11 minute read
ITB_November 2023
A bloodstock recalibration
The Niarchos family is in the midst of restructuring its Flaxman Holdings breeding empire, racing manager Alan Cooper chats to Daragh O’Conchuir about plans
IT IS ARC WEEKEND so you might expect Alan Cooper to be speaking from Paris, at the arena in which Bago provided the Niarchos family and their racing manager with a lifetime peak by winning the autumn feature in 2004.
Instead, Cooper is in Ireland, having taken in an All-Weather meeting at Dundalk the night before.
Initial impressions are that it is a little off-piste at this time of the year for the British-based Cooper, who began his association with the heavyweight Niarchos/ Flaxman Holdings operation in 1984 as an assistant to Philip Payne-Gallwey, the bloodstock agent that the Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos turned to when taking the first concerted steps towards establishing what would become a breeding and racing empire.
By the time Cooper joined the organisation, Nureyev had already been a headline purchase at $1.3m as a yearling in 1978 and after finishing first past the post in the 2000 Guineas two years later, the son of Northern Dancer would go on to be an exceptional stallion.
Ten-time Group 1-winning homebred Miesque was his greatest flagbearer and she continues to deliver, with in excess of 40 individual black-type winners amongst her descendants.
Astute distaff acquisitions would prove to be the cornerstone of what was to come and Stavros Niarchos with Nureyev
what has endured, however. Miesque’s dam, Pasadoble, was amongst those, bought for just $45,000.
Cooper was only 25 when joining the expanding Niarchos business but he had a raft of experience already having worked at Goffs, as well as a number of studs around the world. His late father, Tom Cooper, was the first European bloodstock agent to make his presence felt in Keeneland and was co-founder of BBA Ireland, where Cooper’s brother Patrick is a director now.
Meanwhile, their sister Diana has worked for Darley/Godolphin for 30 years.
Their mother Valerie remains a regular at Irish racecourses, the popular owner-breeder only retiring last month after a lengthy stint as a steward at Listowel’s famed Harvest Festival.
Cooper took over the reins as Niarchos/Flaxman racing manager from Payne-Gallwey in 1987 and so oversaw most of Miesque’s globetrotting dominance, from France to Britain and finally, gloriously, in America’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, a race the pale and dark blue silks almost made their own for a period.
And, of course, he has steered the careers of so many of her heirs, continuing after Niarchos died in 1996 when his daughter Maria Niarchos-Gouazé assumed ultimate stewardship.
Apart from Miesque and Bago, Hernando, Light Shift, Divine Proportions, Six Perfections, Ulysses, Study Of Man, Maxios and Alpha Centauri are others to have flourished on the grandest stage.
Dundalk serves a vital role in Irish racing, but it is not where you expect to see racing royalty outside of trainers and habitants of the weighing room. The reasoning for the visit is sound, however, and the trip is rewarded as Gavin Ryan elicits a sterling response from the Donnacha O’Brien-trained Piz Badile to score in the Listed Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Diamond Stakes.
It is a welcome return to the winners’ enclosure for last year’s Group 3 PW McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes victor, who subsequently finished runner-up when Westover romped to Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby (G1) glory.
Cooper’s appearance and Piz Badile’s triumph also offer yet another reminder of the durability of the breeding lines begun by Niarchos and Payne-Gallwey, as the lightly-raced four-year-old is a first-crop son of Ulysses and a fourth generation descendant of another foundation mare, Northern Trick.
“I was in Dundalk for a Listed race because we like the horse,” explains Cooper. “He hadn’t won for a while, but he showed he was a very happy horse to win.
“His fourth dam was Northern Trick, who was the first Niarchos Classic winner I was associated with back in 1984 [landing the Prix de Diane]. That’s part of the great excitement of this, the continuity.
“Sometimes you see a family that died out and you wonder why?
“It’s just one of the many intriguing factors of the industry. It’s not an exact science.
“I got a great kick out of Piz Badile winning because of that history.”
Clearly Cooper’s passion is still strong. And that remains the case for the Niarchos family, too. This is business, of course, but for owner-breeders, there is a significant degree of emotion – dare one say it, nostalgia – when it comes to families; equine, and of course, the human ancestors who started it all.
Cooper emphasises, and re-emphasises under gentle interrogation, that nothing has changed in that regard, despite every broodmare in foal (who is not at or on the precipice of retirement age) being put on the market.
A draft of 41 going under the hammer at Goffs’ November Breeding Stock Sale includes the quadruple Group 1 star and Classic winner Alpha Centauri and other elite mares such as Alpine Star and Albigna.
Many of the mares are in-foal to red-hot stallions such as Frankel, Wootton Bassett and No Nay Never. There will be further offerings at Tattersalls and Arqana.
“The family has decided to have a restructuring of the broodmares going forward.
“It is not a dispersal and the Niarchos family will be breeding next year and in the years to come,” says Cooper. And that means they will be racing for a long time ahead under the Niarchos and Flaxman banners?
“Absolutely. They’ve got the racing stable, they’ve got the regular numbers of foals of 2023, they’ve got the yearlings of 2023, they’ve got the two-year-olds of 2023, all ongoing. That’s hopefully many years of having the colours on the racetrack.
“We’ve had some nice two-year-old winners, maiden winners to look forward to for next year,” he adds. “Piz Badile was good last night, Foniska trained by Jessica Harrington won the Listed race [the Navigation Stakes at Cork] during the week confirming her quality. We haven’t had a Group 1 winner this year, but the quality is there. As you well know, racing is very competitive and sometimes you can be the best and sometimes you’re the runner-up.”
AN UNLUCKY third in the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes, Passenger didn’t stay in the Epsom Derby but the son of Ulysses landed Group 3 spoils on his return to 1m2f and is an exciting prospect for next year.
Sir Michael Stoute is an owner-breeder’s dream of a trainer in terms of having endless reservoirs of patience and lets a horse develop at its own pace rather than forcing matters.
“Sir Michael said he was a lovely horse and he wants to keep him fresh for next year,”reports Cooper. “He’s a 1m2f horse and wants good ground so there wasn’t another race to go for this year. But he really likes him.
“And again, there is so much history there. Passenger’s fifth dam, Misinskie, was bought and raced for the family. Then we sold off a daughter of Misinskie [Aifan I] to Sheikh Hamdan and we bought back into the family with Pachattack, who had Dilmun who is Passenger’s dam. So again, it’s going back to families of the early 1980s.”
The current restructuring is centred on horses. The announcement seven months ago that the family was putting Haras de Fresnay-le Buffard up for sale is unrelated, owing more to the increasingly international dimension of the business.
Horses bred at the historic farm in Normandy since it was bought by Stavros Niarchos from Marcel Boussac in 1979 have accumulated 45 European Classics and seven Breeders’ Cup victories.
Those Breeders’ Cups were particularly sweet, given the primacy the Niarchos patriarch and his daughter have placed on the self-styled world championships since their inauguration in 1984, not least by winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile six times.
“When the Breeders’ Cup was first conceived, as a much younger enthusiast, I was very much excited by the concept of a world championship,” says Cooper. “It’s always difficult in our business to have the link between horses who retire. You don’t have the champion horse running every year, but you have the championships to make the history. You’re joining the greats.
“It’s tremendous in my view now to see the Japanese interests adding to the international element and it’s all for the good of the breed.
“Stavros Niarchos was a friend of John Gaines, the main founder of the Breeders’ Cup and so he was a supporter from the very beginning. With the back-to-back successes of Miesque in the Mile that confirmed the family’s interest and we’ve tried to find suitable candidates. Of course, you don’t have them every year.”
FREDDY HEAD navigating the François Boutin-trained Miesque to that scintillating double in 1987 and 1988 is clearly a highlight.
“You have your highs and lows in racing and breeding. There are too many to single out, but an example of a high and a low is Light Shift, who won the Oaks.
“She produced a filly, she produced Ulysses and then she had a paddock accident. You get hit by things like that, too.”
There is that reminder of that extra depth of feeling again that comes with having had stewardship over countless generations of the same family.
“It’s a hobby business, if you like, because it’s so much a pleasure for the family.
"We’re still working with descendants of good race fillies who were bought in the early 80s, such as Pasadoble, such as Northern Trick, such as Coup De Folie; those families are still producing 40 years later.
“Part of the pleasure is being able to see the generations. You cast your mind back to the third or fourth dam, and you see similarities or exceptions. It is great to have so many generations to work with.”
That there is the prospect of more to come is tremendous for the sport and the industry. Meanwhile, Cooper is deriving as much enjoyment from it all as when he first joined the fold. Next year, he will celebrate the 40th anniversary of being brought onto the Niarchos team but as evidenced by the satisfaction he derived from Piz Badile delivering at Dundalk, he remains as committed as ever.
But then, seeing his mother holding court at the likes of Listowel or Naas, where her super mare Opera Hat, bought by son Tom, won nine times, it doesn’t come as a surprise. As the Niarchos breeding outfit has shown, good genes count for a lot.
Valerie bred Woodland Opera from Opera Hat and enjoyed some notable success in joint ownership with Diana, and Carolyn Waters, who had also been joint-owner of Opera Hat, and in training with Jessica Harrington, sister of Opera Hat’s late trainer John Fowler.
Woodland Opera is now enjoying considerable success on the Racehorse to Riding Horse circuit.
“It was emotional for my mother when she retired as a steward. She has given so much of her life to it since my father died. She’s really enjoyed it all. I gather she got a presentation at Listowel, which was lovely.
“Woodland Opera is giving my mother and Diana a lot of joy that he’s doing so well with Jamie Buckley. It’s absolutely brilliant.
“It is exciting that my mother, my brother, my sister and myself have been able to participate in this wonderful industry along with my father.
“Horses are great friends. They are also a great passport around the globe. There are so many countries you can go to and you’ll find a thoroughbred, somebody who knows somebody and a particular bloodline.
“I’ve made my life in it but I think this is a tremendous sport and industry.”
And who can argue with that?
