ITB_Sept-Oct 2024

LOOKING FORWARD TO OCTOBER

With consignors Daylesford Stud, Harry Dutfield and McCracken Farms

WEATHERBYS STALLION SCENE

The Hungarian National Stud is selling seven HUN-suffixed yearlings by it’s own stallions at the BBAG October Sale

Economic upturn

The William Haggas-trained Night Of Thunder colt maximises his progression with Group 1 success

Kingman

Invincible Spirit - Zenda (Zamindar)

Arqana Sale Topper

His 8 first crop yearlings sold there averaged a whopping €446,250

Not since Sea The Stars in 2012 has a first-season sire been responsible for a sale-topper of a major European Sale!

Filly ex Prudenzia

“We sold three very nice fillies by St Mark’s Basilica. All three sold very well. We sold a filly out of the mare Sailor Moon. She looks like she could be very precocious. Full of speed. So, it was three different fillies with class and great movers the three of them. We used him again last year and we’re going to be using him again next year!”

Henri Bozo, Haras De Monceaux.

“They remind me - and only the old guys like me will remember this - of the good Nureyevs… A lot of class.”

Michel Zerolo, Haras des Capucines.

1,300,000 guineas yearling European Champion 2YO & World Champion 3YO by Siyouni

YOU CAN’T WIN YOU’RE NOT IN IF

BREEDERS’ CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Del Mar • Nov. 1 & 2, 2024 • 14 Grade I Championship Races

Over $34 million in Purses and Awards • Pre-entry opens October 1

It’s time to take your place among the world’s greats. Pre-entry for the 2024 Breeders’ Cup World Championships opens online October 1 and closes at Noon (PDT), on Monday, October 21. All Breeders’ Cup World Championships races are non-invitational and are open to all thoroughbreds competing around the globe.

Offering purses and awards over $34 million and each race pays through the 10th finish position! Each Breeders’ Cup World Championships starter receives a travel award up to $10,000 for domestic horses and $40,000 for international horses shipping into California.

Enjoy exclusive world-class hospitality on racing’s biggest stage, including premium reserved seating for you and your guests, participant hotel accommodations including a credit for your stay, access to hospitality lounges, executive car service, and invitations to exclusive events.

10 It’s Leo

It has been a busy stint for Leo –going racing at Goodwood, Galway and to the Irish Champions Festival, as well as tracking the action in the US enjoying friends’ Grade 1 success

16 Ted Talks

Our man Voute reports from a super-strong Keeneland September, the sale maintaining the current bull run in the US

18 Girls Aloud

With the early-season European yearling sales behind us, Cathy Grassick reflects on how the market has performed so far in 2024

20 Efficiency v velocity

Page Fuller of RaceiQ analyses the recent Irish Champions Festival and the St Leger meeting, and sees that it was stride action that made the difference

24 Economic upturn

September was a successful one for Dubawi both as a sire and as a sire of sires with the Group 1 victory a highlight for Night Of Thunder

32 Sosie is Arc ready

Jocelyn de Moubray reviews the Arc Trials with Sosie victorious in the Prix Niel – a route already taken six times to Arc success by André Fabre.

39 Setting the standard

This year’s US stallions with first runners are making their mark in graded races, already out-performing the class of 2023, writes Melissa Bauer-Herzog

42 Weatherbys Stallion Scene

Awtaad not to be underestimated, Showcasing is making a mark as a sire of sires, Ajay Anne talks about sourcing Tasleet to stand in India, and the Hungarian National Stud is looking forward to the future with four exciting stallions on the roster and seven HUN-suffixed yearlings due to be offered at the BBAG October Sale

52 Weatherbys Stallion Statistics

Featuring Europe’s leading sires, top first-season and broodmare sires

60 Returning in style

Lady Bamford’s Cotswolds-based Daylesford Stud is consigning a quality draft of yearlings under its own banner at this year’s Tattersalls October Sale

70 Group 1 hat-trick

The County Down-based McCracken Farms has bred three Group 1 winners, and Jamie McGlynn chats with Craig McCracken ahead of Tattersalls October – the farm is consigning a half-brother to the Dubai Turf hero Facteur Cheval and a half-sister to the Best Solution

76 Harry’s Style

James Thomas talks with successful pinhooker Harry Dutfield, a man who likes to do things his own way and has quietly built up an impressive track record in the sale ring

82 Photo finish

The younger generation took over at the recent Tattersalls Somerville and September sales, and on both sides of equine transactions

the team

editor sally duckett

publisher declan rickatson

photography trevor jones design thoroughbred publishing

advertising declan rickatson

00 44 (0)7767 310381

declan.rickatson@btinternet.com

subscriptions tracey glaysher itsubs@btinternet.com

the photographers

alamy

debbie burt

laura green

alisha meeder courtesy of stud farms courtesy of sale companies sarah farnsworth the printers micropress press

the writers

leo powell

jocelyn de moubray james thomas

jamie mcglynn

amy bennett ted voute cathy grassick page fuller

the stats weatherbys accounts annie jones itaccounts@btinternet.com

plestor house, farnham road, liss, hampshire, gu33 6jq tel: 00 44 (0) 1428 724063

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Retirement?!

From following the action in the US, days’ racing at Goodwood, Galway and at the excellent Irish Champions Festival meeting; it has been a busy stint for Leo Powell

IT IS NOW A YEAR since I “retired” from my role as editor of The Irish Field, though I remain closely associated with the publication. My breeding column in the weekly paper first appeared in July 2015, and it is with a degree of pride that I can say I have never missed a week since. That amounts to an unbroken run of some 470+ weeks, and my enthusiasm for the content never wanes.

Some weeks can be more challenging than others, when the quality of racing is poor or cards are abandoned due to inclement weather, but then it is time to look further afield for material to write about.

Thankfully, there is generally some high-class racing somewhere in the world, though I have to admit that the one racing jurisdiction about which I rarely write is South America. Perhaps I will try to investigate racing and breeding there at some point in time.

The breeding industry is now on such a global scale that it is important to follow closely what is happening in Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the US, as horses bred in Ireland and Britain, or from families developed in these isles, are regularly making the headlines there.

South African racing gets an occasional mention, too, though not as often as the countries mentioned above.

Occasionally, reviewing the family of a big race winner can be extra pleasurable, especially when I have some personal connection to the breeders of the horse. One such case recently concerned the US Grade 1 winner Carson’s Run. He was bred by dear friends who now live in Kentucky, Olive and Brendan Gallagher, on their own Frankfort Park Farm.

The Gallaghers are a hugely popular couple, and

The Gallaghers are a hugely popular couple, and both individually and collectively, they made a mark on different aspects of the equine business in Ireland, including transport and insurance, breeding, having stallions, buying and selling and more

both individually and collectively, they made a mark on different aspects of the equine business in Ireland, including transport and insurance, breeding, standing stallions, buying and selling and more. Olive comes from one of the most famous families in Irish racing, being a daughter of Pat and Molly Taaffe. Her late father’s name is inextricably associated with Arkle, arguably the best and most famous steeplechaser ever to grace the Turf.

I was at primary school with Olive, was in a class with her brother Peter, another famous member of the Irish diaspora who have made their names in the US, while their younger sibling Tom, a leading jockey, trainer, and now member of the Goffs team, is some years younger than me. My connection to the family was interrupted in childhood when my parents moved from Kildare to Cork, but was thankfully rekindled when I left school to begin my career in bloodstock sales.

Brendan then appeared on the scene like a tornado and, after a whirlwind romance, he and Olive married, marking the beginning of a new friendship on my part.

The couple established Emerald Bloodstock, the name being chosen by me, set up a stud farm in Cork, and Brendan was active as a bloodstock agent, advisor, and breeder.

However, wanderlust, and the opportunities available for an entrepreneurial spirit, took Brendan and Olive to Kentucky, and have thrived since moving stateside.

No journey is without bumps on the road, but the duo have faced and overcome them, and have joined a long list of Irish men and women who have made the US their home, contributing enormously to the breeding, racing and sales scene there.

In the latter case, Tony Lacy and Cormac Breathnach

are among the trio of leaders at the helm of Keeneland Sales, following in the footsteps of fellow Irishman Geoffrey Russell, who spent a quarter of a century with the sales company.

On the breeding front Olive and Brendan are best known for the producing the multiple Grade 1 winner Monomoy Girl, a daughter of Tapizar whom they bred in partnership with Michael Hernon. Another whose family I have a long association with, Michael has also been a prominent player in Kentucky since landing there some decades ago.

Monomoy Girl was a US champion filly at three and the champion US older female two years later.

At three, Monomoy Girl shone brightly winning the Grade 1 Ashland Stakes, the Kentucky Oaks, the Acorn Stakes and the Coaching Club American Oaks, but was demoted to second for interference in the Grade 1 Cotillion Stakes. She rebounded at the season’s end to capture the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff when facing older horses for the first time. Sadly, after such a stellar season, she had to sit out the 2019 racing year after suffering a bout of colic.

Thankfully, she was not retired to stud, and Monomoy Girl was back to her best at five, when she was unbeaten in four starts, including in the Grade 1 La Troienne Stakes and a second Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Distaff.

She was sold at the end of that year at Fasig-Tipton for $9.5 million. Her new owners kept her in training,

Owned by West Point Thoroughbreds and Steven Bouchey, the colt is named after Carson Yost, who is afflicted with the disabling genetic disorder Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome

and she began her six-year-old campaign by winning a Grade 3, and was beaten a nose in the Grade 1 Apple Blossom Stakes. An injury that year forced her retirement.

With career earnings of more than $4.7 million, she retired to the breeding shed as North America’s fifth highest-earning female on Dirt behind such household names as Midnight Bisou, Zenyatta, Beholder and Royal Delta.

A once-in-a-lifetime horse, Monomoy Girl’s achievements will be hard to better, but now Brendan and Olive are relishing the career of another Grade 1 winner, this one bred by themselves.

He, too, is a special runner. Like Monomoy Girl, Carson’s Run is a grandson of Tapit, this time by that sire’s son Cupid. And also like Monomoy Girl, Carson’s Run is out of a mare by Henny Hughes.

Owned by West Point Thoroughbreds and Steven Bouchey, the colt is named after Carson Yost, who is afflicted with the disabling genetic disorder Wolf-Hirschhorn syndrome, the same disease that Cody Dorman, the inspiration for naming Cody’s Wish, suffered from.

At two, Carson’s Run won the Grade 1 Summer Stakes at Woodbine on his third start becoming the only Grade 1 winner to date for the former Ashford Stud stallion Cupid, now standing in Maryland.

There is more to come from Carson’s Run, whose

Carson’s Run: the second top-class horse bred by the Gallaghers after the superb Monomoy Girl, a dual champion and the winner of over $4.5 million

BALALAIKA

CHESA PLANA

Tattersalls October Yearling Sales 2024

Lot 23 B.F. Frankel x Twist ‘N’ Shake (Kingman – Hippy Hippy Shake)

Lot 30 B.F. Earthlight x Very Dashing (Dansili – Dash to the Top)

Lot 75 B.F. Kingman x Anapurna (Frankel – Dash to the Top)

Lot 96 B.C. Dark Angel x Bizzi Lizzi (Muhaarar – Izzi Top)

NECKLACE

RAPPA TAP TAP

PICK OF THE POPS

KISSOGRAM

Lot 160 Ch.C. Ulysses x Elmetto (Helmet – Italian Connection)

HAVANE SMOKER

CASPAR NETSCHER • DASH TO THE TOP • TORCH ROUGE

Lot 170 Ch.F. New Bay x Farzeen (Farhh – Zee Zee Gee)

BELLA COLORA

CROESO CARIAD

SHIROCCO STAR

COQUET

HIPPY HIPPY SHAKE

Lot 207 B.C. Sea the Moon x Hippy Hippy Shake (Danehill Dancer – Hyperspectra)

Lot 253 B.F. Too Darn Hot x Last Tango InParis (Aqlaam – Strictly Lambada)

Lot 401 B.F. Territories x Sensationally (Montjeu – One So Wonderful)

Lot 414 B.C. Dubawi x Shirocco Star (Shirocco – Spectral Star)

Lot 433 Ch.C. Palace Pier x Speedy Boarding (Shamardal – Dash to the Front)

BOOK TWO

Lot 482 B.F. Masar x Tropicana Bay (Oasis Dream – Ballet Ballon)

MEDIA HYPE

MARSH DAISY • JAZZI TOP • SPEEDY BOARDING • DEUCE AGAIN • CAROLINAE • BALLET CONCERTO • STARCASTER • AL SUHAIL • VALUE PROPOSITION • HOO YA MAL • CHECKANDCHALLENGE • ZAGATO • EMERAATY • MISTRAL STAR • ANAPURNA • TWIST ‘N’ SHAKE • TELECASTER • DASHING WILLOUGHBY • CAROLINAE • ALESSANDRO VOLTA • OPERA HOUSE • ZEE ZEE TOP • DASH TO THE FRONT • POET • ONE SO WONDERFUL • COLORSPIN • MILLIGRAM • NOUSHKEY • SOMEONE SPECIAL • YOUR OLD PAL • YANKEE DOODLE • LADY CARLA • IZZI TOP • SUEZ • SUN BOAT • FRANCE • ALKAADHEM • KAYF TARA • MONA LISA • BALLET CONCERTO • PHOTOGENIC • BALALAIKA • JUST SPECIAL • NECKLACE • UNSCRUPULOUS • MUDEER • HYABELLA • KISSOGRAM • MOVIEGOER • CEZANNE • DYNASTY • STAGECRAFT • CHESA PLANA • RAPPA TAP TAP • PICK OF THE POPS • SAN SEBASTIAN • RELATIVELY SPECIAL • MULLINS BAY • HAVANE SMOKER • CASPAR NETSCHER • DASH TO THE TOP • TORCH ROUGE • BELLA COLORA • CROESO CARIAD • SHIROCCO STAR • COQUET • HIPPY HIPPY SHAKE • MEDIA HYPE • MARSH DAISY • JAZZI TOP • SPEEDY BOARDING • DEUCE AGAIN • CAROLINAE • BALLET CONCERTO • STARCASTER • AL SUHAIL • VALUE PROPOSITION • HOO YA MAL • CHECKANDCHALLENGE • ZAGATO • EMERAATY • MISTRAL STAR • ANAPURNA • TWIST ‘N’ SHAKE • TELECASTER • DASHING WILLOUGHBY • CAROLINAE • ALESSANDRO VOLTA • OPERA HOUSE • ZEE ZEE TOP • DASH TO THE FRONT • POET • ONE SO WONDERFUL • COLORSPIN • MILLIGRAM • NOUSHKEY • SOMEONE SPECIAL • YOUR OLD PAL • YANKEE DOODLE • LADY CARLA • IZZI TOP • SUEZ • SUN BOAT • FRANCE • ALKAADHEM • KAYF TARA • MONA LISA • BALLET CONCERTO • PHOTOGENIC • BALALAIKA • JUST SPECIAL • NECKLACE • UNSCRUPULOUS • MUDEER • HYABELLA • KISSOGRAM • MOVIEGOER • CEZANNE • DYNASTY • STAGECRAFT • CHESA PLANA • RAPPA TAP TAP

PICK OF THE POPS

SAN SEBASTIAN • RELATIVELY SPECIAL • MULLINS BAY

Lot 727 B.F. Australia x Excellent Sounds (Exceed and Excel – Siren Sound)

HAVANE SMOKER

CASPAR NETSCHER

DASH TO THE TOP

TORCH ROUGE

BELLA COLORA

CROESO CARIAD • SHIROCCO STAR • COQUET • HIPPY HIPPY SHAKE • MEDIA HYPE • MARSH DAISY • JAZZI TOP • SPEEDY BOARDING • DEUCE AGAIN • CAROLINAE • BALLET CONCERTO • STARCASTER • AL SUHAIL • VALUE PROPOSITION • HOO YA MAL • CHECKANDCHALLENGE • ZAGATO • EMERAATY • MISTRAL STAR • ANAPURNA • TWIST ‘N’ SHAKE • TELECASTER • DASHING WILLOUGHBY • CAROLINAE • ALESSANDRO VOLTA • OPERA HOUSE • ZEE ZEE TOP • DASH TO THE FRONT • POET • ONE SO WONDERFUL • COLORSPIN • MILLIGRAM • NOUSHKEY • SOMEONE SPECIAL • YOUR OLD PAL • YANKEE DOODLE • LADY CARLA • IZZI TOP • SUEZ • SUN BOAT • FRANCE • ALKAADHEM • KAYF TARA • MONA LISA • BALLET CONCERTO • PHOTOGENIC • BALALAIKA • JUST SPECIAL • NECKLACE • UNSCRUPULOUS • MUDEER • HYABELLA • KISSOGRAM • MOVIEGOER • CEZANNE • DYNASTY

Lot 754 Ch.F. Sergei Prokofiev x Fondant (High Chaparral – Peppermint Green)

BOOK THREE

Lot 1403 B.F. Ulysses x Lady Mascara (Cacique – Avon Lady)

Lot 1471 B.F. Nathaniel x Perfectly Spirited (Invincible Spirit – Design Perfection)

BONUS Scheme

BOARDING • DEUCE AGAIN • CAROLINAE • BALLET CONCERTO • STARCASTER • AL SUHAIL • VALUE PROPOSITION • HOO YA MAL • CHECKANDCHALLENGE • ZAGATO • EMERAATY • MISTRAL STAR • ANAPURNA • TWIST ‘N’ SHAKE • TELECASTER • DASHING WILLOUGHBY • CAROLINAE • ALESSANDRO VOLTA • OPERA HOUSE • ZEE ZEE TOP • DASH TO THE FRONT

SUEZ

season highlight so far this year was when he doubled his Grade 1-winning score when taking the honours in the Grade 1 Saratoga Derby Invitational Stakes.

He became a racing millionaire, with something to spare, when best of the US runners in the Grade 3, $3.1 million Nashville Derby Invitational Stakes at Kentucky Downs at the end of August, having to settle for second to the Andrew Balding-trained Bellum Justum.

These are fine returns on the $35,000 he cost as a foal at Keeneland, the $67,000 he made as a yearling at Fasig-Tipton, and $170,000 he sold for at Ocala as a breezer.

Carson’s Run is the first foal out of Hot N Hectic, a minor winner in the US at four.

Offered for sale by the Gallagher’s Frankfort Park five years ago, she failed to reach her modest reserve and was retained. Last year she had her second produce, a colt by Violence (Medaglia D’Oro), who sold for $100,000 at the recent Keeneland September Sale.

This year Hot N Hectic produced a filly by Maxfield, and, in a major upgrade, she was covered by Flightline, another son of Tapit, and is safely in-foal.

Goodwood glorious, Galway great I realised a long-held ambition this summer when I made my first-ever trip to the Qatar Goodwood Festival, and what a joyful occasion it was. A pilgrimage to West Sussex will now form part of my racing calendar for the future, and my only wish would be that it did not clash with the iconic Galway Festival in Ireland.

From a marketing perspective, Goodwood has unlimited opportunities to promote itself to racegoers in Ireland –it got me thinking about why so many have never been, and it is hard to know the answer

Galway Plate success: Noel Meade and jockey Donagh Meyler were both enjoying second victories, the Jimmy Mangan-bred Pinkerton (Ocovango) the winning horse

An invitation from the Qatar Racing and Equestrian Club was the catalyst for making the trip this year, and I was fortunate to have Tattersalls’ director John Morrey accompanying me. He, too, was on a maiden trip to the beautifully situated venue, and is another who is keen to make it an annual outing. In fact, it was a feature of the visit that I met any number of well-known industry individuals who had never been to Goodwood previously.

From a marketing perspective, Goodwood has unlimited opportunities to promote itself to racegoers in Ireland – it got me thinking about why so many have never been, and it is hard to know the answer.

A clash with Galway is an obvious reason, but such is the quality of the Flat racing at Goodwood that there must be more to it. The course, apart from its beauty and the quality of the facilities it offers, is very easily accessible for travellers from Ireland, a key selling point that is probably little known.

A smart linen suit and a Panama hat are de rigueur for Goodwood racing, and the strong possibility of fine weather makes a visit to Sussex a must. If you have never been, I cannot recommend a visit highly enough. It is magic.

Mind you, I was back in the west of Ireland just days later for the Galway Festival. Lunch there on the Saturday with the Galway chairman Anthony Ryan and his wife Bernie was, as ever, a joy, and an opportunity to sample some mouth-watering lobster. This is Anthony’s final year as chair of the Galway Race Committee, one of the most active and progressive groups overseeing a racecourse in Ireland.

More than 115,000 attended the seven-day racing extravaganza, where both Flat and NH racing features. The meeting’s two most famous races are the Galway Plate over fences, and the Galway Hurdle.

Trainer Gordon Elliott had a frustrating time, supplying the runner-up in both, with Noel Meade and Joseph O’Brien taking the winners’ spoils.

Meade was for many years the man to follow at Galway, albeit that Dermot Weld wore the crown as King of Ballybrit, and it was especially pleasing to see him back there and in the limelight. Meade has won the Galway Hurdle on multiple occasions, and this year’s winner of the Plate was Pinkerton, the victory coming a decade after the trainer won the race for the first time.

Pinkerton was bred by one of the great characters of Irish racing, Jimmy Mangan. Most famously associated with the Aintree Grand National winner Monty’s Pass, Mangan enjoyed an annus mirabilis last season with Spillane’s Tower, a dual Grade 1 winner at Fairyhouse and Punchestown for owner J.P. McManus. The gelding was bred by J.P.’s wife Noreen.

The Galway Plate hero is a son of Ocovango, who

Photo: Irish National Stud

moved to stand at the Skelton’s Alne Park Stud in Warwickshire last year after standing for eight seasons at The Beeches Stud. Bred by the Lloyd-Webbers’ Watership Down Stud and trained by André Fabre, Ocovango was one of the best three-year-olds in France, and Timeform rated him 120 in Racehorses of 2013.

Ocovango first came to real attention as a sire when his son Langer Dan won the Grade 3 Imperial Cup Hurdle, and that gelding has gone on to win three more races at that level, notably the Coral Cup twice at Cheltenham.

Another son from that first crop, Champ Kiely, did even better and won the Grade 1 Slaney Hurdle at Naas, and now Pinkerton is a third blacktype winner from those born in 2016.

Champions racing

It is fair to say that a decade on from the establishment of the two-day Irish Champions Festival, thanks largely to the efforts of Joe Foley, Harry McCalmont and John O’Connor, the weekend of racing has been facing some challenges to maintain its position as one of our great racing occasions.

The real measure of success is that of the quality of the races – on that score, it was a big winner this year.

Leopardstown had two of the Group 1 races, and what

an outcome to both. Economics, a horse of still unknown quality, was sent off the favourite for the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes, albeit having “only” won a pair of Group 2 races, and he stuck his neck out to deny the six-time Group 1 winner Auguste Rodin a repeat triumph.

Thirty-five minutes earlier, winning rider Tom Marquand had guided Donnacha O’Brien’s Porta Fortuna to her fourth Group 1 success in the Matron Stakes, while a day later Tom’s wife Hollie Doyle made it a memorable family weekend in the Group 1 Flying Five Stakes with victory on Bradsell.

The Curragh racecourse has had something of an uphill battle to win back the hearts of the Irish racing public, especially since its redevelopment. It is continuing to work hard to do so, and The Curragh’s team under Brian Kavanagh can be proud of what was, by general consensus, one of its best day’s racing on the Sunday of Irish Champions Festival weekend.

The day’s biggest cheer was for the brilliant Kyprios in the Group 1 Comer International Irish St Leger. This was victory number five this year, and the 13th in all, for the Moyglare Stud-bred son of Galileo.

This is also a continuation of the amazing story of the six-year-old’s dam Polished Gem (Danehill). She has had 10 foals, all of who have raced and won. While that alone is a rare achievement, eight of them are black-type winners, three at the highest level in racing. What a matron she was for the late Walter Haefner.

The Curragh’s team under Brian Kavanagh can be proud of what was, by general consensus, one of its best day’s racing on the Sunday of Irish Champions Festival weekend

It is Heaven On Earth at Rahinston Farm and Stud Finally, a book recommendation. Harry and Lorna Fowler’s Rahinston Farm and Stud is the setting for the Irish launch of Heaven On Earth, subtitled “The characters, eccentrics and experiences growing up in the bottom right-hand corner of the Emerald Isle”.

The author is Patrick Donegall or, to give him his correct title, The Marquess of Donegall. Born in London, educated at Harrow and Cirencester, he spent his early childhood in County Wexford at the family’s Dunbrody estate. He is a brother of the late and much-loved Chich Fowler.

Readers of a certain age and background will enjoy this volume, as it recalls a time in Ireland that has largely disappeared. The beautifully-produced, coffee-table volume, published by Nine Elms Books, recalls many colourful characters of yesteryear. The title of the book pays homage to Chich, as it was a phrase she used to describe growing up in Ireland.

Many of the characters in the book are of Anglo-Irish aristocracy, though many of these families are part of the Irish landscape still. Recalling some amusing incidents in a time gone by, Heaven On Earth will grace many a coffee table in Ireland and Britain and be enjoyed.

The biggest cheer of the Irish Champions Festival went to the Irish St Leger winner Kyprios

SEA THE STARS

Sire of 22 Gr.1 winners, 12.8% Stakes winners/runners, 67% winners/runners

SOURCES of STARDOM SIYOUNI

Sire of superstars TAHIYRA, PADDINGTON, SOTTSASS, ST MARK’S BASILICA, MQSE DE SEVIGNE, etc.

ZARAK

Sire of 3 Gr.1 winners, 10.2% Stakes winners/runners, 68% winners/runners

TED TALKS...

WHEN VISITING

THE LARGEST yearling sale in the world at Keeneland it really sets the scene for the yearling market.

The sale was following the incredible market at the Saratoga Sale in August; anticipation was high and didn’t disappoint.

I arrived from Europe with the Arqana August, Goffs UK Premier and the Tattersalls Somerville sales under our belts, the latter being largely under-whelming.

The European and US markets have been slightly estranged over the last decade, but with signs of some Turf resurgence in the US favouring certain sires, as well as the expertise of the Irish and British pinhookers who take back more and more graded stakes winners to Europe by the US stallions, I am excited to see the first-crop US sires following the showcase at the FasigTipton July Sale. There the most

forward of these was Yaupon, how stands at Spendthift.

My visits to Lexington combine with overseeing Imad Al Sagar’s US division of Blue Diamond Stud at Stonereath, a historic property on Route 460 between Georgetown and Paris in the famed Bourbon County. The property neighbours Godolphin’s Raceland, Denali, Claiborne and Stone Farm, all farms which have produced Classic winners.

The weather, although cool in the mornings, climbs during the day to 30°c.

I have the luxury of staying on the farm, which is just about 30 minutes’ drive from Keeneland, and enjoy the many walks around the property seeing how the mares and foals enjoy the lush pasture.

We have emulated Denali our neighbour with solar panels on two barns hoping we will be selfsufficient in electricity in a few years.

We have also transferred to use borehole water and creeks in order

Right from the get-go at Keeneland it was evident that the form seen at the Saratoga Sale was set to continue “ “

The bull market continues to rage in the US

to swap away from relying on the over-chlorinated city water.

None of these guarantees that a stakes winner will be raised, but it limits the downside.

Hopefully, the blood will shine through and we get some luck.

Right from the get-go at Keeneland it was evident that the form seen at the Saratoga Sale was set to continue.

A total of 31 yearlings made seven-figure sums in Book 1, with the sale-topper fetching $5,000,000. By the end of the ninth day of the 12-day auction, the aggregate had already surpassed the gross achieved in 2023.

As with any sale of this nature, if vendors had what the customers wanted they were well paid. After that it wasn’t necessarily plain sailing and the rate of sale figured in the region of 70 to 75 per cent .

The yearlings in Book 1 are bred off the biggest stud fees paid by very rich people, who, in general, can afford to race their horses if

Keeneland September’s top lot

they are not being well paid in the sale ring.

This affects the last-minute withdrawal rate, which Keeneland suffered in this session.

To its credit, the Keeneland team did a good job placing horses with the majority of million-dollar yearlings catalogued in Book 1, convincing the vendors to risk selling.

Keeneland has transformed in recent times partly to compete with the customer service or experience that many enjoy at Fasig-Tipton.

The introduction of the Horseman’s Lounge for breakfast and lunch has been positive, as are the free coffee stations around the sale ground, in addition

to the iced water, which has been a great freebie for a long time.

The introduction of a Magic Millions tabled and chaired bidding area was a huge success with many bidding from the converted area of cinema-style seating to a platform of tables and chairs elevated at the back of the auditorium.

A personal invitation from Shannon Arvin CEO for buyers meant there were around 100 sat for dinner after the Day 1’s fireworks and it was a huge success enabling buyers and agents to meet agents and principles in some leisure time.

Keeneland has identified the need to adjust and look after both its buyers and consignors,

which has resulted in a diverse buying bench. On Day 1, 10 different stallions and buyers were listed in the top 20 making for a truly diverse sale.

The European-based buyers Amo and Coolmore, as well as those from Japan, hit the purchasers’ dockets, but buyers from Australia and Hong Kong circled waiting from the prices to normalise.

The European-purchased sires’ list continues to grow with American Pharoah, Blame, Bolt D’Oro, Cairo Prince, Candy Ride, Hard Spun, Justify, Karakontie, Kitten’s Joy, Medaglia D’Oro, More Than Ready, Not This Time, Oscar Performance, Quality Road, Street

Boss and Sense, Temple City, Uncle Mo and War Front.

The freshman sires of particular interest include the Speightstown horse Charlatan, who was a good racehorse beaten by Mishriff in the Saudi Cup.

His Book 1 horses sold well and had a constantly high proportion of nice horses, and I am sure his stock look as though they would suit European racing.

Essential Quality followed close behind and as the sale went along my favourites focused in on McKinzie and Maxfield.

The sale was dominated by Curin and Gun Runner, but Not This Time is the rising star from ordinary mares and now his shares are

....Girls aloud

AS ALWAYS THE Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale kicked off the UK and Irish yearling sales season at Doncaster. It was positive to see such a range of buyers and vendors gathered at the complex to support the auction – everybody was hoping for a strong renewal and looking for an indication of the potential strength of this year’s buying bench.

As such it was very positive to see 27 six-figure lots over two days and it was particularly positive to see big sale ring success for a number of small-scale breeders.

With 460 lots offered, the sale achieved an 82 per cent clearance rate with slight falls in the aggregate, average and median – it was a clear sign of the continuance of last year’s selective market and a demand for the top quality.

Small breeders enjoyed some of top plaudits at Doncaster – Muriel Knox’s family farm in Northallerton sold a homebred Havana Grey filly to Mark McStay of Avenue Bloodstock and Skara Glen Stables for £240,000 (Lot 157).

Paul Giles of Moyfinn Stud, Ireland was another small-scale breeder

Cathy Grassick, chairperson of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association

Happy people on both sides of a transaction: delighted owner and purchaser Fiona Carmichael with Paul Giles, consignor of the Premier Sale top lot

The £220,000 Starman colt sold by Monksland Stables to Oliver St Lawrence

Photo by Sarah Farnsworth, courtesy of Goffs UK

Photo by Sarah Farnsworth, courtesy of Goffs UK

to experience huge success – he topped the sale with his Tasleet colt, a three-quarters brother to Cool Hoof Luke, winner of the Gimcrack Stakes (G2), the colt purchased by Amanda Skiffington for £350,000 (Lot 334).

The Lincolnshire-based Sally Nicholls was another small breeder to hit the highlights when selling her stock through the National Stud.

Her Showcasing half-sister to Listed winner No Half Measures was sold to Oliver St Lawrence for £130,000 (Lot 357), while her Havana Grey colt was bought by Richard Hughes for £100,000 (Lot 349).

Sarah Fanning also achieved her best-ever auction result – in her fourth year of consigning she sold a filly by new sire A’Ali to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock for £130,000, bought on behalf of Shaikh Duaij Al Khalifa (Lot 173).

The sales tour bus rolled on for its next destination and a brief stop in Baden-Baden in Germany for the BBAG yearling sale for the crème de la crème of German breeders’ yearlings.

The buyers were not disappointed – Godolphin paid a recordbreaking €850,000 for a Camelot colt out of the Preis der Diane winner Diamanta, consigned by Gestüt Brummerhof.

Other colts to note were a Soldier Hollow colt sold for €320,000 to Alex Elliott and a Gleneagles colt, who made €200,000 to Liberty Racing. Top of the fillies was an impressive daughter of Kingman –she was bred and consigned by Gestüt Gorlsdorf out of a full-sister to Sea The Moon.

THE TATTERSALLS SOMERVILLE SALE was the next date on the sales calendar and this year, and due to its previous success, the sale extended to two days. While there were some definite high points and good results, the combination of the highly selective market and increased numbers led to a drop in the clearance rate to 72 per cent and a decrease in the median by 5,000gns to 22,000gns, while three lots made six-figure sums at this year’s sale.

Elliott was responsible for the highest-price purchase when landing a daughter of Havana Grey from Whitsbury Manor for 140,000gns bought on behalf of Amo Racing (Lot 419).

It was an excellent sale for Whitsbury Manor as leading vendor and with two of its young stallions Havana Grey and Sergei Prokofiev meeting repeatedly with the taste of buyers.

There were also a number of successful Irish vendors at the sale.

First-crop yearling sire Starman proved popular when his Tally-Ho-consigned daughter made 100,000gns to Richard Ryan (Lot 154), while there was a good result for Paddy and Helena Burns of Loughtown Stud when their Acclamation colt made 75,000gns to Oliver St Lawrence (Lot 2), while the excellent producer Ballyhimikin Stud also sold a son of Palace Pier for 75,000gns Kevin Ross (Lot 431).

While some people are having good results, it is clear to see that the market has retained its selectivity and the competition from purchasers is stiffest at the very top end of the market.

While the final clearance rate was satisfactory, many horses unsold

in the ring are changing hands later through private sales, with many horses sold for a loss; it is very hard for breeders who are contending with expensive covering fees and rising production costs.

There should be hope, with the quality to come at the Goffs Orby and Tattersalls October Sale, that the market will continue to strengthen, especially with the expected influx of foreign buyers due to European-bred Turf horses’ success at the highest levels.

There has also been high spending in the US, where there has been a strong market so far this yearling season (at the talk on “buying value” forum held at Tattersalls before the Somerville Sale, Elliott reported that the Saratoga Sale was one of the strongest he has ever attended) as well as in Hong Kong and Australia.

One of the toughest things at the sales season so far has been the tragic news of the sudden passing of Tracy Vigors.

Tracy, alongside with her husband Charlie Vigors, made up the successful team behind the top consignor Hillwood Stud, the couple ably assisted by their two smashing young sons Harry and Oliver, who already have many successful exploits in the saddle and are often on the sales ground with the Hillwood drafts.

Tracy was one of the most talented horsewomen you could meet, as evidenced by the always immaculate turnout and wonderful condition of the consignments from Hillwood.

The outpouring of grief and sadness felt by so many from all around the sales community is a testament to the esteem in which the whole Vigors family is held. The deepest sympathies and condolences go to the family and friends at this desperately sad time.

Loughtown Stud’s 75,000gns Acclamation colt at the Somerville Sale

Photo by Alisha Meeder, courtesy of Tattersalls

Efficiency v velocity

Page

Fuller of

Race

iQ analyses the stride data in the St Leger, the Irish Champion Stakes and the Flying Five Stakes

WITH THE MAJOR SUMMER Flat festivals done and dusted, the St Leger Stakes at Doncaster signalling that autumn is well on its way.

Winner Jan Brueghal may have arrived late on the scene compared to some of Aidan O’Brien’s star performers over the years, but landing this year’s renewal put him firmly in the mix as a stayer to be reckoned with in seasons to come.

The versatility of his sire Galileo will be sorely missed, and we were reminded of this when watching his penultimate crop of Classic contenders battling to the line.

Jan Brughel needed every bit of that versatility, too. His pacemaker Grosvenor Square set steady fractions in front ensuring his stable companions had every chance of seeing out the 1m6f trip.

We can put this into context by comparing the sectionals* from this year’s Classic, which was run on ground listed as good (good to soft in places), and last year’s race

that was run on soft (good to soft in places).

Jan Brueghel reached the 3f marker only 0.15s quicker than Continuous did in last year’s running but, once the pace lifted, he motored home. From this point he made use of his speed and the quicker ground to complete the final 3f over two seconds quicker than last year’s winner.

Most of the runners in the race hit their Top Speed entering the final furlong, but Jan Brueghel was the one who showed the sharpest turn of foot, helping him put the race to bed in the final stages.

His Top Speed of 39.23mph was over half a mile an hour faster than Illinois’ 38.70mph, and that proved crucial.

As well as strongly seeing out this longer distance, he showed he could still make use of his father’s speed and maintain it to the line.

We were treated to six Group 1 races at Leopardstown and The Curragh for the Irish Champions Festival. In the magazine’s last edition, we introduced stride data as a tool for our analysis and this helped to dissect the action from Ireland.

The headline act was the titan clash between Economics and Auguste Rodin in the Irish Champion Stakes (G1), and the race turned into a stamina-sapping 1m2f.

Every horse hit Top Speed in the second furlong with Economics and Ghostwriter clocking an 11.03s furlong then.

Since stride frequency and length are the components of a horse’s speed, it is interesting to use them to illustrate how well Economics saw the trip out in comparison to Auguste Rodin.

The runner-up was one of only two horses who managed to break 12s a furlong after the fifth furlong. This was in the second-last furlong in which he managed an 11.97s/ furlong in comparison to Economics 12.23s. However, he was 0.07s slower in the last furlong, which was enough to help Economics hold on in the shadow of the line.

You can see the effect of the slight downhill dip in the second furlong where the field sped off in the early stages, with the main two protagonists reaching peak stride length in that furlong.

Economics

Auguste Rodin Economics Auguste Rodin

Then with three furlongs to go the pair attempted to quicken again, but were then having to rely on turning their strides over quicker since they have gone so fast to begin and energy was waning.

In the second-last furlong you can see Auguste Rodin’s late lunge, reaching his peak stride frequency, but he was unable to sustain that to the line like Economics.

Throughout four of the last five furlongs, Auguste Rodin had a slightly longer average stride length than Economics.

However, in the final furlong, his stride length deteriorated far more than the winner’s showing the effect of his late lunge in the second last furlong.

What this tells us for next time is yet to be seen, but it certainly backs up how talented

Bradsell (red) once again out ran the filly Believing this time in the Flying Five Stakes (G1), the colt’s faster stride frequency the decisive factor

Furlong

Flying Five Stakes 2024: Stride Frequency

Bradsell Believing Bradsell Believing

and straightforward Economics is, with the latter’s quality not applying so much to the runner up.

On Sunday we saw the rematch of the Nunthorpe Stakes (G1) one-two, Bradsell and Believing, in the Flying Five Stakes (G1) at The Curragh, and the stride data once again threw up some interesting reading.

Believing has shown both times that she has a difficult run style for a 5f trip, even though her form says she is most effective at the distance. She gets outpaced early on and then stays strongly, and we got a firm pointer on Sunday towards why that is the case.

However, long a horse’s stride is, its speed will be limited if it is unable to turn it over quick enough, and that seems to be what limits Believing’s early pace.

Most sprint races have their early furlongs as their fastest, Believing is unable to keep up because she can’t turn her stride over fast enough. However, can maintain her own rhythm to the line as she demonstrated in Ireland – as you can see, the daughter of Mehmas maintained almost exactly the same stride frequency from start to finish.

Bradsell, on the other hand, was able to turn his stride over quickly in the early stages to go the gallop and maintain that advantage, despite his energy waning towards the end.

Unfortunately for Believing, even though she is performing very highly this season,

Believing will have to wait for a stiff 5f and a race in which everything falls right for her if these two meet again

this inability to turn her stride over looks to be stopping her from hitting the line in front at this top level.

Everything points to her wanting a step-up in trip, but she doesn’t seem to stay when she does so, Believing will have to wait for a stiff 5f and a race in which everything falls right if these two meet again.

Scorthy Champ caught the eye in the Futurity Stakes (G3) in September when running green in the early stages and staying on strongly to the line. He went two places better in the Vincent O’Brien National Stakes (G1) and he is another by Mehmas with a large stride.

Stride Data, combined with our Par Sectionals, shows us a clear picture of why he was able to turn the tables on Henri Matisse this time.

As you can see from the tables above, the Futurity Stakes was run quite steadily

initially, but then turned into a sprint compared to what we would expect:

In the National Stakes they went much faster to begin with, which created a greater test of stamina than when Scorthy Champ and Henri Matisse met previously:

Both times they have met, however, Scorthy Champ had a larger average stride and lower average stride frequency than Henri Matisse, suggesting this test of stamina over this trip was better suited to him where he could make more use of his stride, just like his paternal sister Believing:

Scorthy Champ

Futurity Stakes: Average Length 7.82m, Average Frequency 2.18 s/s

Vincent O’Brien National Stakes: Average Length 7.84m, Average Frequency 2.2 s/s

Henri Matisse

Futurity Stakes: Average Length 7.42m, Average Frequency 2.29 s/s

Vincent O’Brien National Stakes: Average Length 7.58m, Average Frequency 2.29 s/s

It will be interesting to see how the pair both progress, but their stride profiles suggest that, if they meet again, the result may be different depending on whether the race emphasis is on tactical speed or stamina.

Glossary

Par Sectionals: These compare a horse’s sectionals against the ‘optimum’ sectional times. They are the Par Sectional fractions for a race for that specific course and distance and based on the sectionals that winning horses have achieved in races achieving the best Time Index scores.

Finishing Speed Percentage (FSP): uses the sectionals to calculate the speed a horse covers over the final furlongs of a race, as a percentage of its overall race speed.

For races up to a mile, the final furlongs are the last two furlongs, for 1m1/2f and above it is the final three furlongs.

*For sectional information we primarily use data from Coursetrack, however for Doncaster, we used data from Total Performance Data

THE DUBAWI DYNASTY

TOO DARN HOT

European Champion juvenile and now a Classic sire. More first-crop two-year-old Group winners than any other stallion ever and, by the beginning of September, he’s already up to three Group or Listed winners from his second crop of youngsters. Third-crop yearlings selling now.

Economic progression

William Haggas’ patient approach has reaped Group 1 rewards, writes Amy Bennett

IT HAS BEEN 15 years since Dubawi enjoyed a notable juvenile Group race double at the end-of-season Doncaster meeting, that achieved with his first crop, and since then, Darley’s leading sire has founded a dynasty, including several highly talented stallion sons.

Dubawi was responsible for a new stakes winner in the Park Hill Stakes (G2) heroine Nakheel, and was fitting that the Godolphinbred three-year-old filly, who races in the colours of Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum for trainer Owen Burrows, should highlight once again the hugely profitable cross of Dubawi over a Galileo mare – in this case,

the Group 3-placed Into The Mystic

But the spotlight deservedly fell on offspring of his sons, on both sides of the Irish Sea, over the course of Irish Champions weekend and the St Leger meeting.

The best outcome of the Dubawi-Galileo nick to date has come courtesy of the leading sire’s son Night Of Thunder, who enjoyed a splendid run of results at both Doncaster and during Irish Champions weekend.

His daughter, the Godolphin homebred filly Desert Flower, kicked things off when cruising home in the May Hill Stakes (G2), easily stepping up from her maiden and novice victories on Newmarket’s July course,

to smoothly step up in trip and win with some ease from the Listed winner and Group 2-placed January (Kingman).

A three-parts sister to last year’s Solario Stakes (G3) winner Aablan, she is out of the Rockfel Stakes (G2) winner Promising Run (Hard Spun), who trained on to win a hat-trick of Group 2 contests in Dubai, as well as win a Group 3 in Turkey.

Desert Flower certainly gave every impression of more to come, and holds Group 1 engagements.

However, even better was to come for Night Of Thunder – two days later his bonny white-faced son Economics triumphed in

The Copgrove Hall Stud-bred Economics (Night Of Thunder) determinedly sticking out his distinctive white face to win the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes

the Irish Champion Stakes (G1). It might not have been the prettiest of victories but, following his romps in the Dante Stakes (G2) and Prix Guillaume d’Ornano (G2), the colt showed his grit as well as his talent, picking up, sticking his

head out and staying on well. Having been well looked after this season, owner Sheikh Isa Salman Al Khalifa must be salivating at the prospect of what lies ahead next year.

Bred in the name of the late Guy Reed’s Copgrove Hall Stud, the colt is from a family that has been a little light on black-type in recent years, other than the two victories for his dam La Pomme d’Amour (Peintre Celebre) in the Prix de Pomone (G2) carrying the famed and eye-catching colours of Reed.

Night Of Thunder is not the only son of Dubawi going into the winter with a exciting 2025 prospect.

On St Leger day at Doncaster, New Bay was represented by the exciting Bay City Roller, who capitalised on the late withdrawal of the favourite Chancellor (Kingman) to triumph by half a length in the Champagne Stakes (G2).

Trained by George Scott for Victorious Racing, the colt stepped up again on the form that saw him land novice contests at Sandown on debut in late July and at Chelmsford a month later. Bred by John Connaughton, the colt was a pricey buy at €320,000 from Book 1 of the Goffs Orby Sale, and is out of the dual Listed winner Bloomfield (Teofilo).

Big money transfer reaping dividends

As the Coolmore team continues to seek diversity from the blood of Galileo and sons, Wootton Bassett is stealing headlines with his first Irish-conceived crop.

A big-money transfer from Haras d’Etreham in the summer of 2020, the son of Iffraaj made an immediate impact with breeders when introduced at a fee of €100,000 (since risen to double that mark).

At Leopardstown on Irish Champions Day, the sire enjoyed a quick-fire juvenile double with Chantez opening the batting in the 7f Listed Ingabelle Stakes. Making her third start, the Ger Lyons-trained filly had got off the mark second time out over course and distance and skipped home well in Listed company to see off a well-bred field.

Bred by Ben Sangster, the filly sported the colours of Newton Anner Stud Farm, having been snapped up by the operation for 220,000gns during Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

A half-sister to the King Edward VII winner Changingoftheguard (Galileo), they are out of the Excellent Art mare Lady Lara, who carried the Sangster colours to Listed success in the UK, before earning Grade 2 glory when transferred Stateside.

The first leg of the Wootton Bassett Irish Champions Festival juvenile double was secured by the Ger Lyons-trained Chantez in the Ingabelle Stakes (L)

Desert Flower: wins the May Hill at Doncaster

Green Impact is the first foal out of Emerald Green (Galileo), who did not exactly set the world alight during her first career

Half an hour after Chantez scored, Green Impact brought up the double for their sire with victory in the mile Champion Juvenile Stakes (G2). In defeating the odds-on favourite Delacroix (Dubawi) by half a length, Green Impact franked the form that saw him defeat the same rival over course and distance in July; the colt holds a couple of eye-catching Group 1 entries to possibly round off his year.

A homebred for owner Marc Chan, who also enjoyed a standout success with old favourite Kinross in the Park Stakes (G2) at Doncaster later in the day, Green Impact is the first foal out of Emerald Green (Galileo), who did not exactly set the world alight during her first career with a couple of places her best results from 10 runs.

A half-sister to the Group 2-placed Alphabet (Lawman) and the Listed-placed Mirage (Oasis Dream), she hails from the further family of the Irish Classic winner and

sire Power (Oasis Dream), from a deep Hascombe and Valiant family.

Emerald Green entered the Chan broodmare band having been snapped up for 475,000gns by Jamie McCalmont at the 2021 Tattersalls December Mare Sale.

Frankel’s juvenile stormers

Not to be outdone, Frankel also notched up an eye-catching juvenile scorer on Irish Champions Weekend in the Moyglare Stud Stakes (G1) – albeit not with the filly most people were expecting.

Responsible for four of the five runners in the race – the outlier being Too Darn Hot’s daughter Simmering – Frankel could have expected his hitherto unbeaten daughter Bedtime Story to record another victory romp, following her most recent success in the Debutante Stakes (G2).

In the event, Bedtime Story finished last, albeit beaten less than 3l, with victory going the way of Lake Victoria. Like her paternal half-sister, the winner is a daughter of Frankel out of a Group 1-winning sprinter,

in this case the 2016 Haydock Park Sprint Cup and Commonwealth Cup heroine Quiet Reflection (Showcasing).

A £44,000 yearling sale purchase, Quiet Reflection made more impact on her final trip through the sale ring when knocked down to Blandford Bloodstock and MV Magnier for 2,100,000gns at the 2017 Tattersalls December Mare Sale.

Mehmas’ Group 1 National Stakes winner Scorthy Champ: he was conceived in 2021, the spring after Supremacy won the Middle Park Stakes (G1)

Lake Victoria: Moyglare Stud Stakes winner

HASCOMBE & VALIANT STUD

HASCOMBE & VALIANT STUD is pleased to offer an outstanding draft of yearlings at Tattersalls October Sale.

All yearlings will have x-rays and scopes available in the repository.

Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Book 1

95 b.c. CRACKSMAN – Bizzarria (Lemon Drop Kid)

Dam 2-y-o winner, the family of Star Catcher

181 b.c. KINGMAN – Frankellina (Frankel)

Dam 2-y-o winner, the family of Rebecca Sharp

320 b.c. SEA THE STARS – Netherton (Frankel)

Family of Star Catcher, Cannock Chase & Pisco Sour

373 b.c. PALACE PIER – Rhadegunda (Pivotal)

The half-brother to Champion Cracksman

378 b/br.c. TOO DARN HOT – Riviera Belle (Medaglia d’Oro)

Immediate family of Derby winner Golden Horn, promising 2024 2YO winner Glittering Legend & Megallan dual group 3 winner

Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Book 2

458 b.f. ARDAD – Tempest Fugit (High Chaparral)

Dam a Listed winner

488 b.c. TOO DARN HOT – Valiant Girl (Lemon Drop Kid)

A Gr.3 winner from the family of Courage Mon Ami

569 b.f. BLUE POINT – Auntinet (Invincible Spirit)

Dam own-sister to multiple graded sprint winner Zebedee

670 b.f. PINATUBO – Dame Malliot (Champs Elysses)

Dam a dual Gr.2 winner and Gr.1 placed

1052 br.f. ADVERTISE – Plucky Lass (Medaglio d’Oro)

Family of Courage Mon Ami & dual 6f winner Gutsy Girl (Blue Point)

1059 b.f. TIME TEST – Precious Ramotswe (Nathaniel)

Dam a Gr.3 winner & Gr.2 placed

In 2013 GOLDEN HORN was led out of the ring unsold...

Don’t miss your opportunity to buy a potential Derby winner.

REGIONAL

The mare has since produced a yearling colt and a colt foal, both full-brothers to the Coolmore-bred winner.

Mehmas on top

An Aidan O’Brien hotpot was also overturned in the National Stakes (G1) with Henri Matisse (Wootton Bassett) giving best to Scorthy Champ (Mehmas), who showed plenty of pace to score by three-quarters of a length.

Mehmas is the easy leader on the table of juvenile sires in Europe by both progeny prize-money and winners

A winner on debut at Leopardstown, Scorthy Champ had finished third to Henri Matisse in the Futurity Stakes (G2) in August, but was a progressive and worthy winner at The Curragh.

Bred by Healthy Wood Co. Ltd, and a 155,000gns purchase by his trainer Joseph O’Brien at Tattersalls October Book 1, the colt is a full-brother to Malavath, winner of the Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte (G2) and Grade 1-placed at two in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies, and the Horris Hill

New Century makes the Grade 1 breakthrough for first-season sire Kameko

AS NOTED HERE PREVIOUSLY, this year’s crop of first-season sires has been slower to fire than in some years previous. However, things have finally started motoring for the class of 2024, with several sires now hitting their stride with their freshman runners, as well as a steady trickle of impressive stakes performers.

Tweenhills inmate Kameko became the first off the mark at the highest level when New Century travelled to Canada to win the Summer Stakes (G1) at Woodbine.

The success was particularly fitting as it came in the colours of Kameko’s owner, Qatar Racing, and for the stallion’s trainer, Andrew Balding.

Previously winner of the Listed Stonehenge Stakes at Salisbury, New Century catapulted up in class to score in Canada and become the second stakes winner out of his dam Potent Embrace (Street Cry) following the Group 3 success of the gelded Passion And Glory (Cape Cross).

A winning daughter of the multiple Group 3 winner Karen’s Caper (War Chant) and from a strong family, Potent Embrace was snapped up by David Redvers for €150,000 from the Godolphin draft at Goffs November in 2016.

Retired to stand at £25,000 at Tweenhills, the top-class performer Kameko perhaps never quite got the plaudits he deserved on the racecourse, through no fault of his own as he was a runner right out of the top drawer.

Winner of the Vertem Futurity (G1) after it was rerouted to Newcastle’s All-Weather track, he went on to Classic glory in the 2,000 Guineas, in that topsy-turvy, Covid-ravaged season of 2020.

Fourth in the Derby in that strangest of racing years, he bounded back with victory in the Joel Stakes (G2).

A son of Kitten’s Joy, he was retired to stud a year after the sudden and tragic death of his paternal half-brother Roaring Lion, and is in the process of carving out a valuable niche for himself in the British stallion ranks.

Kameko had 10 individual winners on the board at the close of the St Leger meeting, including Ghost Run, who bagged a lucrative fillies’ nursery at Doncaster, and Wimbledon Hawkeye, twice placed in Group 2 company.

Also off the mark with that all-important first stakes winner is Hello Youmzain. The Haras d’Etreham resident was represented by Misunderstood, who made virtually all to land the Prix des Chenes (G3) by four and a half lengths at Longchamp,

New Century: the son of Kameko became the first top level winner for a European first-season sire in 2024 when winning Woodbine’s Summer Stakes

Mehmas is now the easy leader on the table of juvenile sires in Europe by both prize-money and winners

Stakes (G3) winner Knight. The trio are out of Fidaaha (New Approach), who never finished closer to the winner than eighth during her own brief racing career.

The winner is a fifth top-level success for his sire, and his second juvenile Group 1 winner after his first-crop’s Supremacy won the Middle Park Stakes (G1) in 2020.

It has been a good two-year-old season for the Tally-Ho Stud sire, this crop conceived in the wake of that record-breaking season with his first runners, Mehmas’s current large crop of juveniles were bred in 2021 off an advertised fee of €25,000, a massive leap from the €7,500 he stood for in 2020, but only half of his 2024 fee of €50,000.

Mehmas is now the easy leader on the table of juvenile sires in Europe by both prize-money and winners in the wake of Irish Champions Weekend, and he also enjoyed success at Doncaster two days prior when Wathnan Racing’s Aesterius defeated Big Mojo (Mohaather) to triumph in the Flying Childers (G2).

Already a Group 3 winner in France, the winner has danced every dance this season since his debut victory at Bath in May.

Bred by Sean Maguire, out of the unraced Hallowed Crown mare Jane Doe, the colt has made three trips through the sale ring, the most recent at the Goffs UK BreezeUp Sale proving the most lucrative, when purchased for Wathnan at £380,000.

The

old guard

Not for the first time, Galileo was responsible for the winners of both the English and Irish St Legers, with Kyprios crowning his unbeaten season to claim success at The Curragh for the second time, following his success in the same race in 2022, having finished runner-up last year.

A day earlier at Doncaster, Jan Brueghel got the better of a fine tussle with his paternal half-brother Illinois, to become his sire’s 101st Group/Grade 1 scorer.

It is 18 years since Galileo’s first crop yielded firstly the Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Nightime and a 1-2-3 in the St Leger – run that year at York – with Sixties Icon leading home The Last Drop and Red Rocks.

Since then, numerous other 1-2s or 1-2-3 in top-level contests have followed around

the world, but the finish to the 2024 St Leger had a poignant edge.

The great sire’s small final crop of 13 foals are now two, and it is certainly not inconceivable that a final Classic victor is among them.

But, should we have witnessed the last Classic confrontation between progeny of the stallion who has redefined greatness in the modern era of stallions, how fitting that it should have come, full circle, in the race that laid down that first milestone, nearly two decades ago.

Full circle: once again a Galileo duo battle for St Leger success, Jan Brueghel (left) taking the win

2YO Winners bred by Daylesford sold at Tattersalls Yearling Sales 2023

SPIRIT OF LEROS

Winner of two starts this year

Sold for 75,000gns Book 2

MUKABER

Won on first start at 7f Sold for 115,000gns December Yearling Sales

Purchase your next winner at Tattersalls Yearling Sales

STAR OF SEVILLE Prix de Diane Winner 2015 LOT 1205 DUBAWI x STAR OF SEVILLE (Book 2)

Plus

LOT 728 ST MARK’S BASILICA x EXCELLENT VIEW

LOT 976 NEW BAY x MUMBAI

LOT 1182 ST MARK’S BASILICA X SNOW MOON

LOT 1216 WOOTTON BASSETT x SUPHALA

Book 3

LOT 1417 SEA THE MOON x MAGICAL ROMANCE

LOT 1455 NATHANIEL x NAHEMA, LOT 1521 MEHMAS x SPIRIT OF INDIA

Sosie is Arc ready

Master trainer André Fabre has won the Arc de Triomphe eight times, six of those winners were successful beforehand in the Prix Niel.

Can Fabre repeat the feat this year with Sosie?

THE WERTHEIMER

BROTHERS’ Sosie became the new ante-post favourite for the Group 1 Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe with his decisive length and a half victory of the Prix Niel (G2) at ParisLongchamp on September 15, writes Jocelyn De Moubray.

The André Fabre-trained son of Sea The Stars had finished third in the Prix du Jockey Club (G1), two lengths and a neck behind Look De Vega, but turned the tables three months later beating that rival by three and a half lengths into third place.

Delius, who had been runner-up to Sosie in the Grand Prix de Paris (G1), finished between this pair.

The Niel is always a difficult race to read. Has Sosie improved since the Jockey Club in early June? Or will Look De Vega, who was making his first start since his Chantilly win, return to a new peak on the first Sunday in October?

In the face of such questions the safest option is to trust Fabre. After all the master trainer has won the Arc de Triomphe eight times – seven of his winners ran in the Niel, six winning the race, while Peintre Celebre

In

was second when an odds-on favourite in 1997.

Fabre first won the Niel in 1984 with Cariellor, who beat Darshaan among others and went on to finish an excellent sixth in the Arc behind Sagace and Northern Trick.

Then Fabre had only just stopped training jumpers – he won four Grand Steeple de Paris between 1980 and 1983, although he had already picked up a first Flat Group 1 success with Al Nasr in the Prix d’Ispahan in 1982.

Fabre, who is 79, is a close contemporary of Sir Henry Cecil and Sir Michael Stoute, the leading British trainers born towards the end of World War 2.

In comparison to the British pair, Fabre was a late developer on the training front –when the other two began training winners of top races in the 1970s, Fabre was still riding as a jumps jockey.

Once he turned to training, however, success at the top level was instant, and has remained consistent for more than 40 years since.

This year, Fabre, and his wife and partner Elizabeth, are more or less sure of yet another training championship as they are well ahead of nearest rival, Francis Graffard.

This season, from 120 different runners, they have won 76 races and no fewer than 26 Group and Listed races, and have produced three Group 1 winners – Sosie, Tribalist and Mqse De Sevigne.

The years may pass but Fabre, and many of those who work with him, remain more or less the same – he hasn’t, for instance, spoken to the French racing press or racing channel this century, and yet it remains as true as ever to say that there is nobody better to prepare a top-class racehorse for the day which counts the most.

Sosie will be at his best on the day of the Arc, and so will the stable’s other possible runners Mqse De Sevigne, who is unbeaten

Fabre we trust: when trying to find the Arc winner we should look no further

in three Group 1 races as a five-year-old in 2024, and the four-year-old Sevenna’s Knight, who was a brilliant winner of the Prix Gladiateur under a 2kg penalty.

Tribalist’s win in the Group 1 Prix du Moulin at the beginning of September was another example of the brilliance of the Fabre stable.

Godolphin’s five-year-old son of Farhh started as an outsider, despite having won on five of his last seven starts in Group races at a mile.

On the day which mattered, this was the colt’s fourth start in a Group 1 in four years of racing, Tribalist was ready – he jumped the stalls to set a regular pace from start to finish. He ran the final 200m in his race average time, but it was a pace which gave him a decisive lead before his rivals threatened to catch him and he defeated Charyn, Henry Longfellow and the others for his first Group 1 success.

Nothing lasts forever but, for the time being, the future of the Fabre stable looks much like the past.

Two-year-old Group wins have not been

If 2024 has been yet another good year for the Fabre stable, it has been exceptional for Alain and Gerard Wertheimer

targeted by the stable for years, neither Sosie, Mqse De Sevigny or Tribalist ran in a Group race at two, however this year’s two-year-old crop already includes several high-class prospects including the Juddmonte-owned Oasis Dream filly Better Together and the Frankel colt Gun Of Brixton, who both impressed winning in Deauville this summer.

If 2024 has been yet another good year for the Fabre stable, it has been exceptional for Alain and Gerard Wertheimer, the owners and breeders of Sosie.

The Wertheimer family has played a major role in breeding and racing in France for more than a 100 years. The brothers’ grandfather Peirre had his first winner before the First World War and bred his first champion soon afterwards with Epinard.

He took championship status as a twoyear-old in France in 1922 but, because he had not been given any Classic entries, he ran in handicaps in England at three winning the Stewards’ Cup at Goodwood and finishing only a neck behind Verdict, to whom he was giving 18lb, in the Cambridgeshire. That winner went on to win the Coronation Cup the following year.

One of the horses on the merry-go-round in the Jardin de Luxembourg in Paris is still called Epinard, although I suppose most of those who ride him think he is named after the vegetable (spinach) rather than one of the first international racing superstars!

The Wertheimer brothers have raced 82 different horses this season winning 69 races. The 82 include 28 Group or Listed performers and 17 Group or Listed winners

Msqe De Sevigne: the Fabre-trained daughter of Siyouni is a three-time Group 1 winner in 2024, and, in total, has five top level victories to her name

Photos by Laura Green

Whenever and whereever Sosie stands as a stallion he will be sent many of Germany’s Classic mares as this is what German breeders would call a real “mutter” line

of 24 black-type races.

The best season the pair have enjoyed in recent years was in 2019 when they won 21 black-type races, a figure which will they will surely leave far behind them before the end of the year with horses such as Sosie, Aventure, Bright Picture, Junko and Double Major to run for them.

They also have several decent two-yearolds such as Madero, a son of Lope De Vega, who won the Criterium de Lyon in early September to become the first stakes winners trained for them by Christopher Head.

To finish with Sosie it has also been an excellent season for his sire Sea The Stars whose three-year-olds of 2024 are from his 11th crop and the first bred from a fee of €150,000 at the Aga Khan Studs in Ireland.

There are 155 three-year-olds by Sea The Stars and, to date, 13 of these are blacktype performers this year (13 per cent of his runners), while three are Group 1 performers and include the Wertheimers’ filly Aventure, who finished an excellent second in the Prix Vermeille run on the same day as Sosie’s Niel victory.

The average-winning distance for Sea The Stars’ three-year-olds is 10.56 furlongs, which puts him squarely in the category of middledistance sires. Now that Galileo has gone his closest challengers in this category are Frankel, and the Coolmore sires of Camelot and Gleneagles together with the Britishbased sires Nathaniel and Sea The Moon.

The younger sires with an averagewinning distance of more than 1m2f, and also currently making a mark, include Study Of Man, Saxon Warrior and Galiway.

Sosie is the fifth foal of the Shamardal mare Sosia, who comes herself from the Sacarina family developed by Gestüt Karlshof.

This family has produced a string of excellent Classic middle-distance horses, including Samum, Schiaparelli, Salve Regina, Sea The Moon, Sosie and Spanish

Eyes, who was second in the Prix de Diana this year; all are by middle -distance sires. Whenever and whereever Sosie stands as a stallion he will be sent many of Germany’s Classic mares as this is what German breeders would call a real “mutter” line.

If the Niel is a particularly significant trial for the Arc de Triomphe when it is won by a Fabre-trained horse, this year’s Prix Vermeille was a particularly strong one. Twelve runners, several Group 1 winners of all ages, and a pacemaker, who ensured it was run at a good pace from start to finish, went to post.

The final time was only the median one for the race over the last ten years, but then the ground was very definitely soft and the winner Bluestocking ran the final 400m seven per cent faster than her race average.

Juddmonte’s four-year-old Camelot filly Bluestocking took over in front from the pacemaker, but looked for a moment to be beaten when Aventure drew alongside, however she has more experience and is a

tough filly to pass. She went on again to win by three-quarters of length with the fiveyear-old Emily Upjohn finishing best of all to be a close third.

Bluestocking’s trainer Ralph Beckett suggested his filly may well be supplemented to the Arc and she will have a first-class chance of at least a place if she does.

Beckett has an excellent record as a trainer everywhere, but he has done particularly well in France – this was his stable’s fifth French Group 1 in the last four years and he did, of course, saddle Westover to finish second in the Arc last year.

Two-year-olds of note

It is early for juveniles in France or Germany to make a name for themselves, but two fillies have made more than a mark.

The Aga Khan’s Siyouni filly Zargiana, a grand-daughter of Zarkava trained by Francis Graffard, has looked like a potential champion on both her starts to date.

She won on her debut on good ground over 7f in July, unchallenged by 4l and returned in a Group 3 over a mile in September and won in much the same style, coming from behind and cruising past her rivals to win without coming off the bridle.

This time the ground was very soft and throughout the day every other horse seemed to struggle, but Zargiana floated as if she was running on perfect ground.

If she stays healthy and sound Zargiana will be winning Group 1 races sooner rather than later as this was a strong field and the three Christopher Head-trained fillies who chased her home had proven high-class form.

Gestüt Park Wiedingen’s Soldier

Hollow filly Santagada has been almost as impressive on her two winning starts to date.

Bred by Gestüt Hony Hof, she has a similar pedigree, too, as she comes from the Sacarina family and her third dam Salve Regina won the Diana.

The Peter Schiergen-trained filly won her debut in July over 7f in Munich and then won a Group 3 in Baden-Baden over the same distance in September coming from behind to beat colts and runners from England and France.

She may not have quite the same brilliance as Zargiana but at this stage she deserves to

Sea The Stars: enjoying an excellent season

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The family of Gr.1 winning 2yo BALBONELLA; Champion Sprinter and Champion Sire ANABAA, and Gr.1 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches winner ALWAYS LOYAL

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Young sires setting the standard

So far this season, 29 US-based freshmen sires have sired a stakes performer, already ahead of the class of 2023, writes Melissa Bauer-Herzog

IF THERE WAS ANY WORRY that this year’s US freshman sires’ crop may be lacking, the stallions involved have firmly put any concerns to rest.

Of the 61 US stallions to sire at least one juvenile stakes winner this year, 13 are freshmen sires with Complexity leading all stallions by both juvenile stakes winners with three such scorers and two graded stakes winners as of September 12.

In all, 29 different freshmen have sired at least one stakes performer so far this year.

To compare with 2023, 16 of last year’s freshmen stallions had sired stakes winners by the end of their first year with runners and 25 had at least one stakes performer.

Those statistics are similar to 2022 with another arguably strong group of freshmen – that year 27 stallions sired a stakes performer and 18 sired at least one stakes winner by December 31.

Two of the 2024 freshman stallions with stakes winners this year have already broken through at the top level after McKinzie’s son Chancer McPatrick won the Hopeful Stakes (G1) to close out the Saratoga meet just about a week before Game Winner’s colt Gaming won the Del Mar Futurity (G1).

Both stallions were trained by Bob Baffert – with he also trains Gaming.

Gainesway Farm’s McKinzie also played a role in the Del Mar Futurity – his son

McKinzie Street finishing second by a length and three-quarters.

However, it is no surprise that McKinzie nor Game Winner have found success in their second careers. McKinzie was highly regarded after winning Grade 1 races from two to four and entered stud at a fee of $30,000. Game Winner started at the same fee after a racing career that saw him win Eclipse Champion Two-Year-Old Colt honours in 2018 and a pick up a graded race win at three.

Only Good Magic sired a juvenile Grade 1 winner from the 2022 freshmen crop with no freshman stallion accomplishing the feat last year.

One of the more surprising new stallions to have enjoyed early success is Complexity, who started his career at a modest fee of $12,500.

The son of Maclean’s Music won the Champagne Stakes (G1) at two and the Kelso Handicap (G2) two years later, and he grabbed the headlines early this season when siring his first winner on April 12 before Mo Plex broke through at stakes level on July 13 having won his maiden on debut in late June.

Mo Plex came back just over three weeks later to win the Sanford Stakes (G3) at Saratoga. The colt stayed undefeated in late August with a victory in the Funny Cide Stakes.

Trainer Jeremiah Englehart is hopeful that Mo Plex will become his sire’s first Grade 1 winner in October – and Mo Plex could achieve that feat in the same Grade 1 race won by his sire.

“I kind of would like to see him go around two turns to see how he uses that natural

The Grade 1 winner Chancer McPatrick is by freshman sire McKinzie, who stands at Gainesway

speed, too,” Englehart said after the Funny Cide, adding: “Anything is on the table, I’m just glad that we got this one and hopefully he comes out well.”

Just a few weeks after his Sanford win, another by Complexity made headlines in Europe when Black Forza became his first European stakes winner. A US-bred colt, who sold twice in Kentucky sales before bringing £220,000 at this year’s Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale, the Michael O’Callaghan-trained colt won the Richmond Stakes (G2) at Goodwood less than a month after breaking his maiden in Ireland.

That victory spurred on a Flash Sale through Keeneland of Black Forza’s dam and half-sister. His dam Harlee Honey was sold to Miss Vicky Stables for $240,000, while his half-sister Ocean Honey fetched $48,000 days before Black Forza finished fourth in the $1 million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint.

Four different farms house freshman sires with two or more stakes winners, but in the second-crop sire rankings Spendthrift Farm’s stallion barn holds five stallions in the top 12, including the top three.

Omaha Beach and Maximus Mischief both

have six 2024 stakes winners and 13 stakes performers to lead both categories, while Mitole is second by stakes winners on five.

Spendthrift’s five-time champion sire Into Mischief – who is well on his way to earning a sixth championship – also plays a big role in the second crop sires’ table.

He is the sire of Maximus Mischief and also the sire of Audible, who leads the crop by number of graded stakes winners at two and graded stakes performers at five, in addition to sitting fourth by number of stakes winners.

Into Mischief, such a dominant force

Curlin led the way at Keeneland September with $5 million sale

CURLIN LED THE WAY at Keeneland September through to the end of the fourth session by both average and gross with 37 lots sold for an aggregate of $24.39 million and an average of $659,189.

The stallion’s results were bolstered by siring the sale-topping yearling out of Cavorting bought by Whisper Hill Farm for $5 million (Lot 347). The price was over double the second highest-priced horse of the sale – that colt was also bought by Whisper Hill Farm for $2.2 million (Lot 169).

Bred by Stonestreet Farm and offered by Indian Creek, the top lot colt’s three-time Grade 1-winning dam Cavorting is the dam of this colt’s four-time Grade 1-winning full-sister Clairiere and the Grade 2-placed Judge Miller, in addition to being a half-brother to the stakes winner La Crete from her three foals to race.

Cavorting is one of three stakes performers out of the Grade 2-winning dam Promenade Girl, a multiple Grade 1-placed runner.

“He should be the sale topper because he is the best horse in here. We pretty much knew everybody was going to want to buy him, so they could have the great race record that is in his future and his furtherance in becoming a wonderful stallion,” said Whisper Hill Farm’s Mandy Pope.

The farm also purchased the $2.2 million Gun Runner colt out of Princesa Carolina from Four Star Sales. He is the third foal out of stakes winner and Grade 1-placed Princesa Carolina, a daughter of dual Grade 1 winner Pure Clan, one of three stakes performers out of Grade 3 winner Gather The Clan, the matriarch of a family that has 16 stakes performers led by three Grade 1 winners.

Gun Runner easily led all stallions by number of seven-figure yearlings with seven hitting the $1 million mark, two better than Curlin’s five and three better than Into Mischief’s four.

Into Mischief had the third and fifth highest-priced yearlings with Monique Delk going to $1.75 million for a Summerfield-consigned

colt (Lot 345). He is out of the highly successful Malibu Moon mare Catch The Moon, and that mare’s six winners from six to race include the Grade 1 winner, Grade 3 winner and six-time Grade 1-placed Midnight Bourbon among her four stakes winners.

An unraced mare, Catch The Moon is a full-sister to the Grade 2-placed Cancel This and a half-sister to the stakes-winning duo of Dubini and What A Catch. Her unraced half-sister Clarendon Fancy is dam of the juvenile Grade 1 winner Brightwork, who won the Prioress Stakes (G3) on her 2024 debut just a few weeks earlier.

Highly regarded when retired to stud, the hype for Charlatan continued in September when his first yearlings were offered at Keeneland. His Hill ‘n’ Dale at Xalapa-consigned colt brought the sixth-highest price of the sale when M.V. Magnier and White Birch Farm paid $1.4 million for Lot 70.

The colt is the second foal out of three-time Grade 1 winner Guarana, whose first foal sold for $1.4 million to Winchell Thoroughbreds at the same sale in 2023. Guarana is one of three stakes winners for Magical World, who is a daughter of Grade 1 winner Pleasant Home. Descendants of Pleasant Home include three stakes winners and seven other stakes performers.

“This was a very nice horse. His mother was a very nice race filly and Charlatan was a very good racehorse himself,” said Magnier. “Let’s hope he’s as good as his mother. Chad [Brown] liked the horse, everybody did. We’ll bring him back to Ashford, and we’ll figure out what we’re going to do with him there”

The $5 million sale was the highest price given at Keeneland September since Meydan City (Kingmambo) was sold for $11.7 million in 2006 by Burleson Farms to John Ferguson. The colt won two races, and achieved a BHA rating high of 105.

His only start in a Group race resulted in a fifth place of five in the Great Voltigeur Stakes (G2) for trainer Saeed Bin Suroor

in the US stallion ranks now and leading every North American sire category other than number of Grade 1 winners this year, is quickly proving to be an emerging sire-of-sires.

His son Goldencents sired this year’s Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mystik Dan, while Practical Joke’s two Grade 1 winners this year puts him sixth-best on the North American sires’ table and just one behind his Dad.

Into Mischief has four sons in the top 55 by earnings among active sires with the bottom two both second-crop sires.

It’s two young stallions, though, who rule the general sires’ rankings by number of Grade 1 winners sired this season – Nyquist and Gun Runner, that pair entering stud in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

Standing for a private fee this year, it is no surprise to see Gun Runner top of at least one category.

Now the sire of four crops of racing age, the stallion came out firing with his first crop and hasn’t cooled off since.

His four 2024 Grade 1 winners include winners from 7f to 1m1f, and all have come on the Dirt surface with six Grade 1

performers overall this year.

Nyquist’s $85,000 fee for this year quickly made sense once the racing clicked into full gear this summer with the Uncle Mo son the sire of four Grade 1 winners since late May.

He has proven that he’s an “equal opportunity” sire with those Grade 1 winners ranging from two to four-year-olds with victors on both the Dirt and Turf.

A champion at two and the Kentucky Derby (G1) winner at three, Nyquist is arguably both the best runner and sire son of sire-of-sires Uncle Mo.

One of two million-dollar yearlings for Charlatan, the colt was also one of three seven-figure horses purchased by the Coolmore/ White Birch Farm partnership. The duo bought six yearlings for an average of $991,667 and gross of $5.95 million, the second-highest average for any buyer who bought more than one yearling.

Uncle Mo has two Grade 1 winners of his own this year and has five sons in the top 95 by earnings. Of the sire’s 25 to sell during the first two books of the Keeneland September Sale this year, 17 were colts and they averaged $470,000 with a median of $500,000.

His most expensive in that group was a $1 million colt purchased by Mitsu Nakauchida (Lot 343) with nine of his colts bringing $500,000 or more during the four sessions. Uncle Mo’s $414,400 average for all his yearlings sold in those books put him seventh among stallions with five or more sold.

Stock by Uncle Mo’s son Nyquist were also in demand with two of his colts leading the fourth session and the only two to sell for over $1 million through Thursday. The sire had three horses sell for seven figures during the first week of the sale.

Nyquist registered a higher average than his sire at $467,250 with his median slightly lower at $375,000 for a gross of $9.345 million for 20 sold.

By the end of the fifth session, John Stewart’s Resolute Bloodstock, that has made such a global impact this year, had purchased nine horses for a spend of $6,325,000, giving a top price of $1,200,000 for the Nyquist colt out of Candy Swap, a half-sister to the Santa Anita Derby (G1) winner Sidney’s Candy (Lot 1114).

Keeneland sold 436 yearlings during the first four sessions of the sale for a gross of $132,963,000 – up 13.28 per cent from 2023 –with the average rising 8.1 per cent to $304,961 and median rising from $225,000 in 2023 to $260,000 this year. The RNA rate also rose slightly to 29.59 per cent from 28.67 per cent during the first two books last year.

“We’re really pleased with the depth of the buyer base,” said Keeneland Senior Director of Sales Operations Cormac Breathnach at the conclusion of the second book. “The buyers have come back in force and really been here to challenge each other.”

Awtaad not to be underestimated

Shadwell Stud’s son of Cape Cross has been enjoying a resurgence in the covering shed after Group 1 and Grade 1 successes in 2023, and his progeny have maintained their top-quality form on the racetrack this summer, headlined with two top days in August.

Kildaragh Stud is offering the only lot by Awtaad in Tattersalls October Book 1, Peter Kavanagh tells us why he has always been a strong supporter of the sire

NOT MANY YEARLINGS, produced off a £5,000 covering fee get a place in the Tattersalls October Book 1 catalogue, but that is just what Kildaragh Stud has achieved with its bay colt by Awtaad (Lot 430) out of Sovana (Desert King).

The Kavanagh family farm did not breed the yearling – that achievement is down to Ringfort Stud, the colt having been pinhooked by RC Bloodstock at the Goffs November Foal Sale for €18,000 – but Kildaragh has been involved with the wider pedigree for some years through the late Gerry Oldham’s Citadel Bloodstock.

The Kavanaghs bred the Listed winner and the Group 1 Falmouth Stakes fourth-placed Primo Bacio out of a Suvenna, an Arcano half-sister to this year’s Book 1 yearling.

Primo Bacio is also by Awtaad and was sold by Kildaragh for

100,000gns as a Book 1 yearling in 2019, a member of the stallion’s first crop, produced off a nomination fee of €15,000.

Her valuation was upgraded to 1,100,000gns at the end of her racing career when she joined the Hillwood Stud broodmare band.

Awtaad enjoyed two days of days this August, progeny performances backing up a respectable body of work that he has been putting together over the last 12 months.

At Haydock on August 10, the sire’s 2023 Group 1-winning Prix d’Ispahan son Anmaat returned to victorious action in the Rose

Of Lancaster Stakes (G3). He now has Group 1 entries firmly printed on his agenda.

There was also a Listed third place for the four-year-old filly Naomi Lapaglia in the mile Irish Stallion Farms EBF Dick Hern Stakes. She also has top level targets ahead.

The following day Awtaad’s three-time Grade 1 winner Anisette, winner of last August’s Del Mar Oaks (G1) on just her second Stateside start after leaving the Newmarket-based trainer Kevin Philippart de Foy, maintained her winning run in the Grade 2 Yellow Ribbon Handicap. The filly has now won

five races in the US, and finished second twice and third once from eight stakes race starts.

Awtaad has endured some time away from the fashionable ranks, and consequentially his fee has dropped to €5,000, but his two top-level winners in 2023 have put him now firmly back in vogue – this spring he saw his biggest book of recent years at 128, breeders realising just what an opportunity the Derrinstown Stud stallion offers.

It is something that the Kavanaghs have long recognised, and right from producing Primo Bacio the family has kept the faith in the son of Cape Cross.

“He is such a good influence for looks, temperament, for durability, soundness, there’s so many things in the equation that he meets,” admires Peter Kavanagh.

“Until this spring, he was just a bit of a sleeper – for whatever reason the pinhookers turned their back on him a bit, it can

Awtaad’s covering stats: 2022-2024

Awtaad

Photo courtesy of Shadwell

then be difficult for a stallion to get the traction he deserves.

“But each spring we have sent him two or three mares – after all you don’t want these ‘flash Harries’ who just appear for a year or two. Before you know it you are trying to find out where have they gone.”

With his usual wise counsel, Kavanagh adds: “If you want to take a view of a proper business and breeding operation, you need to use stallions who are sound and durable, who have a bit of a shelf life, whether you’re trying to do a favour to your mare, or trying to produce a horse for whom there is a market out there for, the international market.

“The short-running sprinter can be very limited – that stallion can have a short shelf life.”

Kavanagh recalls his decision to send Suvenna to the newly retired Awtaad in 2017.

“We’d had some luck before with Cape Cross, and we think he’s a very good influence,” outlines the breeder.

“And then Shamardal, he’s great top or bottom in a pedigree. His horses tend to be very durable, they want to win

and he’s had a major impact with his broodmares.

“You just must try and find potential and Awtaad was a Classic winner, trainer Kevin Prendergast always rated him highly, he is a well-bred horse, a good-looking horse and with good motion.

“And, finally, affordability is always one of the foremost things in our minds – we can’t put it all into the hands of the stallion man every year. If you do that, you’ll have a short life yourself!”

Kavanagh dons his sale’s hat when he talks about the farm’s yearling heading to Newmarket.

“He is a very athletic horse, he is bay brown, like most of them – Awtaad does stamp his stock – and he just has this remarkable motion, too,” he enthuses. “He is out of a proven mare, but you can disregard any worries about broodmare age.

“Secretariat was out of a 17-year-old mare and if a mare has done it once, then there is a fair chance she can do it again, as long as the progeny’s physical doesn’t resemble an old mare’s produce.

“And the pedigree also goes back to a Citadel family that we looked after for a number of years, so we’ve got a very soft spot for that family.

“We know a lot of their attributes, qualities and which stallions will suit. All those mares were kept for specific reasons – they were genuine, tried, had racing ability and survived years of selection. There’s not too many

Awtaad also has just one lot due to go through the Tattersalls October Book 3 catalogue –a colt out of the Listed winner and Oaks Stakes (G1) fourthplaced Vow to be consigned by breeder Lodge Park Stud.

The one thing in common with the Book 1 colt?

Despite the stallion having been shunned by some of the “commercial” market for a time,

Peter Kavanagh: likes the Cape Cross and Shamardal influences

Anisette: wins the American Oaks (G1), one of three Grade 1 victories

Anmaat: Group 1 winner in 2023 and won the Rose of Lancaster in August

Showcasing himself as a sire of sires

Whitsbury Manor Stud’s stallion has taken himself to new echelons this summer courtesy of Mohaather, Advertise, Soldier’s Call and Tasleet, who now stands in India in a deal brokered by Ajay Anne

IT HAS BEEN A FINE LATE SUMMER STINT for sons of Showcasing with the four named above all achieving stakes race results.

On the juvenile front the quartet is headed up by Shadwell Stud’s Mohaather and Manton Park Stud’s Advertise – both can boast of colts in Timeform’s current list of top two-yearolds for 2024 – the Molecomb Stakes (G3) winner Big Mojo and Cool Hoof Luke, winner of the Gimcrack Stakes (G2).

August was also the start of a run for new sire Mohaather who, as we write, is in fourth place in the leading European first-season sires’ table by both number of winners and progeny earnings.

Advertise’s Cool Hoof Luke, trained by Andrew Balding, has been a consistent Group class colt this summer having finished fourth in Royal Ascot’s Group 2 6f Coventry Stakes, third in the 7f Vintage Stakes (G2) at

GROUP

Goodwood before finding his way to the front at York.

Two days after the Gimcrack, the stallion’s good form continued with Al Shabab Storm’s victory in the Goldene Peitsche (G3) at Baden-Baden. Fellow second-season sire

Soldier’s Call, who this year got his first Royal Ascot winner with Mickley’s victory in the Britannia, was represented by a clutch of stakes performers in late August and early September.

The Karl Burke-trained two-year-old filly Kaadi ran

second in the Prix d’Arenberg (G3) at ParisLongchamp, Soldier’s Gold was runner-up in the Listed Prix Millkom at La Teste and Kuwaitya was placed third in the Listed St Hugh’s Stakes at Newbury.

This season’s late-summer Group 1 sprints have also had Showcasing’s mark all over them, courtesy of the four-year-old colt Bradsell with his impressive victories in the Nunthorpe Stakes and the Flying Five Stakes.

His sire Tasleet is another stallion by the Whitsbury Manor Stud’s patriarch to have enjoyed a fine time of it in August –his daughter American Sonja finished second in the Prix Jean Romanet (G1) to Msqe de Sevigne having won and placed in Group 3s earlier in this season.

Tasleet also got the top lot at the Goffs UK Premier Sale when the three-quarters brother to the Gimcrack winner was sold by Moyfinn Stud for £350,000.

AFORMER SHADWELL

stallion Tasleet is now resident in India at Star Born Stud, the 11-year-old sire having moved continents for this year’s covering season in a deal brokered by agent Ajay Anne of New Approach Bloodstock.

“I was trying to source a stallion for the farm,” recounts Anne of the decision to purchase Tasleet, “as the team is investing, wanting and aiming to produce some better quality horses.

Mohaather: achieved Goodwood Group 2 glory with the colt Big Mojo

Tasleet: his son Bradsell has returned in 2024 to win two Group 1 sprints

“Owner Anhad Sidhu was looking for another sire – I had bought him Well Done Fox from King Power last year.

“Tasleet had been a very smart two-year-old, he did not get to run much as a three-year-old, but he came back as a four-yearold and ran again at five.

“He had the ability to carry on his talent and he finished second in three Group 1s, so he was a consistent top class racehorse.”

He adds: “Tasleet is probably slightly on the small side, but so is Showcasing and that doesn’t bother me. I’ve bought a few small horses in the past for breeding purposes and they’ve done well, especially as you don’t want a big, heavy horses for the fast ground in India. When I look for stallions for the continent, I am also generally looking for horses who get progeny who want 5f or 6f.”

Of Showcasing as an influence, he agrees: “Yes, over the last couple of months Showcasing has put his name forward as a sire of sires, though I’m not a big fan of that statement.

“I believe in the individual, I believe in the stallion, I believe in performance and I believe in the dam side of things.

There are a few legitimate enquiries on the table – Tasleet could be back for sale, but it would only be for the right money!

“I’ve done a lot of work on this kind of thing and I’m never inclined towards just leaning towards that phrase.”

He explains: “Showcasing comes from a good Juddmonte family and Whitsbury Manor does a fantastic job with its stallions. He’s progressed, and has started to produce better and better, and more, horses. He has the gene pool to pass it on.”

Anne further explains how he came to focus on Tasleet for his Sidhu’s order.

“Tasleet had already done that job,” he says, “as he had produced the Group 1 winner Bradsell to win the King’s Stand, and when we were negotiating last year American Sonia was starting to show some talent.

“He’s got a lot of horses who are BHA-rated around 85 and people forget that for a racehorse to reach that mark is not easy.

“A stallion who can produce that quality of horse is a safe bet.

“However, the commercial market in Europe is very harsh, and these stallions can get lost in the run of things as breeders are always after the new names.

“I look into this quality of stallion to see which one fits the bill for the demands for India, and who comes into the budget.

“With Sidhu, when I like the horse he doesn’t debate, apart from a discussion on price, so that helps my situation quite a lot. The horse was priced right for us, and we got the deal done.”

In future it might prove wise for those trying to find the Nunthorpe winner to take note of any stallions purchased by Anne

Ajay Anne of New Approach Bloodstock: saw that Tasleet was producing plenty of 85+ rated horses

– in 2022 he bought Prince Of Lir, the following year the sire’s gelding Live In The Dream won the Group 1 sprint.

But, is there any chance that Tasleet could return to Europe now that he is back on the radar? That option is not completely out of the question, says Anne.

“Over the last couple of weeks my phone’s been ringing!” he laughs, adding: “The logistics of transporting out of India are a little bit complicated, but, there are a few legitimate enquiries on the table – Tasleet could be

Use this QR code to listen to Ajay Anne on NIck Luck’s Podcast

There is a global focus in Hungary

Photos courtesy of the Hungarian National Stud

The Hungarian National Stud is looking forward to an international future with the young couple Bence and Luca Földes at its helm and four exciting stallions on the roster –Mokarris, Cirfandli, Pigeon Catcher and Ecrivain.

The team is consigning a draft of seven homebreds at this year’s BBAG October Sale, the farm determined to continue Zsolt Hegedus’ legacy and vision with horses bearing the HUN-suffix

IT HAS BEEN A TUMULTUOUS TIME for the Hungarian National Stud after the sudden death last August of the farm’s enlightened and progressive stud manager Zsolt Hegedus, but the team has been determined to push forward with the plans he initiated and to maintain his legacy.

Before his death Hegedus entered a draft of Hungarian-bred yearlings by Britishbased sires in the BBAG Premier Sale, the in-foal mares previously bought at Tattersalls with the aid of agent Oliver St Lawrence.

Despite that summer’s tragic loss, the stud bravely continued with the plan offering the four horses proudly carrying the HUN suffix in the major yearling sale at Baden-Baden. The four were all sold, and although those transactions did not turn the bloodstock world on its axis, the footings were put in place with the stud successfully taking commercial stock over the Hungarian border to an international, select yearling sale.

For the country’s bloodstock industry this outward view is possibly now quite vital with the domestically produced foal crop numbers falling to just around 100 with the industry undergoing a worrying contraction.

There are, though, enthusiastic new

There are enthusiastic people at the helm keen to ensure that Hungarian bloodstock and horseracing is not consigned to the history books

people at the helm keen to ensure that Hungarian bloodstock and horseracing is not consigned to the history books, that new avenues continue to be explored, international boundaries are crossed and Hegedus’ work is continued.

Bence Földes is the farm’s new stud manager, the young man taking the role with his wife Luca. In the pair the Hungarian bloodstock industry has found itself two highly capable, knowledgeable and ambitious people keen to drive the industry forward.

Földes left college with a finance and accounting degree, but he had ridden all of his life and worked with horses through his studies. After graduating and meeting Luca, the pair left the homeland and took jobs with UK trainer Paul Nicholls as work riders.

Although both enjoyed the hands-on roles in the racing stable, they were keen to

Cirfandli and Bence Földes: Földes rode the son of Overdose in training, and has always loved him

STALLION SCENE

We are blessed to have been given this opportunity, it’s a beautiful farm, a beautiful environment with nice horses and good people

extend their knowledge and capabilities in their chosen industry. Földes applied, and was accepted, to study veterinary science at the University of Hungary, while Luca, who already had an agriculture engineering degree, signed up for a Masters in Animal Husbandry; the pair went back home in 2019.

Both are still completing studies, the couple due to graduate early next spring, and have successfully combined the new roles at the stud with their education, certainly not a task to be undertaken by the faint hearted.

“We got this opportunity after Zsolt’s death and, yes, this year was really tough for us, but we are close to finishing the studies and then it’s going to be much easier,” smiles Földes. “We are blessed to have been given this opportunity, it’s a beautiful farm, a beautiful environment with nice horses and such good people.”

Földes is just 28 and taking on the role has been a huge undertaking, particularly one that had been fashioned so well by Hegedus, who has himself spent much time in France working on the PMU.

“Yes, it’s a very difficult time now, but we are gaining so much experience. We are trying to learn from the industry in the West as much as we can, and we try to improve all the time,” he says.

Földes is not shy to admit his admiration of Hegedus’s enlightened strategy of importing in-foal mares carrying to good Eourpean sires with the aim of selling yearlings with an HUN suffix.

“Zsolt’s purchased mares were carrying to the commercial stallions Too Darn Hot, Kameko and Study Of Man, and the four fetched a total of €100,000 at the BadenBaden sale,” he reports. “It was a big step forward for the farm; it was so sad that Zsolt did not get to see the results.”

Földes continues: “What Zsolt started to do, and how he did it, was brilliant. It was a new direction, Zsolt started to open the farm up to the West because he had a huge experience having owned horses in France, trained in France and he had massive connections all around the western Europe.”

Hegedus’ work and vision has not stopped with his loss. The international outlook that

he quietly opened has been continued and the farm is returning to Germany for the BBAG October Sale with seven homebreds by the stud’s three established sires.

Currently, there are four stallions on the National Stud’s roster, a happy mix of Hungarian homebreds and imported sires.

Catch a Pigeon

The oldest of the quartet is the Irish-bred Pigeon Catcher, a son of Dutch Art bred by Castlemartin and Skymarc Farm, yet another legacy of the outstanding late owner-breeder Lady Chyrss O’Reilly. The 15-year-old is a half-brother to the Group-placed Jakarta Jade, while his dam is a half-sister to the Group 3 winner Dubai Prince and he is from the extended family of the multiple 1m2f Group 1 winner Storming Home.

Pigeon Catcher was owned by Hegedus as a racehorse, trained in France by Pia Brandt and achieved wins and placings in competitive mile handicaps in France.

The sire’s leading performer is the gelding Esti Feny, now based in the southern hemisphere. After two Listed-placed efforts in Germany over 1m2f and 1m3f for owner Stall Diospuszta, the colt was purchased by Australian connections.

He won the Listed Mornington Cup in April and has been placed in middle-distance

Above, Luca riding out, and, left, the stud selling its stock in a private sale on the farm

Group races for trainer Matthew Smith.

Esti Feny has already ensured that his sire has an international legacy and that Pigeon Catcher has become that groundbreaking international stallion that Hegedus so desired.

The farm has entered three by the stallion in the October sale, two fillies and a colt.

The fillies are out of Ainippe (Captain Rio), and so a half-sister to the Kameko colt sold at the Premier Sale last year and now in training with Simcock, and out of the Shamardal mare Morning Chimes.

The colt is out of Spice of Life (Sea The Stars) from the Kirsten Rausing-developed family of Songerie.

Second-season sire Mokarris making an impressive early mark

Also with three entries in October is the second-season sire Mokarris. He has been doing great things in Hungary and is already the sire of nine winners from just 16 runners, achieving a strike-rate of 56 per cent.

By More Than Ready, Mokarris was bred in the US by St Elias Stables, bought by Shadwell at the Craven Sale for 220,000gns in 2016 from Mocklershill. He is a first foal of the French Listed winner Limonar (Street Cry), a half-sister to the US Grade 1 winner Talco and out of a half-sister to the Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Bachelor Duke.

A Listed-winning two-year-old, he also finished second in the Gimcrack Stakes (G2) and sixth in the Middle Park Stakes (G1), but unfortunately did not run after his juvenile year.

Since his own racing days, his two half-brothers have been doing their thing on the track – Spanish Mission, a son of Noble Misson, won the Yorkshire Cup (G2), placed third in the Ascot Gold Cup (G1) in 2021 and went on to finish third in the same year’s Melbourne Cup (G1) for Andrew Balding. The entire has remained in Australia picking up further Group 1 placings.

The stallion’s younger half-brother Dude N Colorado (Uncle Mo) has won at Listed level in the US and placed third in the Kitten’s Joy Stakes (G3).

On retiring from the track Mokarris was

purchased by the farm and has always stood in Hungary.

“He has lots of speed and his progeny suits the racing here especially as we often have firm ground,” says Földes, adding: “The mares that we have here descending from the

older Hungarian broodmare lines are staying types and he can give them a bit of speed. Trainers like his horses, they have good minds, they are trainable, and are early sorts.”

The farm is selling two of his colts in Germany – both are out of Nayef mares, the Bishop Walton Stud-bred Hala Madrid and Ejtihaad, the dam of Esti Feny.

The son of the Budapest Bullet definitely a farm favourite

The homebred stallion Cirfandli is a son of the “Budapest Bullet”, the legendary Hungarian superstar sprinter Overdose, who won the Group 2 Goldene Peitsche, finished fourth in the King’s Stand Stakes (G1) and won a voided Prix de l’Abbaye (G1).

Cirfandli, himself, was the winner of top races in Hungary and went on to become a multiple Listed-placed performer in Italy.

He has first yearlings this year and the farm is sending a colt out of Miss Brooch (Aerion) to Germany. She is dam of two winners from two runners in Hungary, including the four-time winner Mr Penny (Penny’s Picnic).

“For me, Cirfandli is a special horse as I

The 300-hectare farm has around 45 mares on site, and is about an hour’s drive from Budapest

Mokarris: impressing with his runners

Take a good look at our draft which includes some rare jewels...

LOT 38

Kingman colt, half-brother to Gr.3 winner Royal Dress

LOT 137

Blue Point colt out of Deveron, placed in Gr.1 Prix Marcel Boussac

LOT 334

Too Darn Hot colt out of LR winning Night Of Thunder mare, family of multiple Gr.1 winner Proviso

RARE JEWELS

TATTERSALLS OCTOBER YEARLING SALES

BOOK 1

38 C Kingman / Wadaa

137 C Blue Point / Deveron

305  F Ghaiyyath / Motivate Me

334 C Too Darn Hot / Parton

374  C Too Darn Hot / Rhythm Excel

BOOK 2

612  C Sea The Stars

622  C Wootton Bassett / Carleen

817  F Palace Pier / Hoyamy

1137  F Farhh / Sailing

BOOK 3

1313  C Phoenix of Spain / Comnena

1348 F Dream Ahead / Enliven

1425 C Ardad / Martini Magic

1430  C Calyx / Medoras Childe

1437  C Ghaiyyath / Militate

1464  F Cracksman / Operettist

1503  F Too Darn Hot / Royal Event

BOOK 3 (contd.)

1524  F Kameko / Sterling Sound

1545  F Cracksman / Tuolumne Meadows

1559  C Masar / Yaa Mous

1582  C Tasleet / Beyond Fashion

1588  C Tasleet / Bradley Hall

1596  F Cracksman / Carlanda

1599  F Land Force / Clieves Hills

1609  C Tasleet / Delta Diva

1619  C Masar / Dubawi Meeznah

1658  F Dream Ahead / Itsinthestars

1683  C Mayson / Madeleine Bond

1739 F Cracksman / Quemonda

1762  C A’Ali / Seamisst

1773  C Iffraaj / Sinaadi

1776 F Ardad / Song of The Isles

1777 C Ardad / Sooraah

BOOK 4

1810 F Land Force / Byroness

1831 F Advertise / Gold At Midnight

Houghton Bloodstock UK Ltd

Fox Farm, Barnardiston Road

Hundon, Sudbury

Suffolk, C010

was his work rider when he was in training –I always loved him and it very nice to see him here as a stallion,” explains Földes.

“His yearlings look fantastic, they are well built and I hope he can prove himself as a stallion.

“He was an outstanding racehorse in our region, he won every big race in Hungary between 6f and a mile, and was beaten in Italy in a 7f Listed race by just a nose.

“We trust him and we have given him as many mares as we can. He will not be a ‘fancy’ stallion at the German sale, but I have entered one yearling by him in the hope that we can get the sire’s name out there a bit.”

The Balbona Stud has added a new stallion to its roster this year, the Wertheimer & Frere-bred Ecrivain, a son of Lope De Vega out of a Danehill Dancer Group-placed Sapphire Pendant. He is from the family of the Fillies’ Mile (G1) runner-up Maryinsky, the dam of the outstanding fourtime Group 1 winner Peeping Fawn.

“Ecrivain was a Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed as a two-year-old so he’s an exciting stallion for us as he had lots of speed. He has a good mind and he’s so laid back. He is very friendly, intelligent horse.”

Földes is keen that Hungary is viewed as a country that can produce good runners able to compete on the global stage.

“It has been proved, that we can breed high quality horses,” says the ambitious young man. “Esti Feny been a great advertisement, but we need to do lots of work, we need to improve in lots of ways, but really I’m desperate to do it and prove it.”

International goals to overcome tumultuous recent history

The stud is on 300 hectares with around 70 hectares down to pasture, and it produces its own oats and hay.

There are 95 horses on site, including 45 mares, 10 privately owned and boarding at the farm. This year the farm produced a foal crop of around 30.

Sadly, the Hungarian industry has had to weather the storm of political turmoil and this disruption has resulted in a declining domestic foal crop.

“The stud was established in 1912, and then there was a big training centre and racetrack with more than 500 horses in training,” explains Földes. “It really was the ‘Newmarket’ of Hungary.

“But it was devastated by the world wars and all that is left now is a museum. During the privatisation after the communism era lots of the best mares were sold, or taken away further East.”

He adds: “Now the racetrack at Kincsem Park and the Hungarian National Stud are owned by the government, run by the Ministry of Defence and the Department of Agriculture. We get good support and they are keen to develop, but, like the world, over there is never enough money for the horseracing!”

The stud’s international outlook is mirrored by Budapest’s racecourse Kincsem

Ecrivain: was bred by the Wertheimer brothers. The stallion is by Lope De Vega, and is from the top-class family of Peeping Fawn. He stood at stud for a first season this year

Park, the executive headed by manager Szotyori Nagy Ádá, who is keen for its best races to be fully recognised by the Pattern.

Last year, the track joined in on the Frankie Dettori farewell tour attracting the big-name jockey to ride at the premier meeting in September.

With his usual flourish the Italian jockey rode two Fitri Hay-owned horses to success.

With the Hungarian racing and bloodstock industries working in tandem under the protective wing of the government, and such determined and ambitious people as Földes at the top, the country’s bloodstock certainly deserves to prosper and maintain that vision initiated by Hegedus.

So, if you are in Germany for the BBAG sale and buying yearlings, the seven bearing the HUN suffix are well worth having on a long list.

Hungarian National Stud BBAG October Sale entries

Horse Sire

b., c. Mokarris (USA)

ch., f. Pigeon Catcher (IRE)

b., c. Mokarris (USA)

ch., c. Cirfandli (HUN)

b., c. Mokarris (USA)

b., c. Pigeon Catcher (IRE)

ch., f. Pigeon Catcher

Dam

Hala Madrid (GB)

Ainippe (IRE)

Ejtihaad (IRE)

Miss Brooch

Pray From Heaven (IRE)

Spice of Life (GB)

Morning Chimes

The stud’s three established sires are all due to be represented at the sale in Germany, the farm and Földes is keen to get their stock on the open market

Leading European Flat Sires 2024 (by prize-money earned to September 16, 2024)

Courtesy of Weatherbys

Leading European First-Season Sires 2024 (by prize-money earned to September 16, 2024)

Courtesy of Weatherbys

Leading

European Broodmare Sires 2024 (by prize-money earned to September 16, 2024)

Courtesy of Weatherbys

A RICH VEIN OF FORM Current Graduates

BALLYLINCH STUD

have bred, raised or consigned 20 Stakes Horses in 2024 alone

SCORTHY CHAMP

2022 Mehmas – Fidaaha (New Approach)

Purchased by Joseph O'Brien for 155,000gns

Won Gr.1 National Stakes, The Curragh

3rd Gr.2 Futurity Stakes, The Curragh 113p after just 3 starts

Bred by Healthy Wood Co Ltd

GOING THE DISTANCE

GOING THE DISTANCE

2021 Lope De Vega – Colonia (Champs Elysees)

2021 Lope De Vega – Colonia (Champs Elysees)

Purchased by MC Calmont Bloodstock for €160,000

Purchased by MC Calmont Bloodstock for €160,000

Won King George V Stakes, Royal Ascot

Won King George V Stakes, Royal Ascot

SPIRITUAL

2021 Invincible Spirit – Wild Irish Rose (Galileo)

Purchased by Blandford Bloodstock for €280,000

Won LR Distaff Stakes, Sandown

MATAURI BAY

2022 Make Believe – Matauri Bay (Hurricane Run)

Purchased by AC Elliot for 500,000gns

Won Novice by 1½ lengths

2nd Gr.3 Solario Stakes, Sandown 102p after just 2 starts

Bred by Ballylinch Stud & Ecurie des Charmes

JANCIS

2021 Tamayuz – Blame The Ruler (Ruler Of The World)

Won Gr.3 Brownstown Stakes, Leopardstown

Bred by Mr Arturo Cousino

CARL SPACKLER

2020 Lope De Vega – Zindaya (More Than Ready)

Won Gr.1 Fourstardave Handicap, Saratoga

Won Gr.3 Kelso Stakes, Saratoga

Won LR Opening Verse Stakes, Churchill Downs 122

Bred by Fifth Avenue Bloodstock

Photography by Debbie Burt

Blue chip stock

After a decade-long absence from the Tattersalls sale ring, Lady Bamford’s Daylesford Stud returns to sell under its own banner at this year’s October Yearling Sale.

The farm is to consign a quality group of five yearlings in Book 2, colts by Dubawi, New Bay, St Mark’s Basilica and Wootton Bassett, as well as fillies by Nathaniel and Mehmas, and a Sea The Moon colt in Book 3

Daylesford Stud Tattersalls October Book 2 and 3 draft

Book 2

Lot Horse Sire

728

Dam

Dam sire

b,c. St Mark's Basilica (FR) Excellent View (GB) Shamardal (USA)

976 b,c. New Bay (GB) Mumbai (GB) Frankel (GB)

1182 ch,c. St Mark's Basilica (FR) Snow Moon (GB) Oasis Dream (GB)

1205 b,c. Dubawi (IRE) Star of Seville (GB) Duke of Marmalade (IRE)

1216

Book 3

1417

b,c. Wootton Bassett (GB) Suphala (FR) Frankel (GB)

b,c. Sea The Moon (GER) Magical Romance (IRE) Barathea (IRE)

1455 b,f. Nathaniel (IRE) Nahema (IRE) Dubawi (IRE)

1521 b,f. Mehmas (IRE) Spirit of India (GB) Galileo (IRE)

THE ONLY DUBAWI COLT catalogued in the Tattersalls October Book 2 Sale is from a consignor returning to the fray to sell under its own stud banner for the first time in a decade.

Lady Bamford’s Daylesford Stud, which has recently sold yearlings with the sizeable The Castlebridge Consignment, is returning to the yearling marketplace itself for the first time since 2014.

The farm has a select draft of five to be offered in Book 2 and three in Book 3, while one yearling, Lot 362, a colt by Frankel out of the Listed winner Queen Of Love (Kingman), is heading to Book 1 and to be consigned

Lady Bamford wants to showcase the stud, and the stock and the Daylesford name

under Watership Down Stud’s moniker.

Daylesford is keen to make its impact back in the consigning ranks this year.

As stud manager Chris Lock reports this five-strong Book 2 strategic hit with colts boasting some smart pedigrees and exciting sires, was deemed the best way to get the

farm back on to the sales ground radar.

“Lady Bamford wants to showcase the stud, and the stock and the Daylesford name,” says Lock. “We’re breeding some nice young horses, and we were keen to show the world what we were producing, so that’s why we decided to go back to consigning under our own banner.”

Explaining the reasoning behind the outlier in first October Sale book: “We had just the one for Book 1 and, as we wanted to make a bit of an impact on our debut, just one lot did not really make it ‘splashy’.

“We thought we’d start off with the five proper horses in Book 2 and send the one for the first book through Watership.

“Hopefully, from next year, we will be

The second foal and first filly out of the Group 3 winner and four-time Group 1-placed Tropbeau (Showcasing) is by Night Of Thunder

The plan is very much to go back to the sort of traditional, owner-breeder approach, sell the colts, and generally keep the fillies

consigning the Book 1 horses ourselves, too.”

In exciting news for yearling purchasers, this new strategy will see the stud, set on the Daylesford estate and in the beautiful Cotswold hills, near Chipping Norton, offer its colts itself, as well as the occasional filly, in the commercial market.

As Lock explains: “The plan is very much to go back to the sort of traditional, owner-breeder approach, sell the colts, and generally keep the fillies.

“We do have a couple of fillies in Book 3 this year – we have a few mares who like to produce filly after filly, and there's no point in us having eight or nine members of the same family.

“If it doesn't make sense for us to keep one there will be the odd filly coming through, but predominantly we will be selling colts.”

As Lock agrees every breeder, no matter the size of the purse in place to support the breeding endeavours, needs to keep numbers at a sensible level and according to the individual operation.

“We covered around 32 Daylesford-based mares this year and, so if we do our jobs right, we will be getting a foal crop of around 28, but we still have to rationalise a bit, otherwise things can spiral out of control,” he rationalises.

“We will even look in future to selling a few fillies off the track, too, and we will be a bit stricter as to what gets retired to Daylesford so there will probably be a few more fillies going into December sales at the end of their three-year-old careers.”

Lock, who has been at the stud for the last four years, joining the farm from Chris Wrights’ near-at-hand Stratford Place Stud, is looking forward to the new challenge.

This new approach has not been a

Stud manager Chris Lock dealing with the attentions of a colt foal by Showcasing out The Wagon Wheel (Acclamation), and a filly by Sioux Nation, who is out of Morocco Moon (Rock Of Gibraltar)

decision taken in a hurry, but part of a policy first mooted by Lady Bamford herself at the turn of the year.

Lock is keen to ensure that buyers realise the Daylesford-consigned yearlings are there to be bought, and that this is not a vanity project in any sense.

“The yearlings will 100 per cent be priced to sell,” he says. “There is no point going to Newmarket with huge reserves and us not selling anything, it just means that the following year will become too much of a struggle.

“This is very much the first of, hopefully, year after year of drafts, so we know we need to sell so people believe that they're there to be sold in the future.

“The vast majority of our mares all have good pages behind them and, as a result, the yearlings have all got good, racing pedigrees. too. We always ensure that we use good,

We have bred three Classic winners here, and we’d like more, it is very addictive!

attractive and commercial stallions, and we have nice yearlings as a result.

“The Dubawi colt out of Star of Seville could have been offered in Book 1, but we kept him in in Book 2 [Lot 1205] as a standout and, hopefully, we will help to bring the buyers to the draft.”

So will the development of this “underour-own-banner” sales strategy lead to a change in stallion covering plans and the onward development of the broodmare band?

“Even with this new policy our covering plans won’t be changing as we won’t be ‘chasing’ that commercial aspect,” says Lock.

“We will still be an owner-breeder first and foremost, we aim for Classic success.

“Lady Bamford has bred three Oaks winners here – we’d like more, it is very addictive! That will always been the main plan, and that's pretty much what all our mares are geared for.

“We always want the stallions we use to make sense and, if for whatever reason we don’t sell, we are happy to race.”

Specialist yearling staff were recruited at the beginning of summer, and Daylesford’s own version of a Cotswold walking tour began in earnest.

Far from a holiday, one lap of the current yearling circuit is a mile long with a typical Cotswold incline to finish so giving a gentle but firm test to the lungs, the fitness of both

Three Queens: (left to right): Divya, a grand-daughter of Sariska, the Group 1 Oaks winner Soul Sister and the two-time Group 3 winner Random Harvest

horse and human, and bringing those hocks underneath the yearlings to build up their hind-quarter power houses.

When we visited Daylesford at the end of August the draft had worked up to three laps on the three walking mornings, the remaining days the yearlings being lunged. Lock reported that he was delighted with the whole draft’s progress with the eight all developing as a consistent bunch.

He also reported that the staff’s fitness levels were also improving rapidly alongside the yearlings, although the stable talk and morning conversations usually came to a premature end as the incline is faced into for a third time.

An indication that this year’s sale offering will be not be a one-hit wonder is borne out by Lady Bamford’s extended plans –an 88-acre tree-enclosed unit is being taken back from the estate with an idea to create a

bespoke yearling walking track that will measure around a mile and three-quarters.

Lock, who happily, and unsurprisingly, admits this his role at Daylesford Stud is his “dream job”, reports that stud improvements are frequently undertaken, Lady Bamford keen that the beautiful mellow Cotswold stone farms retains its continued legitimacy as a prime producer of thoroughbreds.

Lady Bamford is keen to keep rolling forward and there are always new projects underway

It would be easy for the stunning farm to rest on its laurels of past achievements and relax into its surroundings, its estate and its rural heritage, much like an aging beauty too accustomed to the continual admiring views but becoming in danger of losing relevance.

“Lady Bamford is keen to keep rolling forward and there are always projects underway,” he says as we admire the future site for the walking track.

In August, a bunch of fillies, newly brought in for their first few days at prep school from their pre-school summer slumbers, were housed in the older and more traditional buildings, while a bunch of yearlings, being prepped both for the

sales and to go into training, were housed in a bespoke-built U-shaped yard.

Across the paddocks the early footings and gravel for the building of a new all-weather paddock were visible – this year’s filthy wet spring convincing Lock of the need for such a facility.

Aside from the property improvements and facility gains, the team is keen to ensure that all that can be done, is done and that all sources of wisdom are used to produce quality thoroughbreds.

Daylesford Stud’s wonderful 32-strong broodmare band boasts of such glittering homebred stars as the Oaks (G1) winner Soul Sister, the Prix de Diane (G1) winners and half-sisters Star Spirit and Star Of Seville, the Prix du Calvados (G2) winner and the Group 1-placed Tropbeau, the Group 3 winner Random Harvest, as well as three homebred daughters and a granddaughter of the farm’s own homebred 2009 champion Sariska.

The team is always adding the new fillies to the group, freshening pedigrees and

Lot 976: by New Bay and out of the unraced Mumbai (Frankel) from the leading family of Anna Paola

Plans were made as far back as the New Year, Lady Bamford and Alice started talking about it then and we were all on board

ensuring the quality is maintained and that families don’t stagnate.

And while there is the threat that selling the youngstock from the farm could mean that the connections and the innate understanding as to just what makes some of the families tick could be lost, Lock does not necessarily see this as a given.

“You do have to weigh things up, but who knows what different perspectives can bring,” he says with confidence, adding: “A very different way of campaigning and developing these horses can be a good thing.

“We know we have some lovely, well-prepared horses and we are confident that the very best trainers and connections will be interested in them.”

Of the draft, Lock outlines: “The New Bay

Walking

colt is very nice, the Dubawi colt is a lovely horse, the Wootton Bassett is a strong horse and I am impressed with the two we have by St Mark’s Basilica.

“They are both big, strong with great walks and brilliant temperaments, we can do whatever we want with them. In total, we’ve got four yearlings by him and they’re all so good. We sent mares back to him and we will do going forwards.”

This year’s early European yearling market has been tough at times and is seemingly in a period of transition.

Has this trend caused the team to think twice about debuting this year, maybe waiting until the commercial market is sailing on calmer waters?

“You have to start at some point and plans

were made as far back as the New Year, Lady Bamford and her daughter Alice started talking about it then and we were all on board,”outlines Lock. “Tattersalls came out and viewed the horses and we decided from there and committed to it.

“It might be a tough year, but we believe we’ve got nice horses, at some point you’ve got to choose a year and then go for it.”

And how are the nerves holding up as we close in on the sales dates?

“We are all pretty calm at the moment, all the horses are behaving themselves and seem to be enjoying their prep and going very well,” he smiles. “Obviously, you get nervous at every sale, but we’d like to think we’ll have done the work and they'll be ready.

“We will get them in and settled in good time; they will ship in on Thursday after the end of Book 1.

“This is a busy, working estate and there is lot going on, but being on the sales ground is a very different environment that we want to give them plenty of time to adjust.”

yearlings at Daylesford Stud in the beautiful Cotswold countryside, the gentle inclines perfect for developing the young racehorses

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This

spring’s Dubai Turf winner Facteur Cheval became the third Group 1 winner bred by the County Down-based McCracken Farms.

At

this year’s Tattersalls October Book 1 Sale the farm is set to consign siblings to the top level winners.

Jamie McGlynn chats with Craig McCracken and finds out the secrets of such regular Group 1 success

THE BLOODSTOCK INDUSTRY never stands still. The dust will have barely settled on ParisLongchamp’s Prix de Arc de Triomphe card on October 6, with its six Group 1 contests, before the eyes of the bloodstock world will focus firmly on Park Paddocks for Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

Europe’s premier yearling sale, which begins its three-day run on Tuesday, October 8, achieved turnover of just over 95,00,000gns in 2023.

The best to emerge so far from last year’s sale is Whistlejacket (No Nay Never), named after George Stubbs’s painting of the Marques of Rockingham’s horse of the same name, who made all of the running to win the Prix Morny (G1) at Deauville in August, just eight days after finishing runner-up in the Phoenix Stakes (G1) at The Curragh. As we go to press he has some significant races on his upcoming agenda.

On the vendors’ list at Book 1 this year will be McCracken Farms, which will present a draft of two lots through its second venture consigning at the premier sale.

And that’’s not to say that the County Down nursery is in its infancy, or in fact is new to the game, far from it – the family-run

operation, located near Banbridge, south-west of Belfast, has been breeding and selling more than its fair share of top-class horses from a relatively small number of mares over the years, though usually at the foal sales.

“The change to offering yearlings happened over time,” says the farm’s Craig McCracken, who adds that: “We just weren’t inititally equipped to keep yearlings, especially colts, simply due to the way the farm was laid out. It also wasn’t the business model to be selling yearlings – we sold our foals – but as with any business, you always need to adapt.”

The family of Cecil and wife Martha, their sons Martin and Craig, and daughters Lucy and Katie, started off in the industry as NH breeders, and produced the 2013 Scottish National winner Godsmejudge (Witness Box) and Ayr’s Future Champion Novices’ Chase (G2) winner Eduard (Morozov).

“We were exclusively NH breeders and had very little interest in breeding Flat horses back then,” recalls McCracken.

“I suppose it was a mixture of the recession in 2008 and the fact that, by the time a horse had proven themselves to be useful, the mare tended to be getting old.

“At the same time, my brother Martin,

Right, Facteur Cheval winning the Dubai Turf this spring, a third Group 1 winner for McCracken Farms, who only really started to focus on Flat breeding in 2009

Breeding Group 1 winners

We sat down, analysed what we thought might work and set about to buy a Flat mare

a farrier by trade, was doing work for the late Brian Kennedy of Meadowlands Stud and had seen the way that Brian was operating.

“He was very sharp and was making a good go of selling Flat foals. We sat down,

analysed what we thought might work and set about to buy a Flat mare.”

At the Tattersalls December Mare Sale in 2009, the McCrackens purchased Mashie, a Selkirk half-sister to the Yellow Ribbon Stakes (G1) heroine Light Jig (Danehill) for 14,500gns.

She was sent to visit Bushranger in his first season at Tally-Ho Stud, the resulting

colt foal sold to Taroka Stud for 30,000gns at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale.

Named Riverboat Springs, he got the team off to a flyer – as a juvenile he finished second in the Listed 6f Woodcote Stakes and the Listed Ripon Champion Two-Year-Old Trophy over the same distance for trainer Mick Channon.

“We thought it was a good bit of business,” continues McCracken. “He had gone on to make 50,000gns as a yearling, so we were delighted to see that, but the most important part was that he delivered on the track for his connections.”

The importance that Riverboat Springs has in this story shouldn’t be underestimated.

Buoyed by the success of their first foray into breeding Flat horses, the McCrackens went on to buy three more mares in 2012 – and it also marked the beginning of what became a mutually beneficial working relationship with Tally-Ho Stud.

“The O’Callaghans have been brilliant to deal with from day one,” says McCracken. “Tony always told me ‘breed racehorses and the rest will come,’ and that’s sort of stamped on our back door when you walk out to the yard in the morning.

“At the end of the day that is what every breeder’s objective should be, though I agree, it is easy to lose sight of from time to time.

“When our mother comes down to the yard and we’re mulling over a decision, she will often remind us of it and, sometimes, it can make the decision an easy one. It’s a simple thing, but it’s worth remembering.”

When the McCracken-bred Best Solution crossed the line in front in the Caulfield Cup (G1) in 2018, which was the colt’s third success at the highest level in just 63 days, backing up victories in the Grosser Preis von Baden and Grosser Preis von Berlin, the family’s decision to switch focus from breeding jumps horses to concentrate more on the Flat was more than “just” vindicated.

The second foal out of Al Andalyya, who was one of the three mares purchased in 2012 on the back of the success of Riverboat Springs, Best Solution achieved a feat for the family that most commercial breeders will never accomplish.

Now standing at Gestüt Lünzen, his win

El Bodegon: became the second Group 1 winner out of the farm’s star mare Al Andalyya

in the Grosser Preis von Berlin was also a second winner at the highest level for his sire Kodiac, following Tiggy Wiggy’s Cheveley Park Stakes victory four years earlier. The now 23-year-old sire has added another six to that Group 1 tally over the years, and has been a trusty ally to those who latched onto his prowess early.

While Kodiac has flown the flag for Tally-Ho, Al Andalyya has most definitely been a luminary for the McCrackens.

AONCE-PLACED daughter of Kingmambo from the family of the dual Group 1-winning sires Brian Boru (Sadler’s Wells) and Workforce (King’s Best), she returned to visit Kodiac twice more –the later mating producing El Bodegon.

A 70,000gns yearling purchase by trainer James Ferguson at Book 2, just over 12 months later the colt provided the Newmarket handler with a debut top-flight winner when winning the Criterium de Saint-Cloud.

“Al Andalyya is the seventh member of our family, really,” explains McCracken, whose tone softens when talking about the mare who has “pride of place” at the Banbridge farm.

“What she has done for us is amazing,” he continues. “Al Andalyya put us on the map and, not only did she do it once, but to do it again was really special.

“She will always be in the front paddock in our farm.”

McCracken Farms will offer the latest of Al Andalyya’s offspring – a filly from the first crop of St Mark’s Basilica – as Lot 64 at Book 1.

“She is a good representation of the dam,” says the breeder, who is keen to let his horses do the talking. “What we have learned over the years is that her stock have improved plenty from foals to yearlings.

“They developed a lot in spring, so we decided to give them all that time and not

Al Andalyya put us on the map and, not only did she do it once, but to do it again was really special. She will always be in the front paddock in our farm!

Craig McCracken: always tries to keep the O’Callaghan advice to “breed racehorses and the rest will come” as the mantra behind any decisions made regarding stallion choice

Though Al Andalyaa may be hard to budge, Jawlaat is doing her best to challenge for bragging rights at the County Down farm, as Factuer Cheval’s year-younger half-sister and now four-year-old filly Queen Of The Mud has won twice and been placed twice in stakes company for Graham Motion.

The daughter of Kodiac was a 45,000gns purchase by Yeomanstown Stud at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale before providing the Kildare farm with a significant return on its investment when she was sold for 180,000gns in Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

JAWLAAT’S YEARLING colt of this year is by Sottsass and is described by McCracken as “a strong, robust colt, who has plenty of Shamardal about him.” He is set to be offered as Lot 220 at Book 1.

“Jawlaat is doing her best to usurp Al Andalyya and a bit of healthy competition is good for everyone!” jokes McCracken.

“Facteur Cheval has done everyone proud. He was a very good foal and we were well paid for him, while Queen Of The Mud has been very consistent in the US, having been placed in a couple of stakes races. We’re incredible lucky to have both Al Andalyya and Jawlaat at the same time.”

It’s not just a two-mare broodmare band that the family are playing with.

What might go unnoticed is that, from a foal crop numbering just 13 in 2023, McCracken Farms has five homebred lots who will be offered at Book 1 this year.

Alongside the two that will be presented by the farm, there are also three more who were sold as foals and who will be offered by pinhookers.

“We sold four foals last year, three of whom are set to be offered in Book 1 and one is in Book 2,” said McCracken. “Obviously it’s a good sign, as, on the face of it, we’re producing horses who are what the market seems to want, but at the end of the day, it’s what they do on the track that matters.”

Pushed on what makes the farm different, he adds: “There is no simple formula. We make decisions and try to learn from our mistakes.

“We plan matings based on statistics,

physical match-up and pedigree –broodmare sires are very important to me, it’s something I’m particularly keen on.

“I also like to talk a lot to other people who have had the families that we have. You never know where a simple conversation will take you, especially if the people that you’re talking to have had the family for years.

“They’ve either made the right choices, or learnt from their mistakes, and there’s little point in us making the same mistakes again.

“But, at the end of the day, you’ve got to make your own decisions, but adding a little extra weight to things here and there can put

you on the right track.

“Having the drive to succeed is also very important. When Best Solution won his first Group 1, Roger O’Callaghan called me to congratulate me. At the end of the conversation, he signed off by saying: ‘Now, do it again!’

“That tells you everything about how successful people think.”

Well, the McCrackens did manage to do it again, and then again. One fancies that, with O’Callaghan’s words ringing in their ears, it would be a brave man to bet against them pulling it off once more.

McCracken Farms Tattersalls October Book 1 and 2 draft

Book 1

Lot Horse Sire Dam Dam sire

64 b,f. St Mark's Basilica (FR) Al Andalyya (USA) Kingmambo (USA)

220 b,c. Sottsass (FR) Jawlaat (IRE) Shamardal (USA)

Book 2

519 b,c. Ghaiyyath (IRE) A Day At The Races (IRE) Gutaifan (IRE)

The one who started it all off: Best Solution who is now at stud with Gestüt Lünzen in Germany

Photo: Sarah Farnsworth

Harry’s Style

James Thomas talks to successful consignor and pinhooker Harry Dutfield and finds a bloodstock man who likes to do things his own way

HARRY DUTFIELD may not be the most prolific pinhooker in terms of how many he buys, nor how much he spends. Far from it, in fact. But his record and reputation far exceed that of someone who, since 2010, has selected just 56 foals from the bargain end of the public market.

Among the noteworthy talents who have passed through his hands are Azure Blue, who defeated Highfield Princess to claim the Group 2 Duke Of York Stakes, Night Colours, a sibling to Mother Earth who won the Group 2 Premio Dormello, as well as the Prix Robert Papin (G2) and Railway Stakes G2) and Craven Stakes (G3) scorer Kool Kompany.

There has been further success this year courtesy of Weatherbys Super Sprint victor Caburn, while Dutfield raised and sold Arabie, another Papin winner, on behalf of breeder Robert Cornelius.

We know Dutfield has pinhooked 56 foals because he keeps forensic records of his purchases.

We also know that 43 of those reached the racecourse, 23 (53 per cent) are winners and that six (14 per cent) became black-type performers.

Whereas some sellers feel the need to keep the cold hard facts hidden from view, Dutfield’s bio on X contains all these details

for the world to see.

His results make it clear he applies the same eye for detail as he preps these youngsters for resale. But, when it comes to sourcing the raw materials, he relies heavily on gut instinct instead.

“The number one thing is the physical look of the horse,” he says as he explains his approach to finding future talent. “There has to be something that grabs my attention. Sometimes the foal can be halfway out of the door and I already know I won’t like it.

“People talk about conformation, and when I hear that word the first thing I think about is legs. But for me it’s the physical presence of the horse. I’m happy to forgive a lot of conformational traits because I know which ones are important and which ones aren’t. That’s what I always did when I started off buying with my Mum.”

Dutfield’s first encounters with the thoroughbred world came through days out at the races with his parents, Simon and Nerys, who ran the family farm in Devon.

The couple had shares in point-topointers and his mother eventually took out her own training licence. When she turned her attention to the Flat, Dutfield discovered he had a flair for uncovering embryonic equine athletes at chicken feed prices.

“Dad sent me around the sales with Mum, more to keep her company and stop her

from buying too many!” he laughs, adding with a smile: “I failed at that miserably because we used to come back with a lorry full of cheap fillies, much to my father’s dismay.”

But on the track, those cheap fillies completely surpassed their price tags.

Among the success stories are the likes of Misty Eyed, a £Ir3,200 purchase who won the Molecomb Stakes (G3) and finished second to Cassandra Go in the King’s Stand (G2); the Listed Chesham Stakes runnerup Hastenby, who cost just £Ir3,000; and the £Ir600 -purchase Secret Index, a dual winner and close fifth in the Queen Mary Stakes (G3).

Although the sums involved may have been modest enough, Dutfield says the lessons he learned during those formative trips to the sales were absolutely invaluable.

“We used to buy some right sh*te and do alright with it,” he says bluntly. “But I was very lucky because I learned a lot at someone else’s expense. It cost me nothing but I absorbed everything about what worked and what didn’t.”

Being a trainer’s son may have had its advantages, but Dutfield adopted a policy of knowledge over nepotism from an early stage. Prior to his first full-time role within the industry, his burgeoning passion for racing brought about some interesting conversations during his formal education.

I was very lucky because I learned a lot at someone else’s expense. It cost me nothing, but I absorbed everything about what worked and what didn’t

“When I got called in for careers advice during my A-levels the headmaster askedd what I wanted to do,” he recalls. “I told him I either wanted to work in the horseracing industry or on a deep-sea trawler, because the only other thing I like is fishing. I remember the headmaster looking at me like ‘Oh God, what are we going to do with this one?!’

“With my parents I agreed to go off to university and did an animal science degree with a specialism in equine science, but I only did that because they insisted. As soon as I’d finished my degree I took myself off to the Northern Racing School.

“I wanted to get experience but I didn’t want to go and work for someone else until I felt competent enough, so after that I went

back to work with Mum.”

Dutfield’s time in the racing side of the industry ended up inextricably linked to the career of Lady Dominatrix. The £Ir2,000 purchase from Goffs in 2000 took Dutfield and his twin brother, James, on a wild ride during her time in training.

“I bought Lady Dominatrix for a syndicate,” he says. “She was out of a bumper performer and she was quite big and from Danehill Dancer’s first crop. My parents decided they couldn’t sell her so gave her to me and my twin brother for our birthday.”

Lady Dominatrix made a winning debut at Doncaster in May of her two-year-old season and never looked back. Three further victories followed, including the Group 3 Dubai World Trophy at three, as well as the Listed Pavilion Stakes. She also finished second to Danehurst in the Flying Five (G2), third to Invincible Spirit in the Duke of York

Stakes (G3) and wasn’t beaten far in the Nunthorpe (G1) won by Kyllachy.

However, when the time came for Lady Dominatrix to enter the next phase of her career, Dutfield felt he should follow suit.

“Me and my twin were living it up at places like Ascot and York and all these top meetings with our friends,” he says. “We had to pay training fees though because we were making too much money!

“When she retired from racing I kind of retired from racing with her and went off to do the National Stud course.”

DUTFIELD enrolling at the National Stud coincided with Cockney Rebel’s first season on stallion duty, which proved to be something of a baptism of fire.

“I was there for his first covering,” he says. “The mare was awful. Boots were flying around the covering shed, she wouldn’t stand still and spent most of the time trying to kick me. I remember thinking ‘Is this normal? I’m not sure about this!’

“But I really enjoyed my time at the National Stud though. I felt at home, like I was with my kind of people.”

After graduating at the top of his class, Dutfield set sail for America. The opportunity to take up a permanent position with Lane’s End was passed up in favour of furthering his education closer to home. And Lady Dominatrix.

“I really enjoyed America,” he says. “They offered me a good job but by the end I wanted to go back home and see Lady Dominatrix. The first thing I did when I got home wasn’t go and see my family, I went straight out to the paddock to see Lady Dominatrix and her yearling.”

That yearling was later named Gladiatrix and carried Dutfield’s own colours to six victories. The daughter of Compton Place is one of five winners Dutfield and his brother bred from Lady Dominatrix. The best of the bunch is Janina, winner of the Listed Marygate Stakes in the Shadwell silks and now better known as the dam of champion two-year-old filly Campanelle.

But instead of expanding his broodmare band in line with his industry experience,

Caburn: winning the Weatherbys Super Sprint, the Twilight Son colt was sold by Dutfield for 24,000gns

Dutfield grew his bloodstock interests through his pinhooking exploits, which began in earnest in 2010.

His first purchase may not have turned a life-changing profit, with the Avonbridge filly Flirtinaskirt going from a 1,500gns foal to a £11,000 yearling. However, she highlighted Dutfield’s uncanny knack of unearthing above average talents as she retired to the paddocks as a winner and later bred Group 2 Temple Stakes scorer Liberty Beach.

“I started pinhooking for fun really,” he says. “The first foal was Flirtinaskirt, who I bought from Paul Thorman. She cost 1,500gns and I sold her for £11,000.

“I reinvested the next year and that’s how it’s happened, I’ve just kept rolling it on. When Mum and Dad died in 2016 I had to start running it as a business, I needed the money to make ends meet and stay at the farm. Thankfully it went really well.”

A Jeremy colt bought in 2012 proved rather more of an instant success.

“Kool Kompany was by a National Hunt stallion, but he was a big black and white horse who was light on his feet with a superb walk,” says Dutfield. “I really liked him and

I would love to see stallion books capped so we see a bit more variation; I like to give the market something a bit different

when the hammer came down at €8,000 I remember thinking ‘What have I missed?’

“When I went down to see him again the vendor had disappeared, which I also thought couldn’t be a good sign. The horse was back in his box stuffing his face and looked at me as if to say ‘I’m not showing again, bugger off!’

“I took him home and he was always a lovely character to deal with.”

Kool Kompany turned a tidy profit when bought by Peter and Ross Doyle

for £40,000, and duly proved himself a high-class racing talent. A scan through Dutfield’s graduates shows that, unlike many pinhookers, an in-vogue sire is not something he prioritises.

“I don’t care how well it’s bred, if it doesn’t do it for me, I won’t buy it,” he says. “Whereas if it’s not particularly well bred, but everything else is there, I’ll give it a go.

“That approach has done me well and I regularly buy unfashionable stock.

“I had Caburn, who’s by Twilight Son, Kool Kompany is by Jeremy and Azure Blue is by El Kabeir. I would love to see stallion books capped so we see a bit more variation; I like to give the market something a bit different.”

He adds, “There’s got to be something in the pedigree that can sell the dream, though. That’s really what you’re selling. People who buy these horses can’t seriously expect to get a return, so you want to sell them a good time. The only way you can offer that is by having something in the pedigree that might suggest that horse has the potential to go to Royal Ascot or the big meetings, or achieve a good rating.”

HAVING SOLD the family farm after his parents passed away, Dutfield is now based in the village of Blo Norton, roughly 12 miles from Shadwell’s Thetford operation. He named the property Saint Ann Stud after the patron saint of equestrians and “more importantly,” he adds, “the patron saint of poverty!”

Upgrading the “run-down chicken farm” is an ongoing process, but the stud has stood up to the test as Dutfield has prepped a team of 22 yearlings ahead of this year’s sales.

“It needed a lot of work,” he says. “I’ve knocked down three barns, put in 12 stables, a six-stall horse walker and a 60ft lunge pit. I actually overdid the lunge pit as I have to squint to see the horse at the end of the line!”

The farm is not only where Dutfield preps his pinhooks, but where he keeps his select broodmare band – and an important old friend enjoying a well-earned retirement.

“I’ve still got Gladiatrix,” he says. “She’s got an Ardad filly who’s a little mini-me

Kool Kompany: one of Dutfield’s early pinhooks, turned from an €8,000 foal into a £40,000 yearling

harry dutfield

and she’s in-foal to Havana Grey, which I’m really excited about. The old mare is still going too, Lady Dom’s 25 and retired now.”

Dutfield will present ten lots at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, with the draft made up of pinhooks and clients’ yearlings.

Among the group there is an Ardad halfbrother to Arabie and two homebreds from Elwick Stud. The latter are both by Sea The Stars, with a filly out of Lancashire Oaks (G2) runner-up Makawee and a half-brother to the Listed-winning Lava Stream.

“These are proper middle distance threeyear-old types,” he says. “I don’t really pinhook that type, but the athleticism of the pair of them is just incredible.

“It’s a pleasure to be entrusted with them in the first place, and it makes me think I must be doing something right if a farm

I’ve taken the best bits that I’ve learned from all the different places I’ve worked

such as Elwick Stud has noticed me and is sending yearlings by Sea The Stars.”

On his approach to prep, Dutfield says, “I’ve taken the best bits that I’ve learned from all the different places I’ve worked.

“At some places it felt a bit machine-like, but I’m not like that at all. I’m all for giving them time because they’re only babies. These are embryonic champions so I want to make

sure they’re done properly. It varies from horse to horse; feed, work, turnout, it’s all done to the individual.”

Despite an increasing appreciation of his talents from within the industry, Dutfield says there are no grand designs on expansion in the immediate future. If his methods won’t be changing any time soon, it stands to reason that we can expect the quality of his results to be maintained too.

“I like being boutique and don’t need to be a big somebody,” he says. “I’m quite happy to operate at my own level.

“I was fully booked for yearlings by February. I actually had to turn yearlings away, which either means I’m not charging enough or I’m doing something right. Or maybe it could be both?”

Suffice to say, Dutfield’s results speak for themselves.

Dutfield’s lucky racing colours could be hitting the track again soon

HARRY DUTFIELD might be best known for his pinhooking feats, but he has also enjoyed his share of luck as a racehorse owner. This was true when Lady Dominatrix and her daughter Gladiatrix won ten races between them, and we could see the Dutfield silks again if he decides to race his half-sister to Melbourne Cup hero Without A Fight.

The three-year-old Iceni Fire was bred during the time Dutfield owned Without A Fight’s dam Khor Sheed. The daughter of Dubawi was bought at the 2019 December Sales, about six months before the subsequent Melbourne Cup winner made his debut.

Dutfield says, “I actually did Khor Sheed as a yearling when I worked at John Troy’s. She was from Dubawi’s first crop so lots of people were saying they can’t walk, they’re quite thick set and not athletes! I really liked her though and she was just the sort of stamp I look for. She was also one of Dubawi’s first black-type horses as she won a Listed race as a two-year-old.

The Melbourne Cup winner Without A Fight: Dutfield has his half-sister Iceni Fire, and might put her into training

“I only went up to her later sale to say hello to her because it’s not often you get the chance to see them again all those years later.

“I was talking to Carwyn Johns of Greyridge Bloodstock and, I know this is bad, but I was half-listening to what he was saying and half-listening to the auctioneer when she was in the ring.

“All of a sudden I said ‘Carwyn, stop. I’m going to have to go in and bid.’ I got her for 26,000gns.”

That was a snip considering the Godolphin cast-off was a half-sister to a Group 1 winner, was in-foal to Havana Gold and had already bred a winner. Things got even better as Khor Sheed’s first foal emerged as the dam of US Grade 2 winner Avenue De France.

When Without A Fight won the Group 3 Silver Cup Stakes, Dutfield decided to cash out. He resold Khor Sheed to BBA Ireland for 28,000gns the February before Without A Fight won the Melbourne Cup.

There is clearly no regret about moving the mare on before her biggest achievement, though, not least because he sold her Showcasing filly for £82,000 and now has Iceni Fire, a Cityscape half-sister to the Melbourne Cup winner, to look forward to.

“I sent Khor Sheed to Cityscape in 2020 because her half-brother by Selkirk [Prince Kirk] won a Group 1 and her granddaughter, Avenue De France, who’s by Cityscape, won a Grade 2 in America,” he says.

“So the Selkirk and Cityscape link up had worked through the family and I wanted to put a bit of size into the mare. It didn’t work unfortunately and the daughter came out just like the mother.

“I haven’t quite decided whether to put her into training or whether to breed from her. I’m not afraid of giving her time though. Avenue De France only got going when she was five and Without A Fight was at his best at six.

“It’d be exciting to put her into training, so I might put a syndicate together and have a laugh with her. Watch this space!”

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2024/25 Race Programme

photo finish: the youth take over

AT THE RECENT Tattersalls Somerville Sale and the September Horses In Training Sale, teenagers and 20-somethings were the ones busy doing deals.

At the yearling sale, Rauri Kilmartin’s first-ever pinhook turned him a significant profit, the Dark Angel filly he had purchased for €7,000 as a foal selling to Paul Corrigan for 70,000gns.

The 16-year-old Kilmartin (right), who should have been at school but had been given some time off to get to Tatttersalls (with the grace of his teachers), thanked the support of his father Dermot, and Roger O’Callaghan of Tally-Ho Stud, whom he has been working alongside.

Kilmartn is likely to be based at the busy County Meath farm for some of his transition year.

At the September Sale, the 20-year-old Adam Burton was active on the other side of two equine transactions, working as agent for clients from the Middle East.

Burton has spent time with trainers Roger Fell and Adrian Keatley, whom he says has been something of a mentor to him.

Burton, who admits he picked up his new customers by randomly chatting at the sales last year, spent 52,000gns and 35,000gns on the two horses in training.

The young man is already looking forward to being busy at the October HIT Sale.

The future of our industry looks secure with the likes of these two working hard to forge themselves exciting careers.