Thoroughbred Owner Breeder

THE

£6.95 JANUARY 2024 ISSUE 233

New sires special Juddmonte’s Chaldean heads exceptional intake as we assess the class of 2024

PLUS

Harry Derham

Young trainer targets the top

Out of this world

Equinox assumes star billing at Shadai

ROA Awards

British racing’s biggest celebration

www.theownerbreeder.com

Enduring quality Int ro du cing

CHALDEAN The Dewhurst Stakes and 2000 Guineas-winning son of Frankel

£25,000

1st Oct, Special Live Foal

St a nding a lo ng side

B AT E D B R E AT H

KINGMAN

The best value sire of blacktype performers in Britain

The brilliant Classic-winning miler with global appeal

1st Oct, Special Live Foal

1st Oct, Special Live Foal

FRANKEL

OA S I S D REA M

2023 Champion Sire in Europe, and Great Britain and Ireland

An outstanding source of high-class speed

1st Oct, Special Live Foal

1st Oct, Special Live Foal

£10,000

£350,000

Contact Shane Horan, Henry Bletsoe or Claire Curry +44 (0)1638 731115 | nominations@juddmonte.co.uk

www.juddmonte.com

£125,000

£15,000

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The Owner Breeder is owned by the Racehorse Owners Association Editorial views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the ROA or TBA Our monthly average readership is 20,000

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Racehorse Owners Association Ltd 12 Forbury Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 1SB Tel: 01183 385680 info@roa.co.uk • www.roa.co.uk

£6.95 JANUARY 2024 ISSUE 233

New sires special Juddmonte’s Chaldean heads exceptional intake as we assess the class of 2024

PLUS

Harry Derham

Young trainer targets the top

Out of this world

Equinox assumes star billing at Shadai

ROA Awards

British racing’s biggest celebration

www.theownerbreeder.com

Cover: Classic victor Chaldean looks calm and composed as he surveys his surroundings at Juddmonte’s Banstead Manor Stud Photo: Laura Green/Juddmonte

Edward Rosenthal Editor

Harry in a hurry to join former mentor at the top table T he ROA Horseracing Awards is always a fabulous occasion and December’s event, held at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in London, showcased those outstanding runners that had lit up the racecourses of Britain over the previous 12 months.

From powerhouse owner-breeder operations on the Flat to National Hunt syndicates, all were welcomed and celebrated on the night, as Rishi Persad – recently elected as a member of the Jockey Club – and Hayley Moore conducted matters with aplomb.

Unsurprisingly, it was Constitution Hill who was named Horse of the Year (see pages 41-47), to the delight of owner Michael Buckley and his entourage, which included Nicky Henderson and Nico de Boinville.

Buckley’s hurdler, who has looked imperious in winning all seven of his races under Rules, has been adopted by the racing public and at the time of writing was due to reappear in the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton, having bypassed the rearranged Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Sandown due to the heavy ground.

Harry Derham doesn’t have a horse of the calibre of Constitution Hill in his burgeoning Boxford stable – after all, who does? – but you’d be a fool to bet against one of the young trainer’s inmates scooping an accolade at a future awards ceremony.

Derham, who spent 11 years at the side of 14-times champion trainer Paul Nicholls – he is using his Ditcheat experience as a template for how to run a thriving operation – is building up a team of exciting runners in what is his second season with a licence.

The likes of Dan Skelton and Harry Fry have graduated from the Nicholls academy with honours to oversee flourishing outfits capable of playing at the top table. Derham is keen to join them, acknowledging that plenty of hard work will be required, but confident that he has what it takes to join the club.

“I don’t like to come across as punchy, but I believe in what we have got here, and I believe in myself being able to train horses,” Derham tells Marcus Townend (The Big Interview, pages 34-38).

“There is no point saying I want to do what Paul has done, because what he has done in his career is mind-blowing when you think about the races he has won.

“But do I want to be champion trainer one day? Yes, I would love to be. Do I have ambitions to train 150 horses? Absolutely.

“However, I understand you can’t just say it and it suddenly happens. It takes an enormous amount of work – and you need amazing owners.

“I want to be one of the top yards in the country. If I work at it and get a bit of luck, I don’t think it is a mental pipedream.”

“Derham is using his Ditcheat experience as a template for how to operate” Janet Davies might not regard herself as an amazing owner, yet she almost certainly is to trainer Evan Williams, who has saddled a number of talented horses for her since she first invested in National Hunt stock in 2008, including prolific hurdler Court Minstrel.

Davies recently enjoyed her 100th winner when Minella Missile struck in a Grade 2 hurdle at Cheltenham’s November meeting, looking every inch a contender for Festival honours in March, and in this month’s back-page interview she explains why she’s never considered having horses with anyone else and how a winner at Ffos Las is as good as at one of the Grade 1 tracks.

THE OWNER BREEDER

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Contents

January 2024

34

News & Views

41

ROA Leader Clock ticking on levy reform deal

7

TBA Leader Industry must be proactive on welfare

9

News BHA updates safeguarding strategy

11

Changes News in a nutshell

14

Howard Wright Neville Dunnett's important contribution

18

Features New stallions Running the rule over the class of 2024

20

The Big Interview With trainer Harry Derham

34

ROA Horseracing Awards Celebrating equine heroes and their owners

2

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41

››

Frankel - Handassa (Dubawi) O FFI C I A L R AT I N G :

128

The outstanding dual Group 1 winner Won the Prince of Wales’s Stakes by 4-lengths from multiple Gr.1 winners Luxembourg and Adayar, as well as other Gr.1 winners Bay Bridge and Classic Causeway

Took the Juddmonte International Stakes defeating further multiple Gr.1 winners Paddington and Nashwa, in a faster time than his sire Frankel

The joint top-rated horse in Europe in 2023

£15,000

An 8-time Stakes winner, including over a mile

Contact Will Wright: +44 (0)7787 422901 nominations@shadwellstud.co.uk www.shadwellstud.com

rom an exceptional family F of Gr.1 winning speed

January 1st SLF

Standing at Beech House Stud, UK

Contents 88

›› Breeders' Digest Reflections on the sales season

Sales Circuit Fireworks at Goffs over mighty mares

Dr Statz Rising costs put pressure on profitability

Sexton Files Equinox embarks on new chapter

The Finish Line With owner Janet Davies

68

49 50 66 68 88

Forum Vet Forum Late-term pregnancy complications

Equine Health Update Foal nutrition in focus

ROA Forum Syndicate and club management changes

TBA Forum Foal Forum proves popular

Breeder of the Month Jane Makin for You Wear It Well

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70 73 78 82 86

Did you know?

Our monthly average readership is

20,000

NE

SHAQUILLE EUROPEAN CHAMPION SPRINTER OF 2023

W

FO R

Champion Sprinter of 2023

• A Superstar Sprinter • Won back to back Gr.1 sprints, July Cup & Commonwealth Cup • A top class Champions pedigree with looks to match • 2024 Fee £15,000

“I was really impressed. For such a fast horse he has incredible movement and is a very strong imposing individual.”

MIM I

WADH AM

W H

B LO O D STO C K

“A lovely horse. Great scope and movement for a champion sprinter. He’ll feature in our mating plans for 2024.”

DAM IAN

B UR N S

LO D G E

PA R K

ST U D

“An outstanding sprinter but unlike most he had the ability to quicken again when necessary. He also has a great walk and more scope than a typical sprinter.”

JA M ES

W I GA N

LONDON

T H OROU GH B R ED

SERV I CE S

SOLDIER’S CALL THE LEADING UK BASED FIRST SEASON SIRE • Champion 2yo • An exciting young proven sire • Over 100 2yos to run in 2024 • 2023 Yearlings sold for 190,000gns, €135,000, €100,000, £85,000, etc.

• 2024 Fee £8,500

“A really commercial prospect who is a great addition to the UK stallion ranks breeders will love him.”

C H A R L I E

VI GO RS

Dawn Charger

won Prix Eclipse Gr.3

Ollie Fowlston Mobile: +44 (0)7879 421006 Office: +44 (0)1638 555059 Email: ofowlston@dullinghampark.com

www.dullinghampark.com

20

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FROM THE GALLOPS TO GLORY THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS

ROA HORSERACING AWARDS 2023

ROA Leader

Charlie Parker President

Funding will falter without racing and betting deal I

will start this month with a welcome to our newly elected ROA Board members Dr Jim Walker and Steven Applebee, and to Gay Kelleway who has been re-elected to a second term. All three bring a great breadth of experience from within and outside the industry and we look forward to their input over the next three years. Please remember that the Board members are representing your views, so do not hesitate to contact them, or the ROA team, if you have anything you wish to raise.

I would also like to congratulate all of the winners at December’s ROA Horseracing Awards. You will read plenty more about that event in the pages of this publication, but I thought it was an excellent evening reflecting on some of the special moments of 2023.

The seemingly never-ending saga of levy reform is still not resolved. Pressure is increasing from government on the Betting & Gaming Council to put a realistic offer to racing that can be signed off before the April 2024 deadline. Over the last few months there have been times when a deal looked imminent but at the time of writing we still have no resolution. However, the Autumn statement delivered by Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt did have a change to the sports betting tax rate, increasing it from 15% to 21%, which will probably squeeze bookmaker revenues and have an impact on the negotiations. It really is incumbent on all parties to get the levy reform signed off within the set time frame and allow much needed extra funding into the sport.

Clouding that debate is the consultation and subsequent discussion on affordability checks, with the bookmakers continuing to see turnover dropping year on year by double digit amounts. There are several factors at play but self-imposed checks by bookmakers worried about the Gambling Commission issuing further fines have no doubt contributed to the decline, as have reduced marketing offers to punters. So far, the increased betting margins have meant that levy income has remained relatively healthy, but that situation is not sustainable in the longer term. With inflation falling slightly and the economy showing greater resilience than previously forecast, there is hope for 2024 and beyond. If we can get a sensible resolution to the affordability checks consultation and an agreement on levy reform, 2024 will begin to look much brighter.

Speaking of the next 12 months, we are now into the newlook fixture list under a two-year trial, with the accompanying product changes, broadcast innovations and other promotion and marketing initiatives to be rolled out through the year. The KPIs against which the trial should be judged were published by the BHA a few weeks ago and I remain hopeful that the changes can be given time to bed in before participants jump to hasty conclusions. The data must be examined properly and with the

transparency that the new governance structure has given the industry, the insights resulting from that data will inform the conclusions on the various elements of the trial.

This year is also key for the Racing Digital project, a joint venture created by the BHA and Weatherbys to transform and serve the sport we love by creating a next generation digital platform for managing horseracing, which will ultimately replace the existing Racing Admin system that most of you will be familiar with. Racing Digital’s technology platform will respond much faster to change, using data in a more intelligent way and putting participants at the heart of everything.

“It is incumbent on all parties to get the levy reform signed off within the set time frame” Racing Digital represents a huge opportunity for the sport to harness the power of technology. When it launches later in 2024, the industry will have spent a significant sum on the new platform for the administration of British racing. We all know that on most large IT projects there are overruns both in time and spend, but the industry really needs a system that works and delivers the efficiencies that were promised at the outset of the project. Let us hope that this transformational piece of work delivers for us all in 2024 and beyond.

As always, there is plenty going on in horseracing, but let’s hope that 2024 is a positive year for the industry, that all of you experience some memorable moments with your horses, and that we can spend much more of our time talking about and celebrating this wonderful sport and a little less time on racing politics.

I wish you all a happy, healthy and successful New Year.

THE OWNER BREEDER

7

Belardo

GR.1 SIRE BY LOPE DE VEGA

EUROPEAN CHAMPION 2YO Won Gr.1 Dewhurst & Gr.1 Lockinge 26 Stakes winners/performers (12 in 2023) inc...

GOLD PHOENIX

Won Gr.1 Frank E Kilroe Mile Stakes (2023) Won Gr.2 Del Mar Handicap (2023 & 2022) Won Gr.2 Eddie Read Stakes (2023) 4th Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Turf (2023 to Auguste Rodin)

Bearstone Stud

The source of speed

58% 3yo winners/runners

Only Frankel (£350,000) & Siyouni (€200,000) ranked higher

2023 yearlings sold for €100,000, €80,000, €60,000, 45,000gns, 45,000gns, 40,000gns, €40,000, etc.

 bearstonestud.co.uk Fee: £5,500 X-TWITTER @BearstoneStud Oct 1st SLF  +44 (0)1630 647197  +44 (0)7974 948755 - Mark Pennell

TBA Leader

Philip Newton Chairman

No room for complacency on matters of welfare T

here are times when experience in a field of endeavour outside horseracing can provide a useful guide as to how the sport should/could organise itself. Regulation is one such example. When I first dipped into the corporate and PLC world, the City was a free-for-all, largely unregulated and mostly unmanaged, leaving best practice and ethics to the conscience of individual companies and concerns.

Inevitably, there were bad apples in the barrel, resulting in reputational damage and outcomes that led to a series of public and not-so-public enquiries. Eventually, following events surrounding bank failures in the crisis of 2007-8, the quasijudicial Financial Services Authority was replaced by the nongovernmental Financial Conduct Authority, formed, perhaps ironically, on April 1, 2013, and imposed on the entire UK financial and PLC sector. Most would now recognise both the need for and importance of such an institution, and although it has not and never will completely rid the orchard of disease and crop failure, it does ensure that most financial apples can be eaten safely.

Thankfully, British racing is, in the main, well regulated.

Racecourses, trainers, jockeys and owners are licensed in one form or another, and work is ongoing to bring syndicates and racing clubs to a position of accountability, which can only be a positive move.

Reputational damage can be so corrosive. Convincing some of British racing’s audience of the industry’s importance as a sport, a legacy, a significant employer and a major revenue earner for private and government interests alike is already an uphill task. We need to be clear with our own accountability and transparency throughout the sector and externally.

To date, the breeding industry has been self-regulating. It is, however, responsible for the production of the racehorse and therefore present at the start and often the end of the life cycle of the thoroughbred. Welfare is an area where the consequences of any industry failures will have significant outcomes for the future of our breed, for which we are all accountable.

It is of vital importance that we take action ourselves and put in place stringent measures so that we can positively and openly talk about what we have in place. The introduction of the 30-day foal notifications and spot inspections from the BHA are part of that process, with traceability of the thoroughbred at every stage of their life fundamental to this strategy.

Not everyone may approve of my raising the subject, but as King Canute could not hold back the tide, there is an inevitability about breeders’ responsibilities in these areas being more formalised. If we recognise that as a fact and work collectively to deliver the highest standards, acknowledging that traceability and transparency form part of that responsibility, the industry can

shape its own future before impositions become the order.

It is not the only area where the breeding industry should adhere to the highest standards; protecting and enhancing the natural environment is also crucial and both are linked intrinsically to maintenance of our social licence to operate.

No longer can we say: “It’s my business and people need to keep their noses out!” We must take every step to ensure that we are doing the right thing and are seen to be doing so. The future and very existence of the bloodstock breeding world demands that we step up and are counted.

“We need to be clear with our own accountability and transparency throughout the sector and externally” In this respect, the TBA will take every measure to protect, support and advise its membership and the industry. The Board and executive will do everything necessary to achieve a balance between a sensible future and an unregulated past, but to do so profitably these responsibilities must be fully understood and agreed within the breeding industry.

Also discussed recently at a Horses in Society seminar was the need for the industry to have profound multifaceted connectivity with society. Environmental sustainability is key to this vision.

The TBA has developed a tool to help understand this part of our journey. The Stud Farm Carbon Calculator is the first of its kind within the industry and likely the first to have been developed across the equestrian world.

Free to all TBA members and accessible through our website, it provides valuable insight into a stud farm’s carbon emissions and allows breeders to model scenarios for reducing their carbon footprint, utilising resources more efficiently and saving money.

The Stud Farm Carbon Calculator should reassure members that the TBA has environmental sustainability firmly on its agenda.

THE OWNER BREEDER

9

News

Stories from the racing world

BHA leaders apologise for shortcomings as strategy for human welfare is published

T

he British Horseracing Authority (BHA) has published an updated Safeguarding and Human Welfare Strategy, seeking to protect and promote the safety and wellbeing of everyone involved in the sport.

Covering an initial four-year period, the strategy sets out immediate and longerterm objectives to ensure a safe, respectful and enjoyable working environment for all, with the highest standards of behaviour and free from any kind of abuse.

The strategy is said to have been informed by data and evidence collected by the BHA over the past five years through existing reporting mechanisms, enabling a targeted approach based on knowledge and insight.

Since 2018, the BHA has received and investigated more than 350 safeguarding and human welfare concerns, a high proportion of which relate to sexual misconduct, bullying and abusive conduct.

Recent data, it is reported, shows a rise in the number of referrals concerning complex abuse cases, including serious sexual offences.

The evidence was reinforced by the findings of an independent study into gender inequalities and the experiences of young women in the racing industry, conducted by Dr Eleanor Boden between 2015 and 2020 as part of her PhD at Durham University. That study was part-funded by the Racing Foundation It sought to gain an insight into the lives and personal experiences of 140 women employed in the industry during the research period, and its findings suggested

Joe Saumarez Smith: ‘we have fallen short’

that sexual misconduct and gender stereotypes can remain unchallenged or be accepted as ‘banter’; attitudes towards pregnancy and motherhood can be an obstacle to career development, especially in more horse-facing roles; and that some young women have felt the need to leave the industry because they don’t believe they belong or will have the opportunity to reach their potential.

British racing’s leaders are said to have fully endorsed the strategy, with the actions and objectives approved by the BHA Board and supported by the recently established Industry People Board. Work is under way to implement the agreed actions.

BHA Chair Joe Saumarez Smith said: “Everyone involved in our industry should feel safe, supported and confident in the

knowledge they will always be treated with dignity and respect.

“We’ve long stated that ‘racing is everyone’s sport’, but the findings from Dr Boden’s report and the data and evidence underpinning the wider strategy demonstrate this hasn’t always been the case. Horseracing has at times fallen short and let people down.

“On behalf of British racing, I apologise unreservedly to anyone who has experienced harm and behaviour that is unacceptable. I also want to thank those who have shared their stories and provided powerful personal testimony. We’re sorry and will work determinedly to put this right.”

BHA Chief Executive Julie Harrington added: “Racing isn’t immune to problems like bullying and sexual misconduct, and I know that for women in particular it has often been easier to keep your head down and suffer in silence. I’m truly sorry to hear the stories of bullying, sexual misconduct and, in some cases, serious sexual abuse.

This has no place in British racing or wider society.”

The National Trainers’ Federation (NTF) said in a statement: “The findings the BHA has published are a cause for significant concern and tell us more work is essential.

This is something in which everyone in British racing has a role to play and we’re fully supportive of the new BHA strategy.”

If you need support or witness any unacceptable behaviour, please report it to respect@britishhorseracing.com, or call the BHA’s confidential service RaceWISE on 08000 852 580.

Huge pot on offer as Punchestown launches new race series Punchestown has launched a new initiative called The Full Circle, a series for horses rated up to 130 and which comes into effect against a background of ‘super yards’ and fierce competition.

Aimed at two-and-a-half-mile handicap hurdlers rated in the region of 130, the series will consist of ten qualifiers, five in Britain and five in Ireland.

The qualifiers began last month and run to March, with the grand finale on the opening day of the Punchestown Festival on Tuesday, April 30. The first

six horses to finish in each leg will qualify for the finale, with a prize pot of between €80,000 and €100,000.

Richie Galway, Racing Manager at Punchestown, said: “There are two main objectives for this new series.

First, we acknowledge just how high the standard of racing is in Ireland at the moment. Hopefully this series will give the smaller trainer and owners an opportunity to compete for a huge pot on a feature day on the calendar.

“The second reason is to reinvigorate the essential involvement of UK-trained and owned horses at

Punchestown. We have been fortunate enough through the years to have amazing support from throughout the UK, so we have qualifiers across all regions. This is an extraordinary opportunity for horses at a certain level.”

The first qualifier was held at Punchestown – hence ‘The Full Circle’ label, with the finale held there too – while Huntingdon, Kelso, Wincanton, Ludlow and Wetherby will host the British races, with Naas, Gowran Park, Down Royal and Cork staging the other contests across the Irish Sea.

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News

Group 1-winning trainer Neville Callaghan died last month aged 77 after a long battle with illness.

Callaghan, born on May 4, 1946 in Fermoy, County Cork, saddled more than 800 winners on the Flat and nearly 100 over jumps in a 38-year career before retiring in 2008.

He was assistant to Ken Cundell and Bruce Hobbs before taking out his own licence, and trained in Newmarket, at Cadland Stables and later Rathmoy. His first winner was Blessed Beauty at Salisbury in August 1970.

Danehill Dancer is probably the horse he was most associated with, training him to land a Group 1 juvenile double in Ireland in 1995 in the Phoenix and National Stakes in the colours of Michael Tabor.

Danehill Dancer was one of two champions he trained, being the leading juvenile in Ireland that year and later champion British and Irish sire in 2009, while Royal Derbi – likewise owned by Tabor – was champion juvenile hurdler in the 1988-89 campaign.

Callaghan trained for Tabor for more than 30 years and provided him with his first winner when Tornado Prince scored at Haydock in May 1975.

GEORGE SELWYN

Tributes to Neville Callaghan

Neville Callaghan (inset) trained Danehill Dancer for owner Michael Tabor

His other Group 1 winner on the Flat was Fairy Heights in the Fillies’ Mile at Ascot in 1993, while the closest he came to Classic glory was when 100-1 shot Rebel Rebel was runner-up to Footstepsinthesand in the 2005 2,000 Guineas.

Callaghan enjoyed his jointhighest total of winners that year, also notching 40 in 1978.

Callaghan, whose son Simon is a successful trainer in California, had his final Group success when Excellent Art won the 2006 Mill Reef Stakes.

Over jumps, Royal Derbi’s juvenile campaign was highlighted by victory in the Champion 4-Y-O Hurdle at Punchestown, while he went on to plunder the Irish

Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown four years later, before finishing runner-up to Granville Again in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham. Callaghan had also won the Irish Champion Hurdle with Royal Vulcan in 1983.

Callaghan’s longtime friend and fellow Newmarket trainer David Elsworth said: “Neville was in a nursing home at Kentford and I went to see him recently at the time of the Breeders’ Cup. “He was a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde and a bit of a rascal, but everyone loved him. He was always up to some kind of mischief and was a very colourful character. He loved a bet and controversy was not far behind him, but for all that he was a very popular and likeable fellow.”

Ex-champion jockey Kieren Fallon, who rode many winners for Callaghan, also quoted by the Racing Post, said: “Neville was one of the nice guys and when I started riding for Sir Michael Stoute I picked up some rides for him. He was an easy man to ride for as his preparation was tip-top and he was a great man for a touch.

“There aren’t many around like him anymore. It’s sad he’s gone but he had a great life and career.”

Callaghan leaves a widow, Jenny, son Simon and daughter Camilla.

Senior Steward role for Baroness Harding Baroness Dido Harding will become Senior Steward of the Jockey Club this July, succeeding Sandy Dudgeon, who has held the position since 2019.

Retired amateur jockey and Cheltenham Gold Cup and Grand National-winner Sam Waley-Cohen will, meanwhile, join the Jockey Club’s Board of Stewards. The appointments were confirmed at a members’ meeting of the Jockey Club last month.

Baroness Harding, 56, has been on the Board of Stewards since the end of 2017, having been appointed a member of the Jockey Club in 2004.

She was previously a racecourse committee member at Cheltenham and a Director of Racecourse Holdings Trust, which was later renamed Jockey Club Racecourses. She rode successfully as

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THE OWNER BREEDER

an amateur in the 1980s and 1990s, partnering 25 winners, and has owned racehorses all her adult life.

Her best horse, Cool Dawn, progressed from hunter chases all the way to the very top when successful in the 1998 running of the Cheltenham Gold Cup, trained by Robert Alner.

Until October 2021 she was Chair of NHS Improvement and played a central role in the UK’s Covid response as Executive Chair of NHS Test and Trace.

She was previously Chief Executive of TalkTalk Telecom Group, having held executive roles at Sainsbury’s and Tesco.

Baroness Harding has been a member of the House of Lords since 2014 and currently sits on the Lords Communications and Digital Select Committee.

She said: “As a lifelong racing enthusiast, it is a huge privilege to be appointed Senior Steward. The Jockey Club holds a unique position to both protect the sport’s heritage and tradition, and also to innovate to attract and delight racegoers of the future to ensure horseracing can thrive for generations to come.”

Also announced last month was the election of nine new members of the Jockey Club.

The three new Honorary members are HH Sheikha Hissa bint Hamdan Al Maktoum, HH Princess Zahra Aga Khan and Gaynor Rupert.

The six new Ordinary members are Guy Henriques, Sue Lucas, Rishi Persad, Zara Tindall, Michael Wainwright and David Wiggin.

A Generational Sire Among North American Sires, in 2023:

Ranks #3 on the General Sire List with just three crops and over $17M in progeny earnings.

3 Grade 1 Stakes Winners, 11 Grade 1 Stakes Horses (#1 by %),

12 Graded Stakes Winners (#1 by %), 24 Graded Stakes Horses (#1 by %), 16 Stakes Winners and 34 Stakes Horses (#1 by %)

Inquiries to Rebecca Nicholson or Tom Hamm +1 859.873.7053 • www.threechimneys.com @ three_chimneys LGB, LLC 2023 / Photo: EquiSport

BREED TRUE

Changes

Racing’s news in a nutshell

People and business Tony Charlton

Assistant to currently suspended trainer Milton Harris is granted a temporary licence at The Beeches stable in Sutton Veny.

James Graham

Dublin-born rider enjoys his 3,000th win in North America on Vortex at Fair Grounds on December 3.

Belmont Stakes

Final leg of the US Triple crown will move to Saratoga in 2024 while Belmont is redeveloped and drop in distance to ten furlongs.

Jette Nygaard-Andersen

Jamie Moore

Rider set for extended spell on the sidelines after sustaining a fracture to his vertebrae and several broken ribs following a fall at Lingfield.

Alex Edwards

Loses a winner through disqualification, using his whip nine times above the seven-strike limit on Mixedwave at Market Rasen in November.

John and Thady Gosden

Father-and-son team named champion trainers for 2023, becoming the first partnership to capture the championship.

Steps down from her role as Chief Executive of Entain, owner of UK bookmakers Ladbrokes and Coral, with immediate effect.

Harry Eustace

Upwardly mobile trainer signs lease on Godolphin’s Highfield Stables on the Bury Road having outgrown Park Lodge Stables in Newmarket.

Shadwell

Rosehill racecourse

Ascot racecourse

Jack Gilligan

Entire stallion roster, including Baaeed and new boy Mostahdaf, relocates to Beech House Stud in Newmarket from Nunnery Stud in Norfolk.

Renews media rights deal with HBA Media, which helps distribute pictures to international broadcasters, for a further four years.

Sydney track, home of the Group 1 Golden Slipper, set to close amid plans to build 25,000 homes and a metro station on the site.

27-year-old jockey returns from the US, where he has spent the last decade in Kentucky, to take rides for former boss Sir Mark Prescott.

Horse obituaries Speightstown 25

US champion sprinter became a prolific sire, his 26 individual Group/Grade 1 winners including Prix Jean Prat victor Lord Shanakill.

Starlet’s Sister 14

Dam of French Derby and Arc hero Sottsass and seven-time Grade 1 winner Sistercharlie dies from colic at Haras des Monceaux.

Chris Cook

Racing Post man named Writer of the Year at the HWPA Awards while Lydia Hislop claims the leading broadcaster accolade for the third time.

14

THE OWNER BREEDER

Dandy Man 20

Group 3-winning sprinter became a successful stallion for Ballyhane Stud, siring 14 individual Group winners, three at the top level.

QUALITY WITHOUT COMPROMISE Lope Y Fernandez Bay, 16.0hh | 2017 Lope De Vega ex Black Dahlia (Dansili)

Physique - Pedigree - Performance

£8,500 October 1st

Mutasaabeq

Brown, 16.0hh | 2018 Invincible Spirit ex Ghanaati (Giant’s Causeway)

Bred in the Blue

£6,500 October 1st

Rajasinghe

Bay, 15.3hh | 2015 Choisir ex Bunditten (Soviet Star)

Exceptional Value

£3,000 October 1st

Stradivarius

Chesnut, 15.3hh | 2014 Sea The Stars ex Private Life (Bering)

Speed - Soundness - Sireline

£10,000 Live Foal

Time Test

Bay, 16.0hh | 2012 Dubawi ex Passage Of Time (Dansili)

By sire of sires Dubawi

£8,500 October 1st

Contact the team today Joe Bradley 07706 262046 | Joe.Bradley@nationalstud.co.uk Jamie Jackson 07794 459108 | Jamie. Jackson@nationalstud.co.uk

Changes

Racehorse and stallion

Equinox

World’s highest-rated Flat runner is retired to Shadai Stallion Station after his impressive victory in the Japan Cup. His fee is ¥20 million (£110,000).

Movements and retirements

Slate Lane

Talented five-year-old for the Emmet Mullins stable suffers a career-ending injury when winning a valuable prize at Haydock in November.

Kenway

David Stack’s Coolagown Stud recruits Group 3-winning son of Galiway for stallion duties in 2024. His fee is set at €3,000.

Mac Swiney

Irish 2,000 Guineas winner, also a Group 1 scorer at two, will stand the 2024 season at the Irish National Stud. His debut fee is €8,000.

People obituaries

Jonathan Irwin 82 Reg Todd 77

Enjoyed a near 30-year association with Barry and Charlie Hills’ Lambourn stable, looking after 2022 Royal Hunt Cup winner Dark Shift.

Neville Callaghan 77

Former trainer enjoyed top-level successes with Fairy Heights and Danehill Dancer plus Royal Derbi in the Irish Champion Hurdle.

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THE OWNER BREEDER

Theresa Marnane 61

Noted owner and breeder with husband Con whose family’s Bansha House Stables is a prominent breezeup consignor.

Oversaw the construction of Kildare Paddocks and introduced the Cartier Million during his time as Managing Director of Goffs.

John Ryall 87

West country trainer and dairy farmer sent out 50 winners in Britain, taking the 2005 Highland National with talented stayer Sir Frosty.

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Horse at grass

The Howard Wright Column

Dunnett death recalls infamous drugs dispute

GEORGE SELWYN

W

ith a short notice in the Daily Telegraph but not a word of acknowledgement in the racing media, at least until now, just about the final chapter in one of the sport’s least savoury stories of the last four decades closed with the death of Neville Dunnett, one-time Director of the Horseracing Forensic Laboratory, on November 9.

Nothing has ever been made public, as far I can discover, but there seems little doubt that Dunnett, eminently regarded in the world of forensic sciences, took the fall for a situation that was not of his making. He would have been too self-effacing to discuss the issue in his defence, but the fact he went on to take a responsible position in another sport tells its own tale.

The story began on June 10, 1989 when Aliysa, owned by the Aga Khan, trained by Michael Stoute and ridden by Walter Swinburn, won the Oaks. Smiles all round, but a month later the Jockey Club, then in charge of regulation, announced that Aliysa had failed the post-race drugs test for a metabolite of camphor, a prohibited substance, and was disqualified.

In December that year the Aga Khan resigned from the Jockey Club, following another failed test on one of his Newmarket-trained horses, which solicitor Matthew McCloy said was not the reason for his client’s action, and there followed three years of acrimonious action, challenging racing’s drug-testing procedures.

Although it was not disputed that detectable quantities of the

Aliysa: Aga Khan filly’s 1989 Oaks success was chalked off

camphor metabolite were found in Aliysa’s urine sample, the Aga Khan employed scientists in North America to probe the reliability of the Jockey Club’s screening methods and its interpretation of the data, all conducted at the Horseracing Forensic Laboratory in Newmarket under the direction of Dunnett.

In December 1990, 17 months after the original disqualification, the Jockey Club confirmed the decision, following a lengthy

Name game causes confusion Thank goodness for Constitution Hill. Not just because he is among the best hurdlers, if not the best, in recent times, but also for his name, a memorable one in a sea of jumping confusion.

There’s a saying that a good horse never had a bad name. From the millions of thoroughbreds that have been raced around the world, it should be possible to find one or two that are exceptions to the rule, starting perhaps with the 1782 Derby winner Assassin, right through to Ha Ha Ha, which has been carried by at least three unfortunates in the last 20 years.

Some owners go for devilment, such as James Wigan with the family of Dank, which includes Doom – appropriately enough since she equalled the all-time record of the shortest-priced loser in Britain when beaten at 1-25 this summer – Dungeon and Sulk.

Generally, though, the theory holds good, and that is good for racing, or at least its promotion. Even the appearance of Kauto Star could be judged a success from naming purposes, as followers chose between Korto or Kayto. However, the idea has been seriously challenged in the last couple of decades by proliferation of certain wordage.

Sticking with the jumps world, the trend towards filling fields with imports from Ireland, the traditional source of raw material, and France, the newer reservoir, has put a block on naming imagination.

Who but the owners can tell the difference between, for example, Fanoin D’Estruval, Farouk D’Alene, Fakir D’Oudairies and Funambule Sivola?

Delving deeper into a couple of those derivatives, the Racing Post database has 181 horses with Sivola in their names, and 163

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THE OWNER BREEDER

with D’Estruval, although perhaps the daddy of them all is Minella with 205.

Points will be awarded for distinguishing between Sivola De Sivola and Sainte De Sivola, and between Reve De Sivola and Suave De Sivola, while there is a bonus for mapping the careers of eight-year-olds Galopin Des Champs and Galopin Des Obeaux without recourse to the form book.

On the Flat, the trend of naming similarity does not seem to be quite as conspicuous, except with certain owners. Maybe a greater spread of stallions helps to stimulate greater thought, although exceptions can be found. For example, the Racing Post database contains 1,110 horses with Desert in their name.

Desert Crown and Desert Orchid (if not exactly a Flat representative) are easily distinguished and remembered, but what about Desert Cop, Desert Falcon, Desert Games, Desert Halo, Desert Hero and Desert Order, all newly-turned four-yearolds? I defy anyone but the most keenly closeted anorak to make a significant distinction.

Does any of this really matter? After all, once a horse has run there is no way a name can be changed, and it is an owner’s prerogative to give their horses whatever name they wish, as long as it does not appear on a protected list or passes the Weatherbys’ test of decency.

In general terms it does matter, especially to those charged with promoting the sport to an otherwise unsuspecting audience which can breed on familiarity. Can it be avoided, though? Sadly, like suggestions that might stop Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott from saddling 99 per cent of the Grand National field, probably not.

disciplinary hearing in which Dunnett was a key witness, at which point the Aga Khan withdrew his 60 horses in training with Stoute and 30 with Luca Cumani.

For the next two years, the Aga Khan pursued a legal case against the Jockey Club for a judicial review of the disqualification, which was turned down by the High Court in July 1991 and by the Appeal Court in December 1992, on the grounds that participants entered into a contract and there was no “public source” for the Jockey Club’s powers. In other words, like any sporting administrator, the Jockey Club was not subject to judicial review.

The saga did not end there. All the while, it seems, efforts were

“Eminently regarded in the world of forensic sciences, he took the fall for a situation not of his making” made behind the scenes in an attempt to persuade the Aga Khan to bring his horses back to Britain.

The turning point came in December 1994 when the Jockey Club announced it would introduce new drug-testing procedures, to put Britain on a similar footing to Ireland and France. The man behind the changes was Dunnett, who that year had seen his expertise recognised by becoming the first recipient of the Alan Curry award, presented for outstanding services over 17 years as

secretary of the International Association of Forensic Toxicologists.

On hearing the news, the Aga Khan revealed he would again have horses trained in Britain, saying: “I am confident that any questions I may have will be satisfactorily addressed in a continuing atmosphere of mutual trust.”

True to his word, the Aga Khan sent yearlings to Stoute and Cumani in the autumn of 1995. However, Dunnett, who ironically was born just two days before the Aga Khan, on December 11, 1936, retired from the Horseracing Forensic Laboratory at the end of 1995, just after his 59th birthday, not his 60th or 65th, which would have been normal retiring ages.

At the time, the laboratory, for which planning permission to build new premises in Fordham was gained in April 1995, while Dunnett was in situ, was owned by the Levy Board. Its July 1996 annual report noted: “HFL and the Board wish to record their appreciation of the contribution made by Mr Dunnett to the technical development of the laboratory and maintenance of the integrity of racing over a period of 12 years, the last six as Director.”

Dunnett clearly had more to offer and he went on to become a forensic steward with the National Greyhound Racing Club, retiring only at the age of 70 in May 2007.

Meanwhile, the Aga Khan’s return to British racing for the first time in six years was confirmed with runners from the Stoute and Cumani stables in 1996. However, Cumani came off the payroll in 2000, and Stoute saddled his last runners for the owner in 2006.

Thereafter, few runners carrying the Shergar silks have been seen in England, and all the Aga Khan’s horses are trained in France and Ireland. The latter country has, of course, had its problems recently with drug-testing procedures, but that is another story.

THE OWNER BREEDER

19

New stallions

Great EXPECTATIONS From four-time Group 1 winner Paddington to top sprinter Shaquille and unbeaten Arc hero Ace Impact, there are plenty of exciting new stallions across Europe for breeders to take advantage of in 2024 Words: James Thomas

F

ew areas of the stallion market come under as much scrutiny as each year’s new retirees. It stands to reason that breeders are keen to unlock a new piece of the pedigree puzzle; as we’ve seen this year, those who identified Havana Grey as a name worth getting behind have invariably been well rewarded, either in the ring or on the racetrack.

Of course, you can only make the right mating plans if you have availed yourself of all the relevant information on all the available options. We have compiled a comprehensive guide to this year’s new stallions, featuring detailed form and pedigree notes, and the occasional physical observation, to help you find the most suitable sire for your mare.

Acclamation line stallions

BILL SELWYN

We will never know what would have happened if connections hadn’t taken the decision to geld Battaash,

the highest-rated son of Dark Angel, midway through his two-year-old season. However, given he went on to prove a sprinter of the very highest calibre, winning 13 races and four Group 1s, breeders must have longed to produce offspring in his image.

In 2024 they will get the next best thing as The Antarctic, a full-brother to Battaash, is starting out at Coolmore’s Castlehyde Stud at a fee of €6,000.

As well as his eye-catching pedigree, being by Dark Angel and out of the Lawman mare Anna Law, The Antarctic clearly possesses model good looks, having cost Coolmore’s MV Magnier 750,000gns at Book 1. The pedigree might not be done improving too as breeder Paul McCartan of Ballyphilip Stud sold a Blue Point half-brother to Godolphin for 1,500,000gns in October.

The Antarctic won four races during his time at Ballydoyle, three of which were gained at two. He broke his maiden

Triple Time: top miling son of Frankel retires to Dalham Hall Stud

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THE OWNER BREEDER

at Tipperary in April before following up a few weeks later at Naas. Next came the step up into stakes company. His biggest win at two came in the Group 3 Prix de Cabourg, a race won by the likes of Earthlight and Ervedya in the past. He twice reached the podium in Group 1s won by Blackbeard, finishing third in the Prix Morny and then runner-up in the Middle Park Stakes.

He added a fourth win to his record when he fought off Ocean Quest and Ocean Jewel to land the Group 3 Lacken Stakes at three.

Dark Angel is not the only name who has shown Acclamation’s prowess as a sire of sires; think Mehmas, Equiano and Aclaim. Acclamation has spent 20 seasons at the Cashman family’s Rathbarry Stud and in 2024 he will be joined by his son Bouttemont, who becomes the first son of Acclamation to retire to Ireland since Mehmas in 2017.

Bouttemont will stand for €5,000.

He ran 26 times for trainer Yann Barberot, winning six races between the ages of two and five. He ran over a range of trips during the early stages of his career but really began to progress when connections settled on a sprinting campaign.

He beat the subsequent Group 3 scorer Spycatcher when he won a valuable conditions race at Newcastle in 2022 and took the step up to stakes company later in the season when he won the Group 3 Prix de Meautry. His sixth victory came in the Listed Prix Hampton over five furlongs at Chantilly, a race he won in a time of 56.18 seconds.

He was bred by Elisabeth Fabre’s Ecurie Peregrine from the Fastnet Rock

BILL SELWYN

Michael Tabor leads in last season’s top three-year-old Paddington, a new addition to Coolmore, following his win in the Eclipse Stakes

mare Basilia, a winner over sprint trips herself and a half-sister to the Sha Tin Group 3 scorer Joyful Trinity.

The Danehill line

Having retired to Tally-Ho Stud in 2007, Kodiac quickly established himself as a linchpin of the leading farm’s roster. His status continues on the rise with sons Ardad, Coulsty and Prince Of Lir having all sired top-level winners of their own in recent seasons. Now one of Kodiac’s seven Group 1-winning progeny is joining him at Tally-Ho with Good Guess being introduced at a fee of €17,500.

He was bought for owner Hisaaki Saito by Sebastien Desmontils’ Chauvigny Global Equine for 420,000gns at Book 1 and duly sent into training in Chantilly with Fabrice Chappet. Good Guess won his first two starts at two and ended his juvenile campaign by running third in the Listed Prix Zeddaan.

He continued his upward trajectory by winning the Group 3 Prix Djebel on his three-year-old reappearance.

Good Guess produced his career-best performance in a hot renewal of the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat, which he won by three lengths. Subsequent Group 1 Prix du Moulin heroine Sauterne filled the runner-up spot, while Chaldean and Belbek were among those in behind.

Good Guess was bred by Cheveley Park Stud and is one of three black-type

performers out of Zykina. His pedigree goes back to Cheveley Park Stud’s topnotch miler Russian Rhythm. Zykina is also by Pivotal, meaning Good Guess is bred on the same cross as dual Group 1-winning sprinter Fairyland.

The other new Danehill line option available to breeders is Capital Stud’s Castle Star. The son

“Acclamation will be joined at Rathbarry by his son Bouttemont” of Starspangledbanner was a highperforming two-year-old for Fozzy Stack, winning the Listed First Flier Stakes and the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes. He ended a busy juvenile campaign by finishing second to Perfect Power in the Group 1 Middle Park Stakes.

He will stand his first season in County Kilkenny at a fee of €5,000.

The Galileo line

There are no new sons of Galileo being added to the Flat stallion ranks in 2024, although the 12-time champion is still

heavily represented by a whole host of male-line descendants.

European breeders have access to four new stallions by Galileo’s best son, Frankel, including Chaldean, who retires to stand alongside his sire at Juddmonte’s Banstead Manor Stud at a fee of £25,000.

Although the Andrew Balding-trained Chaldean ran in the Juddmonte silks and is now among the select few to have occupied a berth in the Banstead Manor stallion boxes, he was in fact bred by Whitsbury Manor Stud.

He is the best of five black-type performers out of the Harpers’ budding blue hen Suelita, the daughter of Dutch Art whose roll of honour includes speedy and precocious talents such as Mill Reef Stakes scorer Alkumait and his Listed-winning and Group 1-placed sibling Get Ahead, who sold to British breeding syndicate First Bloodstock for 2,500,000gns during the Tattersalls December Mares Sale.

Get Ahead is not the only member of the family to have changed hands for a significant sum, as Chaldean joined the Juddmonte fold at a cost of 550,000gns at the 2020 December Foal Sale. Two years later, Juddmonte went to 1,000,000gns to secure his Kingman half-sister.

Although Chaldean is a slightly different type physically, his race record bears some notable similarities to his

THE OWNER BREEDER

21

››

New stallions

›› sire as they are the only father-son

BILL SELWYN

duo to complete the Dewhurst Stakes and 2,000 Guineas double. Chaldean’s Dewhurst strike capped a productive juvenile campaign in which he also won the Group 3 Acomb Stakes and Group 2 Champagne Stakes. The smooth-walking chestnut is the only Group 1-winning twoyear-old son of Frankel at stud in Europe.

Shadwell has relocated its British stallion roster to the historic Beech House Stud in Newmarket, where Frankel’s dual Group 1-winning son Mostahdaf joins Baaeed and Mohaather. On his race record alone Mostahdaf has strong claims of being one of the best value new sires in 2024 as the 128-rated newcomer has been introduced at just £15,000.

Mostahdaf didn’t debut until three but quickly made up for lost time by winning five races that season, with a Listed brace followed by a score in the Group 3 Darley Stakes. A steady but sustained rate of progress saw him claim two more Group 3 prizes at four, namely the Gordon Richards and September Stakes.

Mostahdaf, who was masterfully trained by John and Thady Gosden, returned at five and showed the full benefit of connections’ patient approach by winning two of the season’s most prestigious races. First he ran away with the Prince Of Wales’s Stakes at Royal Ascot to defeat the likes of Luxembourg and Adayar before he put Nashwa and Paddington in their place in the

Chaldean: 2,000 Guineas winner is oversubscribed at Banstead Manor Stud

22

THE OWNER BREEDER

BILL SELWYN

Dragon Symbol (near): first past the post in the Commonwealth Cup

Juddmonte International.

His impressive racing CV is underpinned by striking good looks and a solid Shadwell pedigree. He is out of the Listed-winning Dubawi mare Handassa, making him a half-brother to the dual Group 1-winning miler Nazeef.

Chaldean earning ‘rave reviews’ New stallions tend to generate a broad range of opinions. However, during the week of the December Sales in Newmarket, one name seemed to receive exclusively positive reviews.

Not that that is any great surprise when the stallion in question is a Dewhurst Stakes and 2,000 Guineas winner, and a son of Frankel.

“Chaldean has been getting rave reviews since he arrived at the stud,” says Juddmonte’s European Nominations Manager Shane Horan.

“If you were to write the perfect CV for a stallion prospect, he’s got everything you’d want. And, to be honest, he’s sold himself when people have seen him. The response has been phenomenal. One noted breeder told me that he reminded him of Galileo the day he went to stud. He’s been going down a storm.”

Chaldean is the first non-homebred to stand under the Juddmonte banner in Europe since Generous, albeit the dual Derby winner ran in the colours of Prince Fahd Salman, whereas Chaldean carried the operation’s green, pink and white silks.

“The plan has always been, in time, to have a son of both Frankel

His pedigree also features a pair of Group 1-winning sprinters in Goodricke and Pastoral Pursuits.

Triple Time may have been campaigned sparingly during his threeand four-year-old seasons but when he made the racecourse he showed himself to be a high-class talent.

He belatedly kicked his Classic term off with a comfortable success in the Group 3 Superior Mile Stakes and returned at four with a career-best victory. A deep field assembled for the 2023 Queen Anne Stakes, including the likes of Inspiral, Modern Games and Native Trail, but Triple Time had their measure and prevailed by a hard-fought neck. He gained the first two of his four career victories for Kevin Ryan at two, including the Listed Ascendant Stakes.

He is out of Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum’s superb producer Reem

and Kingman at Banstead Manor,” says Horan. “Chaldean isn’t a homebred but it’s well documented he was a smashing foal and we had to pay 550,000gns to get him.

“Whitsbury Manor Stud are excellent breeders and Suelita is a very good mare. When she visited Frankel she really had been punching above her weight, plus she’s a Machiavellian line mare, which works extremely well with Frankel. I remember when we first saw Chaldean at the farm – he was an easy horse to like, always had that rock-solid temperament. A lot of Irish commercial breeders are interested in him as they remember what he was like as a foal, and that’s basically what every commercial breeder is trying to produce.”

Horan also gave an insight into the type of mares likely to be visiting Chaldean, as well as the level of support he will receive from Juddmonte’s own broodmare band.

“Physically he’s more like the dam’s side, and she’s a producer of very good two-year-olds and sprinters, so I think it makes sense to try Chaldean with some fast families,” he says. “At the same time Frankel brings that great versatility in that he can get top-class milers and very good middle-distance horses, so we want to give him a chance with some Classic aptitude pedigrees too. Final plans are still being decided but Juddmonte will be sending around 15 mares and the aim is for Chaldean to cover 150 in total. He’s already heavily oversubscribed.”

››

Performance at Every Stage

ULYSSES CR

OP

1st Sire of

Classic prospect FEIGNING MADNESS (by Ulysses), unbeaten at 2 and entered in the Irish Derby.

an Irish Classic placed Group winner

CR OP

2nd Sire of CR

a British Classic placed Group winner

OP

3rd The Leading CR

UK-based 3rd Crop Sire in Europe (earnings)

OP

4th 2023 yearlings made up to 160,000gns at Tattersalls Fee: £9,000 (1st October SLF)

Cheveley Park Stud Duchess Drive, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 9DD (01638) 730316 • www.cheveleypark.co.uk • enquiries@cheveleypark.co.uk • X-TWITTER@CPStudOfficial

New stallions ›› Three, making him a sibling to no less than

BILL SELWYN

There is a new name to the list of British-based stallion studs this year in Culworth Grounds Farm, which welcomes Group 2-winning sprinter El Caballo as its first recruit for what is hoped will be a long and fruitful stallion venture for the Banburybased outfit, writes Nancy Sexton.

The farm’s Sophie Buckley is under no illusions as to the potential difficulties of launching a stallion venture but in El Caballo, there is a horse who fulfils much of what the commercial market requires – and at an affordable first-year fee of £6,000.

The winner of six straight races early in his three-year-old campaign capped by the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes for Karl Burke, he shares his sire Havana Gold with Havana Grey, the shining young light of the British stallion scene, and is backed by a young team who plan to support the horse every step of the way.

“I felt like there was a bit of a gap in the UK stallion market for a horse like him,” says Buckley. “I started off as a small breeder and I think like one. I know how tough it can be.

Paying £15,000 for a stallion can be very expensive when it comes to selling your foal or yearling. And once you factor everything else on top, the greater returns are harder to make.

“I think the industry in Britain will change a lot in the next ten years.

It just felt like now is the right time to take that opportunity to stand a stallion, and I think he’s a sensible horse to start off with.”

Sharp enough to win in May of his juvenile year, El Caballo later switched successfully between turf and the all-weather, with a win in the Listed Spring Cup at Lingfield followed by his Sandy Lane win.

“He won six races in a row, which is hard to do,” says Buckley. “So there’s a consistency there and a

Mostahdaf: attractively priced at £15,000

24

THE OWNER BREEDER

Havana Grey, and the first stallion to stand at Sophie Buckley’s Culworth Grounds Farm.

He was bred by Whitsbury Manor out of the useful Showcasing mare Showstoppa, making El Caballo a sibling to the black-type two-yearold performers Avengers Queen and Symbology. In turn, Showstoppa is a sibling to the Mill Reef Stakes scorer

TATTERSALLS

Home support key to El Caballo

six black-type performers. These include the Group 1 Prix Jean Romanet scorer Ajman Princess, Group 2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein winner Ostilio and the Group 3-winning Cape Byron. An unraced sibling, Rosaline, hit the headlines this year as the dam of Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère winner Rosallion. The homebred son of Frankel joins Darley’s Dalham Hall Stud roster at £10,000.

The Irish National Stud will allow breeders to tap into a different branch of the Galileo sire line with the introduction of Mac Swiney, a dual Group 1-winning son of New Approach, who will stand at €8,000.

The Jim Bolger homebred was out by the June of his juvenile season and concluded that campaign by winning the Group 1 Vertem Futurity Stakes. He may have been the lesser fancied of the Bolger pair in the following year’s Irish 2,000 Guineas but he kept on well to deny Poetic Flare, now a resident at the Shadai Stallion Station, by a short-head.

He is out of the Teofilo mare Halla Na Saoire, which means he boasts Galileo on the top and bottom line of his pedigree, being inbred 2x3 to the breedshaping son of Sadler’s Wells. His dam is closely related to 2011 Dewhurst winner Parish Hall, being a half-sister to that Group 1-winning two-year-old’s dam.

The Galileo sire line has taken root to such an extent that he already appears back in the third generation of El Caballo’s pedigree. The Karl Burketrained Group 2 winner descends from Galileo through Teofilo and Havana Gold. He is the second son of Havana Gold to retire to stud, with the first being Whitsbury Manor’s rising star

Sophie Buckley: standing El Caballo

soundness of mind and limb. There’s no real weaknesses in his pedigree.

He’s a half-brother to two recent stakes horses out of a very good mare in Showstoppa – there’s plenty of depth to his page. His sire Havana Gold was also such a solid stallion for the British market. He was brilliant to get a young mare going, and sadly he’s no longer with us.”

The team behind El Caballo were busy sourcing mares for the stallion at the recent breeding stock sales including at Tattersalls, where the horse himself was available to see – and with positive reviews.

“He has a proper team of young people behind him,” says Buckley.

“They’re enthusiastic people who understand the market well and trade at different levels of it. I’ve bought plenty of mares myself to go to him and they have too.

“Some of the people who raced him in the syndicate [Grange Park Racing XVIII and OfO Partners] are also staying in and sending mares.

Breeding rights have been sold to plenty of good people, including to several good Irish breeders, and I’m getting phone calls every day from people wanting to use him. So he’ll begin with a good solid foundation of support.”

Temple Meads.

El Caballo followed the theme of his family by showing good form at two, but he proved even better at three when his four victories included a determined success in the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes.

He will stand for a fee of £6,000 in 2024.

Coolagown Stud’s latest recruit Kenway offers breeders access to one of the hottest crosses under either code.

››

4

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20/11/2023 14:53

Classic performers new to jumps ranks

››

National Hunt breeders in Britain and Ireland have some high-class names to conjure with in 2024, not least the dual Classic winner Hurricane Lane.

The son of Frankel won seven races for Godolphin and Charlie Appleby, including over a mile on heavy ground at two. He improved rapidly at three and, after running third in Adayar’s Derby, headed to the Curragh for the Irish equivalent.

Lone Eagle looked to have slipped the field when he put daylight between himself and the rest, but Hurricane Lane had the class and the courage to close the leader down and eventually prevailed by a neck.

He put in a dominant display to land the Grand Prix de Paris by six lengths from Wordsworth, then rocked up at Doncaster for the St Leger.

He rounded out his three-year-old campaign by finishing third, beaten less than a length, behind Torquator Tasso in the Arc. He returned at four and regained the winning thread when readily claiming the Group 2 Jockey Club Stakes.

Hurricane Lane is out of Gale Force, a Listed winner over a mile and seven and a half furlongs in the Prix Denisy. In turn Gale Force is a half-sister to Group 1 QIPCO British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes scorer Seal Of Approval.

Hurricane Lane, who reached a peak official rating of 123, will stand under the Coolmore National Hunt banner at Castlehyde Stud.

Another of Coolmore’s farms welcomes Pyledriver, with the dual Group 1 winner set to stand at The Beeches Stud.

The son of Harbour Watch won eight races for William Muir, including a seven-furlong maiden at the start of a two-year-old campaign that also included a win in the Listed Ascendant Stakes. He proved himself over middle distances at three by winning the Group 2 King Edward VII Stakes and the Great Voltigeur Stakes before finishing a

staying-on third in Galileo Chrome’s St Leger.

He proved better than ever at four as he won the Group 1 Coronation Cup and maintained his rate of progression into his five-year-old season when he blew away the likes of Torquator Tasso, Mishriff and Westover to land the King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes.

That effort was given a career-best rating of 124. Pyledriver is out of the Le Havre mare La Pyle, a half-sister to the Group 1 scorer Mont Ormel.

The Gold Cup has been a real proving ground for future National Hunt stallion talent, with recent winners who have made a significant impact at stud including Kayf Tara, Westerner and dual champion sire Yeats. It is, therefore, a real boon for British breeders that Dan and Grace Skelton’s Alne Park Stud have secured the services of Subjectivist. His fee has been set at £4,000.

The son of Teofilo and Reckoning, a talented producer by Danehill Dancer, was forward enough to win over seven furlongs at two, but the more his stamina was tested, the more ability he showed. His three-year-old season included victories at Listed and Group 3 level and culminated in a two-length success in the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak. He resumed at four with a facile win in the Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup before producing his defining performance at Royal Ascot in 2021. The Mark Johnstontrained Subjectivist travelled strongly throughout, easily moved clear over three furlongs from home and never looked like being caught as the likes of Princess Zoe, Stradivarius, Santiago, Serpentine and Twilight Payment were left trailing in his wake.

Injury rather put a halt on his progress thereafter but he returned at six and showed plenty of his old spark to finish a creditable third to Courage Mon Ami in the most recent running of the Gold Cup. With the likes of Affinisea and Crystal Ocean covering sizeable books of mares, sons of Sea The Stars look set to exert an increasing influence over the National Hunt landscape. Whytemount

He is by Galiway and out of a Kendargent mare, meaning he is bred on the same lines as the two-year-old Group 1-winning siblings Sealiway and Sunway, as well as Willie Mullins’ topclass hurdlers Vauban and Gala Marceau.

Kenway was precocious and speedy enough to win over six and a half

furlongs at two and later stayed ten furlongs in stakes company. His biggest victory came at two when he defeated Wooded to land the Group 3 Prix la Rochette.

Although he is a grandson of Galileo, there is speed in his pedigree too as his dam won a Group 3 over six furlongs.

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THE OWNER BREEDER

BILL SELWYN

New stallions

Subjectivist: new to Alne Park Stud

Stud introduces another son of Sea The Stars in Mojo Star.

The 220,000gns Book 1 yearling finished second to Adayar in the Derby, and later that season he filled the same position behind Hurricane Lane in the St Leger. He came back at four and got within half a length of landing the Gold Cup, disputing the lead over a furlong out but eventually giving best to Kyprios.

Not only is he by Sea The Stars but he is a half-brother to the Listedwinning pair Cape Magic and Portage, while his dam is a Juddmonte-bred daughter of Zamindar from the family of Rail Link. Mojo Star’s fee is €3,000 for a colt or €1,500 for a filly.

Another new retiree who was placed in the Derby is Amhran Na Bhfiann, who ran third to Serpentine in 2020.

He enjoyed his biggest success the following year when he made all to land the Group 2 Curragh Cup by seven lengths.

The superbly bred son of Galileo is out of Lodge Park Stud’s Alluring Park, making him a brother to Oaks heroine Was, as well as a close relation to top-class runner and talented sire New Approach. Amhran Na Bhfiann stands at Sean Kinsella’s Knockhouse Stud in County Kilkenny at €1,500.

He is standing in partnership with the Chehboub family of Haras de Beaumont and his fee has been set at €3,000.

The Giant’s Causeway line

Another farm standing its first stallion in 2024 is Diamond Stud Bellewstown, which opens for business

››

›› with Marie’s Diamond. The son of

Footstepsinthesand is a hardy and clean-limbed individual who ran an incredible 65 times and won seven races during his time with trainer Mark Johnston.

His biggest victory came at two when he won the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes by half a length from subsequent Grade 1 winner Viadera. He retired with two Listed victories to his name, including an all-the-way win in the Paradise Stakes by over four lengths. He also has a Group 1 placing on his record having finished third to Circus Maximus in the Queen Anne Stakes.

Marie’s Diamond, a €35,000 yearling, is a half-brother to Australian Listed winner Sikandarabad and from the family of Sinndar.

The Green Desert line

Green Desert’s potency was first witnessed in 1990 when he was crowned champion first-season sire, and his influence has only deepened since as he has established his own branch of the Danzig line. Breeders have a whole host of new routes into this prolific source of winners.

Leading the line-up is Cartier champion sprinter Shaquille, the first new retiree to Steve Parkin’s up-andcoming operation at Dullingham Park on the edge of Newmarket. The dual Group 1 winner has been introduced at a very fair-looking £15,000.

The Julie Camacho-trained talent actually debuted with a victory over seven furlongs at two before dropping back to sprinting to register another two wins before his juvenile campaign was out.

At three he showed accelerated progression, going from high-end handicap winner on his seasonal reappearance to the Listed Carnarvon Stakes before being pitched in at the deep end in Group 1 company at Royal Ascot. As well as a monstrous talent, Shaquille had plenty of character too and developed a habit of fluffing his lines at the start. This was never more evident than in the Commonwealth Cup, when he reared as the stalls opened and seemingly lost all chance.

However, he not only recovered but worked his way into contention two furlongs out before showing turbocharged acceleration to run down Little Big Bear for a popular length-and-aquarter success. He repeated the trick when he took on his elders in the July Cup on his next outing.

He again missed the start and then

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THE OWNER BREEDER

proceeded to race enthusiastically, with Rossa Ryan electing to let Shaquille use his natural exuberance. They were in front not long after halfway and never looked back as Shaquille stuck his head down and ran on strongly to defeat Run To Freedom, Kinross, Art Power and Khaadem.

Although there are clear influences for speed in Shaquille’s lineage it would be fair to say he possesses something of a mixed pedigree, as well as more physical scope than the typical sprinter.

He is a son of the Invincible Spirit stallion Charm Spirit, who was at his best over a mile, and out of the Galileo mare Magic.

The dam is a sibling to the 12-furlong Listed winner Birch Grove but out of the prolific sprinter Danehurst, winner of the Group 2 Flying Five Stakes and three Group 3s.

Few stallions have done as much for the Green Desert line as Oasis Dream has, and few, if any, runners by Oasis

“Shaquille has been introduced at a fair-looking £15,000” Dream reached the heights that Native Trail did. Darley’s Kildangan Stud newcomer is the highest-rated juvenile colt descended from Danzig having gone unbeaten through four races at two.

This run culminated with impressive victories in the Group 1 National Stakes, beating Point Lonsdale by three and a half lengths, and Dewhurst Stakes, in which he showed Dubawi Legend and Bayside Boy a clean pair of heels.

These performances showcased different attributes, with the Dewhurst in particular testing balance and tactical speed, but the common theme was the strength Native Trail showed in the finish.

Further than seven furlongs always promised to suit and he duly completed the transition from champion two-yearold to Classic-winning three-year-old by clearing away with the Irish 2,000 Guineas. That season he also ran second to Coroebus in the 2,000 Guineas and was a close third to Vadeni over ten furlongs in the Eclipse Stakes.

DOMINIC JAMES

New stallions

Mutasaabeq: talented and very well-bred

Native Trail’s ability to run early was first seen at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale, where he went the way of Godolphin at 210,000gns.

Bred in France by José Delmotte’s Haras D’Haspel, he is not the only high-class juvenile in his immediate family as he is the second foal out of the Juddmonte-bred Needleleaf, an Observatory sister to Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup scorer African Rose and the Group 3-winning Helleborine, better known as the dam of Coventry winner Calyx. Native Trail will stand for €17,500.

At the centre of Oasis Dream’s record as a sire of sires stands Showcasing, who will have six sons of his own standing at stud in 2024. The new addition to the line-up is Asymmetric who joins the roster at Joe Foley’s Ballyhane Stud at a fee of €7,000. Bred by Redpender Stud, Asymmetric is out of Swirral Edge, a winning sprinter by Hellvelyn.

Asymmetric is her first foal and her second is Mill Stream, winner of the Group 3 Prix de Meautry.

That means the mare is two Pattern winners from two runners, as Asymmetric developed into one of the top juveniles of his generation during his time with Alan King. He won his first two starts over six furlongs before running Lusail to within a head in the July Stakes.

He gained his biggest racecourse achievement on his next outing in the Group 2 Richmond Stakes. Having travelled smoothly in behind runners, he quickened through a gap approaching the final furlong and quickly assumed the lead. He only really did enough once hitting the front, so the margin of half a length possibly underplays his superiority on the day.

The form of that race received some notable boosts as the fourth, Ebro River, won the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes on his next start, while the fifth, Perfect

››

Rarely have French breeders been afforded the depth of new stallions that is available to the country for 2024, writes Nancy Sexton.

From the unbeaten Arc champion Ace Impact to an Eclipse Stakes winner in Vadeni and unbelievably versatile Mishriff, there is a quality to this year’s intake that has the potential to stand the French industry in very good stead for years to come.

At €40,000, Ace Impact is the most expensive ever first-year horse to retire directly to stud in France. The son of Cracksman joins the Chehboub family’s Haras de Beaumont, a young stallion operation with grand ambitions based on part of the old Haras du Quesnay property, and is likely to be in high demand given the brilliance of his sixrace career, which was capped by superb victories in the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club and Arc. The French industry is in the enviable position of having attracted several fresh high-profile investors in recent years, one of whom is Nurlan Bizakov, whose Sumbe operation on the old Haras de la Cauviniere property boasts three new stallions for 2024 to complement its older residents Golden Horde and De Treville.

In the case of £11.8 million earner Mishriff, the farm is having to undergo a relaunch. This time last year, it was all systems go but then the son of Make Believe suffered a foot injury that brought those plans to a shuddering halt.

He is being relaunched in a particularly competitive year but he more than holds his own as winner of the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club, Juddmonte International, Dubai Sheema Classic and Saudi Cup. Rare are the horses that can win Group 1 races on both turf and dirt while he is also from the family of top sires Invincible Spirit and Kodiac; all in all, it’s an appealing package at €17,500.

Joining Mishriff at Sumbe are two winners of the Group 1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere in Angel Bleu and Belbek.

By Dark Angel from an excellent international family, Angel Bleu (€9,000) was a tough two-year-old for Ralph Beckett, his five victories that season capped by the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere and Criterium International.

He also trained on into an accomplished older horse, with a win in the Group 2 Celebration Mile to his credit.

BILL SELWYN

New names poised to make major impact

Belbek is new to the ambitious Sumbe, owned by Nurlan Bizakov (second from right)

Belbek (€7,000), meanwhile, holds a special place at Sumbe as the operation’s first homebred Group 1 winner. He was a precocious two-year-old who preceded his Lagardere victory by winning the Group 3 Prix du Bois over six furlongs and returned this year to land the Group 3 Prix Perth over a mile. By Showcasing, he is a direct descendant of Hasili and therefore related to the proven Group 1 sires Dansili, Cacique and Champs Elysees.

Another operation that has received a double injection of fresh blood to its roster is the Aga Khan’s Haras de Bonneval.

Leading the way at €17,500 is Cartier champion three-year-old colt Vadeni, winner of last year’s Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club and Eclipse Stakes, in which he came out on top in a thrilling finish over Mishriff and Native Trail.

Although seemingly best over 1m2f, the Jean-Claude Rouget-trained colt also ran a brave second on bad ground to Alpinista in the Arc. By Churchill, he hails from the prolific Lagardere ‘Vadlamixa’ family via the Group 1 Prix Saint-Alary heroine Vadawina, who appears as his granddam.

Bonneval’s second new stallion, Erevann (€8,000), is a son of Dubawi and the Aga Khan’s top miler Ervedya.

Very talented himself, he won four races including the Group 2 Prix Daniel Wildenstein. On paper, he boasts a similar profile to Bonneval’s Zarak, one of the leading lights of France who began his stud career at €12,000.

At Haras d’Etreham, the roster has been bolstered by Group 1 Grand Prix

“Foals of sires based in Britain filled six of the top ten places in the sale”

de Paris winner Onesto (€12,500).

Also second in the 2022 Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes and third behind Ace Impact in the Arc in October, Onesto possesses an interesting pedigree as a son of Frankel out of a Sea The Stars mare – thereby inbred to Urban Sea – to go with a female family that descends from Kerali, dam of the aforementioned blue hen Hasili.

Bay Bridge, who lowered the colours of Baaeed in the Group 1 QIPCO Champion Stakes, retires to Haras du Mesnil, the farm that developed Doctor Dino and Kaldounevees into popular stallions of their time. A four-time stakes winner overall who is guaranteed to also receive the support of co-owners Ballylinch Stud and James Wigan, this good-looking son of New Bay could look very good value at €6,000 in several years’ time.

Haras de Bouquetot’s sizeable roster welcomes another tough customer in Lusail (€6,000), the first son of Mehmas to stud in France. Lusail swept the Group 2 July and Gimcrack Stakes as a two-year-old and ran a close second in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes at three.

When it comes to jumps options, it wouldn’t be surprising to see Jigme draw in breeders from Britain and Ireland. Jigme was brilliant in a six-race career for Marcel Rolland, sweeping the Grade 3 Prix Aguado Hurdle and Grade 2 Prix Georges de Talbot Roy Hurdle en route to an emphatic career finale in the Grade 1 Prix Cambaceres. By Motivator and related to Sinndar, he retires to Haras du Hoguenot at a fee of €8,000.

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29

New stallions ›› Power, landed the Group 1 Prix Morny

and Middle Park Stakes on his next two outings. Asymmetric added a Group 1 placing to his record when third to Perfect Power in the Morny.

Asymmetric switched to the US and the care of Wesley Ward for his threeyear-old campaign, although things did not quite go to plan and he didn’t return to the winner’s enclosure until coming back to Europe at four, when he won the Group 3 Prix du Cercle for trainer Maurizio Guarnieri.

The likes of I Am Invincible, Kingman and Lawman have helped Invincible Spirit establish his own branch of the Green Desert line, and the National Stud has tapped into the noted sire of sires with new recruit Mutasaabeq.

Shadwell’s homebred is a particularly blue-blooded son of Invincible Spirit, being the sixth foal out of Ghanaati, the daughter of Giant’s Causeway who landed the 2009 1,000 Guineas and Coronation Stakes in comfortable fashion.

Ghanaati, a descendant of Height Of Fashion whose family has produced the likes of Baaeed, Deep Impact and Nashwan, has also bred the Group 3-winning Wafy.

Mutasaabeq was trained by Charlie Hills and won races at two, three, four

alongside Havana Grey and Showcasing at a fee of £8,000.

and five. Three of his seven victories came in Group 2 company over a mile, namely back-to-back renewals of the Joel Stakes and bet365 Mile, beating Native Trail in the latter contest. His fee has been set at £6,500.

Whitsbury Manor Stud stallions Havana Grey and Showcasing are on a real roll at the moment, and the operation will look to apply its midas touch to newcomer Dragon Symbol, who descends from Invincible Spirit via Cable Bay. The colt, who was bred at Whitsbury Manor from the winning Arcano mare Arcamist, didn’t make the track until three but quickly made up for lost time by winning his first four races for Archie Watson. His first venture into Pattern company saw Dragon Symbol beaten a nose by Rohaan in the Sandy Lane Stakes.

Dragon Symbol rates a Group 1 winner in all but name as he finished first past the post in the Commonwealth Cup, only to be demoted to second behind Campanelle having bumped that rival in the closing stages.

He proved he belonged at the top table when runner-up to the year-older Starman in the July Cup on his next start, while he also finished third in the Nunthorpe Stakes.

The powerfully built grey will stand

The Kitten’s Joy line

When Roaring Lion died aged just four after suffering an untreatable bout of colic during a shuttle trip to New Zealand, breeders lost a valuable entry point into the El Prado line. However, there is still hope for Roaring Lion’s legacy as his solitary crop contained Dubai Mile, who is standing at Manton Park at £7,500.

The grandson of Kitten’s Joy is a wellbred sort being out of Lady O’Reilly’s Beach Bunny, a daughter of High Chaparral who was beaten a short-head

by Too Darn Hot’s dam Dar Re Mi in the Group 1 Pretty Polly Stakes.

Dubai Mile is the highest achieving of the mare’s three black-type performers, a trio that includes the Listed winners Beach Belle and Naadirr.

Dubai Mile was a typically savvy Mark Johnston yearling purchase having cost €20,000 at Goffs in 2021. Ahmad Al Shaikh took ownership of the colt who won three times at two. The last of those victories came in the Group 1 Criterium de Saint Cloud, in which he was headed late on but battled back bravely to deny Arrest by a head.

He failed to recapture that form at three and had moved to Martyn and Freddie Meade when he suffered a career-ending injury in routine training.

BILL SELWYN

The Mr Prospector line

Native Trail: retires to Kildangan Stud

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THE OWNER BREEDER

Dubawi’s standing as a sire of sires continues to rise, with sons New Bay, Night Of Thunder and, more recently, Too Darn Hot each siring Group 1-winning progeny of their own. Darley’s Dalham Hall Stud introduces a new route into the line in the shape of Modern Games, Dubawi’s most prolific top-level winner with five Group/Grade 1 victories.

The Godolphin homebred was among the best of his generation at two, with his four victories including the Group 3 Somerville Tattersalls Stakes and the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf.

Three further elite-level successes followed for the Charlie Appleby-trained Modern Games at three, including a French Classic in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains.

He stepped up in trip for the Group 1 Prix du Jockey Club and although he finished a creditable third to Vadeni, that effort confirmed his optimum trip as a mile. He travelled back across the Atlantic later that year to claim the Grade 1 Woodbine Mile and a second Breeders’ Cup contest in the Mile.

››

M AYSON GROUP 1 WINNING SIRE

BY INVINCIBLE SPIRIT

GROUP 1 SIRE OF TOP CLASS SPRINTERS OXTED AND ROHAAN

Yearlings made up to €120,000 in 2023 54% Strike Rate of Winners to Runners

NEW TO IRELAND

2024 Fee €4,250and October 1st Horses SLF 85% Strike Rate of Winners Placed to Runners

New stallions EUROPEAN STALLION MOVEMENTS

››

Name (Sire)

Location in 2023

Location in 2024

2024 fee

Year to stud

CAPRI (Galileo) DARIYAN (Shamardal) IQUITOS (Adlerflug) JEU ST ELOI (Saint Des Saints) KAMSIN (Samum) LAWMAN (Invincible Spirit) MARIANAFOOT (Footstepsinthesand) MATTMU (Indesatchel) MAYSON (Invincible Spirit) MUHAARAR (Oasis Dream) POSTPONED (Dubawi) RECORDER (Galileo) SOLDIER’S CALL (Showcasing) TRIPLE THREAT (Monsun)

Grange Stud Haras de Bonneval Gestut Graditz Haras de Cercy Annshoon Stud Karwin Stud Haras de Saint Vincent Bearstone Stud Cheveley Park Stud Haras des Faunes Dalham Hall Stud Sumbe Ballyhane Stud Haras du Mont Goubert

Willow Wood Farm Haras du Mont Goubert Gestut Rottgen Glenview Stud Haras de la Baie Haras du Mazet Haras des Faunes Norton Grove Stud Oak Lodge Stud Haras du Petit Tellier Yorton Farm Stud Longford House Stud Dullingham Park Stud Capital Stud

£2,500 €3,000 €6,000 POA €2,500 €4,000 €2,200 £2,000 €4,250 €14,000 POA POA £8,000 POA

2020 2017 2019 2016 2011 2008 2023 2017 2013 2016 2018 2018 2020 2017

His eighth career success, and fifth at the highest level, came at four when he showed his usual mix of class and gritty determination to claim the Lockinge Stakes by a length and a half from Chindit.

Being by Dubawi is not the only thing Modern Games has going for him on pedigree. He is out of Modern Ideals, a New Approach half-sister to French champion juvenile Ultra. Moreover, this lineage makes Modern Games a sibling to 1,000 Guineas heroine Mawj. Modern Games will stand for £30,000.

The late Speightstown, who hails from a different branch of the Mr Prospector line, has a new son standing in Britain with Midnight Sands joining the Norton Grove Stud roster at £2,500.

The €90,000 breeze-up graduate won six races at Meydan over six seasons in training, most notably the Group 3 Burj Nahaar over a mile on dirt while with Doug Watson. He was bred by the Niarchos’s Flaxman Holdings from It’s Midnight, a daughter of Shamardal who won a Listed event over a mile.

The Pivotal line

The mighty Pivotal continues to exert his influence on modern days, not least through the Aga Khan’s Siyouni, whose 153 black-type performers include ten Group/Grade 1 winners. Coolmore certainly seem to have immense confidence in the Haras de Bonneval resident developing into an important stallion himself as they have three sons standing on their latest roster. Arc hero Sottsass will have his first runners in 2024, while the first crop of five-time Group 1 winner St Mark’s Basilica will be yearlings.

Those names are being joined by Paddington who, at €55,000, is standing for the highest fee of any new stallion

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THE OWNER BREEDER

in 2024, and arguably with good reason given he seems to have all bases covered.

His yearling price of €420,000 attests to his good looks, while both sides of his pedigree make plenty of appeal.

Not only is he by one of the hottest sires on the planet in Siyouni, he is from a deep Wildenstein family being out of Modern Eagle, a Listed-winning daughter of Montjeu, who in turn is out of Prix de Diane runner-up Millionaia.

Paddington’s third dam is Prix SaintAlary winner Moonlight Dance, a daughter of champion racemare Madelia whose unbeaten record featured wins in the French 1,000 Guineas, Prix SaintAlary and Prix de Diane.

The Aidan O’Brien-trained Paddington ran out a five-length winner of his second start at two and absolutely took off once he returned at three.

Bloodless wins in the Madrid Handicap and Listed Tetrarch Stakes were swiftly followed by a step up into Group 1 company. Paddington proceeded to thrash Cairo and Hi Royal in the Irish 2,000 Guineas and then Chaldean in the Group 1 St James’s Palace Stakes before he comfortably kept Emily Upjohn at bay in the Group 1 Eclipse Stakes over ten furlongs.

A sensational run was completed when he coped with testing conditions and a drop back to a mile to make all the running in the Sussex Stakes, notching his fourth Group 1 in just 68 days and making Paddington the most prolific winner of elite-level races in Europe last season.

The Scat Daddy line

The Scat Daddy sire line continues to prove a rich source of juvenile talent, as evidenced on the world stage by Justify supplying unbeaten Dewhurst hero City Of Troy, Prix Marcel Boussac

scorer Opera Singer and the Breeders’ Cup juvenile winners Hard To Justify (Fillies Turf) and Just F Y I (Fillies). The No Nay Never branch has also kept Scat Daddy’s name in lights, and Coolmore have added that stallion’s highest-rated two-year-old Little Big Bear to their 2024 line-up.

Bred by Camas Park Stud and Summerhill, Little Big Bear joined the Coolmore fold at a cost of €320,000 at the Arqana August Yearling Sale and he debuted on the racetrack in early April the following year. A wide-margin win at Naas was followed by a Royal Ascot victory in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes. Next came the Group 3 Anglesey Stakes, which he won by nearly five lengths, and then his most impressive performance in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes. The imposing sprinter towered over the field physically and, having made most of the running, impressively quickened away from the likes of Persian Force and Bradsell to score by a yawning seven lengths.

His imposing physique always gave hope that Little Big Bear would train on and, after a wash-out in the 2,000 Guineas, he proved he retained all his ability to claim the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes, beating subsequent Sprint Cup runner-up Shouldvebeenaring and Bradsell, who landed the Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes on his next outing. That proved Little Big Bear’s final success, although he ran with great credit when second to Shaquille in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup. He is out of the Wildenstein-bred Adventure Seeker, a daughter of Bering who won the Listed Prix De Liancourt at Longchamp. His great-granddam is the champion All Along. This lineage means Little Big Bear has an outcross pedigree that is free of Danehill and Sadler’s Wells.

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THE OWNER BREEDER

33

The Big Interview

Trained to

SUCCEED Harry Derham learnt his trade under 14-times

champion Paul Nicholls and would dearly love to emulate his former boss as he sets out an ambitious plan to take his Boxford stable into the upper echelons of the trainers’ championship Words: Marcus Townend

R

ecruiting owners and their horses is the key to any trainer’s operation but it is unlikely there is one in the land able to match the story of how Harry Derham ensured 2010 US Open champion Graeme McDowell joined his string.

Derham already knew the Major winner and his caddie having met them when accompanying Sir Anthony McCoy to a Pro-Am at Wentworth. The friendship that followed resulted in McDowell and his LIV Tour teammates Richard Brand and dual Major winner Martin Kaymer sending Fourofakind to Derham when he started training in December 2022.

The gelding won at Haydock in March, but that success was not the reason for McDowell agreeing to buy ex-Johnny Murtagh-trained Givemefive this autumn.

Derham explains: “Graeme invited me to another Pro-Am this summer. I am a very bad golfer and I played terribly all day, but on the sixth hole Graeme said, ‘We’ll do a nearest the pin competition here’.

“I said there had got to be something in it for me as he was a Major winner. He asked what I was thinking, so I said if we both hit the green and I got it nearer the hole than him, then he’d have to buy me a

new horse.

“What happened was one of those dream moments in an amateur golfer’s life; the moment I hit the shot I knew it was really good. In fairness to Graeme, he stuck to his word – ‘a deal is a deal’, he said – and got another horse. It’s called Givemefive and he is a lovely juvenile.

What luck!”

Sharing ownership in the new addition, who won on his hurdling debut at Market Rasen at the beginning of December, is McDowell’s new LIV golf teammate Brooks Koepka, the former world No. 1 and five-time Major winner.

The impressive array of sportsmen on the Derham ownership roster also includes close friend Jamie Overton and his fellow England international cricketing brother Craig, who have shares in Gerry Feilden Hurdle third Brentford Hope along with England all-rounder Liam Livingstone and Nottinghamshire batsman Joe Clarke, who has made a name for himself playing in T20 franchises around the globe.

Keeping in touch with international athletes – Jamie Overton is spending his winter in Australia while McDowell and Koepka are based in Florida – presents certain challenges, but Derham has put

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THE OWNER BREEDER

BILL SELWYN

“If you’re not looking after your owners, you won’t have any horses”

››

Harry Derham has a number of talented performers in his yard including Sir Psycho, previously trained by his mentor Paul Nicholls

Harry Derham

THE OWNER BREEDER

35

The Big Interview ›› communication with his clients at the

landline once a month any more to tell them their horse is fine and you run it at Ascot next week.

“It seems to be working for my owners who have been in racing for a very long time and the syndicate members. The reality is you are not going to win all the time – you can’t – but this is trying

Upper Farm Stables in Boxford provides a relaxing environment for the horses at a purpose built facility

“The financial pressure of setting up as a trainer is enormous” to provide owners with a really good experience, whether you are winning or losing.”

The wins are already beginning to stack up for 28-year-old Derham, but it is easy to forget he only had his first runner on Boxing Day last year when Seelotmorebusiness, running in the colours of his mother Julie, won at Huntingdon.

He was one of a dozen horses that Derham started out with from a temporary base in Lambourn while

BILL SELWYN

centre of his nascent operation, a state-ofthe-art facility in Boxford near Newbury.

What works well for the star names is also a big plus for both the syndicates that support Derham on his first steps into training, which include Heart of the South Racing, Highclere Thoroughbreds and Noel Fehily Racing, and the longer established owners.

Derham says: “We keep our owners very well updated. Every Tuesday they all get a video and a message from me.

“It was [former Ascot CEO] Guy Henderson who talked to me about this aspect. He always said if a horse only races four or five times a year and the owner works in an office, they only have four or five days out and that’s not that much value for money.

“With us you get an update every week with your horse going up the gallops, the latest running plans and how things like schooling is going.

“It is a big commitment. My sister Amy does all the videos. It will take me all the morning, but it feels like a worthwhile investment of my time. If you are not looking after your owners, then you are not going to have any horses.

“If they get something every week, whether it is good or bad news, it is easier for people to take because they are on the journey. You can’t ring people on a

Paul O’Brien has been described as a “phenomenal jockey over fences” by Harry Derham

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THE OWNER BREEDER

his new stable at Boxford was being completed.

Derham felt the four months he trained last season, when he still managed 14 winners, were a “free hit”.

The 2023-24 season is his first full campaign yet Derham has become a familiar face on the jump racing circuit thanks to his 11-year stint working at the Somerset stable in Ditcheat run by his uncle, Paul Nicholls.

Derham rode a winner at the Cheltenham Festival – Salubrious in the 2013 Martin Pipe Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle – as one of the stable’s jockeys before spending six years as assistant trainer to the 14-time champion, being at his shoulder as they challenged for the biggest prizes the sport offers.

It all seemed to get more serious when Derham moved into his new purposebuilt base in August and his string shot up to just over 50 horses, but the winning momentum has been maintained.

That Derham is at the stable at all can be traced back to two wins he notched at Wincanton in 2013 on a horse called Benvolio when he was a 5lb claimer.

The gelding’s part-owner was Caroline Sutton and they became friends. What started off as a bit of a joke – “I said

LUCY RICHARDS

Harry Derham

“The good thing about people investing in me was I was able to say to them everything I have earned in my life up till now I was investing too. I am putting everything into it, so it is going to bloody well work!

“Without this opportunity I would probably still be at Paul’s. I loved working

there. It is good fun winning 150 races a year and being able to watch all those good horses every morning.

“I would have liked to train at some stage for sure, but the reality is it is really expensive, and you need a place to do it. I didn’t want to go into a 20-box yard knowing I could never get any bigger.

BILL SELWYN

you’ve got land and I ought to train on it” – gradually turned into reality as a derelict farm began to be transformed into a superb training centre.

There is still work to do, but Derham fully recognises he has been handed an opportunity he had no right to expect, a reality that makes him doubly determined not to spurn it.

“I first saw the site in June 2019,” Derham relates. “The moment I saw it I thought what an environment for the horses – they are so relaxed here. They don’t have to go on the roads and are not bothered by anything.

“It’s been a long project and Caroline’s support has been massive. I rent the place off her and people have invested in my business, including my dad Geoff and my sister Amy, who is my business partner.

“The financial pressure of setting up as a trainer is absolutely enormous – I would not have been able to do it without the help I have had.

“I basically said to all of them that I have a mad idea – I want to be a trainer and I think I can do it. I need a lot of money to help me.

“Because I rode for a little bit and made a few quid, I owned two houses in Ditcheat, which I sold.

Derham has ambitions to train 150 horses and become champion trainer one day

THE OWNER BREEDER

37

››

››

“I came to the conclusion that I wouldn’t get a chance like this again in my life, so I went for it.”

Inevitably, Derham has been influenced by his time at Nicholls’ shoulder. Following in the footsteps of Harry Fry and Dan Skelton, two former Ditcheat assistants who have now established themselves in the training ranks, also raised the expectation level.

Derham says: “Expectation is massive because you have learned from one of the best men to ever train.

“You don’t want to be the guy who went to his school for 11 years and can’t do it.

“Ditcheat is my template for nearly everything. I said to Paul on my last day with him that you can’t stand next to him for six years and not get ambitious. It is going to rub off.

“I don’t like to come across as punchy, but I believe in what we have got here, and I believe in myself being able to train horses.

“There is no point saying I want to do what Paul has done, because what he has done in his career is mind-blowing when you think about the races he has won.

“But do I want to be champion trainer one day? Yes, I would love to be. Do I have ambitions to train 150 horses? Absolutely.

“However, I understand you can’t just say it and it suddenly happens. It takes an enormous amount of work – and you need amazing owners.

“I want to be one of the top yards in the country.

“If I work at it and get a bit of luck, I don’t think it is a mental pipedream.”

Like his colleagues across the country, Derham, who has worked closely with bloodstock agent Ed Bailey to unearth new recruits, is already weighing up which of his horses might go to the Cheltenham Festival in March.

Queens Gamble, whom he inherited when Oliver Sherwood handed in his licence to become Derham’s assistant, is the current top hope. She won a novices’ event at Kempton in November.

Young Butler has already won a Pertemps Hurdle qualifier while Spirou, a son of Cracksman recently recruited from France, and Givemefive could end up in one of the Festival’s juvenile hurdle contests.

Derham has already had his first Festival runner. The Colm Donlon-owned Shared finished 18th in the Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle in March, an excusable defeat considering the gelding was lame the day after with puss in a hoof.

Derham says: “To have a runner there in my first season felt so weird. All day I

38

THE OWNER BREEDER

Harry Derham

BILL SELWYN

The Big Interview

Harry Derham is supported by assistant trainer Oliver Sherwood and sister Amy

‘You can see Oliver’s passion for the horses’ Harry Derham says desire to add some experience to his team has made Grand National-winning trainer Oliver Sherwood the perfect recruit as his assistant trainer.

Sherwood joined a staff roster which already included the experienced Graham Baines, who previously worked for Harry Whittington and Warren Greatrex, as his head lad.

Derham explains: “What I wanted people to say was that I was a young guy with a young ambitious team but that I had two people at my shoulder who have seen all of it before. I might see something for the second or third time; they are seeing it for the millionth time.

“At Ditcheat very good jockeys have come and gone as well as assistants and staff. But the one constant has been the head lad Clifford Baker. The one thing I wanted from the start was a really good head man and I was very fortunate that Graham emailed me with his CV. I rang him three seconds later!

“Oliver asked me if I had half an hour for a beer in April. I went to his yard and he explained his numbers were going down and financially it

thought someone was going to tap me on the shoulder and say, ‘You shouldn’t be here’.

“I said to Amy as we were leaving the track, ‘We need some faster ones to come here’. I don’t want to just take

was making less sense for him to train.

He said he still had 18 to 20 really nice horses, which need somewhere to go, and a really good bunch of staff.

“I spoke to Graham and Amy about it and we thought it would be a really good thing. Oliver is a little bit of a mentor for me, and you can clearly see his passion for the horses. He offers that steady hand.

“His staff are fabulous and he has some really nice horses that are owned by some amazing owners.

They are significant positives for my business.”

Derham also went for experience when he chose 32-year-old Paul O’Brien as his stable jockey. The rider, who had never partnered more than 14 winners in a season, ended his first campaign associated with Derham with 37 successes.

Derham says: “Watching jockeys in that last year before I started training, it was glaringly obvious to me that the only reason he was not riding many winners was because he was riding horses which weren’t fast enough.

“He is a phenomenal jockey over fences. He has a load of experience under his belt, and I am convinced he will have a mega ten years now.”

part. It is nice to have a runner, but I have absolutely no interest in finishing 18th. I want to compete.”

The foundations are being put in place for Derham to do that for many seasons to come.

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FROM THE GALLOPS

TO GLORY

HORSERACING AWARDS 2023

AWARDS PHOTOS BY DAN ABRAHAM

FROM THE GALLOPS TO GLORY

OUTSTANDING NOVICE CHASER

THE REAL WHACKER Owned by Neville, Mann, Duffus, Dennis Received by Paddy Neville and Ed Price Presented by Bobby Burns Sponsored by Fitzdares

OUTSTANDING CHASER

GALOPIN DES CHAMPS Owned by Audrey Turley Received by Audrey and Greg Turley Presented by Bobby Burns Sponsored by Fitzdares

NATIONAL HUNT SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT

CORACH RAMBLER Owned by The Ramblers Received by Cameron and Jennifer Sword Presented by Rupert Fowler Sponsored by Sports 4 Causes

42

THE OWNER BREEDER

HORSERACING AWARDS 2023

OUTSTANDING NOVICE HURDLER

FACILE VEGA Owned by Hammer & Trowel Syndicate Received by Gerard and Jack O’Brien Presented by Gary Bugg Sponsored by The Tote

OUTSTANDING HURDLER

CONSTITUTION HILL Owned by Michael Buckley Received by Michael Buckley Presented by Craig Peacock Sponsored by The Tote

OUTSTANDING NATIONAL HUNT MARE

HONEYSUCKLE Owned by Kenny Alexander Received by Kate Molony Presented by Edward Rosenthal Sponsored by The Owner Breeder

THE OWNER BREEDER

43

FROM THE GALLOPS TO GLORY

OUTSTANDING SPRINTER

SHAQUILLE Owned by Hughes, Rawlings and O’Shaughnessy Received by Martin Hughes Presented by Alex Eade Sponsored by Large Independent Racecourses

OUTSTANDING FILLY/MARE

HIGHFIELD PRINCESS Owned by Trainers House Enterprises Ltd Received by Catriona Fairley and Brough Scott Presented by Andrew Tulloch Sponsored by Large Independent Racecourses

OUTSTANDING JUVENILE

CITY OF TROY Owned by Sue Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith Received by Kevin Buckley Presented by Alex Eade Sponsored by Large Independent Racecourses

44

THE OWNER BREEDER

HORSERACING AWARDS 2023

FLAT SPECIAL ACHIEVEMENT

QUINAULT Owned by Tje Racing

Received by Stuart Williams and Emily Stevens Presented by Rupert Fowler Sponsored by Sports 4 Causes

OUTSTANDING STAYER

TRUESHAN Owned by Singula Partnership Received by Alan Marsh and Andrew Gemmell Presented by Alex Eade Sponsored by Large Independent Racecourses

OUTSTANDING MILER

PADDINGTON Owned by Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Sue Magnier, Westerberg and Peter Brant Received by Christy Grassick Presented by Anthea Leigh Sponsored by Large Independent Racecourses THE OWNER BREEDER

45

FROM THE GALLOPS TO GLORY OUTSTANDING MIDDLE DISTANCE HORSE

AUGUSTE RODIN

Owned by Michael Tabor, Derrick Smith, Sue Magnier and Westerberg Received by Kevin Buckley Presented by George Hill Sponsored by Large Independent Racecourses

OUTSTANDING ALL-WEATHER HORSE

LORD NORTH Received by Team Lord North Presented by David Leyden Dunbar Sponsored by Arena Racing Company 46

THE OWNER BREEDER

Owned by HH Sheikh Zayed bin Mohammed Racing

HORSERACING AWARDS 2023

OWNER OF THE YEAR SHADWELL ESTATE COMPANY LTD Received by Team Shadwell Presented by Charlie Parker Sponsored by Racehorse Owners Association

HORSE OF THE YEAR CONSTITUTION HILL Received by Nico de Boinville, Nicky Henderson, Michael Buckley, Islee Oliva Salinas and Barry Geraghty Presented by Charlie Parker Sponsored by Racehorse Owners Association

Owned by Michael Buckley THOROUGHBRED THE OWNER BREEDER

47

BOBBY’S KITTEN SIRE OF MULTIPLE GROUP WINNER SANDRINE

• Winner of the Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, beating NO NAY NEVER • Sire of: SANDRINE – Winner of 4 Group races, including Gr.2 Park Stakes (in 2023), Gr.2 Lennox Stakes, Gr.2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes and Gr.3 Albany Stakes (also Gr.1-placed x2).

Now a Group winner at 2, 3 and 4; • Two year olds in 2023 include top-rated ALMOTAHED (GB) (unbeaten winner of 3 races in Saudi Arabia) and DARK BLUE SKY (IRE) (winner of 3 races in Hungary).

Fee: £5,000

Outstanding lifetime winners to runners ratio

(1st October SLF)

SEA THE MOON

SIRE OF 4 GROUP 1 WINNERS • CHAMPION SIRE IN GERMANY A DUAL CLASSIC SIRE IN 2023 • Sire of 8 individual Group winners of 12 Group races in 2023 including: FANTASTIC MOON (Gr.1 German Derby, Gr.2 Prix Niel and Gr.3 Derby Trial) MUSKOKA (Gr.1 German Oaks, Gr.3 Brümmerhofer Stuten-Meile and Listed Henkel Stutenpreis).

WONDERFUL BOY (Gr.3 Grosser Preis der SWK AG by 10 lengths. A dual winner in 2023, he is the 2024 German Derby favourite).

Yearlings sold in 2023 have made up to 575,000gns

Fee: £32,500 (1st October SLF)

STUDY OF MAN

SIRE OF A GROUP 2 WINNING 2YO FROM HIS FIRST CROP • A Leading European First crop sire in 2023 Sire of 9 winners of 11 races including DEEPONE (winner of 3 races including Gr.2 Beresford Stakes, The Curragh), GHORGAN (Gr.3 placed), ALACRITY, BIRTHE, FRANCOPHONE, JUBILEE WALK, LINGUA FRANCA, LOOK UPON and SONS AND LOVERS. • The only son of legendary DEEP IMPACT at stud in England, sire of AUGUSTE RODIN – winner of the Gr.1 Epsom Derby, Gr.1 Irish Derby, Gr.1 Irish Champion Stakes & Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Turf, in 2023.

Fee: £12,500 (1st October SLF)

info@lanwades.com

LANWADES

Yearlings sold in 2023 have made up to 220,000gns •

w w w. l a n w a d e s . c o m •

Te l : + 4 4 ( 0 ) 1 6 3 8 7 5 0 2 2 2

The independent option TM

Breeders’ Digest

Nancy Sexton Bloodstock Editor

Hefty sums and warning flags – a rollercoaster season

TATTERSALLS

T

he 2023 winter breeding stock sales season is likely to live long in the memory, if only for the eye-watering sums achieved by some of the Niarchos mares at Goffs. Away from the headline lots though and it wasn’t entirely plain sailing, with several warning flags for the future rearing their ugly heads from time to time. Here are several takeaways from the month spanning Goffs, Tattersalls and Arqana.

1) The yearling sales season was not without its challenges, being notably thin in several areas. Plenty expected that to trickle down into the foal market so when the first day of the Goffs November Foal Sale opened with an enthusiastic trade that filtered down through the sectors, it came as a pleasant surprise. There was a good atmosphere throughout that week and although the average fell by nine per cent overall, the median remained the same from 2022; it could have been a lot worse.

Tattersalls suffered declines across the board for its foal sale but again there was a real appetite for the good lots.

However, it had to be the ‘right’ foal and this is where the gloss came off. Whereas in previous years buyers might have taken a chance on one, that element was mostly missing this time around. That in turn fuels further polarisation, with anything by the ‘wrong’ sire, lacking a current pedigree or failing to fulfil the required criteria physically then friendless in the ring. The 59% clearance rate achieved on the first day of Tattersalls’ foal sale is testament to that.

2) That polarisation carried over into the mares market. It was noticeable in Kentucky how mares with some age or an inconsistent breeding record were falling through the cracks. And that was more or less the same in Britain and Ireland, with a chunk of those offered during the lesser days of Tattersalls and Goffs failing to realise the covering fee of the foals inside them. Both sales owed plenty to the volume of international buying parties, particularly those from India; as an example, at least 47 fillies and mares worth a total of 1,250,000gns are on their way to India out of Tattersalls.

3) While Indian buyers were key in supporting the middle market, Japanese interests were vital to the strength of the

Gaurav Rampal: busy for Indian interests

top. Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm made a particularly bold play for some of the star lots at Tattersalls, with his team paying 2,200,000gns and 2,400,000gns for the 2022 1,000 Guineas one-two Cachet and Prosperous Voyage. Narvick International also paid 2,200,000gns for Cheveley Park Stakes winner Lezoo on behalf of a Japanese client while Group 3-winning two-year-old Nazanin made 625,000gns to highlight six purchases made by a busy Keisuke Onishi of the JS Company. In all, Japanese interests signed for 22 lots at Tattersalls worth 8,400,000gns.

Their expenditure – along with those hefty figures spent by Australian and North American buyers – highlights the allure of European stock to the wider world, but there remains the uneasy undercurrent that we are losing some of our best bloodlines overseas. This is nothing new but it does potentially leave the domestic breeding landscape in a precarious state down the line.

4) Europe has long been underpinned by the presence of various leading owner-breeders, particularly ones who understood the importance of developing families to race – not trade.

Sadly, more have drifted away in the past year, including Diane Wildenstein, whose stock changed hands in a package to the Wertheimer brothers in the summer, and Manfred and Edith Hellwig’s Gestut Hony Hof, which dispersed its stock at the Goffs November Sale.

Of course, the 2023 Goffs November Sale will also live long in the memory

as the host of the Niarchos reduction.

The quality of offerings attracted high-level investment from numerous major breeders, including Coolmore, Juddmonte Farms and the Aga Khan Studs, and the atmosphere was electric as various jewels took their turn in the ring; those present won’t forget the sales of Alpha Centauri and Alpine Star for €6 million apiece to MV Magnier in a hurry.

The Niarchos mares turned over approximately €27 million at Goffs before a smattering sold at Tattersalls and Arqana. Needless to say, their presence at public auction offered a great opportunity for breeders. However, there was still an underlying sadness in seeing these great families dispersed, for all that the Niarchos name will continue to race on this year with an operation of around 120-head.

5) The curtain came down on one of the most successful consigning agencies during the final day of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale as Lot 2,240, a Havana Gold mare named Desert, became the last horse ever sold by Paul and Sara Thorman’s Trickledown Stud.

Trickledown made its first public offering in 1990 and went on to sell a pair of 2,000 Guineas winners in George Washington, who topped the 2004 Tattersalls October Sale at 1,150,000gns, and Cockney Rebel, who sold for 30,000gns at Doncaster in 2005.

The list of other good horses sold

by Trickledown are too numerous to list here but perhaps even more important than that accomplished record is the regard in which they are held across the industry, something that stems from their popularity, integrity and knowledge.

I’d hazard a guess that there are few breeders in Britain, particularly those based in the West Country, who haven’t benefited at some point from their help or insight.

6) Finally, a sadness came over Park Paddocks during the December Sale with the news of the death of Theresa Marnane at the age of 61. Wife of Con and mother to Amy and Olivia, Theresa was a key figure behind the success of the family’s Bansha House Stables and an incredibly popular person to go with it, someone who was rarely without a smile or kind word. She will be greatly missed.

THE OWNER BREEDER

49

Sales Circuit • By Carl Evans

Niarchos draft fuels thrilling Goffs November Sale With a few exceptions the cream sunk slightly at bloodstock auctions across Europe during 2023.

Termed by some as ‘market correction’, it was as if top-end buyers had clubbed together at the start of the year and agreed to go so far, but no further. Broadly speaking when dropping down the scale the middle market was okay, while the bottom end proved decidedly patchy.

However, there are always exceptions to any rule, and when in September it was announced that the Niarchos family was ‘restructuring’ its bloodstock interests and would be selling some 44 mares, many with five-star status, any curbs on spending had to be readjusted. This was too good an opportunity for leading breeders to miss.

To the delight of Henry Beeby and his team, Goffs was chosen as the venue for this sale of the decade and international buyers booked flights to Ireland, although it turned out the biggest buyer of horses from the draft was already living on that island. Baroda Stud, Kiltinan Castle Stud and Norelands were entrusted with consigning this tranche of bloodstock history.

What happened next was an enthralling and absorbing session of selling at day one of the two-day breeding stock element of the Goffs November Sale, at which two mares – the Niarchosbred-and-raced Alpine Star and Alpha Centauri – sold for €6 million apiece, equalling Ireland’s record price for a thoroughbred. Both mares were winners of Royal Ascot’s Coronation Stakes, while Alpha Centauri embellished her record with a further three top-level triumphs.

Last year’s top price at the same session was €790,000 – on this occasion that price was bettered six times.

It was no surprise to see Coolmore’s MV Magnier ski in for six-year-old Alpine Star, who foaled a colt by Frankel in February and was carrying to that mighty sire. Magnier subsequently signed for Alpha Centauri, an eight-year-old with three foals on the ground and sold in foal to Sea The Stars. Such was the aura surrounding these two mares and the prices they made that Magnier’s spend of €3.7m on six-year-old Group 1 winner

50

THE OWNER BREEDER

GOFFS

Goffs November Foal & Breeding Stock Sales

Alpha Centauri commanded a record-equalling bid of €6,000,000 at Kildare Paddocks

Albigna and €3.3m on That Which Is Not – headline grabbing investments on any other day – were overshadowed. Albigna carried to St Mark’s Basilica while That Which Is Not walked the ring with a Frankel foal in utero.

Magnier’s quartet of Niarchos purchases added €19m to turnover at a session where €39.5m was spent, but while there was emotion for Maria Niarchos and her niece Electra, they were not ending a 50-plus years’ story of breeding champions, one that began with investment by Maria’s late father Stavros and advice from trainer Francois Boutin and Sir Philip Payne-Gallwey. Alan Cooper, the family’s racing manager, said: “Even though we’ve separated from these great racemares we still have the blood,” a reference to the youngstock retained by the family. Cooper said 20 yearlings were set to go into training and that 30 foals were on the ground.

The four seven-figure Niarchos mares contributed heftily as year-on-year turnover rose 153 per cent, while the average price came in at an inflationbusting €203,647, an increase of 166 per cent. Niarchos mares contributed €27m – other front-line buyers of horses in the draft included the Aga Khan and at least

two Japanese studs – completing a day at Goffs which may not be seen again for some years.

One further mare broke into sevenfigure territory. Thoughts Of June, a four-year-old in foal to No Nay Never, was bought outright for €2m by Moyglare Stud, which had raced the daughter of Galileo in partnership with Coolmore, while the €925,000 sale of 14-year-old Group 1 winner Ambivalent to Avondale Bloodstock commenced a tale concluded two weeks later at Tattersalls where her daughter Teona headed trade at 4.5m gns.

This surge of spending appeared to lift Goffs’ second day when further gains were achieved in the figures, although a third of the 204 horses on offer were unsold. Turnover of €1.2m was helped by an additional 62 lots, while the average price rose six per cent to a figure just shy of €10,000. When figures for both days were put together the aggregate was up 147 per cent at €40.7m, the average climbed 126 per cent to €125,337, but the median lost 23 per cent at €18,500. Of 444 lots, 325, or 73 per cent, were sold.

Preceding this stellar sale of mares Goffs staged a four-day foal auction where the reality of the market was more easy to identify. There was still a shooting

star in the form of a €700,000 foal by Dubawi, but it did not escape Beeby that “good results should not be taken as a totally clean bill of health for the industry”.

Stock clearance at the lower level was an issue, and he said his company would work hard to “drive more people to our sales at the commercial level”. Listing a number of people to thank, he added “every groom”, which would have been appreciated in sales barns.

Young Darley sire Ghaiyyath was in the news, initially when one of his colt foals headed trade on day two by selling to the pinhooking Tally-Ho Stud team for €200,000, but also when his full-brother out of Classic winner Nightime was sold to Zhang Yuesheng’s Lucky Vega for the aforementioned €700,000.

This represented another windfall for breeder Dermot Weld, whose mother Gita bred Nightime out of the mare Caumshinaun, bought by her son as a yearling and then trained to become a potent force at the age of four.

Caumshinaun is 26 and living happily in retirement, while her daughter is 20 and currently in foal to Wootton Bassett.

Other notable sales included one to Ross Doyle, who invested €310,000 in a son of Sea The Stars out of the mare Celeste De La Mer, a half-sister to Classicplaced Mojo Star and already dam of Group 2-placed Maritime Wings. Doyle was acting for an undisclosed client whose purchase proved a windfall for the foal’s breeders Aaron Langan and Jer Hickey.

Lope De Vega, whose stock have to be assessed whenever they are catalogued,

TALKING POINT

• Coolmore Stud’s senior team must be licking its lips at the prospect of standing Auguste Rodin, a Derby-winning son of Deep Impact.

The potential impact was conveyed by MV Magnier during day one of Goffs’ breeding stock sale when he invested heavily in mares from the Niarchos draft.

After buying Alpine Star for €6m he said she would visit Auguste Rodin “when the time comes” and added of that Classic winner: “Thirty seconds after he won the Derby, Dad phoned me and said, ‘This is the most important thing that has happened to Coolmore since Galileo won the Derby’.”

That was some statement from the man who built Coolmore into a giant among giants of the bloodstock world, and whose vision and thinking have been at the forefront of influence.

Which raises the question, why keep Auguste Rodin in training for another year? The answer might come in November, for if he were to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic . . .

was responsible for five six-figure foals, including a paternal brother and sister who sold for €260,000. The colt was consigned

by Stanley Lodge and sold to Camas Park Stud, while the filly was offered by Donnellys Well and sold to Dan Hayden.

Ringfort Stud’s Blue Point colt fell to Godolphin’s bid of €250,000 as the buyers reacquainted themselves with a family they knew well. The colt’s breeder, Frances Crowley’s Brickfield Stud, had bought the dam, La Rosetta, for 40,000gns at the 2021 Tattersalls

December Sale out of a Godolphin draft.

Of 902 foals who walked the ring – 16 fewer than in 2022 – 42 achieved a six-figure sale, helping turnover to reach just under €30m. That was down 12 per cent, while the average price dipped nine per cent at €36,303. The median was unchanged while the clearance rate lost two points at 79 per cent.

Tally-Ho Stud led buyers, lifting 19 foals for a spend of €1,303,000, while top consignors The Castlebridge Consignment sold 60 lots valued at nearly €2.4m.

Foal Sale statistics

Breeding Stock statistics

Sold: 709 (79% clearance) Aggregate: €25,821,500 (-12%) Average: €36,420 (-8%) Median: €24,000 (0%)

Sold: 327 (74% clearance) Aggregate: €40,751,500 (+147%) Average: €124,623 (+126%) Median: €18,000 (-23%)

Goffs November Foal and Breeding Stock Sales Top lots – foals Sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (€)

Buyer

C Dubawi – Nightime

Springbank Way Stud

700,000

Lucky Vega

C Sea The Stars - Celeste De La Mer

Carrick Hill Stud

310,000

Peter & Ross Doyle Bloodstock

C Lope De Vega – Paraphernalia

Stanley Lodge

260,000

Camas Park Stud

F Lope De Vega – Sommorell

Donnellys Well

260,000

Dan Hayden

C Blue Point - La Rosetta

Ringfort Stud

250,000

Godolphin

Price (€)

Buyer

Top lots – breeding stock Name/age/sex/breeding

Vendor

Alpine Star 6 m Sea The Moon - Alpha Lupi

Kiltinan Castle Stud

6,000,000

MV Magnier

Alpha Centauri 8 m Mastercraftsman - Alpha Lupi

Norelands Stud

6,000,000

MV Magnier

Albigna 6 m Zoffany – Freedonia

Baroda Stud

3,700,000

MV Magnier

That Which Is Not 10 m Elusive Quality – Shiva

Norelands Stud

3,300,000

MV Magnier

Thoughts Of June 4 m Galileo - Discreet Marq

The Castlebridge Consignment

2,000,000

Moyglare Stud Farm

Ambivalent 14 m Authorized – Darrery

Rabbah Bloodstock/Godolphin

925,000

Avondale Bloodstock

Foniska 3 f Galileo - Bocca Baciata

Kiltinan Castle Stud

775,000

Bassingham Equine

Malicieuse 11 m Galileo - Moonlight’s Box

Norelands Stud

775,000

Gilltown Stud

Diaphora 9 m Pivotal – Diacada

Kiltinan Castle Stud

720,000

Juddmonte

Phaenomena 13 m Galileo – Caumshinaun

Kiltinan Castle Stud

720,000

Prospect Partnership

THE OWNER BREEDER

›› 51

Sales Circuit ›› Tattersalls December Yearling Sale

TATTERSALLS

Tattersalls was about to add 100m gns to annual turnover worth 350m gns when its three-part December Sale came under starter’s orders with this single session of yearlings.

A Pinatubo colt headed trade when selling for 200,000gns, one of a record 13 lots to achieve a six-figure sale from 162 horses who walked the ring, a number having sustained minor setbacks which meant they missed yearling auctions held in previous months. That they were being offered to the market in late November, away from the poster yearling sales that take place in October, could be said to add substance to the quote from racehorse owner Clive Washbourn, who stated: “This sale is amazing value for money.”

That was one of his more reserved observations. Washbourn was so determined to buy the Lynn Lodge Stud-consigned sale-topper that he lifted the price from 170,000gns to 200,000gns, and exclaimed “show us the money” to rival bidders Richard Hannon and Anthony Stroud. They demurred, and Washbourn, who will place the colt with trainer David Menuisier, admitted: “I think I probably overpaid, I got a rush of blood, but I wanted this horse.”

TATTERSALLS

Clive Washbourn has high hopes for this 200,000gns Pinatubo colt

Clive Washbourn celebrates his purchase

Racing has seen many colourful characters down the years, but if the Pinatubo fulfils his new owner’s desire to line up in the Coventry Stakes and to “smash Coolmore up the Ascot straight – boof, boof, boof”, the post-race television interview should be entertaining, but perhaps not for those of a delicate nature.

Success on the track invariably leads to purchases in the sales ring, and it was the RP Racing team behind top-notch two-year-old Big Evs who bought a 175,000gns colt from the first crop of Mohaather. Conor Quirke signed the ticket and said the yearling would be joining Breeders’ Cup and Royal Ascot winner Big Evs at Mick Appleby’s Rutland yard.

Fledgling consignors Natalie Folland and Matthew Bowen, who are based at Lord Margadale’s Fonthill Stud near Salisbury, did their landlord a favour when consigning his Showcasing colt under their Folland-Bowen Bloodstock banner. The colt was knocked down for 170,000gns to Anthony Stroud, who had purchased first dam Frangipanni for Lord Margadale at the 2014

Tattersalls July Sale for 78,000gns. She has since produced Group 2 winner Tropbeau and an unraced colt who made 1m gns at the 2022 Book 1 sale.

A 150,000gns Sea The Stars colt offered by WH Bloodstock and sold to Rabbah Bloodstock, and a filly by the same sire who moved from Mount Coote Stud to Agrolexica International Trading for 135,000gns were among other notable results. The last-named buyer, a Rotterdam-based business based in agriculture and with a Ukraine connection, secured three six-figure lots and emerged as the leading buyer.

Turnover of 4.7m gns was up five per cent, the average price gained eight per cent at 37,309gns, while the median lost nine per cent at 20,000gns. The clearance rate was clipped eight points at 78 per cent.

Statistics Sold: 127 (78% clearance) Aggregate: 4,777,200gns (+6%) Average: 37,616gns (+9%) Median: 20,000gns (-9%)

Tattersalls December Yearling Sale Top lots Sex/breeding

Vendor

C Pinatubo – Narak

Lynn Lodge Stud

Price (gns)

Buyer

200,000

Clive Washbourn

C Mohaather - Jm Jackson

Ringfort Stud

175,000

Quirke Bloodstock/RP Racing

C Showcasing – Frangipanni

Folland-Bowen Bloodstock

170,000

Stroud Coleman Bloodstock

C Sea The Stars – Pirouette

WH Bloodstock

150,000

Rabbah Bloodstock

F Sea The Stars - Nectar De Rose

Mount Coote Stud

135,000

Agrolexica International Trading

52

THE OWNER BREEDER

››

LOPE DE VEGA. ONE OF THE WORLD’S LEADING SIRES

Leading European Sires in 2023

by Worldwide Stakes Winners Sire

2024 Fee

Stakes Winners

1 Dubawi

£350,000

38

2 Frankel

£350,000

37

3 LOPE DE VEGA.

€125,000

26

4 Kingman

£125,000

25

5 Sea The Stars

€200,000

24

n/a

20

7 No Nay Never

€150,000

15

7 Dark Angel

€60,000

15

9 Night Of Thunder €100,000

13

10 Wootton Bassett

12

6 Galileo

€200,000

Source:

26

€125,000

STAKES WINNERS

in 2023 alone include

13/12/23

IBERIAN

Champagne Stakes Gr.2 by 2 lengths beating Gr.1 winners SUNWAY & ROSALLION

BEAUVATIER

Joint Top Rated 2yo Colt trained in France Prix la Rochette Gr.3 Prix Roland de Chambure LR 3rd Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere Gr.1

PROGRAM TRADING Saratoga Derby Gr.1 Hollywood Derby Gr.1

BALLYLINCH STUD T h o m a s t o w n , C o . K i l k e n n y , I r e l a n d

Te l : + 3 5 3 ( 0 ) 5 6 7 7 2 4 2 1 7 • i n f o @ b a l l y l i n c h s t u d . i e • w w w . b a l l y l i n c h s t u d . i e

Sales Circuit Caution among buyers when a price threatened to go into overdrive, and strong competition for choice lots but weak demand for lesser foals were the themes at this four-day sale.

It took place under a changed format, involving two days of selling followed by a one-day break and then two more days at which the cream of the crop went under the hammer. The aim was to give buyers a clear day and more time to assess the best of the catalogue, and to make stabling arrangements more user-friendly during a very busy period at Park Paddocks.

The changes worked well and found favour with buyers and vendors.

No horse came close to last year’s 1m gns top lot, a Kingman filly sold to Juddmonte, yet a record 29 lots sold for 200,000gns or more. Ninety-five fewer foals walked the ring, a factor in a 15 per cent reduction in turnover to a mark of 29.8m gns, yet the clearance rate was also clipped, down one point at 75 per cent. The average and median prices of 44,608gns and 21,000gns were down six per cent and 19 per cent respectively, although the 2022 sale had achieved record figures.

In his close-of-sale summary Tattersalls Chairman Edmond Mahony referred to “the lower end of the market, which we must all recognise has been challenging”, and he noted that while pinhookers were the backbone of the event, “significant owners” who buy to race were “becoming an increasingly important

TATTERSALLS

›› Tattersalls December Foal Sale

This daughter of St Mark’s Basilica headed trade at 575,000gns, bought by Newsells Park

and regular feature of the sale”.

He also mentioned the latest 2,000 Guineas winner Chaldean and topnotch two-year-olds Vandeek and Ghostwriter as being recent graduates of the sale, and there is no doubt that such successes will help to keep the December Foal Sale as numero uno among its contemporaries.

Trade idled at the opening session which was decidedly chilly for vendors, as illustrated by a 59 per cent clearance rate and a 50 per cent drop in turnover, albeit 43 fewer foals walked the ring.

The second session showed marked improvement with an 81 per cent clearance rate and a 250,000gns top lot in the form of a Havana Grey colt bred

and sold by that stallion’s masters, the Harper family of Whitsbury Manor Stud.

Racehorse owners Rumstar Bloodstock, in a nod to the foal’s Cornwallis Stakeswinning brother Rumstar, secured the prize with an online bid.

Day three’s trade is traditionally the strongest and a filly from the first crop of Coolmore sire St Mark’s Basilica and out of Oaks heroine Talent headed the week’s trade when selling for 575,000gns. That is a sizeable sum, but the lowest top price at the event since 2014. Jill Lamb, in her familiar role as buyer for Graham Smith-Bernal’s Newsells Park Stud, signed the buyers’ sheet, in the process rewarding the filly’s breeders, Somerset-based

being rewarded by a significant family update can bankroll a small breeder’s operation for several seasons, but taking home a foal which has received no bids is dispiriting and costly.

We are living in an age of giants across every major industry yet the supply line of talented young people keen to have a go at bloodstock has not dried up, and many newbies enjoyed good results at a variety of sales during 2023. Older players may be feeling it is time to say farewell.

That was the sum Mosa Mine cost Kelly Thomas at Doncaster 12 years ago when knocked down to agent Jill Lamb. Thomas had bred Mosa Mine, sold her as a yearling for £9,000, and then elected to buy her back after she finished racing with a record of no wins from 11 runs.

She is a half-sister to winners, but not of the black-type variety, and her own breeding record was following suit until Vandeek arrived in Simon and Ed Crisford’s hands.

However, her dam, Baldemosa, was a relation to top-class racehorses and sires Anabaa and Key Of Luck.

It is interesting to see how the quality they possessed meandered through the family’s bloodlines and reappeared in Vandeek.

TALKING POINTS • Peter Stanley, whose New England Stud sold eight foals for a total of 562,000gns across the December Foal Sale, was particularly alarmed at the opening day’s trade when just 135 of 227 weanlings found a buyer, a clearance rate of 59 per cent. Many that sold will not have covered their cost of production.

Stanley warned: “It’s going to knock a lot of smaller breeders out of racing. I think we saw [on the first day] something that was frightening.”

He added that “the stallion market is just so polarised at the moment,” which can only add to the challenges for breeders working on tight budgets.

Of course, landing on a sire at a fortuitous time – a Havana Grey being the perfect example – or

54

THE OWNER BREEDER

• Tattersalls’ Foal Sale’s second most valued foal, a 450,000gns Starspandgledbanner half-brother to unbeaten juvenile Vandeek, was produced by a mare who cost the pocket-money price of £800.

››

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www.tattersallsonline.com Tatts Online | Owner Breeder | All Gavel, No Travel DW.indd 1

16/11/2023 10:30

Sales Circuit ›› Ashbrittle Stud and Mark Dixon.

Lamb also had a role in bidding on a 450,000gns Starspangledbanner half-brother to unbeaten juvenile Vandeek, offered by breeder Kelly Thomas of Maywood Stud, although the hammer fell in the direction of Coolmore’s MV Magnier. Juddmonte’s busy year of buying continued with a 425,000gns offer that secured a son of Wootton Bassett from Dorset’s Langton Stud. One year earlier the same buyers had bought the foal’s Lope De Vega half-sister for 500,000gns.

James and Anita Wigan’s West Blagdon draft invariably produces

six-figure foals at this auction, and it did so again when offering a 375,000gns New Bay-sired full-brother to Group 1 winner Bay Bridge. Godolphin buyer Anthony Stroud posted the winning bid, and he also signed for a 350,000gns Ghaiyyath colt from Ringfort Stud, while Amo Racing helped to maintain Whitsbury Manor Stud’s purple patch, buying its Kingman colt for 360,000gns.

The third day’s 87 per cent clearance rate, up six points, underlined the strength of trade for quality stock, but again all the other notable indicators took a trim, and it was a similar story of

demand, but at lower prices, which carried on through the final session.

At its conclusion Whitsbury Manor Stud had sold 21 lots for 1,940,500gns to take leading consignor honours, while Godolphin’s four purchases for 1,115,000gns meant it topped the list of buyers.

Statistics Sold: 669 (75% clearance) Aggregate: 29,842,902gns (-15%) Average: 44,608gns (-6%) Median: 21,000gns (-19%)

Tattersalls December Foal Sale Top lots Sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (gns)

F St Mark’s Basilica – Talent

Ashbrittle Stud

575,000

Buyer Jill Lamb Bloodstock/Newsells Park Stud

C Starspangledbanner - Mosa Mine

Maywood Stud

450,000

M V Magnier

C Wootton Bassett - Poet’s Vanity

Langton Stud

425,000

Juddmonte Farms

C New Bay – Hayyona

West Blagdon Stud

375,000

Godolphin

C Kingman – Arcamist

Whitsbury Manor Stud

360,000

A C Elliott /Amo Racing

Tattersalls concluded a year of auctioneering inside its Park Paddocks sales ring when staging another successful edition of its famous mares’ and fillies’ sale.

Two ‘Sceptre Sessions’ involving the crown jewels of the catalogue generated anticipated fireworks and a string of millionairesses, which lifted the four-day sale’s turnover to its second-highest sum of just under 68m gns. That was 16 per cent down on last year, but not unexpected given the general trend seen at sales throughout the year. The average price passed 100,000gns for only the second time, but was down eight per cent, while the median dipped six per cent at 30,000gns.

Tattersalls drew in buyers from an array of racing nations eager to invest in top-spec stock, but as at the previous week’s foal sale the lesser members of the catalogue were hard to shift. The sales company’s Chairman, Edmond Mahony, referred to “sustained demand for quality stock”, but added: “We must also recognise that appetite for the less commercial mares and fillies has dwindled dramatically.”

That comment was emphasised at the final session where just 69 of 137 offered mares or fillies (50 per cent) found a buyer, the average price fell eight per cent

56

THE OWNER BREEDER

TATTERSALLS

Tattersalls December Mares Sale

1,000 Guineas winner Cachet was one of a number of top fillies to fall into Japanese hands

to just under 6,000gns while the median was down 29 per cent at 3,000gns. Those were clearance money prices that will have surprised no-one, but if a breeder incurs the cost of taking a mare to market they do at least hope to return home with one less mouth to feed.

The signs had been there at the third session, where ten points were knocked off the clearance rate, yet the number of lots sold during the first two ‘premier’ sessions had matched the highs of 12

months earlier.

Those seeking the rising tension involved in seven-figure sales needed only to be at the ring on day two, when ten horses made a million-plus and Prix Vermeille winner Teona proved the most highly-valued gem. A daughter of Sea The Stars out of Group 1 winner Ambivalent, just five years old and with a cover by Frankel, Teona represented every breeder’s dream and a host of front-line specialists registered bids before

Juddmonte Farms posted one of 4,500,000gns and thwarted its rivals.

That was the third-highest price paid for a mare at Tattersalls and a mark of honour for her consignor Barton Sales.

Teona, who had been bred by Rabbah Bloodstock, won more than £600,000 for owner Ali Saeed while trained by Roger Varian, and was described by Juddmonte’s Simon Mockridge as “the best mare in the sale” of a type that is “very hard to find”.

Shrewd Stephen Hillen has been a master buyer of horses down the years, but none better than his purchase of Via Sistina as a yearling, because she became a Group 1 winner and when he reoffered her at this sale he and wife Becky pocketed 2,700,00gns. It beggars belief that Hillen paid just 5,000gns for this valuable commodity, not least because she was by Fastnet Rock out of a Galileo mare, but she was big, too big to be in demand on the day be bought her.

However, she also had a big walk which other potential buyers ignored, and she rewarded Hillen’s eagle-eyed observation of that quality while under the care of trainers Joe Tuite and George Boughey.

Cachet, winner of the 1,000 Guineas and another star performer for Boughey, and the Ralph Beckett-trained Falmouth Stakes victress Prosperous Voyage, were sold to Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm for 2.2m gns and 2.4m gns. Cachet represented another windfall on a budget, for although costing 60,000gns as a breezer she was divided into ten shares at

Statistics Sold: 630 (75% clearance) Aggregate: 67,752,800gns (-16%) Average: 107,544gns (-8%) Median: 30,000gns (-6%)

£6,500 each by Highclere Thoroughbreds.

Andrew Rosen and Marc Chan, who owned Prosperous Voyage, also netted 2.2m gns when selling Cheveley Park Stakes winner Lezoo to Narvick International, while Whitsbury Manor Stud’s top mare Suelita provided her owners with another big pay day when they sold her daughter Get Ahead, a half-sister to 2,000 Guineas winner Chaldean, for 2.5m gns. Trainer William Haggas, who signed for the Listed winner, said four-year-old Get Ahead had been bought for a new bloodstock syndicate called First Bloodstock and that she would be boarding at Hillwood Stud.

Charlie and Tracy Vigors, who run Hillwood, also took delivery of five-yearold Listed winner Primo Bacio, bought for an unnamed commercially-minded breeder who invested 1.1m gns.

Lightning does strike twice, at least it did for The Rogues Gallery racehorse syndicate in the final quarter of 2023.

Tony Elliott’s operation traded the sole horse to find a buyer at the Goffs QIPCO Champions Sale – his Rogue Lightning had been bought as a breezer for 42,000gns yet sold for £1m – while at this sale the four-year-old filly Rogue Millennium, a 35,000gns purchase as an unraced two-year-old, was sold to US interests to race on with Joseph O’Brien for 1.65m gns. Credit to Elliott, but also to agent Billy Jackson-Stops and trainer Tom Clover who handled both horses.

Four-year-old filly Poptronic and Geocentric, a mare of the same age with a Frankel cover, completed the ten who topped a million when selling for 1.4m gns and 1.2m gns respectively to Sanctuary Lodge and Charlie Gordon-Watson.

Katsumi Yoshida was the leading buyer by aggregate, his three purchases adding 5.1m gns to turnover, while Barton Sales’ rise to the top among consignors saw it head that table through sales of 40 lots for just over 8.6m gns.

TALKING POINT

• You can wear out the wheel on your mouse scrolling down Tattersalls’ list of sales involving Trickledown Stud.

According to the company’s website – which carries records back to 1998 – Paul and Sara Thorman’s business was involved in more than 2,000 transactions over 25 years during which it was involved in sales worth 60,000,000gns. Goffs’ website carries records only as far back as 2013, but Trickledown was a major force at Doncaster and in Ireland when in its pomp.

Add in some French sales and Paul reckons they have turned over £80m.

The Thormans have been slowly winding down, exiting their Hampshire base a few years ago, and then calling a halt to all consigning activities at the latest December Mares Sale where their final lot, Desert, sold for 17,000gns. Selling and buying, they handled Classic winners and jumpers, trading horses at all levels of the market.

They still own shares in a few horses, so will not be completely absent from future sales, although you are as likely to see them at a point-to-point as you are a meeting under Rules. They own a pointer called Coolattitude, who could be named after Paul, a man whose reasoned thoughts, observations, dry wit and modesty made him such good company at auctions.

Tattersalls December Mares Sale Top lots Name/age/sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (gns)

Buyer

Teona 5 m Sea The Stars – Ambivalent

Rabbah Bloodstock/Barton Sales

4,500,000

Juddmonte

Via Sistina 5 m Fastnet Rock – Nigh

Grove Stud

2,700,000

Evergreen Equine

Get Ahead 4 f Showcasing – Suelita

Whitsbury Manor Stud

2,500,000

First Bloodstock

Prosperous Voyage 4 f Zoffany – Seatone

Kimpton Down Stables (R. Beckett)

2,400,000

Katsumi Yoshida

Lezoo 3 f Zoustar - Roger Sez

Kimpton Down Stables (R. Beckett)

2,200,000

Narvick International

Cachet 4 f Aclaim - Poyle Sophie

Highclere Stud

2,200,000

Katsumi Yoshida

Rogue Millennium 4 f Dubawi – Hawaafez

Tom Clover/Barton Sales

1,650,000

Lanigan/Durcan/Heider Family Stables

Poptronic 4 f Nathaniel - Alpine Dream

Spigot Lodge Stables (K. Burke)

1,400,000

Sanctuary Lodge

Geocentric 4 m Kodiac – Rajmahal

The Castlebridge Consignment

1,200,000

C Gordon Watson Bloodstock

Primo Bacio 5 m Awtaad – Suvenna

The Castlebridge Consignment

1,100,000

Hillwood Bloodstock

THE OWNER BREEDER

›› 57

Sales Circuit ›› Arqana Autumn and

November Yearling Sales

ARQANA

A particularly busy week in the European sales calendar saw front-line auctions taking place at Arqana in France and Goffs in Ireland, although the types of horses on offer were different at the two venues.

Arqana’s Deauville sales ring kicked off with a day of Flat-bred yearlings, followed by horses-in-training off the Flat, jumps-bred yearlings and twoyear-old stores. Completing a varied plateau for buyers was a final-day selection of jump-bred breeding stock involving foals, fillies and mares.

In Ireland, the fare was focussed on Flat-bred foals, which meant busy agent Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock would ideally have been in two places, for he had clients interested in stock at both auction houses. He went to Goffs, leaving colleague Stuart Boman to do his bidding in France, where the two-man combination signed for top lot Make Me King, a son of Dark Angel who will join Wathnan Racing.

Knocked down for €380,000, the gelding had been stakes-placed at two and a winner for trainer Andre Fabre at three.

Make Me King had finished second to the Aga Khan’s Beshtani on his latest start before the sale, and the conqueror on that occasion also fell into Boman’s basket after his bid of €340,000 proved successful. Trained by Francis Graffard, Beshtani was also Qatarbound said the agent.

Splitting the two Blandford Bloodstock purchases was Kainsbourg, a winning three-year-old gelded son of highly-popular Doctor Dino and knocked down for €355,000 to Hubert Barbe and Alexandra Rosa’s Horse Racing Advisory. Barbe was standing with Charlie Swan, who said Kainsbourg, an AQPS-bred gelding of size and presence, had been bought on behalf of JP McManus.

ARQANA

Make Me King will carry the Wathnan Racing colours after selling for €380,000

Listed-placed Beshtani made €340,000 out of the Aga Khan Studs draft

58

THE OWNER BREEDER

Swan added that training plans were undecided, but given that Willie Mullins is among McManus’s roster of trainers it is possible Kainsbourg could become a stablemate of Zillow, a Christophe Ferland-trained colt by Zoffany and sold to Pierre Boulard and Harold Kirk for €300,000. Boulard and Kirk, who have teamed up to buy countless French-bred performers of high quality for Mullins, later parted with €200,000 for bumper-winning filly Kirsca De Thaix, another AQPS-bred three-yearold, this one consigned by trainer Erwann Grall. Boulard, Kirk and Mullins went on to buy five lots for a total of €870,000, making them the sale’s leading buyers across all categories.

Haras du Mesnil sire Doctor Dino is proving as popular as cult TV series Doctor Who, and he was once again the dominant force during the session of two-year-old stores and jump-bred yearlings, and also at the following day’s focus on the cream of yearlings.

Those horses were bred off a fee of €18,000, although Doctor Dino’s fee will be €22,000 – the highest for a jump sire in France – when the next covering season opens.

However, that looked value when set against the very punchy €265,000 paid for one of his sons at the yearlings-only session – that valuation was a European record for a jump store of that age.

Consigned by the Garcon family’s Haras de l’Hotellerie, he was sold to agent Frederic Sauque for clients of trainer Marcel Rolland, although the vendors

were set to retain a share. Their horse had all the attributes, including being a full-brother to promising hurdler Meatloaf, who had won at Wincanton for Paul Nicholls a few days before the sale.

Racehorse owner Dai Walters is continuing a welcome fightback after defying the odds in a helicopter crash, and he instructed Anthony Bromley of Highflyer Bloodstock to source several horses to join trainer Sam Thomas. The pick on price was a Galiway yearling who made €150,000, the same amount paid by agent Thomas Maudet for a No Risk At All colt destined for an unnamed client.

Four of the top ten horses sold at the session of stores and yearlings were

by Doctor Dino, including a chesnut yearling filly who headed this section when selling for €120,000. Named Cherry Berry, this half-sister to a Listed winner at Auteuil and from the family of sire Dunaden was bought by Jerome Glandais as a racing and breeding prospect for Sofiane Benaroussi. The two men went on to part with €220,000 for the mare Alma Marceau, who carried to Saint Des Saints and is the dam of Gala Marceau, the Willie Mullins-trained winner of the Grade 1 Prix Alain du Breil at Auteuil.

Businessman David Maxwell, the enthusiastic amateur rider frequently seen on British racecourses, was another buyer of a six-figure Doctor Dino. Using the services of agent Guy Petit, Maxwell bought a two-year-old

››

Al Kazeem

By Champion sire DUBAWI

FOUR TIME

GR.1 WINNER TIMEFORM RATED 128 Won Gr.1 Tattersalls Gold Cup (2015) Won Gr.1 Coral-Eclipse Won Gr.1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes Won Gr.1 Tattersalls Gold Cup (2013) Won/placed in 15 Group races inc. 8 Gr.1 races

GR.1 SIRE

10% of WINNERS are STAKES WINNERS inc: ASPETAR

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

SAINT LAWRENCE

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

Listed winners HARPER & USAK

Plus Black-Type horses - GOLDEN SPELL, PRECISELY, PERSIAN ROYAL.

59% WINNERS to RUNNERS Lifetime average yearling price £43,000 ASPETAR

Excellent results from strictly limited books Dubawi - Kazeem (Darshaan). Fee: Private.

Oakgrove Stud, Oakgrove Estate, St Arvans, Chepstow, Monmouthshire NP16 6EH  oakgrovestud.com X-TWITTER @OakgroveStud

David Hilton:  07595 951248  david@oakgrovestud.com

Sales Circuit ›› gelding by the sire for €100,000, the

top price for a store. Consigned from Haras da la Haie Neuve, the gelding will go into training in France.

Sauque, who bought the top yearling store, also signed for the leading mare offered at the final breeding stock session. His bid of €255,000 was

enough to gain the five-year-old Saint Des Saints mare La Boetie, who was carrying to . . . you guessed it, Doctor Dino. A Graded winner at Auteuil and bred by trotting maestro Jean-Pierre Dubois, La Boetie was bought for the same partnership that had nailed the record-setting yearling.

Yearling statistics

Horses in-training statistics

Sold: 141 (83% clearance) Aggregate: €953,000 (+31%) Average: €6,786 (+7%) Median: €5,000 (0%)

Sold: 343 (79% clearance) Aggregate: €12,499,000 (+10%) Average: €36,280 (+15%) Median: €20,000 (+33%)

Selling was concluded with a selection of jumping foals at which a son of Doctor Dino proved the pick at €91,000. Consigned by Haras des Granges, he was bought by Sebastien Desmontils of Chauvigny Global Equine with AGB Agency. Desmontils said the plan was to reoffer the colt next year.

Jump-bred breeding stock statistics Sold: 136 (64% clearance) Aggregate: €3,415,000 Average: €25,110 Median: €13,000

Arqana Autumn and November Yearling Sales Top lots – yearlings Sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (€)

Buyer

C Almanzor – Zarza

Capucines

85,000

Mandore International Agency

F Galiway - Hidden Cove

Hotellerie

40,000

Witold Miedzianowski

F Sottsass – Marunouchi

Capucines

25,000

Hyde Park Stud

Top lots – horses in-training, stores and breeding stock Name/age/sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (€)

Buyer

Make Me King 3 g Dark Angel - Miss Infinity

Channel Consignment

380,000

Blandford Bloodstock

Kainsbourg 3 g Doctor Dino - Ex Fan Des Sixties

Francois Nicolle

355,000

Horse Racing Advisory

Beshtani 3 g Siyouni – Beshara

Aga Khan Studs

340,000

Blandford Bloodstock

Zillow 3 c Zoffany – Petunia

Wertheimer & Frere

300,000

PB Bloodstock/H Kirk/W Mullins

C Doctor Dino – Jane

Hotellerie

265,000

Frederic Sauque

After Goffs and Tattersalls enjoyed trading some big-money mares and fillies at their major breeding stock auctions, Arqana followed suit.

Its highlight was the €4.025m sale of Place Du Carrousel, a four-year-old daughter of Lope De Vega and whose valuation was a record for Arqana and Deauville. Consigned by Sheikh Joaan’s Haras de Bouquetot, and having raced in his Al Shaqab colours in partnership with Ballylinch Stud, Place Du Carrousel was a €260,000 yearling who went on to win five of ten races, the highlight being a victory over Nashwa in the 2022 Prix de l’Opera.

She was a first foal for her dam, Traffic Jam, whose two most recent yearlings by Kingman and Sea The Stars netted nearly 1.5m gns between them when offered at Tattersalls, marvellous results for a mare who cost €65,000 at the Goffs Orby Sale.

Place Du Carrousel’s new owner, Portofino Bloodstock, headed interest from Ballylinch Stud and Coolmore, but the successful bid was placed online and the

››

60

THE OWNER BREEDER

ARQANA

Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale

A new Arqana record was set as Group 1 winner Place Du Carrousel sold for €4.025 million

Chesnut 2017, 1.65 m

Sales Circuit ›› buyer’s identity – other than the name –

TALKING POINT

was left hanging.

This stellar sale of a superb filly was a boost to turnover, but as at other blue-chip auctions buyers avoided altitude sickness when prices threatened to become dizzying. As a result the session’s turnover of €38.4m was down 20 per cent, the average price dipped seven per cent at a still worthy €227,000 and the clearance rate lost a few percentage points.

Blue Rose Cen has been the banner horse for French trainer Christopher Head and Spanish owner Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals of Yeguada Centurion, but the year-older Sibila Spain did her bit for the two men in 2022 by winning the Prix du Muguet and performing admirably in several Group 1 races. A daughter of Frankel out of Classic-placed L’Ancresse, and now looking very well bought for €240,000 at Arqana’s August Yearling Sale, she had the benefit of a Dubawi cover when reoffered at this sale. Hertfordshire’s Newsells Park Stud team were on standby with Jill Lamb’s bidding finger in trigger position, and her €2m offer proved decisive.

• As the last of 2023’s major breeding stock sales reached a conclusion at Arqana an interesting observation was posted on social media by Badgers Bloodstock aka Grant and Tom Pritchard-Gordon. According to their research, 143 fillies or mares sold for £200,000 or more at Goffs, Tattersalls and Arqana, but half were sold to leave Europe and just a quarter were likely to stay in Britain. They described that as “a massive worry” for UK breeding. That suggests it is not only racehorse trainers who are concerned about the number of talented horses leaving Britain’s shores.

ARQANA

Arqana was assured of attention for this sale once octogenarian Dietrich von Boetticher and his wife Annabel elected to close their famous Gestut Ammerland and clear their breeding stock at this sale. Lope De Vega and Hurricane Run are but two alumni bred at Ammerland whose names trip off the tongue.

With eight foals to sell as yearlings in 2024 this was not the end of the operation for the von Boettichers, but as a beginning to the end it was highlighted by the sale of Sea The Moon’s Listed-winning full-sister Sea The Sky for €1.25m. The four-year-old had not been bred by her vendors, having been bought by them for €820,000 as a

Prix de Diane heroine Channel is on her way to Japan following her €1.2 million sale

BBAG yearling.

Ammerland also reaped €900,000 for nine-year-old Lady Frankel, who was carrying to New Bay and sold to American celebrity chef Bobby Flay, while that mare’s daughter, Lightning Lady, joined Japanese interests for €600,000. The German stud’s 13-strong draft were all sold and turned over €4,122,000.

Katsumi Yoshida’s Northern Farm shows no sign of reining in its desire to secure top-class European stock and, after a busy time at Tattersalls, the farm pounced again at this sale when securing the Prix de Diane winner Channel for €1.2m. Now a seven-year-old, spiced by a Wootton Bassett cover, Channel joins a growing list of Diane winners who have been bought by Japanese breeders.

ARQANA

Arqana day one statistics Sold: 173 (77% clearance) Aggregate: €38,447,000 (-20%) Average: €227,248 (-7%) Median: €120,000 (+4%)

Group 2 winner Sibila Spain joined Newsells Park Stud on a bid of €2 million

Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale Top lots Name/age/sex/breeding

Vendor

Place Du Carrousel 4 f Lope De Vega – Traffic Jam

Haras de Bouquetot

4,025,000

Portofino Bloodstock

Sibila Spain 5 m Frankel – L’Ancresse

Haras de L’Hotellerie

2,000,000

Jill Lamb/Newsells Park Stud

Sea The Sky 4 f Sea The Stars – Sanwa

Gestut Ammerland

1,250,000

Godolphin

Channel 7 m Nathaniel – Love Magic

La Motteraye

1,200,000

Katsumi Yoshida/Narvick International

Lady Frankel 9 m Frankel – Lady Vettori

Gestut Ammerland

900,000

Bobby Flay

62

THE OWNER BREEDER

Price (€)

Buyer

››

Sales Circuit ›› Goffs Coral Gold Cup Sale

GOFFS

The Goffs team descended on Newbury for this new sale which was held after racing and comprised young point-topointers and bumper horses. They left delighted with the outcome.

The backdrop to the 21-lot auction was a well-documented game of musical chairs in which Goffs thought it would be holding a similar auction at Sandown on Tingle Creek Chase day – having staged it for the first time one year earlier – but found out in late summer that Tattersalls had been successful in bidding for the right to take it over.

Goffs found an alternative option at Newbury on Coral Gold Cup day (formerly the Hennessy Gold Cup) but that was just one week before Sandown.

Tattersalls then announced it was ditching the Sandown sale, but could take vendors’ horses at Cheltenham the following Friday. This toing and froing, of parry and counter parry, would have made good material for a soap opera, but it is likely both companies will emerge as winners.

Goffs enjoyed a very bright debut at Newbury, selling 86 per cent of the catalogue and turning over £2,145,000, which was £160,000 more than they had done at Sandown a year earlier.

Their new venue worked well logistically, with a good crowd watching as events unfolded in the winner’s circle, and the location likely to prove favourable with leading trainers in Lambourn and the West Country.

Tattersalls have benefited by achieving an extra week between their rival’s sale and their own Cheltenham December Sale. Sandown, which would have gained financially by hosting a

GOFFS

Placed pointer The Bluesman jointly headed trade at this inaugural sale at £200,000

Winning filly Half Past Tipsy joined Gavin Cromwell on a bid of £200,000

sale, missed out, but Tattersalls, which has an agreement with the course’s owners at the Jockey Club, could look again at Tingle Creek day next year.

What happens when Goffs’ deal concludes with Aintree, another Jockey Club racecourse and which hosts a valuable auction of pointers during the Grand National meeting, could become another twist in the tale.

Two four-year-old Irish point-topointers sold for £200,000 to head trade at Newbury. The filly Half Past Tipsy, a winner for trainer Sam Curling just ahead of her ring debut, became another jackpot result for breeder Walter Connors when selling to Gavin Cromwell, while impressive-looking gelding The Bluesman was on his way to Ditcheat and Paul Nicholls’ stable following a bid from agent Tom Malone.

The last-named had reason to be buoyant before securing this exciting young prospect, having bought the afternoon’s big-race winner, Datsalrightgino, for €70,000 as a store for trainer Jamie Snowden.

The Bluesman had finished third on

debut for trainer Denis Murphy, but rather than go back to the races in order to place a win in his horse’s form line, the Wexfordian opted to sell after the horse who finished one place behind, Moon Phases, made £150,000 at Cheltenham in November.

Syndication is the name of the game, but it helps to have a good front man or woman. Ex-jockey Noel Fehily gained plaudits from his peers when quitting the saddle, and that popularity is carrying over in recruiting members to his syndicate, which he runs with Dave Crosse. They bought two lots on the night, paying £170,000 for winning pointer Mulinas and £100,000 for Metkayina, who had won a Ludlow bumper a few days before the sale for Half Past Tipsy’s trainer Curling.

Statistics Sold: 18 (86% clearance) Aggregate: £2,145,000 Average: £119,167 Median: £110,000

Goffs Coral Gold Cup Sale Top lots Name/age/sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (£)

Buyer

Half Past Tipsy 4 f Muhtathir – Miss Otis Regrets

Skehanagh Stables (Sam Curling)

200,000

Gavin Cromwell

The Bluesman 4 g Crillon – Firmini

Ballyboy Stables (Denis Murphy)

200,000

Tom Malone/Paul Nicholls

Mulinas 4 g Malinas – Multisphere

Jonathan Fogarty Racing

170,000

J P McGrath Bloodstock

64

THE OWNER BREEDER

FUELLING YOUR FUTURE CHAMPIONS

Connolly’s RED MILLS Stud Feeds Nutrition that pays off

Contact our specialist thoroughbred team: UK: Adam Johnson +44 7860 771063 IRL: Erin Campbell +353 +353 86 1770688 FR: Sylvain Prouvoyeur +33 6 9867 5138 Goresbridge, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland. Email: info@redmills.com

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20/11/2023 15:21

Dr Statz

Pressure on profitability as costs continue to rise

66

THE OWNER BREEDER

COOLMORE

T

he recent corrections to the auction market values of yearlings, foals and broodmares have been a tough but necessary burden to bear for many. It has affected every level of the yearling market where most commercial breeders make their money, but the correction only manifests when this year is compared with 2022.

Just look at the median prices achieved at Tattersalls October Book 2 – a bellwether sale if ever there was one – over the past ten years. It has all but doubled and the 62,000gns median of 2023 is the joint second highest-ever achieved behind last year’s 70,000gns.

In fact one is left wondering why there is always a squeeze on profits at the yearling sales given that they seem to be flourishing when compared to almost any other economic sector. The answer is, of course, rising production costs and by that I mean stud fees. It seems that the various auction houses are having to constantly provide ever increasing prices just to stay ahead of a burgeoning stallion market.

Judging by the latest return of mares, the trend in ever-increasing numbers of expensively produced yearlings is still in the ascendency. In 2021, when this year’s yearlings were conceived, 22 stallions standing for £30,000 or €30,000 or higher attracted 3,334 mares. Ten years ago, the equivalent number was 2,348 – almost a thousand fewer. By no means is this bad news. It indicates that the stallion market is healthy and growing with more people willing to get involved.

However, this expansion will inevitably put pressure on profitability come sales time. So next year we will have yearlings produced from the 2022 coverings coming to sale and there were 3,853 mares serviced by the 30k-plus stallions, an increase of 519 or 16% on 2021. Then in 2023 – the yearlings of 2025 – we saw 4,058 mares visit 30k-plus stallions, another 215 mares or 6% more than last year and 22% up on the number of mares that produced this year’s yearlings, which all goes to demonstrate the relentless pressure on profitability that will be present at the sales in the coming years.

The busiest Flat stallion in 2023 was

Churchill: among the stallions to receive an uplift in popularity following good early results

Coolmore’s Saxon Warrior with 248 mares covered at an increased fee of €35,000, up from the previous year’s €20,000 on account of the very promising showing by his first-crop two-year-olds. Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Victoria Road headlined his 22 first-crop juvenile winners, and they also featured a pair of Group 3 winners in Lumiere Rock and Moon Ray. It was enough to provide a book of mares that ought to produce some talented runners for the Classic-winning son of Deep Impact from 2026 onwards.

Yet in the short-term Saxon Warrior has had his fee trimmed to €25,000 for 2024 to reflect market conditions, which saw his

yearling average fall from €86,000 to €59,000 this year, no doubt partly attributed to the fact that he added only one more Group winner to his resume during 2024.

Another member of the 200 club is Tally-Ho Stud’s Mehmas, who attracted 239 mares from a fee of €60,000. It is the third year in succession that the Acclamation stallion has covered over 200 mares and there is far more quality among them than was present in his first four books which contained only 30 elite mares in total, a far cry from the 220 or so in his latest three books. But like Saxon Warrior, even with so much promise coming down the line, he

John Boyce cracks the code too has had his 2024 fee reduced, in his case to €50,000 on the back of a decrease in yearling average, which slipped by about €10,000 from last year – although with over 150 sold this year there was always going to be downward pressure on his average yearling price.

Coolmore’s Wootton Bassett and Churchill are the other two with 200 or more mares. Breeders who have used Wootton Bassett in the past three years will have been particularly pleased that he came up with three new Group 1 winners this year in the shape of Champion Stakes winner King Of Steel, plus two-year-olds Bucanero Fuerte and Unquestionable. In the three seasons he’s been at Coolmore, the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere winner has had untold riches bestowed upon him – almost 400 mares from 700 can be classed at elite – so from next year on he ought to be in a position to sire more runners like Almanzor (TF133) and King Of Steel (TF125) . We should also expect an upgrade in his current career stakes winner-to-runner strike-rate of 8.7%. Given that his yearlings this year were from his first Coolmore crop, it was no surprise to see his average reach an all-time high at over €300,000 and consequently his fee for 2024 climb to €200,000.

Five stallions attracted over 100 elite mares in 2023 with Frankel (166) leading the way from Dubawi (125), Wootton Bassett (124), Sea The Stars (118) along with Baaeed and Kingman locked on 101 apiece. First-season sire Baaeed was immensely popular, so much so that his first book of mares was bettered only by Frankel in the past ten years, and he served the same number of elite mares as Too Darn Hot did three years earlier.

Among the second-year stallions, both St Mark’s Basilica and Palace Pier, as befits sires who stood for €65,000 and £50,000 respectively, maintained high-quality books, while the Dubawi stallion Space Blues enjoyed an increase in the number of mares covered as did the National Stud’s Lope Y Fernandez further down the price scale. Meanwhile, Darley’s Ghaiyyath and Pinatubo headed their intake year in terms of mare quality as they have done in the previous two seasons, and it was no surprise to see both of them top the yearlings sales averages among third-year sires.

Finally, there were three stallions that added an extra 100 mares to their 2022 totals. The first was the aforementioned Churchill who increased from 91 to 224 mares on account of Vadeni’s stellar three-year-old season and Blue Rose Cen’s win in the Prix Marcel Boussac. Calyx and Cracksman were the other two.

LEADING GB-IRE STALLIONS BY MARES COVERED 2023 Name Fee: £50k-plus MEHMAS WOOTTON BASSETT FRANKEL STARSPANGLEDBANNER NO NAY NEVER SEA THE STARS LOPE DE VEGA NEW BAY DARK ANGEL NIGHT OF THUNDER ST MARK’S BASILICA BAAEED CAMELOT KINGMAN DUBAWI PALACE PIER Fee: £20k-49k SAXON WARRIOR CHURCHILL BLUE POINT GHAIYYATH BLACKBEARD TOO DARN HOT SHOWCASING SEA THE MOON PINATUBO STATE OF REST AUSTRALIA

Born

Sire

Stands

Country

Season

2023 fee

Mares

2014 2008 2008 2006 2011 2006 2007 2012 2005 2011 2018 2018 2009 2011 2002 2017

Acclamation Iffraaj Galileo Choisir Scat Daddy Cape Cross Shamardal Dubawi Acclamation Dubawi Siyouni Sea The Stars Montjeu Invincible Spirit Dubai Millennium Kingman

Tally-Ho Coolmore Juddmonte Coolmore Coolmore Gilltown Ballylinch Ballylinch Yeomanstown Darley Coolmore Shadwell Coolmore Juddmonte Darley Darley

IRE IRE GB IRE IRE IRE IRE IRE IRE IRE IRE GB IRE GB GB GB

7 12 11 13 9 14 13 7 16 8 2 1 10 9 18 2

€60,000 €150,000 £275,000 €50,000 €175,000 €180,000 €125,000 €75,000 €60,000 €100,000 €65,000 £80,000 €60,000 £125,000 £350,000 £50,000

239 210 194 188 181 180 177 176 165 163 162 160 159 156 134 125

2015 2014 2014 2015 2020 2016

Deep Impact Galileo Shamardal Dubawi No Nay Never Dubawi Oasis Dream Sea The Stars Shamardal Starspangledbanner Galileo

Coolmore Coolmore Kildangan Kildangan Coolmore Darley Whitsbury Lanwades Darley Rathbarry Coolmore

IRE IRE IRE IRE IRE GB

5 6 4 3 1 4

248 224 187 184 179 152

GB GB GB IRE IRE

13 9 3 1 9

€35,000 €30,000 €35,000 €25,000 €25,000 £40,000 £45,000 £25,000 £35,000 €25,000 €25,000

Tally-Ho Kildangan Coolmore Coolmore Tally-Ho Newsells Park Darley Whitsbury Darley Rathbarry Derrinstown Overbury Irish National Yeomanstown Coolmore Ballylinch Tally-Ho

IRE IRE IRE IRE IRE GB GB GB GB IRE IRE GB IRE IRE IRE IRE IRE

2 2 4 4 6 11 5 5 5 7 1 6 2 2 8 1 1

€15,000 €16,000 €10,000 €17,500 €12,500 £15,000 £17,500 €18,500 £10,000 €15,000 €15,000 £12,500 €15,000 €10,000 €17,500 €15,000 €10,000

196 195 190 186 184 166 164 163 161 159 157 152 145 137 136 129 128

Ballyhane Overbury Ballyhane Tally-Ho Whitsbury National Yeomanstown Highclere Overbury Mickley Bridge House Irish National Shadwell

IRE GB IRE IRE GB GB IRE GB GB GB IRE IRE GB

4 8 1 4 3 2 4 4 1 2 1 2 5

7,500 8,000 6,500 5,000 6,000 8,500 7,500 5,000 6,500 5,000 6,500 6,000 6,000

181 177 177 162 153 150 119 119 106 104 99 94 93

2007 2011 2017 2018 2011

Fee: £10k-19k STARMAN SPACE BLUES CALYX TEN SOVEREIGNS COTAI GLORY NATHANIEL CRACKSMAN HAVANA GREY HARRY ANGEL KODI BEAR MINZAAL ARDAD LUCKY VEGA SUPREMACY GLENEAGLES BAYSIDE BOY PERSIAN FORCE

2014 2015 2014 2012 2018 2014 2018 2018 2012 2019 2020

Dutch Art Dubawi Kingman No Nay Never Exceed and Excel Galileo Frankel Havana Gold Dark Angel Kodiac Mehmas Kodiac Lope de Vega Mehmas Galileo New Bay Mehmas

Fee: Up to £9k SOLDIER’S CALL GOLDEN HORN SPACE TRAVELLER INNS OF COURT SERGEI PROKOFIEV LOPE Y FERNANDEZ INVINCIBLE ARMY LAND FORCE CATURRA UBETTABELIEVEIT DUBAWI LEGEND NANDO PARRADO TASLEET

2016 2012 2016 2014 2016 2017 2015 2016 2019 2018 2019 2018 2013

Showcasing Cape Cross Bated Breath Invincible Spirit Scat Daddy Lope De Vega Invincible Spirit No Nay Never Mehmas Kodiac Dubawi Kodiac Showcasing

2017 2016 2016 2016 2012 2008

147 138 126 112 100

THE OWNER BREEDER

67

Sexton Files

Equinox primed to further Sunday Silence’s legacy

68

THE OWNER BREEDER

JRA

W

hile there has long been a steady level of respect towards the Japanese thoroughbred, it has undoubtedly been brought into sharper focus this year.

Auguste Rodin, from the final small crop of Deep Impact, has done his bit in this part of the world for Coolmore to place an exclamation point on the remarkable stud career of his sire. Yet even he is unable to garner the attention received by the outstanding Japanese runner Equinox, whose electric performances this season under the care of trainer Tetsuya Kimura has captured the imagination of racing fans all over the world.

From October 2022 to November 2023, Equinox remained unbeaten in six starts in Group 1 company. That is impressive in itself but it was the ruthless manner with which he dispatched his challengers that places him in such rarefied company.

Seemingly easy to ride, he would settle well for Christophe Lemaire, who in turn was well aware of the immediacy of the change of gear available to him. And once he was in full flight, there was literally no stopping him.

Equinox’s treatment of the likes of Westover, Mostahdaf and Shahryar in the Group 1 Dubai Sheema Classic back in March illustrated his talent yet it was still eye-opening to see him exert the same authority over Japanese stars Liberty Island, Stars On Earth and Do Deuce in the Group 1 Japan Cup in November; having been the only one capable of initially swallowing up the leader Panthalassa, another Group 1 winner who had set a fierce pace in front, Equinox’s turn of foot propelled him so far in front of the pack that Lemaire was able to ease him down well before the line. At the finish, he still had four lengths to spare over this season’s Japanese Classic heroine Liberty Island.

Equinox retires to stud at the Shadai Stallion Station as the world’s best horse by ratings (Timeform have him on 136, 3lb ahead of Ace Impact). It is tempting to regard the colt as the culmination of years of ambition behind the development of Japan as a racing nation. And indeed, it has taken decades of cultivation, foresight and determination by various players to reach that place, encompassing numerous acquisitions of stallions and broodmares

Equinox saunters clear to win the Japan Cup

alongside an increased understanding of management and training. Like any endeavour, there have been bumps in the road – there were some terrible disappointments within the clutch of Epsom Derby winners imported for stud duty during the 1990s – but had those involved adopted a tentative approach to improving the breed, then perhaps a horse like Sunday Silence would never have become the subject of their ambition either.

In a recent feature with Trainer magazine, Sunday Silence’s owner-breeder Arthur Hancock recalled the efforts made behind trying to stand the horse at his Stone Farm in Kentucky. The 1989 season had been lit up by the near-black colt’s battles with Easy Goer, a rivalry which had gone his way in the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Breeders’ Cup Classic. Yet despite that incredibly accomplished record, there were few takers when it came to standing him at stud.

“We tried to syndicate him and called people everywhere – Kentucky, England, France – and the answer was always the same,” recalled Hancock in Trainer. “It became apparent very quickly that people wouldn’t use him.

“It was spread around the industry that he was a fluke, another Seabiscuit or

Citation who could run but that would be no good at stud. It was said that he was crooked, which he wasn’t, and that he was sickle hocked, which he was as a young horse but grew out of. He was an ugly duckling that grew into a swan.

“We had three people on the books to take shares and two that would send mares. Then I spoke to my brother Seth at Claiborne and he had 40 contracts to send out for Easy Goer.

“At the same time, I got a call from a representative of Teruya Yoshida saying that Shadai would be interested in buying the whole horse. They were offering $250,000 per share.

“At the end of the day, I had two contracts and three shares sold. The day he left, I loaded him up myself and I don’t mind admitting that when that van went down the drive, I cried.

“Basically the Japanese outsmarted everybody.”

Sunday Silence had been a $17,000 yearling and by all accounts, was certainly no oil painting. But he was a tough horse both physically and mentally. There are numerous references to his bad behaviour in training, a fire that was inherited from Halo and certainly transmitted in varying degrees to a number of his stock.

However, if channelled correctly that kind of mental toughness tends to stand

Bloodstock world views the line in very good stead when it comes to the rigours of racing.

Today, Japan owes so much to Sunday Silence that it is estimated that over 70 per cent of its current broodmare population contains his blood in some form. Not only did his success help strengthen the hand of the Yoshida family considerably, it also showcased the Japanese breed to a wider global audience.

Japan was something of a closed shop before Sunday Silence’s achievements became too great for some of the larger breeders in Europe and North America to ignore – Sheikh Mohammed, the Wertheimer brothers and Niarchos family were among those to use the horse early on and with great success. Thus, by the time his champion son Deep Impact retired to stud, a precedent had been set; in return, his progeny have been regular sights outside of Japan. The Wildenstein family’s Poule d’Essai des Pouliches winner Beauty Parlour, a member of his second crop, set the ball rolling in that respect.

Coolmore weren’t far behind in their support, which yielded the Classic winners Saxon Warrior, Snowfall, Fantasy Blue and Auguste Rodin, while for the Niarchos family, Deep Impact sired their Prix du Jockey Club winner Study Of Man. Equinox is physically very much in that Sunday Silence mould as an angular, leggy, dark-coloured and blaze-faced colt.

However, he belongs to the tribe not through Deep Impact but his brother Black Tide. Both are out of Wind In Her Hair, a daughter of Alzao trained by John Hills to run second to Balanchine in the 1994 Oaks and who is still going strong at 32-yearsold as a pensioner at the Northern Horse Park in Japan.

Black Tide, who also bears a particularly close physical resemblance to Sunday Silence, was nowhere near as talented as Deep Impact, winning three of 22 starts over the course of six seasons headed by a Listed event over 1,800 metres.

Presumably his pedigree was a key factor in his early popularity with breeders. He received six-figure books in each of his first nine seasons, notably when covering 194 mares in 2015. In return, he has had his moments at stud as the sire of 11 stakes winners. Now 22, he stood this season for 1,500,000yen (£9,300) at his long-term home of the Breeders’ Stallion Station in Japan.

Kitasan Black is by far his best performer sired to date. A hugely admirable performer who was Japan’s Horse of the Year and a two-time champion older male, he was a typically tough Japanese product who won 12 of his 20 starts highlighted by the Group 1 Kyoto

Kikuka Sho at three, Japan Cup and Tenno Sho at four, and the Arima Kinen, Osaka Hai, Tenno Sho (Spring) and Tenno Sho (Autumn) at five. He was retired to stand at the Shadai Stallion Station in 2018.

Kitasan Black’s first three crops number 84, 82 and 55 foals – surprisingly low for such a talented and good-looking horse.

But Shadai have afforded him with enough quality to do well if capable, sending him the likes of Group 1-winning producers such as Donna Blini (resulting colt sold for $1,454,546) and Malacostumbrada (her colt sold for $1,775,701) in addition to the July Cup heroine Fleeting Spirit (her colt sold for $1,028,038).

Equinox is from his first crop while his second contains another top colt in Sol Oriens, successful in this year’s Group 1 Satsuki Sho (Japanese 2,000 Guineas), as well as the ill-fated Group 2 winner Skilfing, a highly promising colt who sadly died in this year’s Japanese Derby. Fellow three-year-old Ravel ran fourth in the Yushun Himba, otherwise known as the Japanese Oaks.

“Equinox is physically very much in that Sunday Silence mould” In light of his early success, the Shadai Stallion Station raised his fee from 4,000,000yen (£25,000) to 10,000,000yen (£62,500) for 2023 and that has been increased again to 20,000,000yen (£110,000) in 2024.

That figure made him the most expensive stallion to stand in Japan until the announcement arrived that Equinox had been retired to take his place in the same stallion barn as his sire. Shadai have also installed him at 20,000,000 yen, which is the highest price ever afforded to a first-year Japanese stallion.

Equinox belongs to a family that has been in Japan since 1988 when Patrick Barbe paid $410,000 for his fourth dam Blanche Reine, a winning Nureyev half-sister to French Group 3 winner Bellypha (later grandsire of Linamix) as a six-year-old in foal to Alleged at the 1988 Keeneland November Sale. Blanche Reine left behind the Group 1 Prix Jean Prat runner-up Balleroy on the ground in France and although he turned out to be the best

Sunday Silence: dominant sire

of her eight winners, the Alleged foal she was carrying at the time of her purchase was the stakes-placed Maison Blanche, the third dam of Equinox.

In turn, Maison Blanche foaled five minor winners including Blancherie to the Arc hero Tony Bin, a high-class sire for Yoshida in Japan who is well known today in his role as the damsire of top stallion Heart’s Cry. It was this daughter Blancherie who went on to produce Chateau Blanche, winner of the Group 3 Hanshin Mermaid Stakes and now today celebrated as the dam of Equinox.

Chateau Blanche is a daughter of the Group 1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen winner King Halo, a name that probably means little over here until it is factored in that he is a son of Dancing Brave, that brilliant performer of 1986 whose sale to Japan in the early 1990s was swiftly followed by the 1993 Classic successes of Commander In Chief, White Muzzle and Wemyss Bight.

Interestingly, inbreeding to Dancing Brave’s sire Lyphard is found in the background of seven of Deep Impact’s Group 1 winners, including Gentildonna, Deep Brillante and Glory Vase. As for Kitasan Black, he is also inbred to the diminutive son of Northern Dancer and adding another line has clearly done no harm in the case of Equinox, who is also inbred 4x4 to Sunday Silence’s sire Halo.

It takes a depth of ambition, planning and financial resources for breeders in this part of the world to use Japanese stallions.

While a true global appreciation of the Japanese thoroughbred probably arrived too late to really impact Sunday Silence, Deep Impact certainly made the most of the global opportunities afforded to him.

Here’s hoping that a number of European breeders take the plunge again and support Equinox.

THE OWNER BREEDER

69

Vet Forum: The Expert View

Complications of the late-term pregnancy

C

hristmas has been and gone and just like that, here we are heading into another foaling season. With a gestation period of 11 months, many of our thoroughbred mares are in their final trimester and rug belly straps are tight to the seams. Whilst we hope not to see too much of the mares outside their routine vaccinations, there are a few conditions where we will try to intervene proactively rather than reactively, as discussed in this article.

Older mares

With the ever-increasing standard of reproductive medicine and mare management, it is not uncommon for studs to be foaling mares in their late teens and even 20s. Unsurprisingly, these mares often require careful monitoring and at times, intervention to help them maintain their pregnancies to term.

During pregnancy, the placenta supplies the foetus with all the nutrients required for growth as well as facilitating gas exchange. As the foetus grows, umbilical blood flow increases to reflect this. In older mares with endometrial degeneration (endometrosis), the blood flow and hence, nutrient and oxygen

Image 1 A Caslick’s operation performed on a 16-year-old, multiparous mare with poor perineal conformation to prevent aspiration of bacteria into the deeper reproductive tract

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Many thoroughbred mares are now in their final trimester

supply, may be affected. This can result in placental insufficiency and mares that abort due to this may be noted to have thin, translucent placentae due to poor development.

Barren mares with a history of early pregnancy loss or abortion are often recommended to have a uterine biopsy.

This is a simple procedure performed on the farm, often without requiring sedation. The biopsy section is then examined microscopically to evaluate the degree of endometrial degeneration, especially the severity of fibrosis, and give a prognostic indicator of how likely the mare is to carry a future pregnancy to full term. Not only does this give breeders the ability to make an informed decision on whether to continue breeding the mare, but it also guides treatment plans for higher risk mares to optimise their chances.

The detection of most placental pathologies in mares by ultrasound examination is limited by the amount of placenta accessible to the examiner during transabdominal or transrectal scanning. Blood flow in the umbilical and uterine arteries can be evaluated during pregnancy by using doppler ultrasound to monitor placental perfusion. Normally blood flow increases exponentially in mid to late pregnancy as vascular resistance decreases. If ultrasound reveals a lack of

this, or if the mare is determined to be ‘high-risk’ (identified by higher biopsy scores or a history of previous abortion and pregnancy loss), treatment may be started pre-emptively with administration of drugs to increase uterine blood flow and perhaps more importantly, reduce vascular resistance. Aspirin is widely used in human medicine to achieve this, as it inhibits platelet aggregation to increase blood flow. Recent studies have shown some promising results in mares, offering a relatively cheap and easily administered option. Pentoxyfylline has also been used to enhance blood flow and helps to prevent the release of inflammatory proteins (cytokines) that occur in cases of secondary bacterial infection, such as placentitis.

It should be noted that due to the increased risk of peri-parturient haemorrhage in older mares, aspirin (or any other drug that alters blood clotting) should be stopped two to four weeks prior to foaling. Older, multiparous mares may also be predisposed to placentitis due to cervical incompetency, poor perineal conformation and failing uterine defence mechanisms, as will be discussed later in this article.

Immunosuppression

During the later stages of pregnancy, mares can become more susceptible to

Kate Burden MRCVS illness and to recrudescence of latent infections such as EHV (Equine Herpes Virus). Most horses will have been exposed to EHV at some point in their lives and often show no clinical signs of infection. However, mares that are latent carriers of EHV may start actively shedding the virus during times of stress or immunosuppression such as during late pregnancy.

EHV abortions can occur as ‘abortion storms’ resulting in multiple abortions and huge economic losses to stud farms.

Hence, virtually all thoroughbred farms now vaccinate against EHV at five, seven and nine months of pregnancy after the initial primary course of two vaccines.

As with any viral vaccination, it does not eliminate the chance of infection, but it greatly minimises the chance of abortion storms by reducing the viral load.

Mares that are carriers of important infectious bacteria such as Streptococcus equi (the Strangles bacteria) or bacterial diarrhoea (Salmonella spp) may also increase shedding during pregnancy.

Therefore, mare management during late pregnancy should be focused on minimising stress levels by avoiding shipping and mixing up into new groups where possible. Incoming mares should be quarantined for a minimum of two weeks with monitoring for signs of fever or illness.

Many boarding studs also now require negative strangles and EHV testing prior to accepting new mares to stud for these reasons. It is important to remember that EHV PCR testing from a nasal swab will only identify mares that are actively shedding the virus and not those that are latent carriers. Therefore, a negative test result does not rule out the potential for further EHV abortion.

Placentitis

An occasional complication that we encounter in the late-term pregnancy is placentitis. This refers to infection and inflammation of the placenta which can compromise foetal growth, lead to premature delivery and in severe cases, abortion. It is usually caused by ascending bacteria tracking through the cervix, which is why many veterinarians will strongly encourage a Caslick procedure on mares with poor perineal conformation or cervical incompetency at the time of covering.

A Caslick involves suturing together the lips of the vulva to create a seal and limit aspiration of bacteria into the vagina and deeper reproductive tract (Image 1). Maintaining high standards of hygiene around the time of covering is

Image 2 Rectal ultrasound measurements of a thickened uterus and placenta taken from a mare with placentitis

also paramount. However, despite these measures, unfortunately placentitis can still manifest.

Clinically, mares will often show no change in demeanour or appetite but present with premature udder enlargement, early lactation and/or vulval discharge. Appearance of any of these clinical signs should prompt immediate examination by a vet as the placentitis can be quite advanced by the time the clinical signs appear and abortion or premature delivery may be imminent.

Clinical examination will involve a rectal ultrasound examination of the cervix and placenta, especially near the cervix and foetus. Foetal viability can be assessed as well as taking measurements of the combined thickness of the uterus and placenta. The placenta becomes thickened and may even separate away from the uterus in placentitis and so by taking these measurements, it allows monitoring of the extent of the disease process and response to treatment during sequential examinations (Image 2).

High-risk mares with a history of previous placentitis or those with a predisposition to placentitis (cervical incompetency, poor perineal conformation etc) can be monitored monthly to allow treatment in the early stages of infection if abnormal placental thickening is detected. A speculum examination of the cervix may also be performed to assess how tight the cervix is and to take a sample of any discharge for laboratory culture and antibiotic sensitivity.

Where placentitis is suspected, treatment should be started immediately with antibiotics and anti-inflammatories as a minimum. Typically, we recommend trimethoprim sulphonamide (TMPS) as it is a broad-spectrum antibiotic with

good penetration of the uterus and placenta. Appropriate non-steroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) include phenylbutazone and fibrocoxib, with the latter being the better (albeit more expensive) choice for long-term use as it has lesser effects on the gastrointestinal system compared to the other NSAIDs. Altrenogest (Regumate) may also be recommended to promote uterine quiescence, improve cervical tone, and combat the inflammatory cascade.

However, it can dampen the natural immune response to infection so should be used only when directed. Medications that improve uterine blood flow may also be considered to optimise perfusion of the compromised placenta (as discussed earlier in this article).

Mares with placentitis should be monitored carefully at the time of foaling as they are at increased risk of presenting with a ‘red bag’ due to placental separation. The foal may also be compromised due to growth retardation and septicaemia from the placental infection. It is particularly important that these foals receive a high level of antibodies, either from good quality colostrum or hyperimmune plasma transfusion at birth, to minimise their susceptibility to secondary infection. The mare may have poor quality colostrum due to premature udder enlargement and lactation, so good quality colostrum should be sourced pre-emptively in known cases of placentitis.

Ultimately, early detection of placentitis is crucial to the end outcome.

There is currently research being undertaken at Rossdales to identify placental biomarkers, present in the maternal blood, that may be monitored to allow quicker detection and treatment of placentitis. At present, careful monitoring by stud staff, proactive management of high-risk mares and aggressive treatment of affected mares remains the optimal approach to managing placentitis.

Other rarer conditions affecting the late-term pregnant mare include fetal hydrops (where excessive amounts of foetal fluid accumulate in the allantoic and\or amniotic compartments) and can lead to pre-pubic tendon rupture.

All are generally characterised by gross enlargement of the abdomen, the latter often being more acute in presentation and painful. The prognosis for a successful foaling with each of these conditions is guarded and elective referral to a hospital would be recommended for further management of these cases at the time of foaling.

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+ Equine Health Update Foal nutrition: the part we play Words: Laura Steley

T

horoughbred foal nutrition has always been a hot topic amongst stud professionals, veterinarians and nutritionists alike. It is complex with many differentials to consider. For example, a foal destined for the sales will be under much more pressure to look well-proportioned and strong than one bred to race for its breeder. Often, foals which look more like precocious yearlings rather than as expected for their age will achieve higher sale prices. This can put pressure on consigners to break basic rules of feeding and therefore increase the risk of DODS (developmental orthopedic diseases).

The first year of life is a pivotal period for a thoroughbred and can ultimately make or break their future success on the racecourse. A healthy foal will grow rapidly, gaining in height, weight and strength almost before your eyes. Studies of growth patterns in thoroughbreds indicate that foals reach up to 90% of their mature height, and up to 65% of mature weight, by 12 months, sometimes putting on as much as 1.5kg per day.

If the foaling process has gone as nature intended, with the foal standing and looking to nurse within the hour, a foal’s first (and most important) meal will be colostrum. Colostrum, sometimes referred to as ‘liquid gold’, is a viscous yellowy fluid. It has a very different composition than milk and is specifically tailored to meet the needs of the foal. If the mare is going to board elsewhere for foaling, it is good practice to move her by eight months gestation. This will allow the mare to pick up the required antibodies so that the colostrum is suitable for the foal’s environment.

Colostrum is absorbed via the small intestine and is full to the brim with carbohydrates, proteins, fats and electrolytes. The high amount of protein is largely due to the increased levels of immunoglobulins (antibodies).

Immunoglobulins provide the foal with protection against environmental threats immediately after birth and help to stimulate the foal’s own immune system; this is called passive transfer immunity.

It is of the upmost importance that the foal ingests the mare’s colostrum in a timely manner. Absorption via the foal’s small intestine is thought to be at its optimum from birth to eight hours of age, with absorption rates decreasing

A foal’s first and most important meal will be colostrum

substantially after 12 hours and ceasing at approximately 24 hours postpartum.

If the immunoglobulins, specifically IgG levels, in the colostrum are inadequate (this can be tested on a refractometer), foals should be bottled or tubed higherquality colostrum or a colostrum replacer.

After the foal has nursed for a minimum of 12 hours, the level of passive transfer immunity can be checked via the levels of IgG in the foal’s blood and if low, or failure of transfer immunity is observed, your vet may advise intravenous administration of equine plasma or a specialised plasma product. This will be particularly important if the foal is nearing 24 hours of age. Without blood being taken, failure of passive transfer will often not be recognisable in the foal until they are two or three days old, at which point the window of opportunity to improve the foal’s immunity is negligible.

Colostrum to milk

Once the foal has consumed all the mare’s colostrum via multiple bouts of nursing, it will be replaced with milk, usually within 24-36 hours. Foals may nurse as often as every ten minutes during the first few days of life; this will decrease to around once an hour by one month of age. As long as the mare and foal are healthy, the foal’s nutritional requirements should be met solely via the mare’s milk and grazing in their first two to three months.

Andy Richardson, Veterinary Director at NAF, comments: “Fresh grass is a great source of many nutrients, so access for the mare and foal should be given as soon as possible. The foal will quickly learn to

sample forages, which is an important part of introducing bacterial microflora to its gut.”

At peak lactation a mare will be producing up to 3% of her body weight in milk each day in order to sustain her foal. To put that into context, that is 15kg of milk per day. That said, foals often begin seeking out alternative sources of feed much sooner, investigating feed intended for their dams and eating paddock companion faeces, which helps to build their hindgut microbiome. It is worth mentioning that milk is naturally low in copper and zinc, both of which are required for cartilage development.

Broodmares should have been supplemented with copper before, or at least in late pregnancy, to ensure the foal will have built up adequate stores of trace minerals in the liver prior to birth.

Richardson says that “a balanced diet for the mare is important, with vitamin and mineral supplementation advisable should the diet be predominantly fibre-based.” Low levels of copper are associated with physitis (inflammation of growth plates) and osteochondrosis (cartilage lesions). Also, calcium requirements for lactating mares are at its highest level during the early stages of lactation, and insufficient calcium intake increases the chance of bone demineralisation.

There may be circumstances where the mare’s milk is not quite adequate and the need for supplementation arises. Louise Jones, Nutritionist at Connolly’s RED MILLS, explains: “Foals that fail to thrive or those that have had

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››

+ Equine Health Update supplementation. In these situations, I tend to recommend Foran Equine Friska Foal, which is a palatable multi-vitamin and prebiotic syrup specifically designed to support foal development and gut health.”

At three months of age, foals will still be relying on the mare’s milk to provide 30-50% of their nutrients, the most essential being calcium, copper, phosphorous and zinc. However, at around the third month of lactation, the mare’s milk production declines even though the foal’s nutritional needs continue to increase, thus creating a nutrient gap. As well as a decline in milk production, the milk’s trace mineral content will also decrease and therefore nutrient requirements for optimal development may not be met. At this point creep feeding can be very useful in ensuring the foal receives adequate nutrients. Also, by feeding the mare and foal individually, we can tailor their diets to meet specific needs and ensure they receive the correct amount of feed.

A properly fortified concentrate for suckling foals should be introduced and gradually increased so that the foal’s daily concentrate intake is 1lb (0.5 kg) per month of age. For example, a two-monthold foal should be eating 2lb of feed per day. An alternative method is to feed 1% of the foal’s body weight per day (1kg per 100kg of body weight).

By selecting a feed specifically made for foals, we can ensure correct nutritional balance and suitable feed composition, e.g. pellets, for easy mastication via their soft deciduous teeth. The concentrate should contain 14-18% protein and, as previously mentioned, have added calcium, phosphorus, copper and zinc. It is important to provide a balanced ration as the ratio of calcium to phosphorus and zinc to copper is very important.

Plusvital’s Clare Silke comments: “Plusvital Breeding Robust provides increased calcium and phosphorus in the correct ratio (2:1), which can support bone growth early in life. Additionally, high levels of vitamins A and D are also provided to support bone growth.”

Foals should be fed regulated amounts, preferably twice or three times a day, so as to not overload their immature digestive tract. It is very important at this stage to keep an eye on the foal’s growth; regular weighing is advised to ensure a consistent but steady growth rate to maximise skeletal development during this highly influential time period. Emphasis should be placed on maintaining a lean body condition

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(ribs not visible but can be felt with mild pressure over the flank; loin, croup and neck have smooth outlines without creases or visible bony structures). An obese foal (obvious crease down the back, ribs not easily felt) will suffer undue stress on immature bones and joints.

Independent feeding

Creep feeding is also a beneficial step to take pre-weaning, allowing the foal to become accustomed to hard feed and gain some ‘independent’ feeding practice before they step out on their own without the mare’s reassurance and guidance.

We can encourage the foal to use a creep feeder by placing it where mares tend to gather and rest. If foals are seen to consume a proportion of the mares’ feed daily, assuming that the foal is of healthy body condition and the mares’ feed is providing the necessary nutrients for growth, this can be an acceptable feeding regime. If using this method, extra attention must be paid to the foal’s weight as this regime may facilitate over-eating or under-eating, both of which will have negative effects on foal growth and health.

On most thoroughbred stud farms, weaning will take place between four and six months of age. At this point the foal’s hind gut microbiome will be adequately developed to ferment forage efficiently and premolars or ‘caps’ will have hardened to allow effective grinding.

Weaning is one of the most stressful life events any horse will go through, and a marked slump in growth and digestive issues (EGUS) are not uncommon.

Studies have shown that between 30% and 94% of weanlings will develop gastric ulceration. Jones advises: “To help minimise this risk I like to include

a specific gut care supplement in the diet. Ideally this should be formulated to support total gut health and provide ingredients to support stomach health, for example pectin and beta-glucans, as well as hind-gut function such as pre and postbiotics.”

There are other things we can do to help ease this stressful period.

Ensuring ad-lib access to good quality, high protein hay and/or pasture is vital, however this will not be enough alone.

Jones adds: “Even when feeding a good quality forage, it will rarely provide all the nutrients that youngstock require.

Therefore, providing a concentrate feed with a high-quality protein and energy source, along with key vitamins and minerals, is integral to the development and growth of successful youngstock.”

It is important to provide the weanling with enough space to self-exercise and exhibit normal behaviour. Foals should already be consuming the correct type and amount of palatable fortified concentrate feed at weaning to meet their requirements. This will negate the need to change feed type or feeding protocols causing further upset for the individual.

Correct nutrient intake is vital during the weanling stage (five to 12 months old) as the threat of developing DODs is at its highest, the most common at this age being osteochondrosis dissecans, subchondral bone cysts and physitis.

When increasing feed amounts for the nursing foal to weanling, the time of year should be taken into account. Early foals are likely to be weaned in the summer when pasture is still highly nutritious and the weather is warm, whereas late foals will be weaned in late autumn/winter when the grass has little nutritional value and colder temperatures have crept in.

››

SHUTTERSTOCK

›› post-foaling complications may require

Fresh grass is a great source of nutrients for the mare and foal

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+ Equine Health Update ›› Deficiencies, excesses and imbalances of

nutrients must be avoided.

Emma Nissler, Nutritional Manager at Dodsen & Horrell, says: “Post-partum diets fed prior to weaning have been shown to help ease the transition and better prepare the digestive tract for this change. It is not unusual to see a slight loss of condition post-weaning due to the dietary change and increased stress levels that this period may involve, however this will often be followed by a period of compensatory growth and should not be prolonged.

“There is an increased risk of gastric ulceration during this period, and the provision of forage is key in preventing this. Any concerns regarding rapid weight loss or other changes during this period should be discussed with a practicing veterinarian. Any dietary changes should be done very gradually, over a course of ten to 14 days to limit the risk of digestive issues at that crucial time.”

There are targeted supplements for foals/weanlings that can offer additional nutritional support where necessary, e.g. foals which are predisposed or already

diagnosed with a DOD. Silke says: “The causes of these diseases are multifactorial and include genetics, hormones, conformation, growth rate, exercise type/ amount and nutrition.

“An irregular growth rate or growth spurts may be a factor that increases the risk of these diseases.”

If DOD occurs, the amount of concentrate fed should be temporarily reduced while the foal’s total nutrient intake is assessed (whilst maintaining proper levels of protein, vitamins and minerals). Balanced nutrition should be implemented as soon as possible; starving foals to implement weight loss will not correct DODs on a long-term basis. Fresh, clean water should be available at all times; adding electrolytes may also be beneficial following the sudden decrease of fluids via nursing.

One of the most significant things we can do to help facilitate correctly balanced nutrition and therefore healthy and consistent foal growth is to source concentrate feeds and/or supplements tailored for the young thoroughbred from reputable feed companies. These products

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will have the correct balance of vitamins and minerals, as well as providing energy in the most beneficial form via fermentable fibre and fats, not by starches and sugars.

Recent research into the relationship between the glycaemic nature of feed (blood glucose level response) and the incidence of DODs, specifically osteochondritis dissecans, in young horses has shown very interesting results.

High-glycaemic feeds, such as cereals and molasses, appear to disrupt normal bone formation processes, meaning low glycaemic feeds, such as oils, rice bran, beet pulp and soy hulls, are much better energy sources.

We all know foal nutrition starts inutero via the mare. Once safely in the world it is our job to do all we can to supply the foal with the nutrients they need to survive and thrive. A well planned and continually monitored feeding regime is essential. Although we know much regarding the fundamental nutritional requirement of young thoroughbreds, every foal will have specific needs dependant on physiological and environmental factors.

naf-racing-fertility-180x128mm-22-haworth-V2.qxp_Layout 1 15/11/2022 09:42 Page 1

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It has become part of our routine to keep each stallion performing at his best and we will be keeping them on it next year for sure!”

Phil Haworth, Whitsbury Manor Stud

Feed Five Star Fertility prior to the stud season and throughout to maintain and develop fertility in hard working stallions. Five Star Fertility is especially beneficial when fertility limiting behaviour is seen or when previous seasons have resulted in poor performance.

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ROA Forum

BILL SELWYN

The special section for ROA members

The team behind Grand National hero Corach Rambler enjoy their special triumph at Aintree

Shared ownership in the spotlight

T

he British Horseracing Authority has recently unveiled its latest blog, shedding light on changes related to syndicate and club management, as part of the Racing Digital development project.

In an effort to bolster the growth of shared ownership, the changes will not only simplify administration but also mitigate regulatory risks that accompany the increasing number of syndicates.

Clearer syndicate and club definitions

One of the key highlights is the simplified definition of what constitutes a syndicate. Beginning in spring 2024, the syndicate registration will be reserved for more commercial entities, and syndicates will be defined as “a form of shared ownership where the members own or lease an interest in racehorses, and the syndicator receives remuneration for their role and/or the method of attracting participation in the entity includes invitations to the public.”

Racing clubs, on the other hand, will continue to be defined as “an entertainment associated with

racehorses, where the members acquire no ownership rights to, or lease an interest in, any racehorses but may acquire certain benefits such as the sharing of prize-money.”

Partnerships

In addition to these definitions, important improvements have been made for partnerships, making them more accessible. These include allowing partnerships to join other partnerships to form new ownership groups for the first time, significantly reducing the cost of registering a new partnership, and allowing all individuals to register as owners free of charge.

Syndicates will be contacted directly with more details about these changes and how their ownership type can be changed free of charge if required.

Increased transparency with syndicate member shares

Syndicators will now need to declare the percentage shares of horses owned by their members. This move promotes transparency around the selling of shares and provides members with greater visibility of their ownership interests. Syndicators will be able to

upload and update members’ details and their shares at any point during the life of the syndicate, simplifying the administration process.

Introduction of syndicator and club manager licences

Another significant development is the introduction of a new licence for anyone wishing to manage a syndicate or racing club. This licensing system, set to be launched in mid-2024, aims to ensure syndicators and club managers meet the requirements set by the Rules of Racing, the sport, and their members.

This new licence will be required by both new and existing syndicators and racing club managers. More information about its introduction and application process will be communicated directly in early 2024.

These changes represent a crucial step in strengthening and supporting the continued growth of shared ownership in the sport. For further information and any questions regarding these changes, owners, syndicators or club managers can contact ownership@britishhorseracing. com.

Owner Sponsorship Scheme update From January 1, 2024 any jockey aged under 18 instructed to ride a Totesponsored horse will not be permitted to wear either the Tote or World Pool logos.

After a period of review and consultation, the Tote and ROA have

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agreed to adopt what many other sports currently do and ensure that no jockeys aged under 18 will appear wearing these logos despite the contract being between the Tote and the ROA. This is a positive and proactive step to protect participants

and the sport’s reputation.

The contract terms of payment will be unimpacted and owners will continue to receive their payment from the Tote for each horse covered by the agreement, including those ridden by a jockey aged under 18.

Our contact details:

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

RacehorseOwnersUK

OUR PARTNERS SECTION

Racehorseownersassociation

Tote sponsorship for two-year-olds On January 1 all yearlings turn two, opening doors for the ROA Tote Sponsorship Scheme and VAT registration under the Racehorse Owners VAT Scheme.

Sponsorship options:

The charity is dedicated to looking after all racing’s people

Befriend Racing Welfare today Behind the thrill and spectacle of horseracing is a whole army of people working in what can often be challenging conditions, risking physical injury to bring us all the sport that we love so much.

Racing Welfare is the only charity that is there for all racing’s people from the beginnings of their careers and on into retirement, looking after both their physical and mental health.

Starting from as little as £5 per month, a Friend of Racing Welfare can pledge their long-term support to the charity, helping to ensure that Racing Welfare can continue to be there for racing’s people when they need us most.

As a Friend you’ll receive exclusive benefits, including two day tickets to a Jockey Club racecourse of your choice, a Friends of Racing Welfare pin

badge, a quarterly e-newsletter, access to virtual events and forums, 10% discount on entry fees on select events, and entry into prize draws for exclusive hospitality packages.

How your support will help: • £5 per month could help pay for a retired member of racing staff to attend a special day trip to the seaside, theatre or the races.

• £10 per month could pay for three sessions of physiotherapy, helping an injured member of staff to get back to work.

• £20 per month could pay for six sessions of counselling, giving a member of racing staff the emotional and psychological support they need.

Sign up to become a Friend today at racingwelfare.co.uk.

• ROA members can explore Tote sponsorship. Check eligibility at www.roa.co.uk/sponsor.

• 100% ROA-owned horses qualify. Partners and syndicates require ROA membership for Tote sponsorship.

• Your trainer might offer a yard sponsorship agreement – talk to them for details.

• Horses from Tattersalls may be eligible for sponsorship as two, three and four-year-olds.

Contact Tattersalls directly for details.

You can also register a thirdparty sponsorship, which you have sourced yourself, on the BHA racing administration website.

The ROA VAT Solution team is on hand to assist you with all your digital VAT. Appointing us as your VAT Agent is straightforward.

To engage our services, contact Davina or Glen at vat@roa.co.uk or call 0118 338 5685 today.

Lake Forest: Tote-sponsored winner

Racing Welfare case study: Shaun’s story Waking up and reaching for a drink had become a normal part of life for Shaun, a former work-rider, who didn’t recognise the devastating effects alcohol addiction was having on his life until one day in November 2020 when he crashed his car while under the influence of alcohol.

It was this incident that led Shaun to change his life and his first port of call was Racing Welfare.

He says: “I crashed my car drink driving; I was heavily over the limit, and I needed help. I was drinking all day, every day – from the moment I opened my eyes. Racing

Welfare were there for me 24/7 and helped me on the road to recovery. Since then, everything has been 110% regarding the support that I’ve received.

“I would tell someone else struggling with addiction to get help through Racing Welfare. A lot of hard work goes into racing, and I know there are people out there who need the support. Don’t wait until it’s too late. Reach out early and they’re there for you.”

To find out more about how Racing Welfare supports racing’s people visit racingwelfare.co.uk.

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ROA Forum

MAGICAL MOMENTS

Grey days are positively welcomed by ROA member Robert Kirkland

B

etfair Chase day for the Skelton yard started out being centred on whether Protektorat could become a back-to-back winner of the Grade 1 contest at Haydock, but it ended up with a different focus revolving around Grey Dawning.

For while Protektorat was unable to land a blow behind Royale Pagaille in the feature race, then six-year-old Grey Dawning, owned by ROA member Robert Kirkland, was motoring to a career-best score in a graduation chase that also happened to be the 1,000th winner trained by Dan and ridden by his brother Harry.

The son of Flemensfirth was picked up as a store for €40,000 at the Derby Sale in 2020, and in the red silks of Kirkland proceeded to win five of his first six starts, most notably the Grade 2 Leamington Novices’ Hurdle at Warwick.

He was then given a crack at Grade 1 level in the Sefton Novices’ Hurdle at the Grand National meeting, only to frustratingly fall at the ninth.

After finishing third on his chasing debut behind Stay Away Fay at Exeter, a couple of weeks later Grey Dawning thumped his Haydock rivals by nine and a half lengths and up, subsequently rising 7lb in the handicap to an official rating of 144.

He then finished runner-up in a novice chase at Cheltenham just as Owner Breeder went to press, with Warwick in the middle of this month a possible first port of call in 2024.

Grey Dawning, named by Kirkland’s wife, has been one of six runners this season for the owner, four of the others – including Warwick maiden hurdle winner Glorious Fun – being with Skelton, and one with Toby Lawes.

Kirkland says: “I got into owning racehorses originally via partnerships.

The first horse was called High Edge Grey, trained by Ken Oliver, with the lead partner being JB Stone. He won the Charlie Hall Memorial Chase at Wetherby – that was in 1988.

“Then I was in partnerships run

by John Prideaux, whom Ken Oliver introduced me to, and later on we used Howard Johnson as our trainer.

“Subsequently, I wished to have my

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THE OWNER BREEDER

Grey Dawning and Harry Skelton capture a valuable graduation chase at Haydock in November for owner Robert Kirkland (inset)

own horses outright, so I moved to trainers further south.”

The half-dozen to have run in Kirkland’s own colours this season are among 56 the Quarndon, Derbyshirebased owner has had in training since 2000, and he has nine currently on the go in various stages of their careers, seven with Skelton and two with Lawes.

Kirkland remarks: “You could call me an itinerant owner! In addition to Ken Oliver and Howard Johnson, and at present Toby Lawes and Dan Skelton, I have had horses with John Mackie, Tim

TRACY ROBERTS

“I enjoy seeing the progression of horses as they get older and mature” Vaughan, Paul Webber, Emma Lavelle, Henry Daly and Nicky Henderson.

“The choice in each case was to mutual satisfaction; mainly I was introduced by a friend or colleague.

“I’m seriously happy with the ones with Toby Lawes, and am patient and happy with the ones with Dan.” For Derby County fan Kirkland, success on the track is what constitutes magical moments, though he has especially good reason to remember June 30, 2019 as it yielded a double at his local track, Uttoxeter, courtesy of Brave Eagle in the Summer Cup and Bold Record in a maiden hurdle.

He adds: “I enjoy seeing the progression of horses as they get older and mature, they bring some of the best moments of ownership.

“By far the worst is fatalities. I remember my first with a good young horse called Gods Squad, who John Mackie trained. He suffered a fatal injury at Chepstow in March 1997, which was an awful day – it put my wife off racing for over 15 years.

“Much more recently, there was also Ballyglass, he was a very nice horse too with Toby Lawes, but sadly we lost him at Doncaster in January.”

For all the associated risks that come with owning jumpers, as opposed to Flat horses, however, Kirkland is a National Hunt man through and through, and much prefers that branch of the sport.

Excitingly, while admitting to not being that into, or knowledgeable, about breeding, he is also now the proud owner of a filly foal out of one of his former racemares, and winners, Gaia Du Gouet.

The mare won her first start in Kirkland’s colours, a novice hurdle at Uttoxeter, before suffering a heavy fall at Warwick last year, after which she was covered by Dink, who stands at the Skeltons’ Alne Park Stud in Warwickshire.

Kirkland is now retired, having been involved in the construction industry, so has good scope to get to the races to watch his runners, and visit them at their yards, albeit the nature of not knowing that far in advance when you are going to have a runner does sometimes mean that other commitments are made.

“I unfortunately didn’t get to Haydock to see Grey Dawning,” says Kirkland, speaking to Owner Breeder last month.

“I had already made plans to go and see Derby, so watched the race on a television at the ground before the game.”

For the record, a 2-1 victory over Bristol Rovers made it a fine Saturday sporting double for the 77-year-old.

Asked for a New Year racing wish, Kirkland replies: “Probably winning what used to be called the Hennessy Gold Cup. The aforementioned High Edge Grey was the ante-post favourite many years ago – the race after he’d won the Charlie Hall – but he slipped and fell after the 14th fence, so it has always been in the back of my mind.”

Whether the upwardly mobile Grey Dawning – who would very nearly have made the cut for the Newbury race last month with his rating – could be the one to take the thought from the back of his mind to the front remains to be seen.

But Kirkland certainly marches into the New Year with a nice little red army of promising youngsters, and hopefully a few more magical moments await him.

THE OWNER BREEDER

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TBA Forum

The special section for TBA members

Full house for Foal Forum

ADAM SMYTH

D

uring the non-selling day of the Tattersalls December Foal Sale, the TBA hosted its first TBA ACCESS Foal Forum in the sales ring at Park Paddocks, where over 250 attendees gathered. The event was free to attend and welcomed both TBA members and a host of new faces to an event which provided the ideal networking opportunity, aimed at informing and educating attendees about the intricacies and challenges of breeding and pinhooking foals.

TBA Deputy Chair Kate Sigsworth, owner of West Moor and a panellist, said: “We were absolutely thrilled to see such a great turnout for our inaugural event. It was lovely to see some of our existing membership, but particularly encouraging to see some new, much younger faces, in the audience.

“A huge thank you to Tattersalls, as well as to the rest of the panel who gave up their time and shared their expertise with everyone at what is a very busy time for them all.”

Hosted by Vanessa Ryle, the forum kicked off with some fascinating insights into the first steps and considerations of breeding a foal and

Over 250 attendees gathered at Park Paddocks for the inaugural Foal Forum

nurturing its growth with Sigsworth and Whitsbury Manor Stud owner Ed Harper. Mimi Wadham and Violet Hesketh of WH Bloodstock and agent Alex Elliott discussed their key considerations when buying and re-offering stock at sales, as well as some of their unnegotiables. Rob Dallas of Rossdales provided insight from a veterinary perspective across all areas.

Elliott said: “It was a really positive

event to speak at and exactly what the industry should be doing more of to make it as welcoming and accessible as possible. We were all new to this game at some point and the more we can do to get others involved the better.”

A recording of the TBA ACCESS Foal Forum is available to members via TBED at www.tb-ed.co.uk.

Elite mare owners have until the end of January to make their applications for the 2024 TBA/HBLB Elite NH Mares’ Scheme.

A total of 25 eligible stallions have been nominated to TBA members who own mares rated 130+ or that have produced a runner of a defined performance level (135+ rated mare or 145+ rated gelding). These members are eligible for subsidised nominations to British-based stallions, which are eligible and nominated by their managers under the terms of the scheme.

Funded by the HBLB, grants of up to £4,000 are available for eligible mares. For more information visit the TBA website or email Rob Davey at rob.davey@thetba.co.uk.

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Stallions in Elite NH Mares’ Scheme 2024 • ARRIGO • BANGKOK • CANNOCK CHASE • CAPRI • DARTMOUTH • DINK • FALCO • FRONTIERSMAN • GENTLEWAVE* • ITO • JACK HOBBS* • KINGSTON HILL • LINDA’S LAD • LOGICIAN • MARMELO • OCOVANGO* • PASSING GLANCE • PETHER’S MOON

JASON BAX

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• PLANTEUR • POSTPONED • SADDLER’S ROCK • SCHIAPARELLI • SUBJECTIVIST • TELESCOPE • YORGUNNABELUCKY * Available to Cat 1 & Cat 2 mares only

November witnessed the traditional change of codes in Britain as the final days of the Flat gave way to racing over jumps. Meanwhile, over in the US, the Breeders’ Cup was staged and on an evening of high-quality action Inspiral made her debut at a distance further than a mile. Cheveley Park Stud’s homebred daughter of Frankel was given a fine ride by Frankie Dettori, getting up close home to capture the ten-furlong Filly & Mare Turf.

Earlier in the day, at a sodden Newmarket, the stud initiated a crossAtlantic stakes double when Regal Jubilee, another daughter of Frankel, took out the Montrose Stakes in good fashion.

The same day and Newmarket’s stakes action for the season closed with the James Seymour Stakes, which went to the Meon Valley Studbred Checkandchallenge, a son of former Darley stallion Fast Company. A current Darley resident, Territories, was represented by Master, winner of the Premio Guido E Alessandro Berardelli at Capannelle the following day.

The St Simon Stakes, rearranged from the previous weekend’s lost Newbury meeting to Newmarket, was won by Hamish. The Brian Haggas homebred was winning for the seventh time in Group company.

There was notable success in Germany. The Wertheimer et Frere homebred Junko took Europe’s final Group 1 of the season, the Preis von Bayer – he went on to capture the Hong Kong Vase in December – whilst Wonderful Boy, a son of Sea The Moon, won the Grosser Preis der SWK AGHerzog von Ratibor-Rennen at Krefeld by ten lengths. The juvenile was bred by Gestut Gorlsdorf.

Bahrain’s International Trophy was this year run for $1m and saw an international field assembled. Victory went to Spirit Dancer, a son of Frankel, who was bred by Sir Alex Ferguson and Niall McLoughlin. Ferguson was on hand to lead in his winner.

Closer to home and Anthony Oppenheimer’s Hascombe and Valiant Studs was represented by three homebred stakes winners in the space of 24 hours. Starting the ball rolling was Lion’s Pride, a son of the late Roaring Lion, who won the Floodlit Stakes at

BILL SELWYN

Inspiral stretches out for Breeders’ Cup success

Inspiral and Frankie Dettori flash home to take the Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf

Kempton Park. The following day at Lingfield Park and Queen Aminatu retained her Fleur de Lys crown, while Safety Catch, a daughter of Cracksman, won the River Eden Stakes. Further success was achieved Stateside when Zabeel Champion took the Noel Laing Hurdle Stakes at Montpelier in Virginia.

The final turf fixture of the meeting at Doncaster was moved to the all-weather at Newcastle and both stakes races went to British-breds.

Mukaddamah, a daughter of New Approach bred by Whatton Manor Stud, won the Gillies Fillies’ Stakes, while the JR Shannon-bred Tacarib Bay took the Wentworth Stakes.

There was a first stakes win for the Plantation Stud-bred Willem Twee in the Golden Rose Stakes at Lingfield.

Across the Channel and the Car Colston Hall Stud-bred Tribalist, a son of Farhh, won the Prix Tantieme in deep conditions. The same day Zoum Zoum, a Zoustar juvenile bred by Sanctuary Stud Ltd, won the Prix Herod.

The following week but at Fontainebleau, the Fortescue Bloodstock-bred Lady Boba won the Grand Prix de Fontainebleau and the James Wigan homebred Doom, a Dubawi daughter of Dank, landed the Prix Ceres.

At Meydan, the Dubawi gelding Al Nefud, bred by Godolphin, captured the Dubai Creek Mile.

Down in Australia and Charming Thought’s son Charterhouse, bred by Mrs BE Moore and formerly trained in Ireland, won the Cranbourne Cup. In the US, Big Everest retained his Artie Schiller Stakes title at Aqueduct.

He was bred by Newsells Park Stud.

The British jumps season started to swing into action and the first big chase of the season, the Charlie Hall Chase, produced a battle. A better jump at the final fence witnessed Gentlemansgame, a son of Gentlewave, gain the upper hand. He was bred by Yorton Farm and the late Maggie Luck.

The same day and You Wear It Well, carrying a penalty for her successes last season, created a good impression, defeating a decent field in the Listed mares’ hurdle. The daughter of Midnight Legend was bred by Jane Makin and her late husband Reg. The following weekend and Wincanton’s biggest chase of the year, the Badger Beer Handicap Chase, went to the CFC Jackson-bred Blackjack Magic, a son of Black Sam Bellamy.

Meanwhile at Auteuil's big autumn fixture, Blue Borana followed up his previous Listed success with another in the Prix Robert et Jean-Claude Weill.

The three-year-old was bred by Susan Carsberg out of her elite mare Listen To The Man. The middle weekend of the month was Cheltenham’s November fixture and the Triumph Trial Juvenile Hurdle was won in impressive fashion by the Gredley family’s homebred Burdett Road, already successful this year at Royal Ascot.

Finally, the Listed mares’ novice chase, this year run at Exeter due to the abandonment of Bangor-on-Dee, went to the Nicky Henderson-trained fouryear-old Champs Elysees filly Arclight.

She was bred by Neil Greig.

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

THE OWNER BREEDER

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TBA Forum

The first event in the calendar of the year, the TBA NH Stallion Showcase, will take place during the Goffs January Sale on Wednesday, January 24. Supported by Goffs, the everpopular event will feature a number of exciting British-based National Hunt stallions, who will be available to view throughout the day.

Taking place in Yard B, the TBA will host a hospitality area where complimentary hot drinks and food will be available.

Running alongside the event will be the silent auction of National Hunt nominations. Held online and opening on Monday, January 22, bidding will close later in the week.

Full details and a link to the auction website can be found on the TBA’s social media or by phoning Stanstead House.

JASON BAX

Join us at the NH Stallion Showcase

British-based NH sires will be available to view during the Goffs January Sale

News in brief Membership fee As announced at the AGM in October, the cost of TBA membership will increase from January 1. Full membership is £170 (including VAT) whilst new or re-joining full membership costs £220 (including VAT). The ACCESS subscription fee remains at £60 (including VAT).

The TBA is committed to ensuring its members receive the best possible value from membership and continue to develop the benefits package, which in 2024 has been extended to include full complimentary access of the following: - TB-Ed, the digital learning hub at tb-ed.co.uk. The TBA’s educational platform offers a range of content providing essential knowledge and guidance to all levels of experience within the industry and includes the recent addition of the Business Essentials Programme launched in October 2023 with four online courses.

- Free access for all full members to our enhanced events schedule, including the annual Bloodstock Conference, as well as educational workshops.

- The Stud Farm Carbon Calculator which was launched in November

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THE OWNER BREEDER

and demonstrates the association's commitment to a greener and more sustainable future for stud farms and help in the fight against climate change. The tool is exclusive for TBA members only.

- GBB stage 1 foal registration offering a £200 discount per filly foal.

These are just a few of the benefits members can enjoy but to ensure you are getting the most from your TBA membership and its value visit thetba.co.uk.

HBLB Codes of Practice available The annual review and approval process of the HBLB International Codes of Practice has been completed and it is now available in digital (www.codes.hblb.org.uk) and print format (on request from the TBA office), in time for the 2024 breeding season. Very minimal amendments to the text were required, with continued close monitoring of emerging disease threats such as West Nile Virus recommended.

The Codes describe the invaluable measures applied by the thoroughbred industry to prevent and control the spread of equine infectious disease and to maintain the high health status of the racing and

breeding population.

Breeders are encouraged to liaise closely with their attending veterinary surgeons, especially if they have any concerns or identify possible symptoms of disease in their horses.

Anonymous reporting of instances of disease, such as pregnancy loss caused by Equine Herpesvirus infection, is an important surveillance tool for the industry and can indicate when additional actions may be required to safeguard the domestic population.

Spotlight on traceability The TBA has developed a leaflet to support breeders with their administrative responsibilities as the owners or managers of horses destined for the thoroughbred racing industry. A timeline infographic lists the deadlines for General Stud Book (GSB) registration processes and for submitting nominations to the incentive schemes.

Please do get in touch with the TBA if we can be of assistance in answering any questions or signposting you to appropriate guidance materials or educational resources. Keep an eye on TB-Ed (www.TB-Ed.co.uk) for the Stud

Dates for your diary Wednesday, January 24 NH Stallion Showcase, Goffs, Doncaster Taking place during the now one-day Goffs January Sale, the ever-popular event provides access to view a wide range of NH stallions. Hospitality will be provided, including warming refreshments. The online silent auction of NH nominations will run alongside the event.

Thursday, February 1 Stallion Parade, Tattersalls, Newmarket Ahead of the Tattersalls February Sale, the TBA’s Stallion Parade will take place in the sales ring and can

Administration Course which is being finalised for release early this year.

NH Yearbook produced The TBA is delighted to announce that its NH Yearbook was released just before Christmas. Featuring the Sally Noott-bred Constitution Hill on its front cover, National Hunt breeders will have received a copy of the TBA’s 2023/24 National Hunt Yearbook in the post. Those who have not received a copy but would

be viewed in Left Yard after parading, providing the ideal opportunity for breeders to finalise mating plans.

Monday, May 20 NH Awards, Hilton Garden Inn, Doncaster Come join us as the TBA celebrates the tenth anniversary of its NH awards, held on the evening of the first day of trade at the Goffs Spring Store Sale. The event will celebrate successes from the 23-24 NH season, as well as from the previous ten years.

Wednesday, July 10 Flat Awards, Chippenham Park, near Newmarket Celebrate the successes of all Flat breeders from the 2023 season in the glorious surroundings of Chippenham Park on the evening before Newmarket’s July Festival kicks off.

For more information regarding

be interested in obtaining one should contact Stanstead House.

As well as a review of last May’s TBA NH Breeders’ Awards Evening, the yearbook features articles on Richard Johnson, David Futter, Edwardstone and You Wear It Well.

Stallions on parade at Tattersalls Taking place ahead of the Tattersalls February Sale will be the TBA’s Flat Stallion Parade, on Thursday, February 1. All stallions on show will

The Flat Awards takes place on July 10

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

be available to view after the parade in Left Yard.

The event provides the ideal opportunity for breeders to finalise mating plans with stud representatives.

Both breeders and members are invited to join the TBA for light refreshments in the hospitality box, whilst further information, including a full list of stallions attending, will be available on the TBA website closer to the event.

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Horses born or raised here include – Makybe Diva, Moonstone, Lancresse, Penelopa, just a few of the many farm successes.

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85

Breeder of the Month Words Howard Wright

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BREEDER OF THE MONTH (November 2023)

Jane Makin gives the impression she pinches herself whenever she contemplates the success of her bargainbasement mare Annie’s Answer. Every other month, it seems, there is another winner to celebrate, culminating in her being nominated as TBA Breeder of the Month for November for the Listed mares’ hurdle win of You Wear It Well.

Earlier this year, You Wear It Well, who was sold on as a three-year-old to Matt Coleman on behalf of Philippa Cooper for £70,000 at the Goffs UK Summer sale, before being sold privately after winning a bumper to current owner Sir Chips Keswick, notched a quick Grade 2 double at Sandown and the Cheltenham Festival. The feat earned her the Midnight Legend Trophy for breeder of the leading novices’ hurdler mare at the TBA National Hunt awards.

Then, in October and November came another flurry of winners – Answer To Kayf, sold to Ireland for €35,000 as a three-year-old, in a Limerick maiden hurdle; You Wear It Well, again, on her seasonal debut in the Wetherby race; and Audacious Annie, sold as a foal for £10,000 before being passed on for €62,000 to Matt Coleman on behalf of Newcastle Falcons owner Semore Kurdi as a three-year-old, also at Wetherby on her debut for You Wear It Well’s trainer Jamie Snowden.

And all this, as well as three other previous winners, from a mare bought for €2,600 as an unbroken three-year-old in 2003, when Jane’s husband Reg decided he wanted a racehorse to balance against her passion for showjumping.

“I was the first to be legged up on

BILL SELWYN

Jane Makin

You Wear It Well: high-class hurdler is out of €2,600 purchase Annie’s Answer

her,” Jane recalls. “And she was all right.”

Better than all right, in fact, because while trained by Jane under permit at their farm in Monk Fryston, near Selby in North Yorkshire, she won five races, including three over hurdles.

Prolific winners

She also trained Annie’s Answer’s second foal, Schiaparannie, until she says ruefully: “Reg said I was too old to train and she went elsewhere. But she didn’t do as well as we’d hoped – she’s like most of the family, you can’t bully them – so we brought her home and all of a sudden I wasn’t too old to train her again.”

Schiaparannie won six races, which You Wear It Well has emulated as Annie’s Answer’s most prolific winners from the five that have been successful. She is now in foal to Midnights Legacy, a son of Midnight Legend, sire of Annie’s Answer.

“That should be interesting,” Jane says,

with typical understatement, while she looks forward to sending Schiaparannie’s first foal, a filly by Passing Glance born last year, to this month’s Goffs January Sale.

As to the overall success of the family, Jane remains all but overwhelmed. “It’s amazing,” she says. “A miracle. We’ve only a small place here. It’s a farm really, but we built six stables and put in a gallop.

Amazing.”

Annie’s Answer, who turns 24 this month, has been pensioned off, but Jane says: “She still rules the roost. She’s in good fettle and will have a home with us until the end.”

As for Jane herself, retirement is not in the offing, though she is grateful for the extra help that has fallen on the shoulders of her son David since husband Reg died in March 2022. “We’re doing okay,” she says. “We’ll keep on, because we get as much pleasure out of the horses we breed and sell on as we would if they were our own.”

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Information correct at time of going to press

The Finish Line with Janet Davies ROA member Janet Davies hasn’t looked back since buying her first horse in 2008 and sending him to her local trainer Evan Williams. Talented performers such as West With The Wind and Prime Venture have carried her dark green and white silks with distinction while popular jumper Court Minstrel notched 11 victories and earned £270,000 in prize-money. Davies’s latest star is Minella Missile, an exciting young hurdler who dented some big reputations when taking a Grade 2 contest at Cheltenham’s November meeting, in the process providing his owner with her 100th winner under Rules.

Interview: Edward Rosenthal

I

always loved horses – there were lots of horses around where I was born and brought up in rural Carmarthenshire and I used to enjoy following the hunt.

The local grocer’s shop was also a smallholding, and I was allowed to ride ponies there when I was younger. My sister and I were singers; we sang duets at the Welsh festivals. My father used to say to us before we went out to perform, ‘Just do your best’, and when I’m in the parade ring now that’s what I say to my jockey.

If you don’t win but have done your best, that’s fine, and that’s the way I’ve looked at horseracing and ownership. Most of the time you’ll be up against superior or better-handicapped horses. But when you win you really enjoy it.

My first horse was Megabill. I remember going to Taunton for his debut – I was so nervous I couldn’t even talk! It was a November bumper and you’re up against big trainers and good horses.

Christian [Williams] was our jockey and the instruction from the trainer was to let the horse enjoy his first race experience, in true Evan Williams style. It was an atrocious day weather-wise, but he just came through all these horses and won.

We just couldn’t believe it – it was hook, line and sinker after that! My husband Peter must have spent all the prize-money – which wasn’t huge – buying people drinks in the pub when we got home.

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Peter died in his sleep in November 2022, just after we’d come back from holiday.

He went to bed and didn’t wake up – it was very traumatic. We were due to watch Court Royale at Ludlow the same day, so I phoned Evan and asked him not to run.

When I told him the news, apparently everyone in the yard just stopped. Peter was a lawyer and he’d talk to Evan about certain things and give advice and so on.

They became good friends. Evan spoke at Peter’s funeral and said when we get to the 100, we’ll have that party you were always talking about.

After Peter died, I had to think about what I was doing with the horses. I talked to Evan and decided to rehome the ones that weren’t doing brilliantly, which meant I was down to five runners. Evan then went to the Cheltenham sales in April and bought two horses, both Minellas – Blueway and Missile. He asked me to come over and look at them. I said to myself that Peter would have done it – he always liked to buy two at the same time – so I did.

BILL SELWYN

Minella Missile and Adam Wedge (right) enjoy Grade 2 glory at Cheltenham

West With the Wind was my first good one, bought at Doncaster sales. We wanted to buy Overturn but stopped at £75,000 – you can’t sulk if another owner has more money than you! West With The Wind cost £10,000 and won eight races for us. We were at an owners’ day when Peter told me to come and see a store for sale by Court Cave. He stood there with his back to this horse, and he kept coming up and putting his head on Peter’s shoulder.

We bought Court Minstrel and he won 11 times, including two renewals of the Silver Trophy and the Scottish Champion Hurdle.

Evan said Minella Missile was a nice little horse and that he wanted to run first up in a novice hurdle at Chepstow. He was jumping well at the back and when he came to the last bend I didn’t care if he won or not – if they come back in one piece, I’m pleased. Well, he passed the favourite, trained by Paul Nicholls, and I couldn’t believe it! His Grade 2 win at

Cheltenham was the pinnacle in terms of the standard of race. My initial feeling after he crossed the line at Cheltenham was that I wished Peter was there. It was amazing, especially as the horse wasn’t expensive.

As Evan has always said to me, the horse doesn’t know how much he cost!

I don’t think I’d still have horses if my trainer wasn’t as welcoming as Evan Williams. I’ve kept to Evan for 15 years and not even thought about moving. We’ve become friends but also know there’s a line between friendship and business. It is also important to me to speak to the day-to-day riders. We celebrated the 100th winner by having a small-scale party with all the staff in the yard, Evan and his wife Cath, their family and my sister and brother-in-law.

I started out as a teacher and by the age of 22 I was a head of department in a private school. By the age of 31 I couldn’t stand the staffroom any longer; I didn’t want to be a teacher for the rest of my life, so I started up a translation company, Prysg, named after the village where I lived. I built the business up to a point where we had 36 translators in an office. I had cancer at the age of 42 and reduced the size of the company to 24 staff.

I’m not keen on planning too far ahead.

You’re always hearing about horses being quoted for the big races in March but there’s more to racing than the Cheltenham Festival. Yes, it’s fantastic to have a runner there, but I’m equally happy to go to Ffos Las and win a race and to chat to everybody. I’d be the first to enjoy a Cheltenham Festival winner but I’m not sure I like the razzmatazz.

If a Grade 1 comes along then great. But it doesn’t mean that much to me; it’s not the be all and end all. I just want to enjoy my horses – and earn enough prize-money so that I don’t have to keep dipping into my own pocket to pay for training fees.

STUD FEE: £15,000 OCT 1ST SLF

First 2yos in 2024 in training with Andrew Balding, John and Thady Gosden, William Haggas, Roger Varian, Richard Hannon, Hugo Palmer, etc.

Colt x Golden Spell

160,000gns

to Blandford Bloodstock

Colt x Glories

€140,000 to Yoshito Yahagi

“ Kameko was top-class and from what I’ve seen at the sales he could be even more exciting as a sire. I have already bought a few and am sure I will be booking clients mares to him!”

“ The Kameko’s we sold were lovely forward types with a great walk, they have all been extremely well received by agents and trainers.”

Richard Brown, Blandford Bloodstock

Henri Bozo, Ecurie des Monceaux

Colt x Stacey Sutton

125,000gns

to Blandford Bloodstock

Colt x Lady McKell

£95,000

to Peter and Ross Doyle/ Richard Hannon

“ Kameko was clearly an exceptional racehorse breaking the race record in the 2000 Guineas.

I really like the colt we bought; he had lots of quality and great presence about him. I am very excited to train him!”

“ I’ve been so impressed with the Kameko’s.

Very straightforward, good-looking, solid horses. I’ve bought a couple of very nice ones and would love to have more!”

Ed Bethell, Gr.1 winning trainer

Richard Hannon, Classic winning trainer

Contact Hannah Wall or Alice Thurtle at Tweenhills E: hannah@tweenhills.com E: alice@tweenhills.com T: +44 (0) 1452 700177

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12/12/2023 16:44

NEWS YOU CAN

USE

Cracksman

World Champion, Frankel’s best and sire of undefeated Horse of the Year Ace Impact. At half the fee of his son and a twentieth of his sire.

Plus: latest yearlings sell for up to 410,000gns. £17,500 Oct 1, SLF

Dalham Hall Stud, UK