Thoroughbred Owner Breeder

THE £6.95 JUNE 2022 ISSUE 214

On Her Majesty’s service

Royal runners primed for Platinum party at Ascot

PLUS

Kildaragh Stud

Irish outfit riding high

Luca Cumani

‘I’ve changed jobs – I’m not retired’

Japanese bloodstock

Sunday Silence’s lasting legacy

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£6.95 JUNE 2022 ISSUE 214

On Her Majesty’s service

Royal runners primed for Platinum party at Ascot

le,

PLUS

Kildaragh Stud

Irish outfit riding high

Luca Cumani

‘I’ve changed jobs – I’m not retired’

Japanese bloodstock

Sunday Silence’s lasting legacy

www.theownerbreeder.com

Cover: The Queen’s sprinter King’s Lynn sets himself up for a trip to Royal Ascot with victory in the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock in May Photo: Steve Cargill

Edward Rosenthal Editor

Land of the Rising Sun is a rising force worldwide O

ne of the most notable features of the international racing landscape over the past few years has been the increasing presence of runners from Japan in the top events.

We’ve been accustomed to a trickle of Far East runners in Europe for some time – capturing the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe has been something of an obsession for the Land of the Rising Sun and has, to date, proved elusive – yet results from the recent Breeders’ Cup, Dubai World Cup and Saudi Cup meetings suggest a concerted effort to extol the virtue of Japanese thoroughbreds on the world stage.

Exactly how Japan came to be such an important player in global racing is open to debate, yet it appears the recruitment of a single racehorse – the US-bred Sunday Silence – helped the breeding and racing industry take a quantum leap forward and set the foundations for today’s success.

Deep Impact, the most famous son of Sunday Silence, carried all before him on the racecourse and came to dominate the stallion scene in Japan, setting new records for winners and sire titles. His passing was mourned by the industry although he has any number of sons and daughters to carry on his legacy at home and abroad.

Nancy Sexton (see pages 36-40) uncovers the background to the capture of Sunday Silence by Japanese interests at a time when the son of Halo appeared under-appreciated by the American industry, despite his wins in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic.

Native Trail has been one of the stars of the Flat season, finishing runner-up to stablemate Coroebus in the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket (see The Big Picture, pages 14-15) before taking the Irish Guineas at the Curragh, and while his success has been in the royal blue of Godolphin, Peter and Antoinette Kavanagh’s Kildaragh Stud played a vital role in the early development of the son of Oasis Dream.

Pinhooked as a foal at the Arqana December

Sale in 2019 and subsequently bought by Oak Tree Farm before Godolphin came calling at the 2021 Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale, the Kavanaghs may not have landed a huge financial reward from their efforts with Native Trail, yet the Kildaragh name has been enhanced nonetheless.

“You’re always trying to put things on the farm in favour of producing good horses with significant capital expenditure, improving facilities and streamlining the horses’ routine and taking everything to the nth degree to make things work,” Peter Kavanagh tells James Thomas (see pages 42-46). “And then you get a horse like him coming through the system and it really vindicates what you’re trying to achieve.”

The aforementioned Coroebus provided a first British Classic victory for jockey James Doyle and 24 hours later he was celebrating a

“The recruitment of a single racehorse helped the industry take a leap forward” second when making every yard of the running on the George Boughey-trained Cachet in the 1,000 Guineas.

Cachet’s victory for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing struck a blow for syndicate-owned horses at a time when shared ownership is viewed by many as one of the sport’s best opportunities to attract new participants.

Mary Neale, a member of the Highclere syndicate that owns Cachet, tells us what it means to win a British Classic, while we also hear from syndicate members involved with Marie’s Rock and El Caballo, two other runners that have enjoyed a fantastic time on the racecourse in 2022 (see pages 48-51).

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Contents

June 2022

42

News & Views ROA Leader Restructured BHA provides optimism

TBA Leader Racing's pyramid requires rebuilding

News Colt's name change controversy

Changes News in a nutshell

Howard Wright Job title confuses and bemuses

Syndicate successes Owners on their big-race thrills

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From Newmarket, York and Newbury

The Queen's racehorses Part two: 1990s-2020s

Racing in Japan How the nation became a world leader

Kildaragh Stud Native Trail blazes a path

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Shastye's death leaves void at Newsells

Sales Circuit 7

Breeze-ups take centre stage

Caulfield Files 8 10

Nathaniel deserves greater support

Dr Statz Dubawi delivers with Galileo-line mares

The Finish Line With Luca Cumani

24

Features The Big Picture

Breeders' Digest

Three Board places available

TBA Forum Schiaparelli and Nathaniel win awards

26 36 42

53 54 64 66 88

Forum ROA Forum

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48

Breeder of the Month Alex Hales for Millers Bank

Great British Bonus Latest news and winners

Vet Forum Genome testing in focus

68 76 80 81 84

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88

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ROA Leader

Charlie Parker President

Reshaped BHA offers hope for the future

J

une sees the traditional events of the Derby meeting at Epsom followed quickly by Royal Ascot. Of course, this year we have the added pageantry of the Platinum Jubilee, emphasising British racing’s place at the heart of the summer social calendar. In addition, June should finally see the publication of the Gambling Act white paper, which will provide greater clarity on any new measures that may impact the overall revenues into British racing. Two very different events that could shape the future for our sport in the short and medium term.

It means British horseracing faces an uncertain future, both on and off the track. The disagreements, disputes and disquiet that find themselves reported in the public domain add to the general impressions of dysfunctionality and disunity. If we are not careful, we are in danger of losing perspective and much-needed focus to deliver our collective agenda, which is to secure a healthy and economically viable future for the sport. There are sufficient macro-economic headwinds for the industry to tackle without infighting becoming the biggest barrier to success.

The recent announcements around the reshaping and restructuring of the BHA as our governing body, and how its member organisations play their role in its function, are critical to the future of racing and how we deal with government intervention and greater global competition. The work being done – which is long overdue – involves a change in mindset and deserves to be harnessed, with the requisite drive and energy, as this has the potential to bring wholesale positive change to racing.

With clear roles, responsibilities and reporting lines allowing the constituent parts to focus on and deliver their remits, it will end the current system of working in dislocated silos.

I welcome the proposed changes, which hopefully will result in clearly defined leadership roles for all the constituent bodies and provide a focus on establishing a strategy that the whole industry can get behind. This presents a real opportunity for change that the entire industry needs to embrace and support, to optimise the outcome for the betterment of the sport. We need to get behind this new structure so we can turn our attention to finding some practical, workable solutions for our most pressing issues.

The BHA recently announced its proposal to cut 300 races from the 2023 programme. There is a widespread view that there are too many races in British racing, but does it make sense to identify a number of races to remove from racecards and call this a solution, without fully understanding the impact on revenue?

Given a total of 10,354 races were run in Britain in 2021, 300 races equates to almost a 3% reduction. Some commentators have suggested this 3% cull could mean £4m in lost revenue. The data available to make key strategic decisions has not, in my view, been presented in a coherent format. We have not factored in

some key variables that may be reversed in future years, ground conditions and wider macro-economic issues for instance.

An extensive strategic review covering the next five years needs to be launched as soon as possible to address the issues of field sizes, breed development and global competition.

Most importantly, we need an industry strategy that can be implemented and measured. The industry awaits further clarity as to what this reduction in races will look like, whether it will take the form of a diagonal slice across the race programme or focus on lower-grade races. The BHA must identify a race programme, with appropriate funding that is fair, which is representative of the demographics of the horse population in the UK.

“The changes should result in clearly defined leadership roles for all the constituent bodies” I don’t want to be the harbinger of doom and gloom to discuss the current economic challenges, the cost-of-living crisis and the impact this has on racing. So any good news story has to be welcomed. Great British Racing, working alongside the ROA and Racehorse Syndicates Association, has pioneered a series of seven shared ownership days.

The idea behind shared ownership days is to impart information about syndicates and clubs to prospective owners.

Syndicates are invited to sign up to share their stories and discuss opportunities for potential owners to get involved, with some having shares available to purchase on the day. This takes place alongside informative discussions from syndicate managers, trainers and industry experts, to generate interest and excitement in this initiative. Let’s hope this proves to be an attractive avenue into ownership for enthusiastic racegoers.

THE OWNER BREEDER

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TBA Leader

Julian Richmond-Watson Chairman

Pyramid structure requires rebuilding T

horoughbred horseracing is a sport, a competitive, physical activity involving horses and jockeys, carried out to see which combination can be first to a particular point, the winning post, over a particular distance, on a particular racecourse.

Going on from that description of sport, the purpose covers most of the activities that would be described in this way, whether the activity is football, rugby, golf, tennis or motor racing, all of which have professional systems based on a pyramid structure from top to bottom, or from bottom to top, depending on the aspirations of those taking part.

The top section of the pyramid, representing the best in each sport, needs a second tier to challenge the top tier, and the second tier needs a third tier to push and test it, and so on down the structure. The best in any sport can only prosper if there is a constant challenge from a wellresourced and competitive lower tier, making sure they perform to the best of their ability, so that they do not relax the level or standard needed to remain at the top level.

No-one in the sports mentioned above could ever feel comfortable if there was no challenge from a strength in depth that was ready to expose any fall in performance at that top level. There is no reason why British horseracing should not work to the same system, but the risk is that if the structure becomes damaged or develops out of proportion in one area, then it crumbles.

The top tier does exist in British racing. It is known as the Pattern, and for the most part it has served the sport well for more than 40 years. By and large it remains healthy and competitive, and while its general prize-money levels will never keep up with every new initiative from around the world, if it can be kept moving forward incrementally, where possible, the prestige and competitiveness of Britain’s top races should ensure that, along with the prize-money and value to the horse from winning these races, the Pattern will remain competitive.

I don’t believe the winners of other sports’ major events, Federer or Nadal, Hamilton or Verstappen, think about the level of prize-money as the main driver of their competitiveness.

However, it is below this top level that British racing is showing structural stress. The pyramid is widening at the bottom and the middle leading up towards the top is suffering. It’s in the area from Group 2 races down to the Class 4 handicaps where there is currently a lack of horses and runners. To see so many of these races struggling to be competitive or to reach the numbers of runners needed for

each-way betting on the first two or three finishers has to be a real concern.

We must be realistic about prize-money totals that are likely to be available over the next few years, and while an expected record of £170 million for 2022 is good news, that leaves us far behind many other jurisdictions. So, what can be done to restructure the fractured pyramid, and how to ensure the horses needed to support that middle and upper tier remain and race in this country?

Races that would make a difference and what support they should be given need to be identified, along with deciding what programme would encourage connections to race and keep horses in Britain for longer, and where

“Races that would make a difference and what support they should be given must be identified” the effort to reinvigorate that part of the structure which is suffering now should be focused.

With a rate-card funding system by race in place and the ability, with the help of the Levy Board, to adjust support where we believe it is necessary, we need to engage in that debate sooner rather than later.

The first stage must be to encourage everyone, including breeders, to begin the career of their horse in Britain. If a horse starts its career here, it is more likely to stay and race here. So, looking at the values and rewards for winning maiden and novice races, particularly for those horses that could fill gaps in the shortfall, would seem to make sense.

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News

Owner’s sadness after racing authorities force name change

O

wner and ROA member Nick Rhodes looked set to appeal against being forced to change the name of two-year-old Buggerlugs, a “ridiculous and kneejerk” decision which saw him caught up in a media storm last month.

The storm had its origins when Chris Cook of the Racing Post asked Weatherbys about their thinking in allowing the name, the day before the colt was due to make his debut at Beverley.

Cook subsequently wrote “I wasn’t even pushing for any particular outcome” – but the outcome his inquiry produced blew up and had Rhodes, subject of Owner Breeder’s Magical Moments feature in October 2018, fielding calls left, right and centre and overwhelmed by messages of support.

Explaining the whole story, picked up on by the BBC, Sun and Mirror, among others, Rhodes said: “We were going to look for another colt later in the year so in April 2021 we thought let’s get the name registered, so there’ll be no messing about later. I try to follow a Yorkshire theme with all my horses – you wrote about Eeh Bah Gum

“I just love horseracing and give names a Yorkshire angle for a bit of fun” and Yorkshire Pudding, and then there was Flippin’ Eck. “I wanted to do something in memory of my father, who used to say things like, ‘Eh, buggerlugs, behave yourself’. It’s not just Yorkshire, it’s nationally as the horse’s Facebook page has been inundated with people saying it’s ridiculous, they’ve rung up radio stations, gone to the press, told them it’s a term of endearment for someone who’s been up to mischief. There’s nothing derogatory about it, and you’ll

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Nick Rhodes (right of horse) called his colt Buggerlugs before the name was rejected

find no such suggestion in dictionaries.

It’s a pet name.

“Anyway, you have to set out how a name is pronounced, how it’s spelt and give a little reason behind what it means. That got approved last spring and they took the fee.

“Then in October with Tim Easterby we purchased the Shalaa colt and the yard submitted the name with the approval number for it to be registered.

There were no problems, nothing was said, the passport came back in the name of Buggerlugs, all good.

“He was entered for the Beverley race six days before, with no issues. He was declared, all fine, runners and riders published.

“Everybody was looking forward to the race on the Tuesday, but then, less than 24 hours before, the yard rang to say there’d been an issue raised and said I’d been given three hours to change it.”

He continued: “I then got on to Weatherbys, who told me Chris Cook

from the Racing Post had taken issue with it. They knee-jerked and said it was the first six letters that was the issue.

But you can split other horse names and take out words – this was one word, Buggerlugs, and it means nothing. I kept repeating that the horse’s name was not Bugger. I even said meet me halfway, let’s spell it Buggalugs. It’s ridiculous.

“The person said, however, that if I didn’t come up with an alternative in the next two hours, they were going to pull the horse. So I gave three alternatives off the top of my head, Chuffin ‘Ell, You Whazzock and Sling Yer Hook, and Sling Yer Hook was the one they accepted.

“That information went out to the media, who then picked up on it, and it was crazy for me. TV, radio, press, interviews. It’s been quite a week and we could have done without it.”

Rhodes’ runner showed some promise at Beverley, finishing seventh but beaten less than five lengths,

Stories from the racing world

GEORGE SELWYN

Victory in the 2017 Cheltenham Gold Cup on Sizing John was a career highlight for Robbie Power (inset)

Robbie Power calls time on riding career Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National-winning jockey Robbie Power hung up his boots after riding at the Punchestown festival at the end of April.

The 41-year-old revealed the news after partnering Magic Daze to win a handicap chase and bowed out the following day after riding the unplaced Teahupoo in the Champion Hurdle.

Power’s biggest wins came on the Gordon Elliott-trained Silver Birch in the 2007 Grand National and the Jessica Harrington-trained Sizing John in the Cheltenham Gold Cup ten years later.

Power said recent injury problems were the main reason for his decision to call time on a hugely successful 21-year career, mainly spent in Ireland, where he had a long and potent association with the Harrington yard, but also involving a stint in the UK with the Tizzard team.

though at the time of going to press, whether the saga had quite run its course and the colt’s new name cemented, remained to be seen.

“I got in touch with the ROA, who said they’d never come across this before,” said Rhodes. “They got on to the BHA and I got a call from them. The person said I could submit an appeal, which would be decided upon by someone who’d had nothing to do with

“It’s down to the injuries,” he told reporters after winning on the aptlynamed Magic Daze. “I had my back operated on last summer, got back in October and then I fractured my hip. I’m not getting any younger. I had injections in my hip but it didn’t really work.

“My wife knew and my agent knew, but my father always told me if you tell one person you’ve told one person too many, so I was trying to keep it as quiet as possible.

“There have been several days I’ve woken up thinking this was it. If I’d won the Gold Cup [on runner-up Minella Indo] I’d have gone then, but Punchestown has been lucky for me, so to go here, where I rode my first winner and now I’m guaranteed to ride my last one here, that will do.

“It’s a relief to announce it, as even

the original case.

“I haven’t had a chance to do that as we speak as it’s been manic, and we’re going away later today to Majorca for a couple of weeks to recharge – my wife is recovering from cancer and I’m not well – but my intention is to appeal.

Everyone’s up in arms and we’re just very disappointed. Beverley racecourse couldn’t believe it and told me they loved my horses’ names.

this morning my agent was asking me if I was sure. I wanted to go out on something of a high, but I have to do exercises every morning just to enable me to ride.”

He added: “I’ve been doing it 21 years and if someone said I’d ride the winners I have, I’d have taken it. To ride for Jessica Harrington basically my whole career, I’ve been very lucky. She took me under her wing and nearly all my big winners were for her.

“She stood by me through all the highs and lows and has been an unbelievable mentor to me.”

Aside from Sizing John, the horses he rode for Harrington to Grade 1 wins were Supasundae, Jezki, Bostons Angel, Oscars Well, Carrigeen Victor and Our Duke, on whom he also won the Irish Grand National.

“I just love horseracing and give names a Yorkshire angle for a bit of fun.

And it’s been spoiled by one individual.

This has all happened due to the complaint of one person.

“The overwhelming majority of people, and media, have been saying to us, ‘My dad used to call me that, there’s no harm in it, it’s prejudiced against Yorkshire folk and the county’s culture, heritage and dialect.’”

THE OWNER BREEDER

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Changes

Racing’s news in a nutshell

People and business

Bob Buckler

Somerset-based trainer calls time on career after 34 years; Niche Market’s 2009 Irish Grand National success headlined 314 winners.

Chester attendance

Track reports crowd of 34,900 over the three days of its May meeting, down from 55,344 in 2018 and 53,414 in 2019.

Arena Racing Company is granted permission to build 100 boxes at the track, which is set to be developed into a training facility.

Martin Dwyer

Further operation to repair torn ligaments in his knee will see the Derbywinning jockey miss the remainder of the Flat season.

Ilona Barnett

Managing Director of Stratford-uponAvon is elected to join the RCA board as a representative of small independent racecourses.

Brian Finch

Will succeed Julia Budd as Chair of Epsom after this year’s Cazoo Derby.

Trevor McCarthy

Bridget Andrews

Rides first Grade 1 winner on the Graham Motion-trained Highland Chief – previously in the care of Paul Cole – in the Man o’War Stakes.

Jockey discovers she has broken her neck in three places two weeks after falling at Warwick but is expected to make a full recovery.

The Thoroughbred Group

Body representing owners, jockeys, trainers, breeders and stable staff – previously known as the Horsemen’s Group – reveals its new identity.

Levy yield

Figure of £97 million expected for 2021-22, up from £82m in 2020-21 when Covid impacted the racing programme.

Kieran Cotter

Irish trainer fined €27,500 and ordered to pay €7,500 in legal costs after being found guilty of serious misconduct by the IHRB.

Joe Miller

Tattersalls appoints bloodstock consultant as US representative to work alongside Lincoln Collins.

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Wolverhampton

People obituaries Paul Zetter 98

Racehorse owner and Chairman of the Zetter football pools company was awarded a CBE for his charity work.

Maurice Lindsay 81

Former bookmaker became Chairman of Racecourse Data Technologies and was involved with Wigan Warriors.

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Changes

Racehorse and stallion

Movements and retirements

Cyrname

Grade 1-winning chaser who defeated Altior, winner of his previous 19 races, in the 2019 Christy 1965 Chase at Ascot, is retired aged ten.

Ballyboker Bridge

Banks race specialist, winner of the 4m2f contest at the Punchestown Festival for the second time this year aged 15, is retired.

Dream Of Dreams

Top sprinter, winner of the Sprint Cup and Diamond Jubilee Stakes for Saeed Suhail and Sir Michael Stoute, is retired aged eight.

State Of Rest

Cox Plate winner, also successful at the top level in America and France, will begin his stallion career at Rathbarry Stud.

Oxted

Armory

Concertista

Royal Kahala

Roger Teal-trained sprinter, winner of last year’s Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes, is ruled out for the season due to a tendon injury.

High-class jumping mare for owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, winner of four Grade 2 races, is retired aged eight.

Horse obituaries Billesdon Brook 7 Surprise winner of the 2018 1,000 Guineas under Sean Levey dies suddenly at stud having delivered a colt foal by Dubawi.

Shastye 21

Daughter of Danehill was an exceptional producer for Newsells Park Stud, her progeny including Group 1-winning brothers Japan and Mogul.

Flatter 23

Son of A.P. Indy sired top-class performers West Coast and Flat Out among 67 stakes winners from his base at Claiborne Farm.

Magic Of Light 11

Runner-up to Tiger Roll in the 2019 Grand National dies after giving birth to her first foal, a filly by Crystal Ocean.

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Son of Galileo, successful in Pattern company at two, three and four, will start his stallion career at Mapperley Stud in New Zealand.

Star mare for Peter Fahey, winner of the Grade 2 Galmoy Hurdle, is retired due to injury aged seven and is set to visit Crystal Ocean.

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The Big Picture

Delight for Doyle Stable second string he may have been but Coroebus was only a 5-1 shot for 2,000 Guineas glory and duly got the better of fellow Charlie Appleby-trained favourite Native Trail (blue cap) by three-quarters of a length to provide jockey James Doyle with a first British Classic success. Godolphin’s homebred is now three from four.

Photos Bill Selwyn

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Newmarket

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The Big Picture

Kudos for Cachet There is cachet just in having a runner in a Classic, but a whole different level of kudos if you win. That was the joy experienced by the Highclere syndicate when Cachet (blue) took the 1,000 Guineas to cap a wonderful weekend for James Doyle, and provide trainer George Boughey with a first Classic.

Photos Bill Selwyn

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Newmarket

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The Big Picture Staying game Stradivarius is one of the most popular horses in training and the evergreen eight-year-old looked as good as ever when making a winning seasonal return in the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup on May 13 under regular rider Frankie Dettori. The pride and joy of ownerbreeder Bjorn Nielsen (pictured left) will now try and target a fourth Gold Cup at Royal Ascot having captured the prize in 2018, 2019 and 2020.

Photos Bill Selwyn

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York

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The Big Picture

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York

Princess takes plaudits Highfield Princess simply skipped across the Knavesmire turf to record a most impressive triumph in the Group 2 Duke of York Clipper Logistics Stakes under Jason Hart. The John Quinn-trained five-year-old mare looks a force to be reckoned with over sprint trips and is set to provide many more thrilling moments for her Yorkshire-based owner-breeder John Fairley, who breeds and races under the name of Trainers House Enterprises Ltd. Photos Bill Selwyn

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The Big Picture

Brilliant Baaeed Is Baaeed unbeatable over a mile?

Shadwell’s colt made the perfect start to his four-year-old career with a devastating performance in the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury, dispatching eight rivals with ease under Jim Crowley to extend his unblemished record to seven races.

Trainer William Haggas (right) will likely ask the son of Sea The Stars to tackle a mile and a quarter later in the year – until then Baaeed looks set to carry all before him in the mile division, with his winning run bringing comparisons with the great Frankel.

Photos Bill Selwyn

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Newbury

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The Howard Wright Column

f the BBC, and writer John Morton in particular, are looking for a diversionary follow-up to their excellent mockumentary sitcom TV series W1A, maybe they should train their sights two miles west and pick out 75HH as a working title. That’s 75 High Holborn, HQ of the BHA, for now.

British racing’s governing body has come up with the wheeze of a new job, titled Director of Strategy and Change delivery, and advertised as ‘London based (hybrid flexibility)’, whatever that means. Applications closed immediately after the May Bank Holiday, so the procedure to identify the chosen candidate should be well advanced, even if making the vacancy public through a single classified ad in the Racing Post and an entry on the Careers In Racing website, with no complementary news-story dissemination, might have caught some likely lads and lasses by surprise.

According to the advert, the job entails heading a new BHA department, named Strategy and Change delivery, “focused on leading the co-ordination and implementation of strategy, both within the BHA and across industry, alongside programme management, including oversight of cross-industry projects and initiatives.” Make of that what you will, because I’m not sure whether this is Hugh Bonneville’s role as Head of Values at the BBC or Sarah Parish’s as Director of Better.

BILL SELWYN

New BHA bridge-builder faces mission impossible I

The Bryony Frost case highlighted the BHA’s displeasure with the Appeal Board framework

Perfect storm puts pressure on pies and pints If service at your local racecourse bar has slowed almost to a halt, or the supply chain sending feed to the stable yard has been badly interrupted, or the cost of transporting your horse the length and breadth of Britain has gone through the roof, blame an unprecedented and unholy trinity.

A decade ago, landing a four-scoop rollover on the National Lottery with a single lucky dip would have been more likely than putting together a treble of forecasting Brexit, the coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s declaration of war on its neighbour Ukraine.

But that’s where we are, and the combination of all three is, not surprisingly, affecting British racing to the point where the sport cannot expect to be immune from these outside influences. Some things we took for granted only three years ago will not return for a very long time.

Falls in attendance at certain meetings may surprise those who forecast that lockdown’s pent-up anticipation would unleash a torrent of spectator activity once doors were reopened, but if you look below the

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surface psychology, a different picture emerges.

For instance, advance bookings for music nights at more than one racecourse have “fallen off a cliff,” according to one senior executive. That may suit some regular racegoers but it will not do the tracks’ balance sheets much good, as uncertainty caused by the situation in the Ukraine, the rise in the cost of energy, including fuel, and the general economic squeeze effect a perfect pincer movement.

It seems that as well as having to deal with the unleashing of the backlog of Covid-hit weddings, racecourses are facing reluctance from casual attendees more likely to want to spend on booking a family holiday abroad, now that pandemic restrictions have been eased in many once-familiar destinations, than planning ahead for a music night at the races, however good value they may be in comparison with attending a concert or festival featuring the particular artists.

Then there is still a huge labour issue on many racecourses, whether selfinflicted from failing to make up the

numbers furloughed or made redundant when the pandemic first struck, or brought on by the consequences, sometimes unintended, of outside influences such as Brexit and Covid-19.

Staff laid off during lockdowns have been either reluctant or unable to return, either for logistical or personal reasons. Some have left Britain, voluntarily or by force of circumstance; others have taken another job with more sociable hours for better pay or have got towards a certain age and decided to take early semi-retirement.

Significant numbers of those on the hospitality side have spotted grass-isgreener opportunities. So, the next time you ask for a pint and a half of lager, and the youngster behind the bar comes back after five minutes to say he can’t find a pint and a half glass – I kid you not, it really did happen recently – remember that the person who would otherwise know you were ordering two separate drinks could well be delivering your next Amazon package, being paid £16 an hour instead of the new minimum wage of £9.50.

The job spec also includes this ambitious claim: “We are looking for a proven leader who can build effective, collaborative and productive relationships with industry stakeholders, and who has a demonstrable knowledge of racing and its stakeholder landscape.” Wow! Given some of the splits that have come to the surface recently, even a United Nations peacekeeper would be hard pressed to fill the vacancy.

Whether resembling shifting sands or the movement of tectonic plates, divisions emerged into the public gaze – at least for those who bothered to look beyond the lurid headlines – before, during and after the BHA’s disciplinary case against Robbie Dunne for his treatment of fellow jockey Bryony Frost.

That change would be on its way was signalled in the BHA’s response to the Appeal Board’s written reasons for their decision to downplay Dunne’s suspension, which ended: “The BHA will be working with the independent Judicial Panel chair on a review of the Appeal Board framework. It is the BHA’s view that such panels, as well as having the appropriate legal skills and experience, ought also to be appropriately diverse and inclusive at all times.”

Setting out the two sets of attributes in that way suggests the BHA is giving equal weight to each, which would be wrong and potentially dangerous.

Thanks to the Twitter timeline of Helen Sheridan, a racing fanatic and legally-qualified editor and publisher, it was possible to distinguish between her virtue of informing and others’ vice of inflaming among social media commentary on

proceedings in the Dunne-Frost case. Most notably, she was able to put into context the personalities involved in the two stages of inquiry, leading her to the conclusion that there had been a noticeable gulf in standards.

“It was somewhat perverse that the Judicial Panel constituted the legal A team while the Appeal Board was very much the B,” she explained when asked to expand on her Twitter comments. “It is the usual expectation and the usual reality in law that the Court of Appeal will possess greater legal experience than the point of entry that is the High Court judge.

Therefore, one could reasonably expect an equivalent or greater Appeal Board than the Judicial Panel, especially as within this process the Appeal Board is the last word.”

Sheridan concluded: “As to the Appeal Board in the Dunne case, it would be fair to say, given the content of the written decision, that the legal steer was provided by [Chairman] Anthony Boswood QC, [whose] specialisation was in the fields of insurance and reinsurance, banking, financial services and arbitration.”

Given these observations, the BHA’s intention to seek change in Appeal Board procedures is interesting. Yet while the pursuit of diversity and inclusion may be regarded as worthy objectives under current worldly conditions, if it means weakening the provision of a sound structure, more emphasis should be given to expertise, experience and suitability.

Otherwise, we are in 75HH territory and a process overseen by the Director of Strategy and Change-For-Change-Sake delivery.

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The Queen greets Free Agent after his victory in the 2008 Chesham Stakes at Royal Ascot

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The Queen’s racehorses

From Arlington

TO ASCOT In the second part of our feature on Her Majesty’s thoroughbreds, we look at the decades from the 1990s up to the present day, a period highlighted by international triumphs, a thrilling Gold Cup victory and a near-miss in the Derby Words: Nancy Sexton and Martin Stevens

B

y the time 1990 opened, the Royal Studs had operated at the top table under the Queen’s guardianship for the best part of four decades. Numerous horses, the majority of them homebreds, had carried the Royal silks with distinction over that period, ranging from the King George winner and Derby runner-up Aureole, subsequently a champion sire at Wolferton Stud, to the dual Classic heroine Dunfermline.

The 1989 season had presented a landmark moment with the victory of Unknown Quantity, a descendant of yearling purchase Amicable, in the $100,000 Arlington Handicap at Arlington Park. Trained by Lord Huntingdon at West Ilsley, the Young Generation gelding had looked progressive without being a Graded stakes winner in waiting when successful in handicap company at Lingfield and Sandown Park.

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The Queen’s racehorses

Phantom Gold and Frankie Dettori prove too good for six rivals in the 1995 Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot, much to the delight of Her Majesty, pictured (right) with her homebred filly – and a beaming Dettori – in the winner’s enclosure

›› An audacious plan to take on America

was subsequently hatched and he proved up to the challenge, scoring by three lengths under Jorge Velasquez to become the Queen’s first American winner.

Unknown Quantity didn’t win again but the gelding had set the tone for the successful international forays that his trainer was to later pull off with other Royal runners.

At the head of the list was Unknown Quantity’s half-sister Starlet, a daughter of Teenoso whose four-year-old season in 1990 opened with a win at Cagnes-SurMer in France and closed with a second in the Sun Chariot Stakes at Newmarket.

Sandwiched in between was an easy Group 2 victory at Frankfurt in Germany, achieved while Starlet was in foal to Sharrood; the resulting foal, dual winner Success Story, later became a black-type producer for the Royal Studs.

Enharmonic, an American-bred Diesis colt out of the Busted mare

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Contralto, was another such animal.

Lord Huntingdon had trained Contralto to win the Fenwolf Stakes at Ascot and a decade later brought her son along steadily, saddling him to win a Listed event on his fourth start at York’s Ebor meeting as a three-year-old in 1990 before sending him on a successful tour of Europe as an older horse.

At four, Enharmonic made two winning trips to Germany, firstly when landing the Group 3 Ostermann Pokal at Cologne and then the Group 3 Oettingen-Rennen at Baden-Baden. Although winless at five, he did pack in a pair of further Group 3 placings in Germany before returning to winning ways at six, when victories in the Diomed Stakes at Epsom – achieved on the 40th anniversary of the Queen’s coronation – and Group 3 Premio Gobierno Vasco at San Sebastian in Spain came his way. Few horses, if any, since then can boast to have won Pattern races in Britain, Germany and Spain.

Similarly, Lord Huntingdon wasn’t

afraid to travel Sharp Prod. A precocious colt foaled in 1990, Sharp Prod was more in the mould of his fast sire, the top sprinter Sharpo, although his dam, Gentle Persuasion, had been forward enough to run fourth in the Princess Margaret Stakes despite being a daughter of stamina influence Bustino.

Sharp Prod was out early in 1992 and proceeded to rack up five consecutive victories at home and on the continent, crowned by the Listed Criterium de Bequet at Bordeaux and Group 2 Moet & Chandon-Rennen at Baden-Baden.

This likeable colt was on his travels again at three, when trips to Munich and Longchamp yielded wins in a pair of Listed events, and again the following year, when the highlight of a busy season was a victory in the Group 3 Holsten Trophy at Hamburg. Ultimately, Sharp Prod won nine races, six of them at stakes level across Europe.

Yet Lord Huntingdon was to travel further afield with the popular grey

“Phantom Gold emulated her granddam with her win in the Ribblesdale”

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under Frankie Dettori she held on for a popular win in the Ribblesdale Stakes. In the process, she emulated her granddam Expansive, a daughter of Amicable who had been successful 16 years before.

Phantom Gold is remembered by Timeform as a “characterful individual”, one who was prone to swishing her tail and hanging left when under pressure.

However, she went on to embellish her season with a win in the St Simon Stakes at Newbury and was kept in training at four, when a victory in the Geoffrey Freer

Arabian Story. Fittingly a close relation to Unknown Quantity, the Sharrood gelding initially hit prominence when running away with the 1996 Moet & Chandon Silver Magnum at Epsom under Luis Urbano-Grajales. He continued to improve thereafter, bagging the Steventon Stakes at Newbury and running Posidonas to a short-head in an Arc trial, with Swain in behind, prior to an assault on the Melbourne Cup. The first – and to date only – Royal runner in the iconic Australian event, Arabian Story wasn’t disgraced in sixth under Frankie Dettori behind Might And Power. He was beaten less than four lengths, and as Dettori outlined to the press, the result might have been closer had the horse not missed the start.

“He got upset in the stalls and missed the start by a length,” he said at the time.

“He relaxed well and was moving into the race at the 800 metres. He got to the line well.”

However, the horse with which the Queen is arguably most closely associated during this era is not one of those admirable international campaigners but Phantom Gold, another member of the Amicable clan foaled in 1992.

From the first crop of Machiavellian, Phantom Gold had shaped like a potentially smart filly for Lord Huntingdon when winning her second start, a maiden at Sandown, as a two-year-old, and it all came together the following June when

Stakes while in foal to Cadeaux Genereux justified connections’ perseverance.

Phantom Gold’s career had done much to bring her branch of the Amicable family into sharper focus. Yet her achievements marked only the start of a fruitful decade for her dam, Trying For Gold.

Her 1994 filly by the Royal Studs stallion Shirley Heights, Tempting Prospect, ran second in a Newbury Oaks Trial while her full-sister Fictitious was handled by Sir Michael Stoute to win the Listed Hoppings Stakes at Chepstow.

Fictitious was later sent to America, where she won the Grade 3 De La Rose Handicap for Christophe Clement.

The popular staying handicapper Whitechapel, meanwhile, carried the Royal colours to victory in no fewer than 11 races. He was a firm presence throughout the decade, which closed with two members of Roger Charlton’s Beckhampton stable, Fairy Godmother and Holly Blue, landing Listed races within weeks of each other in June 1999; Fairy Godmother won the Ballymacoll Stud Fillies Stakes while Holly Blue landed the Fern Hill Fillies Rated Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Each remained in training for 2000 but neither could match the rapid progression of Fairy Godmother’s older half-brother Blueprint. A sixth generation Royal homebred as a descendant of Feola, the Generous colt had initially been trained

by Lord Huntingdon, for whom he had won the 1998 Melrose Handicap at York.

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The Queen’s racehorses ›› Lord Huntingdon retired from training

at the end of that year and the horses dispersed to different trainers, including Richard Hannon and Sir Michael Stoute, both then new additions to the roster.

Blueprint headed to the latter’s Freemason Lodge Stables in Newmarket – fittingly once base of the Queen’s

“Blueprint had added lustre to the Highclere branch of the Feola family” Classic trainer Captain Sir Cecil BoydRochfort. The colt’s physique and breeding lent confidence to the idea that he would improve with a winter on his back, and so it proved. Partnered by the top American jockey Gary Stevens, then attached to the Stoute yard, Blueprint won the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes at Royal Ascot on his second start at four before making the anticipated successful leap into black-

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Carlton House: high-class form in the UK and Australia

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type company with a win in the Fred Archer Stakes at Newmarket.

For Stevens, who had made the move to Britain that summer to refresh his jaded enthusiasm, the Royal Ascot victory was certainly one to savour.

“I’ve ridden champions in $5 million races,” he told the press following the race. “But to ride a winner for the Queen, at her meeting, and to meet her was the most exciting and happiest moment of my career. And the silks I wore; they were old ones and when I put them on, I thought of all the great jockeys who had worn them before.”

Ace US rider Gary Stevens enjoyed his Royal Ascot victory on Blueprint in the 1999 Duke of Edinburgh Handicap

2000s

Stevens was to put his knowledge of Blueprint to good use later on in the horse’s career when steering him to victory in the Grade 2 San Luis Rey Handicap at Santa Anita. By that stage, the horse was under the ownership of Fog City Stable, having been sold to continue his career in the US following a winning reappearance for the Queen in the Jockey Club Stakes at Newmarket. An admirable colt who won nine races in all, he went on to stand as a jumps sire with some success in Britain and Ireland.

Blueprint helped open the decade on a positive footing but sadness was to come in September 2001 with the death of the Queen’s long-term racing manager Lord Carnarvon. An enthusiastic owner-breeder himself whose colours had been carried to high-profile success by the likes of Little Wolf, Smuggler, Lyric Fantasy, Niche and Lemon Souffle, he left a major void within the Royal operation that came to be filled by his son-in-law John Warren.

Blueprint’s success had added further lustre to the Highclere branch of the Feola family that was to be subsequently enhanced

by Banknote, bred out of the Queen Mother’s Bustino mare Brand.

Plagued by a series of problems while in training, Brand never made it to the track, but it is said that stud manager Sir Michael Oswald believed that she might be worth breeding from and thankfully so, given the subsequent achievements of her 2002 Zafonic colt foal, Banknote. Sent to Andrew Balding, he progressed from classy handicapper to Group 3-winning miler during a lengthy 27-start career before retiring to stud in Turkey.

The exploits of Right Approach, meanwhile, paid further tribute to the line descending from Highclere’s

half-sister Christchurch. Another by Machiavellian, Right Approach was shadowed by high expectations from the time he made a winning juvenile debut for Sir Michael Stoute at Newmarket.

Hopes that he would develop into a Derby colt failed to materialise but with patient handling he did indeed go on to hold his own at the top level as an older horse, most notably when running second to Dubai Destination in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot.

He was subsequently sold to race on internationally with South African trainer Mike de Kock, for whom he won the 2004 Dubai Duty Free.

As those results showed, the Feola line continued to remain integral to the Royal Studs.

However, it was one of the Queen’s most remarkable families that also helped drive the Royal Studs forward during this era. Homebred Example, by Exbury out of Amicable, had been one of the most successful fillies of the 1971 season,

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winning the Park Hill Stakes and Prix de Royallieu for Ian Balding. Sadly, Example died foaling her first foal, Pas De Deux, and when that filly showed limited ability, there must have been doubt over the idea of Example’s legacy taking hold. Yet take hold it did, with Pas De Deux becoming so influential that today the Nijinsky mare features as the ancestress of almost 20 stakes winners, among them last year’s Solario Stakes scorer Reach For The Moon.

A chief cog in that development was Pas De Deux’s talented daughter Starlet.

The Queen had been restricted for some time in her use of Irish-based stallions but by the late 1990s that avenue had thankfully opened up; Starlet was sent to Sadler’s Wells and the resulting foal, Interlude, won the Prix de Pomone at Deauville for Sir Michael Stoute having previously run an unlucky third in the Ribblesdale Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Sadly, Interlude died young without producing a foal, something which

undoubtedly made the achievements of her older half-sister Success Story all the more sweeter. Success Story was the Sharrood filly that Starlet was carrying at the time of her win in a German Group 2 and while she didn’t show the talent of her dam on the track, went on to become an important producer, notably as the dam of Film Script, a daughter of Unfuwain trained by Roger Charlton to win the Lingfield Oaks Trial and Golden Daffodil Stakes. In turn, she went on to foal the high-class two-year-old Free Agent, winner of the 2008 Chesham Stakes for Richard Hannon.

Not to be outdone was the branch belonging to Pas De Deux’s Northern Baby daughter Trying For Gold. As anticipated, Phantom Gold became a major asset to the stud. A regular visitor to Sadler’s Wells, she threw two quite different fillies in Flight Of Fancy, a slightly unlucky runner-up in the 2001 Oaks, and Golden Stream, a proper 7f performer who won the Listed Eternal

and October Stakes. What made the latter interesting was the speed she showed for one by Sadler’s Wells out of a proven middle-distance runner.

Flight Of Fancy, on the other hand, had spent a lot of that winter as ante-post favourite for the Oaks following a highly impressive Salisbury maiden win. An educational fourth in the Musidora Stakes did little to dampen enthusiasm and in the event Flight Of Fancy overcame a challenging passage to get within striking distance of the winner Imagine. However, the filly had hung sharply left while doing so and it later emerged that she had suffered a hairline fracture to her pelvis.

“I think she would have won if she hadn’t hurt herself,” Stoute recalled in Her Majesty’s Pleasure by Julian Muscat.

“She hung very badly after she injured her pelvis and could never race again.”

Both Flight Of Fancy and Golden Stream have since become important producers but, as with any major operation, the stud has also continued to benefit from the influx of new blood.

Kissing Gate, a daughter of Easy Goer purchased as a yearling, was one such mare as the dam of Listed winner Forward Move as was Marl, a daughter of Lycius who threw Sceptre Stakes winner Medley and the stakes-placed Green Line. Another purchase, the well-related Montjeu filly Enticement, also won the Montrose Stakes as a two-year-old in 2008 and returned to Newmarket the following year to capture another Listed event.

2010s to present

The first year of the 2010s was not the most productive of the Queen’s rich history in racing, strictly in terms of blacktype success on the track, as there were only the two Listed winners in the Royal colours, both trained by Richard Hannon snr – Free Agent in the John Smith’s Silver Cup at York and Royal Exchange in the Stonehenge Stakes at Salisbury.

There was also a rather frustrating near-miss at Royal Ascot that season as Quadrille, an admirably consistent son of Danehill Dancer out of Fictitious also in the care of Hannon snr, was just reeled in

by Afsare in a finish of bobbing heads to the Hampton Court Stakes.

However, it turned out to be the calm before the storm, as that autumn the two-year-old Carlton House was sent out

by Sir Michael Stoute to win a typically competitive Newbury back-end maiden by nine lengths. It took only a shake of the reins from Ryan Moore for the handsome bay, bred by Darley, to surge clear in the most impressive fashion.

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The Queen’s racehorses ››

Excitement grew over the winter that the colt by Street Cry – whose son Street Sense had won the Kentucky Derby when the Queen fulfilled her long-held ambition of attending the ‘run for the roses’ in 2007 – might be the one to finally win the Derby for the monarch, and it reached fever pitch when he showed abundant class to gain an emphatic victory over Racing Post Trophy second Seville in the Dante on his three-year-old bow.

Carlton House’s promotion to Derby favourite created a huge buzz, not only in racing circles but among the wider public too, and it must have provided a lively talking point when the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh embarked on their historic state visit to Ireland, which took in trips to the Irish National Stud, Gilltown Stud and Coolmore, just a few days later.

Carlton House maintained his position at the head of the Derby betting in spite of a late fitness scare, his price no doubt a reflection of the intense interest in the Queen potentially celebrating a first winner of the race. It wasn’t quite to be on the big day at Epsom, where newlyweds the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge were in attendance to help cheer on the colt, but he finished a highly creditable third behind the fast-finishing Pour Moi – partnered by a young Mickael Barzalona, who famously celebrated before the winning line – and the more prominently ridden Treasure Beach, with a wide trip and a lost shoe hindering his effort.

Carlton House ran fourth to Treasure Beach in the Irish Derby, narrowly beaten once again by stronger staying rivals, and the decision was taken to drop him in trip at four, when he won the Brigadier Gerard and took second in the Prince of Wales’s Stakes. He was later sent to Gai Waterhouse to become the Queen’s first horse in training in Australia and finished a short-head second in the Ranvet Stakes and third, behind two true top-notchers in Dundeel and Sacred Falls, in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

Carlton House was not the only blacktype winner owned by the Queen in 2011.

Tactician, a gelding from the first crop of the Royal Studs stallion Motivator out of Tempting Prospect, a winning Shirley Heights half-sister to Quadrille’s dam Fictitious, made it back-to-back Royal winners of the John Smith’s Silver Cup, while Set To Music, a Danehill Dancer filly bred by the Aga Khan from a mare related to Zarkava, rose through the handicap ranks to win the Galtres Stakes.

Both were trained by Michael Bell.

In the next couple of years another filly who was the result of the Aga Khan

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making a number of mares available to the Queen as an 80th birthday present caused a hullabaloo that eclipsed even the excitement generated by Carlton House’s Derby challenge.

Estimate, a half-sister to Group 1 winners Ebadiyla, Edabiya and Enzeli by the outstanding German sire Monsun, and a one-time stablemate of Carlton House at Stoute’s Freemason Lodge, provided the Queen with a Royal Ascot winner

in her Diamond Jubilee year thanks to her bloodless five-length victory in the Queen’s Vase at three.

Estimate ran third to Wild Coco in both the Lillie Langtry Stakes and Park Hill Stakes later in 2012 and improved over the winter to win the Sagaro Stakes and to emulate her half-brother Enzeli’s success in the Gold Cup at four. It was the Queen’s first success in the race – the first for any reigning monarch in its 207-year

Estimate and Ryan Moore (left) edge home in the 2013 Gold Cup, providing a first success for a reigning monarch in the race’s rich history

history, in fact – and the image of her celebrating the victory and affectionately greeting the filly in the winner’s enclosure are still fondly remembered by racing fans today.

Estimate was somewhat inconsistent later in her career – Stoute remarked that although her resolve was unimpeachable, she was very energetic and had a tendency to be “a little bit narky” – but she added the Doncaster Cup to her resumé at four and promises to be an important addition to the Royal broodmare band. Two of her early progeny, the Dubawi geldings Calculation and Evaluation, have won multiple times and achieved high ratings, and she has a two-year-old filly by Siyouni and a yearling colt by Lope De Vega to look forward to.

The Queen’s familiarity with the unpredictable nature of horses, and the knowledge that in racing those two impostors triumph and disaster must be treated the same, proved invaluable not long after Estimate’s Gold Cup heroics.

Later in 2013 the brilliant Dubawi colt Al Kazeem was bought to stand at the Royal Studs, and syndicated among some of the world’s leading breeders, only for the horse to prove subfertile and be returned into training the following spring.

“The Queen was particularly disappointed by the news but made the comment that, sadly, horses will always

have the last word,” noted her racing manager John Warren at the time.

As it turned out, another stallion prospect emerged soon after in the shape of Recorder, a Royal Studs product

by Galileo out of the Albany Stakes and Cherry Hinton Stakes winner Memory. He looked a star when winning a Newmarket maiden and the Acomb Stakes at two for William Haggas, but was prevented from running at three or older due to injury.

The shrewd decision was made to

“Estimate is an important addition to the broodmare band” send this high-class, precocious talent with an impeccable pedigree to Haras de Montfort et Preaux to take advantage of the buoyant French bloodstock market.

It is still early days in his second career but his second crop of two-year-olds has yielded the Queen›s recent Nottingham maiden winner Garner.

The exciting colt is out of a placed Oasis Dream half-sister to My Kingdom Of Fife, who became a rare Group 1

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The Queen, with racing manager John Warren, trainer Sir Michael Stoute and Princess Anne, welcomes back Estimate after her Gold Cup triumph

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The Queen’s racehorses ›› winner bred by the person after whom

“Reach For The Moon is from a family that the Queen has long nurtured” The Queen has sent a number of jumps mares to Dartmouth, and it must give her immense pleasure to honour the late Queen Mother’s passion for National Hunt racing by continuing the royal patronage of the winter game. Close Touch, Forth Bridge and Sunshade all bore the monarch’s colours to win blacktype hurdle races in the 2010s, when

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The Queen, pictured with her son Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall at Royal Ascot, has much to look forward to this year with exciting colt Reach For The Moon (below right), who made a promising reappearance at Sandown in May

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the race was named, when taking the 2011 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick.

Memory has certainly enhanced the Royal Studs broodmare band, with all of her first three foals becoming black-type winners. Recorder, her debut offspring, was followed by Call To Mind, another son of Galileo who won the Belmont Gold Cup and ran second in the Yorkshire Cup, and Learn By Heart, a son of Frankel who finished second in the Ascendant Stakes and later became a star in Scandinavia.

The mare has a two-year-old filly by Dubawi, named Reminder, and a yearling filly by Night Of Thunder in the pipeline.

Like London buses, another appealing stallion prospect arrived soon after Recorder. Dartmouth, a son of Galileo and Blue Wind Stakes winner Galatee, another mare loaned by Darley to the Royal Studs, established himself as a high-class handicapper at three, when he was sent out by Sir Michael Stoute to win valuable heats at Ascot and Glorious Goodwood, and later rose to the cream of the middledistance ranks.

He took the John Porter Stakes, Ormonde Stakes and Hardwicke Stakes and finished placed in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Canadian International at four, and won the Yorkshire Cup and was beaten just a nose into second in the Lonsdale Cup at five.

Dartmouth was retired to Shade Oak Stud in Shropshire at the end of his racing career and has been well supported by British-based National Hunt breeders in pursuit of an attractive horse with plenty of stamina and a dash of serious class. His first crop of three-year-olds will go under the hammer at this summer’s store sales.

the small string of jumpers was expertly overseen by Sir Michael Oswald, a former manager of the Royal Studs and the Queen Mother’s jumps interests, who died last year after half a century of devoted service to the royal family.

An amusing aside related to jump racing is that being a pedigree buff, the Queen may have raised a wry smile when her Unfuwain mare Film Script achieved the rare distinction of producing winners at both Royal Ascot and the Cheltenham Festival, with Domesday Book scoring in the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Challenge Cup for his new owner Jim Humberstone in 2017, nine years after Free Agent had taken the Chesham Stakes.

Dartmouth was part of a flurry of stakes success for the Queen in the second half of the 2010s, with both the longer established Royal Studs families and newer injections of blood producing some fine results.

In 2015, Peacock, a son of Paco Boy and Rainbow’s Edge, a winning Rainbow Quest half-sister to Free Agent and Domesday Book, won the Fairway Stakes for Richard Hannon jnr, while the Haggastrained Light Music, a daughter of Elusive Quality and Medley, scored in the Radley Stakes.

In the following year Diploma, a daughter of Dubawi and Enticement, struck in the Lyric Fillies’ Stakes for Stoute, and in 2017 Fabricate, by Makfi out of Oaks runner-up Flight Of Fancy, notched the first of his back-to-back victories in the Winter Hill Stakes for Bell, while Daphne, a daughter of Duke Of Marmalade and Flight Of Fancy’s useful half-sister Daring Aim, struck in the River Eden Fillies’ Stakes for Haggas.

Call To Mind and Fabricate were the headline acts for the Queen in 2018, while Listed successes for the Stoutetrained Sextant, a son of Sea The Stars and Hypoteneuse, a winning full-sister to Flight Of Fancy, and the Haggas-trained Magnetic Charm, an Exceed And Excel half-sister to the high-class Usherette out of a Darley-owned mare, were among the highlights of 2019.

Careful cultivation of key families through judicious matings and selective culls, combined with occasional highclass additions to the broodmare band, have continued to pay off in the early years of the 2020s.

Tactical, a son of Toronado, was sent out by Andrew Balding to win the Windsor Castle Stakes and July Stakes at two and the European Handicap at three

ALAMY

in 2021. He provides further evidence of the efforts made to keep reinvigorating bloodlines, as he is out of the Makfi mare Make Fast, who entered the Queen’s ownership as part of a filly exchange with Qatar Racing and finished second to fellow Royal colour-bearer Light Music in the Radley Stakes in her racing pomp.

King’s Lynn and Light Refrain have been two more unusually speedy products of the Royal Studs breeding programme in recent years.

King’s Lynn, sent out by Balding to win a valuable sales race at two and a pair of Listed sprints at four, put himself in the picture for Royal Ascot with victory in the Group 2 Temple Stakes at Haydock on May 21. He is by Cable Bay out of Kinematic, a sharp and speedy filly who certainly resembled her sire, the five-furlong star Kyllachy, more than her dam, the Lupe Stakes second Spinning Top. That mare was by Alzao

out of Zenith, who in turn was a winning daughter of Shirley Heights and Soprano, a dual Listed winner and game third to Al Bahathri in the Coronation Stakes.

Light Refrain, meanwhile, has made a name for herself as one of the fastest progeny of Frankel, who has turned out to be a rich source of stamina more often than not. The four-year-old filly, sent out

by Haggas to win the Kilvington Stakes and Summer Stakes last summer, is the first foal out of Light Music.

Her year-younger half-sister Distant Light, by Fastnet Rock, could also develop into a useful performer for the Queen, judging by her two-length victory in a Lingfield fillies’ novice stakes for Balding in April.

In spite of that run of sprinters, the focus of the Royal Studs remains on trying to produce Classic performers for the Queen, and especially a colt who could complete her nap hand of British Classics by winning the Derby.

Hopes were high that Reach For The Moon, a four-length winner of the Solario Stakes and runner-up in the Champagne Stakes last year, might do the job in this Platinum Jubilee year, but he failed to recover from an injury in time to compete in his intended Derby trial, the Dante Stakes, and the big race at Epsom itself.

Reach For The Moon contested the Heron Stakes at Sandown on his delayed reappearance at three and in chasing home My

Prospero, ran a race that gave hope that he could provide the Queen with a Royal Ascot winner in the 70th year of her reign; not bad compensation for missing the Derby.

Reach For The Moon is a most fitting standard-bearer for the Royal Studs in this momentous year, as he hails from a family that the Queen has nurtured for most of her reign. He is one of three black-type horses out of Golden Stream, a Listed-winning full-sister to Flight Of Fancy, whose fourth dam was the Nell Gwyn winner Amicable. Her purchase as a yearling in 1961 was detailed when we began this overview of the Queen’s time in racing in the last issue.

Throughout all those years, the Queen has remained a steadfast supporter of racing, and in return her horses and their human connections have provided her with an enjoyable diversion from the affairs of state.

Her Majesty, who has been Patron of the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association since 1954, was a most worthy inductee into the QIPCO British Champions Series Racing Hall of Fame last year, in honour of her unswerving and lifelong dedication to the sport. The news prompted her racing manager John Warren to pay a tribute that neatly encapsulates her endeavours.

“The Queen’s contribution to racing and breeding derives from a lifelong commitment,” he said. “Her love of horses and their welfare comes with a deep understanding of what is required to breed, rear, train and ride a thoroughbred.

“Her Majesty’s fascination is unwavering and her pleasure derives from all of her horses – always accepting the outcome of their ability so gracefully.”

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35

The rise of Japan

Silence is

GOLDEN The shrewd recruitment of top-class US dirt performer Sunday Silence kickstarted a revolution in Japanese racing and breeding – today the nation’s runners are a force to be reckoned with all around the world Words: Nancy Sexton

A

rthur Hancock did everything he could to stand his Kentucky Derby winner Sunday Silence. A multiple Grade 1 winner in possession of an appealing mental and physical soundness, there were grounds for thinking that the horse would be an asset to Kentucky when the time came for him to retire to stud.

Hancock set the wheels in motion to stand the horse alongside his sire Halo at his Stone Farm for the 1991 season. But there were no takers. The tall, lanky Sunday Silence had been a cheap $17,000 buyback as a yearling and had an underwhelming female line. By contrast, his great racetrack rival, Easy Goer, was a big, flashy, well-connected son of Alydar; as Hancock’s brother Seth prepared to send 40 contracts out to breeders for Easy Goer at Claiborne Farm, interest in Sunday Silence spluttered.

In an interview with Trainer magazine last year, Hancock recalled: “At the same time, I got a call from a representative of Teruya Yoshida saying that Shadai would be interested in buying the whole horse.

They were offering $250,000 per share. It was a no-brainer to sell because at the end of the day, I had two contracts and three shares sold.

“Basically, the Japanese outsmarted everybody.”

Those words have rung true ever since.

Sunday Silence was an incredible success in his new home from the outset, with his first crop containing the country’s champion two-year-old Fuji Kiseki, Oaks heroine Dance Partner and the 2,000 Guineas one-two Genuine and Tayasu Tsuyoshi, who also filled the first two places in reverse order in the Japanese

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Derby. In all, he sired 171 stakes winners led by six Japanese Derby scorers and a host of successful stallion sons, among them Deep Impact, Heart’s Cry and Daiwa Major.

So dominant was Sunday Silence that today it is estimated that at least 70% of broodmares based in Japan have him somewhere in their female lines.

His success, which built on the foundations laid by Japan’s previously dominant stallion Northern Taste,

“It was a nobrainer to sell.

The Japanese outsmarted everybody” coincided at a time of great determination by Japanese breeders to improve their stock. That in particular rang true in the case of the Yoshida family, who for many years have done what they can to purchase the best fillies and mares from around the world.

All the while, training methods have continued to be honed and the drive to compete internationally bolstered. The Japanese public enjoy racing immensely, their enthusiasm undoubtedly encouraged by a desire by owners to race horses on well beyond three years of age; never will you see a horse retired to stud after his juvenile season. Similarly,

middle-distance and staying races are revered within the racing programme, meaning that a number of the more popular stallions are true middle-distance performers. Deep Impact, for instance, won five Group 1 races over a mile and a half or beyond including the Tenno Sho Spring over two miles.

Japanese participants have been a frequent presence on the international stage for several decades. It was almost 24 years ago that trainer Hideyuki Mori sent Seeking The Pearl out to win the Prix Maurice de Gheest at Deauville.

Celebrated as the first Japanese-trained winner of a European Group 1, the feat was repeated only a week later at the same track by the Kazoo Fujisawa-trained Taiki Shuttle in the Prix Jacques les Marois.

Today, it is very much a case of ignore Japanese raiders at your peril, something we have been reminded of on a particularly regular basis over the past 12 months. There was the Breeders’ Cup meeting at Del Mar in California last November where trainer Yoshito Yahagi saddled Marche Lorraine to spring a 50-1 upset in the Distaff and Loves Only You to win the Filly & Mare Turf ahead of a successful swansong in the Hong Kong Cup at Sha Tin in Hong Kong.

As successful as that raid was, however, it paled in comparison to events at the Saudi Cup meeting in Riyadh in February, when Japanese-trained horses, namely Authority, Lauda Lion, Stay Foolish and Dancing Prince, swept four of the day’s Group races.

And yet Japanese horses were even more dominant on Dubai World Cup at Meydan the next month. Their success at

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GEORGE SELWYN

Sunday Silence, pictured the morning after his victory in the 1989 Breeders’ Cup Classic at Gulfstream Park, established a legacy in Japan, primarily through his record-breaking son Deep Impact (inset)

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37

The rise of Japan Victoire Pisa, Almond Eye, Stay Gold and Just A Way among others – but even so, the 2022 meeting took matters to a new level with Bathrat Leon capturing the Godolphin Mile, Stay Foolish following up his Saudi success by landing the Dubai Gold Cup, Crown Pride scoring in the UAE Derby, Panthalassa dead-heating for victory in the Dubai Turf, and Shahryar winning the Dubai Sheema Classic.

The quintet provided a fine snapshot into the Japanese industry. Firstly, four possess Sunday Silence in their pedigree, namely grandsons Shahryar (by Deep Impact) and Stay Foolish (by Stay Gold) and great-grandsons Bathrat Leon (by the successful Deep Impact stallion Kizuna) and Crown Pride (by the Special Week horse Reach The Crown). King Kamehameha, who stood at Shadai during the era of Deep Impact, also featured heavily, in his case as the paternal grandsire of Panthalassa (by the popular Lord Kanaloa) and damsire of Stay Foolish and Crown Pride.

Shahryar is particularly well-connected as a Deep Impact son of the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint winner Dubai Majesty. She cost Northern Farm’s Katsumi Yoshida $1.1 million at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale in Kentucky yet had she been by a more successful sire than Essence Of Dubai, a Floridabased son of Pulpit, it’s most likely that

Shahryar, a son of Deep Impact, takes the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic in March under Cristian Demuro

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Yoshida would have faced far stronger competition.

Japanese buyers, in particular the Yoshida family, have excelled with taking a chance on this type of mare for many years – think Donna Blini, the best sired

by Bertolini who threw Japanese Horse of the Year Gentildonna. Aligned with the inevitable acquisitions of regally-bred fillies and the end result is a stock base

“The racing programme is diverse and that helps the breeding side” bursting with quality.

“From a pedigree point of view, it certainly seems that the import of world-class stallions like Sunday Silence and also of high-quality mares from around the world, which has happened as a result of the Japanese breeding industry’s collective effort to breed superior racehorses, has borne fruit,” says Kaoru Matsuda of the Japan Bloodhorse

Breeders’ Association.

“Overall, the recent international success of Japanese horses is most likely a result of the experience gained from many years of Japanese horsemen venturing overseas, including the process of transporting the horses and selecting the right race for each horse. And the improvement of training methods in Japan over the years, with better increased coordination between the Japan Racing Association (JRA) training centres and private training farms, is also probably a significant factor as well.”

Keisuke Onishi of the JS Company, a regular buyer in Europe and the US who bought Little Book, the dam of 2019 Japanese Derby winner Roger Barows, at Tattersalls, is in agreement.

“Many people believe that Sunday Silence triggered big changes to horseracing in Japan and I agree with that,” he says. “Also, I agree that breeders, breakers and trainers have worked hard and got the method and technology right to make a good, tough and strong horse.

“Many horsemen have sent good runners to big races all over the world, especially Europe, US, Australia, Middle East and Hong Kong. I think many trying experiences made Japanese horsemen grow up – they have learned how to make the horses perform better, both physically and mentally, despite the environmental changes and long flights they encounter.”

A regard for middle-distance horses appears to have paid off. Would a horse such as Harbinger, the wide-margin King George winner of 2010, have succeeded at stud in Europe? In light of our desire for precocious speed, it’s an interesting question. As it is, the son of Dansili has thrived under the Shadai banner in Japan, notably as the sire of Group 1 winners such as Normcore and Deirdre, who landed the 2019 Nassau Stakes at Goodwood for Japan.

“We have a very good business

BILL SELWYN

›› that meeting is nothing new – think

model as all the income stays in the industry,” says Kanichi Kasuano, general manager of the JRA. “95% of betting turnover goes back into the industry, so as long as we get the turnover, the industry stays healthy.

“Japanese people enjoy betting and horseracing is viewed in a positive light compared to other betting outlets. So it’s a popular sport. And the horse’s beauty itself is an important element in that.

“The JRA controls everything. There is a diverse programme of racing [split between turf and dirt] and that helps the breeding side. Also the owners have been working very hard to improve the bloodlines. You could say it’s been a long-term project – a strong combination of a good business model and a longterm strategy.”

“It’s taken them probably 50 years to get to this point,” says agent John Tyrrell of the BBA Ireland. “Go racing there and see the depth of the crowds. On a big day like the Derby, they will be queuing to get in from early morning and you’ll have 120,000 people. Even on other days, the enthusiasm for the crowd is very evident.”

He adds: “The focus is on middledistance horses, those ten-furlong to 12-furlong horses, because over there, if you really want to get into the sport, those Classic types are what’s needed.

“The Shadai Group are in a position where they can tinker with different bloodlines. What probably helps is that breeders have access to a broader spectrum of bloodlines than what is available over here. There is a dominance through Sunday Silence but other bloodlines are successful there.

“Lord Kanaloa has been a big success for them, he was all speed on the track but has been versatile at stud. Drefong [the current leading second-crop sire] is the same – he was a very fast sprinter in the US but he’s just sired the Japanese 2,000 Guineas winner [Geoglyph].

“And of course, they have been buying very good mares on a regular basis for many years now. In the past they would always look to buy a black-type mare or filly, but more recently there appears to have been a focus on buying into strong families as well.”

Once unwanted by breeders, the Sunday Silence sire-line is now in demand across the globe.

By the late 1990s, Shadai had entered into a partnership with John Messara of Arrowfield Stud with the principal idea of breeding mares to Sunday Silence on southern hemisphere time. Out of that limited pool, Sunday Silence threw the 2003 AJC Oaks heroine Sunday Joy and

European appeal For decades Japanese stallion masters have looked to Europe to secure new recruits. Never was this more evident than the 1990s when a slew of Derby winners – Dr Devious, Commander In Chief, Erhaab, Oath and High-Rise – retired straight to Japan.

While it is a strategy that has yielded mixed rewards, it did mean that Japanese breeders gained access to a wide range of bloodlines to improve their stock.

At the forefront of the movement is the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders’ Association (JBBA). Established in 1955, the JBBA has imported numerous stallions from around the world with the aim of raising the standard of Japanese breeding. At the same time it works to offer a roster where the emphasis is on variety; one of its main aims is to prevent the over-concentration of certain bloodlines within the industry.

The JBBA operates three stallion stations on the island of Hokkaido, which are home to several well-known European names, notably Frankel’s Group 1-winning brother Noble Mission, Arc hero Bago, top miler Declaration Of War, 2,000 Guineas winner Makfi, Irish Derby scorer Cape Blanco and Champion Stakes hero David Junior.

Johannesburg, a brilliant two-yearold who has left a major mark on the breed as the sire of Scat Daddy, also resides with the JBBA in retirement.

“It is hard to pinpoint one thing in particular the JBBA looks for,” says Kaoru Matsuda, who heads its stallion operation and international affairs department. “That said, we do tend to import new bloodlines from Europe or America to offset any unhealthy concentration of particular bloodlines, with the goal of helping to raise the overall quality of Japanese horses.

“Japanese racing is structured with the Japanese Derby as its top race, but there is demand for various types of horses including sprinters, middledistance runners, turf and dirt horses.

As such, variety remains quite important in Japanese racing.”

While the JBBA secures a number of colts for stallion duty straight off the track, it also makes a point of acquiring established stallions. Variety in stallion lines is key, as borne out by the current roster which ranges from sons of Tapit

“xx xxx xx xx xxx”

››

Bago: still in service aged 21

(Belmont Stakes winner Creator) and Into Mischief (Grade 1 winner Mischievous Alex) to those by Dubawi (Makfi) and Galileo (Noble Mission and Cape Blanco). Interestingly, the roster contains not one descendant of Sunday Silence.

Makfi joined the JBBA in 2017 following stints at Tweenhills Farm and Haras de Bonneval while Declaration Of War joined in 2019 having previously stood for Coolmore. Noble Mission arrived for the 2021 season as the sire of Grade 1 winner Code Of Honor from his time at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky.

“Makfi has been quite successful for us with a JRA Graded stakes winner [All At Once] from his first crop,” says Matsuda. “From his second crop, he has sired a good number of dirt winners, so we are hopeful that he can be successful on turf and dirt. He has been very popular with breeders.

“Declaration Of War’s progeny in Japan too are being well-received; in fact, a filly was the highest priced lot at this year’s JRA Breeze-Up Sale.

“Noble Mission, of course, is very attractive in terms of his pedigree, and we are pleased to say that breeders are very happy with the quality of his first foals this year.”

As for Arc hero Bago, he is enjoying a purple patch late in life thanks to the exploits of champion Chrono Genesis and Group 1 performer Stella Veloce.

The son of Nashwan has stood at the JBBA since his retirement from racing and is the sire of 11 stakes winners overall.

“Bago is 21 this year and with his successful record, he is still quite popular,” says Matsuda. “We expect him to give us a few more star runners, so we are hoping we can keep him healthy and active for a while longer.”

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39

The rise of Japan

TATTERSALLS

›› Listed winner Keep The Faith,

Keisuke Onishi: bought the dam of 2019 Japanese Derby winner Roger Barows at Tattersalls 40

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Harbinger: top-class middle-distance runner retired straight to the Shadai Stallion Station after his sale to Japan

GEORGE SELWYN

subsequently a Group 1 sire.

Sheikh Mohammed sent his Woodman mare Wood Vine to Sunday Silence in 1998 and bred Silent Honor, who was trained by David Loder to win the 2001 Cherry Hinton Stakes.

The Wertheimer brothers also had a successful experience as breeder of the Grade 2-winning miler Silent Name. Now a Group 1-producing sire at Adena Springs North in Canada, 20-year-old Silent Name boasts the distinction of being the only son of Sunday Silence currently in service outside of Japan.

Similarly, the Niarchos family were swift to patronise Sunday Silence and out of that bred Sun Is Up, the dam of their top miler Karakontie. A sire of increasing international note at Gainesway Farm in Kentucky, his early crops include current Grade 1 performer Princess Grace, a filly inbred to Sunday Silence.

Patrick Barbe’s plan to import several sons to stand in Europe during the 2000s also reaped dividends in the case of Divine Light, whose French sojourn yielded the 2008 1,000 Guineas heroine Natagora. Meanwhile, Group 1 winner Hat Trick left behind the top French two-yearold Dabirsim from his time at Walmac Farm in Kentucky.

When Sunday Silence died in 2002, it was envisaged that he would leave a massive void in the Japanese industry.

And while that was true to some extent, it was swiftly filled by his best son Deep Impact. European and North American breeders were more attuned to the capabilities of the Sunday Silence line when he retired to stud and therefore Deep Impact has been more of a regular presence in this part of the world than his sire ever was, his 56 Group 1 winners including Poule d’Essai des Pouliches heroine Beauty Parlour, Prix du Jockey Club winner Study Of Man and the high-class Coolmore trio of 2,000 Guineas scorer Saxon Warrior, Prix de Diane victress Fancy Blue and the Group 1-placed September.

It will be fascinating to see how Saxon Warrior and Study Of Man fare at stud. Coolmore’s Saxon Warrior is already off the

mark with his first two-year-olds while the first crop of the Niarchos family’s Study Of Man, who has been well supported by his connections at Lanwades Stud in Newmarket, are yearlings.

Another young member of the Sunday Silence line, Grade 1 winner Yoshida, has been popular in Kentucky at WinStar Farm. A Graded stakes winner on turf and dirt and supported by a powerful syndicate, he is the only son of Heart’s Cry at stud outside Japan.

Apart from being a tough line renowned for its physical and mental soundness, it also offers access to the Hail To Reason line via Halo, which has to be regarded as a welcome avenue given the saturation of Sadler’s Wells and Danzig blood currently at play in Europe.

On the other hand, Japanese breeding now finds itself in a place where the dominance of Sunday Silence is overwhelming. Close to 5,000 foals worldwide are inbred to the horse, among them only 40 stakes winners, although the list does include the top performers Efforia and Daring Tact. Japanese stallion masters don’t appear averse to importing new sire lines – Group 1 winners Poetic Flare and Benbatl are recent additions to Shadai and Big Red Farm – and in some instances,

success hinges on how effectively a stallion clicks with Sunday Silence-line mares; Harbinger is a case in point, having sired 17 stakes winners out of such mares.

Onishi has long imported stallions from Europe and Kentucky, many of them to stand at Arrow Stud. Recent acquisitions include champion California Chrome out of Kentucky.

“California Chrome’s first crop here are yearlings and he has covered over 120 mares this year,” he says of the $14.8 million earner. “He has been bred to many Sunday Silence-line mares and I think that will be a big help for him to enjoy success in Japan.”

The Japanese thoroughbred is more powerful than it’s ever been. It is a testament to not only their collection of bloodlines and evolving training methods but ability to appreciate the middledistance horse and stayer, something that our breeding industry is losing sight of.

“I’ve been working with Japanese buyers for over 20 years now,” says Tyrrell. “There have been a lot of changes during that time. For starters, the training has improved immensely – they have fabulous facilities up in Hokkaido.

“It really is the kind of racing product that we dream about having over here – they have the stallions, they have the mares, they have the facilities and then at the end of it they are also racing for excellent prize-money. They’ve got everything in place and now they have the confidence to go and travel these horses. And with that success comes more confidence to do it again.

“Should we be that surprised that they walked away with so many races in Saudi Arabia? And then did it again in Dubai?

No, absolutely not.”

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PERFORMANCE

Kildaragh Stud

Classic

TRAIL

Long a proven source of Group 1 talent, Peter and Antoinette Kavanagh’s Kildaragh Stud is in the midst of another purple patch highlighted by the Classic exploits of Native Trail

D

TATTERSALLS

espite how Kildaragh Stud has made it seem in recent times, producing winners isn’t easy. Each one, regardless of the level they reach, draws upon a breeder’s experience, enthusiasm, skill and no little investment.

Having applied all of the above, the Kavanagh family’s nursery has enjoyed a real purple patch during the early stages of the Turf season, with noteworthy performances at the Newmarket and Curragh Guineas meetings as well as Chester’s May jamboree, while a slew of unexposed talents elsewhere have promised more for the future, and significantly so in some cases.

No horse has carried the Kildaragh brand with greater distinction in recent

times than Native Trail, who wasn’t bred on the farm but stands as a testament to the upbringing the Kavanaghs provided after he was pinhooked as a foal from breeder Haras d’Haspel at a cost of €50,000 during the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale.

The son of Oasis Dream won’t be remembered for leaving any great windfall behind, having been sold on to Mags O’Toole and Norman Williamson for 67,000gns the following October, but the Kavanagh fingerprints will forever be found on a European champion nonetheless.

Native Trail famously stormed through an unbeaten juvenile season that culminated in bulldozing efforts in the

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BILL SELWYN

Words: James Thomas

Peter and Antoinette Kavanagh, pictured with son Roderic (right) 42

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Native Trail: Irish 2,000 Guineas winner was pinhooked by the stud

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43

Kildaragh Stud ›› National and Dewhurst Stakes, and he

resumed at three with a bloodless win in the Craven Stakes before a gallant runnerup effort to stablemate Coroebus in the 2,000 Guineas. Sent to the Curragh, he subsequently landed a Classic success of his own in the Irish 2,000 Guineas.

Native Trail first came onto the radar of Peter Kavanagh, who runs Kildaragh alongside his wife Antoinette, when the Arqana catalogue dropped through his letterbox, with the pedigree containing a recent star in Calyx and an old acquaintance in Seven Springs, dam of Observatory’s sire Distant View.

“We knew his pedigree quite well and it was one you’d have to respect,” says Kavanagh. “There was plenty of speed on the bottom line and I’d used Oasis Dream in the past successfully. Going back there was a filly that I’d actually broken and ridden in France that Robin Scully raced called Seven Springs. I remembered her and knew it was a pretty fast line that Khalid Abdullah had since astutely developed.”

Kavanagh, who pinhooks around ten foals each year, recalls that the young

Native Trail was a bigger model than he would usually select, but says he was struck by an intrinsic quality that he could not ignore.

“He was a bit bigger than I’d usually go for but he had an air of elegance about

“You never thought you were doing too much with Native Trail” him and he just struck me as a noble horse,” he says. “Even if he was a little tall he was one of those horses you see and you keep coming back to. I probably looked at him three if not four times and I could see more right than wrong with him.

He had great presence and a very fluent action.”

Flaming Rib (centre): seen winning at Chester, the Kildaragh Stud-bred looks set to take high order among the sprint division

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A bid was duly left with Sam Sangster and Kavanagh secured Native Trail for the reserve price. Once the youngster was safely back at Kildaragh, his athletic prowess was soon apparent.

“He was just a force of nature,” says Kavanagh. “He was a big imposing horse and you could give him as much work as you wanted. If he knew his own strength he could have been very difficult, but he was a very easy horse to be around and you never thought you were doing too much with him because he was such an exuberant individual.”

While a 210,000gns breeze-up transfer to Godolphin means it has been left for Charlie Appleby to harness Native Trail’s natural brilliance, Kavanagh is rightly proud of his and Kildaragh’s part in the horse blossoming into one of the most exciting talents around.

“You’re always trying to put things on the farm in favour of producing good horses with significant capital expenditure, improving facilities and streamlining the horses’ routine and taking everything to the nth degree to make things work,” he says. “And then you

‘It’s a bit like a relay race’

TATTERSALLS

get a horse like him coming through the system and it really vindicates what you’re trying to achieve.

“We’ve greatly increased our acreage over the last few years and have applied a lot of farmyard manure on a three-year rotation and graze a lot of cattle in the summer and sheep in the winter on the extended paddocks.

“I firmly believe pedigrees will not improve, whereas the environment will improve pedigrees.

“Whether it’s the grassland management or the people who handled the horse on the way through, it’s a culmination of a lot of things that leads to a horse like Native Trail. Even though he mightn’t have left us a lot of money, you know you’ve obviously done things okay and didn’t interfere with his ability and his class.”

Among the other recent Kildaragh success stories, which also include the likes of Blenheim Boy and Tuscan, is the homebred Roman Mist, who has been leased to Hot To Trot Racing and sent to trainer Tom Ward and was last seen winning the Snowdrop Fillies’ Stakes.

Roderic Kavanagh: operates as Glending Stables

While Native Trail may have always stood out as something out of the ordinary, the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor has emerged as a much less likely star having started life in handicaps from a mark of just 63.

“She looked very modest but just seems to have hit a vein of progression,” says Kavanagh. “She’s so tough and courageous. It’s hard to pinpoint where all the improvement comes from because she’s not the most imposing physical, she’s just a handy-sized filly.”

If the filly’s frame gives little away about her considerable racing abilities, the toughness she possesses is precisely what Kavanagh hoped to instil when breeding from her dam, Drifting Mist. The winning and Group 3-placed mare is by Muhtathir, a stallion Kavanagh identifies as a positive, if underestimated, influence.

“We actually bought the dam as a yearling,” he says. “I was underbidder on her as a foal so bought her the next year [for €20,000].

“We’ve always had luck with Muhtathir, who was a totally underrated stallion. He did very well subsequently over jumps, with his son Doctor Dino being a case in point, and his stock were very versatile, they’re very easy to mate and they were very generous. We have two mares on the farm by him because he’s a great outcross and I think he brings a lot to the table.”

Another Kildaragh-bred filly who went on to join Roman Mist at stakes level was Sea Silk Road, a daughter of Sea The Stars who won the Height Of Fashion Stakes at Goodwood last month on just her third outing for William Haggas and the Tsui family’s Sunderland Holdings.

Kavanagh says the 190,000gns

››

It is not just the next generation of equine talent that has benefited from being raised at Kildaragh, as the Kavanaghs’ three children – Alice, Roderic and Sophie – are all involved in the racing world. Not only do Alice and Roderic contribute to the family running of Kildaragh, but both have founded their own offshoots, with Alice selling foals and breeding stock through AK Thoroughbreds while Roderic has proved successful as a breezeup vendor as Glending Stables. Sophie oversees the Kildaragh Stud digital marketing.

“It’s a bit like a relay race,” says Peter Kavanagh. “You can run a place for so long but then you need some new energy and new blood coming through to take it to the next level. Having our kids being so passionate is an enormous boost and something we couldn’t plan for.

“We sent them away to school hoping they’d go and find something different to do and they went and toured the world pretty much but they just sort of came back this way.

They’ve been immersed in it since they were knee high so I’d say neither Alice or Roderic could really live without it. Sophie’s involved in Newbury racecourse [as Commercial Communications Manager] too and I think her happiest hours are riding out for Charlie Hills twice a week.

“It’s amazing but I suppose if it’s in the blood, it’s in the blood. The two enterprises [AK Thoroughbreds and Glending Stables] dovetail lovely into what we already do. Roderic’s breezers come along in the spring and Alice is selling foals and mares for clients after the yearling sales. It doesn’t interfere with the core business but has added an extra dimension to Kildaragh as the three are all very much interwoven behind the scenes.”

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Kildaragh Stud highest regard.

“We’ve thought a terrible lot of her all the way through,” he says. “I can still remember her the morning after she was foaled and I said ‘Wow, what a filly’, she was just the real deal. If you were to design one you couldn’t do a better job.

The mare is a little bit temperamental but this filly was just so solid, easy to work with, and no matter where you saw her, she caught your eye.

“When we sold her there were betterbred fillies than her in Book 1 but few with better balance or conformation.

Fortunately Maureen Haggas and John Clarke liked her a lot so they acquired her for Madam Tsui. She looked impressive the other day so hopefully she has a good future ahead of her.”

Sea Silk Road had been part of a notable Kildaragh double when breaking her maiden at Nottingham in early May, as the stud also saw Flaming Rib produce a career-best in a Chester conditions stakes.

Having already claimed the Doncaster Stakes among five juvenile victories, the son of Ribchester later ran a close second in the Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock Park towards the end of the month.

Flaming Rib looks well bought by Sackville Donald having been picked up for just 35,000gns, and Kavanagh says other buyers may have missed a trick by adhering to a prescriptive view of what

“Rearing young stock is a passion in itself and can be all consuming” constitutes good movement in a yearling.

“This horse probably lacked an extended walk, which penalised him in prospective buyers’ eyes, but if you are looking for a fast horse to win over five or six furlongs an extended walk is not a prerequisite in my opinion,” he says.

“He’s also by a first-crop sire in Ribchester, who I liked because he was a very versatile horse and he won four Group 1s. His progeny might not have been as precocious as people expected but we believed in him and we sent the mare back to him subsequently.”

Interestingly both Flaming Rib and Sea Silk Road are out of German-bred

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THE OWNER BREEDER

TATTERSALLS

›› yearling has always been held in the

Peter Kavanagh: a fan of German bloodlines

mares, with the former out of Suddenly, an Excelebration half-sister to Group 2 winner and German Derby second Savoir Vivre, and the latter out of Oriental Magic, a Listed-winning daughter of Doyen bred

by Gestut Auenquelle. While Kildaragh operates on a commercial basis, the presence of Suddenly and Oriental Magic among the broodmare band illustrate that, for Kavanagh, form and function will always be prioritised over fashion.

“At the end of the day, I think soundness is so crucial,” he says. “The current generation of breeders are looking for speed and precocity, probably at the cost of soundness or longevity.

“I think the German breeders, for the most part, just bred to race so they weren’t particularly concerned with the sales ring, whereas we tend to be totally dominated by what happens at the sales, and that isn’t great for the breed. We’ve bought into some of those German bloodlines purely because they’re so sound and easy to mate and the progeny just want to run.”

Kavanagh’s approach has been shaped by a lifetime immersed in the thoroughbred business. Having grown up on a sheep and cattle farm – “I suppose the stockmanship from there stuck with me,” he says – he travelled to the US, where he spent time at Tartan Farms, which was one of the major racing stables of North America with ten stallions and 200 mares.

“Tartan was a magical place,” says Kavanagh. “A man called John Hartigan managed it and he was an exceptional horseman. It was very interesting moving from Ireland to somewhere like Florida, both in terms of the climate and how you manage horses. I then went to France to

Haras du Mezeray for a six-month stint that became a three-year sojourn.

“The farm was founded by Paul de Moussac, who was very progressive, and managed by Antoine Bozo – that dynasty now plays a pivotal role in French racing and breeding. That’s a lovely farm and they raced most of the stock produced there in De Moussac’s famous black and amber silks.”

A 24-year-old Kavanagh returned to Ireland to spend an eight-year spell as manager of Kildangan Stud. Following that he purchased the initial 23 green acres of Kildaragh Stud in 1986. The farm has been developed beyond all recognition since then and a plethora of significant talents have been sold in the intervening years, including the likes of Bocca Baciata, Frozen Fire and Jukebox Jury, along with homebreds G Force, Primo Bacio and siblings Daban and Thikriyaat, to name but a few.

Kavanagh says there is no secret behind Kildaragh’s recent run of form, other than upgrading the broodmare band and installing the finest facilities at the extended Kildare nursery.

“I suppose it’s the culmination of a lot of work,” Kavanagh says. “From foaling the mares, the surveillance at night, and of course the work only really begins when you get the foal on the ground. Rearing young stock is a passion in itself and can be all consuming.

“There’s an awful lot of minding them but I think just getting the basics right is the most important thing of all. It’s an ongoing process but when you like it and things go well, it’s a dream world really.

It’s a great existence and a great way of living when you’re surrounded by what you love.”

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THE OWNER BREEDER

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Syndicate successes

Share the

LOVE

From the Cheltenham Festival to Newmarket’s Guineas meeting, syndicate-owned runners are enjoying a superb 2022. We speak to three shareholders involved with some of the year’s high-profile winners to find out what it’s like to triumph on the big stage Words: Edward Rosenthal

I

n this year of big celebrations, Highclere Thoroughbred Racing (HTR) passes its own significant milestone, having formed its very first syndicate in 1992. Thirty years later the famous two-tone blue silks, associated with top-level performers of the calibre of Lake Coniston, Tamarisk and Harbinger, were carried to Classic success by the George Boughey-trained Cachet in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket in May. Mary Neale, a member of HTR’s Wild Flower syndicate, describes Cachet’s Classic triumph as “beyond my wildest dreams”.

The accountant, originally from Somerset but who now lives next to Newbury racecourse, was introduced to HTR by a friend around 12 years ago, having previously been involved with Elite Racing Club.

She says: “I’ve had some successes in the past but nothing like this. To be there at Newmarket with that atmosphere was just fantastic.

“I went there hoping we might finish in the first six – the betting indicated she wasn’t fancied! But her temperament is such that I thought we had a better chance than her odds indicated.

“When I saw her in the paddock, she was walking round just like it was any

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other day. I suspect people thought she wasn’t very engaged! But that’s just her.

The build-up to the race was amazing and George Boughey is a very good trainer from a shareholder point of view, because he keeps you constantly informed with lots of updates and videos.

“George was quietly confident that she

“To be there at Newmarket with that atmosphere was fantastic” would run well so that rubs off on you. On the day the nerves were terrific. Cachet likes to front run and that’s how it panned out.

“She is fabulous to own. Yes, she does it the hard way with her running style, but she’s setting a pace that a number of her rivals can’t keep up with. In the Newmarket Guineas she probably left half of them behind at halfway.

“It didn’t quite work out in the French Guineas [when a head second to Mangoustine], but she was coming back at the end. James Doyle says that when he asks, she just gives. She doesn’t want to get beaten. It’s an amazing attitude – then she comes back in as if it’s a normal day’s work.

“With a furlong to run you’re just hoping she’ll stay on – but if I’m really honest I thought she was going to win. When she went through the dip at Newmarket, she looked like she had it – and she did!

“James rode a brilliant race. He came back and gave us such good feedback about how he felt through the race. He’s been really good the times I’ve listened to him – some jockeys come back and just say what they think you want to hear.”

Having grown up around horses in the West Country, it was a famous former National Hunt trainer that initially stirred Neale’s interest in racehorses, although the move into ownership did not come until later on.

“I’ve ridden since I was nine and got into racing years ago in my twenties when I met Martin Pipe,” she explains. “I lived not far from him in Somerset and was lucky enough to visit his yard and see how he did things. At that time in the 1980s he was quite out on a limb if you like. That was

BILL SELWYN

really fascinating.

“I had ordinary horses – hunting horses – then it got to a point where I could get involved in ownership. Highclere was the first syndicate I joined, although I had previously been with Elite.

“Being an owner with Highclere has been a huge amount of fun. There have been some great highs and of course some lows, as with everything. They’re a very polished organisation and give their owners as good a time as they possibly can. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed myself.

“The second year we had a horse called Dominant, who did well and was sold to Hong Kong, then along came Telescope.

He finished second in the King George and won the Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot, and finished fourth at the Breeders’ Cup [in the Turf]. I thought that was as high as I was going to get – I never really believed I could have a Classic horse.”

Being involved in two top-notchers like Telescope, now a promising jumps stallion, and Cachet prompts the question – how does Neale decide which syndicate to join?

She explains: “I very rarely buy into any syndicates without having seen the horse first. Horses like Cachet and Telescope – if I said the hairs on the back of your neck stand up, that’s the feeling you get. All the ones I’ve done well with, I’ve felt a

connection with the horse when you see them. I can’t tell you what it is exactly.

“Also, the trainer is important. Some are more on my wavelength than others and I’ve learnt a huge amount from some trainers. George [Boughey] is obviously very good and Roger Varian is brilliant – he’s taught me a lot about horses and what to look out for. Although I never had a horse with him, Sir Henry Cecil was very instructive.

“I love the stable visits because I can chat to the lads and lasses and learn about the quirks of the horse. It’s about the whole experience. Just to go to the races, watch the horse and say goodbye until the next race is not for me.”

Neale, who now has shares in six Flat syndicates plus a handful

GEORGE SELWYN

Mary Neale (sunglasses) enjoys the 1,000 Guineas success of Cachet with the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing team

over jumps, adds: “Racing and ownership is beginning to play a bigger part in my life.

In my job it’s the detail that matters and it’s the same principle for horses.

“You can’t spend lots of money on a horse and guarantee it’s going to win a Classic – it doesn’t work like that.

That fascinates me. Cachet wasn’t that expensive and yet she goes and wins the 1,000 Guineas. I think it’s brilliant for the sport that people like me can do it and succeed at that level.”

Longevity the key

For John Tomlinson, a member of the Middleham Park Racing syndicate that races Marie’s Rock, a Grade 1 winner

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››

49

Syndicate successes ›› in the Close Bothers Mares’ Hurdle at

the Cheltenham Festival before adding another top-level triumph at Punchestown, the spur to get back involved in ownership came through tragic circumstances.

The investment manager, brought up in the Yorkshire Dales, not far from the racing centre of Middleham, had been involved with syndicate ownership since 2015 before taking a break and reassessing his options.

“I remember bits of the day at Cheltenham but it really was quite surreal”

El Caballo (centre) makes it six wins in a row under Clifford Lee in the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes at Haydock

you’re not thinking about that, you’re just trying to take it all in – listening to Nicky [Henderson] giving instructions to Nico [de Boinville] in the parade ring and looking around at the huge crowd, which is

STEPHEN SPARKES

He explains: “I’d been interested in racing since I was a teenager and had small shares on the Flat with Ontoawinner when I was in my 20s. I had three horses over two years and won one race. The horses tended to run for a couple of seasons before being sold – not really what I was looking for.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get to the racecourse to watch the Ontoawinner horses, what with work and family life etc.

They were northern-based syndicates and horses – I’m from Wensleydale – but I work in London. I drew stumps for a couple of years but in 2018 I started to think I should

get back involved.

“My cousin sadly passed away when he was in his 40s and it was one of those jolts that got me thinking you’re better off trying to do the things you want to do in life.

“I had the mindset that my previous experience [of syndicate ownership] didn’t quite work out, so I thought I would wait until I’m retired when I’ve got more time to invest properly. Then my cousin died and I realised it wasn’t the right attitude to have.”

A desire to enjoy a horse over multiple seasons saw Tomlinson look towards the jumping world as he identified a likely candidate on the Middleham Park Racing website.

He says: “I came across a store horse that happened to be in the right price bracket. As a store house the price point was lower – I’ve now got a young family and plenty of outgoings, so I haven’t as much disposable income as I would like.

“It seemed like the right choice – you take your ticket and just hope that you might get to the races and see a couple of wins and enjoy some days out over the next few years.”

Tomlinson has certainly been able to do exactly that, watching Marie’s Rock take her form to new heights this year at Cheltenham and Punchestown, producing powerful finishes in two Grade 1s to supply memories that will last a lifetime.

“To be honest I can remember bits of the day at Cheltenham but it really was quite surreal,” he explains. “I looked at the price afterwards [18-1] and kicked myself that I hadn’t put some bets on with the bookies, but when it’s happening

John Tomlinson (red jumper, yellow tie) experiences a Grade 1 Cheltenham Festival triumph with Marie’s Rock for Middleham Park Racing

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THE OWNER BREEDER

STEVE CARGILL

one of the biggest you’ll see.

“I was just hoping she would run well – then she goes and wins and you’re ecstatic!

To go and do it again at Punchestown was magnificent. She has really proved she can mix it in that company. We’ll see her again later this month and then start dreaming again.”

Of course, racehorses being racehorses, there have been some hiccups along the way, including an injury in 2020 that saw the then promising novice, winner of her first three races, forced to miss the Cheltenham Festival and sit out the rest of that season.

“We had a weird 18 months where she went into the wilderness,” says Tomlinson, who now has shares in five horses under both codes, all with Middleham Park. “She ran no sort of race on her comeback in November 2020, or at Doncaster on her next start. Her minor injury was resolved but it left her compensating and led to a back problem.

“After a long break in Yorkshire – she ate a lot of grass and enjoyed herself – Marie’s Rock returned in October 21 and ran well in a Listed race at Wetherby. We thought that might be her grade, even though we had Grade 1 aspirations as a novice.

“In a couple of races, she has been badly hampered but continued – I think an animal with a less willing attitude would probably have taken the easy route and walked back to the stables.

“She had a lot of speed when she was younger – now she stays 2m5f and can show a turn of foot at the end of her races.

She knuckles down and likes to battle. It will be good to go again next season and have another crack at some good races.

“Hopefully she can show that longevity which is ultimately what brought me round to putting my chips back on the table for a National Hunt horse.”

Royal Ascot dreams

“I keep pinching myself. When I got into racing, I thought I was fortunate with handicapper Dubai Dynamo. Now to get this guy – I have to be careful walking across the road!”

It’s fair to say Barry Hunter is delighted with his decision to take a share in sprinter El Caballo, the winner of six of his seven races to date for Grange Park Racing & OfO Partners.

Alan Crombie, manager of Grange Park Racing, couldn’t find many takers initially for a share in the son of Havana Gold, yet

after high-profile successes on All-Weather Championships Finals Day at Newcastle in April and at Haydock in the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes on May 21, the three-year-old’s value has soared.

Penrith-based Turner, who is 65 and a partner in a building firm which employs around 90 people, explains: “I originally became involved in ownership about ten years ago. I had four or five legs in horses, notably Dubai Dynamo, an 85-rated handicapper trained by Ruth Carr.

“I went out of it for a while then in 2020 I looked at the Grange Park website and saw a horse available for a small amount of money which I was prepared to go for.

“He was second first time out, then won very easily at Carlisle, then he had a stress fracture and was off for six months. Karl [Burke, trainer] came up with the idea of an all-weather campaign, culminating with success in the All-Weather Final for threeyear-olds.

“After he won at Newcastle, we were asking ourselves, how good is this animal?

With each race he’s handled the step up in grade – we don’t know where he’ll end up. The next target is the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot – dizzy heights! You think to yourself, surely he can’t get to that level, but he hasn’t stopped improving yet.

“I’d watched him work at 6am on the moor at Middleham on the Monday prior to Haydock. The market was more confident than I was! At the end of the day, he didn’t let us down.

“I was screaming at the screen across from the winning line. I was jumping up and down wondering if it was all real. He’s a special horse and has really filled out.

Karl’s not sure we’ve got to the bottom of him yet; he always seems to just do enough.

“When I was in the winner’s enclosure, I went up to the horse, rubbed his nose and then I tickled him under his chin – he was so calm and just taking it all in, as if to say, ‘I must have done something right!’”

Racing is a social experience for Turner – though his wife does not share his enthusiasm for the sport – and he had significant support when El Caballo made it six successive wins at Haydock.

“I paid for 16 of my mates to travel down with me from Penrith in a minibus to watch him – and I even bought them dinner on the way back!” he relates.

“There’s seven of us involved in the horse. Alan struggled to get people interested initially; I guess the pandemic had something to do with it. He’s probably worth a million pounds now! Yes, we’ve had offers, but we want to keep him for this season.”

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Advertorial

Responsible Ownership & The Drive for Data Industry push to improve data quality and traceability throughout a thoroughbred’s life

T

raceability of all horses bred for racing, across their lifetime, is a fundamental requirement for the sport – professionally, ethically, and morally. And at the heart of traceability lies the requirement for quality and robust data.

Significant steps forward have already been made in racing over the last two years with the introduction of multiple initiatives including the 30-day foal notification, vaccination app and ePassport, all of which are starting to add real value as quality data points.

Over the coming months the Horse Welfare Board’s focus will shift to the retirement stage of a thoroughbred’s life, to reduce the gap in knowledge of how many racehorses leave the British racing industry annually and improve visibility of where they go once their career ends.

The published aim of the industry is to have 100% traceability of any thoroughbred’s first step away from racing, and work is ongoing to achieve this ambition.

Over the next three months a series of surveys will be launched with key groups to identify and close gaps in data and help improve the quality of key information sources.

What can you do to help?

Participation in any upcoming surveys would be hugely appreciated. But more importantly, the industry can play a vital role by ensuring the information held in racing’s core systems is as robust as possible, from up-to-date contact details through to the timely recording of the status of racehorses.

There are two steps where owners play a key part in recording the end of a thoroughbred’s career – updating the British Horseracing Authority’s Racing Administration site, Racing Admin, and ensuring passports are kept up to date. These are well established processes and owners are encouraged to have regular

conversations with their trainers to ensure required actions are taken at the retirement stage.

Racing Admin: Once a trainer has transferred responsibility of a horse to the owner’s care on Racing Admin, the owner must accept it via the site for the status to be officially updated. Currently some horses are being left in a transferred to owner, resting or injured status, when in reality they have retired, gone on to breeding, been exported or died. The responsibility for these updates in retirement stage sits with the owner via racingadmin.co.uk Passport: Once a horse has left training, owners should also ensure ownership changes are actioned and passports updated within 30days and, when required, return the passport after death so end of life can officially be recorded. This is a legal obligation and is administered via Weatherbys. Useful guidance can be found at weatherbys.co.uk/general-stud-book/ horse-passports Over the coming months, as work on data and traceability ramps up, the call-out to the industry is to check and update all outstanding Racing Admin and Passport records, including updates to contact details, and to embed these processes into daily ownership operations. The first Horse Welfare Board survey will be launched this summer and will focus on racehorse ownership.

Useful websites: • britishhorseracing.com/regulation/ownership/ become-a-racehorse-owner/ • roa.co.uk/raceday/journey/racehorse-retirement/ • https://media.britishhorseracing.com/NRAS/

If you would like to contact the Horse Welfare Board about this project or any of its ongoing work, please get in touch via info@racehorsewelfare.co.uk

Breeders’ Digest

Nancy Sexton Bloodstock Editor

‘The most amazing mare’ Shastye leaves major void

NEWSELLS PARK STUD

W

e have become accustomed to foaling season triggering the release of an abundance of foal photos, all of them accompanied with the hopes and dreams that come with breeding racehorses. But as anyone associated with livestock is well aware, there is sadly another side that rears its ugly head from time to time.

Recent weeks have served several reminders of the perils of breeding, none more so than the first few days of May when it was announced that blue hen Shastye and Grand National runner-up Magic Of Light had both died following foaling. Shastye’s legacy will live on through her six daughters and two sons at stud, Japan and Mogul.

However, in the case of Magic Of Light, she leaves behind one filly, by Crystal Ocean, for Coolmara Stables, who had paid €185,000 for her last November. In a similarly sad situation, the 2018 1,000 Guineas heroine Billesdon Brook died suddenly aged seven last month, leaving behind her first foal, a colt by Dubawi, for Stowell Hill Stud.

Shastye’s influence is already immense. Bred by Skara Glen Stables, she was bred to be good as a Danehill half-sister to Arc hero Sagamix and top two-year-old Sagacity. While not as highflying as that duo on the track, she did add to the black-type record of her dam, Saganeca, when second in a Listed event at Pontefract. As such, she commanded 625,000gns from John Warren on behalf of Newsells Park Stud at the 2005 Tattersalls December Sale.

She was the sixth dearest mare sold at that sale but it was money well spent. To date, Shastye is the dam of six winners, among them champion Japan, whose seven wins included the Grand Prix de Paris and Juddmonte International, Mogul, another Grand Prix de Paris winner who also won the Hong Kong Vase, and Secret Gesture, who was first past the post in the Beverly D Stakes.

Added to that, her stock have turned over more than £15 million at auction and include five seven-figure yearlings. While the most expensive was Group 3 winner Sir Isaac Newton, who commanded 3,600,000gns from MV Magnier in 2013, the list also includes Mogul and Skylark, who realised 3,400,000gns apiece to

Shastye: leaves an immense legacy at Newsells Park Stud

Magnier in 2018 and 2020.

“She did so much for Newsells,” says the stud’s general manager Julian Dollar.

“She put the stud on the map and made it commercially viable.

“Klaus Jacobs [former Newsells Park Stud owner] and John Warren bought her. She cost 625,000gns, and I think they thought at the time that was enough, but then she was a young Danehill mare with a proper pedigree and in foal to one of the hottest stallions of the time in Pivotal.”

Shastye’s first notable performer was Australian Listed winner Maurus,

by Medicean. However, it is for her marvellous association with Galileo – the sire of Japan, Mogul, Sir Isaac Newton and Secret Gesture – for which she will be best remembered.

“It was one of those matings that just worked,” says Dollar. “You knew when you sent her to him that it would likely produce something very special.

“She was a nice character, she came to be pretty mellow about life when she was older, and she passed down that good temperament. There was certainly something about her that she put into her progeny.”

Shastye’s death leaves behind a sad void at Newsells Park Stud but the operation, which was sold to Graham

Smith-Bernal last year, is at least home to three of her daughters. Her final foal is a “magnificent colt” by Dubawi.

“She was an integral part of the stud, the most amazing mare,” says Dollar. “I’m very grateful to have known her.”

On a happier note for the stud, its stallion stalwart Nathaniel heads into June with a real Derby candidate to his credit in Dante Stakes winner Desert Crown.

For a horse who sired Enable in his first crop, not to mention Group 1 winners Channel, Lady Bowthorpe and Mutamakina out of a single crop foaled in 2016, Nathaniel remains strangely underappreciated by the Flat market (while respect grows for him as a jumps sire).

As that list illustrates, he has been a fertile source of top-flight fillies, but now in Desert Crown there appears to be a colt capable of balancing out the perception of Nathaniel as a filly sire.

“His current three-year-olds are the first crop bred after Enable’s three-yearold year,” says Dollar. “He’s there every year – obviously Lady Bowthorpe and Mutamakina won Group 1s last year. It’s nice to have a colt doing it now, although I don’t think it will change his world.

“Yes, they want a trip. But they’re very genuine horses, like himself, and if you want to breed a good horse, he can certainly do that for you.”

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Sales Circuit • By Carl Evans

Pinhook scores aplenty as breeze-up season rolls on

Matt Whyte (right): sale-topper provided a memorable pinhook success

Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock went to £230,000 for this first-crop son of Tasleet

Blandford Bloodstock buyers Richard Brown and Stuart Boman were particularly active, Boman on behalf of Australian clients of James Harron and Hubie De Burgh, while Brown’s key buys were for Dubai’s Dalmook brothers and their friend Saeed Al Qassimi. They included the £230,000 top lot, a son of Shadwell stallion Tasleet and purchased by Brown on behalf of Sheikh Rashid bin Dalmook.

The valuation completed a lovely pinhook for County Kildare vendor Matthew Whyte, who bought the Tasleet colt for £14,000 at the Goffs UK Premier Sale, although he called upon Michael Byrne of Knockgraffon Stables to handle the prep (see Talking Point).

Byrne’s son, Stephen, also enjoyed a smart pinhook when trading a €22,000 Havana Gold filly to Anthony Stroud for £120,000.

SARAH FARNSWORTH/GOFFS UK

SARAH FARNSWORTH/GOFFS UK

Goffs UK dubbed their sole two-yearold auction ‘The Royal Ascot Breeze-Up Sale’, and thoughts of that famous race meeting were rarely far away as 158 juveniles went under the hammer.

‘Royal Ascot is the dream’ was a phrase uttered more than once, and since some speedy horses from leading consignors were on offer you could forgive agents for their aspirations.

Selling dreams is not an offence, and graduates from this one-day auction have enjoyed plenty of success at the Royal meeting.

Away from the top end there was good trade further down the scale.

From sales of 133 of the 158 horses on offer – a clearance rate of 84 per cent – turnover achieved £6,515,500, a rise of five per cent. The average gained one per cent to a record mark of £48,989 and the median was up six per cent at £36,000. Given the current inflationary issues hitting people in the pocket – hard to miss whenever you fill up your car – such figures were solid and welcome.

SARAH FARNSWORTH/GOFFS UK

Goffs UK Doncaster Breeze-Up

Tadhg Ryan: enjoyed a good result with a Munnings colt bought with Micky Cleere

TALKING POINT • Breeze-Up consignors are horsemen and women first, but they are smart and bold business people and they have developed a sense of community.

Some years ago when a few voices raised doubts about the wisdom of buying breezers, the Breeze-Up Consignors Association was formed to defend and market their product and highlight the very good statistics relating to breezers and racecourse performance.

Yet they also rally around in a crisis.

Another example became apparent after Matthew Whyte of County Kildare’s Bushypark Stables sold the top

54

THE OWNER BREEDER

lot at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale. He revealed that in January he had taken a heavy fall and suffered, among a range of injuries, fractured vertebrae. Various breeze-up consignors took his horses in, including Michael Byrne of Knockgraffon Stables, which handled the Tasleet colt from that point.

Asked if he was looking forward to getting back to a hands-on role, Whyte smiled and said: “Well, it’s been so successful outsourcing the horses we’ll have to see.” It was a tongue-in-cheek comment, but he was clearly grateful that industry colleagues had come to his aid.

Boman’s Australian buys included a £160,000 son of Kessaar and a £150,000 filly by Zoustar. The Kessaar sale was another plus for that stallion’s masters, the O’Callaghan family of TallyHo Stud. Their operation was also the leading vendor at this sale, as it had been at the Tattersalls Craven Sale and was about to become at the Guineas

Breeze-Up, a potent hat-trick for the County Westmeath farm.

Second on the list of horses purchased was an imposing grey colt

by Munnings, the only representative by the sire in the sale having been bought for $32,000 at Fasig-Tipton in October.

The buyers then and vendors on this occasion were Micky Cleere and Tadhg

Ryan, who enjoyed a huge upgrade when the colt was knocked down to agent Colm Sharkey for £205,000.

Goffs UK’s Managing Director Tim Kent conveyed his thanks to consignors, noting that 17 six-figure lots was another record for the day, and said he looked forward to being at Royal Ascot and cheering on graduates of the sale.

Goffs UK Doncaster Breeze-Up Sale Top lots Sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (£)

Buyer

C Tasleet - Silent Music

Bushypark Stables

230,000

Blandford Bloodstock

C Munnings - Drunk Philosophy

Ballinahulla Stables

205,000

Colm Sharkey

C Mehmas - She’s Different

Tally-Ho Stud

200,000

Michael O’Callaghan

C Kessaar - Lady Lizabeth

Star Bloodstock

160,000

J. Harron/Blandford/De Burgh

C Kodiac - She Bu

Tally-Ho Stud

160,000

Blandford Bloodstock

C Kessaar - Tisa River

Bansha House Stables

160,000

Oliver St Lawrence Bloodstock

F Zoustar – Ainippe

Longways Stables

150,000

J. Harron/Blandford/De Burgh

C Acclamation – Vastitas

Aguiar Bloodstock

140,000

Amo Racing Ltd

C Sioux Nation - Top Chain

Gaybrook Lodge

130,000

Robin O’Ryan/Richard Fahey

C Zoustar - Always A Drama

Longways Stables

130,000

Bryan Smart

Figures Year

Sold

Aggregate (£)

Average (£)

Median (£)

Top price (£)

2022

133

6,515,500

48,989

36,000

230,000

2021

128

6,219,500

48,590

34,000

210,000

2020

89

3,975,400

44,667

28,000

290,000

Tattersalls is enjoying some fine results with graduates of its breeze-up auctions, and not only with two-yearolds.

The current leading stayer Trueshan was bought in 2018 for 31,000gns at this sale, while a few days after it took place this year the filly Cachet, who had been bought at last year’s Craven Breeze-Up for 60,000gns, landed the 1,000 Guineas. Results on the track are a hook to buyers and helped this auction to achieve some excellent figures when the last of 185 breezers and 77 horses-in-training (HIT) left the ring.

The HIT section had enjoyed a major revival with 121 catalogued entries, up from 43 last year when Covid was hampering opportunities to run and sell horses. However, it was the breezers who were the main attraction, and with sales of 157 horses at a clearance rate of 85 per cent, the figure for turnover achieved a new record mark in excess

TATTERSALLS

Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up and HIT Sale

Michael O’Callaghan will train this son of Time Test, purchased for 160,000gns

of 5.6 million guineas, up 25 per cent.

The average price gained 19 per cent at 35,678gns while the median rose 22 per cent to a record-equalling 30,000gns.

Heading trade was a 160,000gns son

of National Stud stallion Time Test.

Consigned by the O’Callaghan family of the County Westmeath-based Tally-Ho Stud, the colt leapt in value from a Book 3 yearling price of 65,000gns to

THE OWNER BREEDER

55

››

Graham Smith-Bernal: Newsells Park Stud owner paid 110,000gns for a Zoffany colt

›› one of 160,000gns when trainer

Michael O’Callaghan (no relation) made the winning bid.

Tally-Ho Stud could also take pleasure in the sale of the day’s leading filly, a daughter of resident stallion Mehmas who was consigned by breeder John Nolan. He opted to keep the filly after she failed to sell at the Sportsman’s Sale – bidding halted at €16,000 – and a good breeze justified that decision. So too did her sale for 150,000gns to agent Alessandro Marconi, acting for a client in Dubai.

Stuart Boman of Blandford Bloodstock had been a key buyer at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up sale, and he made a mark at this one when posting a bid of 130,000gns which secured a son of German sire Soldier Hollow. Pinhooker Tom Whitehead had bought the youngster for €28,000 at the BBAG Yearling Sale in October.

However, the prince of pinhooks proved to be one involving a filly who had cost Robbie Mills just 2,000gns as a Tattersalls December yearling. Five months later, helped by a debut win for a year-older half-sister called Rogue Millennium (who was to later win the Lingfield Oaks Trial), Mills sold the daughter of Awtaad to trainer Richard Spencer for 110,000gns – percentage increases of that size are rare, and you have to admire the man who orchestrated it.

The HIT section drew in the buyers, with 71 of 77 offered lots finding a new home, a rate of 92 per cent. Turnover was well up at nearly 1.1 million guineas, a figure helped by the bigger catalogue.

There were also gains of 40 per cent and 80 per cent in the average and median prices.

TATTERSALLS

TATTERSALLS

Sales Circuit

Roger O’Callaghan: his family’s Tally-Ho Stud were leading vendor once again

Trade was headed by tough six-yearold stayer Halimi, who walked the ring with a BHA rating of 94 after gaining five wins from 30 starts for Simon and Ed Crisford. Halimi’s next stop is Italy after he was knocked down to Marco Bozzi for 80,000gns.

Three sales of 50,000gns backed up the HIT top lot, with jump trainer Neil Mulholland taking a shine to four-yearold bumper winner Trolley Boy and Kuwait’s Sheikh Abdullah Almalak Alsabah leaving with the three-year-old colts Wolsey and Fraction.

Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up and Horses In Training Sale Top lots Sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (Gns)

Buyer

C Time Test - Luna Mare

Tally-Ho Stud

160,000

Michael O’Callaghan

F Mehmas - What About Me

John Nolan

150,000

Alessandro Marconi

C Soldier Hollow – Loyalty

Powerstown Stud

130,000

Blandford Bloodstock

F Highland Reel - Rock Kristal

Aguiar Bloodstock

125,000

Compas Equine / Dave Loughnane Racing

C Zoffany - Pivotal Era

Mayfield Stables

110,000

Graham Smith-Bernal

F Sioux Nation – Qamarain

Shanaville Stables

110,000

James Delahooke, Agent

F Awtaad – Hawaafez

RMM Bloodstock

110,000

Phil Cunningham

C Harry Angel – Totsiyah

Glending Stables

100,000

C Kodiac - Wild Impala

Bansha House Stables

95,000

Dean Ivory Racing

C Tasleet – Stresa

Kilbrew Stables

92,000

Alliance Bloodstock

Blandford Bloodstock/Ed Bethell Racing

Figures – HIT Year

Sold

Aggregate (Gns)

Average (Gns)

Median (Gns)

Top price (Gns)

2022

71

2021

24

1,090,000

15,352

9,000

80,000

262,500

10,938

5,000

55,000

Year

Sold

Aggregate (Gns)

Average (Gns)

Median (Gns)

Top price (Gns)

2022

157

5,601,500

35,678

30,000

160,000

2021

150

4,429,250

29,948

24,500

135,000

2020

94

2,680,000

28,511

17,250

140,000

2020 No sale Figures – Breeze-Up

56

THE OWNER BREEDER

Tattersalls Cheltenham April Sale

TATTERSALLS CHELTENHAM

An April afternoon at Cheltenham without racing may not be quite as appealing as the four-day Festival, but it is no bar to a good sale.

For this single-session auction Tattersalls Cheltenham had assembled 61 horses, predominantly Irish point-topointers, and, with some key trainers or their representatives on the premises, 52 lots found a buyer at a rate of 85 per cent.

Pleasingly for the accounts department turnover achieved a new April Sale high of £3,506,000, some £1.4 million up on the figure gained last year when a smaller 35-lot catalogue was trotted up at Tattersalls’ Newmarket HQ. One year later, the median gained two per cent while the average price was fractionally up at £67,423.

Trade was headed by a five-year-old son of Fame And Glory called Search For Glory, who represented a newcomer to Cheltenham sales, but certainly not to Cheltenham. The name Costello is synonymous with big-race triumphs over jumps by virtue of the skills of County Clare producer Tom Costello, whose record of selling six individual Gold Cup and as many Grand National winners should result in a place in any hall of fame.

Search For Glory was offered by his eldest son John, who hitherto had not sold at Cheltenham, but opted to try his luck after the gelding won an 11-runner maiden race near his home at Quakerstown the previous weekend.

Keeping it in the family, John’s son

Gordon Elliott paid £200,000 for Search For Glory, a recent winner at Quakerstown

Conor was in the saddle.

“We will definitely be back,” said John after Gordon Elliott’s bid of £200,000 had secured the prize and presumably ensured a handsome profit for the vendor, who had bought Search For Glory out of the field as a foal from breeder Pat Connell.

Willie Mullins’ ringside representative Harold Kirk secured bumper winner Shanbally Kid and point-to-point winner I Will Be Baie (he’s grey) for £190,000 and £150,000 respectively, while Tom Malone teamed up with David Pipe to buy Man At Work, from the first Irish crop of Derby and Arc winner Workforce, for £155,000.

Man At Work had fallen at the final

fence on his sole point-to-point run, but he was among a group of highly-rated horses and seemed set to be placed at least.

Malone went in harness with Paul Nicholls to buy the catalogue’s highestvalued British pointer, Byorderofthecourt, whose sale for £120,000 was £100,000 more than he cost as a Goffs UK Doncaster store.

A debut win at Mollington in Oxfordshire teed up his appearance at this auction, and created a socking outcome for Cambridgeshire trainer/ rider Dale Peters who owned half the horse with his father Mick. Undertaker Toby Hunt owned the other 50 per cent.

Tattersalls Cheltenham April Sale Top lots Name/Age/Sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (£)

Buyer

Search For Glory 5 g Fame And Glory - Geek Chic

Fenloe House (John Costello)

200,000

Gordon Elliott Racing

Shanbally Kid 5 g Presenting - Kalanisi’s Lady

Richard O’Brien Racing

190,000

Harold Kirk/WP Mullins

Man At Work 4 g Workforce - Shokalocka Baby

Crossgales Stables (Benny Walsh)

155,000

Tom Malone/David Pipe

I Will Be Baie 4 g Crillon - Passion Du Berlais

Milestone Stables (Colin Bowe)

150,000

Harold Kirk/WP Mullins

Goodtimecrew 4 f Walk In The Park - Glacial Drift

Milestone Stables (Colin Bowe)

135,000

Kevin Ross Bloodstock

Figures Year

Sold

Aggregate (£)

Average (£)

Median (£)

Top price (£)

2022

52

3,506,000

67,423

53,500

200,000

2021

32

2,148,000

67,125

52,500

195,000

2020 No sale

THE OWNER BREEDER

57

››

Sales Circuit

Absolute Notions commanded €370,000 following his win in the Goffs Land Rover Bumper

four Gordon Elliott runners. He hacked up by six lengths, a joyous moment for owner Michael Conaghan who had gained the son of Milan as a store via last year’s Land Rover Sale for €60,000.

A client of Mags O’Toole liked the performance and backed her as she

GOFFS

Held after racing at the Punchestown Festival, this sale roared back after two years of fighting and losing battles with Covid-related restrictions.

It could not be held in 2020, and had to go online last year when just five of 15 horses found a buyer, but anyone thinking it could not recover from such setbacks did not understand the demand for young jumping horses. As if to emphasise the point, sale topper Absolute Notions was sold for €370,000, a record for the event.

Goffs Group Chief Henry Beeby was prompted to say: “The original Festival Sale made a spectacular return at Punchestown and we are simply overjoyed with the record-breaking results.” His company opted to compare the sales figures with the 2019 edition before Covid shenanigans disrupted procedures, and they showed thumping gains.

Notwithstanding that horses-intraining sales can vary year to year solely on the quality of entry, an 11 per cent gain in the average price to €160,278 and a 17 per cent median rise to €135,000 was heart-warming for Goffs. No less so was turnover of €2,885,000, a 53 per cent increase helped by a 90 clearance rate gained from 18 sales of 20 lots.

Good money would have bet on an Irish pointer heading trade, but it would have lost for Absolute Notions had come via a bumper. No ordinary bumper, for it had been the Land Rover version run at Punchestown two days earlier when Absolute Notions had been a 25-1 shot and the outsider of

GOFFS

Goffs Punchestown Sale

Tom Malone: went to €360,000 on behalf of Paul Nicholls for Jenny Wyse

fended off interest from the JP McManus camp.

Whether Absolute Notions returns to Elliott for a new owner was not revealed, but the trainer himself bought Miss Agusta – a daughter of Flemensfirth who chased home Absolute Notions – with a bid of €235,000.

British trainers were not left out, and one of the current Irish point-to-point season’s smartest filly winners, Jenny Wyse, left Colin Bowe’s yard bound for Paul Nicholls following her sale to Tom Malone for €360,000.

Also heading to Britain was The Gooner, another horse who had made a winning pointing debut before his sale.

He made €280,000 when leaving Wexford trainer Matthew Flynn O’Connor to join Jonjo O’Neill. Whether O’Neill’s client lives in North London or is a fan of Arsenal, aka the Gunners, was not revealed.

Goffs Punchestown Sale Top lots Name/Age/Sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (€)

Buyer

Absolute Notions 4 g Milan - Colleen Donnoige

Cullentra House Stables (Gordon Elliott)

370,000

Mags O’Toole

Jenny Wyse 4 f Flemensfirth - Morning Edition

Milestone Stables (Colin Bowe)

360,000

Tom Malone/Paul Nicholls

The Gooner 4 g Flemensfirth - Rose Of Milana

Ballycrystal Stables (Matthew Flynn O’Connor)

280,000

Jonjo O’Neill

Miss Agusta 4 f Well Chosen - Polly Penhow

Canterbrook Stud (Margaret Mullins)

235,000

Gordon Elliott Racing

Fortunate Soldier 4 g Soldier Of Fortune - Ma Belle

Amie Ballydaragh Stables (Liam Kenny)

200,000

Highflyer Bloodstock

Figures Year

Sold

Aggregate (€)

Average (€)

Median (€)

Top price (€)

2022

18

2,885,000

160,278

135,000

370,000

2021

15

5 627,000

125,400

130,000

155,000

2020 no sale

58

THE OWNER BREEDER

Tattersalls Ireland May Store Sale

This was another sale happy to nestle back in its original date following the ending of pandemic restrictions.

It was largely business as usual, although the €50,000 top lot’s valuation was well down on last year’s high of €115,000 for a Blue Bresil gelding. That horse was a supplementary entry, one of a number which were added to the event after it had been moved to August.

This year’s sale high revolved around a son of the stallion Affinisea, who is himself by Sea The Stars and standing at Whytemount Stud. A maiden winner, Affinisea was always destined to be of value to a stallion master being a close relative of sires Soldier Of Fortune and Heliostatic, and his first crop of four-year-olds have been doing well on the Irish pointing circuit this season.

Summing that up was Denis Murphy, the County Wexford handler of pointers, who bought the top lot from the Knockalane House draft, and then said: “I have not had one by the sire yet, but they have been beating me.”

Irish point-to-point trainers or their representatives were all over the sale’s top ten board, the next one on the list falling to Murphy’s Wexford ally Colin Bowe, who parted with €48,000 for a colt by Workforce, whose oldest Irish crop, conceived after a stint in Japan, are now aged four. Amateur rider/trainer Harley Dunne also took a shine to a son of Workforce, paying €42,000 for a colt from Raheenduff Stables, while Joey Logan’s €47,000 offer gained the exotically-named J’Suis Kashe Bam, a son of Buck’s Boum consigned by the Bleahen family’s Liss House operation.

The leading filly also went to a trainer/rider, one who has enjoyed a great year on the track and in the sales ring. Rob James, who won the Scottish National on the Christian Williams-trained Win My Wings and has been firing in bumper and point-to-point winners in Ireland, linked up with Bowe to buy a daughter of Jukebox Jury for €40,000. She was sold by Martin Cullinane’s Galway-based Mount Brown Farm.

Putting aside the slightly-skewed figures caused by the move to August last year, trade was similar to other recent additions of this sale, which first launched in 2018. Of 207 lots 165 found a buyer, a rate of 80 per cent which resulted in turnover achieving slightly more than €2.7 million. The average of €16,390 and median of €13,000 were down by six per cent and 13 per cent.

TATTERSALLS IRELAND

››

This son of the popular Affinisea topped proceedings when selling out of the Knockalane House draft for €50,000 to Ballyboy Stables

THE OWNER BREEDER

59

Sales Circuit TALKING POINTS • This was the first store horse sale of the year, and it took place as discussions about energy prices, inflation and interest rates were key topics on news channels. Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a contributory factor, creating uncertainty and destabilising attempts to wrestle rising energy bills into calmer waters.

Meanwhile, the thorny issue of Britain’s agreement with the EU over the Northern Ireland border situation

was coming to the boil.

Given the slow burn of store horse pinhooking – it can take two years or longer to get a three-year-old on to the track – it will be interesting to see how the economic situation is being assessed by the time of the midsummer Derby and Land Rover sales, and perhaps more pertinently, the lower-tier events in August. The top end is likely to be impervious to current financial hardship, but there might be some bargains lower down the scale.

Tattersalls Ireland May Store Sale Top lots Sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (€)

Buyer

G Affinisea - Knockalane Hill

Knockalane House

50,000

Ballyboy Stables

G Workforce - Blazing Dawn

Rathyork Stud

48,000

Milestone Bloodstock

G Buck’s Boum – Urkashe

Liss House

47,000

Joey Logan Bloodstock

G Workforce - Gaye Flora

Raheenduff Stables

42,000

Harley Dunne

G Well Chosen - Grange Hall

Clonmethan Farm

42,000

David Mullins

Figures Year

Sold

Aggregate (€)

Average (€)

Median (€)

Top price (€)

2022

165

2,704,400

16,390

13,000

50,000

2021

164

2,851,200

17,385

15,000

115,000

2020

99

1,200,900

12,130

9,000

40,000

A British record for a store horse sold at auction, solid results and notable input from former trainer Henrietta Knight and client Mike Grech were highlights of this two-day sale.

It was Knight’s bid on Grech’s behalf during the first session that created the £200,000 record horse, a three-yearold German-bred son of the late Adlerflug and consigned from Ballincurrig House Stud. The previous high for a store sold in Britain was set at Doncaster in 2002 when Eddie O’Leary bid 185,000gns (£195,000) for a half-brother to Best Mate.

The Adlerflug’s vendors were Chris and Claire Bonner, parents of three young children and who run a breaking yard – yearlings in winter, stores in summer – near Lambourn. They went to BBAG’s yearling sale in 2020 and bought the Adlerflug, who had been named Ingraban, for €19,000. Ironically they were too busy at home to prep and consign the horse themselves, so sent him to Michael Moore in Ireland.

It was an emotional occasion for Claire Bonner, a former British champion point-to-point rider under

60

THE OWNER BREEDER

SARAH FARNSWORTH/GOFFS UK

Goffs UK Spring Store Sale

A new sale record of £200,000 was set by this Adlerflug gelding, sold to Henrietta Knight

her maiden name of Allen, for her first job on leaving school at 16 was with Knight who at that time was training.

At the second session, Knight again bought the top lot when bidding £155,000 for a son of Gris De Gris in addition to a £70,000 son of Diamond Boy, also for Grech’s string. Training

plans were undecided, but all three were heading to Knight’s yard for breaking.

Grech became known on the racing scene when he and Stuart Parkin bought and raced a number of highprofile jumpers until they opted to disperse their stock at the Goffs UK

Spring Sale in 2019. Among the draft was Interconnected, who was sold for a record for a jumper in training of £620,000. It was disappointing to think that such apparent enthusiasts had been lost to the game, but Grech was not absent for long and has been buying various horses with Knight’s guidance.

A name that we might be hearing more of is Richard Cheshire, the UK head of US-based doughnut

TALKING POINT • ‘Get your stores ready a year earlier’ was one message emerging from Doncaster during the Spring Sale.

At the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association’s National Hunt Awards dinner, held at Doncaster racecourse’s Hilton Hotel, Goffs Group Managing Director Henry Beeby made passing reference to a stand-alone section for two-yearold stores in Goffs UK’s August Sale

of jumpers. Selling two-year-old stores is nothing new in France, nor at Yorton Stud’s annual yearling and two-year-old sale, but the clincher appears to be a new series of junior hurdles which is being introduced in Britain by the BHA in October and will be looking for runners.

Three-year-old stores will have to be rushed to make the new races, hence the need for stores to be sold a year earlier. This will not suit all vendors or horses, although the

SARAH FARNSWORTH/GOFFS UK

SARAH FARNSWORTH/GOFFS UK

Paul Nicholls will train this Walk In The Park gelding, bought for £175,000

manufacturer and retailer Krispy Kreme.

Putting faith in Chris Gordon’s yard near Winchester, Cheshire gained a £140,000 son of Getaway from Norman Williamson’s Oak Tree Farm. The following day, at the opening session of the Horses In Training Sale (which will be covered in greater detail in next month’s edition), he parted with £110,000 for another Getaway, this one the four-year-old point-to-pointer Sea Invasion. Gordon is on an upward curve as a trainer, and horses of such calibre give the chance to go to another level.

Cheshire has eight or nine horses at his yard.

Five stores made a six-figure sum, including a Walk In The Park gelding from the family of Denman, and like that top-class chaser he will be trained

by Paul Nicholls. Tom Malone lowered the hammer with a bid of £175,000.

Consigned by Willie Bryan for a client at his Shropshire stables, the store had been bought for €40,000 as a foal.

After some very big gains at this sale last year, Goffs UK was happy to

A Gris De Gris gelding from Johnny Collins (centre) also sold to Henrietta Knight

cement the figures, and a clearance rate of 83 per cent will have done nothing to deter pinhookers from reinvesting in foals later this year. Turnover of £7,159,500 was down one per cent, the average dipped by the same margin at £31,679 and there was a four per cent fall in the median to £25,000. option to sell three-year-olds will not be lost, at least in the shortterm.

For foal pinhookers there is a chance to turn over stock a year sooner – and perhaps encourage others to come in – and it will give trainers an earlier chance to assess a young horse’s potential. For racehorse owners who buy stores it will mean receiving bills a year earlier, but if their acquisitions can run at three, rather than four, there will be no difference.

Goffs UK Spring Store Sale Top lots Name/Age/Sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (£)

Buyer

G Adlerflug – Inanya

Ballincurrig House

200,000

Henrietta Knight

G Walk In The Park - Pretty Puttens

Worthen Hall Stables

175,000

Tom Malone/Paul Nicholls

G Gris De Gris - Dearly Des Places

Brown Island Stables

155,000

Henrietta Knight

G Getaway - Through The Lens

Oak Tree Farm

140,000

Gordon Bloodstock

F Kapgarde - Brise Vendeenne

Goldford Stud

110,000

Jerry McGrath

Figures Year

Sold

Aggregate (£)

Average (£)

Median (£)

Top price (£)

2022

226

7,159,500

31,679

25,000

200,000

2021

225

7,215,500

32,069

26,000

165,000

››

2020 no comparable sale

THE OWNER BREEDER

61

Sales Circuit After two years of staging this sale at Goffs UK’s Doncaster venue, Arqana returned to Deauville and put 123 horses through the ring.

It proved to be a very good sale after a gentle start, albeit the key figures dipped slightly and the top lot’s €550,000 valuation was the lowest since 2013. The result was that the Tattersalls Craven Sale regained its position as the highest grossing European breeze-up sale of the year and with the highest average.

Arqana could at least claim a higher clearance rate, with 103 horses finding a buyer at a rate of 84 per cent while generating turnover of €13,573,000.

The average price of €131,777 was down six per cent while the €100,000 median was 1.5 per cent lower.

British and Irish consignors and agents dominated the top ten board, with Oliver St Lawrence, working alongside his Bahraini friend and racehorse trainer Fawzi Nass, proving the event’s leading buyer when securing two colts who added €1,070,000 to turnover. They were the two highest priced horses in the sale, the first being a €550,000 Zoffany colt from Willie Browne’s Mocklershill draft, and the second a €520,000 Siyouni

ARQANA

Arqana May Breeze-Up Sale

A Zoffany colt from Mocklershill topped the Arqana May Sale at €550,000

colt from Mick Murphy’s Longways Stables.

St Lawrence revealed the Zoffany will join Roger Varian while the Siyouni heads to Charlie Hills, doubtless to run in the colours of high-ranking members of Bahrain society, if not the royal family.

Taking an unsold yearling down the breeze-up route can be a planned or

last-ditch solution, but if they grow from one to two and perform well in their gallop the result can be very rewarding. The Zoffany was a case in point, for having been sold for 80,000gns to Camas Park Stud as a foal, he failed to sell in the US as a yearling. Mocklershill’s breeze-up prep found the key and a big-money sale was the result.

Arqana May Breeze-Up Sale Top lots Sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (€)

Buyer

C Zoffany – Shortmile Lady

Mocklershill

550 000

Oliver St Lawrence

C Siyouni - Faay

Longways Stables

520,000

Oliver St Lawrence

C More Than Ready – Sweet Lollipop

Grove Stud

450,000

BBA Ireland

F Cracksman – Forever Beauty

Church Farm & Horse Park Stud

420,000

Stephen Hillen

F Twirling Candy – Church Camp

Malcolm Bastard

380,000

Blandford Bloodstock

F Exceed And Excel – Cool Thunder

Tally-Ho Stud

360,000

Mandore Int’l/MV Magnier

C No Nay Never – Seekign Solace

Mocklershill

350,000

Peter & Ross Doyle

C Sea The Moon – Enjoy The Life

Powerstown Stud

350,000

Stroud Coleman

C Sea The Stars – La Mortola

Church Farm & Horse Park Stud

300,000

Stroud Coleman

F Good Magic – Luna Vega

Aguiar Bloodstock

280,000

Kerri Radcliffe/Amo Racing

C Shamardal – Thawaany

Powerstown Stud

280,000

Colm Sharkey

C Good Magic – Viega Luna

Powerstown Stud

280,000

Marco Bozzi

Figures Year

Sold

Aggregate (€)

Average (€)

Median (€)

Top price (€)

2022

103

13,573,000

131,777

100,000

550,000

*2021

108

15,171,100

140,473

101,500

783,000

*2020

64

9,754,670

152,417

83,600

715,000

*staged in Doncaster; figures converted into Euros

62

THE OWNER BREEDER

TALKING POINT • It is not uncommon for racehorse trainers to hit purple patches with two-year-olds – Charlie Appleby often mines such a seam, while George Boughey’s juveniles could do no wrong last year – but as this

Osarus Breeze-Up & HIT Sale

Consignors from France and Ireland made their presence felt at La Teste racecourse, where this small auction of breezers and older horses took place.

The older horses-in-training has been slowly dwindling and just four lots were present, but the breeze continues to offer sellers and buyers an opportunity to target a section of the market. John Bourke, the breeder of recent 1,000 Guineas heroine Cachet, clearly likes the event for he catalogued a draft of 12 to represent his Hyde Park Stud and sold ten for €138,000, headed by the

ARQANA

Murphy always planned to breeze the Siyouni, who he bought for a bold 200,000gns at the October Sale Book 2, while Brendan Holland had the same plan for a More Than Ready colt he sourced for $90,000 at Keeneland in September. That investment paid off when Michael Donohoe took a liking to his breeze and paid €450,000 on behalf of a client in the Middle East.

Messrs Marley and Cullinane of Church Farm and Horse Park Stud sold the sale’s top filly, a daughter of young Darley sire Cracksman who was bought for €49,000 at BBAG last year and resold for €420,000 to Stephen Hillen, acting for US racehorse owner Dean Reeves, who planned to take her back to his homeland.

BBA Ireland agent Michael Donohoe went to €450,000 for this More Than Ready colt

sale was being completed the king of the scene was an owner, namely Kia Joorabchian’s Amo Racing, which had gained eight such wins in 2022 from various trainers’ yards.

For that reason, if not others, a filly by Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm’s firstcrop stallion Good Magic is worth

€22,000 he received for colts by Territories and US Navy Flag.

Micky Cleere of MC Thoroughbreds gained €42,000 for a colt from the first crop of Chemical Charge, while Dermot Martin converted a 1,500gns Twilight Son Book 3 yearling into a €28,000 breezer.

Among overseas visitors on the buying front was Middleham Park Racing’s Tom Palin, who gave €31,000 for a Recorder colt who was set to join the syndicate’s French trainer Simone Brogi.

Bloodstock agent Nicolas de Watrigant was the most influential

following when she hits the track having been bought for €280,000

by Amo. Agent Kerri Radcliffe did the bidding, securing the filly from Robson Aguiar’s draft, one which has been a fertile source of talent for Amo’s various talent spotters.

buyer, for he signed for the top two lots, gaining a Zelzal filly for €60,000 from Ecurie Prevost Baratte and a €56,000 Starspangledbanner colt from the same consignor. De Watrigant’s client was racehorse owner Alain Jathiere.

Despite a bigger catalogue, turnover dipped, but that was because last year’s sale included some choice lots that had come across from Arqana’s breeze following its temporary relocation to Doncaster. Pleasingly for Osarus the latest average price rose by 11 per cent to just under €16,000, while the median leapt 62.5 per cent to €13,000.

Osarus Breeze-Up & Horses In Training Sale Top lots Sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (€)

Buyer

F Zelzal – Falcolina

Prevost Baratte

60,000

Mandore Int’l/Alain Jathiere

C Starspangledbanner - Lady Tamayuz

Prevost Baratte

56,000

Mandore Int’l/Alain Jathiere

C Le Havre - Ideal World

Yann Creff

43,000

Yann Barberot

C Chemical Charge – Dercia

M C Thoroughbreds

42,000

Simone Brogi

C Recorder - Red Vixen

Yann Creff

31,000

Middleham Park Racing

Figures Year

Sold

Aggregate (€)

Average (€)

Median (€)

Top price (€)

2022

54

732,000

15,988

13,000

60,000

2021

39

798,500

14,429

8,000

200,000

2020

41

658,500

16,950

9,000

60,000

THE OWNER BREEDER

63

Caulfield Files

Desert Crown underlines Nathaniel’s value to Flat ranks A

64

THE OWNER BREEDER

Nathaniel: sire of Dante Stakes winner Desert Crown out of his sixth crop

GEORGE SELWYN

lthough having a superstar stallion, such as Sadler’s Wells and Galileo, as their sire potentially confers a sizeable amount of privilege on these stallions’ sons, there can also be a downside. With more and more sons of the superstar queueing up for a place as a stallion, a young sire has to make a fast start if he’s to maintain support worthy of his racing record. And even the older sons which have demonstrated their ability to sire first-rate stock can find the notoriously fickle breeding community turning its attention to the newer, shinier younger versions.

There is arguably no finer example of the need to make a quick start than the 2002 Derby winner High Chaparral. This excellent son of Sadler’s Wells numbered the Racing Post Trophy, Derby, Irish Derby and two editions of the Breeders’ Cup Turf among his six Group 1 successes, yet this wasn’t enough to earn him a bit of patience. His retirement to Coolmore at a fee of €35,000 at the end of 2003 came at a time when some were still questioning Sadler’s Wells’s ability as a sire of sires. Although Montjeu and Galileo were soon to dispel any doubts, it was only natural that breeders increasingly turned to these two, rather than the unproven High Chaparral. Consequently, High Chaparral’s fee fell by €5,000 every season until it reached only €10,000 in 2009 in his sixth season. Clearly High Chaparral hadn’t lived up to expectations with his first runners in 2007 and 2008.

Although High Chaparral had already been covering some National Hunt mares prior to 2009, his 2009 book included enough mares with National Hunt backgrounds to suggest that he was in danger of becoming a full-time jumping sire. And one of those mares, Monte Solaro, was to produce Altior, one of jump racing’s all-time greats. High Chaparral’s black-type-winning hurdlers Caracci Apache and Different Gravey were other members of his 2010 crop which went straight to National Hunt careers.

Happily, his fortunes as a Flat sire took a distinct turn for the better in 2009, with a string of Group winners in Europe and a couple of major performers in Australia, including the excellent So You Think. And his 2010 crop included not only Altior but also the top-notch miler Toronado, who –

alongside So You Think and Dundeel – has been responsible for a growing list of Group 1 winners by sons of High Chaparral.

Now it will be interesting to see whether Galileo’s son Nathaniel is also going to be able to redirect his own stallion career, following the emergence of Derby favourite Desert Crown from his sixth crop. In winning the Dante Stakes with plenty to spare, the lightly-raced Desert Crown became the 16th Group winner and 25th stakes winner to emerge from those six crops, and there should be more to come from that sixth crop which – at 114 foals – is one of his largest. It was conceived after Nathaniel’s brilliant daughter Enable had won the Oaks, Irish Oaks and the Arc, in addition to following in Nathaniel’s footsteps by winning the King George as a three-year-old.

The 2018 season was also very fruitful for Nathaniel, with Enable leading a team of six Group winners, but that didn’t translate into huge demand for his services in 2019, when he covered 102 mares for a crop of 88. Perhaps part of the problem was that Nathaniel was becoming known as a better sire of fillies than colts. Even now, his 16 Group winners

are made up of ten fillies, compared to only six males. All five of his Group 1 winners – Enable, Channel, Lady Bowthorpe, God Given and Mutamakina – are fillies. However, Desert Crown follows Dashing Willoughby and Bubble Gift as the third son to win at Group 2 level, and he obviously has the potential to rise still higher.

The other aspect of Nathaniel’s record which probably counts against him is that his progeny have an average winning distance of 11.9 furlongs, boosted by Dashing Willoughby’s victories in the Queen’s Vase and Henry II Stakes, God Given’s win in the Park Hill Stakes and Pillaster’s win in the Lillie Langtry Stakes.

Perhaps it’s time to remind owners and breeders that Dashing Willoughby earned more than £210,000, while God Given and Pilaster respectively amassed earnings of £376,000 and £235,000.

Although Nathaniel was represented

by Group winners in Britain, the USA and Australia in 2020, with Enable again winning the King George, breeders appear to have been more impressed by his Flat-bred progeny which were tried over hurdles during the 2020-21 season. They included Navajo Pass, winner of the

Bloodstock world views Unibet Hurdle, Concertista, a Grade 2-winning mare in Britain and Ireland who has since won a pair of Grade 2 novice chases, and Zanahiyr, a leading juvenile hurdler in Ireland who has since finished third in the Champion Hurdle.

The consequence was that at least half of the 133 mares covered by Nathaniel in 2021 could be said to have a National Hunt background. Among them were daughters of several champion National Hunt sires, including seven by four-time champion Presenting and three by six-time champion King’s Theatre, as well as others by Beneficial, Flemensfirth, Milan and Stowaway. Other notable jumping sires with more than one representative in Nathaniel’s book included Martaline (4), Midnight Legend (4), Saint Des Saints (3), Poliglote, Robin Des Champs and Kayf Tara.

The mares worthy of mention included M’Oubliez Pas, dam of Nathaniel’s Triumph Hurdle winner Burning Victory; Moraine, dam of the admirably versatile Wicklow Brave; and those successful broodmares Tinagoodnight and Katioucha, dams respectively of Santini and Nirvana Du Berlais. Another with a good winner to her name is My Petra, dam of the Grade 1 novice hurdle winner My Drago.

Then there’s Ms Parfois, a Grade 1-placed dual Listed winner over fences by Mahler, who creates 2 x 3 to Galileo, and the Betvictor Gold Cup winner Happy Diva. There are also several other Listed-winning jumpers among Nathaniel’s 2021 visitors, including Banjaxed Girl, Byzance Du Berlais, Floressa, Lifeboat Mona, Mayfair Music, Whoops A Daisy and Polly Peachum (who went so close to winning the Grade 1 Mares’ Hurdle). Others who also showed a good level of ability were the Grade 1-placed Karalee, Grade 2 Cheltenham winner Limini, Grade 2 Doncaster winner Maria’s Benefit and the Grade 2-placed Petticoat Tails.

At the same time, there were enough good mares in Nathaniel’s book to allow him to keep making a sizeable impact on the Flat. Among them were Concentric, who produced a brother to Enable in April, as well as the dams of Aspetar, Marmelo and Desert Crown.

Desert Crown’s dam Desert Berry was a lightly-raced mile winner by Green Desert, so Desert Crown’s ability to stay a mile and a half can’t be taken for granted – especially when the mare’s best previous winner, the Hong Kong Group 3 winner Flying Thunder, did his winning over six and seven furlongs.

That said, Nathaniel has sired Highgarden, winner of the Princess Royal

Stakes over a mile and a half, from another mile winner by Green Desert, plus the very useful stayer Quickthorn from a mare by Green Desert’s fast son Oasis Dream, so the omens are good for Desert Crown.

Demanding respect

Another tried-and-tested son of Galileo who arguably merits more interest from breeders is Teofilo, who has been making his mark in a variety of roles.

At the age of 18, Teofilo is priced at €30,000, an unremarkable amount for a champion racehorse who has sired 56 Group winners and a total of 105 blacktype winners. Yet Teofilo is credited with having covered 83 mares in 2021 at a fee of €30,000 and around 90 mares in 2020, when his fee stood at €40,000 for the fourth consecutive year. The previous

“Teofilo’s influence is going to be not only substantial but varied” three years had resulted in crops of 64 in 2018 and 67 in both 2019 and 2020, so Teofilo has far fewer representatives than many of Galileo’s younger sons.

Yet how many of those younger sons will prove capable of compiling a CV which features winners of the Dewhurst Stakes, Irish 1,000 Guineas, Irish Derby, Irish St Leger, Gold Cup, Yorkshire Oaks, Criterium International, Criterium de Saint-Cloud, Prix Jean Prat, Prix Jean Romanet, Prix Saint-Alary, Prix Royal-Oak (two), Prix du Cadran and Preis von Europa, as well as two northernhemisphere-sired winners of the Melbourne Cup? As this list shows, Teofilo’s progeny – like Nathaniel’s – often possess more stamina than is currently fashionable, but he was still able to sire five Group 1 winners on his visits to Australia, where the emphasis is firmly on speed.

It mustn’t be forgotten that Teofilo was fast enough to become the champion two-year-old of 2006, when he won both the National and Dewhurst Stakes over seven furlongs, and it is most likely that he would have been a 2,000 Guineas candidate had he stayed sound – just like the similarly-bred Frankel. And it has been

the Guineas races which have highlighted his brilliant start to his career as a broodmare sire.

Last year’s Irish 2,000 Guineas fell to Mac Swiney, a New Approach colt inbred 2 x 3 to Galileo, the second line coming via Teofilo’s daughter Halla Na Saoire.

Now Teofilo’s daughters have pulled off a tremendous Guineas double thanks to the exciting Coroebus in the 2,000 Guineas and the admirably tough Cachet in the 1,000 Guineas. Cachet failed by only a head to add a fourth Guineas to Teofilo’s collection when touched off in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches. The Guineas meeting also saw the Dahlia Stakes fall to Dreamloper, a Lope De Vega mare out of Teofilo’s daughter Livia’s Dream It is worth adding that Mac Swiney’s dam never raced, while Cachet’s dam Poyle Sophie failed to win in six starts, coming closest to victory when a head second over a mile and a half at Kempton.

It is a very different story with Coroebus, whose dam First Victory won the Oh So Sharp Stakes over seven furlongs, in the process becoming one of six black-type winners out of the excellent broodmare Eastern Joy. Four of the six scored at Group level, the others being headed by the dual Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow.

Mention of First Victory is a reminder that her dam Eastern Joy is a half-sister to the Prix de Diane winner West Wind. West Wind, in turn, is the dam of Derby entry West Wind Blows, an unbeaten threeyear-old Teofilo colt who was designated a ‘TDN Rising Star’ following his fivelength success in a novice race at Nottingham on his reappearance. He is not the only promising colt from Teofilo’s comparatively small 2019 crop, as it also includes Nations Pride, who was winning for the fourth consecutive time when he landed the Newmarket Stakes by seven lengths.

Teofilo hasn’t had enough stallion sons to assess his exact worth as a sire of sires.

However, his Australian-based son Kermadec already has two Group 1 winners to his credit, including the high-class middle-distance filly Montefilia and the VRC Oaks winner Willowy. In Europe, Teofilo’s Prix Jean Prat winner Havana Gold sired the speedy Havana Grey in his first crop and now Havana Grey’s own first crop of two-year-olds are already catching the eye, with ten winners already in the bag by mid-May, including a potentially smart filly in the dual winner Katey Kontent.

So it looks as though Teofilo’s influence is going to be not only substantial but varied.

THE OWNER BREEDER

65

Dr Statz

John Boyce cracks the code

Further lustre added to Dubawi partnership

T

he victory of Modern Games in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains was another timely reminder of the potent combination of Dubawi and his erstwhile nemesis Galileo. In the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket, we saw Coroebus, a Dubawi out of a mare by Galileo’s son Teofilo, gain the day, whilst Modern Games is a Dubawi out of a mare by another son of Galileo in New Approach. Moreover, there was a hint of yet more success for this mix of bloodlines when Aidan O’Brien’s Alfred Munnings – a Dubawi out of Galileo’s Classic-producing daughter Best In The World – scored impressively on his debut at Leopardstown.

The impetus for combining Dubawi with daughters of Galileo began in 2014 when Night Of Thunder upset the script by defeating Kingman and Australia to provide Dubawi with the second of his three 2,000 Guineas winners. Since then, he’s added the top-class Ghaiyyath to his roll of honour from Galileo mares.

Of course, such successful partnerships between sire and broodmare sire quite often have a fortuitous nature to them.

Two top-class stallions occupying the same space and time with good complementary pedigrees often end up as excellent partners. This has been the case throughout the history of thoroughbred racing. More recently, we have seen fine examples such as Sadler’s Wells with Darshaan mares and Galileo with Danehill mares; the very best of sires will forge partnerships with quite a few broodmare sires, mostly with other members of that same broodmare sire line.

It really helps a great deal when a top-class sire can play just as prominent a role as a sire of broodmares. And that is certainly the case with Galileo. You just have to look at the list of Group winners produced by his daughters to understand the power he brings to a pedigree. There are many sires – not all of them anywhere near top-class – that owe a debt of gratitude to the former Coolmore star. So far, in his role as a broodmare sire – which still has many years to run – Galileo has sired the dams of 185 stakes winners in the northern hemisphere at rate of 7.7%, which puts him among the very best.

To add a little context it might be worth knowing that Darshaan in his heyday

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THE OWNER BREEDER

DUBAWI/GALILEO-LINE BLACK-TYPE WINNERS AND GROUP-PLACED HORSES

Form

TFR

Name

Born

Sex

Dam

BM Sire

G1w

133

GHAIYYATH

2015

C

NIGHTIME: G1w

GALILEO

G1w

128

COROEBUS

2019

C

FIRST VICTORY: G3w

TEOFILO

G1w

127

NIGHT OF THUNDER

2011

C

Forest Storm: LRpl

GALILEO

G1w

115

MODERN GAMES

2019

C

Modern Ideals: unpl

NEW APPROACH

G2wG1p

123

DARTMOUTH

2012

C

GALATEE: G3w

GALILEO

G2wG1p

117

AMBITION

2016

F

TALENT: G1w

NEW APPROACH

G3wG2p

118

SECRET ADVISOR

2014

G

SUB ROSE: G3w

GALILEO

G3w

109

FONTHILL ABBEY

2016

F

Fair Hill: unraced

NEW APPROACH

G3w

106

CONCERT HALL

2019

F

WAS: G1w

GALILEO

G3w

104

THUNDER DRUM

2018

F

GREAT HEAVENS: G1w

GALILEO

LRw

118

UAE JEWEL

2016

G

GEMSTONE: LRw/G3pl

GALILEO

LRwG3p

110

MASHAEL

2016

F

Al Jassasiyah: unraced

GALILEO

LRw

106

NASHIRAH

2016

F

PERFECT LIGHT: W

GALILEO

LRw

95

NATIONAL DANCE

2019

F

STRATHSPEY: G2w

NEW APPROACH

WG3p

118

Red Galileo

2011

G

Ivory Gala : W/LRpl

GALILEO

WG3p

106

Wuqood

2018

C

TARFASHA: G2w/G1pl

TEOFILO

WG3p

104

Hafit

2019

C

Cushion: W/G3pl

GALILEO

managed a strike-rate of 9.1%, while more recently, Cheveley’s Park Stud’s Pivotal, who found a rich vein of success with Galileo, has a current stakes winner ratio of 6.1%. Galileo’s numbers get even better when we narrow our analysis down to his elite broodmare daughters. They are responsible for 92 of his 185 stakes winners and their success rate climbs to an excellent 10.3%.

It’s perfectly natural to see Godolphin try out the next generation of Galileo blood with Dubawi mares. After all, having acquired two of his most productive sire sons in Teofilo and New Approach from Jim Bolger, there are plenty of blueblooded mares by both sires in the Godolphin broodmare band.

For his part, Teofilo, who sired the dams of both Newmarket Guineas winners this year, has 22 stakes winners from his northern hemisphere mares at a rate of 4.4%. It was one of his better mares, First Victory, winner of the Oh So Sharp Stakes and a half-sister to the 128-rated Thunder Snow, that produced Coroebus. There’s no doubt either that Teofilo’s daughters will continue to be a good match for many sires, particular those that require more

stamina, as his success with the likes of Lope De Vega and Exceed And Excel might hint at.

It now seems such a shame that Teofilo, who has maintained a stakes winner strike-rate of around 10% throughout his career, isn’t more appreciated by commercial breeders.

New Approach, meanwhile, having had access to better mares than Teofilo during his career, predictably has a better strike-rate with his elite broodmare daughters, posting 9.8% stakes winners, including Group 1 winners Modern Games and Earthlight. It is not inconceivable that this top-class racehorse, who somewhat disappointed at stud despite siring the winners of the 2,000 Guineas, Derby and Oaks, becomes a better broodmare sire than sire. His strike-rate from his elite mares currently stands at 10.1% compared to the 9.8% as a broodmare sire.

All told, the Dubawi/Galileo-line partnership has now produced 14 stakes winners in the northern hemisphere and, whilst 16% stakes winners is impressive in anyone’s language, it is the quality of horses among the group that catches the eye.

A D V E R T O R I A L THE QUEEN’S FORMER RACEHORSES PARADE AT EPSOM

A

s part of the celebrations to mark The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) will be showcasing Her Majesty’s passion for the thoroughbred by bringing together a handful of her former racehorses to parade at Epsom Downs on Cazoo Derby Day. Several of The Queen’s former racehorses are now enjoying a second career and she follows their progress with interest and takes considerable pride in their success, irrespective of the level of form they may have shown on the racecourse.

Coincidently, another of The Queen’s horses now excelling in a second career was also runner-up in the Hampton Court Stakes. The former Richard Hannon trained Quadrille was beaten just a short head in the 2010 running of the race.

Barbers Shop and Katie Jerrram-Hunnable

Heading up the Epsom parade will be Barbers’ Shop. Now aged 20, Barbers Shop was bred by Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

Racing in the colours of The Queen and trained by Nicky Henderson, he won eight races and was placed in both a King George VI Chase and a Hennessy Gold Cup. Since his retirement from and Quadrille racing in 2012, Barbers Shop has been in the care of top showing producer Katie Jerram-Hunnable and he became one of the leading former racehorses to compete in showing classes.

His second career highlights include being crowned champion at Hickstead and three times winner and champion at Royal Windsor Horse Show. He is now retired from competitive showing but regularly participates in RoR parades.

Louise Robson

Also based with Katie JerramHunnable is First Receiver, a gelding by New Approach who was last seen on the racetrack at Royal Ascot in 2020 when finishing second in the Hampton Court Stakes. As a 5-year-old, First Receiver still has a long showing career ahead of him. He has been shown in-hand to gain competitive experience and was recently placed second at Royal Windsor Horse Show when ridden by Katie.

Sadly, injury curtailed his racing career, but it has not stopped Quadrille from thriving in a different discipline. Retrained by Louise Robson, who runs ‘Thoroughbred Dressage’ from her Buckinghamshire base, Quadrille is now the highest performing former racehorse on the UK dressage circuit and competes at international Prix St George level.

Showing and dressage are among the most popular second career options for former racehorses. In the sixteen years since RoR started staging classes exclusively for former racehorses, annual participation in RoR showing events has risen from 270 to 5,587, while in dressage it has gone from 0 to 6,911. To provide a comparison and some perspective, in 2019 (last full year pre-Covid) more former racehorses took part in RoR dressage competitions than ran in steeplechases (4,148 vs 2,965).

The Epsom parade of The Queen’s former racehorses also features Prince’s Trust and Forth Bridge, both of which are part of Louise Robson’s Thoroughbred Dressage team.

First Receiver and Katie Jerrram-Hunnable at Royal Windsor 2022

Prince’s Trust and Louise Robson

Now a 12-year-old, Prince’s Trust retired from racing in 2014.

In the dressage arena he has enjoyed plenty of success including being placed at the RoR National Championships, held annually at Aintree.

Forth Bridge ran on the flat, over hurdles and over fences and is now looking ahead to a career in dressage.

The demand for retired racehorses in the wider equestrian market has increased markedly in recent years as more and more people have come to appreciate the thoroughbred’s versatility and adaptability for the likes of dressage, polo, showing, and eventing.

Helping drive the demand is the range of competitive opportunities now available for former racehorses and which have been created

by Retraining of Racehorses (RoR), British racing’s own charity for the welfare of retired racehorses.

For more information on the work of RoR please head over to ror.org.uk THE OWNER BREEDER

67

ROA Forum

The special section for ROA members

See the bigger picture? Help shape racing’s future on the ROA Board

BILL SELWYN

There are three places available on the Board of the ROA, which plays a key role in tackling the sport’s biggest issues

T

he ROA is looking for members to express their interest in one of the three available positions on its Board. The organisation is seeking to strengthen board expertise in some key areas, namely finance, communication and technology, so that we are fit for the future and can embark on an exciting journey of ambitious growth and innovation.

Applications close on July 1 – anyone interested in standing should complete the nominees application at roa.co.uk/ election2022.

This is a great opportunity for members with the energy, drive and vision to help shape the future of British horseracing and the ROA. The Board discusses some of the biggest, most pressing issues facing the sport today and we are looking for applicants with expertise and experience to work alongside the executive team to ensure owners’ views, opinions and requirements are heard and actioned.

Anyone wishing to stand for election must meet the following criteria: • A member of the ROA and a qualifying owner at some time during the twelve-month period immediately preceding the date of joining the Board • Either a sole owner (or together with a spouse or civil partner, or an entity which is wholly owned by the candidate or with a spouse or civil

68

THE OWNER BREEDER

partner) who owns not less than one racehorse or interests in more than one racehorse which add up to at least one hundred per cent; and the racehorse(s) is trained in Great Britain In 2021 the ROA implemented a corporate governance review and one of the recommendations was the transition to a skill-set-based Board. In order to ensure that we have the correct skills and expertise to help progress the ROA’s strategy and wider industry initiatives, we would like to strongly encourage applicants with experience or knowledge in the key areas of finance, communication and technology.

It is critical that applicants have experience of working at Board or director level as all three roles will be providing strategic insights, governance, subject matter expertise and leadership to the ROA. Each Board member works

closely with the CEO, executive team and directors of the ROA, so experience of working collaboratively in teams is important. The Board meets monthly and the expectation is that candidates should be able to attend in person.

As a director you will also, at times, represent the ROA at events and therefore should be comfortable representing and acting in an ambassadorial role.

Timeline: application process April 26 – Applications open July 1 – Applications close July 18 – Voting commences August 30 – Voting closes September 15 – AGM (online)

If you would like any further information on the role of a Board member or the process please contact info@roa.co.uk.

World Pool days As outlined by the Tote in a recent update to members via our daily Inside Track ebulletin, World Pool is again putting owners at the forefront of the initiative.

As a thank you from the partners of World Pool, all owners with runners at the Tote’s World Pool events will

be sent a bottle of champagne and a £50 Tote credit voucher. Ascot’s summer meetings are excluded as the racecourse is providing a £25,000 trainer and stable prize on QIPCO King George Diamond Day, as a further incentive towards building field sizes for this World Pool event.

New contact details:

www.roa.co.uk • 01183 385680 • info@roa.co.uk @racehorseowners

RacehorseOwnersUK

Racehorseownersassociation

BILL SELWYN

Health assessment of British breeding industry

Competitive racing: drives levy income

Welcome increase in levy yield Levy income to the Horserace Betting Levy Board (HBLB) for the year ended March 31, 2022 is expected to be around £97 million, based on the receipt of provisional submissions to date from the majority of levy-paying bookmakers.

HBLB had said in its most recent published update in December that within its full-year forecast range – £96m to £100m – was considered the likeliest outcome. Since then, the Levy Board had noted reports of a below-par early start to 2022 before a stronger end to the levy year.

The £97m yield is an increase on the £82m in 2020/21 when no racing took place for the first two months of the levy year. The 2019/20 yield was £98m.

HBLB Chairman Paul Darling commented: “This is a very welcome figure, which reflects that betting on British racing has continued to be resilient, as it has been since the resumption of racing in June 2020.

“We expect to be contributing over £70m in prize-money in 2022, compared to around £60m in a

Racing with Pride June is Pride Month in the UK, where people come together to collectively recognise and celebrate the LGBT+ community. This is a significant year for the Pride movement and the LGBT+ community as it marks the 50th anniversary since the first Pride took place in the United Kingdom.

Racing with Pride would like to encourage owners to lease the specially

normal pre-Covid year. We said when announcing this last year that it would be very difficult to maintain this into 2023 and this remains the case. First, a contribution of this level continued to draw on our reserves, which is not sustainable longer term, and secondly it included some of the proceeds of a £21.5m loan from government. The first loan repayment instalment must be made in 2023 and repayment continues each year until 2030.

“However, the Levy Board will now be able to plan for 2023 with additional certainty and optimism in the light of receipts for the past year. We will look to provide an indicative prize-money allocation after our June board meeting, at which we will also consider other potential major calls on expenditure next year.

“I would like to thank bookmakers for their timely submission of end-ofyear declarations. Particular thanks go to the major bookmakers who have provided valuable information to us through the year which has helped us with accurate forecasting.”

commissioned Racing with Pride silks during the month of June. In particular, the ROA would like to reach out to owners with runners in high profile fixtures to take up this offer. The Racing with Pride silks were created in 2021 to generate further awareness and visibility for the LGBT+ community within British horseracing.

In 2020, Racing with Pride, British racing’s official network for the LGBT+ community and allies, was launched.

At the beginning of May, an economic impact study was launched with the aim of conducting a comprehensive review of the state of health of the UK thoroughbred breeding industry, funded by the Levy Board with some additional support from the Racing Foundation.

The audit originally commissioned by the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association will be conducted by management consultants, PWC. This will provide an objective overview of the market, looking at the impact of economic and political factors to identify emerging challenges and opportunities.

The analysis will take into consideration the studies undertaken in 2014 and 2018 to understand the effects of industry interventions and programmes of work and use these findings to help shape strategic plans for a long-term sustainable industry.

The wider racing industry will also be explored in the study, including the source and size of its horse population, international trade and subsequent impact on the future racing programme.

The findings and subsequent recommendations will provide some valuable context regarding the status of the industry today, key areas of focus and new initiatives to benefit the sport.

It has been campaigning to ensure racing is a sport where everyone can be their true selves without fear of discrimination. As part of this work we actively encourage engagement throughout the year in addition to special commemorative dates and events.

If you would like to show your support by using these silks contact info@racingwithpride.co.uk to find out more.

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ROA Forum

Get ahead of the field with ROA VAT Solution ROA VAT Solution continues to be well received by owners. A new client said recently: “I am giving you a five-star review. You are recovering more VAT for me than I ever managed when doing it myself. So, I will be recouping the cost [of fees] through more efficient VAT recovery.”

Owners are able to reclaim VAT on their racing-related expenses if they meet the following criteria: • Minimum 50% share in a racehorse(s) • The racehorse(s) is in training with a registered UK trainer • The horses(s) have third-party sponsorship So what does VAT recovery mean in terms of racehorse ownership?

The following VAT-able expenses immediately spring to mind: horse purchase, training, keep, gallop, horse transport and farrier fees, jockey fees (including retainer agreements), BHA registration and administration fees and racing silk purchases. However, there are other items that owners may not realise are recoverable.

Fuel expenses

VAT on fuel can be recovered when claiming VAT on all fuel receipts and signing up to the fuel scale charge. All fuel receipts must be kept as records.

Accommodation

If it is reasonable for an owner to require accommodation when watching their horse(s) run, then the VAT on the cost is recoverable. The recovery amount will be applied to the number of owners listed under the VAT registration and is valid for one

night’s stay on either the day before or the day of the race.

Subsistence

The VAT paid on meals and beverages enjoyed by owners whilst travelling and watching their runners is recoverable. The recoverable VAT will be apportioned to the owners recognised under the VAT registration.

Phone/mobile bill

Ten per cent of the VAT on owners’ phone/mobile bills used for racingrelated activity is recoverable. HMRC will expect the cost to be justifiable to racing.

Membership subscriptions

Membership subscription purchase VAT is recoverable, providing the subscription is related to owners’ racing activity, which includes the ROA fee.

Service invoices

VAT charged on services such as ROA VAT Solution is a recoverable expense, as the service is directly related to racing activity.

Miscellaneous items

It may be required to put forward a business case to HMRC to recover the purchase VAT on items such as a horsebox.

Where the goods or services are partly for the purpose of your horseracing activities and partly for non-business (or private) purposes, you can treat a fair and reasonable proportion of the VAT you have been charged as input tax.

Owners can reclaim VAT on fuel costs

Owners must also account for their output VAT – this is any VAT on ‘income received.’ This includes but is not limited to: • Sale of any horses • Prize-money – VAT is applied once the BHA is notified of the VAT registration • Sponsorship income – this must be declared as it is a requirement for qualifying under the scheme • Appearance money

Making Tax Digital

Now that Making Tax Digital has come into effect, VAT returns due post April 1, 2022 will not be able to be submitted using the business government gateway account.

ROA VAT Solution submits VAT returns using MTD (Making Tax Digital) compliant accounting software Xero.

Instructing and authorising ROA VAT Solution to become your Agent with HMRC has never been simpler.

Contact the ROA VAT Solution team on vat@roa.co.uk or call 01183 385685 to speak to Davina or Glen.

The Thoroughbred Group launched The Horsemen’s Group unveiled its new brand and identity in May. The group representing the Racehorse Owners Association, Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, National Trainers Federation, Professional Jockeys Association and National Association of Racing Staff will now be

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known as The Thoroughbred Group.

The new name and brand reflects The Thoroughbred Group’s vision and ambitions for a more inclusive industry, driven by its members’ commitment for racing to be a truly diverse and welcoming sport.

The objectives of the group remains

unchanged and it will continue to work to ensure that the interests of the people involved in racing are protected through a single voice campaigning on matters of mutual interest.

Bank accounts in the spotlight Registered racehorse owners are required to have a racing account under the Rules of Racing to enable the British Horseracing Authority to pay prize-money securely and allow the automatic payment of entry fees, jockey fees and registration fees. There are two types of accounting facility available to racehorse owners: BHA account: owners with a BHA account can operate their accounting facilities without incurring any charges. The BHA account is an invoicing account, which settles by Direct Debit or Direct Credit on the 15th day of the month for the previous month’s accrued racing transactions. The table below refers

to withdrawals and details the specific timetable used for settlement of prize-money.

Weatherbys Racing Bank account: owners with a WRB account have the flexibility of a normal bank account, and will incur charges for monthly account management fees and racing transaction fees may apply. The charges below are correct as of April 2022 for all new WRB accounts. All partnerships and syndicates will need to operate a multi-owners account.

The following table sets out a comparison of the two bank accounts that are currently available to registered racehorse owners.

BHA ACCOUNT

WEATHERBYS ACCOUNT

FEATURES

This is a simple monthly invoice arrangement.

It is restricted solely to your racing transactions (entry fees, jockey fees, prize-money, gallop fees and ROA membership).

It does not extend to your payment of training fees.

A Weatherbys Bank account combines racing transactions (entry fees, jockey fees, prize-money, ROA membership etc) with the flexibility and features of a normal bank account.

PAYMENTS

You will receive an invoice at the beginning of each month. The balance will be requested by Direct Debit on the 15th day of that month.

If sufficient funds are not available at the time of the monthly Direct Debit an overdue account fee will be charged. If the account is not settled on a subsequent Direct Debit request, further charges will be incurred and all ownership activities related to the account suspended, with the result that any horse you have an interest in will not be allowed to run.

You will receive a bank statement at the beginning of each month or you can access your statements online at any time. If your account is overdrawn this can be settled via cheque, bank transfer or card payment. You can also view your accounts via the Weatherbys Mobile Banking App. If you have received prize-money you will be able to access it as soon as it has cleared on your account, typically 15 days after the race date. You can use funds on your account to automatically pay your training fees, gallop fees, and any other racing or bloodstock bills.

WITHDRAWALS

The British Horseracing Authority arrangement does not allow requested withdrawal of funds nor the retention of credit funds.

Instead, if you are in credit at the end of the month, the full credit balance will be sent to your nominated account by Direct Credit at the beginning of the following month.

You can access your funds in a variety of ways including auto payments, online banking and telephone banking. Further information is contained in the Weatherbys Bank leaflet ‘Account Terms and Conditions’ available at www.weatherbysbank.com.

INTEREST

No interest is payable on funds.

Weatherbys Bank may pay interest on credit balances at the prevailing rates. The current rates table can be viewed on www.weatherbysbank.com or is available from Weatherbys Bank on request.

TRANSACTION CHARGES

None.

Overdue account charges: £50.16 (inc VAT) for the second letter.

Racing transactions are 60p but free if you have 100 or less racing transactions in the prior 12 months.

Overseas racing transactions are charged at a commission rate of 0.5%.

Online banking transactions are free.

Automated banking transactions are 20p. Other manual banking transactions are £1.25.

There is a £7.50 monthly management fee but this only applies to those months in which you have transactions.

OTHER SERVICES

Weatherbys Bank account holders may also benefit from discounts on other Weatherbys Bank services, such as bloodstock insurance and VAT services.

More information on the range of banking services offered by Weatherbys Bank can be found by calling 01933 304777, by emailing bank@weatherbys.co.uk or on the internet via www.weatherbysbank.com

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ROA Forum

MAGICAL MOMENTS

Kevin Lloyd’s showstopping mare has taken her final curtain call

O

Lola Showgirl (grey) recorded big wins at Royal Ascot and Lingfield before her retirement

BILL SELWYN

kay, let’s get this tune out of the way and out of our heads. You know, the Barry Manilow song Copacabana, the one that starts ‘Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl’.

For Lola Showgirl is the mare at the centre of this month’s focus on an ROA member, Kevin Lloyd, who was thrilled with his five-year-old, and not for the first time, when she won last month’s SBK Chartwell Fillies’ Stakes at Lingfield.

Being in foal to Oasis Dream, it was a hugely important Group 3 success for her, the mare keeping on gamely under Tom Marquand to win by three-quarters of a length for the David Loughnane yard and her owner, who has thoroughly enjoyed seeing her improve through the grades over the past two years.

The daughter of Classic hero-turnedDarley sire Night Of Thunder was purchased as a foal by Micheal Orlandi, under the umbrella of Compas Equine, for €15,000 at Goffs in 2017, and after a sighter on her debut at Newmarket as a three-year-old has been a consistent provider of both prize-money and magical moments.

She won at Chepstow that season but better was to follow last year, when

Kevin Lloyd (right) has enjoyed the ride with Lola Showgirl

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she made a winning reappearance at York and followed that up by landing the Kensington Palace Handicap at Royal Ascot, on the day that would have been her owner’s dad’s 99th birthday – while she was Lloyd’s first runner at the meeting.

That triumph was not only a notable one for horse and owner, but it was a first winner at the Royal meeting for Loughnane, who also saddled the runner-up Ffion, while it was also a debut success at Royal Ascot for Laura Pearson, who had never ridden at the meeting before. What’s more, she became only the fourth female rider to have a winner at Royal Ascot and the very first to do so

as an apprentice.

There followed a trio of fourth-placed finishes for Lola Showgirl, including in a couple of Listed events, before her breakthrough Group-race success at Lingfield, a mission owner was keener on than trainer, believing her to be “the perfect seven-furlong horse”.

Explaining the background to his interest in racing and subsequently ownership involvement, Lloyd says: “My father had a bookmakers, and also worked on course, while my uncle worked for the [then] biggest independent bookmaker John Joyce on course. Previous to that my family were illegal bookmakers, with the ticker tape

machine in the front room!

“I was introduced, via Iain Jardine, to Micheal Orlandi of Compas Equine and Starfield Stud in Mullingar, and would say that was undoubtedly the best thing that could have happened to me as a novice, with regard to horses. He’s been there with me from the start, buying this, that and the other, and I wouldn’t be where I am with the horses now without him.

“You need to have people around you that you can trust, like Micheal. He’s done really well and sources a lot of Dave’s horses. I’m going to his wedding in July, to Sile [Hayes], who works for Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, and we’re very close, and not just because I give him business.

“He’s going places with Compas Equine and Starfield Stud, and out of anyone in racing I’d push forward and recommend, it’s him. It’s so important to get a bloodstock agent that, first, you trust, and second, you have empathy with.

“Micheal is getting a share of Showgirl and will have her to look after now that she is retired, to back where she came from, and hopefully she’ll be a foundation broodmare for us.”

He adds: “Everyone who has been around Showgirl and has had anything to do with her is nice, including the Finegans, who bred her, and pre-trainers Kirsty and John Weymes.”

Lola Showgirl is one of around 12 horses Lloyd has now owned in one guise or another, with the once-raced three-year-old Lola Augustus and the unraced juvenile filly Charlie’s Humour others recently or currently with Loughnane, while he has a Sioux Nation yearling – “an absolute beast” – as well.

Lloyd says: “Micheal has got the Sioux Nation with him and I’ve said to him, ‘Do not let me keep him! Not if he needs to be sold, just tell me’ – I’m trying to support Micheal by buying fillies and turning them into broodmares.

“When Covid was rampant, I got a bit bored and bought some foals. It didn’t turn out that well, but it was something to do while there was no racing, and foals and well-bred fillies have more residual value, so I’m happy to sell the colts to reinvest in them.

“Augustus didn’t prove suitable for racing, so he’s been rehomed by a girl called Gemma, while Charlie’s Humour was named after my dad, Charles – we called him Charlie – and he had a very good sense of humour, as well being an incredibly nice fella.

“Dave is young, hungry, approachable and a good communicator – those are key things to me when it comes to choosing a trainer. Honesty is also paramount. Dave and Sarah, his wife, are lovely; she’s pretty sarcastic and keeps me on my toes!”

As well as helping to find homes or new jobs for his retired horses, Lloyd is also a big supporter of the Greyhound

“I won’t crucify her by running under top weight so she’s been retired” Trust, as “I’d rather know where they are, greyhounds as well as horses”, and is particularly well known in north-east greyhound circles.

Summarising highlights as an owner of his bigger four-legged friends, Lloyd says: “Magical moments include Something Brewing, who was trained by Iain, winning at Hexham first time over hurdles, and Tattletime, who was with Dave, winning at Southwell – it was a great training performance as the horse was difficult.

“Then of course there was Lola Showgirl winning at Royal Ascot on what would have been my dad’s 99th birthday, which was unreal, and her winning the Group 3 at Lingfield the other day.

“I turned down $150,000 for her after her win at Chepstow, and Micheal and David thought I was barmy for not taking it, so I made a point of saying to them after she won at Royal Ascot that we wouldn’t have been there if I had!”

Also very pleased Lloyd turned down

offers for Lola Showgirl was one of the best work-riders in the business, despite his age.

“Another guy who loves her is Steve Brookshaw, the Grand National-winning trainer who looked after her and rode her out,” he says. “He’s a lovely man, a down to earth 70-odd year-old fella, and the only one who could pull her up.

“After Lingfield, it was me, Steve and Sarah Taylor, the head lass, having a drink to celebrate. The staff are brilliant.

“I’m just a normal Middlesbrough lad with a few quid who enjoys life and appreciates people who are honest with me, and I’ve got a wonderful family around me. I just want people to call me Kev, rather than Mr Lloyd, and prefer a relaxed atmosphere, and I like to be inclusive with staff.”

Lloyd, whose business is specialist safety services in construction and also product innovation, pinpoints “the overall experience on the racecourse and the incredible buzz that you get from winning” as the best thing about being an owner, while he adds: “The worst, or most frustrating, thing is the obvious abysmal prize-money, which needs to be addressed.

“I am one of the few who, due to Showgirl, have made it self-funded.

However, the winnings for equivalent races abroad would be an embarrassing comparison to British racing.”

Lola Showgirl might have had the chance to add a few more pounds to the pot at Royal Ascot this month, but the handicapper had his say – eventually.

“She went up from 86 to 105 when winning at Lingfield, though I thought she should have gone up after coming fourth at Kempton the time before as that Listed race was better than the Group 3 in my opinion,” says her owner.

“This year the plan was that, if she didn’t go up too much, she’d have a final run on what would have been my dad’s 100th birthday, in the Buckingham Palace Handicap back at Royal Ascot. I’ve four sisters and a brother and we would have all tried to get down there.

“It would have been memorable, but I wouldn’t crucify her by running under top weight, so she’s been retired. I’ve had a great journey with her.”

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ROA Forum

Death of General Sir Geoffrey Howlett The ROA was sad to hear of the death of General Sir Geoffrey Howlett in April aged 92.

Sir Geoffrey, who enjoyed a decorated military career having risen to a senior rank in the British Army, had been a member of the ROA for over 20 years and was latterly an owner with the Scott Dixon stable.

His most successful runner was the appropriately named Sir Geoffrey, a sprint handicapper who won 21 races between the ages of two and 12, amassing £86,000 in prize-money during his decade of racing. Dual-purpose performer Swift, trained by Mark Polglase, was another multiple winner for the owner.

Born in India and educated at Wellington College and Sandhurst, Sir Geoffrey was commissioned into his father’s regiment, The Queen’s Own Royal West Kents, in July 1950.

He was awarded a Military Cross for his heroic actions in Malaya in 1952 and three years later joined the Third Battalion of the Parachute Regiment, playing a key role in a successful operation during the 1956 Suez Crisis as Air Adjutant.

Sir Geoffrey went on to serve in Cyprus, Kuwait, Bahrain, Hong Kong and Northern Ireland. He was awarded an OBE for gallantry in 1972 and in 1983 was made KBE. Later roles included Commandant of RMA Sandhurst and Commander-in-Chief of Allied Forces in Northern Europe.

General Sir Geoffrey Howlett: loved horses and racing

Retiring from the Army in 1989, he took on a variety of positions, including Chairman and President of the Regular Forces Employment Association, Chairman of the Leonard Cheshire Foundation, and Commissioner of the Royal Hospital Chelsea.

A member of the MMC – he had played cricket for the Army as a younger man – Sir Geoffrey spent his spare time breeding Labradors and enjoying his small string of racehorses.

His wife Elizabeth died in 2006. He is survived by his son and two daughters.

Diary dates June 3-4, Epsom Oaks and Derby (both Tote World Pool days) June 14-18, Royal Ascot Tickets and hospitality offers available at roa.co.uk/events (Tote World Pool days) June 18, Perth Discover Shared Ownership Day - see www.inthepaddock.co.uk for more details July 1, Board election Application deadline July 1, Racing Welfare Racedays The Clocktower Cup at Doncaster and charity race at Newton Abbot July 18, Board election Voting commences

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July 16-17, Racing Welfare bike ride See racingwelfare.co.uk for more details July 23, Ascot Tote World Pool day July 26-30, Qatar Goodwood Festival Tickets and hospitality offers available at roa.co.uk/events (Tote World Pool days July 26-28) August 7, Haydock Park Discover Shared Ownership Day – see www.inthepaddock.co.uk for more details August 17-19, York Tote World Pool days August 30, Board election Voting closes

September 1, Windsor Discover Shared Ownership Day – see www.inthepaddock.co.uk for more details September 10, Leopardstown Irish Champions Day (World Pool day) September 15, AGM Further details in due course October 15, Ascot British Champions Day (Tote World Pool day) October 21-22, Cheltenham Discover Shared Ownership Day – see www.inthepaddock.co.uk for more details November 18-19, Ascot Discover Shared Ownership Day – see www.inthepaddock.co.uk for more details

In brief New Head of Communications

Racegoers had the opportunity to find out about shared ownership at York in May

Shared ownership in focus Great British Racing, in collaboration with In The Paddock, the ROA and the participating racecourses, launched the ownership days initiative in 2022, designed to showcase shared racehorse ownership and the affordable gateway into ownership that syndicates and racings clubs can provide.

Over 60% of racehorses trained in Britain are raced in some form of shared ownership, with syndicates and racing clubs currently a huge growth area within ownership. Shared ownership opportunities have

continued to evolve over recent years, making it more accessible than ever for racing enthusiasts to experience the unique thrill of racehorse ownership in a cost-effective way.

Seven meetings have been scheduled in 2022 and the most recent event was held at York on May 13 with representation from 15 syndicates and clubs. The series will continue at Perth on June 18. Further dates for your diary are August 7 (Haydock), September 1 (Windsor), October 21 and 22 (Cheltenham) and November 18 and 19 (Ascot).

Racecourse feedback It has been two months since the ROA relaunched its Racecourse Accreditation and Gold Standard Awards. The ‘quality mark’ assessment of racecourses was launched in 2019 and awards accreditation status to those racecourses that meet a minimum standard of performance across all areas of the owner’s experience when having a runner.

Over the course of this year, all 60 racecourses (Newmarket’s two tracks are assessed separately) will be visited by AA Hospitality Services and every aspect of the day is scored. The detailed criteria covers everything from the pre and post-raceday communications to the facilities on offer, and also includes areas such as equine welfare and the provision for owners with special requirements.

So far over 20 racecourses have been assessed and the ROA is delighted to see how many have improved their score from their last visit in 2019. The AA’s assessors provide each track with a detailed report on their findings, as well

as highlighting all areas where improvements can be made.

Once every racecourse has been visited and assessed, the 2022 Racecourse Accreditation results will be announced, and then it will be the turn of the Gold Standard Awards to be decided upon – and this is where all ROA members get to have their say.

A racecourse must score a minimum of 80% in their AA assessment to be considered for the Gold Standard Award, and the final decisions will then be made with input from the National Association of Racing Staff assessments and, most importantly, feedback from owners.

The ROA has a dedicated racecourse feedback form on our website at roa.co.uk/feedback and we welcome your opinions. The more feedback we have, the better overall opinion we can form on the raceday experience at each track, and the easier it becomes to drive up standards. The form takes only a couple of minutes to complete so please do get involved.

The ROA has expanded its executive team with the appointment of Head of Communications Lyndsay Harrison, who joined the team in March and reports directly to Chief Executive Charlie Liverton.

Lyndsay has close to 20 years’ experience in corporate communication. She has held senior roles in the financial services and energy sectors with Goldman Sachs, Standard Chartered, Nomura International and BP plc. In 2021, Lyndsay undertook a fixed term contract with the Longines Global Champions Showjumping Tour, leading the redesign of the commercial and communication functions.

She brings to the ROA a wealth of experience in media relations, reputation management, crisis communication and stakeholder engagement.

Lyndsay lives in London and is a passionate equestrian, with a focus on showjumping as a competitor, owner and breeder.

Raceday Curtailment Scheme activated

Racing was abandoned before the last race at Wincanton on Sunday, April 10 following a serious injury to amateur jockey Major Charlie O’Shea, which required an air ambulance to land on the course.

Thankfully Major O’Shea was able to leave intensive care within days of the incident.

The abandonment of the last race activated the ROA’s Raceday Curtailment Scheme, with five of the runners in the last race qualifying to receive a payment of £100 each.

The scheme is run in conjunction with Weatherbys Hamilton and has paid out over £100,000 to owners since its inception in 2013. The scheme was introduced to reduce the financial blow to an owner who is left both disappointed and out of pocket when their horse is unable to race.

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TBA Forum

The special section for TBA members

he British and Irish jumps seasons came to a crescendo in April and British-breds were performing to the highest level on either side of the Irish Sea, and further afield.

On the opening day of the Grand National fixture, Millers Bank got the day’s proceedings off to the best possible start. The son of Passing Glance was providing his breeder, and trainer, Alex Hales with a first top-level win as he bounded to a ten-length win.

The following contest was the Anniversary 4yo Juvenile Hurdle. Knight Salute and Pied Piper (New Approach) crossed the line as equals, but the stewards adjudged the latter to have caused interference, enough to place him second behind the winning son of Sir Percy, who was bred by Willie Carson’s Minster Stud and Anne Dalgety.

A day later and Mac Tottie (Midnight Legend) showcased his love of the Aintree fences with victory in the Grade 3 Topham Handicap Chase. The nineyear-old was bred by Steve and Jackie Fleetham.

The third and final day witnessed a strong performance from Sam Brown in the race before the Grand National, a Grade 3 three-mile chase. The son of Black Sam Bellamy, who was bred and is raced by Tim Frost, took the contest by 15 lengths.

Honeysuckle concluded another stellar season with a second win in the Grade 1 Punchestown Champion Hurdle at the end of the month. The Dr Geoffrey Guybred daughter of Sulamani was pushed out to record her 16th successive victory under Rules by three lengths.

The Newsells Park Stud-bred Melon gained a deserved win in a Grade 3 at Cork during the Easter weekend, while in the US, Chief Justice, bred by the GB Partnership, landed the $50,000 Daniel Van Clief Memorial Stakes at Foxfield by six lengths.

Last season Frankel was crowned European champion sire and the Banstead Manor Stud resident shows no sign of stopping, going on results from April. The son of Galileo supplied four stakes winners over the period, including with the Godolphin-bred duo of Wild Beauty – a Grade 1 scorer at Woodbine last September – in the Group 3 Fred

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Darling Stakes and Nahanni in the Listed Blue Riband Trial at Epsom.

Not to be outdone, Juddmonte bred the other two stakes winners for their stallion. Westover gained his biggest win to date in the Group 3 Classic Trial at Sandown Park, while Baratti broke through at stakes level when taking Listed honours in the Prix Lord Seymour at Longchamp.

Juddmonte were also on the mark with the Andre Fabre-trained Agave, a Listed winner the previous month, in the Group 3 Prix Penelope, while the same day at Saint-Cloud, The Revenant, bred

by Al Asayl Bloodstock Ltd, added further riches to his honour when winning the Group 3 Prix Edmond Blanc.

Both are progeny of Dubawi, as is the Godolphin homebred National Dance, who improved on all previous form to rout the opposition in the Listed Prix Caravelle at Toulouse for Henri-Alex Pantall.

Winner of the Group 1 Doncaster Mile 12 months ago, Godolphin’s homebred Cascadian, a son of New Approach, ground down the opposition late on to secure the Group 1 All Aged Stakes at Randwick.

Bred by James Wigan’s London Thoroughbred Services and owned by Cheveley Park Stud, the improving fiveyear-old Lights On gained her biggest success when taking the Group 2 bet365 Mile at Sandown Park.

Group 3 successes during the month included the Craven Stakes score

by Native Trail (Oasis Dream), who followed up with a gallant second in the first Classic of the British season, the Group 1 2,000 Guineas. Meanwhile, in France, Welwal took the Group 3 Prix de Fontainebleau at Longchamp, the same day that Junko claimed the Group 3 Prix Noailles to maintain his unbeaten record.

In the Group 3 Prix Sigy at Chantilly, Miramar stayed on strongly to gain a first black-type victory in the hands of Ronan Thomas.

In Germany, the Newsells Park Stud-bred Dato, thrice a Listed scorer previously, landed his first Pattern race in the Group 2 Carl Jaspers-Preis.

There were a number of Listed victories over the duration, including for the Stratford Place Stud-bred Dr

Millers Bank provided trainer and breeder Alex Hales with his first success at the top level

Zempf in the Listed 2,000 Guineas Trial Stakes. The Meon Valley Stud-bred Checkandchallenge won the Listed Burradon Stakes on the all-weather at Newcastle.

Also on the all-weather, but at Chelmsford, the Countess of Rothesbred Tippy Toes (Havana Gold) was an authoritative winner of the Chelmer Fillies’ Stakes. The Daisy Warwick Fillies’ Stakes provided the Hascombe and Valiant Studs-bred Bartzella (Golden Horn) with her maiden stakes success.

On her first start of the season, Grand Glory, who had been bought for big money in December, won the Listed EBF Prix Zarkava in impressive fashion, whilst the Free Handicap at Newmarket was won by New Science.

Stateside and there were stakes successes for Ruthin and Unanimous Consent. The former, bred by Highclere Stud and Jake Warren, took the Limestone Stakes at Keeneland, whilst the latter took the Woodhaven Stakes at Aqueduct.

BILL SELWYN

Hales cashes in for first Grade 1 win T

JOHN REARDON

TBA National Hunt Stallion Statistical Awards for 2021-22

Schiaparelli (above) and Nathaniel were repeat winners of the Horse & Hound Cup and Whitbread Silver Salver

WHITBREAD SILVER SALVER – Nathaniel For the second successive season, Nathaniel walked away with the Whitbread Silver Salver, awarded to the leading active British-based stallion by earnings achieved in Britain and Ireland. A sire who continues to excel with his progeny on the Flat and over obstacles, the former Eclipse Stakes winner was represented at the highest level through the exploits of Zanahiyr. A Grade 2 scorer on his seasonal return, he went on to record four consecutive placings at the top level, including when narrowly mown down by Sharjah in the Grade 1 Matheson Hurdle at Leopardstown over the Christmas period.

Another son to hit the crossbar was Kitty’s Light. Raced eight times, the six-year-old was runner-up in the Charlie Hall, before flourishing in the spring. Second in the Coral Trophy at Kempton Park in late February, he found only stable companion Win My Wings too good in the Scottish National. Turned out three weeks later, he ran third in the bet365 Gold Cup at Sandown Park.

In Ireland his daughters shone, including the Willie Mullins-trained duo of Burning Victory and Concertista.

The first, a former winner of the Triumph Hurdle, added the Quevega Mares’ Hurdle to her record, while Concertista was sent chasing, winning a pair of Grade 2s, including the Dawn Run at Limerick.

Antunes, Dal Horrisgle, Imphal and Kaizer were also valuable contributors to his prize-money haul.

HORSE & HOUND CUP – Schiaparelli Overbury Stud’s continued domination of this award – given to the leading active British-based stallion by individual chase winners in Britain and Ireland – continues with Schiaparelli landing back-to-back wins.

The son of Monsun had a very productive season. The Mr and Mrs James Main-bred Numitor won a couple and finished second in the Challenger Middle Distance Chase Series Final, while the Reveley Farms-bred De Young Warrior scored twice in handicap company. Schiehallion Munro, bred by Karen Hannigan, was a class 2 winner at Wetherby, whilst Schiaparannie, bred by the late Reg Makin, was a winner over the larger obstacles and was third in the Listed Yorkshire Silver Vase Mares’ Chase at Doncaster.

Runner-up to Honeysuckle in the Grade 1 Hatton’s Grace, Ronald Pump was a half-length runner-up in the Leinster National in March, only his fifth start over fences.

Schiaparelli was also represented by Grade 2 West Yorkshire Hurdle winner Indefatigable, Listed mares’ novice hurdle winner Fonzerelli, and Hullnback, runner-up in the Grade 2 bumper on Grand National day.

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 2022, two elected trustee spaces are available.

Members who wish to put themselves forward as a potential candidate for the Board elections

should in the first instance write to Claire Sheppard, the TBA’s CEO, confirming their request to be considered as a candidate and provide six signatures of support from current TBA members – signatories can offer their support to only two candidates in any one year. A form can be secured by contacting the TBA office or by visiting the members section of the website.

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 in these pages of the August issue. The election result will be announced at the Annual General Meeting in September. Ballot forms, together with the profiles of all candidates, will be sent to TBA members at the beginning of August.

Candidate profiles should not exceed 200 words and be composed under the following headings: Career/ Profession, Breeding/Racing interests, Profile.

Completed forms, photo and profile must be returned no later than 9.30am on Thursday, June 16.

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TBA Forum Stud and stable visits prove a big hit with members Despite the grey, damp start to the TBA’s first regional day of the year, 30 members were given an excellent tour of the Lambourn gallops by the Jockey Club’s Will Riggall. His knowledge and enthusiasm shone through as he explained the facilities available to trainers and the enormous amount of work that goes into

Members enjoyed getting the lowdown from Ed Walker

Watership Down Stud: beautiful setting

maintaining them. Inclement weather was not going to dampen spirits as old friends reunited and, through the mutual interest in bloodstock and racing, new friendships were made.

Trainer Ed Walker met the group after successfully catching a loose horse, talking through his string as they galloped past for a good pipeopener. With the ‘horses to follow’ noted and a hint of brighter weather, the members made a short trip back into the village and onto a tour of Walker’s Kingsdown yard. There they met several of the yard’s stars including recent Dahlia Stakes winner Dreamloper and Mountain Peak, who happened to be bred by one of the

attendees.

Lunch at the Queens Arms in East Garston was a treat with lashings of delicious fish pie, lasagne and green veg followed by sticky toffee pudding and/or lemon tart. The odd pint and a glass of wine later and the group was refuelled and ready for the afternoon’s tour of the beautiful Watership Down Stud.

General Manager Simon Marsh gave a talk on the stud’s history before providing commentary for a parade of a selection of yearlings, including a pair of Dubawis out of Horseplay and The Black Princess respectively, whilst So Mi Dar’s yearling son of Frankel garnered plenty of attention.

Celebration of Munnings’ life and work on exhibition at Racing Museum A special exhibition of artwork by Sir Alfred Munnings is available to view at the National Horseracing Museum in Newmarket between May 24 and June 12. Brought to the exhibition space by The British Sporting Arts Trust, the exhibition is titled: Sir Alfred Munnings (1878-1959) A Life of his Own, and generous loans have been secured from public and private collections, including the Jockey Club and the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment.

A number of the works have not been exhibited previously. The exhibition will comprise four themes: Pursuit of Patronage, The Sporting Scene, Painting for Pleasure and Symphonies in Grey and White.

TBA members can access a discount of membership to the museum, including annual individual membership being £30 instead of £45 and an individual life membership costing £275 instead of £350.

For an application form for membership of the museum please contact Annette Bell (abell@nhrm.co.uk).

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Also on parade was Gale Force, dam of Hurricane Lane, and back in foal and carrying a full-sibling.

Simon and his team took the group for a walk of the paddocks where they met a number of mares and foals, including Dar Re Mi with her ten-day old Lope De Vega colt, So Mi Dar with her Frankel filly and The Fugue with her colt by Wootton Bassett.

The team at Watership Down were a huge credit to the stud – friendly, knowledgeable and passionate – taking time to answer all the questions thrown at them.

The day ended with a muchappreciated afternoon tea in the hospitality office before bidding fond farewells and heading home. The TBA is greatly appreciative to all who made the day a memorable affair.

RoR’s new ‘search for a horse’ feature Retraining of Racehorses, British horseracing’s official charity for the welfare of horses who have retired from racing, has launched a new search facility on its website.

This facility enables breeders, previous owners and enthusiasts to search for horses who are registered with RoR following conclusion of their racing careers.

For horses who are registered on the RoR website, breeders can send an enquiry via a contact form.

To use the service visit ror.org. uk then click on the RoR Registration page and type a horse’s name in the box beneath the ‘check if a horse is registered with RoR’ field.

Secure your ticket for Flat Awards Evening

Ellis strikes with No Questions Asked

Tom Ellis with wife and winning rider Gina after landing the TBA-sponsored 4yo maiden point at Edgecote in April with No Questions Asked. The groom on the day was Ellie Callwood, Ellis's novice rider this season.

Member benefits in focus – legal and business support Over the years the TBA has sourced a comprehensive register of professional advisors who are on hand to help members should they require guidance regarding a particular challenge. Many of our specialists offer free advice in the first instance. To access these support lines please contact the TBA office on 01638 661321.

BLOODSTOCK TAXATION & VAT – one of the most requested of all the TBA professional advisors, our specialists have helped members understand the complexities of tax and VAT in an ever-changing business world.

RECRUITING STAFF FROM OVERSEAS – as this becomes more challenging, TBA members can benefit from a free 15-minute consultation with Migrate-UK, who specialise in providing corporate and individual immigration advice.

LEGAL ADVICE HOTLINE – included in the TBA membership is a free telephone consultation with our industry specialist on breeding and bloodstock matters.

THIRD PARTY INSURANCE – having worked in close

partnership with Lycetts Insurance Brokers, all TBA members have free third-party public liability cover included in their annual subscription, including when your horse is away from its usual home.

DEBT RECOVERY SERVICE – using the ‘no collection, no fee’ service, TBA members are offered a reduced rate of 13 per cent on all debts recovered, plus a two per cent discount.

BUYING GROUP – TBA members can save time and money on many business and daily essentials (including fuel, fencing, vehicles etc) by contacting Anglia Farmers Ltd. There are different levels of Buying Group membership, for which Affinity is free of charge to TBA members.

Have you logged on to the TBA website?

By accessing the exclusive ‘members only’ area of the website you can download an extensive variety of useful templates, fact sheets and guidance notes. Our sample policy and procedure documents assist employers with key issues and help in setting good standards of practice within the industry.

Tickets are on sale now for the TBA's Flat Breeders' Awards Evening at Chippenham Park on Wednesday, July 6. Priced at £80pp, they can be purchased via the events page of the TBA website.

Set in the delightful surrounds of Chippenham Park, the evening will consist of a drinks and canapes reception, before a two-course dinner and the awards ceremony, and celebrates and rewards British breeders’ successes from the 2021 Flat season.

Diary dates Wednesday, June 22 South East regional day A morning with Gary Moore at his Cisswood Stables precedes a visit to Hickstead and Breen Equestrian, while there will also be a talk from Tina Cook.

Tuesday, June 28 East regional day Spend the morning at Charlie Fellowes’s Bedford Lodge Stables, before visiting Godolphin’s rehoming centre and an afternoon at Old Mill Stud.

Wednesday, July 20 Wales and West Midlands regional day A morning with Steph Hollinshead followed by lunch and a talk at Pool House Equine Hospital.

Friday, July 29 Scotland regional day A visit to leading owner Kenny Alexander’s New Hall Stud.

Thursday, September 1 South West regional day A morning at Emma Lavelle’s stable and an afternoon at the Vigors’ Hillwood Stud.

Wednesday, September 14 Breeders’ Day at Sandown Park Taking place during National Racehorse Week, breeders are encouraged to join the TBA at Sandown Park.

Monday, September 19 North regional day Spend a morning with Julie Camacho before lunch and a talk from Rainbow Equine Hospital.

THE OWNER BREEDER

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Breeder of the Month Words Howard Wright

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BREEDER OF THE MONTH (April 2022)

Alex Hales, named TBA Breeder of the Month for April after the Grade 1 success of Millers Bank in the SSS Super Alloys Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree, knows all about beginner’s luck.

Not in his day job, as a trainer with 22 hard-working seasons behind him, first in a private capacity with Andrew Cohen within the confines of the M25 and then with the public Trafford Bridge stables at Edgcote near Banbury, but as a fledgling breeder of thoroughbreds.

Not only did Millers Bank provide Hales with his first Grade 1 success, but he did so from the first mating that he and his wife Sally arranged. Yet the achievement was more than 14 years in the making.

Hales takes up the story: “In late 2007 an owner rang me and said he had a filly foal that he wanted me to take. I had nothing to run with her, so I went to Doncaster sales in January 2008 and bought a Karinga Bay mare for £4,800.

“We named her It Doesn’t Matter and she came into training with me. From the start I was very happy with her, but then she had one or two niggling problems, including trouble with her sinuses that meant having three operations. Eventually we sent her to gallop at Towcester with a couple of others and I knew she had ability, but just as we were getting her ready to run, she did one of her joints and in the end we couldn’t get her sound enough to run.

“So, in a fit of stubbornness after we’d put so much effort into her, and because she had an okay page and I

BILL SELWYN

Alex Hales

Millers Bank provided Alex Hales with his first Grade 1 as a breeder and trainer

believed she would have won at least a bumper if she’d stayed sound, Sally and I decided we’d put her in foal to Passing Glance. We’d never bred anything before, but we were so far in, and I like Karinga Bay mares, so we went for it.”

Millers Bank came along in 2014, followed immediately by the Great Pretender filly Bourbon Beauty, but so far they are the only two foals from It Doesn’t Matter to have raced. Winning at Aintree lifted Millers Bank’s record to six wins and five seconds from 18 races, while Bourbon Beauty’s second success, in a Grade 2 novice hurdle at Newbury in March 2021, took Hales past his previous best total of 20 winners in a season.

Hales continues: “The whole project with It Doesn’t Matter has not been easy. After Bourbon Beauty, she missed for a couple of years and later she was lucky to survive another foaling, although the filly, by Clovis Du Berlais, who’s now a four-year-old, is a big, rangy sort and will go into training later this year. We’ve now got a yearling full-sister to Millers Bank and It Doesn’t Matter has been covered by Jack Hobbs.

Now we’ve added a Grade 1 winner to the portfolio, we’re not playing at it any more!”

To prove the point, he and Sally have upped their breeding interests as a means of compensating for not having the budget to buy the highest-priced horses at the sales.

He adds: “We have Stepover, a Midnight Legend mare I trained to win five times over hurdles, who has a Passing Glance yearling filly, so we’re hoping the mix of Midnight Legend and Passing Glance will work out well.

And then there’s Maybell, whom we own in partnership with Annie Fry and the racecourse commentator David Fitzgerald. She has a three-year-old colt by Passing Glance, who will go into training this year, and a yearling by Balko, and she has just foaled to Passing Glance – so we’ve gone all in on Passing Glance. It’s working so far!

“It’s been a lovely story for us, but really, I hadn’t realised before how difficult it was in the first place to get a mare in foal, then produce the foal, and finally keep it going long enough to go into training and get to the races.

We’re very much aware of how lucky we’ve been and how hard the breeding business can be.”

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THE OWNER BREEDER

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Bred by: Swanbridge Bloodstock

Bred by: Worksop Manor Stud

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Owned: Yorton Racing

Owned: Around The World Partnership

Trainer: David Loughnane

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Bred by: D R Tucker

Trainers: Charlie and Mark Johnston

GBB Jumps winners:

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Be sure to breed, buy and race GBB fillies For more information on eligibility, visit greatbritishbonus.co.uk

Information correct at time of going to press

ADVERTORIAL FEATURE

Unincorporated bloodstock businesses – do you fancy a change?

Autumn 2021 saw the Government announce the planned reform for ‘basis periods’ meaning unincorporated bloodstock business’ profits will be taxed with reference to the UK tax year, rather than the business’ accounting date. How will this impact businesses and what should they be aware of?

Currently unincorporated businesses are taxed on profits arising from a set of accounts ending in the tax year. Many bloodstock businesses will have an accounting year end other than 31 March or 5 April.

If a business’ year end was 31 December 2022, this falls within the 2022/23 tax year and so the profits relating to that year would be taxed when the 2022/23 tax return is submitted.

The proposed changes largely centre around the Government’s aim to create a simpler, fairer and more transparent set of rules for the allocation of trading income to tax years.

What is changing?

From 6 April 2024 all unincorporated businesses will be taxed on profits arising in the UK tax year regardless of the business’ actual accounting year end date.

Businesses with a 31 March year end are unaffected as HMRC treats 31 March and 5 April the same.

The preceding tax year (2023/24) will be treated as a ‘transition year’ to ensure all businesses start their new tax basis period from 6 April 2024.

How does it currently work?

There are currently specific rules, commonly known as the ‘opening year rules’, that ensure a taxpayer is only ever taxed on profits earned over a maximum 12 month period. If a business has a year end other than 31 March or 5 April, some profits can be taxed twice in the opening years resulting in

‘overlap profits’. These doubletaxed profits can only be offset in a limited number of circumstances – namely when a business changes its year end or the taxpayer ceases to trade.

How will it work in the transition year?

In the ‘transition year’ a business will calculate all untaxed profits arising after the end of the basis period used for the 2022/23 tax year up to 5 April 2024.

Take, for example, a breeding partnership with a 31 December 2022 year end, in the transition year all profits arising from 1 January 2022 to 5 April 2024 would be taxed. This 27 month period is split into two elements – the standard part from 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2022 (the basis period that would have applied without a rule change) and the transition part from 1 January 2023 to 5 April 2024.

The new rules allow for the transition part, after deduction of any overlap profit brought forward, to be spread over five tax years to ensure there is no impact on a taxpayer’s means-tested benefits, entitlement to personal allowance or the high income child benefit tax charge. A taxpayer can elect to accelerate the transition profits and tax them all in one year if they prefer.

If any overlap profits brought forward exceed the value of the transition part, this loss can be treated as a ‘terminal loss’ and offset against breeding profits declared in the three previous tax years (latest year first).

This may be particularly important for businesses with larger overlap profits brought forward, such as those with a 30 April year end.

Should I change my year end now to 31 March or 5 April?

Some breeders have decided to change their year end this year to 31 March/5 April 2023 so they do not feel the impact of this reform.

This could accelerate relief for overlap profits.

Some breeders, however, have expressed reluctance to change the year end date given the inherent operational benefits of keeping, for example, a 31 December year end to tie in with annual foal sales.

What if I do not change my year end to 31 March/5 April?

Where a breeding business keeps its existing year end, additional work may need to be undertaken to calculate taxable profits for declaration on self assessment tax returns.

Taking a 31 December 2024 year end as an example, in the 2024/25 tax year, nine months of the December 2024 profit will be added to three months of profit from the year to 31 December 2025 and taxed. The amount of these profits, however, may not be known by the time the 2024/25 tax return is due to be filed, and so estimates may need to be used instead. This could lead to over or under payments of tax until actual results are known.

ADVERTORIAL FEATURE

HMRC has set out a number of proposals for addressing this issue:

• Allowing taxpayers to amend a provisional figure at the same time as filing their return for the following tax year; • Allowing an extension of the filing deadline for some groups of taxpayers, such as more complex partnerships; • Allowing taxpayers to include any differences between provisional and actual figures in their subsequent year’s tax return; or • Leaving the current rules on provisional figures unchanged so profits are estimated on the return and amended as soon as final figures are available.

Clearly some additional work will be required in the majority of these scenarios, which could lead to increased professional costs.

Making Tax Digital (MTD) From April 2024 all unincorporated trading businesses with income over £10,000 will also be required to report digitally in real time with accounting information submitted quarterly. An annual submission will then be required to make any year-end adjustments required to the quarterly information previously submitted.

How can we help?

We pride ourselves on our expertise in the bloodstock sector.

We deal with many clients who are facing this reform and work with each client individually to determine the best way of dealing with this. We can work with businesses on both operational and financial matters, as well as strategic matters.

We place the power of good advice into your hands so please do get in touch if we can assist you in this or any other area of your business.

For more information, contact:

Tom Warner Associate Director, Smith & Williamson LLP t: 01722 431 060 e: tom.warner@smithandwilliamson.com

smithandwilliamson.com By necessity, this briefing can only provide a short overview and it is essential to seek professional advice before applying the contents of this article. No responsibility can be taken for any loss arising from action taken or refrained from on the basis of this publication. Tax legislation is that prevailing at the time, is subject to change without notice and depends on individual circumstances. Clients should always seek appropriate tax advice before making financial decisions.

Smith & Williamson LLP Regulated by the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales for a range of investment business activities. 22057600. © Tilney Smith & Williamson Limited 2022.

Vet Forum: The Expert View

Genome testing: where it’s come from and where it’s heading

I

n a world such as racing, where a fraction of a second can be the difference between winning and losing, and where anything that can be done to improve racehorse welfare is of the upmost importance, genetics certainly has a valuable role to play. In order to breed, own, and train winning racehorses there are many components to agonise over, with often hours spent perusing sales pages, pedigrees, past form and keeping fingers and toes crossed. Since the discovery of the speed gene by Dr Emmeline Hill in 2010 and subsequent research surrounding this one integral gene, we can now improve our chances of obtaining the performance traits we desire and having a clear understanding of what chances we have of those characteristics being inherited.

Analysing DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), or genome testing, is something which although an obvious advantage to the sport, has only been common practice as regards confirming parentage to protect the integrity of the breed. It hasn’t been very well documented or utilised within the industry from a performance perspective. It goes against centuries of tradition, the ‘art’ of picking a yearling through years of following favourable bloodlines and conformation, or simply sensing that a certain mating will breed a champion. This is of course something that many horsemen and women have developed over countless years in the industry, and it is a skill that cannot be replicated or replaced. However, it is safe to say genetic testing is going some way to help lessen the margin for error.

The complete genetic code is called the genome, and the first genome sequence to ever be recorded for a domestic horse was in November 2009. This was the result of a worldwide concerted effort, and this one genome, from a thoroughbred mare called Twilight, is now used to assist genetic research all over the world. The genome represents the genetic material for the animal, and in a horse (like all mammals) this genetic material, or DNA, is mostly located within the chromosomes inside the nucleus of all bodily cells.

A chromosome is a long string of DNA, made up of four building blocks referred to as A, G, T and C. The arrangement of the letters in one pair of chromosomes

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THE OWNER BREEDER

Equine genetics can help us understand inherited performance traits in thoroughbreds

(one gene or two separate alleles) signifies instructions to produce a protein, which then contributes to an observable trait. Any minor variant in the sequence of the letters may produce different characteristics between individuals. In some instances, one gene is responsible for a single trait, while other traits may be shaped by a combination of genes.

All horses have 32 pairs of chromosomes (64 in total); males have a heterologous (different) pair of chromosomes, X and Y; females have a homologous (same) pair of chromosomes X and X. DNA has two main functions, firstly to act as a memory bank for genetic material which can then be replicated during cell division. Secondly, it acts as a template during the formation of proteins, commonly known as cell expression. All cells in an individual contain the exact same DNA, however depending on what kind of cell and where it is in the body, the DNA will instruct that cell to produce proteins for the appropriate use, and some genes will be ‘switched off’ if redundant

in that particular cell. For example, all DNA will contain an albumin gene, but this will only be activated in the liver cells, where albumin needs to be produced and released into the bloodstream.

All in the genes

Genes are classified as being dominant, co-dominant, or incomplete dominant.

A dominant gene will mask the characteristics of a recessive gene.

Incomplete dominant genes occur when both are of equal dominance and both control the same characteristic giving out different instructions. An example of this would be in coat colour – one gene codes for red and one for white producing a combination of the two, roan. Co-dominance is when neither gene is dominant, and they are both giving out different instructions, resulting in both being represented clearly in the individual, a coat colour example of this would be piebald.

The main purpose of studying genetics within thoroughbreds is to understand and

By Laura Steley ultimately prevent or eliminate all serious inherited and genetic diseases/mutations.

Scientists may get to the point where we have a ‘genetic coding dictionary’, allowing breeders to make conscious decisions regarding the future of the breed, and hopefully securing a healthy future for racehorses all over the globe.

Hyperkalemic periodic paralysis (HYPP) is a hereditary disease in Quarter horses, causing muscle tremors, which can lead to complete paralysis and euthanasia. A landmark paper was published in 1992,

by Eric Hoffman, Ph.D. and Sharon Spier, DVM, Ph.D., and they were able to trace the cause of the disease to a single genetic mutation, one incorrect code within the genetic sequence. This discovery was only possible via the integration of extensive published human research, which continues to move at an incredible pace.

Horses and humans share certain pieces of DNA; if we can correlate these to the genetic mutations and diseases already mapped in humans, we can essentially unlock the door (or at least some of them!) within the equine genetics’ realm.

Of course, identifying the mutation is only half the story; there are many questions to be answered before the process of trying to eliminate these genes can effectively be put into practice, such as how conclusive the evidence is, the likely severity of the chosen disease, and so on. There has also been a study aimed at discovering if SDFT injuries are hereditary, and although a specific allele has not been identified, it is highly likely the trait is hereditary and can therefore potentially be avoided. This echoes the results of many recent studies on subjects such as respiratory, reproductive, behavioural, and endocrine diseases, to name a few.

The field of equine genetics has now moved on in leaps and bounds, to looking towards performance, in conjunction with improved health and fitness of our racehorses. The speed gene is scientifically known as the myostatin gene, and it is responsible for muscle growth. The code within the myostatin gene contains either the DNA marker C or T. The mare and stallion each pass on one of their alleles.

Therefore, a C:T stallion and a C:T mare are able to produce a foal with any one of the three combinations, explaining why sometimes full siblings can inherit substantially different traits. The three combinations of genetic markers have been proven to account for these traits: C:C - more precocious and early maturing types. Around half of C:C horses are expected to have had their first run within 30 months of their date of birth.

They are likely to appear more muscular and it is advised to target shorter, sprint race distances, five to six furlongs as a two-year-old, and races of eight furlongs or less as an older horse. They are likely to breed short to middle-distance offspring.

C:T - middle distance types and the most versatile of the three genetic markers. They are likely to do well as two-

Dr Emmeline Hill: discovered speed gene

“Breeders will have the option to make more informed decisions” year-olds over eight to nine furlongs, and nine to 15 furlongs as older horses. Due to having both the C and T markers they can breed sprint, middle-distance or staying types depending on the chosen sire or dam. Expected to be around the industry average when it comes to maturity as twoyear-olds.

T:T – staying, late maturing types.

Generally better to be left to develop, or raced only lightly as two-year-olds. They should ideally be aimed at 12 furlongs and over and are likely to breed middledistance and staying types. Needless to say, they tend to be later than the industry average regarding making it to a racecourse for the first time.

Genetic markers

Since the discovery of the myostatin gene in 2010, scientists at University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin have carried out further studies, which have shown that there

are hundreds of thousands of other genetic markers, and these can be tested to refine the optimum distance for each individual horse. These include genes responsible for metabolic and physiological responses, such as ones accountable for aerobic and anaerobic limitations. This work was published in 2019 and can further sub-divide the three groups into short and long, and therefore which end of the distance spectrum the individual should relish.

Alongside the speed gene analysis, scientists have identified further genetic markers which can predict other performance-related indicators.

These include the potential to identify the chance of an individual getting to a racecourse as a two- or three-year-old, predicted height, best suited surface type (turf versus dirt), and predicted racing and/or breeding value.

These scientific breakthroughs benefit all racehorses from a welfare point of view, from foals all the way through to retirement, and can provide a vital tool for all members of the racing industry, including breeders, trainers and owners alike. Sales decisions for foals, yearlings and older horses can be assisted by acquiring relevant genome test results.

Trainers and owners can optimise their training plans and aims to suit their individual horse’s needs and physiological traits. This can in turn help prevent injuries, assist in race planning, and save money.

Future stallion prospects and broodmares can be advertised towards a target audience, predicting stamina, and helping with sales decisions. Also, with the insight of differing racing desires and conditions around the world, decisions can be made on where the greatest demand will be for any given stallion to stand, and breeders will have the option to make more informed decisions regarding the type of horses they wish to breed, or not breed as the case may be.

As the science continues to accelerate, consideration must be given to where this could take the thoroughbred breed as a whole. It is common knowledge that our racehorses are getting faster over shorter distances: does this mean the C:C type bloodstock will be favoured by the majority in the UK? If this is the case, will stamina slowly be bred out of the thoroughbred? With more valuable two-year-old races than ever before, and improved facilities and rehabilitation resources, the shorter distances become more appealing and achievable to many.

Darley has recently made public the speed gene test result for its middledistance sire Cracksman, whose offspring

THE OWNER BREEDER

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are hitting the track this season.

Cracksman’s pedigree on his dam’s side reads predominantly sprint and middledistance types, his sire, the mighty Frankel, is assumedly a C:T and his grand sire, the spectacular Galileo, is known for his staying power and therefore widely known as a T:T. Taking into account his breeding, alongside his Group 1-winning performances in races such as the Coronation Cup and Champion Stakes, you would certainly predict Cracksman to be categorised as a C:T, but this is evidently not the case. He is in fact a C:C, and his advertisement builds on this by implying his two-year-olds will be precocious, as his speed gene test predicts.

Of course, hindsight is a great thing, and we could question if Cracksman may have been even better if tried over a shorter distance, having never ran over less than a mile, but that is something we will never know, and in reality has no bearing on his remarkable career. Australia has been taking advantage of the genetic testing available for many years, with 57187 - Plus Vital - 180mm x 128mm Widden Stud being the first to get on

GEORGE SELWYN

Vet Forum: The Expert View

Darley has publicised the speed gene test result for its stallion Cracksman

board – they already advertise many stallions with their speed gene rating, and it is reported that numerous top trainers implement the testing into their regimes.

While genetics are an important factor in an individual’s success, other aspects such as management, training, environment and opportunity will Advert - PRINT.pdf 1 23/05/2022 always play the pivotal roles. As13:11 the

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field of racehorse genetics continues to thrive, I believe more and more breeders, owners and trainers alike will begin and continue to invest in the genome testing available. The experience and expertise of horsemen and women will never be substituted; however, genetics surely must have a complementary place in the industry.

Find out more about Plusvital’s Speed Gene Test

Where football and racing meet Glenn Roeder’s death last year cast a shadow across the worlds of both football and horseracing. His daughter Holly, speaking to Milo Corbett, explains how a unique race day at Newmarket next month will celebrate his passion for both sports – and raise vital finds for the Brain Tumour Charity.

For those who didn’t know him, can you tell us a little bit about your father?

As well as being a lifelong racing fan, my father was a top-level professional footballer. In a career that spanned nearly 40 years, he played for and managed teams like Newcastle United, Queens Park Rangers, West Ham United, Norwich City and Watford.

Dad battled a brain tumour for 18 years and sadly passed away in February 2021 at the age of just 65.

What is the Glenn Roeder Raceday all about?

My brothers, my mother and I are delighted to be celebrating Dad’s life in a way he would want. That’s why we’re organising a raceday in his honour, at the July Course in Newmarket on Saturday 23rd July.

Most people who are lucky enough to be involved in sport at a professional level enjoy most other sports, too. For Dad, horseracing was everything and what made him happiest – football was his passion, but racing was his hobby and his way of switching off. He spent loads of his spare time in Newmarket, and what he loved most was talking to trainers, jockeys and lads, sharing stories about racing and football.

We are celebrating my father’s life by raising muchneeded funding and attention for the Brain Tumour Charity, which helps and supports those affected and funds research into better treatments and, ultimately, a cure.

What will be happening on the day?

We’re hosting a fund-raising event in a large hospitality pavilion right by the winning post of the July Course.

It promises to be a unique event and Sophie Able and her team at Newmarket Racecourses have gone way beyond the call of duty in helping to make it so special.

Alongside the racing itself,

there’ll be a champagne reception with live music, a silver service lunch before and during racing and a full afternoon tea later in the day.

Freddy Tylicki will go through the runners and riders and hopefully find us a winner or two, with other entertainments including a magician and two raffles.

Importantly, we’re also holding two fundraising auctions, made up of wonderful and unusual ‘moneycan’t-usually-buy’ items and experiences. Matt Hall from Tattersalls is kindly hosting the ‘live’ auction and there’ll also be an online auction, not just for guests at the event but at which anyone can bid online, wherever they are in the world. All the proceeds will be going to the Brain Tumour Charity.

What has the reaction been like?

Quite simply, it has been amazing! It’s quite humbling how so many people and businesses have embraced the idea of celebrating my father’s life through next month’s raceday.

A long list of well-known names from both racing and football, some of whom knew Dad well and played alongside him, have been incredibly generous in their support of the event. We’re delighted, and slightly in awe, that so many people have taken the idea to heart and want to come together to remember his life in this way.

How can people get involved?

Even if people can’t come along on the day, of course they can still be involved with and enjoy the event. I’d encourage everyone to head to our website for full details of what’s happening and how they can get involved. It’ll be easy to bid in the online auction, and if any businesses or individuals would like to support the event with more auction lots, naturally we’d be delighted to hear from them.

The raceday may be about remembering one life, but the work the Brain Tumour Charity does helps countless people every day – and that’s something we can all celebrate.

www.theglennroederraceday.com

The Finish Line with Luca Cumani When Luca Cumani retired in 2018 after training from Bedford House for 43 years, he had literally sent out an A to Z of major international winners, from Japan Cup winner Alkaased to Dubawi’s dam, the E.P. Taylor winner Zomaradah, via top-notch performers including Barathea, Commanche Run, Falbrav, High-Rise, Kahyasi, Markofdistinction, Postponed, Presvis, Then Again and Tolomeo. Cumani is now more involved in running the family’s Fittocks Stud, and his wisdom and experience are being put to good use as a member-nominated director of the BHA. He has recently been made an Officer of the Order of the Star of Italy – broadly equivalent to an OBE or MBE – for the distinction with which he has represented his country abroad.

Interview: Graham Dench

I

if it’s not pressure as such the will to win can still eat you up. Of course, things go wrong all the time with horses. I’d try not to show it, but maybe the dog, the cat or the wife would feel it. I don’t miss the occasional difficulty one could have with owners or staff, or the disappointment you can have when a horse is injured or doesn’t fulfil his potential. I don’t miss the M25 either. As a full-time trainer you do deny yourself some pleasures, although I wouldn’t have called them sacrifices. I have more spare time now, so there have been more holidays to Italy, and I’ve been able to say yes more often when Sara and I are invited somewhere.

’ve only changed jobs. I haven’t retired completely. I miss the excitement of training but I had to make a decision.

Changing jobs is a bit like finishing a very good book then starting another which is hopefully going to be equally good. I’m enjoying living on the stud and being out every day with the mares and foals. I’d be pretending if I called it work, because compared to training it’s not. Training was always a pleasure, but it was a lot of hours, seven days a week. I’m fairly handson at the stud, but it’s a lot fewer hours and I can take a day off when I want to.

This time of year was always exciting if I had a Derby hope and I was very lucky in that both of my Derby winners [Kahyasi and High-Rise] went to Epsom unbeaten. We would have been planning for Royal Ascot too from back in March when the horses started doing a bit more.

I formed ideas early about which would go to Ascot, and for what race, and then work backwards. The summer is exciting in racing, with the Derby and Royal Ascot followed by July week, the King George and Goodwood. If you have a horse rated 50 you just take each race as it comes, but with the better horses we all like to have a race in our sights to take aim at.

Once foaling is finished in May it’s back to the yearlings, and Tattersalls will view them to decide which ones go in Book 1, which ones Book 2, and hopefully not too many for Book 3. From then on the build-up gets exciting as we prepare them, and it reaches a crescendo when they get to the sales. We occasionally keep a filly or two in order to continue a line, but the vast majority are sold. If we’ve got it wrong with one or two and we were asking too much then we race them, most in partnership with old friends and former owners. It’s fun to be with nice people this way and after 50 years of it that’s almost the only time I go racing now.

TREVOR JONES

I was being facetious when I said some years ago that pressure is for tyres, but

Luca Cumani shares a moment with his 1988 Derby winner Kahyasi

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Being a BHA board member is very interesting, but it can be frustrating too when the topics aren’t the ones you feel are most important. You can’t have it all your own way though and you have to dedicate yourself to all of them.

I’m there representing the Horsemen’s Group, which is a broad church of racing professionals. We all know what’s needed, but the difficulty is in getting there. The executive is very good and does what is required for the day-to-day running of the sport, but the BHA gets unjustified bad press for things that are not part of its

remit. With prize-money for instance, the BHA is there to help distribute it if you like, but it doesn’t have a free hand in deciding how to raise more money.

Cutting out 300 fixtures seems far too easy a solution to the small fields issue.

I’m not convinced and I’d like to see more data. Apart from anything else, it means cutting down some income for racing, and we all agree racing needs more income.

It’s all very well saying cutting fixtures will be better for racing in the long term, but people are struggling to survive today, never mind in ten years’ time.

The overseas market has never been stronger – we need to keep the gap manageable between the demand for our better horses and the reward for keeping them. At present that gap is so wide it’s understandable they are being sold. Most owners keep an eye on the value of their stock and what racing is costing them.

Nobody is advocating they should make money out of racing, but they are entitled to look to lose as little as possible. If they are offered a sum for a horse which it will never be able to win, the temptation to sell is obvious. Twenty or 30 years ago the Australians weren’t buying our horses, nor hardly was Hong Kong, while there was little racing in the Middle East. Demand may even accelerate as Saudi Arabia is talking of building more racecourses, which they will need horses for.

One of the reasons we are losing so many horses abroad is because we have done so well racing them internationally. The Australians wouldn’t be buying our horses if Europeans hadn’t done so well in the Melbourne Cup, and that can only be a positive. The internationalising of racing has only been a plus, as it has been for all the major sports. We might be losing horses through it, but we have hugely enlarged the area in which we operate.

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Future Darley stallions Coroebus and Native Trail fight out the first Classic with the homebred Dubawi colt giving his sire his third 2,000 Guineas winner — and, according to Timeform ratings, his best yet!

Dubawi, the most successful British stallion since the Pattern began, with (many) more Group winners than any other.

Breeding the future