15 minute read
Flying Fanshawe
Marcus Townend chats with trainer James Fanshawe who has just enjoyed one of his best years in the busines
TRAINER JAMES FANSHAWE is never going to shout about his successes from the rooftops, it is not in his nature.
But, while others adroitly play the PR game, that can mean the achievements of his Newmarket stable run the risk of slipping below the radar.
Arguably that was still even the case during a 2024 Flat season, which saw his stable spend its fair share of time in the spotlight, and plenty will have clocked the headline-grabbers.
Fanshawe had the Betfred Derby runnerup and Irish Derby (G1) third Ambiente Friendly in his Pegasus Stables and ended the season on a massive high when Kind Of Blue, who had been a narrow runner-up in the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup, secured a top-level prize with a head victory from Swingalong in the British Champions Sprint Stakes at Ascot.
But fewer may have realised that battling victory, one of 54 in Fanshawe’s season, was some sumptuous icing on a great all-round campaign.
In 35 years’ training, Fanshawe has only bettered that winning total once, when he had 58 wins in 2002. A domestic prizemoney tally of just over £1.5 million is also easily his best ever with over half of the 70 horses he ran winning at least one race.
The numbers seem to have even taken Fanshawe a little by surprise.
This year we have had a better quality of horse and a couple of really good ones. Hopefully, we can build on that
‘‘I hadn’t really realised what a good season it had been either,’’ the understated trainer says in the kitchen of his yard on Newmarket’s Snailwell Road, alongside remains of a chocolate cake which survived the party to celebrate Kind Of Blue’s success.
‘‘When you are doing well, you start looking at stats. When you are doing badly you pass over that page!
‘‘We have run more horses than we have ever run before and they have been consistent. As well as Ambiente Friendly and Kind Of Blue, others have won good prize-money.
‘‘We had 50 winners last year so numerically that was good but we won nowhere near as much prize-money.
‘‘This year we have a had a better quality of horse and a couple of really good ones. Hopefully, we can build on that.’’
What unfolded over the summer could not confidently have been predicted when the season kicked off.
Ambiente Friendly had looked to have had his limitations exposed when third in the Group 3 Autumn Stakes at Newmarket in the October of his juvenile career, while a series of niggling issues had prevented Kind Of Blue from even running as a two-year-old.
He had shown glimmers of ability, although not quite enough to get the heart beating faster for a feet-on-the-floor merchant like Fanshawe, despite being from a family he knew very well.
He was always going to be a sprinter with his pedigree,but I still let him do the long work to keep him switched off
Owned and bred by Jan and Peter Hopper and Mike and Michelle Morris, the son of Blue Point hails from the same family as Deacon Blues and The Tin Man, both previous winners of the British Champions Day sprint for Fanshawe.
The trainer recalled: ‘‘It wasn’t until he started going up Warren Hill in the spring that we started to think we might have something.
‘‘He was always going to be a sprinter with his pedigree, but I still let him do the long work to keep him switched off rather than put him under pressure.
‘‘He loved that, and when we did quicken, he really came on for it. That is when we thought could he be something special.
‘‘He won his first two races [at Kempton and Doncaster] when I didn’t really have him tuned up.
“He won them okay, but because of what we had seen it at home we were hoping there was a bit more to come.
‘‘That is why he ran then in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot. I would have liked to have gone for something smaller, but he was in and going well. It was either that or going for a novice with a big penalty so we rolled the dice.
‘‘He finished fourth [to Inisherin] and we were pleased rather than being delighted.
‘‘It was all a step too soon for him. He got quite upset in the preliminaries. He had gone from Kempton and Doncaster and suddenly he was at Royal Ascot.
‘‘It got to him a bit, but he came back from it and got better as the season went on.’’
Given the family tree that was always likely to be the case and fuels the hopes Fanshawe understandably harbours for Kind Of Blue in 2025.
At the end of his three-year-old career, his older relation and three-time Group 1 winner The Tin Man had only run once –an unplaced effort at Doncaster – before being gelded. Deacon Blues was also gelded before his form moved to a new higher level as a four-year-old.
Richard Brown had always kept an eye on Kind Of Blue after Royal Ascot and after Haydock he had a big eye on him!
Fanshawe said: ‘‘None of the family have come good until they were older and the were all gelded at the end of their three-yearold careers. I don’t think Kind Of Blue is going to be gelded now, though!
‘‘His two uncles, being geldings, probably didn’t take the same amount of work as him but they are very similar.
‘‘I am very much looking forward to next year with him. He was tricky at Royal Ascot but I think that is because he was thrown in at the deep end. He is a big, powerful colt and his behaviour has got better.
‘‘He was very well behaved on Champions Day. A lot of the best horses develop a character, enjoy the attention and thrive on it.’’
Making the Ascot success even sweeter, the victory came on Kind Of Blue’s first run since he was bought by Wathnan Racing, the increasingly influential operation of Qatari ruler Sheikh Tamin Bin Hamad Al Thani and managed by bloodstock agent Richard Brown.
‘‘Richard Brown had always kept an eye on Kind Of Blue after Royal Ascot and after Haydock he had a big eye on him!’’ Fanshawe said.
‘‘The most important thing is having the horse in the yard no matter who owns it, but it is great Wathnan has come in and you never know what is around the corner.’’
Kind Of Blue was Fanshawe’s first Group 1 winner since Audarya added the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Keeneland in 2020 to her top-level victory in Deauville’s Prix Jean Romanet 10 weeks earlier,
But, since the turn of the century, he had consistently been able to produce a flagship horse.
His outstanding performer in terms of winning haul was Soviet Song, whose five top level wins included the 2004 Sussex Stakes.
But the roll of honour also includes Arctic Owl, who provided Fanshawe with his one Classic success in the 2000 Irish St Leger, Frizzante, who landed the 2004 July Cup, Society Rock, who won the Golden Jubilee Stakes in 2001 and Haydock Sprint Cup in 2012, and Speedy Boarding, the 2006 Prix Jean Romanet and Prix de l’Opera winner.
The first of his 26 Group or Grade 1 victories was in the 1991 Eclipse Stakes with Environment Friend, like Ambiente Friendly owned by Bill Gredley.
I was very lucky that my owner-breeders stuck with me, they were the people supplying the horses
Fanshawe also has trained two Champion Hurdle winners – Royal Gait (1991) and Hors Le Loi III (2002).
Ambiente Friendly, the Lingfield Derby Trial winner, represented a re-union between trainer and owner that would have had a fairytale ending if a certain City Of Troy hadn’t got in the way.
Fanshawe said: ‘’Some people have questioned whether Ambiente Friendly was unlucky at Epsom. He came there travelling well and then the loose horse got in the way a bit.
‘‘But you only have to look at the last half furlong and see what City of Troy did, he really wins well.
‘‘Ambiente Friendly ran a cracking race in the Derby but then had a very hard race when third in the Irish Derby. He didn’t relax and didn’t quite stay that last furlong. It was a real grind and it possibly took the edge of him.
“Hopefully, he will have a really good break now, and be a nice horse for next year.’’
With Ambiente Friendly and Kind Of Blue scheduled to be back in 2025, there is an excited optimism in the Fanshawe camp that the momentum can be maintained, but his career has not always been plain sailing.
In 2008, the trainer’s numbers dropped to just 40 horses – he has capacity for 70 at Pegasus – and Fanshawe had to re-group after realising his operation had lost its focus.
He said: ‘‘In 2006, I rented another yard after Soviet Song and Frizzante because our numbers increased by a third. We needed more space and we maybe over-expanded a bit.
‘’It didn’t work for me and I didn’t delegate well enough. You need a certain number of horses to make it pay, but because I like getting involved I ended up trying to do everything. It doesn’t work.
‘‘I was very lucky that my owner-breeders stuck with me. They were the people supplying the horses. The nucleus of them were supportive such as the Hoppers and Cheveley Park.
‘‘Now all the horse are here at Pegasus and in 2013 we built the Falmouth yard so had the extra boxes on site. I could have built a barn with twice as many boxes for half the money, but this place has got a good feel to it.’’
The naming of the Falmouth yard is a nod to the original name of the stable when it was first built in 1882 by the renowned 13-time champion jockey Fred Archer, after whom the stable’s own syndicates are named.
The stable was run down when Fanshawe and his wife Jacko first moved in but Fanshawe’s enthusiasm for the history of racing, and Newmarket in particular, has made it a passion alongside training to making sure it has been was restored with respect for its past.
Fanshawe was riding out for his uncle, the two-time champion jumps trainer David Nicholson, as a 13-year-old schoolboy, and subsequently worked for Josh Gifford when the Sussex trainer was preparing the fragile Aldaniti for his memorable 1981 Grand National victory with jockey Bob Champion.
But he is most associated with 10-time champion Flat trainer Sir Michael Stoute, who he worked for from 1982 to 1989.
Given that Stoute has now retired, it was appropriate that two of his former employees should have a winner on British Champions day – Owen Burrows being the other with Anmaat in the Champion Stakes (G1).
The 63-year-old Fanshawe conceded that he is now among the ranks of Newmarket’s senior trainers, but the added incentive to keep his historic stable on the racing map is 27-year-old son Tom working alongside him after a stint with Donald McCain and two years working in Australian racing.
Fanshawe said: ‘‘This season we have run more horses than we have ever run. Tom has been quite an influence on that. He has worked in racing since he left school.
‘‘He came back from Australia and is very ambitious. He is young, hungry and quite independent minded and he is pushing me.
‘’Quite rightly, the young will always get support. That is right and I benefited from it. But to have Tom involved shows we are keeping it young. He has fresh ideas that we have put into place that have proved effective.
‘‘A yard like this takes a lot of running and you are as good as your last winner but we have had a good year so Pegasus is being talked about again.’’
With horses like Kind Of Blue around, that conversation should continue next season.
On the breeding journey of a lifetime
KIND OF BLUE’s win at Ascot was his first under Wathnan ownership, the colt having previously been owned by breeders Mike and Michelle Morris alongside Peter and Jan Hopper.
With much invested over the years by the breeders into the pedigree, as Jan relates selling to the Qatari-based operation was not immediately a done deal.
“The decision-making process was a difficult one, but once we made the decision, we were very clear that it was the right one,” she says. “We are small breeders, we just try and keep the whole thing going, and there just comes a point where it just makes sense.
“Wathnan was lovely to deal with and, in the end, it turned out to be quite a straightforward process decision for us.
“We’re absolutely thrilled that Kind of Blue has gone on to win a Group 1. We were at Ascot to watch him and we were just hugely proud of him and the Pegasus Stables team.
“It’s great that he stays in training with James and we are very hopeful that he’s going to carry on and do even more when he’s a four-year-old, we are really excited about the future.”
She adds: “The family is one that has improved with age, and he has done far more at an earlier age than many of his relations.
“We are so very happy that he’s continued to do well, but, to an extent, we didn’t doubt that he would be a good horse.”
Kind Of Blue is out of the unraced Compton Place mare Blues Sister, who was bred by Hopper and Elizabeth Grundy and is an own-sister to the champion older sprinter and previous winner of the British Champion Sprint Stakes winner Deacon Blues, and a half-sister to The Tin Man (Equiano), a three-time Group 1 winner and jointchampion sprinter in France.
Kind Of Blue is very much following in the family’s speedy footsteps.
Hopper says: “He was placed every time he ran this year and he just progressed with every run – from his fourth in the Commonwealth Cup on just his third run to the win at Ascot, and looking back at the form now, it just looks like a natural progression.
“He has every right to be in the top races once again next year.”
THAT EARLY DEBUT at Group 1 level at Royal Ascot might have led many owner-breeders to question the sanity of their trainer, but Fanshawe has been training the family since he started out in the 1990s and the team was more than happy to trust his judgement.
“James is so very careful in placing his horses to progress,” admires Hopper, “so for him to suggest a run at Royal Ascot suggests that he realised that he’d got a good horse and it gave us the confidence to do that.”
The colt’s dam Blues Sister is just an 11-year-old. After her first foal died early, she has two further living offspring – Bluebird, who is a five-year-old mare by Acclamation, was bought by the Irish farm Hawes Stud in February 2023 with her Kodi Bear filly first foal due to be offered at the Tattersalls December Sale (Lot 643), and Blue Anthem, a 2022 colt by Starspangledbanner, who has run three times for trainer George Boughey.
Blue Sister failed to conceive for two years, but is carrying to Pinatubo.
“She is safely in-foal to him,” confirms Hopper. “We chose him because, like Blue Point, he is a son of Shamardal and when we were making that decision Kind Of Blue had started to show us that he had some ability.
“She is still a young mare and, of course, at some point now we would love to get a filly who we would keep.”
And now that Blues Sister is dam of a Group 1 winner the options for future covering plans open up markedly. The team is sensibly taking their time with the decision for 2025, but, unsurprisingly, Blue Point is currently on the short list as a possible returning suitor.
The success that the couples have enjoyed with this prolific and fast family is certainly not taken for granted and Hopper appreciates that the pedigree and its luminaries have taken them to places that few are able to tread.
“As small owner-breeders, we know how lucky we are to have been involved in a wonderful family like this,” she admits.
“It is amazing when you think of who you’re competing with – it’s difficult to put into words how exciting it is to be able to compete against the very best horses, bred by some very big operations, it has been fabulous.”
She certainly credits Fanshawe for much success, his ability at working so well with the requirements of owner-breeders, understanding the horses and the pedigrees that he has nurtured so well for so long.
Amazingly, he and the Hoppers are closing in on 100 wins between them – when the century is hit, surely another reason to party?!
