Thoroughbred Owner Breeder

Bansha House Stables

Marnane family’s thriving outfit National treasure

Cameron Sword seeks Aintree double

Celebrating 20 years of staff success

Stable star Steel spearheads Roger Varian’s 2024 squad

2023 yearlings in demand

If

Carlburg did trainers... Roger Varian focused on progress

As Roger Varian explained when I visited his Newmarket operation last month, the first weeks of March are a wonderful time for a Flat trainer.

“I’ve got all these lovely horses and I’m making plans – I haven’t quite ramped them up yet and it’s all ahead of us,” he told me. “Then it hits you when you begin racing and they start getting beat and picking up injuries. It’s an awful lot for an owner to endure.”

It is 13 years since Varian took out his licence, having assisted Michael Jarvis for a decade, and while his words of warning about the ownership experience will ring true for many, the powerful team of backers he has attracted to Carlburg Stables on the Bury Road attest to his success and ambitions in the sport.

Varian has been a fixture among the top ten Flat trainers since 2017 and has passed a century of winners in each of the last seven seasons. A former jump jockey for Josh Gifford who retired with his 7lb claim intact, the 45-year-old is one of the biggest names in a town where strings of 200-plus are not unusual.

With last year’s star performers King Of Steel and Eldar Eldarov back for more and any number of promising young horses waiting to be unleashed, Varian has every reason to be excited about the season ahead, though he offers a note of caution when asked whether he can improve on his fourth-place finish in the 2023 trainers’ table.

“I’m realistic,” Varian says ( The Big Interview, pages 30-35 ). “The top ten in the Flat racing world is enormously competitive, which is healthy – it doesn’t seem to be the case in jump racing, in England or Ireland.

“Charlie Appleby is a good mate. He was champion one year and eighth the following year – that’s an example of how competitive that top ten is.”

His observation of the winter game is evidenced by the superiority of Willie Mullins,

who has redefined what is possible for a jumps-focused stable. His domination of last month’s Cheltenham Festival caused the British Horseracing Authority to release a statement from Chief Executive Julie Harrington, highlighting the problems facing National Hunt racing on these shores.

It is highly unusual for one individual’s success to influence industry strategy and policy, yet the statistics have obviously caused significant concern, with Mullins enjoying nine winners in total, eight at Grade 1 level, having saddled 75 runners over the four days, accounting for just over 20% of the fields.

Looking at the Mullins list of winners, one can see many things, the most obvious being the FR suffix in pedigrees, often attached to horses that started their racing careers at

“The trainer’s team of backers attest to his success and ambitions”

Auteuil, while as our Bloodstock Editor Nancy Sexton points out in this month’s Sexton Files ( pages 58-59 ), a vast array of sires were responsible for this year’s Festival heroes, some of whom are far from household names.

The absence of Nicky Henderson’s star duo Constitution Hill and Jonbon might have skewed the final Festival totals, with Ireland notching 18 winners against nine for the home team, although the trend has simply continued from previous years, clearly much to the dismay of the BHA. Time will tell what measures, if any, can be implemented to address this disparity.

Photo: Bill Selwyn

The foals everyone has been waiting for!

“This Baaeed flly is an exceptional foal! She has size, strength and substance, is correct and moves efortlessly. There is tonnes of class and quality. We couldn’t be happier.”

“We are very happy with him. He is a strong, quality frst foal being a good size, correct and athletic. I see a lot of Baaeed in him!”

Patrick Cosgrove on his colt out of Lucilia

“He is a lovely, strong colt, probably the best the mare has had! We couldn’t be happier with him at this early stage.”

Sara Cumani on the colt out of Baisse bred by Imperium Syndicate Ltd

Mike Ryan on his flly out of Kamakura Standing

“I am delighted with Cloudy Dawn’s Baaeed flly who is a strong, wellmade foal with lots of depth and good bone.”

James Wigan on his flly out of Cloudy Dawn

“We have a very nice colt. He is well put together, balanced with a lot of quality. He has been stamped by Baaeed! We are very happy and have used him again this year.”

Nicolas de Chambure on the colt out of Koubalibre bred by Sarl de Chambure et al. £80,000 October

ROA Leader

Flat’s global appeal key to boosting revenue

Another Cheltenham Festival has been and gone, with Willie Mullins’ horses winning one third of all the races staged and collecting over £1.5 million in total prize-money. Eight of his nine winners were in Grade 1 contests, with his total number of Festival successes now standing at 103, 30 ahead of Nicky Henderson. Nicky had an extremely difficult and disappointing week yet handled the adversity with remarkable stoicism.

Congratulations to all of you who were involved with horses at Cheltenham and especially to those of you who took home some prize-money and memories that will last a lifetime.

Taking a dispassionate view, one could easily see how out of balance the financing system is in the UK compared to Ireland. The Jockey Club and its partners, the Levy Board and of course owners provided an exceptional prize-money pot for the week, but much of that sterling headed west, effectively out of British racing’s ecosystem. Extending our UK levy to include bets placed on overseas racing would in some way even up the playing field and give us a share of a market in which margins are high and the potential yield for the levy could be significant.

Cheltenham and Aintree are obviously fabulous showcases for the National Hunt game, but it is fair to say that the appeal of jump racing does not resonate beyond our nearest neighbours. I believe that when we are looking to the future and trying to shift the appeal of British racing overseas, we should concentrate much of our efforts on the elements of our sport that garner worldwide recognition.

Our top Flat fixtures are the best in the world, providing huge variety, history, and royal patronage, played out on beautiful racecourses which for centuries have tested and highlighted many of the most talented and robust thoroughbreds. This provides Britain with a fantastic shop window to enhance our national ‘soft power’ currency.

As long as we can find a funding structure that allows us to tap into this potential whilst at the same time supporting our wonderful National Hunt game as well as core and all-weather racing, then we might just be able to really shift the dial on racing’s finances for all those who invest in the sport.

The to-ing and fro-ing on levy reform and affordability checks continues and while the final outcomes on both subjects remain unclear as I write this, it is certainly fair

to say that racing is getting its points firmly across to the government.

Following on from the Westminster Hall debate on affordability checks in late February, Gambling Minister Stuart Andrew was at Cheltenham on the Thursday of the meeting, giving a lengthy interview to ITV Racing and meeting with representatives and members of the ROA, NTF, TBA and others. Early the following week, a delegation of senior industry figures visited 10 Downing Street to meet with and lobby officials, including one of Rishi Sunak’s special advisers, on affordability checks and levy reform. The group comprised BHA Chairman

“We should concentrate our efforts on the elements of our sport that garner worldwide recognition”

Joe Saumarez Smith, trainer John Gosden, ROA Board member and leading bloodstock figure Tom Goff, and ARC Chief Executive Martin Cruddace.

We are now in the pivotal final furlong of both the levy and affordability checks races and the outcomes of both will be keenly awaited by all of us who love and support this great industry. Let’s hope that we get the positive results that the sport needs.

Talking about hope, a monthly column puts into stark reality how quickly the year passes, with the Flat season now upon us and the first of the breeze-up sales just around the corner. Good luck to you all with your new horses and the dreams you have for them.

Charlie Parker President

Al Kazeem

By Champion sire DUBAWI

FOUR TIME

GR.1 WINNER

TIMEFORM RATED 128

Won Gr.1 Tatersalls Gold Cup (2015)

Won Gr.1 Coral-Eclipse

Won Gr.1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes

Won Gr.1 Tatersalls Gold Cup (2013)

Won/placed in 15 Group races inc. 8 Gr.1 races

GR.1 SIRE

10% of WINNERS are STAKES

WINNERS inc:

ASPETAR - Gr.1 winner

1st Gr.1 Preis von Europa, Gr.2 York Stakes, Gr.2 Grand Prix de Chantlly, etc. Won/placed in 8 Black-Type races.

SAINT LAWRENCE - Gr.1 placed & Royal Ascot winner

1st L Denford Stakes, 2nd Gr.3 Pavilion Stakes, 3rd Gr.1 Prix Maurice de Gheest, etc. Won/placed in 6 Black-Type races.

Listed winners HARPER & USAK

Plus Black-Type horses - GOLDEN SPELL, PRECISELY, PERSIAN ROYAL (sold at HIT for 450,000gns).

59% WINNERS to RUNNERS

Lifetime average yearling price £43,000

Excellent results from strictly limited books

Dubawi - Kazeem (Darshaan). Fee: Private.

British jumps breeding making good headway

Big ships take time and plenty of ocean to change course. In that respect, British jumps breeding is the equivalent of a very big ship indeed. The Cheltenham Festival again appeared to demonstrate how far Britain is behind France and Ireland. Or did it?

Some will think that nothing has been done or is being done to redress the clear imbalance as measured by a racesuccess barometer, but a change of course and direction was commenced 15 or so years ago, and there is strong evidence that whilst it’s a very long way from plain sailing, British jumps breeding is beginning to feel warmer winds.

The first radical change came when the TBA and BHA worked to enhance the fillies’ and mares’ race programme, which is enthusiastically supported and almost taken for granted today but required significant promotion and conviction to persuade owners and trainers that owning females represented opportunity, rather than the occasional good racemare being the exception to that rule.

If there was to be a start anywhere, it had to be with rebuilding on solid foundations, by improving and retaining quality mares who raced successfully and then went to the breeding shed. When the Elite Mares’ Scheme was introduced 12 years ago by the TBA, supported with funding from the Levy Board, it did not receive universal acclamation. Today it is an outstanding success.

Owners of mares proven on the racecourse with a rating of 130+ or have produced high-achieving progeny are rewarded with subsidised, or in some cases free, nominations to eligible British stallions. The scheme has grown from 194 qualified mares to 351 high-quality, race-proven breeding stock, which compares very favourably with numbers in our neighbours’ ownerships.

The EMS has also encouraged investment in stallions and Britain now has a growing share of high-quality mates for these top-performing mares. Whilst Britain may not compete numerically, stallion studs have stepped up and made available some highly-rated sires at commercial rates. It is only a matter of time before one heads the sires’ list.

It might have been understandable if the TBA NH Committee had stopped there. However, members recognised that it was one thing to have the races and another to encourage the production of fillies and mares, but most importantly demand needed to be stimulated, which resulted in the Mare Owners Premium Scheme.

Offering MOPS bonuses of up to £10,000 for registered mares successful in a qualifying race was groundbreaking stuff, which began to turn the dial as an attraction to buy and race

these females. MOPS did an important job before the Great British Bonus was introduced in 2020, which doubled the possible bonus that could be won from MOPS. It clearly now pays to breed, buy and race British.

Reasonably, perhaps, you might expect the TBA NH Committee to draw breath here, but not a bit of it. They have recently completed a detailed comparison analysis of Britain versus its competitors and seen the evidence that getting horses jumping earlier not only provides performance advantage but soundness as well.

“Expect more intervention to encourage getting horses jumping earlier in their careers”

Hence the introduction of the Junior NH Hurdles programme, which has elements of the French system that seems to have been so successful. The mission now is to persuade the jumps community to replicate the degree of persuasion and conviction behind the opportunity for racing fillies and mares all those years ago.

So, is this working? Well, GBB registrations are up year on year by 11 per cent for the 2023 foal crop and comparing the 2020 number of 635 registered foals against the 2023 total of 852, it seems reasonable to think so.

However, it is just a start – a good start at that – but there is much more to be done and British racing can rest assured that the TBA NH Committee will continue to press the importance of a robust and sustainable jumps breeding base. So, as a next step expect more intervention and incentive to encourage getting horses jumping earlier in their careers.

All hands are on deck! This ship has changed course, it is picking up speed and will soon be coming over the horizon.

Irish domination of Cheltenham Grade 1s ‘damaging for the sport’ says BHA Chief

The dust had barely settled on the 2024 Cheltenham Festival when the British Horseracing Authority issued a statement on behalf of Chief Executive Julie Harrington, who said the Irish domination of top-level races at the fourday meeting was hurting National Hunt racing on both sides of the Irish Sea.

Runners from Ireland claimed 18 races at last month’s Festival, the same number as in 2023, including 12 of the 14 Grade 1 contests staged. Willie Mullins’ nine winners featured eight strikes at the top level, notably the Gold Cup for the second year running with Galopin Des Champs and Champion Hurdle with State Man, as the master of Closutton took his Festival tally to 103 winners.

The home defence was led by Dan Skelton, who secured four victories including a Grade 1 double on the Thursday with Grey Dawning (Turners Novices’ Chase) and Protektorat (Ryanair Chase).

Harrington said: “I would like to offer my congratulations to every winner, and everyone connected with those horses. We again tip our hat to the Irish, and in particular Willie Mullins, whose achievement in reaching 100-plus Festival winners is truly remarkable.

“Congratulations also go to the British trainers who secured winners, in particular Dan Skelton for his impressive haul.

“I have no doubt that the men and women who train horses here in Britain

are more than a match for their Irish counterparts. However, they need the ammunition and at present the balance of power and the best horses are going to our colleagues in Ireland, and in particular one yard.

“This is not a new issue. The direction of travel has been set for a number of years now. The sport has been alive to this and taken measures to seek to address it, through attempting to tackle funding issues associated with the sport, seeking increased investment, looking at the race programme, and more recently the delivery of the recommendations of the Quality Jump Racing Review.

“However, the Irish domination of the Grade 1 races has illustrated that the issue is becoming more pronounced and more damaging for the sport on both sides of the Irish Sea.

“Put simply, the rate of decline of jump racing in Britain at the top end has outstripped the measures that have been put in place to tackle it. We must do more, more quickly, and in a more coordinated and decisive manner if we are going to restore British jump racing to the standing at which it belongs.

“Central to this is the delivery of the industry strategy. The strategy is all about growth. At the core of this is investment in the top echelons of our sport, with a view to incentivising the best horses to be bred, owned, trained and raced on these

shores. An additional £3.8 million in prize-money has already been earmarked for investment in 2024 across the top end of the sport in both codes.”

She continued: “The strategy is also about much more than just investing in prize-money. We need to grow our fanbase by encouraging new fans and retaining existing fans and owners, improve the experience of ownership and attending and viewing racing, and much more besides.

“To achieve this the sport must work together with urgency and clarity of purpose. The times of being reluctant to embrace change or new ideas, lack of transparency, and focusing on narrow self-interest must be put firmly behind us.

“The very visible deterioration in British racing’s competitiveness with our international colleagues has also been at the heart of our discussions with the betting industry and DCMS around the levy, and our representations to government around the risk of the damaging impact of affordability checks.

“We have seen great progress in the last 18 months and a spirit of collaboration is clearly developing. I am confident that if the sport and its allies work together around this shared goal then it can flourish once again. Not just across four days in March, but across the whole year. Jump racing’s popularity in Britain is immense and its potential limitless.”

BILL SELWYN

Gaelic Warrior (left) leads home a 1-2-3 for Ireland in the Arkle Challenge Trophy Novices’ Chase at last month’s Cheltenham Festival

Prize-money at Chelmsford City outstrips other tracks at Class 5 and 6 level

Chelmsford City purses out in front at core fixtures

Figures published by the Racehorse Owners Association have highlighted the tracks that offer the highest average prize-money per race at core fixtures in the first six months of the year, with Chelmsford City topping the table in two categories.

The Essex all-weather track’s figure of £18,667 at Class 5 level for two-yearolds – aided by its Good Friday fixture, which offered total prize-money of £250,000 – puts its well clear of the opposition, also ranking first at Class 6 level for three-year-olds and upwards, at £9,184.

Neil Graham, Chelmsford City’s Director of Racing, said: “Our core product is floodlit racing between September and March and our key races are those at Classes 4, 5 and 6 level. We have made a conscious effort to bolster purses having reviewed our media rights payments.

“There are some strange figures flying around concerning media rights – one trainer said we were earning £32,000 per race in media rights. Well, only in our dreams! That’s probably closer to double what we are receiving.

“We do look at our media rights payments and do the best we can in terms of putting that money into purses, based on what we can afford.”

He continued: “We’re close to Newmarket and get loyal support from the town, but people like Charlie Johnston have lots of runners and we get plenty of trainers from Lambourn running here.

“Outside of the racing we also run

barrier trials so trainers can educate their young and inexperienced horses. We want to help the racing community.”

Premier racing has been introduced in the UK and Chelmsford City – rated as one of the top eight racecourses in Britain for its customer experience according to a recent Visit England report – has been allocated a single premier fixture on Sunday, July 7 when the Listed Queen Charlotte Fillies’ Stakes is the headline race.

Graham said: “We’d love to get the Queen Charlotte upgraded to a Group 3 – it’s been won by Billesdon Brook and Highfield Princess, both Group 1 winners. We’re in discussion with the European Pattern Committee.”

The course has applied for additional premier fixtures, however the BHA has favoured turf tracks throughout the summer months. However, with work ongoing to install a turf course at Chelmsford City, all options should be open in 2025.

“We are hopeful that we will be racing on turf here in late summer of next year,” Graham explained. “But we need to do some remedial work to get it to where we want to be.

“Staging mixed fixtures is the aim –three or four races on the all-weather and three or four on the turf.

“We would also be the only turf track under lights in Great Britain, so we could run some high-value races as part of a mixed meeting. We think it’s a really exciting proposition.”

ROA prize-money table, page 73

Racing roles added to Immigration Salary List

British racing has welcomed the government’s decision last month to add six crucial racing-related roles to the new Immigration Salary List.

In what has been seen as a significant win for the racing and breeding industries, it is hoped that the development will provide a boost to Britain’s rural economy and the sport.

It will now be easier for training yards and studs to recruit workers from abroad, helping to plug the current shortfall believed to number around 2,000-2,500 staff.

BHA Chief Executive Julie Harrington said: “The fact that the six racing and breeding roles are part of only a very small number of jobs transferred from the old Shortage Occupation List to the to the Immigration Salary List shows the government recognises how crucial they are to Britain’s rural economy.

“Bringing in world-class talent from overseas is not a stickingplaster solution to our recruitment crisis. They are part of the answer by providing us with unrivalled experience to help train our next generation of high-skilled workers.

“It is essential that racing now takes the opportunity to make the most of our access to the best international talent, which will enable us to put in place longterm solutions to racing’s staffing shortage.”

CHELMSFORD CITY

The shortage of stable and stud staff has been a big issue for the sport

BILL SELWYN

Death of Highfield Princess leaves owner Fairley ‘heartbroken’

March brought the sad news that outstanding racemare Highfield Princess had succumbed to a hind leg injury sustained at the stable of trainers John and Sean Quinn.

Highfield Princess, bred and owned by John Fairley, progressed from the handicap ranks to become a multiple Group 1-winning sprinter, enjoying a superb association with jockey Jason Hart while developing a massive following among the racing public.

The pair won 13 races together, making their Group 1 breakthrough in the Prix Maurice de Gheest in 2022, also claiming top-level victories in that year’s Nunthorpe and Flying Five Stakes.

Further Group 1 glory arrived last year in the Prix de l’Abbaye on Arc day at Longchamp, when Highfield Princess defied an unfavourable high draw to take the prize by a length from Perdika.

Fairley released a statement following the passing of the seven-year-old

daughter of Night Of Thunder, saying: “It has been the privilege of our lives to have known Highfield Princess. We are all heartbroken.

“She was the horse you dream of breeding and owning. She took our family on an extraordinary adventure around the world and created so many precious memories. She loved to race and her intelligence, toughness and will to win were incredible. She was truly a special horse, a member of our family.

“There were so many people involved

in her incredible journey. We know the team at John and Sean Quinn Racing, who have looked after the ‘Princess’ with dedication and love, will also be devastated. We would like to thank them all for their tender care over the years. She was so happy in that yard.

“Highfield Princess was the pride of Yorkshire, a superstar on the racecourse and adored by so many for her irrepressible spirit. We’re thinking of everyone who loved and admired her. She will be forever held in our hearts.”

David Porter-Mackrell named Employee of the Year

The Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards, sponsored by Godolphin, was staged for the 20th time on February 26 when David Porter-Mackrell, Head Stallion Man at Newsells Park Stud, was crowned Employee of the Year.

Hosted by ITV Racing’s Ed Chamberlin, the event at Ascot celebrated the contribution of the sport’s workforce to British racing and saw a total of £128,500 distributed across six categories.

On the special anniversary evening, attended by the Princess Royal, Porter-Mackrell also claimed the Stud Staff Award before taking the top prize. Both wins meant Porter-Mackrell and the Newsells Park Stud team each ended the evening with £15,000 in prize-money.

In his 15 years with Newsells Park, Porter-Mackrell has built a reputation for excellence in everything he does. In nominating him, General Manager Julian Dollar referenced Porter-Mackrell’s impeccable standards and described him as “an absolute rock.”

Nick Luck, Chair of the judging panel, said: “David is a richly deserving recipient of the Employee of the Year Award and we are all delighted that somebody with such talent and passion has won.

“The judges were blown away by David during their interviews with him and were left in no doubt that he is an exceptional horseman with a gift for ensuring the stallions at Newsells Park Stud are in the best condition possible.

“It is wonderful to see a member of stud staff win the top prize and I hope that David’s success will encourage more studs to nominate their

employees for the 2025 awards.”

Roll of honour

Employee of the Year and Stud Staff Award

David Porter-Mackrell (Newsells Park Stud)

David Nicholson Newcomer Award

Hollie Wiltshire (Alan King)

Leadership Award

Cheryl Armstrong (Charlie Fellowes)

Rider/racing groom Award

Lyndsey Bull (Ian Williams)

Dedication Award

Brian Taylor (Luck Greayer Shipping)

Community Award

Lauren Semple (Police Scotland/ Scottish Racing Academy)

Nancy Sexton talks to David Porter-Mackrell, pages 48-49

BILL SELWYN

John Fairley (left) with his four-time Group 1 winner Highfield Princess

David Porter-Mackrell with the Princess Royal at the Ascot ceremony

British Stallion Studs EBF support tops £2 million

The British European Breeders’ Fund will renew its significant backing of domestic prize-money with a contribution of more than £2 million directly from British stallion studs to the racing programme in 2024.

Several areas will benefit from extra support, including juvenile development races. The Lily Agnes Stakes at Chester and Hilary Needler and Two Year Old Trophy at Beverley, both conditions races, will all be run for £50,000.

In total, £325,000 of support will be put towards high-value two-yearold and three-year-old novice and maiden races as part of a wider project with the BHA, Levy Board, Darley, Juddmonte and Tattersalls.

The £100,000 British EBF 2yo Finals, run at Goodwood and York,

will return as will the British EBF Future Stayers’ (sire/dam restricted) programme, with 12 races worth between £20,000 and £40,000 for juveniles with staying pedigrees.

Simon Sweeting, Chairman of the British EBF, said: “British stallion owners have made valuable contributions totalling £40,000,000 to prize-money over the last 40 years through the British EBF. Their continued support means we can contribute £1.9m to Flat races this season.

“With our National Hunt activities considered, the contribution is over £2m, directly to racing’s prize-money. It’s a genuine enhancement of the value of the programme, with a particular focus this year on developmental races, juvenile stayers

and enhanced prize-money for conditions races.

“My thanks and that of the British EBF trustees goes to our British stallion studs and owners.”

The Lily Agnes Stakes at Chester is worth £50,000 in 2024

BILL SELWYN

Changes People and business

Dan Skelton

Trainer is fined £6,000 after admitting two breaches of the Rules of Racing regarding the ownership and sale of George Gently to a syndicate.

Marco Ghiani

Jockey hit with 34-day ban, nine of which are deferred, having broken the whip rules for the fifth time in six months.

David Dunne

County Meath-based trainer sentenced to 15 months in prison for the assault and false imprisonment of a former stable hand three years ago.

Michael Stanley

Organiser of ownership club Layezy Racing pleads guilty to five charges of defrauding his members having operated as a Ponzi scheme.

Rod Street

Will leave his role as Chief Executive of Great British Racing at the end of this month having been in the position since 2010.

Seamie Heffernan

Jockey reveals that he will ride as a freelance this year having been a constant presence at Ballydoyle since joining the Aidan O’Brien stable in 1996.

Tom Ellis

Champion point-to-point trainer takes out a full trainer’s licence in order to saddle 11-year-old Latenightpass in the Randox Grand National.

Saeed bin Suroor

Redundancies are made at the trainer’s Newmarket stable, having been superseded by Charlie Appleby in the Godolphin hierarchy.

Levy yield

Forecast total set to reach £102.5 million for 2023-24 despite the fall in betting turnover, up from £100m in 2022-23.

Cheltenham Festival

Total attendance falls by around 10,600 compared to 2023, with 230,000 people coming through the gates over the four days.

Tom Clover

Trainer will lose a significant number of horses with owner The Rogues Gallery removing around three-quarters of its string from the stable.

Thomas Willmott

Conditional jockey, 24, retires from the saddle more than a year after breaking his arm and foot following an unseat at Catterick.

Silvestre de Sousa

Resumes race-riding in Britain after serving his ten-month suspension for breaching betting rules in Hong Kong last year.

Boodles

Luxury jewellery brand extends its deal to sponsor the Cheltenham Gold Cup until 2027.

Tom Dreaper

Takes over the licence from father Jim at their Greenogue stable and enjoys his first winner with Folly Master at Thurles on March 5.

People obituaries

Mark Bradstock 66

Trained half-brothers Coneygree and Carruthers, the former winning the 2015 Cheltenham Gold Cup, the latter the 2011 Hennessy.

Ahmed Foustok 87

Owner-breeder saw his Provideo win 16 times in 1984, equalling the UK record for most victories by a twoyear-old.

Dai Burchell 87

Sent out more than 430 winners from his yard in Ebbw Vale, having started his career on the flapping tracks in the 1950s.

Lord Rothschild 87

Banker and financier bred and raced dual Group 1 winner Nathaniel, subsequently sire of superstar Enable, with late wife Serena.

The Racing World’s Property Advisors of Choice

We have Partners and Executives who have lived and worked among racing all their lives. With 40 years of experience, we offer a property service to private clients and family trusts looking to own property in the UK, whether for lifestyle or investment purposes.

Edward Clarkson

Based in the Southwest, Ed has been racing horses of various ability all his life. His eldest son ran a lap of every English national hunt racecourse in five days aged eleven, raising over £15k for the IJF. eclarkson@propertyvision.com

Robert Fanshawe

Rob is well known in the racing community for buying and selling stud farms across the UK, Ireland, and France over the last 15 years. He lives near Marlborough, well known in Lambourn and often seen in Newmarket and at the Sales. rfanshawe@propertyvision.com

Lucinda Eaton

Lucinda, who represented Team GB in eventing operates in the Cotswolds and Oxfordshire and is involved in horses of all disciplines. Her family train in Gloucestershire and she is most often seen at Cheltenham. leaton@propertyvision.com

Edward Lucas

Based in the North of England, the highlight of Ed’s year was purchasing a beautiful Northumberland farm for a point-to-point family. Most often seen at Aintree and Bangor-on-Dee and covers all the Northern racing centres. elucas@propertyvision.com

Changes

Racehorse and stallion Movements and retirements

Paisley Park

Winner of the 2019 Stayers’ Hurdle and two Long Walk Hurdles for owner Andrew Gemmell and trainer Emma Lavelle is retired aged 12.

Horse obituaries

Highland Hunter 11

Verry Elleegant 8

Outstanding New Zealand-bred mare, winner of the Melbourne Cup among 11 Group 1 victories, dies from foaling complications.

Volcano 10 Stable star for Sheila Lewis, winning six times for the Powys trainer, including the 3m5f chase at Warwick’s March meeting for three consecutive years.

Echo Zulu 5

Daughter of Gun Runner won four Grade 1s including the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies and was voted US champion two-year-old in 2021.

Improbable 8

Son of City Zip was a four-time Grade 1 winner and had embarked on a stallion career at WinStar Farm in Kentucky.

Ose Partir 4

Talented staying chaser won seven races under Rules and almost £150,000 in prize-money, latterly in the care of Fergal O’Brien.

Juvenile hurdler for Sean and Bernardine Mulryan and trained by Martin Brassil suffers a fatal injury at the Cheltenham Festival.

Arrigo

Son of Shirocco moves from Yorton Farm in Welshpool, his base since 2021, to Bullbrook Farm in Somerset, where his fee is set at £2,000.

Exceed And Excel

Darley stallion, sire of top-level performers in both hemispheres including Mawj and Excelebration, is retired from covering duties aged 23.

Paddington

Coolmore’s four-time Group 1 winner will shuttle to Windsor Park Stud in New Zealand for the southern hemisphere breeding season, with his fee NZ$35,000.

A Case Of You

Prix de l’Abbaye hero will take up stallion duties at Drakenstein Stud in South Africa for the 2024 breeding season.

Mac Swiney

Son of New Approach, winner of the 2021 Irish 2,000 Guineas, relocates to Anngrove Stud having initially retired to the Irish National Stud.

Olden Times 26

Prix Jean Prat winner for his breeder Prince AA Faisal, he went on to sire dual Doncaster Cup winner Times Up.

Plum Pretty 16

Bob Baffert-trained Kentucky Oaks and Apple Blossom Handicap winner for owner Peachtree Stable who sold for $4.2m in 2012.

The Big Picture

Sublime State

The all-conquering Willie Mullins bagged a Grade 1 treble on the opening day of the 2024 Cheltenham Festival, highlighted by State Man’s triumph in the Unibet Champion Hurdle under Paul Townend. The Doctor Dino gelding, owned by Marie Donnelly, saw off gallant grey Irish Point and Jack Kennedy by a length and a quarter.

Photos Bill Selwyn

The Big Picture

Golden moments at the Festival

There’s no doubting what a winner at the Cheltenham Festival means to those involved in National Hunt racing. Ian Gosden’s Golden Ace proved too classy for runners from the big Irish stables with a clear-cut success under Lorcan Williams in the Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, much to the delight of her trainer

Jeremy Scott (inset).

Photos Bill Selwyn

Right from top: John Hales, Sir Alex Ferguson and Ged Mason are all smiles following Protektorat’s victory in the Ryanair Chase; Lark In The Mornin’s Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle success is celebrated by staff from the Joseph O’Brien stable; Harry Redknapp savoured the Ben Pauling-trained Skakem Up’Arry’s triumph in the TrustATrader Plate Handicap Chase

The Big Picture

Left from top: Lossiemouth’s connections will be looking forward to next year’s Unibet Champion Hurdle after Rich Ricci’s five-year-old delivered a decisive victory in the Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle; Rachael Blackmore salutes the crowd after Robcour’s Slade Steel takes the meeting’s opening contest, the Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, in fine fashion for trainer Henry de Bromhead; Ronnie Bartlett and David Manasseh’s Ballyburn looks yet another superstar for the Willie Mullins stable, taking the Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle by 13 lengths

Talent aplenty in younger ranks

Chase

Harry Skelton,

Robert Kirkland’s seven-year-old has already won over three miles and looks every inch a future

Cheltenham Gold Cup contender.

Grey Dawning made his Grade 1 breakthrough on the biggest stage with a decisive victory over Ginny’s Destiny in the Turners Novices’

under

riding for trainer brother Dan.

Photos Bill Selwyn

The Big Picture

Guts, glory and glee

Eight-year-old mare Sine Nomine showed plenty of courage on the testing ground to take the St. James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup Open Hunters’ Chase under a delighted John Dawson. Fiona Needham, Clerk of the Course at Catterick, trained the winner for her father Robin Tate, having partnered Last Option to victory in the 2002 renewal.

Photos Bill Selwyn

Cheltenham Festival

Below from left: Chianti Classico, owned by Sir Francis Brooke and Richard Pilkington, was the toast of Kim Bailey’s yard after victory in the Ultima Handicap Chase under David Bass; a mud-splattered Derek O’Connor returns on JP McManus’s Inothewayurthinkin following their success in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Amateur Jockeys’ Handicap Chase; the Princess Royal congratulates Harry and Dan Skelton, jockey and trainer of Langer Dan, winner of the Coral Cup for the second year running

The Big Picture

Galopin’s Gold Cup masterclass

Willie Mullins was happy to put Galopin Des Champs in the superstar category after the eight-year-old had recorded back-to-back victories in the Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup under Paul Townend. Mullins enjoyed another superb week at Prestbury Park, his nine winners taking his Festival total past the century to 103, and surely none gave the master of Closutton more pleasure this year than Audrey Turley’s charge, who coped with the riderless Fastorslow to come home a decisive winner from Gerri Colombe.

Photos Bill Selwyn

Cheltenham Festival

The Howard Wright Column

Gulf riches can galvanise ownership ranks in Britain

Peace in the Middle East? Not quite, but there is now sufficient co-operation around the major Gulf nations on the movement of racehorses to say that a small, seasonal, international circuit is well established, which can be good news, rather than the opposite, for British-based connections.

The political crisis that split Qatar from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain in 2017, and severely hampered the movement of people, was resolved in January 2021, but the green shoots of change on the equine and sporting front had already begun to appear, with the introduction of the Saudi Cup meeting in February 2020.

Before that, conditions for traveling horses based in the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain to and from Saudi Arabia were so arduous under prevailing quarantine protocols as to be largely unthinkable. The occasional runner ventured from Saudi to the UAE for the World Cup meeting but journeys in the reverse direction were virtually non-existent.

September 2022, he became a founding partner of Global Venue Services EQ [see more below], in which role he has advised the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia on veterinary, quarantine and anti-doping issues.

“Spirit Dancer won just shy of £1,464,000 in three different countries”

Then came the start of the Saudi push for recognition as a genuine international horseracing nation, and if the two-day Cup meeting was to have relevance, especially in the Gulf region, arrangements for moving horses had to change. They did, and this year’s experience provided proof that transporting horses to Saudi Arabia has been eased enormously.

Much of the credit for progress goes down to a familiar name in the Gulf, and Britain come to that, Dr David Sykes, the Aussie who spent nine years as Chief Veterinary Officer at the Emirates Racing Authority in the UAE before leaving for four years as Director of Equine Health and Welfare at the BHA. In

The 2024 list of entries at Riyadh illustrated the success of the streamlined process. Starting on the Friday with a couple of Arabians from the Royal stables in the UAE and one from Qatar, there were a total of 17 scheduled runners over the two days from the UAE, Qatar and Bahrain, with the bold Fawzi Nass making dual representation from his native Bahrain and a UAE satellite stable. However, the best illustration of how well the system worked came from North Yorkshire, from where Richard Fahey had plotted an enterprising campaign for the handicap graduate Spirit Dancer. Following a fourth place worth £4,288 in a Newmarket Group 3 on October 14, he won first prize of £500,000 in the Bahrain Trophy a month later, after which a 70-day break from racing took him to Meydan, where he probably needed the run when finishing fourth in the Jebel Hatta, before he was shipped to Saudi to win £944,881 in the Howden Neom Turf Cup.

In the space of 13 weeks Spirit Dancer won just shy of £1,464,000, contesting three races in three different countries whose borders would have been hardly penetrable to racehorses not so long ago.

Just 11 days later, the three owners of Spirit Dancer – Sir Alex Ferguson, Ged Mason and Peter Done – joined friend and longtime owner-partner John Hales in paying €740,000, a world record for a jumps horses in training at public auction, for

BAHRAIN TURF CLUB

Spirit Dancer has thrived on his travels with headline wins in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia

Caldwell Potter. Different country, different currency, but the horse has gone to Somerset, where Paul Nicholls’ staff, and with any luck their pool money, will benefit from the investment.

Not too far down the food chain from Spirit Dancer came another example of enterprise paying off in the Gulf that will have benefits back in Britain, after owner Ian Barratt and trainer Jamie Osborne paid 160,000gns for Emaraaty Ana at last October’s Tattersalls horses-in-training sale.

Bred by the Godolphin offshoot Rabbah Bloodstock, Emaraaty Ana was a seven-year-old at the time of the sale, having won six of his 32 races for Kevin Ryan, including the Gimcrack Stakes and Betfred Sprint Cup, but also having been gelded and twice undergone wind surgery.

There was still a lively market for him, and sent off to Meydan in January this year, he won £5,488 in finishing fifth first time out, and then collected a few pounds short of £180,000 in taking a local Group 2 race when shipped over to Bahrain three weeks later, enabling Saffie Osborne to become the first female jockey to ride a winner in the country, just 24 hours after she had achieved the same feat at Meydan.

Job done, and owner Barratt has promised to go back to the market in Britain to find more talent that might be lost overseas for a short time but could build up handy reserves by exploiting the Gulf’s increasingly seamless horse movement protocols.

British and Irish expertise valued highly Pioneers of modern horseracing in the Gulf region, who mainly came from Britain or Ireland, can rest easy in retirement or repose, their work having evolved into today’s successes. One particular emerging jurisdiction still follows their original principles.

John and James Sanderson in Saudi Arabia and Bahrain; Lord John Fitzgerald and Michael Osborne in the UAE; Pat Buckley in Abu Dhabi and even the mercurial Pat Rohan in Oman: their initial influence was crucial to development in all the major Gulf nations bar Qatar.

Today, the same critical application of administrative expertise is evident in Saudi Arabia, where the fifth Saudi Cup meeting at the end of February illustrated how much progress the jurisdiction has made in a short time but also how much it relies on knowledge and experience gained in Britain.

In the background, GVS-EQ, which describes itself as “a new advisory, investment and services business for the sports, leisure, media and entertainment sectors,” is working on a three-year project report for PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Dubai division, advising the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia on the way forward.

Led by former Jockey Club Chief Executive Simon Bazalgette and Paul Fisher, his one-time equivalent at Jockey Club Racecourses, GVS-EQ has ex-BHA Executive Director Will Lambe as MD and Aussie veterinarian Dr David Sykes as a fellow founding partner. Bazalgette, Lambe and Sykes were all conspicuous by their presence in Riyadh, including as part of a British trade mission organised by the Department for Business & Trade, which, curiously, did not seem to include BHA representation.

Other than in a recommendation to employ former Lambourn-based Dr Francesca Compostella, who has worked for Grace Muir’s rehoming charity HEROS and the RSPCA, as Executive Veterinary and Welfare Director for the Saudi Equestrian Authority, GVS-EQ appears not to have directly influenced personnel appointments.

Instead, human resources have been recruited through the central authority, starting with David Mackinnon as the Saudi

Jockey Club’s Chief Racecourse and Racing Officer in November 2022. He took with him over 21 years of senior racecourse experience – six and a half years at Windsor, five at Sandown and ten at Cheltenham as Regional Head of Operations.

In October 2023, Mackinnon was joined as Clerk of the Course at Saudi’s emerging second track Taif by Neil Mackenzie Ross, who cut his clerking teeth at Arena Racing before making his Gulf breakthrough in Bahrain in 2014. Then later last year along went former Chepstow and Ffos Las Clerk of the Course Keith Ottesen for a similar role in Riyadh, after a brief spell in charge at Newbury.

Around the same time, the main administrative team was completed by the appointment of Liam Johnson as Racecourse Director, his having accumulated experience as the Jockey Club’s first Group Trainee Manager before four years as Huntingdon General Manager and three as Executive Director with Arena-owned Bath and Windsor.

None of these appointments might have rivalled those of Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar to spearhead Saudi Arabia’s push for recognition in world football – only ex-BHA Head of Handicapping Phil Smith’s just-ended five-year contract could come near – but they indicate trust in experienced British administration.

Furthermore, staging the two-day Saudi Cup meeting also relied heavily on British expertise, especially in the areas of broadcasting and communications, while Charlie Henson, back in Europe after ending his contract as International Quarantine Manager to the Hong Kong Jockey Club, was drafted in to look after this responsibility on a short-term basis, and Paul Barton hopped over from Bahrain to provide stewarding advice.

Richard Hoiles did the English-speaking race commentary; Sky Sports Racing’s Martin Kelly spent five weeks in Riyadh putting together content for press releases and the racecard before acting as raceday presenter; and Callum Helliwell ended his first season presenting English-speaking coverage at Taif with two six-hour spells of unstintingly enthusiastic and clearly well researched joint CCTV coverage.

No doubt they will be back next season, while the permanent staff continue to consolidate their positions, knowing that for every job they left, a replacement has been found – Simon Tonge at Bath, George Hill at Newbury, for example. Win, win…

Simon Bazalgette: working with the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia

The Big Interview

Now in his 14th season with a licence, Roger Varian is looking to better his fourth-place finish in the 2023 trainers’ championship

Roger Varian

Pressure and PRIVILEGE

Roger Varian is established as one of Newmarket’s premier trainers and with horses of the calibre of King Of Steel at his Carlburg Stables he remains motivated to climb even higher in the sport

Words: Edward Rosenthal • Photos: Bill Selwyn

Roger Varian has been talking eloquently for almost two hours in his office at Carlburg Stables, just off the Bury Road in Newmarket, covering everything from his ambitions in the sport, views on Premierisation and family life, when he neatly encapsulates his approach to training 200 thoroughbreds at one of the largest racing establishments in the country.

Having discussed his wife Hanako’s role in the operation and recent venture into fashion with her luxury brand Newmarket 875, Varian says: “Hanako will laugh at me when I say this, but I think I’m an artist in that I train through feel.

“I have to be here, I have to be close to the horses, I have to know the horses. I’m not someone who can just dissect data. I like to see, listen, touch. You need time to do that.”

him to focus on his core responsibilities, while other duties that would have come across his desk a few years ago are handled by other staff members.

It also means he can enjoy a family life with Hanako and his three children Momoka, Eiji and Reika.

“This is a big operation – it means more than ever we are reliant on the team around us,” explains Varian, who also leases the neighbouring Beech Hurst Stables. “We have to make sure as we get bigger that the detail isn’t lost in the growth. No-one can be perfect, but we must set very high standards.

“I think I’m an artist in that I train through feel. I have to be close to the horses”

Varian’s philosophy may sound somewhat old fashioned, yet this is a thoroughly modern outfit, a fullyfunctioning business employing around 90 people with aspirations to grow and develop even further within the most competitive racing town in the world.

The demands of his profession have led the trainer to create a structure that allows

“We created the position of General Manager and Kate Grimwade is three years into her role; she oversees everything. Kate’s job is to take some of my workload off me so I can prioritise the Category A things. I also have three assistants in Oli Rix, James Keane and Jo Fowles who take care of a third of the yard each.

“The key is not to overcomplicate things and I’m not reinventing the wheel, but the priority for me is to spend as much time as I can with the horses, because I’m a racehorse trainer, and have enough time for my owners. They are the two most fundamental aspects of the job.

The Big Interview

›› “Most trainers, big or small, would say there are not enough hours in the day, so something gives. That’s why we recruited Kate into the role of General Manager.

“Delegating is important, but you need the right people to be able to delegate to having built trust. That takes time; I feel we’re there now and the structure and the team supporting me is as good as I’ve assembled. Kate can take a lot of credit in enabling me to feel that way.”

As he embarks on his 14th season with a licence, having succeeded former boss Michael Jarvis in 2011, Varian is bidding to crack the top three in the trainers’ championship for the first time following a 2023 campaign that yielded 121 winners and £4.18 million in prize-money, earning him a best-ever fourth-place finish.

To date he has captured 24 Group/

Grade 1 races with 18 individual horses for

11 different owners. The current roster of owners in impressive, featuring the likes of Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum, whose support continues from the Jarvis era, Sheikh Obaid, for whom Varian has trained the likes of Postponed and Defoe, and Kia Joorabchian of Amo Racing, whose imposing grey colt King Of Steel is the undoubted current stable star.

Varian’s reputation for honesty and diplomacy is a huge asset when it comes to managing his present band of owners, some of whom have regularly moved their strings between stables, though apparently there is no secret to keeping his patrons happy.

He says: “I actually think it’s hard to keep the same owners for long spells. In terms of cementing relationships with your

owners, we all need to manage the bumps and come out at the end of a season and want to do it together again.

“I know I will suit some people and won’t suit others; I’m not everyone’s cup of tea. But I want the opportunity to see if we can connect.”

Varian continues: “Success breeds success and I took over a successful yard from a wonderful man and I got the chance to hit the ground running, which I did with a good team of horses and staff. But my name was new, and I needed to find support from different owners.

“Some owners have come and gone, some have come, gone and come back again. I’m realistic with what I can achieve and as I see it, you will fail for most people.

“The challenge of training racehorses is managing the bumps. Horses go wrong or

The trainer chats with Raul Da Silva on King Of Steel after morning exercise on Warren Hill

don’t reach the level you would like them to. Horses will have setbacks and horses will get beaten. And that will happen much more regularly than you’ll have a winner. So, I think I will fail for most people, even if you think from the outside looking in that I’m succeeding, because I’m seeing an awful lot more go wrong than you are.”

The aforementioned King Of Steel, moved to Varian for his three-year-old season following two runs for David Loughnane at two, has endured a few bumps but also enjoyed major success in his career to date.

Withdrawn from last year’s Dante after an incident in the stalls, the son of Wootton Bassett belied odds of 66-1 to finish a close second in the Derby, looking at one stage like he had the race at his mercy before being run down late by Auguste Rodin. ››

Roger Varian on…

Linking up with James Doyle

“I’ve known James for a long time. He has ridden winners for us, and it could work well. It isn’t the perfect scenario, because there will be times when we want to use him but can’t because his first priority is Wathnan Racing. He’s one of the top six, he’s an elite rider and brings with him experience and one of the best CVs. He’s a first-choice spare for many big stables. We’ll use him regularly and he’ll come in and ride work, get to know the team and the horses. We have owners in the yard with their own jockeys, so he won’t ride everything.”

Attracting owners

“A lot of the best-bred horses will never come on the market, because they are raced by owner-breeders, so of course I want to train for owner-breeders. We can train for anyone – syndicates, partnerships, sole owners, owner-breeders, those based aboard. We need a broad roster of owners to make the business healthy – you need big bricks and small bricks to build a house. We want to put ourselves in those conversations when owners are deciding where to send their Classic horses.”

Premier racing

“I like the concept. But we could have been more radical. Our fundamental problem is that we are funded by a model that says we need a lot of racing, seven days a week, morning, noon and night. We have to supply the horses for that model and that’s putting a strain on the workforce. No-one’s cracked the funding puzzle and that’s the problem.”

Roger Varian

James Doyle: joins the Varian team for 2024

The Big Interview

Derby dream alive at Carlburg after some near misses

There is a sense that Roger Varian has unfinished business in the Betfred Derby.

Varian was assistant trainer when Michael Jarvis sent the once-raced colt Hala Bek to Epsom for the 2006 Blue Riband.

In a tremendously tight finish, the son of Halling finished a close fourth behind Sir Percy, Dragon Dancer and Dylan Thomas – but the result could have been different had Hala Bek not become unbalanced near the finish.

Varian says: “I remember it very well – I was saddling a horse at Folkestone! They delayed the start and I rushed into the Owners and Trainers’

the colts’ Classic. After a smooth run around Tattenham Corner, he made his bid for glory with two furlongs to run and looked like causing an upset, only to be collared near the line by Auguste Rodin.

“I said at the time it was harder to take than Kingston Hill’s second because we knew – or thought – that King Of Steel was a very special horse. We didn’t think anything was impossible that day.

“To have gone so close and not brought home a prize… it was hard to accept but you get over it quickly and we’ll keep trying.

“What both Hala Bek and King Of

important is that you have the ability.

“So many horses have the perfect preparation for the Derby but above all you need a horse that’s good enough, which is the most obvious thing to say, yet a lot of the time we try with horses that just aren’t up to that level.

“Hala Bek was good enough. He didn’t win, but had he kept a straight line he would have won.”

Varian currently has six horses engaged in this year’s Betfred Derby on Saturday, June 1 – Al Musmak, Defiance, Las Ramblas, Matsuri, Mr Hampstead and No Retreat. Al Musmak finished his juvenile campaign

Mr Hampstead is one of the trainer’s six Derby entries

After claiming Royal Ascot success in the King Edward VII Stakes, King Of Steel finished third to Hukum and Westover in an epic King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes before filling fourth place behind Auguste Rodin in the Irish Champion Stakes. The Group 1 payday, when it arrived, was an emotional affair in the QIPCO Champion Stakes at Ascot under Frankie Dettori, on what was reported as the Italian’s final ride as a British-based jockey.

“The first feeling is relief but that quickly becomes jubilation,” Varian says, recalling that wonderful afternoon in Berkshire. “It was important because King Of Steel had gone close in a Derby and run creditably in a King George, and wasn’t disgraced in an Irish Champion Stakes. He was putting in Group 1 performances but hadn’t yet won a Group 1.

“They are very special moments. I might never be involved in such an occasion and atmosphere again, the way the race panned out and being Frankie’s last ride at Ascot. I recall walking in and Hanako saying we just have to remember this day.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself that he would win that day and bring home a Group 1 as a three-year-old. It didn’t look likely for much of that race. Frankie didn’t mean to be last early, that wasn’t the plan. When he came there and got on top late it was absolute relief but then pure joy.”

Pressure is a given for someone in Varian’s position. He trains impeccablybred thoroughbreds, many of which were bought for significant amounts and some, like Akhu Najla, a son of Kingman who cost 2.7 million guineas for KHK Racing, falling a long way short of the level hoped for upon purchase.

So how does Varian deal with the level of expectation that comes with training such expensive animals?

“I heard this said over the winter –pressure is a privilege,” he relates “Being sent a horse that cost 2.7 million guineas is a privilege. If I ever trained the favourite for the Derby there would be pressure, but it would be a privilege.

“If the day was to come when I felt I didn’t want the sale-topper, that is the day I should give up. We’re in a results business so there’s always pressure. But wanting to be where I want to be within the profession, I need that pressure.”

Naturally, one might assume that having finished fourth last year, the place Varian wants to be is among the top three trainers and ultimately in the number one spot. However, that’s easier said than done according to Varian, whose yard is situated between those of Sir Michael Stoute and

John Gosden, between them the winners of 15 trainers’ titles.

“I’m realistic,” Varian says. “The top ten in the Flat racing world is enormously competitive, which is healthy – it doesn’t seem to be the case in jump racing, in England or Ireland.

“Charlie Appleby is a good mate. He was champion one year and eighth the following year – that’s an example of how competitive that top ten is.

“I have a fear of failure but that drives me on –I’ve always been ambitious”

“I have a fear of failure but that drives me on. I’ve always been hugely ambitious. I know the moment you sit down, take a deep breath and say I’m quite content where I am, it’s downhill from there.

“This is a unique industry; we need the animals to be good enough to bring home the big prizes. I’ve never set numerical targets as they make you judge your season at halfway. I’ve always just tried to better the previous season.”

If Varian is to improve on his 2023 campaign, King Of Steel will have a vital role to play, supported by the likes of KHK Racing’s dual St Leger hero Eldar Eldarov, now five and due to have contested the Dubai Gold Cup at Meydan, along with a host of promising younger horses.

He says: “King Of Steel looks fantastic, and I’d say he’s improved physically everywhere. He’s a big horse but very

agile, as he showed when he came round Tattenham Corner last year. He uses every muscle in his body, there’s no clumsiness about him. He hasn’t got too many miles on the clock and he should keep getting better as he gets older.

“Eldar Eldarov is back with the Yorkshire Cup and Irish St Leger on the agenda. He’s so good at that 1m6f distance. I don’t think we’ll go to Ascot for the Gold Cup – he didn’t seem to get home last year, though never say never. But what a nice horse to have in the stable. He could be around for a few years and he’s just a lovely horse to have anything to do with.”

Whatever 2024 brings, Varian will retain a sense of perspective on the year’s highs and lows, borne partly out of personal tragedy. His brother, Christopher, was murdered at the golf club where he worked in August 2010, just months before the then assistant trainer took over the licence from Jarvis at Kremlin House.

Varian says: “You have a choice when something like that happens – you either move on or you crumble. The human body, the human mind is remarkably resolute. I have great admiration for my mother and father. They have been able to continue living a full life and they’re incredibly strong people, as is my sister.

“I was lucky in that I had horses in my life. Horses keep you looking forward. I was lucky to have the day job I had at the time, with the goals that were right in front of me and things that needed doing. Michael was not so well at the time, and I had so much to do, seven days a week.”

He adds: “It doesn’t mean I Iose any easier, but perhaps I get my sense of perspective back quicker. The most important thing to me is that my mother and father are healthy, Hanako’s parents are healthy, and the children are healthy. That’s where my values lie.”

Varian with wife Hanako, who recently launched her Newmarket 875 fashion label

A

A’ALI (IRE)

ACCLAMATION (GB)

ACCON (GER)

ACLAIM (IRE)

ADAAY (IRE)

ADVERTISE (GB)

AFFAIRE SOLITAIRE (IRE)

AFFINISEA (IRE)

AIZAVOSKI (IRE)

AL KAZEEM (GB)

AL RIFAI (IRE)

AL WUKAIR (IRE)

ALBERT DOCK (JPN)

ALKUMAIT (GB)

ALL THE KING’S MEN (IRE)

ALMANZOR (FR)

ALMIGHWAR (GB)

ALSON (GER)

ALTRUISTIC (IRE)

AMARILLO (IRE)

AMARON (GB)

AMEDEO MODIGLIANI (IRE)

AMICO FRITZ (GER)

ANODIN (IRE)

ARCANO (IRE)

ARCTIC COSMOS (USA)

ARDAD (IRE)

ARIZONA (IRE)

ARMOR (GB)

ARRIGO (GER)

ARROGAN (USA)

AUSTRALIA (GB)

AUSTRIAN SCHOOL (IRE)

AUTHORIZED (IRE)

AWTAAD (IRE)

B

BAAEED (GB)

BALKO (FR)

BANDE (IRE)

BANGKOK (IRE)

BANKNOTE (GB)

BARASTRAIGHT (GB)

BATED BREATH (GB)

BATHYRHON (GER)

BATTLEGROUND (USA)

BAYSIDE BOY (IRE)

BEAUMEC DE HOUELLE (FR)

BECKFORD (GB)

BEHESHT (FR)

BELARDO (IRE)

BEST SOLUTION (IRE)

BIRCHWOOD (IRE)

BITCOIN PASSION (IRE)

BLACKBEARD (IRE)

BLEK (FR)

BLOCKCHAIN (IRE)

BLUE BRESIL (FR)

BLUE POINT (IRE)

BOBBY’S KITTEN (USA)

BODEMEISTER (USA)

BODYGUARD HERO (USA)

BORN TO SEA (IRE)

BOSCACCIO (GER)

BOW CREEK (IRE)

BRAVE MANSONNIEN (FR)

BROAD STREET (GB)

BULLET TRAIN (GB)

BUNGLE INTHEJUNGLE (GB)

BURATINO (IRE)

C

CALYX (GB)

CAMELOT (GB)

CANNOCK CHASE (USA)

CAPRI (IRE)

CAPTAIN CHOP (FR)

CASTLE DU BERLAIS (FR)

CAT JUNIOR (USA)

CATURRA (IRE)

CENTAURIAN (IRE)

CENTURY DREAM (IRE)

CHACHNAK (FR)

CHANDUCOQ (FR)

CHARM SPIRIT (IRE)

CHARMING THOUGHT (GB)

CHEMICAL CHARGE (IRE)

CHOEUR DU NORD (FR)

CHURCHILL (IRE)

CIRCUS MAXIMUS (IRE)

CITY LIGHT (FR)

CLOTH OF STARS (IRE)

CLOVIS DU BERLAIS (FR)

COKORIKO (FR)

COMPLACENT (AUS)

COTAI GLORY (GB)

COULSTY (IRE)

COUNTERATTACK (AUS)

COURT CAVE (IRE)

CRACKSMAN (GB)

CRYSTAL OCEAN (GB)

CYPRESS CREEK (IRE)

D

DABIRSIM (FR)

DALYAKAN (FR)

DANDY MAN (IRE)

DARIYAN (FR)

DARK ANGEL (IRE)

DARTMOUTH (GB)

DAWN APPROACH (IRE)

DE TREVILLE (GB)

DECORATED KNIGHT (GB)

DEE EX BEE (GB)

DESINVOLTE (FR)

DESTINO (GER)

DEVASTAR (GER)

DIAMOND BOY (FR)

DICAPRIO (GER)

DICK WHITTINGTON (IRE)

DINK (FR)

DIPLOMAT (GER)

DOCTOR DINO (FR)

DOHA DREAM (FR)

DONJUAN TRIUMPHANT (IRE)

DRAGON AL GUENAY (USA)

DRAGON DANCER (GB)

DREAM AHEAD (USA)

DSCHINGIS SECRET (GER)

DUBAWI (IRE)

DUBAWI LEGEND (IRE)

DUE DILIGENCE (USA)

E

EAGLE TOP (GB)

EAGLES BY DAY (IRE)

EARL OF TINSDAL (GER)

EARNSHAW (USA)

EARTHLIGHT (IRE)

EASTERN ANTHEM (IRE)

EBRO RIVER (IRE)

ECRIVAIN (FR)

ECTOT (GB)

EL SALVADOR (IRE)

ELARQAM (GB)

ELIOT (GER)

ELLIPTIQUE (IRE)

ELM PARK (GB)

ELUSIVE PIMPERNEL (USA)

ELVSTROEM (AUS)

ELZAAM (AUS)

EPAULETTE (AUS)

EQTIDAAR (IRE)

EQUIANO (FR)

ESKERKHAN (IRE)

ESTEJO (GER)

EXPERT EYE (GB)

F

FAIRLYPI (IRE)

FALCO (USA)

FAMOUS NAME (GB)

FANTASTIC MOON (GB)

FAR ABOVE (IRE)

FARHH (GB)

FAS (IRE)

FASCINATING ROCK (IRE)

FEARLESS KING (GB)

FEEL LIKE DANCING (GB)

FIFTY STARS (IRE)

FIGHT CLUB (GER)

FIGHTING IRISH (IRE)

FINSCEAL FIOR (IRE)

FIRST ELEVEN (GB)

FLAG OF HONOUR (IRE)

FLINTSHIRE (GB)

FLY WITH ME (FR)

FOOTSTEPSINTHESAND (GB)

FRACAS (IRE)

FRAMMASSONE (IRE)

FRANKEL (GB)

FREE EAGLE (IRE)

FRENCH FIFTEEN (FR)

FRONTIERSMAN (GB)

FUISSE (FR)

G

GALILEO CHROME (IRE)

GALILEO GOLD (GB)

GALIWAY (GB)

GAMUT (IRE)

GARY DU CHENET (FR)

GENTLEWAVE (IRE)

GEORDIELAND (FR)

GETAWAY (GER)

GHAIYYATH (IRE)

GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI (IRE)

GLENEAGLES (IRE)

GOKEN (FR)

GOLDEN HORDE (IRE)

GOLDEN HORN (GB)

GOLDEN LARIAT (USA)

GOLIATH DU BERLAIS (FR)

GOOD EFFORT (IRE)

GREAT PRETENDER (IRE)

GREEN MOON (IRE)

GREGORIAN (IRE)

GRENDISAR (IRE)

GRIS DE GRIS (IRE)

GUILIANI (IRE)

GUSTAV KLIMT (IRE)

GUTAIFAN (IRE)

H

HARRY ANGEL (IRE)

HARZAND (IRE)

HATHAL (USA)

HAVANA GOLD (IRE)

HAVANA GREY (GB)

HEADMAN (GB)

HELLO YOUMZAIN (FR)

HEP BERABER (TUR)

HERALD THE DAWN (IRE)

HEY GAMAN (GB)

HILLSTAR (GB)

HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR (IRE)

HONOLULU (IRE)

HOT STREAK (IRE)

HUNTER’S LIGHT (IRE)

HUNTING HORN (IRE)

I

IDAHO (IRE)

IFFRAAJ (GB)

ILARAAB (IRE)

IN SWOOP (IRE)

INDIAN HAVEN (GB)

INNS OF COURT (IRE)

INTELLO (GER)

INVINCIBLE ARMY (IRE)

INVINCIBLE SPIRIT (IRE)

IQUITOS (GER)

ISFAHAN (GER)

ITO (GER)

IVANHOWE (GER)

J

JACK HOBBS (GB)

JAMES GARFIELD (IRE)

JAPAN (GB)

JET AWAY (GB)

JEU ST ELOI (FR)

JIMMY TWO TIMES (FR)

JOHNNY BARNES (IRE)

JOSHUA TREE (IRE)

JUKEBOX JURY (IRE)

K

KAMEKO (USA)

KAP ROCK (FR)

KAPGARDE (FR)

KARAKTAR (IRE)

KEIAI NAUTIQUE (JPN)

KENDARGENT (FR)

KESSAAR (IRE)

KEW GARDENS (IRE)

KHALIFA SAT (IRE)

KING DAVID (USA)

KING EDWARD (FR)

KING OF CHANGE (GB)

KINGFISHER (IRE)

KINGMAN (GB)

KINGSTON HILL (GB)

KLIMT (USA)

KLUGER (JPN)

KNIGHT TO BEHOLD (IRE)

KODI BEAR (IRE)

KODIAC (GB)

KONIG BERNARD (FR)

KONIG TURF (GER)

KOOL KOMPANY (IRE)

KUROSHIO (AUS)

L

LACCARIO (GER)

LAND FORCE (IRE)

LATROBE (IRE)

LAURO (GER)

LAVELLO (IRE)

LAWMAN (FR)

LE BRIVIDO (FR)

LEADING LIGHT (IRE)

LEGENDS OF WAR (USA)

LIBERTARIAN (GB)

LIGHTNING SPEAR (GB)

LIMARIO (GER)

LINDA’S LAD (GB)

LION HEART (USA)

LITERATO (FR)

LOGICIAN (GB)

LOPE DE VEGA (IRE)

LOPE Y FERNANDEZ (IRE)

LUCKY JOE (IRE)

LUCKY TEAM (FR)

LUCKY VEGA (IRE)

M

MADHMOON (IRE)

MAGIC DREAM (FR)

MAGICIAN (IRE)

MAGNA GRECIA (IRE)

MAGNETICJIM (IRE)

MAHLER (GB)

MAHSOOB (GB)

MAKE BELIEVE (GB)

MAMOOL (IRE)

MANATEE (GB)

MARCAVELLY (USA)

MARCEL (IRE)

MARE AUSTRALIS (IRE)

MARIANAFOOT (FR)

MARMELO (GB)

MARTINBOROUGH (JPN)

MASAR (IRE)

MASKED MARVEL (GB)

MASSAAT (IRE)

MASTERSTROKE (USA)

MATTMU (GB)

MAXIOS (GB)

MAYSON (GB)

MEHMAS (IRE)

MEKHTAAL (GB)

MIDI (GB)

MIDNIGHT’S LEGACY (GB)

MIKESH (IRE)

MILLOWITSCH (GER)

MINZAAL (IRE)

MIRAGE DANCER (GB)

MISTER FOTIS (USA)

MIZZOU (IRE)

MKFANCY (FR)

Prepared by: The European Breeders’ Fund, Lushington House, 119 High Street, Newmarket, Suffolk, CB8 9AE, UK

T: +44 (0) 1638 667960 E: info@ebfhorseracing.co.uk www.ebfstallions.com

MOBSTA (IRE)

MOGUL (GB)

MOHAATHER (GB)

MOISES HAS (FR)

MOKARRIS (USA)

MONDIALISTE (IRE)

MONITOR CLOSELY (IRE)

MONTGOLFIER (GER)

MONTMARTRE (FR)

MORANDI (FR)

MOTAMARRIS (IRE)

MOTIVATOR (GB)

MR OWEN (USA)

MR SCARAMANGA (GB)

MUHAARAR (GB)

MUKHADRAM (GB)

MYBOYCHARLIE (IRE)

N

NANDO PARRADO (GB)

NATHANIEL (IRE)

NAVAL CROWN (GB)

NEATICO (GER)

NERIK (IRE)

NERIUM (IRE)

NEW APPROACH (IRE)

NEW BAY (GB)

NEWS ANCHOR (IRE)

NIGHT OF THUNDER (IRE)

NIGHT WISH (GER)

NIL DE LA (FR)

NIRVANA DU BERLAIS (FR)

NO NAY NEVER (USA)

NO RISK AT ALL (FR)

NOOR AL HAWA (FR)

NOOZHOH CANARIAS (SPA)

NUTAN (IRE)

O

OASIS DREAM (GB)

OCOVANGO (GB)

OL’ MAN RIVER (IRE)

OLD PERSIAN (GB)

OLYMPIC GLORY (IRE)

ORDER OF ST GEORGE (IRE)

P PALACE PIER (GB)

PALACE PRINCE (GER)

PANYU (GER)

PARADISO (FR)

PARISH HALL (IRE)

PASSING GLANCE (GB)

PEARL SECRET (GB)

PENNY’S PICNIC (IRE)

PERFECT POWER (IRE)

PERSIAN FORCE (IRE)

PERSIAN KING (IRE)

PETHER’S MOON (IRE)

PHOENIX OF SPAIN (IRE)

PIGEON CATCHER (IRE)

PILLAR CORAL (GB)

PINATUBO (IRE)

PLANTEUR (IRE)

POET’S WORD (IRE)

POLARIX (GB)

POLICY MAKER (IRE)

POLISH VULCANO (GER)

POMELLATO (GER)

PORTAGE (IRE)

POSEIDON ADVENTURE (IRE)

POSTPONED (IRE)

POUNCED (USA)

POUVOIR ABSOLU (GB)

PRESIDENCY (GB)

PRIMARY (USA)

PRINCE GIBRALTAR (FR)

PROFITABLE (IRE)

PROTECTIONIST (GER)

R

RACINGER (FR)

RAJASINGHE (IRE)

RAJJ (IRE)

RAVEN’S PASS (USA)

RECOLETOS (FR)

RECORDER (GB)

RETIREMENT PLAN (GB)

RIBCHESTER (IRE)

RICH HISTORY (IRE)

RIVER BOYNE (IRE)

ROBIN DU NORD (FR)

ROBIN OF NAVAN (FR)

ROLANDO (IRE)

ROMAN CANDLE (GB)

ROMANISED (IRE)

ROSEMAN (IRE)

ROSENDHAL (IRE)

ROSENSTURM (IRE)

ROSS (IRE)

ROYAL LYTHAM (FR)

RUBAIYAT (FR)

RUMBLE INTHEJUNGLE (IRE)

S SADDEX (GB)

SAINT DES SAINTS (FR)

SAINTGODREL (FR)

SALUTINO (GER)

SANDS OF MALI (FR)

SANS FRONTIERES (IRE)

SANTIAGO (GER)

SASSOFORTINO (IRE)

SATONO ARES (JPN)

SAVOIR VIVRE (IRE)

SAXON WARRIOR (JPN)

SCALO (GB)

SCHANG (GER)

SCHIAPARELLI (GER)

SCORPION (IRE)

SEA MOON (GB)

SEA THE MOON (GER)

SEA THE STARS (IRE)

SEABHAC (USA)

SEAHENGE (USA)

SEALIWAY (FR)

SERGEI PROKOFIEV (CAN)

SHAMALGAN (FR)

SHAMAN (IRE)

SHANTARAM (GB)

SHAYWAN (IRE)

SHIROCCO (GER)

SHOLOKHOV (IRE)

SHOWCASING (GB)

SILAS MARNER (FR)

SILVERWAVE (FR)

SIOUX NATION (USA)

SIR RON PRIESTLEY (GB)

SIXTIES ICON (GB)

SIYOUNI (FR)

SKY VEGA (IRE)

SLADE POWER (IRE)

SNOW SKY (GB)

SOFT LIGHT (FR)

SOLDIER HOLLOW (GB)

SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (IRE)

SOLDIER’S CALL (GB)

SOMMERABEND (GB)

SOTTSASS (FR)

SPACE BLUES (IRE)

SPACE TRAVELLER (GB)

SPANISH MOON (USA)

SRI PUTRA (GB)

ST MARK’S BASILICA (FR)

STARMAN (GB)

STARSPANGLEDBANNER (AUS)

STATE OF REST (IRE)

STELLAR MASS (IRE)

STORM THE STARS (USA)

STRADIVARIUS (IRE)

STUDY OF MAN (IRE)

STUNNING SPIRIT (GB)

SUCCESS DAYS (IRE)

SUMBAL (IRE)

SUPER SAVER (USA)

SUPPLICANT (GB)

SUPREMACY (IRE)

SWISS SPIRIT (GB)

T

TAAREEF (USA)

TAI CHI (GER)

TAJ MAHAL (IRE)

TASLEET (GB)

TECHNICIAN (IRE)

TELECASTER (GB)

TELESCOPE (IRE)

TEN SOVEREIGNS (IRE)

TEOFILO (IRE)

TERRITORIES (IRE)

TEXAS (FR)

THE GREY GATSBY (IRE)

THE GURKHA (IRE)

THE IRISH ROVER (IRE)

THREAT (IRE)

THUNDER MOON (IRE)

TIBERIAN (FR)

TIGRON (USA)

TIME TEST (GB)

TIN HORSE (IRE)

TIP TWO WIN (GB)

TIRWANAKO (FR)

TONKIN (IRE)

TOO DARN HOT (GB)

TORQUATOR TASSO (GER)

TOSEN STARDOM (JPN)

TRIPLE THREAT (FR)

TUNIS (POL)

TUSCAN GAZE (IRE)

TWILIGHT SON (GB)

U

U S NAVY FLAG (USA)

UBETTABELIEVE IT (IRE)

ULTRA (IRE)

ULYSSES (IRE)

UNFORTUNATELY (IRE)

UNIVERSAL (IRE)

URBAN POET (USA)

V

VADAMOS (FR)

VALIRANN (FR)

VAN BEETHOVEN (CAN)

VANISHING CUPID (SWI)

VENDANGEUR (IRE)

VICTOIRE PISA (JPN)

VICTOR LUDORUM (GB)

VICTORY GALLOP (CAN)

VICTORY SONG (IRE)

VIRTUAL (GB)

VITA VENTURI (IRE)

VOCALISED (USA)

W

WALDGEIST (GB)

WALDKONIG (GB)

WALDPARK (GER)

WALDPFAD (GER)

WALK IN THE PARK (IRE)

WALZERTAKT (GER)

WAR COMMAND (USA)

WASHINGTON DC (IRE)

WAY TO PARIS (GB)

WELL CHOSEN (GB)

WELLS FARHH GO (IRE)

WELTSTAR (GER)

WESTERN FRONTIER (USA)

WESTERNER (GB)

WIESENPFAD (FR)

WILD CHIEF (GER)

WILLYWELL (FR)

WINDSTOSS (GER)

WINGS OF EAGLES (FR)

WITHOUT PAROLE (GB)

WONDERFUL MOON (GER)

WOODED (IRE)

WOOTTON BASSETT (GB)

WORKFORCE (GB)

Y

YAFTA (GB)

YEATS (IRE)

YORGUNNABELUCKY (USA)

YOUMZAIN (IRE)

Z

ZAMBEZI SUN (GB)

ZANZIBARI (USA)

ZARAK (FR)

ZASKAR (FR)

ZELZAL (FR)

ZOUSTAR (AUS)

STALLIONS

STALLION

ADMIRE MARS (JPN)

BRICKS AND MORTAR (USA)

CHRYSOBERYL (JPN)

CONTRAIL (JPN)

DANON KINGLY (JPN)

DREFONG (USA)

EFFORIA (JPN)

EPIPHANEIA (JPN)

FLIGHTLINE (USA)

HARBINGER (GB)

HATHAL (USA)

HOT ROD CHARLIE (USA)

ISLA BONITA (JPN)

KARAKONTIE (JPN)

KITASAN BLACK (JPN)

KIZUNA (JPN)

LE VENT SE LEVE (JPN)

LORD KANALOA (JPN)

MANIACO (GB)

MAURICE (JPN)

MIKKI ISLE (JPN)

MIND YOUR BISCUITS (USA)

MONDE CHAT LUNA (JPN)

NADAL (USA)

NEW YEAR’S DAY (USA)

ORFEVRE (JPN)

OSCAR PERFORMANCE (USA)

POETIC FLARE (IRE)

QUALITY ROAD (USA)

RAGING BULL (FR)

REAL STEEL (JPN)

REY DE ORO (JPN)

RULERSHIP (JPN)

SALIOS (JPN)

SATONO CROWN (JPN)

SATONO DIAMOND (JPN)

SATURNALIA (JPN)

SISKIN (USA)

SUAVE RICHARD (JPN)

The stallions listed above stood OUTSIDE THE EBF AREA IN 2023 and have been registered as EBF International Stallions.

The progeny of these stallions, CONCEIVED IN 2023, (the foal crop of 2024), will be eligible to enter and run in EBF races to be held during 2026 and thereafter, with no further nomination payments.

Further details from the Chief Executive, European Breeders’ Fund.

Bansha House Stables Bullets TO FIRE

It’s been a tough 12 months for the Marnane family but with the arrival of spring comes the breeze-up sales season and the prospect of another Teppal or Sands Of Mali to bring a smile to the face

Words: Nancy Sexton

The Breeze-Up Consignors Association may have got more than it bargained for when its team asked Con Marnane for a list of the best performers to have graduated out of his Bansha House Stables. The collection ran to no fewer than 23 pages and in a testament to the skill and enthusiasm of the breeze-up man and those around him, hosted numerous important names ranging from Classic heroine Teppal to top sprinters Sands Of Mali and Fleeting Spirit along with two-year-olds

Robin Of Navan, Palace Episode and Amadeus Wolf.

Much has changed in the breeze-up sector over the past three decades but the Tipperary-based Bansha House has remained a significant presence, with its ‘Bansha Bullets’ never far from the conversation. As anyone who has worked the breeze-up sales can attest, the enthusiasm that Marnane has for his horses is bordering on infectious and something that has been largely inherited by daughters Amy and Olivia.

following a battle with cancer. Theresa was not only an integral part of the Bansha House operation but a hugely popular member of the wider bloodstock community. It said everything for the regard in which the family is held, as well as the sad acknowledgement of a tough past year, that a standing ovation accompanied Amy as she received the Next Generation Award at the recent Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Awards.

“When something like that happens, everyone comes together”

“Theresa ran everything,” says Con Marnane. “I was only the puppet. Theresa had the whole thing organised. This industry is a real family. There are a lot of very genuine, good people in this game. And when something like that happens, everyone comes together and they’re just incredible.”

He adds: “Emma Walsh worked with Theresa for years and does all the administration. And now she’s trying to keep us on the straight and narrow, God help her!”

Con Marnane (third from left) and family, including Theresa (third from right) and daughters Amy (second from right) and Olivia (far right) celebrate Different League’s win in the 2017 Albany Stakes

The sadness heading into this year, however, is that their successes won’t be shared by wife and mother Theresa, who sadly passed away last December

With the days ticking down until the Tattersalls Craven Sale opens the British and Irish breeze-up sales season, the focus is on pulling together the 24-strong group heading to Newmarket and then on to Doncaster

Numbers are on a par with usual with the emphasis being on a quick, sharp two-year-old, one with the precocity to make Royal Ascot if talent allows. The breeze-ups have obviously long owed much of their reputation to such horses, although that arguably was more the case in their infancy. In the time since then, there has been a general shift towards a scopier type, which in turn has helped drive the popularity of several of the later sales, in particular the Arqana May and Tattersalls Ireland Breeze-Ups. Indeed, it is a source of pride to the breeze-up community that last year’s graduates

for Goffs UK.

range from top two-year-old Vandeek to older stayers of the quality of Eldar Eldarov and Trueshan.

The kudos attached to Royal Ascot, particularly the two-year-old races, is something that will never diminish, however. The Marnane family have been there with Different League, an €8,000 foal purchase who carried Theresa’s colours to victory in the 2017 Albany Stakes, and Prince Of Lir, who won the 2016 Norfolk Stakes just weeks after his sale at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up in Doncaster.

Victory has come tantalisingly close on other occasions too, notably when another breezer, Sands Of Mali,

was touched off by Eqtidaar in the 2018 Commonwealth Cup. Six years on and that race may very well be on the agenda for Givemethebeatboys, who won the Marble Hill Stakes for the Marnanes prior to selling for £1.1 million to Bronsan Racing at the Goffs London Sale. The Marnanes subsequently campaigned him in partnership with the Bronsan family to run placed in the Phoenix and Middle Park Stakes.

“We started off very small,” recalls Marnane. “I remember the first year we did it, we had three horses. We could only get one horse into a breeze-up sale and I sold the other two privately. The second year, I had the first two

lots in at Doncaster and the last two lots in at the Craven.

“For the first couple of years, you’d send them up in pairs and they’d all look lovely but then you couldn’t sell the second one. So I started breezing them on their own, like the American system, and the next moment, everyone is doing the same.”

As fate would have it, it was a pair of unsold two-year-olds in 2005 that thrust Bansha House into the spotlight. Palace Episode, an American-bred son of Machiavellian, was sourced through Peter Doyle for $100,000 as a yearling but failed to sell for 44,000gns at the Craven while Amadeus Wolf, a member

BILL SELWYN

Bansha House Stables

›› of the sole crop sired by Mozart, was bought back for 50,000gns at the same sale having originally cost €87,000 through Anthony Stroud as a yearling in Italy. Within six months, both were Group 1 winners.

“What I suppose started it off really was when we didn’t sell Palace Episode and Amadeus Wolf at the Craven,” says Marnane of the pair, both of whom were trained by Kevin Ryan.

“There are three Group 1 races for two-year-old colts in England and they won two of them that year – Amadeus Wolf won the Middle Park and then Palace Episode won the Racing Post Trophy. People then had to open their eyes to the fact that proper racehorses were coming out of the breeze-ups.”

The pair are just two examples of

the lengths that Marnane has taken to hunt stock. Italy, for example, wasn’t just the source of Amadeus Wolf but also Stewards’ Cup winner Lancelot Du Lac. Poule d’Essai des Pouliches winner Teppal was a €60,000 Arqana August V2 yearling while Sands Of Mali, by the unheralded Panis, was found slightly more off the beaten track at Osarus in La-Teste-de-Buch, where he cost €20,000. More obscure is the La Zarzuela Yearling Sale in Madrid. It was out of that Spanish expedition that Marnane came away with First Selection, a Spanish-bred Diktat colt who would go on to win the Solario Stakes and run second in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains following his sale at the now defunct Ascot breeze-up to Simon Crisford. Across

the Atlantic, Keeneland was the source of Rio De La Plata, a durable performer for Godolphin who won three Group 1 races before retiring to stud under Darley’s French banner.

Today, the hunting field has been narrowed more or less to Britain and Ireland. But the focus is the same.

“Between Amy and myself, we stick to Ireland and England mainly now,” says Marnane. “We’d look at an awful lot of horses and then Amy and I will put our heads together and try to pick out the better ones – or what we think are the better ones! An athlete and honesty, that’s what we are looking for. And value!

“I remember Fleeting Spirit, who was a top sprinter for Jeremy Noseda. Well, she was only a little pony when I

‘A hard sale to ignore’ – hopes high ahead of breeze-up season

The breeze-up sector has grown out of all recognition over the past few decades. Today it’s a big business with investment in the raw material annually running to over £20 million at the European yearling sales. At the other end, the finished article is assessed by an increasingly astute buying bench, many of them with the clock and tools to hand with which to produce a range of measurements.

If recent results are anything to go by, then ignore this sector at your peril.

Since 2015, it has produced close to 400 stakes winners in the northern hemisphere, among them over 30 Group 1 winners. They include Vandeek, who won the Prix Morny and Middle Park Stakes for Simon and Ed Crisford after jointly topping last year’s Tattersalls Craven Sale at 625,000gns to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock, acting on behalf of KHK Racing.

Sold by Glending Stables, Vandeek is the latest highest-rated two-year-old colt in Britain to emerge out of the Craven Sale after Native Trail, the champion twoyear-old of 2021 who went on to win the Irish 2,000 Guineas at three. In between, Arqana May graduate Lezoo flew the flag, winning the Cheveley Park Stakes to end the year as Cartier Champion Two-yearold Filly.

Vandeek was not the only high-flying breeze-up graduate of last year. His stable-mate Carla’s Way, sold by Grove Stud for £350,000 at the Goffs BreezeUp at Doncaster, dominated the Rockfel Stakes at Newmarket on her penultimate start. Meanwhile, the venerable Trueshan added a further Group 1 to his record for

Alan King in the Prix du Cadran, Bradsell won the King’s Stand Stakes, and Eldar Eldarov took the Irish St Leger.

By all accounts, spaces in this year’s round of auctions, which start with the Tattersalls Craven Sale on April 15-17, have been hotly contested, with each sale well oversubscribed with nominations. This is an area of the market, however, which is served well by keeping numbers tight, for all that each sale last year experienced growth in turnover and average.

Is it too much to expect further growth this time around? All was not plain sailing during some of the later yearling sales last year but then this is a particularly successdriven area of the market. As the likes of

Vandeek and Trueshan illustrate, breezers are more than holding their own at the top end of the domestic racing action. All the while, they are becoming ever more prominent on a global scare, especially in the Middle East. As such, there is a general positivity heading into the season, including from both Tattersalls and Goffs.

Tattersalls have put together 180 lots for its Craven Sale, all of whom are eligible for the £250,000 Tattersalls Craven Royal Ascot/Group 1 bonus. The scheme offers a £125,000 bonus for the first Craven winner of any of the six two-year-old races at Royal Ascot and an additional £125,000 bonus to the first winner of any of the 15 European Group 1 races open

BILL SELWYN

Bradsell: a major advert for the Goffs Breeze-Up Sale at Doncaster

bought her. She won the July Cup and got a fracture in the race 100 yards from the line and still won. She was really special. It’s about trying to land on the next young stallion, and she was the first of the Invincible Spirits that we had. Not long after her we had [Flying Childers Stakes winner] Madame Trop Vite and then [Listed winner] Pimpernel. We had a whole load by Invincible Spirit – we were just so lucky with them.

“With Teppal, I’d had her brother Another Party. He was very down on his joints but a great horse for us. We nicknamed him the ATM machine because whenever he ran he always brought back money. So next thing is that the sister Teppal comes on and I bought her. She was gorgeous.

to two-year-olds. The Group 1 bonus was won last year by the connections of Vandeek.

“The sires represented in the sale speaks for themselves,” says Tattersalls Marketing Director Jimmy George. “We have progeny of nine of last year’s top ten sires catalogued. They include a colt from Glending Stables who will be the last ever Galileo to be offered as a breeze-up horse [Lot 112, a colt out of Manderley]. It’s nice that he’s coming from the same consignors as Vandeek.

“It’s become a hard sale to ignore. When a sale produces two of the last three highest-rated juvenile colts in Britain and then also keeps producing Group 1 winners with such regularity, you have to sit up and take notice, especially as numerically its never going to be that big. It’s a sale that is a very good showcase of the craft of the breeze-up consignors who do a fantastic job year after year, and I think it has done a good job of convincing the few remaining breeze-up sceptics of the strengths of these sales.”

The Craven Bonus is now in its fourth year and with the winners of two Group 1 bonuses already on the books has understandably become a talking point. However, as George points out, there is actually a range of incentives to be taken advantage of throughout the catalogue.

“Firstly, they’re all eligible for the £250,000 Tattersalls Craven Bonus,” he says. “But there are others who are also eligible for the Book 1 bonus, Tattersalls

October Auction Stakes, Tattersalls

Ireland Super Auction Stakes, Tattersalls

Somerville Auction Stakes and the Swedish Derby and Oaks. Some are also qualified for French premiums. So a lot of

the two-year-olds catalogued are eligible to win considerably more than the prizemoney figure at the top of the page – the opportunities are out there.”

Tattersalls are hopeful of a strong international presence, particularly from the Middle East, where the racing programme continues to expand. The same goes for the team at Goffs, which stages its breeze-up in Doncaster on April 23-24.

Goffs rightly take great pride in the fact that the sale has produced nine Royal Ascot winners in eight years. The most recent is the Mark Grant-sold Bradsell, who supplemented his win in the 2022 Coventry Stakes for Victorious Racing and Archie Watson with a victory in last year’s King’s Stand Stakes.

“That the big stat for us – nine Royal Ascot winners in eight years,” says Tim Kent, Managing Director of Goffs UK. “Carla’s Way was also obviously very impressive when she won the Rockfel and Beautiful Diamond went on to win the Harry Rosebery Stakes [in which she beat another sale graduate in Purosangue].”

Goffs have produced an expanded catalogue of 235 horses, which is 24 more than last year. As with the Craven Sale, a range of leading sires are represented, including Blue Point, Havana Grey, Mehmas, No Nay Never, Siyouni and Too Darn Hot.

“We were hugely oversubscribed,” says Kent. “We actually had 350 more nominations than last year and it was a difficult selection process. Ultimately, the average purchase price of the horses is six per cent higher than last year. It’s all very well the inspectors coming back and saying that the standard is very good but

the purchase prices of these horses backs that up, as does hearing what the vendors have to say.”

With the catalogue in hand, the Goffs team have spent a busy spring on the road drumming up business.

“The challenge now is to get the buyers to the sale,” says Kent. “The key is the domestic market and getting in as many new faces as we can while also focussing on our established clients.

“Tom Taaffe and myself were also recently in the Middle East, where we visited Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar with the help of GBRI. We also have 35 horses catalogued who are eligible for the Swedish Derby and Oaks series and Michael Orton and Bernard Condren have been in Sweden promoting the sale.

“Last year, we had seven buyers from Italy and this year we already have 13 booked in. Bernard will also be in Italy for when the Breeze-Up Consignors Association sponsor the Listed Premio Seregno in late March at Milan. And we’re doing more in France – Celine Orton is promoting the sale for us there.”

BILL SELWYN

Sands Of Mali: Bansha House has two to breeze by its former star graduate

Vandeek in action at the Craven Sale TATTERSALLS

Bansha House Stables

‘The Pinatubo colt looks very sharp’

“I have two by Pinatubo, one for the Craven and one for Arqana. I haven’t done a lot with the Arqana horses but the colt for the Craven looks very sharp. I brought him up for an away day the other day and he went quite well. He’s a straightforward kind of guy. I also have a nice Wooded for Arqana.”

Johnny Collins, Brown Island Stables

“I have colts by Arizona and Sergei Prokofiev that I like a lot. They’re two big horses going to the Tattersalls Ireland Breeze-Up. They’ve got good attitudes and both are fine movers. I’m very happy with them at this stage.”

Darragh Lordan, Innishannon Valley Stud

“I have a very nice Hello Youmzain heading to France. I like him so much that I’ve actually sent mares to France to go to the horse. My horse has a brilliant attitude – if they are all like him, then the sire will be ok. I’ve also got an Authentic colt I bought in Kentucky going to Arqana. He’s a big,

She was a Camacho filly, so not everybody’s cup of tea, but Richard Brown bought her off me at Arqana and all credit to him.

“We bought Sands Of Mali in Osarus. I’d had the whole family, including his half-brother Kadrizzi, who’d won a couple of races for us. That pedigree was a blank page when we bought into it and it’s now a very good family. Sands Of Mali was Lot 1 at the Ascot Sale and Stroud Coleman bought him off me.

“Robin Of Navan [Group 1 winner] was another good one that Matt Coleman bought off me. He had a fractured tooth when I bought him and he couldn’t eat. When we brought him home, we got the tooth out of him and he never looked back. And then Harry Dunlop did a tremendous job with him.”

There is real satisfaction, however, in the tale of Prince Of Lir, another of Stroud Coleman’s buys. A quick son of Kodiac, he was out a month after his sale for £170,000 at Goffs UK when scoring at Beverley. Three weeks later he won the Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot.

“That’s what I think the breeze-up sales are all about,” says Marnane. “I know there are the later maturing

good-moving horse, probably more of a two-turn type, but he really gets over the ground well.” Eddie O’Leary, Lynn Lodge Stud

“I’ve got a very good colt by Tiz The Law going to Arqana. I bought him at Fasig-Tipton in October and he’s showing all the right signs at the moment.” Tom Whitehead, Powerstown Stud

“I’ve got a ripper of a Golden Horde colt for Doncaster. I just liked the stallion as a physical and this horse is very similar – all muscle. Hopefully he’ll fly.” Roderic Kavanagh, Glending Stables

“I have a nice colt by Ghaiyyath. He’s a May foal and doing everything very nicely. A lovely, balanced colt, he should be a very nice back end two-year-old.” Jim McCartan, Gaybrook Lodge Stud

horses but I think some of those sales are getting too late. There is an opening there for a more speedier type. We did well at the Goffs Kempton sale [formerly held the week before the Cheltenham Festival]. That worked well for the sharper type and we sold a lot of precocious horses there.”

Two-year-old talent was again key to Marnane’s success last year. Givemethebeatboys flew the flag thanks to his exploits for Jessica Harrington but there was also the Cotai Glory filly Tiger Belle, who won the Marwell Stakes and Prix d’Arenberg, and the Listed-placed Ardad filly Rush Queen. Both were trained by Ado McGuinness for Shamrock Thoroughbreds, who presumably enjoyed a good pay day when Tiger Belle changed hands to Michael and Jules Iavarone ahead of her run in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf. Among the older flagbearers, American Sonja won a Listed

race in France and was multiple Group 3-placed.

“Ado McGuinness bought two off me last year for Shamrock and they were Tiger Belle and Rush Queen,” says Marnane. “He was really one of the only Irish trainers active last year at the breeze-up sales alongside Michael O’Callaghan, and look at the success he’s had. They bought the two off me and they were running within a month – Tiger Belle won three weeks after her sale in Doncaster. Trainers need to wake up that these horses are available and they’re there to be bought.”

He adds: “It is hard to take on the big boys, especially in Ireland. Ballydoyle would have 200 Ferraris but then we can still beat them. And even if you are beaten first or second time out, the phone is hopping from Hong Kong and America. So there’s still money to be made for these trainers. I’ve sold a couple over to America and they’ve won plenty – they’re playing for different money. And it’s good for

BILL SELWYN

Hello Youmzain: first two-year-olds have attracted positive attention

Bansha House Stables

us in that it means you can reinvest. But then we’re losing our product as well.”

So what can we expect from the Bansha Bullets this year? Spread across the Tattersalls Craven and Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sales, the group consists of youngsters by old friends such as Sands Of Mali and Prince Of Lir to those by the popular Blue Point, Havana Grey, Starspangledbanner and Mehmas.

“There are a lot of horses there that can run close after the sale,” he says. “We’ve put them through stalls and done everything with them. At the end of it, they’ll know how to go upsides as well.

“Our horses are not pushed to do times. People are too time conscious now and on top of that, they’re watching stride length and the gallop out. I want them to be racehorses, not two-furlong wonder horses. Horses can do very fast times and sometimes they’re not always racehorses.

“I’ll always put my hands up and say if we don’t sell a horse in the ring at the sales – which is getting harder to do now – I’m not one bit afraid of putting it in training. Because I know they’ve been trained properly. You have to back your judgement, and some days you get very lucky doing it.

“I’ve two by Sands Of Mali going to Doncaster. I’ve bred a few by him and sold them all well. So I don’t have that many to breeze but I’d like a few more. They’re so genuine and they look fast. The Prince Of Lir is a full-sister to [Listed winner] Prince Of Pillo. She’s bred to be sharp and early, and she can fly.

“There’s a Havana Grey filly for Doncaster from the family of Blue Point. She’s not over big but a lovely filly, a real trier. The Ardad colt going there is also very nice. I’ve had huge success with the stallion, I’ve had three stakes fillies by him. I was a believer in the beginning and still am. There’s also a Kuroshio colt that can fly and two by Cotai Glory that are fast.

“There’s a good Havana Grey colt going to the Craven. And we’re very pleased with the Profitable brother to [Queen Mary Stakes winner] Quick Suzy. He was small when we bought him – he’s a late foal – and he’s turned into a superstar since then. He has a beautiful temperament and his wind is clear. You could see him rocking up at Ascot because he’s very quick and does it very fluently.”

A return to Osarus also proved

Connections celebrate the outcome to The 1000 Championship, sponsored by BUCA

Saudi sponsorship a success

Ever resourceful, the breeze-up community broke new ground in Saudi Arabia last month when sponsoring The 1000 Championship – the Saudi Arabian equivalent of the 1,000 Guineas – at Riyadh.

The sector heads into the sales season on a high, thanks in part to the achievements of current Group 1 winners such as Vandeek, Trueshan, Bradsell and Eldar Eldarov.

At the same time, however, breezers are establishing an increasingly strong presence in the Middle East. That is particularly true in Saudi Arabia, where recent graduates include local Group winners Mazyuna and Ajwadi as well as last year’s 2000 Championship winner Almurtajiz.

By all accounts, the decision to capitalise on that momentum and turn to sponsorship was a success for the Breeze-Up Consignors Association (BUCA). An organisation partly funded by the consignors to promote the sector, it was represented in Riyadh by Brendan Holland of Grove Stud and Jim McCartan of Gaybrook Lodge Stud.

“I thought it worked very well,” says McCartan. “We met some good people who were genuinely interested in what we were trying to promote and appreciative of the sponsorship.

“It’s become a very important part of our market. There seems to be plenty of people looking to buy in the £40,000 - £100,000 range. But then you have others, like Najd Stud,

playing at a higher end. They’re all very enthusiastic.”

The race was won by Aljood, a Frosted filly sourced out of the Florida two-year-old sales. However, not beaten far in second was the Irishproduced filly Nermeen, a graduate of Tom Whitehead’s Powerstown Stud who was sold to owner Ahmad Abdul Wahid for the equivalent of €250,000 at the Goffs Dubai Breeze-Up Sale. The daughter of More Than Ready had previously won her second start at Riyadh by a wide margin.

“Obviously if Tom’s filly had won, then that would have been the icing on the cake,” says McCartan. “As it was she ran a lovely race. All the owners were there and they brought all their family and friends. You could see that it means a lot and that they were really enjoying it.”

As if to prove the point on the growing Saudi Arabian prominence of breezers, Ajwadi and Saudi Neom ran second and third in The 2000 Championship the following week. The pair were sourced out of the Tattersalls Craven and Goffs Doncaster BreezeUp Sales respectively.

Meanwhile, BUCA have also been busy promoting the sales in Italy, where it sponsored the Listed Premio Seregno at Milan.

The association also hope to tap into the Swedish market by sponsoring alongside Irish Thoroughbred Marketing at Jagersro in Sweden in late April.

After incredible levels of interest in the Century Club, we are delighted to announce even more ways you can get involved with our unique horse racing syndicate.

We now offer three clubs you can join: Members, Owners, and Directors. Each provides unique benefts and are designed to make joining the Century Club as accessible as possible.

This is your chance to become part of the action and immerse yourself in the lifestyle and excitement of co-owning a stable of racehorses. Don’t miss out.

• Two horses leased from Weston Hill Stud

• Run during the 2024 Flat Season from 1st May to 25th October

• The Members Club will receive 10 tickets for each meeting the horses run at

• Summer get-together for all members

• Exclusive Q&A and drinks night with Tom Skinner and Neil ‘Razor’ Ruddock

• Ownership of 3 horses outright that will be purchased from the 2024 Breeze Up Sales

• From April 2024 to December 2025

• The Owners Club will receive 12 badges for each meeting the horses run at

• Two social events each year for all members and a guest

• All prize money and money received from the sale of the horses will be shared equally between the Syndicate Members

• Ownership of 6 horses to be purchased from the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale 2024

• Option to replace 2 horses if they do not reach their potential

Racing through the 2025/26 season

• Directors Club Members will receive annual membership to all Arena Racing Venues for themselves and a guest.

• Various social events including guest speakers and Q&A nights

• Tours of Trainers Yard and National Stud

• All prize money and money received from the sale of the horses will be shared equally between the Syndicate Members

Bansha House Stables

productive last September and appropriately the pinhook in question is Sands Of Mali’s half-brother by Gutaifan. Bought for €23,000, he heads to Doncaster.

“He’s a smashing horse,” enthuses Marnane. “I know the whole pedigree. They’re all the same; you won’t find anything out about them until you ask them to gallop. This fella will win loads of races.”

As ever, the Marnanes were hunting for value last year. Their most expensive pinhook was a €95,000 Bungle Inthejungle sister to the family’s Listed winner Funny Money Honey, something which should give a bit of breathing room in a market that threatens to be selective.

“When a nice horse walks in, there’s a queue,” says Marnane. “When there’s an ordinary one, everyone leaves. You could certainly see that more last year. People aren’t taking chances. They’re not as brave. If a trainer doesn’t have an owner, then they aren’t taking chances. And costs are rising all the time.”

It wasn’t that long ago that the Marnane family were heavily represented in France, and with great success. That side has been “tightened up” but that’s not to say the overall operation has been scaled back. In addition to the breezers, Bansha is home to around 20 mares while Amy’s duty at the yearling sales also involves sourcing stock for Con’s trainer brother David. MRC International’s stakes-placed Lady Tilbury, bought for 18,000gns and resold last December for 150,000gns, is one success story and hopes are high for the 17 twoyear-olds in training this season.

Amy describes receiving the ITBA Next Generation Award as “unreal” and the general consensus within the industry is that there was no more deserving winner.

“All they have to do is take them home, feed them and run them!”

“Last time I was at the ITBA Awards, Gerry Dilger won the Flying Geese Award – he was very good to me when I was working in Kentucky,” says Amy of the popular horseman, who died four years ago. “I also did a couple of breeze-up seasons in Hong Kong with Malcolm Bastard, which was fascinating, and then I was with Niall Brennan in America. When I came back, I managed the French racing side of Bansha for six seasons.

“I also do Book 1 in Newmarket for Mike and Mary Ryan. Basically if there’s a yearling sale, I’m at it.”

A sad shadow was cast over last year’s Tattersalls December Sale as news filtered through of Theresa’s passing. In January, Con, Amy and Olivia took time out for a trip to the southern hemisphere, and having been royally entertained at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Sale, returned freshened brimming with ideas.

“It was just out of this world,” says Con. “The way we were entertained, how they ran the sale – it was unbelievable.

“We came back and decided to have a big open day here at Bansha. Everybody in this industry needs to open up. It’s viewed as kind of a closed shop and it shouldn’t be. We should all be inviting more people to come to races, to the sales, stables – just get them involved. A lot of work goes into these horses, whether it’s picking them out, breeding them and feeding them. It’s a massive team effort and we should be opening the doors promoting that.

“I’ve got a fantastic team behind me. Mike O’Brien and John Crosse have been with us for years. We’re nothing without them. I’ve six riders and they’d ride ten horses each morning. They’re not on their backs for long. Afterwards the horses go on the walker – there’s no weight on their backs, which is important for young horses.

“Everything is done with the trainer in mind. All they have to do is take them home, feed them and run them!”

There are few certainties in this business, but knowing that the Bansha House horses head to the sales aided with the weight of Marnane enthusiasm is one of them. And don’t bet against some of them acquitting themselves well at Royal Ascot, whether it be a breezer or representative of the popular Theresa Marnane colours.

“There’s always something going on,” says Amy. “We’re busy every week of the year with the mares, then the pinhooks and the breezers. This game is an addiction and you could say that we’re completely addicted.”

BILL SELWYN

Amadeus Wolf: unsold as a breezer, he went on to win the Middle Park Stakes

Con Marnane: ‘industry needs to open up’

SARAH FARNSWORTH

www.bbag-sales.de

Muskoka

Winner 165. Henkelpreis der Diana, Gr.1

Spring Breeze Up Sale: 31st May 2024 − ENTRIES CLOSE: APRIL 12TH, 2024

HIT August Online-Sale: 16th August 2024 − ENTRIES CLOSE: JULY 29TH, 2024

Premier Yearling Sale: 30th August 2024 − ENTRIES CLOSE: APRIL 5TH, 2024

October Mixed Sales: 18th and 19th October 2024 − ENTRIES CLOSE: SEPT. 2ND, 2024

‘Keep the horses at the heart of what you’re doing’’

Anyone looking to make the most of this industry would do well to observe David PorterMackrell. Head stallion man at Newsells Park Stud in Hertfordshire, where he has Nathaniel, Without Parole and A’Ali under his watch, Porter-Mackrell was the headline act of the 2024 Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards where he was named Employee of the Year having earlier won the Stud Staff Award category.

Porter-Mackrell decided from an early stage in his career that working with stallions was his calling and having honed his craft at Whitsbury Manor and then Banstead Manor Studs, joined Newsells Park Stud in its infancy just as it was establishing a foothold in the stallion market with Mount Nelson. For its part, PorterMackrell is Newsells Park’s third winner of the Stud Staff Award following Gerry Meehan in 2014 and Elodie Swann in 2021.

“I’ve been overwhelmed,” he says. “You don’t expect these things. It was amazing on the night just to win the

stud staff category, and then to win Employee of the Year was incredible.”

Porter-Mackrell’s tenure at Newsells Park has ensured a stability on both sides of the coin. The smooth running of the covering shed is an integral part of a busy operation and an experienced pair of hands at the helm is naturally crucial. Porter-Mackrell evidently enjoys his work and takes pride in the relationships developed with various inmates over the years – Nathaniel, for example, is currently serving his 12th season at the stud. Yet he certainly doesn’t take any of it for granted, being quick to point out that his career has helped ensure a stable way of life and upbringing for his family.

“It’s a job that allows for a good family life,” says Porter-Mackrell, who is father to Joseph, 18, Elliot, 16, Phoebe, 15, and Amber, 10. “Although you can do long hours at a time, living on site means that you’re still able to see the children a lot while they grow up. And the stud is very good at understanding your family commitments.”

Like many in this industry, PorterMackrell was drawn to horses from an early age, in his case when coming into contact with ponies at school. From there, hard work and a desire to learn more helped drive various openings, ultimately leading to where he is today.

“I was quite unwell as a kid,” he recalls. “I actually spent a year in Great Ormond Street Hospital. After that I went to boarding school. I wasn’t really in a great place for obvious reasons. But this school had horses and I was encouraged to go down to the yard – I immediately fell in love with them.

“Everything people say about horses being therapeutic is absolutely true and they helped me at a time when I needed it. There was a pony that I looked after – I’d go in before lessons to see her in the mornings and then again in the evenings.

“I got to the stage of thinking of what to do after school and our careers advisor said to me, ‘What about the stud industry?’. The course at the National Stud was my aim but I needed experience first. There was

“They’re all special in their own way,” says Employee of the Year David Porter-Mackrell of Newsells Park Stud, pictured with Nathaniel

a small stud farm next to the school and they had a stallion. I fell in love with him – that was the beginning of looking at working with stallions for a career.

“I did the NVQ course at the National Stud but the aim was always to work with stallions, and it was a case of grafting away and then hoping to find yourself in the right place for the right opportunity. The National Stud course gives you a foot in the door and from there I went to Heatherwold Stud and then on to Wingfield Stud in Epsom. It was there that I met my wife Miranda.

“We were looking to go somewhere where we could work together and a job came up at Mark Johnston’s spelling yard in Ripon. I went there as a yardman and that was a great experience in itself, seeing the other side of it. You had colts on box rest, which presented its own challenges. It was quite an education.”

It was a job at the Harper family’s Whitsbury Manor Stud, however, that provided him with an opening towards working with stallions.

“We had been looking to return back down south and a job came up at Whitsbury,” he says. “It was my big break. On my first day, Charlie Oakshott [then Stud Manager] was giving us the health and safety introduction and when he got to the stallion side of it, thankfully I put my hand up and said that if an opportunity was to ever come up, then that’s what I would like to do. As it happened, the guy who was assisting with the stallions stepped down and so there was an opportunity.

“It’s magic down there. They had horses like Cadeaux Genereux, Mister Baileys, Compton Place and Magic Ring at the time. The general level of staff was outstanding and there was a really good crowd of older people to learn from.

“I was lucky to work under Mick Keegan while he was stallion foreman. I spent about seven years as assistant to Mick, who was a brilliant horseman and great mentor. I learnt so much off him and when he retired, they gave me the chance to do the stallions in my own right. That was a massive opportunity and it went well. But then a job came up at Banstead Manor Stud, and I just thought what a great opportunity it would be to work with those kind of horses and also with the guys in their yards.”

Porter-Mackrell’s move to Banstead

Manor brought him into contact with the likes of Oasis Dream, Dansili, Zamindar, Rail Link and Observatory, thereby putting the finishing touches on an education to set him up as a head man when the time came.

“This is my 16th season at Newsells,” he says proudly. “I joined right from the beginning when they purchased Mount Nelson. I wasn’t looking as such for another position but I always had my ear to the ground. And I thought to myself, ‘How often do you get these

“Porter-Mackrell is Newsells’ third winner of the Stud Staff Award”

chances to be involved from the start with something like this?’. By that time I was married, we had two young children and I looked at Newsells and thought what a great place to bring up a young family.”

The Newsells Park roster tends to be select – its current group of three is the largest it has been numerically – and turnover is low. Mount Nelson spent eight seasons there before heading to Boardsmill Stud in Ireland while its second recruit Equiano stood from 2011 to 2020 prior to his switch to the Irish National Stud. Its current flagship horse Nathaniel, the sire of Enable and Desert Crown among others, turned 16 this year.

“When Newsells are looking to

stand a horse, they only want one they truly believe in,” says PorterMackrell. “It’s hard in a competitive market to find the right horse but once they stand one, they’re committed to making him successful.”

Porter-Mackrell won’t be drawn into picking favourites but as he points out, each horse is an individual and despite its select nature, the Newsells roster offers three very different stallions.

“They’re all special in their own way,” he says. “And the longer you have them, the closer you obviously become. They all have their own funny little ways. A’Ali is a typical sprinter but he just wants to eat and sleep and the great thing is when you ask him to do something, he’s 100% committed. Without Parole is obviously a miler and Nathaniel is middle-distance.”

There is no getting away from the fact that the retention of stud staff is an issue in this industry, something that various institutions – the National Stud among them – remain determined to address. The long hours, quite often with bad weather thrown in, are not for everyone, but it’s a way of life more than anything else – and in PorterMackrell’s case, a good way of life that has enabled him to fulfil his ambitions.

“If you don’t mind working hard and you have a genuine care for the horses, then honestly the world is your oyster in this business,” he says. “There are some great people out there who will take the time to teach you. It can give you a great life, not many industries offer you that, and there are some great opportunities. But you have to put the work in, keep going and keep the horses at the heart of what you’re doing. If you do that and keep the horses’ interests at heart, you’ll come up with the right answers.”

Nancy Sexton Bloodstock Editor

ANNA CAMPBELL

David Porter-Mackrell pictured with Newsells Park Stud’s first stallion Mount Nelson

Memorable pinhooks offset a selective point-to-point trade

Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale

A number of factors affected the quality of the catalogue and the trade achieved at this afternoon sale consisting predominantly of young point-to-pointers.

Above average rainfall leading to heavy-ground meetings in Ireland and a raft of postponements or abandonments in Britain had affected trainers’ plans to run early-season four-year-olds, and with the Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale looming three weeks later they could afford to be patient. Some buyers will have been waiting for the Festival, while others will have spent freely 19 days earlier at the Andy and Gemma Brown dispersal of jumpers. British pointers are invariably few in number at Cheltenham sales, but while four had been offered last year, this time just one turned up.

Thirty-eight horses walked the ring, and while that was 14 fewer than last year, it was broadly in line with previous February Sales. Turnover was down 43 per cent at just over £2.4 million, while the average declined 32 per cent at £72,632 and the median came in 23 per cent lower at £60,000. On the plus side fewer horses helped demand and the clearance rate jumped 12 points to reach 89 per cent through sales of 34 horses.

The emergence into Flat and jump racing of hungry young trainers who gain support from clients prepared to back their fledgling businesses has become a trade stimulator at horses-in-training sales. An example at this auction centred

TALKING POINTS

on a £240,000 transaction that saw four-year-old gelding Korkoran exit Colin Bowe’s County Wexford yard bound for a box at the Berkshire yard of Harry Derham. ‘Four-year-old’ was a loose description of the May 14-born gelding by top sire No Risk At All, but he was forward enough to win a point-to-point on debut shortly before the sale, and with bloodstock agent Ed Bailey doing the legwork, Derham secured the prize on behalf of racehorse owner Ian Barratt. He

• Just one British point-to-pointer was offered at Tattersalls Cheltenham’s February Sale, although he added a note of interest.

Colin Hobbs, a son of Jack Hobbs, was the first horse trained and offered by Tom Scudamore since the former jockey’s move to a family base in Herefordshire. Scudamore had saddled the four-year-old to win a twomile Flat race held on a point-to-point course, a type of contest which is proving popular and attracting reasonable field sizes in Britain, but which has failed to attract glowing endorsements from buyers at sales of pointers. Conversely, a bumper winner under Rules can be well received.

It seems it is fine to run in and perhaps win a point-topoint Flat race for education, but point-to-pointers have to show they can jump fences and gallop for at least two and

and Derham had been introduced by Jamie Osborne, who trains Barratt’s good Flat horse Emaraaty Ana.

Korkoran’s sale was yet another sales ring success for vendor Walter Connors, who had bought the horse in France as a foal through Seamus Murphy. Connors had also sold the top lot at this sale 12 months earlier when he gained £370,000 for then four-year-old Jersey Des Brosses, who is now with Gordon Elliott for Gigginstown House Stud.

a half miles to gain interest at auction.

• The closure by Tattersalls of sales at Ascot briefly halted one avenue for buying and selling division two thoroughbreds in Britain, although the company staged a November sale in Newmarket for Ascot-type horses, and was to hold another on March 27.

A number of leading Flat trainers had entered horses, as had Godolphin, which was a key vendor at Ascot, but a catalogue containing 85 lots was about half the number one might have expected to see at the former venue.

Various reasons behind the reduction can be discussed, but the growth in online sales is surely a factor. However much traditionalists lament online sales, the genie is out of the bottle – or should that be computer? – and there is no knowing where it will take bloodstock sales.

Sale-topper Korkoran headed to Harry Derham’s yard on a bid of £240,000

TATTERSALLS CHELTENHAM

Bloodstock agent Tom Malone had been keen to buy Korkoran for Paul Nicholls, and so he held back when five-year-old Jakar Du Moulin walked through the ring 16 lots earlier before being led out unsold. However, when Malone failed to secure the top lot he was in a position to buy Jakar Du Moulin, and after a word with vendor Donnchadh Doyle was able to record a £175,000 private sale. Paul Nicholls will train the five-year-old, who had also won an Irish point-to-point on debut just ahead of the sale.

Kim Bailey became underbidder on a nice prospect when agent Bobby O’Ryan

Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale

Statistics

Sold: 34 (89%)

Aggregate: £2,469,500 (-42.5%)

Average: £72,632 (-32%)

Median: £60,000 (-22.5%)

and Dumfriesshire trainer James Ewart teamed up and with a £160,000 offer bought Big Zouk – a winner five days earlier for trainer Denis Murphy – but he had better luck when homing in on Clondaw General, a five-year-old who had won for Mick Goff in January, and who was knocked down for £150,000.

Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale

A memorable pinhook was the highlight of a sale which is now a key event in the calendar for buyers of prospective top-class hurdlers and chasers.

Those buyers want to return to Cheltenham with their purchases to run at future Festivals, and so high-quality performances by Romeo Coolio and Jalon D’Oudairies, who jointly-topped last year’s sale and then finished second and third in the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper one day before this auction, was just the type of advertising it was happy to accept.

What followed was broadly in line with expectations, but with the bonus of record turnover at just over £3.5m, up three per cent and a figure helped by a 93 per cent clearance rate which involved sales of 27 of the 29 lots on offer. The average was down 23 per cent at nearly £132,000, while the median was clipped 17 per cent at £120,000 as buyers followed trends at other auctions and reprogrammed upper-end valuations.

The mega pinhook involved a fouryear-old filly who had been bought last year as an unbroken store for €28,000 at the Tattersalls Ireland July Sale, a relatively new event and a late chance to clear a horse who for whatever reason had missed or not been selected for earlier more prestigious occasions. The buyer was JJ Bowe, brother of celebrated

point-to-point trainer and vendor Colin, but whose daughter Correna worked in Tipperary for Sam Curling, and so it was to his yard that the daughter of Doyen was sent.

In the period between her sale and her first point-to-point, which came at Ballycahane in early March, her halfbrother Deafening Silence won a Grade 2 novices’ hurdle at Sandown for Dan

Ed Bailey: on bidding duty

TATTERSALLS CHELTENHAM

Bought for €28,000 in July, Echoing Silence turned a major profit by reselling for £410,000 TATTERSALLS IRELAND

Sales Circuit

Skelton, and she then added to the family laurels, when, having been named Echoing Silence, she won impressively. She had size, she floated like Anna Pavlova around the ring, and while Gordon Elliott and his KTDA Racing clients were keen to buy her, Peter Molony had the final say at €410,000, a bodiceripping profit for the Bowes and Curling.

Molony confirmed Henry De Bromhead as the filly’s next trainer, and while he could not name the new owner, two plus two equals Kenny Alexander . . . at least

TALKING POINT

• Given that hundreds of Irish pointto-pointers progress to racing under Rules, it is curious that Ireland stages just one specialist sale of point-to-pointers.

That is a small-catalogue event run by Goffs at the Punchestown Festival, although it is about to be joined by a new auction to be staged by Goresbridge Horse Sales, a noted source of sport horses and hunters, but returning to trading in racehorses. From 2006 to 2018 it staged Ireland’s only two-year-old breeze-up sale which is now run by Tattersalls Ireland, and it has subsequently traded the occasional thoroughbred, including one Hewick, who in 2017 was sold to

that was the guess of seasoned observers. As Correna Bowe put it: “Let’s hope she’s the next Honeysuckle.”

It transpired that Molony had dealt with the family before, for he offered half-brother Deafening Silence as an unbroken three-year-old at Goffs UK’s Doncaster venue in the Covid-affected auction year of 2020. The gelding was Lot 1, failed to attract a bid, and so Molony sent him to Tom Ellis for whom he won a point-to-point in Northumberland and was then sold to Skelton for £40,000. It was not Molony’s finest pinhook, but it did alert him to the filly coming down the line.

Jim and Claire Bryce, who own Warren Greatrex’s Upper Lambourn yard, sent his wife Tessa of Highflyer Bloodstock into battle for four-year-old gelding Buckna, who had won a point-to-point on the Saturday before the sale for Northern Ireland trainer Gerald Quinn. With a bid of £350,000, Tessa secured the son of Order Of St George, a £55,000 buy at last year’s Goffs UK Spring Sale.

County Wexford trainer Matty Flynn O’Connor has enjoyed some high-value sales at Cheltenham in recent years, and

Shark Hanlon for €850.

However, the departure of Martin Donohoe and arrival in February of his brother Ed as head of family firm Goresbridge was followed soon after by the announcement of a sale of point-to-pointers and horses in training on April 18.

Given the prices that can be gained at auctions in Britain it is hard to imagine Irish vendors of pointers will now abandon venues such as Cheltenham, Aintree, Newbury and Doncaster, but for those with horses just below the top level – and bearing in mind increased traveling costs and Brexitrelated border crossing hassles –Goresbridge is surely going to be popular.

he snared two more, albeit with horses who had been high-value store buys. Warwickshire trainer Olly Murphy gave £200,000 for five-year-old Pierrot Jaguen, a £130,000 Derby Sale graduate, while John McConnell gave £160,000 for Additional Time, a son of Milan who had cost €82,000 at the Derby Sale.

Somerset trainer/rider Will Biddick also enjoyed an evening to remember when selling a horse in his own name for the first time at public auction. He offered No Drama This End, a four-year-old Walk In The Park gelding who had won in impressive style at Badbury Rings in Dorset in February. Bought by Biddick for €26,000 at last year’s Goffs Arkle Sale, the gelding was knocked down to Tom Malone for £160,000 on his way to a berth with Paul Nicholls.

Statistics

Sold: 27 (93%)

Aggregate: £3,563,000 (+3%)

Average: £132,963 (-23%)

Median: £120,000 (-17%)

TATTERSALLS CHELTENHAM

Peter Molony: signed for the sale-topper

TATTERSALLS CHELTENHAM

Tessa Greatrex: came away with Buckna

- highlights include

Middle Park Stakes

Prix Morny

Richmond Stakes

King’s Stand Stakes

Irish St. Leger

Prix du Cadran

Doncaster Cup Stakes

Dubai City Of Gold

Hungerford Stakes

Rockfel Stakes

German 2000 Guineas

Craven Stakes

Prix Texanita

Prix de Barbeville

...who will you find at this year’s

Group-1 winning Vandeek a Tattersalls Craven graduate

Sales Circuit

OBS March 2yos in Training Sale

As sale week dawned ahead of the Ocala Breeders’ Sales March Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale in Florida, those connected with the market were batting away a torrent of unwanted attention, writes Nancy Sexton

No sooner had the final breeze show taken place, then prominent owner Mike Repole, never afraid to publicly stir debate in his quest to “save American racing”, took to X (formerly Twitter) to voice his concerns over juvenile auctions. “The @RepoleStable team and I have decided we will not participate in any two-year-old training sales until changes are made…. the way these two-year-olds train and breeze for these sales is incomprehensible,” he tweeted. Such words coming from a man who is not afraid to dip his hand in his pocket, last year’s expenditure of $12 million at the Keeneland September Sale being a case in point, were obviously not ideal and prompted a barrage of defence from some of those preparing to participate.

At the same time, Juan Centeno of All Dreams Equine was coming under scrutiny for his role as consignor in the Jeffrey Englehart case. When a deceased horse under the trainer’s care tested positive late last year for Clenbuterol, which is on the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit’s (HIWU) list of banned substances, Englehart was suddenly facing a damning suspension, only for it to come to light through a B sample that the bronchodilator must have been administered before the horse entered official training. The horse in question had been bought at the OBS June Sale from Centeno.

To compound matters, one of Centeno’s March draft collapsed (but recovered) during the breeze. It was to no one’s surprise, therefore, when Centeno elected to withdraw his entire consignment. OBS Director of Sales Tod Wojciechowski said: “With the culmination of events, in light of the unknowns, it was determined to be a better course of action for all involved.”

All things considered, the March Sale went on to hold up well. The average dropped marginally to $148,963 as the median fell to $75,000. There were five million-dollar youngsters, among them a Tapit colt who proved that running a furlong in ten flat and under isn’t everything by selling for $1.2m to West Point Thoroughbreds, D J Stable, C J and LEB off the back of an easy gallop. The colt was sold by Tom McCrocklin as part of the dispersal belonging to respected Grade 1-winning owner and breeder Bob Lothenbach, who died in November. Each of the nine Lothenbach two-year-olds on offer ‘galloped’ and went on to turn over $2.032m.

Top billing, however, went to an inexpensively bred first-crop daughter of Win Win Win who sold for $1.8m to Amr Zedan through agent Donato Lanni. It was a triumph for Florida breeding, firstly in light of her place as the highest-priced horse ever sold by the O’Farrell family’s historic Ocala Stud, who bred her out of the same family currently responsible for Kentucky Derby hopeful Hades. The O’Farrells also stand the filly’s sire Win Win Win, a Grade 1-winning son of the Sunday Silence stallion Hat Trick whose fee is just $5,000.

Fellow first-crop sire Authentic, the

Kentucky Derby winner who is rather more mainstream as a $50,000 inmate at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky, also had a good result courtesy of a $1m colt bought by emerging owner John Stewart under his Resolute Bloodstock banner.

An international buying bench was highlighted by strong Japanese participation, notably trainer Hideyuki Mori who came away with ten horses worth $2.695m.

As ever, the sale drew a smattering of representation from European sires, but only one of the seven catalogued changed hands, a daughter of Showcasing who was knocked down to Harper Racing for $45,000. Those through the ring by No Nay Never and Sergei Prokofiev were unsold.

And what of Mike Repole? He did end up participating, spending $510,000 on a pair of colts. However, in keeping with his distaste of fast times, both belonged to the Lothenbach group of ‘gallopers’.

Authentic: first-crop sire was represented by a million-dollar colt at the OBS March Sale

l Winner of Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains.

l The Sire of Black-Type winners under Both Codes.

l 53% winners/runners flat, 42% winners/runners jumps.

Fee: £2,000

l Group Winner over 10/12f, incl. Canadian International.

l Oldest Crop just turned 6.

l Sire of winners under both codes incl. CANNOCK PARK, placed 3rd in the Group 1 Tolworth Hurdle.

Fee: £2,000

l Unbeaten Group 1 winning 2yo.

l Classic Winner & Champion Stayer in Europe at 3.

l A Leading Point-to-point sire 2022/23

l The sire of Gr.2 Hurdle winner NO LOOKING BACK & Cheltenham entrants, KINGSTON PRIDE , BUTCHER HOLLOW & KINGS HILL

l 3yo stores made up to £67,000

Fee: £3,000

l Consistent Group-Level Performer over 12f, incl. beaten a short head in the 2006 Derby.

l Sire of Winners under Both Codes.

l Top class pedigree, looks, confirmation and temperament.

l Recent winners incl. DIRTY DEN (also listed placed), VANILLA DANCER , GARDENER

Fee: £1,500

Dr Statz

John Boyce cracks the code

Speed is of the essence

With the 2024 Flat turf season underway, perhaps it is a good opportunity to undertake a ‘state of the nation’ review of those sires whose wheelhouse is the production of five- and six-furlong two-year-old stakes winners.

This cohort of stallions are quite often maligned because as a general rule they tend to have shorter racing careers and inevitably fail to stack up against their middle-distance counterparts in terms of racecourse longevity and class. But they have always been around and as long as our European Pattern continues to bestow Group and Listed status on juvenile fiveand six-furlong races, they will remain. And, yes, there is bound to be ever more specialisation among this group of stallions.

Way back at the beginning of the Pattern in the early 1970s, I can recall Habitat being one of the first major sources of speed and precocity. The son of Sir Gaylord, who stood at Grangewilliam Stud under the Airlie banner, never looked back after his first crop contained Habat, winner of the Middle Park (one of four for his sire), Mill Reef and Norfolk Stakes, plus Bitty Girl, who secured the Queen Mary, Lowther and Molecomb Stakes. In the end, Habitat ended up with 30 career stakes-winning juveniles at five and six furlongs, which would place him second on our current leader board, a remarkable feat considering the small crops back then. His strike-rate was above ten per cent as was that of Danehill, another sire that would have slotted in at 28 among our current top ten.

The crucial difference between this pair and some of today’s most successful juvenile speed sires is that they also were sources of excellent three-year-olds and older horses. Habitat sired Habibti (Timeform 136), Marwell (133), Rose Bowl (133) and Flying Water (132); the first two were top-class sprinters and the latter pair brilliant at a mile and ten furlongs. Has any sire ever come up with a more talented bunch of fillies? The same is true of Danehill.

Today’s most successful sources of speed and precocity are perhaps a bit more specialised. The one that looks sure to climb to the very top in due course is Coolmore’s No Nay Never. And it will not take long as the four active sires above him are aged 19 and older. This son of Scat Daddy has, by modern-day standards, an enviable strike-rate of eight per cent stakes winners to runners among his juvenile five- and six-furlong stock.

It is quite revealing that 33 (67 per cent) of No Nay Never’s 49 stakes winners are two-year-old stakes winners. But he retains the ability to sire some that will go on to better things at three and four, such as his Middle Park Stakes scorer Ten Sovereigns, who progressed to win the July Cup at three, and his Cheveley Park Stakes heroine Alcohol Free, who proved both progressive and adaptable by winning the Sussex Stakes, Coronation Stakes and July Cup.

Another young upstart that will surely become a potent challenger to No Nay Never among the most consistent suppliers in this arena is Whitsbury Manor Stud’s Havana Grey. Like No Nay Never, Havana Grey has an excellent strike-rate with a success rate of 6.7 per cent even though he has only ten stakes winners on the board at this point in time. All things being equal, it is not hard to visualise Group 1 races like the Prix Morny, Middle Park and Cheveley Park Stakes playing a central role in Havana Grey’s future success. After all, like the aforementioned Habitat and No Nay Never, he has already opened his Morny-Middle Park account with the exciting Vandeek.

Back in 1990, Kris provided the first two home in the Prix de Diane over 2,000 metres. The winner Rafha, trained by Sir Henry Cecil for Prince Faisal, had previously won the Lingfield Oaks Trial over 12 furlongs. Not many would, therefore, have predicted the important role she would come to play in the production of so many juvenile stakes winners through her sons Invincible Spirit and Kodiac.

With strike-rates half that of No Nay Never, both Invincible Spirit and Kodiac have relied on their longevity to climb to

the pinnacle of this ranking. And kudos must go to both for doing so. Although he has a lower strike-rate than his older three-parts brother, Kodiac’s achievement must be appreciated more than his brother’s for no other reason than he started out and stayed at a much lower fee. Interestingly, 56 per cent of Kodiac’s stakes winners are two-year-olds, compared to Invincible Spirit’s 33 per cent.

Our leader board has a Danzig-line theme to it, through his sons Danehill and Green Desert. In his own lifetime, Danzig sired 30 five- and six-furlong stakeswinning two-year-olds but he was a whole lot more than just a sire of speedy juveniles and indeed they account for only 22 per cent of all his stakes winners. So to get to 30 was a significant achievement.

His son Danehill appears in the male line of seven sires on our list and we must acknowledge the enormous contribution made by Exceed And Excel, who heads the equivalent ranking in his native Australia.

Green Desert’s contribution comes via Invincible Spirit and Oasis Dream, whose 23 stakes winners have come at a rate of 4.4 per cent from runners, a commendable achievement considering he had other strings to his bow. And it looks very much that his son Showcasing is the sire set to carry his name forward in this arena.

We must also give credit to the Royal Applause line, represented by Acclamation, and his sons Dark Angel and Mehmas. Mehmas is another of the younger generation that is bound to shoot up the leader board as he is about to be represented by the first of a succession of large crops brimming full of quality.

SIRES OF 2YO BLACK-TYPE WINNERS AT UP TO SIX FURLONGS

Outstanding First Foals

Covered the highest proportion of BLACKTYPE MARES of any First Season Sire in Ireland last year!

BALLYLINCH STUD

Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland

•

Tel: +353 (0)56 7724217

•

info@ballylinchstud.ie

• www.ballylinchstud.ie

MASSAAT

TEOFILO - MADANY (ACCLAMATION)

Fee: £3,000 1st Oct S.L.F

Brother to Gr.1 Commonwealth Cup winner EQTIDAAR Gr.1 placed at 2, 3 and 4, Gr.2 winner over 7f

Off to a great start at stud, multiple winners incl.

LR Pat Eddery Stakes Placed Mascapone, Docklands (Royal Ascot winner), etc.

Yearlings sold for £45,000, £44,000, £43,000, etc.

Richard Kent: +44 (0)79

73 315722

UBETTABELIEVEIT

KODIAC – LADY LISHANDRA (MUJADIL)

Fee: £5,000 1st Oct S.L.F

Winner of three races and £116,503 all over 5f including: EBF Novice Stakes Doncaster

LR National S. Sandown

Gr.2 Flying Childers S. Doncaster

Also 3rd Gr.2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, all at 2

Foals sold for €30,000, €20,000, etc. in 2023

• richard@mickleystud.co.uk

John Walsh Bloodstock: +353 (0)86 255 8945

• Clare Lloyd: +44 (0)7875 673260

• johnwalshrugby@gmail.com

• www.mickleystud.co.uk

Sexton Files

Future bright for Kitten’s sire line

When Kitten’s Joy retired to Ramsey Farm in Kentucky in 2006, his owner-breeders Ken and Sarah Ramsey could stand behind a homebred who was an Eclipse Awardwinning champion and earner of close to $2.1 million. They had been in the enviable position of having two proper Grade 1 colts at their disposal but having weighed up their options, decided to sell their Dubai World Cup winner Roses In May to Japanese interests and bring Kitten’s Joy into the fold as a house stallion. As Ken Ramsey outlined to this magazine in 2020, the funds from that deal allowed him to invest heavily in the ‘Kitten’s Joy project’.

Except that outside breeders failed to share his enthusiasm. Kitten’s Joy may have won the Grade 1 Secretariat Stakes and Joe Hirsch Turf Classic Invitational Stakes, but he was a grass horse through and through. It is that kind of profile that even today, in an era where US turf racing offers greater financial rewards, fails to resonate with the every-day American breeder. Thus it was more or less left to Ramsey to make his own stallion, which as history relates he did to great effect.

The Ramseys went on to breed each of Kitten’s Joy’s first 16 stakes winners and well over half of his 118 to date overall. They include Real Solution, Big Blue Kitten and Admiral Kitten, who between them won the Grade 1 Arlington Million, Sword Dancer and Secretariat Stakes during a single afternoon in August 2013, as well as the Breeders’ Cup winners Bobby’s Kitten and Stephanie’s Kitten.

Outside breeders steadily latched on and by the time Kitten’s Joy’s fee had hit $100,000 in 2014 following his first North American sires’ championship (he was champion again in 2018), the horse had support from the late Queen, Aga Khan, Niarchos family and Juddmonte Farms.

He has also been a particular friend to Qatar Racing, the owner of two of his best European sons in Roaring Lion and Kameko. In fact, as Kitten’s Joy became one of those rare horses to transcend North America and Europe, there was a move to stand the horse in Newmarket. However, that didn’t come to fruition, with the horse switching in later years to John Sikura’s Hill ’n’ Dale Farm in Kentucky, where he stood for six seasons until his death at the age of 21 in 2022.

Kitten’s Joy had a number of sons at stud by that stage yet there remained a question mark over how his legacy would evolve. Several of his earlier – and more cheaply-bred – sons failed to cut much ice with their runners, among them Big Blue Kitten and Real Solution, both of whom had their chance in Kentucky. High-class miler Taareef failed to make much impact in France while Godolphin’s Eclipse Stakes winner Hawkbill was sent by Darley to stand in Japan following a single low-key season in Newmarket. That small first British-bred crop has yielded a handful of winners and his Japanese runners haven’t yet done enough for him to sit within the top ten second-crop sires in Japan.

The waters were muddied, of course, by the early death of Roaring Lion. The

popular grey left behind 106 foals in his sole crop sired at Tweenhills Farm. Bred off a fee of £40,000, they are a naturally well-bred group and include Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud victor Dubai Mile among five stakes winners. Dubai Mile has retired to Manton Park Stallions, allowing the line an opportunity to take root. Meanwhile on the track there should be more to come from Group 3 scorer Embesto and Lion’s Pride, who signed off his year with a win in the Floodlit Stakes at Kempton.

There must be some solace for the team at Tweenhills in that they at least have another top-class son, Kameko, to look forward to. Winner of the Vertem Futurity at two and 2,000 Guineas at three, he has over 80 two-year-olds to run for him this year, including six with his former trainer Andrew Balding. His first yearlings averaged close to 60,000gns at the sales last year, so were well liked.

Bobby’s Kitten, the first son of Kitten’s Joy to stud in Britain, has also served his base of Lanwades Stud well as the sire of Kirsten Rausing’s high-class homebred Sandrine, the winner of three Group 2

Diversity is key

‘Polarised’ never seems to be far from a conversation regarding the Flat market nowadays but if anyone thought that particular side was bad, then they need to look at the jumps sector. In that arena, sire power really does rule yet it is only concentrated across a small pool of acceptable names, notably Blue Bresil and Walk In The Park.

Last year’s Tattersalls Ireland National Hunt November Sale provided an eye-watering insight; of the 42 foals to make €50,000 or more, 17 were by Blue Bresil while 13, including the top €100,000 foal, were by Walk In The Park. Only the French veteran Kapgarde and Flat-orientated Nathaniel broke the stranglehold within the top 12.

It is understandable that breeders should follow the fashion, especially when it involves two such elite – and elderly – stallions. Walk In The Park has been a buzz name since his arrival in 2016 to Grange Stud for Coolmore, a move prompted by some exceptional results from limited opportunities during his time in France. The son of Montjeu is now 22 and even though he has covered north of 190 mares in each of the past two seasons, breeders will be aware that he won’t be around forever.

GEORGE SELWYN

Kitten’s Joy: various sons are starting to gain traction at stud

races at ages two to four. He also has a top Saudi Arabian three-year-old running for him in Almotahed.

The current situation as far as the Kentucky landscape is concerned is developing all the time, and in a positive light. Multiple Grade 1 winner Oscar Performance retired to Mill Ridge Farm with the weight of an influential syndicate behind him and is now rewarding those supporters with a series of smart winners. Then there is Divisidero, another tough customer who is making light of being disregarded by the market to become a multiple stakes-producing sire.

Oscar Performance’s profile was interesting in that he ran free of Lasix in a career highlighted by wins in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at two, Belmont Derby Invitational and Secretariat Stakes at three and Woodbine Mile at four. He retired to stud in 2019 and was launched with the assistance of an impressive syndicate that included his breeders John and Jerry Amerman, George Strawbridge, the Coolmoreaffiliated Orpendale and Mike Ryan.

The Kitten’s Joy line has understandably

Blue Bresil is slightly younger at 18 and while he has little to prove, notably as the sire of Constitution Hill, his supporters will be banking on some big results emerging out of his Glenview Stud-sired crops, all of which possess a serious depth of quality.

Still, you don’t have to be Einstein to work out that this infatuation with such a small pool of stallions isn’t healthy for the market. Good stallions can emerge from anywhere, even allowing for lack of opportunity – Walk In The Park, who once stood for €1,500, being a case in point.

It was well publicised this time last year that no fewer than 27 individual stallions were represented by winners at the 2023 Cheltenham Festival. And the situation was pretty similar last month when 21 stallions were on the board. The irony is that the best of them, Gold Cup hero Galopin Des Champs, is by arguably the most obscure stallion of them all in Timos, a Group-placed son of Sholokhov who was residing in Libya at the time of his death around two years ago.

As ever, French-based stallions were never far from the action this year. They included Haras d’Etreham’s veteran Saint Des Saints, who fired in three winners in Protektorat (Ryanair Chase), Monmiral (Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle) and Sine Nomine (St. James’s Place Festival Challenge Cup). Etreham also handles Marked Marvel, sire of

been pigeon-holed as turf blood. However, Oscar Performance has demonstrated a valuable versatility to date. So far, he has sired six stakes winners, five of whom are from his 88-strong first crop. They are led by the accomplished dirt filly Red Carpet Ready, last year’s Grade 2 Eight Belles Stakes winner who recently made a successful return to action in the Grade 3 Hurricane Bertie Stakes at Gulfstream Park. Another four-year-old Tumbarumba won the Grade 3 Fred W. Hooper Stakes on the Gulfstream dirt prior to being touched off in the Grade 2 Gulfstream Park Mile.

Meanwhile, Oscar Performance’s very first winner Andthewinneris went on to develop into a Grade 2-winning turf two-year-old. There is also a classy turf runner within his second crop of 91 three-year-olds in the shape of dual Grade 3 winner Endlessly.

Oscar Performance covered a careerhigh of 160 mares at $20,000 last year, so the market has taken note. However, it has been much harder going for Airdrie Stud’s Divisidero, despite a race record underpinned by durability and class.

From the influential Cosmah family and

Stayers’ Hurdle winner Teahupoo, at Haras de la Tuilerie and stood the admirably versatile Poliglote, who added another Festival winner to his record in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase scorer Fact To File.

Rarely also does a big meeting go by without Haras du Mesnil’s Doctor Dino exerting some kind of influence and he was again in the spotlight thanks to State Man’s no-nonsense win in the Champion Hurdle. Similar comments apply to Great Pretender, the sire of Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle winner Lossiemouth.

Martinborough, the first son of Deep Impact to stud in Europe, is also likely to be on the radar of British and Irish interests thanks to the Triumph Hurdle winner Majborough. Martinborough was introduced to France by Haras de Grandcamp and now stands at Haras de la Baie for €3,000.

The spread of winning sires also included a popular winner for Overbury Stud’s Golden Horn in Golden Ace, a Flat-bred filly who lowered the colours of Brighterdaysahead in the Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle for Jeremy Scott. Telescope, meanwhile, broke through at Grade 1 level thanks to the win of Slade Steel in the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle.

If the Festival results taught us anything, then surely it is to disregard the influence of Alleged at your peril. The sire

inbred to Sadler’s Wells, Divisidero won seven races over five seasons including the Grade 1 Churchill Downs Turf Classic. But as is so often the case, that turf profile failed to help him. Installed at a fee of $7,500 at Airdrie Stud in Kentucky, he covered just 35 mares in his first season, which resulted in a crop of 28 foals. Yet of the 13 to have run to date, two are stakes winners starting with Vote No, who got the ball rolling last year as winner of the Listed Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sprint Stakes and Listed Turfway Prevue Stakes. Last month he was joined by Abrumar, winner of a Listed prize at Gulfstream Park.

Divisidero’s subsequent figures will continue to make it hard for him to gain traction; he has just 15 two-year-olds, 12 yearlings and covered 11 mares in 2023. But Airdrie can at least stand behind him as an emerging conduit of class. Given his turf profile, he deserves to appeal as a value Kentucky option to a European audience.

Closer to home, it will be interesting to see how Kameko fares. Having been given every chance to succeed, it would be no surprise to see him establish a further foothold for this hard-knocking sire line.

line has come to an end following the deaths of the last of his sire sons, Flemensfirth and Shantou, but for now it remains extremely well represented on the track. Flemensfirth tied Saint Des Saints by number of winners on three, namely Ballyburn (Gallagher Novices’ Hurdle), Grey Dawning (Turners Novices’ Chase) and Shakem Up’Arry (TrustATrader Plate Handicap) while Shantou was represented by Chianti Classico and Stellar Story, successful in the Ultima Handicap Chase and Albert Bartlett Novices’ Hurdle.

Alleged was a notoriously difficult horse and it is generally agreed that the hard-headedness that he invariably imparted stood his sons in good stead when it came to producing jumps stock.

As for Walk In The Park, he got on to the scoresheet thanks to the siblings Inothewayurthinkin (Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup Amateur Jockeys’ Handicap Chase) and Limerick Lace (Mrs Paddy Power Mares’ Chase), both bred by Noreen McManus out of the Califet mare Sway.

In all, the Cheltenham Festival provided further proof, if any were needed, of the gulf between the racecourse and sales ring. Will if affect the market? Probably not. But it may at least give some encouragement to those breeders who are breeding away from the big names.

Vet Forum: The Expert View

Fragile Foal Syndrome: a fatal genetic condition

Despite being around for many years, there has been a recent rise in interest in the fatal genetic condition Fragile Foal Syndrome (FFS). The disorder, which was historically associated with Warmblood breeds, has now been detected in several other breeds, including thoroughbreds. The condition is caused by a defect in collagen formation, which results in clinical signs such as thin, fragile skin and joint laxity or hyperextension. The disease has raised concerns among breeders in recent years due to its negative effects on foal and foetus survival. However, there have been many recent advances in our understanding of this devastating condition, which ensures that the breeding of clinically affected foals can now be prevented.

What is Fragile Foal Syndrome?

Fragile Foal Syndrome Type 1 (FFS) is a lethal genetic disorder affecting the connective tissue of the skin, mucosal membranes and joints. It is similar to Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) in humans, which is a group of connective tissue disorders characterised by hypermobility of the joints, and very stretchy and fragile skin. FFS is caused by a single genetic mutation in the procollagen-lysine-2-oxoglutarate-5dioxygenase 1 (PLOD1) gene, which leads to insufficient linkage between collagen fibres.

Collagen is a crucial component of the body’s connective tissues, providing essential structure and strength. Defects in collagen synthesis lead to a loss of this structure and strength, resulting in hypermobility of the joints and hyperextensible, thin, fragile skin. Prior to 2021, FFS was referred to as ‘Warmblood Fragile Foal Syndrome’ because of its historical association with Warmbloods. However, following the discovery of the PLOD1 gene mutation in other breeds, it is now known simply as Fragile Foal Syndrome Type 1.

Genetics and heritability of Fragile Foal Syndrome

FFS is an autosomal recessive disorder, which means that two copies of the defective gene must be inherited (i.e. one from each parent) in order for the

disease to develop. If just one copy of the defective gene is inherited then the animal becomes a carrier. Carriers do not show clinical signs of the disease but have the potential to pass the defective gene onto any offspring they produce.

DNA studies have reported that the FFS mutation is predominantly present in Warmbloods, with the reported frequency of carriers in Warmblood breeds ranging from 11 to 30%. Over recent years the genetic mutation has been identified in several related breeds, including the Hanovarian, Selle Francais and Oldenburg Studbooks. Carriers have also been identified in the thoroughbred population, but the frequency of detection is much lower (2.4%). Although a small number of FFS carriers have been identified in Paint, Quarter and Halflinger horses, to date no clinical cases have been identified outside of the thoroughbred or Warmblood populations.

The source of the PLOD1 mutation that causes FFS has not been identified. The significant contribution of thoroughbreds to the development of the various Warmblood breeds, combined with the

identification of the mutated gene in thoroughbreds, led to the suspicion that this is where the disease originated. The thoroughbred stallion Dark Ronald XX was identified as a potential source. He was imported in 1913 to stand at stud in Germany and features in the pedigree of a large number of sport horses, having a long-lasting effect on German thoroughbreds and Warmbloods. However, following his death in 1928, his heart, skin and skeleton were preserved. Later genetic testing conclusively proved that he did not carry the mutation. Thoroughbreds remain a likely origin of FFS, however the identification of carriers in a more diverse population with no identifiable common ancestor suggests that more than one source exists.

Fragile Foal Syndrome carriers

The identification of the FFS gene in the thoroughbred, together with the role of PLOD1 in collagen formation, led to speculation that the mutation could be associated with catastrophic breakdown in thoroughbred horses. A study from UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine investigated

Figure 1 Laxity of the joints

this concept by testing more than 700 thoroughbreds for the FFS mutation, including 22 catastrophic breakdown fatalities. Only one of the 22 catastrophic breakdown cases was found to be a carrier of the mutated gene and the authors concluded that the FFS mutation is not a genetic risk factor for catastrophic breakdown.

Interestingly, the high frequency of carriers within the Warmblood population may suggest the potential for a heterozygote advantage. Warmblood sports horses are strongly selected for show jumping and dressage performance. In these disciplines, traits such as a high degree of joint mobility, elastic gaits and extreme athleticism are under selection favour. In humans, although hypermobility is classed as a disease, this is often found to be an advantage in some sports (i.e. those demanding high levels of mobility).

It has been suggested that carriers of the FFS gene may have an advantage in terms of gait quality and flexibility and therefore be selected for this reason. This was recently demonstrated in a study evaluating Swedish Warmblood sports horses, in which the authors reported an apparent association between the FFS carrier genotype and several movement and dressage traits. In contrast, thoroughbred stallions used in Warmblood

breeding were not usually successful racehorses, and as a result were not used for thoroughbred breeding. This explains the relatively low frequency of FFS within the thoroughbred population.

What are the clinical signs of Fragile Foal Syndrome?

In clinical cases (i.e. in foals that have inherited the mutated gene from both parents) disease is characterised by thin, hyperextensible skin that displays tearing and ulceration from minor trauma. Small skin lesions can occur anywhere on the body but are more noted at pressure points. Lesions can also be found on the mucous membranes. Joint laxity is another feature of the disease and can be so severe that the foals are unable to stand. Floppy ears, seromas and subcutaneous emphysema have also been described, and in one case report the foal was born with an open abdomen. If carried to term, foals with FFS are non-viable and either die shortly after birth or are humanely euthanised.

Despite the relatively high carrier frequency in Warmbloods, only a small number of confirmed cases have been reported. This has led to the suggestion that FFS-homozygous foals (i.e. those that have inherited two copies of the mutated gene) could be lost during pregnancy and therefore go undetected. To date this theory has not been confirmed and birth of live but non-viable foals close to or at term remains the predominant manifestation of FFS.

How is Fragile Foal Syndrome diagnosed?

Clinical signs are not specific to FFS and can be similar in appearance to other genetic collagen disorders such as hereditary regional dermal asthenia (HERDA). Histological examination of the skin can confirm an abnormally thin dermis and markedly reduced amounts of dermal collagen. However, in order to obtain a definitive diagnosis of FFS, the genetic test must be used to confirm the presence of the PLOD1 gene mutation.

Unfortunately, due to the severity of the disease, there is no treatment for FFS. There is currently no known health risk associated with the carrier status for this disease, however research into this area continues.

Can Fragile Foal Syndrome be prevented?

Thankfully, genetic testing has been developed for this fatal disease. This can be used to perform DNA testing on potential sires and dams and avoiding carrier matings. Offspring of two FFS carriers have a 25% chance of being affected. Breeding an unaffected horse to a carrier will not result in an affected foal but has a 50% chance of producing a carrier. Genetic testing is currently recommended for all Warmbloods or sport horse populations in which the defective gene has been detected. This ensures that matings with other carriers can be easily prevented, avoiding the emotional and financial loss associated with clinical cases of FFS.

Figure 3 Cutaneous defects with separation of the skin

Figure 2 Hyperextensible skin that easily tears

Hoof health – assessment and nutritional management

Words: Laura Steley

The foot of the horse is equivalent to the human middle finger, consisting of four bones: the long pastern, short pastern, pedal bone and navicular bone. These bones articulate to form the fetlock, pastern and coffin joint. Inside the hoof wall and sole is a delicate support structure made up of three bones, cartilage and tendons, which all rely on the healthy exterior of the hoof for support and protection.

The hoof surrounds the pedal bone, the navicular bone and the lower part of the short pastern bone. It is a highly specialised structure, designed to resist wear and tear, support a horse’s body weight and absorb concussion. The outer wall of the hoof, containing approximately 25% water, is made up of keratinized epithelial cells that run parallel to each other from the coronary band (where the horn is produced) down to the ground. These cells give the hoof its hard, horny surface, which is perfect for enclosing the sensitive structures within.

The sole of the hoof (approximately 33% water) is comprised of similar material to the hoof wall – it is a layered, crescentshaped structure and slightly less porous than the outer wall. The sole is not meant to be a primary weight-bearing surface but helps to protect the sensitive tissues beneath it and serves to hold the outer surfaces of the wall apart, as well as acting as a support structure for the hoof wall.

The frog, containing around 50% water, is a triangular shape of soft elastic horn, which acts as a shock absorber, assists circulation, and provides grip. When the frog comes into contact with the ground, it is compressed and expands sideways, therefore putting pressure on the digital cushion, which, in turn, allows for expansion. The digital cushion lies at the back half of the foot and acts as an additional shock absorber.

Nutritional support

The importance of nutrition cannot be underestimated; it influences everything from growth and performance to metabolic rate and temperament, and hoof quality is no exception to the rule. The development of healthy hoof growth is dependent upon many other factors, such as breed, genetics, age, season, loading,

environmental moisture and farriery. Each factor will play an integral role throughout a thoroughbred’s life, and it is only by paying careful attention to all of these that optimum hoof health can be achieved.

A well-balanced diet will often provide all that is required for optimal hoof growth and structure. However, where support is necessary, supplementation can prove very useful alongside proper farriery care. A change in nutritional input and/ or general health can actually be seen in a horse’s hooves via horizontal ridges or growth rings, as they are often called. For example, the significant increase in nutritional content of grass in spring will often be visible via growth rings. All bodily processes require energy, and it has been proven that if a horse is in negative energy balance, then horn growth will be impeded. On the flip side, when the horse is in positive energy balance, horn growth can increase by up to 50% – this can often be seen purely from the calorific changes within grazing between seasons.

The hoof wall is about 93% protein on a dry matter basis, and the three amino acids associated with horn growth are cystine, cysteine and methionine. You will often see methionine included in all feeds and/ or supplements targeted at healthy hoof growth – this is because a horse’s body cannot synthesise this amino acid, and actually requires this in order to synthesise the other two (cystine and cysteine).

The first and most well-known compound which comes to mind when considering hoof health is Keratin, which is a structural protein forming

the main constituent of hair, feathers, hooves, claws and horns in vertebrates. In order for keratinisation to occur (the formation of horn cells), the body requires sufficient energy, protein, minerals and vitamins. The most important mineral required for keratinisation is calcium, along with the two trace minerals zinc and copper. Zinc deficiencies have been linked to hoof deformity in foals, while copper deficiencies can cause hoof depigmentation and a calcium deficient horse is almost certain to suffer with decreased hoof strength and growth.

The relationship between these elements is a complex one – a deficiency in one can cause an excess in another. For example, an excess in calcium (often via a high cereal diet) can impede the absorption of zinc, whereas an excess of zinc can lead to a deficiency in copper. Therefore, when adding another feed component to a horse’s diet, always consider the amount of these vitamins and minerals a horse is ingesting, as an excess of any one can often be just as harmful as a deficiency. It is of the utmost importance when selecting a supplement, balancer or primary feed that you choose from a reputable company (these will often have nutritionists on hand to advise you), ideally with the backing of clinical trials.

There are four major vitamins and ten lesser vitamins (micro-nutrients) which are all essential for overall hoof development and health. The most well-known vitamin associated with hoof growth is biotin; this is readily absorbed by the body orally, and due to it not being stored it is safe to

GEORGE SELWYN

Hoof health starts in utero with the correct nutritional balance being provided by the mare

+ Equine Health Update

supplement, as any amount which isn’t required will be excreted (a toxicity is extremely unlikely). Studies have shown that biotin will improve hoof growth, as well as quality and decrease cracking. As biotin only improves the growth of new hoof horn, not existing hoof, its success depends on routine administration at optimum levels. Due to this, several weeks may pass before a noticeable difference exists in new hoof growth near the coronary band, and it can be up to a year before the entire hoof has regenerated. Some thoroughbreds will respond to biotin supplementation more positively than others, but it is always a viable option.

Selenium, one of the micro-nutrients, is worth mentioning due to the welldocumented research regarding toxicitycausing lesions of the hoof wall – however, a selenium deficiency can affect vitamin E’s important role with cellular respiration, and again, the correct balance is of vital importance.

Assessing hoof quality

When prospective buyers are assessing the quality of potential purchases, whether for breeding or racing purposes, the hoof quality and shape should be given adequate consideration. A close inspection of the hooves and coronet band can provide you with much useful information. When looking at foals it is important to assess if the correct farriery has taken place from the very beginning. Sion Davies, DipWCF, advises: “It is very important to visit and assess foals from a young age, even as young as two weeks old.

“If they have a leg turned in or out by a disproportionate amount, a small rub with the rasp can make a big difference as the growth plates are very soft at this point. For example, if the foot is very straight or turns in then the medial side of the foot will require rasping. If this doesn’t work as much as you wish then an extension will need to be applied. All this will help with achieving better conformation, which in the long run gives you a sounder horse. The better the conformation, the more even the weight distribution through the skeleton. The straighter the horse moves, the less chance of injury and the increased chance of optimum performance.”

For older horses there are different questions to think about. Is the horse shod with standard shoes or have any remedial shoeing techniques been used? Is the coronet band smooth, dry and cool? Are the angles of the hooves matching the pastern angles, and in turn the slope of the shoulder? As a general rule, the correct angle for the hoof will be in the region of 45° to 60°, however all horses

are individuals and there will always be an exception to the rule. Buyers will have different needs, depending on the age and use of the horse they are looking to buy. For instance, broodmares possessing balanced and healthy hooves will cause less seasonal management issues, and are less likely to become foot sore and require shoes, due to the excess weight bearing during gestation. The country and therefore surface you plan to race the horse on should also be considered.

Yearlings and older horses will almost certainly be shod when presented for sale. Of course, shoeing is a necessity when horses are in training under high intensity work, coming across varied terrain, including roads, however, shoes can be detrimental to hoof quality in the long run, particularly if not fitted and monitored correctly. As most farriers will concur, a horse with reduced hoof growth, cracking or brittle hooves is not ideal and can make their job much harder in regard to keeping these horses sound.

Feet that are flat or too upright can have detrimental effects on soundness and gait, and as such will require careful farriery to keep ‘on top’ of these issues. If left to deteriorate, other areas of the body will begin to compensate, ultimately leading to asymmetry, discomfort and lameness. Thin soles are also a common occurrence; this trait can be inherited, or it could be caused following a particularly bad foot abscess that may have lingered too long and damaged the sole, therefore making the same area prone to abscesses/ punctures. For this reason it is important to pick horses’ hooves up and assess the sole quality.

Robert Thornton, the former top jump jockey who is now Racing and Stud Manager of Apple Tree Stud, and farrier Aron Tyler DipWCF, have together developed Equishox, a new variation of horse shoe. The shoe is comprised of an aluminium insert with a rubber coating, which can minimise injuries caused by

horses striking themselves or other horses around them during work.

Tyler explains: “With the shoe being sounded in rubber, it allows the natural flex of the foot to continue functioning while being shod, which has in turn, reportedly, improved hoof quality over shoeing cycles.

“We have many more tests in progress worldwide to continue the ongoing collection of data. Prioritising welfare is paramount in every discipline, and by making this small yet impactful change, we aim to foster a brighter future for the racing industry.”

Evolution, past and future

As the horse has evolved, the hoof has altered in order to best cope with different environments. In the latter years, selective breeding has brought about breedspecific adaptions, good and bad. The thoroughbred breeding industry is, as a general rule, results driven. This leads us to the natural assumption that breeding stock will have possessed adequate soundness to meet the demands of training and the racecourse. This is almost certainly true when assessing prospective sires, although mares do not always come under such rigorous testing, as they can be unraced and selected on pedigree alone.

On purely an individual basis, mares play slightly less of a part to overall breed longevity, sheerly due to the number of foals entering the industry over their lifetime compared to a stallion’s lifetime progeny contribution. Of course, there are many reasons a filly might not race, and poor foot conformation can be but one small part, however it is something to consider when assessing the conformational traits of mares as breeding prosects.

Ultimately, ensuring optimum hoof quality for our thoroughbreds is a collective result of excellent farriery, correctly balanced nutrition, targeted health care, and considered selection of breeding stock. Hoof health starts as early as in utero through the correct nutritional balance being provided by the mare and will continue all the way through their lives.

The hoof is a complex structure, which withstands an immense amount of pressure and in turn demands proper care and attention. Davies adds: “Regular farriery and good nutrition helps to maintain good hoof quality, and the old saying ‘No foot no horse’ could not be truer!” We are very fortunate in our industry to have such innovative and highly skilled farriers and research is always ongoing to improve soundness and promote longevity of the incredible thoroughbred breed.

It is very important to visit and assess foals from a young age

GEORGE SELWYN

Thoroughbred Census increases traceability of former racehorses

Britain’s first ever Thoroughbred Census culminated in December 2023, marking a step forward in achieving British racing’s ambition to significantly improve traceability of Thoroughbreds when they leave racing.

Led by the industry’s independently chaired Horse Welfare Board, in partnership with research experts Hartpury University, a total of 8,256 horses were registered by their owners across the six-month census period, with 5,566 of these horses previously unrecorded by racing in their new lives.

Barry Johnson, Chair of the Horse Welfare Board commented. “Ensuring the fullest possible traceability across the lifetime of all Thoroughbreds bred for racing is a fundamental requirement for the sportprofessionally, ethically, and morally - and is a key commitment of our five-year welfare strategy A Life Well Lived.”

Better Data for Better Welfare

Traceability relies on robust data. Hartpury University has now sized the former racehorse population at 33,600. With RoR membership being almost 13,000 this means that racing has ongoing traceability and qualitative data on 40% of this population. As the Census unearthed an additional 5,566 retired Thoroughbreds, racing now has robust intelligence on 55% of horses that have left the sport.

This figure increases further with data received from other equestrian bodies, such as British Eventing and Hurlingham Polo Association as part of the Census outreach. Thoroughbreds registered with these disciplines adds another 9,127 horses to our records. As a result, 82% of British Thoroughbreds that have been retired from racing are active and identifiable.

Responsible Ownership

The primary source of traceability for all horses in Britain is the equine identification document (passport). This information is meticulously maintained throughout racing careers, but adherence reduces significantly when horses move into private post-racing ownership.

The Census found 36% of former racehorse owners had not changed their horse’s passport into their own name, with the majority not realising it was a legal requirement to do so. Communication efforts during the Census period on this critical responsibility resulted in a 34% increase in passport updates year on year, also helped by a one-month amnesty on costs by Weatherbys General Stud Book to encourage uptake.

Life After Racing

There is a misconception that former racehorses are passed around multiple owners, but the Census results showed that more than a third of the horses submitted (38.6%) are still with their original post-racing owner. Furthermore, a vast majority (87.3%) of former racehorses have been owned by three or fewer owners.

Closing the Gap: Next Steps

Racing has committed to achieving 100% traceability at a racehorse’s first step away from racing, and to close data gaps throughout a Thoroughbred’s life by:

- The development of auto-enrollment with RoR at a horse’s first step out of racing.

- Promoting the benefits of RoR membership to support more owners with education, competitive opportunities, and to provide ongoing robust data on horses via its annual membership check.

- Continuing to communicate the importance of responsible ownership by maintaining up-to-date passport records.

- Continuing to advocate for a Government-led Central Equine Database that can successfully operate as a repository for data on all Thoroughbreds throughout their life.

- Lobbing for a mandatory Digital Equine ID to increase owner adherence in maintaining up-to-date records and to provide the CED with accurate data.

- Collaborating with other equestrian member bodies and associations for better intelligence on Thoroughbreds registered with other disciplines.

- Repeating the Census within the next 3-5 years.

Contact the Horse Welfare Board for more information at info@racehorsewelfare.co.uk

33,600

Why respondents own thoroughbreds...

A Check list for Owners and Trainers

Many horses are retired from Racing Admin under a trainer’s name while a decision on the horse’s future is taken. However, details are often not updated once a new owner has been found. A new owner is also required to ‘accept’ the transfer in the system. Outdated statuses leave a horse’s last official record in ‘limbo’ and untraceable going forward.

• Racing Admin: ensure up-to-date records for horses leaving your care and control. Encourage new owners to accept a change of ownership via www2.racingadmin.co.uk

• Encourage the new owner of any former racehorse to ensure its passport is updated within 30 days

• Encourage owners of eligible former racehorses to register with RoR for free at www.ror.org.uk

ROA Forum

The special section for ROA members

Affordability checks debated at length in Westminster Hall

The Westminster Hall debate on affordability checks took place in February, running for the maximum allotted time of three hours and attended by significantly more MPs than is normally the case for these events. A total of 16 MPs specifically mentioned the horseracing industry in their speeches.

The debate was opened by Christina Rees (Labour) on behalf of the Petitions Committee, who confirmed that she had spoken to many stakeholders prior to the debate, including the Jockey Club, the Betting and Gaming Council, Gambling with Lives and the Gambling Commission. She also stated that the racing industry believes that affordability checks are “inappropriate” and will push punters to the black market; she also noted that many stakeholders held the view that various forms of gambling are very different and should be treated as such. That was a subject that was revisited a number of times in the debate, with many MPs pointing out the differences between betting on racing (considered a game of skill) and online slot machines and other games of chance, which allow rapid play and a statistical certainty of losing money.

ROA Board member Philip Davies, Matt Hancock, Laurence Robertson and Conor McGinn all made passionate addresses in support of the racing industry and punters, as did many other MPs with racecourses and training establishments in their constituencies. Most of those mentioned the detrimental impact of affordability checks on the financial stability of racing and on the levy and urged the Sports

and Gambling Minister to state that the government would reassess these checks for the good of the industry.

Most MPs also noted the contribution that racing makes to the rural economy and the hospitality industry. There were also mentions of the significant investment that racehorse owners make to the sport and the forecast that if the affordability checks are imposed unchanged, racing’s finances could reduce by as much as £50 million per annum over the next five years.

Defending stricter affordability checks, Carolyn Harris and Paul Blomfield noted their potential protection for those who struggle with problem gambling. Blomfield seemed to indicate that this debate had become solely about racing and sought to discuss predominantly gambling harm. He claimed that arguments about the gambling black market reminded him of the tobacco’s industry last attempt to prevent regulation.

Steph Peacock, Shadow Minister for Sports and Gambling, gave a measured response, reiterating her concerns for gambling related harm, in addition to her support for the racing industry.

Rounding off the debate, Stuart Andrew, Sports and Gambling Minister, stated that the government fully supported the racing industry and announced that following wide concern, the Gambling Commission will not now require gambling companies to consider an individual’s personal details as part of the checks. He commented: “I am clear that we must ensure that these checks do not adversely affect racing, or those who work in the sector or interrupt the customer journey. They also must not

Initiative to get races off on time

Owners may become aware of some new pre-race initiatives in the coming weeks and months aimed at getting races off at, or very close to, their designated start times.

These initiatives are being driven by the industry strategy work being undertaken and are being worked on following discussions with ITV and bookmakers. Failure to get a race off

on time impacts commercial income for the broadcasters, as planned advertising breaks can be moved at short notice, meaning that advertisements which were due to be broadcast at an agreed time get pushed back, or in some cases not broadcast at all.

Equally, races not beginning on time is detrimental to betting turnover income, with many instances of races

push away high net-worth individuals such as owners and trainers that invest in the sport.”

Westminster Hall debates do not involve a vote on a particular action or decision, but the aims are to raise awareness of an issue, often as part of a wider campaign, seek to influence government policy, and to put the views of backbench MPs, opposition parties, and the government on record.

It was pleasing, therefore, that the Minister recognises the investment owners make to the industry and that whatever changes are introduced, will be designed so as to not have an impact on owners’ investment in the sport.

Thank you to all of the owners who have taken the time to make contact with their MP highlighting racing’s concerns. It has helped the sport’s cause and is really appreciated. We will update further on this important matter in due course.

that were meant to be run separately ending up being run concurrently, therefore reducing total betting income, which in turn impacts on the funding of racing and ultimately on prize-money levels.

More than anything though, bar any incidents, there should be more emphasis placed on ensuring that races start at the advertised time.

BILL SELWYN

Philip Davies: spoke in support of racing

Our contact details:

Marquee popular with members

The ROA welcomed over 1,200 visitors through the door at our Cheltenham marquee over the course of the Festival. Based in a new location in The Courtyard, members enjoyed complimentary teas and coffees and easy access to bar facilities throughout the meeting. It was a great place to shelter from the occasionally inclement weather, and from the crowds outside.

Members and guests also had the opportunity to take part in our everpopular champion tipster competition, where the winning entry collected £150 of Tote bet credits. Congratulations to

the following winners:

• Tuesday: Andrew Brown

• Wednesday: Phil White

• Thursday: Will Catchpole

• Friday: Lorraine Khan

We have a number of hospitality offers available for members over the next few months. Full details of these, and other discounts, can be found in our Events area on the website at roa.co.uk/events. The offers include:

• Wincanton, various dates in April – discounted hospitality packages available;

• Aintree on Thursday, April 11 –hospitality on day one of the

Randox Grand National Festival;

• Punchestown on Tuesday, April 30 – free entry to day one of the Punchestown Festival;

• Chester on Wednesday, May 8 –hospitality package for the first day of the Boodles Chester May Festival;

• Royal Ascot on Tuesday, June 18 to Saturday, June 22 – discounts on a number of hospitality packages plus discounted entry tickets to day one of Royal Ascot;

• Glorious Goodwood on Tuesday, July 30 to Saturday, August 3 –hospitality offers and access to Richmond Enclosure tickets.

Developmental race programme extended for 2024

The BHA has announced the programming of more than 80 highvalue developmental races for the 2024 Flat season, worth over £3 million in total prize money.

This initiative has been made possible by British Stallion Studs (EBF), Juddmonte, Darley and Tattersalls combining to provide financial support for an essential part of the race programme, with the races involved also being supported by the BHA Development Fund.

The races will offer enhanced prizemoney to horses embarking on the early stages of their racing careers, to support the domestic breeding industry and encourage the purchase and racing of young talent in Britain.

This year’s programme follows on from a series of 63 such races staged in 2023 and will begin with the Brocklesby Stakes at Doncaster on the opening day of the 2024 Turf season, one of 60 such races for two-yearolds.

A total of 84 development races will be staged in Britain in 2024, across a range of racecourses, with the programme made up as follows:

• 32 open novice/maiden races for two-year-olds, worth a minimum of £40,000;

• 29 restricted novice/maiden races for two-year-olds, worth a minimum of £30,000;

• 23 open novice/maiden races for three-year-olds plus, worth a minimum of £40,000.

Members were looked after in the ROA marquee and enjoyed four days of thrilling action at this year’s Cheltenham Festival

MAGICAL MOMENTS

Andy Stone mulls ambitious targets for star chaser Forward Plan

The Steeple Chasers, as their name suggests, are a jumps-focused band of owners currently living the dream with Forward Plan, dramatic winner of the Grade 3 Coral Trophy Handicap Chase at Kempton in February.

Few who watched that race would have given the progressive eight-year-old much of a chance approaching the final fence, yet a turbo-charged finish saw him overhaul Al Dancer near the line to scoop the first prize of £85,425.

Plotting the next move for Forward Plan is Andy Stone, an engineer by trade, who formed the syndicate with Bill Brindle in 2015, initially based with former Lambourn trainer Charlie Mann.

Stone, 62, originally from Hull and now living in the village of Cottingham, three miles south of Beverley racecourse, explains: “Racing has always been a passion – I remember being six or seven and sat on the settee watching racing on Boxing Day with my grandparents, everyone shouting at the telly. Later my father took me to Sandown to see Desert Orchid, and I was hooked.

“When I eventually started doing alright in business, I took a share with Highclere as a first step in ownership.

“For my 50th birthday, my mum bought me a morning on the gallops with Charlie Mann – it was a Red Letter

Days gift – and, of course, Charlie managed to sell me half a horse while Bill also came in for a leg. We became good friends and had some really good years together, including with Morney Wing, winner of the London National and Sussex National.”

Ownership, particularly in the jumping game, is always something of a rollercoaster ride and not all afternoons on the racecourse can end in triumph.

“We’ve had some desperate days in the sport,” Stone reflects. “Fixed Rate was a lovely young chaser rated in the 130s. He was about ten lengths clear at Fakenham when he ploughed through the last and broke his shoulder. He was seven and the world was his oyster.

“Morney Wing was retired about the same time, so we had no horses and it looked like that was that. Forward Plan really was the last roll of the dice for The Steeple Chasers. We scraped the money together to buy him and it’s remarkable how much he’s won for us.”

Forward Plan is trained by Anthony Honeyball, recommended by Mann to take over the syndicate’s horses upon his retirement. He was bought at the Tatttersalls Cheltenham May Sale in 2021 for £40,000 – not a huge amount for a young horse with winning point-to-point form.

While achieving one win over hurdles, the Valirann gelding has improved no end over fences and has taken his form to new heights this season.

After winning a valuable threemile handicap chase at Doncaster in December, he returned to Town Moor to finish an agonising second over course and distance in the Great Yorkshire Chase – beaten a nose – before his big Kempton triumph.

Stone explains: “We bought him three years ago – his point-to-point win was so impressive. He won going away and we were amazed we were able to get him for that money.

“After going to all the sales, we made a shortlist of ten and they all went for £70,000 - £80,000. At Newmarket he was the cheapest one out of 50 horses! I’ve followed every horse from that sale and only two have a higher mark.

“When we got him over here, he was really light and very skittish and temperamental. It’s taken a while for him to settle in but every summer he’s got better. He’s improving at a rate of knots –we don’t know where he’ll end up.”

Stone continues: “We thought the ground at Kempton would negate his kick. He’s got one turbo boost and you can only use it once. He was always travelling so well but tends to get a little

ALAMY

Andy Stone gets a hug after Forward Plan strikes at Kempton for The Steeple Chasers

behind, and he missed a couple of fences. Then, all of a sudden, he picked up and got an incredible jump at the last fence. We thought he would be placed, but we didn’t expect that.

“The feeling when you know you’re going to win? It’s just breath-taking. The Kempton victory was my best moment in the sport without a doubt.”

Forward Plan is being aimed at the 3m1f chase before the National at Aintree this month but next year the 12 members of The Steeple Chasers, along with assorted wives, partners, children and friends, will target the main event, all being well.

“I’ve spoken to Anthony, and we think he is a National horse,” Stone says. “The race has changed – it’s more of a speed test and generally staged on decent ground.

“The fences aren’t so big, and you need a Tiger Roll-type of horse rather than a big, old-fashioned chaser. I don’t think Forward Plan would have a problem with the trip provided the going was decent, but with all these Irish-trained horses it could be difficult to get in!”

Mention of the Irish challenge reflects the column inches dedicated to the quantity and quality of runners from the Emerald Isle, following Willie Mullins’ domination of the Cheltenham Festival where he enjoyed nine winners. Mullins and Gordon Elliott have 20 of the top 40 entries between them for this year’s National.

The BHA did look at introducing a four-horse limit on the numbers permitted from individual stables in major handicaps, which would have included the National, before abandoning the idea.

Stone says: “Personally, I think one owner should only have one runner in the National. It’s such a prestigious race. It’s stopping the average UK trainer from getting anywhere near it.

“You’d need to be 145-plus to stand a chance of getting in. Forward Plan has to go up another 10lb – but he’s gone up 30lb in two seasons. He has the right profile – he travels so well in his races, and he has this kick at the end.

“Ben [Godfrey] knows the horse inside out and we wouldn’t jock him off even

though he’ll lose his claim soon.”

Alongside his involvement with The Steeple Chasers, Stone also runs the National Hunt Racing Club (nationalhuntracingclub.co.uk) with a string of seven leased horses, including five for TS Equine.

He says: “It’s been going for four years and currently we have around 150 members. I set it up to get more young people involved in racing. We do stable visits, gallops mornings and nights out –it’s a different model and clientele to The Steeple Chasers, but when you have a winner, the pleasure is the same.”

Stone takes inspiration from another of his sporting passions, golf, in his efforts to bring a more youthful demographic into racing.

He says: “I’m a golfer and 20 years ago golf was such a stuffy sport, played by

“The Kempton win was my best moment in the sport without a doubt”

old men in checks. It has really come on, and every golf club now is full of young people, dressed smartly and enjoying themselves.

“Racing needs to drag itself forward and we need to attract more youngsters, not drinking but actually attending for the horses and the sport.

“We’re trying to do that with the National Hunt Racing Club, although we’ve ended up with lots of older people. There’s nothing wrong with that, but I set the model up to appeal to youngsters and it hasn’t happened.”

As for the best aspects of horseracing, Stone says: “You meet so many lovely people in this sport. Most people involved in racing see life the same way – they’re risk takers and optimists, which I like. If you’re a pessimist, you can’t be a racehorse owner.

“I got married last year and four of The Steeple Chasers came to the wedding in Greece.”

Running a syndicate and a racing club means that Stone is always looking for plenty of badges when their runners are in action, with some tracks better than others at accommodating his requests.

He says: “Certain courses will bend over backwards to get loads in, some will offer six badges and that’s all. From course to course it’s all varied and that needs to change. What’s the harm in letting 50 people in who will all buy a sandwich and a drink?

“The ARC courses are brilliant – the syndicate lounges are great. If I’m looking to bring 20 or 30 people, it’s not a problem. It’s a real breath of fresh air.

“We don’t necessarily need a meal –we just want to be together and enjoy watching the horses. Kempton were brilliant; they set up an overflow room for us upstairs, with two massive tables, we had 20 paddock badges, and they provided food for us all.”

On potential innovations within the sport, Stone would recommend a Cheltenham Festival race purely for shared ownership groups. “I’d love to see a race for syndicates at Cheltenham, because all the usual faces win everything,” he says.

“A series of races where syndicate runners can qualify for a final at Cheltenham – far better than another mares’ contest or a cross-country race [which was abandoned this year].”

Next year The Steeple Chasers will celebrate their tenth anniversary and will likely head to the sales in the summer to invest in another horse.

A runner in the National would be a fabulous way to celebrate their decadelong journey together but before that there is this month’s race for Forward Plan, and the opportunity to add to their prize-money total, which currently stands at just shy of £180,000.

“We’re elated with the horse because we can see how much he is progressing,” Stone says. “I’m looking forward to Aintree and will be there for all three days.

“I always say to everybody, you earn your good days in racing – and when you get them, you have to enjoy them.”

ROA Forum

fabulous Goodwood Hotel follows before playing a round on Goodwood’s award-winning golf course to end the weekend in style.

This month’s auction lot, provided by Racing Welfare in partnership with the ROA, is a Glorious Goodwood experience like no other. The successful bidder will be treated to a two-day package, with day one centred around hospitality for four in The Charlton Hunt restaurant at the iconic Qatar

Goodwood Festival, worth more than £3,000.

On Saturday, August 3 guests will enjoy unrivalled views of the course, parade ring access for the feature race and a superb five-course a la carte menu in The Charlton Hunt. An overnight stay with two rooms at the

Experience Glorious Goodwood in style with Bid to Give Case study: Louisa’s story

Louisa Allen is Head Person for Epsom trainer Jim Boyle. She has long been associated with Epsom’s racing community, through her interactions with Racing Welfare and her role on the Executive Council of the National Association of Racing Staff (NARS), representing stable staff at a national as well as regional level.

When asked about the help she has received from Racing Welfare, Louisa speaks about the challenges she has faced with her own physical and mental health. She says: “I’ve been in racing for many years and being over 40 you can say I’ve had my fair share of tumbles! My injuries mounted up, and there came a time that I needed to seek help to be able to continue to do my job.

“I’d injured my shoulder and my lower vertebrae in separate incidents, and the injury to my back in particular was starting to see effects on other areas of my body, such as shooting pains down my leg. There was a point

where I didn’t want to carry on due to the pain. I’d lost faith in my GP and my back pain was so bad that I was struggling to even sit in the saddle at one point.”

After contacting Racing Welfare for help, Louisa was referred to a physiotherapist through the sport’s occupational health service. “I can safely say that without the physiotherapy Racing Welfare provided, the pain would have been unbearable,” Louisa explains. “I wouldn’t have been able to continue working in a racing yard at all. I’m not exaggerating when I say that my everyday life is genuinely so much more enjoyable now!”

Louisa continues to talk passionately about Racing Welfare’s services, as in her central role she is often the person that other members of racing staff come to in times of need.

She says: “I have signposted countless members of Epsom’s racing

Last year’s winning bidder, Patrick Plews, said of the experience: “Even though the weather did not play ball it did not dampen our enjoyment. From the moment we were met at the Goodwood Hotel by umbrella-wielding staff, to the end of the day’s golf on Sunday, we had a terrific time.

“The facility in The Charlton Hunt restaurant is excellent and Roger Hart even managed to give out a couple of winners. It was lovely to meet Dawn [Goodfellow, Racing Welfare’s Chief Executive] and learn a bit more about Racing Welfare and the good work they do. We are delighted that our bid has gone to such a good cause within the industry we all love.

“The Goodwood hotel experience was splendid and the whole Goodwood team should be commended for putting up such a special prize. We couldn’t help but feel privileged all weekend.”

The auction closes at 5pm on Friday, April 26 and raises crucial funds for Racing Welfare. Head to bidtogive.co.uk to place your bid.

staff to the charity for help with a myriad of issues – not just for their physical and mental health. I know that at the end of the phone there is someone that can help us get through any of life’s challenges, including bereavement, housing, financial issues and even nutritional advice!

“As I have been saying for many years now, if you are facing a challenge then the tools to overcome it are there at your fingertips, thanks to Racing Welfare. I’d encourage anyone facing difficulties to take that first step and make a change.”

Patrick Plews (left) enjoyed his Goodwood experience last year

Louisa Allen: supported after her injury

Average prize-money values at core fixtures in 2024

With three months of the year already gone and Programme books 1 and 2 now published, that provides an opportunity to compare average prize-money values by class of race offered by racecourses at fixtures scheduled to take place up to and including June 23.

The tables below highlight the top ten racecourses with the highest average prize-money per race at core fixtures in Classes 4, 5 and 6 (where appropriate), separated into two-year-old and three-year-old and upwards races on the Flat, and hurdles and chases at National Hunt fixtures.

Naturally, prize-money is an important part of the decision of where to run your horse(s). The information included here may help owners and trainers with that decision.

TBA Forum

The special section for TBA members

Amongst last year’s regional days was a visit to the Household

Regional days a great way to connect

Each year the TBA organises various regional days which we believe will be of interest to our members, providing a behindthe-scenes look at various studs and training establishments. These days are the ideal opportunity for members

to come together and share ideas and concepts, thus strengthening the sense of community that exists within the breeding industry.

All events can be booked via the TBA website at www.thetba.co.uk/ events. So far three of these days have

Secure your tickets to NH Breeders’ Awards Evening

Celebrating its tenth anniversary next month will be the TBA’s NH Breeders’ Awards Evening, sponsored by Goffs, and we welcome readers to join us in celebrating the best of British NH breeding at the event. Hosted by Nick Luck and taking place at the Hilton Garden Inn, Doncaster, the awards evening will take place on the eve of the Goffs Doncaster Spring Store Sale.

The event acknowledges and celebrates the outstanding achievements of British-based breeders and British-bred horses across the 2023-24 National Hunt season. Breeders, owners, trainers and enthusiasts will come together

to celebrate British-bred successes during the course of the glitzy awards evening, which includes a champagne reception, dinner and is followed by the awards ceremony.

Amongst the awards on the evening is the Queen Mother’s Silver Salver, which is awarded to someone who the TBA’s NH Committee believes has made an outstanding contribution to British National Hunt racing and breeding. Previous recipients of the prestigious award include Jim Joel, Lord Oaksey, Robert Waley-Cohen and Bryan Mayoh, whilst last year’s winner was David Futter.

Tickets are available to purchase at the early-bird price of £65 until

been scheduled for 2024 with more to be announced and the events are not restricted to region.

April 24 – Lucinda Russell & Perth Lucinda Russell OBE will open the doors to her famous Arlary House Stable which will be followed by lunch and racing at Perth. Lucinda and her partner Peter Scudamore MBE have curated the most successful stables in the history of Scottish jump racing and this is a not-to-be-missed opportunity to visit this historic yard.

Kathleen Holmes embraces winning breeder Jane Makin at the 2023 ceremony

midnight on March 31 and £70 from April 1, and can be secured via the events page of the TBA website.

Cavalry at Hyde Park Barracks

SARAH FARNSWORTH

Following the tour, attendees will make their way to Perth racecourse for the start of its three-day Perth Festival. The day features Perth’s highest-value raceday of the year and includes the Listed Fair Maid of Perth Mares’ Chase and Listed EBF Gold Castle NH Novices’ Hurdle.

The price is £75 for members and £85 for non-members.

May 2 – Beech House Stud & Newsells

Park Stud

The south and east regional day promises to be another fascinating event with a visit to Shadwell’s Beech House Stud and Newsells Park Stud.

Ahead of this year’s breeding season the Shadwell stallions made the move from Thetford to Newmarket and members will be able to see world champion Baaeed, as well as newcomer Mostahdaf and Mohaather, whose first crop are eagerly awaited on the track this season.

The history of Newsells Park dates to the Domesday Book. However, stateof-the-art facilities have made the stud one of the most successful in the UK. A regular top consignor at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Newsells is home to stallions Nathaniel, A’Ali and Without Parole.

The price is £50 for members and £60 for non-members.

June 11 – Kingsclere & Highclere

The TBA will be hosting the south-west regional day with a visit to two of the country’s most historic and famous establishments, Park House Stables at Kingsclere and Highclere Stud.

Steeped in history and home to some of the most famous racehorses of the past such as Mill Reef and Lochsong, Park House Stables continues to produce top-class Classic horses trained by Andrew Balding and the team at Kingsclere. Today, it is widely acknowledged as amongst the most modern, well-equipped racing stables in the world, while still retaining the magic and history of its previous inhabitants.

Highclere is one of the leading stud farms in the country and home to the Warren family, who continue to produce top-class thoroughbreds from this unique stud. While embracing new methods and introducing state-of-theart facilities, Highclere’s outstanding naturally fertile paddocks ensure its breeding stock is given the very best start in life which is proven time and again on the racecourse.

The price is £55 for members and £65 for non-members.

Applications welcomed for Stud Employee Award

The TBA Stud Employee Award aims to celebrate the significant contribution that stud employees make to the breeding industry. Nominations are encouraged for those individuals who have shown:

• A willing attitude to learning and taking on new responsibilities

• Promise as a future leader

• Excellence in their day-to-day role

• Exceptional performance in a specific situation

• A team player who motivates or acts as a mentor to others

Nominations are open until May 3 and studs are invited to nominate deserving employees from Flat and National Hunt stud farms.

The annual award – generously sponsored by the Hon Peter Stanley’s New England Stud – will provide the winner with a £2,000 cash prize and a perpetual trophy in the form of a magnificent Charlie

Langton bronze. The perpetual trophy will remain with the winner for 12 months and will be engraved with his or her name.

The award winner will be selected from six shortlisted candidates and will be invited to attend the Flat Breeders’ Awards Evening at Chippenham Park on Wednesday, July 10 where they will be presented with their prize and trophy. The remaining shortlisted nominees will receive £250 each in recognition of their achievement.

If you know an employee who you feel deserves recognition, visit the TBA website and complete the online nomination form by the closing date of Friday, May 3.

For any questions or to request a paper copy please contact melissa. rose@thetba.co.uk. Late nominations will not be accepted, full terms and conditions can be found on the TBA website.

Bloodstock Conference 2024 – register now

The member priority booking window to this year’s TBA Bloodstock Conference closed in early March and all are welcome to sign up to this year’s event, which will take place at Tattersalls on Tuesday, June 25.

Hosted by leading broadcaster Lydia Hislop, the conference is not to be missed and is free to attend for members and ACCESS subscribers.

For further information on guest speakers, panellists, the programme and how to book, visit the events page of the TBA website.

Bev Woodley, Stud Employee Award winner, with Peter Stanley at the 2023 Flat Breeders’ Awards evening

ADAM SMYTH

Eddie flies high in Game Spirit rout

Achange in tactics brought about a change in fortune for Edwardstone in the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury. Having been below par and far too keen when running over an intermediate trip at Kempton Park the time before, the son of Kayf Tara dominated the field returned down to the minimum trip. Bred by the Abrey and Thurtle families, Edwardstone was reported none the worse after falling in the Queen Mother Champion Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.

The previous weekend and Leopardstown hosted the two-day Dublin Racing Festival. The opening contest of the second day was the Paddy Mullins Mares’ Handicap Hurdle, which witnessed the Ashbrittle Studbred Brucio come home victorious in the double green colours of Simon Munir and Isaac Souede.

Staying in Ireland and there was a rare British raider on Irish shores in the shape of Marsh Wren in the Colreevy

Mares’ Novice Chase at Thurles. The Stuart Edmunds-trained daughter of Schiaparelli, who was bred by the late Renee Robeson, proved tough and resolute to take the 2m6f contest against solid opposition. She later ran a fine third in the Grade 2 mares' chase at Cheltenham.

The weather played havoc with abandonments aplenty leading to a number of races being rearranged, including the 2m3f Listed mares’ hurdle, which went to Haydock Park from Warwick. The Clarendon Farm-bred Stainsby Girl made just about all the running in the hands of Kit Alexander for his father Nick. This was a suitable send off to the paddocks for the tenyear-old, who was winning black type for the first time.

Godolphin homebreds continued to rule in Dubai Group contests. On the back of a 13-month absence and a gelding operation, Naval Power showed a sharp turn of foot to soon

take top honours in the nine-furlong Singspiel Stakes. The same day and Siskany, a son of Dubawi, followed up the previous month’s Listed win with victory in the Group 3 Nad Al Sheba Trophy. Both contests were run over 14 furlongs.

Earlier in the month and Warren Point (Dubawi) gained the biggest success to date of his career with a last gasp win in the Group 3 Dubai Millennium Stakes.

Godolphin supplied a fourth stakes winner in the month as a breeder when Isle Of Jura, bought by Billy JacksonStops and George Scott for £150,000 at the Tattersalls Ascot Sale in March, captured the Listed Crown Prince’s Cup in Bahrain for Victorious Racing.

There was British-bred success at the richly endowed Riyadh meeting

Edwardstone records a facile success in the Game Spirit Chase at Newbury under Tom Cannon

Isle Of Jura: victorious in Bahrain

BILL SELWYN BAHRAIN TURF CLUB

towards the end of the month. Having captured the Group 2 Bahrain International Trophy last November, the Sir Alex Ferguson and Niall McLoughlinbred Spirit Dancer swooped in the final furlong to defeat an international field in the Group 2 Neom Turf Cup over an extended 2,000 metres.

The Whitsbury Manor Stud-bred Diligent Harry was in double form in February. The son of Due Diligence took the Kachy Stakes at Lingfield Park over six furlongs, whilst the five-furlong Hever Sprint Stakes at Southwell was no issue for the all-weather-loving gelding.

The Bartlett, Beever and Cheveley Park Stud-bred Dear My Friend, a son of Pivotal, who won the Listed Burradon Stakes last April, made all the running for a fine win in the Listed Tandridge Stakes at Lingfield Park. Meanwhile in Abu Dhabi, the Whatton Manor Stud-bred Nibras Passion, a son of Iffraaj, took the President’s Cup.

Results up to and including February 29. Produced in association with GBRI.

Andrew Devonshire and Dominion Award nominees requested

The TBA asks members to nominate individuals who they think deserves to win the prestigious Andrew Devonshire and Dominion Bronzes, which will be presented at this year’s TBA Flat Breeders’ Awards Evening on Wednesday, July 10 at Chippenham Park.

The Andrew Devonshire award recognises an individual’s outstanding achievement and contribution to the British thoroughbred industry, whilst the Dominion bronze recognises outstanding contribution and long-term commitment from someone who has worked in the industry.

Nominations are also requested for the Industry Merit Award. It recognises significant achievement from an individual, team or organisation for concepts which contribute to the long-term future of the breed and sector. To nominate for any of the awards, email info@thetba.co.uk.

Nominations close on Monday, April 8 at 5pm.

Your opportunity to join the TBA Board

As one of the key stakeholders in the industry, the TBA is the voice of British breeding and the thoroughbred within the sport, with government and on the international stage. The TBA supports breeders with advice, guidance and training for their bloodstock operations and funds vitally important veterinary research for the long-term future of horse health.

In 2024, three elected trustee spaces are available.

All TBA members should have received a nomination form and explanatory letter in the post at the end of March. These forms can also be obtained by contacting info@thetba.co.uk or accessing the members’ area of the website.

Members who wish to put themselves forward as a potential candidate for the Board elections must provide six signatures of support from current TBA members –signatories can offer their support to only two candidates in any one year.

Candidates are also required to supply a head and shoulders photograph of themselves, plus a profile, which for those candidates going forward to the election will be published on these pages of the July issue. The election result will be announced at the Annual General Meeting on August 13. Ballot forms together with the profiles of all candidates will be sent to TBA members at the beginning of June.

Candidate profiles should not exceed 250 words and should include a short description of their career/ profession, breeding/racing interests and answer the following questions:

• What is it about the TBA that inspires you to seek election?

• What skills and knowledge would you lend to the TBA Board?

• What should be the TBA’s focus in its next five-year strategy?

Completed forms, photo and profile must be returned to the CEO at Stanstead House no later than Monday, April 29.

Dates for your diary

Wednesday, April 24

Scotland regional day

Lucinda Russell will welcome members to her Arlary House Stables before lunch and an afternoon of quality racing at Perth.

Thursday, May 2

South and east regional day

Members will visit Beech House Stud in Newmarket before making their way across to Newsells Park Stud.

Monday, May 20

NH Awards, Hilton Garden Inn, Doncaster

Come join us as the TBA celebrates the tenth anniversary of its NH awards, held the evening prior to the Goffs Doncaster Spring Store Sale. The event will celebrate successes from the 23-24 NH season, as well as from the previous nine years.

Tuesday, June 11

South-west regional day

Andrew Balding and Jake Warren will open their doors to members on a regional day to Kingsclere and Highclere Stud respectively.

Wednesday, July 10 Flat Awards, Chippenham Park, nr Newmarket

Celebrate the successes of all Flat breeders from the 2023 season in the glorious surroundings of Chippenham Park on the evening before Newmarket’s July Festival kicks off.

For more information regarding these events, as well as to see when regional days have been fixed, either contact the office or check out the regular e-bulletins.

Breeder of the Month

Words Howard Wright

BREEDER OF THE MONTH (February 2024)

Clarendon Farm

Stainsby Girl, whose success in the Listed mares’ hurdle staged at Haydock earned Clarendon Farm the nomination as TBA Breeder of the Month for February, is a perfect illustration that jumps breeding is a long game.

Bred by John Haydon, who will receive a complimentary HorseLight Original ‘blue light’ and a complimentary light design for a yard of their choice in the UK, she was sold to Alastair Duncan for €5,500 in November 2014 and claimed her first Listed victory in February almost ten years later on her 26th outing.

Haydon reflects: “It’s very true that you need patience in this business, and there are so many variables that come into play, more so in jumping than the Flat. Ground dependency, distance and preference for racecourse; if you could get everything right on the day, maybe success can come earlier.”

Looking back to the day he passed on Stainsby Girl, Haydon recalls: “I sold her as a foal because that was our policy at the time. We took her to the sales with a number of other foals, and she was the only one I owned on my own.

“The rest were owned by a syndicate and I think I concentrated more on their horses, trying to do a good job for everybody else, and probably didn’t put as much into her as I should have done. But she was a relatively inconspicuous chestnut filly, although she had an incredible temperament in that she was a kind, easy filly to do, up for everything.

“We were trying to put together a nice bunch of jumping mares. We had Double Trigger at the time and wanted to get him going.”

The pairing with Double Trigger, while not blessed with huge overall success, has had lasting consequences for the Haydons, as John points out: “When we bought Stainsby Girl’s granddam Forest Pride, she hadn’t bred a winner, but she went on to give us seven winners from her nine foals to race, three of them by Double Trigger – Pairtree, Charmaine Wood and Double Pride.

“In fact, Charmaine Wood provides the link between our two studs – East Burrow Farm in Devon, where she was bred and Double Trigger stood, and now Clarendon Farm, near Salisbury, to where we all moved in 2010.”

Having leased Charmaine Wood to Alan King for the Let’s Live Racing syndicate, Haydon picks up the story: “She was useful enough, winning a bumper and two hurdle races, but Alan didn’t think she’d quite make black type, so we decided to have her back, but she struggled as a broodmare.

“We couldn’t work out for long enough why we couldn’t get her in foal

and she missed a lot of years with what proved to be a cell tumour. She did breed eventually but very infrequently.

“I’ve got Charmaine Wood’s last foal, a filly by Frontiersman who will probably go to the Goffs UK May Sale at Doncaster. I ought to keep her, really, because she’s the final direct connection with the family, although it goes a long way back.

“I’ve also got Persian Forest, a halfsister to Charmaine Wood who has a Masterstroke yearling. She was also leased to Let’s Live Racing and has since bred four winners, of whom perhaps the most interesting is Persian Time, who is with Nicky Henderson and is approaching black type.

“Next year could be Persian Time’s year, but for now it’s Stainsby Girl’s year. What fun to be involved, even at a distance, with a cracking little mare who tries her heart out every time. She didn’t cost a lot but what a lovely story for the Alexanders to have a mare who got to black-type status and has now been retired to stud. So, the story goes on.”

Lightsstartfrom £220each *

John Haydon: breeder of Stainsby Girl, “a cracking little mare who tries her heart out”

OLLY LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACEFUL THUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* INVINCIBLE MOLLY MRS MORRELL ABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES ONE MORE LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACEFUL THUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND LADY SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* INVINCIBLE MOLLY MRS MORRELL DUBAI JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACETHUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND LADY OF SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* INVINCIBLE MOLLY MRS MORRELL FREYABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE

MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES ONE MORE OLLY LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACEFUL THUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND LADY OF SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS*

FREYABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES ONE MORE OLLY LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS

IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACEFUL THUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND

SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* INVINCIBLE MOLLY MRS MORRELL

FREYABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES ONE MORE OLLY LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS

PEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACEFUL THUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND LADY

Easy breezy

SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* INVINCIBLE MOLLY MRS MORRELL DUBAI

JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACETHUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND LADY OF SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* INVINCIBLE MOLLY MRS MORRELL FREYABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES ONE MORE OLLY LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACEFUL THUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND LADY OF SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS FREYABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES ONE MORE OLLY LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACEFUL THUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* INVINCIBLE MOLLY MRS MORRELL

ABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES

Nearly £400,000 won by graduates of breeze-up sales.

ONE MORE LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACEFUL THUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND LADY SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* FREYABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES ONE MORE OLLY LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA

Buy GBB fllies at this month’s breeze-up sale.

FREYABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES

#BREEDBUYRACE

ONE MORE OLLY LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACEFUL THUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* INVINCIBLE MOLLY MRS MORRELL ABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES ONE MORE LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACEFUL THUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND LADY SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* INVINCIBLE MOLLY MRS MORRELL DUBAI JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACETHUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND LADY OF SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* INVINCIBLE MOLLY MRS MORRELL FREYABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES ONE MORE OLLY LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACEFUL THUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND LADY OF SARDINIA BAND OF JOY* TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* FREYABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES ONE MORE OLLY LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED DUBAI JEMILA BEAUTIFUL AISLING EXPEDITIOUS IMPEACHMENT NAOMI LAPAGLIA CEANNA MAJESTIC BEAUTY GRACEFUL THUNDER* BEAUTIFUL DIAMOND TROPICAL ISLAND MIAHARRIS PROPITIOUS* FREYABELLA SOUND ANGELA* MAGICAL DIAS OMNIQUEEN CLITHEROE MAYLANDSEA CAPE HELLES ONE MORE OLLY LEZOO CALIFORNIA GEM* ROYAL CHARTER DISPUTED

*This flly is a multiple-bonus winner

The Finish Line with Cameron Sword

Cameron Sword made Grand National history last April as the youngest winning owner in the race’s long and storied annals. Just 21 at the time, and a third-year student at Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University, he was one of seven partners in Corach Rambler, who was adding to successive wins in Cheltenham’s Ultima Handicap Chase with a life-changing triumph in the Aintree spectacular. Sword only got into racing during Covid and, incredibly, he bought his share in Lucinda Russell’s second Grand National winner for just £4,000 after he had already won a point-to-point and two hurdles. Corach Rambler is now heading back to Aintree with every chance of emulating fellow Cheltenham Festival hero Tiger Roll as a dual National winner, while Sword’s involvement in racing is expanding at pace through his creation of Claymore Racing.

Interview: Graham Dench

My interest in racing only really started during Covid, as I’m sports mad and horseracing was about the only sport on, so I’ve been incredibly lucky with Corach Rambler. I started watching racing and reading about it, and the more I saw the more I wanted to learn. As a naive 19-year-old I looked up my nearest trainer and just gave Lucinda [Russell] a ring, more for some of the behind-the-scenes access you don’t get in other sports than anything else. Lucinda had what she felt was a good starter horse for someone like me – I joined six other lads in Corach Rambler, who was literally the first racehorse I’d seen close up like that. He was beaten the first time he ran after I became involved, but the buzz it gave me watching him was one of the coolest sporting moments I’d had at the time.

I wasn’t able to go to Cheltenham when he won the novice handicap there at the December meeting, but I was there for his first Ultima win, and I’ve never missed him since. It was my first time at Cheltenham and as it was the Tuesday, the roar at the start of the Supreme showed me how different Cheltenham is to anywhere else. There was no pressure as just being there with a horse who cost only £17,000 felt like we’d already won, but as the race unfolded, we felt more and more that he was going to win. Winning the Ultima really opened my eyes and felt like winning the

Champions League. I didn’t expect it to happen again last year so as soon as he crossed the line I thought ‘Wow, he really could win the National’.

The Gold Cup is for the best horses but the Grand National is the one I wanted to win most, as it’s connected with so many great stories and the atmosphere at Aintree is incredible. Corach Rambler was 10lb well in and favourite, but the whole day was almost too good to be true. It gave us all more confidence when Derek Fox passed his medical just an hour or so before the race, as he was already a National winner and Corach takes a bit of knowing. The whole experience not only lived up to, but exceeded, all my expectations.

I’m still a student for a couple more months but life has changed quite a lot for me since Aintree. I’ve been to events and met people I’d never have dreamed of meeting, and I’ve set up my own syndicate, Claymore Racing. I’ve always wanted to be in professional sport or run a business and at 21 or 22 I thought I should just go for it, then if it didn’t work out it’s not the end of the world. Nothing else quite gives me the feeling I get from being on the racecourse and having a runner, and pretty much as soon as the celebrations were over we bought a horse called King Of Answers, who unfortunately got a tendon injury when a promising third to a subsequent Cheltenham winner at Bangor. Going from such a massive high to that low put in perspective how lucky I’ve been with Corach Rambler, but he’ll be back, and we’ve since bought two more.

Getting more involved in the sport through Claymore Racing is so rewarding; the early disappointment has just made me even hungrier for success. I targeted younger people and started out with microshares of £60, but we are still mostly attracting an older demographic. We are trying to keep the costs as low as possible and because prize-money is so poor, we are offering other benefits like The Racing

Manager, video calls and stable visits. I finish university in May and after an internship last summer doing data analytics, I know I need to be genuinely interested in what I’m doing in order to be fully motivated. I appreciate how lucky I am and I can’t wait to one day compete down south with other syndicate horses.

If racing is going to attract the younger audience it needs, it has to be more affordable, just as the Dublin Racing Festival was. Invades, which was set up by Dom Matcham, is a brilliant concept and is doing a great job with student racedays. I think students can go to the Grand National for £30 or so, and Dom organises buses and so on from university. Invades has brought 3,500 or 4,000 students to Musselburgh, and not only are they valuable paying customers, they also contribute massively to the atmosphere; it’s not much fun when there are only a handful of people there.

Racing is too niche and it’s closing itself off too much. Pub talk with friends is all football and rugby – racing hardly gets a look in. When it does, the racing terms that those of us involved use in conversation are lost on others, and so they lose interest. We should concentrate more on the great storylines and the sport’s characters, by which I don’t necessarily mean celebrities but people like Shark Hanlon – the Hewick story is an incredible one.

Cheltenham was very much a prep race for the National again for Corach Rambler, so his Gold Cup third was brilliant. It worked as a prep last year, so fingers crossed. Tiger Roll was instrumental in getting me interested in racing, and there are obvious similarities between him and Corach Rambler. Last year I thought if he stayed on his feet he’d win and this year I think his chance is about the same. I wouldn’t swap him for anything else in the race. It’s exciting to be in that position again, but if I never win another race, I’ll still finish off in the sport as the happiest man alive.

BILL SELWYN

Corach Rambler (left) will try and emulate Tiger Roll in becoming a dual National hero

Winner of top-notch G1s at two and three – like his stud mates Dubawi, Too Darn Hot and Pinatubo.

The best the mare’s had.’

Robbie Mills RMM Bloodstock

A really good colt.’

Size, bone and a nice shape.’

Fiona Dennif f Denniff Farms

Breeders hail the first PERFEC T POWER foals... and are sending mares straight back.

Call +44 (0) 1638

730070 to book your mare.

£10,000 Oct 1, SLF Dalham Hall Stud, UK

Tom Whitehead Powerstown Stud