Where champions grow

Aisling Crowe chats with Matt Gilsenan, stud manager at Norelands Stud, producer of the five-time Group 1 winner St Mark’s Basilica, about this autumn’s October Book 1 yearling draft

Where champions grow

NORELANDS STUD in Kilkenny’s stunning Nore Valley has a long and storied heritage that traces back over a century but possesses an equally glorious present with the dams of recent champions residing on the McCalmont family’s farm, watching over the next generation of potential superstars.

The racecourses of Europe have been the stage on which luminaries such as St Mark’s Basilica, Golden Horn and Magna Grecia have shone, but their relations have also dazzled in the Tattersalls sales ring.

In 2019, Norelands sold two of the five most expensive colts at Tattersalls October Book 1 – one was the 3.1m guineas Frankel half-brother to European champion Golden Horn, while the other was the Siyouni halfbrother to that year’s 2,000 Guineas hero Magna Grecia,who was subsequently named St. Mark’s Basilica.

The Frankel colt was named Dhahabi, was purchased by Godolphin and is the most expensive Frankel yearling sold at public auction in Europe.

He finished third in the Group 3 Autumn Stakes behind subsequent Group 1 Vertem Futurity second One Ruler and Van Gogh, who went on to win the Group 1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud.

At last year’s Book 1, Dhahabi’s full-sister brought a winning bid of 2m guineas from Godolphin, while St Mark’s Basilica’s full-brother failed to meet the valuation placed on him by his breeder Bob Scarborough – despite his older brother providing him with a Group 1 update prior to the sale when third in the National Stakes (G1) at The Curragh.

That colt has since been named Paris Lights and put into training with Jessica Harrington, while St Mark’s Basilica has gone on to win five Group 1 races in succession – the Vertem Futurity on his final start at two, and then the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, the Prix du Jockey Club, the Eclipse Stakes and the Irish Champion Stakes (G1).

The constitution and talent required to win consistently at the highest level were apparent in the embryonic racehorse, who was purchased by MV Magnier from Norelands for 1.3m guineas in 2019.

“When he came to the sales we were in good shape with such an update like that Magna Grecia’s Classic victory and he was very well received,” explains Norelands Stud’s manager Matt Gilsenan.

Where champions grow

“St Mark’s Basilica was a gorgeous horse, not over-big, with a beautiful action and an unbelievable temperament. When you are showing a horse for four full days before they sell it tests their temperament hugely, but St Mark’s Basilica was brilliant. I think that has been a major part in his success.”

Although neither his dam Cabaret nor Fleche D’Or, the dam of Golden Horn, has a yearling going to Newmarket this autumn, the Norelands draft for Book 1 does not lack star appeal.

The stud’s very first yearling (Lot 42) due through the ring this year has a pedigree that would adorn any of the best training and breeding establishments the world over.

When you are showing a horse for four full days before they sell, it tests their temperament hugely

She is a daughter of Kingman out of Galileo Gal, a Galileo half-sister to three brilliant Group 1 winners – Alpha Centauri, Alpine Star, and this year’s Moyglare Stakes winner Discoveries whose Curragh win gives a significant update to the catalogue page.

The fillies’ third dam is the champion East Of The Moon and her fourth the outstanding Miesque.

“She is owned by a very good client and friend of ours Craig Bernick. It’s a fantastic family and she is a very typical Kingman – very pretty with just enough bone, a really quality and lovely moving filly who should be very exciting at the sales,” says Gilsenan.

“It’s a lovely first cover and the mare has a gorgeous Lope De Vega filly on the ground. She is a lovely mare herself, but this is a really quality filly and with a page like that we should be busy if it all works out!”

THE YEARLINGS that Norelands consigns at Tattersalls are, as with the mares on the farm, a mixture of those owned by clients and others in which the farm owns a part.

Lot 60 from the first crop of Coolmore’s Group 1 2,000 Guineas and Racing Post Trophy winner Saxon Warrior is one of the latter; owned by Norelands alongside the novelist and author Patrick Robinson.

“The colt is a half-brother to Parchemin, who we also bred, and who is with André Fabre. He has won a Listed race in France at two and three and was fifth to St Mark’s Basilica in the Prix du Jockey Club.”

Parchemin is the first winner out of Hint Of Pink and his Ribchester half-sister was the second highest-priced yearling from the first crop of the four-time Group 1 winner when she went through the ring in Book 2 making 300,000gns.

“The Ribchester filly was bought by Demi O’Byrne for Peter Brant and is in America. This is a very strong, big-walking colt with a great back page. Hopefully, Parchemin will run again before the sale and give another update to the page.”

The Saxon Warrior colt features inbreeding to Galileo – his broodmare sire is Teofilo, the first champion two-year-old sired by the phenomenal stallion. Saxon Warrior, a grandson of Galileo, out of another of his juvenile champions in Maybe, is a stallion that has impressed Gilsenan with the quality of his progeny.

St Mark's Basilica (above) at Tattersalls, and, below, winning the Eclipse Stakes at Sandown

“We love Saxon Warrior, obviously he has a fantastic pedigree, but he has some very good foals and we were impressed with them. We sold a couple last year and they were very easy-moving,” he remarks.

Sea The Stars recently added a 16th individual Group 1 winner to his growing resume of stars and the champion threeyear-old of 2009 is responsible for half of the Norelands draft at Book 1 this autumn.

The sire’s 15th Group 1 winner Baaeed is one of three by Sea The Stars out of Kingmambo mares and that is exactly the cross offered by Norelands in Lot 140, a chestnut filly out of the German Listed winner and Group 3-placed Mambo Light.

She is already the dam of six winners, including the Australian Group 3 winner Le Juge by Dansili and the French Listed winner Frankel Light.

“Again it’s an unbelievable pedigree. She’s all quality, absolutely beautiful and she belongs to Bob as well,” outlines Gilesnan. “Lot 140 is a beauty – a filly as good as her and with that page should be busy on the sale ground. With these well-bred fillies, you have a ten-year plan really, whereas with a colt I suppose there is a higher risk, there’s really only one shot with them.”

Lot 140 is a beauty – a filly as good as her and with that page should be busy on the sale ground. With these well-bred fillies, you have a ten-year plan really, whereas with a colt I suppose there is a higher risk, there’s really only one shot with them

That pedigree Gilsenan enthuses about is another Niarchos gem and goes back to her third dam, the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes winner Aviance (Northfields). She is the dam of multiple US Grade 1 winner Denon, as well as the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes and Coronation Stakes winner Chimes Of Freedom, who in turn is the dam of US champion sprinter and sire Aldebaran.

Aviance’s Firth of Clyde Stakes-winning daughter Imperfect Circle is the dam of Spinning World and second dam of 2019 Preakness winner War Of Will and Group 1 National Stakes winner Pathfork.

LOT 280 is a son of Sea The Stars and the first foal of Soltada, a Dawn Approach half-sister to Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes winner Margot Did, who has foaled the Grade 1 Belmont Invitational Stakes winner Magic Attitude and the Group 2 Prix de Sandringham winner Mission Impassible to Sea The Stars’s half-brother, and Dawn Approach’s grandsire, Galileo.

“We bought Soltada in France as a threeyear-old and own her in partnership with Patrick. The colt comes from a lovely family and is inbred to Urban Sea, which is proving to be quite successful!” Gilsenan adds.

Also proving to be continually successful is Norelands Stud and, with the normal amount of luck and good health everyone requires, they will also have a draft of gems for the 2022 yearling sales, not least the halfbrothers to their most recent diamonds.

“This year Cabaret had a Kingman halfbrother to St Mark’s Basilica, and Fleche D’Or has a Kingman colt as well.

“The last two years at the sales with Fleche D’Or have been incredible, unbelievable really. Hopefully, her Frankel filly will run soon – she’s named Princesse D’Or and is with Charlie Appleby. Dhahabi was injured, but the word is that he is on his way back.”

Fleche D’Or has a Sea The Stars yearling filly, who is very closely related to Golden Horn, on the Kilkenny farm, but she won’t be seeing the inside of a sales ring with the Fleche D’Or partnership understandably eager to maintain that bloodline.

Fleche D’Or’s 2014 Acclamation daughter Cercle D’Or is a member of the Norelands broodmare band and Gilsenan is firmly of the belief that it pays to buy into the families from the great breeding establishments.

“Anthony Oppenheimer has done such an amazing job with that pedigree, we bought Fleche D’Or before Golden Horn had even run, but what an incredible achievement to keep those families producing Group 1 winners like that,” he exclaims.

“It’s a lesson for all of us that if you buy off the really top breeders such as Hascombe, Juddmonte, Coolmore and all these operations who have access to the best bloodlines you always have a chance of success with it. We have always tried to do that at the sales.”

Success breeds success. A look through the Norelands draft for the 2021 Tattersalls October Book 1 Sale, and a glance at the farm’s history at the Newmarket sales’ complex, supports that well-worn maxim.