maywood stud
Kelly Thomas of Maywood Stud has had a summer to remember as breeder of this year’s star juvenile Vandeek. She explains how she made the decision to cover his dam with Havana Grey, recalls raising and selling him as a foal, and outlines the joy of watching him as a Group 1 winner
Van the man
By James Thomas
T
HERE IS MORE than one way to breed a good horse. Some invest millions on blue-chip stallion nominations, top-class broodmare prospects and high-end infrastructure. Others roll their sleeves up, work hard with what they’ve got and hope that hands-on attention to detail will help turn base metal into solid gold. Kelly Thomas fits firmly into the latter category. Thomas keeps just five broodmares at her Maywood Stud in Carmarthenshire, and one of those, Mosa Mine, bought back for £800, visited Havana Grey when the Whitsbury Manor Stud resident was still unheralded during his second season on covering duty. The result was the outstanding, unbeaten dual Group 1-winning juvenile Vandeek. Producing a Group 1 winner had been a long-held ambition, although Thomas admits she rather fell into thoroughbred breeding after “failing miserably” during further education. “After my A levels my Mum found me an equine course to do at college,” she says. “Having not been the most academic, not through lack of ability but more lack of commitment, I became an almost perpetual student. As soon as I found an area of study I enjoyed, I put all that behind me.” Like so many reluctant pupils before and since, Thomas found learning about horses an altogether more engaging experience. She graduated from Aberystwyth University with a masters degree in equine Breeder Kelly Thomas of Maywood Stud
science. During her studies she underwent a formative experience on placement at Howard and Monica Joyce’s Pantaquesta Stud, breeders of the 1995 Stewards’ Cup scorer Shikari’s Son. “I looked after the place for them during my term there and fell in love with one of the mares specifically,” recalls Thomas. “Risalah, a daughter of Marju, was quite young and pretty spirited, but that’s what I liked about her and I used to joke that one day she’d be mine.” When the Joyces decided to call time on their breeding career, they knew where to turn with Risalah. “They approached my parents in the place where all the best deals are made, in the local pub!” Thomas continues. “They said if you want her you can have her, but you have to buy her now otherwise you’ll have to buy the mare and foal, because she was fairly close to her due date. “We bought her without a second thought. She was in-foal to Compton Place and I took the resulting colt to the December Foal Sales, made a small profit and was basically hooked from there.” At this stage Thomas had limited involvement in racing, joking that her riding horse, an ex-racer
nicknamed the “Newmarket Reject”, was as close as she’d got. “I didn’t really have any involvement in racing, bar going to the odd point-to-point,” she says. “I just enjoyed horses in general and didn’t have a connection to racing until we started breeding. It’s been a steep learning curve but an enjoyable one, and we’re still learning all the time.” In due course Thomas moved from the family small-holding to the acreage that now
Photo by Laura Green
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