11 minute read
Making stallions
Bob Back and Shantou enjoyed long successful careers at Burgage Stud with Victor Connolly, but a new roster is now in development,writes Sally Duckett
SOMETIMES THINGS can be argued away as mere coincidences, but when those events are repeated, there has to be more to it than mere lucky chance.
Over the last 20 years Victor Connolly of Burgage Stud has successfully produced and managed the careers of leading NH stallions Bob Back and Shantou, and both sires enjoyed a longevity to their stud careers rarely achieved.
Burgage Stud stood Shantou, a son of Alleged, for 16 years. The farm imported the sire, who had started his career in Italy, in 2004, and his last covering season came in 2020, the stallion dying in 2021 as a 28-year-old.
He had nine runners and three horses placed in graded races at The Festival this year, including in the Champion Bumper. His impact on the NH races will be felt for at least another decade – arguably he was as well regarded as a sire, both in the sale ring and on the racecourse, at the end of his career as he was at his peak.
Burgage has sourced two new sires to take the farm forward into the 2020s, and Connolly is more than happy with the new residents, despite the sizeable shoes they need to fill.
Jukebox Jury, a 16-year-old son of Montjeu, transferred to Ireland for the 2018 season having stood five years in Germany at Gestüt Etzean – in some ways mirroring Shantou’s move to the farm after starting his career in Europe.
“We hope Jukebox Jury will be the successor to Shantou,” says Connolly. “His profile is quite similar at the moment, and he’s had a Grade 1 performer so we’re very happy with what he’s doing so far. He’s been very popular in the sale ring, and you know, the trainers seem to like them, which is important.”
The stallion, a dual Group 1 winner, whose CV boasts victories in the 1m2f Preis von Europa and the Irish St Leger, as well as four Group 2 wins and a Group 3 success over distances from a mile to 1m4f, can claim highest level progeny results both on the Flat, courtesy of the admirable filly and 2020 Prix du Cadran (G1) winner Princess Zoe, as well as over hurdles – in 2018 Farclas annexed the Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle.
Victor Connolly with his wife Elizabeth
The Gordon Elliott-trained runner has now successfully transitioned to fences and could have a million pound challenge ahead of him in the Aintree Grand National (G3).
This season Jukebox Jury has also produced Stuke, a Grade 1 winner over hurdles who has been placed at that level this season in Italy, the Grade 1-placed juvenile hurdler Il Etait Temps, who was also a good fifth in the Triumph Hurdle (G1), the Arkle Chase (G1) fourth-placed War Lord, as well as a graded hurdler and graded chaser in France.
Trainers and agents don’t ignore such results and there has been (as can be seen in the chart below) a considerable uplift in his progeny prices for both his foals and his store horses. His store horse price in 2021 was around four times that of 2020.
Jukebox Jury's sales returns 2020 compared with 2021
AND WHILE it must be tempting for Connolly to bust the stallion’s book this spring, and take his charge into book size territories over 200 mares, the stallion man is sensibly erring on the side of restraint.
“Last year he covered 175 mares,” outlines Connolly. “If we get that sort of number we’ll take it. We’d rather stand the horse at a higher fee and get more quality mares, if we can. That’s what I like to try to do because numbers of mares don’t make a stallion – if a stallion isn’t very good to begin with then thousands of mares won’t make him any better.
“I keep on referring to Northern Dancer, he only saw 36 mares a year and look what he left! He didn’t cover many mares compared to what happens now. He didn’t have many foals, but he left such a legacy he is proof of a horse that, if a sire is good enough, numbers are not important.
“Of course, in the jumping game there are injuries and setbacks happen, but I think if you have a good sire, how you manage them is important. We’ve been delighted with Jukebox Jury so far.”
Connolly’s management skill was clearly evident in his handling of the late Shantou and Bob Back, the sire of 12 Grade 1 winners and numerous Cheltenham Festival winners, including Bacchanal, Back In Focus, Back In Front, Cousin Vinny, Putty Road, Thisthatandtother and, of course, the 2011 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Bob’s Worth, who won at three Cheltenham Festivals.
Bob Back is also broodmare sire of the 2012 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Synchronised, and 2015 Aintree Grand National hero Many Clouds. Bob Back died in January 2011, aged 30, and actively covered until 2008.
JukeJukebox Jury: has a progressive profile and his first Irish-bred crop are three-year-olds of this year
For good NH sires whose careers naturally take off later in their lives, this careful management helps give stallions a chance to be still actively covering mares when the better crops are producing good results on the racecourse.
On purely a financial basis it means that the stud has some opportunity to financially benefit from the improvement of results, instead of watching from the side lines.
Judicial use of a stallion’s natural instincts has certainly been a watch word for Connolly.
The three-time 1m4f Group 2 winner Sea Moon, by Ballylinch Stud’s Beat Hollow, joined Burgage for the 2016 spring season.
He has not had big books – the most numerous so far being his first crop of 27 foals born in 2017.
He has had just 11 runners, three winners, but already has had one blacktype performer – Hi Stranger who finished runner-up in the Listed Mucklemeg mares NH Flat race at Gowran Park.
Connolly says: “He hasn’t had big numbers, he just wasn’t very fashionable before he had runners. And fashion in this game is so much a feature, but it’s just fashion, it’s nothing else it doesn’t guarantee success and always changes.
“Results are all that matters. Sea Moon’s runners have operated, they have won, they won bumpers first time out, they got black-type. He had two mares who ran in the Grade 2 bumper at the Dublin Festival, and okay, they didn’t win, but the fact that they were entered by trainers who would know the difference, John Kiely [Hi Stranger] and Willie Mullins [Nikini] tells you something.
“We’re hoping that some of the horses he has in training will add to what they’ve done already.”
To help Connolly rock the boat of fashion, he has concentrated on ensuring a quality book for his stallion.
Sea Moon: has only had a handful of runners to date but has had three winners
He adds: “Sea Moon might not have covered a lot of mares, but he’s covered some very well-bred mares. We’re happy with him and he’s work in progress.”
Fascinating Rock (Fastnet Rock) joined Burgage for this spring from Ballylinch Stud, where he retired to in 2017 as a six-year-old at the end of a racing career that yielded two Group 1 victories, four Group 3 successes and a Listed win for trainer Dermot Weld.
“His own best form came at four and five when he beat Found in the Champion Stakes at Ascot and she was an Arc winner, so that form was very good,” says Connolly, who adds: “He didn’t show as much form as a two and three-year-old, and I guess some of the Flat breeders might have said he wasn’t sharp enough as a Flat prospect.
“He makes me think of the Yeats, who he could be champion NH sire this year.
“He went to stud as a Flat sire, but his percentages were low. He’s been left alone now and he’s doing it in his own time, and he’s become a very competent jumping sire.
“The important thing about Fascinating Rock is that his owners [Patricia and Maurice Regan of Newtown Anner Stud] are going to support him with some very nice mares, which is the vote of confidence.”
If Burgage’s past results can be used to predict the future, we will be hearing about these three young stallions for some years to come yet.
The late Shantou
John O’Connor on Burgage, stallions and Fascinating Rock
How did Ballylinch’s association with Burgage begin?
“I knew Victor from the time when he ran Rosemount Stud, which is just to the south of Ballylinch near New Ross.
“Bob Back was with us and had developed then into a leading NH sire, but at the same time we had King's Theatre coming through. We wanted to only have one NH sire at Ballylinch so it just worked from a logistics point of view to move him.
“I contacted Victor and we sent Bob Back there. And he did a great job with him, a magnificent job in terms of keeping him going well and healthy right into his old age. It is testament to Victor's skills as a horseman. The horse did really well when he was there, he sired a Gold Cup winner when he was 25 years of age!
“I think it's fair to say that Bob Back sired more good horses in his 20s than most stallions do with their entire career.”
Why do you think that Bob Back and Shantou enjoyed such long careers?
“I do think the longevity that Bob Back and then Shantou enjoyed is probably related to good management and planning of book sizes. The whole Connolly family are involved with the business – Victor and his wife Elizabeth, who is a leading physiotherapist, as well as the two sons, George and Thomas.
“I think the fact that it's a family-run operation means that they're very close to the horses.
“Victor is careful how he manages their books, their feed regimes and day to day handling. It's impressive how he does it and the horses have lived long and productive careers;
“None of the stallions that he has stood for us have ever covered enormous books – we took the view with Victor that, if you have a stallion whose percentages are really good, you don't need to cover enormous books to be successful. The high-quality sires can succeed without a massive books.
“Victor has bred good horses by both Bob back and Shantou, and the cross of Bob Back mares with Shantou has now become a very successful cross [see Coral Cup third Ashdale Bob, Ed] .
“Burgage has now developed some really good NH families, a lot of them associated with those with those two stallions.”
Fascintating Rock has followed the path to Burgage….
“We thought it was the right thing for Fascinating Rock to move at this time, to give him a chance while he's young enough to succeed.
“I’d have a lot of confidence that he will do well. He is a big, scopey horse, a pure breeding bay who gets great walking horses.
“His first crop is only young, but his first NH runners are showing plenty of promise over hurdles, including a four-year-old gelding in France called Halite whom we bred. He has won over hurdles and has already got a high rating at this stage.
“Fascinating Rock’s half-brother won the Galway Hurdle so there is also some reasoning in his pedigree as to why he could do well in the NH sphere. I think he's made for it as he is a big sound horse and I think Victor will do a good job with him.
“He's owned by Newton Anner and Ballylinch, and we've committed some really nice mares for him. We bought the Grade 3 winner Surin (Authorised) and Listed-placed The Sliding Rock (Shantou), and we have sent him Royal Illusion, a really good King’s Theatre mare and she has already tested in-foal to him.
“He will cover some proper mares and give him a good chance to launch himself.”
Fascinating Rock: the two-time Group 1 winner moved to Burgage for this spring’s season and has transitioned to the NH sphere
