and Sparkling Plenty landing the Prix de Diane (G1). Applewood may well have saved the best for last when it offers a well-bred Kingman filly on behalf of Gestüt Wittekindshof (301).

The filly is the second foal out of Serienheilige, a half-sister to German Oaks winner Serienholde. The youngster’s deep German pedigree has also been enhanced by events on the other side of the world as Serienholde is now among the broodmare band at Japanese powerhouse Northern Farm, from where she bred Grade 1 NHK Mile Cup winner Schnell Meister.

The Shadai Stallion Station resident is closely related to the Applewood-consigned filly as both are by Kingman. There could be further updates in the offing, too, as Serienholde’s latest foal, a colt by Kitasan Black, topped this year’s Japan Racing Horse Association Select Sale at ¥410,000,000, which equates to just over $2.5 million.

“She’s a really lovely filly,” Brosset says in hushed tones. “There’s always an update in these sorts of families and Kingman is on fire.”

Although last year’s August Sale reached giddy new heights, trade was not quite so buoyant elsewhere. This year’s August Sale comes at a time when bloodstock markets around the world have experienced their share of turbulence, with a range of external factors contributing to the instability. Nonetheless, consignors are confident that

Arqana will ensure a global buying bench returns to Deauville.

“Hopefully we’ll get all the usual people who come from different parts of the world,” says Rimaud. “Of course, the political and economic climate at the moment is not necessarily the best, but Arqana is always working super hard to offer the best horses to the best buyers, so hopefully people will keep on playing the game. All we can do is do our best with our horses and then hope that the best buyers are around.”

There may be no doubts about Arqana bringing buyers to the sale, but the consignors noted that clients have become increasingly selective in recent years, particularly around veterinary issues such as respiratory scopes and x-rays.

“The right people will be there, there’s no question about that, but it’s getting tougher,” says Brosset. “If you have the right horse with the pedigree and the x-rays and scope,

then you should be okay. But everything needs to be right, and that’s becoming more and more of the case. I’m happy with the three we have, though, especially given the lively families that have given us a few nice updates.”

Sassier echoes the sentiments shared by Brosset, saying: “If you tick all the boxes then you’ll sell well, but if you don’t you’ll be in a grey area, so vendors will perhaps have to consider lowering their reserves.

“Everybody wants the same thing; a two-year-old, something commercial, something that’s got a good scope and good x-rays. If you don’t have that then you’re basically stuck. We have all our yearlings assessed in February. We know that if they’re not perfect then there is no point taking them to August because you won’t sell them.”

Whatever happens in Deauville, one thing is for certain: you won’t want to miss it.

The New Bay filly out of Auriga (Lot 60) from Mont dit Mont

Need a Classic Type?

LOT 203 Sea The Stars filly, a half-sister to Mythico Gr.2

LOT 194 Zarak colt, closely related to Goldikova

LOT 127 Victor Ludorum colt out of half sister to Txope Gr.2

Need Speed?

LOT 84 Zelzal filly, half sister to Go Athletico Gr.3

Need Precocity?

LOT 443 Armor filly, half-sister to Toimy Son LR

LOT 446 Armor colt out of My Love’s Passion Gr.2 placed at 2, etc.

It’s Unquestionable. We have it.

Vanska riding the Group 2 winner Birthe on the Chantilly training tracks

Inset: graduating from the Godolphin Flying Start in 2015

Photo: ScoopDyga and Godolphin Flying Start

The overnight success that has been a long time planning

Jocelyn de Moubray meets Laura Vanska, trainer of the Group 2 Prix Saint Alary winner Birthe

MANY OF FRANCE’S most successful trainers were emigrants. The first to come were the various English families in the 19th century –the Carters, Tom Carter won the first three runnings of the Prix du Jockey-Club, and also the Watsons, the Cunningtons, the Jennings, who then married with the Head family.

More recently successful Frenchbased trainers from all over Europe and South America and based in Chantilly have included Jonathan Pease and John Hammond, and in the Paris region, trainers such as Carlos Lerner and Gianluca Bietolini in Maisons-Laffitte, Carlos Laffon-Parias, Alessandro Botti, Pia Brandt, Mario Baratti, Gavin Hernon and Tim Donworth in Chantilly.

This year a new country of origin joined the list – Finland.

There is not any racing in Finland, so Laura Vanska has made her mark in France as a rider, a pre-trainer, a pinhooker and, recently, as a trainer in her own right – this year her Chantilly stable is the home of Birthe, one of the best three-year-old fillies in the country.

Last July, Vanska went to the Arqana Summer Sale with the idea of buying a two-year-old who could run soon after.

Vanska had been training for two years and, from a only a handful of horses, had already had two stakes-placed fillies in Baptisia and Magyar Dance, both belonging to her fellow Finns Robert and Amelie Ehrnrooth, the owners of the Haras de Bourgeauville.

The filly who took her eye at Arqana was a daughter of Study Of Man presented by the Haras du Lieu des Champs.

“I am always interested by first-season sires,” she reasons, “and it was Study of Man who first caught my attention.

“But I also liked the fillies’ pedigree [her dam was bred by the Haras des Monceaux and her fourth dam is the American champion Kostroma] and her breeze.

“We were very lucky to be able to buy her for so little.”

Birthe, as the Study Of Man filly was named, was bought for €12,000 by Vanska and agent Tina Rau.

The filly is not qualified for French premiums having been bred in Ireland by Mubarak Al Sabah and, in a market such as the two-year-old section of the Summer Sale this is significant, although obviously for a filly of her quality an irrelevance.

THE FILLY MADE her debut four months later in the colours of Danish owner Christine Guilbert and finished second in a high-quality maiden in Deauville. A few weeks later she broke her maiden in Chantilly at which point Guilbert was happy to sell half of the filly to Alain Jathiere to ensure she stayed in France and with Vanska.

“Birthe has never had any problems at all,” Vanska says. “Everything up to the Diane went to plan and from the moment of her first gallop she showed me her quality.

“I wasn’t expecting her to win first time out, but I knew she would run well and then this year we were always aiming for the best races.”

Vanska’s task was made more difficult by this year’s very wet spring as Birthe is at her best on good ground and the team had to travel all the way to Toulouse to find a Listed race on her preferred surface.

The journey was worthwhile as Birthe came from last to win, lining herself up for the next obvious target – the Group 2 Prix Saint Alary, which until this year has always been a Group 1.

At Longchamp, the filly was once again held-up by jockey Aurelian Lemaitre but this time closer to the pace, she quickened on the

inside on the open stretch and came away to win well by three-quarters of a length from Almara. Those behind included Survie, who went on to finish second in the Prix de Diane (G1), and War Chimes, who was third in the Oaks at Epsom.

From there it was on to the Diane at Chantilly where, for a moment about 400m out, it looked as if she was going to be in the finish but she tired in the final stages to finish some 4l behind the winner Sparkling Plenty.

“She didn’t quite get the run of that race,” believes Vanska. “Aurelian was never able to get cover and I think Birthe was surprised when the others came to her as she is used to coming from behind late in the race.

“And then it could be that she had just done enough in the spring. Monsieur Jathiere was marvellous about everything and he knows how hard it is to get a horse able to run in a Classic race with a chance.”

Birthe went off for a short break after the Diane, but she is back in the stable now getting ready for more big races this autumn.

“She is a Group 2 winner and so from now on we have nothing to lose,” Vanska explains. “Birthe may go to a Group 2 in

Vanska with Nemo (left) and Seiya. The trainer reports that both dogs are important members of her small team

Deauville, but her targets are the Group 1 Prix Vermeille in September and then either the Prix de l’Opera or the E P Taylor Stakes in Canada. We have to find a Group 1 race for her to win now.”

There may be no racing in Finland but there are plenty of horses. Vanska mother is a dressage judge and has a stable with dressage horses and so the young girl grew up around a stable.

“My mother did, of course, want me to ride dressage, too,” she laughs, “but you can never do what your mother wants and as I did not want to have her as a coach I took up show jumping instead.”

Her direction changed when the Ehrnrooths, who are friends of her parents, sent a horse they were racing in Sweden to spend the winter in their stable.

“He was a grey son of Highest Honor and a beautiful animal, the most beautiful horse I had ever seen,” she remembers. “I was only ten or 11 years of age, but from then I began to be interested by racing and to follow the Ehrnrooth’s horses in France.”

When Vanska left school she took some time off and went to France to help prepare the yearlings at Haras de Bourgeauville and

Birthe may go to a Group 2 in Deauville, but her targets are the Group 1 Prix Vermeille in September and then either the Prix de l’Opera or the E P Taylor Stakes

to ride out for Stephane Wattel in Deauville.

She enrolled in a business school in Finland, but for her year abroad she returned to France studying in Paris while continuing to learn about racehorses and racing.

“At this time I was staying at Bourgeauville and among the horses there was an unraced Montjeu filly called Sarah Lynx, who had been sent to the stud for a holiday by her trainer John Hammond as she had been behaving badly in Chantilly and often managed to unship her rider in the mornings,” Vanska recalls.

“I told Robert and Amelie that in my opinion she needed to work and not just be on holiday and so I began to ride her and work her in the paddocks on the farm.

“At the time I knew little about racehorses, but she certainly felt like a nice filly to me!”

WHEN SARAH LYNX returned to Chantilly she was a much easier filly to ride and the following year Hammond agreed to let Vanska ride her in the mornings before going to complete her business studies in the afternoons.

Sarah Lynx developed into a top-class filly winning the Group 2 Prix de Pomone and the Grade 1 Canadian International.

Sarah Lynx was invited to run in the Japan Cup and the Hong Kong Vase and Vanska went with her spending a month with the filly in Asia; on returning to Europe, Vanska took up a full-time job working in the Hammond stable in Chantilly.

After working for Hammond and then for Francis Graffard, Vanska was accepted on to the Godolphin Flying Start.

“It was,” she remembers, “very hard work and it was not easy having to go back to studying after working full time.

“However, I learnt a great deal in those

two years and made many contacts.

“I worked for Luca Cumani in Newmarket, Christophe Clement in New York and my final assignment was at the Aga Khan’s Chantilly stable Aiglemont where I rode the then unraced Vazirabad every morning.

“When the course was over Christophe suggested I should go and work for his brother Nicholas in Chantilly and I ended up staying three and half years there. In this time Nicholas had some high-class horses in the stable – Traffic Jam, The Juliet Rose and Wonderment among others.”

The next stage was to set up on her own as a pre-trainer not far away from Chantilly.

“I had done my business plan and thought I had prepared myself to begin but then to my amazement ten days after I had started I had 20 horses to look after and not the structure to cope,” she laughs.

“Luckily some friends who were riding at Chantilly in the mornings and came to help and eventually we had a system in place.”

It was at this point while she was setting up her main business she decided to try her hand at pinhooking, in 2019 she bought a colt from the first crop of Mehmas for €25,000 at the Arqana August Sale.

Presented at the Summer Sale the following year he topped the two-yearold section selling for €100,000. Named Chez Pierre he went on to win a Grade 1 at Keeneland as a five-year-old.

“If I had kept him and raced him I might have made more,” she laughs, “but I believe things happen for a reason and Chez Pierre helped me a lot and people did notice.”

There followed a brief episode working alongside Nicolas Le Roch for the Haras d’Etreham, but in 2022 Vanska returned to Chantilly to start out as a trainer on her own.

Two years later with only a dozen horses in her care she has won a Group 2 race and competed in a Classic.

It may seem like a quick rise but she has spent years preparing to be a trainer which has been her goal since completing the Godolphin Flying Start.

“I have been lucky,” she adds, “and I have always had the support of Robert and Amelie Ehrnrooth.

“The years have gone by very quickly, but that is how it is when you are doing what you love.”

Vanska with owners Christine Guilbert (left) and Alain Jathiere (right) after Birthe’s Prix Saint-Alary win

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2,000,000

Guillaume de Saint-Seine is the third president of France Galop

Jocelyn de Moubray chats with Guillaume de Saint-Seine, the new president of

FRANCE GALOP was created in 1995, just a few years after the British Horseracing Board (now the Authority) took over responsibility for the administration of racing from the Jockey Club. In both countries the aim was to replace the traditional rulers of horseracing, who were more or less private self-electing clubs, with a more modern and democratic institution.

The presidents of France Galop are elected by its board of directors whose members are themselves elected by different professional groups, owners, breeders, trainers and jockeys. The system is a complicated one which provides a degree of representation and democratic legitimacy, but not too much. Insiders and incumbents have a built-in advantage and it is impossible to imagine a revolutionary being elected President.

There have not been many presidents of France Galop – for all but four years from its creation in the mid-1990s until Guillaume de Saint-Seine’s election in December 2023, the position has been held by either Jean Luc Lagardère or Edouard de Rothschild.

Lagardère was one of France’s best known businessmen and also the country’s dominant owner and breeder for some 20 years.

Rothschild comes from a family which has included prominent owners and breeders in France for generations and Edouard himself has been a successful owner and breeder from a relatively early age.

Saint-Seine may not have the same international standing in the horse business of his two predecessors, but he is a familiar figure in the French racing world and has been a successful owner and breeder for many years.

It makes little sense to compare France Galop with either Britain or Ireland’s racing authorities as it is so much bigger, more powerful and controls (together with its trotting partner) the PMU, Equidia, the country’s major racecourses and training centres as well as many other things such as the jockeys’ school and all of racing’s administration.

France Galop and its trotting partner share an income from the PMU of around €830 million a year and give the French state a similar amount.

It is striking that throughout its history, the

Photo courtesy of France Galop

guillaume de saint-seine

“I was immediately taken by the atmosphere, it was the year that Irish River won the Prix de Fontainebleau and for that season I was fascinated by Raymond Ades’ champion and went to watch all of his races

presidents and the chief executives of France Galop have been people not only with business experience, but also with insider’s experience and knowledge of racing, breeding and the bloodstock business.

Saint-Seine has had a long and successful career in banking and is currently Global Head of Coverage at Naxitis and Chairman of Natixis Pfandbriefbnk.

“This means,” he explains, “that with my team I am in charge of prospecting and managing the accounts of very big companies.

“I started out at BNP Paribas and then worked in mergers and acquisitions before joining Naxitis about 12 years ago.”

His interest in racing goes back further. “My friend Jean d’Indy invited me one Sunday when I was 17 0r 18 to have lunch with his family and go to Longchamp for the afternoon.

“I was immediately taken by the atmosphere, it was the year that Irish River won the Prix de Fontainebleau and for that season I was fascinated by Raymond Ades’ champion and went to watch all of his races.

“For the first time I followed a champion and watched him develop and prove himself against better and older horses.”

For those who were not following French racing in the 1970s, Irish River was an outstanding miler who won the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1), was beaten when going further in the now defunct Prix Lupin but went on to win the Prix d’Ispahan (G1), the Prix Jacques le Marois (G1) and the Prix du Moulin (G1) in 1979.

“From then, as it still is today, going racing was my Sunday pastime,” says Saint-Seine, adding: “I would take my mobylette and go to Longchamp or Auteuil. I was never really a rider myself but I loved the spectacle and having a bet from time to time.”

Having started out as a racegoer and occasional punter Saint-Seine went on to become both an owner and a breeder. To date the highlights of his career as an owner are the Group 1 winners Reliable Man and The Right Man.

“I was part of the Pride Racing Club,” he remembers, “and so I owned two and a half per cent of the JockeyClub winner Reliable Man.

“But the biggest thrill so far has been The Right Man’s win in the Group 1 Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan. I had enjoyed going racing in Dubai before and it was quite something to be there to watch The Right Man win and to go up to pick up the trophy afterwards.”

Saint-Seine currently has shares in 15 horses, including five with Mario Barrati, as well as the Listedplaced jumper Iceberg Du Large with Etienne and Gabriel Leenders.

Many people have successful professional lives and

who enjoy having shares in horses and going to the races on Sundays, not all of them have the appetite to become the voluntary president of such a huge organisation.

“I believe that with my experience of business and management I could bring a different perspective,” he says, “and, while I still have the energy, I want to invest this for the common good of racing in France, to build a team able and willing to change things for the benefit of everybody involved.”

The first step in this process, which began the day after he was elected in December 2023, was to find a new general manager for France Galop in order to replace Olivier Delloye, who had announced his decision to return to Arqana as its CEO.

Saint-Seine’s choice was Elie Hennau who, like Delloye, is the son of a trainer and also an accomplished amateur jockey and the winner of 95 races.

Hennau is Belgian and, having started his career with the accountancy giant Deloittes, moved on to work for 20 years for AXA, the insurance company based initially in Belgium and then in Paris.

Henri Pouret, a long-time France Galop executive, was promoted to be his deputy.

THE NEW TEAM announced its objective in June to “put racing back into the hearts of the French by making its clients, spectators, gamblers and owners its primary concern.”

This may seem to be a relatively innocuous aim, but it marks a shift in attitudes as in the past France Galop has never actively promoted or even shown much interest in those who bet on racing, except, of course, when it came to receiving its share of betting turnover.

“I want to change the conservation,” explains Saint-Seine. “For me there are two groups who form the economic basis for our activity, the owners who pay for the horses, and those who bet on horseracing who through the French system of the PMU monopoly, allow France Galop to offer the best prize-money in Europe.

“It is, of course, in everyone’s interest that we have a programme of racing that attracts as many horses and runners as possible. We work together with the trotting administration on the board of the PMU with this aim.”

Equidia is part of this partnership, too. Equidia shows more live racing than any other European racing channel and now, through its online site, it is possible watch more or less all of the 18,000 Flat, jumping and trotting races run in France every year live.

“I think,” Saint Seinte continues, “the system of

racing in France is a very balanced one. Our pyramid has a broad base and yet at the top the selection is still working as it should. At France Galop we are aware of this as we have been paying out more in premiums to the owners and breeders of French-bred horses.

“France has attracted some relatively new and significant owners and breeders such as Alain Jathiere, the Cheboub family and Yeguada Centurion, and I am well aware that every time we see a horse run it represents years of work and investment.

“People such as these start by buying a horse or a piece of one and then end up with a stud farm and supporting people across every sector of the business. I see this as a sign of confidence in the French system.”

For Saint-Seine the way to bring racing back into the hearts of the public is to find out more about the desires and requirements of these two main groups of clients.

“France Galop’s previous team had done a lot of the groundwork with its owners’ group, which had set out to discover what owners are looking for, how we can we work to recruit new ones and keep those we have already.

“And the same is true for those who bet on horseracing – we need to know what they want in addition to competitive quality racing in order to maintain turnover.”

He adds: “The first four months of the year were a difficult period, but, happily, May was a better month and we can look forward to the future.”

Seven months into his four-year mandate SaintSeine sounds as enthusiastic as ever, even if he admits it has taken more of his time than he was expecting.

“France Galop is a big organisation, we have some 370 employees many of whom work in our training centres all over the country. For the last Jeuxdi [the Thursday evening meetings at ParisLongchamp which have proved so successful] all of them were invited and many came which was a wonderful convivial event.”

As anyone, with even a casual interest in the country, knows administration in France is complicated and often full of conflicts and upheavals.

If French racing is going through a period of calm, then this can only be a positive sign for those responsible for its administration.

“France has attracted some relatively new and significant owners and breeders such as Alain Jathiere, the Cheboub family and Yeguada Centurion

The Right Man after winning the Prix De Seine-Et-Oise (G3). The horse’s subsequent Al Quoz Sprint (G1) victory gave Saint-Seine his biggest thrill as an owner

Photo: Scoop Dyga

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80 years ago

The Battle Of Normandy raged for ten weeks after D-Day causing an horrendous loss of civilian and military life, with the bloodstock ranks also decimated, writes John Gilmore

EIGHTY YEARS AGO the price of freedom was put to the test – on June 6, brave young military men from the UK, the US, Canada, Poland and France attacked German forces on the Normandy beaches and through the subsequent Battle of Normandy.

Gaining an initial foothold in France

came at a high price, an estimated 4,537 soliders lost their lives on that first day on the Normandy beaches, with the heaviest casualties of around 2,000, sustained by the American troops landing at Omaha.

Ahead of D-Day a key success was deemed to be the capture of the strategic Pegasus and Horsa bridges by men of the Oxford Light infantry, led by Major John Howard.

On the night of June 5, 181 young men took off in six Airspeed Horsa gliders from RAF Tarrant Rushton in Dorset, for Benouville in Normandy.

Five of the gliders landed successfully just after midnight, surprising the German forces guarding the two bridges, taking control in just over ten minutes and losing only two men. The other glider landed 7m off-course;

Allied soldiers after the liberation of Caen at the end of July 1944

after a brief battle with the enemy, the crew sadly lost their wireless operator.

The taking of Pegasus and Horsa Bridges across the Caen Canal in the early hours of June 6 was seen as key in the success of British, French and Canadian troops landing at nearby Gold, Juno and Sword beaches and was required to disrupt the German ability to bring in troops and counter attack.

It als allowed access to the 6th Airborne Division, dropped off to the east of Caen, to receive necessary equipment.

Caen, situated about 9m inland from the Calvados coast, was at the junction of several roads and railways, which made it an important operational objective for both sides.

With the area to the south of Caen much flatter, the Allied Commanders also wanted the area as a base for aircraft.

It had been predicted that the ancient Norman city of Caen would be taken on D-Day, but things didn’t go according to plan.

On June 6, Caen was supposedly the main objective of the British 3rd Infantry Division that had landed on Sword Beach.

The initial attempt from June 7-15 to liberate Caen, by surrounding the city from the west, failed due to strong resistance from the German armoured Panzer division.

A second attempt was made on June 18, but as a storm had damaged the temporary Mulberry Harbour at Gold Beach putting it out of action causing serious supply problems, the assault had to be abandoned.

A third attempt known as Operation Epsom and made from the south, also met with strong resistance from the German military and General Montgomery’s soldiers were repelled once again.

Eventually on July 7 the allies launched a massive air assault against Caen in the hope of clearing the way for a ground attack.

Four hundred and fifty Lancaster and Halifax aircraft, the RAF bomber command, dropped 2,500 tons of bombs, totally destroying the city and killing 300 civilians.

Many local families lost multiple generations and today the action still divides opinion, some believe that the bombing akin to a war crime, while others take the view that it was the only way to find the path to freedom.

The following morning Chief Marshall Montgomery led a frontal attack on the town, with over 100,000 men and tanks of the British First Corps and Canadian troops.

The assault proved successful and both the British and Canadian troops reached the bridges of the Orne on July 9, liberating the left bank of the city.

An emergency hospital and refuge was set up, which provided a place to stay for up to the 20,000 civilians who had been left homeless after the intense bombing.

In the early hours of July 18, Montgomery launched Operation Goodwood to capture the right bank of the town, the RAF dropping 6,000 bombs targeting the area across Eastern Caen.

The infantry followed up with a joint British and Canadian ground offensive and

Above, left, the British Army’s Royal Engineers moving through the ruins of Caen looking for mines and booby-traps on July 10, 1944. Above, right, a British soldier in Caen gives a helping hand to an old lady amongst the scene of utter devastation. The town had been substantially destroyed during the bombardment, leaving large numbers of the population homeless.

Many villages and towns in the wider Normandy region were left in ruins after the Battle Of Normandy

Caen was finally liberated on July 19.

Following the capture of Caen, the British war correspondent for the Daily Mail reported on 28 July, 1944.

“One must drive through Caen every time one goes to and fro from the Orne front, and it’s still a horrible and rather shaming thing. The people of Caen will never quite understand why we had to do anything so awful to them. Still, day by day, the bodies of their fellow citizens are being dug out of the ruins

“Obviously it was a crime to cause such destruction and kill so many people, but probably it was the only thing to stop the Germans long enough from rushing towards the sea.”

Such destruction was a reason why Canadian and English troops found it difficult to face the local people who were then homeless and without resources. The troops made it a priority to get the clean water and sanitation system repaired, which had been badly damaged.

The allies had planned to capture Caen in a day, it took six weeks.

The price was high with 30,000 English

Prince Rose killed in a bombing raid

The battle devastated the stud farms in Normandy, many of which had already suffered under German occupation with prize stallions stolen and taken to Germany.

The intense Allied Bombing during the Falaise Gap battle saw more than 20 studs in the region badly damaged with 399 thoroughbred racehorses killed or disappeared.

It included the famous mare Corrida, the dual winner of the 193637 runnings of the Pric de l’Arc de Triomphe, owned and bred by Marcel Boussac at Haras de Fresnay-Le-Buffard.

The retreating Germans also took many thoroughbreds with them, but later abandoned them, or ate them.

The Germans also occupied studs to provide homes for soldiers, including the Haras D’Etreham during the occupation.

Patrick Chedeville of Haras du Petit Tellier at Sevigne, near Argentan, recalls some of his grandfather André Chedeville’s memories of the war.

“He told me that the Germans were only interested in ‘A listed’ horses with owner-breeder Marcel Boussac’s top stallion Pharis and Edouard De Rothschild’s Brantome and Eclair Au Chocolat, among the hundreds stolen,” says Chedeville.

After the war Brantome and Pharis returned to stud duties in France, but Éclair De Chocolat was never found along with some other stallions and around 100 broodmares.

One of the most influential racehorses of the last century Prince Rose was standing at the Haras de Petit Tellier.

“My grandfather told me during the bombing an attempt was made to move Prince Rose to a safer place, but the horse refused to enter the different barn and was returned to his normal stable.

“Within a short space of time there was a loud explosion and my grandfather came running out of the house, to find the barn destroyed and Prince Rose mortally wounded.”

Chedeville adds, “A lot of cattle, horses and civilians were killed during the Falaise Gap battle and surrounding region. The stud in Sevigne was not far from the Argentan railway station, which was a main target for the allied bombers that fatal night to disrupt the German’s trying to escape.

“After the war, German prisoners were used to rebuild the damaged studs.”

It was a sad ending for Prince Rose, who had been a great

A French family returns to their wrecked home in the village of Buron, near Caen

Photo: July 18,1944

racehorse and was trained in Belgium to win 16 of his 20 races.

Thankfully, the mare Cosquillo, safely carrying to Prince Rose, had been shipped to Ireland and her foal, subsequently named Princequillo, was sent to race in the US where he won several big staying races, including the Jockey Club Gold Cup.

He went on to become leading sire twice in 1957 and 58, while his mating with Imperatrice produced the filly Somethingroyal, the dam of Secretariat.

Princequillo was also champion broodmare sire in the US eight times between 1976 and 1986, and in Britain and Ireland in 1971.

Prince Rose through Princequillo is also the grandsire of Sham, Seattle Slew, Mill Reef, Fort Mercy, Prince John, A.P. Indy, Cigar, Zenyatta, John Henry, California Chrome and American Pharoah.

In France, Prince Rose’s son Prince Chevalier won the Prix du Jockey-Club in 1946 and Prince Chevalier sired Charlottesville to win the Classic in 1960.

While Prince Rose also bred Prince Bio, the sire of Le Petit Prince; the Jockey-Club winner in 1954.

Prince Rose’s stallion career was cut short by allied bombing, –yet in spite of that, he still became one of the most influentia for middle-distance breeding during the 20th century.

Who knows what else he could have achieved?

and Canadian troops killed, the town in ruins, 1000s of people homeless and 3,000 of its inhabitants dead.

The US 1st Army under the command of General Bradley was also expected to liberate Saint Lo in the east of Normandy on June 7, but strong German resistance prevented this until after Caen had been liberated.

Similar tactics used for Caen were employed at Saint Lo with American Air Force B-17s using intense carpet bombing tactics, starting on the night of July 6 and by targeting the strategically important railway station and power plant.

After a week of bombing the town was in ruins. The Americans had dropped warning leaflets the day ahead of bombing, but high winds blew them to other areas, giving the local people no opportunity to leave. More than 300 civilians living in St Lo died during the bombing and subsequent ground battle.

On July 25, under the code name Operation Cobra, American forces entered Saint Lo and defeated the remaining German forces.

On August 1, George Patten took over as Commanding Officer of the US third Army,

A Canadian soldier controls traffic amongst the burning Falaise ruins on August 17, 1944

Bob Demuyser

Prince Rose: ancestor of the US Triple Crown winner Secretariat

which coordinated different divisions who had broken through enemy lines, proceeding further south and east without meeting any German resistance.

At the same time the British/Canadian forces continued south, driving the depleted Panzer division into a pocket, and towards the American troops.

The trap was set and on August 8 ground forces under Commander General Montgomery ordered the allied armies to converge on the Falaise-Chambois area, to surround the German forces trapped inside, with the British to the north, the US forces to the south and the Canadians in the Northern area of the circle.

Fierce fighting took place between August 12-21 at what became known as the Falaise Gap.

MONTGOMERY

ACCEPTED Bradley’s decision and ordered the Canadians to capture Falaise, before turning east to close the gap at Trun and Chambois.

But the Germans began to withdraw by August 17, and two days later the Allies regrouped in Chambois.

German counter-attacks forced gaps in the Allied lines – the most significant of which was a corridor forced past the 1st Polish Armoured Division commanding position at the pocket mouth. ByAugust 21, the pocket had been sealed, with an estimated 50,000 Germans trapped inside, although a number managed to escape the pocket before it was closed.

An entry on August 21 in a diary written by Major Whittaker; a member of the British Armed Forces at the Falaise Gap battle, provided by the archives Memorial Caen, is poignant: “My word the Boche are taking a hammering in the Falaise Gap. There are reports of slaughter everywhere. Oh what a smell, I am sure I shall have that taste in my mouth for all time – dead horses, dead cattle, dead boche buried tanks and vehicles everywhere”.

The confrontation ended the Battle of Normandy. Over the two months, more than 425,000 Allied and German troops were

killed, wounded or went missing. This figure includes 209,000 Allied casualties, with nearly 37,000 dead among the ground forces and 16,714 losses in the Allied air forces.

The exact German casualties are not known, but it is estimated that around 200,000 German troops were injured or killed, with between 4,000 and 9,000 men killed, wounded or missing during the D-Day invasion alone.

About 22,000 German soldiers are among the many buried around Normandy.

Liberation came at a high price also for the local population of Normandy, with strategic cities such as Caen, Lisieux, Pontl’Evêque, Vire, Falaise, Avranches, Valognes, Alençon, Argentan and Flers left in ruins, with towns and roads as far east as Lisieux, deliberately targeted to make it difficult for the Germans to send troop reinforcements.

Civilian losses in Normandy through allied bombings of French villages and cities — killed around 20,000 French civilians, left 300,000 homeless, while 100,000 cattle and 8,000 horses also perished.

A letter between friends and from a

resident of Fiers, 39 km south of Falaise, dated July 6, 1944 and provided by the Archives de Patrimoine Cultural Caen, highlights the deadly danger and ruination civilians faced from allied carpet bombing.

“I only received your letter today. We are like the people of Caen that you talk about. We were just having dinner when bombs fell on and around our house. All the family immediately took refuge in the cave below the house.

“We now only have what we have on our backs, having seen our house burning; with the town on fire and in ruins. There is no sign of our Army yet.

“There are 29 dead in our close neighbourhood, five in one family alone. We are staying at an old student house, with a man who rescued us from the rubble. We just have our papers, our small savings and that’s all. It’s sad to be in such a state, but must put our pride aside and gratefully accept our pittance.”

What remained of the town was finally liberated on August 16, by the British 11th Armoured Division.

The meeting between American troops (right) and Canadian troops (left) to mark the closing of the ‘Falaise Pocket’ on the road between Falaise and Argentan. By closing the gap at Falaise, the Allied forces had completed their attempt to encircle the German Fifth Army and Seventh Panzer Army.

Normandy landings

We trace the footsteps taken in June 1944 by four ancestors of those working in today’s bloodstock industry.

Although the quartet of men had very different wars, all four stories are of bravery, honour, love, misfortune and sadness.

Arthur Henry Cyril Smith

Father of Laura Green, photographer, Tattersalls

Douglas Mann

Grandfather of Ed Harper, Whitsbury Manor Stud

Charles Francis Birch

Grandfather of Danny Molony, senior spotter, Tattersalls, and Hon Peter Stanley, New England Stud

Luke Theodore Lillingston

Grandfather of Luke Lillingston, Mount Coote Stud, and Georgina Bell, Tattersalls

Our thanks and gratitude goes to all the families involved who so generously shared stories and personal records. Further sources include www.therafatomahabeach.com, www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk, www.ancestory.co.uk, www.paoyeomanry.org.uk, and regimental records and books.

www.internationalthoroughbred.net

IN AUGUST many of us will be in Deauville buying, selling or watching the sale of beautiful, high-bred yearlings.

We will also enjoy the finest of Normandy hospitality, drink some fantastic French wine and eat wonderful food; we may visit the beach, the racecourse, the casino, the clubs and bars, the shops and the market, enjoying all that the town has to offer through its summer season.

Deauville in August 1944 was very different – the town’s race meetings had been moved primarily to Paris, the yearling sale was transferred to Tattersalls Francais’ base at Neuilly-sur-Seine, and the town, with its casino and magnificent villas, was occupied by the German army.

The background sounds to daily life that month were not those of enthusiastic auctioneers making the most of their opportunity to create high-value equine sales, but the bombing and fighting of armies as the

Allied troops moved across Normandy and fought the German resistance.

On August 17, we will be standing in the Deauville sale ground for Day 2 of this year’s Arqana August Sale, 80 years ago to the day the British launched Operation Paddle, moving towards the Seine.

Deauville was subsequently liberated on August 22, with the allies moved into Cabourg, Dives, Houlgate, Villers-sur-Mer, Trouville and Honfleur between August 21 and 24.

The D-Day landings, which had been enacted some ten weeks earlier on June 6, had seen the largest-ever amphibious invasion; the recent 80th anniversary was much celebrated to remember both those who had lost their lives and those for whom lives were irrevocably changed.

Many of our colleagues and friends in today’s bloodstock and horseracing worlds had ancestors who took part in the landings and the subsequent battles across Normandy; we follow four, very different, war-time stories.

On June 6, when the order was given for the D-Day landings and the long-planned Operation Overlord swung into its mighty action, Arthur Henry Cyril Smith, father of Tattersalls photographer Laura Green, was a Temporary Acting Leading Seaman and aboard the destroyer HMS Orwell, part of the 17th Destroyer Flotilla of the Home Fleet.

Smith had joined up in 1941 as a 22-yearold and, despite having been brought up in Birmingham, as far from the sea as you can be in the UK, he was drafted into the Navy.

“I am sure that it was a mistake,” laughs Green. “I think he wanted to fly and be in the Fleet Air Arm, but he ended up in the Navy.

“My grandparents were bakers, providing bread and necessities and with a very decent business; they did not want him to go to war.

“As food producers it was a protected role, and my grandmother even directly lobbied the Navy to try and stop him from joining up.”

Ignoring the pleas of his mother, Smith went to war aboard HMS Orwell and spent much of those years in the north Atlantic with the Arctic Convoys protecting the merchant ships sailing to Russia with

Acting Temporary Seaman, Arthur Smith, and, above, his Arctic Star medal

supplies. It was a mission that not only had to deal with the threat from German air, submarine and naval forces, but also freezing temperatures, drift ice, fog, strong currents – the route was described by Winston Churchill as “the worst journey in the world”.

What could be seen almost as a period of respite, HMS Orwell was deployed to Plymouth in April 1944 to prepare for the D-Day landings.

“Dad was at the ill-fated Slapton Sands D-Day practise when 100s of seamen were killed by very real enemy fire,” adds Green.

HMS Orwell was sent to Normandy and Smith was aboard for H-hour, the ship tasked with the role of protecting troops on Gold Beach, firing into the German defences on the cliff edge. The destroyer remained in the seas off the Normandy coast in its role as guardian until September whereupon it returned to its Arctic duties.

“Dad, who had been a draftsman before the war, was involved in car racing after. He died in 2008 and was posthumously awarded the Arctic Star,” says Green with pride.

The “expensive soldier” who spent D-Day buried in sand and then fell in love On Gold Beach and one of the first troops to hit the shore under the protection of Green’s father was Douglas Mann, grandfather of Ed Harper, manager of Whitsbury Manor Stud.

Some 46 years after D-Day, Mann, who passed away just three years ago at 98, wrote a letter recording his memories of that experience.

In 1942, as soon as Mann was of age,

he joined up, his older brothers having already enlisted three years before.

“Dad came from a fairly wealthy background and he was the youngest of four brothers, he was from the Mann family of brewers,” recalls Nicky Harper, Mann’s daughter and mother of Ed Harper. “The family was shooting in Scotland when war was announced and the other brothers just left and went straight to fight, there was just Dad left to shoot the hill.”

By the time of Operation Overlord, Mann was 21, but had still not seen active service having spent the previous 18 months in preparation for D-Day based at Plymouth in training exercises.

He had enlisted with 2nd Troop, C Sign,

4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards, originally a calvary regiment but which had become a mechanised battalion in 1938.

For the last two weeks of preparation, Mann was sealed off from the outside world in Southampton, their work top secret.

As a captain of his unit, he was briefed on the army’s future vision of events and Mann wrote that he felt as if we “had all had been on a holiday there” so detailed were updates they received from “men who walked the beach at night from mini submarines, or from low flying reconnaissance”.

Keen to get on with the task at hand, he and his soldiers were initially disgusted that the invasion was weather postponed on June 5, and they spent 24 hours on board the ship moored off the south coast before moving off to invade on June 6.

The journey over the Channel for Mann was spent wandering about the ship as he checked on his troops, sensibly deciding to avoid the commander’s offer of a tot of rum.

Arrival on the French coast at dawn was a sight that he wrote “I shall never forget for as far as the eye could see in either direction was a vast armada of landing craft” with the sight of cruisers and battle cruisers “throwing everything they had got to the coast was good for morale”.

His battalion was largely tasked with

HMS Orwell in the spring of 1944: most likely with Smith aboard

Harper’s grandfather Douglas Mann: above left, as the World War II army captain, right, the farmer

Photo taken on March 16, 1944

path finding and he was one of the first to set foot on Gold Beach at 7.30am. He wrote with some amount of pride that he “would not have swapped with anyone” his group fighting alongside the 5th East Yorkshire Brigade and the 6th Green Howards, the objective a village called La Riviere with a prominent house to target. It apparently had been so well indicated in the briefings we all “felt we had been there before”.

Dropped off on target, he and his team waded ashore, becoming a little more concerned about the resistance they might meet after witnessing a Churchill Frail Tank blown up in front of them; as they neared the shoreline they dropped protective screens and readied for action.

As a down-to-earth countryman, he commented: “Like all battles it looked incredible and very expensive muddle. But very exciting to a new boy.”

Part of the equipment the battalion took ashore was a long extension to the tank commander’s periscope to enable to see over the canvas screen, but it was a difficult piece of equipment to deal with, and Mann reports that with “a shout of delight at being in France” when half-way out of the turret he pulled the “wretched thing off and threw it away.”

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion and Mann felt a blow in his back, a landing craft had set off a booby trap and been blown up, the resulting shrapnel had hit Mann in the chest.

He was unaware of the depth of his injury and was initially keen to carry on, but the Medical Officer appeared, dragged him out of the tank and told Mann that it was the “end of D-Day for him” and he was taken to the beach.

Mann’s grandson takes up the story.

“There was no contingency to take the injured out so they buried him in a sand dune for day while fighting carried on,” explains Harper.

Taken via stretcher to his protective sand dune a disappointed Mann felt all his training had been worthless and he had let everyone down, though as he lay on the beach he realised that he would have been a liability to his troops – he had punctured a lung.

“He was known as an ‘expensive soldier’,”

adds Nicky. “All that training and he was the first there, and then back home in time for tea. It became a bit of a family joke!”

Mann and fellow injured soldiers spent a day in the dune, protected as much as possible from the bullets and the fighting until eventually they were loaded into a DUKW (amphibious tank) and transferred to an LST (which Mann identified as the forerunner to a car ferry) moored around a half mile offshore.

After some abortive attempts at loading,

...like the first grouse at the Ritz on August 12th

in a new manoeuvre not previously attempted, eventually they were aboard the “cavernous vessel” and shipped back to Southampton.

The next morning he and his fellow stretcher-borne soldiers were laid out on the platform at Southampton Station awaiting transport, Mann reported that the commuters viewed them with great interest “like the first grouse at the Ritz on August 12th”.

“He went to hospital and that was where he met my grandmother,” says Harper. “She was called Evelyn Mary Stanhope Rodd, and she did her bit for the war effort joining up to volunteer as a nurse. She and Grandpa fell in love and married in 1946.”

Before that happy event, Mann was patched up and he rejoined his troops later in 1944 in Arnhem, Belgium but his war luck did not improve – his knee was blown up and he was again sent home injured.

After the war Mann went farming, eventually purchasing a property in the Chalk Valley not far from Whitsbury.

He decided to learn how to ride to “properly”, eventing to a high standard

Mann jumping at Badminton Horse Trials: he rode around twice on two homebred half-brothers

The D-Day shrapnel taken from Mann’s lung, it is something of a Harper family momento

achieving the rare feat of breeding and producing two homebred half-brothers whom he then rode himself at Badminton.

“We also bred a few NH racehorses, but we were given a Flat mare called Blue Hawaii, and she came from the Arundel Castle family,” recalls Nicky. “She did bred a Group 3 winner, but we did not know what we were doing really with a Flat mare.

“Dad and I used to do the matings and he just said, ‘There is a stud at Whitsbury, take her there they will know what to do’.”

Harper Jnr adds: “She went to Celtic Ash who had won the Belmont in 1960 and had been bought by William Hill. The stallion’s nomination was £500 and the mare was sent to him because he was cheap and just down the road – Grandpa was a farmer and was not going to spend a lot of money!”

That cheap and near-at-hand stallion led to a second love story in this tale.

“I drove her there,” recalls Nicky. “I can

remember exactly where I parked, and two men arrived and helped me unload her – one was Chris [Harper].”

By the 1980s the shrapnel that was still in Mann’s lungs was starting to cause him a bit trouble so it was taken out, it has been kept as a momento by the Harper family.

What was an Englishman doing on deadly Omaha Beach?

Charles Francis Birch, grandfather to Tattersalls’ senior spotter Danny Molony, the Earl of Derby and the Hon Peter Stanley of New England Stud, did not have the D-Day landing that you would wish on anyone, and nor should he have been anywhere near such action on June 6.

The only personal war story that Birch reported to his family was that “he was stuck on a sandbar overnight on Omaha Beach taking flak from bombers overhead.”

But Birch was a member of the RAF and should not have involved in the war on the ground, and certainly should not have been on the beaches.

Furthermore, the British battalions landed on Sword and Gold Beaches, and, if indeed he had been engaged on the shoreline, Birch should have been working his way to safety over that zone, making use of the paths created by soldiers such as Captain Mann and his team of troops, and not on Omaha which was designated for the US landings. So why was he there?

Before the war Birch had been training racehorses at Ogbourne Maisey in Berkshire, and was married to Catherine “Nan” Birch. He had joined up in 1941 as a Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve as an acting Flying Officer, and in June 1941 his service record has him recorded as working on intelligence duties. He was based with No 93 Squadron and No 24 Squadron, spending much of the war stationed at Middle Wallop, likely to have been working on the radar protection systems.

Unfortunately for Birch in 1944 that all changed and he found himself transferred to the newly formed No. 21 Base Defence Wing. The unit was charged with ensuring that a radar known as AMES Type 25 and able to provide Ground-Control Intercept (GCI) would be taken into France on D-Day.

The equipment had proved to have been vital through the Battle of Britain, most likely when Birch had gained experience of its function, and it was deemed necessary for the kit to be in Normandy for similar protective night duties. The US army did not have its own set so the British “kindly” loaned the Americans the equipment for that summer.

Its transportation, set-up and operation also meant that a number of skilled operatives had to be sent into France to ensure safe delivery and working knowledge of the kit.

A group of around 160 RAF men were selected to land with the US armies on Omaha; Birch was one of the chosen few.

As has been retold in recent weeks Omaha Beach saw the worst and bloodiest of the action of D-Day, the shoreline heavily defended by the German military.

It has to be imagined that the 38-yearold former racehorse trainer, who had been

Charles Francis Birch at Ogbourne Maisey with wife Nan and daughter Stella

doing a highly important desk job through the preceding years of the war and, while seemingly more than happy to do his bit for the war effort, had not envisioned seeing action such as this.

The unit was scheduled to land mid-morning on June 6 after the first wave of the invasion, it was believed that the beach would be safe, secure and suitable for the largely non-combatant group to move from the shoreline to a safe house with its sizable, awkward, yet precious and vital, equipment.

It was 11.30am when 21 BDS first attempted to land. Their flotilla moved towards the beach, the vehicles, all with engines running and ready to disembark when the ramps were lowered. However, as they closed on Omaha, the beach was observed to still be under heavy machine gun and artillery fire with many dead and dying on the beach, soliders in trouble in the water and equipment abandoned and strewn on the shore.

In the words of the official report, “it was obviously impracticable to land the convoy then” and two American patrol boats, controlling the movement of landing craft,

I got out and found I could stand on the bottom with the water just up to my chin

ordered the team to withdraw.

The battle waged on for a day, the German defences in full force on the cliff top picking off the US military; No 21 BDS watched and waited with growing anxiety.

By 17.00 with the tide beginning to rise a decision had to be made as to whether the unit’s landing would proceed or be postponed, as many units had decided, until D+1.

However, the vital importance attached to the quick establishment of the night air defence capability meant BDS was needed ashore on D1.

The flotilla was dispatched with three other craft carrying small tanks and armoured cars; despite the dangers ahead, the RAF men welcomed the promise of dry land and an end to their sea-sickness.

Things quickly went wrong. The planned landing in the safer Easy Red sector, whether by miscommunication or tidal forces, did not happen; the boats instead were directed toward the still heavily-defended Dog Red.

Although some of the unit succeeded in getting ashore, for some they became wedged on those sandbars and open to German fire, evidently it had not appreciated that the sand bars, a feature of Omaha Beach, would prevent the LCTs from unloading close enough to the tide line.

The unit’s report continues: “Most of the craft were landed in about 4’3” of water so that immediately they struck a hole they were drowned.”

Padre Harding recorded coming off an LCT some distance from the beach in fairly deep water, touching down and moving off. At first, the engine kept going, but then his vehicle disappeared into a shell hole.

“I got out and found I could stand on the bottom with the water just up to my chin, while my driver, who was rather shorter than myself, took my hand. He swam and I waded ashore.”

The BDS record book states: “The whole

The sight that RAF radar operator Birch, more used to manning the equipment from safety in the UK, might have seen on his arrival at Omaha

unit came under heavy shell fire while they were on the beach. The troops were got to the top of the beach as soon as possible, they dug foxholes in the shingle and there they remained until the situation could be reviewed and a place found for the unit to be moved to, it being obvious that the front line was just about a mile off the beach.”

Birch’s own experience, in those brief recollections to his family, are evidenced by the service report and, after his night on a sandbar surviving the terrifying ordeal, he got to the beach and join his unit.

He was one of the lucky ones. Out of the 27 vehicles unloaded by four LCTs, only eight actually made it ashore. The fifth LCT hit a sandbank further out to sea and unloaded its vehicles into about four feet of water, its occupants only saving themselves by scrambling onto the roofs of the trucks.

The unit suffered 48 casualties out of its group of 160 or so, with 11 killed in action.

Group Captain Tim Willbond writes in his paper A Briefing Paper By The Association of RAF Fighter Control Officers, The D-Day Fighter Control Story, “It is not often that accounts of Royal Air Force operations involving ground-based airmen rather than aircrew are ever written. However, such is the drama, courage and resilience to be found in this landing that it is believed that more publicity is warranted in respect of this particular operation.

“Not only did the survivors, who were scattered along the beach, manage to reform and salvage eight of their vehicles which, though partially damaged, could be driven off the beach, but they also took delivery of replacement vehicles and personnel.

“These enabled the re-equipped GCI to set up, and be operational by the evening of 9th/10th June 1944 – and even manage to claim an enemy aircraft destroyed that night.”

Despite picking up an injury, Birch remained with the unit as it commenced its radar work in early June and then as the team moved across Normandy towards Paris, eventually reaching and basing at Longchamp racecourse.

The group disbanded on November 10, 1944 and Birch, surely with relief, returned

...such is the drama, courage and resilience to be found in this landing

to his desk role, in the UK.

He continued with his intelligence duties to the end of the war working with various squadrons, eventually his RAF commission was relinquished in 1954.

The radar kit that No 21 BDS took to Omaha for the US army would have been similar

The hunting man before the war: Lillingston with his young son Alan

After the war came to its conclusion, Birch did not return to training, he and Nan parted, and Birch left England for Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), and he died in Bulawayo in 1974.

Molony, who never met his grandfather, says, “My grandmother said that he never spoke much about his experiences, the only time he mentioned his action in the war was being marooned on that sandbar.

“I think he left the UK quite soon after the war came to an end.”

Nan, who remarried and was known then as Nan Kennedy, continued with the horses and trained herself, her string eventually running under her name from 1976.

She was based Lambourn and one of her biggest successes came when she was 72 years of age with victory for Ra Nova in the 1984 Schweppes Gold Trophy at Newbury.

Lillingston: a fast-living man of action

By the late 1930s the British population was resigned to the likelihood of war, so many were keen to make the most of what life in the late 1930s had to offer; Captain Luke Theodore Lillingston certainly made sure he lived life to the full.

An excellent horseman he was master of the North Atherstone Hunt and was regarded as one of the best men to ride across country, he rode in point-to-points and enjoyed a fine old time of it.

“He and friends would get in a plane and fly down the country for parties,” reports his namesake and grandson Luke Lilllingston of Mount Coote Stud. “They were known to take bets as to where they could land.”

Born in 1907, Luke Theodore Lillingston was the son of Captain William George Lillingston, who had served with the Irish Rifles, and Olive Theodora Lillingston.

He was brought up in the finest Leicestershire sporting country; hunting was his passion and he made it his life.

In 1930-31, at just 23, Lillingston was first whip (amateur) of the Harrington Hounds before he moved to Ireland to become joint-master (masters then also hunting hounds themselves) of the Meath.

Despite moving to Ireland, he was known to frequently entertain a certain Margaret, Countess of Harrington. She was a fine

Captain Luke Theodore Lillingston: photo taken at some point in Normandy in 1944

I have stayed at Mount Coote and remember the view from the bedroom window, that will do to buy it!

horsewomen herself and rode in many point-to-points, but was widowed after her first husband, the Earl of Harrington, had been killed in 1929 when hunting his own pack and attempting to jump a five-bar gate.

Against the likely convention of the time, on his death the Countess had taken over the responsibility of hunting the pack herself.

And despite this duty she still found time to head to Ireland to visit the Meath at the invitation of Lillingston.

The young man enjoyed two seasons hunting in Ireland before he gave notice in 1933 to return to the UK to fulfill the same role with the North Atherstone.

After his resignation became public a follower of the Meath wrote to the Tamworth Herald on March 11: “The rumour that Mr Luke Lillingston has sent in his resignation in March 1933 of the joint mastership has caused much regret.

“He has shown good sport in North Meath, and has the makings of a first-class huntsman. Even without this attribute, his

keenness, dash and good cheer appeal to everyone.”

He was reported to be the youngest-ever master of the North Atherstone, a role that, even viewed from this distance of time, was perfect for him. However, his return to the UK was not just for the job – it also involved affair of the heart, and on July 15, 1934, the 26-year-old Lillingston married the Countess.

The society wedding saw the pair break with the social convention of the time –she was 36, nine years older than her new husband and with an 11-year-old son from her first marriage.

The pair tied the knot in London, according to newspaper reports only a few friends were in attendance and the Countess wore a “black and white ensemble with a silver fox fur around her shoulders.”

In 1938, the happily-married Lillingston, by then father of Alan, decided to buy a property in Ireland, his grandson Luke recounts the story.

“The Greenall family were selling Mount Coote, and my grandfather told the agent to keep him in mind,” reports Lillingston Jnr.

“When an initial sale had not gone through my grandfather was approached by the agent to whom grandfather immediately said, ‘I’ll buy it!’

“The agent asked if he would like to walk

the land first, whereupon my grandfather is reported to have said, ‘I have stayed at Mount Coote and remember the view from the bedroom window, that will do to buy it!’”

Lillingston adds: “To be fair, it was a decision that did not need a lot of thought as the farm had already produced an Oaks winner – Love In Idleness, bred by Sir Gilbert Greenall, who had won at Epsom in 1921.”

Lillingston Snr, whose name had occasionally appeared (unsurprisingly in light of his character) in the local papers through the 1930s for various speeding and driving misdemeanors, was a Guards reserve and a subaltern in the Leicestershire Yeomanry with whom he mobilised at the beginning of the war.

The unit had been a reserve horse division of the British army since 1794, and continued to train for mounted service after Word War I. In 1939, when it was ordered to recruit to full capacity, it was still assigned as a cavalry brigade; later that year the horses were abandoned and it refocused as a reserve unit to the Royal Artillery.

On June 28 and 29, 1944, with Lillingston in its ranks, the 153rd Leicestershire Yeomanry Field Regiment crossed to Normandy, landing on Gold Beach’s Mulberry B port, one of the two temporary harbours set up by the British army.

The unit saw its first action on July 7 as part of Operation Charnwood to retake Caen before moving to a position near the River Orne.

The crew then saw continuous fighting to the beginning of August, Lillingston’s action alongside the 2nd Grenadier Guards commended in the regimental war diary.

On August 11, the regiment moved to Le Brien where it saw some particularly heavy fighting, the British army having to fight violently and requiring full involvement of the 153rd in its supporting role from the Leicestershire reserve regiment.

Sadly, the regiment diary then reports: “Alas, in this area, was lost one of its most liked officers the regiment has ever had in Luke Lillingston.

“He was going forward to try and give support to the 1st Battalion Grenadier

In action his coolness of mind was wonderful and his gameness superb. God rest his soul, and give him happy hunting

Guards, when his tank was hit, and caught fire immediately. He received bad burns and a nasty wound to the chest from which he died before getting back to the C.S.S. [combat service support].

“His loss was felt deeply by all who knew him. In action his coolness of mind was wonderful and his gameness superb. God rest his soul, and give him happy hunting.”

Later that week Lillingston’s death hit the British papers and in the Leicester Evening Mail on August 17, 1944, his obituary reported him to be a top amateur rider and a keen airman.

The piece went on to recall instances of Lillingston’s life, clearly outlining the man’s joyful, yet daring, character.

“It was not only in the hunting field that he distinguished himself, he was a crack

amateur rider and he won many races at point-to-point meetings in Ireland where he bred racehorses at his Mount Coote home.

“In dividing his time between his Leicestershire and Irish home, Captain Lillingston found it easier to go by air. He learned to fly, became an aeroplane owner and was frequently seen touching down at Leicester airport when he housed his plane.

“It was the adventurous nature of the man that he was not at a loss for a landing place whenever he wanted where there was no convenient airfield. Open fields were all that he needed and on many visits to Elvaston, the Derby home of the Countess, he brought his plane to rest in the nearest field suitable to the castle.

“It is recalled that once, shortly before the war, he was forced down three times by fog on the way from Heston to Elvaston Castle for the hunt puppy show, but he got there in time to preside over at luncheon.

“He was a great lover of animals and once when one of the Quorn hounds fell down a steep quarry-face and injured itself, he had himself lowered down the quarry by ropes to rescue it.

“He was a fearless rider and once in Ireland he was shown a very high fence which had not been jumped for many a year. Captain Lillingston took one look at the fence, jumped it, turned around and repeated the performance to show it was no fluke.”

He was a bold, country sportsman, brilliant equestrian, fast living, dashing young man who loved his horses, fast cars and planes, his hunting and, of course, his Countess.

He grandson, now owner and manager of Mount Coote, concludes, “My grandfather never got to enjoy Mount Coote himself and only visited the farm three or four times.

“But he bought the most wonderful property in Mount Coote and my family has been so lucky to have been here since, we are always grateful for the decision he made.”

Lillingston is buried in Saint Charles de Percy War Cemetery, south-west of Caen.

There are over 800 World War II servicemen buried in the cemetery, the majority having died alongside Lillingston through that historic July and August of 1944.

Captain LT Lillingston: buried in Saint Charles de Percy War Cementry, Normandy, and one of over 800 World War II graves in the cemetary

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JOCKEY CALLUM SHEPHERD (right) picking up the trophy after winning the Sportvision Handicap Stakes on the Kodi Bear gelding Kodi Lion (below) for trainer Charlie Fellowes at Ascot on Saturday, July 13 .

It was the last leg of a treble on the card for Shepherd, a three-timer which had kicked off with victory in the Group 2 Summer Mile Stakes on the Godolphin-bred and Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum-owned Quddwah (Kingman).

Although Ascot has been a great track for Shepherd this summer –he rode his first Royal Ascot winner –the 26-year-old jockey is pictured here sporting some significant facial injuries, the likes of which are more usually seen on NH jockeys.

They were sustained in a heavy fall for Shepherd at the Berkshire track the day before when coming off Magnum Opus on the home turn.

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St James’s Palace Stakes

Coronation Stakes x 2

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