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Weatherbys Stallion Scene
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
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 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.”
