Spoilt for choice
NH stallion ranks bolstered in Britain
Robert Thornton
Former jockey riding high at Apple Tree Stud
Valuable commodities
How the point-to-point market took off
‘It’s a soul connection’
Invincible
Kingman’s 2YO crop of 2024 features siblings to 27 Gr.1 winners including
CHALDEAN
COROEBUS
GALILEO GOLD
LADY BOWTHORPE
LOGICIAN
MAGNA GRECIA MOSTAHDAF
NAZEEF
PALACE PIER
PEARLS GALORE
PERSIAN KING
PYLEDRIVER
SAXON WARRIOR
SOUL STIRRING
SPEEDY BOARDING
ST MARK’S BASILICA
TAMARKUZ
WITHOUT PAROLE
YLANG YLANG
and 2YOs out of 22 Gr.1 winners including
BATEEL BEAUTY PARLOUR CHANNEL ENABLE ESOTERIQUE INTRICATELY
LAURENS MAYBE
PASSAGE OF TIME PRECIEUSE
QUEEN’S TRUST
SEVENTH HEAVEN
STACELITA UNI
WAVERING WUHEIDA
+44 (0)1638 731115 | nominations@juddmonte.co.uk
www.juddmonte.com
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‘It’s a
Who can stop Willie Mullins at the Cheltenham Festival? The master of Closutton showed the strength in depth of his operation when claiming all eight Grade 1 contests at the Dublin Racing Festival in early February and looks set to bring over an awesome squad for the four days of racing at Prestbury Park this month.
One of the home defenders standing in the way of Mullins and hot favourite Galopin Des Champs in the Gold Cup is L’Homme Presse. He races for a small group headed by Andy Edwards, whose approach to ownership could be classed as unusual.
Indeed, Edwards doesn’t enjoy the idea that he owns very much at all, least of all racehorses. The word he prefers is “guardian” and as Marcus Townend discovered, it’s all part of an alternative approach to the business of having runners, which starts when he sources the raw material from France.
“There is no process,” Edwards tells Townend ( The Big Interview, pages 22-26 ). “I tell the breeder not to give me any papers or tell me any names – just tell me where the colts and fillies are and let me go out in the fields.
“Then with my three trusted Labradors we jump in the field and walk off. There may be 20 yearlings or two-year-olds all charging around unbroken. They either come to you or they don’t. I tend to be empty of everything, so I am not a threat – I am one of them. Something always happens but not necessarily to make me want to buy one.”
As readers of this month’s feature will see, Edwards likes to make himself useful during his regular stable visits. Hands-off he is certainly not.
“I don’t interfere in anything, but I will be in the box most of the time or go out in the field and walk with them,” he explains. “I am supporting them emotionally. I have always had an affinity with animals and have spent my life around horses.
“I basically empty the mind and listen and
communicate through feelings, which we all do. The problem is people can’t use words to express or receive from the horses. That’s why you have to learn to communicate –fortunately I have that ability.”
While L’Homme Presse and Galopin Des Champs both began their careers over hurdles in France, the influence of the point-to-point scene in Ireland on our biggest races and festivals cannot be denied, with unbeaten superstar Constitution Hill the poster boy for this sector of the market.
In a fascinating article, James Thomas speaks to key players and uncovers the factors that led to point-to-point horses playing such an important role in the National Hunt industry, which previously procured many horses off the Flat before they started to be exported in such large
“He doesn’t enjoy the idea that he owns very much at all”
numbers to overseas jurisdictions ( see pages 36-40 ).
Robert ‘Choc’ Thornton knows a thing or two about the Cheltenham Festival. The former jump jockey was leading rider at the meeting in 2007, hitting a Grade 1 treble aboard Katchit, Voy Por Ustedes and My Way De Solzen for the Alan King stable.
Thornton is now managing Apple Tree Stud for Paul Dunkley and he tells Graham Dench about his change of career, reflects on his time in the saddle, and explains why a new racing shoe that he has helped to develop could be a game-changer for the industry ( The Finish Line, page 80 ).
Fee: £15,000 January 1st SLF
Standing at Beech House Stud, UK
Fee: £12,500 January 1st SLF
Standing at Beech House Stud, UK
Fee: £80,000 October 1st SLF
Standing at Beech House Stud, UK
Fee: €15,000 January 1st SLF
Standing at Derrinstown Stud, Ireland
Fee: €5,000 January 1st SLF
Standing at Derrinstown Stud, Ireland
To book a nomination or arrange a viewing, contact:
UK – Will Wright: +44 (0)7787 422901 | nominations@shadwellstud.co.uk
Ireland – Stephen Collins, Joe Behan or Kay Skehan: +353 (0) 1 6286228 | nominations@derrinstown.com
View our stallion roster: www.shadwellstud.com
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The recent decision by the BHA not to restrict the number of runners from one trainer and/or owner in major handicaps is to be applauded. The consultation process with stakeholder representatives was carried out properly, giving everyone the chance to submit their views and in this case those views were all aligned. However, there is a potential issue here around the sport’s appeal when races can be dominated numerically by a single trainer or owner.
The Dublin Racing Festival in early February saw a clean sweep of all eight Grade 1 races by Willie Mullins, with his yard providing just over 60% of the runners in those contests. Whilst this isn’t quite the same issue, when a sport becomes so dominated by one club or country the excitement and drama drops down a notch or two. As this is the March issue, most of us are focused on Cheltenham and I for one am hoping to see a diverse range of owners and trainers in the winner’s enclosure at the Festival.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before, but the clock on levy reform continues to tick and at the time of writing there is still no agreement between the industry group headed by the BHA and the betting operators, represented by the Betting and Gaming Council. The early April deadline makes it entirely possible that minister Stuart Andrew will need to make a determination based on the evidence that has been submitted by both sides.
However, things could get even more complicated, with increasing speculation that an election could be called in May rather than in the autumn. Either way, it is vital for the sport that a sensible and workable solution is found that can fill the gap in funding that has appeared since the last levy determination in 2017 and includes a mechanism that can guard against any future inflationary hiccups. Racing needs to be able to budget with some degree of certainty, with the levy not only funding a significant proportion of prize-money and BHA raceday costs but also other areas such as veterinary research and equine welfare.
There has been much written about the proposed gambling reforms, including excessive affordability and financial risk checks. The industry has been very active in supporting a petition and subsequent Westminster Hall debate, which will have taken place by the time you read this, as well as direct meetings with politicians from both sides of the house. What is interesting is the more nuanced approach of some betting operators, with examples of accounts being suspended for horseracing but remaining open for casino and slot games betting. This comes as no surprise given the chances of winning on one of these activities against the skill involved in horserace betting.
For many owners, having a punt on our horses is all part of the fun, and when the bookmakers are excessively restricting this activity citing affordability checks, we must call them out. The last thing that the racing and betting industries and the government need is a further drift towards the unregulated black-market betting operators, who give little or no customer protection and contribute zero to the levy.
With affordability checks and the cost of living having a big impact on betting turnover, the uncertainty of the economic prospects for the country, an imminent election, and the levy reform saga, it seems there are several clouds hanging over racing. However, there are some reasons to be optimistic,
“The last thing that the industry needs is a further drift towards black-market betting operators”
with 2023 data from the BHA showing an uptick in some key statistics. Whilst it is accepted that the levy does need reforming and that it should produce more money to help finance the industry, the development of premier racedays is ongoing alongside a raft of other initiatives launched in 2024 to take the sport forward.
The appetite for global investment in sport has never been stronger and there is no doubt that the flagship racing events in Britain are still seen around the world as the pinnacle. If the industry can unlock this potential and tap into new revenue streams, then prize-money could be improved at all levels, which would go some way to easing the pressure on owners and the issues around the supply of new bloodstock.
Imagine being on a ship that experienced engine failure with 99 other passengers and crew. After days of drifting, land was sighted off starboard and 80 of your shipmates rushed to that side to see their salvation. As the ship listed badly but managed to stay upright, curiosity got the better of some of those initially more sensible people, who one by one crept over to convince themselves that rescue was in sight. Was it the 81st or 99th who caused the ship to capsize, losing all on board?
This is a clumsy example of polarisation and the effect of operational gearing thereto. Or in respect of the latter, perhaps “the straw that broke the camel’s back”.
British racing and breeding, along with its Irish neighbour, is experiencing a growing influence of polarisation. Some trainers, for example, have substantial and increasing numbers in a free market driven by choice and results. Why wouldn’t every owner want the best chance of success, where readily available data and statistics make it clear where that might be best delivered?
However, there are only so many horses to go around and the short-term opportunity may cause unwanted and irreversible consequences in five, ten or 20 years’ time. For instance, how will the great trainers of the future be developed if they cannot get a start or go out of business before their full talents are evident?
The same argument can be levied at the breeding industry. Popular stallions get full books, which are not the same in the 21st century as in the past, when the simple logistics of book size and veterinary capabilities dictated fewer mares to a single stallion and a more even spread of coverings across the industry. Again, choice and a free market operate, and as every breeder wants either to breed a winner or a sales prospect, they will make their decisions reasonably based upon what’s best for them.
In both examples there is a danger of polarisation leading to an operational gearing consequence, which if it does not sink the ship, could compromise the future of a breeding and racing base that has long delivered and raced horses that are the envy of the world. What, if anything, could or should be done?
Take middle-distance horses as an example. Whilst they are clearly very much on shopping lists at the horses in training sales, this is not the case at yearling auctions. My arithmetic suggests that in 2023, 170 yearlings by sires that won at ten furlongs and above were offered from a sales catalogue of 2,500-plus. Digging deeper, of the 2023 foal crop of 4,650, only 15 per cent met middle-distance criteria, and of those just 12 per cent were by British-based sires and dams.
Considering that 28 per cent of the British racing programme is at ten furlongs or above, it is clear there is a mismatch between demand and a dwindling supply. British racing is a compelling spectator attraction, in some part for its diversity of distances, and in any event these horses offer significant opportunity to both discerning breeders and owners, with a scarcity value at the sales providing better commercial opportunity than swimming in the much larger and competitive ‘speed’ sector.
The same advantages apply to the increasingly threatened
“The scheme will support the breeding, buying and racing of British-bred middle-distance fillies”
owner-breeder from a different perspective. For them there is the opportunity of increased purse winnings and strong residual value returns when a UK racing career is over, with international markets prizing the middle-distance horse highly.
For good reason the middle-distance ship cannot be left to flounder; the TBA is therefore developing an intervention and incentive scheme, with the encouragement of the Levy Board and BHA, specifically to support the breeding, buying and racing of British-bred middle-distance fillies.
More news will come in early summer, but the taster is that it will be designed to increase the attraction of these fillies in the sales ring and on the racecourse, a clear point of difference. The scheme will operate alongside and be complementary to the highly successful Great British Bonus.
Whilst markets will dictate popularity, fashion and demand, sometimes it is essential that intervention and incentive are introduced to change perceptions and behaviour. Having too many people on the starboard side of the ship is not a good thing!
A159-point, 17,000-word document was issued to explain why Milton Harris is not a fit and proper person to hold a licence to train racehorses, published at the end of January by the Licensing Committee.
Harris had his licence suspended in November pending the outcome of the investigation into his behaviour and actions at his Warminster stable. The report makes for unpleasant reading.
The 64-year-old, who enjoyed Grade 1 success at Aintree in 2022 with Knight Salute, was found to have repeatedly breached conditions on his licence related to being a company director and trading in bloodstock. The Licensing Committee panel stated: “It seems to us that he continues to lack the insight to understand the purpose or importance of the conditions or the real need for him to organise his business interests in a professional manner.
“The overall impression is that he personally considers administrative transparency and accountability unimportant, so that it is somehow an inconvenience, or that the BHA is being unreasonable in asking him to meet standards which others within the industry adhere to without complaint.”
Harris, who had his licence removed in 2011 after being made bankrupt, returning to the training ranks in 2018, displayed threatening and bullying behaviour towards fellow trainer and neighbour Simon Earle over an extended period following a series of disputes, causing Earle, who recorded some of the abuse, to fear for his own personal safety.
On one occasion Harris said: “He pisses about playing at this job. He’s pathetic. You’re just f****** pathetic. You want to have a bit of me, step in the field with me and we’ll sort it out like men.”
The panel heard multiple examples of Harris’s interactions with Earle, which it categorised as humiliating, abusive, insulting, demeaning and belittling.
Harris’s conduct towards two female members of staff, including one identified as SJO who was aged between 14 and 16, also caused the panel concern.
WhatsApp messages between Harris and SJO, who was entered in the trainer’s phone as ‘Lovely Young Girl’, “often had little or nothing to do with work”, the panel said, referring to Harris’s
“willingness to enter conversation with sexual connotations with SJO in the messages and his tendency to drive the conversation back towards adult topics.”
Harris would frequently message SJO at times of the day when “he would have been aware she was at school”, make personal offers “such as supper at his house and for SJO to shower at the yard”, and comment on her weight.
The panel stated: “He has behaved inappropriately, in a manner designed to exert inappropriate control and power over the personal and private lives of young and vulnerable employees in an abuse of trust. He has caused or permitted a culture to prevail on his yard where more serious safeguarding issues causing real harm could easily occur.”
Tony Charlton, Harris’s assistant, continues to train from the yard on a temporary licence.
Tim Naylor, BHA Director of Integrity & Regulatory Operations, said after the verdict: “Racing is a sport that works hard to provide a safe and welcoming space for all and the ruling of the Licensing Committee in this case sends a clear message that those in positions of authority must act in a way that upholds these values. We are grateful to the Committee for their time in considering this matter and also to those who came forward to share their experiences of Mr Harris and gave evidence.
“Some of the details in the Licensing Committee’s decision make for extremely uncomfortable reading. Mr Harris’s
behaviour over a prolonged period of time fell a long way short of what we expect of a licensed person and, as the Committee found, would cause damage to racing’s reputation if allowed to continue without repercussion. We are, therefore, pleased with the panel’s finding that Mr Harris is not a fit and proper person to hold a licence.
“The BHA’s concerns ranged across a number of very serious issues. One of these concerns related to safeguarding. The BHA takes its safeguarding responsibilities extremely seriously and, as demonstrated by its bringing this case before the Licensing Committee, will do everything within its powers to ensure that those working in our sport do so in an environment befitting what should rightly be expected by them and, in the case of young people, their parents upon taking a job in the sport.
“The BHA recently published an updated Safeguarding and Human Welfare Strategy, which built on our existing policies and seeks to protect and promote the safety and wellbeing of everyone involved in the sport.”
He added: “We would encourage anybody who feels they have been subjected to or witnessed inappropriate behaviour in our sport to contact us. The BHA’s Code of Conduct establishes the standards that everyone involved in racing is expected to uphold and we will never turn a blind eye to concerns raised about conduct which may fall below these standards.”
The European Flat season will be staged with 12 fewer stakes races in 2024 following the approval of a series of changes to the programme by the European Pattern Committee (EPC).
At the centre of the changes is the Prix Saint-Alary at Longchamp, won as a Group 1 last year by Jannah Rose, which has been downgraded to Group 2 status.
In Ireland, the Gladness Stakes at the Curragh has been downgraded to a Listed race. However, the Salsabil Stakes at Navan has been upgraded from Listed to Group 3 while a new Listed race for three-year-olds over a mile and a half at Gowran Park has been introduced in late July.
Britain, meanwhile, took the decision to voluntarily delete three black-type races for 2024, namely the Group 3 Sovereign Stakes at Salisbury, the Listed Ganton Stakes at York and the Listed Scarbrough Stakes at Doncaster.
Italy has been particularly affected by the changes, with six of its Listed races losing their status. The Premio Presidente Della Repubblica at Rome – staged as a Group 1 contest as recently as 2015 – has been downgraded to Group 3 level.
Other adjustments include moving the Group 1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud one week earlier to its traditional slot at Saint Cloud’s fixture on June 30. The
Group 2 Prix Eugène Adam for three-year-olds will also make the same move. Later in the year, the Group 1 Prix Royal-Oak switches venues from Longchamp to Saint-Cloud. In Germany, both the Group 2 German 2,000 Guineas and Group 2 German 1000 Guineas will be run nine days earlier on May 20 and May 26.
In all, the EPC ratified a total of 826 black-type races, down from 838 in 2023, comprising 415 Group races (418 in 2023) and 411 Listed races (420).
“This year will see another contraction in the number of Pattern and Listed races to be staged throughout Europe, with the total number having declined from 852 races in 2022 to 826 in 2024,” said Jason Morris, Chair of the EPC.
“The European Pattern Committee continues to enforce the most stringent international quality control measures so that the racing and breeding industries can have the utmost confidence in the quality of European black type.
“However, this also reflects a worrying overall decline in the ratings of European black-type races, with an increasing number of races coming under review and many three-year-old races in particular struggling to achieve their required parameters.
“The reported increasing exports of
quality horses overseas is of concern to the EPC, and the major European racing nations are committed to working together to ensure the continued production and retention of sufficient high-class horses to sustain our domestic and international programmes, with a particular focus on the middle-distance and staying race areas.”
The BHA’s desire to gain Group 1 status for the City Of York Stakes at York’s Ebor Festival and Long Distance Cup on British Champions Day at Ascot was not met, much to its frustration.
“After more than a decade of building towards Britain’s first sevenfurlong Group 1 in the City Of York Stakes, with the open encouragement of the EPC, the race achieved the required rating parameter in 2023,” said Ruth Quinn, the BHA’s Director of International Racing and Development.
“Sadly, however, it seemed the committee could not support this upgrade unanimously at this time. We remain hopeful of working with the committee to demonstrate why our ambition would be of collective benefit to the European Pattern, in the same way as we will for the Long Distance Cup on QIPCO British Champions Day in order for that too to become a long-awaited and much-deserved Group 1 race.”
Furthermore, the EPC identified 42 Pattern and Listed races that are at risk of a downgrade in 2025. They include three British races, among them the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot.
Cieren Fallon
Group 1-winning jockey, 24, will not be retained by Qatar Racing in 2024 and will ride as a freelance.
Jamie Moore
Jump jockey who enjoyed five Grade 1 wins aboard top two-miler Sire De Grugy is forced to retire from the saddle on medical advice aged 39.
Carlos Laffon-Parias
Trainer of Arc heroine Solemia, Lockinge victor Keltos and dual Group 1 winner Recoletos will retire at the end of the 2024 season.
Paul Hanagan
Two-time champion jockey on the Flat takes up new role as assistant to North Yorkshire-based trainer Craig Lidster.
John Quinn
North Yorkshire-based trainer who has enjoyed recent Group 1 victories with sprinter Highfield Princess is joined on the licence by son Sean.
Andy and Gemma Brown
Owners behind Caldwell Construction disperse their entire string, including topclass novice hurdler Caldwell Potter, at Tattersalls Ireland.
Tipperary racecourse
Ireland’s national independent planning body grants permission for the construction of an all-weather track at the venue.
David Griffiths
Trainer known for his prowess with sprinters such as dual Group 2 King George Stakes winner Take Cover relinquishes his licence aged 50.
Willy Twiston-Davies
Former jump jockey will join his trainer father Nigel on the licence for the 202425 season.
Richard Pugh
Leaves Tattersalls Ireland to take up new role as Head of Racing & Insights at Horse Racing Ireland.
Mohamed Al Mansour
Appointed Chief Operating Officer of Al Shaqab Racing having formerly been Director of the team’s Purebred Arabians operation.
Arkle Novices’ Chase
My Pension Expert is the new sponsor of the Grade 1 contest at the Cheltenham Festival, also backing the Melling Chase and July Cup in multi-year deals.
Mohammed Saleh bin Laden
New owner in British racing will send juveniles bought in 2023 to Roger Varian, William Haggas, William Knight and Kevin Philippart de Foy.
Adam Wedge
Set to miss Cheltenham and Aintree after injuring his back in a fall during a schooling session at Martin Keighley’s stable.
Hardy Eustace 27
Dual Champion Hurdle hero for owner Laurence Byrne and trainer Dessie Hughes; in all he won seven races at the top level.
Hermes Allen 7
Top-class performer for the Paul Nicholls stable suffers a fatal injury when falling in the Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown.
Datsalrightgino 8
This season’s Coral Gold Cup winner for the Jamie Snowden stable is fatally injured in the Cotswold Chase at Cheltenham.
Papineau 24
Won the 2004 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot for Godolphin, Saeed bin Suroor and Frankie Dettori, beating Westerner, the winner in 2005.
Racing’s news in a nutshell
Mawj
Daughter of Exceed And Excel, winner of last year’s 1,000 Guineas for Godolphin and Saeed bin Suroor, is retired to the paddocks aged four.
Caldwell Potter
Grade 1-winning novice hurdler sells for €740,000 to Sir Alex Ferguson, John Hales, Ged Mason and Peter Done and is moved to Paul Nicholls.
National Treasure
Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky will stand the dual Grade 1-winning son of Quality Road upon the conclusion of his racing career.
Land Force
No Nay Never’s son, winner of the Group 2 Richmond Stakes, moves from Highclere Stud to Hedgeholme Stud, where his fee is £2,500.
Alan Morcombe 71
Former Chief Executive of the Horsemen’s Group who was instrumental in setting up betting shop picture provider TurfTV.
Maureen Mullins 94
Matriarch of Irish jump racing whose husband Paddy and son Willie both dominated the National Hunt championship in Ireland.
Alec Notman 96
Sheikh Mohammed’s first stud manager at Dalham Hall in Newmarket, he previously worked with Hyperion at Lord Derby’s Woodland Stud.
Keagan Kirkby 25
Stable lad for Paul Nicholls died when his mount ran out through the wing of a fence at a point-to-point meeting at Charing in Kent.
Simon Bullimore 81
Lawyer was a part-owner of Desert Orchid, having bought a quarter share in the outstanding chaser for the princely sum of £100.
Ramses De Teillee
Talented performer for owners John White and Anne Underhill and trainer David Pipe, winner of eight races and £230,000, is retired aged 12.
Lofty Strike
Son of Snitzel, a Group 2 winner and runner-up in two Group 1s last year, will stand at Victoria’s Swettenham Stud in 2024. His fee is A$22,000.
Ron Boss 85
Trained Olwyn to win the 1977 Irish Oaks and landed consecutive renewals of the Middle Park Stakes with Mon Tresor and Balla Cove.
26 Stakes winners/ performers (12 in 2023)
Inc. GOLD PHOENIXWon Gr.1 Frank E Kilroe Mile Stakes & three Gr.2 races
64 Stakes winners/ performers
Inc. multiple Gr.1 winners GLASS SLIPPERS & DREAM OF DREAMS
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.
Pic just perfect
Owner Johnny de la Hey (inset, left) captured the 2019 Ascot Chase with Cyrname and he has another top-class performer in the shape of this year’s victor Pic D’Orhy. Harry Cobden made every yard of the running on the Paul Nicholls-trained nine-year-old and the result never looked in doubt, recording a comfortable win over L’Homme Presse.
Photos Bill Selwyn
It’s all to play for in the Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase at Ascot as Henry’s Friend (centre), Kilbeg King (nearside) and Apple Away take the second last fence togther. In a tremendous finish, Henry’s Friend, trained by Ben Pauling for Elizabeth and Oliver Troup, fought on bravely under Ben Jones to see off Kilbeg King by head, the second leg of a superb treble for the trainer and jockey on the day.
Photo Bill Selwyn
Beneath the inadequacies, unhelpfulness and inappropriateness highlighted by the Licensing Committee in its reasons for declaring Milton Harris “not a fit and proper person to hold a licence to train racehorses” lies a simple truth. The BHA must double down on its selfappointed responsibility to lead the sport’s safeguarding policy.
Ignoring Harris’s rampant unwillingness to abide by conditions on his holding a licence once allowed back into the fold after bankruptcy, his chief demeanour, as described in graphic detail in the 17,000-word report, concerns his relationship with people, notably a fellow trainer and his own staff.
His attitude towards Simon Earle, a grown man, was bad enough; his behaviour towards the two members of staff, both young girls, who were quoted at length, was something else.
British racing also exists as an open door to young people with a passion for horses. Pony clubs abound, and weekend work provides a useful entry point. The two racing schools offer out-of-primary-education opportunities for 14- to 16-year-olds and then take their foundation course intakes from those aged 16 to 18.
“‘Innocent banter’ - now where have we heard that before?”
British racing exists through the efforts of a series of small businesses, of whom around 500 are licensed trainers. Of these, the vast majority are men, and of these several are aged 50 and over, who from their youth encountered very different cultural attitudes, particularly towards women, than apply today. “Innocent banter” was a phrase used in Harris’s defence. Now where have we heard that before?
Personal experience as a trustee of the National Horseracing College provides an understanding of how much store is placed in a strong safeguarding policy. Dedicated personnel within the college are supplemented by a designated trustee with special responsibility for monitoring safeguarding policy. The most recent Ofsted appraisal acclaimed the NHC’s work in this area, which is explained fully to incoming students.
Both the NHC and British Racing School have extra responsibility to extend safeguarding measures, since students remain on their books for a set period after they graduate into racing stables. Roving tutors have taken on this area of expertise, to add to their traditional guidance for students settling into new surroundings and moving to higher levels of qualification.
Looking beyond the “innocent banter” defence that might still apply in some circles, the expectations of potential
employees coming from school to consider a job in racing are different than they were perhaps even a decade ago. Schoolleavers have been used to discussing safeguarding, and if their expectations are not met, they are unlikely to stay in a job. Passion will go only so far.
Similarly, implementing successful safeguarding measures is not just the responsibility of trainers. Owners that run stables, breeders and racecourses have a part to play, removing themselves from a culture that turned a blind eye to some of the transgressions of the past.
The BHA has acknowledged the all-encompassing nature of its work in this area by publishing an updated fouryear safeguarding and human welfare strategy, which in its own words “seeks to protect and promote the safety and well-being of everyone involved in British racing.”
It adds: “Our vision is to create a universal culture of respect across British horseracing where everyone –regardless of age, cultural background, gender or ability – is able to participate in our sport, free from any kind of abuse. Human welfare and safeguarding must be a priority for the national governing body; for the protection of all participants, the retention of staff, and to ensure long-term success for the sport itself.”
Before the drive to promote Premier Racing gets into top gear, as it must do soon, a note of caution about the premise of making jockeys the star attractions of the 170-event enterprise is necessary.
The sport already has a promotional arm, known as Great British Racing, which began life as Racing For Change in 2009 and took on a formal identity a year later, when Rod Street, the former holiday-camp entertainer who led Sir Stanley Clarke’s Northern Racing for 14 years, took on a job he has held for the same length of time, making him the longest-serving active CEO in senior British racing administration.
The big questions are how much should be spent on promoting Premier Racing, whether GBR is the right vehicle, and if jockeys are best to be the centre of attention.
On the last-named point, a question arises: would anyone have expected Michelangelo to put down his brushes after finishing the Sistine Chapel ceiling to carry out a spot of painting and decorating for his neighbour? Or would Elvis Presley have followed his two shows a night, seven days a week, at the Westgate Las Vegas Resort and Casino with an impromptu session at a local barbecue?
Yet that’s just about the equivalent of what many of the top British-based jockeys do month in, month out, as was evidenced in one week at the end of January, when Ryan Moore, William Buick, Oisin Murphy and Tom Marquand put in shifts that illustrated both their skill and their visibility.
Having taken his first 2024 rides before a modest-sized crowd at Lingfield, Moore was in the US one week later and gave a masterclass to win the Pegasus Turf on Warm Heart. That same day, Buick was riding two winners from as many rides in front of a sparse Kempton crowd, just 24 hours after partnering three winners at bustling Meydan in the UAE.
Elsewhere in the Middle East, Marquand returned from a fortnight as substitute for suspended Ben Coen at Sheikh Ahmed’s Jebel Ali stables with a Monday night excursion to ride a 50-1 shot at Wolverhampton, before heading off to Bahrain for
In the Harris case, the Licensing Committee referred to two specific instances where the BHA’s involvement appeared to fall short of required standards. The first implied a lack of understanding of broader issues by stable inspectors Robin Gow and Malcolm Carson – neither of whom is still employed by the BHA – when they were asked to examine his behaviour towards Simon Earle.
The committee reported: “Mr Gow recommended that MH be downgraded in risk level from ‘high’ to ‘medium’. He accepted that he was largely unaware of the extensive history between MH and SE, and we find that it is likely that his assessment was based purely on his assessment of the yard and its physical environment.”
Presumably, stable inspectors will now be required to delve more deeply into a trainer’s activities than his medication and health and safety records. Equally, the BHA safeguarding team will have taken notice of the Licensing Committee’s scathing references to measures in place at the Harris stable, including the lead role played by a girl groom who was “not sufficiently knowledgeable or independent to perform any safeguarding role,” and another woman with a prominent position who “has no understanding of safeguarding or her responsibilities as a leader in that area whatsoever.”
Godolphin the following Friday.
Meanwhile, Murphy had been here, there and everywhere since the beginning of December, including two winning rides in India, and after a stint of British all-weather action, the weekend in question took him to Meydan and Gulfstream Park on successive days.
As for a slightly lesser-known name, Daniel Muscutt, he rode on the all-weather for seven consecutive days before producing perhaps the biggest moment of his career by winning one of South Africa’s most famous races, that weekend’s Cape Town Met, with a masterful ride on 33-1 shot Double Superlative. Two days later, he was back at Wolverhampton.
These are the personalities – with perhaps the exception of publicity-shy Moore – who might be expected to be called upon to give Premier Racing a push. Yet, as is obvious from these schedules, who needs to go to a special event to see them close up, when they are there, large as life, every day of the week at a racecourse near you?
Andy Edwards’ unorthodox take on horseracing and ownership is as refreshing as it is surprising, exemplified by the sourcing and success of Cheltenham Gold Cup candidate L’Homme PresseWords: Marcus Townend • Photos: Bill Selwyn
Cheltenham Gold Cup contender L’Homme Presse might run in the colours of Andy Edwards, but he doesn’t consider himself to be the horse’s owner. The term he prefers is “guardian”.
The Venetia Williams-trained gelding, who Edwards bought when he had a serious tendon injury, will head to the Festival as one of the few challengers capable of upsetting Willie Mullinstrained favourite Galopin Des Champs in the Blue Riband.
As important as victory on jump racing’s greatest stage would be for Edwards, it is L’Homme Presse’s status as the flagbearer for his belief that investing significantly in a horse’s early education and equally importantly forging an emotional connection with it to prioritise its mental wellbeing trumps everything.
“I don’t feel I am an owner, I am a privileged guardian,” says Edwards. “You can’t own another being. You are not supposed to own your wife or husband and you don’t own your kids.
“Just because I am so attached to them and connected to them emotionally, I can’t say I own them, that’s horrible.
“This guardianship is like going through pre-school, primary school, secondary school, college or university. It is guiding them through to a point where they can go on and be the best they can be.
“I’ve always had an affinity with animals and have spent my life around horses”
The philosophy, he concedes, has raised a few eyebrows. Racing, after all, is a sport where you don’t need to go digging to unearth scepticism. Yet Edwards says that if he can persuade just a few fellow owners to pay greater heed to supporting their horses, then he will regard that as his greatest success.
“That’s the thing for me, trying to create something so that the horse can be the best he or she can be.
“It is like a child. When you send it to primary school you don’t say, ‘I want it to be a chemistry major’. You just want a good, basic education and they can build from there.
“That is important because the racing career in terms of a horse’s lifespan is very short, even the ones that go on for a long time.
“When they have finished, if they have had that solid education at the beginning, it is going to be a lot easier to train them to do another job. My
›› whole thing is to guide them through the education process, [allow them to] become the professional athlete and then integrate into something like eventing or showjumping later on.
“They don’t always turn out wonderful racehorses – or even get to the track – but they always turn out magnificent beings.
“They are helping me and I am helping them – it is a two-way process. There might be a horse which was never made for racing, but I will still keep hold of it and guide it through.
“I currently have a horse called Baya Lescribaa. She has had a couple of injuries and is six now. She has started training for endurance racing and is doing well. Believe it or not, that for me is just as important as getting L’Homme Presse to Cheltenham.”
That process is hands-on for Edwards. He estimates he is in one of his trainer’s stables – he currently employs Williams, Roger Teal and Sophie Leech in Britain and Emmanuel Clayeux and Benoit Gourdon in France – four days a week.
He says: “I don’t interfere in anything, but I will be in the box most of the time or go out in the field and walk with them. I am supporting them emotionally. I have always had an affinity with animals and have spent my life around horses.
“I basically empty the mind and listen and communicate through feelings, which we all do.
“The problem is people can’t use words to express or receive from the horses. That’s why you have to learn to communicate – fortunately I have that ability.
“People always ask the big W and H questions – why and how? But with what I do, all those questions don’t apply. It’s belief. It is very easy for me to explain but difficult for it not to sound weird to the general public. It is a soul connection rather than a head one.
“People struggle with something if you can’t touch it or you don’t have it scientifically proven. I have friends who say, ‘I get what you are doing but I can’t step over that line’.
“I tell people, think of it in human terms as love. Prove that exists. You can’t, but we all believe it does. Sometimes you have to have that faith in something deeper.”
The Edwards approach extends to carefully matching a horse with a stable he thinks will suit it. He will never send a horse to a yard that doesn’t turn out their horses.
His love of animals was inherited from his late father David, who acted as a steward at Lingfield and the now defunct Folkestone, and who took up hunting for a bet at the age of 55.
His father had horses in training with Philip Mitchell and David Elsworth –Edwards fondly remembers the trip to watch Desert Orchid win his first King George VI Chase at Kempton in 1986. He also recalls the frisson of excitement that got him hooked on the sport during a visit to Goodwood when the electrifying Sir Michael Stoute-trained Sonic Lady sped past under Walter Swinburn to land the Sussex Stakes in the same year.
Edwards originally had horses in training with Mitchell in Epsom, including a couple who were ridden to
victory by Teal when he was the trainer’s assistant and amateur rider.
The death of Edwards’ father from cancer after a bad hunting accident also shaped his beliefs.
“Traumas in your life make you reevaluate,’ he says. “As you get older some of us at least want to listen more. That is what has happened to me with the horses.”
Alongside a career in the construction industry and property management, Edwards was a fair sportsman as a player and coach in both rugby and cricket.
Now based in Worcestershire, he was a Kent County league player with Ashford and played with and against some of Kent’s greatest ever cricketers, including Brian Luckhurst, Alan Ealham,
John Shepherd and Derek Underwood.
There was even an offer to play for the Kent Second XI and join the John Player League competition for the county which, with his working career taking off, he decided to turn down.
With those sporting experiences, Edwards believes a positive mindset in a horse is just as important as it is with human athletes.
“If it was just fitness the results would be the same every time,” he explains. “The raw ability to a greater or lesser extent is built in, but maybe you are not using the rest that is there to get a horse to run a bit more for you.
“It’s very important for me to be there and give them the assurance that everything’s fine. It’s no different to going to watch your son or daughter
playing sport at school or turning up to their Christmas concert.”
The support Edwards puts into his ownership is mirrored by how he sources his horses, which is exclusively from France where all his purchases are given a thorough grounding with Vicky Madsen-Abbott or Violaine Trapenard, who both have three-day eventing backgrounds, before they are put into training.
Edwards’ first contact with a yearling or two-year-old at a stud is conducted without any knowledge of pedigree. First, he tries to establish the connection.
He explains: “There is no process. I tell the breeder not to give me any papers or tell me any names – just tell me where the colts and fillies are and let me go out in the fields.
“Then with my three trusted Labradors we jump in the field and walk off. There may be 20 yearlings or twoyear-olds all charging around unbroken. They either come to you or they don’t. I tend to be empty of everything, so I am not a threat – I am one of them. Something always happens but not necessarily to make me want to buy one.”
Edwards made the connection when he first encountered L’Homme Presse, who cut a lonely, injured and unwanted figure at a Normandy stud following two runs at Fontainebleau. Edwards bought a gelding others wouldn’t touch with a bargepole.
“Everyone thought I was mad,” he recalls. “Are you sure Andy? People laughed. Others tried to find out how ››
much I paid for him. At the time he was bloody expensive, now he looks cheap. I took a chance on a horse that needed saving.
“It was a tendon injury which was bad enough, but we were quite happy to wait.”
In all L’Homme Presse was sidelined for 773 days before he made a winning return over hurdles at Chepstow on Grand National day in April 2021. His comeback had been further delayed by a freak accident when he stood on a screw that January, an incident that fortunately did no long-term damage.
The following season, which started with a novice chase victory at Exeter, delivered wins in the Grade 2 Dipper Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham, the Grade 1 Scilly Isles Novices’ Chase at Sandown and the Grade 1 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at the Cheltenham Festival.
Hopes L’Homme Presse, who Edwards now owns in partnership with wife Pam and Pat and Peter Pink, would be a major player in the 2023 Gold Cup ended when he was injured in the 2022 King George VI Chase in which he unseated jockey Charlie Deutsch at the final fence when battling with eventual winner Bravemansgame.
It meant another year out of action before a battling comeback win in the Fleur De Lys Chase at Lingfield in January and a second place to Pic D’Orhy in last month’s Ascot Chase
L’Homme Presse is flying the flag for owner Andy Edwards in Britain. However, he could be one of the last horses that he brings across the Channel.
The low level of prize-money compared to France, where he sources all his raw material, is the main reason. Edwards has already cut back on the number of horses he has in Britain from ten to four.
He says: “I have reduced my involvement in English racing. It’s expensive to educate the young horses and you have to rationalise the costs.
“It does not make sense to bring them over here to race. The gap is too big. You get a win and a couple of places over here and it might pay two months’ training fees if you are lucky. You can run round the provinces in France and if you get a win and a couple of places it will pay for the whole season.
“It is a big problem over here. My horses in France will be staying in France. The only way they will come over is if someone wants to buy into one.
“I have two horses that have been injured and had problems. I have taken them out of racing and they have suddenly come right. I had a choice – do I put them back into training or give them another life? I have chosen to give them another life.”
Edwards concedes his decisions are based on his own personal methodology.
He adds: “British racing is fantastic and the thrill of having your horse run here is amazing. It’s my passion and I will always champion our sport in whatever country I am in.
“I am not one of those people who bangs on about prize-money being rubbish, it has to come from somewhere. If it is not available, it is not available. However, I won’t bring another one over from France unless it is a very special horse.”
over an inadequate two miles and five furlongs, which has teed him up for the biggest test of his career.
The Edwards philosophy means winning isn’t everything, but his excitement is tangible.
“What he did at Lingfield was amazing after 13 months off,” the owner says. “It was a bit short for him at Ascot
and the ground had dried out, but he ran through the line and was doing his best work at the end.
“Ratings are only so much; he has something about him. That mental grit and attitude goes a long way in sport.
“I bought him injured and gave him time. He is the epitome of the message I want to promote.”
Following the additions of Classic winners Golden Horn and Logician, the British jumps stallion ranks have been bolstered again for 2024 through the likes of Subjectivist and Postponed
Words: Nancy Sexton
It’s taken plenty of effort and perseverance but there’s now very much the sense that the British jumps stallion industry is on a sounder footing, certainly one that offers encouragement going forward.
Overbury Stud’s coup in gaining Golden Horn provides breeders access with a relatively young stallion in possession of a burgeoning dual-purpose record. There is also a real emphasis on even more nascent potential, as the recent high-profile additions Logician, Subjectivist and Postponed attest.
Logician was well received when he joined Shade Oak Stud in 2022, as he deserved to be following a career highlighted by wins in the St Leger and
Great Voltigeur Stakes. Those victories came during an unbeaten championship season at three and were it not for illness later on in his career, then it’s very likely that further riches would have followed. As it is, he was an authoritative Classic winner with the pedigree to match; by Frankel, he is from Juddmonte’s Didicoy family via the branch behind Bated Breath and Cityscape.
Logician covered over 170 mares in his debut season – the resulting foals have so far sold for up to £25,000 – and another 162 last season, giving him plenty of ammunition to go forward with. His fee holds steady at £4,000 for 2024.
Both of Logician’s stud-mates Dartmouth and Telescope are riding
off the back of some notable results. Dartmouth (£3,000), a hardy son of Dubawi who won the Yorkshire Cup and Hardwicke Stakes for the late Queen, is the sire of Naval College, the winner of his last three starts for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing in Australia including the Listed Inglis Australia Day Cup in track record time. His first crop of five-year-olds also include debut hurdle scorer Sailing By.
Telescope (£3,000), another winner of the Hardwicke Stakes, enjoyed some good-sized early crops. The son of Galileo has a potential top-notcher in Slade Steel, who won the Grade 2 Tote Navan Novice Hurdle prior to running second behind Ballyburn in the Grade 1 Tattersalls Ireland 50th Derby Sale Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown. Slade Steel belongs to Telescope’s second crop as does current dual Listed hurdle winner Harvard Guy. His supporters will also be looking forward to Bellas Bridge, who won a Ludlow bumper for Jamie Snowden after changing hands for €155,000.
Postponed (£4,000) joins Yorton Farm Stud following a stint under the Darley umbrella, during which he sired the Group 3-placed Almohandesah and progressive Oh So Grand – who looks capable of holding her own in Pattern company – on the Flat. However, the influence that the son of Dubawi is beginning to wield in the jumps sphere is impressive, not least because his first crop are still only five and predominantly Flat-bred. Daughter
Zestful ran second in last season’s Listed Cheltenham Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle while Our Boy Wes is a black-type jumper in the US. Movie Night has also been Grade 3-placed over jumps in Italy.
Postponed was a tough, sound horse whose performances included wins in the Coronation Cup, King George and Juddmonte International. Out of a mare by Dubai Destination, who supplied several good winners over jumps, it stood to reason that Postponed would throw tough horses who stay well and progress with time – both attributes that should stand him in good stead in his new position at Yorton.
Yorton’s roster also includes another Coronation Cup winner in Pether’s Moon (£2,500), whose early crops include the black-type hurdlers Anneloralas and Lunar Discovery as well as the smart bumper performer Moon Chime, who recently broke his maiden over hurdles at Huntingdon for David Killahena and Graeme McPherson.
Yorton also offers the only son of Shirocco at stud in Britain in Arrigo (£2,000). He is also a half-brother to leading German sire Adlerflug, thereby making him a relation to Galileo and Sea The Stars et al. A Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed, Arrigo joined Yorton in 2021 following spells in Germany and France, where small crops have yielded their share of winners.
The Adlerflug theme is continued by Ito (£3,000), another to have joined from
‘Planteur is the ultimate all-rounder’
Few have put as much into the British jumps stallion scene in recent years as Simon Davies. From investing in the stallions Planteur, Bangkok and Walzertakt to stand at Roisin Close’s Chapel Stud in Worcestershire to building up an enviable collection of National Hunt broodmares, Davies has certainly done his bit to reinvigorate the domestic industry.
A niggling issue unfortunately means that Walzertakt, a Group 2-winning son of Montjeu who covered over 70 mares last year, has to sit out this season but in his place at Chapel are Trueshan’s sire Planteur and the regally-bred Group 2 winner Bangkok.
Prix Ganay winner Planteur joined Chapel in 2021 following seven seasons in France, initially at Haras de Bouquetot. His arrival followed hot on the heels of Trueshan’s emphatic win in the QIPCO British Champions Long Distance Cup at Ascot in October 2020, since when Alan King’s popular gelding has padded out his career further with Group 1 victories in the Goodwood Cup and two renewals of the Prix du Cadran.
Meanwhile, Planteur has also compiled an accomplished record as a jumps sire, one that is highlighted by the Grade 2 winners Gran Diose, successful in the Prix Georges Courtois Chase at Auteuil, and Edidindo.
“A high proportion of them run as two-year-olds but they go on and get better,” says Close of the son of Danehill Dancer who is priced at £4,000. “I view him as the ultimate all-rounder. He could absolutely breed you a tough, sound horse on the Flat but also a good jumper. There’s a toughness, soundness and longevity to them.
“He was well supported in France in his last two seasons at Haras du Grand Courgeon and those crops should start appearing soon in the French juvenile hurdles. Simon has sent him some really good jumps mares as well, like Put The Kettle On [the Queen Mother Champion Chase winner who was bought for £380,000 at the end of her racing days; she has a yearling filly by Planteur]. So he has some decent crops on the ground to go to war with.”
The younger Bangkok has been similarly well supported, although in his case from breeders such as King
Power Racing, in whose colours he ran, and Kingsclere Stud. That is in addition to Davies, whose support is headlined by the high-class hurdler and bumper performer The Glancing Queen, herself a £150,000 purchase.
“The Glancing Queen had a very good filly by him the other day,” says Close. “She’s a good first foal so we’re very pleased.”
It is little wonder that those closest to Bangkok are keen to support the horse. A 500,000gns yearling purchase by King Power Racing, the son of Australia is out of multiple stakes producer Tanaghum, a Darshaan daughter of Classic heroine Mehthaaf from the Fall Aspen family, and lived up to that heritage by winning the Classic Trial at Sandown at three and York Stakes at four. The winner of six races overall, he earned close to £700,000 and is standing his third season for £3,000. Attached is a ‘Bangkok Bonus’ in which breeders and owners can win up to £10,000.
“You couldn’t ask for a better stallion’s pedigree,” says Close. “He was sound and raced for four seasons all over the world. So he brings pedigree, performance and soundness.
“Though he hasn’t covered big books, there’s a real quality to them. He’s been supported by some really good people. He’s had support from some good owner-breeders. Simon [Davies] has sent him some really good jumps mares and then we went out and bought some really good sharp ones because we all know that making a good, early impression counts.
“He has a lot of quality – he’s really short in the back – so for some of those bigger jumps mares that need sharpening up, he ticks a lot of the boxes. But he covers the whole spectrum as well and you could see him doing well on the Flat too.”
›› Germany, in his case for the 2023 season. Stallion sons of Adlerflug are few and far between and in Ito, breeders have access to a Group 1-winning champion who is a brother to another champion In Swoop. His early German-sired crops have yielded the Group-placed Sir Philip and Theodora while a handful of British-based jumpers include Ito Ditto, a two-time hurdles winner for Nicky Martin this season.
Veteran Gentlewave (poa), whose accomplished stud record is led by Poker Party, Gentlemansgame, Pearl Swan and Easysland, continues to hold court at Yorton at the age of 21.
Of all the proven sires available in this sphere, however, it is hard to get away from the achievements of Golden Horn (£10,000). A champion who won the Derby, Eclipse Stakes and Arc, here is a horse who supplied three Group 2 winners on the Flat last season in Trawlerman, Gregory and Goldenas. All the while, his
reputation as a jumps sire continues to be bolstered, notably through last month’s Kingwell Hurdle winner Nemean Lion. Nusret and Stag Horn are other Grade 2-winning hurdlers from the sire’s early crops while another classy performer, Pawapuri, recently won the Abram Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle. In other words, the purchase of Golden Horn by Jayne McGivern of Dash Grange Stud to stand at Overbury is a coup for British breeding.
Anticipation has surrounded fellow Overbury stallion Jack Hobbs (£5,000) since he retired in 2018 as winner of the Irish Derby and Dubai Sheema Classic. The imposing son of Halling has been well supported and is now starting to make his presence felt with his first crop of fiveyear-olds, a group that includes bumper winners Stungbythemaster and Intense Approach; the latter won two bumpers for John McConnell after selling for £210,000 off the back of his winning point debut. There’s also a 91-rated Flat performer in The Gadget Man.
One step behind Jack Hobbs is Frontiersman (£2,000), a Group 1performing Dubawi son of Ouija Board whose first crop are four-year-olds. Despite never standing for more than £1,000 until this year, Frontiersman is the sire of three winners from just four starters on the Flat, among them Curragh nursery scorer Asian Daze, while both his first jumps runners under rules have been placed. He is, after all, a half-brother to
‘British breeding is in its strongest position for years’
The enthusiasm at Alne Park Stud is infectious, making it easy to see how the Warwickshire-based outfit has developed into a thriving stallion base in such a short period of time.
Grace Skelton dipped her toe into the stallion market only three years ago when recruiting Dink, sire of the Dan Skelton-trained top two-mile chaser Nube Negra, and expanded further last year with the additions of Ocovango and Midnights Legacy.
It’s a safe bet, however, that more mares than ever will be heading through the Alne Park gates this season, and not just because the established pair of Ocovango and Dink continue to gain traction.
In what is something of a coup for British jumps breeding, the stud welcomes Subjectivist as its latest resident. A brilliant stayer who had the measure of Stradivarius when winning the Gold Cup for Dr Jim Walker, Subjectivist could easily have headed further afield to start his stud career but is instead available to British breeders at a fee of £4,000. For that, there is access to a well-bred son of Teofilo who was handled by Mark Johnston to not only win the Gold Cup by five lengths but also the Prix Royal-Oak as a three-year-old and run stakes-placed at two.
Subjectivist came to hand early enough to break his maiden, a seven-
furlong novice at Chelmsford City, by seven lengths in the July of his juvenile campaign.
“It really is fantastic to see a horse like Subjectivist kept in the country,” says Grace Skelton. “That was something that Dr Jim Walker and Mark Johnston were tremendously enthusiastic about doing. There are not many horses out there who have beaten Stradivarius. Joe Fanning was positively effusive about the horse –‘genuine’ was the one word that he kept coming back to.”
In all, Subjectivist won six races and nearly £900,000 in earnings. He was at the peak of his powers fresh off that Gold Cup win when injury halted his 2021 campaign but he was back two years later at the Royal meeting to run third in the latest renewal, thereby demonstrating a toughness that should prove attractive at stud.
“He’s a serious specimen and he has the page,” says Skelton, alluding to the fact that his dam, the Listed-placed Danehill Dancer mare Reckoning, has also produced Group 2 winner Sir Ron Priestley. “That is what is so exciting – he could be anything. He’s got excellent credentials under both codes.”
The arrival of Subjectivist adds gloss to a roster that combines the established with the new. One year on from Subjectivist is Midnights Legacy, a son of the British success story Midnight
Legend who reached a high level under both codes and now has first foals on the ground.
Midnight Legend’s crowning moment at stud came as the sire of Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Sizing John, an achievement unlikely to be envisaged when he was covering small numbers at a pittance during his early days in Somerset. But the beauty of this sport is that a good one can appear from anywhere and through a consistent stream of winners, plenty of them highclass, Midnight Legend came to be one of Britain’s best jumps stallions, latterly under the care of David and Kathleen Holmes of Pitchall Farm.
Now hopes are high that Midnights Legacy, his only son at stud and from the family of top hurdler Katchit to boot, can assume the mantle. A winner at two, he reached a rating of 101 on the Flat and was a three-time winner over hurdles for Alan King. He stands for £3,000.
“The Midnights Legacy foals that I’ve seen have been lovely, scopey, well put together types,” says Skelton. “He’s a scopey, well put together horse himself but the big thing for me about him is the way he moves, he uses himself very well, and the foals that we’ve seen have that lightness to them.”
She adds: “I would love to see those breeders who did well with Midnight Legend come out of the woodwork for
Australia who had the talent to overcome his compromised vision to run second in the Coronation Cup, so has the profile to make an impact at stud.
That trio stand alongside veteran Schiaparelli (£2,000), whose lengthy innings has yielded high-class hurdlers such as Ronald Pump and Indefatigable.
Classic form
There is no shortage of horses with Group 1 race records. Nunstainton Stud in County Durham is home to four of them in Kingston Hill, Cannock Chase, Falco and Dragon Dancer. Kingston Hill and Falco bring Classic form to the table as winners of the St Leger and Poule d’Essai des Poulains respectively while Cannock Chase won the Canadian International.
Falco (£2,000) has hit elite heights under both codes, with dual Group 1 winner Odeliz flying the flag on the Flat and Triumph Hurdle winner Peace And Co and high-class chaser Hitman leading the way over jumps.
him. I think they’d be rewarded. Every day you open the paper and Midnight Legend still has plenty of runners and winners working for him. He left us a while ago but he’s still doing it.”
Midnights Legacy’s retirement coincided with the arrival of Ocovango from the Beeches Stud in Ireland. Winner of the Prix Greffulhe, the son of Monsun had already done a good turn for the Skeltons as the sire of Langer Dan, who was trained by Dan to win the 2021 Imperial Cup at Sandown.
With large numbers working for him from his time in Ireland, it was only a matter of time before the winners started flowing in and indeed no
sooner had he arrived at Alne Park then a Grade 1 winner emerged in Champ Kiely. Langer Dan, for his part, struck in last year’s Coral Cup at the Cheltenham Festival while this season’s standouts include Inis Oirr, the 27-length winner of the Edinburgh National, and Highstakesplayer, who has some loftier targets ahead of him after overcoming a lengthy absence to win at Kempton.
At the time of writing, Ocovango is Britain’s leading jumps sire and the youngest active name within the top 30 overall. He stands for £4,500, a slight increase from 2023.
“I think at the moment Ocovango ranks as a really exciting prospect,” says
Skelton. “They’ve all got this fantastic attitude, they’re gutsy horses. He gets bumper winners, hurdle winners, they win over fences – I think that versatility is a testament to his quality. His first crop are still only eight so he has a lot of time ahead of him.”
Representation is also on the rise for Dink. The 20-year-old, who remains the only son of Poliglote at stud in Britain and Ireland, is best known as the sire of Nube Negra, whose brother Noche Negra has won his last two chase starts for Laura Morgan. Both were bred in Spain, where Dink resided until a switch to France ahead of his arrival at Alne Park. His first British-bred crop are twoyear-olds but there are a number of older representatives to fly the flag as well.
“I owe Dink a lot,” says Skelton. “We put a lot of faith in him but then he offered us the opportunity to dip our toe in the water. He’s got some excellent young stock on the ground and I hope that people continue to see the stamp of horse that he produces.”
She adds: “I wake up excited every morning for what these foals and stallions represent for our sport. The industry does have its challenges but there’s a lot to be optimistic about as well.
“British breeding is in the strongest position that it’s been in for years. If you look around, there are a lot of quality stallions now available – there’s no need to look across the Irish Sea.”
Dragon Dancer (£1,500), who ran a close second in the 2006 Derby, is currently also being represented to good effect by classy hurdler Haiti Couleurs.
The future very much lies in front of Kingston Hill (£3,000), who was recruited from Coolmore to stand at Nunstainton in 2021. With large early crops to fire for him, the son of Mastercraftsman is unsurprisingly making his presence felt as the likes of No Looking Back, a Grade 2 winner over hurdles, Irish Hill, a five-time winner for Paul Nicholls, and Listed-placed bumper performer Shinji illustrate. A pair of four-year-olds, namely the winning pointers Butchers Hollow and Kingston Pride, sold for £200,000 and €200,000 last year while his book increased to 75.
Cannock Chase (£2,000) doesn’t have large early crops but there is plenty to like about this good-looking son of Lemon Drop Kid. Most notably, his early select group of jumpers include the Grade 1-placed novice hurdler Cannock Park.
Classic form is also offered by German Derby winner Nutan (poa), whose early German crops include Flat Group 3 winner Alpenjager. A half-brother to Group 1 winner Nymphea and related to top jumper Melon, Nutan’s first British-bred crop are yearlings. He stands at Vauterhill Stud alongside Irish St Leger winner Sans Frontieres (poa), sire of the high-class hurdler Jason The Militant.
In Dorset, Etheridge Farm boasts the distinction of standing Group 1winning miler Virtual (£750), currently in the headlines as sire of Shark Hanlon’s popular King George winner Hewick. Irish two-time winning chaser Bushmans Pass has also kept Virtual’s name prominent this season.
Manton Park Stud might be a relative newcomer to the stallion scene but its roster already offers something for a range of tastes, including one French Classic winner who should appeal as a dual-purpose option.
Technician was a rapid riser through the ranks for Martyn Meade as a threeyear-old, winning the Geoffrey Freer Stakes and Prix Chaudenay prior to the Prix Royal-Oak. The son of Mastercraftsman, who hails from a deep Aga Khan family, began his stud career at Haras de Montaigu in France but now switches to Manton Park, where he has been priced at £5,000.
At Mickley Stud, it should pay to keep an eye on Yorgunnabelucky (£2,500), a brother to Shamardal who won five races. His first crops are underpinned by a balance of smart bumper horses, among them Listed winners Aslukgoes and Timeforatune, and hurdlers, headlined
Stuart Ross didn’t need to be asked twice when the chance arose to stand Capri at his Willow Wood Stud in Kelsall, Cheshire. A dual Classic winner by Galileo from a successful Aga Khan family with Lagardere roots is not the kind of profile that comes along very often. Added to that, Capri’s future is ahead of him; relatively young at tenyears-old, his first crop turned three this year and already includes a two-yearold winner in El Capri, his only runner to date. They were sired during the horse’s tenure at Grange Stud for Coolmore, from whom Capri has been leased.
Unsurprisingly, the grey has been afforded a warm reception at his new home, with an open day at Willow Wood backed up by a positive day of showing during the TBA National Hunt Showcase at Doncaster.
Capri joins the Sadler’s Wells horse Ask, winner of the Coronation Cup and Prix Royal-Oak, on the Willow Wood roster. Ask was the stud’s first stallion but following a successful initial season, was forced to sit out 2023 after an attack of colic compromised his fertility. Hopes run high that Ask, whose current runners include the Challow Hurdle second and third Lookaway and The Jukebox Man, will be able to make a return to duty this year.
“We’ve been foaling mares for outside people for about five or six years and that side was growing. I had an itch to bring in a stallion and so I got Ask,” says Ross. “It couldn’t have gone any better in that first year with Ask, I enjoyed everything about it. So last year I asked Richard Venn about potential stallions and he came up with a list of ones available. I said to him do you think there would be anything at Coolmore? When he said Capri, I said right away
we’d have him. I’d sent two mares to him in his first season. I was a big fan of him as a racehorse, so you could say that I already had a lot of faith in him.”
Trained by Aidan O’Brien, Capri was a hardy two-year-old who broke his maiden at the Galway summer meeting before rising through the ranks to take a Listed event at Tipperary ahead of the Beresford Stakes at the Curragh. He signed off his year with a third in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud to Waldgeist.
Capri had Waldgeist well behind him the following summer, however, when winning the Irish Derby at the expense of Cracksman and Wings Of Eagles. That in itself marked him out as among the best of his generation, an idea later confirmed when he beat Crystal Ocean and Stradivarius in the St Leger.
“He was out in the July of his twoyear-old year,” says Ross. “He was then well campaigned from two to five, beating all those good horses, and he retired sound after all that.
“When people stand into him, they’re surprised at how big he is – he’s a good 16.2 with good bone.”
Capri, whose brother Brazil won the Fred Winter Juvenile Handicap Hurdle, stands for £2,500.
A Capri colt was one of the star turns among the two-year-olds in the Tattersalls Ireland Springhill Dispersal, selling for €62,000 to Cleaboys Stud. Liz Lucas’ Swanbridge Bloodstock also came away with a €32,000 filly out of the Goffs December Sale and is sending her Grade 2-winning mare Alasi. At the time of writing, seven elite National Hunt mares were booked to the horse.
“We’ve had a good reception to him,” says Ross. “He showed well at Doncaster and again at our open day. I really couldn’t be happier with him.”
By DUBAWI – GALATEE by GALILEO
One of the toughest sons of the great DUBAWI who outfought Highland Reel in the Hardwicke S & St Leger winner Simple Verse in the Yorkshire Cup. Winner of 8 races & placed 5 times for earnings of over £680,000, possessing the ideal attributes of talent, toughness and stamina for a NH sire.
NH foals & stores have brought €62,000, £43,000, £42,000, €32,000, €24,000, €24,000, £22,000, etc. Pure-breeding bay, siring strong, correct foals with great temperaments.
Sire of high-class flat winner NAVAL COLLEGE, winner of 3 Australian stakes races and $472,336
By FRANKEL – SCUFFLE by DAYLAMICourse-record setting St Leger winner, combining high cruising speed and tremendous acceleration. Won his first 6 races, at 3 and 4 years, 10-14.5f, £547,731, leading Timeform 3YO stayer of 2019.
Son of superb racehorse & super-sire, FRANKEL
From a top Juddmonte family exuding class in each of his first six generations.
Great size, scope, conformation & power, plus... fabulous movement & outstanding temperament.
345 mares covered in first two seasons, high fertility. First foals seriously impressing many top judges. Could just be the next great British NH sire!
By GALILEO – VELOUETTE by DARSHAANA Brilliant Racehorse with Superb Pedigree and Looks.
With oldest crop just 7YOs has already produced:
SLADE STEEL, RPR 148, a superb jumper of hurdles, winner of a Grade 2 hurdle in just his second hurdle race, then placed 2nd in a Grade 1 next time out; HARVARD GUY, winner of two competitive Listed hurdles in Ireland, a big, impressive gelding and another top chasing prospect;
FERNS LOCK, RPR 155, the best young hunter chaser in Ireland and a beautiful jumper of fences; and I Spy A Diva, Some Scope, Telecon & Martha Divine. With these & more to follow: The best is yet to come!
07740 257547
“Poet’s Word is throwing really good stock. He’s a very good-looking horse, top-class on the track, and I’ve liked the young stock that I’ve seen. Golden Horn and Nathaniel are two horses who you can rely on for a dual-purpose job. Golden Horn had a really good year on the Flat last year and now his jumps stock are coming through, and some of them look exciting.” Timmy Hillman, Castledillon Stud
“I’ve like what I’ve seen from Order Of St George so far – I had one by him called Mighty Bandit, who won at Punchestown in November. The vibes about him around Ireland are good.” Gordon Elliott, trainer
“Postponed hasn’t had many runners over hurdles but has a high strikerate. It looks like only a matter of time before he gets a proper one. When he gets some proper National Hunt mares, anything could happen. I was also pleased to see Triple Threat go to Capital Stud. Again, his early results
by Gerry Feilden Handicap Hurdle scorer Onemorefortheroad.Frammassone (£1,000), who is new to Tenbury Wells Stud, is also gaining traction, with his select representatives led by the Grade 2-winning novice chaser Gabbys Cross. Frammassone was, after all, a Grade 1-winning jumper himself in his day, and so is bred for the job.
Frammassone switches from Batsford Stud, which remains home to
are promising and the stock I’ve seen in France are good. He’s good-looking and well-bred, so he has every chance.” Hamish Macauley, agent
“I’d be most keen on sires that give good temperaments and are tough. An old saying – don’t look at the stallion, look at his progeny and judge him that way. Poet’s Word stamps them well. I love a stallion that stamps his stock and he does. I also like the Sea The Stars sire line and I can see Harzand making it. I think Sea The Stars will transpose plenty of his attributes to his sons and grandchildren, not least temperament.
“There’s a good word for Order Of St George from some of the pointing lads. Another horse who is starting to get a few winners is Sea Moon while Night Wish has a couple of nice winners in the right hands. A sleeper could be Free Port Lux in France. We’ve had a couple through our hands that we’ve liked a lot. They’ve been good-looking horses with plenty of size to them.” Harry Fowler, Rahinston Stud
a favourite in Passing Glance (£3,000). Few can boast his kind of stud record, which contains a Group 1-winning Flat globetrotter in Side Glance and a pair of top-notch jumpers in Dashel Drasher and Millers Bank. Another proven veteran Linda’s Lad (poa), a Group 1 winner himself and sire of Grade 1 chaser Cash Back, holds court at Elusive Bloodstock.
At Norton Grove Stud there is a roster of high-class and tough dual-purpose
“The progeny of Harzand and Order Of St George both took my eye on my recent visits to Ireland, where I have seen upwards of 400 horses in point-topoint yards.
“As an English and Irish Derby winner by Sea The Stars, Harzand has everything needed to be a top jumps stallion.
“Realistically, he will only have decent numbers of jumps stock coming through from here on in – he has only been at Kilbarry Lodge Stud since 2023 but the animals I’ve seen so far suggest he’s an exciting stallion for the jumping ranks as they have size, scope and movement. I have bought a good few so far from Flat pedigrees and they are sound and reliable. I look forward to following them closely
“Order Of St George was a proper staying Flat horse. His oldest are fouryear-olds but I’ve liked what I’ve seen so far on the ground. Obviously Mighty Bandit looked smart when winning at Punchestown in November.” Tom Malone, agent
options. Marmelo (£2,000) arrived in 2022 having begun his stud career in France, the scene of his wins in the Prix Maurice de Nieuil and two renewals of the Prix Kergorlay. The son of Duke Of Marmalade won seven races in total for Hughie Morrison and was placed on another nine occasions, notably when second in the Melbourne Cup.
Another Norton Grove resident, the Cape Cross horse Century Dream (£3,000), won ten of 35 starts including the Celebration Mile and has first yearlings.
Wells Farhh Go (£2,500) also demonstrated similar durability as the winner of three stakes races over five seasons, namely the Acomb Stakes at two, Bahrain Trophy at three and Fred Archer Stakes at four. The son of Farhh has his first foals this year.
Another tough customer, Listed scorer Mildenberger (£1,500), stands at Groomsbridge Stud in Suffolk. A wellbred son of Teofilo, he won seven races in total. Plumton Hall, meanwhile, is home to the Dubawi horse Universal (poa), whose stud record ranges from Flat Listed winner Universal Order to seven-time jumps scorer Xcitations. High-class stayer Geordieland (poa), the sire of Straw Fan Jack among others, is also available at Beech Tree Stud.
16.2
The champion 3yo stayer in Europe 2017
The Top rated older horse in Ireland 2018 (11/13f)
At 2 Won The Beresford Stakes Gr.3
At 3 Won The Irish Derby Gr.1 & St Leger Gr.1
At 4 Won The Alleged Stakes Gr.3
He defeated the best colts of his generation!
Stud
Back in 2003, only two UK Grade 1 races were won by graduates of the point-to-point field. Today, the landscape could not be more different
Words: James Thomas
We are well and truly in the era of the point-to-point graduate. They frequent the winner’s enclosures at Cheltenham, Aintree and Punchestown, and everywhere in between on a virtually daily basis. It is little wonder that these young National Hunt prospects have become increasingly valuable propositions.
It hasn’t always been this way, though. And the unlikely sequence of events that led us to this stage have as much to do with serendipity as they do vision, as seemingly unrelated occurrences conspired to see point-to-pointers become the answer to a question jumps racing didn’t know it needed to answer.
To illustrate the influence point-topoint graduates exert on the modern-day
National Hunt landscape, consider that 37 Grade 1 races open to four-year-olds and upwards were run in Britain in 2023. Of those, 20 (54 per cent) were won by a runner who graduated from the point-topoint field. This list includes major names such as Constitution Hill, Envoi Allen, Honeysuckle, Jonbon and Shishkin.
Not all 37 races were staged back in 2003, and of the 30 that were run, not all had been given Grade 1 status. They were still important races nonetheless, and it reveals plenty that of those 30 only two (6.6 per cent) were won by a horse who began their career between the flags.
One of those two just happens to be a certain Best Mate winning the second of his three Cheltenham Gold Cups. However, what started this shift towards
point-to-point graduates has little to do with National Hunt celebrities. Instead, its origins can be found in the advent of the internet.
As form, pedigrees, statistics and video replays became more readily available around the turn of the century, Flat horses trained in Britain and Ireland became an increasingly valuable international currency. Whereas the likes of Istabraq, Kribensis and Royal Gait had been given a chance over hurdles, the modern equivalents are viewed as global commodities, and are simply worth too much to jurisdictions like America, Australia, Hong Kong and the Middle East. This has pushed the price of these prospects to a value that jumps owners and trainers aren’t prepared to pay.
“It used to be that you could buy horses off the Flat for a reasonable amount, teach them to jump and off you went,” says Lucinda Russell, who has won two Grand Nationals with the point-topoint graduates Corach Rambler and One For Arthur. “But now, the stayers that used to cost a reasonable amount, because of international trade and all-weather racing, they’ve become increasingly expensive. I feel the value in the middle market Flat horses really isn’t there anymore.”
Of the 37 open-age Grade 1 winners in Britain in 2023, only one (2.7 per cent) started their career on the Flat. That was the 11-year-old Not So Sleepy, who landed the rearranged Fighting Fifth Hurdle at Sandown as the 9-1 outsider of four. In contrast, those 30 races in 2003 saw six horses (20 per cent) who began their careers on the Flat triumph.
This shift was recognised by the BHA, which, in its 2015 jump racing review, noted that Irish point-to-points had overtaken Flat racing as the most popular source of previously raced National Hunt recruits, writing: “The source of horses into jump racing has shifted significantly, with far fewer horses having their first run on the Flat compared to three to five years ago. The downturn in the number of Flat horses going jumping has created a reliance on Irish point-to-points.”
At around the same time the internet was opening Flat horses up to the world, the format of the point-to-point season was being irrevocably altered as the outbreak of Foot And Mouth disease in 2001 prompted the cancellation of the traditional spring programme. The modern day autumn campaign was initially introduced in response to that disruption, but the changes proved so popular they were adopted on a permanent basis. Prior to these changes, point-to-pointing had, for the vast
majority, been little more than a pastime.
“When I started riding there were a lot of horses in the system and a lot of small handlers, but point-to-pointing was very much a hobby,” says Jamie Codd, who rode 972 winners between the flags and is now a key member of the Tattersalls Ireland bloodstock team. “Some people had that selling aspect, the likes of the Costellos in Clare, Wilson Dennison in the north, Padge Berry maybe, but nobody could have envisaged the way it was going to go.”
The rising cost of Flat horses created a shortfall of National Hunt recruits, but the recalibrated point-to-point season alone wasn’t enough to join the dots between supply and demand. But that is precisely what happened in 2009 when Brightwells began hosting select sales at Cheltenham. The boutique calendar has grown almost exponentially since, with Goffs and Tattersalls, who bought Brightwells in 2015, each hosting their own busy calendars of auctions that bring a year-round supply of point-to-pointers to market.
The emergence of a viable cycle between the store sales, the point-topoint programme and the boutique form horse market suddenly meant a business could be framed around trading and producing young jumps horses. The introduction of boutique sales not only made the process of buying point-topoint graduates more sustainable, but more transparent too.
“There would’ve been a lot more
private trade before Brightwells introduced their sales,” says Codd. “Best Mate would’ve been one of those sold privately when nobody knew the real value of horses coming through the pointto-point field. There were always whispers but nobody actually knew.”
This layer of transparency, with buyers able to inspect stock in the flesh and look the vendor in the eye, is also a part of what has ensured the growth of the
“Nobody could have envisaged the way pointto-pointing was going to go”
business. “I came from the showjumping and eventing circuit where we had horse dealers,” says Russell. “Those people had a bad name because they were just trying to sell whatever they had, but I think in order to keep growing, the point-to-point boys have had to keep their reputation and keep being honest and selling the good ones.”
Another pivotal contribution was made by Richard Pugh, who launched p2p.ie, which helped bring Irish point-topoint form, data and content to a wider audience. Pugh was also instrumental
in seeing point-to-point form become a permanent fixture in leading racing publications, sales catalogues and racecards across Britain and Ireland, a move that helped weave graduates of the sector into the fabric of racing in a way they hadn’t been previously.
But if these building blocks falling into place sounds like a master plan devised in the point-to-point boardroom, the reality is things developed much more organically.
“I don’t think there was any great plan or a business model, it just happened and has grown from there,” says Codd. “When the Wexford lads came along, they really started it. Ever since they started it more and more people have jumped in, the likes of Aidan Fitzgerald, Sam Curling, the Crawfords, Warren Ewing. There’s so many that have come into the game and gone at it.”
The involvement of some key players from the Wexford scene set the tone for what was to follow, with Codd’s sentiments shared by leading handler Aidan Fitzgerald of Cobajay Stables.
“When a couple of guys in Wexford started buying and selling that brought it all forward,” he says. “The likes of Colin Bowe, Donnchadh Doyle and Denis Murphy.”
Fitzgerald’s route into the business is a fairly familiar tale, with the more established names having started out in other areas of the thoroughbred business, or training pointers alongside other agricultural interests.
“I started off breaking and pre-training before we got a couple of point-topointers so I got into it casually enough,” he says. “There was a young lad working for me at the time called Richie Deegan and he got his licence and wanted to be a jockey, so we started off with a couple of maidens for him. We got the bug that way and that’s how we started buying and selling a few. It started off slowly enough but now it’s a massive thing and we buy a lot of stores every year, and try to find a good one if we can.”
When asked if he always planned on scaling his point-to-point business to the size it is now, Fitzgerald’s response perhaps typifies the approach of so many of his contemporaries. “I never really thought about it that way,” he says bluntly. “You just go week by week, year by year.”
Point-to-points becoming an important proving ground for young jumpers may have come about more by luck than design, but there is no doubting the skill of those who have seized the opportunity.
“Colin Bowe, Denis Murphy and Donnchadh Doyle are the lads I’d look up to and they’re savage horsemen,” says Fitzgerald. “They’re proper horsemen and everything they do is done to perfection; their yard, their gallops, their facilities. And I know some people have this notion that everyone gallops their horses all the time. But if you gallop and gallop and gallop a young horse, you’ll have no horse.”
“They’ve upped their investment and have been bold and strong”
Russell echoes those views, saying: “The point-to-point producers do an absolutely fantastic job. When you see the number of horses they buy at the store sales, and they’re producing them time after time, it’s phenomenal. If you go to the point-to-point trainers, they’ve got better facilities than a lot of the trainers operating under Rules have. They’ve invested heavily and they’ve got fantastic gallops and facilities.”
Investment is a key part of the equation for buyers and sellers. Increasingly impressive results on the track have seen a veritable explosion in the price purchasers are prepared to pay
for a point-to-point graduate. Sizeable sixfigure sums are now commonplace, and in late 2020 consecutive point-to-point sales held at Yorton Farm under the Goffs UK banner saw two lots fetch £570,000 apiece.
The record was set by Jonbon, who was sold to JP McManus after winning a Dromahane maiden for Ellmarie Holden. One month later that same price was given by Tom Malone and Gordon Elliott, acting on behalf of Cheveley Park Stud, for Donnchadh Doyle’s Borris House winner Classic Getaway.
Further illustrating the growth is the annual results of the Cheltenham sales. In 2014 Brightwells held six sales at Cheltenham that generated turnover of close to £12.3 million. In 2023, Tattersalls held seven auctions at Prestbury Park that generated receipts totalling a record £20,965,500. Make no mistake, this is big business indeed.
“I remember a big deal being made when a horse called Local Whisper made 62,000gns in Doncaster in the late 80s,” says Goffs Group Chief Executive Henry Beeby. “People thought that was extraordinary money for a point-topointer to make. Point-to-pointers used to make ten to 40 grand and that was considered good money in those days. That would be seen as little money now. It’s grown out of all recognition.”
And, moreover, success is breeding success. A booming point-to-point market has allowed handlers to reinvest increasingly significant sums on the raw materials at the store sales, which in turn is allowing them to apply their expertise
to a better calibre of stock.
As an example of the increased investment – and risk – the Doyle family behind Monbeg Stables spent a not inconsiderable €267,500 on 21 lots at an average price of €12,738 at the 2013 renewal of Goffs’ premier store auction. Last year they topped the Arkle Sale buyers’ chart by aggregate spend with 31 recruits secured for an outlay of €1,626,000, at an average of €52,452.
“In the last five to seven years the point-to-point buyers have gone from being important but relatively small to being absolutely absolutely vital to the store market,” says Beeby. “They’re key players and major investors and they’re a significant contributor to the health, or otherwise, of the National Hunt market.”
Beeby continues: “They’ve upped their investment and have been bold and strong and seen an opening. Talk about putting your money where your mouth is. All pinhooking is a risk, but you have to say this is right at one end of the scale because you have everything that can go wrong when you have to send a horse over three miles and fences.”
However, the proven nature of the system means that agents, owners and trainers are increasingly prepared to stand back at the store sales and allow the point-to-point trainers to sort the wheat from the chaff.
“If you look at the price they’re paying for stores, I’m now competing with the point-to-point handlers at those sales,” says Russell. “But I’m happy for them to buy the horse, filter the ones that are no good and then pay a bit extra, because if
By
Pivotal ex.Icelips
l Winner of Group 1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains.
l The Sire of Black-Type winners under Both Codes.
l 53% winners/runners flat, 42% winners/runners jumps.
Fee: £2,000
By Lemon Drop Kid ex. Lynwood Chase
l Group Winner over 10/12f, incl. Canadian International.
l Oldest Crop just turned 6.
l Sire of winners under both codes incl. CANNOCK PARK, placed 3rd in the Group 1 Tolworth Hurdle.
Fee: £2,000
By
l Unbeaten Group 1 winning 2yo.
l Classic Winner & Champion Stayer in Europe at 3.
l A Leading Point-to-point sire 2022/23
l The sire of Gr.2 Hurdle winner NO LOOKING BACK & Cheltenham entrants, KINGSTON PRIDE , BUTCHER HOLLOW & KINGS HILL
l 3yo stores made up to £67,000
Fee: £3,000
l Consistent Group-Level Performer over 12f, incl. beaten a short head in the 2006 Derby.
l Sire of Winners under Both Codes.
l Top class pedigree, looks, confirmation and temperament.
l Recent winners incl. DIRTY DEN (also listed placed), VANILLA DANCER , GARDENER
Fee: £1,500
TEOFILO - MADANY (ACCLAMATION)
Fee: £3,000 1st Oct S.L.F
Brother to Gr.1 Commonwealth Cup winner EQTIDAAR
Gr.1 placed at 2, 3 and 4, Gr.2 winner over 7f
Off to a great start at stud, multiple winners incl. LR Pat Eddery Stakes Placed Mascapone, Docklands (Royal Ascot winner), etc.
Yearlings sold for £45,000, £44,000, £43,000, etc.
KODIAC – LADY LISHANDRA (MUJADIL)
Fee: £5,000 1st Oct S.L.F
FIRST
2024
Winner of three races and £116,503 all over 5f including: EBF Novice Stakes Doncaster
LR National S. Sandown
Gr.2 Flying Childers S. Doncaster Also 3rd Gr.2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, all at 2 Foals sold for €30,000, €20,000, etc. in 2023
Richard Kent: +44 (0)79 73 315722 • richard@mickleystud.co.uk
• Clare Lloyd: +44 (0)7875 673260
John Walsh Bloodstock: +353 (0)86 255 8945 • johnwalshrugby@gmail.com • www.mickleystud.co.uk
›› I buy ten stores, five will be good and five won’t. With any store sale there’s going to be horses who look beautiful that don’t make it, so I’m happy to let the point-topoint handlers take that risk.”
“When we started we were buying them for €5,000 and €6,000,” adds Fitzgerald. “The biggest thing was the better horses going point-to-pointing. That’s really when better horses started leaving point-to-points and were going
“The market will stay strong because there’s so many good graduates”
on and winning races straight away for owners in Britain and Ireland. The first three home in a four-year-old maiden nowadays could all be Graded horses. They’re very strong races.”
Although the Irish dominate the market at present, the British point-to-point scene has the potential to be a growth area within the sector. British point-topoints have already produced a handful of genuine stars, with Energumene winning a Larkhill maiden for Tom and Sophie Lacey before being sold on to Willie Mullins, while Russell’s dual Grade 1 winner Ahoy Senor registered his first success at Kimble for Phil and Melanie Rowley.
A new wave of handlers are emerging in Britain, including the likes of Francesca
and Charlie Poste, Tom Ellis and Gina Andrews, Chris Barber and Bradley Gibbs. This quartet are not only prepared to invest on a commercial basis, but have enjoyed success with their graduates, both in the ring and on the track. They are being aided in their efforts by a series of races sponsored by Tattersalls and Goffs and which are confined to four- and fiveyear-olds, while the Jockey Club backs a series devoted to maiden fillies and mares.
Having already enjoyed success with the likes of Ahoy Senor, Russell is in no doubt that the talent is there to produce horses to as high a standard as the Irish. However, she says the challenge the British face is in getting their hands on the right raw materials at source.
“This is where the British point-to-point producers are going to have to catch up, because they can’t moan that they’re not getting the prices because the Irish are buying the best horses in the first place,” she says. “You can buy really good British point-to-pointers, though. And if you get good producers buying good store horses, which isn’t necessarily about price tag, then British point-to-pointing will pick up.”
Few would have seen the point-topoint boom coming. But, having hit on a seemingly self-sustaining strategy, it looks like it is here to stay.
“If they start selling middle-of-the-road horses then the market will slow down, but so long as they keep within the rules of being a good dealer I can’t see why it would change,” says Russell. “And if they do that, I don’t see how it will self implode.
“Horses are getting more expensive, training fees are going up, everything is getting more expensive. So of course point-to-pointers are getting more
expensive. But, at the end of the day, you still have to buy what you like.”
In the immediate future there is the Cheltenham Festival to worry about, and at the time of writing, the ante post markets for the 19 open company contests feature ten favourites who graduated from the point-to-point field.
“I can’t see much changing,” says Codd. “I think the point-to-points will stay very strong and I think the market for those horses will stay strong because there’s so many good graduates coming through. The system works. There’s winners in Britain and Ireland every day of the week.”
In the longer term, there are already stables stocked with blue-chip National Hunt prospects and a fresh generation of handlers beginning to emerge, all of which points to the future of the point-to-point graduate looking as bright as it ever has been.
“The point-to-point fraternity deserve the success they’ve enjoyed because they’ve made their own success,” says Beeby. “They’re buying unbroken threeyear-olds and making them into proper horses. I’ve got nothing but praise for them. They’re mighty men and women because they’re knowledgeable, brave and proactive. They’ve created a very strong part of the market and I hope and expect it will continue to thrive.”
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• Meet Classic winning trainer George Boughey – the syndicate’s guru
• Up-to-date data on the progress of your horses and their well-being, with in-depth stats and analysis provided by Plusvital, Equine Match and Equimetre
• Social events, including a tour of the National Stud and a day at the races, with guest speakers from the worlds of horse racing, football and TV
• Get together with your syndicate to experience the excitement of race day, with invitations to attend any Arena Racing venue (non-Premium race days only) and an additional +1
• Any prize money shared equally between syndicate members
• In a UK first, you will have the option to replace two horses at the end of the 2024 season if they do not meet their potential – at no extra cost!
• At the end of the contract, any money received from the sale of syndicate-owned horses is shared equally between members
GR.1 WINNING MILER BY NEW BAY €15,000
GROUP 1 WINNER AT 3
Won the Gr.1 QUEEN ELIZABETH II STAKES defeating Breeders’ Cup winners MODERN GAMES and INSPIRAL and sisters to the dams of Gr.1 winners MISHRIFF, ZOFFANY, AMELIA'S JEWEL, AVENIR CERTAIN, PERSUASIVE,CURSORY GLANCE and WILD ILLUSION
PRECOCIOUS GROUP 1 2YO and won the Gr.2 CHAMPAGNE STAKES – just like TOO DARN HOT & CHALDEAN
123
Covered the highest proportion of BLACKTYPE MARES of any First Season Sire in Ireland last year!
The dams of 52 STAKES HORSES including Sisters to Gr.1 winners WOOTTON BASSETT and SHALAA
Breeding in the current climate is not for the faint hearted, as anyone who has attended the last few breeding stock sales would probably attest. But one area of positivity is the allure of our product to the overseas market, something that was brought into sharper focus by the recent release of the Weatherbys Fact Book for 2023.
While various other metrics are on a downward trajectory, such as the number of British-based mares and stallions in production, the number of permanent exports out of Britain are holding relatively steady. The total figure of horses in training and broodmares exported was just north of 1,500 in 2023, with the main beneficiary being France, the importer of 350 horses in training and 47 mares. However, that marked quite a drop from the total of 666 imported out of Britain only three years earlier, a trend that is sadly in keeping with declines seen across continental Europe.
Italy and Greece, in particular, have contributed plenty over the years to the lower end of the yearling market. However, Brexit has made the process more difficult and now Greece is to cease racing completely.
Instead, the stability of the export market is a mirror of the evolving racing landscape we’re now in, where Middle Eastern ambition and Australian riches are helping to drive the top end of the market. From 2020 to 2022, the number of British and Irish-bred horses in training exported to Saudi Arabia increased from 109 to 271 and while the 2023 figure increased only slightly to 282, that is expected to rise as further registrations are recorded. The number sent to Australia is also on the rise, particularly when it comes to broodmares; 89 made the trip from Britain compared to 49 in 2022.
Saudi Arabia has embarked on a seriously ambitious developmental programme. Its racing is currently split between Riyadh and Taif, situated in the Mecca Province. The shining beacon is the Saudi Cup meeting and when the season ends in March, its calendar will have hosted 108 meetings, nearly double that staged
three years ago. Other racetracks are in the planning, all of which drives the need for more horses.
Of course, the growing demand is of immediate benefit for the horses in training market. Having said that, it should filter down to yearlings, particularly when it comes to the middle-distance horse. Much has been made of the retirements of Adayar, Hukum and Westover straight to Japan. It will take a long time but as it becomes further recognised just how much weight proper middle-distance types hold in these jurisdictions, then there is the possibility of the tide starting to change. That is particularly true if somewhere like Saudi Arabia stays true to its aspiration to become a major racing nation.
Away from exports, various other figures recorded in 2023 paint a sobering picture. The general consensus, particularly over the past year, is that small breeders face further squeezes as an already selective market becomes even more unforgiving. Perhaps that is partly behind the seven per cent drop recorded over a three-year period in the number of active Britishbased broodmares to 7,705. And while there were 152 British-based stallions in service in 2020, that figure had fallen to 118 by 2023 (although
that is expected to rise as further registrations come in). Established sires – those standing their third season or more – accounted for 84 per cent. The foal crop contracted marginally to 4,510, a figure far removed from the heady days of 2008 when nearly 6,000 foals were born.
As for Ireland, the foal crop is on the rise, checking in at 9,569 (though, as with Britain, still a long way behind the 12,633 recorded at its peak, in this case in 2007) while the number of active broodmares rose marginally to 15,193. Against that, there were 195 registered stallions, down 18 per cent from 2022.
As has become the norm, a concentrated group of stallions were the recipients of large books led by Crystal Ocean, who has covered north of 300 mares for each of the past two seasons. Four others covered between 251 and 300 mares (Affinisea, Saxon Warrior, Sioux Nation and Vadamos). All are based in Ireland; the busiest British-based sire was Frankel whose book consisted of 196 mares.
One path that this industry has never been afraid to pursue is self help. The Great British Bonus (GBB) is one such example. Borne out of the findings of the 2018 TBA Economic Impact Study conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, in which it was identified that 66% of British breeders were losing money, it came into operation on June 1, 2020 and had an immediate impact, with 11 bonuses paid out during the first month.
Early last month, it was revealed that the scheme had hit the milestone of 1,000 winners following the reinstatement of Aston Martini in a mares’ novices’ hurdle at Lingfield, in which the Nicky Henderson-trained mare had originally been disqualified.
Over the course of those 1,000 winners, over 560 owners have landed a bonus as part of the £13.5 million that has been diverted back into racing and breeding. Industry participants have spoken of the scheme as a game-changer, especially when it comes to generating interest in fillies at the sales, and for that it is something to be proud of for all those involved.
There are dispersals that flicker, some that generate wide interest and a few that rock racing and make headlines.
This one was in the latter category, and it lived up to expectations when all 29 lots were sold for an aggregate of €5,290,000, a record for a small-scale ‘boutique’ sale of jumpers.
It focussed on 29 jumping horses owned by Andy and Gemma Brown and all in training with Gordon Elliott. Given that the Browns – who raced in the name of Caldwell Construction Ltd – had only been in the game for three seasons, yet had won some notable races and about £1.3m in prize-money at Irish and British racecourses, news that they were pulling out was bolt-from-the-blue stuff.
In an official statement released in late January, it was said the recent deaths of two horses had left their young family heartbroken. Their highest-rated horse, Mighty Potter, had also been fatally injured in a race at Fairyhouse in April, so it could be said the Browns had experienced remarkable good luck and ill luck in a relatively short space of time. In keeping with the swiftness of their arrival and departure it took less than two weeks from the announcement for the dispersal to take place at Tattersalls Ireland’s Fairyhouse base.
Given Elliott’s abilities as a trainer and
the draft’s racing records it was no surprise that the lots on offer – involving one eight-year-old and the remainder younger – proved popular with buyers. No fewer than 13 sold for six-figure sums, and while Grade 1-winning hurdler Caldwell Potter – a full-brother to Mighty Potter –was widely tipped to head trade, his €740,000 sale was slightly above expectations and a record for a jumper in training. The valuation topped the £620,000 given for Interconnected at Doncaster in 2019 and the £570,000 paid
for pointers Jonbon and Classic Getaway under the Goffs UK banner in 2020. Before that you had to go back to 2004 to find the previous best, also set at Doncaster and involving the 530,000gns shelled out for Garde Champetre.
Elliott has experienced the good, bad and ugly of his profession, and losing such a talented bunch of horses would have made this one of his less happy days, particularly when he was outgunned for Caldwell Potter. Joined at the ring by Aidan O’Ryan and Eddie O’Leary, Elliott looked a little crestfallen as the hammer fell in the direction of Highflyer Bloodstock’s Anthony Bromley.
He was acting for a powerful syndicate involving John Hales, Ged Mason, Sir Alex Ferguson and Peter Done, who own a Triumph Hurdle prospect in the form of Kalif Du Berlais. Aspirations for Caldwell Potter include a Cheltenham Gold Cup, although after joining Paul Nicholls’ stable it was announced the son of Martaline needed more time and would not be seen at this year’s Cheltenham Festival.
Bromley admitted: “I don’t feel great about taking him away from Gordon, but it is a genuine sale and the world we are in,” while Elliott lamented that he was “disappointed to lose the big horse”.
Sympathy for him could be tempered in the knowledge that some of the horses would be returning to his Cullentra House yard. Mags O’Toole’s bid of €620,000
had the last say for Fil Dor TATTERSALLS
secured chaser Fil Dor for Elliott’s client Brian Acheson, an engineer who races under the Robcour banner, while Pied
Piper was another to return to his old stable after selling to Timmy Hillman for €570,000. Pied Piper, who Hillman said would be targeted at Flat and hurdle races, was later listed as being owned by the Roden family’s Windgates Stud.
Elliott also ensured he will continue to handle the career of bumper and hurdle winner Staffordshire Knot by bidding in person and securing the prize with an offer of €510,000, while the four-year-old Mighty Bandit was bought by Bromley’s colleague Tessa Greatrex with a bid of €420,000. A maiden hurdle winner, Mighty Bandit will be trained by Greatrex’s
Statistics
Sold: 29 (100% clearance)
Aggregate: €5,290,000
Average: €182,414
Median: €65,000
husband Warren for his landlords at Rhonehurst Stables, Jim and Claire Bryce. Joey Logan, who advised the Browns and bought their horses as unraced foals and stores, said: “It is mixed emotions, but I am delighted the sale went so well. I am very proud of these horses. They gave us some exciting times.”
House Stables
Mags O’Toole
Pied Piper 6 g New Approach - Pure Fantasy Cullentra House Stables 570,000 Windgates Stud
Staffordshire Knot 6 g Shantou - Ned’s Joy Cullentra House Stables 510,000 Gordon Elliott Racing
Mighty Bandit 4 g Order Of St George – Akalara Cullentra House Stables 420,000 Highflyer Bloodstock
Fewer horses, a lower clearance rate, but small gains in the average and median prices summarise this two-day mixed sale which heralds the annual restart of trading at Tattersalls’ Newmarket headquarters.
The 273 lots who entered the ring, the fewest since 2015 when 240 marched in, went under the gaze of a domestic and international audience, but the clearance rate fell back 11 points to 73 per cent and turnover was pulled down 31 per cent at 2,836,000gns, some 1.2m gns less than the previous year. There was a three per cent gain in the average price to 14,315gns, while the median rose four per cent to 7,250gns.
Tattersalls Chairman Edmond Mahony described the number of horses sold as “eminently respectable”, but conceded it had “not matched the customary market-leading levels we would aspire to
at sales of this nature”.
High spots were headed by the sale of broodmare Taqaareed, an 11-year-old Sea The Stars full-sister to Classic heroine Taghrooda and with the benefit for potential buyers of a Pinatubo foal which she carried. Consigned by her breeders, Shadwell Estate, Taqaareed has foaled two winners, and while neither has gained black type, there are further foals by Siyouni and New Bay on the ground.
On paper she represented the stand-out opportunity in the catalogue and it took a bid of 200,000gns by agent
Jill Lamb to secure her for Sally and Paul Flatt’s Childwickbury Stud, a Hertfordshire nursery with a long, albeit punctuated history of producing high-class horses. The Flatts bought the stud in 2011 and having steadily updated it are now engaged in sourcing some quality mares.
The O’Mahony family, who bought Knocktoran Stud towards the end of last year, were also looking for broodmares and they succeeded in securing four-yearold Listed-placed filly Lady Bullet for 62,000gns, the same sum that enabled agent JD Moore to sign for three-year-old
Retort: recent winner heads to Australia
gelding First Encore. A winner for trainer Ed Walker, First Encore will race on in Qatar said Moore.
The sale’s other six-figure lot focussed on a three-year-old son of Frankel named Retort, who exited the Juddmonte draft following a bid of 125,000gns by SackvilleDonald’s Alastair Donald. Acting for Highclere Thoroughbred Racing’s Australian division, Donald said the colt, a two-time winner in France for trainer Henri-Francis Devin, was set to join the Sydney/Brisbane stable of Annabel Neasham.
Not every in-training horse was bound
• News that racing in Greece has been halted was a sombre note for the industry across Europe.
Announcing the closure, Hippodromies SA said in a statement that fewer than 300 horses had been active in the past two years and the company had lost more than €100m since taking over the running of racing in 2016. It listed a number of ways in which it had attempted to boost racing without success, and it was now set on looking after staff and horses affected by the closure.
Although regarded as one of racing’s ‘minnow nations’ the country has been an important buyer at the bottom end in Britain, particularly at the Tattersalls July and Autumn Horses-in-Training Sales and similar auctions. It is that area of the market which is of greatest concern to major racing
for an overseas yard, and the 91-rated four-year-old gelding Clearpoint, offered from Charlie Fellowes’ stable, was sold for 75,000gns to Hampshire trainer Simon Hodgson. He was acting on behalf of John Whelan’s PCF Racing, which was looking for a sprint handicapper good enough to tackle Saturday races.
Ireland’s second sale of the year involved Flat and jumps-bred yearlings, some young stores and breeding stock.
In common with all but one of the early-season sales involving horses in a ring, the catalogue was smaller – 370 went under the hammer, down from 424 – and regretfully for Goffs it did not contain a breeding prospect to match Red Azalea, a winning daughter of Galileo who sold for €340,000 12 months earlier. In 2023 that proved the top price at February auctions held by Europe’s major bloodstock sales companies.
Such a figure was never challenged on
the latest occasion, and while a global buying bench either attended or tuned in, the clearance rate of 65 per cent – one point up on the previous year – indicates the ongoing difficulties for vendors of horses which fail to score on looks and/or pedigree. Turnover for the 239 sold lots reached just over €3m, down 29 per cent, the average of €12,898 was down 19 per cent, while the median saw an 11 per cent drop to €8,000.
Two yearlings had managed to break into six-figure territory in 2023, and while none achieved that mark on the latest occasion, a colt and filly by Havana Grey – who else? – turned handsome profits for
nations, not least in Britain, but in Ireland too.
Supply is greater than demand, stallion fees too high for a large swathe of the market, and that impacts on the value of lesser fillies and mares, who when put through auctions fail to make the cost of the covering fee.
For Britain there is also the Brexit effect, which involves higher export costs and more red tape than in the past. As a result some traders have said they are noticing fewer minnow buyers, particularly from Eastern Europe. That may be because they are now staying at home and buying online at traditional auctions, or via those auctions which are exclusively online.
However, some traders have said the Eastern Europeans they used to see regularly are now buying in Euroland, namely Ireland and France.
Sold: 200 (73% clearance)
Aggregate: 2,863,000gns (-31%) Average: 14,315gns (+3%) Median: 7,250gns (+4%)
their breeders. The first, a filly out of Scots Fern, was bred by polo player Tommy Severn who bought his mare for a humble 6,000gns two years ago.
A winner for Andrew Balding, Scots Fern foaled the Havana Grey filly at Stoneyhill Stud in Gloucestershire and her daughter subsequently joined The Castlebridge Consignment for her progress through the ring. Willie Browne liked what he saw and it was his bid of €90,000 in the name of JB (aka Jamie Browne) Bloodstock which gained her passport. Browne Snr said the Orby Sale was her likely next appearance.
Bear in mind that Havana Grey’s
advertised fee was £6,000 when his current yearlings were conceived and it could be said they were the last of the great snips – he has now powered up to €55,000, but who is to say his masters at Whitsbury Manor Stud have got that figure wrong?
Breeders no doubt delighted to have used him before the rise include the Player family of Whatton Manor Stud, who reaped €85,000 for one of his sons who was bought by the pinhooking Yeomanstown Stud team. Dermot Dwan’s Kellsgrange Stud handled the colt at the sale.
Thanks to the Havana Grey filly, Goffs was able to claim bragging rights for
having sold the top-priced Flat-bred yearling at 2024’s opening auctions, and also the highest-valued Jump-bred yearling. This proved to be a €75,000 colt by No Risk At All out of the winning hurdler Eccetera, whose son was bound for Tally-Ho Stud after being knocked down to agent Hamish Macauley.
Overall top-lot honours went to the nine-year-old mare Princess Vega, a €150,000 daughter of Beat Hollow carrying to Walk In The Park and sold by the Irish National Stud to agent Gerry Hogan. She was always likely to be popular by dint of being a daughter of the great Quevega and therefore a half-sister to the multiple Grade 1-winning jumper
Facile Vega, who will be
Princess Vega may well turn out to be a superb broodmare, but for now she is proof that Mullins is human. She won on debut for him at Tramore, then finished a well-beaten eighth in a Flat race before pulling up and then falling on her return to hurdling.
At least part two of her career has made a promising start, for having been moved to the breeding sheds she has quickly produced foals by Order Of St George and Santiago.
Sold: 239 (65% clearance)
Aggregate: €3,082,400 (-29%)
Average: €12,898 (-19%)
Median: €8,000 (-11%)
A smaller catalogue, but another improvement in the average price and a slightly better clearance rate helped put some gloss on the first traditional European auction of 2024.
It was typical early-in-the-year fare, involving young yearlings, breeding stock and horses in training, plus at this event the traditional TBA-promoted jumps stallion showcase which gave breeders an opportunity to look at sires in the flesh. Both selling and stallion gazing were
played out in one day as opposed to two last year.
Of the 133 horses on offer, a fall from 281 in 2023, 81 sold creating a clearance rate of 61 per cent. The aggregate was understandably down given the muchreduced number of lots, but the median held steady at £7,000 and the average, which had risen one year earlier, gained another 14 per cent at £14,609.
Various reasons could be offered for the smaller catalogue, but an obvious one was the creation of the British NH Breeders’
Showcase which was also staged by Goffs UK at Doncaster in November. It involved a catalogue of 83 foals, some of whom would have been offered at this sale.
Jackie Chugg’s Worcestershire-based Little Lodge Stud became the headline grabber by selling a pair of yearlings who jointly took top-lot honours at £68,000. The first was a Vadamos colt who sold to Tom Howley, while the second a son of Walk In The Park who was knocked down to Rathmore Stud’s Peter Molony. Those two sales emphasised the importance of
TIMEFORM RATED 128
Won Gr.1 Tatersalls Gold Cup (2015)
Won Gr.1 Coral-Eclipse
Won Gr.1 Prince of Wales’s Stakes
Won Gr.1 Tatersalls Gold Cup (2013)
Won/placed in 15 Group races inc. 8 Gr.1 races
Excellent
10% of WINNERS are STAKES
WINNERS inc:
ASPETAR - Gr.1 winner
1st Gr.1 Preis von Europa, Gr.2 York Stakes, Gr.2 Grand Prix de Chantlly, etc. Won/placed in 8 Black-Type races.
SAINT LAWRENCE - Gr.1 placed & Royal Ascot winner 1st L Denford Stakes, 2nd Gr.3 Pavilion Stakes, 3rd Gr.1 Prix Maurice de Gheest, etc. Won/placed in 6 Black-Type races.
Listed winners HARPER & USAK Plus Black-Type horses - GOLDEN SPELL, PRECISELY, PERSIAN ROYAL (sold at HIT for 450,000gns).
59% WINNERS to RUNNERS
Lifetime average yearling price £43,000
›› Irish pinhookers to Britain’s breeders of jumpers, and Chugg was quick to praise Goffs and its UK division for encouraging their participation at the event.
Storms almost scuppered some Irish attendance, with County Limerick-based Molony spending many hours at Dublin Airport while waiting for a flight to get airborne, but if demand for stock by Walk In The Park is maintained in coming years, he is likely to be rewarded when reoffering his purchase as a three-year-old.
The Aston family’s Goldford Stud invariably sells a nice youngster at Doncaster and their No Risk At All colt from the family of crack French chaser Cyrlight became another sound result when selling for £64,000 to Drumlin Bloodstock’s Conor Cashman.
The name Blue Bresil was bound to appear among the top-ten results and sure enough one of his sons made £54,000 when selling to Craig and Laura Buckingham, welcome British pinhookers whose Manor Farm Bloodstock is located in Lincolnshire. Their purchase, foaled by the Grade 3-winning hurdler Good Thyne, was consigned by Cork-based Walshtown Stables, which is run by Donie Murphy and his children.
Ireland-based pinhooker Dick Frisby, who in November at the NH Showcase bought a £90,000 Blue Bresil colt which
created a British record for a NH-bred foal sold at auction, made his presence felt once again when buying a £43,000 Walk In The Park filly from Harris Piece Stud. ‘Frisby’ appeared again among the horses-in-training, but in this instance he was a six-year-old point-to-pointer by that name and knocked down to The Real Whacker’s trainer Pat Neville for £40,000. Frisby was offered as part of a partial cull by trainer Ellmarie Holden, whose
Statistics
Sold: 81 (61% clearance)
Aggregate: £1,183,300 (-42%)
Average: £14,609 (+14%)
Median: £7,000 (0%)
consignment gained another £40,000 for Karuma Grey, a winning hurdler bought by South Wales racehorse owner Aled Evans.
Tattersalls Cheltenham
January Sale
The first of the year’s specialist sales of young point-to-pointers – topped up with a bumper horse or two – will not be remembered as a classic.
Held at Cheltenham immediately after Festival Trials Day, it offered 22 lots, down from 40 the previous year, and while four horses sold for a six-figure sum the atmosphere was muted. News of the 29-lot Andy and Gemma Brown dispersal had broken a few days earlier, and their trainer, Gordon Elliott, who is a committed buyer at Cheltenham sales, was absent. He was not alone among regular attendees who opted to give it a miss, and the theory that agents, trainers and well-heeled owners
were holding back for the Brown’s catalogue probably had some truth in it.
When that sale’s impact is taken into consideration – and that the January Sale has no four-year-olds to sell because Irish pointers of that age do not start racing until the first weekend in February – it is likely the absences and subsequent downturn in the figures at this sale will prove nothing more than a blip. Sixteen of the 22 sold, a clearance rate of 73 per cent, the average was cut 32 per cent at £54,750 and the median declined 54 per cent at £31,000. Turnover fell below £1 million following two years in which it had achieved figures either side of £2.5 million.
Wexford rider/trainer Rob James was credited with selling the top lot, Old Tom
at the Derby Sale, Old Tom Morris had won snugly at Turtulla in County Tipperary on his racing debut.
Agent Tom Malone and trainer Jamie Snowden experienced a bitter/sweet day. Snowden’s likeable eight-year-old chaser Datsalrightgino, who Malone had purchased as a store, was fatally injured on the Cheltenham card, but stablemate GA Law won a Grade 3 chase and the two men landed one of the gems at this sale when parting with £130,000 for Admiral Stewart, a winner for Colin Bowe’s yard at Tinahely in County Wexford.
Emmet Mullins had also enjoyed the pleasure of training a winner before turning attentions to the sale – his Grand
Statistics
Sold: 16 (73% clearance)
Aggregate: £876,000 (-64%)
Average: £54,750 (-32%)
Median: £31,000 (-54%)
Old Tom Morris: a winner on his debut at Turtulla, he led proceedings at £150,000
National winner Noble Yeats took the Cleeve Hurdle – and he added to his string with the £125,000 purchase of Melbourne
Getaway – Caheronaun
Admiral Stewart 5 g Soldier Of Fortune - Ivy Queen Milestone Stables
Melbourne Shamrock 5 g Hillstar - Lucy Murphy
Seatoit 5 g Affinisea – Saratogane
Shamrock, a €70,000 store who had won for trainer Matty Flynn O’Connor a few days before he travelled to Cheltenham.
Hamish Macauley Bloodstock
Tom Malone/Jamie Snowden
Stables 125,000 Emmet Mullins
Devereaux 120,000 Kim Bailey Racing
Honeywort 5 m Jukebox Jury - Midnight Fox Meadowview Stables 48,000 Gerry Hogan Bloodstock
This sale of jumping stock proved to be a good one for two County Cork-based families – the Cashmans of Rathbarry and Glenview Studs and the Murphys of Walshtown Stables.
The Cashmans were always likely to be cheered by events in the ring for they stand Blue Bresil, one of racing’s most popular NH sires and with 15 young yearlings in the catalogue. It is fortunate for 19-year-old Blue Bresil that he has a one-horse advertising hoarding called Constitution Hill to keep his name in lights. Who would not want to watch that horse’s second encounter with the Willie Mullins-trained State Man at the Cheltenham Festival?
Enter stage right the Murphys – namely father Donie, his daughters Laura and Emma and son James – with not one but two colts by Blue Bresil to sell and ultimately to achieve this one-day sale’s top two prices. They are making a habit of
the trick, for one year earlier they sold a €49,000 Walk In The Park yearling who headed trade.
They trumped that price at the latest renewal of the sale, gaining €62,000 for their Blue Bresil colt who was sold to Charles Shanahan on behalf of Flash Conroy’s Glenvale Stud. The youngster was foaled by a Martaline half-sister to Grade 1 winner Yanworth. Other foals she has produced include the talented Mr Glass, who on one occasion finished second to Constitution Hill in the Tolworth Hurdle. After an absence Mr Glass recently turned up in a Somerset point-to-point –watched by part-owner Paul Nicholls –and duly beat a strong field under trainer/ rider Will Biddick.
The Murphys also collected €50,000 for another son of the vaunted sire, this one a half-brother to the Grade 1-winning chaser Feronily. Niall Bleahen, who pinhooked Feronily, bought the latest family member for his Liss House operation.
Keeping things in-house is not uncommon in this industry and there were plenty of such transactions on the day. The Cashmans supported Blue Bresil when parting with €40,000 for one of his yearling daughters offered by Ballinaroone Stud, and they also gave €41,000 for a Galbertstown Stables colt by Jeu St Eloi, the 13-year-old sire who joined the family’s Glenview Stud roster for this season.
In similar buying vein, a €43,000 son of sire Walk In The Park – consigned by
Railstown Stud – found a new home with buyers Grange Stud, which is home to the stallion. The yearling came from the family of Alan King’s fine horse Crystal D’Ainay.
Smaller catalogue sizes have been a theme at the early sales held this year, and this one saw 162 lots go under the hammer, 85 fewer than in 2023. The reduction helped the clearance rate gain four points at 57 per cent, but it hit
turnover, which was down 37 per cent. The average of €11,174 and median of €7,000 showed falls of 10 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.
Statistics
Sold: 93 (57% clearance)
Aggregate: €1,039,200 (-37%)
Average: €11,174 (-10%)
Median: €7,000 (-18%)
Blue Bresil was comfortably the leading sire, with 11 lots sold for an average of €25,209, and while young French stallions Karaktar – the sire of exciting novice chaser Il Est Francais – and Goliath Du Berlais are just emerging, they were each responsible for a foal who sold for €30,000. Expect to hear more about them.
At the conclusion of this two-day sale Arqana President and General Manager Eric Hoyeau stood down from those roles at the company which he has helped become a world-renowned auction house.
Olivier Delloye, who was Director General for ten years from the inception of the company in 2006, returns to that role alongside Freddy Powell, while Hoyeau will remain as an advisor to the Board of Directors.
This sale was not a fireworks and thunderbolts occasion on which to conclude Hoyeau’s tenure, and, in common with other recent sales of its type, traded nosed down. However, in contrast to those rival events the catalogue size was maintained and the clearance rate held steady, too. Of the 309 lots on offer, 241 found buyers at a rate of 78 per cent, but the aggregate, average and median each fell by 23 per cent.
Six horses had made €100,000-plus in 2023, but on this occasion just one horse, three-year-old Le Kerry, made that mark when selling for €200,000 to agent Jerome Glandais who was acting for racehorse owner Sofiane Benaroussi.
Being from a top-jumping family would not have saved Le Kerry’s reproductive organs had he been sold in Britain or Ireland, but the French think differently and Glandais said a stallion’s career was a possibility if the grey could show ability in jump races.
His dam, Snow Berry, is a half-sister to David Cottin’s Grade 1-winning chaser Le Berry and smart jumper Berryville, and she has produced two useful performers in Funny Berry and Great Snow.
Stuart Boman of Blandford Bloodstock sealed the deal on three-year-old filly Princess Child with an €80,000 offer made on behalf of “an Irish client” who wanted a racing and breeding prospect. The daughter of Dariyan finished runnerup in a Listed race at the end of last year for Laura Lemiere, but her next home will be with Joseph O’Brien.
The same sum enabled Benoit Gicquel and Richard Powell to buy four-year-old filly Rue Barbizon for owners Andrew Peake and the Bryant family who share the recent Grand Prix de Pau winner In Love. Regis Schmidlin will continue to train the filly, said Gicquel, while five-yearold Zarak gelding Titanium was also
bought for €80,000 ahead of a move to Westmeath trainer Ciaran Murphy. David Skelly signed the buyers’ sheet and said premier handicaps would be the target for Titanium, a six-time winner for trainer Alessandro Botti.
Statistics
Sold: 247 (82% clearance)
Aggregate: 2,853,000 (-23%)
Average: 11,772 (-23%)
Median: 5,000 (-23%)
We have enjoyed a terrific start to 2024 with winners on the flat, over jumps and recently in Bahrain where Parlando (pictured right) won the final leg of the Turf Series netting US$88,000 in the process.
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As the breeding season commences, it is always interesting to keep an eye on the various sire-broodmare sire combinations that produce the best results. The role of the broodmare sire is often undervalued as the suspicion is that success is more likely down to the quality of his daughters’ female line, when in fact his own genes are just as likely to play a part.
Among all of the sire-broodmare sire combinations that were represented by a European Group winner during 2023, and among those with ten or more career runners, three reached the 50% stakes winner-to-runner mark. No surprise that two involve champion sire Frankel, who has sired six stakes winners from 12 runners out of daughters of Street Cry and five stakes winners from his ten runners out of Empire Maker mares.
Measured Time, Godolphin’s daughter of the Street Cry mare Minidress, only opened his stakes-winning account last year but has progressed well enough to land a Meydan Group-race double culminating with his victory in the Group 1 Jebel Hatta last month. He is now the best exponent of the Frankel-Street Cry partnership that also includes dual US Grade 2 turf scorer Skims and Australian Group 1 winner Frankly Awesome.
Juddmonte-bred full sisters Raclette, winner of the Group 2 Prix de Malleret,
and French Listed scorer Ardent are two of the Frankel stakes winners out of mares by Empire Maker, a stallion with whom Juddmonte has had a long association.
Of course, the same is true of Dansili who teamed up with fellow Juddmonte sire Frankel to produce the Oaks heroine Soul Sister last year. It doesn’t hurt that Dansili has already accumulated 132 stakes winners as a broodmare sire at an impressive rate of 7% from runners.
“The FrankelDansili axis has an eye-opening current strike-rate”
Even more impressive is his 13% stakes winners from his runners out of elite mares or the top 25%. Even so, the Frankel-Dansili axis has an eye-opening current strike-rate of 29.4%.
Then we move on to the Banstead Manor Stud stallion’s record with local rival Dubawi. It was always on the cards given their respective age profiles that Dubawi mares, if they were good enough, might benefit Frankel. Truth be told, it
took Dubawi a while to get going as a broodmare sire, not surprising given that his early crops did not contain the quality of pedigree as his more recent crops. But there is no question that Dubawi has Frankel to thank for raising his profile as a broodmare sire.
Four of Dubawi’s seven Group 1 winners are sired by Frankel, headed by two of the very best in Derby and King George winner Adayar (Timeform 131) and Juddmonte International scorer Mostahdaf (TF129). Classic winner Homeless Songs is another. Dubawi mares have so far produced 5.5% stakes winners, but an altogether more impressive 12.4% from the better-bred among them. Together, Frankel and daughters of Dubawi have come up with 24.4% stakes winners from runners.
Frankel’s alliance with daughters of Pivotal (20.6% stakes winners) also bears scrutiny in that it outscores both Frankel’s and Pivotal’s own stakes-winner strikerates. Five of their seven stakes winners are Group 1 winners, with multiple Group 1 heroine Nashwa representing a combination in 2023 that is already responsible for Ace Impact’s sire Cracksman.
The other stallion-broodmare sire combination with a 50% strike-rate is Dubawi with daughters of his former stud companion Dubai Destination. The foundation stone for this partnership was laid by four-time Group 1 winner
Postponed ten years ago, but it has come up with four Godolphin-bred stakes winners since.
To his credit, Dubawi has no fewer than 12 broodmare sire partnerships that were represented by a Group winner last year – that outscores his own excellent 17.1% stakes winners to runners. From daughters of Dalakhani, he’s sired four stakes winners (40%) from ten runners, featuring Group 1 Futurity Trophy winner Ancient Wisdom. His association with young broodmare sire Sea The Stars has given us the Roger Varian-trained Group 1 winners Eldar Eldarov (St Leger and Irish St Leger) and Nassau Stakes heroine Al Husn among four stakes winners (36.4%) from just 11 runners.
Daughters of Montjeu have provided the sisters Journey, winner of the Group 1 British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes, and Group 2 May Hill scorer Indigo Girl, plus the Coolmore-bred Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Emily Dickinson.
The aforementioned Street Cry mare Minidress provided a Group 1 winner for Frankel, but she had already done the same favour for Dubawi through Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Rebel’s Romance, who is one of six stakes winners (30%) from 20 runners by Dubawi out of a Street Cry mare.
Other broodmare sires with both a healthy percentage of stakes winners and a Group 1 scorer by Dubawi include Dansili (27%), sire of the dams of Naval Crown and Nezwaah; New Approach (26.7%), responsible for the dam of five-time Group 1 winner Modern Games; Giant’s Causeway (23.8%), broodmare sire of four-time Group 1 winner Lord North; Monsun (23.1%), whose daughter Rumh bred brother and sister duo Yibir and Wild Illusion; and Danehill Dancer (20%), the broodmare sire of Kitesurf.
It is yet another pair of top-class siblings, Baaeed (TF137) and Hukum (TF130), that underpin the potent combination (37.5% stakes winners) of Sea The Stars and Kingmambo. Sea The Stars has also worked well with Monsun mares (33% stakes winners), his German Group 1 winner and highly competent sire son Sea The Moon being a standout example of the cross.
Just as Dubawi has found a niche with daughters of Dansili, so too has his up-and-coming sire son Night Of Thunder, who has four stakes winners (30.8%) from 13 runners bred on the cross, headed by the Group 2 Debutante Stakes winner and Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes runner-up Vespertilio.
Another Juddmonte broodmare sire
of note in recent times is Oasis Dream and it is easy to understand the success this top-class speed influence has had with sons of Galileo, which account for five of Oasis Dream’s 12 Group 1 winners as a broodmare sire.
The best exponent of the Galileo sons is Teofilo, who is responsible for three of the five Group/Grade 1 winners including Melbourne Cup hero Twilight Payment, plus Godolphin’s US and German top-flight scorer Nations Pride and Prix Saint-Alary winner Tawkeel. In all, Teofilo has five stakes winners (29.4%) from his
17 runners out of Oasis Dream mares.
Meanwhile, two of No Nay Never’s four stakes winners (25%) from Oasis Dream mares are 2023 two-year-old Group 2 winners Array and Les Pavots.
Remarkably, there are a total of 47 sire-broodmare sire combinations with a stakes-winner strike-rate of 20% or higher that satisfied the criteria of having a 2023 Group winner and ten career runners or more bred on the relevant cross. And, of course, there are many just below 20% that can be deemed highly significant.
John Greetham was one of those breeders to add immensely to the fabric of British racing. Sadly, the Lincolnshire-based farmer was also of an ilk that has become in increasingly short supply in the current era.
British owner-breeders, as we are often reminded, are dwindling, especially those with a leaning towards the enjoyment of middle-distance horses. Greetham was one such breeder, as might be expected from someone for whom success emanated from a mare by the stout stamina influence Bustino.
Much Too Risky, the mare in question, was bred in 1982 by Greetham out of Short Rations, a winning daughter of Lorenzaccio who would later foal the popular stayer Arctic Owl. It was obviously a very different time, not least because there wasn’t quite the market fixation on speed that there is today (a horse like Bustino would have undoubtedly struggled). Nevertheless, this family has stood the test of time as a consistent source of middle-distance quality. It might not come as a surprise to anyone to read that it has been aided in that cause by a respect from Japanese interests, enough to see a number of its representatives head East – and with excellent results.
However, the Much Too Risky line remains prominent elsewhere as well, primarily as a result of Godolphin’s investment which has yielded Measured Time, who became Frankel’s 34th Group/ Grade 1 winner when scoring in the Jebel
Hatta at Meydan in late January. In turn, he is a half-brother to 2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf winner Rebel’s Romance, who added the H H The Amir Trophy in Qatar to his significant haul last month, making their dam, the Street Cry mare Minidress, an increasingly important member of the Godolphin broodmare band.
Minidress is out of Short Skirt, the last of six black-type horses bred by Greetham out of Much Too Risky. Like most of the family in later years, Much Too Risky was trained by Sir Michael Stoute and looked potentially useful at two when winning both her starts at Leicester and Haydock. Given the promise of that campaign and her physical scope, a pair of low-key outings at three must have come as a disappointment, but the talent was obviously there and she more than made up for it at stud.
The mare went on to work well with Machiavellian, to whom she produced Prix de Pomone winner and Yorkshire Oaks runner-up Whitewater Affair, the Listedplaced Rich Affair and minor winner L’Affaire Monique. Both Whitewater Affair and Rich Affair have since exerted a considerable influence at stud in Japan; Whitewater Affair as the dam of champion three-year-old and older horse Victoire Pisa, winner of the Dubai World Cup, and fellow Group 1 winner Asakusa Den’En, and Rich Affair as the granddam of champion two-year-old Robe Tissage.
An affinity was also forged by Much Too Risky with Known Fact, the sire of her Listed-winning daughter Seductress (who
also clicked with Machiavellian to produce Godolphin’s Listed winner Swiss Law). The Known Fact affinity also extended to his best son Warning, the sire of Greetham’s durable Princess Of Wales’s Stakes winner Little Rock, and then to Diktat through Short Skirt. As several of those names suggest, Greetham obviously had fun naming his horses with a nod towards the various indiscretions attached at that time to former US President Bill Clinton.
Diktat was a popular horse with breeders during his early years as a Darley stallion in Newmarket. After all, he was one of a handful of Group 1-winning sons left behind by Warning prior to his export to Japan, and one quick enough to win
It is no secret how highly French breeders regard stallions with jumping ability. It’s a logical approach and one granted great weight given the deeds of Saint Des Saints, Kapgarde, Great Pretender and Cokoriko among many others.
That list is just a snapshot of the various jumpers who have excelled over the years at stud in France and contrasts quite significantly with the stallion landscape in Britain and Ireland, where the middle-distance Flat horse tends to take precedent.
Scouts searching for talent to campaign on this side of the Channel are naturally well in tune with the younger French sires making a name for themselves and it won’t have taken them long to identify Choeur Du Nord, another to have raced over jumps, as a name worth following.
The horse was represented by his first runner in Britain and Ireland only in the spring of 2022 but there have been plenty of others – the majority of them French-breds – since then including Jeriko Du Reponet and Heart Wood, whose recent successes in the Grade 2 SBK Supreme Trial Rossington Main Novices’ Hurdle and Grade 3 O’Driscolls Irish Whiskey Leopardstown Handicap Chase have firmly pushed their sire into the spotlight.
Another youngster, five-year-old
the Haydock Sprint Cup.
Short Skirt was from Diktat’s second crop and wound up as one of the best of his 14 Group-race winners. Successful in a Newmarket maiden by six lengths on her debut at two, she started off her threeyear-old season by defeating Alexandrova in the Musidora Stakes at York to send her on her way to the Oaks. At Epsom, however, she met a different Alexandrova, who dominated to win by a wide margin. Even so, by running third she at least fared better than her sibling Whitewater Affair a decade before when unplaced behind Lady Carla.
Having later run second to Alexandrova in the Yorkshire Oaks and won the St Simon Stakes, Greetham sent Short Skirt to the Tattersalls December Mares Sale, where she sold for 1,400,000gns to John Ferguson on behalf of Godolphin. She had two starts in the all-blue, highlighted by a win in the Severals Stakes at Newmarket on her belated four-year-old debut, before retiring to stud.
Centreofattention, also recently made a winning debut in a Wincanton bumper for Nicky Henderson and JP McManus, the same connections behind Jeriko Du Reponet.
We are often reminded that a good horse or stallion can come from anywhere but that seems especially true of French jumps stallions. Choeur Du Nord belongs to the Lomond branch of the Northern Dancer clan, and thereby represents a line that is barely in existence nowadays. Lomond might have been a Classicwinning half-brother to Seattle Slew but unlike his famous sibling, who became a champion sire in the US, failed to leave much of a lasting impression at stud.
The Aga Khan Studs, with its deep families and understanding of them, have bred a number of top horses by lesser stallions over the years and Valanour, one of the best sons of Lomond, is a case in point. Winner of the Grand Prix de Paris and Prix Ganay, Valanour was not hugely successful at stud, eventually standing for €1,000 in a dual-purpose role. However, he did leave behind the Criterium de Saint-Cloud and Prix Lupin winner Voix Du Nord, a favourite influence among the British and Irish jumps community whose own stud record includes Defi Du Seuil, Taquin Du Seuil and Vroum Vroum Mag, all of whom won Grade 1s at the Cheltenham Festival.
Choeur Du Nord is one of a handful of sons of Voix Du Nord at stud in France and is certainly bred for the job as a son
Minidress was her first foal and a talented one at that, with a Listed-placing and Newmarket maiden win among her achievements. The best runner out of Short Skirt, though, turned out to be Volcanic Sky, a brother to Minidress who was a Group 3 winner in Dubai.
Yet patience on that seven-figure investment has been required and nearly two decades on from her entry into the Godolphin fold, there is the reward of Minidress’s stud career.
Rebel’s Romance, the mare’s fourth foal, had a low-key season last year following his annus mirabilis in 2022, when he captured the Grosser Preis von Berlin, Preis von Europa and Breeders’ Cup Turf within a three-month period. But he is firmly back in the groove following wins in the Floodlit Stakes at Kempton and Qatar’s H H The Amir Trophy, in which he wasn’t really challenged to win by three lengths. The Dubai Sheema Classic was mooted as his next engaement while Measured Time is reportedly on course for
the Dubai Turf, allowing for the distinct possibility of a Minidress Group 1 double on Dubai’s biggest night of racing.
Godolphin isn’t the sole custodian of the Much Too Risky line, however. Aside from Whitewater Affair and Short Skirt, various other daughters passed into the hands of good breeders including White House and L’Affaire Monique.
For the Swinburn family’s Genesis Green Stud, the Pursuit Of Love mare White House became the foundation of their line responsible for the Group 1placed two-year-old Cappella Sansevero. L’Affaire Monique became a multiple stakes producer for Aston House Stud, her quartet of stakes runners headed by the Group 3-placed Short Affair. In turn, she is the great-granddam of 2023 Solonaway Stakes winner Flight Plan, bred by Jane Keir out of the Pivotal mare Romp.
With Group 1 targets also on the agenda for Flight Plan, this family isn’t going to be too far away from the headlines again this season.
of the talented jumper Cardoudalle, whose daughters are between them responsible for Cokoriko and the top hurdling mare Benie Des Deux. In typically French fashion, Choeur Du Nord was out early as a hurdler in the spring of his three-year-old campaign, winning on his debut at Auteuil before following up at the same course at the expense of Fixe Le Kap, subsequently a useful performer for Nicky Henderson. He was retired after finishing second on his third start, again at Auteuil.
Choeur Du Nord started stud life at Elevage Lassaussaye Guillaume for just €1,500. However, he has not lacked for popularity, with books north of 50 covered since his retirement. Results were swiftly forthcoming. His first crop, foaled in 2017, produced Listed-winning jumper Baladin De Mesc, while the Grade 1-placed
Iceo Madrik and Listed winner Imprenable sit alongside Heart Wood, who also won the Listed Prix Univers II Handicap Hurdle at Auteuil prior to joining Henry de Bromhead, as highlights from his second. Jeriko Du Reponet, one of the leading fancies for the Supreme Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival, and Listed winners Jipcot and Vision Du Rheu belong to a third crop of around 75.
Choeur Du Nord now stands under Guillaume Lassaussaye’s Haras de Ligneres banner and covered over 130 mares last year. He had a minor fee rise to €6,500 for 2024 and it would be no surprise to see several British or Irish breeders start to take advantage of him. As it is, his select group of offerings in Ireland last year included a store who was sold by Lakefield Farm for €90,000 to Paul Holden at the Goffs Arkle Sale.
A BRAND PASSIONATE ABOUT THE GREAT BRITISH THOROUGHBRED
WELL BRED, TOUGH AND CONSISTENT STAKES WINNER
OUTSTANDING PEDIGREE
Half-brother to 6 Stakes hoses including Gr.1 winner Matterhorn and Gr.2 winning 2yo and 3yo The Foxes, descending from Fall Aspen. Only son of Australia to stand in GB.
WON/PLACED IN 8 STAKES RACES
Including Gr.2 York Stakes, York, 1m2f, and Gr.3 Classic Trial, Sandown, 1m2f.
FIRST BOOKS INCLUDE STAKES PRODUCERS/PERFORMERS ON THE FLAT AND OVER JUMPS
Fee: £3,000 1st October FFR
52% WINNERS TO RUNNERS
Tough, sound and versatile progeny, from 2yo’s up.
PATERNAL HALF-BROTHER TO THE LATE JEREMY
A leading NH sire of Gr.1 jumpers, Our Conor, Appreciate It, Corach Rambler, etc.
Fee: £4,000 1st October FFR
Youngstock thoroughbred sales (foal, yearling, unraced two-yearold) require the buyer to make decisions based on pedigree, conformation and pre-sale inspections, thus creating substantial risk. When purchasing twoyear-olds from a breeze-up sale, you can essentially ‘performance test’ the horse prior to purchase. Horses are galloped, or ‘breezed’, over two or three furlongs and timed, which can provide an insight into their potential track performance. Breeze-up sales have become increasingly popular in Europe since their establishment in America in the 1970s, however, they have been met with some bad press.
Fiona Dowling, BMA said: “In 2019 I carried out research on the breezeup market to investigate some of the criticisms the market faced at the time, such as breeze-up horses did not reach the track, train on or show career longevity following the sale.” The study looked at three years’ worth of sales data (UK and Ireland) and between five and seven years of race data. Dowling continued: “The breeze-up market consistently exhibited a trend of having a higher percentage of two-year-old runners.
“From the sample years analysed, only 8.3% of breeze-up purchases failed to make the racecourse compared to 13.2% of yearlings. In the timeframe analysed, breeze-up horses made an average racecourse appearance 19 times compared to yearling graduates at 17 times and both groups recorded a comparable level of reaching premier handicap/black-type level. The results from the study provided evidence to show that the breeze-up preparation was not negatively impacting a graduate’s ability to perform on the track nor was it affecting their career longevity”.
Breeze-up vendors will generally operate by purchasing foals or yearlings, breaking them in and commencing their training in readiness for sale in the spring as two-year-olds. This transition from leading a somewhat sedentary life to beginning ridden education and building up to faster work is a pivotal point of any racehorse’s career. The individual will go through extensive changes environmentally, physically and psychologically; therefore, much thought should be given to their management.
Nutritionally, the needs of a two-yearold are going to change drastically over a very short space of time; anything we
can do to better support this is going to benefit the individual in the long run. Nicki Reynolds, MSc Red Mills & Foran Equine Nutritional Support, said: “Preparing two-year-olds for the breeze-ups is a challenging time. Optimising forage intake and selecting the right feed to support the youngster throughout the prep and beyond the sales ring are the nutritional foundations to success.”
The ultimate goal is to provide the individual with the necessary nutrients for healthy growth and development, as well as ensuring sufficient calories are consumed for their increasing energy needs. The end goal is to produce a welldeveloped, healthy, fit and sound horse at the sales. They need to be fit enough to gallop two to three furlongs, obtain quick breezing times, recover efficiently, stay sound and walk round the sales ring in optimal condition. To achieve this, experience and knowledge of the sales process is required, as well as providing optimal nutrition, and of course a well thought out training regime.
It is of the upmost importance to introduce feed changes gradually over time, and close attention should be paid to body condition and ridden performance/ recovery. Good quality forage will always be the backbone of horses’ nutritional health, fed at an absolute minimum of 1.5% body weight per day and this should be the first port of call. In order to fully assess the quality of forage, laboratory analysis can be carried out by specialised companies where qualified nutritionists will advise you of any toxicities or deficiencies and how they can best be dealt with.
Although thoroughbred two-yearolds are thought to have reached
approximately 90% of their adult height, they still have a substantial amount of physical development ahead of them. Due to this they will still require high amounts of energy, protein, amino acids and minerals (most importantly calcium, phosphorus, copper and zinc) in order to allow optimum growth. With the onset of regular, harder work, the horse will inevitably be confined to its stable for many more hours per day than before. This has been proven to cause bone demineralisation (loss of minerals from the bone) and therefore a decrease in bone strength and an increased risk of developmental orthopedic diseases (DOD).
The thoroughbred skeleton responds to loading (exercise) by laying down or adding bone (bone mineralisation), which is why turnout is so very important in the early life stages and if it can be maintained to some degree throughout the breaking and fitness regime, it will certainly be of long-term benefit. Particular care must be taken during this period to ensure that the juvenile is receiving adequate minerals to assist bone development, and exercise or loading must be increased gradually to allow bone mineralisation to ‘catch up’.
Any concentrate feeds produced specifically for youngstock and/or young racehorses should have the correct vitamin to mineral ratios; supplementation can be risky as they need to be balanced correctly – toxicity can occur if too much is fed while nutrient absorption can be inhibited.
Ensuring protein requirements are met is also a very important component in helping to achieve desired physical development and soundness. The most noteworthy amino acid is lysine, which is supplied in its most optimum form via
soy. Lysine is heavily involved with muscle growth and repair. There will also be an increased requirement for antioxidants as they begin harder work, while adequate if not additional vitamin E, selenium and ideally vitamin C are all of importance.
Due to increased energy requirements, a high-calorie feed will be essential. It is important to note that a certain amount of starch (cereals) will be necessary to aid horses in very hard work. This is because horses draw on muscle glycogen stores for energy whilst galloping and these stores cannot be replenished quickly (around three times slower than in humans.
However, it is imperative to remember that fibre and fat are also integral to their diet and have significant benefits. The horse’s digestive system is much more efficient at breaking down fat than starch, and you will often need to feed a higher quantity of grains (corns or oats) to achieve the same calorie intake compared to fat (oil or rice bran).
Feeding large amounts of cereals daily greatly increases the risk of equine gastric ulcer syndrome (EGUS), particularly when coupled with limited forage and/or turnout. Gastric splashing is also a very real risk, which can be managed by ensuring faster work does not take place on an empty stomach. High starch intake can also cause diarrhoea, colic, laminitis, and issues such as excitable behaviour – not helpful during ridden education. If a horse is particularly temperamental, it can be a challenge to balance calorie intake against behaviour and the required weight gain. Also, the risk of azoturia, or ‘tying-up’, is increased when a horse is in full work and high starch feeds further increase this risk – feeding electrolytes can assist with this issue.
Good quality forage is always essential, and although it will not solely provide enough energy, protein, vitamins and minerals for a two-year-old in work, it
should still be at the forefront of your nutritional regime. By ensuring access to high quality, readily digestible fibre in the diet, it will help to reduce the need for large portions of hard feed to maintain condition and also help keep excitable behaviour under control whilst ensuring a sufficient amount of chewing. The best and most readily available forms of fibre are alfalfa and soaked beet pulp.
Reynolds comments: “Paying attention to the finer details of the diet can pay dividends when it comes to optimising a horse’s breeze-up ability and recovery ready for the sales ring.”
Recovery is significantly impacted by hydration status and providing free access to clean fresh water is absolutely essential – feeding electrolytes without this can cause further dehydration. Approximately 65-75% of an adult horse’s body mass is water, and a loss of just 2% can affect performance. Dehydration primarily affects the digestive tract (colic) and respiratory tract (airway inflammation). Another point to consider is loss of appetite. A horse in a new environment and/or regime as well as high intensity work is more likely to lose their appetite, which is obviously detrimental to their training and development. Supplementing the full range of B group vitamins (correctly balanced) can help stimulate appetite.
Regardless of how careful we are during breeze-up sale preparation, there are still associated risks that can be minimised but not eradicated. One of the main issues that can end up sidelining two-year-olds during prep is sore shins. Studies have shown that the figure could be as high as 70-80% affected, occurring as a result of fast work. Sore shins are caused by microfractures of the fore cannon bones (dorsal metacarpus) and often resolve following a period of reduced fast or rest.
A study, carried out by Kentucky
Equine Research (KER), looked into the relationship between sore shins, specific blood readings and cannon bone measurements. The 56-day study consisted of 30 thoroughbreds in moderate to intense work during their preparation for breeze-up sales. Monthly bone measurements were obtained via radiographs of the dorsal and lateral metacarpal, alongside the measurement of bone mineral content. Bloods were also taken and analysed for indication of bone health and formation.
The study showed that five of the 30 two-year-olds were diagnosed with sore shins after breezing, characterised by heat, swelling and soreness in the canon region. The affected horses appeared to show a reduction in bone production in the dorsal metacarpal region in comparison to the unaffected two-year-olds. However, a reason for this reduced bone production could not be pinpointed from indicators within the blood and all horses were managed similarly, therefore further investigation is needed.
In conclusion, during breeze-up sales preparation, nutritional requirements will change drastically. The combination of careful management through all avenues is crucial to a two-year-old’s welfare, future racing potential and sales success.
We should provide turnout where possible, allowing sufficient time between living out to being predominantly stabled. Implement exercise changes gradually, carefully analyse the horse’s movement, and reduce their fitness regime if any issues arise. Feed high quality forage in as higher quantity as possible at all times, alongside a formulated concentrate feed and targeted supplementation specific for young thoroughbreds in hard work. Always use a reputable feed company, most of which will have fully qualified nutritionists on hand to provide help and guidance.
Arena Racing Company has appointed a five-strong team responsible for owners’ and trainers’ liaison at its 16 courses.
The team is made up of Edward Black, who has worked at a number of courses in raceday owner and trainer roles, Louise Daly, the sister-in-law of Henry Daly, Jane Broad, the wife of former jockeys’ agent Chris Broad, Chris Patten and Katie Mansell.
The team are answerable to Rebecca Davies, Head of Racing Industry Partners, who said: “My role changed at the beginning of the year and my focus is on the consistent experience of owners, trainers, jockeys and stable staff across ARC courses.
“The owner liaison team have a responsibility for different courses and they’re the go-to people to support owners and trainers in particular, helping with any arrangements for raceday –badge allocations, travel arrangements and whatever else – so that we’re giving a more tailored service.
“Owners are massively important. They’re a key group, we all know the pressure the sport is under, and we want
are massively important”
to ensure they have a good experience.
“The five come from a range of different backgrounds but they’ve all been immersed in racing and know what’s required to ensure the owners’ experience is hassle-free and they
have a good time.
“Even if they’re not on course, we’ll contact owners to make sure they’ve had as good a time as possible so we hope they’ll look at coming back to one of our courses in the future.”
We have once again partnered with Racing Welfare for the return of the Aintree Lunch which takes place on the opening day of the Randox Grand National Festival on Thursday, April 11. It is a fabulous afternoon of racing which features four Grade 1 races as well as the Randox Health Foxhunters, run over the Grand National fences.
The lunch will take place in the Hospitality Pavilion with places available for £200 per person or £2,000 for a table of ten, which includes your admission to the course, champagne reception and canapes, two-course lunch with wine, racecard, light afternoon tea and car passes.
The afternoon will also feature a charity auction to raise funds for Racing Welfare. This is the ideal venue to use as your base for the day. To book visit roa.co.uk/rwaintree
www.roa.co.uk •
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The Dublin Racing Festival was a triumph for Willie Mullins with an unprecedented clean sweep of the eight Grade 1s. His domination of the sport is almost absolute. But there’s a growing feeling that the lack of competition from other stables in the top-class races is affecting the sport and if it continues, it could have a negative impact on attendances.
Racing is about competition and the best running against the best in the most prestigious races. In the eight Grade 1s at the DRF, Willie had 27 runners against 19 from all the other trainers combined. On the Sunday, the domination was even greater with three of the Grade 1s containing a total of two opponents against nine from Willie’s yard. This was the third year in succession that I’ve attended the DRF and it continues to grow in popularity, with attendances up 4% on the previous year. But it definitely felt a little subdued on the Sunday, compared to previous years.
The lack of British runners at the DRF is often cited as a lack of ambition from across the Irish Sea, but if the other Irish trainers are afraid of taking on the might of the Mullins stars, then it’s even more concerning for the sport.
So how did my punting go? The shorties were too skinny for me to back them individually and there was always one that let me down in my multiples. In contrast to the small-field Grade 1s, the handicaps were fiendishly difficult, making it a real challenge to make any money. I bumped into Paul Kealy from the Racing Post in our hotel on the Monday morning. He too said it was extremely hard to find winners at backable prices, although he expressed that in much more colourful language.
However, despite my slight disappointment on the track, Dublin is a great city for a weekend break and the Leopardstown staff give punters a fantastic welcome. We’ll be back to do it all again next year, but I’m hoping to see more competitive action than we had this year.
The DRF’s loss could be Cheltenham’s gain. If the other Irish
trainers have been minding their stars until the second week in March and the best of the Brits perform as expected, Willie may not have it all his own way. But I wouldn’t bet against the Closutton cavalry dominating again.
I’m writing this in the first week in February and we already have five odds-on favourites for the Festival. By the time they race, it could be even more. Of those that impressed at the DRF, I think Ballyburn and Fact To File will win whatever their Cheltenham target is and they could both easily end up odds on. The positive to take from Fact To File’s stroll around Leopardstown against Gaelic Warrior is that he can’t have taken too much out of himself and I’m hoping he follows the Florida Pearl route of landing the three-mile novice chase at the Festival, having gone chasing the year after his bumper season.
One of the current odds-on favourites is Lossiemouth for the Mares’ Hurdle. There has been much debate since her win at Cheltenham on Trials Day about the decision to favour the Mares’ Hurdle over the Champion Hurdle. The majority seem to think that’s the wrong choice, but I don’t. If I was the owner, I would only consider running if Paul Townend chose Lossiemouth over State Man. If
he didn’t and I’m guessing he wouldn’t after State Man notched his eighth Grade 1 in the Irish Champion Hurdle, then the chances of Lossiemouth beating Constitution Hill are remote, at this stage. Give it another year and that may change, as the current champion gets older and the mare improves as she matures.
If I could give anyone a tip on how best to enjoy the Cheltenham Festival, it would be to get there early. I always like to arrive before the gates open on the Tuesday, so I can enjoy the buzz of anticipation. You’ll get the most out of your day if you get there early, because you know as soon as the first race starts the time will fly by. You’ll see the course start to come alive as it gradually fills up. Here’s a few things I like to do before the racing starts:
• Have a pint in the Guinness Village or the Arkle bar, before it gets too busy
• Take in the view of the parade ring from the top of the course
• Amble around the tented village
• See the runners for the Supreme in the pre-parade ring
• Take your place in front of the grandstand and join in the roar as the Supreme field are sent on their way Enjoy the Festival – and good luck!
In a 2021 interview in Owner Breeder, Celia Djivanovic explained that on her budget she would “need a bit of luck to get a Saturday horse”. It’s fair to say that in the shape of Classic Chase heroine My Silver Lining, she has indeed struck lucky.
My Silver Lining’s Grade 3 Warwick success in January when partnered by the owner’s son-in-law, James Best, was followed by a fine second in the Grand National Trial at Haydock, taking her career earnings to over £145,000, and this improving eight-year-old looks set to add more to the coffers before the season is out.
Djivanovic’s history with horses began in the dressage arena, being shortlisted for one of the GB youth dressage teams at 16 – “that was the peak; it was downhill all the way after that” – while her daughter, Izzy, also took the same path, featuring in the GB under-21 squad in 2012.
The move into racehorse ownership came after Izzy made the decision not to continue with her riding career.
Djivanovic says: “I’d spent an awful lot of money on supporting my daughter
eventing. When she retired it suddenly released some funds which I decided to put towards National Hunt racing.”
Those first steps as an owner were taken with trainer Colin Tizzard. Having been asked by a friend to accompany her to the stable to watch a horse on the gallops, Djivanovic was later invited to an owners’ day and subsequently took a share in a horse named Cannington Brook. It proved a wise decision.
“We had a wonderful ride with Cannington Brook – I even pre-trained him for a year”, explains Djivanovic, a retired solicitor in the commercial property sector. “He won two Tommy Whittles but very sadly he died in a field accident.
“Tragedies on course are terrible and worse for being public, but it’s just as bad when you lose one in the field. It also happened with a horse I owned that had just run in his first Grade 1, who was full of promise for the future. He took a smack on his hock and that was that.”
Having relocated from Exmoor to the Cotswolds, Djivanovic’s ownership journey continued with Emma Lavelle, following a recommendation from renowned
horseman Yogi Breisner.
She says: “I had a horse that had a delicate leg and Yogi said with Emma’s facilities it would be a good place to go.
“I like having my horses within an hour’s drive. I want to be able to pop in regularly and when they don’t win very often – or even make it to the racecourse – a lot of the pleasure is in going to the yard and talking about plans, seeing them in the stable and on the gallops, and chatting to the people who look after them.”
My Silver Lining entered Djivanovic’s world after the owner decided she needed some help in sourcing new recruits. Step forward agent Gerry Hogan.
“The revelation was I’d always been very hands-on in choosing my own horses – and obviously wasn’t very good at it!”
Djivanovic says.
“I’d pick something that moved nicely with good conformation but perhaps wasn’t the best racehorse. I have to thank Gerry Hogan, Emma’s agent; he found me the mare. It was my second last bid that secured her. For what she cost she has far exceeded expectations and what’s so exciting is hopefully there’s more to come.”
Runner-up on her sole point-to-point start, My Silver Lining has more than recouped her £55,000 purchase price. A brief hurdling career featured an easy win at Lingfield but the trainer’s view that the daughter of Cloudings would prosper over fences has been proved correct, with wins at Wincanton (twice), Cheltenham and that Classic Chase strike at Warwick, a Saturday meeting shown on ITV Racing.
Djivanoic says: “It’s difficult to choose one magical moment above the others, but I think it would have to be the win at Cheltenham in April. Cheltenham has this iconic status. It’s the place you want to win at and if you can’t have a winner at the Festival then a winner on another day is very nearly as good.
“It was such a happy day. You’re looked after so beautifully, whether you have a winner or not. Everyone dreams of standing in that winner’s enclosure. It was hugely exciting and a very special day.
“Warwick was fantastic. After the race I had so many congratulatory messages from people who I didn’t even know followed racing.
“As for James, he had ridden winners for me before he even met my daughter. The first time he came home with Izzy, he had a bit of a shock when there were pictures of him and this horse on the corkboard in the kitchen!”
While most National Hunt owners tend to favour geldings, Djivanovic has a different policy with her runners and has decided to focus on racing mares. Interestingly, three of the first four home in the Classic Chase were female.
Djivanovic explains: “I concluded that I couldn’t keep shelling out large sums of money on National Hunt geldings that have no passing on value and if anything will cost you money to retrain at the end of their careers or sort out their retirement.
“Plenty of trainers and owners still aren’t really interested in mares, which means you can get better value, while if they suffer a career-ending injury and can’t go on to a second career, as long as they have done well on the track, they will have earned their place in the breeding barn.”
Djivanovic, who is based near Cirencester, continues: “I won’t breed from her – I was always told that fools breed horses for wise men to buy, and I’ve only ever bred one foal and it wasn’t a great success! We don’t have the right facilities
“A lot of the pleasure is in going to the yard and talking about plans”
at home and we’re not on the right ground, on top of the Cotswold brash.
“If I’m going to delegate it all to someone else, effectively you’re losing complete control and don’t have the fun of having the horse around. It’s better left to the professionals. I will sell her on at the end of her career but hopefully that’s a decision a couple of years down the line.”
Along with My Silver Lining, whose end-of-season target is the Scottish Grand National, Djivanovic is looking forward to the debut of Jesuila Des Mottes, a five-year-old mare shared with Cannington Brook’s former coowner Sara Biggins, while her work as a Board member of the Racehorse Owners Association – she is the ROA’s representative on the Board of charity Retraining of Racehorses (RoR) – keeps her occupied away from the racecourse.
“When my spell with The Horse Trust finished – I served two three-year terms – I’d become immersed in racing and was longing to put in my tuppence worth and try and do something productive,” Djivanovic says.
“I enjoy my position at RoR; the organisation recently launched its threeyear strategy, which has been adopted by the industry.
“I would love to see RoR having the funds to do more promoting the social licence for racing in highlighting the amazing careers that ex-racehorses go on to have. I am a passionate advocate for the versatility of former racehorses.”
The issue of poor prize-money, particularly over jumps, is a concern for Djivanovic – “we’d all like to see improved purses but realistically that isn’t something the ROA can demand, because it has to come from somewhere and there is a finite pot” – while asked about one change she would like to see the industry make to benefit owners, she does not hesitate in pinpointing the raceday experience.
“I think larger, improved facilities for owners are needed,” she says. “During midweek, owners turn up after the first race, watch their horse and then go home, so facilities are not under such pressure. On the big days everyone stays for the whole afternoon.
“When you have a big day, the racecourse knows how many owners are coming because nearly everyone books through PASS. They will know when the owner facilities are not big enough to accommodate everyone comfortably, with boxes booked out etc, so would it be so difficult to put up a temporary heated marquee with additional seating? Chepstow does a fantastic job in that respect – other racecourses could also do this but I’m not sure the will is there.”
Racing politics aside, it is My Silver Lining who is occupying her owner’s thoughts with the big spring festivals rapidly approaching, although the Grand National is off the agenda for her prized mare.
“I hope she continues to enjoy her racing – sometimes with these extreme distance horses they decide they’ve had enough,” Djivanovic says.
“At the moment she wants to run, the Scottish Grand National is her target, and she will race on next season. That’s the wonderful thing with a mare of her quality – the end game is sorted, and her second career is mapped out.”
Racing Welfare has launched a trio of challenge events for 2024, giving you the opportunity to cycle laps round the home of horseracing, row along the Thames or hike along the stunning Dorset coastline.
Kicking things off in July is the return of the Great Racing Welfare Cycle. Teams of between four and eight members will take on an epic 24 hours of cycling around Newmarket and surrounding areas from a base at the Rowley Mile racecourse, with at least two members cycling at any one time. The ultimate stamina test – could you go the distance? Previous participants have included Sir AP McCoy, trainer Ben Pauling and TV presenters Rosie Tapner and Vanessa Ryle.
Last year’s inaugural Great Racing Welfare Boat Race saw teams of 11 from all across the racing industry battling it out in dragon boats on the Thames. Highlights included one team of jockeys capsizing as they celebrated the win, while Dan Skelton won the best turned out dressed as Willy Wonka with his crew of Oompa Loompas! Expect more of the same and get involved this September at Windsor racecourse.
Completing the trio and new for 2024 is The Racing Welfare Jurassic Coast Challenge, where you can chase the September sun all along the Dorset
coastline. Starting at Durdle Door and finishing in Swanage, participants will trek 20 miles and cover an ascent of 1,443 metres while taking in the stunning scenery.
Chief Operating Officer Gemma Waterhouse said: “There’s something for everyone, whether you want to pull on your walking boots, jump on a bike or take to the water – or why not go one better by tackling all three challenges and complete a triathlon with a difference?
“Our challenge events always provide great fun, camaraderie and a healthy dose of competitive spirit! Importantly they bring together people from all corners of the racing industry and play a key role in raising vital funds for the charity. Choose your challenge and sign up today and you’ll be helping us continue to be there for all of racing’s people when they need us.”
To sign up for any of these events or to find out more, go to racingwelfare.co.uk
We know that four in ten adults currently feel unable to meet the costs of their home energy bills. Thanks to generous funding from the John Pearce Foundation, Racing Welfare is once again able to offer a £300 home energy grant to eligible individuals to help alleviate the financial burden of rising fuel costs.
As the cost of living continues to rise, there are few who have not been impacted by the financial pressures brought on by increasing fuel bills and the challenging economic climate we
Racing Welfare and the ROA are teaming up once more with their online auction Bid to Give, bringing ROA members exclusive access to a range of luxury packages and experiences.
Bored of lapels and diamonds? This month you can bid for the opportunity to design your own set of bespoke racing colours and make your horse stand out from the crowd! Kindly donated by the BHA, the package usually costs £5,000 and includes a year’s registration fee – plus a £100 contribution from Allerton’s towards the creation of the silks.
To place your bid, go to www.bidtogive.co.uk before March 25.
live in today – particularly when faced with unexpected costs.
That was the case for Jenny, a mother of three young boys, who operates a small, family-run training yard with 18 horses alongside her husband. When a fault with their hot water tank had left their home without heating or hot water, they had no choice but to get it fixed, leaving them with a hefty bill. It was this that led them to apply for Racing Welfare’s home energy grant.
Jenny recalls: “At the time we got it we’d just had to pay out on a new hot water system. With energy prices continually going up too, it was just brilliant that the grant did come up at that time.”
That bit of extra help can make a real difference on a day-to-day basis.
We are delighted that the Tote are partnering with us again in 2024 to enable the Owner Sponsorship Scheme to continue for another year. In 2023 the Tote logos were carried by over 1,500 horses for 7,132 runs across the country. With a win or placed rate of 40%, perhaps it’s good luck to be on the scheme!
It is not just about the volume, though; winning highlights include superb successes for Live In The Dream in the Group 1 Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes, Lake Forest in the Group 2 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Gimcrack Stakes at Goodwood, and Walk In Clover in the Grade 2 British EBF Mares’ Novices’ Limited Handicap Chase Final at Cheltenham.
Jenny said: “It’s quite nice to just be able to have the heating on, rather than thinking we’ll not put the heating on, or we’d better turn it down and put an extra jumper on instead.
“I would definitely recommend applying for the grant and I’ll be applying again; last time we’d just had to pay out to get the hot water tank sorted and now the boiler has broken! I have told our staff members about the grant too.”
Jenny first came across Racing Welfare when she bumped into regional welfare manager Lucy at the races, following which Lucy paid a visit to their yard. It was then that Jenny became aware of the breadth of support available, including the targeted grants.
She said: “Lucy was visiting, I was
Last year also saw the introduction of the World Pool logo, which is swapped on course at Tote World Pool days and was displayed 89 times in 2023, including the logo’s very first win, which was at Royal Ascot when Rhythm N Hooves captured the Palace of Holyroodhouse Stakes.
Renewals for the March 2024 scheme have now been sent out. If you have yet to respond and require sponsorship to continue from March 1, please act now to ensure uninterrupted sponsorship.
going on about how the boys are all growing so fast that they need a new uniform every year and the school says it has to be branded. It all mounts up when you’ve got three boys and they grow like weeds. That was when Lucy mentioned the return to school grant.
“I’ve accessed the grants both through the online portal and via Lucy. Both were really easy, and the portal saves your details when you make an application, so you don’t need to enter them again next time.
“There’s so much that the guys at Racing Welfare do, even helping with funding for one of our girls to do a trailer test. I think one of the girls here has used the support line too – it’s brilliant, it’s like having a safety net that you can call anytime.”
EXPLANATION
The tables set out the average prize-money at each fixture staged by a racecourse in 2023 and breaks it down to the three sources of prizemoney: racecourse contribution, Levy Board (HBLB) funding, and owners (via entry fees). The table also confirms the number of fixtures staged and the total amount of prize-money paid out by each racecourse
Abandoned fixtures are not included in the table, but the abandonment of a valuable fixture could well have a negative impact on a racecourse’s performance.
The racecourses are ranked by the average amount of their own contribution to prize-money, which comes from various sources, including media rights, admission and catering revenues, and race sponsors.
OWNERSHIP KEY
JCR Jockey Club Racecourses
ARC Arena Racing Company
I Independently owned racecourse Gold Standard Award
* includes £1.2m in BHA Development Fund spend
** includes British Champions Day
Bay. 2016, 16.0hh, No Nay Never ex Theann (Rock Of Gibraltar)
Glorious Goodwood winner in his first crop
SERRIED RANKS – Rated 97 TFR
Fee: £2,500
HEDGEHOLME STUD will be the new home of LAND FORCE for the 2024 breeding season, where he will stand for £2,500
l On the track, the son of No Nay Never was a precocious two-year-old and, after shedding his maiden tag over 6f at the Curragh, comfortably landed the Listed Tipperary Stakes by two lengths.
l Out of the Gr.3-winning Rock Of Gibraltar mare Theann, he is a half-brother to the dual US Gr.1 heroine Photo Call (Galileo).
l Land Force had good statistics with his first two-yearolds last season and sired 21 individual winners from 66 runners, at a winners to runners percentage of 32 per cent.
130 mares covered in 2023
21 First Crop with plenty more to come as 3YOs.
Consistent six-figure sales €250,000, 180,000gns, 135,000gns, 120,000gns etc.
HEDGEHOLME STUD, Winston, Darlington, Co. Durham, DL2 3RS
Enquiries: ANDREW SPALDING • T: +44 (0)1325 730209 • M: +44 (0)7990 518751 • E: hedgeholme@gmail.com •
This relatively new grant will replace the Basic Payment Scheme, with applications opening in March 2024.
Various options can be considered which will be relevant for Stud Farms, and we estimate that the minimum rate that will be available on grassland will be £215 per acre, subject to the requirements of the scheme being met. We are making applications under this scheme for a number of Thoroughbred Studs on a national basis, and to receive further details please contact John Johnstone at Keylocks.
For full details please contact John Johnstone MRICS
Tel: 01638 667118 or Mob: 07802 501548 www.keylocks.com
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The ROA Racecourse Accreditation Scheme was launched in 2019 as an independent review of owners’ raceday experiences, using a defined set of criteria and assessed by AA Hospitality Services, which also provided constructive feedback.
The scheme has continued to evolve as part of the process and in 2022 an owners’ feedback section was introduced, allowing owners to share their thoughts on their raceday experiences. Racecourses achieving an AA mark of 80 or above and an owners’ feedback score of 4 or above are awarded the Gold Standard to signify exemplary performance.
Since its introduction in 2019 we have seen significant and positive steps being taken by the racecourses to ensure that the owner experience is treated with paramount importance. We are delighted to see that the average AA scores have therefore increased to 82%, and in 2023 a total of 31 racecourses have achieved the ROA Gold Standard.
Our goal, in collaboration with racecourses, is to improve and enhance the raceday experience for owners. The ROA and racecourses recognise that going racing with a runner is the pinnacle of ownership, and we want to ensure that it is a memorable experience which exceeds expectations.
In this annual article, TBA members’ legal adviser
Rachel Flynn of Keystone Law looks at some significant changes to employment law in 2024
The fact is that staff recruitment and retention remain a problem for almost all employers and more than ever, this is requiring creativity about their employment offer. Potential employees have many more options in how, when and where they work.
So, what’s ahead and what do the changes mean for employers?
• Significant changes to the rules on holiday entitlement and pay came into force on January 1, 2024 including loosening the requirement to record working hours and clarification of what should be included in ‘normal remuneration’ for the purposes of calculating holiday pay. Note that there are no changes for staff with regular hours, but new rules for calculating holiday pay will apply for ‘part-year’ and ‘irregular year workers’ for holiday years from April 1, 2024; this will include permitting rolled up holiday pay for those workers (previously banned).
• Holiday carry over: the government is legislating to give effect to case law which permits workers to carry over annual leave entitlement if they can’t take it due to family leave or sick leave. There will also be a right to carry over annual leave if an employer fails to encourage workers to take annual leave or doesn’t give them a reasonable opportunity to take it. Employers will have a positive duty to ensure workers are given the chance to take holiday.
• Expect staff to ask to work more flexibly than they have in the past. In July 2024 it’s expected that employees will have a day one right to make a flexible working request. Previously, they could only make one flexible working request a year – and they had to have worked for you for 26 weeks before they could do this. Under these new rules, employees will be able to make two requests
in a year. You’ll have a legal duty to consult with your staff about their requests and make a decision about any request within two months of receiving it. The reasons for refusing a flexible working request will stay the same.
• Statutory carer’s leave is expected to be introduced in April 2024 for employees who care for a dependent with a long-term care need. This will be a day one right and leave will be able to be taken in half or full days, up to and including taking a block of a whole week of leave at once. There will be requirements about notice etc.
• A right to statutory neonatal care leave is expected in October 2024. Employees who have babies in neonatal care will be able to have more time off work, on top of maternity and paternity leave. This will be another day one right for a maximum of 12 weeks of neonatal leave to be paid at the same rate as maternity pay.
• Enhanced protection from redundancy for women and new parents: currently, employees on maternity leave have more rights and protection against redundancy than other staff. Later in 2024, pregnant employees will have those rights too. If you have to consider making redundancies, you need to take steps to also help keep your pregnant staff in work before anyone else. Failing to follow this could lead to possible sex discrimination claims, unfair dismissal claims and uncapped compensation. This is from the moment they tell work about their pregnancy up until 18 months after the birth of their child. The same protection will also apply to those returning from maternity, adoption or shared parental leave.
• Changes to paternity leave from
March 8, 2024. Draft regulations make changes such as to enable employees to take their two-week paternity leave entitlement as two separate one-week blocks (rather than having to take just one week in total or two consecutive weeks). Employees will be able to take paternity leave at any time in the 52 weeks after birth (rather than having to take leave in the 56 days following birth). Employees will only need to give 28 days’ notice of their intention to take paternity leave (reduced from the previous position).
• There is expected to be a new duty for all employers to take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment of their employees in the course of their employment. If an employer breaches the duty, it could potentially face enforcement action, and/or an uplift of up to 25% in any compensation awarded if a tribunal finds that an employee has been subjected to sexual harassment and the employer failed to take reasonable steps to prevent that harassment.
• Proposals for reforming the UK data protection regime are set out in a bill which is currently making its way through Parliament. The reforms are intended to make compliance with the data protection rules less burdensome but will not be a radical departure from the current EU data protection regime.
• Increases to the national living wage and national minimum wage rates come into effect on April 6 and affect all employers. The national living wage (21 and over) will increase on April 1 to £11.44 (9.8% increase), the third significant
increase in as many years. The government has had a target to increase the national living wage to two thirds of median earnings by April 2024. With the increase to £11.44 per hour, the government has hit that target.
• Statutory family leave payments – the rate of statutory maternity pay, paternity pay, adoption pay, shared parental leave and parental bereavement pay will increase from £172.48 to £184.03 per week. Statutory sick pay (SSP) will increase from £109.40 to £116.75. Expect a new inquiry into the effectiveness of SSP and how it might be reformed to better support the recovery and return to work of those who are paid it.
Studs often provide valuable accommodation to their staff. They are able to deduct only the prescribed ‘accommodation offset’ rate for on-site accommodation to ensure that that their staff’s hourly rate is not pushed below the relevant statutory minimum wage. The accommodation offset rate for 2024 has been the subject of a 9.8% increase to £9.99. It is easy for employers to check that they are paying the correct hourly wage on the government minimum wage calculator – see gov.uk/national-minimum-wageaccommodation.
If a Labour government is elected in 2024, employment lawyers can expect a whole new raft of measures, including further increases to the national living wage and enhanced employment rights for all. Watch this space for more change in 2025!
Following the success of last year’s inaugural TBA Bloodstock Conference, this year’s event will take place on Tuesday, June 25 at Tattersalls and will once again be hosted by leading broadcaster Lydia Hislop. TBA full members and ACCESS subscribers have a priority booking window to register, until Friday, March 8 for this popular event which is FREE to attend. Further information on the guest speakers, panelists, the programme for the day and how to book can be found by visiting thetba.co.uk.
Staged during the Goffs Doncaster January Sale, this year’s NH Stallion Showcase witnessed 12 stallions put on a show for breeders in Yard B. The always popular event drew breeders from around the country and the TBA would like to extend its thanks to Goffs along with the studs and stallion owners who helped make the day such a success.
Breeders were well catered for with the TBA marquee providing hot food and drinks to keep away any chills.
Grace Skelton’s Alne Park Stud brought along all four stallions, including newcomer Subjectivist. The Gold Cup-winning son of Teofilo was seen plenty. The first foals are hitting the ground by Midnights Legacy, whilst it’s the first Britishbred crop by Ocovango which are being born this spring. Completing the line-up was Dink, whose oldest British crop are three.
The Ross family’s Willow Wood Stud acquired Capri for this year and the dual Classic-winning grey was one of the most popular stallions on the day.
Another grey and fellow Classic scorer Kingston Hill was brought to the event by the Dawson family of Nunstainton Stud, along with Dragon Dancer, who had gained a new black-type performer in the shape of Dirty Den at Cheltenham only a couple weeks previously.
Dubawi’s son Postponed made the move from Dalham Hall to Yorton before Christmas and the three-time Group 1 winner was seen plenty of times. He was joined by Ito, the Group 1-winning son of Adlerflug.
Completing the line-up was Shade Oak Stud’s residents. Having covered in excess of 300 mares during his first two years, Logician was showcased alongside Telescope, whose son Slade Steel was a Grade 2 winner in December, and Dartmouth, sire of Naval College, a dual stakes winner in Australia during January.
Postponed: now at Yorton
The first Thursday in February once again played host to the annual TBA Flat Stallion Parade at Tattersalls. As in previous years, the parade was excellently compared by Gina Bryce and Shirely Anderson-Jolag.
In a change to previous years, stallions on parade all stand for advertised fees of £15,000 or less to give breeders a wider range of sires to view. Additionally, Tattersalls supported the parade with the launch of a new incentive offering a free entry prize draw for nominations purchased at the parade for one of five complimentary foal entries at the 2025 December Foal Sale.
The weather gods shone down on Park Paddocks for the ten stallions who paraded. Three first-season sires entered first – El Caballo (Culworth Grounds), Mutasaabeq (National Stud) and Midnight Sands (Norton Grove). With the hospitality box in Left Yard in full swing, members of the public and breeders were able to enjoy refreshments whilst discussing potential mating plans for 2024.
Soldier’s Call (Dullingham Park), newly relocated to Britain, made his TBA Flat Stallion Parade debut. A’Ali (Newsells Park), Caturra (Overbury) and Lope Y Fernandez (National Stud) returned, as
With the weather improving and lighter nights on the horizon, the association has started to plan the TBA regional days for 2024. These hugely popular and fun events are a major benefit to many members, allowing them to not only see behind the scenes at some fascinating venues, but also to catch up with old friends and make new ones too.
Planning these events is ongoing and members are advised to keep an eye out on the regular e-bulletins. The association is delighted to announce
that Lucinda Russell is going to start the ball rolling by opening the doors to her famous Arlary House Stables on April 24, which will be followed by lunch and racing at Perth.
Lucinda, along with her partner Peter Scudamore MBE, have curated the most successful racing stable in the history of Scottish jump racing and this is a notto-be-missed opportunity to see behind the scenes at this historic yard.
Following the tour, attendees will make their way to Perth racecourse for
did Stradivarius (National Stud) who showed himself off in his usual way.
Julian Dollar of Newsells Park outlined the great benefit of the TBA Flat Stallion Parade, saying: “We’ve got 300 people seeing him today and we wouldn’t get that in a year at Newsells.”
The parade was greatly aided with the return of stallions from Cheveley Park Stud in the form of Ulysses and Twilight Son. Neither sire had spent much time away from their base in recent years but both took to Tattersalls well, enjoying their day out.
The TBA looks forward to developing and growing the stallion parade in 2025.
the start of its three-day Perth Festival. The day features Perth’s highest value raceday of the year and features not only the Listed Fair Maid of Perth Mares’ Chase but the Listed EBF Gold Castle NH Novices’ Hurdle.
Other operations that will be hosting regional days in 2024 include Newsells Park in Royston, Andrew Balding’s Park House and the Skeltons’ Alne Park and racing stables, with more to be announced.
We look forward to seeing you at one of our exciting events in the coming year and places can be secured through the events page of the TBA website.
The TBA’s NH Breeders’ Awards Evening will celebrate its tenth year in May and tickets have gone on sale. Taking place on Monday, May 20 at the Hilton Garden Inn, Doncaster, the celebratory affair will be hosted by Nick Luck and takes place on the evening of the first day of the Goffs Doncaster Spring Store Sale.
Kindly sponsored by Goffs, the evening will comprise a drinks reception, dinner and the presentation of awards. Tickets are priced at £65 up until the end of March and £70 from April 1. They can be purchased from the events page of the TBA website, where there is further information.
Rowland Crellin is probably best known as the breeder of the mighty Cue Card and he tasted Cheltenham Festival success on two occasions. The Wales-based breeder will enter the four-day spectacular this time around with another candidate in the shape of the Willie Mullinstrained Embassy Gardens, winner of the Grade 3 Naas Novice Chase towards the end of January. There is a fair chance that the eight-yearold will have a favourable chance in whichever contest his master trainer elects to run him in.
The day earlier at Cheltenham on Trials Day, the Richard and Lizzie Kelvin-Hughes-bred Gidleigh Park maintained his unbeaten record with victory in the Grade 2 Classic Novices’ Hurdle, following on from wins over hurdles at Exeter and Newbury.
Having won a Listed handicap hurdle at Navan before Christmas, Harvard Guy, a son of Telescope bred by Shamrock Bloodstock Ltd, defied a 12lb rise to take the Listed Navan Handicap Hurdle. All three wins this term have come at the Meath track over two and a half miles.
The Meydan schedule has been adjusted this year and the Group 1 Jebel Hatta moved forward in the calendar from Super Saturday to Fashion Friday. A progressive sort who rose through the ranks last season, Measured Time, a Godolphin
homebred son of Frankel, gained top honours, quickening clear in smart fashion.
The same day and fellow Godolphin homebred Siskany (Dubawi) took the Al Khail Trophy.
The previous week at Meydan in the Group 2 Cape Verdi, Godolphin’s Silver Lady, a daughter of Sea The Stars and Cheveley Park Stakes heroine Lumiere, gained her maiden stakes win.
Down in Australia and Naval College is flying high. A son of Shade Oak Stud resident Dartmouth and bred by the late Queen Elizabeth II, the gelding captured a pair of Listed contests – the January Cup at Rosehill on January 13 and the Australia Day Cup at Warwick Farm on January 26.
Results up to and including January 31. Produced in association with GBRI.
The TBA is delighted to announce that Juddmonte’s Chief Operating Officer Mike Saunders (pictured) has been co-opted to the Board.
Saunders said: “I am delighted to be able to become a Trustee of the TBA in order to support the breeders so crucial to the sport and am looking forward to using my varied experience to help address the many challenges breeders are currently facing and to contribute to wider industry initiatives.”
Having had racing in his life from an early age, as his father was an avid racegoer who took his sons with him at every opportunity, Mike joined Juddmonte in 2016. Prior to this, as a chartered accountant he held several senior finance positions within the aviation and drinks industries. He remains involved in the spirits business as a NonExecutive Director and Chair of the Audit Committee for the 1887 Company, which owns such iconic whisky brands as The Macallan and Famous Grouse.
Size is not everything, but an abundance of it has helped to shape the future for Gidleigh Park, whose most recent win in an unbeaten run of four has earned Richard Kelvin Hughes and his wife Lizzie the nomination as TBA Breeder of the Month for January.
When they claimed a similar honour in April 2021 for My Drogo’s coincidentally unblemished record in his first four starts, Richard explained that their Trull House Stud at Tetbury in Gloucestershire was not noted as a seller.
However, there is usually an exception to most rules, and Gidleigh Park is one of them. Given time to mature, as is the Kelvin Hughes’ way with their jumpers, he went up to the Goffs UK August Sale in 2022, aged four, and failed to sell at £58,000. However, a buyer was soon found and Gidleigh Park represents the Eyre family on the racecourse.
“We all have to sell some,” Richard explains, “and he was sold primarily due to his size. We thought he would be a longer-term prospect.”
Whereas the majority of the Kelvin Hughes’ jumpers have begun their racing careers in point-to-points, including their flag bearer Santini, Gidleigh Park’s switch of direction included his starting off in a Chepstow bumper in March last year, which he won by six lengths.
Reappearing at Exeter in November, Gidleigh Park streaked home by seven and a half lengths, after which trainer Harry Fry stressed the size theme, saying: “He’s still a very raw horse. He’s a big, tall, rangy individual and he’ll have learnt a bit more. He’s very exciting.”
A month later he won a Newbury novices’ by nine lengths – “Another step up the ladder,” Fry told on-track reporters – and then in January came a further advance in form with a gritty halflength success in the Grade 2 SSS Super Alloys Novices’ Hurdle on Cheltenham Trials Day, which prompted Fry again to refer to his gaining experience, telling his website: “It was the first time he has had to battle and he will have learned plenty.”
As can happen only too often with smallish breeders, the Kelvin Hughes’ connection with Gidleigh Park’s family is dwindling, as it is with Little Lodge Farm in Worcestershire, which has housed their active fillies and mares, since the death of Robert Chugg in February two years ago.
Gidleigh Park’s dam Lindeman, who originally cost £140,000 as a four-yearold before book-ending her five runs for Nicky Henderson with wins, bred eight foals, of whom only Anguilla was a filly. She was sold for £50,000 in a Kelvin
Hughes part-dispersal and won on her point-to-point debut before being sold into the Oliver Greenall/Josh Guerriero stable for £45,000.
Lindeman’s last two foals before her death last year were a five-year-old Yeats colt – “Now a gelding in pre-training with Tom George, who’s a more traditional size and will go to the sales,” according to Richard, and a four-year-old by Jack Hobbs, bought by Dan Skelton’s spotter Ryan Mahon for £50,000 at Goffs UK last May, when Gidleigh Park’s catalogue entry was “winner of his only start.”
Yet the Kelvin Hughes operation is happy to bask in the reflected glory of their latest top-class produce. “We are thrilled with Gidleigh Park’s success,” Richard says. “In a delightful way he has proved us wrong, so we all get great pleasure from him. We hope the Eyre family can fly the flag at Cheltenham, but irrespective of what happens there, he is very exciting for the future.”
Let’s hear it for our 1,000th winner!
This month’s ‘queen of the scheme’
(KODIAC x PELERIN)
GBB’s frst ever winner
GBB Bonuses: £10,000
Bred by Newsells Park Stud
Owned by Newsells Park Stud
Trained by Mark Johnston
(GOLDEN HORN x PELERIN)
1 GBB win
GBB bonuses: £20,000
Bred by Newsells Park Stud
Owned by Syndicates Racing
Trained by Amy Murphy
(NATHANIEL x PELERIN)
GBB’s 1,000th winner
GBB bonuses: £20,000
Bred by Newsells Park Stud
Owned by Mr A J Byrne
Trained by Simon and Ed Crisford
Could you have the next queen of the scheme?
Robert ‘Choc’ Thornton’s last ride in public was very nearly ten years ago, but the approach of the Cheltenham Festival inevitably stirs memories of the days when he regularly featured among the meeting’s top jockeys. Thornton is still in the all-time top 12 with an impressive 16 wins, and he was crowned top rider in 2007 after Grade 1 strikes for Alan King on his great favourites Katchit, Voy Por Ustedes and My Way De Solzen were topped up by a less expected handicap success on Andreas for Paul Nicholls. He had no plan for life after racing, but circumstances drew him to the fledgling Apple Tree Stud, near Stow-on-the-Wold, which was a building site when he first became involved but where he was soon appointed Racing and Stud Manager. It is now a thriving concern, and he is also behind a revolutionary new racing shoe.
Interview: Graham Dench
Iwas lucky to ride quite a few winners at the Cheltenham Festival, and 2007 was a wonderful year for me. I went there thinking Katchit, My Way De Solzen and Voy Por Ustedes might all win, and they did. I also won the Grand Annual on Andreas, and with four winners I was the meeting’s top rider. It wouldn’t be enough now, would it? In my day nobody had the sort of monopoly of the good horses that Willie Mullins has, and if I was riding now I certainly wouldn’t be going with the four or five fancied rides that I used to have. You have to take your hat off to Willie, but I’d love to see the pendulum swing back so that more trainers and jockeys have realistic chances.
My most satisfying Festival win was probably My Way De Solzen in the Arkle. It seemed a ridiculous idea to many, as he’d won the Stayers’ Hurdle the year before, and I remember Michael Dickinson publicly criticising Alan for dropping him back, which was upsetting. I can’t take any credit for choosing the Arkle, but it worked out brilliantly, and as far as I was concerned when My Way crossed the line, he was going to win the following year’s Gold Cup. It didn’t turn out like that as he had one or two issues, but that’s how good he felt. Voy Por was obviously in my top three too, but he needed a bit of managing whereas My Way was pushbutton. Katchit wasn’t quite push-button, but he’d give you whatever you asked for.
I’m one of the lucky ones as it took me no time at all to adjust to not riding any more. I remember lying in the grass with a broken neck at Chepstow – it was April 28, 2014 at ten past eight – thinking ‘I’m never doing that again’. Actually, I did try to come back, because I was from the old school inasmuch as I didn’t think there was anything else I could do, and if you were seen to be looking at something else trainers thought you were taking your eye off the ball. But I remember driving down to London more than a year later to be passed to ride again, and it was honestly a
relief when they wouldn’t sign me off. I wanted to retire there and then, so it didn’t bother me.
I got involved with the Apple Tree Stud by default really, as I’d never thought about stud work and didn’t know much about Flat racing. Two or three years before Apple Tree came about I’d won the Haldon Gold Cup on Medermit for owner Paul Dunkley. Sensing that all wasn’t well in my personal life, Paul offered me a barn to live in, then later while I was recovering from the Chepstow fall he asked me to help on a consultancy basis. I enjoyed being involved in setting things up and then Paul then asked if I’d run the stud for him, which with help from JETS and others is what I did. I had to learn fast on the job, but with horses you are never not learning.
I’d always been very focused on the jumps, and that was the direction we were going in at first, but it’s a long old process. The Flat requires a greater investment, but things happen so much quicker and it’s so much more lucrative. Luckily Paul had the resources to buy some very nice mares. Only Astonishing has worked out of the more expensive ones, breeding three black-type winners, but we were probably guilty in the beginning of over-covering them, sending them to Frankel for example when they didn’t necessarily merit it. We are operating at a high level though and this year we’ve got mares going to stallions like Baaeed, Pinatubo and Sea The Stars, the last of them a foal share, which is perfect for us.
Paul has put a lot of money into the Apple Tree Stud and facilities are second to none, but it’s a commercial operation and has to wash its face. Paul has had some bad
luck but he takes it on the chin and we keep moving forward. I thought we’d be winning a Guineas or a Derby by now, which shows how naive I was, but these things take 20-plus years, especially with a farm started from scratch. We had a very good year at the sales two years ago, and last year we had an Oasis Dream which sold well, but two of the others didn’t make what I thought they should.
In the beginning the idea was to keep the fillies and sell the colts, but we’ve got too many now. You can’t be seen to just sell the ones you don’t want, so we sell some of our best stock too. If they don’t fetch what they should we put them in training and hopefully sell them when they win a maiden.
I’m in the stud business with Apple Tree very much for the long term, as is Paul, but with our farrier Aron Tyler I’m also co-founder of Equishox, the vulcanised rubber-coated shoes. They reduce concussion and jar, and the vibration going up the limb, which reduces the risk of stress fractures and so on. They are much kinder on the joints as they cushion the hooves and provide a remarkable level of shock absorption. They are designed mainly for welfare purposes, but we are getting great results and at the time of this interview I think it’s 12 winners from 28 runners. Alan likes them and has had three winners with them, while Martin Keighley trained the first winner in them. We are
It’s rare for a stallion to sire two juveniles in Europe’s official top 10. War Front and Wootton Bassett have done it, as have Justify and Scat Daddy. Some have even had three on the list – Dubawi and Shamardal among the select few. But only one stallion this century has had a colt and a filly in the top 10 from his first crop. Yes, that’s right: think darn hot two-year-olds.