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glance at the list of candidates for the TBA Breeder of the Month award during the last year highlights not only the considerable success of British-bred horses, but also the difficult decisions faced by the TBA committee charged with selecting the winner each month. The July award was so competitive that even Enable (bred by Juddmonte Farms) winning her third King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes and Nazeef (Shadwell Estate Company) achieving her Group 1 breakthrough in the Falmouth Stakes narrowly missed out. Enable is a fourth generation homebred and this careful nurturing of families over several generations is the hallmark of many of the most successful breeders, both the major international operations and those plying their trade on a more modest scale. Sussex Stakes hero Mohaather is the second Group 1 winner in three years descended from Gaie Johnson Houghton’s renowned Sirnelta family that has resided at Woodway for four decades.
Mohaather: struck a blow for British-breds
Gaie’s husband Fulke bought the daughter of Sir Tor on behalf of Lord Leverhulme and subsequently acquired her for the family stud after her first two foals disappointed their owner. The late Lenore Peacock was another small breeder to achieve notable results from a small number of families, some of which had been at the Peacock’s Manor House Stud since before the Second World War.
One of those families, descending from Arrangement (dam of the Britishtrained Kentucky Derby runner-up Bold Arrangement), produced Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint winner Belvoir Bay and if there had been a November Flat award it would surely have been won by the North Yorkshire stud. The same county is also the birthplace of one of the most popular National Hunt mares of recent times in the shape of Lady Buttons (Keith Sivills), winner of the January award. Although the last few years has not seen quite the same number of highprofile British-bred jumpers as earlier in the decade when the likes of Cue Card, Coneygree and Thistlecrack were at their peak, it seems as if the wheel of fortune is turning again for British National Hunt breeders. At last season’s Cheltenham Festival, Honeysuckle (Dr G W Guy) captured the Mares’ Hurdle and Santini (Mr & Mrs R. Kelvin Hughes) came within a fast diminishing neck of winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup, and could well go one better next March.
Month
Breeder of the Month
Horse
Special Merit
Horse
November
Karina Casini
De Rasher Counter
No Award
NA
December
Dr G W Guy
Honeysuckle
No Award
NA
January
Keith Sivills
Lady Buttons
No Award
NA
February
R And J Micklethwait
Copperhead
No Award
NA
March
Mr & Mrs R Kelvin Hughes
Santini
No Award
NA
June
Godolphin
Lord North
Mrs James Wigan
Nando Parrado
July
Mrs R F Johnson Houghton
Mohaather
Homecroft Wealth Racing
Oxted
August
Highclere Stud & Floors Farming
Palace Pier
Knox & Wells Limited and R W Devlin
Pyledriver
September
Newsells Park Stud
Mogul
Bearstone Stud Ltd
Glass Slippers
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