ITB September-October 2022: Remembering the late Queen Elizabeth II

PROVEN

GR.1 SIRE AND SIRE OF SIRES

Proven source of 2yo speed with 37% winnersrunners with his 2yos, higher than Kodiac, Dark Angel, Mehmas, Dandy Man , Night Of Thunder, Showcasing, Starspangledbanner, Exceed And Excel etc.

“He’s just improving all the time and to be unbeaten in four as a juvenile is pretty hard to do. There’s no reason why he can’t be a Guineas horse.”

Eve Johnson Houghton, trainer of Streets Of Gold

Streets Of Gold, unbeaten in 4 starts at 2

2022 German Derby-Gr.1 and Grosser Dallmayr-PreisGr.1 winner SAMMARCO

It has been my dream for 35 years to get the Derby winner and now I have done it as an owner and breeder with a horse from my own stud who is from a mare by my stallion. It is the dream of my life.

Helmut von Finck, TDN July 5th

YOU CAN’T WIN YOU’RE NOT IN IF

BREEDERS’ CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS

Keeneland • Nov. 4 & 5, 2022 • 14 Grade I Championship Races $31 million in Purses and Awards

It’s time to take your place on the world stage, pre-entry for the 2022 Breeders’ Cup World Championships opens October 1 and closes at Noon (ET), on Monday, October 24. All Breeders’ Cup World Championships races are non-invitational and are open to all thoroughbreds competing around the globe.

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For your copy of the Horsemen’s Information Guide, visit members.breederscup.com or contact the Breeders’ Cup Racing Department.

SCAN TO PRE-ENTER

Sir Alfred Munnings (British, 1878-1959) GOING OUT EPSOM, Oil on canvas, 35” x 50”, Signed

David Shepherd (British, 1937-2017) LION IN THE SERENGETI, Oil on canvas, 24” x 52”, Signed, dated ‘75

Sir Alfred Munnings (British, 1878-1959) PUNTING AT SUNSET,

on canvas, 14” x 18”, Signed

Sir Alfred Munnings (British, 1878-1959) HOP PICKERS AT HAMPSHIRE, Oil on canvas, 25” x 30”, Signed

12 RIP Queen Elizabeth II

A pictorial tribute to the late sovereign

22 A legend and a tutor

Ted Voute remembers his friend and mentor, the bloodstock agent and stud manager James Delahooke, who passed away in September

24 Girls Aloud

Cathy Grassick remembers Jack de Bromhead and others we have recently lost

28 A blockbuster weekend

One weekend in GB and Ireland and France featured 25 stakes races, six Group 1s – Aisling Crowe reviews the action which saw Luxembourg at his very best, Tahiyra land a Group 1 on just her second start and Dubawi sire his first St Leger winner.

38 Sweet success

ParisLongchamp warmed up for its showcase meeting with a day of Arc trials, which saw Sweet Lady impress with a pillar-to-post Group 2 victory

42 Stallion statistics

Leading European Flat sires

48 Epicentre at the heart of the action

Melissa Bauer-Herzog rounds up the big-race action at Saratoga August, headed up by Epicenter’s deserved Grade 1 Travers Stakes victory

52 Learning by numbers

In order to plan the future of the sport through the current troubled waters, Jocelyn de Moubray compares European racing to 25 years ago and sees a massive growth in the number of races

60 Six of the best

Since selling its first draft at Tattersalls just six years ago, Hazelwood Bloodstock has achieved some hugely impressive results, Martin Stevens talks to manager Adrian O’Brien

72 Business start up

Eddie Linehan talks about the exciting plans for his new multi-faceted and comprehensive bloodstock agency

78 A growing reputation

James Thomas talks to Barton Stud’s Tom Blain about the stud’s draft for Tattersalls which includes three by Frankel, two by Galileo and a Dubawi filly

84 Equine growth data

We report on this summer’s Saracen conferences at which nutritionist Joe Pagan outlined his latest research into thoroughbred growth patterns

92 Porter’s pedigrees

In the second part of his series, Alan Porter explains how sire and dam DNA works together

98 Photo finish

Queen Elizabeth’s stud visits to the Irish National Stud in 2011 and then to meet Frankel at Juddmonte in 2016

Queen Elizabeth II from alamy

Queen Elizabeth II with her corgis watching Prince Philip compete in the European Driving Championship at the 1973 Royal Windsor Horse Show

A nation mourns

SO WE ARE HERE, THE QUEEN IS DEAD AND BURIED.

Queen Elizabeth II: the only person in the whole of history who has been central or within touching distance, just a telephone call or a letter away, to so many world-defining events through a 90-year period.

The last couple of weeks have really brought into sharp focus her time – working alongside Churchill, her first prime minister, as a new Queen only just into her mid-20s, to shaking the hand of her last as she was facing the end of life in her 90s.

The Queen met President Eisenhower as the impact of World War II still held the world in its grip, watched rocket ships land on the Moon on a black and white TV in Buckingham Palace, was threatened by the prospect of nuclear detention at the height of the Cold War, greeted the first British female Prime Minister and saw a world changed as media, telecommunications, technology, industry, science, and transport have all developed at the rapid pace we have come to expect.

In a world that seems to turn faster and faster, and seems to get ever more precious about itself, she never ever rushed or seemed to be anything less than serene. One of her many highly acclaimed talents.

I did not meet her, apart from once when nearly getting in her way in the parade ring at Royal Ascot; me rushing on behalf of an impatient boss at Racenews to try and get quotes from placed connections before they disappeared into hospitality, she being ushered along by her security and the ever-present Johnny Weatherby for that race’s award-giving duties. She was just so small. I like to think we caught each other’s eyes and she smiled at the silly media girl; I hope she saw the funny side as my badly-fitting and cheaply-bought fascinator fell off the back of my head as I ran on, dictaphone clutched in hand.

The day Estimate won her Royal Ascot race was, of course, fabulous, crowds hurrying from the racecourse side of the stands to the winners’ enclosure, desperate to get a spot to see The Queen greet her heroic filly. Hats were raised and the obligatory ‘Three Cheers’ rang out, the day’s racegoers so pleased to be able to report to others and recall that they “were there”.

That human need to claim the same again was revealed after The Queen’s death as witnessed by the snaking trails that criss-crossed the streets of London and followed the silver Thames as people patiently queued for hours to see her lying in state.

So many have been in tears.

I did not understand what the phrase “a nation grieves” really means. But in those early days after her death a broadsheet journalist, I can’t remember who, wrote that there is a “grief within grief”; for those who have lost loved ones those feelings of loss and emptiness have sharply re-surfaced, grabbing those always tender hooks on which to give yet more sharp tugs.

For those we know in our own racing family, who have recently felt their lives squeezed by the passing of someone close, our hearts and our grief is with you.

It could be seen as strange in such a modern world for a nation to grieve at the passing of a woman whom most of us didn’t know and who was long into her old age. It does give some credence to the important role of a sovereign head of state, the sense of national being, and an appreciation of duty served and a job well done.

I am not going to get into a debate about the ongoing relevance of a constitutional monarchy or how tightly future crowns should be worn, but the importance of continuity is one that the 1,000-year-old Royal family, through its long and varied lineage, fully understands.

In Britain, possibly because of our constitution or inspite of, who knows, we no longer live in country when a period of void could lead to rebellion and armed power struggle. But for most of us this is the first time we are really comprehending what happens when there is a change of head of state, and what the head of state actually stands for.

If being cynical it could be argued that continuity is fully in the Royal family’s interests within the biggest power game of all.

But from a national viewpoint, whatever you believe that to be, more of the same, particularly as we travel through this winter’s unfolding economic knife edge nd political quagmire, is just what is needed.

With a new King, change will come, but for now change can wait a while.

“ In a world that seems to turn faster and faster, and seems to get ever more precious about itself, she never ever rushed or seemed to be anything less than serene. Just one of her many highly acclaimed talents

Top left: leading in her Oaks winner Carrozza (Dante ex Calash (Hyperion)) with Lester Piggott in the saddle, 1957

Bottom left: The Queen congratulates her trainer Cecil Boyd-Rochfort in the winners’ enclosure after Aureole (Hypreion-Angelola (Donatello)) won the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot. It was a good day for The Queen – Landau won the first race on the card, the Rous Memorial Stakes, and in the next, the Windsor Castle Stakes, Corporal finished a good second. It was the fourth day of the Royal meeting in 1954

Above: Landau ran in the Epsom Derby and here Queen Elizabeth and The Queen Mother watch the parade before the 1954 Classic

Top right: with Estimate (Monsun ex Ebaziya (Darshaan)) in the Royal Ascot winners’ enclosure after the filly’s fine success in the Gold Cup, 2013

Bottom right: in 2019 Queen Elizabeth visited champion NH trainer Paul Nicholls at Manor Farm Stables, Ditcheat. In the photo she is feeding carrots to the subsequent three-time Grade 2 winner McFabulous. She met all the staff and horses at the yard and also heard from the University of Bath about a research project it was then working on looking into equestrian sport spinal injuries and racehorse welfare

Top left: As was the then tradition, before the Royal Ascot crowds arrived at the racecourse, those of The Queen’s Windsor Castle-based guests who rode always had a ‘race’ up the Ascot straight from the Old Mile Post to the finish post. This photo is from 1958 and shows The Queen taking part, apparently that year’s winner was Princess Margaret

Bottom left: Katie Jerram-Hunnable holds the 16-year-old Barbers Shop at Windsor Castle ahead of his retirement ceremony at the 75th Royal Windsor Horse Show. He was one of the last to be bred by The Queen Mother. When she passed away in 2002 he and all her horses were gifted to The Queen

Below: Queen Elizabeth and the Queen Mother watching the 1994 Derby. The race was won by Erhaab (Chief’s Crown)

Top right: with jockey Joe Mercer and trainer Dick Hern after Highclere won the 1,000 Guineas. Dam Highlight was a daughter of Hypericum, King George VI’s 1946 1,000 Guineas winner

Second right: the opening of the Nippon Electric Company in Livingston in 1983

Bottom right: with daughter Princess Anne (right) and grand-daughter Zara Phillips at Windsor in 2004

Far left: with the Duke of Edinburgh at the 1968 Badminton Horse Trials. That’s year’s event was won by Jane Holderness-Roddam (nee Bullen) on Our Nobby, who only measured 14.3hh and is the joint-smallest horse to win the three-day event

Top left: VE Day with her parents and sister on the balcony at Buckingham Palace, May 8, 1945

Second left: The Queen presenting Mother Teresa with an Honorary Order of Merit in 1983

Third left: riding with President Reagan at Windsor Castle in 1982

Bottom left: in 1959 with President Eisenhower leaving the airstrip at St. Hubert, Quebec. The Queen had greeted the President and his wife on their arrival in Canada.

Above: the fourth running of the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes won by Aureole in 1954.

The win was described then as “one of the most popular victories in British Turf history”.

Apparently the Queen was heard to remark: “Wasn’t it a wonderful performance? I hope all Sandringham are on it.”

As part of the victory celebration, the Queen sent champagne to the Press tent.

TED TALKS...

A legend and a tutor

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IN 1980 I had two job interviews kindly set up by Ivor Herbert and Chris Collins – one was at Barleythorpe Stud where Mummy’s Pet stood and the other was at Adstock Manor Stud where High Line was standing.

It was at that moment that my life took its first incredibly lucky turn.

Both interviews went well –Mr David Gibson at Barleythorpe was charming, but my interview with James Delahooke made me identify a career path that I hadn’t realised was possible.

James must have been 42 years old – he had tons of energy and interest, and experience of running his stud farm.

It was my first proper job. I was paid £35 per week and lived in Ryan’s Cottage, which was in the Hunter yard run by George Cook.

James was an avid country sportsman. He hunted whenever he could and owned the 1987 Foxhunters Chase winner Border Burg.

I had signed up for the student stud hand job, and there was so much going on in this little village of Adstock.

The Thatched Inn was a favourite watering hole where locals would gather on a Friday night. James had many many good friends – Eddie Bulman, a renowned batchelor, often grazed the paddocks with his sheep and Eddie still buys my sheep today.

Johnny Christie looked after Jack Peveril’s farm on the other side of the village, and the film producer Denis O’Dell and his wife Donna lived in the White House. They bred a few horses, too, and James always helped them out.

Bill Lloyd was the stud groom for many years, and in those days the stud was made up of a lovely central yard, with the stallion boxes by the house where High Line’s handler Clive Newland lived.

James was always improving the stud – I think the local builder Paul Terkelson must have thought he won the lottery!

James was a very loyal person and many of us came through the stud at the start of our working lives – Adrian Dangar, David Redvers, Andy Dive were all students based ther efor around a year.

James didn’t have the patience to teach you, but if you kept your mouth shut and your ears open there was no end to the knowledge you could consume.

His natural stockmanship and farm management stood us in good stead for years to come.

In the early 1980s, High Line started to get going, which back then that meant 45 mares was a full book!

The lay-out at Adstock meant you had to walk through the same gates to get to the rest of the farm. Adstock was a clay farm – bottomless in the winter – James was always putting in ironstone pathways; treating the mud

fever was a full-time job.

Working at Adstock was a life style, almost a commune. James was always inviting us somewhere be it for a day on one of his hunters or driving to race tracks such as Huntingdon to watch his hunter chasers.

He had a white Tickford Capri, which I was a allowed to drive to Henley-on-Thames when James was building that first stud farm for Prince Khalid Abdullah. On that trip I met Simon Mockeridge and Terry Campbell; Simon, of course, is still with Juddmonte.

I remember marvelling at the round foaling boxes that Keith Warth had designed under James’ direction.

At the time I was smitten by my drive in the Tickford, but when I look

back to those formative years much was learnt “the James way.”

He didn’t do chit chat. He had an opinion and didn’t want to clutter his mind with nonsense.

I remember trying to talk to him about the up-and-coming sires who had just had a winner or two and looked exciting, but he never let them impress him till they were leading sires.

James had this ability to separate all the noise from the business and focus on the successful stuff.

He surrounded himself with good people, experts in the areas he didn’t have time to keep up with and looked for concise reporting.

Pedigree expert Bill Oppenheim, part of his buying team, was always consulted on the likelihood of a yearling being able to perform at the highest level.

James liked vets who had an opinion, but didn’t give him a conformation report. He wrote positive things in his catalogue, and very little if they were nice.

James had his team which didn’t change much over the years; he was loyal.

In a way we where all frightened of him as students – he often would pop up in paddocks whist you where cleaning water troughs or harrowing in the furthest paddock to make sure it was done properly.

RIP james delahooke www.internationalthoroughbred.net22 xxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Farms were his thing, fresh ground, new land; he believed in the land he raised horses on.

Ted Voute remembers the late James Delahooke, bloodstock agent and stud manager

James had this ability to separate all the noise from the business and focus on the successful stuff “

“

Although not reliant on feed, he was innovative with Dodson and Horrell and helped design the first balancer Fed Up as an additive to mix with the oats he bought in bulk from Banks.

I often think back to the days at Adstock where James was in his element looking after his own farm with Angie and the kids and his black labradors.

He had been due to go to Keeneland September where everybody loved to see him alongside his brother Matthew. He has always been a good friend and at one point lived in a cottage on the Adstock commune.

I remember being summoned one day – James had given Matthew the family dining room table.

The table was too large to fit in Matt’s cottage so he sold it, but had not told James who might have been offended that was sold.

We got it on the lorry having struggled with it on the main road through Adstock,just before James reappeared.

Later on James was instrumental in our consigning business under Adstock Manor Stud until its sale, when I went out on my own.

We did many things together at that time of our lives.

He brought back Master Willie to stand at Adstock and asked me to manage the farm whilst he continued to pursue his agency business.

He had some great one liners many I use to this day. The one that sticks in my head was, “Never let a vet manage your farm.”

James really was a legend; a tutor and fiercely protective of those who had worked for him over the years.

Not only did he buy so many wonderful horses, he was proud of the farms he set up or advised, including Juddmonte, Eydon Hall and

Lawn Stud to mention but a few.

the day after James’s death, and it reminded me of my only meeting with her.

Sales-sponsored Warwickshire Oaks with Set To Music in 2012.

who asked if I would like to present the perennial trophy to The Queen the next day at Royal Ascot after the Queen Anne which Frankel won.

all over – I was petrified to say the wrong thing. I froze handing her the trophy in the Royal Box and Her Majesty quietly suggested we find a shelf to put the trophy on!

James Delahooke

Photo: Tattersalls | Laura Green

....Girls aloud

THERE IS LITTLE DOUBT that the past month has been tinged with sadness on both sides of the Irish Sea. Such were the magnitude of those losses that the grief has not only been felt in our own bloodstock and racing communities, but also resonated with the wider public around the world.

The tragic circumstances surrounding the death of young Jack de Bromhead, son of Henry and Heather de Bromhead and brother to Mia and Georgia, was a huge shock to the horse world.

As the news of the accident spread to the wider public and the stories of what an incredible young man Jack was, the shock and sadness spread far and wide.

Jack was not only an incredibly talented young horseman, but was also adroit at most anything he turned his mind to – be it surfing, driving, tractors, rugby, gaelic sport, farming or just general mischief. His sisters, his twin Mia and Georgia, were devoted to him and his biggest fans; they spoke beautifully of their love for him, as did his parents and his father who gave the most beautiful message beseeching people that “whomever you love, make sure you tell them”.

He was a “one-of-a-kind” child who touched all our lives in the best way possible. I am sure that I can speak for any of the hundreds and hundreds of adults and children from all aspects of his life who were at his funeral, celebrating his extraordinary life, when I say that he will be forever held dear in our hearts.

The deepest sympathies are extended to all of his family and friends and anyone who knew him.

In stark contrast to the passing of a child, there was the sad passing of an incredible matriarch and monarch with the loss of HRH Queen Elizabeth II at the age of 96.

The Queen was a huge supporter of all aspects of equestrian sport and especially of horseracing, which she loved with a passion. She will be a huge loss not only to the Commonwealth and her family, but also to those who love horses and horseracing. Many people will fondly remember Her Majesty delightedly celebrating the victory of Estimate at Royal Ascot, her sheer enthusiasm for the sport was infectious. Such was her love of horses that she continued to ride and go racing well into her 90s.

She was an inspiration not just as a leader but as a woman and a breeder and racehorse owner, for her passion and dedication to her sport.

No more fitting a tribute was seen than her famous silks being carried up Warren Hill at the Newmarket Open Day by riders on two of her own horses trained in the town. The entire Commonwealth and horseracing community mourns the loss of an incredible monarch.

Only two days following on from Her Majesty’s passing, Irish

September 2022 will forever be remembered with great sadness, writes Cathy Grassick

Racing mourns

racing lost another incredible matriarch with the sad death of Mrs Evie (Magnier) Stockwell.

Incredibly, she was two years’ older than The Queen at 98, and passed away only a month after the death of her twin sister Mimi, Lady Manton.

Anyone who is familiar with top-class racing fillies would most certainly be familiar with the famous colours of pale blue and brown cross belts that were carried by so many superstars such as Lahinch, Brave Anna and Fairyland.

She was also a wonderful breeder of horses and a formidable opponent on the golf course – which is where her colt Hit It A Bomb earned his name.

MOST FAMOUSLY Mrs Stockwell is known as the mother and grandmother and indeed great grandmother of an incredible legacy of horsemen and women through her sons John Magnier of Coolmore Stud, Peter Magnier of Brittas House Stud, who sadly predeceased her, David Magnier of Grange Stud, and her devoted daughter Anne O’Callaghan of Tally-Ho Stud.

Evie Stockwell was an inspirational woman who had a kind word for everyone she met and a huge interest in how all of her horses were cared for – she was an unstoppable force who continued to drive well into her 90s and who was passionate about following her horses and her family in their many successes. Our deepest condolences to all her family and many friends – we may not see her like again.

It is a wonderful characteristic of our industry that, when faced with challenges, we all pull together and support each other in our difficulties and our grief. While this has been a time of great mourning it has been also wonderful to see the support and care and respect given to those that we have lost and to those who have lost them.

We can only hope going forward for better times ahead and as we face into the yearling sales, wish success and good luck to both the buyers and sellers alike in their endeavours.

JUMBY

WITH THE LOSS of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and the subsequent cancellation of the Friday and Saturday Doncaster St Leger meeting cards, including the Classic itself, it meant that the major races from those days were concentrated into Sunday’s extra day.

With Day 2 of the Irish Champions Weekend also taking place it produced a day’s racing in Britain and Ireland like no other – 25 stakes races and six Group 1s.

The Group 1 Doncaster St Leger winner boasts an interesting pedigree.

Eldar Eldarov was bred by Kirsten Rausing out of the Listed winner All At Sea, a Sea The Stars daughter of Group 1 winner Albanova so from the outstanding family of Alruccaba.

He is the third foal out of All At Sea, who won three Listed races at 2000m and 2100m for Rausing and trainer André Fabre. She is from the first crop of Sea The Stars and her first foal, a daughter of Invincible Spirit named A La Voile, was third in the Listed Rothesay Stakes at Ayr last season.

All At Sea is a half-sister to the German Listed winner Alwilda (Hernando), who is the dam of Alpinista. Her five Group 1 victories so far include a hat-trick of German wins in 2021 and a last time out success in the Yorkshire Oaks.

By the time you read this she might have run in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, too.

Eldar Eldarov was sold by Staffordstown Stud for £110,000 at the Goffs Orby Sale, held in Doncaster in 2020, to Norman Williamson. He prepared him for the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale and proceeded to make a handsome profit sold for £480,000 to Oliver St Lawrence Bloodstock.

Williamson is responsible for producing two of this year’s Classic winners – Native Trail, winner of the Irish 2,000 Guineas, passed through his hands before breezing at the Tattersalls Craven Sale.

What makes Eldar Eldarov of particular interest is the potency Dubawi is demonstrating with Sea The Stars mares. There are eight winners from 11 runners bred this way to date, with three of them stakes winners.

Eldar Eldarov: the St Leger winner, another Classic-winning breeze-up purchase, is bred on the emergingly successful Dubawi-Sea The Stars cross

Dubawi’s effectiveness with Sea The Stars’ half-brother Galileo has been extensively covered and it would appear that Sea The Stars is mixing as well with Dubawi as his older brother does.

The sample sizes are much smaller but the six-time Group 1 winner currently boasts a 21.4 per cent stakes winners-to-runners rate as a broodmare sire with Dubawi, while Galileo’s is 12.2 per cent, but from 74 runners.

Eldar Eldarov is the second Group 1 winner this season for Sea The Stars as a broodmare sire following on from Onesto’s victory in the Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris, a race in which Eldar Eldarov was fourth.

With Onesto beaten just half a length into second by Luxembourg in the Irish Champion Stakes the day before Eldar Eldarov’s Classic success, it was a good weekend all round for the Aga Khan Studs’ champion.

Luxembourg probably gave connections pause to regret what might have been were it not for the injury he sustained earlier in

the season, but that is in the past and his brilliant, determined victory at Leopardstown proved that the son of Camelot is one of the best around this season.

The Group 1-winning three-year-olds Onesto and Vadeni filled the lower steps of the podium at Leopardstown.

Third in the 2,000 Guineas having almost come to grief at the start, Luxembourg had looked to be Ballydoyle’s Derby hope but an injury scuppered his chances of emulating his sire Camelot at Epsom.

After around a month’s box rest to recuperate he returned to racing at The Curragh in August with a gritty but uninspiring win in the Group 3 Royal Whip Stakes when getting 5lb from the five-yearold mare Insinunedo. She went on to be a close second to Group 1 winner Above The Curve in the Group 2 Blandford Stakes, also on Irish Champions Weekend.

Speaking in the aftermath of Luxembourg’s return to glory trainer Aidan O’Brien reflected on the colt’s road to recovery.

“It was unbelievable from a lot of people, the whole team behind him,” he said. “We felt going to The Curragh he was only ready for a racecourse gallop, but we felt he couldn’t come here without a race and that is why we were so happy with him at The Curragh.

There is every chance that he could be better over a 1m4f, he wasn’t surrendering today and his head was in the cooker a long way up that straight

uk and ire racing

Luxembourg: put his interrupted campaign behind him in the Irish Champion Stakes

“He had 20–30 per cent to improve from The Curragh and you usually don’t run a horse in a Group race like that. The plan and the dream was we had mapped out three races for him if we could get him back – The Curragh, here and the Arc.

“He is obviously a very good horse, and for us, what he did in the Guineas where Ryan nearly fell off him and he was only beaten a length and three-quarters, to only be beaten that little was a massive achievement.

“Hopefully, he comes back and will be okay. There is every chance that he could be better over 1m4f, he wasn’t surrendering today and his head was in the cooker a long way up that straight and he didn’t stop. He’s brave.”

One of ten Group 1 winners for Camelot, Luxembourg was bred by Ben and Lucy Sangster out of Attire, a Danehill Dancer full-sister to the Group 3 Glorious Stakes and Wolferton Handicap winner Forgotten Voice.

ATTIRE IS ALSO a half-sister to the Group 3 Prix de Flore winner Australie by Sadler’s Wells and she is the dam of Listed winners Hawke and Mireille.

Second dam Asnieres is a winning daughter of Spend A Buck and boasts an impeccable Wildenstein pedigree.

She is a half-sister to the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) and Prix d’Ispahan (G1) winner Arcangues and to the Prix de Psyche (G3) winner and Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (G1) third Agathe. She is the dam of multiple Group 1-winning filly Aquarelliste (Danehill), who finished second in the Arc to Sakhee.

Interestingly, Aquarelliste’s four-year-old daughter Any Time Soon, who was a Listed winner at Clairefontaine in July, is also by Camelot.

Aquarelliste is a full-sister to the Grade 1 Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap winner Artiste Royal and to Annenkov, who was third in the Group 1 Railway Stakes Handicap.

Luxembourg’s two-year-old full-brother was the most expensive colt sold in Ireland last year when purchased by MV Magnier for

€1.2m at the Goffs Orby Sale from the draft of the Castlebridge Consignment.

Named Hiawatha, he was second on both of his first two starts and won his maiden at the third attempt, when successful at The Curragh in late August. Hiawatha holds Group 1 entries in the Dewhurst and the Vertem Futurity, a race won by both his brother and his sire.

On Irish Champions Weekend last year, the triple Group 1 winner Tarnawa was

the unlucky loser who was swept across the Leopardstown home straight by the errant run of St Mark’s Basilica in the Irish Champion Stakes (G1).

Nobody will ever know if the Aga Khan’s daughter of Shamardal would have beaten the son of his leading sire Siyouni, but with only three-parts of a length between the pair at the finish, and Tarnawa closing with every stride, the question remains open.

A year on there was a modicum of revenge for the family as her two-year-old Siyouni half-sister Tahiyra took the step up from Galway maiden winner to Group 1 heroine with consummate ease on just her second start in the Moyglare Stud Stakes (G1).

Trained, like Tarnawa, by Dermot Weld, Tahiyra was the most impressive winner of the entire weekend, beating a high-class field of more experienced fillies with nonchalance.

Winner on debut of the same Galway maiden that has produced Classic winners Legatissimo and Hermosa in recent years, Tahiyra has further enhanced that race’s reputation.

www.internationalthoroughbred

Breeding racehorses is very much about patience and it has been 100 years of the Aga Khan Studs this year

Tahiyra: the filly by Siyouni was massively impressive in the Moyglare, she won’t run again in 2022

Second placed was the hitherto unbeaten Meditate, whose four victories included Royal Ascot’s Albany Stakes (G3), the Group 2 Debutante Stakes and a Naas Group 3. Weld pointed to the strength of the form in noting how much Tahiyra had achieved at The Curragh.

“She did it very well,” the winning trainer remarked. “She has beaten a very high-class, multiple Group-winning filly and it was an excellent renewal of the race.

“As I said beforehand, I was afraid it might have come a little bit soon in her career and I have always said what a beautiful filly she will be next spring.

“She has progressed from Galway and we have a lot to look forward to.”

He was joined in the rainswept Curragh winners’ enclosure by a delighted Princess Zahra Aga Khan, who was thrilled that her family’s operation has another star in such an important year for the Aga Khan Studs.

“It was wonderful for all of us on the breeding team; to see this family produce another fantastic filly is a really great thing

and to watch her do that all by herself was just brilliant,” she said. “Dermot had given Chris [Hayes] some very clear instructions which he followed very well.”

The race victory came with an automatic berth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf at Keeneland in early November. but with her juvenile Group 1 success secured, Tahiyra will not be asked to attempt to emulate her sister by winning a Breeders’ Cup contest at this stage of her career.

“Breeding racehorses is very much about patience and it has been 100 years of the Aga Khan Studs this year so to see this filly coming up in the centenary year is very special,” Princess Zahra Aga Khan commented.

“We will discuss her future plans but that is it for this year,” Weld remarked in response to inquiries about further late autumn targets, as Tahiyra’s owner indicated they would draw stumps with the filly for 2022.

“There is tremendous stamina in the pedigree, brilliance and speed. We will

review it in the spring, but she will probably go for a Classic trial and one of the Guineas, but that is a long way down the line.”

Al Riffa’s success in the Group 1 Goffs Vincent O’Brien National Stakes was a milestone for young Donegal jockey Dylan Browne McMonagle, but it may also prove to have been the trickle that led to a dam burst in years to come as the colt is the first Group winner of any number by Wootton Bassett out of a Galileo mare, a cross that Coolmore in particular has placed a lot of faith in.

There have been just nine runners bred on the cross as Wootton Bassett’s early fee level would not have attracted many of the blueblooded daughters of Galileo he now regularly courts.

From five winners, Al Riffa is the first to earn black-type of any hue. Like Tahiyra he was having his first start in Group company after finishing second to Hans Andersen on debut and winning a Curragh maiden five weeks prior to this Group 1 victory, a race for which he was supplemented at a cost of €40,000.

Al Riffa (stars): by Wootton Bassett, he is the sire’s first top level-winning juvenile colt and first stakes winner out of a Galileo mare

“He was very straightforward from the gates, jumped, travelled great, he loved the soft conditions and I was very happy the whole way through,”said a delighted jockey.

“I gave him a little kick in the belly, he picked up well and put it to bed very quickly. It’s only the horse’s third run, he loved the ground and it was great to win with the owners here.”

Plans for Al Riffa could include a trip to Paris for the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagadère on Arc day.

Trained by Joseph O’Brien for Jassim Bin Ali Al Attiyah, Al Riffa is bred to be a middledistance star at the least.

His dam Love On My Mind is an unraced Galileo full-sister to the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes winner and Ascot Gold Cup second Mizzou.

She is also a full-sister to the Group 3 Give Thanks Stakes third Eternal Bounty and a three-parts sister to the Listed Salsabil Stakes and Martin Molony Stakes second Unity, dam of Listed Wildflower Stakes winner Crimean Tartar.

His second dam Moments Of Joy is a Listed-winning daughter of Darshaan and the Yorkshire Oaks and Prix Vermeille winner My Emma (Marju).

Al Riffa was bred by Haras d’Etreham et al and sold for €31,000 by Etreham to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock as a foal at Arqana in December 2020. Joseph O’Brien had to shell out significantly more for him as a yearling at Book 1 last year – 150,000gns – where Kilminfoyle House Stud consigned him.

Arqana’s North African representative and bloodstock agent Zied Romdhane picked up a bargain at the same Arqana sale where Al Riffa was sold.

He bought Love On My Mind, in-foal to Land Force, for just €11,000.

The fastest horse over the Irish Champions Weekend was the five-year-old Highfield Princess, who took the Group 1 Flying Five.

The daughter of Night Of Thunder has now won three Group 1s in three countries and on all sorts of ground.

She is a horse of a lifetime for ownerbreeder John Fairley and jockey Jason Hart. who said: “She’d run through a brick wall for you.

She heads to the Breeders’ Cup Sprint.

Highfield Princess: made it three Group 1 wins in three countries and on a variety of surfaces

Sweet success

CHRIS WRIGHT and his Stratford Place Stud have a particularly successful relationship with Arqana’s Deauville August Sale.

In 2018 he bought Wonderful Tonight, the subsequent multiple Group 1-winning filly, for only €40,000 and a year later he sold, through the Haras d’Ommeel, Sweet Lady to Paul Nataf acting for the Teboul family’s Gemini Stud for €100,000.

Sweet Lady has turned out to be a great buy and after winning the Group 1 Prix Vermeille, the daughter of Lope De Vega took her total earnings including premiums to €822,000 with six wins from 14 starts to date.

Wright has the satisfaction of having bred the winner of one of France’s great races and, of course, France being France, has earned some €70,000 in breeders’ premiums to date.

Sweet Lady was the last foal of her dam the Dansili mare High Heel Sneakers, who was herself a winner and stakes performer in Wright’s colours in England, Italy,

France and the US. Wright has kept Sweet Lady’s winning Nathaniel half-sister Tarte Tropezienne, who has a Kendargent filly foal and is currently in-foal to Zarak.

He has been breeding from this family for some years having bred the second dam Sundae Girl, a daughter of Green Dancer out of a half-sister to the champion Chris Evert and to the dam of Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Winning Colors, in Kentucky.

Sundae Girl won at two at the abandoned Folkestone racecourse as long ago as 1998.

Sweet Lady’s win was a triumph for her trainer Francis-Henri Graffard, but also for British breeding in Britain, France, the US and Ireland where his sire stands. Wright has long been a passionate advocate of international partnerships.

Sweet Lady has been a consistent highclass performer since winning two of her four starts at two.

Her connections were then impressed enough by her easy win at Compiegne to let her take her chance in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud in which she finished sixth, but only 3l behind the winner.

At three, she was beaten only a length and a half when fourth in the Poule d’Essai (G1) and 2l when eighth in the Diane.

By the end of her three-year-old career her

Francis-Henri Graffard: trainer of Sweet Lady

Arc trials weekend was highly informative, while some interesting maiden runners are also starting to appear in Europe, writes Jocelyn de Moubray

connections realised that Sweet Lady is best suited to races at 1m2f-1m4f on soft ground.

This year she was an excellent winner of the Group 2 Prix Corrida when ridden close to the pace and then finished fourth to Alpinista in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud (G1) when held up in the rear.

In the Vermeille, Sweet Lady had a new jockey and Gregory Benoist decided, when she bounced from the stalls, to make the running. It was the opportunity Sweet Lady had been waiting for and she was so settled in front that Benoit was able to slow the pace down to a crawl.

He ran the first 1400m in only 1m35.28s, some five seconds slower or 25l slower than L’Astronomie’s time in the Prix Niel later in the afternoon. Sweet Lady then sprinted up the straight running the last 400m some 12 per cent faster than her race average time.

Nevertheless, the final time of 2m35.5s was the second-slowest Vermeille this century and no less than nine seconds or 45l slower than Zarkava’s race record time.

In the circumstances those horses such as Tuesday and Grand Glory, who were held up at the rear, had no chance of being involved in the finish.

The second-placed Lillac Road had been close behind the leader throughout and the best finisher was the Zarak filly La Parisienne, who had finished second in the Diane. She flew through the middle of the field when she got an opening, running her final 400m 14 per cent faster than the race average to confirm that she is a topclass filly.

THE PRIX FOY (G2) was run even more slowly than the Vermeille over the same trip, which did not suit either the favourite Bubble Gift or the southern-hemisphere challenger Verry Elleegant, but which set the race up for Iresine (Manduro) who quickened brilliantly. His final 400m was 16 per cent faster than his race average, he came from behind and won comfortably.

Iresine is trained by Jean Pierre Gauvin, he has won ten of his 14 starts and when conditions are in his favour surely has the ability to win a Group 1 race.

In contrast the Prix Niel (G2) was run at a

strong early pace, which suited the Haras de la Perelle’s Simca Mille who has developed into a high-class, middle-distance horse.

Beaten only a neck by Onesto in the Grand Prix de Paris (G1) in July, the son of Tamayuz has improved fast since going up in trip, and since being beaten in a

handicap on the All-Weather at Chantilly in February off a mark of 85.

The Haras d’Etreham’s Lassault was an excellent second on his first start at the trip confirming his own revival after disappointing in the Classics, and that of his sire Almanzor, who recently has also had a string of promising two-year-old winners.

The Japanese Derby winner Do Deuce was only fourth, but quickened impressively at the top of the straight to get into contention only to fade in the final 200m. He will surely improve significantly for this his first run since winning the Japanese Classic at the end of May.

Another daughter of Lope De Vega, the five-year-old Dreamloper had been the star of the first Sunday at Longchamp in September when the Ed Walker-trained mare raced away from her rivals to win the Group 1 Prix du Moulin by over 5l in the excellent time of 1m36.14s, the third-fastest race time this century.

Iresine has won ten of his 14 starts and when conditions are in his favour surely has the ability to win a Group 1 race

Dreamloper: the Lope De Vega filly is one of four Group 1 winners in 2022 out of a Teofilo mare

The winner of the Prix d’Ispahan over 1850m on similarly fast ground at the end of May, Dreamloper is one of four 2022 Group 1 winners out of a Teofilo mare.

Dreamloper also won a Group 2 in Newmarket over a mile at the beginning of the season and her only defeats have come over 1m2f.

She is, with fellow mares Highfield Princess and Pearls Galore, proof that many horses still improve as five-year-olds.

September is when the better Frenchtrained two-year-olds finally begin to reveal their ability. Some of the maiden and conditions winners in early September may turn out to be better than Tigrais, Blue Rose Cen and Kubrick, winners of the three juvenile Group races, but it was a triumph for the young Chantilly trainer Christopher Head, the son of Freddy and grandson of Alec, who looks after the first two.

In only his third season, Head has won 12 races with 15 runners, including three Group races (at the time of writing). He has just 21 horses listed on the France Galop site.

Tigrais, a daughter of Outstrip, managed to hold the challenge of the Pedro The Great colt Breizh Sky to win the Prix La Rochette (G3) by a short head, and then the Churchill filly Blue Rose Cen continued her steady progression to take the Prix d’Aumale (G3), her third win in five starts and coming off an excellent second in a Listed race in Deauville.

Peter Brant’s homebred Dubawi colt Kubrick came from well off the pace to beat the Irish-trained Adelaide River and Pivotal Trigger to take the mile Prix de Chenes.

The Jean Claude Rouget-trained colt had broken his maiden on his second start in Deauville and is likely to be allowed to take his chance in the Group 1 Criterium International, which is not something his

trainer does very often.

The best-looking maiden winner was Juddmonte’s Frankel filly Ardent, who won at Saint-Cloud over a mile for André Fabre.

A daughter of the Grade 1 winner Emollient and a full-sister to this year’s Group winner Racelette, Ardent was fourth on her Deauville debut and looked to have improved significantly since.

The two conditions races at Chantilly were won by the Deauville debutant winners Kelina, another Frankel filly this time belonging to the Wertheimers and trained by Carlos Laffon Parias, and Rajapour. He is a son of Almanzor owned by HH The Aga Khan and trained by Rouget.

Rajapour put up a significantly faster time than the filly and beat an experienced colt comfortably by 3l.

He looks a contender for Group 1 races this year.

Top quality action in the Group races at Baden-Baden September meeting

THE two main Group races at the Baden-Baden September meeting looked to be of an excellent standard, and although Stall Salzburg’s Mendocino only beat three other German-trained rivals to win the Grosser Preis von Baden, the race was a great spectacle and a high-class Group 1 race.

Alter Adler was left by the principles to make the running but did so at only a very slow pace; Frankie Dettori riding the Arc winner Torquator Tasso was the first to realise how slow they were going and started his challenge more than a mile from home.

Dettori and Torquator Tasso’s run looked like a winning one as the son of Adlerflug slowly got the better of the leader and then the Derby winner Sammarco. However, Rene Piechelek on Mendocino, another son of Adlerflug, was stalking those in front of him and managed to get up in the final strides to win by a head.

Mendocino is a four-year-old who had nearly beaten Alpinista in a Group 1 at the end of last year. Like all of his trainer Sarah Steinberg’s horses he had been well below his best during the first part of this year. Steinberg’s Munich-based stable is currently flying and Mendicino is now on an upward curve and will like the second chance in the Arc.

The four-year-old Protectionist filly Amazing Grace took the Group 2 T von Zastrow Stutenpreis on her first start over 1m4f coming from behind in a slowly run race to defeat the high-class Adlerflug filly India.

Dr Berglar’s filly has been improving all year and had been Group 1-placed on her previous start after finishing third to Sweet Lady in the Corrida in May. She looks ready to compete in Group 1

Steinberg’s Munich-based stable is flying and Mendicino is now on an upward curve and will take his chance in the Arc

races over 1m4f in the future.

Gestüt Fährhof’s two-year-old Kingman filly Habana retained her unbeaten record with an easy 2l win in the Group 3 over 7f. Held up in last place by Eduardo Pedroza, the Andreas Wohlertrained filly cruised past her rivals despite the very soft ground.

This was not the strongest of Group races but Habana could not have won more impressively and is likely to go for Group races outside Germany in the future.

Finally, there were some impressive two-year-old maiden winners in early September in Germany too, with two carrying the colours of Gestüt Röttgen.

In Baden-Baden, the Oasis Dream filly Empore just held Weltreise, a Reliable Man half-sister to Wagnis, also bred by Rottgen but sold to Jurgen Satori as a yearling, to win the fillies’ maiden over a mile. Trainers Markus Klug and Andreas Suborics were equally convinced that this is a pair of high-class prospects.

At Dusseldorf the following weekend the Protectionist colt Aspirant, a half-brother to Group horses Akribe and Ariolo, made a winning debut against more experienced rivals racing 3l clear over a mile for Röttgen and Klug.

Leading European Flat sires (by prize-money earned to September 14, 2022)

Stallion Breeding

Dubawi Dubai Millennium-Zomaradah (Deploy)

Frankel Galileo-Kind (Danehill)

Sea The Stars Cape Cross-Urban Sea (Miswaki)

Galileo Sadler’s Wells-Urban Sea (Miswaki)

Dark Angel Acclamation-Midnight Angel (Machiavellian)

Lope de Vega Shamardal-Lady Vettori (Vettori)

Kodiac Danehill-Rafha (Kris)

Siyouni Pivotal-Sichilla (Danehill)

Camelot Montjeu-Tarfah (Kingmambo)

No Nay Never Scat Daddy-Cat’s Eye Witness (Elusive Quality)

Kingman Invincible Spirit-Zenda (Zamindar)

Churchill Galileo-Meow (Storm Cat)

Nathaniel Galileo-Magnificient Style (Silver Hawk)

Night of Thunder Dubawi-Forest Storm (Galileo)

Starspangledbanner Choisir-Gold Anthem (Made of Gold)

Invincible Spirit Green Desert-Rafha (Kris)

Mehmas Acclamation-Lucina (Machiavellian)

of Weatherbys

To Stud Rnrs Runs Wnrs Wins Wnrs/Rnrs% SWnrs SWs £

2006 195 657 103 159 52.82 27 33 6,964,330

2013 194 708 94 138 48.45 22 33 6,802,608

2010 184 632 81 116 44.02 16 23 5,142,448

2002 154 510 49 71 31.81 15 21 4,010,832

2008 315 1471 137 192 43.49 11 14 3,954,356

2011 244 1102 119 169 48.77 15 20 3,743,169

2007 349 1707 129 186 36.96 6 6 3,300,233

2011 222 905 95 139 42.79 10 13 2,970,211

2014 168 645 52 66 30.95 6 11 2,623,328

2015 163 683 49 87 30.06 6 14 2,603,095

2015 179 633 84 114 46.92 9 12 2,565,693

2018 126 482 56 83 44.44 6 8 2,539,617

2013 127 496 48 65 37.79 4 7 2,407,011

2016 127 500 54 77 42.51 7 11 2,380,399

2011 150 641 54 74 36.00 3 4 2,233,183

2003 173 800 69 102 39.88 6 9 2,188,318

2017 172 913 64 103 37.20 4 5 2,080,374

Zoffany Dansili-Tyranny (Machiavellian)

Showcasing Oasis Dream-Arabesque (Zafonic)

2004 188 887 77 111 40.95 5 6 2,045,427

2012 227 1018 69 97 30.39 8 8 2,070,161 Oasis Dream Green Desert-Hope (Dancing Brave)

2011 211 892 63 94 29.85 7 9 1,949,146

New Bay Dubawi-Cinnamon Bay (Zamindar)

Australia Galileo-Ouija Board (Cape Cross)

Dandy Man Mozart-Lady Alexander (Night Shift)

Wootton Bassett Iffraaj-Balladonia (Primo Dominie)

Exceed And Excel Danehill-Patrona (Lomond)

Golden Horn Cape Cross-Fleche d’Or (Dubai Destination)

Adlerflug In the Wings-Aiyana (Last Tycoon)

2010 174 728 59 80 33.90 3 4 1,823,672

2017 104 384 41 62 39.42 6 7 1,868,391 Mastercraftsman Danehill Dancer-Starlight Dreams (Black Tie Affair)

2015 157 598 49 74 31.21 10 10 1,695,372

2010 246 1356 89 132 36.17 3 3 1,694,567

2012 132 528 48 63 36.36 5 6 1,674,519

2005 154 727 61 113 39.61 7 8 1,673,383

2016 102 374 32 51 31.37 4 5 1,655,240

2010 79 320 43 56 54.43 8 12 1,608,867

Fast Company Danehill Dancer-Sheezalady (Zafonic) 2011 178 745 59 83 33.14 2 3 1,534,144

Iffraaj Zafonic-Pastorale (Nureyev)

Muhaarar Oasis Dream-Tahrir (Linamix)

Dabirsim Hat Trick-Rumored (Royal Academy)

Acclamation

2007 196 888 73 102 37.24 4 5 1,528,236

2016 158 720 59 92 37.34 7 8 1,482,923

2014 210 1098 66 92 31.42 0 0 1,478,604

Royal Applause-Princess Athena (Ahonoora) 2004 167 831 57 84 34.13 4 4 1,459,934

Holy Roman Emperor Danehill-L’On Vite (Secretariat)

2007 175 827 68 111 38.85 5 7 1,389,821

Le Havre Noverre-Marie Rheinberg (Surako) 2010 149 512 61 81 40.93 1 1 1,363,776

Teofilo Galileo-Speirbhean (Danehill)

2008 105 438 37 62 35.23 8 12 1,354,009

Havana Gold Teofilo-Jessica’s Dream (Desert Style) 2014 141 625 47 73 33.33 3 4 1,324,068

Bated Breath Dansili-Tantina (Distant View)

2013 154 743 56 88 36.36 4 4 1,323,768

Intello Galileo-Impressionnante (Danehill) 2014 117 511 48 78 41.02 5 6 1,306,969

Harbour Watch Acclamation-Gorband (Woodman)

Gleneagles Galileo-You’resothrilling (Storm Cat)

2013 48 281 20 35 41.66 2 2 1,268,428

2016 140 538 50 75 35.71 5 5 1,222,035

Footstepsinthesand Giant’s Causeway-Glatisant (Rainbow Quest) 2006 193 895 60 86 31.08 1 2 1,214,530

Caravaggio Scat Daddy-Mekko Hokte (Holy Bull) 2018 102 388 40 54 39.21 6 6 1,186,139

Territories Invincible Spirit-Taranto (Machiavellian)

Mayson Invincible Spirit-Mayleaf (Pivotal)

Zarak Dubawi-Zarkava (Zamindar)

2017 138 581 53 73 38.40 3 3 1,160,256

2017 123 475 40 50 32.52 3 3 1,174,833 Shalaa Invincible Spirit-Ghurra (War Chant)

2013 142 822 66 101 46.47 0 0 1,156,956

2018 53 202 33 42 62.26 5 5 1,131,733

Leading European Flat Broodmare sires (by prize-money earned to September 14, 2022)

Stallion Breeding

Galileo Sadler’s Wells-Urban Sea (Miswaki)

To Stud Rnrs Runs Wnrs Wins Wnrs/Rnrs% SWnrs SWs £

2002 561 2150 218 305 38.85 23 26 6,277,066

Pivotal Polar Falcon-Fearless Revival (Cozzene) 1997 389 1671 142 213 36.50 18 23 5,502,980

Dansili Danehill-Hasil (Kahyasi)

Oasis Dream Green Desert-Hope (Dancing Brave)

Dubawi Dubai Millennium-Zomaradah (Deploy)

Teofilo Galileo-Speirbhean (Danehill)

Monsun Konigsstuhl-Mosella (Surumu)

Danehill Danzig-Razyana (His Majesty)

Shamardal Giant’s Causeway-Helsinki (Machiavellian)

Invincible Spirit Green Desert-Rafha (Kris)

2001 404 1830 162 239 40.09 13 16 4,752,176

2004 438 2067 165 261 37.67 14 20 4,123,619

2006 273 1189 122 179 44.68 9 14 3,488,559

2008 214 885 71 99 33.17 8 13 3,213,366

1996 142 587 64 92 45.07 9 12 3,155,159

1990 108 477 42 62 38.88 8 16 3,084,593

2005 295 1300 125 184 42.37 9 10 3,076,720

2003 433 1998 155 222 35.79 3 4 3,057,299

Danehill Dancer Danehill-Mira Adonde (Sharpen Up) 1998 300 1189 99 131 33.00 4 6 2,963,640

Montjeu Sadler’s Wells-Floripedes (Top Ville) 2001 274 1135 96 137 35.03 8 10 2,877,174

Kingmambo Mr. Prospector-Miesque (Nureyev)

1994 68 317 26 38 38.23 3 6 2,860,597 Sea The Stars Cape Cross-Urban Sea (Miswaki) 2010 120 465 49 84 40.83 8 11 2,772,344

New Approach Galileo-Park Express (Ahonoora) 2009 156 665 54 80 34.61 7 8 2,305,195

Acclamation Royal Applause-Princess Athena (Ahonoora) 2004 267 1249 84 128 31.46 6 6 2,236,760

Cape Cross Green Desert-Park Appeal (Ahonoora) 2000 256 1177 87 124 33.98 4 4 2,210,130 Selkirk Sharpen Up-Annie Edge (Nebbiolo) 1993 153 667 58 75 37.90 5 7 2,147,716

Exceed And Excel Danehill-Patrona (Lomond) 2005 262 1253 96 145 36.64 2 2 2,137,064

Dalakhani Darshaan-Daltawa (Miswaki) 2003 208 909 66 95 31.73 6 10 1,985,953

Street Cry Machiavellian-Helen Street (Troy) 2003 131 599 54 86 41.22 8 13 1,955,851

Green Desert Danzig-Foreign Courier (Sir Ivor) 1987 134 665 42 70 31.34 3 4 1,883,668

Raven’s Pass Elusive Quality-Ascutney (Lord At War) 2009 96 421 28 43 29.16 3 4 1,765,055

Holy Roman Emperor Danehill-L’On Vite (Secretariat) 2007 195 945 81 122 41.53 2 4 1,639,693 Hernando Niniski-Whakilyric (Miswaki) 1996 78 384 33 50 42.30 4 8 1,631,255 Zamindar Gone West-Zaizafon (The Minstrel) 1998 141 639 61 81 43.26 3 4 1,545,151 Rock of Gibraltar Danehill-Offshore Boom (Be My Guest) 2003 193 899 73 104 37.82 5 5 1,532,727 High Chaparral Sadler’s Wells-Kasora (Darshaan) 2004 192 851 70 93 36.45 7 8 1,526,062 Le Havre Noverre-Marie Rheinberg (Surako) 2010 73 308 30 38 41.09 2 2 1,379,690 Giant’s Causeway Storm Cat-Mariah’s Storm (Rahy) 2001 129 583 50 72 38.75 5 6 1,356,666

Anabaa Danzig-Balbonella (Gay Mecene)

1997 135 662 50 71 37.03 6 9 1,329,117 Peintre Celebre Nureyev-Peinture Bleue (Alydar) 1999 142 631 51 65 35.91 3 6 1,302,423

Fastnet Rock Danehill-Piccadilly Circus (Royal Academy) 2009 122 483 39 51 31.96 4 4 1,290,486 Singspiel In the Wings-Glorious Song (Halo) 1998 164 722 61 80 37.19 2 2 1,223,251 Kodiac Danehill-Rafh (Kris)

2007 123 565 46 69 37.39 1 1 1,201,134 Sadler’s Wells Northern Dancer-Fairy Bridge (Bold Reason) 1985 176 745 49 70 27.84 4 5 1,194,027 Lawman Invincible Spirit-Laramie (Gulch)

2008 151 628 53 72 35.09 4 4 1,180,729 Nayef Gulch-Height of Fashion (Bustino) 2004 150 692 60 92 40.00 2 2 1,173,867

Medicean Machiavellian-Mystic Goddess (Storm Bird) 2002 144 747 59 85 40.97 2 2 1,170,298

Duke of Marmalade Danehill-Love Me True (Kingmambo)

2003 126 625 50 72 39.68 1 1 1,137,465

2009 111 540 44 63 39.63 4 4 1,148,448 Kyllachy Pivotal-Pretty Poppy (Song)

Dutch Art Medicean-Halland Park Lass (Spectrum) 2008 144 642 53 78 36.80 1 2 1,123,828

Iffraaj Zafonic-Pastorale (Nureyev)

Elusive City Elusive Quality-Star of Paris (Dayjur)

Azamour Night Shift-Asmara(Lear Fan)

2007 154 687 56 82 36.36 4 4 1,104,807

2005 117 563 49 75 41.88 4 5 1,032,023

2005 110 482 46 72 41.81 2 3 999,106

King’s Best Kingmambo-Allegretta (Lombard) 2001 151 711 55 81 36.42 3 3 980,434

Royal Applause Waajib-Flying Melody (Auction Ring) 1998 172 770 51 70 29.65 2 2 963,573

Courtesy of Weatherbys

Leading European Two-Year-Old Sires (by prize-money earned to September 14, 2022 Sires highlighted in bold are first-season sires) Courtesy of Weatherbys

Stallion Breeding

No Nay Never Scat Daddy-Cat’s Eye Witness (Elusive Quality)

Havana Grey Havana Gold-Blanc de Chine (Dark Angel)

Kodiac Danehill-Rafha (Kris)

Showcasing Oasis Dream-Arabesqu (Zafonic)

Sioux Nation Scat Daddy-Dream The Blues (Oasis Dream)

To Stud Rnrs Runs Wnrs Wins Wnrs/Rnrs% SWnrs SWs £

2015 42 116 19 34 45.23 5 13 1,229,868

2019 70 257 31 48 44.28 3 4 936,358

2007 98 301 33 41 33.67 2 2 754,850

2011 54 143 14 19 25.92 4 4 686,990

2019 66 200 31 39 46.96 2 2 624,725

Cotai Glory Exceed And Excel-Continua (Elusive Quality) 2018 45 162 20 28 44.44 1 1 557,261

Dark Angel Acclamation-Midnight Angel (Machiavellian)

Dubawi Dubai Millennium-Zomaradah (Deploy)

Dandy Man Mozart-Lady Alexander (Night Shift)

Siyouni Pivotal-Sichilla (Danehill)

Kingman Invincible Spirit-Zenda (Zamindar)

Mehmas Acclamation-Lucin (Machiavellian)

Havana Gold Teofilo-Jessica’s Dream (Desert Style)

Wootton Bassett Iffraaj-Balladonia (Primo Dominie)

Camacho Danehill-Arabesque (Zafonic)

Starspangledbanner Choisir-Gold Anthem (Made of Gold)

Frankel Galileo-Kind (Danehill)

Kessaar Kodiac-Querulous (Raven’s Pass)

2008 58 154 16 22 27.58 2 2 517,643

2006 33 87 18 23 54.54 4 4 470,982

2010 70 233 16 21 22.85 3 3 466,586

2011 24 52 5 9 20.83 2 3 428,851

2015 37 78 16 19 43.24 2 2 416,884

2017 30 96 8 12 26.66 1 1 388,423

2014 25 87 8 14 32.00 1 1 387,042

2012 20 48 6 10 30.00 2 2 386,617

2006 62 226 14 20 22.58 0 0 374,288

2011 48 161 15 18 31.25 0 0 339,181

2013 22 43 9 13 40.90 1 2 323,477

2019 44 162 17 18 38.63 0 0 320,006

Harry Angel Dark Angel-Beatrix Potter (Cadeaux Genereux) 2019 41 137 13 16 31.70 0 0 316,790

Invincible Spirit Green Desert-Rafha (Kris)

Exceed And Excel Danehill-Patrona (Lomond)

2003 36 93 12 14 33.33 1 1 303,347

2005 34 86 9 12 26.47 2 2 278,128

Gleneagles Galileo-You’resothrilling (Storm Cat) 2016 29 62 8 13 27.58 1 1 274,965

Saxon Warrior Deep Impact-Maybe (Galileo)

2019 32 86 13 17 40.62 1 1 265,052

Bungle Inthejungle Exceed And Excel-Licence To Thrill (Wolfhound) 2015 40 157 9 14 22.50 1 1 264,830

Oasis Dream Green Desert-Hope (Dancing Brave) 2004 51 128 9 11 17.64 1 1 258,222

Bated Breath Dansili-Tantina (Distant View)

2013 19 54 5 10 26.31 1 1 244,700

Brazen Beau I Am Invincible-Sansadee (Snaadee) 2016 33 104 9 15 27.27 2 2 238,253

Churchill Galileo-Meow (Storm Cat) 2018 35 87 11 17 31.42 1 1 238,183

Lope de Vega Shamardal-Lady Vettori (Vettori) 2011 31 62 15 17 48.38 1 1 234,945

Shalaa Invincible Spirit-Ghurra (War Chant) 2017 38 112 13 15 34.21 0 0 233,319

Profitable Invincible Spirit-Dani Ridge (Indian Ridge) 2018 46 146 12 16 26.08 1 1 224,632

Acclamation Royal Applause-Princess Athena (Ahonoora) 2004 36 113 8 13 22.22 0 0 219,827

Expert Eye Acclamation-Exemplify (Dansili) 2019 43 137 12 13 27.90 0 0 218,953

Tasleet Showcasing-Bird Key (Cadeaux Genereux) 2019 33 97 9 11 27.27 1 1 212,909

Pedro the Great Henrythenavigator-Glatisant (Rainbow Quest) 2014 20 79 10 12 50.00 1 1 205,966

Muhaarar Oasis Dream-Tahrir (Linamix) 2016 31 104 8 12 25.80 1 1 204,620

Zoustar Northern Meteor-Zouzou (Redoute’s Choice) 2019 36 102 8 12 22.22 1 2 203,012

Galileo Sadler’s Wells-Urban Sea (Miswaki) 2002 22 40 4 5 18.18 1 1 189,852

Night of Thunder Dubawi-Forest Storm (Galileo)

Ardad Kodiac-Good Clodora (Red Clubs)

Johnny Barnes Acclamation-Mahalia (Danehill)

2016 24 56 9 12 37.50 2 2 159,349

2018 26 79 6 7 23.07 0 0 151,245

2018 12 58 5 8 41.66 1 1 150,043

Goken Kendargent-Gooseley Chope (Indian Rocket) 2017 9 36 3 6 33.33 2 2 143,280

New Bay Dubawi-Cinnamon Bay (Zamindar) 2017 25 56 5 9 20.00 0 0 141,253

Holy Roman Emperor Danehill-L’On Vite (Secretariat)

Zoffany Dansili-Tyranny (Machiavellian)

2007 32 86 8 8 25.00 0 0 140,140

2012 41 101 7 7 17.07 0 0 139,287

Almanzor Wootton Bassett-Darkova (Maria’s Mon) 2018 15 32 6 8 40.00 1 1 136,102

U S Navy Flag War Front-Misty For Me (Galileo)

2019 33 91 8 10 24.24 1 1 134,422

ELDAR

Making waves

Epicentre: the leading runner for the third-crop sire sensation Not This Time

THE MURKY three-year-old colt route division was made a little clearer in late August when Epicenter (Not This Time) secured his first Grade 1 in tremendous style with a 5l romp in the Travers Stakes at Saratoga.

Running no worse than second in each of his starts since a sixth on debut, Epicenter was already amongst the top of a competitive group coming into the Travers with an in-hand win in the Grade 2 Jim Dandy and second place finishes in the Grade 1 Kentucky Derby and Grade 1 Preakness Stakes during this year’s Triple Crown campaign.

He is the leading runner for third-crop sire sensation Not This Time (Giant’s Causeway), whose nine stakes winners and 20 stakes performers in 2022 also include the Grade 1 Madison Stakes winner Just One Time from his first crop.

Not This Time’s third crop – this year’s juveniles – has already produced two stakes performers, led by the Kitten’s Joy Stakes (G3) winner Gigante.

Interestingly, Not This Time’s six runners out of Candy Ride mares have yielded Epicenter and the Grade 2 winner Simplification. They are bred on the reverse of the Candy Ride-Giant’s Causeway cross that produced Horse of the Year and rising superstar sire Gun Runner and two other graded stakes winners.

It was a young sire trifecta in the Travers with Not This Time leading home secondcrop sire Gun Runner’s dual Grade 1 winner Cyberknife, and third-crop sire Upstart’s Grade 1-winning son Zandon in third.

While there are still questions about how the three-year-old Dirt routing colts will shake out by the end of the year, the threeyear-old sprinting and fillies divisions have clear leaders.

Suffering his first career loss when stretched out to 1m1f in July, Jack Christopher (Munnings) was back to his winning ways on the Travers undercard with victory in the Grade 1 H. Allen Jerkens Memorial.

Coolmore and Peter Brant bought into

Jack Christopher last year and the outlay has already paid dividends with three Grade 1 victories and a Grade 2 win in his six starts.

Depending on what happens in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Sprint later this year, Jack Christopher may even be crowned the best of the sprinters overall if he can beat Jackie’s Warrior (Maclean’s Music).

Jackie’s Warrior suffered his first defeat of the year the same day as Jack Christopher’s victory when he was caught late in the Grade 1 Forego Stakes. That victory went to homebred Curlin colt Cody’s Wish, who is named after Make-A-Wish participant Cody Dorman.

Coolmore and Peter Brant bought into Jack Christopher last year and the outlay has already paid dividends

Born with Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome, Dorman met the colt when touring Godolphin in 2018 and the pair immediately bonded.

Cody’s Wish broke his maiden last year as a three-year-old and has won two stakes races this year. He was making his Grade 1 debut in the Forego and proved up to the task.

He was one of two Curlin runners out of A.P. Indy-line mares to win a Grade 1 on the card with last year’s champion three-yearold filly and Grade 1 Kentucky Oaks winner Malathaat winning the Personal Ensign (G1) a few races later.

The race was a throwback to last year’s Oaks with that race’s runner-up Search Results (Flatter) just half a length behind the winner.

Curlin runners from the A.P. Indy line proved to be incredibly successful throughout the Saratoga meet in all

Melissa Bauer-Herzog rounds up the big-race action at Saratoga August, headed up by Epicenter’s Grade 1 Travers Stakes victory

racing divisions.

The week before the Travers card, Nest followed up her 12l Grade 1 Coaching Club American Oaks win in July with an eased up 4l win in the Alabama Stakes (G1) making her the clear frontrunner for champion three-year-old filly honours after three Grade 1 wins and two Grade 1 seconds in 2022.

In all, Curlin bred to A.P. Indy line mares has produced 15 graded stakes winners, 26 stakes winners, and 48 stakes performers with the eight Grade 1 winners led by Stellar Wind, Clairiere, Paris Lights, Malathaat, and Nest.

Many have decried Declaration Of War’s transfer to Japan over the last few years but it looks like the former Coolmore Stud-based stallion may have a son to take up his mantle in the US breeding industry with Gufo.

ATHREE-TIME Grade 1 winner, Gufo secured his second straight Grade 1 Sword Dancer Stakes victory at Saratoga in late August.

The race gave Japan’s JBBA plenty to celebrate as it also stands Noble Mission (Galileo), the sire of secondplace finisher Mira Mission.

Galileo was a huge influence in the race with Noble Mission’s full-brother Frankel (Galileo) siring the third-placed Soldier Rising, while Australia (Galileo) is the sire of fourth-placed Broome.

Two of the past seven Sword Dancer winners are by stallions who have ended up in Japan – the 2014 winner Main Sequence is by Aldebaran, who was conceived the year prior to Aldebaran moving to Japan.

The Grade 1 Ballerina Handicap held the day after the Travers Stakes proved to be a good one for the late broodmare Primal Force.

Her grandson Ghostzapper (Awesome Again) is the sire of winning Goodnight Olive, who was making her stakes race debut, and her son Macho Uno (Holy Bull) is the dam-sire of the third-placed finisher Obligatory.

Primal Force died in 2011 after foaling a full-sister to Macho Uno, but her influence continues to be felt as the mare is also the

grand-dam of Good Forever (Forever D’Oro), who recorded a stakes victory in the Circle City Stakes on September 7.

The closing weekend of the Saratoga meet also cleared up the picture concerning the older males on the east coast. Olympiad (Speightstown) rebounded from a fourthplace finish in the Grade 1 Whitney Stakes with a 2l win in the 1m2f Grade 1 Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes.

The four-year-old has won six of his seven starts this year with five graded stakes victories. He is the third Grade 1 winner of the year for WinStar Farm stalwart Speightstown (Gone West), who also sired the Maker’s Mark Mile (G1) winner Shirl’s Speight going a mile on the Turf and the Group 1 Dubai Golden Shaheen winner Switzerland going 6f on the Dirt.

On the opposite coast Fightline (Tapit) once again lived up to his name with a Grade 1 Pacific Classic victory.

Eased up in the stretch, the four-yearold retained his undefeated title with a 19l victory over the Group 1 Dubai World Cup winner Country Grammer (Tonalist).

It was the fifth start for Flightline, who was registering his third straight Grade 1 victory with those wins coming by a combined 36l.

It has been a strong year for the Tapit-Indian Charlie cross as Charge It, this year’s 23l Grade 3 Dwyer Stakes winner and Grade 1 Florida Derby runner-up, is bred on the same cross.

Stallions from the A.P. Indy line bred to Indian Charlie mares have sired three graded stakes winners, nine stakes winners, and 19 stakes performers with six of those stakes winners by Tapit and his sons.

The bloodstock world suffered a sizable loss in late August when More Than Ready (Southern Halo) was euthanized due to the infirmities of old age.

Making more trips than any other shuttle stallion during his breeding career with stud duties in both the US and Australia since 2001, More Than Ready has sired 100 graded stakes winners, 216 stakes winners, and 402 stakes performers, led by 26 Grade 1 winners in five different countries.

Among those 26 Grade 1 winners were seven Breeders’ Cup winners, the most of any stallion in Breeders’ Cup history.

Nest (Curlin): wins the Alabama Stakes by 4l

The next generation

BLUE POINT

Ascot record breaker, Royal Ascot superstar and Shamardal’s fastest.

MASAR

By fellow Derby hero New Approach (who was a sensational first-crop sire).

TOO DARN HOT

Dubawi’s most precocious and the fastest in the Classic family of Darshaan.

There’s so much more to know! Find it all on our website. Then see their yearlings...

Racing by numbers

Across Europe the debate continues to rage as to what to do about the future of racing, no one seemingly has an answer.

Jocelyn de Moubray has put together some nation-by-nation figures giving some greater clarity as to where racing is now compared to 25 years ago and to explain the link between the amount of racing and average prize-money, and the importance of competitive action in order to maintain the entertainment and betting turnover.

He also opinions that maybe the 1990s removal of the Jockey Club in Britain and the Société d’Encouragement in France were not particuarly well thought through ideas

AFTER SOME YEARS of great confidence during which most of the important parameters for the British racing business appeared to be positive, the industry is all of a sudden aware that there are some difficult decisions to be taken.

A look back at the recent past of British racing, and also of its main European counterparts in France, Ireland, Germany and Italy, reveals that horseracing is inevitably an unstable business and heavily influenced by broader economic trends.

Over the last 25 years there have been two economic crises, and three or four stock market corrections, the launch of a new European currency, Brexit and now a European war; it is hardly surprising that the racing business has had its ups and downs, too.

In addition to the known unknowns, such as recession and war, during these 25 years new technology has completely transformed the racing and betting businesses.

In 1995 few of us had mobile telephones

or knew how to use the internet, and yet today a large proportion of all business goes through mobiles. These advances have created both opportunities and dangers.

The Irish racing business has more or less doubled in size with the number of Flat runs a year going from 7,200 to 15,000 (see table opposite), while total prize-money has

increased by 168 per cent and even average prize-money has gone up by 50 per cent.

The other side of the story is represented by Germany and Italy. Between 1995 and 2019 these two countries, both with long racing traditions and popular support, have been decimated; each country has lost around 2,000 runs a year which represents a huge number of lost jobs and employment for trainers, jockeys, stable staff, vets and all of the other professions which rely upon racing.

It is not surprising that so many of Italy’s leading trainers, jockeys and breeders are now based in France. If German racing continues to survive it is due to a handful of passionate owner-breeders, and the 1,000+ runners German trainers send across the border to France every year in search of prize-money.

Easy as it is to criticise many of the decisions taken during this period in Britain, France and Ireland, it still has to be said at the outset that Europe’s three major racing and breeding countries have done more than survive.

It is not surprising that so many of Italy’s leading trainers, jockeys and breeders are now based in France

European racing in figures: 1995-2019 compared

Detail GB FR Ire Germany Italy

Number of races

1995 4,154 4,346 693 3,000 4,523

2019 6,366 (54%) 4,918 (13%) 1,239 (79%) 1,129 (-62%) 2,388 (-47%)

Total p-money

1995 £78.2m €96m €12.8m €35m €60.7m

2019 £111m (42%) €122m (27%) €34.3m (168%) €13m (-63%) €26m (-57%)

Average p-money

1995 £18,800 €22,100 €18,500.00 €11,600 €13,400.00

2019 £17,500 (-7%) € 24,800 (12%) €27,700 (50%) €11,600 €11,100(-17%)

Breeders' Premiums

1995 0 €15m 0 €6.8m €11.3m

2019 0 €15m 0 €2.9m (-57%) €821,000 (-93%)

Owners' Premiums

1995 0 €24m 0 €1.6m €8.39m 2019 0 €36m(50%) 0 €0.26m (-84%) €4.12m (-51%)

No of runs

1995 41,692 48,911 7,200 28,592 39,976

2019 59,974 (44%) 51,167 (5%) 15,038 (109%) 9,995 (-65%) 19,400 (-51%)

Ireland is a case apart as the country itself has changed beyond recognition during the last quarter of a century, but in Britain, as in France, things could have turned out a great deal worse.

Both countries have seen a rise in total prize-money in real terms and, even if there were signs of coming problems in 2019 before covid, in 2018 both countries were distributing more prize-money in real terms to more runners in more races than they had done at the peak of the previous economic cycle.

The racing income from betting in Germany and Italy fell severely and fast – money going off-shore or beyond any control. Germany cut back the number of races in order to maintain the average prizemoney, Italy reduced the number of races by less but saw average prize-money fall by

some 20 per cent in real terms, while the generous breeders’ premiums more or less disappeared.

Before looking at Britain and France it is worth stating that these figures taken together show that the number of runners per race is a function to some degree of the number of races held in total and the average prize-money on offer.

Both countries have been under pressure to hold more races in order to maintain or increase income, but it seems clear that unless average prize-money is maintained there comes a moment when the curve turns and less competitive races lead to stagnating or falling turnover.

Ireland is a good example of this as the number of races held has been expanding for nearly all of the period, but when average and overall prize-money fell in the years

www.internationalthoroughbred.co.uk

.. the number of runners per race is a function to some degree of the number of races held in total and the average prize-money

Average runner per race in Britain and France: 1995-2019 compared

2008-2013 this had an effect on field sizes –the average field size went from 13.2 in 2007 down to 10.4 in 2015.

The number of races run in France increased by 13 per cent between 1995 and 2019, but as real prize-money increased by more it meant that average prize-money per race was up by 12 per cent from €22,100 to €24,800 in 2019.

At the same time France chose to maintain its generous breeders’ prizes in real terms at €15 million and to increase the sums given out in owners’ premiums for French qualified horses by 50 per cent from €24 million to €36 million in real terms.

THIS MEANS that, at current exchange rates and during the period – there were several significant swings in the relative value of sterling and the euro –France distributes about 33 per cent more than Britain on the results of races with a good proportion of this in premiums for the breeders and owners of qualified horses.

Without going into the statistical details in general terms France has maintained prize-money for horses and all of those

No of races in Britain and France: 1995-2019 compared

7000

6000

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 av runner/race GB av runner/race Fr 4000

5000

races

2000

1000

0

involved with them throughout the scale of races.

The French specifity is that horses with ratings in the 80s are often able to win €100,000 or more in prize-money and premiums.

Britain has chosen, or at least has ended up with, a very different model.

The number of Flat races increased by

54 per cent between 1995 and 2019 and, as total prize-money on offer did not match this rise, the average prize-money fell over the same period by seven per cent and the average field size went from a peak of 12 runners in 2001 to 9.4 in 2019 pre-covid.

In 1995, there were more Flat races in France than there were in Britain; 25 years later than were 1,500 more races a year

www.internationalthoroughbred.co.uk 55 european racing 3000

european racing in Britain than in France.

Whether this outcome was a choice, an inevitability, or something imposed upon the racing business, this leads us to the other crisis racing has had over the period, one of governance and above all of objectives.

Lack of thought regarding the running of racing

When racing was directed by the Jockey Club or the Société d’Encouragement the question of its purpose and in whose interests the industry should be run didn’t really come up.

If the question had been posed the answer would have been self-evident as it was operated for the good of the sport. Given that many of those involved in these organisations were owners, breeders and gamblers most of the time this worked out alright.

Times change and the tension rose when those at the top of the Jockey Club and the Société d’Encouragement were no longer deeply involved in the sport. In 1993 the Jockey Club was replaced by the British Horseracing Board and two years later France Galop was created.

The idea was that these new organisations would be more responsive to concerns and desires of racing professionals, but like so many other revolutions this one was not thought through in advance.

The imperative was to get rid of the old outdated governance but it was not carefully thought through how best to replace the bodies who had run racing for generations. The result in both countries has been confusion, and on many occasions, weakness and lack of purpose. It is absurd to say that racing should speak to government, or anyone else with one voice, when the industry has so many participants with different and often opposing objectives and interests.

In France, the problem is less acute as the PMU retains its monopoly and its influence upon both racing and the state and it is a sign of change that the PMU’s chief executive is 37-year-old Emmanuelle Malecaze-Doublet, and not a high-ranking functionnaire in need of a sinecure before retiring.

However, I don’t think any of those who

forced the change back in 1995 would have imagined that in 2022 France Galop still retains so many of the negative facets of the old system.

If there is a vacuum of power and a lack of purpose at the top it is not surprising the most organised interest groups have been able to seize influence.

Different businesses from bloodstock to racecourses have been keen to impose their vision upon other participants and my own feeling is that what has been lost is above all a sense of the “sport”, as well as the interests of those who follow and bet on it without having a professional involvement.

The most obvious example is the absurdity of the bloated Pattern race system where more or less every one of the 1000s of yearlings offered for sale has a pedigree full of black-type. This is simply silly and pointless, but there is a more serious negative effect of the 100s of Pattern races on the sport as a spectacle.

The best horses now more often than not run in uncompetitive races with small fields, which are neither interesting to watch nor an attractive betting propostion. This was never inevitable as the Japanese alternative shows (see the August issue), but the result of giving a misguided influence to a professional group.

For all of the many absurdities of the different racing systems in Britain, France and Ireland it could have been a great deal worse for everybody involved or watching from outside with interest and passion.

To move forward there needs to be some discussion at least of what the aims and purpose of those who take the decisions should be, and an attempt to balance the interests of the professional groups and those at the top and bottom end of the scale in each of them.

If racing is not an attractive and popular entertainment and betting medium it will very soon be forced to shrink. Surely this should surely be the start of any discussion?

If there is a vacuum of power and a lack of purpose at the top it is not surprising the most organised interest groups have been able to seize influence

Hoo Ya Mal only had to beat three rivals in an uncompetitive Group 3 March Stakes

TATTERSALLS

OCTOBER YEARLING SALE

PARK PADDOCKS, NEWMARKET

BOOK 1: 4TH - 6TH OCTOBER

BOOK 2: 10TH - 12TH OCTOBER

BOOKS 3 & 4: 13TH - 15TH OCTOBER

In 2022, 53 graduates of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale have won 69 Group races in nine countries, including 17 Group 1 races.

Eight graduates of the 2021 renewal are already Group winners.*

Be a part of it and take your place in history

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Rapid growth

Hazelwood Bloodstock has made quite the impact since establishing just six years ago, and the team is again looking forward to consigning an exciting draft this autumn, writes Martin Stevens

Main picture, Hazelwood Bloodstock is based at Red House Stud in Exning, and, inset, Philippa and Adrian O’Brien of Hazelwood Bloodstock

STRANGE TO THINK that Hazelwood Bloodstock has been in existence only since 2016. The Newmarket operation, run by experienced stud manager Adrian O’Brien and veterinarian wife Philippa, has consigned two seven-figure lots to auction, regularly topped sales and sold a pair of top-flight winners in that short space of time.

Hazelwood Bloodstock – based at Red House Stud in Exning, the birthplace of Group 1 sprint-winning half-brothers Goodricke and Pastoral Pursuits – has become renowned as one of the

leading thoroughbred nurseries in Britain in no time at all.

“It’s a bit nuts, isn’t it?” chuckles the amiable Adrian O’Brien, a former manager of Plantation Stud in Newmarket and Coolmore in Australia, when he is confronted with all the accolades that his still relatively new venture has already amassed.

It hasn’t been an unbroken upward trajectory for the farm, though; there has been the odd bump on the way to the top, and with five yearling drafts down and the sixth to come this autumn it is an interesting point to pause and take stock on how it all unfolded.

hazelwood bloodstock

Below, the Frankel colt out of the Listed winner and Group 3-placed Shadow Hunter (Arcano) is catalogued as Lot 199 in October Book 1. He being led up by Laura Wright.

Shadow Hunter is the dam of one winner from one runner –Hans Andersen, also by Frankel and runner-up in the Group 2 Irish Futurity Stakes.

He is entered in all of the autumn’s end-of-season juvenile major races

2017: a soft launch

Hazelwood Bloodstock dipped its toe into the market by selling the winning-but-out-of-form Kodiac three-yearold Mirdif on behalf of one of its big-name international clients, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, for 22,000gns at Tattersalls in July 2017.

There isn’t much that needs saying about that transaction, other than that it will go down in history as the first lot ever sold by a farm that is emerging as one of the leading consignors of our times.

Things then kicked off in earnest when the debut Hazelwood Bloodstock yearling draft was presented at Tattersalls in the autumn.

It comprised three colts with a top price of 150,000gns achieved for Look Closely, a son of Sea The Stars and the Listed-winning High Chaparral mare Lady Heidi, who was bred by Sun Bloodstock and bought by Roger Varian.

He won three races, including a couple of competitive handicaps at Ascot, for a peak rating of 99.

Production, a son of Oasis Dream bred by Sun Bloodstock out of the Listed-winning Exceed And

Excel mare Pure Excellence, was sold to John and Jake Warren for 85,000gns and won the Crocker Bulteel maiden at Ascot, while Damon Runyon, a pinhooked son of Charm Spirit was sold to Norris/Huntingdon for 70,000gns. He didn’t manage to win but did finish in the places on multiple occasions.

Not a bad start, then. “It was a nice gentle introduction to selling under the Hazelwood Bloodstock banner,” says O’Brien. “It turns out the first yearling we put in the ring was Look Closely, who was a decent horse for Roger and is now winning races in Australia.”

The operation’s first year as consignors was to take an unexpected turn for the better not long after the October Yearling Sales, too.

“Later that year we ended up putting the Kodiac half-sister to Barney Roy in the Tattersalls December Yearling Sale,” continues O’Brien. “It wasn’t planned at all, it was a late decision on the part of the breeder, and she ended up topping that section of the sale.”

Barney Roy had finished second to Churchill in the 2,000 Guineas, won the St James’s Palace Stakes and lost nothing in defeat when placed behind Ulysses in the Group 1 Eclipse and Juddmonte International that year, his Kodiac sibling, another bred by Sun Bloodstock, was one of the obvious highlights of the catalogue.

David Redvers bid 400,000gns to secure her for Qatar Racing and Qatar Queen ran second three times, once behind multiple Group 1 winner Nazeef.

“At the time I felt it would never happen again,” reflects O’Brien. “Fillies like her don’t usually end up in the December Yearling Sale, so there was a heavy weight of expectation, but then a great deal of relief and satisfaction that we achieved a good price for her.

“I wasn’t really that well known up here at the time, as I’d spent most of my time tucked away in Australia and there wasn’t such a big European cross over at the time. In those first few years there were a lot of people who didn’t know who we were, or what we were about, but it’s built up steadily over time.”

2018: hitting full stride

The Hazelwood Bloodstock draft to the Tattersalls October Yearling Sales in 2018 expanded to 13 lots split between Books 1 and 2.

If the industry hadn’t been aware of the new vendor on the block in the preceding year, they certainly were now – Hazelwood sold Sun Bloodstock’s Dubawi filly out of the Irish St Leger heroine Voleuse De Coeurs to Godolphin for 500,000gns – sadly she died aged only three. The farm also topped its second major auction in the space of a year by selling Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa’s Kingman colt out of the Listed-winning Galileo mare Reem for 750,000gns.

The son of Kingman became King Leonidas, who was fairly smart for trainer John Gosden and owner Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, and is now based in Dubai.

“We were feeling pretty pleased to be establishing ourselves in the market by doing so well with the Book 1 offerings, and we were particularly satisfied to sell the Dubawi filly out of Voleuse De Coeurs to Godolphin,” recalls O’Brien. “But then King Leonidas went and topped Book 2, and that was when I started to think to myself that it was all going a bit insane.

“Our main driver is not to top sales, we’re just trying to achieve the best possible result for our breeders and owners in the ring, but I can’t deny it is nice to think that there aren’t many consignors of our size who

regularly top sales. It’s testament to the quality of the stock that our clients give us the luxury of preparing for sale.”

Interestingly, the best horses to have emerged from the Hazelwood Bloodstock consignment that year were actually two who wouldn’t have made newspaper reports.

Fearless King – by Kingman and the first foal out of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa’s Group 3-placed Makfi mare Astrelle, much more of whom later – was sold to Tina Rau for 175,000gns. He was sent out by trainer Sarah Steinberg to win the German 2,000 Guineas, while Festive Star – a Golden Horn filly out of Sun Bloodstock’s Group 1-placed Diesis mare Festoso – was knocked down to Alessandro Marconi for 35,000gns.

She had a filly by Calyx in 2021 and a filly by Pinatubo this year.

She was covered this spring by Palace Pier.

Above, Astrelle (Makfi), dam of the Grade 1 Belmont Oaks winner McKulick. She is also dam of two Group winners –Fearless King and Just Beautiful.

bloodstock

This year’s Dubawi foal out of Alina (Galileo), the dam of the four-time Group 1 winner Barney Roy.

Her Dark Angel daughter Wisdom Mind was Listed-placed, while her top sales horse Noble Dynasty (Dubawi), who fetched 3,600,000gns in the ring, is BHA rated 102.

Alina’s 2022 yearling by Dubawi is Lot 328

She proved that valuation all wrong when winning a Listed race in Italy by 5l at two.

O’Brien is, of course, as happy to have sold a high-class racehorse as he is a blockbuster-priced lot, if not more so.

Reflecting on the twin challenges of rearing youngstock, he says: “There’s always a great deal of delight and satisfaction at achieving those big prices in the ring, but the fact is we’re not seeing the woods for the trees unless they do it on the racecourse.

“We would never want to lose our main objective, and that’s selling racehorses. Now, obviously that’s not going to prevent us prepping them to the best of our ability, and presenting them at sales as well as they can be.

“But the real satisfaction comes from seeing them perform well on the track, and that’s not always at Grade 1 level; it is also about producing a sound product who fulfils its potential by getting its head in front in any sort of race. My eye is never too far from the racecourse.”

2019: off the charts

In only its third year of selling yearlings, and with only its second draft at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Hazelwood Bloodstock soared to the head of the consignors’ leader board with a quite extraordinary set of results.

It was responsible for the Dubawi half-brother to Barney Roy sold to Godolphin for a sale-topping 3,600,000gns, a Kingman colt out of the Encosta De Lago mare One Last Dance sold to Coolmore for 1,800,000gns, and a Dubawi filly out the Redoute’s Choice mare Florentina sold to Mike Ryan on behalf of White Birch Farm for 475,000gns.

The last two lots, both out of Australian Group 3 winners, were offered on behalf of Winx’s breeder John Camilleri.

The prices of those three lots meant Hazelwood Bloodstock’s Book 1 average ended up just shy of 2,000,000gns.

“That week happened nearly three years ago, and I promise you I’m still processing it really,” says O’Brien. “It’s only when you go back in the ring and try to do it again, and fall short, that you realise what an achievement it was in the first place.”

So the consignor had no inkling that the Dubawi colt, who became the useful three-time winner Noble Dynasty, would sell for such a sensational figure?

“It was completely off the charts,” he says. “If I’m being honest, I was selfishly and a little self-indulgently hoping to get a seven-figure yearling that year just to get the monkey off our back, but when Coolmore and Godolphin lock horns on one in the ring and you get

over the million mark you don’t know where it’s going to take you.

“You just strap yourself in and enjoy the ride.

“The other two sales were very special, too, as they were for our good friend John Camilleri and he was present that day, so that was a massive thrill for all of us. We knew him from our days in Australia and he continues to be a big supporter of ours.”

Those transactions became even more special as the Dubawi filly was named In Italian. She has developed into a top Turf performer in the US for Chad Brown and gained Grade 1 laurels in July’s Diana Stakes.

“I knew Florentina very well from Australia, she was a lovely filly, and this daughter was a beautiful, sweetnatured horse too – and a chestnut Dubawi, which as we know isn’t necessarily a bad thing,” says O’Brien.

“She moved well enough for one by the sire, and I was satisfied with her price on the day, although I thought one or two other parties might have got stuck in and taken it a bit further.

“But obviously at 450,000gns you’re still playing at a fairly high level.”

History repeated itself a little in the 2019 Hazelwood Bloodstock draft, as once again it was one of the cheaper lots that became one of the best performers in Britain or Ireland.

Just Beautiful, a Pride Of Dubai filly who is the second foal out of that emerging blue hen Astrelle, really took the biscuit as she was bought from Book 3 for just 8,000gns. She was sent out by Ivan Furtado to win five of her seven starts, including a Group 3 and a Listed contest, before being sold to Moyglare Stud for 625,000gns.

“Every time she races and one of the commentators or pundits on the telly mentions her lowly yearling price again, I have my head in my hands,” says O’Brien with tongue in cheek.

“But the fact of it is, Pride Of Dubai wasn’t that fashionable, her half-brother Fearless King hadn’t hit the track by then, she wasn’t the biggest filly and she didn’t move as well as the commercial market demands.

“But now the overriding feeling about Just Beautiful is delight for Ivan Furtado and his clients, who ended up getting such a huge touch from her. It was the stuff of dreams.

“Ivan’s such a lovely guy and did such a wonderful job with the filly, and I’m pleased to say he’s bought some other yearlings from us in the meantime. I saw one of his other cheap acquisitions from us, Lizzie Jean, was still entered in the St Leger at a late stage!”

Hazelwood Bloodstock’s annus mirabilis in 2019 was capped by topping the Tattersalls December Yearling Sale for a second time, with a Dubawi colt out of Voleuse De Coeurs making 200,000gns.

2020: back down to earth

The O’Briens were still on cloud nine celebrating their sales-ring success in the early months of 2020 when the world was plunged into confusion with the arrival of Covid. Normal life was put on hold as enforced lockdowns attempted to slow down its spread.

“Like everyone else, we were just filled with uncertainty,” says O’Brien. “At the time we were grateful that the covering sheds were able to remain open and we could continue the day-to-day business of covering mares but we had no idea what was around the corner.

“Everyone was in turmoil. I was regularly receiving calls from various people overseas to ask if we could consign for them just in case they weren’t allowed to travel. It was a strange sensation, producing highquality stock without having any idea whether we’d even had a marketplace in which to trade it.”

As it happened, a concerted effort from industry stakeholders allowed yearling sales to go ahead, even if many were delayed or relocated to Britain, although Hazelwood Bloodstock’s results were a little more muted this time.

The best price for any of the 14 lots catalogued

hazelwood bloodstock

O’Brien reports that this colt is the “nicest yearling he has handled” – he is Lot 278 in Book 1

Below, the Dubawi colt out of Via Condotti (Galileo) sister to the Group 1 winners Highland Reel, Idaho and Cape Of Good Hope and the Group 3 winner Nobel Prize.

between Books 1 and 3 was ‘just’ 260,000gns, paid by Joseph O’Brien for the Lope De Vega colt Vega Magnifico.

“It had nothing to do with Covid, it was just one of those years,” says O’Brien. “It happens; certain crops are better than others, that’s just the way it is. There was nothing anyone did differently that season, it was just the way the cards happened to fall.”

So he had no crisis of confidence in his methods?

“Every single day during yearling prep I question everything we’re doing!” he continues. “But sometimes I have to stop myself and remember that the process works. You have to trust in it and carry on.

“I’m not one for chopping and changing things at the drop of a hat, but I certainly think about everything a lot, and then in discussion with Philippa and our stud groom Tom Hughes we’ll make tweaks if we all feel we need to.

“The fundamentals remain in place, but everything from conception right through to hammer fall, including foaling and neonatal care, is reviewed at every stage to make sure we’re not missing anything.”

O’Brien was also receiving reassurance that lower prices for the 2020 were just a blip from results on the racecourse, with some of the early graduates

running with distinction.

Fearless King, for instance, became a Classic winner in Germany that year.

“It certainly helps to allay fears when you’re getting some amazing results on the racecourse,” he says.

If O’Brien ever did harbour any nagging doubts, he will definitely be convinced that Hazelwood Bloodstock is doing things right now, as that supposedly “nonvintage” crop contained the operation’s first Grade 1-winning graduate.

McKulick, a Frankel half-sister to Fearless King and Just Beautiful, was sold to Mike Ryan on behalf of Klaravich Stables for 180,000gns and was sent out by Chad Brown to win the Belmont Oaks (G1) in July, exactly one week before In Italian made it two top-level winners for the consignor.

“Two Grade 1 winners seven days apart – I was still on the ropes getting over the first one and then the second one came along and I was almost on the canvas,” says O’Brien. “It’s absolutely bewildering, mad, but it’s a lovely sort of delirium!

“And what about Astrelle? She has three Pattern winners from her first three foals and a Grade 1 winner now. She’s turning into the most remarkable broodmare.”

The Frankel filly has run seven times, won three races and been placed four times.

She has only once run outside of stakes race company.

The Chad Brown-trained McKulick after winning the Belmont Oaks (G1).

2021: normal service resumes

Hazelwood Bloodstock was back in business at last year’s yearling sales with a strong, even draft of horses, as reflected by eight six-figure sales in Books 1 and 2.

There was also a 650,000gns bestseller in the shape of the Kingman filly out of Camilleri’s beautifully bred mare Ring The Bell, a Galileo full-sister to Group 1 winners Hermosa, Hydrangea and The United States, sold to Glen Hill Farm.

“It was a very, very good bunch of horses. Very good,” says O’Brien in hushed tones. “When someone asks me what my standout is going into Book 1 or Book 2 and I can’t give them an honest answer it’s a good sign. That’s exactly how it played out that year. We didn’t have seven-figure horses, but we had excellent averages.

“It was extremely satisfying to have produced such a depth of quality. When the good judges are coming around, and we’re just pulling out one good horse after another for them it sticks in their mind, too. It shows we’re no flash in the pan and we’re producing these good horses consistently.”

The quality has already been exhibited on the racecourse as Hans Andersen, a colt by Frankel out of the Listed-winning Arcano mare Shadow Hunter sold to Coolmore for 450,000gns, was sent out by Aidan O’Brien to win a Curragh maiden doing proverbial handstands and to run second in the Futurity Stakes (G2).

2022: more of the same?

Hazelwood Bloodstock’s drafts at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sales have grown significantly this year, with ten in Book 1, seven in Book 2 and three in Book 3.

The pages of the Book 1 lots are quite breathtaking, as they include four by Dubawi (one of them a halfbrother to Barney Roy), two by Kingman and one each by Frankel (the full-brother to Hans Andersen) and Siyouni.

“We’ve got 20 yearlings this year, which is a big number for us, and ten in Book 1 but each and every one deserves to be there,” says O’Brien. “I don’t think anyone else can claim to be consigning four Dubawis there this year.

“I know that’s not really here or there, they still have to sell well and perform, but it gives me a lot of satisfaction. It’s just a sign of the quality of the draft. I’m not one to blow my own trumpet but this is a bloody special crop of horses.”

So O’Brien hasn’t been overrun with new clients wanting him to consign their lots, and he’s not thinking of upscaling the business?

“No, the owners of the yearlings this year are the same handful of owners we’ve had for the past few years, we haven’t taken on anyone new apart from one,” he says. “We’re consigning the Magna Grecia halfbrother to Royal Patronage for our good friends Simon and Emma Capon, but all the rest are for our regulars.

“I’ve no intention of increasing numbers from here, that’s not what we’re about at all. The aim is producing home-foaled and reared products, we’re not going to hit Book 1 with 15 or 20 next year.

“It’s just a question of maintaining quality. For one reason or another we just have more Book 1 yearlings this year, but I suspect it’ll be back to the standard five or six next year.”

It would be unfair to make O’Brien tempt fate or pitch clients against each other by asking for the potential star of this year’s Hazelwood Bloodstock draft, but it doesn’t take much arm-twisting for him to volunteer that the Dubawi colt out of Via Condotti, a winning Galileo full-sister to Highland Reel, Cape Of Good Hope and Idaho, is “one of the best yearlings we’ve ever produced”.

That’s the fabulous first five drafts of Hazelwood Bloodstock dealt with, then, but what about the next five?

“I just want to keep doing what we’re doing, I’ve got the bug now,” says O’Brien. “I don’t want to be consigning any more than we are at the moment, I just want us to be viewed as a source of extremely well bred, top-quality bloodstock produced to a high level with great care and attention to detail by the very good team of people around me.”

Above, this year’s Frankel filly foal out of Shadow Hunter

Below, the Dubawi ex Via Condotti colt with stud groom Tom Hughes

Business development

WITH THE various sad events through early September it has been something of a gloomy end to a glorious summer.

So it was a very cheering to chat, via zoom to the Arqana September Sale, with the likeable and emerging bloodstock agent and breeze-up consignor Eddie Linehan to hear about his exciting, ambitious new business plans. Earlier this summer the 29-year-old launched Linehan Bloodstock.

After starting out in pony racing before riding as a NH jockey, Linehan has been buying horses and producing breeze up prospects.

This year’s onward development of the business has come about after working alongside trainer Johnny Murtagh for the last couple of sale seasons.

Linehan recounts: “When we were growing up, Dad was a dairy farmer and an auctioneer. He started to get a few horses as his best friend is Eugene Sullivan, who is big into point-to-points. As my sister and I got older and into riding, we started to do them at home and it all developed a little more.

“I suppose then becoming a jockey was the initial plan, but I was very interested in training or doing something with horses –I’d always had one or two horses to trade so I was interested in that. “

Linehan spent some time first with trainer Willie Mullins and then Nicky Henderson and rode 25 winners, but decided early that the riding career was not the future.

“I went home when I was 20,” he says, adding: “After for two or three years I quickly realised how difficult it is to make money with the NH horses; the breezers give a quicker turnover so we started to head that way.”

The first draft was bought on a little bit of a wing and a prayer.

“The year I started I didn’t really have any money,” he recalls. “I had gathered a few lads and we all put in a little bit of cash. We bought seven horses for €15,000 total, you can picture what they were like!

“But two nice fillies came out of that first batch, and we managed to sell three or four of them half okay. And next year we went in a little bit stronger and bought another six for about €32,000 and again two of the fillies were ok.

“So we have just kept going and just try to buy a better horse each year. We have had a majority of fillies as we could afford them, the colts we got early on were probably colts other people did not want.”

LINEHAN HAS sold under the farm’s Lackendarra Stables banner, and recently purchased as Eddie Linehan Bloodstock.

The newly created Linehan Bloodstock is something of a natural development of roles he has been creating for himself, but there has been plenty of thought behind the venture and some big plans are afoot.

“Like everything with me I suppose it kind of started a bit unintentionally. I had sold a breezer to Qatar Racing and she was sent into training with Johnny. My brother Denis works there and I got to know Johnny a bit,” says Linehan.

“The following year bloodstock agent Gill Richardson was quite sick before the Fairyhouse Sale, Johnny asked Denis if I have any interest in looking at a couple of horses for him, and we managed to buy Champers Elysses.”

The daughter of Elzaam, of course, went

We chat to Eddie Linehan who has big plans afoot with his new company Linehan Bloodstock

Exciting times ahead for Eddie Linehan with his new venture

Photo by Debbie Burt

on to win the Group 1 Matron Stakes and the Fairy Bridge Stakes (G3). She collected over £250,000 in prize-money earnings and was sold privately whilst in training to Teruya Yoshida of Shadai Farm, Japan.

Since then the Eddie Linehan / Johnny Murtagh signature has become a regular on the sales dockets, and Linehan’s services have been in demand from others.

“I have just been working away with Johnny since, doing all the yearling sales for him, but then a couple of other lads asked me to look for horses and it has gone from there.

“I was very busy at last year’s October Book 2 and Book 3, as well as at the Fairyhouse and Sportsman sales so I thought it might be no harm to go another step further, make it a bit more efficient, a bit more formal and professional,” he explains.

MAKING THE whole business “whole” is important to Linehan.

bloodstock

“I have done all the NH store sales with David Mullins for the last two years, and in return I asked him last year to give me a hand at a couple of the bigger yearling sales.

“He’s obviously a bloodstock agent in his own right as well – I’ve been doing a bit with him, and he’s going to do a bit with us.

“He’s coming to Fairyhouse with me and he’ll come to Newmarket as well.”

The family links are maintained, too. Linehan’s father John, who bought the twotime Grade 1 winner Oscars Well in 2008 and whom Linehan Jnr cites as one of the biggest influences on his life, is part of the business, while his brother, whom Linehan says has a “great eye for a horse”, is fully involved alongside his day job as assistant at Murtagh’s Fox Covert Stables.

“At the big sales,” reasons Linehan, “you can’t have enough help because you can always miss things. It is also great to get a second or third opinion on a horse for clients. The ‘chancy’ or cheaper horses are the ones who could give you a touch, so you really can’t have enough eyes on the job.”

THE INFLUENCE OF Murtagh has been important to Linehan taking this forward to such a degree, but he has a developing book of clients and is keen to work with a variety of differing business to make full use of time at the sales.

“There are a couple of young trainers, there are all getting going and they know that I am looking at the majority horses,” he says. “A lot of them fellas can’t be at the sales two days ahead of selling, they have shoot up on the day of the sale. It is so easy for them to ask me, ‘Have you seen any that will be good to me?’ We are looking at everything anyway, so it is good to be able to be busy.”

Linehan is a straightforward man and it is important to him that his business acts responsibly, is trustworthy and is always doing the best for its clients.

“It’s about trying to find value, and work professionally,” he explains. “The whole thing is now very commercial, everyone’s thinking whether a horse will be able to be sold on to Hong Kong or America.

“So you’re trying to weigh up everything and see where is the better value for

someone – should you hold off for the next lot or for the next sale?”

So what does Linehan look for in a horse?

“I’ll take the physical over pedigree because that is what have bought for myself, I haven’t been able to afford pedigree. That’s what’s worked – a lot of cheap €5,000 horses have turned out to be stakes horses.

“But the big thing for me is walk and temperament, I used to be very strict on conformation, I am not as strict now.

“Eddie O’Leary said something two years ago in Newmarket that has really stuck. I was looking at a horse and I started knocking a front leg or something.

“He said, ‘Today is the only day you’re looking at that horse coming at you head on

– from now on, you’ll always be seeing the horse side on.’

“It’s not a bad point. Now, when I look at a horse who might be toeing out or something similar, I’ll stand back and look at the side view and think about Eddie said.

“If I buy one to breeze for me or if they win a two-year-old maiden for a trainer, the next buyer is not too worried about what they’re like coming at you, all they want to know is if they are sound and if they can gallop,” he says, adding: “It is so easy to leave a good horse behind if you are too strict.”

The dream is to build up a substantial and busy bloodstock agency. “I’d love to be at sales with the three lads and Aisling as well,” he smiles.

“Have a right team at the sales and all of us with one or two clients each.

“So it is now all about us getting out, meeting people, moving things on from here.”

Linehan, who married long-term girlfriend Ellen this summer, is certainly putting the structure and building blocks in place for the fledging business.

And the plan is to be busy at the sales this autumn…. Ellen might not get to see much of her new husband this autumn.

Linehan is relishing working with the new team he has put together.

“We all get on great and we have a bit of crack together, too,” he laughs. “It doesn’t really feel as though we are working – we enjoy it and there is nothing better than running around being busy.”

But the big thing for me is walk and temperament, I used to be very strict on conformation, I am not as strict now

Linehan with Dan O’Meara: the pair are hoping to be spending a lot of time on sales grounds

Photo by Debbie Burt

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A growing reputation

James Thomas chats with Tom Blain of Barton Stud, who is looking forward to consigning the farm’s biggest and best draft of yearlings at Tattersalls October

BARTON STUD boasts a rich history that reaches back over 100 years, and with a young and dynamic team now at the helm a bright future is also in the process of being forged.

The site, which nowadays covers 480 acres on the edge of Bury St Edmunds, was established as a thoroughbred farm in 1921 by Sir Edward Hulton and sold to Huttleston and Henry Broughton four years later. When the brothers were called away to serve in Word War II the stud was leased to HH The Aga Khan, a move that saw the influential Nasrullah move into the Barton stallion boxes.

The likes of such stars as Night Shift have also stood at Barton down the years, while names such as Major John CritchleySalmonson and Joss Collins have managed the farm on behalf of the Broughton family. Since January 2013 the running of the operation has been handled by managing director Tom Blain, who, at 34, ranks among the rare breed of young British stud managers.

Blain was born into an equestrian family but says his parents “weren’t remotely involved” in horseracing.

Instead his route into the industry began after graduating from Cirencester University, where he studied international equine and agricultural business management. He

subsequently served a rapid apprenticeship before taking the reins at Barton.

“My first ever job in racing was at Barton Stud and I went straight from uni to mucking out stables,” he says.

“I moved to Newmarket not knowing much about the racing industry or anyone in it and I’ve just worked my way up. I got given a stud hand’s job after phoning Phil Haworth, who now runs Whitsbury Manor, and he kindly agreed to take me on.”

Blain spent an initial breeding season at Barton before joining the team at Cheveley Park Stud for a round of yearling prep. He then returned to Barton and shortly after was offered the position of assistant manager. However, circumstances soon conspired to see Blain offered an even bigger role.

“I thought being Phil’s assistant was

internationalthoroughbred

I moved to Newmarket not knowing much about the racing industry or anyone in it and I’ve just worked my way up

Tom Blain and wife Pip: the couple are looking forward to selling an exciting draft at the Tattersalls October Sale, headed up by 22 lots catalogued in Book 1. The draft includes a Galileo filly and colt, three lots by Frankel as well as a Dubawi filly

Photo: Tattersalls | Laura Green

a great opportunity so I said yes, but I’d already organised a whole sales season with Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock, so I agreed to join Phil after that,” says Blain. “While I was working the sales season Phil left Barton to go to Whitsbury, so that left the main job free. I went back as an assistant and then, at the age of 24, I was given the job of stud manager.”

“Many!” is Blain’s response when asked if there have been moments he felt he had bitten off more than he can chew.

“I was so green and had no experience at all really. I wanted to go and travel and do all of that, but I ended up getting an opportunity to run an amazing stud and, rather than going to Australia and America, I decided to jump in at the deep end.

“But you learn from your mistakes and the advice I give all young people who come and speak to me is first work harder than anybody else, and, two, always ask for advice.

“That’s something I’ve never had a problem doing and I still do to this day. We had about 26 foaling mares, a number of seasonal boarders and a couple of permanent boarders. I had to learn to get all the covering paperwork right, do all the

foalings, talk to clients, learn about creditors and debtors, and managing people, and I wouldn’t have learned half of that if I’d travelled for ten years.”

Given his lack of experience, Blain found himself in a sink or swim situation, but the stud’s steep upward trajectory speaks to the fact he has done more than merely stay afloat. Barton is now home to 60 permanent boarders and associated youngstock, and counts some of the biggest breeders

around among its client base. However, the managing director is acutely aware he has not got to this position single handedly.

“There are many people who’ve been hugely influential in my career and I’m still close to them today,” says Blain. “Phil gave me my first opportunity and has always been a sounding board for stud-related questions. Richard Brown is another, he’s a great friend and I wouldn’t be here today without him because he’s been hugely supportive of me and supported Barton with clients.

“Jono Mills is another who supported us early on with Rabbah stock, which is a huge responsibility and we’re greatly honoured to have them. There’s also Tim and Gill Bostwick, who sent us their mares six or seven years ago. They’re excellent breeders and I very much enjoy being involved with them and their advisor Oliver St Lawrence. They breed some lovely horses and their support gave us better stock to work with, which has helped lay the foundation for the consignment we have today.

“And, of course, the Broughton family has always been very supportive of my ideas and I’m very grateful for the opportunity given to me. I owe them a lot for what they’ve done for me over the years.”

...the advice I give all young people who come and speak to me is first work harder than anybody else, and, two, always ask for advice

A growing operation: this year Barton Stud (seen here at the Tattersalls Somerville Sale) has 85 yearlings catalogued through to the end of October

Photo: Debbie Burt

Photo by Debbie Burt

Barton has long since proven its land and facilities are capable of producing racehorses who compete in the sport’s upper echelons, think the likes of Krypton Factor, Powerful Breeze, Vintager and Yulong Gold Fairy, to name but a few.

The roll of honour grew further during Doncaster’s St Leger meeting when Polly Pott ran away with the Group 2 May Hill Stakes.

BUT THE industry is now a very different place to when Barton was established over 100 years ago, and arguably Blain’s biggest triumph has been to steer the stud in a more commercially minded direction.

Not only can the stud boast of

consignments of increasing quality and quantity at the foal and yearling sales, but the operation has branched out into the vibrant horses-in-training market under the banner of Barton Sales.

“Barton has always been a boarding farm,

but I love the sales and the challenge they present,” says Blain. “It’s something I aimed to drive forward and I think by producing our stock at the sales to a high standard we gained the trust of more breeders and started to gather momentum. Barton Sales evolved from there.”

Last year’s Tattersalls Autumn Horses-inTraining Sale results illustrate the point, as Barton sold 37 lots for 1,599,000gns.

A further 45 lots brought 2,284,500gns at the December Mares Sale, and Blain expects to be even busier at those auctions in 2022. Moreover, this year began at the February Sale, when the Barton Sales-consigned 41 lots including a significant number from the Shadwell dispersal, sold for 1,038,500gns.

“Originally it was hard to change the perception that we’re not just an English stud farm that sells a few foals and yearlings,

We have by far the best bunch of yearlings we’ve ever had going to the Tattersalls October Sale

Karen Lyles, responsible for lunging all the yearlings at Barton, with the Wootton Bassett filly out of Kazeera, full-sister to Al Kazeem (Book 1, Lot 9)

but professional consignors.

“However, Barton Sales has been a great success story and we’re going to the horsesin-training sales with lots of exciting horses from highly respected trainers,” says Blain.

But there is no bigger sign of the modern day Barton’s burgeoning reputation than the size of the draft it is bringing to the upcoming Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

As recently as 2013 the stud took just three lots to Book 2 and one to Book 3, and had none in Book 1. But this year Barton has 75 yearlings catalogued across the October Sale, including 22 in Book 1.

“We have by far the best bunch of yearlings we’ve ever had going to the Tattersalls October Sale,” says Blain. “It’s exciting but also a bit nerve wracking as there’s some very valuable horses among them. I feed off that pressure though and I love the challenge, so the overriding emotion is excitement more than anything.”

Blain is unlikely to be the only one excited by the Barton Book 1 draft, as the group contains a well-bred daughter of Dubawi, two by Galileo, a trio of Frankels and others by Kingman, Lope De Vega, Siyouni and Wootton Bassett.

“To have yearlings by these kinds of sires is where we want to be,” he says. “I’ve always dreamt of having more horses in Book 1 and it suddenly all came together this year, so I

can’t deny that I’m very excited.

“Breaking into any sale is tricky but it’s particularly hard at the upper echelons. There aren’t many commercial clients with the mares to support these stallions, and the ones who can are usually sewn up. Getting this kind of horse has been a great challenge but it’s one I’ve enjoyed, at least now that we’ve got there!”

Of the Dubawi filly out of Geisha Girl (Lot 499), a half-sister to Elusive Wave, Blain says: “She’s a beautiful horse and moves very well for a Dubawi. We’ve never sold a Dubawi before and she’s out of a Galileo mare so it’s the perfect cross. I’m very excited about her.”

The Galileos, a colt out of the dual Group 1 winner Amazing Maria (Lot 336) and a sister to the black-type performers Pandora, Allegio and Isabella (Lot 225), are offered on behalf of Lady Ogden, widow of the successful owner-breeder Sir Robert Ogden.

“It’s a great honour to sell these horses for Lady Ogden and they’re both lovely individuals,” says Blain. “The filly out of Song of My Heart is very athletic and she’s a full-sibling to three stakes horses.

“Galileo fillies are always exciting, especially when they look as nice as she does, and they’re rarer than ever now that they’re not making them any more.”

LOT 436 is the Frankel colt out of Desirous, a daughter of Kingman and the Matron Stakes (G1) winner Emulous.

“This is a proper Juddmonte family,” says Blain. “This is the first foal out of the mare and he’s turned into a lovely horse; he’s a very imposing colt and I’m excited to see how he goes. I bought the mare a couple of years ago for Faisal Mishref. He’s been incredibly loyal and I’ve got a lot to thank him for.”

Barton have once again been tasked with selling Biddestone Stud’s yearlings, including the Invincible Spirit colt out of the

I’ve always dreamt of having more horses in Book 1 and it suddenly all came together this year

Left: Zoe Isaacson, assistant manager, and, above, Chris Lumley, who has been at Barton for over 50 years and Blaine says “could not have done it without him”

Photo by Debbie Burt Photo by Debbie Burt

Listed-placed Paco’s Angel (Lot 107) and the Le Havre filly out of Glenmayne (Lot 502), whose second foal, the Godolphin-owned Galashiels, won a Listed contest shortly after the catalogue was published.

“We have an incredibly good-looking Invincible Spirit colt out of Paco’s Angel, who was a black-type filly from a very good pedigree,” says Blain. “He’s very imposing and if he’s not a racehorse then I’ll be very surprised. He was born and bred at Barton and I’m very pleased with him as he’s getting better all the time.

“The Bostwicks also have a Le Havre filly who’s out of a sister to Millisle, who was obviously champion two-year-old. This filly is incredibly good-looking, has an amazing walk and Galashiels has just won a Listed race so it’s an active family. She’s a proper filly with a pedigree so she should make a lot of appeal.”

Barton is also entrusted with the Lope De Vega colt out of Brightwalton Stud’s Group 3 March Stakes winner Maid Up (Lot 44).

“Jeffrey [Hobby] is a great friend and has been incredibly loyal and we’re very honoured to sell some lovely horses from his beautiful Brightwalton Stud,” says Blain.

“He has a nice Lope De Vega colt out of

Maid Up. She was a good filly and this is her first foal. He’s developed into a lovely horse.”

Selling such a significant number of horses is not without its challenges, but Barton’s 12-strong full-time team possesses a level of skill and work ethic that has Blain in a relaxed mood.

“This year we’ve got the best team we’ve ever had and it’s hard not to mention everybody because they all bring so much to the table individually,” he says. “Zoe

Isaacson [assistant manager] has been here for seven years and she’s been hugely influential. She’s incredibly dedicated to the horses and is unbelievably efficient and quite simply we couldn’t run the stud to the standard we do without her.

“I have to mention Chris Lumley, who was the stud groom when I first started so I used to work for him. He’s been at Barton for over 50 years and is one of the kindest men I know and has been incredibly loyal and works unbelievably hard. He’s a very modest man but I couldn’t have done it without Chris, who’s steered the ship when Barton’s been in rocky territory.

“Turning up at Tattersalls with 75 yearlings is a daunting task and they are long days at the sales, so I have so much respect for the team – the people at the sales and those at home – who do the whole two weeks.

“It’s an extraordinary effort and I’m always eternally grateful for the people who come and help us because, frankly, we couldn’t do it without them.”

History may well be the bedrock of Barton Stud but, with Blain and his team at the helm and an impressive collection of stock on its books, the next chapter is set to be every bit as significant as what has come before.

Issacson with the Invincible Spirit colt out of the Group 3 fourth-placed Paco’s Angel (Book 1, Lot 107) and from the direct family of Grand Lodge

This year we’ve got the best team we’ve ever had and it’s hard not to mention everybody because they all bring so much to the table individually

Equine growth data

Nutrionist Joe Pagan of

Kentucky Equine Research has an extensive data collection tracking thoroughbred growth. We report on his newest, ground-breaking findings

BIG DATA, its use, its understanding and its application, coupled with scientific knowledge, has become the vital way forward for all industries.

Far ahead in the field of bloodstock and thoroughbred nutrition is Joe Pagan of Kentucky Equine Research (KER), who has been collecting and analysing data alongside the US-based feed company Hallway Feeds for 30 years and the UK’s Saracen Feeds for 21.

This work, via regular weighing of foals from birth through to maturity, has greatly increased the understanding of thoroughbred growth, and has allowed Pagan to determine some informative findings.

“We started weighing horses very early on,” reported Pagan at the Saracensponsored Thoroughbred Forum held in June at Newbury and Newmarket. “We felt that weight and growth rate had an effect on skeletal soundness, and we’ve been looking at it a long time.

“From a paper published in 1996 on a growth study in Kentucky we found even back then that heavier foals, young foals of around 25 days of age, had more hock and stifle OCD issues.

“Steve Caddel at Hallway started a weighing service going around the studs once a month, weighing the foals, measuring their height and condition scoring the horses. If the foal was by her side he’d also weigh the lactating mare, and he has done that for the last 30 years.

“We now have a database of 47,000 foals that we’ve weighed and measured.”

The results produced some definitive early findings (see above table).

“We published some early data on just regular growth rate of foals in Kentucky and we found something really surprising –average daily gain decreases with age until the horses get to be about 11 to 15 months of age.

“Then in April every single yearling, regardless of when it was born, starts to grow fast again; that’s when our grass comes on.”

KER has been measuring thoroughbred growth all over the world – England, Australia, India, New Zealand, and it has been found that where foals are located

makes a big difference to how they grow.

When this big data collection indeed started getting very big, Pagan worked on a software programme to handle the content –launched in 2000-2001 this became known as Gro Trac, a straightforward recording and analytical programme which can be used in-house by both by Pagan and his team for analytics, and on farm by breeders and stud staff for recording purposes.

“Gro Trac allows us to summarise the data and, more importantly, compare how foals are growing to another population of foals,” says Pagan.

To do this, Pagan made use of percentiles, working out where the individual fitted into the normal distribution of growth.

The team used data from a study called “Relationship between Foal Body Weight, withers height and OCD, Sales and Racing Performance in Kentucky Thoroughbred Foals”alongside data combined with similar data collected in Europe by Saracen’s clients.

The team then divided the data into a

number of sub populations:

1. By performance – starters, winners, stakes winners, graded stakes are millionaires

2. By month of birth

3. By parity – whether the foals were out of maiden or multiparous mares.

4. By skeletal disease – no OCD, OCD survey and surgery split via fetlock, hocks and stifles as well as any other issues such as fragments and chips and cysts.

We run through the first four findings in this issue and the last, point 4, in the next’s month’s edition.

Data findings

Birth weights and parody

The median birth weight for all foals in the study is 55kgs and in the UK the median is a little higher at 56kgs.

A big weight difference, however, was found between foals born from maiden mares and those from mares who have had a number of foals.

“The thing that we found in the UK and in the US is parody makes a huge difference,” reports Pagan.

The average weight of foals from maiden mares is 8kg lighter than those from multiparous mares, and this difference was found in all geographical locations.

The median weight from UK maiden mares was 49kg, in the US this icreased slightly to 51kg and dropped to 47.5kg in Australia.

For the multiparous mare in the UK the median found was 57kg, it was 58kg in the US and 56kg in Australia.

Stakes winners and birth weights

As can be seen in the scatter graph (see table overleaf) few UK foals born above 64kg went onto become stakes winners, and none of the heavy foals in the US achvied that target.

In the UK of the lighter foals, none of the five per cent of those smaller, foals, became stakes winners.

In the US, 13 per cent of foals were born

growth data

above 64kg, but of these only two per cent won at stakes level.

Looking at the non-maiden mares (middle table), no foal born below 44kg, bar a couple in Australia, were stakes winners.

Foals born between 44kg and 64kg provides the zone in which most stakes winners, from both maiden and multiparous mares, are born.

Birth weights: sales prices and earnings

Here the results narrow further again from the stakes winning data. In the UK only three per cent of the top 10 per cent of sales horses weighed more than 64kg as foals, and only two per cent below 44kg.

In the UK, 95 per cent of foals of the top-earning foals weighed between 44 kg and 64kg.

Difference in body weight percentile of UK and US young horses

Pagan says: “There is a difference in the size of UK thoroughbreds versus US, and that is the finding that I went ‘Wow!’; it is a very interesting difference”

The graph (opposite) shows clearly that the growth rates in the US and the UK are very different.

The majority of foals in both regions start at the same size in the 60th percentile and the US horses continue along that trajectory; the UK thoroughbreds get relatively smaller as they age.

growth data

Foals born in the band between 44kg and 66kg have the best results

growth data

Yearlings sales and percentiles

In the US, 50 per cent of the foals in the top 10 per cent of yearlings sold (the ‘elite’ yearlings) were in the fourth weight quartile (see opposite, blue) with another 25 per cent in the third quartile. It means that 75 per cent of the top yearling sales were above the median body weight.

In the UK, most of the top-priced yearlings were found in the second quartile (red). Conversely to the US the fourth quartile, the heaviest yearlings, only produced 12 per cent of the top 10 per cent of the sale yearlings.

The UK sales market essentially discriminates against big yearlings, while in the US big yearlings are more popular in the sale ring.

Does the sales data correlate with stakes race winners?

In the US, 44 per cent of the horses who won stakes races came from the fourth weight quartile (see middle table, blue graph), whereas in the UK the most stakes winners come from the second quartile (red graph).

It means then the stakes-winning horses match exactly the same pattern as they sold for each region.

If looking a bit more broadly, this pattern is also repeated for the top 10 per cent of earners (bottom table).

When examining height quartiles, the top earnings in both regions were found to be in the third quartile.

It really seems there is a sweet spot for racing performance in both regions and that is slightly diferent.

In the US this the fourth quartile body weight, third quartile height,

In the UK it is second quartile body weight and third quartile height.

The data proves that heavy yearlings are not popular in the UK, but it is vice versa in the US

Deuce Again (Dubawi/Match Point)

Lot 474 B.C Blue Point x Familliarity (Nayef/Millistar)

Lot 497 Ch.F. Ribchester x Galaxy Highflyer (Galileo/Colorspin)

Lot 524 B.F. Kingman x Hippy Hippy Shake (Danehill Dancer/Hyperspectra)

Lot 544 B.C. Pivotal x Interstella (Sea the Stars/Hyperspectra)

Lot 593 B.F. Nathaniel x Last Tango InParis (Aqlaam/Strictly Lambada)

Lot 657 B.F. Territories x Millistar (Galileo/Milligram)

Lot 960 B.C. Ulysses x Tropicana Bay (Oasis Dream/Ballet Ballon)

Lot 999 B.C. Muhaarar x Wilbury Twist (Pivotal/Dylanesque)

GLOSSARY

Haplogroup

A very distinct group of mutations. Haplogroups are mtDNA sequence polymorphism (a common variant in a specific sequence of DNA) variations that occurred possibly 150,000 years ago and correlate with the geographic origins of populations traced through the maternal lineages

They have evolved from different ancestries, so under different selection pressures.

So, a haplogroup that developed in the East, such as L, has developed differently than the D haplogroup from which stems the Norwegian Fjord, Shetland Pony and Iceland Pony.

Haplotype

Is a sub-group that has the original mutations that define the haplogroup as well as further distinctions from other members of the haplogroup.

Amongst horses that have the mutations that distinguish the haplogroup, there can be a number of haplotypes.

For example, the L haplogroup has 10 haplotypes that have been found in the thoroughbred.

Mitochondria

Mitochondria is the “energy factory” of our body. Several thousand mitochondria are in nearly every cell in the body. Its job is to process oxygen and convert substances from the foods we eat into energy. Mitochondria produce 90 per cent of the energy our body needs to function

Sire and dam DNA have got to work together

In Part 2 of our discussion on the emerging understanding of mitochondrial DNA, Alan Porter explains how the two parts of the DNA and genome puzzle work together

See Part 1 here: https://issuu.com international_thoroughbred/docs/itb_august_2022/s/16516244

SO, UP TO THIS POINT, we’ve established that mitochondria is a part of the genome which exists outside the nucleus of the cell; is transmitted only in direct female line; plays a vital part in producing aerobic energy; and that aerobic energy makes a major contribution to performance even at the shortest distance over which elite thoroughbred compete.

To further confirm the findings that the importance of mitochondria to thoroughbred performance isn’t just speculation, is confirmed in a more recent paper from the Journal of Animal Science.

In a paper entitled “Select skeletal muscle mitochondrial measures in Thoroughbred weanlings are related to race earnings and sire”, Guy, et al found a statistically significant correlation between lifetime earnings and skeletal muscle mitochondrial capacity of thoroughbreds (based on biological samples from the gluteus medius muscle of thoroughbred weanlings).

We’ve mentioned that there are 11 genetically distinct mitochondrial

haplogroups found to date in the thoroughbred breed, and 36 subgroups or haplotypes, but we’ve also noted that there isn’t any significant difference in the percentage of elite runners descending from each of these mitochondrial haplotypes.

It seems likely that in isolated populations, be they tribes, herds, packs or flocks, the nuclear and mitochondrial DNA evolve together

That being so, what then, causes the differences in mitochondrial measures in the study just mentioned?

Well, there is a clue in the title of the paper, which says “…mitochondrial measures in thoroughbred weanlings are related to race earnings and sire.”

This raises the next question: if the mitochondria are inherited solely in motherdaughter fashion, how does the sire get involved?

It’s thought that mitochondria initially existed as a parasite that evolved a symbiotic relationship with another single celled organism.

Over time, elements of the mitochondria have been absorbed into the nuclear genome and now, for optimal mitochondrial function, it is necessary for the “right”nuclear DNA for the mitochondriaDNA (mtDNA) to be present – basically that there is a crosstalk between the two distinct genomes to achieve the balance of the cellular energy requirements.

As an illustration, in their 2019 paper “Nuclear genetic regulation of the human mitochondrial transcriptome” Ali and colleagues noted that “Genes in the cell nucleus can affect gene expression in the mitochondria, changing the cell’s energy supply” and mentioned that there “..are 64 nuclear loci associated with expression levels of 14 genes encoded in the mitochondrial genome…..implicating genetic mechanisms that act in trans across the two genomes.”

In fact there is strong evidence that the interaction is a two-way street with expression of some nuclear genes being moderated by the mitochondrial genome and vice versa.

It seems likely that in isolated populations, be they tribes, herds, packs or flocks, the nuclear and mitochondrial DNA evolve together.

For example, two populations of birds known as Townsend’s Warblers, one coastal and one inland, showed differentiated mitochondrial DNA, along with differentiated nuclear DNA, including in regions associated with mitochondrial fatty acid metabolism, demonstrating a simultaneous co-adaptation of nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, in this case in response to climate.

Similarly, but within a single population of bats, a more recent paper found that when comparing bats with near-identical nuclear genetic backgrounds but with contrasting mtDNA, they found significant and tissuespecific effects of mitonuclear mismatch on nuclear gene expression, with the largest effect seen in pectoral muscle of the bat.

Functional incompatibilities between the mitochondrial and nuclear genomes are shown to have an influence on general athletic fitness.

It is this simultaneous coadaption of nuclear and mtDNA which tries to ensure

the nuclear DNA “fits” the mtDNA, making for optimal mitochondrial function.

In humans, it was found that during maternal offspring mitochondrial transmission, mtDNA inheritance is more likely to match with the nuclear genome ancestry to try to ensure consistency between these two independent genetic systems.

That is, while the nuclear DNA recombines each generation, you get half your nuclear DNA from the sire and half from the dam, generally speaking what is inherited in the nuclear DNA tries as best it can to match the mtDNA and ensure optimal

Image: courtesy of Quanta Magazine

mitochondrial function.

What the nuclear and mtDNA is working against achieving this in racehorses is the human hand, or more specifically the mare owner, and the lack of knowledge that thoroughbred breeders have in knowing what mitochondrial haplotype that their mare has and what stallions best fit this haplotype.

What happens when the nuclear DNA is not as good a “fit” and mitonuclear incompatibilities occur?

Happily, we have examples of that occurrence. Copepods are tiny crustaceans, distant relatives of lobsters and crabs and in one experiment scientists took Copepods

from two different tidepools on the California coast – one from San Diego, and a study looking at some from Santa Cruz, nearly 500 miles to the North.

When crossed together, the first generation hybrids were normal, but second generation hybrids were smaller, slowerdeveloping and less fertile.

Crossing the hybrids back with individuals from their own male line did nothing to restore the fitness, but crossing them back with individuals from their own maternal/mitochondrial line did achieve that goal.

A similar, more recent study looked at two subspecies of African cattle – the Bos Zebus (humped) and Bos Taurine (humpless).

DNA analysis shows evidence of extensive

A recent study looking at the two subspecies of African cattle – the Bos Zebus (humped) and Bos Taurine (humpless). DNA analysis shows evidence of extensive interbreeding between the two over 100s of years, but despite this all African cattle possess the Taurine mtDNA haplotypes, demonstrating an incompatibility between the Zebu nuclear genome

What the nuclear and mtDNA is working against achieving this in racehorses is the human hand, or more specifically the mare owner, and the lack of knowledge

porter’s pedigrees

interbreeding between the two over 100s of years, but despite this, all African cattle possess the Taurine mtDNA haplotypes, demonstrating an incompatibility between the Zebu nuclear genome.

The next question, of course, is how does this impact the thoroughbred?

As we have said, the thoroughbred has 11 known distinct mitochondrial haplogroups, and they are from roots as diverse as those from which stem such a range of breeds such as the Akhal-Teke, the Arabian, the Syrian, the Shire Horse, the Clydesdale, and in the case of Sadler’s Wells and Nureyev, the Shetland Pony, Icelandic horse and Norwegian Fjord.

Despite this diversity, it appears that the thoroughbred sits somewhere near a mid-point on a continuum in this regard –it’s not a the single breed with the nuclear/ mitochondrial co-adaption mentioned with regard to the isolated populations of Townsend’s Warbler, but its mitochondrial haplogroups have not grown so diverse that they have reached the point of mitochondrial incompatibility, where the nuclear DNA that combines with one haplogroup results in non viability if crossed with another (as with the case of the Bos Zebus and Bos Taurine Cattle).

All of that said, the fact remains, it is far more likely that a horse will have optimum mitochondrial function if his genome contains the nuclear DNA that fits his mtDNA.

In pedigree terms this means when we consider the tail-female line of a mare (representing the mitochondrial line) and then look at the rest of pedigree (representing the nuclear DNA) of an individual or a proposed mating we want to see a structure that indicates that the foal will have a high chance of inheriting nuclear DNA that fits the mitochondrial line of the mare.

We have all looked down at a catalogue page and seen instances where a particular sire or sire-line has had an outweighed influence on the superior runners found in the female lineage noted on the page, but we should note here, that the nuclear DNA can come from either side of the pedigree, which is an important factor when considering matings.

Sadler’s Wells: his mtDNA traces to the Shetland Pony, Icelandic horse and Norwegian Fjord

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

LOT 45

bc by Dubawi ex Main Edition.

Dam winner of 6 races incl. German 1000 Guineas (G2), Albany Stakes (G3), Sweet Solera Stakes (G3) etc.

LOT 115

bc by Night Of Thunder ex Parton.

Dam unraced daughter of four time G1 winner Proviso (Diana Stakes G1, First Lady Stakes G1, Just A Game Stakes G1, Frank E. Kilroe Mile G1), etc.

LOT 498

bf Too Darn Hot ex Galicuix.

Half-sister to 2000 Guineas winner and sire Galileo Gold .

RARE JEWELS

TATTERSALLS OCTOBER YEARLING SALES

BOOK 1

26 F Too Darn Hot / Lamar

39 C Invincible Spirit / Love Your Looks

45 C Dubawi / Main Edition

115 C Night of Thunder / Parton

159 C Advertise / Regal Hawk

175 F Soldier’s Call / Saga Celebre

265 C Golden Horn / Tuolumne Meadows

353 F Camelot / Arwaah

399 C Zoustar / Charlie Em

406 C Pivotal / Clear Water

481 F Masar / First City

498 F Too Darn Hot / Galicuix

517 C Blue Point / Havergate

BOOK 2

693 F Night of Thunder / Namhroodah

722 C Advertise / Papaver

839 C Showcasing / Samira Gold

1277 C Advertise / Fen Breeze

1294 F New Bay / For Henry

1328 C Blue Point / Hana Lina

BOOK 3

1450 C Masar / Pom Pom Pom

1560 F Exceed And Excel / Absolutely Right

1600 F Zoustar / Celsius Degre

1604 F Ulysses / Cherry Orchard

1666 C Siyouni / Gold Sands

1669 C Oasis Dream / Gracious Diana

1698 C Free Eagle / Just Jealous

1733 F Churchill / Mill Point

1756 C Invincible Army / Padella

1762 C Twilight Son / Peters Spirit

1776

F Ulysses / Queen’s Castle

1788 C Twilight Son / Royal Grace

1851 C Land Force / Under The Storm

1854 C Postponed / Velvet Charm

1872 C Blue Point / Al Fareej

1908 C Calyx / Blanche Dubawi

1912 F Ulysses / Boadicee

1921 C Masar / Carlanda

1946 F Toronado / Donna Giovanna

1949 F New Approach / Dubawi Meeznah

1950 F Night of Thunder / Dubian To 2003 C Blue Point / Hoyamy

BOOK 4

2013 F Mukhadram / Jasmine Royale

2023 C Twilight Son / Miss Equipoise

2038 F Invincible Army / Purple Tiger 2042 C Eqtidaar / Respectable 2047 F Fastnet Rock / Sarinda

2049 F Golden Horn / Sayyedati Lady

2056 C Phoenix of Spain / Threetimesalady

2064 C Charming Thought / Aegean Mystery

2065 C Outstrip / Amarone Red

2077 F Profitable / Dear Dancer

2083 C Muhaarar / Dubai Media

2085 F Charming Thought / Elis Eliz

2088 C Charming Thought / Ermyntrude

Fox

Hundon,

Suffolk,

View our yearlings at www.houghtonbloodstock.co.uk

Office: 01638 563238 • Robin: 07850 661468 • Malcolm: 07711 160856 • E: info@houghtonbloodstock.co.uk

photo finish: stud visits by the late Queen Elizabeth II

Above, the late Queen Elizabeth II and Duke of Edinburgh at the Irish National Stud in 2011. They are alongside CEO John Osborne and Chryss O’Reilly, chair of the board, and Jeremy is the stallion being paraded. The visit was part of The Queen’s tour of Ireland, the first by a reigning British monarch since 1911.

Below, at Juddmonte’s Banstead Manor Stud with the mighty Frankel in 2016

Photo courtesy of Juddmonte Farms and by Laura Green

EXCITING TIMES AHEAD!

When Coolmore purchased Wootton Bassett in the summer of 2020 he had just one Group 1 winner to his credit, albeit a very special one in European Champion 3-Year-Old Almanzor (from his sire’s first crop of just 23 foals).

In the intervening period that tally has risen to six, courtesy of Prix Jean Romanet and Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf heroine Audarya, ‘Abbaye’ winner Wooded, Prix Saint-Alary winner Incarville, Prix Marcel Boussac winner Zellie and National Stakes winner Al Riffa. And remember these were conceived at fees as low as €4,000.

At Deauville in August, his 30 yearlings offered all sold for prices up to €750,000 at an average of €212,667 - more than five times the €40,000 at which they were conceived.

But the really exciting part is what comes next. Scan the QR code below to view some of his outstanding first Coolmore crop which will be followed by an even better-bred one.

AL RIFFA, winner of the National Stakes-Gr.1 for Joseph O’Brien and Jassim Bin Ali Al Attiyah highly regarded by connections and justified their boldness to supplement him… took this step up in class in his stride and looks a potential 2,000 Guineas prospect. RACING POST

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