Thoroughbred Owner Breeder

Edward Rosenthal Editor

Long-term plan comes off in style with Alpinista

Sir Mark Prescott has trained plenty of top-class horses over the years and enjoyed many headline triumphs. However, Alpinista’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe success topped them all according to the man himself – and it’s easy to see why.

Racing for owner-breeder Kirsten Rausing, Alpinista enjoyed a superb 2021 when she captured a trio of German Group 1s, the Grosser Preis von Berlin, Preis von Europa and Grosser Preis von Bayern, emulating her granddam Albanova, who won the same races in 2004.

Her five-year-old season was planned around a tilt at the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and victories in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud and Yorkshire Oaks set the daughter of Frankel up perfectly for the Longchamp showpiece, which she won with the minimum of fuss under an ice-cool ride from Luke Morris.

Sir Mark is renowned for his meticulous planning and placing of runners yet it’s one thing to run up a sequence of wins with a handicapper working its way through the ranks and quite another to campaign an older mare, win eight races in a row – including six Group 1s – and remain unbeaten in two years.

“The German Group 1 series was a plot that we had both thought of, to see if she could follow in the hoofprints of her grandmother,” Sir Mark told me, sharing the credit with Ms Rausing. “I don’t suppose at the time we set off we really thought she would do it, so when it came about that was great.

“This year the pressure has gradually mounted. When Torquator Tasso won the Arc last year it made it clear that our form was good enough if she’d train on at five to take this seriously. She was trained with the Arc as her principal race but the steps to it went well.

“Did I feel the pressure? I suppose as she was favourite to win the Arc, you’d be a cold soul if you didn’t. You just don’t want to let the horse down.”

He certainly didn’t let Alpinista down, her performance on very testing going a testament

to both her wonderful trainer and superb breeding.

Unlike Sir Mark, who made it clear he has no plans to retire following the Arc win, Gary Moore is looking forward to handing over the reins to son Josh when the time is right.

Injury has brought Josh’s race-riding career to a premature end but as one door closes, another opens and a future at the helm of Cisswood Racing Stables in West Sussex beckons.

“It’s a case of when he’s ready,” Gary tells Graham Dench (The Big Interview, pages 32-38), “and if he’s not ready I won’t let him. But when the time comes, I’ll just disappear into the background and work for him, like he works for me. I’d say it will definitely be within two years. I hope so anyway!

“Training is a young man’s game now and

Josh will be absolutely brilliant at it. He’s very switched on and he’s better with staff than I am. He’s a better talker than me too, and owners love him.”

Also in this issue, California trainer John Sadler looks forward to saddling Flightline, the world’s highest-rated racehorse, at the Breeders’ Cup (The Finish Line, page 96), Martyn Meade talks about launching his stallion venture at Manton (pages 40-42), James Thomas finds out about the international ambitions of Al Shira’aa Farms (pages 45-48), and Nancy Sexton runs the rule over sires whose first foals are going through the ring this autumn (pages 50-57).

“Sir Mark is renowned for his planning and placing of runners”

ROA

Building for the future under new structure

Over the past month racing’s headlines have been writing themselves, starting with Alpinista’s emotional victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe for Newmarket’s longest-serving trainer Sir Mark Prescott. He has trained several generations of Alpinista’s family for owner-breeder Kirsten Rausing and the victory was as touching as it was deserved.

Moving on to a record-breaking sales season, the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale was always going to produce competitive trade given the number of players in town and the calibre of thoroughbreds on offer. However, no one could have accurately predicted the numbers which were chalked up. Book 1, with three sessions comprising 550 of the world’s best yearlings, was never going to disappoint. On day two we saw the highest ever grossing sales figure recorded in Europe, with Godolphin parting with 2,800,000 guineas for a Frankel colt out of So Mi Dar. It should be recognised that the average and median values at Book 3 were also a record for the sale, seeing a pleasing clearance rate of 86%.

British Champions Day at Ascot, the much heralded £4 million grand finale to the Flat season, attracted worldclass fields, even if some of the races produced surprising results, including Baaeed’s first defeat in the Champion Stakes. Attention now turns to the National Hunt sphere and the return of jumping action at Cheltenham to whet the appetites of racing fans.

Against this backdrop of top-class racing and stunning sales results, the industry strategy discussions have been ongoing. Those charged with leading and shaping racing’s future have been working on the long-term strategy for both codes. The starting point for this work has been negotiating the change to the governance structure of the sport which has so inhibited racing’s ability to make changes, be flexible and react to the rapidly changing economic environment. I am pleased to reveal that at the time of writing it looks like agreement has now been reached by all stakeholders around the new structure, which is a significant moment for the sport.

Whereas the long-term strategy discussions are ongoing, some more immediate measures have been announced, including improvements to the competitiveness of races on the Flat and over jumps in 2023.

The main areas identified to drive improved race competitiveness include race volume, race planning and other tactical interventions. The latter includes a reduction of programmed races at times of the year when field sizes

Charlie Parker President

are most under pressure. I welcome these sensible measures across both codes, creating a better alignment between the horse population and the race programme. The changes also reflect owner demands to be able to race their horses at times of the year when traditionally it has often been difficult to guarantee a run.

I am aware that there is a real appetite for the industry’s leaders to clearly demonstrate forward momentum – this has not been lost in the discussions. The desire for change has been well documented. With the change to the way the sport is run and led now agreed, we can really get behind the long-term strategy work. Indeed, the first meeting of the

shadow commercial committee was due to take place at the end of October, with focus now on how the various industry stakeholder bodies interface with the committee and ultimately the BHA Board. It is also encouraging that John Ferguson has been appointed to the BHA Board, bringing with him vast experience as an owner, trainer and agent.

The key now is to put words into action, to give the sport and its participants clearer visibility as to the direction of travel and the desired final destination. As we have seen, a week is a long time in politics and the same can be said for racing. However, there is a clear plan to invigorate the industry and now there is a sustainable mechanism to allow it to happen.

It now just remains for those charged with the task to be up to the job in hand.

“With the change to the way the sport is run now agreed, we can really get behind the strategy work”

Long-term strategy essential for breeders

Crisis,

as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary, is “a moment of danger or suspense in politics, commerce, etc.” It’s a word that is in too common usage, especially in the media, which seems to take great delight in drawing attention to a “cost of living crisis” and an “energy crisis,” both of which require instant attention.

The inevitable consequence is that we face “crisis talks” to resolve an issue and “crisis management” to rescue a business situation, not to mention dealing with a “climate crisis” that is likely to destroy the world as we know it. For most of us, though, unless there is an emergency, we can manage our lives without reacting to every issue as a crisis.

The issues facing breeders are much longer term, and while, of course, we can react to a crisis, it takes a number of years for any actions to filter through into actual results on the ground.

The yearling crop of 2022, which is currently making its presence felt through events during the main three-month period of public auctions stretching from the US to Europe, is a case in point.

It must be remembered that the horses in this cohort are the result of matings mainly contemplated in 2019 and all carried out in 2020. Most of the decisions on which they were predicated were made well before a major crisis in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic had struck the world.

Those breeders making their plans in 2019-20 had absolutely no idea about how the world would change when the coronavirus pandemic struck, or that Russia would declare war on Ukraine, or a resulting energy crisis would affect everyone who might contemplate buying their yearlings. Even less predictable was the currency crisis that has made the dollar so strong. And that is why breeding, being a long-term business, takes two to three years to react to issues which can affect all of us, whether in or outside racing.

Breeders need to make financial commitments with confidence and belief that when their foal or yearling reaches the sales, their investment will have a good chance of showing a return. Decisions being made now, in 2022, for matings in 2023 will produce two-year-olds to race in 2026, which feels a long way away in this uncertain world.

Many breeders are committed to studs, real bricks and mortar, which they own or rent, along with a number of broodmares and a model to which they are locked in. Most of them do not change with the wind, or a crisis, and unless there is an obvious trend they will continue on a consistent basis. However, even their commitment will be eroded if they continue to see an industry in decline.

Breeders who own and board out their mares can be much more flexible in their commitment. They can increase or reduce their number of mares, or they can move them from country to country to suit circumstances. Each option involves making relatively much shorter-term decisions to reflect what is happening at the time.

The average age of breeders both in Britain and Ireland is increasing and inevitably a number retire each year. In order to sustain numbers, new entrants and investment at every level must be encouraged, but this is proving extremely difficult.

The finances of breeding are not easy, except at the top, but there is a robust international trade in thoroughbreds

from yearlings to racehorses, which underpins the values and keeps the market alive for everyone.

However, focused schemes to encourage British breeders are essential if attempts to maintain the size of the current foal crop are to be successful. The more certainty leaders in racing and politics can provide, the more chance there is of encouraging new entrants to every level of the industry and sport.

We do not yet have a crisis in British racing, but that strategy and long-term vision for the sport has never been so badly needed if we are to encourage the next generation to join us with the commitment needed to breed and own racehorses.

Julian Richmond-Watson Chairman

“In order to sustain numbers, new entrants and investment at every level must be encouraged”

Sir Mark Prescott: ‘Wonderful Arc win my best day in racing’

Sir Mark Prescott has described Alpinista’s brilliant victory in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe as his greatest day in the sport, as he revealed to Owner Breeder that he has no plans to retire in the wake of winning the Longchamp showpiece.

The Newmarket handler, 74, looked close to tears in the immediate aftermath of the mare’s triumph under Luke Morris on October 2, one which proved immensely popular with racing fans on both sides of the Channel.

Asked whether Alpinista had provided his crowning achievement in the sport, Prescott said: “Yes. I think it was the best moment of my training and racing career. I had previously thought that riding a winner on my first ride ever when I was 15 – it was completely unfancied – couldn’t be beaten. That was so wonderful because it was the first and so unexpected.

“This win was so wonderful because it was late in your career – I hope I’ve got more years left but you’d be stupid not to realise you’re nearer the end than the beginning. It is such an enormous success late in your career and therefore you know how difficult it is to have a day like that.

“I know when people are interviewed they often say it hasn’t yet sunk in and I always think to myself, why on earth not? You’ve been thinking about it for six

months. I think it did sink in immediately. But I was enormously moved – and very surprised – by the reception that the French gave Alpinista.

“I’m afraid I don’t think I cheer like that when the French win in England, and certainly not when I finish second to some masterful French trainer – I don’t wait behind and kiss him, as Mr Rouget, who trained the second, did. He came over, kissed me and said, ‘I love this man’. I’m ashamed to say I’ve never felt like that when I’ve finished second!”

With owner-breeder Kirsten Rausing

also in attendance at a damp Longchamp, Morris produced the ride of his life on the daughter of Frankel, who justified favouritism to beat Vadeni and 2021 victor Torquator Tasso, winning her sixth successive Group 1 in the process.

“It was just one of those days where everything went right,” Prescott continued. “She got in a marvellous sort of island between all the rest of the field and the four that were possibly going a bit fast in the conditions. Alain de RoyerDupre rang to say it was the second-best Arc ride he’d seen – and he’s seen 55 of

Stable staff set to receive significant pay increase

A rise in minimum pay for stable staff was agreed last month, with employees across all six pay scales set to receive an increase that averages out at an inflation-busting 14.5 per cent.

The terms were agreed between the National Association of Racing Staff (NARS) and National Trainers Federation (NTF) within the framework of the National Joint Council (NJC).

Six pay scales cover all stable employees and some of the biggest increases in the minimum rates of pay are at the lower end. This will benefit school leavers embarking on a career in racing, whose minimum rate increases by 30 per cent to a weekly wage of £250.12,

and ‘improvers’ aged 16-17, who gain the biggest rise of 40 per cent to a weekly minimum of £308.00.

The scales remain the minimum rates that can be paid and are not necessarily reflective of earnings, as most trainers pay above minimum rates. The increases do not apply where an employer is providing subsidised or free housing, though minimum rates will be adhered to.

A further commitment from the NTF and its members that those working for a British trainer will be paid above the national minimum wage was welcomed by NARS Chief Executive George McGrath.

He said: “These pay increases recognise the respect and value the NTF

and its members have for the skilled racing staff that work with and for them and have been possible to achieve only by working closely with Paul Johnson, the Chief Executive of the NTF.

“We have taken a proactive and collaborative approach to this work, and we will be cementing that approach in other areas as we continue to play a role in the development of the industry strategy.”

At the upper end of the scale, minimum rates for a level six supervisory role rise by 25 per cent.

On concern that the cost of increasing the minimum rates of pay will be passed on to owners through training fees, ROA President Charlie Parker said on the Nick

GEORGE SELWYN

Sir Mark Prescott, jockey Luke Morris and groom Annabel Willis with Arc heroine Alpinista at Heath House Stables

Stories from the racing world

them and had two winners.

“Luke made a marvellous remark, he said in the two days prior to the Arc he’d watched 25 Arc races and as he came down from the false straight to the turn, it occurred to him that none of the winners was going as well as he was. It must have been an extraordinary feeling for him.

“She handles all ground – that’s her great distinguishing mark. What’s made her so effective, and why she was won six Group 1s running, is that she is straightforward and adaptable. I think I’m right in saying she’s improved every run she’s had on the official ratings.”

The Japan Cup is now under consideration for Alpinista before she retires at the end of the season to join Ms Rausing’s broodmare band at Lanwades Stud. However, her handler has no such thoughts of calling time on a training career that began in 1970.

“I have absolutely no desire to retire at all if I can keep doing it,” Prescott said. “There are a few things. Firstly, is your health good enough to keep going? It is. Secondly, is your mind addled? Not that I’m aware of. Thirdly, have you lost your enthusiasm? Well, I certainly haven’t done that. Lastly, can you still find enough owners to fill the place? Now that gets harder as time goes on, it doesn’t matter how well you do, in the end nearly all owners train with someone younger than themselves. Those are the factors.”

He added: “To cheer up poor William [Butler, assistant trainer], who is more than capable, I told him that the thing about these great mares is that often their first two foals aren’t that good – so I’ll have to be hanging on for the third or fourth!”

Luck podcast: “I don’t believe that would be appropriate. If trainers are already paying staff more than the minimum wage, which they are, it’s already baked into their fee structure.

“It depends on their business models and plans. If trainers do keep putting prices up, owners will perhaps go elsewhere or leave the sport altogether.

“It can’t just all be transferred to owners because there comes a point when they can’t afford to keep a horse in training. The prize-money contribution is going to be even more important. Next year’s prize-money will come under pressure but the work we’re doing on the overall structure and finances will have to factor in the cost.”

No fifth day at the Cheltenham Festival

The Cheltenham Festival is to remain at four days, it was announced last month by the Jockey Club.

The news, delivered just a few days before the track’s 2022-23 campaign got under way, was greeted with surprise and delight in equal measure, with most of the sport’s participants, and overwhelming majority of its fans, seemingly against the proposal of the Festival being extended to five days.

However, despite the opposition, it had been widely expected that the financial benefits of an extra day would win out for the Jockey Club, which had sought feedback from participants before reaching its decision.

A statement read: “Factors which contributed to the Jockey Club’s finely-balanced decision not to extend the Festival beyond its current four-day format included the potential impact on the racing surface, which has been thoroughly explored

throughout the consultation, alongside the uncertain economic environment.”

Ian Renton, who runs Cheltenham as Managing Director of the Jockey Club’s West Region, said: “At the Jockey Club, we care deeply about the long-term future of our sport and its role in society. That’s a mission that enables us to think differently when making decisions.

“While we explored the financial benefits and an opportunity to reach new audiences, we also found a number of counterpoints to this. For example, it is clear that it would be challenging from a turf management perspective, without further work on the track, and on balance we still feel 28 races over four days is the right format.”

Referring to the consultations, he added: “We are extremely grateful to everyone who has taken part in this process.”

Vivien Currie steps down as Ascot CEO

Ascot Chief Executive Vivien Currie (pictured) has stood down from the role just ten months after being appointed to succeed Guy Henderson.

In the surprise announcement last month, it was stated she had relinquished the job in order to return to Scotland for family reasons.

Sir Francis Brooke, His Majesty’s Representative and Chairman at Ascot, said: “We understand Vivien’s decision and she leaves with our best wishes for the future.”

Henderson had been in the position since 2015, and oversaw his final Royal Ascot in June, by which time Currie was part of the Ascot set-up in preparation for taking over the reins come the end of that month upon Henderson’s retirement.

She had carved out a fine reputation in working as Chief Executive at Hamilton since 2008, with her tenure including the development of a £10 million on-site ‘Hampton By Hilton’ hotel.

Currie was a Non-Executive Director of the Racecourse Association between 2010 and 2016, including four years as Vice-Chair, and then a members’ nominated Director at the BHA from 2016 to 2019.

She was honoured with an MBE in the 2020 New Year Honours List for services to racecourse management, business and charity.

Ascot’s Managing Director Alastair Warwick has been appointed Acting Chief Executive.

Bumper crowds are a feature of the Cheltenham Festival

Horse Racing Ireland creates new pre-Christmas jumps schedule

Ireland’s 2023 fixture list was published last month by Horse Racing Ireland (HRI), with the big takeaway being a major rejig of the pre-Christmas jumps calendar.

Next year, Navan (November 18-19) and Punchestown (November 25-26) will host high-class weekends ahead of the Winter Festival at Fairyhouse (December 2-3).

Navan’s fixture will see the For Auction, Lismullen and Monksfield Hurdles and Fortria Chase and Troytown Handicap Chase run over successive days.

The Grade 1 Morgiana Hurdle and Grade 1 John Durkan Memorial Punchestown Chase will similarly now be held on the same weekend at Punchestown, with the John Durkan moving forward from its usual early December date.

The fixture list was compiled with a view to maximising the schedule from a coverage and a commercial perspective, while maintaining a number of initiatives to ease pressure on stable staff and trainers.

The number of blank Sundays are retained at six, while the number of Saturdays with clashing afternoon meetings has been reduced to nine in 2023, from 15 this year.

The 2023 list contains 387 meetings, with three ‘floating fixtures’ in reserve to be deployed at short notice by HRI when demand for opportunities to run is particularly high.

In other developments, the conclusion to the Flat season will have a fresh look with a new two-day fixture at Naas on the weekend of October 14-15, and a two-day fixture at Leopardstown the following weekend. The season starts and ends at the Curragh, on March 25 and November 5.

Jason Morris, HRI’s Director of Racing and Strategic Projects, said: “The 2023 fixture list sees a significant development of the National Hunt schedule in November, with a series of two-day feature meetings created for both race programming and promotional benefits.

“There was widespread industry consultation and support for these changes, which will produce a series of high-profile, top-quality meetings at the

start of the core jumps season.

“The end of the Flat turf season has also been rearranged in October, with two-day meetings at Naas and Leopardstown, leading into a season-ending finale at the Curragh in early November.”

He added: “Maintaining the competitiveness and quality of Irish racing is paramount as it underpins the racegoing experience, the value of our media rights and the appeal of our bloodstock to international markets.

“The HRI Fixtures Committee works closely with the HRI Betting Committee and, at their behest, has cut the number of clashing Saturday afternoon fixtures – i.e. two Irish meetings – to reduce coverage congestion on these busy days.”

Field sizes in focus as 170 races cut from programme

British racing has unveiled a series of measures aimed at improving the competitiveness of races on the Flat and over jumps next year, with around 170 races culled from the programme.

On the Flat, it was announced last month that the maximum number of scheduled races for meetings in July and August 2023 will be reduced from an average of 6.5 to six at all meetings at which total prize-money does not exceed £200,000 – a move that will remove approximately 120 races.

To mitigate the financial impact, all-weather cards will be permitted to have eight races in October and November, with the option to divide to nine.

Over jumps, in July and August next

year the maximum number of programmed races for fixtures with prize-money not exceeding £200,000 will be reduced from seven to six, and in September from an average of 6.5 to six. This will lead to the reduction of approximately 50 races.

The financial impact of this will be partially mitigated, it was said, by increasing the number of programmed races from 6.5 to seven in October and November, when field sizes are generally larger and races more competitive.

Race-planning initiatives aimed at improving competitiveness on the Flat included a pledge to remove the worst-performing conditions races from the programme, while over jumps from May to August the weight-for-age novice

chases will be replaced by Class 3 novice limited handicap chases.

It was also revealed that overseastrained runners will from the beginning of 2023 be able to participate in low-grade handicaps, except during times of the year where there are insufficient opportunities for Britishtrained runners, specifically on the Flat from September 1 through to the end of December. To protect the competitiveness of such races, handicappers will be asked to withhold a rating from horses for which they have concerns about the likely accuracy of any assessment.

The number of Flat black-type races in 2023 is set to be reduced, though details are still being worked through.

CAROLINE NORRIS

Allaho wins the 2021 John Durkan Chase, which will be staged earlier in 2023

Changes People and business

Callum Shepherd

Racing’s news in a nutshell

Rider’s retainer ends with Bill and Tim Gredley, who have downsized on the Flat while increasing their boutique National Hunt string.

Kevin Jones

Jump jockey calls time on career in the saddle aged 33 – he partnered 83 winners and rode mostly for Milton Harris and Seamus Mullins.

Christophe Soumillon

Belgian rider loses his retainer with the Aga Khan after an incident at Saint-Cloud in which he elbowed Rossa Ryan off his horse.

Sheikh Mohammed Obaid

Owner ends eight-year partnership with Andrea Atzeni – they enjoyed big-race success with the likes of Postponed, Defoe and Emaraaty Ana.

Robbie Power

Former top jump jockey starts new role with Tattersalls Ireland, assisting with inspections, promotions and pre-sales matters.

Page Fuller

Jockey suffers a mini stroke while riding in a chase at Fontwell in September – she will focus on rehabilitation at Oaksey House in Lambourn.

William Buick

Godolphin’s number one rider wins his first Flat jockeys’ championship aged 34 while Benoit de la Sayette, 19, claims the leading apprentice title.

Horse obituaries

Adagio 5

High-class hurdler for the David Pipe stable, a winner and placed at Grade 1 level, suffers a heart attack on the gallops.

Daughter of New Bay trained by David Menuisier for Prime Equestrian Racing suffers a fatal injury at Longchamp.

Albertus Maximus 18

John Ferguson

Former trainer is appointed to the BHA Board as a membernominated director on behalf of the ROA, NTF and TBA, succeeding Luca Cumani.

Sir Henry Cecil

Ten-time champion trainer, who died in 2013, is added to the British Champions Series Hall of Fame, along with five-time champion jockey Willie Carson.

Donal McInerney

Dual Irish champion conditional jockey is taking a break from his riding career to focus on his new pre-training operation.

Sean Trivass

Appointed Chair of the Horseracing Bettors Forum, taking over from Colin Hord, who has undertaken the role since 2019.

Munch 2

Son of Albert The Great won the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile and Grade 1 Donn Handicap, the latter race for Shadwell.

Racehorse and stallion Movements and retirements

Stradivarius

Bjorn Nielsen’s outstanding stayer is retired aged eight after a career that yielded three Gold Cups among 18 Pattern wins. His new home is the National Stud after seven seasons with the John Gosden stable.

Mishriff

Group 1-winning son of Make Believe will stand at Haras de Montfort et Preaux in France next year under Nurlan Bizakov’s Sumbe banner.

Ocovango

Alne Park Stud in Warwickshire recruits jumps sire from The Beeches in Ireland. The son of Monsun will stand alongside Dink at a fee of £3,000.

Torquator Tasso

Top German runner, winner of the 2021 Arc and third in this year’s renewal, is retired to take up stallion duties for owner Gestüt Auenquelle.

Topofthegame

Paul Nicholls-trained chaser, last seen running third in an Aintree Grade 1 in 2019, is retired aged ten after meeting with a further setback.

Baaeed

Outstanding son of Sea The Stars, winner of ten of his 11 races including six Group 1s, is retired aged four and will take up stud duties for Shadwell.

Caravaggio

Son of Scat Daddy moves from Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in the US to Shizunai Stallion Station in Japan.

Sealiway

Winner of the 2021 Champion Stakes is retired and will begin his stallion career at Haras de Beaumont near Deauville.

Addeybb

Sheikh Ahmed Al Maktoum’s gelding, successful four times at the top level, is retired aged eight after winning the Prix du Conseil de Paris.

Crypto Force

Group 2 Beresford Stakes winner moves from Michael O’Callaghan’s Curragh yard to join John and Thady Gosden.

Lavello

Group 3 winner is the first son of Zarak to stand at stud with Haras du Lion.

Perfect Power

Top-class son of Ardad, a Group 1 winner at two and three, is retired. He will stand at Darley’s Dalham Hall Stud.

People obituaries

Liam Ward 92

Six-time Irish champion jockey who partnered the Vincent O’Brientrained Nijinsky to victory in the 1970 Irish Derby.

Hugh Hyland 72

His family’s Oghill House Stud produced last year’s Royal Ascot winner Quick Suzy and Group 1 winner Marcel.

Brian Giles 81

Former Racing Editor and chief tipster of the Daily Mail who was also the newspaper’s equestrian correspondent.

George Paul 82

Driving force behind the Palace House restoration project in Newmarket was former Chairman of Jockey Club Estates.

LAND FORCE (IRE): won 3 races at 2 years and £192,074 including Richmond Stakes, Goodwood, Gr.2 Tipperary Stakes, Tipperary, L and placed 4 times including third in Norfolk Stakes, Royal Ascot, Gr.2, Marble Hill Stakes, Curragh, L, fourth in Prix Morny, Deauville, Gr.1

1st Dam

THEANN (GB), won 2 races at 2 and 3 years and £71,045 including Summer Stakes, York, Gr.3 and placed 5 times including second in Flame of Tara Stakes, Curragh, L, third in Greenlands Stakes, Curragh, Gr.3, One Thousand Guineas Trial, Leopardstown, Gr.3; dam of four winners from 6 runners and 8 foals of racing age includingPHOTO CALL (IRE) (2011 f. by Galileo (IRE)), won 6 races at 3 to 5 years at home and in U.S.A. and £587,197 including First Lady Stakes, Keeneland, Gr.1, Rodeo Drive Stakes, Santa Anita, Gr.1, Orchid Stakes, Gulfstream Park, Gr.3, Violet Stakes, Monmouth, Gr.3 and placed 7 times including second in Beaugay Stakes, Belmont, Gr.3, Robert G Dick Memorial Stakes, Delaware Park, Gr.3, third in La Prevoyante Handicap, Gulfstream Park, Gr.3, Perfect Sting Stakes, Belmont, fourth in Glens Falls Stakes, Saratoga, Gr.3, Endeavour Stakes, Tampa Bay Downs, Gr.3 LAND FORCE (IRE) (2016 c. by No Nay Never (USA)), see above.

2nd Dam CASSANDRA GO (IRE), won 6 races at 3 to 5 years including King’s Stand Stakes, Royal Ascot, Gr.2 Temple Stakes, Sandown, Gr.2, King George Stakes, Goodwood, Gr.3, Lansdown Fillies’ Stakes,

Champion 3yr old in Europe in 2018 (11-13f), 12 races at 2 to 5 years, 2020 and £4,681,782 including British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1, Champion Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1 Pretty Polly Stakes, Curragh, Gr.1, Tattersalls Gold Cup, Curragh, Gr.1 (twice) and placed 10 times including second in Coral Eclipse, Sandown Park, Gr.1, Moyglare Stud Stakes, Curragh, Gr.1, Prince of Wales’s Stakes, Ascot, Gr.1, Darley Yorkshire Oaks, York, Gr.1 and Breeders’ Cup Turf, Churchill Downs, Gr.1

RHODODENDRON (IRE), Champion older mare in Ireland in 2018, Jt top rated 2yr old flly in Ireland in 2016, 5 races at 2 to 4 years, 2018 at home and in France and £1,363,928 including Dubai Fillies’ Mile, Newmarket, Gr.1, Lockinge Stakes, Newbury, Gr.1 and Prix de l’Opera, Chantilly, Gr.1, second in Investec Oaks Stakes, Epsom Downs, Gr.1, 1000 Guineas Stakes, Newmarket, Gr.1, Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf, Del Mar, Gr.1 and third in Moyglare Stud Stakes, Curragh, Gr.1 AUGUSTE RODIN (IRE) (c. by Deep Impact (JPN)), won 3 races at 2 years and £203,337 including Vertem Futurity Trophy Stakes, Doncaster, Gr.1 and KPMG Champions Juvenile Stakes Gr.2 FLYING THE FLAG (IRE), 3 races at 2, 3 and 5 years at home and in U.A.E. and £125,188 including eFlow ‘You First’ International Stakes, Curragh, Gr.3, placed 6 times including second in Galileo EBF Futurity Stakes, Curragh, Gr.2 TICKLED PINK (IRE) (f. by Invincible Spirit (IRE)), won 3 races at 3 and 4 years and £77,734 including Connaught Flooring Abernant Stakes, Newmarket, Gr.3 and The Coral Charge Sprint Stakes, Sandown Park, Gr.3, placed 3 times; dam of winners. THEANN (GB) (f. by Rock of Gibraltar (IRE)), see above. Fantasy (IRE) (f. by Invincible Spirit (IRE)), won 1 race at 2 years, 2018 and £24,413 and placed 4 times including third in John Sisk & Son Round Tower Stakes, Curragh, Gr.3 and Curragh Stakes, Curragh, L NEVERLETME GO (IRE), won 2 races at 3 and £16,954 and placed 3 times; dam of winners. BEST REGARDS (IRE), Champion 3yr old Sprinter in Germany in 2013, 3 races at 2 and 3 years in France and in Germany and £43,335 including Hoppegartener Fliegerpreis, Berlin-Hoppegarten, L placed twice including third in P.Afrika Linen J Essberger Flieger Preis, Hamburg, Gr.3. Tilthe End of Time (IRE), unraced; dam of Snazzy (IRE), 1 race at 2 years, 2018 and £26,636, third

The

Longchamp

Alpinista stars in Paris

Despite a maximum 20-runner field, there were few anxious moments for supporters of favourite Alpinista and Luke Morris in this year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp. The daughter of Frankel was still on the bridle with a furlong and a half to run and readily held off the late challenges of Vadeni (green) and 2021 victor Torquator Tasso (yellow), giving the jockey, owner-breeder Kirsten Rausing (far left) and trainer Sir Mark Prescott (flat cap, seen being congratulated by Vadeni’s trainer Jean-Claude Rouget) their greatest day in the sport.

Photos Bill Selwyn

The

Queen too quick in Abbaye

Two-year-old winners of the Prix de l’Abbaye are rare indeed but The Platinum Queen, trained by Richard Fahey, is tough as teak and the daughter of Cotai Glory followed Sigy in 1978 by becoming a juvenile winner of the five-furlong contest. Hollie Doyle had The Platinum Queen in front by the halfway point and while fellow British-trained runner White Lavender threw down a strong challenge inside the final furlong, she couldn’t catch the younger filly to whom she was conceding 17lb, much to the delight of winning owners Middleham Park Racing XV (left).

Photos Bill Selwyn

The

A Bridge too far

Richard Kingscote has enjoyed a season to remember and the Derbywinning rider added another Group 1 to his CV as Bay Bridge, trained by Sir Michael Stoute for James Wigan and Ballylinch Stud, outpointed 2021 Derby hero Adayar in the QIPCO Champion Stakes. For Baaeed (right), unbeaten coming into the race, the ten-furlong trip proved too much on the rain-softened ground; he finished fourth under Jim Crowley.

Photos Bill Selwyn

Boy, he’s good!

Ballylinch Stud stallion New Bay enjoyed a superb British Champions Day, with victories for his sons Bay Bridge and Bayside Boy (left). The latter was given a superb ride by Tom Marquand as he came from off the pace to capture the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

Photo Bill Selwyn

Kinross bosses sprint field

Marc Chan’s Kinross has enjoyed a superb second half to his campaign, winning four races in a row and following his Prix de la Foret victory at Longchamp with a further top-level triumph in the Sprint Stakes under Frankie Dettori. Relishing the give underfoot, Kinross was registering his first success over six furlongs as the Ralph Beckett-trained five-year-old defeated Run To Freedom by two and a quarter lengths.

Photos Bill Selwyn

British Champions

The Big Picture

No guts no glory

Top-class stayer Trueshan loves the mud and the prevailing conditions at Ascot helped the Alan Kingtrained six-year-old to register his third successive victory in the Long Distance Cup. He didn’t have it all his own way, however, as David Probert produced Coltrane (noseband) with a strong challenge in the straight and Hollie Doyle had to be at her strongest as Trueshan battled to a head success.

Photos Bill Selwyn

Champions

From top to bottom: William Buick is crowned champion jockey for the first time in the company of family and friends; Emily Upjohn returns to her best with a brilliant display in the Fillies & Mares Stakes under Frankie Dettori; Benoit de la Sayette receives his trophy for leading apprentice jockey from five-times champion Willie Carson

Racing’s royal patronage faces uncertain future

King Charles I to King Charles II to King Charles III: four centuries of seamless support for British horseracing from the monarchy. On the surface it bodes well for the future but continued royal patronage of the sport comes with an underlying warning.

Following the Queen’s death at the beginning of September, virtually every extended tribute contained references to her love of the horse and in particular her passion for and deep knowledge of the thoroughbred. Her following was a feature that imperceptibly promoted the sport, enabling it to benefit by association, just as National Hunt racing was elevated beyond normal status by the involvement of the Queen Mother.

It was well told that the first entries in the Queen’s diary each year covered Derby day and Royal Ascot. Further than that she would invariably turn up at Newbury in May, having been to see her Berkshire-trained horses, and was back at Ascot in October to present the trophy for the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes. That she had long given up attending most other fixtures did not lessen her impact.

The Queen’s delight at following horseracing was individual but also inherited, with royal involvement dating back to at least 1603, after which James I took his son, later Charles I, to the races at Newmarket, where he built a palace on the site of his early lodgings at the Griffin Inn. Charles I presented Newmarket with its first Gold Cup in 1634, and following the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, the town, and horseracing, flourished under Charles II, who

instituted the Newmarket Town Plate, rode in and judged races, and gained the nickname Old Rowley after his favourite hack.

Charles II was also responsible for introducing the actress Nell Gwyn to the sporting public, as the woman who is remembered in a Craven meeting fillies’ race was one of his 13 mistresses. The situation will chime with the new Queen Consort, who has made no secret of the fact one of

Contraction in the Arabian ranks

Smaller fields than usual in parts of the British thoroughbred programme have caused furrowed brows galore, but the dilemma is far worse in the world of Arabian racing in these shores. Is the thoroughbred fraternity aware, and does it matter?

The facts are there to see on the Arabian Racing Organisation UK website. They show that ARO no longer hosts stand-alone meetings, and of the 22 single races staged on thoroughbred cards in 2022, other than the £400,000 Qatar International Stakes, just two emulated Goodwood’s ten-runner field, producing an average of 6.1.

Circumstances, including dispersal of Sheikh Hamdan’s string on his death and the failure to include Arabians in the VAT agreement following Brexit, which raised costs associated with overseas competition and halted the temporary summer population of Gulf-owned horses, conspired to produce a horse population of 50

domestic registrations. The consequent contraction of competition resulted in two trainers – Philip Collington and James Owen – winning 76 per cent of races between them. Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Paul Nicholls and Nicky Henderson, eat your hearts out.

Shortage of numbers, which resulted in a total of 69 registrations, including internationals, seriously impacted ARO’s own administration costs, while a delay in incorporating ARO-hosted races to the Racing Digital portal, following December 2019’s decision by the BHA to implement the regulatory integration of Arabian racing, continues to hamper the organisation’s ability properly to promote its race programme.

A development plan for 2022-24, which was revised in November 2021 but has been largely superseded by events, envisaged the minimum horse population reaching 80 in 2022 – it fell 30 short – 120 in 2023 and 150 in 2024.

The targets are unlikely to be met, yet ARO officials remain in a positive mood.

They point to improved bonuses for stable staff, the reinstatement of a UK breeders’ scheme, better coverage on satellite TV and the building of a strong platform to attract vital sponsorship and public appreciation as factors to be hopeful, if not over-confident, that a brighter future is possible.

So, is the thoroughbred fraternity aware, and does it matter? Probably not, and possibly yes.

Attracting new or retaining existing Middle East sponsors to Arabian racing could provide a spin-off for the thoroughbred sport; trainers new and old could diversify; betting interest, and therefore the levy, could be enhanced; and the existing values of tradition, jockey training and development, and variety could be sustained. What applies to the thoroughbred could also apply to its ancestor and close cousin.

GEORGE SELWYN

King Charles III (right) has inherited the royal racing and breeding operation

her maternal great-grandmothers, Alice Keppel, was mistress to King Edward VII for 12 years.

This is the racing legacy the King has inherited, along with the 100-or-so horses in training, foals, yearlings and mares previously owned by the Queen. Several of the band are sure to be moved on, if the King’s ambition for a slimmed-down monarchy is to be fulfilled. However, it is hard to imagine that the royal breeding and racing operation would be ditched. The King and Queen Consort have been dabbling in both areas since 2008, three years after their marriage.

Their two mares have had contrasting fortunes. With produce split between Ralph Beckett and Jamie Snowden, Supereva has produced four winners of 15 races in the colours that the King carried six times as an unsuccessful amateur rider in 1980-1 before polo took his attention, but Dark Swan’s four foals have resulted in the winner of a single race who was sold for 2,500gns in August.

The Queen Consort’s first husband, Andrew Parker Bowles, was an intrepid amateur rider who was brought in by Ron Muddle to become a director at Arena Leisure for 13 years and was also the founding Chairman of Retraining of Racehorses. Parker Bowles was and remains a close friend of the Princess Royal and is a godfather to her daughter Zara Tindall.

Like the Queen Consort and the King, the latter’s sister the Princess Royal is an honorary member of the Jockey Club, of which her late mother was patron. Of the two siblings, the Princess had easily the more successful riding

career, having claimed winners on the Flat as an amateur, competed in the Olympic Games and won a European Three-day Event Championships gold medal. While she is a racecourse regular, her direct and incisive involvement is as patron or president of such organisations as the Injured Jockeys Fund, Racing Welfare, the Amateur Jockeys Association, the Pony Club and World Horse Welfare.

At the next level of the family, the Prince and Princess of Wales bear titles that have a prominent place in the British racing calendar, but their direct sporting support has so far been felt most keenly in football and rugby circles. As for two others with race names to the fore, the least said the better about the Dukes of York and Sussex.

Of the junior royals, the Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie enjoy the trip in a Royal Ascot carriage but have shown little other interest, which leaves Zara Tindall as the brightest beacon of light. Eclipsing her brother Peter Phillips, whose position as CEO of City Racing has produced nothing but reversals since its launch in 2018, she has emulated her mother in the eventing saddle, while training point-to-pointers and becoming a member of the Cheltenham racecourse committee at the start of 2020.

Tindall highlights the warning note about continued royal support. She is 41 years old. Her mother is 72; her eldest uncle will be 74 this month, and her step-aunt is 75. British racing should make the most of them while it can.

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“Beatrice and Eugenie have shown little interest, leaving Zara Tindall as the brightest beacon of light”

The Big Interview

Ready for MOORE

Words: Graham Dench • Photos: Bill Selwyn

The 2021-22 jumps season was Gary Moore’s most successful in his 30 years as a trainer, yielding 91 winners as he broke the £1 million barrier for the first time. At what is proving a difficult time for so many in the industry, his stables are full, as they usually are.

He has long been regarded as one of Britain’s top dual-purpose trainers, perhaps the best of all, and racing is all he has known, having grown up the son of a trainer and gone on to be a hardas-nails jump jockey before switching to training.

Moore has great owners as well as loyal and hard-working staff, while he probably has better horses than ever at his recently upgraded premises. So why would he be talking about stopping?

The familiar complaints of too much racing, rising costs and excessive red tape all get a good airing in the course of a comfortable hour or so in the office of his Cisswood Racing Stables near Horsham, where wife Jayne joins in from time to time while working away at the computer her husband so actively avoids.

However, such issues have little or nothing to do with Moore’s plans. There is a much, much happier reason for Moore being keen to see his name come off the licence sooner rather than later, and it’s one that the couple could not have dared even contemplate just a few months ago, when the life of their youngest child, the fourth in one of racing’s most famous dynasties, hung in the balance.

“Josh will be taking over here,” confirms Moore, who is not interested in going down the joint licence road favoured by other father-and-son combinations like the Coles, Crisfords and Gosdens.

“It’s a case of when he’s ready,” he adds, “and if he’s not ready I won’t let him. But when the time comes, I’ll just disappear into the background and work for him, like he works for me. I’d say it will definitely be within two years. I hope so anyway!”

Moore has no doubt whatsoever that his son, who won a solitary Grade 1 on Ar Mad at Sandown in 2015 but whose horsemanship deserved success on a far greater scale, will be a natural as a trainer, and he can’t wait.

He says: “Training is a young man’s game now and Josh will be absolutely brilliant at it. He’s very switched on and he’s better with staff than I am. He’s a better talker than me too, and owners love him. He’ll get some help too I should think from Ryan, who I hope will get him a few bigger-name owners. Ryan’s input could be unbelievable.

“I’ll stay here and I’ll do anything Josh asks me to do. All I’ll want to do is to work for Josh and do whatever he wants. In a perfect world I’d build a bungalow on the premises where we’ve currently got an aircraft hangar, which I inherited when I took over the place. Josh could then move into our house.”

All that is for the future, although hopefully the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, while he is happy to contemplate taking a back seat, Moore ››

Gary Moore has established his reputation as one of the country’s best dual-purpose trainers over three decades – now he’s preparing to take a back seat with son Josh destined to take over the yard

Gary Moore

Grade 1 winner Porticello, regarded as a future chaser by trainer Gary Moore, will be staying over hurdles this season

››

The Big Interview

senior is equally at ease reflecting on his time as a trainer and the state of racing.

Moore initially trained in Epsom, first in a property owned by owner Jeff Daniels and then, when he outgrew it, at John Sutcliffe’s former stables, but he also had a lengthy period based at his father Charlie’s former stables close to Brighton racecourse before buying Cisswood from Charles Cyzer.

He explains: “I’ve never regretted buying this place. It’s one of the best things I’ve done in my life. Maybe I should have bought John Sutcliffe’s place when I was training there in the early days, but the trouble with Epsom is it’s too close to London and so prices are extortionate, and also there wasn’t the staff accommodation I’d need.

“We’ve done a lot of work here, building another 60 boxes, changing both gallops over to woodchip, installing a two-and-a-half furlong round canter, putting in an all-weather schooling ground, and more recently adding a deep sand gallop.

“The deep sand gallop is [based] on the Willie Mullins principle, but Willie’s is in a circle and mine’s up a hill. I tried

mine in a circle, but it didn’t really work, so we took it up and put woodchip back down, then made a new deep sand gallop up a hill.

“I think we are already seeing the benefits of that from a fitness point of view. You can go slower and over not quite so far, so there’s not so much stress on them, yet you still get the same benefits as they have to work harder in it. We had better horses last season and there was a great team effort behind them, but also they stayed healthy and sound for longer, and I think they were fitter too.”

Attracting owners seldom seems to have been a problem for Moore, who has always been recognised as a trainer who knows the time of day, and he hopes that the cost-of-living crisis will not prove an issue for most of them. Many prefer jumping to the Flat, although that might change when his son takes over.

He says: “If I wanted to and had the staff and the boxes, I could have 150 horses here, but I’m happy with the 110 that I can house. I’m not exactly turning them away though, or at least not often. I’m conscious that there’s more

Moore oversees morning exercise at Cisswood Stables, home to his dual-purpose string of 110 horses

emphasis here now on jumps than the Flat, but I expect that will change when Josh is in charge.

“It’s just happened, rather than there having been any policy change. It’s in large part down to the owners I train for, but also because I’ve had two very, very good jump jockeys working for me, and I felt I had to support them as best I could.

“Also, I find I can compete at a higher level jumping with the sort of horses my owners are prepared to buy than I can on the Flat, where you need Arab owners or EuroMillions winners to buy the ammunition for the top races.

“I’ve got wealthy owners – anybody who has racehorses has got to be quite wealthy in this day and age – and I was able to buy a couple of yearlings at Goffs and had orders for Tattersalls Book 2, but I didn’t even need to think

about looking at Book 1 as that’s a completely different level.”

He adds: “I’m lucky to have one owner in particular, Olly Harris, who

spends a lot of money on jumpers, and we are seeing the benefits with horses like Porticello, who won the Grade 1 at Chepstow last winter, but there’s not

Moore

many around like him I’m afraid. He only lives up the road in Esher and he comes down a lot. He’s just the best person to be training for.”

Rising costs, particularly for feed, staff and energy, are a concern for all, and Moore’s weekly rate will almost certainly have to go up before long. “It’s worrying, and some owners may go and look for somewhere cheaper, but I won’t cut any corners,” he says. “I don’t feel I’m over-expensive anyway and if people are doing it for less, they can’t be doing it properly.

“We haven’t got to the stage where we are doing the sums and working out exactly how much costs have gone up, but I can tell you for example that bales of hay – big ones admittedly – are now £130 a time, which is horrendous, and shavings are £9 a bale. I could once probably have bought a ton of hay for ››

“If I had the staff and the boxes I could have 150 horses here”

Jamie Moore (riding Icare Grandchamp) leads brother Josh (Haddex Des Obeaux) and Caoilin Quinn (Heaven Smart) on the grass circle

The Big Interview

New challenge excites Josh

Josh Moore was surprised when he was sent a renewal notice for his jockey’s licence while he was recovering from his injuries and the subsequent fat embolism that nearly killed him.

He rang the BHA’s Chief Medical Adviser Jerry Hill to ask if he was having a laugh and he was pretty much told not to waste his time and money filling in the form, but he already knew his riding career was over. Accepting the inevitable was not as hard as it might have been. Since first riding competitively during the 2007/08 season, Moore has suffered far more injuries than a rider of his style and skill should ever have endured, and so he was prepared for the news.

He knows how lucky he is to simply be alive, let alone fit and well enough again to be able to enjoy being home again with partner Phoebe and two-year-old son Freddie, not to mention looking forward to another exciting stage in his career, even if it is coming rather sooner than he’d have preferred. Almost unbelievably, he is even back riding out two lots a day.

The initial injury was incurred at Haydock in April on Gleno, a yard favourite and a supposedly safe-ashouses jumper. The potentially deadly fat embolism emerged a little later and it was so serious that at times during his three months in hospital the whole of racing, not just his own family, feared the worst.

His recovery has been remarkable and bears testament not only to the skill and care of the medical staff who attended to him in successive institutions, but also to the dogged persistence of his mother Jayne, who read voraciously on the subject and was convinced she recognised a rare

what a bale is costing me now, and shavings used to be a fiver a bale.

“The nuts we buy are extortionately priced now too. The war in Ukraine is a big factor, as that’s where the wheat comes from, but we’ve had three price rises in a year. I could find cheaper feed, but as I said, I won’t cut corners. They apologised for the latest price rise and offered us some free merchandise, but

condition which even experienced consultants had not previously come across first-hand.

Moore says: “I got lucky. My back is sore still, but otherwise I feel fit and well, although I couldn’t come back race-riding. My back has been opened twice in the last year and my leg was opened too. The fat embolism from the leg injury affected my brain, and although it’s all right now, I’m not sure I’d be able to pass a concussion test again.

“I’ll miss the riding obviously, but I’ve always planned to train one day and I did the first two trainer’s modules quite a while ago, when I was struggling with my shoulders and thought I’d better start thinking about what I’d do next. It’s always been a big interest of mine and I’m booked for the third and last module this month.”

Moore has learned most of what he knows about training from his father –there can be few better from whom to receive an education. However, he has kept his eyes and ears open wherever

horses can’t eat baseball caps, can they?”

Like many, Moore, who masterminded the career of outstanding two-mile chaser Sire De Grugy, winner of five Grade 1s, including the Queen Mother Champion Chase, all under son Jamie, believes that the issues with poor prize-money and falling field sizes are not unconnected.

he has been and will no doubt have a few ideas of his own. How soon he gets to put them into practice remains to be seen, but you can be sure he will be ready when the time comes.

He explains: “I rode out for Jonjo O’Neill for about a year, and more recently for Chris Gordon, and I also used to go down to Emma Lavelle’s when I was a seven-pound claimer. Wherever I’ve been I’ve paid attention to how things are done.”

The younger man agreed with his father that a gradual change in emphasis back in favour of the Flat might be on the cards. “The Flat is of massive interest because in today’s world I think it provides a far better business model to jumpers,” Moore says. “I love jump racing of course, and we have a lot of successful jumps horses, so obviously I’ll want to keep going with them.

“I probably know more about jumping but I do love the Flat and luckily in Ryan I’ve got a brother who knows a lot more about it than I do.”

He says: “There’s obviously too much racing. They keep going on about field sizes, but the solution is so simple that even an idiot like me can work it out. They had a solution but then they didn’t go with it.

“Racing dilutes the prize-money so much and there aren’t enough horses to go around, especially on the Flat. We need many fewer meetings, and

Josh Moore: feels lucky

The Big Interview

we shouldn’t be letting the racecourses themselves dictate to us so that they can cash in on the media rights money. It’s got to be greed.”

He continues: “Prize-money is never enough, but that’s not going to change. We are going to look at opportunities in France more this winter, but the paperwork for that is horrendous since Brexit.

“Last season Larry won a £100,000 race at Ascot, which set him up for the season, but generally the prize-money is very poor. Porticello didn’t win a fortune, and even Goshen, who was the best juvenile hurdler of his year, won pitiful amounts.

“Luckily most of my owners are in it for fun. If you are in it for prizemoney, you shouldn’t be in it, not in this country anyway. I’ve got a broad spread of them too. It’s no good being too dependent on one owner.”

Red tape, and particularly the need for so much to be done online well in advance that could once have been attended to on course, is among other frustrations. So, too, is the everincreasing export abroad of so many of the more desirable types at the horsesin-training sales.

But in a year or two it is unlikely to be his problem.

Moore

Porticello is 16.3hh and built like a tank so what he did as a juvenile was unbelievable, winning the Grade 1 and finishing first home of the English in the Triumph. Hurdles got in the way, and I can’t wait for him to go chasing, although that won’t be until next season as I feel he’s too young mentally. He’ll be stepping up to two and a half miles in the meantime, and I think he needs it.

Authorised Speed was the first English horse home in Cheltenham’s bumper and he’s one we are really looking forward to in novice hurdles. He’s a very nice horse, but he does want cut in the ground. The Tolworth will probably be his main target.

Goshen will go novice chasing. We are going to start him off early and if it doesn’t work out he can go back to hurdles. He hasn’t been over-schooled, owing to the ground, but touch wood he’s been good when schooling on the all-weather.

Botox Has will hopefully develop into a decent staying hurdler this season. He’s always stayed quite well and now he’s a bit bigger and stronger he can hopefully step up to three miles.

Nassalam is one that I never felt was at his best last season, although he won three races and one of them was a Grade 2. When he won first time out at Ascot he had a hard race, and

I’m not sure he got over it. He got very lucky when he won at Newbury, and when he scrambled home at Fontwell he was made to win by Jamie, who gave him a very good ride.

Editeur Du Gite, third on his reappearance over two miles at Cheltenham on October 22, could go to Ascot for a race he fell in last season. He was over the top when we ran him in a Grade 1 at Aintree last season, but I think he’d have to improve to have another go in one.

Full Back will hopefully have his best season and if all goes well he could end up in the Grand National.

Larry won a very valuable handicap chase at Ascot last October and he’s come back down to the same mark again.

Movethechains is a very good jumper who loves soft ground and did very well last season, winning his last four races, all at Lingfield. He probably won’t get in, but I wouldn’t rule out something like the Coral Gold Cup [formerly Ladbrokes Trophy and Hennessy].

Poncho is a very nice bumper horse who was second at Market Rasen in May for Steve Packham, who has Goshen.

Diyaken won his only race in France and is one to look forward to, as is Bo Zenith, a beautiful horse. Both are owned by Olly Harris.

Jamie Moore on Authorised Speed, an exciting prospect for novice hurdles

‘Authorised Speed is very nice –the Tolworth is his main target’ Gary Moore on his runners to watch out for this season

Manton Park Stallions Open for BUSINESS

Words: Nancy Sexton

Such is the tough nature of the stallion business that the launch of a new yet sizeable operation has become an increasingly rare event. That is particularly true of the British side of the industry, which is a very different beast to that of 25 years ago when private stallion operations populated the landscape up and down the country.

Which is why Martyn and Amy Meade’s launch of Manton Park Stallions on the storied Manton Estate near Marlborough in Wiltshire should be regarded as such a welcome addition for the 2023 season. The land is steeped in racing history, whether once as the training base of Alec

Taylor and his son Alec junior, who sent out 21 British Classic winners during his tenure from 1894 to 1927, or that latterly of fellow Classic-winning trainer Peter Chapple-Hyam. Meade, who trains in partnership with his son Freddie, swapped Newmarket for Manton in late 2017 and today occupies the vast estate with fellow Group 1-winning trainer Brian Meehan and Ollie Sangster, who starts his training career next season.

However, not since the early part of the 20th century, when 22-time winner Bayardo, one of the greatest horses of his era, held court under Alec Taylor’s stewardship has Manton housed a

stallion operation.

Thus the arrival of Advertise and Aclaim to Manton Park heralds the dawn of a new era. It is the brainchild of Meade, who trained both Aclaim and Advertise to Group 1 success; Aclaim, the older of the two, won the Prix de la Foret in a career that also included a win in the Challenge Stakes, while top sprinter Advertise hit Group 1 heights as a two-year-old when successful in the Phoenix Stakes prior to sweeping the Commonwealth Cup and Prix Maurice de Gheest at three.

Nor is the Manton Park umbrella confined just to British shores since it also covers the top-class stayer Technician. Trained by Meade to win the Prix RoyalOak during a productive and progressive three-year-old season, the son of Mastercraftsman stood his first season at Haras de Montaigu in France this year.

Both Advertise and Aclaim began their stud careers at the National Stud in Newmarket and successfully so, with Aclaim the sire of 1,000 Guineas winner

Martyn Meade (centre), flanked by son Freddie and Dermot Farrington

Cachet and exciting sprinter Royal Aclaim out of his first crop and Advertise represented by yearlings that sold for up to 500,000gns at last month’s Tattersalls October Sale.

However, as Meade outlines, it was always the plan to one day embark upon running their own stallion operation at Manton.

“It was always in the back of our minds to do this,” he explains. “It was one of our rationales to link the racing with a stallion operation and therefore aspire to competing in the higher levels of racing with the idea that stallions and possible broodmares can then be created.

“And we were able to do that fairly early on – we managed to have that Group 1 success with a couple of horses but then they came a bit earlier than we thought they might, at a time when we weren’t established enough to be able to stand them ourselves.

“So the natural thought was to send them to the National Stud in Newmarket,

which we did, and they’ve done a very good job with them.”

He adds: “However, it is a business, and to have that business, you have to have the contact with your customers. To subcontract that out doesn’t really make a lot of sense. If you look at a lot of successful stallion stations, you have to get close to your customers, otherwise you don’t always have that full impact.”

Manton Park heads into its initial season with several factors on its side, not least the fact that in Aclaim, it starts out with a young Classic-producing sire on its books. Having sired 27 winners out of his first crop of two-year-olds last season, Aclaim’s progeny progressed as anticipated into this year to the point that he now has six stakes performers on his record.

The tough Cachet, whose win in the Nell Gwyn Stakes and second place in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches sandwiched her front-running 1,000 Guineas victory for George Boughey, is the star of the

show. Then there is Royal Aclaim, who quickened away from some good older sprinters to take the City Walls Stakes at York in the manner of a Group 1 performer.

Aclaim heads to Manton following a shuttle season in Australia at Aquis Farm, where he covered a full book of mares that included Group 1-winning sprinter Loving Gaby.

Meanwhile, it is crunch time for Advertise, whose first crop of 114 take to the track next year. But the omens are good, especially in light of the reception given at the sales to his first yearlings. Led by a colt out of Squash sold by Tally-Ho Stud for 500,000gns to agent Richard Knight, eight of his yearlings sold for six figures, and to a wide variety of buyers that also included American agent Ben McElroy, Charlie Hills, Andrew Balding and American-based owners Blue Devil Racing, who plan to send their purchase, a filly out of Treeline bought for €300,000 at Goffs, to Joseph O’Brien.

As for Meade, he will have 11 – a

Manton Park Stallions

“comfortable number” – under his care next season.

“I think what we have gives us a great leg up to start with,” says Meade. “It’s very difficult when you’re starting out to find the stallions with the quality needed to make a mark. You might get away with a Group 2 or Group 3 winner but I think it’s a huge struggle. I think if you’re going to do that, then you need a mass of mares either owned by yourself or followers. Otherwise, I think you’ve got to start at that Group 1 level. And then of course you need an awful amount of luck.

“Also I think it helps enormously if you know the horses to start with. If people buying into stallions or making them haven’t had the relationship with them from the start, then you might not quite know what character you’re going to get.

“If you look at Aclaim, he was always a great fighter. The physical make-up of the horse is important but so is character and Aclaim had a will to win – he was not going to let anything get past him. And you think, well is this actually going to

there is something to work with there. The other great thing about him is that he was so sound in training, he never missed a day. He was an easy, straightforward horse – he just got on with it and stepped up to the plate when needed.

“He rarely ran a bad race and went through all those two-year-old races [in addition to winning the Phoenix Stakes, he was placed in the Coventry and Dewhurst Stakes] before training on at three. It’s very unusual to have a horse who can win Group 1 races in England, Ireland and France. He always lived up to expectations.”

With the launch of a new venture comes the formation of a new team. With Meade at the helm, Richard Wright has been appointed as bloodstock

broodmare band and their followers. As befits an elite breeding operation, it is a group where the emphasis is on stakes winners and well-related mares.

“Now we have to perpetuate the whole thing,” says Meade. “That’s what we’ve got to try and achieve, to keep on improving the stock.

“As an organisation, we’ve also got to get close to the breeders. It’s easy to look at the top end of the market and the headline lots and think it’s fantastic, that it’s a licence to print money. But of course it’s not. For a lot of breeders, I think it’s a very difficult time.

“We have to have that special relationship with breeders, to understand their particular requirements and then try to be flexible.”

transpose to his progeny? I think clearly it has – he gets so many winners at all levels and then look at how tough Cachet is.”

While Aclaim was bred by Meade’s son-in-law Dermot Farrington, an integral part of the Meade team, with Canning Downs, Advertise was purchased with Farrington from his breeder Cheveley Park Stud as a Goffs UK Premier Sale yearling. Out of the Pivotal mare Furbelow, he shares his sire Showcasing with this season’s successful first-crop sire Tasleet.

“Advertise is another horse we know very well,” says Meade. “What I’ve been very pleased about during this sales season is that you can see he’s stamped his stock. They do seem to be of a type, and that seems to be a plus.

“I was really pleased to see them sell so well. They were making half a million, 300,000gns, €300,000 and so on. The trainers were buying them and so were the breeze-up boys.

“I’m quite fond of horses with size and substance, and you’ve got that with him,

“I think it helps enormously if you know the horses to start with”

Listed winner Lyzbeth and several Advertise weanlings

DOMINIC JAMES

Cachet: 1,000 Guineas winner is a daughter of Aclaim

BILL SELWYN

Al Shira’aa Farms Going GLOBAL

Words: James Thomas

Al Shira’aa Farms has already achieved plenty in a short space of time, with a top-flight winner and a host of other notable talents having carried the owner’s black and red-detailed colours. But given the operation’s early moves have all been about seeding for the future, the roots that have been laid down look poised to blossom into something far more significant.

Al Shira’aa is the nom de plume of Sheikha Fatima bint Hazza bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a granddaughter of the United Arab Emirate’s founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan. She is an important figure in the region not just as

and Britain, and has also signed up as the title sponsor to the prestigious Hickstead Derby until at least 2024.

“The love for horses runs through my family’s blood like blood runs through our veins and oxygen in our lungs,” she writes on the Al Shira’aa Arabians website.

That passion is now being felt in the racing and bloodstock world, with Al

before making a successful switch to the Stateside stable of Christophe Clement, for whom she won the Grade 2 Dance Smartly Stakes and, more significantly, the Grade 1 EP Taylor Stakes.

“It’s a dream for everyone just to think about reaching that milestone, so our first Grade 1 was a massive day and one that we won’t forget,” says Lalor. “She

a member of the royal family but as an ambassador of cultural development and a patron of art, sports and culture. She has also appeared on the cover of Vogue Arabia and has collaborated on collections with high-end jewellery designer Bulgari.

An affinity with the horse has been handed down through many generations of her family and Al Shira’aa’s wideranging equine interests include Arabians, dressage and showjumping. The organisation has equestrian stables and homebred breeding operations in the UAE

Kieran Lalor: a key member of the team behind Al Shira’aa Farms

operation but with a number

banner, it is already well

international ambitions

Al Shira’aa Farms

ready to take up a new role as member of the broodmare band. She has been pencilled in for a date with Dubawi next spring.

Other established performers could soon follow suit too, either by winning at the highest level or by joining the broodmare band, depending which way discussions go, namely the Listedwinning Jannah Flower, who was last seen running a fast-finishing second in the Prix de Royallieu, and Rumi, whose record is headed by victory in the Group 2 Prix de la Nonette.

“Both of those mares are very important to us now and certainly for the future,” says Lalor. “Jannah Flower came out of the Royallieu in great shape. She’s relatively lightly-raced for a four-year-old and seems to just relish the more ground she gets.

“We feel Rumi, just like Jannah Flower, is certainly a Group 1 calibre filly. She is still with Carlos and might run once more this year. Next year is still up in the air but she will either retire to the broodmare band or possibly go to America to race with Christophe with a couple of Grade 1 targets in mind. I’ll have that discussion with the boss but, either way, she’ll get a few months rest at the farm here shortly.”

Al Shira’aa’s long-term aim is to build up a band of regally bred mares capable of producing runners that compete at the highest echelons of global racing. Given Sheikha Fatima’s own route into the thoroughbred world, it is no surprise that she is acutely aware of how important lineage can be.

“When I came on board we all sat down and came up with a long-term plan,” says Lalor. “When you get into this game, especially with a new owner, you want to impress upon them the aim is to be as good as the Juddmontes, Coolmores, Godolphins, Cheveley Parks, Niarchos families and Moyglares of this world, among many others. That’s the level we want to be competing at. To do that you need those big foundation families, and that’s been our process in the last few years.”

Al Shira’aa’s results so far reflect a judicious approach to shopping at the sales, with Mutamakina picked up at a cost of 100,000gns, Jannah Flower was a €400,000 yearling while Rumi was slightly pricier at €700,000. The last two sales seasons have seen Al Shira’aa ramp up their investment in blue-blooded fillies.

In 2021 Lalor signed for seven yearlings, with considerable sums spent on siblings to the likes of Bolshoi Ballet, Broome, Mother Earth, Poetic Flare and Waldgeist. That continued this year with

six more acquisitions including siblings to Going Global, Native Trail and the operation’s own Rumi. Although buying into such blood does not come cheap, Lalor says the strategy is focussed on long-term rewards rather than immediate gains.

“Prior to last year there’d been more of a focus on physicals as we were more racing orientated,” he says. “But we want to have those deep foundation families as well as current activity up the top under the first dam, especially now as we expand on our breeding operations. When these horses don’t work out [on the track] for whatever reason, it’s nice to have a really good family to fall back on and have some belief that your mare can reproduce a good horse for you.

“If you don’t see Group 1 on the page, then should you really be expecting it from the animal? Now in the broad scheme that can happen for sure, but you can have a lot more confidence when some of the many variables are removed. If you see Group 1, Group 1, Group 1 throughout the pedigree, sometimes it can jump a generation but it generally comes back again. One only needs to

Lady In Lights: half-sister to St Mark’s Basilica joined the stud in 2020

look at those great mares Coolmore and Juddmonte have, for example, and how they keep producing the goods.”

Digging deeper into the buying process, Lalor says: “After I’ve got a shortlist together the boss and I will review each lot’s pedigree, bloodlines, photos and videos. The boss will decide which ones we should focus on and from there we will put a value on each for what they could be to our programme and what the market may have them at. John Hanly, our vet, then will review the nuts and bolts of the horse and from there hopefully we land on a couple.”

The most expensive lot that Al Shira’aa landed on in 2021 was the Dubawi half-sister to Waldgeist who fetched 1,250,000gns. Lalor stresses that there is not an open cheque book come sales

season, but explains that the strategy requires a balance between discipline and knowing when to seize the moment of opportunity.

“The boss is very much focused on quality over quantity and she knows exactly what she wants,” he says. “We’ll stay disciplined, although every now and then a filly like the Dubawi last year will come along and we’ll certainly stretch for the important ones.”

Discipline must also be applied to the numbers Al Shira’aa keeps, and this means that some of their homebred yearlings will be brought to market when circumstances dictate. Lalor says public auction offerings are decided on a case by case basis, with Baroda Stud handling consigning duties. “David [Cox] and Tamso [Doyle] run a top-class outfit and

have a great team at Baroda,” he says.

“The idea is to keep the fillies, but if there’s a lot we’ll sell some as we don’t need to have too many daughters out of each mare. We sell most of our colts but in time we’ll race more of them and go to the marketplace for colts too. It’s just as important to us to try to hit the high notes with colts, but our focus at this early stage is to get a core group of good race fillies with good families together.”

Time will tell whether Al Shira’aa’s more recent purchases will bear fruit, but confidence in their approach can be taken from the fact last year’s investments have already produced green shoots of promise. Ocean Jewel, the €230,000 Sioux Nation half-sister to Mother Earth, opened her account at the second attempt and rounded off her first season ››

Mutamakina: seen winning in France, she went on to land the Grade 1 EP Taylor Stakes in Canada

Al Shira’aa Farms

by running second in the Listed Blenheim Stakes.

In France, Saadiyat, the 475,000gns Lope De Vega half-sister to Broome and Point Lonsdale, and Liwa Oasis, a 260,000gns buy by the same sire and out of a sister to Japan and Mogul, both showed abundant promise when second and fourth respectively in a warm-looking Saint-Cloud maiden. The Frankel filly Jannah Rose, a €650,000 three-parts sister to Creggs Pipes, looked to have a bright future as she overcame inexperience to make a winning debut at Chantilly and arguably rates the most exciting of the lot.

“Jannah Rose, as green as she was, managed to do what she did and so you’d always have dreams that a filly like her could be an Oaks or a Prix de Diane contender,” says Lalor. “Obviously there’s a lot of hoops to get through before we get to that stage but she’s going to gain a lot of experience from that race and you’d have big dreams for a filly like her for sure.”

Although the siblings to Waldgeist and Poetic Flare did not run at two, Lalor says both retain all of their potential, adding: “The Dubawi is with Pascal Bary in Chantilly. She’s doing really well and training great. She’s grown a lot and needs to mature a bit more so I’d say she’ll

families will come to the marketplace.”

A lot of moving parts need to align to succeed at the level Al Shira’aa aspires to compete, and the importance of land, facilities and staff cannot be overstated. In Meadow Court Stud, Al Shira’aa has a revitalised and purpose built base. “In 2018 we reconstructed the whole place then gave it a year off so the land could recover,” explains Lalor.

“Meadow Court is 225 acres now and we like to have a lot of land for the animals, so we keep 20 mares at the farm, and we do all the foaling from here too. All of the yearlings we’ve purchased are back here now with a few of our homebreds. They’ll get a couple of months out together before they head off to Ian McCarthy for breaking and pre-training. The sales can be quite stressful on some of them so we prefer to get them back to the farm first and out to Dr Green for a few months before the real work begins.

Footstepsinthesand, is in foal to Frankel.

“We just don’t have enough mares to spread around all of the top stallions, but the goal is to be able to support the likes of Sea The Stars, Kingman, Lope De Vega, Frankel, Dubawi, No Nay Never, Siyouni and Wootton Bassett among others each year,” says Lalor. “It takes a lot of time, a lot of investment and a lot of patience to get where we want to go.”

In 2023, Al Shira’aa will have between 20 and 23 horses in training split between Ger Lyons and Willie McCreery in Ireland, Pascal Bary and Carlos Laffon-Parias in France and Neil Drysdale and Christophe Clement in the US. Seven of those will be homebreds. Although Al Shira’aa doesn’t currently have horses in Britain, Lalor says he expects the operation to be represented there in due course.

start in the springtime of next year.

“I felt Poetic Flare’s sister was quite set at Goffs but I was wrong. She’s grown a lot since, she’s nearly 16 hands now and is a big, strong, scopey filly, so we stopped on her. Herself and Ocean Jewel will get the winter off at the farm and both will go back to Willie McCreery around the middle of January.”

He continues: “It’s exciting to have fillies from the same family as Poetic Flare, Mother Earth, Waldgeist and Broome to name a few. They were tough and sound competitors at the top level in so many of the big races we all want to win. They’re all very current as well, so we were lucky to be able to get them. You just never know when fillies from these types of

“It’s a beautiful boutique stud managed by a small team of very passionate people who show up every day with the horses’ health and wellbeing as their primary focus. It makes my job much easier when you know the stud and its residents are in safe hands every time I leave for racing or sales.”

Of course having well-bred mares is only half the challenge when it comes to breeding Group 1 performers, so Al Shira’aa is aiming to light the touch paper of its blue-chip pedigrees by zapping them with sire power.

Among the stud’s permanent residents are mares such as Lady In Lights, a Dansili half-sister to Magna Grecia and St Mark’s Basilica who visited Kingman earlier this year, where she was joined by another mare in Flaming Rouge. Sicilia, a daughter of Kingman out of a sister to

“Our long-term plan is to expand slowly but surely and in a responsible manner,” he says. “We’re not going to go out and buy 20 or 30 horses every year, we’ll keep it select to horses we’re confident will be good enough at the end of their career to retire to our broodmare band. With all that comes more land and more trainers and new jurisdictions like Britain.”

Looking ahead to 2023, Lalor says: “It’s hard to gauge the excitement level, especially when I go through all of these pedigrees or go see the racehorses each month, but so far it’s all positive and we just need luck to go our way.

“It’s very exciting that these fillies will come back to the farm and we’ll be able to breed from those families. It keeps the dream alive that we’ll get up there and consistently compete in the big races on those Saturdays and Sundays. Lofty goals, absolutely, but you have to have them, especially in this business.”

BILL SELWYN

Jannah Flower (far right): a Listed winner in May, the well-related Olympic Glory filly ran a fine second in last month’s Group 1 Prix de Royallieu at Longchamp

First-crop foal sires Moment of TRUTH

producer Jacqueline Quest.

His 138-strong debut book featured 41 black-type performers and that level of quality is also reflected in his representation at Tattersalls, which includes a half-sister to German champion two-year-old Sea Bay.

PINATUBO

b 17 Shamardal - Lava Flow (Dalakhani) Stands: Dalham Hall Stud 2021 fee: £35,000

Words: Nancy Sexton

It’s that time of year where the newest intake of stallions come under market scrutiny at the various foal sales. Invariably eagerly anticipated by those involved, it is the first public arena where early impressions are made, making a strong commercial performance for these horses all the more important while setting the tone for his popularity in future seasons.

CHAMPIONS ON SHOW

EARTHLIGHT

ch 17 Shamardal - Winters Moon (New Approach)

Stands: Kildangan Stud

2021 fee: €20,000

Part of a powerful intake for Darley in 2021, Earthlight covered a 161-strong book that consisted of 42 black-type performers in his first year, as befits an unbeaten French champion juvenile who pulled off the Prix Morny - Middle Park Stakes double, the latter in a new juvenile Newmarket course record. He also filled the frame in each of his four starts at three, notably when successful in the Prix du Pin and a neck second in the Prix de la Foret. His 20 entries to the Goffs November Sale includes a three-parts brother to top sprinter Blue Point to go with another 17 representatives at Tattersalls.

GHAIYYATH

b 15 Dubawi - Nightime (Galileo)

Stands: Kildangan Stud

2021 fee: €30,000

A Group 3-winning track-record setter at two, when successful in the Autumn Stakes at Newmarket, Ghaiyyath was virtually unstoppable during a five-yearold campaign that featured dominant wins in the Juddmonte International, Eclipse Stakes and Coronation Cup.

The highest-rated horse in the world of 2020, he won nine races in all, a tally that also included a 14-length win in the Grosser Preis von Baden at four.

Bred on the same cross as Night Of Thunder, Ghaiyyath was a sale-topping Goffs November foal at €1.1 million and fittingly is well represented at that sale this year thanks to 15 entries, among them a half-brother to high-class sprinter Suesa and a half-sister to the demoted 1,000 Guineas winner and subsequent Group 1

Anna Salai, the dam of Adayar, Dubawi’s Group 2-winning and stakesproducing half-sister Emirates Queen and Too Darn Hot’s Group 2-winning sister Lah Ti Dar were just some of the big names in Pinatubo’s first book of 152 mares, a group that consisted of 66 black-type performers overall. A champion two-year-old, he captured the Chesham, Vintage, National and Dewhurst Stakes to end his unbeaten juvenile campaign with a lofty rating of 134, and followed up at three with a victory in the Prix Jean Prat, having previously run placed in the 2,000 Guineas and St James’s Palace Stakes.

Backed up by a pedigree that contains successful sires Invincible Spirit and Kodiac, Pinatubo has unsurprisingly caught the imagination at stud; indeed his octet of entries at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale include the half-siblings to the Group 3 winners La Barrosa and Dubai Station.

SOTTSASS

ch 16 Siyouni - Starlet’s Sister (Galileo) Stands: Coolmore 2021 fee: €30,000

Arc hero Sottsass garnered strong home support in his first season from Coolmore and Peter Brant, in whose

From champions Pinatubo and Sottsass to top milers Kameko and Mohaather, the group of young stallions to come under market scrutiny with their first foals this winter is particularly deep

Peter Brant pictured with his Arc hero Sottsass

colours he landed the Prix du Jockey Club and Prix Ganay during a world championship-winning season at three, in addition to a high-class selection of outside breeders that included his breeder Ecurie des Monceaux and Shadai Farm. With that in mind, it’s no surprise to see his debut book of 132 mares consist of 50 black-type performers.

Out of a blue hen in Starlet’s Sister, also the dam of multiple Grade 1 winner Sistercharlie, Sottsass attracted 132 mares in his first year that included Group 1 producer High Zaff, Group 1 scorer Aoife Alainn and Listed winner We Are Ninety; their foals are all catalogued to the Goffs November Sale.

MILING TALENT

CIRCUS MAXIMUS

b 16 Galileo - Duntle (Danehill Dancer) Stands: Coolmore 2021 fee: €20,000

Circus Maximus’ debut book of 102 mares included several high-profile mares belonging to his breeder the Niarchos family led by the brilliant miler Alpha Centauri, whose resulting filly is now named Proxima Centauri, and Freedonia, dam of the Group 1-winning two-year-old Albigna.

Such support befitted a horse who won three of Europe’s top miling events in the St James’s Palace Stakes, Queen Anne Stakes and Prix du Moulin and ran Group 1-placed on another five occasions. As to be expected from a son of Galileo, he is also well-related being out of Group 2 winner Duntle, herself a relation to Coolmore’s leading Kentucky-based sire Munnings.

KAMEKO

b 17 Kitten’s Joy - Sweeter Still (Rock Of Gibraltar) Stands: Tweenhills Farm and Stud 2021 fee: £25,000

A Group 1 winner at two, Kameko opened his three-year-old season with a record-setting victory in the 2,000 Guineas before filling the frame in the Derby, Sussex Stakes and Juddmonte International prior to handing top older horse Benbatl a beating in the Joel Stakes. It was a campaign that underlined his versatility alongside his immense talent, and as such the son of Kitten’s Joy was well supported in his first season at stud, attracting around 120 mares. In addition to receiving strong home support, his debut book also included mares belonging to the

BILL SELWYN

Earthlight: French champion capped his juvenile season with a win in the Middle Park Stakes

First-crop foal sires

Aga Khan Studs, Ecurie des Monceaux, Juddmonte, Newsells Park Stud and Watership Down Stud.

He is set to be well represented at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale, where his 24 entries include the half-siblings to the Group winners Mabait, Surf Dancer and Majestic Glory.

KING OF CHANGE

b 16 Farhh - Salacia (Echo Of Light) Stands: Derrinstown Stud 2021 fee: €7,000

King Of Change sprang to prominence when a 66-1 second to Magna Grecia in the 2,000 Guineas but went on to prove that was absolutely no fluke with an authoritative success in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot, with Magna Grecia and Mohaather among the eight Group 1 winners in arrears.

A half-brother to another talented miler in Century Dream, his five entries to the Tattersalls December Foal Sale includes a half-sister to Listed scorer Mums Tipple.

MOHAATHER

b 16 Showcasing - Roodeye (Inchinor) Stands: Nunnery Stud 2021 fee: £20,000

Winner of the Horris Hill Stakes as a two-year-old, Mohaather developed

into a gifted miler for Marcus Tregoning with a potent turn of foot, a weapon that was deployed to good effect in the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood, in which he ran down Circus Maximus, Siskin and Kameko to win going away, and the Summer Mile at Ascot, won by almost four lengths.

A member of the Johnson Houghton family’s productive Shall We Run line, Mohaather shares his sire Showcasing with fellow Nunnery stallion Tasleet, sire of

Coventry Stakes winner Bradsell in his first crop. No fewer than 46 stakes performers featured among his debut book alongside a number of stakes producers, among them Talampaya, the dam of Group 2 winner La Rioja, and Brom Felinity, the dam of Grade 1 winner Walton Street; both resulting foals are catalogued to the Tattersalls December Sale.

RIVER BOYNE

b 15 Dandy Man - Clytha (Mark Of Esteem) Stands: Tara Stud 2021 fee: €5,000

Talented and tough, River Boyne was a top-class miler in the US whose lengthy resume is highlighted by a Grade 1 win in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile.

In all, the $1.23 million earner won nine races at two to five years and was also placed in the Grade 1 Hollywood Derby and Shoemaker Mile. The first son of Dandy Man to stud, he is well represented in the Goffs November Sale thanks to nine entries.

SHAMAN

ch 16 Shamardal - Only Green (Green Desert) Stands: Yeomanstown Stud 2021 fee: €6,000

Shaman had the pace to run second in both the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and Prix du Moulin over a mile but was also able to stretch out to 1m2f to win the Prix d’Harcourt. By Shamardal and from a branch of the famous Fall Aspen family cultivated by the Wertheimer brothers, he covered 136 mares in his first book –breeders will be able to gain a particularly good gauge on his stock at the Goffs November Sale, where he has 23 entries.

BILL SELWYN

King Of Change: beat eight Group 1 winners in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot

BILL SELWYN

Mohaather: gifted miler won the Sussex Stakes

Classic royalty

Classic-winning miler Persian King was deservedly popular in his first season at Haras d’Etreham, covering a full book of 140 mares at €30,000. One of the first sons of Kingman to stud in France, he was trained by Andre Fabre to win the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, Prix du Moulin and Prix d’Ispahan and descends from a powerful Wildenstein family. He formed part of a high-profile intake to Etreham for 2021 that also included Hello Youmzain (2021 fee: €25,000), the Betfred Sprint Cup winner who shares his sire Kodiac with Ardad and Kodi Bear. Both Persian King and Hello Youmzain are represented in the Goffs November and Tattersalls December Foal Sales.

Prix de l’Abbaye hero Wooded (Haras de Bouquetot: €15,000), a son of Wootton Bassett, also boasts representation at Goffs, as does the Gimcrack and Champagne Stakes winner Threat (Haras du Mont Goubert: €6,000), in whom the likes of Etreham and Coolmore are shareholders. Both bring a quick profile to the French market alongside fellow Group-winning sprinter Golden Horde (Montfort et Preaux: €10,000), an admirably consistent member of the Acclamation sire line whose wins for Clive Cox

TIP TWO WIN

gr 15 Dark Angel - Freddie’s Girl (More Than Ready)

Stands: March Hare Stud

2021 fee: £3,500

This very likeable son of Dark Angel won four of 16 starts including a pair of Listed events, including the Flying Scotsman Stakes as a two-year-old. However, he arguably enjoyed his finest moment when second to Saxon Warrior in the 2,000 Guineas, with Masar and Roaring Lion in behind. He hails from the same female family as stakes-producing sire Due Diligence.

WITHOUT PAROLE

b 15 Frankel - Without You Babe (Lemon Drop Kid)

Stands: Newsells Park Stud

2021 fee: £10,000

The connections of Without Parole – notably owner-breeders John and Tanya Gunther and Newsells Park Stud – have thrown their weight behind this St James’s Palace Stakes winner, allowing him every chance to make

included the Richmond Stakes at two and Commonwealth Cup at three.

Another popular new recruit of 2021 was the Irish 2,000 Guineas and Prix Jacques les Marois winner Romanised (Haras de Bouquetot: €7,000), who has covered three-figure books in both of his seasons to date.

High-class juvenile form is on show via the Scat Daddy horse Van Beethoven (Haras de Grandcamp: €6,000), the 2018 Railway Stakes winner, as well as Fighting Irish (Haras d’Annebault: €3,000), one of the first sons of Camelot to stud and whose wins included the

his presence felt in the ring and on the track. Newsells Park sent stakes producers such as Date With Destiny and Lady Eclair to the son of Frankel in his first season, while the Gunthers’ representatives included stakes winner Atomic Blonde and stakes producer Dawn To Dance. He has 20 entries to the Tattersalls December Foal Sale and another four, including a colt out of the Group 1-placed Walk On Bye, in Goffs.

THE SCAT DADDY FACTOR

ARIZONA

b 17 No Nay Never - Lady Ederle (English Channel) Stands: Castle Hyde Stud 2021 fee: €7,000

Few sire lines are as currently hot as that belonging to Scat Daddy. Renowned as a reliable source of juvenile speed and commercially appealing as a result, the line has caught the imagination of stallion masters with the result that a new wave of representatives filter through the

Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte for Harry Dunlop at two.

The first son of Frankel to stud in France, meanwhile, was multiple stakes winner Elarqam (Haras de Saint Arnout: €6,000). Out of champion Attraction and a 1,600,000gns yearling, he enjoyed his career highlight when successful in the York Stakes.

Over in Germany, hopes run high for Gestut Erftmuhle’s Waldfpad (€3,000), a durable sprinting son of Shamardal who showcased his talents to a British audience when taking the Hackwood Stakes at Newbury.

system each year.

Coolmore added its Coventry Stakes winner Arizona to its roster for 2021. Kept busy during his juvenile season by Aidan O’Brien, this relation to Dabirsim was placed in the Dewhurst and National Stakes and was duly popular in his first year at stud, covering just over 100 mares at an affordable €7,000. He has 19 entries to the Goffs November Foal Sale.

LEGENDS OF WAR

b 16 Scat Daddy - Madera Dancer (Rahy) Stands: March Hare Stud 2021 fee: £5,000

Precocious and fast enough to command a sale-topping 900,000gns at the 2018 Tattersalls Craven BreezeUp Sale, Legends Of War won first time out at Yarmouth for John Gosden prior to a narrow defeat when second in the Gimcrack Stakes at York. He later plied his trade in the US, where he struck as a three-year-old in a Grade 3 sprint at Kentucky Downs.

The son of Scat Daddy has three

Threat: stands at Haras du Mont Goubert

BILL SELWYN

First-crop foal sires

representatives in the Tattersalls December Foal Sale including a half-sister to the Group 1-placed Vola A Va.

SERGEI PROKOFIEV

b 17 Scat Daddy - Orchard Beach (Tapit) Stands: Whitsbury Manor Stud 2021 fee: £6,500

One of the last actual sons of Scat Daddy to retire to stud, Cornwallis Stakes winner Sergei Prokofiev was the busiest new British-based stallion of 2021 with a book of 154 mares, among them 18 black-type performers.

Sergei Prokofiev is an imposing horse himself who sold for $1.1 million as a yearling, and breeders evidently like what they see of his first foals given that he covered another book of around 150 mares in 2022. Meanwhile, he has a draft of no fewer than 67 foals to represent him at Tattersalls, including a colt out of Lowther Stakes winner Infamous Angel, a colt out of Italian Group 3 winner Buonasera and the half-siblings to Group 3-winning two-yearolds Mrs Danvers and Eve Lodge.

SPEED IS OF THE ESSENCE

FAR ABOVE

b 16 Farhh - Dorraar (Shamardal)

Stands: Starfield Stud 2021 fee: €6,000

Far Above left a lasting impression in five career starts, notably when running out the impressive winner of the Palace House Stakes at Newmarket. The son of Farhh suffered a career-ending injury in that race and was subsequently retired to stand at Starfield Stud under the banner of Bloodstock.Racing.

Raw speed and powerful, good looks are invariably a powerful commercial combination and indeed Far Above covered 142 mares in his first season; 20 of the resulting foals are catalogued to the Goffs November Foal Sale.

to the billing by winning solely over five furlongs, notably when successful in the Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood. He was also Group 1-placed when third to Ten Sovereigns in the Middle Park Stakes.

Successful sire Sixties Icon owes plenty to the support of Mick Channon at Norman Court Stud – particularly in his early years – and Rumble Inthejungle has been similarly well supported, allowing him the opportunity to make his presence felt.

SANDS OF MALI

b 15 Panis - Kadiania (Indian Rocket) Stands: Ballyhane Stud 2021 fee: €6,500

ROYAL LYTHAM

b 17 Gleneagles - Gotlandia (Anabaa) Stands: Irish Emerald Stud 2021 fee: €4,000

Royal Lytham was an early flag-bearer for his sire Gleneagles courtesy of a win over Platinum Star in the July Stakes over six furlongs at Newmarket. Also Group 1-placed when third in the Phoenix Stakes, he hails from a fine French family also responsible for the Group 1-winning two-year-old Glorosia.

RUMBLE INTHEJUNGLE

ch 16 Bungle Inthejungle - Guana (Dark Angel) Stands: Norman Court Stud 2021 fee: £3,500

By a noted speed influence in Bungle Inthejungle, Rumble Inthejungle lived up

This popular sprinter was well supported in his first year as the recipient of 154 mares. In turn, he has 14 entries to the Goffs November Sale, among them a filly out of Australian Group 2 winner French Bid, and another four at Tattersalls, including a half-sister to Grade 3 winner Kya One.

A precocious horse, this grandson of Miswaki was the easy winner of the Gimcrack Stakes for Richard Fahey and later progressed throughout his three-yearold season to land the Prix Sigy, Sandy Lane and Qipco British Champions Sprint Stakes. He also came close to securing another Group 1 when a narrow second in the Commonwealth Cup.

SOUTHERN HILLS ch 17 Gleneagles - Remember You (Invincible Spirit)

Stands: March Hare Stud 2021 fee: £3,000

Southern Hills was bred to be quick as a son of Remember You, a Group

BILL SELWYN

Sands Of Mali: grandson of Miswaki covered over 150 mares in his first season

“Sergei Prokofiev has 67 foals to represent him at Tattersalls”

First-crop foal sires

3-placed two-year-old over six furlongs, and indeed he was plying his trade early for Aidan O’Brien, breaking his maiden at the third time of asking in a 21-runner Windsor Castle Stakes. The only British-based son of Gleneagles at stud, he has two entries to the Tattersalls December Foal Sale.

DUAL-PURPOSE APPEAL

GALILEO CHROME

b 17 Australia - Curious Mind (Dansili)

Stands: Starfield Stud 2021 fee: €4,000

St Leger hero Galileo Chrome covered 101 mares in 2021 and was again popular this season, when his 79-strong book included Love On My Mind, dam of the National Stakes winner Al Riffa. The winner of four races in total during an unbeaten three-year-old campaign for Joseph O’Brien, the imposing son of Australia is also a member of the highly influential Alruccaba family.

WAY TO PARIS

gr 13 Champs Elysees - Grey Way (Cozzene)

Stands: Coolagown Stud 2021 fee: €3,500

The recipient of 111 mares in his first season, Way To Paris won seven races and ran placed in another 21 during a remarkable career highlighted by a win in the Grand Prix de Paris. He was also successful in a pair of Group 2 events – the Grand Prix de Chantilly and Prix Maurice de Nieuil – and fell only a head short of Sottsass in the Prix Ganay, one of no fewer than 12 placings for the horse at Group level.

Adding further to his appeal is the fact that he is the only son of the much-missed Champs Elysees at stud.

REGAL CONNECTIONS

ALMANAARA

gr 13 Shamardal - Midnight Angel (Machiavellian)

Stands: Mickley Stud 2021 fee: £3,000

Almanaara, who has two foal entries to the Tattersalls December Sale, is not only a son of leading sire Shamardal but also a half-brother to Dark Angel, the sire of 13 Group 1 winners during his illustrious career to date. A winner in Ireland, Almanaara was later a hardknocking sprinter for Doug Watson in Dubai, where he won three times over five to six furlongs.

Crunch time for popular Classic winners

At $75,000, North American Horse of the Year Authentic (Spendthrift Farm) led the way among the Kentucky intakes for 2021. In a year derailed by Covid, the son of Into Mischief swept the Kentucky Derby, Breeders’ Cup Classic and Haskell Invitational for Bob Baffert and duly caught the imagination at stud, covering 229 mares in his first season. The result was 165 live foals, 18 of whom are catalogued to the Keeneland November Sale.

Authentic wasn’t the only busy new stallion on the Spendthrift roster, since the Grade 1-winning miler Vekoma (2021 fee: $17,500), who shares his sire Candy Ride with sire sensation Gun Runner, attracted a debut book of 222. He has 39 entries to the Keeneland November Sale.

Authentic knocked heads for some of his three-year-old campaign with Tiz The Law (Ashford Stud: $40,000), another Classic-winning colt of the 2020 season. Trained by Barclay Tagg, Tiz The Law won the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes at two and returned at three to roll off wide-margin wins in the Grade 1 Belmont Stakes, Travers Stakes and Florida Derby. The first son of the highly successful Constitution to stud, his debut book consisted of 159 mares.

Fellow Ashford stallion Maximum Security ($20,000), a four-time Grade 1 winner who is probably best remembered for his demotion in the Kentucky Derby, was also well received as the recipient of 135 mares.

Also highly popular was the Grade 1-winning sprinter Volatile (Three Chimneys Farm: $17,500), who has a first crop of 125 foals, and the hardknocking McKinzie (Gainesway Farm: $30,000), a son of Street Sense who won Grade 1 races at two, three and four, and attracted 214 mares as a result.

Lane’s End Farm also received a good reception to its champion Breeders’ Cup Juvenile winner Game Winner ($30,000), the recipient of 157 mares, as did WinStar Farm to its undefeated Grade 1-winning two-yearold and Whitney Handicap winner Improbable ($40,000). A son of the late City Zip, Improbable has 127 foals on the ground, 21 of whom are entered at Keeneland.

From a European perspective, it could also pay to take notice of former Arqana May breezer War Of Will ($25,000) as a Grade 1 winner who was equally effective on turf and dirt. He stands alongside his successful sire War Front at Claiborne Farm and is poised to make an impact at Keeneland as the sire of 31 entries.

Authentic: Horse of the Year covered 229 mares in his first season

have been breeding Thoroughbreds for 25 years and have never had a

time, let alone early, as our mares are predisposed to late

Masks this year had a dramatic effect on

Using

mares’ gestation lengths, with reductions of 19 and 24 days, and the production of mature, healthy foals. We are delighted

only wish we had started using Equilume sooner. This technology

is second to none.”

and Fiona Williams, Breeder, UK

Breeders’ Digest

Nancy Sexton Bloodstock Editor

International activity key as sales exceed expectations

Notfor the first time, bloodstock sales operated this autumn with little or no correlation to the outside world. There was certainly no thought to the cost of living crisis or rising interest rates behind the gates of Tattersalls’ Park Paddocks, where close to 200 million guineas were turned over during the two weeks of Books 1 to 4, or at Goffs, where the four-day Goffs Orby and Sportsman’s Sales yielded just over €60.7 million in returns.

The unrelenting demand for bloodstock is hard fathom on the face of it given we race for peanuts in this country. But then it further underlines the high regard in which our horses are held worldwide; the increasing number of international buyers who travelled to Ireland and Newmarket to buy at source would attest to that.

Having decided not to play at the Keeneland September or Goffs Orby Sales, Sheikh Mohammed attended Tattersalls in person and went on to make his presence felt in a big way by spending 25.355 million guineas – or 20 per cent of the Book 1 aggregate – on 35 lots. Starting with lot 3, a Dubawi filly out of Jazzi Top from Meon Valley Stud, the list included eight seven-figure yearlings and featured the 2.8 million guineas sale-topping Frankel colt out of So Mi Dar. Of those purchases, 14 were by Dubawi; only seven by the flagship Darley stallion were knocked down to outside hands.

While Godolphin and MV Magnier, who also signed for almost 12.4 million guineas worth of yearlings, helped underpin the top end of the market, it was also particularly encouraging to see Shadwell Estate Company return to invest. Quiet on the buying front since the death of Sheikh Hamdan in March 2021, the operation returned to the buying fold at the Keeneland September Sale to purchase four wellrelated fillies and followed a similar strategy in Newmarket, coming away with two fillies out of Book 1, including a 1.05 million guineas daughter of Kingman, and another eight yearlings worth a total of 1.54 million guineas out of Book 2.

The top end of the market wasn’t

just about the Maktoum family or Coolmore, however. Godolphin came off second best at 2 million guineas on a Frankel colt out of Bold Lass to agent Richard Knight, whose high-profile spending on behalf of an undisclosed client has been a key part of this sales season.

Knight spent close to €2m at the Arqana August Sale, another $4.875m at the Keeneland September Sale and then purchased the €2.6m sale-topping No Nay Never sister to Blackbeard at the Goffs Orby Sale prior to Tattersalls Book 1, where he came away with 10.455 million guineas worth of yearlings. The sale grounds have understandably been full of chatter as to the identity of Knight’s client, with a former Classic-winning owner emerging as favourite. All will no doubt be revealed in due course.

It is five years now since Americanbased agent Mike Ryan made his first buying trip to Newmarket. Success was immediate with that first buying foray yielding the champion Newspaperofrecord and fellow Grade 1 winner Digital Age, both bought on behalf of Klaravich Stakes,. Buoyed by that success, increasing participation

from American-based investors has been a key aspect to the European yearling sales since then. This year was no different, notably in the case of Ryan and Klaravich, the purchasers of 14 lots worth 3.105 million guineas. Ben McElroy, who signed for 2.48 million guineas worth of stock at Book 1, Solis/Litt, Justin Casse, David Ingordo and Walmac Farm were other American buyers to strike.

Yet there was an even greater level of American investment at the Goffs Orby Sale. As in 2021, Goffs organised a jet of interested parties out of New York, an initiative that was rewarded when such buyers went on to purchase 61 yearlings – or in other words, one in every seven lots that sold.

While the premier yearling auctions tend to be the domain of some of the bigger breeders, various pinhookers again fared well. And nor were expensive purchases required to enjoy a good sale. Take Ger and Yvonne Kennedy of Sherbourne Lodge for example. They headed to Book 1 with five pinhooks, none of whom had cost more than 38,000gns as a foal. Each returned a profit, including a daughter of Soldier’s Call, a 12,000gns foal purchase who was resold to Katsumi Yoshida for 100,000gns, and a son of Iffraaj, a mere 5,000gns pinhook who blossomed into a 75,000gns yearling.

There was also food for thought in some of the young middle-distance sires with stock on offer. The sale ring’s respect for those faster horses, particularly those precocious enough to shine at two, is unlikely to dim. Even so, the market evidently liked what it saw from the first crop of Darley’s Derby winner Masar; eight yearlings by the son of New Approach broke the six-figure barrier in Newmarket, while he returned an average of 88,417gns in Book 2, which is fair going off a firstyear fee of £15,000.

Similarly, Crystal Ocean, now marketed as a dual-purpose stallion under Coolmore’s National Hunt arm, enjoyed a bold showing at Book 1 thanks to colts who sold for 135,000gns and 115,000gns. It will be very interesting to see how they fare on the track next season.

Sheikh Mohammed: spent plenty at Book 1

Sales Circuit •

Carl Evans

Records continue to fall amid memorable sales season

Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 1

This was an auction of superlatives, with great horses, great pedigrees, amazing prices and astonishing end-of-sale figures.

At the heart of it was the ongoing wave of popularity for European bloodstock which sees international buyers drawn in by top rank (and often relatively young) stallions and lovely broodmares, owned by breeders of wealth and substance.

When other factors ginger the market – such as the clamour for stock by Frankel and the weakness of the pound against other currencies – you get a fire-storm, one that peaked at the second session where turnover of nearly 50 million guineas was a new high for a single session at a European auction.

Records resembled autumn leaves, falling with frequency as buyers added just under 127 million guineas to Tattersalls’ sales ledger, a 47 per cent increase over last year and more than 20 million guineas higher than the previous best set four years ago.

The average rose 30 per cent to just under 300,000gns while the median gained 25 per cent at 200,000gns, which were both records for the event. An additional 37 horses walked the ring, but of the 489 offered lots, 424 were sold giving a clearance rate of 87

per cent.

Richard Knight, who spent nearly 10.5 million guineas on 16 yearlings, was among a number of respected judges who said the sale had pulled together a stellar bunch of horses. Godolphin clearly thought so, and while Sheikh Mohammed has the financial resources to dominate any sale anywhere in the world, his spend of more than 25 million guineas on 35 lots was another endorsement of this catalogue. The sheikh took particular interest in horses by Darley sires – he bought 14 lots by Dubawi – but not exclusively so. A

Kilminfoyle House Stud-offered Bated Breath filly, free of Darley stallion blood and which he bought for 600,000gns, will fit nicely into his broodmare band.

At the very peak of the punchier prices, which involved the sale of 16 seven-figure lots, was Godolphin’s purchase of a 2.8 million guinea Frankel colt out of the Dubawi mare So Mi Dar, a sister to Too Darn Hot and Lah Ti Dar. Consigned by Lord and Lady LloydWebber from their Watership Down Stud, this great-grandson of his breeders’ foundation mare Darara is almost certain to become the world’s

This Frankel colt became the most expensive yearling sold worldwide this year

Anthony Stroud: agent was busy on behalf of Godolphin as well as other clients

highest-valued yearling of 2022. His price was driven upwards by a battle between Lane’s End Farm’s Bill Farish – who owns a two-year-old half-brother by Sea The Stars – and Godolphin. Anthony Stroud, who acted for the winning team, spoke of a ‘stallion’s pedigree’ and said: “If he’s good, he’s an extremely valuable horse”. If the market goes on rising at its current rate, extremely valuable could be replaced by priceless.

Watership Down Stud was always going to sell this horse because he was a colt, but also because the family is popping out stars like a new universe and with lots of Frankels and Kingmans in the pipeline.

Watership Down also sold a 2 million guinea Frankel colt, bred by Bjorn Nielsen out of Bold Lass. The buyer was Richard Knight, who was acting for his undisclosed but free-spending client.

Sold for 2,400,000gns to MV Magnier and Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm, this Frankel half-brother to Broome capped a good two weeks for vendor Croom House Stud

Unsurprisingly, the top ten board was dominated by familiar buyers and vendors, including the powerful combination of Coolmore Stud’s MV Magnier and White Birch Farm, aka American Peter Brant. They took particular interest in Frankel’s offspring, spending 2.4 million guineas on a colt from Croom House Stud, 1.9 million guineas on one from Fittocks Stud plus 1.5 million guineas on a Newsells Park

TALKING POINTS

Stud filly. Graham Smith-Bernal’s Newsells Park became the sale’s leading consignor through trading 23 lots for nearly 11 million guineas.

Frankel and Dubawi were responsible for siring nine of the elite ten, the exception being a Lope De Vega filly who was sold by Ballyphilip Stud to Knight for 1.8 million guineas, a record price for a yearling by the Ballylinch Stud sire.

• Two fillies bought for a total of just under 2 million guineas was the tale of one buyer’s excursion to Book 1, but symbolically these purchases were of far bigger importance. They were the first of note made in Europe by Shadwell Estate Company since the death of Sheikh Hamdan, whose daughter, Sheikha Hissa, attended the sale in what has been a very good year on the track for Shadwell horses. The family’s long-time bloodstock advisor Angus Gold, mindful of 2021 when the only Shadwell transactions involved selling stock, said: “It’s been a joy this year and the real fun is having Sheikha Hissa’s input and watching her enjoyment.”

Everyone in racing will raise a glass to that, for while the sheikh’s family are unlikely to ever hold bloodstock interests to his level it would be a shame if his legacy dwindled to nothing. Further good news came at Book 2, where Shadwell purchased eight more lots.

• Book 1 buyers need very well-endowed incomes, as indicated by an average of nearly 300,000gns, but the road to such riches can be found at much, much lower levels.

Paul and Marie McCartan of Limerick’s Ballyphilip Stud bought the mare Anna Law as a two-year-old for just 14,000gns. Her progeny – the best of which has been Battaash – have generated some 3.7 million guineas in yearling sales, headed by a 1.8 million guinea filly who was bought by bloodstock agent Richard Knight at this sale.

• The leading ten consignors all had drafts which sold a double-figure number of lots, with one exception, that of Adrian and Philippa O’Brien of Newmarket’s Hazelwood Bloodstock, which was set up as recently as 2016. The couple sold six horses at this sale for a total of 4.18 million guineas at an average of just under 700,000gns. The peak was a Dubawi colt, bought by Godolphin for 1.5 million guineas and sold on behalf of John Camilleri’s Fairway Thoroughbreds.

TATTERSALLS

Sheikha Hissa: pictured with Angus Gold, she had a successful trip to Tattersalls

TATTERSALLS

Lady Lloyd-Webber was on hand to witness the sale of the 2,800,000gns Frankel colt

Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 2

The good times at Tattersalls rolled into a second week, when its Book 2 sale of yearlings produced more record trade.

Boosted by seven transactions of 500,000gns or more, and 34 in excess of 300,000gns – a sum rarely passed ten years ago – the three-day Book 2 sale produced a new high for turnover in excess of 60 million guineas at an average price of 96,020gns, up 14 per cent. The median rose 13 per cent to 70,000gns, while 633 of the 732 lots found a new home, a clearance rate of 86 per cent.

No horse reached the seven-figure mark, which had been achieved by a

Dark Angel filly in the pre-pandemic year, but an 800,000gns Sea The Stars colt who headed trade would have graced any edition. The buyer was Anthony Stroud, although on this occasion he was acting on behalf of “a long-established client” who would be sending their purchase to John and Thady Gosden.

The result was an unexpected windfall for Windmill Farm’s Fiona Marner, who owned the yearling in partnership with Derek James and Peter Wollaston, and also with the Tsui family, for the colt was the result of a foal share with the stallion’s owners. Marner and her pals had bought the dam Kitcarina for €90,000 as

a three-year-old, failed to sell her a year later after she had won a race, but then went down the breeding route. This was her first foal, his value helped by his dam’s full-sister Kitcara having produced talented Al Aasy, another son of Sea The Stars.

Two horses sold for 700,000gns, one a Frankel colt who left Genesis Green Stud to a bid from BBA Ireland, and the other a son of Sea The Stars who was consigned by Longview Stud and sold to trainer Roger Varian. Stroud Coleman was the leading buyer and their acquisition of 23 lots for 5.6 million guineas included a Ballylinch Stud-

Anthony Stroud went to 800,000gns for this Sea The Stars colt out of Kitcarina

Varian: trainer

consigned Lope De Vega filly who headed the final session with a valuation of 650,000gns.

Richard Knight’s search for high-class yearlings continued with the 600,000gns purchase of Ballyvolane Stud’s Starspangledbanner colt, while another son of that sire offered by Chasemore Farm went to the Hong Kong Jockey Club at a figure of 550,000gns. The Magnier/Brant combination also took a shine to a Night Of Thunder colt from Mountarmstrong Stud and duly bought him through Jamie McCalmont for 575,000gns.

All the above horses would have topped last year’s sale, which was headed by a 525,000gns Kingman colt.

Tally-Ho Stud led consignors by trading 31 yearlings – including a number of profitable pinhooks – for

TALKING POINTS

• While offspring by top sires like Frankel and Sea The Stars were always going to command healthy sums at Book 2, the emergence of Havana Grey as a sire could be seen in the average figure recorded by his sons and daughters.

His seven sold yearlings averaged 150,857gns, a corking result for breeders who used him at a fee of £6,500 in 2020. Good news also for those who sent mares to his home at Whitsbury Manor Stud in 2021 and again this year, when his fee had dipped to £6,000.

His remarkable first season on the racecourse has presented the Harper family with a problem, however. How do they set a 2023 fee which rewards them for getting Havana Grey’s career off the ground, reflects his new-found prowess and attracts better mares, while avoiding pricing him out of the pockets of breeders –many working on limited budgets – who helped establish him in the first place?

• Pondering Ballylinch Stud sire New Bay during Book 2, Blandford Bloodstock’s Richard Brown said: “I think he’s a stallion going places.”

That looked a pretty smart remark when, four days later, Bayside Boy (33-1) and Bay Bridge (10-1) landed the Group 1 double of the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and Champion Stakes at Ascot’s QIPCO British Champions Day. It would have looked even smarter if the prophetic Brown had backed them in a 373-1 double. “I wish I had,” he said when asked.

The two Ascot victories concluded a memorable week for John O’Connor and his team at Ballylinch Stud, which is home to New Bay, and which owns shares in Bayside Boy and Bay Bridge. Ballylinch sold 14 yearlings at Book 2 for just over 2m guineas, plus four out of four at Book 3 for a total of 225,000gns. A filly by the stud’s resident sire Lope De Vega headed the final session of Book 2 when selling for 650,000gns. When your luck’s in, it’s in.

2,650,000gns, while credit goes to James Hanly’s Ballyhimikin Stud, which traded nine horses for an average of 167,222gns, a figure not skewed by one very valuable horse. The highest price was 340,000gns for a Night Of Thunder colt bought by Stroud Coleman.

Night Of Thunder had the numbers to head the sires’ table, his 25 sold lots turning over more than 4 million guineas at an average of 161,000gns. The 12 yearlings by Sea The Stars averaged 269,417gns, while four by Frankel averaged 426,250gns.

Tattersalls October

Yearling Sale Books 3 and 4

Both Books 3 and 4 of the October Yearling Sales generated improved figures, although the fireworks were not quite as colourful as those seen in the first two books.

Arqana’s five-day October Sale of yearlings was just around the corner and by day two of Book 3, many agents were heading or had arrived across the Channel, although with online bidding or able deputies they will not have missed a buying opportunity in Newmarket.

Turnover at Book 3 gained nine per cent when reaching 11,554,600gns and there was the same percentage increase in the average price of 24,428gns. The median rose 11 per cent to 20,000gns, while the clearance rate remained static at 86 per cent from sales of 473 of 553 lots, a catalogue size more or less identical to that of 2021.

Six lots sold for a six-figure sum, of which five were fillies. The sextet all changed hands during the first of two sessions and were headed by a Gleneagles colt who was sold to that stallion’s masters at Coolmore Stud.

Bred and consigned by Denis Brosnan’s Croom House Stud, the colt was knocked down to Cormac McCormack on behalf of MV Magnier.

Havana Grey’s flag flew high once again when two of his daughters sold for 125,000gns and 115,000gns. The higher-priced model, consigned by Peter and Michelle Morgan’s Carmel Stud, was sold to Joe Foley on behalf of Steve Parkin’s Clipper Logistics, while Anthony Stroud gained the second filly.

She was offered by Whitsbury Manor Stud, which is in the handy position of having not one but two highly popular stallions. Not to be outdone by Havana Grey, his stud-mate Showcasing chalked up a 115,000gns sale when one of his daughters sold to Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock. Brown was acting for Sheikh Juma Dalmook Al Maktoum, who will send the filly to Karl Burke.

Daughters of Calyx and Camacho who each made 105,000gns to bids from BBA Ireland and David Redvers respectively completed the six who led the sale.

At Book 4, Tattersalls came within a whisker of turning over 200 million guineas at the October Yearling Sales.

TALKING POINT

• Kwasi Kwarteng’s short tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer will not be remembered fondly by British taxpayers, particularly those holding shares on the stock market, hoping to take out mortgages or buy goods from abroad. However, one person’s plunging pound is a perky advantage to another, and good news for overseas buyers who attended Books 1 and 2. After Kwarteng’s mini-budget statement in the House of Commons, the pound tumbled dramatically, meaning visitors to Britain had more bang for their own buck or currency. In turn, that will have helped vendors at Tattersalls.

By the time Book 3 was into its second session Kwarteng had been sacked, Jeremy Hunt installed, and five days later his announcement of a series of u-turns on fiscal policy saw the pound creeping upwards again.

In similar vein to the previous three books, trade was up, albeit at a much lower level, while a sale-topping Land Force filly achieved the best price seen at the event for 15 years. Consigned by Chris Dudfield’s Gloucestershire-based Natton House Thoroughbreds, the filly was knocked down for 23,000gns to Craig Lidster, a relatively new addition to Britain’s training ranks. Lidster, who is based near Easingwold in Yorkshire, reflected that a win 24 hours earlier by the filly’s juvenile half-sister Destiny’s Spirit had probably meant he paid more, but family updates are never a bad thing.

Of 73 horses who walked the ring, 52 (71 per cent) were sold for turnover of 319,000gns at an average of 6,019gns and a median of 5,000gns, the latter two figures being well up on last year and records for the event.

The Coolmore team were still busy in Book 3, paying 140,000gns for this Gleneagles colt

Goffs Orby Sale

Goffs joined the yearling sales party with a 24 per cent rise in turnover at this two-day auction where more than €50 million went through the till.

A median figure of €87,000 was a record, while the average price of more than €121,000 had been bettered only once before. An 89 per cent clearance rate was another endorsement of the catalogue and the range of buyers attracted to County Kildare, while a €2.6 million top lot was a succulent cherry to place upon a very edible cake.

Given rising inflation, energy prices and market upheavals in many countries, the current strong market for embryonic racehorses would bewilder those outside of the bloodstock world, but in this instance one reason could be parked at the door marked exchange rates, notably relating to the US dollar. It has once again become a safe haven in an uncertain world, and had risen steadily against the euro during the previous 12 months.

That gave US buyers greater purchasing power when buying in euros with the result that some 60 horses were believed to be heading across the Atlantic following the Orby’s conclusion. A rise in the popularity of turf racing was said to be another factor.

Goffs will also claim that the reintroduction of the €1m race for two-year-olds, which is restricted to Orby

graduates and was held at the Curragh just ahead of the sale, was another incentive to buyers. It was won by the Charlie Hills-trained Galeron, a €45,000 yearling owned by Gary and Leanne Robinson, relative newcomers to the world of racehorse ownership, but now filling their boots – and able to afford it.

The aforementioned top lot was a €2.6m No Nay Never filly who had the considerable appeal of being a full-sister to Aidan O’Brien’s top-class two-yearold Blackbeard, who just days before had revealed some intriguing pre-race

behaviour before easily winning the Middle Park Stakes, adding that success to a victory in the Prix Morny.

Flash Conroy of Glenvale Stud consigned the younger sister who was knocked down to bloodstock agent Richard Knight, the brother of Newmarket trainer William. Knight has been at the forefront of several bigmoney purchases at yearling sales, but has always kept his client’s name confidential. All will be revealed in time, but smart money appears to be on a Middle Eastern client who has been

››

involved with some very good racehorses in the past. Knight, who spent just under €3 million on three horses, did say the filly will be trained in England.

He will also have shown an interest –but not a bid – for another filly, this one a Galileo-sired first foal of the Queen Mary Stakes victress Signora Cabello.

Knight bought that mare as a Book 3 yearling for a humble 20,000gns, which was some result for Zen Racing, a couple of mates who later sold a chunk of her to Phoenix Thoroughbreds. They added to their pot when Phoenix bought her outright for 900,000gns at the conclusion of her racing career.

Her first foal made a good chunk of that back at the Orby when selling – via The Castlebridge Consignment – for

€750,000 to a bid from Maurice Regan’s Newtown Anner Stud.

On a good opening day for fillies, a Mountarmstrong Stud-consigned daughter of Night Of Thunder – the Darley stallion who has emerged as a successor to his sire Dubawi – made €525,000 to a bid from Michael Donohoe of BBA Ireland. His purchase was a half-sister to Matron Stakes winner No Speak Alexander, and like that filly she seems set to join Jessie Harrington.

The leading colt was a €575,000 son

of Kodiac offered by Alice Fitzgerald and sold to Ross Doyle on behalf of Stall Perlen, while Goffs’ US representative Jacob West made a successful €500,000 bid that gained him a Pier House Stud-consigned son of Ten Sovereigns. West was acting for Robert and Lawana Low, who will place the colt with Todd Pletcher.

BBA Ireland’s €4.4m spend on 26 horses gave it the leading purchaser slot, while Glenvale Stud led consignors by trading 21 horses for €4.7m.

The most expensive colt sold was this son of Kodiac, knocked down for €575,000

Agent Richard Knight was once again

GOFFS/SARAH FARNSWORTH

Goffs Sportsman’s Sale

Buyers took a very sporting view of the yearlings on offer at this two-day sale which followed the Orby.

Trade soared ahead of previous editions, and while a much bigger catalogue helped turnover climb 49 per cent to €10.3 million, the average and median prices gained 21 per cent and 31 per cent respectively. Of 480 lots on offer – which was 112 more than in 2021 – a total of 413 found a buyer, a clearance rate of 86 per cent that was down five points on last year, a reflection of the bulkier options for buyers. The average price was just over €25,000.

On top of these fine figures was an absolute stand-out top price of €300,000, another record, which was given for a filly from the first crop of Coolmore’s Ten Sovereigns. You had to scroll back through the sale’s statistics to 2007 to find the previous high, a sum of €240,000 for a Danetime colt.

The latest record holder was consigned by Eimear Mulhern’s County Kildare-based Abbeville Stud and knocked down to David Ryan, manager of Kilfrush Stud in County Limerick. Ryan said the filly would race for a Kilfrush and Rabbah Bloodstock combination.

Breeze-up consignor Johnny Hassett has had a tough period with ill health, but that gave him time to dream up Get In The Game, a business he founded which offers shares to bloodstock enthusiasts who want to invest in yearlings before they are resold as two-year-olds. Early signs are that Hassett has come up with a winner, and at this sale he secured

several choice lots, among them a €145,000 colt by Magna Grecia from Paddy and Peter Kelly’s Ballybin Stud.

Nico Archdale, working with Hassett, lowered the hammer for the colt, while Hassett teamed up with Emma Chilcot to secure a Sioux Nation filly for €90,000.

American investors who had arrived for the Orby but remained in Ireland for the Sportsman’s Sale included Torie Gladwell, whose purchases in the name of Top Line Sales included a Ten Sovereigns filly and an Invincible Army colt. Each yearling was bought for €70,000 with a view to being resold at a US breeze-up auction.

Nick Bradley, the former school teacher who uses his own methods of deduction to secure quality racehorses,

has made some important allies along the way. When a Zoustar colt – bought as a foal by David Wallace of Lewinstown Farm for €22,000 – walked into the ring Bradley was poised with an online bid of €82,000, which secured the prize in a partnership with David Redvers. Bradley part-owns the colt’s half-brother Marshman, who was runner-up in August’s Gimcrack Stakes.

Another sum of €82,000 enabled trainer Gordon Elliott to sign for a Phoenix Of Spain half-sister to Zanahiyr, who he trained to finish third to Honeysuckle in this year’s Champion Hurdle.

Zanahiyr is owned by Noel and Valerie Moran’s Bective Stud, which now also owns the yearling half-sister.

Abbeville Stud celebrate following the record sale of the €300,000 Ten Sovereigns filly

GOFFS/SARAH

Goffs

Sales Circuit

Tattersalls Ireland

September Yearling Sale

After two years in Newmarket this sale returned to its Irish home and produced the sort of excellent results which other European yearling sales have enjoyed.

Turnover went past €12 million for only the second time, and while that was a dip of three per cent, and the average fell five per cent to just over €30,000, strength in the middle market was reflected in an 11 per cent rise in the median to a figure of €26,000. Of 458 yearlings who walked the ring during two days, 413, or 90 per cent, found a new owner, and six were sold for a six-figure sum.

Simon Kerins, Tattersalls Ireland’s CEO, reflected happily on a record number of horses making €50,000 or more, of which there were 70, and he thanked Irish Thoroughbred Marketing for “enticing customers with their excellent IRE Incentive Scheme”. It rewards purchasers whose horses win selected races in Ireland and Britain with a €10,000 voucher to spend at future Irish sales, which seems a smart way of giving money with one hand and taking it back with the other, but to the benefit of all parties.

The top lot, a €115,000 colt by New Bay, will not be in the frame for this handout, for he is heading to Australia said his buyer, Alex Elliott, who was acting for Brad Spicer’s Spicer Thoroughbreds. His purchase was another in the growing list of successful pinhooks achieved by Shane Power of

Tradewinds Stud, which secured the colt for €24,000 in November.

The leading filly was sold to Highflyer Bloodstock’s Anthony Bromley, his purchase being a €100,000 daughter of Tally-Ho Stud’s first-crop sire Inns Of Court. Bromley was acting for Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, a partnership who need no introduction to fans of jump racing, but whose interest in the Flat is showing steady progression with the emphasis on quality over quantity. Joseph O’Brien will train the filly, said the buying agent, whose connections with jump racing are often reflected in his purchase of horses to run on the Flat.

He also bought a Gibbonstown Stud-consigned colt by Sioux Nation for €100,000 on behalf of racehorse owners Andrew and Jane Megson, who are backing Ben Pauling’s ability to train Flat horses as well as he does jumpers.

Inns Of Court also featured as sire in the sale of a €110,000 colt who was knocked down to John and Jess Dance

of North Yorkshire’s Manor House Farm. The Dances were notably active at Goffs UK’s Premier Sale of yearlings where bloodstock agent Ed Sackville was their chief scout, and it was he who secured the Inns Of Court colt offered by Rory Mahon’s Mountain View Stud.

Joe Foley became the sale’s leading buyer through his purchase of seven lots for a total of €419,000, headed by a €100,000 son of Bated Breath who was bought on behalf of Steve Parkin’s Clipper Logistics. The colt was consigned by County Kildare-based Mark Dreeling and Barbara Fonzo of Coole House Farm, who also gained €100,000 for a son of Footstepsinthesand bought by John and Sheila Lavery.

David Cox’s Baroda Stud led consignors through sales of 20 lots for €854,000.

Foley was back in action at Part II of Tattersalls Ireland’s September Sale where he gained the top lot, a Dark Angel filly who reached a valuation of €52,000 when put into the ring by Derek and Gay Veitch’s Ringfort Stud on behalf of breeder Godolphin.

For the past two years Part II had been held in Newmarket and tacked onto the end of the company’s September Sale, but this time, with 112 lots to offer, it commanded a stand-alone session which proved pleasing enough, not least the improved clearance rate of 81 per cent.

An additional 21 offered lots helped turnover creep up towards €1 million, gaining 42 per cent on 2021, while the average of €10,473 was up nine per cent.

This son of New Bay topped the Tattersalls Ireland September Sale at €115,000

Sales Circuit

Arqana Arc Sale

Monsieur de Gasté”

a

this sale of horses

place at Saint-Cloud

on the eve of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.

de Gasté of International Thoroughbred Consultants (ITC)

the event, buying five of the 34 horses on offer and three of the top five lots. They were headed by Schwarzer Peter, who in July was beaten a short head when second in the Deutsches Derby, and who was traded for €1 million at this sale.

Gasté was not buying for his own Haras de Gouffern in Normandy, but for Saudi Arabian Sheikh Haif Al Qahtani. It was not the first time that a boutique sale of racehorses should be targeted by one buyer to such effect, and it won’t be the last, but the sheikh’s spend of €2.94 million accounted for 37 per cent of the sale’s turnover.

came in at €8,155,000, up 43 per cent on last year, while the average of €291,852 was an 11 per cent gain and

the median rose 34 per cent to €215,000. It is not just yearlings who are currently making great money.

Of course, a horses in training sale needs quality to make gains, and Schwarzer Peter, an imposing son of Neatico, had that despite his form line showing just one win as a two-year-old. He had been bought by trainer Markus Klug for just €10,000 at the BBAG September Sale of yearlings and until this sale had been racing in the

Arqana Arc Sale

colours of Uwe Aisch.

Rozgar, a three-year-old son of Exceed And Excel with a recent Listed win to his name for the Aga Khan and trainer Francis Graffard, was sold to de Gasté for €800,000, while Master Gatsby, a Group 3 winner for trainer Fabrice Chappet, made €480,000. Add in Making Moovies, who had multiple stakes placings to his name and who sold for €410,000, plus the €250,000 purchase of Listed-placed Trop Prete, and de Gasté was the most popular man in Saint-Cloud.

US-based bloodstock agent Sam Wright made a transatlantic online bid of €575,000 that gained him Rocchigiani, a three-year-old who had won Goodwood’s Group 3

Thoroughbred Stakes and will race on in Hong Kong, while Arthur Dobell signed for lightly-raced five-year-old Dilawar on behalf of Oliver St Lawrence. Dilawar was knocked down for €500,000 and will carry his very good French form to Bahrain, where he will race from the stable of Fawzi Nass.

Schwarzer Peter 3 c Neatico – Sovalla

Klug

ITC

Rozgar 3 c Exceed And Excel – Roshanara Aga Khan Studs

ITC

3 c Time Test – Ronja Schiergen

Sam Wright

5 g Dubawi – Dolniya Aga Khan Studs

Oliver St Lawrence

Gatsby 3 c The Grey Gatsby - Moonee Valley

Chappet

ITC

Sale-topper Schwarzer Peter was one of five horses sold to ITC at the Arc Sale

ARQANA

Caulfield

Zamindar ever relevant thanks to leading names

Wouldyou believe me if I were to tell you that a stallion whose descendants made a huge impact on British Champions Day once failed to sire a single stakes winner in four consecutive crops? Well, it’s the truth but the bare facts don’t tell anything like the full story.

The stallion in question is Zamindar, who pulled off a remarkable Group 1 treble at Ascot as the broodmare sire of New Bay and Kingman. The 2015 Prix du Jockey-Club winner New Bay triumphed with Bayside Boy in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and with Bay Bridge in the Champion Stakes, while Kingman scored with the in-form Kinross in the British Champions Sprint.

Coincidentally, it had been Kingman’s dam Zenda who helped Zamindar make an eye-catching start with her victory in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches in 2002, becoming one of four black-type winners from a first crop of 65. However, at the time of Zenda’s Classic victory, Zamindar was standing his second season far away, at Marablue Farm in Florida, where he was priced at only $5,000. He’d had only 39 foals in his second Banstead Manor crop, which contained a couple of Groupplaced animals in Germany and Italy, and then he’d been laid low by a health issue which meant that he missed most of the 2000 season and sired only one foal. His two seasons in Florida also bore little fruit on the racecourse, though they did contain a total of 75 foals.

Zamindar’s success with Zenda wasn’t the only reason for Zamindar making the return trip to England. His older brother Zafonic had met with a fatal accident in 2002, soon after his arrival in Australia, where he was scheduled to stand his first southern hemisphere season.

Priced at £10,000 on his return, Zamindar justified the strong support he received and rewarded the Aga Khan with Darjina, who numbered the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches among her three Group 1 successes. The Haras du Mezeray-bred Coquerelle also enjoyed Group 1 success, taking the Prix Saint-Alary. When Coquerelle gained her second victory as a juvenile, she won by half a length from another of Zamindar’s daughters. This was Juddmonte’s Cinnamon Bay, who went on to win a mile Listed race at three

before disappointing in the Prix de Diane. And it is Cinnamon Bay, of course, who produced the up-and-coming New Bay.

Zamindar’s next crop supplied the Aga Khan with another star, one even better than Darjina. This was Zarkava, whose brilliant career saw her progress from winning the Prix Marcel Boussac at two to taking the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches, Prix de Diane, Prix Vermeille and Arc at three. While Darjina’s time as a broodmare was short and disappointing, Zarkava has had none of the problems which sometimes blight the broodmare careers of exceptional distaffers. Her 2021 Siyouni colt was her 12th consecutive foal and three of his predecessors have become stakes winners. Pride of place here belongs to her Dubawi colt Zarak, winner of the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.

The fact that shares in Zarak sold for €350,000 and €380,000 towards the end of last year reflects the excellent start he made with his first juveniles, one of which – Purplepay – sold for €2,000,000 at Arqana. Purplepay duly became a Group 2 winner in the Prix de Sandringham and there has also been black-type success for Baiykara, Haya Zark and Zagrey in France and for Lizaid, Lavello and Parnac in Germany. Best of them all, though, is La Parisienne, who ran Nashwa to a short neck in the Prix de Diane. Times Square, another filly from this crop, was good enough to be second in the Prix Marcel

With 20 fewer foals in Zarak’s second crop, it hasn’t so far matched the success of the first, though Rashford was beaten only a neck in the Prix de Conde. Even so, there is every reason to hope that Zarak can follow in the footsteps of Kingman and New Bay as the third major stallion out of a Zamindar mare.

Peaks and troughs

To return to Zamindar’s record as a stallion, a few unproductive years, such as those he suffered early in his career, tend to have a knock-on effect, causing further peaks and troughs. Although Zarkava was one of 55 foals in the 2005 crop, the next three crops numbered just 26, 36 and 38 foals. The small 2007 crop was led by another good filly in Timepiece, winner of the Falmouth Stakes. Then Zarkava’s successes came into play. With his fee raised to £15,000, Zamindar sired a couple of crops which each contained just over 100 foals, but there were to be no more Group 1 winners by him. With his fertility waning, he was pensioned towards the end of 2013, at the age of 19.

Although Zamindar had a lengthy innings, his total output was 865 foals. All five of his Group 1 winners were fillies, the best of his colts being the Group 2 winner Crossharbour. This goes a long way towards explaining why his success hasn’t

Boussac and a close third in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches.

TREVOR JONES

Zamindar: exerting an influence as the damsire of Kingman, New Bay and Zarak

been as a sire of sires but as a sire of broodmares. The 2022 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches winner Mangoustine is another out of a Zamindar mare, as are the fellow 2022 French Group winners Pretty Tiger and Rosacea. The luckless Mojo Star, runner-up in the Derby, St Leger and Gold Cup, also has a dam by Zamindar, as does this year’s Grade 3 American two-year-old winner Nagirroc.

As Bette Midler might have said, it must have been cold for Zamindar in the huge shadow cast by his older brother Zafonic. Whereas Zafonic numbered the Prix Morny, Prix de la Salamandre and 2,000 Guineas among his four stunning Group 1 victories, Zamindar finished second, third and fifth when he contested the same races four years later.

Poor timing

There were some though, including timing expert Michael Tanner, who thought Zamindar’s record would have been better had he been ridden with more restraint. After being caught close home and beaten a short neck by future Middle Park Stakes winner Bahamian Bounty in the Morny, Tanner wrote: “It is difficult to see how much more use could have been made of Zamindar in the Prix Morny, unless it was right from the gate. After Bahamian Bounty had registered a typically French-style 14.2 [seconds] furlong, the odds-on favourite Zamindar proceeded to reel off untypically Gallic figures of 11.0, 11.4, 11.0 and 11.9. That mid-race half-mile of 45.3, for example, compares to 47.2 in the Maurice de Gheest. Zamindar was ready to be taken after that stint of front-running.”

Tanner thought that Zamindar’s rider again expected too much when he started at odds-on in the Salamandre, so that rider – Thierry Jarnet – had to try something different when Zamindar stepped up to a mile in the 2,000 Guineas. Unfortunately, he took restraint a bit too far, causing one analyst to wrote: “That he got as close as he did is testament to his speed. He showed as good a burst as any Guineas winner when getting clear… he must have taken all the beating if Jarnet had tracked the winner.”

So Zamindar’s racing career was one of what might have been, but the reality was that his Timeform rating was no higher than 116, compared to Zafonic’s 130, and he had only one Group success, in the Group 3 Prix de Cabourg, compared to Zafonic’s four Group 1 victories. This meant that Zamindar commenced his stallion career at Banstead Manor at a fee of £7,000, whereas Zafonic started at £30,000.

The odds, therefore, were heavily stacked against Zamindar in the contest with his older brother. Sure enough, Zafonic proved to be a more reliable source of black-type performers, with eight per cent – something which could be attributed to the difference in their fees (Zamindar never stood for more than £15,000, while Zafonic spent much of his career at £25,000 or £30,000). However, Zafonic left only four Group 1 winners, admittedly from a smaller number of foals (656, compared to Zamindar’s 865). His star of the show was Xaar, a champion two-year-old who impressively emulated Zafonic’s wins in the Prix de la Salamandre and Dewhurst Stakes.

Although Xaar generally disappointed as a sire, the Zafonic male line is still very much alive and kicking, thanks to his Group 2 winner Iffraaj, whose son Wootton Bassett commanded a fee of €150,000 this year.

Bloodstock world views

Showcasing, together with Zafonic, Zamindar, Kingman and New Bay, were all bred and raced by Juddmonte. It must be a source of some frustration to the Juddmonte team that Showcasing and New Bay were sold at the end of their racing careers, although breeding rights were retained in both horses. When Showcasing was sold in 2010, Banstead Manor had a full complement of stallions, including Showcasing’s ten-year-old sire Oasis Dream and Zamindar, so his sale was understandable, especially when this winner of the Gimcrack Stakes didn’t possess the Group 1 victory which usually opens the door to a place in the Juddmonte team.

I must admit that I never understood the decision to sell New Bay, even though it no doubt made sound financial sense. I suspect it might have been different had New Bay retired at the end of his three-year-old season, instead of a year later. As a three-year-old New Bay had few equals in France, where he won the Prix du Jockey-Club, Prix Guillaume d’Ornano and Prix Niel. The first of his two defeats that year came in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, when – on only his third start – he put up an excellent performance to finish second when drawn 16 of 18. The Racing Post reported that he had sat last off the modest pace from his outside draw, before being switched wide in the straight, and that he did well to pass all bar stablemate Make Believe.

At the time of writing, the 2023 fees for European stallions had largely not been announced but there’s every chance that the influence of Zamindar and Zafonic is going to be very noticeable among the stallions in the upper echelon.

Talent aplenty

In Ireland, there’s Wootton Bassett and New Bay; in France there’s Zarak; and in Britain there’s Kingman and Showcasing, the latter being the best stallion out of a Zafonic mare. After British Champions Day, New Bay had moved up to sixth on the leading sires’ list, with Kingman in seventh.

In France, Zarak is the leading second-crop sire, even though his number of runners is less than half that of the four other French-based stallions in the top ten. And the European list of leading sires of two-year-olds shows that only No Nay Never has sired more juvenile black-type winners than Showcasing, whose five black-type winners include Belbek (Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere), Swingalong (Lowther Stakes) and Dramatised (Queen Mary Stakes).

New Bay’s other defeat came in the Arc, when he finished third of 17 to Golden Horn. I always thought that a mile-and-ahalf was just beyond his optimum distance, so it isn’t so surprising that the likes of Saffron Beach, Bayside Boy and New Mandate have proved best at a mile.

New Bay had a physical problem over the winter between three and four and didn’t reappear until late-May. He never recaptured his best form, even though he landed a Group 3 at odds of 30-100, and Timeform dropped his rating from 128 to 123. That disappointing season knocked some of the gloss off his previous efforts and he was sold to Ballylinch Stud.

It is worth remembering that New Bay’s dam Cinnamon Bay was a granddaughter of Bahamian, as was Kingman’s dam Zenda, and that Kingman’s second dam Hope also produced Oasis Dream. Kingman’s pedigree also contains some of the same main elements as Showcasing’s. Each of them was sired by a son of Green Desert and the third generation of each stallion contains Danzig, Foreign Courier, Gone West, Zaizafon, Dancing Brave and Bahamian.

“It must have been cold for Zamindar in the shadow cast by Zafonic”

Dr Statz

John Boyce cracks the code

Ballylinch holds the aces

New

Thevery fact that Ballylinch Stud currently stands two of the six European stallions responsible for three or more Group 1 winners in 2022 ought to be music to the ears of John O’Connor, all the more so given that no other stud has more than one. The Managing Director of Ballylinch, owned by John and Leslie Malone, has built a reputation for selecting the right horse for the County Kilkenny farm and has been particularly astute in hitching the strategic success of the stallion enterprise to the ongoing success of two of Darley’s kingpins in Shamardal and Dubawi.

He can easily lay claim, at least for the time being, for having Shamardal’s best sire son in Lope De Vega at Ballylinch, a stallion whose rise through the ranks has been very well managed by O’Connor. And although we cannot say that Dubawi’s best descendant resides at Ballylinch, with Night Of Thunder just an hour up the road at Kildangan Stud, it’s hard to argue that he does not possess Dubawi’s next best descendants in son New Bay and grandson Make Believe.

It is, of course, Lope De Vega and New Bay that have each supplied three Group 1 winners this season, the latter tripling his tally during British Champions Day at Ascot. And it is surely icing on the cake that both the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II winner Bayside Boy and Champion Stakes victor Bay Bridge are part-owned by Ballylinch, thus presumably affording the organisation a golden opportunity to shape its own future dynasty.

New Bay, like his stud companion Lope De Vega, earned his opportunity at stud by winning the Prix du Jockey Club. Both chestnuts had previously contested the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and whilst Lope De Vega was successful, New Bay failed to overcome a poor draw and could only finish third. However, his future promise did not go unnoticed at Longchamp and he was made favourite for the Chantilly Classic, in which he duly dispatched Highland Reel with a scything run down the outside.

The son of Dubawi had no trouble picking up the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano and Prix Niel on his way to the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, but in a strong renewal he had to give way to the brilliant Golden

stock rises

Horn and his owner’s other contender Flintshire. There was no disgrace in that and Timeform awarded him a mark of 128, which places him behind only Makfi (130) among Dubawi’s Group 1-winning three-year-olds. Kept in training at four, New Bay didn’t add much to his laurels, winning at Group 3 level and running fourth in the Irish Champion Stakes, which in all likelihood made it possible for Ballylinch to acquire him for stud.

With a fantastic Juddmonte pedigree behind him, New Bay now looks like a bit of a steal. His dam Cinnamon Bay won three times over a mile in France, taking the Listed Prix d’Angerville, for which she earned a 107 rating from Timeform. More importantly, she is a three-parts sister to Zenda, the dam of Kingman, as both share a sire in Zamindar and granddam in Bahamian, a Lingfield Oaks Trial winner by Mill Reef who produced Irish Oaks heroine Wemyss Bight, plus the dam of champion sprinter and influential sire Oasis Dream. Is there a better stallion’s pedigree out there?

Like all modern day stallions, New Bay is subject to the ebbs and flows of the commercial market. He attracted 110 mares in his first year at an introductory fee of €20,000, and 99 more at the same fee in year two. But years three and four at a reduced asking price of €15,000 were tougher. However, he turned things around in year five, when his first two-year-olds featured the Royal Lodge Stakes winner New Mandate and Oh So Sharp Stakes heroine Saffron Beach among 12 winners. Since then, he has gone from strength to strength, covering

a large book of classy mares at a fee of €37,500 in 2022.

Two years on and Saffron Beach is now the winner of six of her 13 races, including two at Group 1 level. She started out well at three, finishing second to Mother Earth in the 1,000 Guineas and by season’s end she had reversed that form by three lengths when taking the Sun Chariot Stakes. And one thing we now know about the New Bays is that they improve with age, much like Dubawi’s progeny.

Saffron Beach has enjoyed a fine campaign this year at four, annexing the Duke Of Cambridge Stakes at Royal Ascot and Prix Rothschild, both by wide margins. In the same progressive vein, Bay Bridge – who has benefitted enormously from his trainer’s patient handling – has graduated from handicaps at three to Group 1 winner at four, and it is he that can now lay claim to being his sire’s best horse with a Timeform rating of 128. Perhaps then it was no surprise to see the third of New Bay’s Group 1 scorers, Bayside Boy, still progressing right to the end of his three-year-old campaign – his Queen Elizabeth II victory added 6lb to his previous best Timeform rating and his connections can justifiably look forward to an exciting 2023.

to ever better mares should enable New Bay to improve on his 5.3% stakes winners to runners, which is one statistic that doesn’t do him justice. However, although he may have only eight stakes winners, the average Timeform rating of the eight is an excellent 116.8, which is currently about 2lb clear of his brilliant sire.

FEEDING FOR SUCCESS

SUPPORTING FERTILITY

HOW DIET CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE

Good fertility lies at the heart of successful breeding. Whilst several factors can infuence an individual’s ability to breed, nutrition plays a central role in both mare and stallion fertility. With the breeding season fast approaching, breeders should consider the following aspects of their horse’s diets to maximise the chances of conception.

Body Condition

Research has shown a direct link between nutrition, body condition, and reproductive effciency. Mares that are underweight are more diffcult to get in foal. Likewise, stallions that are in poor condition or signifcantly overweight are likely to have reduced fertility, plus they are less likely to be able to withstand the rigours of a busy covering season.

Louise Jones, Connolly’s RED MILLS Nutritionist, says ”the quality of the hard feed you choose is vital. Choosing a feed with low quality ingredients is often a false economy as you have to feed more to achieve the same results, or they simply don’t contain the same levels of vital micronutrients, some of which we know play a signifcant role in fertility.”

choosing a feed for breeding stock look for one that contains high quality protein sources such as soya, as well as optimum levels of essential vitamins and minerals. However, where the nutritional value of the forage is unquantifed or for individuals with a history of fertility

Experts recommend that when choosing a feed for breeding stock look for one that contains high quality protein sources such as soya, as well as optimum levels of essential vitamins and minerals.

Micronutrients

Several vitamins and minerals play critical roles in fertility. Vitamin A, for example, is involved in sperm production and ovulation. Minerals such as calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and zinc are found in semen and seminal plasma. In addition, zinc is thought to help normal oocyte development and follicle maturation. The essential amino acids, lysine and methionine, have signifcant roles in sperm health and hormone balance. Experts recommend that when

issues, Louise Jones suggests adding a broad-spectrum vitamin, mineral and amino acid tonic such as Foran Equine’s Chevinal to the diet during key periods.

Antioxidants

The role of antioxidants, such as vitamin E and selenium, in fertility is clearly established. Since horses do not produce vitamin E or selenium themselves, these potent antioxidants must come from their diet. One of the best sources of vitamin E is fresh grass, however, due to when Thoroughbreds

are bred, grazing is often limited and it’s nutritional value lowered. Likewise, many soils are low in selenium, which obviously has in impact on the selenium value of grass or conserved forage grown on them. Lorraine Fradl, a nutritionist at Foran Equine, recommends giving mares extra vitamin E and selenium a month before and a month after foaling; ”as well as supporting fertility antioxidants have been shown to aid colostrum quality and immune resistance in newborn foals.”

Likewise, for busy stallions, frst season sires or those known to be sub-fertile, Lorraine recommends supplementation prior to and during the covering season.

Foran Equine produce V.S.L, a vitamin E, selenium, and Lysine supplement, which is available in both a liquid and powder.

Omega 3 Fatty Acids

Research has highlighted the benefts of feeding omega 3 fatty acids to promote fertility; they help promote sperm motility, aid ovulation, and maintenance of early pregnancy. Horses diets are plentiful in omega 3 when they are eating green and growing grass in spring and summer. However, to replicate this for the Thoroughbred mare and stallion supplementation with an oil rich in omega 3 fatty acids will be necessary. Louise Jones warns “not all oils are equal – soya oil contains around 6

times less omega 3 fatty acids compared to linseed/ fax oil.”

Consequently, she recommends breeders to choose oils such as Foran Equine Kentucky Karron Oil.

Breeding is not an inexpensive game, investing in providing optimal nutrition will help to maximise the chances of a successful pregnancy and in the long-term pay dividends.

To speak to a member of our team about our product range or nutritional services contact:

Louise Jones (UK)

UK Head of Equine

T: +44 7843 349054

E: louise.jones@redmills.co.uk

Lorraine Fradl (Ireland)

Senior Nutritionist

T: +353 87 257 5398

E: lorraine.fradl@redmills.ie

ROA Forum

The special section for ROA members

Join us to celebrate the 40th ROA Horseracing Awards

Ticketsare now available for the ROA Horseracing Awards, to be held at London’s Royal Lancaster Hotel on Thursday, December 8 and which celebrate the very best of British horseracing.

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Awards and shaping up to be the most spectacular yet, as the likes of Arc heroine Alpinista, superstar colt Baaeed, reigning champion Honeysuckle and brilliant hurdler Constitution Hill battle it out for the coveted Horse of the Year title.

The ROA is delighted to welcome The Jockey Club as title sponsor for the special anniversary event, which will recognise the racehorse ownership journey over the past four decades. The Tote has re-confirmed its commitment as an event partner and will ensure the evening kicks off in style with a champagne reception to welcome attendees. Alongside the Tote, Fitzdares will help make the evening one to remember through its sponsorship of the official afterparty.

Since its inception in 1982, the ROA Horseracing Awards has been attended by many of the sport’s greats. Over the years some standout performers have been worthy recipients including the

jockeys and fans of horseracing, with some awe-inspiring performances over the past 12 months. There have been some big winners, bigger surprises and some thrilling racing under both codes. Details of this year’s nominations are available on the ROA website, including information on how to vote for this year’s finalists.

Charlie Liverton, ROA Chief Executive, said: “This year’s ROA Horseracing Awards is shaping up to be a truly

on board as title sponsor, and to continue our collaboration with the Tote. Their support helps ensure that the ROA’s Horseracing Awards remains as the sport’s preeminent awards ceremony.

“The quality of the shortlists for this year’s nominations certainly does not disappoint and I look forward to the evening unfolding and the winners being announced.”

Tickets are now available to purchase from our website at roa.co.uk/ ROAawards2022. Tickets are priced at £210 per person or a table of ten is available for the discounted price of

Once again, members are invited to vote in all categories. Voting opens on Monday, November 7 and closes two weeks later at midday on November 21. Members will be sent an email inviting them to

As always, some categories are sure to be very close – just two votes separated the top two in the race for the Horse of the Year title last year – so your vote could make all the difference! A full list of all the nominees can be found at roa.co.uk/

The unbeaten Frankel and dual Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Kauto Star (below) have both taken the Horse of the Year title

Owners registering for VAT

With shared ownership of racehorses becoming increasing popular in Britain, what are the implications of registering for VAT?

To register for a partnership, syndicate or racing club, the entity will need to fulfil the following criteria:

• Own at least a 50% share in the racehorse;

• Have a sponsorship in place recorded with the BHA;

• The horse must be in training with a registered UK trainer.

Partnership

A partnership is made up of two or more people who want to share the ownership of (or lease) one or more horses, and where all members of the partnership are registered owners with the BHA. Partnerships allow owners to define the percentage of each horse they own and split costs and winnings in accordance with their ownership share. To register for VAT, the partners will need to be listed on the VAT application and complete and sign a VAT 2 form.

BHA integrity survey

The British Horseracing Authority has launched its annual integrity survey to better understand the current perception on the BHA’s integrity work.

The purpose of the BHA’s integrity function is to ensure that the public

Syndicate

A syndicate is managed and administered by the syndicator/s. Only the syndicator/s must register as a sole/ company owner with the BHA. It is not necessary for members of the syndicate to register as owners, but as part of the BHA’s registration process syndicators are required to list all members of the syndicate, and this should be kept up to date throughout the life of the syndicate. For VAT registration purposes all syndicate members at the time of application will need to complete and sign a VAT 2 form.

HMRC treat partnerships and syndicates “as a single entity for VAT purposes, one registration will be sufficient to cover all the business activities of those partners acting collectively”. Any changes to a partnership or syndicate will be notifiable to HMRC via a signed VAT 2 within 30 days of the change occurring.

Racing club

A racing club is managed and

and participants can be confident British racing is run fairly and in accordance with the rules. The results from this survey will form a baseline from which to improve every year and help identify where the greatest risks to the sport are perceived to be.

The integrity survey, conducted by Savanta, an independent research

administered by the club manager/s, and it is the club itself as opposed to its members that owns or leases the horse/s. Members pay a fee to be part of the club and to enjoy some of the benefits of racehorse ownership. Only individuals who want to set up or administer a racing club must register as a sole/company owner. It is not necessary for members of a racing club to register as owners.

Racing clubs must state whether they intend to operate as a racing club providing benefits for members’ subscriptions according to section 7.3, or as a racing club not providing benefits to members as per 7.4 of HMRC’s Notice 700/67 Registration Scheme for racehorse owners. The difference between 7.3 & 7.4 will determine whether the subscription income will attract VAT.

Making Tax Digital

From Tuesday, November 1 businesses that file their VAT returns monthly or quarterly will no longer be able to use their existing VAT online account to do so. If you have not yet signed up to MTD contact our VAT Solution team on vat@roa.co.uk or call 01183 385 685.

consultancy, has been sent to a randomised group of participants who have been invited to complete an online survey lasting around ten minutes.

If you receive this email we very much hope that you will take the time to share your views on this important issue.

Trueshan, winner of his third straight Long Distance Cup in October, races for the Singula Partnership

BILL SELWYN

MAGICAL MOMENTS

Okay,hands up those who have ended up in a ditch at one time or another. Whatever the show of hands, it’s surely a safe bet that more humans than horses have – and being rescued from a ditch one month and then winning at the same track the following month has got to be unique.

That is the disaster and triumph that befell Butler’s Brief at Uttoxeter this summer, and no-one will have felt the rollercoaster of emotions more than ROA member Martin Booth from owners You Can Be Sure.

The ‘disaster’ part of the double occurred after Butler’s Brief had capsized at the fourth-last in a handicap chase, as he then ran loose towards the next fence, fell into it and became stuck.

Trainer Alastair Ralph subsequently reported: “After his fall at the previous ditch, I think he sort of dazed himself. He went to the next fence trotting, half-

dazed, not concentrating and stopped, fell sideways into the ditch and got wedged into it.

“We couldn’t get him out, so he went under general anaesthetic to knock him out. We had to cut him out of the ditch; I don’t think anyone’s seen that before.”

That was only the seven-year-old’s second run over fences and, returned to hurdles at Uttoxeter six and a half weeks later, it was a much happier occasion under the same jockey as he kept on well for Nick Scholfield to win by three and a half lengths for a fifth career victory.

Booth says: “The highlight for me was the exemplary work of the racecourse on the day Butler’s Brief got stuck in the ditch for two hours. But returning to the track and winning made for a great story. A special mention also for Nick Scholfield, who got Butler’s Brief winning races.”

On the start of his own story, Booth

says: “My interest began very young. My grandad was a St John Ambulance man and helped at the local point-to-point at Mucklestone in Staffordshire. He also watched the ITV7 and made me wait outside the doctor’s a lot – I did not realise it was the bookies!

“In my teens there were trips to Uttoxeter with my father a couple of times a year, which was the local course to me as I was born in Cheadle, a few miles away.

“I went to university at Exeter, stayed for a PhD in Chemistry and taught in the Chemistry department for a while. My friend, Richard Caves, and I didn’t miss many meetings at Devon and Exeter, as it was then, and Newton Abbot.

“For many years it was gambling, rather than ownership, for my disposable income, but then in 1998 my friend, Chris Cowell, and I started the You Can Be Sure partnership. Many of the folks

You can be sure Martin Booth has enjoyed his ownership journey

Butler’s Brief and Nick Scholfield strike at Bangor last year for the You Can Be Sure partners

involved were Shell employees – hence the name. We still run the You Can Be Sure partnership and many of the folks involved were in our first horse, Tribal Dancer.”

Booth continues: “I have never owned a horse outright, they’ve always been in partnerships with friends, and there have been 30-plus. I have been very lucky with over 50 winners.

“At the start, four of us – Rich Caves, Chris Cowell, Neil Johnson and myself –identified three trainers who in 1998 we considered to be improving. They were Venetia Williams, Ian Williams and Steve Brookshaw.

“All three offered us horses who eventually won races, but we chose Venetia because her horse was the only unraced one, a half-brother to Gysart.

“We had the fun of choosing our colours – Shell red and yellow of course – and naming the horse, Tribal Dancer. Over the years most, though not all, of my ownerships have been with unraced horses. It’s good to dream of winning the Gold Cup.”

Patience essential

Of course, unraced horses can mean patience is required, and Tribal Dancer was no exception.

Booth says: “We had to wait nearly two years for a run and Tribal Dancer’s first outing was in a 24-runner bumper at Huntingdon. He was unfancied and was last of 24 after three furlongs but passed all the field to win going away! It was an unbelievable experience and of course we were hooked.

“Tribal Dancer ran 58 times for us, winning eight. He was a credit to Venetia’s skills and his groom Sarah O’Donnell, who is now Venetia’s secretary. Perhaps Tribal Dancer’s finest hour was a ‘nearly moment’ at the Punchestown Festival. He was leading at the second-last when he fell. The horses behind were Hedgehunter and Rule Supreme.

“We had several horses with Venetia over nearly 20 years. The two with the most promise, Blencathra Bay and Spartacus Bay, both highlighted the downside of ownership. Blencathra Bay died of a heart attack on the gallops

and Spartacus Bay had major breathing issues and had to be retired.

“Through Venetia I was lucky to meet Len Jakeman, who has become another longstanding racing friend. He invited me to get involved with a horse called James De Vassy, who he bought in France and chose to send to Nick and Jane Williams.

“This was the start of my longstanding and continuing link with the stable. Like Tribal Dancer, James De Vassy won his first race for us, and he went on to win two more big races, the Free Handicap Hurdle at Chepstow and the Lanzarote at Kempton. He also ran some great races in defeat at Cheltenham, coming fourth in the Greatwood and third in the Coral Cup at the Festival.

“Our greatest concern as we speak, however, is the health of Jane’s son and stable jockey Chester Williams, who is in hospital after a very bad schooling accident. He’s on the mend but it will be a long process.”

Booth and his fellow owners have already suffered some heartbreak in this area, being friendly with Liam Treadwell, whose death by misadventure aged 34 occurred in June 2020.

“We were quite close to Liam – our Spartacus Bay was his first winner for Venetia and he rode Butler’s Brief for Alastair in his early career,“ says Booth.

Commenting generally on the ups and downs of ownership, he says: “The major pluses for me are the friendships made on the racecourse. Most folk involved are a pleasure to get to know. Winning is, of course, important but a good, safe run is enough.

“On the downside, there are major concerns about how racing is funded and prize-money; whilst not that important to me, current levels really aren’t good enough and means I have less money to spend on more horses. I’ve had runners in France on a number of occasions and, although the courses can lack atmosphere with small crowds, the prizemoney is great.

“The set-up at Culverhill Farm is great, with horse welfare uppermost in Jane Williams’ mind. Over the years I have preferred the smaller yards, hence having horses with Tom Symonds (Saint De Vassy, Moriko De Vassy) and Alastair Ralph (recommended by Len Jakeman). We have recently got a You Can Be Sure horse with Gary Hanmer, who trains close to my home in Cheshire.”

It might be slightly unusual to have been an owner for so long, and involved with quite a few horses, and never been a sole owner, but Booth has always preferred to share the highs and lows, something that has not gone unnoticed.

He explains: “About five years ago, Jane and Nick asked me to help set up Culverhill Racing Club, which has been great fun and very successful. All five horses have won at least one race, with the first horse Erick Le Rouge winning six times. Our most exciting prospect is now Saint Segal, who had a great first season.

“I’ve been lucky enough to visit all the jump courses in Britain and I think the owner’s experience has improved at most. At the moment I have a bit of a downer on Cheltenham. Not as an owner, which is great, but as a Festival attendee for over 40 years, four of us watched the racing from the Best Mate Enclosure in their small temporary stand.

“However, it got more and more crowded, and the crowd’s behaviour declined. We gave up on Gold Cup day a few years ago and have now decided not to attend at all in 2023. The contrast with the Punchestown Festival, which we attend every year, is very marked.”

Those spring festivals are, of course, some way off. In the meantime, though retired after being Head of Fuels and Lubricants Technology for Shell, running the Culverhill Racing Club and You Can Be Sure will keep Booth fully occupied. “It can be a fairly full-time job,” he says, cheerfully.

“I buy unraced horses – it’s good to dream of winning the Gold Cup”

Tote World Pool continues to grow

Great Britain and Ireland’s 17 World Pool days grew by 44% in 2022, with a gross turnover of £521 million, up from £363m in 2021.

Each of the World Pool racedays have enjoyed significant double-digit growth. The final World Pool day of the year was QIPCO British Champions Day, which saw gross turnover growing 43% to £27.9m compared to 2021 levels.

The growth in World Pool has been generated through more bet types being available along with closer collaboration on optimising the race programme to ensure strong field sizes of more than seven runners wherever possible. This ensures all bet types are available to racing fans around the globe which, combined with more investment in marketing and production, has helped boost turnover and increased the financial returns World Pool makes to the sport.

World Pool was created by the Hong Kong Jockey Club and is a collaboration of over 20 pool betting operators from around the globe. The result is huge liquidity and a multi-million pound betting experience for racing fans. Not only does World Pool help further internationalise the sport and shine the global spotlight on participating racecourses, but it also generates critical betting revenue and increased media rights.

World Pool ‘Moment of the Year’ winner

After thousands of votes, Annabel Willis and Alpinista were the most popular choice with racing fans for the title of World Pool ‘Moment of the Year’, following the filly’s stunning performance in the Group 1 Darley Yorkshire Oaks at the Ebor festival in August.

Annabel was presented with a cheque for £34,000 to share with her colleagues at Sir Mark Prescott’s yard in the paddock at Ascot on British Champions Day. She held off the challenge of Reg Todd, who led up Dark Shift after his victory in the Royal Hunt Cup at Royal Ascot.

Baaeed’s groom Ricky Hall made the shortlist after the colt’s stunning

Diary dates

November 3

ROA Welsh Horseracing Awards, Celtic Manor

November 18-19

Discover Shared Ownership Day at Ascot racecourse – see www.inthepaddock.co.uk

win in the Juddmonte International at York, as did Satrejeet Jhingree, who led up Highfield Princess when she landed her second Group 1 in the Nunthorpe Stakes at York.

All 16 members of racing staff who won World Pool’s ‘Moment of the Day’ throughout the season received £1,000 and a bottle of champagne. Congratulations to all.

Tote winner

Double Or Bubble has had a wonderful season for the Fustok family and supplemented her Abernant win in the spring by taking the Supreme Stakes at Goodwood in late August. She is one of 615 winners seen carrying the Tote livery as part of our Tote/ROA Owner Sponsorship Scheme in the first eight months of this year.

The scheme, which the ROA has been running since 2004, allows owners to register for VAT with HMRC and therefore start the process of reclaiming their VAT on both their training expenses and the purchase price of the horse.

November 25

ROA Northern Racing Awards at Newcastle racecourse

December 8

ROA Awards at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London

End of December Car-park labels will be sent out ahead of the 2023 start date

Annabel Willis receives a £34,000 cheque for the Sir Mark Prescott stable from Michael Fitzsimons of the Hong Kong Jockey Club

THE QUICK, SLICK AND SIMPLE APPROACH TO YOUR RACING VAT

When you own a racehorse, reclaiming the VAT on your costs can be a tiresome and time-consuming pursuit. Allow our team to make your VAT afairs less taxing. We’ll take care of your returns and ensure that you’re repaid exactly what you’re owed – giving you more time to focus on the sport you love.

CALL OUR TEAM ON 01183 385685 TODAY

VISIT ROA.CO.UK/VAT

PUT SO MUCH INTO THE SPORT. START GETTING MORE BACK.

TAKING THE TROUBLE OUT OF VAT

Employee nominations

Time is running out to nominate staff for the new-look Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards 2023, sponsored by Godolphin.

Formerly known as the Godolphin Stud & Stable Staff Awards, the awards provide an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the exceptional people who provide unparalleled levels of care for our horses.

There are no restrictions on who can submit a nomination, so if you know someone who is deserving of recognition, please do consider nominating an employee at thoroughbredawards.co.uk.

This might be the person who looks after your horse, ensures the smooth running of the yard or stud, or works selflessly to make a positive difference

Cheques out at Weatherbys

The British Horseracing Authority has been in touch to let us know that from Monday, November 14, Weatherbys on behalf of the BHA will no longer be accepting payments by cheque. This decision has been taken to enable transactions to be managed more efficiently and securely, providing owners with greater certainty that payments are being processed quickly.

While the vast majority of owners are already opting for alternative payment methods, the BHA understands that this is not the case for everyone and, therefore, would like to provide owners with all the support they need as they make this change.

If you make payments by cheque, there are other simpler ways to settle a BHA account or make a payment:

Direct debit

All newly registered owners must arrange for their invoices to be settled by direct debit. Call the BHA Accounts Help Desk on 01933 440077.

Credit or debit card

Account holders can pay outstanding invoices by card through the Racing Admin website (www2.racingadmin. co.uk) or by calling the BHA Accounts Help Desk on 01933 440077.

for people, horses or communities across the industry.

Nominations are open until Tuesday, November 8. You can nominate using the online form at www.thoroughbredawards.co.uk, or by submitting a video.

The winners from the 2022 Godolphin Stud & Stable Staff Awards were honoured in person in October after the virtual ceremony, which took place in February.

The winners attended a trophy presentation ceremony at Godolphin’s stunning Dalham Hall Stud hosted by Racing TV’s Nick Lightfoot before enjoying a parade of some of the Darley stallions at Dalham Hall Stud, including Masar, Cracksman and the great Dubawi.

Bank transfer

This can be done from any UK bank account, using the account number and sort code references which are on your BHA statement. If you are trying to pay from abroad please use the swiftcode and IBAN numbers also found on your statement. Please ensure you pay any bank charges an overseas exchange may incur when making the transfer. For both methods of payment make sure your reference is your account name and number.

In addition, should you be VATregistered, it is important to ensure that HMRC has electronic payment details recorded for you, as this is where any VAT repayments will be transferred. To receive an electronic repayment, you can update your payment details by inputting bank details when registering with HMRC or by requesting a change of bank details via HMRC’s VAT484 Form.

Should you not have a UK bank account in the name of your ownership, please contact the Racing Finance team via the email address below. Should you have any other questions on the repayment of VAT, speak to HMRC or your VAT agent.

Owners with a Weatherbys Bank Account will be unaffected by this change. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact: racingfinance@weatherbys.co.uk.

Jumpers To Follow member discount

Now in its 16th year, Jumpers To Follow is an essential tool to guide punters through the entire National Hunt season and ROA members can receive a discount of £3 on the print (RRP £12.95), digital (RRP £9.95) or bundle (print and digital RRP £14.95) packages available.

The unmissable guide to the upcoming season includes author Paul Ferguson’s 40 Leading Prospects, with an additional 20 top prospects from Ireland in the ‘Across The Sea’ section.

Paul has also been out and about gauging the opinion of leading jockeys, including Brian Hughes and Jamie Codd. New for this year, title contender Sean Bowen gives his personal view of stables up and down the UK, picking out the horses with most potential from each yard.

With a nod to the future, pointto-point graduates come under the microscope as do all the latest imports from France.

Simply go to www. weatherbysshop.co.uk and enter the discount code when you check out. The discount code can be collected from the members area of the ROA website.

Paddy Trainor: Employee of the Year in 2022

Daniel and Claire Kübler are advocates for the role of science and data analysis in training.

Claire, who holds a degree in Physiology from Cambridge University asserts “Having the additional knowledge, gives you a greater understanding.” Coming from a non-racing background, has allowed Daniel to approach training with a fresh perspective: “You can analyse the conventions. Lots of things are done the way they’ve always been done, and you can normally work backwards and find that the reason they work is because, scientifically, it stacks up. The exciting times are where you look at the data, and you identify a better way.”

PriceWaterhouseCooper experienced the benefits of high quality training and development.

The team at Sarsen Farm enjoy a great work life balance. “To give your best to these amazing athletes you need to be fresh, happy and focused” proffers Claire, “attention to detail is key, and that requires motivation”. Travelling manager Shaun Johnson and work rider Mark Lawson, a retired jockey with over 200 winners to his name have both stayed in the sport because of the approach Daniel and Claire take to management. Shaun explains “My role at Kübler Racing allows a lot of flexibility, the work-life balance allows me to function better in both of my important roles as a father and travelling horses”.

“Owners make huge investments in their horses, having skilled, happy people looking after them is the least they deserve’’ observes Daniel, “the more we have focused on improving the people side of our business the better our results with the horses have become”. Daniel emphasises “For us training racehorses requires combining data analysis together with watching and feeling, it’s about having lots of information.” Claire agrees “The numbers don’t lie, but ultimately you need good people to realise the edge the science gives you”

Aerial shot of the first-class

This forward thinking approach extends to the management of the people who care for the horses at Sarsen Farm. It would be fair to describe the couple amongst the industry leaders on this front. They have won several Lycetts Team Champion and Leadership Awards in recent years. The Awards celebrate racehorse training yards which cultivate the best team ethos, exhibit outstanding leadership qualities and demonstrate innovative approaches to management.

Daniel and Claire work together with an experienced, talented and loyal team of horsemen and women as a result of their approach. The team has created a culture focused on constantly improving horsemanship. “A major part of our philosophy” states Daniel “is happy people make happy horses, and happy horses win!”

Yard Manager Lauren Webb was runner up in the Leadership category of the Godolphin Stud & Stable Staff Awards in 2020. It was a remarkable achievement, an excellent rider, she took on her first management role with the Kübler’s. “One of the first things we did with Lauren was send her on a Chartered Management Institute course - how many other yards develop their people this way?” asks Daniel. “Lauren’s development is ongoing and we’re very proud of what she’s achieving. She’s a qualified rider coach and working towards her level 3, she’d be in the first cohort to achieve that qualification.” Legendary Olympic Eventing Coach Yogi Briesner has mentored Lauren, and it’s a compliment to her skills as a horsewoman that Lauren rides his young event horses. Developing the people who care for the horses is vital. “The better your team the more each horse’s potential can be realised” explains Claire, who having qualified as an accountant with

Several horses have improved significantly for the switch to Sarsen Farm. Talented, experienced work riders and grooms play a big part in that. “You need skilled riders whose empathy and consistency gives horses confidence, grooms who pick up on the small things that keep horses happy, you add in the data and come up with ideas together as a team,” Claire adds.

British racing expands initiatives.

In2021, the Horse Welfare Funding Review and the management and aftercare segment.

“You’re always trying to find ways to help get an edge on the track— to get more winners,” says Claire. “You also want to do the best for each horse so you’re developing a sound horse that can achieve its optimum. You can only do that with great people around a horse, they have to be motivated, skilled and enjoy their work.” Looking at the data, the upward progression of the results from horses trained at Sarsen Farm suggests Daniel & Claire’s approach is a winning one. n

Contact Daniel on 07984 287 254 or Claire on 07714 294 172 Sarsen Farm, Upper Lambourn, Berkshire www.kublerracing.com

The report found that provision has grown organically provide a blend of promotional opportunities for thoroughbreds career. While retraining offered by a mixture of charitable bodies, there assessment, methodology health and welfare provision to forecast and budget

The review’s recommendations areas to improve the sector welfare commitments: traceability and data; accreditation; education; communication. improvements on behalf Retraining of Racehorses to be provided by the Team.

TBA Forum

The special section for TBA members

The Queen: racing's greatest patron

By Emma Berry

As the solemnity of the period of national mourning and Her Majesty the Queen’s funeral subsides, now comes the time to reflect upon the significant contribution made to British racing and breeding by Queen Elizabeth II.

The nation and Commonwealth have lost a great leader, and the TBA has lost its Patron, whose long-term commitment to the Association since 1954, and to the betterment of the thoroughbred, was every bit in keeping with her duty to the country.

During the many touching tributes in the immediate aftermath of Her Majesty’s death, it was notable how often her love of horses, and in particular horseracing, was referenced. All of us involved in this great sport have been fortunate to have had the

Queen shine her light on it for so many years. Indeed, her long association with the thoroughbred will continue beyond her passing in the yearlings and foals already on the ground, and in the results of the matings which were still being meticulously planned with the Queen’s racing manager John Warren through this summer.

The combination of royalty and racing is nothing new. Indeed, the two have been entwined for centuries, and it could be said that Newmarket, which has unofficially become known as the headquarters of British racing, would not exist but for the racing interests of 17th century monarchs Charles I and Charles II. The Queen’s own love for the sport was clearly inherited from both her parents: her father King George VI and mother Queen Elizabeth,

both commemorated in the naming of Britain’s premier middle-distance weight-for-age contest at Ascot, were each successful owner-breeders in their own right, on the Flat and over jumps.

The Queen’s reign, from February 1952 upon the death of her father, ran hand-in-hand with her enduring love for the sport among whose participants she perhaps felt most at ease: as a fellow countrywoman and equestrian.

It has been said that the first dates marked in her diary each year were those of the Derby and Royal Ascot, and her longstanding presence at both meetings likely did as much to sustain her as she did to enhance racing’s profile in return.

The Queen’s involvement at the highest level was instantaneous, when, in the week of her Coronation in June 1953, there was a symbolic passing of the Royal Studs baton when Aureole, bred by her father, was second in the Derby to Pinza.

Aureole’s progression from three to four saw him claim three major victories in the royal colours, appropriately at Ascot and Epsom, in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, the Coronation Cup, and the Hardwicke Stakes at the Royal Meeting. His success

The Queen: Patron of the TBA and British horseracing's most prominent supporter

was largely instrumental in the Queen becoming champion owner for the first time in 1954, a feat which was repeated in 1957 when Her Majesty won her first Classic with the Sir Noel Murlesstrained Carrozza, who was ridden by Lester Piggott to land the Oaks. Aureole himself went on to be champion sire in Britain and Ireland in 1960 and 1961.

Following Carrozza’s triumph, Pall Mall won the 2,000 Guineas a year later, and further major success came when Highclere, a grand-daughter of King George VI’s final Classic winner Hypericum, won the 1,000 Guineas followed by the Prix de Diane in 1974.

Highclere’s trainer Major Dick Hern pulled off an arguably even more important Classic double for the monarch when Dunfermline won the Oaks and the St Leger in 1977, bringing extra cause for celebration in the year of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee.

Classic success eluded the Queen in the ensuing years, though she did again have a horse placed in the 2011 Derby when the Dante Stakes winner Carlton House, a gift to Her Majesty from Sheikh Mohammed, finished third behind Pour Moi. Later exported to Gai Waterhouse’s Australian stable, Carlton House ended his career with another Group 1 placing, this time appropriately in Royal Randwick’s Queen Elizabeth Stakes, just one of many races around the world to have been named in her honour.

There was of course much success to be enjoyed elsewhere in the intervening years. Phantom Gold, trained by Lord Huntingdon to win the Ribblesdale, Geoffrey Freer and St Simon Stakes, became an important broodmare in the Royal Studs and now features as the grand-dam of Group 3 Solario Stakes winner Reach For The Moon.

Blueprint, Interlude and Call To Mind won Group/Grade 2 races in Britain, France and America, while Right Approach was runner-up in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes and the homebred later became a Group 1 winner in Dubai after being sold to race for Mike de Kock.

Dartmouth’s haul of four Pattern wins included the Group 2 Yorkshire Cup and the Group 2 Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot, and he is now at Shropshire’s Shade Oak Stud. Another of the Queen’s runners now at stud in France is Galileo’s son Recorder, who won the Group 3 Acomb Stakes 63 years after Aureole had landed the same race within months of the Queen’s accession to the throne.

For those following the sport in more recent years, one horse will remain intrinsically linked to the Queen

in having provided her with victory in Royal Ascot’s greatest race. Estimate, trained by Sir Michael Stoute and a present from fellow owner-breeder HH Aga Khan IV, made Queen Elizabeth II the first reigning monarch to own the winner of the Gold Cup, and few will forget the unbridled joy with which she cheered the great staying filly home at Ascot that day in the company of John

recognised at the TBA Flat Breeders’ Awards where the Queen was awarded the TBA Silver Salver.

Her winners in what transpired to be the final year of her life have included the Andrew Balding-trained Group 2 Temple Stakes winner King’s Lynn, named for the Norfolk town not far from where he was bred at Sandringham. Fittingly, the gelding who would become her final Group winner is by Cable Bay, currently resident at Highclere, the family home of her former racing manager and dear friend Lord Carnarvon, who was succeeded in his role by son-in-law John Warren.

Reportedly as engaged in the racing action as ever in her final days at Balmoral, the Queen’s colours were carried to victory one final time during her reign on September 6 by the two-year-old Love Affairs, from the Lambourn stable of the newest trainer on her roster, Clive Cox.

Warren. Of course, it was Estimate’s second triumph at Royal Ascot as she had been the appropriate winner of the Queen’s Vase a year earlier.

Last year, as the country embarked on its recovery from the Covid lockdowns and racing returned almost to normal, the Queen enjoyed her most successful season numerically on the racecourse, with 36 winners including five stakes victories, most notably the Group 3 wins of Light Refrain and Reach For The Moon. This achievement was

So ended, only two days later, one of the greatest love affairs with the turf with the passing of its greatest patron of the last century. Having missed Royal Ascot for the last few seasons, Queen Elizabeth II was present on QIPCO British Champions Day in October 2021 at her beloved Ascot to receive a commemorative medal marking her induction to the QIPCO British Horseracing Hall of Fame. There could be no more fitting member of that celebrated club.

Ryan Moore drives Estimate (left) to a famous success in the 2013 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot

“Few will forget the unbridled joy with which she cheered home Estimate”

Chasemore-bred Lezoo captures Cheveley Park

The Juddmonte operation was represented by five individual stakes winners across the globe. At home the Bated Breath juvenile filly Juliet Sierra captured the Group 3 Dick Poole Stakes at Salisbury, whilst the Kingman juvenile colt Nostrum, bred under the Juddmonte Farms (east) banner, captured the Group 3 Somerville Tattersall Stakes. There was a Listed win across the Irish Sea at Leopardstown on Irish Champions Weekend for the juvenile filly Zarinsk, while across the Channel, the three-year-old filly Elegant Verse took the Listed Prix Dirickx, her first start for Henri-Francis Devin.

Meanwhile, across the Atlantic and Set Piece recorded his seventh stakes win in the Grade 3 International Turf Cup Stakes at Pimlico.

Two operations that have experienced a magnificent 2022, Chasemore Farm and Kirsten Rausing, obtained Group 1 glory during a golden September.

Having bred the Gimcrack winner the previous month, Andrew and Jane Black’s Chasemore operation were represented by Lezoo in the Cheveley Park Stakes and she became the maiden northern hemisphere Group 1 winner for her sire Zoustar with a threequarters of a length win.

Earlier in the month and the Kirsten Rausing-bred Eldar Eldarov, winner

of the Queen’s Vase at Royal Ascot in June, took the final Classic of the British season, the St Leger. The son of Dubawi went clear in the final stages under David Egan.

The Lanwades operation has been well represented down under. Zaaki continued his Australian success with a win in the Group 2 Tramway Stakes at Randwick, whilst Durston (Sea The Moon) took the Listed Wyong Gold Cup on September 2 and then followed up with a win in the Group 3 Newcastle Gold Cup two weeks later, adding the Group 1 Caulfield Cup on October 15.

In addition to the main contest being plundered by Eldar Eldarov, the Doncaster St Leger Festival was a success for British-breds. The Biddestone Stud-bred Polly Pott was victorious in the Group 2 May Hill Stakes, while the George Strawbridgebred Mimikyu, a daughter of Dubawi, won the Group 2 Park Hill Stakes. The day before and the Al-Baha Bloodstock-bred Manaccan took top honours in the Listed Scarbrough Stakes.

The Keswick family’s Rockcliffe Stud celebrated homebred success with its juvenile filly Trillium scoring a lastgasp win in the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes, while Kinross (Kingman) won the Group 2 Park Stakes, adding two Group 1s during October. He was bred by Lawn Stud. The Group 2 Champagne Stakes which opened up the final day’s proceedings was won by the Whitsbury Manor Stud-bred Chaldean

TBA Stud Farming Course

Ideal for breeders and stud staff at all levels, this year’s three-day flagship Stud Farming Course will take place between December 6-8 and is once again being hosted at the British Racing School in Newmarket.

The course covers a range of topics which have been selected to provide a comprehensive overview of general stud management, starting from the very beginning in the selection of mating plans and understanding genetics, to care of the broodmare and foal from conception to the yearling stage, the management of barren and maiden mares, and the managing of stallions and teasers.

As well as the lectures, delegates will visit a stud farm and veterinary practice for a behind the scenes look, and there is the course dinner, where attendees will have the opportunity to get to know each other better, as well as some of the

guest speakers.

The course fee is £420 (incl. VAT) for TBA members, and £540 (incl. VAT) for non-members and includes dinner on the first evening, lunches and refreshments. It does not include accommodation and other meals which will need to be arranged separately.

A discount is available for group bookings of four or more delegates. The TBA offers a bursary scheme for individuals who require support for educational courses or CPD activities. Visit the TBA website or contact Melissa Rose (melissa.rose@thetba.co.uk) for further information.

More information on the course will be available on the TBA website in due course. To register your interest in booking a place please contact Alix Jones on 01638 661321 or email alix.jones@thetba.co.uk.

Lezoo, bred by Chasemore Farm, looks a Classic prospect for 2023

BILL SELWYN

The last-named is a son of Frankel, whose daughter Eternal Pearl, bred by Haras de Saint Pair, won the Group 3 Princess Royal Stakes at Newmarket. Another daughter, the Essafinaat UK Ltd-bred McKulick, won the Grade 3 Jockey Club Oaks Invitational at Aqueduct for Chad Brown.

She was not the only Stateside stakes scorer. Meon Valley Stud supplied a pair of winners in the shape of Grade 3 Bernard Baruch Handicap hero Emaraaty (Dubawi) and the Ricks Memorial Stakes heroine Island Hideaway, who avenged her defeat in the contest 12 months ago.

The Safiyna Partnership-bred Natural Colour won her second successive stakes event, the Golden Gate Fields Turf Distaff Stakes. Also in America, Christmas Diamond, a daughter of Bated Breath bred by Bolton Grange, won the Gem City Stakes at Presque Isle Downs in Pennsylvania.

First-season sire Havana Grey has been sharpest out of the gate and he was represented by a pair of Groupwinning juveniles. The D & S L Tanker Transport Ltd-bred Lady Hollywood got back to form in the Group 3 Prix d’Arenberg, while later in the month Eddie’s Boy, bred by Crossfields Bloodstock Ltd, captured the Group 3 Prix Eclipse.

The Joanna Imray-bred Gale Force Maya has been a consistent sort over five seasons of racing and gained her first stakes success in the Listed Garrowby Stakes at York. Just under two weeks later and she doubled her tally when winning the Listed Scottish Sprint Fillies’ Stakes.

Godolphin were represented by

Alix our champion

Having been delayed by Covid and then injury, our Membership Executive Alix Jones made her marathon debut at London last month, completing the course in 4 hours 39 minutes. She said: “It was such an amazing experience, and the crowds carried me through.”

All at Stanstead House want to wish Alix the biggest of congratulations.

Alix with her marathon medal

three homebred stakes winners, all at Listed level. Naval Power won the Ascendant Stakes at Haydock Park, Royal Fleet captured the Foundation Stakes at Goodwood and Siskany won the Godolphin Stakes at Newmarket.

The latter win was achieved at the Cambridgeshire Festival, a meeting at which Commissioning, a daughter of Kingman and homebred by Abdulla AlKhalifa and Isa Salman, won the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes. Later on the card and the Shadwell homebred Mutasaabeq gained his biggest win thus far in the Group 2 Joel Stakes. Shadwell also bred Shaara, winner of the Listed John Musker Fillies’ Stakes at Yarmouth.

A day earlier and the Mildmay Bloodstock and D H Calson-bred Nate The Great (Nathaniel) won the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes.

The three-year-old filly Stay Alert, a homebred of the Arbibs, had shown previously she enjoyed Newbury and her win in the Group 3 Legacy Cup against older horses emphasised the fact. On the same day, Sacred got back to winning ways for Cheveley Park Stud when capturing the Listed Dubai Duty Free Cup Stakes.

Another to bounce back from a poor run was Crypto Force. A son of National Stud resident Time Test, he ran out an impressive winner of the Group 2 Beresford Stakes at the Curragh.

Saint-Cloud Listed contests went the way of the Anthony and Victoria Packenham-bred Shine For You in the Prix des Tourelles and the Car Colston Hall Stud-bred Tribalist (Farhh) in the Prix Matchem.

Results up to and including September 30. Produced in association with GBRI.

Welcome to Clare Daniels

In September the TBA welcomed Clare Daniels to the organisation as its TB-Ed Operations Executive. Clare is a learning and development specialist and joined the organisation having previously worked within the fire and rescue sector and England Rugby for more than ten years. Supporting organisations with programmes and initiatives aimed at improving the experience people have when engaging with education material and resources, Clare is also a former international rugby referee with Olympic and Commonwealth Games experience.

Brought up on a dairy farm in Somerset, Clare’s interest in horses first stemmed from her parents, her mother working in National Hunt racing on her uncle’s yard in Wiltshire and later a yard in Lambourn, while her father served in the Household Cavalry before moving into farming.

Clare said: “I am relishing the opportunity to work at the TBA and within the bloodstock industry, hopefully bringing my experience from other sectors to broaden the reach of TB-Ed and help elevate the resources provided to the industry.”

Clare Daniels: learning specialist

TBA Forum

Meet The Team –CHARLOTTE LOVATT

Job title: Head of Marketing and Communications.

Role: Much of my role falls within the TBA’s charitable objective to protect the future and diversity of the breed, which includes raising awareness of initiatives, projects and events that support both the breeding industry and breeders. It’s a really exciting time in the team at the moment, as we are working on a large project to implement new software which will improve our membership service, exploring more affordable avenues into mare ownership, and planning some exciting new events for 2023 which we will be sharing with members soon.

I’ve recently also overseen the production of the TBA’s new-format 2021 Annual Report, which is now available to view on our website. The improved report is now easier to read and includes real-life case studies of how our work is impacting the industry.

Favourite drink: Wine – preferably a glass of a nice chilled white or pale rose.

Best racing moment: There are so many great moments in the sport, but I think it is the moments that really show how much the sport means to people. I think it was after Frankel’s Juddmonte International win at York

IN BRIEF

Equine Welfare Guidelines updated

The TBA’s Equine Welfare Guidelines for the thoroughbred breeding sector, which were launched a year ago, have been reviewed by the working group and republished, as part of an ongoing commitment to ensure their continued accuracy and relevance to the industry.

New additions to the guidelines include an extended chapter on the preparation and sale of thoroughbred breeding and young stock at public auction, which was launched with the support of the ITBA, Tattersalls and Goffs in August, as well as a section on responsible end of life decision-making,

and the crowd there were amazing, the reception Sir Henry received in the winner’s enclosure and the outpouring of support and admiration for him was really poignant.

Favourite racehorse: Dahlidya. 15.1hh, the pocket rocket. She was certainly no world beater, my dad bought her to share with my grandad who sadly died shortly before her first run and win for us. Over the years, as an all-weather horse, she would come home for the summer holidays and so she was the first racehorse I ever sat on. At the end of her career, she came home for good, my dad convinced that with her slightly unpredictable attitude she might be difficult to re-home.

Broodmare I’d love to own: Enable. She was amazing and really captured the racing public’s interest, which is hard for Flat horses to do. I went to see her in the Yorkshire Oaks in 2019 and I just loved her attitude before races, a mare with a bit of sass! It will be really exciting to follow her broodmare career, the matings, and resulting progeny.

Pets: I have an English Bull Terrier puppy, Boris, and my dad’s exracehorse, Capone, who is currently enjoying his retirement at grass and working on expanding his waistline!

Book or film: Film. We do like to share Netflix recommendations at the TBA office and my preferences would have to be comedies and documentaries.

Flat or jumps: Flat. My family had no previous connection with racing

which was released in October. The latter aims to support breeders with euthanasia planning and signposts to resources that may be helpful during this process.

The updated document can be found at www.thetba.co.uk.

Deadline for business rates appeals

Members need to be aware that if they are proposing to challenge their current business rates valuation via the Check, Challenge and Appeal (CCA) process, they must have the ‘Check’ acknowledged by the VOA by March 31, 2023. If the ‘Check’ is not acknowledged by this date, no further action can be taken. As it is likely there will eb a flurry of checks being submitted around that date,

until my dad bought into a horse in the mid-90s and our involvement progressed from there. We’ve mainly had Flat horses, usually bought at horses-in-training sales. We did have one jumps horse that ended up running in the Triumph Hurdle at Cheltenham, though I missed it as I was working in Dubai at the time.

it is highly recommended that members proceed with the process as soon as possible.

The draft 2023 Revaluation Act is due to be published in January 2023 and the new list will take effect on April 1, 2023. Members cannot challenge the new list until April 1.

Racing TV discounted access

TBA members are able to access a brand new benefit – discounted access to Racing TV, which covers 62 British and Irish racecourses, for £15 a month, saving over £100 a year. For full details, terms and conditions, or to register, contact Membership Executive Alix Jones on 01638 661321 or alix.jones@thetba.co.uk.

G

Breeder of the Month

BREEDER OF THE MONTH (September 2022) ROCKCLIFFE STUD

Sound advice is worth its weight in guineas galore in the bloodstock world. Hence Ben Keswick, who masterminds the family’s Rockcliffe Stud for parents Simon and Emma, credits nomination as TBA Breeder of the Month for September, for the exploits of half-sisters Trillium and American Kestrel, as much to agent Ed Sackville as anyone on the Gloucestershire farm.

Sackville’s finest achievement for the Keswicks has been to buy Sky Lantern, the Group 1-winning filly whose third produce Snow Lantern emulated her dam. However, Sackville’s involvement has more basic antecedents; he was in at the beginning of Rockcliffe’s foundation in 2008.

Ben Keswick explains: “Ed has been an absolutely key part of the team. He’s been amazing and made the whole experience a wonderful journey. He bought three foundation mares, one of whom was Asaawir, the grandam of Trillium, so none of this could have happened without him.

“He deserves to share the TBA award, which means a lot for a small stud of around 12 horses.”

Keswick relates: “Asaawir is still with us but she’s not carrying anything this year and at the age of 19 she may be coming to the end of her time as a broodmare, although she will carry on looking after the yearlings. She owes us nothing.”

Indeed, since being bought from Lanwades Stud for 155,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale, Asaawir has kept the tills ticking over, through Rockcliffe’s policy of selling colts and racing fillies.

The strategy was summed up by Julian Muscat when in his June 2021 Owner

Breeder profile of the stud he wrote: “Adhere to budgets, sell the colts and maintain tight controls on the broodmare band.”

“They were my words!” Keswick says, with a smile. “There’s nothing like having rules that you can break when you feel it’s right, but you have to have a game plan. It’s about the stud and the next generation and getting black type for your best horses.”

Into the bracket of retaining fillies to race comes the Invincible Spirit mare Marsh Hawk, who streaked home by seven lengths from a 220,000gns purchase on her Newmarket debut and has produced three two-year-old winners, each with black type to their name, from her first three foals.

Keswick recalls Marsh Hawk’s racing career, saying: “She didn’t come to hand early but she was a rocket. After Newmarket, she was beaten a short head in the final stride in the Dick Poole at Salisbury, which we thought would be an easy one to pick up black type.

“She won her next race at odds-on

and then we put her in the Fillies’ Mile but she hit her head coming out of the stalls and came alive too early, so she had run her race before halfway, although she ran well to finish fourth to Together Forever. She never quite got going as a three- and four-year-old.”

Any disappointment over Marsh Hawk’s second and third seasons on the racecourse has been erased by her opening efforts at the stud. Her first foal, by Siyouni, made 220,000gns as a yearling and named Mohawk King after his breezeup purchase, he has won twice for Sky and Snow Lantern’s trainer Richard Hannon.

Marsh Hawk’s second foal, by Starspangledbanner, is American Kestrel, who was sold into David Menuisier’s stable for 26,000gns in February this year, after winning one of her five races in the Keswick colours. She was beaten a nose in a Saint-Cloud Listed race on her September debut for new connections.

Then came Trillium, the April-foaled filly of 2020 by No Nay Never who ran a promising second at Goodwood before rattling up a hat-trick that started at Newbury, included the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood and culminated in the award-winning Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster.

What will Trillium’s optimum distance be as a three-year-old, given her family includes a number of useful stayers, not least the Grand National winner One For Arthur? Keswick is not sure. “It’s a shame we didn’t see the best of her in her last race, the Cheveley Park Stakes [when eighth],” he says, “but we know she gets six furlongs and her jockey Pat Dobbs said she wasn’t stopping there.

“Let’s see how she goes on over the winter. We’ve time to dream, and there’s nothing like a good dream in racing.”

Sponsored by Distributor ofWords Howard Wright

Trillium (left) denies The Platinum Queen to win the Flying Childers Stakes

BILL SELWYN

Vet Forum: The Expert View

A guide to exporting horses from the UK

Now that the UK is no longer part of the EU, the process for exporting thoroughbred horses from Great Britain to the EU (including the ROI) and Northern Ireland has become more complicated and you will need to start planning your export in advance.

Horses are no longer able to travel on DOCOMs or under the Tripartite Agreement (TPA) to France and Ireland and require Export Health Certificates (EHCs) to travel to most other EU countries and the rest of the world. The EHCs are issued by the government’s APHA following successful application by the owner/agent through the Export Health Certificates Online (ECHO) system. The horse must be examined by an official veterinarian (OV) prior to export and the vet must sign and stamp the EHC. Written declarations regarding premises of origin, exposure to certain diseases and travel conditions must be provided to the OV before the EHC can be signed.

Please note the following:

1. The requirements for registered and unregistered horses are different, but all thoroughbreds registered with Weatherbys are considered ‘Registered Equidae’ for the purpose of export to the EU.

2. 8431EHC is for temporary and permanent export of registered horses. A separate transit certificate is also available for horses transiting through the EU to a third country (8432EHC)

Permanent or permanent export of Registered horses:

• Blood sample for Coggins test (EIA) with negative result within 90 days of travel. This must be tested at APHA, Weybridge (as above).

• The horse must be isolated from all horses of a lesser health status (i.e. from different premises or which have not had negative blood tests) for at least 30 days. It must not be turned out with or stabled next to horses of lesser health status.

• The horse must be kept on a

holding in GB or a country with a similar health status which is under veterinary supervision for 40 days, or since birth if under 40 days, or since its entry into GB if the horse was moved directly from the EU less than 40 days before export.

• In the 15 days prior to export, the horse must have no contact with animals suffering from infectious diseases transmissible to equidae.

It is worth noting that being under veterinary supervision does not mean that a vet has to see the horse every day, but the vet must be aware that the horse is on the yard and also be aware of any diseases which might occur on the yard. The vet must be familiar with the way the yard works and be confident enough with management to be able to certify the papers.

All horses must travel with their passport and the original EHC (including declaration(s). The EHC will be provided in English and the language of the first country of entry into the EU.

Entry into the EU

Consignments of registered equidae will have to enter the EU through a border control post (BCP) designated by the EU for horses. You/the agent will need to complete a customs declaration form before the horse arrives at the EU border and must notify the BCP in advance, using TRACES, of the intended arrival time at the BCP.

Returning to the UK

If your horse is being exported temporarily, for example to race, you will need to go through a similar process to the above to ‘re-import’ your horse to the UK.

Third countries

The requirements for export to third countries (those outside the EU) vary, as they are dictated by the importing country based on their risk assessment of the disease threat posed by a horse imported from the UK. The requirements might vary slightly depending on the age of the horse and gender.

Moving horses overseas has become more challenging since Brexit

Some countries require pre-export quarantine in addition to a range of blood and swab samples which must be tested at APHA laboratories while others require blood and or swabs to be tested at a commercial laboratory. Some countries require a combination of the two.

Most tests must be performed within a specified time period before the date of export. Again, it is recommended that you enlist the services of a reputable shipping agent to avoid unnecessary additional testing if the schedule is disrupted or a test is missed.

If there has been a delay in export, some tests may need to be repeated. There may also be vaccination requirements –usually only for equine influenza – and it is often the need to restart a specified course of vaccinations which will dictate the rest of the testing and travel schedule.

An import permit might be needed before the EHC can be applied for, although for a small number of third countries, the EHC must be completed or a veterinary report provided and a copy forwarded to the importing country before an import permit will be provided.

For example, most – but not all – horses being exported to the USA require at least the following steps.

• An EHC signed by an OV and countersigned by a government vet within 48 hours of export.

• An import permit.

• A reservation at an animal import centre.

• Confirmation of residency in the UK for 60 days prior to export (or ‘like health certificate’ issued by an OV in any other country visited).

• Confirmed free from signs of contagious disease at the time of export and as far as can be determined not exposed to communicable disease during the period of residency.

• The horse must not have been vaccinated within 14 days of export.

• The horse not been on premises where certain reportable diseases have occurred in the last 60 days.

• Genital swabs – for horses in training, usually three sets taken over 12 days taken within 30 days of export plus veterinary confirmation that the horse has not been on premises where CEM has occurred since the horse reached two years of age. This requirement varies for younger horses, geldings, older mares and stallions not in training.

• There are no blood test requirements before the horse leaves the UK, but the horse will be quarantined in the USA for a minimum of 42 hours during which time they will be tested for Dourine, glanders, Equine Piroplasmosis and Equine Infectious Anaemia (EIA). It is usual practice to have bloods taken in the UK and sent to the USA for testing prior to the horse being exported to try to avoid the horse being refused entry.

• Some countries require testing to be done once a horse enters a period of pre-export quarantine. Others require tests for strangles, Equine Herpes Virus (EHV) and/or equine influenza (EI). Acceptable EI vaccination intervals and history may be different from the manufacturer’s recommendations and UK racing requirements and so passports must be closely examined to ensure the horse does not need to start another course.

For export to Australia, amongst other requirements (including a period of Pre-Export quarantine (PEQ)), the horse’s primary course of EI vaccination must be with the same vaccine. A booster must be given 21 to 90 days before the start of PEQ. For export to Singapore, in addition to the government requirements, the Singapore Turf Club also requires two

By Deidre Carson BVSc(Syd) MRCVS

nasopharyngeal swabs taken 14 days apart and a guttural pouch wash within 14 days of export to test for strangles.

Even with the best planning, things might go wrong. Any horse travelling must be fit to travel and so lameness or illness can scupper plans. A horse might develop ringworm –considered (correctly) an infectious/contagious disease and be unable to travel for several weeks until clear. There might be an error on an EHC or a broken-down lorry that can delay or complicate travel plans. Mostly, with the assistance of an experienced agent and veterinary practice, such problems are readily dealt with and new plans accommodated.

The current EHCs for export to the EU have caused a great deal of frustration and anger, mainly because the requirements are more stringent and onerous since Brexit, even though we are moving the same population of horses. The industry is working with APHA to try to develop a more efficient and ‘user-friendly’ – probably digital – system which will reduce the waste of paper and staff resources required to support the current system. We can only hope.

This article is meant to give an overview of some of the processes involved in preparing for the export of thoroughbred horses from the UK. It is not intended as a definitive guide and anyone considering exporting a horse is advised to contact a reputable shipping agent to deal with and help to plan the required testing and documentation. Please note that the requirements differ slightly for unregistered horses i.e. those not registered with a recognised studbook.

The Finish Line with John Sadler

John Sadler’s lifelong involvement with horses has reached a pinnacle this year with the success of undefeated four-year-old Flightline, the heavy favourite to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic at Keeneland on November 5. Winner of all five starts to date, Flightline, purchased for $1 million as yearling and co-owned by the Hronis family, captured the Grade 1 Pacific Classic at Del Mar by a record 19-and-a-quarter lengths on September 3. The success has created a huge buzz leading into the Breeders’ Cup. Sadler, 66, began his involvement with horses in the showjumping ring as a teenager and has had a stable on the prestigious southern California circuit since 1979. A native Californian, Sadler is based at Santa Anita for most of the year and has trained more than 2,700 winners.

Interview: Steve Andersen

Werealised Flightline was brilliant right off the bat.

He’s never hidden his talent. They were very excited about him in Ocala, Florida, as a two-year-old before he even got here. They thought he was a star and right away when we started training him, we saw that he was different. We were excited when he got here because he looks like a million dollars – he’s a beautiful horse. He’s got the pedigree and when he first went into training we thought, ‘Wow, this is a lot of horse.’

I don’t think I’ve ever had a horse close to this level. Early in my career I had the filly Melair. She ran a mile on dirt in 1:32 and four-fifths at Hollywood Park in a one-turn mile. She put in a brilliant performance that day to beat the colts, Snow Chief included, in the Grade 2 Silver Screen Handicap in 1986. But we’ve never had a horse like this. We try to not get ahead of ourselves with Flightline; I want to be a good steward.

We’re training him consistently and keeping him the same. He doesn’t have to get better and we’re not trying to get him better. We’re trying to keep him the way he is and right now he’s doing it.

The atmosphere at the Breeders’ Cup is going to be great. I think they’ll have one of their best Breeders’ Cups. It will be so exciting. As far as crowd size, they limited the Breeders’ Cup at Keeneland and while it will be a maximum crowd, it won’t be 100,000 or anything like it. After the Breeders’ Cup, Flightline’s schedule will be determined. Two things could happen. He’s either going to race next year or he’ll go off to stud. Everybody has enjoyed the break of not having to think of that now. We’ll deal with that when we get there.

Now, as I’m a little older, I’m getting better horses than I did when I was younger. My career arc is definitely on the upswing, because we have the right clients that are buying the right horses. I’ve been a solid professional my whole career and always had a full barn, because we always won races and did a good job.

I feel like I paid my dues. I loved the show horses – that has a close spot in my heart. I started riding when I was in junior high school and rode through high school before I went off to college. I really loved it. The only thing that slowed me up was I was getting pretty tall. Back in the day, those were small thoroughbreds, so I kind of outgrew my passion. I think I started with a good base of horsemanship before I came to the racetrack because I’d been riding horses. When you’re a little kid, they teach you how to groom them and take care of them. I think I had a leg-up before I started.

The usher of the box-seat section at Santa Anita introduced me to the Hronises. One day, they said they wanted to get a racehorse and the usher said, ‘I know who to introduce you to’. They have really changed the barn and when we had some success together, they ‘re-upped’. Our first big horse was Lady Of Shamrock. She had a good career and sold well as a broodmare. She’s thrown babies in Europe, some pretty good ones, too. They’ve kept investing.

I’ve won at the Breeders’ Cup; you hope to do more towards the Kentucky Derby. We’ve got a good crop of twoyear-olds but we’re not as big as some. We don’t have the numbers of a Baffert, Pletcher, Asmussen or Chad Brown. I get a smaller group, but of good quality.

Perception is the biggest issue facing American racing. I had lunch with some people recently and when I told them how well we’re doing with the injuries and the issues we’ve had in the last few years, they were like, ‘Wow.’ They don’t hear the good things, only the negative stuff. We have good news and we’ve got a great story to tell but sometimes it’s difficult to get it out there.

I’ve had so many great moments. My first Breeders’ Cup win with Accelerate in the 2018 Classic, that was really one of the highlights. He was a hardknocking horse. I like horses you have over a long period of time and run well every time. I won the Golden Shaheen Sprint in Dubai with Our New Recruit in 2004. That was a great trip, our international win, although it was a long time ago. I’d love to have a Royal Ascot horse with an early two-year-old and I’d like to have a European runner, maybe in the English Derby.

Flightline: son of Tapit is unbeaten in five races, won by an aggregate of 63 lengths

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PINATUBO

Horse of the Year as a two-year-old, assessed as the best juvenile for a generation. Bred for a stallion career, too: by Shamardal and the highest-rated horse in the family of Invincible Spirit and Kodiac.