established nh stallions Milan was given a €2,000 fee reduction for this spring to €8,000. His current runner Brewin’upastorm, rated 155, was a £250,000 Ryan Mahon/ Dan Skelton purchase at the April Tattersalls Ireland Cheltenham Sale in 2017. He is now trained by Olly Murphy. Mahler, by Galileo, has made good and steady progress over the last few years and is due a best-ever finish on the table (previous best finishes were 13th in 2019-20, and 14th in 2018-2019). His top-priced sale horse is the BHA 164-rated and Grade 1-placed Chris’s Dream, who sold for £175,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland December Sale in 2017 to Tom Malone as winning hurdler. Chris’s Dream holds an entry in the Grand National. Mahler’s priciest store horse so far is his third-most expensive sales horse – €150,000 given by MV Magnier to Lakefield Farm for a gelding out of the Listed-winning juvenile
Mahler, by Galileo, has made good and steady progress over the last few years and is due a best-ever finish on the table hurdler Newtown Dancer (Danehill Dancer). Mahler’s stock is performing well in the Irish point-to-point field and, despite the restricted season that sphere has endured, he leads the sires’ table with 16 winners.
Take more than a Passing Glance Batsford Stud's son of Polar Falcon is enjoying a fine NH season
PASSING GLANCE stands at Batsford Stud in the UK having started out at the National Stud before transferring to David and Kathleen Holmes's Pitchall Stud, the home of the late sire Midnight Legend. On the “Legend’s” death after the 2015 covering season, the Holmes decided to call time on their stallion operation and Passing glance moved across the Cotswold Hills to Batsford. His NH progeny have been enjoying a fine winter. His leading performer of 202021 is Dachel Drasher, an eight-year-old bred and trained by Jeremy Scott and winner of the Ascot Chase (G1) in February. He has run four times this season, winning three on the bounce and taking his BHA rating from 148 to 162. He was a Festival withdrawal after the ground quickened. However, Latenightpass still managed to put his sire on the Festival scoreboard after a running a well in the Hunters’ Chase to finish fourth – Passing Glance one of the
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handful of British-based stallions over the Festival to get a result in the four. Ahead of Cheltenham the first weekend’s racing in March saw Passing Glance enjoy a three-timer; the most exciting winner of the trio being the 5l Newbury bumper winner Charlie’s Glance, who is out of the Midnight Legend mare Call Me A Legend and bred by Pitchall Stud. Midnight Legend is certainly doing his bit to help his former stud mate – all nine runners by Passing Glance out of mares by the former Grade 2-winning hurdler are winners. The Varey family at Batsford Stud in the Cotswolds is a busy team through the spring – finding a 20-minute slot to chat with Alan, father to Tim who works on the stud alongside mother Anna, was a challenge. With 20 resident broodmares and 30 mares booked for foaling, and probably more to come, as well as three active stallions in the covering barn the spring
His store horses averaged 12,737gns for 34 sold and his fee for 2021 is €5,000. The first non-Coolmore-based stallion on the living NH list is Court Cave, a son of Sadler’s Wells out of Weymss Bight and standing his 14th season at Boardsmill Stud. He is another enjoying a best-ever season – a sixth place on the “living list”, current runners bred on the back of the graded races successes of Champion Court through the 2010-14 seasons. He has 16 runners this year rated over 130 headed by Mister Whittaker (153) and the mare Court Maid (152), who picked up a winning prize fund of €73,750 when winning a 3m5f handicap chase at Fairyhouse. He saw 64 mares in 2020, and has a private fee for this season having stood at €4,000 for the last couple of years. The 20-year-old Shirocco retired to stud in 2007 and stood initially as a Flat stallion at Dalham Hall Stud (one year at Kildangan
season has certainly been springing for the team. “Some of the mares come to foal and be covered by some of our stallions, the others we will walk-in elsewhere,” explains Varey. The first stallion stood at Batsford by the Vareys was the rare jumping entire Kadastrof and it was always the plan to stand stallions at the stud, which has a rich history as a stallion farm. Passing Glance now stands alongside Haafhd, and the St Leger winner Harbour Law. “Passing Glance is a rare stallion who has had a Group 1 winner on the Flat [Side Glance] and a Grade 1 winner jumping,” smiles Varey. “Last year he saw just under 50 mares, the year previous it was just under the 90. “At the moment for this year he is above 40 now, but without a doubt we will exceed last year’s number as he always gets a number of late mares – a lot of ownerbreeders support him and they are not too worried about a late foal, they just want a Passing Glance! “The ones that are racing now are out of the better mares that he covered when he
