ITB_November 2023

NOVEMBER 2023

£4.95 • ISSUE 117

He ACED it

Ace Impact imperious in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe Van the man: breeder Kelly Thomas has enjoyed a summer like no other courtesy of star juvenile Vandeek Moor the merrier: Joe and Edel Banahan of Moortown House Stud got a right touch at the Goffs Orby Sale Now and then: Jocelyn de Moubray assesses bloodstock trade from 25 years ago with today’s marketplace Recalibration: Alan Cooper chats to Daragh Ó Conchuir about the Niarchos family’s restructuring plans

Bated Breath Dansili - Tantina (Distant View)

Proven support Bated Breath’s yearlings of 2023 were his best-bred crop to date. Breeders that supported him in the 2021 covering season include: Al Shaqab Racing

H H The Aga Khan

Newsells Park Stud

Al Shira’aa Farms

Haras d’Etreham

Niarchos Family

Ballylinch Stud

Haras d’Haspel

Oceanic Bloodstock

Bearstone Stud

John & Tanya Gunther Owenstown Stud

Carisbrooke Stud

Juddmonte

Rockcliffe Stud

Chasemore Farm

Kildaragh Stud

Skymarc Farm

Clearwater Stud

Knocktoran Stud

Stowell Hill Stud

D J and Mrs Deer

Manister House Stud

Stratford Place Stud

Ecurie des Monceaux

Meon Valley Stud

George Strawbridge

Elite Racing Club

Merton Place Stud

Tinnakill Bloodstock

Epona Bloodstock

Mike Ryan

Wertheimer & Frere

Fittocks Stud

Minster Stud

Whatton Manor Stud

Forenaghts Stud

Mountain View Stud

Gestut Gorlsdorf

Moyglare Stud Farm

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

www.juddmonte.com

Proven profit 2023 yearlings have sold for

260,000gns, €240,000, 160,000gns, 150,000gns, 98,000gns, 90,000gns, €92,000, 80,000gns etc.

Conceived at a £12,500 fee

First foals selling soon

European Champion 2YO & World Champion 3YO by SIYOUNI

Contact: Coolmore Stud Tel: +353-52-6131298. Castlehyde Stud Tel: +353-25-31966. E-mail: sales@coolmore.ie Website: www.coolmore.com

“ The first clash of the generations produced

“

the performance of the season as St Mark's Basilica proved too hot for his elders to handle at Sandown.

Sportinglife.com, 07/11/21

RED’

THE TIMEFORM ‘TOP HUND 2 YEAR OLDS

121p

an O’Brien, Ireland ST MARK’S BASILICA (FR) Aid lileo (IRE)) Siyouni (FR) - Cabaret (IRE) (Ga

THE TIMEFORM ‘TOP HUNDRED’ 3 YEAR OLDS

132 131 130

ST MARK’S BASILICA (FR) Aidan O’Brien, Ireland Siyouni (FR) - Cabaret (IRE) (Galileo (IRE)) ADAYAR (IRE) Charlie Appleby Frankel - Anna Salai (USA) (Dubawi (IRE)) BAAEED William Haggas Sea The Stars (IRE) - Aghareed (USA) (Kingmambo (USA))

5 straight Group 1 wins in 3 countries

1st 1st 1st 1st 1st

Dewhurst Stakes-Gr.1, Newmarket, 7f French 2,000 Guineas-Gr.1, ParisLongchamp, 1m French Derby-Gr.1, Chantilly, 10½f Eclipse Stakes-Gr.1, Sandown, 10f Irish Champion Stakes-Gr.1, Leopardstown, 10f

Contact: Coolmore Stud Tel: +353-52-6131298. Castlehyde Stud Tel: +353-25-31966. E-mail: sales@coolmore.ie Website: www.coolmore.com

Gr.1 winning 2yo Classic winning miler “ Kameko was top-class and from what I’ve seen at the sales he could be even more exciting as a sire. I have already bought a few and am sure I will be booking clients mares to him!”

Richard Brown, Blandford Bloodstock

Colt ex Stacey Sutton

125,000gns

to Blandford Bloodstock

Colt x Golden Spell

160,000gns

to Blandford Bloodstock

“Kameko was clearly an exceptional racehorse breaking the race record in the 2000 Guineas. I really like the colt we bought; he had lots of quality and great presence about him. I am very excited to train him!”

Ed Bethell, Gr.1 winning trainer

...averaged over 4 times his fee “ The Kameko’s we sold were lovely forward types with a great walk, they have all been extremely well received by agents and trainers.”

Henri Bozo, Ecurie des Monceaux

Colt x Lady McKell

£95,000

to Peter and Ross Doyle/ Richard Hannon

Colt x Glories

€140,000 to Yoshito Yahagi

“ I’ve been so impressed with the Kameko’s.

Very straightforward, good-looking, solid horses.

I’ve bought a couple of very nice ones and would love to have more!”

Richard Hannon, Classic winning trainer

Contact Hannah Wall or Alice Thurtle at Tweenhills E: hannah@tweenhills.com E: alice@tweenhills.com T: +44 (0) 1452 700177

DUBAWI LEGEND #DubawisLeading2yo

Second highest rated 2yo of his generation

2nd Gr.1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes to European Champion 2yo Native Trail.

Group winning sprinter as a 3yo.

122 mares covered in his first season

Supported by leading breeders including Ollie Fowlston, Collegelands, Loft Halls Stud, Billy Jacksons-Stops, WH Bloodstock, McCracken Farms, Hyde Park Stud, etc.

GR.1 2YO

BY DUBAWI

Out of a Stakes winner & half to a Stakes winner

FAR ABOVE #FarAboveTheSpeedLimit

Won 5f Palace House in blistering speed

Timeform Rating higher than Dark Angel, Kodiac, Invincible Spirit, No Nay Never, Showcasing, Mehmas & Havana Grey.

First yearlings realised 70,000gns, 65,000gns, etc.

GROUP WINNER UNDEFEATED OVER 5F/6F

TIMEFORM: 122

Purchased by James Tate Racing, Blandford Bloodstock, Ard Erin Stud, Sackville Donald, Linehan Bloodstock, Highflyer Bloodstock, Hyde Park Stud, Peter & Ross Doyle, Razza Latina x2, etc.

Over 320 mares covered in first three seasons at stud

Dubawi Legend

Far Above

Kuroshio

Galileo Chrome

King Of Change

Standing at Starfield Stud, Ballynagall, Mullingar, Co. Westmeath, Ireland N91 K8Y9

KING OF CHANGE #BestMilerOfHisGeneration

Timeform: 126. Beating the best of his generation...

Gr.1 winners - Magna Grecia, Benbatl, The Revenant, Mohaather, Veracious, Phoenix Of Spain, Lord Glitters, Accidental Agent, Ten Sovereigns, Emaraaty Ana & Set Piece.

Also 2nd Gr.1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas.

First yearlings realised up to 70,000gns

ER G MIL NINETH 1 WINELIZAB GR.THE S STAKE II QUEEN OF

Purchased by Henry Candy, Nick Bell, Blandford Bloodstock, Kevin Blake, Adam Potts x3, Linehan Bloodstock, Ger Lyons, Peter & Ross Doyle, etc.

KUROSHIO #SpeedSire

Sire of 11 Stakes horses Kairyu & Panic Alarm in 2023.

Plus Gr.1 sprinter Savatoxl, and Gozen, Kurious, Dunkerron, Daphinia, Siculi, etc in Europe.

Making his mark...

The only other stallions to sire 2yo Group winners in Ireland in 2023 are Frankel, Dubawi, Galileo, Wootton Bassett, Too Darn Hot, No Nay Never, Caravaggio, Sioux Nation, Night Of Thunder, Bungle Inthejungle, Harzand.

S TA L L I O N S

SIRE GR.1AND EXCEL

BY EXCEED

2023 yearlings realised up to €60,000

Micheál Orlandi, Compas Stallions  + 353 (0)83 809 2299  info@compasstallions.com

@CompasStallions

contents november

12

First Word

16

Girls Aloud

18

Ted talks

22

Steel success

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The Arc was Aced

There’s been a correction at most of this year’s yearling sales, a trend that has been evident since the NH store sales in the spring. Buyers at the top of the market have been circumspect, but clearance rates have been strong and median prices have held firm Cathy Grassick had a fabulous evening at the Irish Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards with the work of some amazing people recognised Our man reckons it is up to breeders if they wish to see the format of October Book 1 altered The racing lit up the day on a rain-sodden British Champions Day, writes Amy Bennett Jocelyn de Moubray reviews a fantastic meeting at ParisLongchamp where Ace Impact landed the Arc and has retired to stud unbeaten, Blu Rose Cen was back to her best and the juveniles Rosallion and Opera Singer took the Group 1s

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Stallion statistics

44

A broodmare recalibration

52

10

22 58

Van the man

68

Now and then

74

Model behaviour

82

Broodmare stakes-winning sires

90

Photo finish

From Weatherbys

The Niarchos family is selling the majority of its breeding stock this autumn in a restructuring of the broodmare band. Daragh Ó Conchúir chats with racing manager Alan Cooper and finds out what the future holds for one of Europe’s most accomplished racing and breeding dynasties

Moor the merrier

Ronan Groome meets up with Joe Banahan of Moortown House after he and his wife Edel sold the farm’s sole offering at Goffs Orby for 480,000gns

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Kelly Thomas of Maywood Stud has had the summer of dreams as the breeder of the dual Group 1-winning juvenile Vandeek There are some similarities and many differences between the bloodstock market of 2023 and those from 25 years ago. Jocelyn de Moubray offers a financial perspective In the second of our three-part series, Byron Rogers explains how multiple machine-learning models of image and video recognition might just give you the edge at the sales Our unique list of 2023’s European broodmare stakes-winning sires Westover enjoys some downtime at the seaside ahead of his excellent run at ParisLongchamp

Ace Impact Photo by Debbie Burt

follow us on twitter @tbredpublishing

contents november

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This publication may not be reproduced or transmitted in whole or part without permission of the publisher. The views expressed in International Thoroughbred are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publishers. While every care is taken in the preparation of this magazine, the publishers cannot be held responsible for the accuracy of the content herein, or any consequences arising from them.

the team

the photographers

editor sally duckett publisher declan rickatson photography debbie burt design thoroughbred publishing

courtesy of various stud farms tattersalls goffs uk alamy laura green alisha meeder debbie burt

advertising declan rickatson 00 44 (0)7767 310381 declan.rickatson@btinternet.com subscriptions tracey glaysher itsubs@btinternet.com

the printers micropress press

the writers

ted voute sally duckett jocelyn de moubray amy bennett james thomas cathy grassick ronan groom

daragh o conchúir

the stats weatherbys

accounts annie jones itaccounts@btinternet.com

plestor house, farnham road, liss, hampshire, gu33 6jq tel: 00 44 (0) 1428 724063 info@internationalthoroughbred.net www.internationalthoroughbred.net subscriptions: email or call as on the left, or log on to www.facebook.com/internationalthoroughbred

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first word

A wide range of opinions were put forward at this autumn’s yearling sales

T

Market views

HERE HAVE BEEN MORE DIFFERENT VIEWS about this year’s yearling trade than ever. Of course, personal viewpoints are just that – taken from an individual perspective depending on your experience.

It is difficult for a consignor to say that yes trade has been good but no one was interested in my horse because he or she was not up to the quality that the sale demanded.

Over this autumn I have heard negative views such as “a lack of atmosphere” (this was heard about a couple of select sales and I do think it is worrying… the one thing horse sales should do is provide some form of theatre, does it mean that people prefer to stay at home and watch online?), but also that there was a lack of buyers in the €200,000 region, that there were a lack of buyers at the lower tiers, that there were a lack of buyers at the top of the trade, that there were not enough Americans on the sales ground, there were no new faces, and that this year’s horses, possibly due to the hot summer last year, were not up to a physical standard.

Conversely, that buying was tough at the very top, buying was tough lower in the middle market, and yet a number also expressed a view that they did think they had got value in some sectors at the sales this autumn.

A lot of confusion concerns an understanding of the middle market, and whether that discussion is talking about a middle market across an entire generation or just in a specific sale.

Again that is often a subjective view – the middle market for a buyer such as Anthony Stroud is possibly quite different to the one perceived by the man or woman

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“...the middle market for a buyer such as Anthony Stroud is possibly quite different to the one perceived by the man or woman offering one or two horses in Book 3 or the trainer trying to buy commercial yearlings on spec

offering one or two horses in Book 3 or the trainer trying to buy commercial yearlings on spec.

And, obviously, adding to the confusion, the middle market point changes each year.

So I am going to express my own opinion, and am going to try and offer my independent view. I have not, sadly, got some easy-to-reach whole industry-provided data points (which in today’s world of big data is quite frankly disgraceful and such information would do so much to help to clear the confusion), so again my view has been formed from sitting in sales rings rather than analysis of data, and is indeed subjective. And I am going to say now that for family reasons I did not get to every yearling sale this year (sometimes other life matters do have to take precedence over the sale of horses) and reading sale reports or watching online is never quite like being on a sale ground in person.

But neither was I selling or buying horses so hopefully I have no bias on that front.

This is the vibe I have felt at bloodstock sales back since the spring’s breeze-up sales and at many of the NH store horse sales. This is not sales company or sale specific and is just a broad view of this year’s market.

The top of the market is compressed and buyers, though still purchasing strongly in the middle to upper middle tiers of the particular marketplace, are not being tempted beyond a ceiling figure. Sales have produced good solid results, but not mortgage-clearing returns.

There has been competitive action for the better horses in each “sector” of sales i.e. those good commercial types with good options and outlets for buyers.

This has led to generally good figures for the median

first word Courtesy of Tattersalls

Kildaragh Stud’s Sea The Stars colt out of Oriental Magic from a long-held stud family, sold for 575,000gns, the best price for the stud for some time

price (unlike the barometer of average price, the median is not distorted by one or two outlandish sales) and this has corresponded to what has generally been seen on the sales ground. The median is a good measure of the depth of the middle trade, and would be interesting to have a greater understanding on an annual basis the median value for a whole season’s yearling draft.

On the consigning side of the pendulum most vendors do realise the advisability of moving stock on and getting them off the books at the first port of call.

The majority of vendors have sold their stock, even if probably more than recently had to be negotiated in a private sale, and vendors have had to take hits to get stock moved on.

But, generally, clearance rates have been maintained, and with that associated solid median price, the volume of trade has been acceptable.

The lower tiers of the market are struggling.

Somewhat surprisingly, considering what is going on in the world right now, people are still buying racehorses, but more and more of them are buying with onward trade in mind (breezing or selling horses with form internationally, and if looking at the NH sphere selling point-to-pointers) and so have a price they are restricted to bearing in mind the need to leave room for profit.

And, of course, more and more trade is taking place

“Such investors have found they need to take the early option of purchasing unproven colts – the opportunities to buy off the track scant as many such types are either not for sale or incredibly expensive

Below: Tony Fry from the Sumbe. The team bought two colts in Book 1, with the Lope De Vega colt out of Bella Estrella the most expensive at 1,100,000gns

in the horse-in-training market, both privately and at auction, with many domestic and international owners who may have bought yearlings or stores preferring to wait until some glimmer of ability has been seen on the track (in both the Flat and NH sectors) or at a breeze-up sale for the Flat buyers.

This policy is surely reducing their purchase plans for unproven horses.

Buyers, who were active at the yearling sales or the NH store market, were being very sensible about current spending policies and pre-allocated budgets, not

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13

first word changing too much in the heat of the sale ring.

From a journalist’s perspective and the various sales company’s press releases it does take away the opportunity to give a bit of fluff in the content and does not help provide the big, easy-to-write headlines… there were no record-breaking sales, no first-ever prices reaching new dazzling heights.

But the illusive equine dream is still the driver for yearling purchases with all buyers hoping that their selection will become a champion, however many of those buying in the select market are often also on the hunt for stallion or broodmare prospects.

At Tattersalls October Book 1 buyers were purchasing yearling colts with the hope that they might partake of the riches that the stallion market has offered over the last few years.

Such investors have found they need to take the early option of purchasing unproven colts – the opportunities to buy off the track scant as many such types are either not for sale or incredibly expensive.

Sumbe bought two such colts in Book 1, and stud manager Tony Fry reported after purchase that the farm is looking for future stock to fill its Normandy stallion barns. Sumbe has previously thrown its lot in with proven racehorses, but as Fry spoke it was possible to sense his frustration in that approach and that hopeful early-stage investment is now required.

As these buyers are perhaps preferring to spread the financial and long-term risk on a few such individuals rather than banking the whole pot on one horse, this

“Spotters are the unseen cogs who drive the wheels of bloodstock commerce... often starting work in the dark, they scurry around the sale-ground making notes in their catalogues and trying to get through their daily lists

This colt, another by Sea The Stars, was spotted in Book 2 by Sam Goyette, working for Blandford while on holiday from his stud job at Juddmonte

Courtesy of Tattersalls

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policy has also had some influence on the reduction of the prices at the very top of the market.

Juddmonte, in the lucky position of standing one of the world’s leading stallions in the brilliant Frankel, has never been one to go bonkers at the sales, only relatively recently becoming a significant purchaser, and the farm has no desire to see prices inflated unrealistically by its own commercial needs to buy descendants of its champion. The farm bid on a number of the big lots offered in Book 1 but left with just one purchase – a colt

by Frankel out of Westwiththenight from the extended family of Rebecca Sharp, sold by New England Stud.

Many of the leading lots in Book 1 proved once again the enduring nature of some of the very best families in the stud book, who provide black-type in every generation and have often been nurtured by the one farm for years.

Hascombe & Valiant Stud, which had decided this year on an exodus of its yearling colts, consigned a draft featuring many of its long-developed pedigrees. The farm was not tempted to take any back home and subsequently took the top consignor spot at the sale.

We got the some broader stories, too... the Night Of Thunder filly out of Lillebonne giving first-time Book 1 consignors Peter and Carole Henley a day to remember when selling to L.E.B for 500,000gns, while the Chepstow-based Oakgrove Stud, a stallion farm itself, got its best-ever yearling result when its Frankel colt out of Poplin was bought by Godolphin for 900,000gns.

And, of course, Kildaragh Stud topped its fabulous run of racecourse form in the October sale ring with a top price of 575,000gns, its best at Tattersalls since 2007.

Blandford Bloodstock is partial to buying yearlings by Sea The Stars (over the years across various Tattersalls sales it has purchased 32 horses by the Aga Khan Studsbased stallion) so it was no surprise to see Richard Brown head north of 400,000gns to purchase a colt by the sire in Book 2. Out of Miss Aiglonne, the chestnut colt was sold by Norelands Stud for 425,000gns What made the purchase more interesting was the fact that Brown diverted much of the success of finding the horse to his spotter Sam Goyette.

A group who generally fly under the radar of publicity, spotters are the unseen cogs who drive the wheels of bloodstock commerce... often starting work in the dark, they scurry around the sale-ground making notes in their catalogues and trying to get through their daily lists without missing a champion.

Goyette’s day job is at Juddmonte, but he took two weeks’ holiday at Tattersalls to work for Blandford Bloodstock looking for racehorse prospects for the agency’s clients.

Let’s hope this son of Sea The Stars becomes a star and rewards Goyette for giving up his holiday time.

FAMILY FIRST

2023 Group 1 horses produced from mares bred and sold by The Aga Khan Studs.

GOLD TRIP

Dual Group 1 winner, including the 2023 Turnbull Stakes.

Out of Sarvana, sold at Arqana in 2013.

BIG ROCK

Group 1 winner in 2023 in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

Out of Hardiyna, sold at Goffs in 2019.

ARREST

Dual Group winner, and 2nd 2023 St Leger Stakes.

Out of Nisriyna, sold at Goffs in 2010.

Don’t miss our drafts at the Goffs and Arqana Breeding Stock Sales.

girls aloud

....Girls aloud

T

Cathy Grassick, chairman of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, applauds the Irish Thoroughbred Industry Employee Award winners

Henry de Bromhead’s team: given a Special Recognition Award, nominated by IHRB’s medical officer Jennifer Pugh

HIS YEAR the yearling sales in the UK and Ireland definitely brought forward a lot of commentary and concern – it was one of the more difficult sales seasons experienced by many for a long time.

But there were still many top quality horses, changing hands for big prices, showing us that the top of the market remains strong.

With the autumn season out of the way, now is the time that we reflect on how stallions performed at the yearling sales in order to plan matings for the upcoming breeding season.

Stallion nomination prices will be of great concern to many breeders, given the difficult financial climate the world is currently facing. I think this year a value for money option will be at the top of everybody’s list.

After a busy yearling sales season, it was really lovely to get back home to the farm. At this time of year there is little time for rest – mares and foals have come in for their sales preparation and I look forward to a nice draft for the sales ahead.

I barely had time to unpack before it was time to attend the Irish Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards evening, held in association with Godolphin. This is an evening that I really enjoy every year. It is a chance to celebrate the achievements of the dedicated men and women who look after the horses in this industry.

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Godolphin and His Highness Sheikh Mohammed have been so generous with their support of the industry employee awards around the world. Their support and generosity have given recognition to the many dedicated employees, working hard behind-the-scenes every day in our industry. The awards go to exceptional individuals who have made significant contributions to racing and breeding.

This year’s awards were particularly special as they began with a tribute to Henry de Bromhead’s staff with a Special Recognition Award in light of the tragic loss of Jack De Bromhead. By the end of the video, which told the story of the days, weeks and months following the loss of young Jack, there wasn’t a dry eye left in the Keadeen Hotel.

The staff were nominated by IHRB chief medical officer Jennifer Pugh, who had glowing praise for the team and it is safe to say that everyone in the room felt the same way.

Ballinrobe racecourse, which ws judged to have the best facilities for stable employees and was awarded the Racecourse Award. It really shows what a small racecourse can do when it is determined to give a high class offering to all of its patrons.

The awards for dedicated staff followed thick and fast with many well deserving and hard-working people honoured.

Niall Amond, or “Bubba”, as he is better known and who works tirelessly for Jessica Harrington, was definitely a

girls aloud

popular choice, as was Caitriona Bolger, who is a barn manager for Gordon Elliott. Both recognised for their dedication.

The Newcomer’s Award was given to Natalie Bradley, who is a yard supervisor with trainer Eoin Griffin – she has only been with him since the start of 2023. Many were impressed with her enthusiasm and she named one of her heroes and inspiration as Rachael Blackmore.

It was lovely to see her get the chance to meet Rachael later that evening and have her photo taken with her hero.

O

NE OF THE BIGGEST CHEERS of the evening was for the elder statesman of the evening Paddy Duffy, who has worked in the industry from more than 70 years. He is still very young at heart and still rides out. At 84, he is an inspiration to us all with his hard work and dedication as assistant trainer to his

son Shane.

The Gordon Elliott stable applauded another winner from the yard – racing secretary Alex Hutter. She is more than just a racing secretary, but also a PA to Gordon and keeps his busy life under order.

Another lady who keeps a watchful eye on the proceedings as a trainer’s secretary is Nicole Kent, who works for Henry de Bromhead, and she was another popular winner for the County Waterford stable.

When Niko Jenjic arrived in Ireland from Croatia he began work from Michael Halford and is now currently working for the training partnership of Tracey Collins and Halford at Conyngham Lodge.

Both trainers spoke of their admiration for his dedication.

Ciara Robinson is part of the team at Aido McGuinness Racing and the trainer was full of praise for all the hard work that Ciara puts in on a daily basis. Ciara is travelling head person at the yard, and really enjoys her work, which was a joy to see.

With so many well deserving and hard-working people in the room it was definitely going to be a hard decision to pick just one to win the overall Irish Racing Excellence Award.

That said there was one man who stood out for his hard work dedication over a huge number of years.

Paddy Duffy was announced as the overall winner and the room jumped to its feet with applause. For many it might be hard to imagine giving 70 years of your life in dedication to the bloodstock and racing industries. Paddy has worked tirelessly not only with his own son and for other trainers, but also with young apprentices to make them better at their craft. It was clear that there was a huge amount of respect in the room for him and that he was a well deserved winner.

After enjoying such a great night and seeing the joy on the award winners faces for the recognition, I could only urge people to nominate their staff for next year’s awards.

It is so important to acknowledge the contribution of the hard work done by people behind the scenes in our industry and I am already looking forward to the next round of award winners in 2024.

Irish Thoroughbred Industry Employee Award winners of 2023

Award winners Niall Amond:

Travelling Head Person, Jessica Harrington

Caitriona Bolger:

Barn Manager, Gordon Elliott

Natalie Bradley: Newcomer, Yard Supervisor Eoin Griffin Alex Hutter:

PA / Racing Secretary, Gordon Elliott

Niko Jenjic:

Travelling Head Person Michael Halford & Tracey Collins

Nicole Kent:

Racing Secretary, Henry de Bromhead

Ciara Robinson:

Travelling Head Person, Ado McGuinness

Irish Racing Excellence Award winner Paddy Duffy presented with his trophy by Martin Heydon TD and Suzanne Eade

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ted talks

TED TALKS...

‘s 0,

Maybe breeders should take the initiative?

Ted Voute offers his thoughts on a difficult October Book 1 and opines that if breeders reconsider the horses that they enter for that first section it could go a long way to altering the sale’s format

S

ALES OFTEN READ differently than they feel, and the select yearling sale at Tattersalls was one such sale.

Many anticipated a downturn following the fairyland sale last year, but it was more that just lowering of averages and medians – a whole section of the market disappeared.

The bread and butter of a mainstream sale is the middle market in which yearlings make their sires’ average.

Tattersalls Book 1 was comprised of 500 yearlings and not all are by the ultra-select sires, with many a mixture of nice horses by sires who trainers or small British owner can afford, as well as the ever-increasing number of syndicates.

They compete for a Book 1 bonus, which makes for a great sales pitch for the discerning syndicate owner.

The top of the market is ringfenced by sires and numbers.

Roughly 150 horses fall into this bracket, which involves a select group of sires – currently Frankel, Dubawi, Kingman, Lope De Vega Siyouni, Wootten Bassett and No Nay Never. There are a couple of periphery sires such as Havana Grey and New Bay, but, basically, that’s it.

In the spring each year breeders and farms are visited by Tattersalls inspectors armed with pedigrees already graded with potential sales in mind.

18

Courtesy of Tattersalls

Oliver St Lawrence: buying for Bahrain royals in October Book 1

The physically border-line Book 1 horse either stays in Book 1 or gets a Book 3 place, while a good Book 3 physical can get a Book 1 place. The most difficult sale to get into is October Book 2.

Some of the yearlings by lesser stallions with great physicals take their chances in Book 1.

Book 1 is made up of only around 150 yearlings who could be considered good enough for Godolphin, Coolmore or Shadwell.

The Bahrain Royal family through Oliver St Lawrence, and the Qatari Royal family through Richard Brown, are two other buyers of scale who are worth mentioning, as well as AMO Racing and Mike Ryan.

Several things happened this year.

Last year’s big spender Sahleh Al Homaizi was obviously not around, and this left a 10 million guineas deficit, although the eight million that appeared from Richard Brown

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was new so, in theory, most of that was replaced.

Godolphin spent 12 million guineas, half of the team’s outlay in 2022, and this was the biggest change.

It is difficult to compare crops of yearlings, but my general feeling is that this year’s yearlings lacked something of a superstar quality.

Many of the big spenders have yearlings they have bred themselves so have comparisons at home, which influences whether or they feel the need to purchase additional yearlings, especially if they think they have better at home.

A

S ALWAYS it is a supply and demand equation.

This year the demand was reduced for the select yearling and the middle-market didn’t have enough purchasers who had an overriding need to buy a yearling.

The dreaded “Book 1 curse” felt at all select sales only survives because breeders roll the dice by putting yearlings in the sale who perhaps should be sold in a later book.

It was also evident that many of the breeders selling are leading owners who were offering yearlings in order to reduce the numbers that they have to put in training.

I found most breeders, who do race at the highest level, fared badly except Hascombe. The farm

offered (and sold) all of its yearling colts rather than trying to pick and choose what they would race and what they would sell. The market just didn’t want to second-guess breeders’ selection processes.

Finally, we always suggest to Tattersalls how they should alter the sale to make it stronger and give it more depth.

Much of the chat that swirled around the sales paddocks was advising that the company should look after potential purchasers in a similar fashion to Goffs and Arqana by flying in more American buyers.

But I believe, ultimately, it’s the breeders, who as vendors could alter the format of Book 1 by either not offering those middle-of-theroad physicals, or those horses by middle-of-the-road stallions.

If we didn’t enter these two categories into the first book, then Tattersalls would only have a 200-horse sale in that section.

Vendors can mould the content of the sale themselves – and Tattersalls has the facility to accommodate and one that is constantly improving.

One last anecdote from a leading buyer of yearlings in Book 2.

That person commented that it is easier to let the breeze-up guys select the yearlings from Book 2 and buy from them in the breeze up sales – they are so much better at picking out the racehorses at yearling stage than many agents are. How times have changed!

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uk racing

By Amy Bennett

B

RITISH CHAMPIONS DAY 2023 was billed beforehand as Frankie Dettori’s swansong, his final appearance at the racecourse with which his name is inextricably linked.

The announcement that Dettori will not be retiring after all may have taken away some of the pre-event hype, but it did perhaps return the focus more fittingly to its equine participants – although the cheers still rang long and loud when Dettori booted home a pair of winners.

Storm Babet made a valiant bid to steal the headlines but the meeting went ahead, albeit on soft ground and with three of the races run on the inner hurdles course. Given the deluge of pre-race rain, it was amazing that the Prince of Wales’s Stakes (G1) and Juddmonte International (G1) victor Mostahdaf was the only high-profile nonrunner on the day.

Did the ground affect the results? More than likely given the number of double digit-priced winners. But should that detract from any one of the day’s Group 1 winners.

Absolutely not.

From a bloodstock perspective, it is noteworthy that all bar one of the day’s Group winners were sired by stallions outside of the top ten sires in Europe by prize-money, heading into the day.

Yeomanstown Stud’s Dark Angel, lying in eighth place among the leading sires in

It was a rain-sodden British Champions Day, but the racing, King Of Steel and Frankie Dettori ignited the crowd

Steel success 22

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uk racing

Art Power: the son of Dark Angel proved that he can do it away from The Curragh becoming the sire’s 15th top-level winner in the Champions Sprint

Europe heading into British Champions Day, was the only one to buck the trend.

His son Art Power was one of the outsiders of the field, having failed to land a top-flight sprint contest on his 14 previous attempts at the level.

However, 15 times proved the charm, as Tim Easterby’s charge made almost all, fighting back when collared by the favourite, Kinross (Kingman), in the final furlong to triumph by a neck.

The six-year-old had five previous Group successes, all in Ireland. Bred by Owenstown Stud, he was a €110,000 graduate of the Goffs Orby Sale for King Power Racing.

He is out of the dual Listed winner Evening Time (Keltos), who has also produced the Group 3 winner Penny Pepper (Fast Company) and Listed scorer Morning Frost (Duke Of Marmalade).

Lying just outside of the top 10 sires in Europe by prize-money prior to British Champions Day was Wootton Bassett and it was fitting that he was represented by the

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winner of the day’s showpiece, King Of Steel.

In triumphing in the Champion Stakes (G1), the three-year-old gained a deserved top-level triumph for his connections, Amo Racing and trainer Roger Varian.

R

ETURNING TO THE SCENE of his King Edward VII Stakes victory in June, the Derby runner-up did not look the likely winner even a furlong out, but powered home to score by three-quarters of a length from Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock), and the stayingon Horizon Dore (Dabarsim). Had this definitely been Dettori’s sign-off to Ascot, the script could not have been more apt with the multiple champion jockey at this strongest to assist home King Of Steel.

The Keeneland graduate is out of the Verglas mare Eldacar, a soft ground winner in France at up to 3000m. King Of Steel is the last reported foal of the mare, but she has

a pair of daughters, one of whom, the winner Macadamia, is a full-sister to King Of Steel.

It was a race of races for Laundry Cottage Stud – the farm breeder of King Of Steel’s sire Wootton Bassett as well as Via Sistina.

The Coolmore powerhouse might not have celebrated any Ballydoyle winners on British Champions Day, but another Group 1 success for Wootton Bassett will have been cause for cheer.

And if the sire is the stud’s future, there was also a poignant nod to the past with the success of Big Rock in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (G1).

The colt’s victory was a fitting tribute to his late sire Rock Of Gibraltar, coming just two days shy of the one-year anniversary of the death of the top miler.

A homebred for Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals’s Yeguada Centurion, the colt blasted out of the stalls and made every post a winning one scoring by 6l from Facteur Cheval (Ribchester), who pipped the outstanding Tahiyra (Siyouni) for second.

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uk racing

Big Rock: picked up a well-deserved first Group 1 victory after good placed efforts this season, at present he stays in training as a four-year-old

The remainder of the field, including the top pair Paddington and Nashwa and the 2,000 Guineas (G1) victor Chaldean, were strung out behind like washing.

For Big Rock, it was a ninth race of a season which began in January at Chantilly, and has included a pair of Group 3 victories as well as runner-up spots in the Prix du Jockey Club (G1), the Prix Jacques le Marois (G1) and the Prix du Moulin.

Yeguada Centurion paid just €72,000 for the colt’s dam Hardiyna (Sea The Stars), carrying Big Rock, at the 2019 Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale.

As the dam sire and name suggest, the mare was culled from the Aga Khan Studs draft.

The unraced Hardiyna, now seven, is out of the Group 1-placed Silver Flash Stakes (G3) winner Harasiya (Pivotal), herself a half-sister to Harzand (Sea The Stars). The mare has since produced the Ten Sovereigns colt Hazard and produced a filly by Australia this year.

The British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes (G1) also threw up a fantastic result for an owner-breeder, albeit on a much smaller scale.

David and Yvonne Blunt have been represented by just three runners this year, but that scarcely seems to matter when one of them is Poptronic.

The mare holds an entry during the Sceptre Session of the Tattersalls December Mares’ Sale, and it will be interesting to see if the Blunts take up that option.

The daughter of Nathaniel landed the Lancashire Oaks (G2) in July and the Hoppings Stakes (G3) last year, but this

was by far her biggest triumph – the four-yearold made virtually all to hold off the fast-finishing Bluestocking (Camelot).

The Blunts, who have a broodmare band of three, bred Poptronic out of the minor winner Alpine Dream (Dream Ahead), purchased for 40,000gns at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale in 2013.

Now a half-sister to this year’s Italian Listed juvenile winner Royal Grey (Havana Grey) the mare has also produced a winner by Brazen Beau, and has a yearling filly by New Bay and a filly foal by Zoustar.

For Poptronic’s sire Nathaniel it was an eighth individual Group 1 winner, six of whom are female.

The day began with another perfectly scripted winner as Dettori donned the Godolphin blue, in which he has enjoyed so much success, to partner home the Gosden-trained Trawlerman, the colt outbattling Kyprios (Galileo) in the British Champions Long Distance Cup (G2).

The five-year-old is by Dettori’s Derby (G1) victor Golden Horn, now plying his trade at

David and Yvonne Blunt have been represented by just three runners this year, but that scarcely seems to matter when one of them is Poptronic

Poptronic and Sam James

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uk racing Overbury Stud, rather than Dalham Hall Stud, but maintaining a fine clip of winners.

Trawlerman is his sire’s third Group 2 winner of the season following the Queen’s Vase victor Gregory and the Derby Italiano hero Goldenas.

Successful in last year’s Ebor, the gelding was third in this race 12 months ago, and shrugged off two defeats in the Middle East this spring and a break to return with a 13l triumph in a Salisbury conditions contest.

He followed that up with an 18l success in

September’s Listed Jockey Club Rose Bowl.

He is out of the Deutsches St Leger (G3) runner-up Tidespring (Monsun), herself out of the Prix Vermeille (G1) heroine Sweet Stream, a daughter of Sheikh Mohammed’s top-flight runner Shantou.

Troy dominates on Future day

I

F BRITISH CHAMPIONS DAY is to crown the champions of the season, then Future Champions Day is all about what is to come. Over the course of two days on the Rowley Mile, plenty of winners advertised their credentials for next year.

Ballydoyle scooped both the Group 1 prizes with City Of Troy looking particularly exciting.

Not exactly noted for his faint praise, it was no great surprise to once again hear Aidan O’Brien anointing one of his charges as perhaps the best he has trained. However, in the case of City Of Troy, it could actually be true.

The son of Justify made all to win the Dewhurst (G1) in truly impressive style, retaining his unbeaten record of three.

When he won the July Stakes (G2) he became only his sire’s second winner in Britain, but with Justify slated to stand for $200,000 next year – double his 2023 fee – the well-bred winners will continue to flow for the US Triple Crown winner.

A day earlier, O’Brien had saddled Ylang Ylang (Frankel) to win the Fillies’ Mile (G1) with the daughter of Frankel bouncing back from her last-place finish in the Moyglare Stud Stakes (G1), and third in the Rockfel Stakes (G2) on her previous start. The filly, who also looked an outstanding prospect for next year, gave her trainer a record-equalling sixth win in the race, but stands out from his previous winners for not being a Coolmore homebred.

While Coolmore is not exactly lacking in sons of Galileo, so far there is no son of Frankel on the roster. When the time comes for Ylang Ylang to make her way to the paddocks, she will bring a slightly different flavour to her matings, being out of a Shamardal mare.

Bred by Newsells Park Stud and Merry Fox Stud, she was purchased by MV Magnier and Peter Brant’s White Birch Farm for 1,500,000gns in Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.

The filly is out of Shambolic, who finished fourth in the Fillies’ Mile (G1), and was purchased by Hadden Bloodstock for 800,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mares’ Sale in 2019.

She is a half-sister to the dual Hong Kong Group 1 winner Viva Pataca (Marju), as well as the dual US Grade 1 winner Laughing (Dansili), from a family that has produced top-flight winners around the globe.

The Future Champions meeting also saw a hat-trick of eyecatching juveniles for Dubawi, starting with Dance Sequence in the Oh So Sharp Stakes (G3).

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“There is no doubt he is the best-two-year old I’ve trained,” said trainer Aidan O’Brien after the Justify colt won the Dewhurst Stakes

The daughter of Tearless (Street Cry) stayed on well to win by a neck, giving her dam a first Group success, following the Listed success of three-parts sister Romantic Song (Shamardal).

A day later, Ancient Wisdom cruised home to land the Autumn Stakes (G3) by nearly 4l. Bred by Ecurie des Monceaux and partners, the colt was purchased for €2,000,000 at the 2022 Arqana August Yearling Sale. Also Listed-placed at Ascot in July, the colt is out of the Prix Minerve (G3) heroine Golden Valentine (Dalakhani), a full-sister to the Group 3 winner Goldwaki, out of a Group 3-winning half-sister to the outstanding Goldikova.

Two hours later, Arabian Crown added to his sire’s juvenile haul with success in the Zetland Stakes (G3), triumphing by five and a half lengths from Gasper De Lemos (Justify).

Already successful in the Listed Stonehenge Stakes in August, the colt was bred by G B Partnership and was snapped up by the Godolphin team for €600,000 at the Arqana August Yearling Sale. Out of the German Listed winner Dubai Rose (Dubai Destination), also a Classic winner in the loosest sense having landed the ungraded Swiss Derby, he is a half-brother to the high-class mare The Juliet Rose (Monsun) and the Listed-placed Pocketfullofdreams (Invincible Spirit).

Dubawi, who also has the exciting National Stakes (G1) victor Henry Longfellow in the Coolmore camp, was represented by one more winner on the day, the 4l Darley Stakes (G3) winner Highland Avenue and, a day earlier, his son Night Of Thunder was responsible for an eye-catching maiden winner in Glimpsed, a daughter of Lawn Stud’s Look So (Efisio).

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arc meeting

A

CE IMPACT’s brilliant length and three-quarters victory in the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) was a new spectacle, or at least one we have not seen for years, and the Jean-Claude Rouget-trained son of Cracksman comes from a different type of racehorse to recent winners too.

Ace Impact’s winning time of 2m25.52s was the fourth-fastest Arc of all time, nearly a furlong faster than Alpinista’s slog through the mud last year.

It is also worth pointing out that the four

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fastest Arc winners – Danedream, Bago, Peintre Celebre and now Ace Impact – all won as three-year-olds, so perhaps there should be a different weight for age once the ground is very soft or heavy ?

Serge Stempniak and the Cheboub family’s champion is the first unbeaten colt to win the Arc since Jean Luc Lagardère’s Sagamix won in 1998.

He is the first three-year-old colt to win the race since Golden Horn in 2015 and the first Prix du Jockey-Club winner since Dalakhani in 2003 and, of course, the first since the Jockey-Club was changed to 2100

metres in 2005, even if Hurricane Run came very close to doing the double – he was beaten only a neck by Shamardal in the first shorter Jockey-Club and he won the Arc the same year.

In that time the Jockey-Club itself has changed beyond recognition – Ace Impact’s winning time at Chantilly was six seconds, or some 30l, faster than that recorded by Shamardal and Hurricane Run on similarly good ground.

Ace Impact, together with the third-placed Onesto, did (according to people such as Simon Rowlands of Attheraces who know

arc meeting

The Arc was Aced

Jean-Claude Rouget’s star performer exceeded expectations, writes Jocelyn de Moubray these things) put up the fastest final 600m in the Arc which they both ran in 33.06s.

Ace Impact also ran one of the fastest fractions of the day, going from the 400m mark to the 200m in 10.67s at 43.5mph.

Racing at Longchamp on good or firm ground – and on Arc Sunday the ground was definitely firm – is great to watch and provides a wonderful test for top-class horses.

After years in which the Arc has been dominated by fillies, mares and older horses an outstanding three-year-old colt was able to defeat some of the best horses in the world, to the delight of the home crowd.

ssssss

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arc meeting Ace Impact was not only bred, raised and sold as a yearling in France but he belongs to a family of relative newcomers to the racing world who, together with their extended families and friends, were only too happy to display their thrill and excitement.

Any sport is better to watch when the winners are clearly overcome by emotion.

Even Rouget, whose recent record in the best European races puts him among the best French trainers of all time, came close to dancing while watching his protégé on the big screen in the paddock.

And for the French bloodstock world there is the added satisfaction that Ace Impact will stand at the Cheboub family’s Haras de Beaumont.

The Arc has changed since the 1990s when it was dominated by Jockey-Club winners and three-year-old colts, it is a more international and competitive race.

The prize-money on offer has increased significantly – in 1998 Sagamix won only €900,000, even Rail Link in 2006 won €1.4 million so only a third and half of the €2.9 million picked up by Ace Impact.

Ace Impact has no real need to race again.

As the Aga Khan, the owner and breeder of the unbeaten Arc winner Zarkava, said for a breeder the purpose of racing is to select the truly superior performers. Once that has been established beyond any doubt the only sensible thing to do is breed from them for the future.

Ace Impact is a superior racehorse. He is unbeaten, he won the Jockey-Club and the Arc in brilliant fashion, he has won on firm ground, heavy ground and even on the All-Weather. Every time he has raced he has put up exceptional sectional times when using his speed to pass his rivals in the home straight. Stallion success is impossible to predict, but few horses will retire to stud with a better chance of becoming a top sire than Ace Impact.

All told, it has been an excellent year for French racing and breeding. On the Racing Post’s ratings five of the 12 three-year-old colts and geldings rated 120 or higher were bred and raised in France together with three of the top six three-year-old fillies.

There have not been many generations recently when 45 per cent of the best in Europe have been French-breds.

Ace Impact: continued his unbeaten run in the Arc with an exceptional performance on the clock

Stallion success is impossible to predict, but few horses will retire to stud with a better chance of becoming a top sire than Ace Impact The two Frankel colts who chased Ace Impact home are very attractive stallion prospects, too.

Juddmonte’s Westover sustained a careerending injury in the race and retires with four wins and seven places from 13 career starts. The Ralph Beckett-trained colt was very unlucky in the Derby, won the Irish Derby very easily and has shown top-class form at three and four in England, Ireland, France and Dubai.

The Arc was perhaps the performance of his career as he was the only one of those who had been close to the early pace who was involved in the finish.

He is the type of stallion who would be very popular in Japan – a horse who consistently displayed high class form over a long period of time.

Onesto is not as versatile as either Ace Impact and Westover, but when he has his conditions, fast ground and a strong pace, the Fabrice Chappet-trained colt has shown

that he is one of the best Frankel colts to date.

He won the Grand Prix de Paris, was only narrowly beaten in an excellent Irish Champion finished a close third in the Arc, and he was not beaten far when fourth in the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois over a mile either.

Blue Rose Cen: a clean sweep

Three of France’s other star three-yearolds won at the Arc weekend – Yeguada Centurion’s Blue Rose Cen took the Group 1 Prix de l’Opera, the Werthemier brothers’ Kelina won the Group 1 Prix de La Forêt and the Cheboub family’s Horizon Dore was successful in the Group 2 Prix Dollar.

Blue Rose Cen has never achieved an extravagant rating, even if she is beyond any doubt the best of what is not the strongest generation of three-year-old fillies.

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arc meeting

Blue Rose Cen: a worthy champion of 2023, even if the three-year-old filly division is a little weak

However, there is no doubt that she is a great and unusual champion. The Opera has been a Group 1 since 2000 and the daughter of Churchill is only the second Prix de Diane winner to complete the double, 20 years after Bright Sky in 2002.

Blue Rose Cen is the first to complete a clean sweep of France’s best races for fillies and mares – the Marcel Boussac, Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and Opera (Zarkava won the Arc itself instead).

The only other filly to come close was Divine Proportions, who won the first three races but did not run again after August as a three-year-old.

Any filly who can only be compared to Zarkava is clearly a champion in her own right and, of course, her career is a remarkable achievement for her owner breeder and trainer Christopher Head. Blue Rose Cen may find it more difficult at four when she will have to compete with colts and a younger generation, but she is such a professional fighter that anything is still possible.

The Wertheimers’ Frankel filly Kelina has always been highly regarded by her trainer Carlos Laffon-Parias and was well beaten by Blue Rose Cen on very soft ground in both the Marcel Boussac, for which she started favourite, and the Poule d’Essai.

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Kelina is the first of Frankel’s 30 Group 1 winners to win her top-level race over less than a mile as a three-year-old or older horse

It turns out that, like many if not all Frankels, Kelina is better on fast ground and on her first ever start over less than 1500m she showed more than enough speed to win the Forêt.

The race was run at a strong pace from the beginning and was one of the few all weekend in which nobody was finishing fast.

Kelina and Kinross ran the final 200m three per cent slower than their race average, but it was Kelina’s tactical speed which took her into a winning position while Kinross struggled to get a clear run.

Kelina is the third foal of the Oasis Dream mare Inchahoots, whom the Wertheimers purchased from her breeder George Strawbridge.

Frankel has covered a lot of Oasis Dream mares and Kelina is the first Group 1 winner on this cross, even if Eternal Pearl looked good last year in staying races. Kelina was herself already faster than her siblings, who include the Frankel gelding Call The Wind, winner of the Prix du Cadran, and the Opera winner We Are. Kelina is the first of Frankel’s 30 Group 1 winners to win her top-level race over less than a mile as a three-year-old or older horse.

Originally this was a Wertheimer family as Kelina’s third dam Bellarida won the Prix du Royaumont in the family’s colours.

Inchahoots has a Frankel yearling colt and a Frankel colt foal.

Horizon Dore is the second top three-year-

Kelina getting the better of Kinross in the Forêt, and ruining the Franke Dettori Arc after party

arc meeting old running in the colours of the Cheboub family, who bought into the Dabirsim gelding after he had won his two juvenile starts in the south of France without coming off the bridle.

The Patrice Cottier-trained gelding has looked better and better with each start while winning four Group races in a row after running only respectably on soft ground at the beginning of the year. Horizon Dore won the Group 2 Prix Dollar over 1950m comfortably showing real speed to come from behind.

He ran the final 600m in 32.69s, some 2l faster than Ace Impact’s run up the straight the following day and 13 per cent faster than his race average, hitting a top speed of 45mph.

Horizon Dore comes from an old French produced family – his third dam is a halfsister to the Group 2 winner Robore, and is himself a half-brother to five other winners, including Cavale Dore who won the Prix du Calvados.

He has a full-brother foal called Safran Dore. Horizon Dore will surely win Group 1 races sooner or later, even if it may turn out he is better on good or firm ground.

Rosallion: the first Group 1 winner for this year’s standout first-season sire Blue Point

British dominated the juvenile races

The French-trained two-year-olds were not able to match the overseas challengers in the Group 1s even if several ran with great credit.

Sheikh Obaid’s Rosallion became the first Group 1 winner for his sire Blue Point coming from behind to win the 1400m Prix Jean Luc Lagardère in a new race record time of 1m18.23s.

The other winners of this race with a winning time below 1m20s include Oratorio, Holy Roman Emperor and Siyouni.

Rosallion was chased home by the French -bred, Aidan O’Brien-trained Wootton Bassett colt Unquestionable with Beauvatier third beaten a total of over 2l. The son of Lope De Vega was unsuited to such a fast run race on Longchamp’s fast 7f track, said by some to be in reality a 6.75f, and finished well putting up the fastest sectional of 10.56s from the 400m mark to the 200m.

The Prix Marcel Boussac over a mile was turned into a procession by the Coolmore partnership’s Justify filly Opera Singer, who

Opera Singer: Ashford Stud’s Justify has had a top year on the track with his second crop

raced clear to win unchallenged by 5l from Rose Bloom and Les Pavots.

The American Triple Crown winner’s first crop proved to be ok, but his second crop of two-year-olds looks to be a great deal better as it already has five stakes winners headed by the Turf performers Opera Singer and City Of Troy – the first out of a Sadler’s Wells mare and the second a Galileo mare.

Rose Bloom, who won Arqana’s race for unraced fillies in August, confirmed her quality and is another high class two-yearold prospect for her sire Lope De Vega.

It is more than likely that the best French

trained two-year-old ran and won on the Friday before the Arc weekend as Edouard de Rothschild’s Alcantor, a son of New Bay trained by Andre Fabré, came from behind the win the mile Group 3 Prix Thomas Bryon with the greatest of ease.

Taken out of the prep race for the Lagardère because of the unseasonably hot weather he would have had a good chance in the Group 1 and will do in the International Criterium if his trainer decides to run.

Alcantor has won three of his four races very easily and was unsuited to dropping back to 1200m in between.

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The more you look the better it gets A catalogue for the ages.

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stallion stats Leading European Flat sires (by prize-money earned to October 17, 2023)

Courtesy of Weatherbys

Stallion

Pedigree

To Stud

Rnrs

Runs

Wnrs

Wins

Wnrs/Rnrs%

SWnrs

SWs

Frankel Siyouni Kingman Dubawi Sea The Stars Lope de Vega Cracksman Dark Angel Galileo Kodiac Wootton Bassett No Nay Never Churchill Night of Thunder Muhaarar Gleneagles Camelot Australia Havana Grey Sea The Moon Zoffany Deep Impact Nathaniel Starspangledbanner Zarak Invincible Spirit Dandy Man Charm Spirit Sioux Nation Territories Golden Horn New Bay Showcasing Exceed And Excel Anodin Mastercraftsman Le Havre Iffraaj Dabirsim Mehmas Oasis Dream Saxon Warrior Fastnet Rock Footstepsinthesand Toronado Blue Point Galiway

Galileo-Kind (Danehill) Pivotal-Sichilla (Danehill) Invincible Spirit-Zenda (Zamindar) Dubai Millennium-Zomaradah (Deploy) Cape Cross-Urban Sea (Miswaki) Shamardal-Lady Vettori (Vettori) Frankel-Rhadegunda (Pivotal) Acclamation-Midnight Angel (Machiavellian) Sadler’s Wells-Urban Sea (Miswaki) Danehill-Rafha (Kris) Iffraaj-Balladonia (Primo Dominie) Scat Daddy-Cat’s Eye Witness (Elusive Quality) Galileo-Meow (Storm Cat) Dubawi-Forest Storm (Galileo) Oasis Dream-Tahrir (Linamix) Galileo-You’resothrilling (Storm Cat) Montjeu-Tarfah (Kingmambo) Galileo-Ouija Board (Cape Cross) Havana Gold-Blanc de Chine (Dark Angel) Sea The Stars-Sanwa (Monsun) Dansili-Tyranny (Machiavellian) Sunday Silence-Wind in Her Hair (Alzao) Galileo-Magnificient Style (Silver Hawk) Choisir-Gold Anthem (Made of Gold) Dubawi-Zarkava (Zamindar) Green Desert-Rafha (Kris) Mozart-Lady Alexander (Night Shift) Invincible Spirit-L’Enjoleuse (Montjeu) Scat Daddy-Dream The Blues (Oasis Dream) Invincible Spirit-Taranto (Machiavellian) Cape Cross-Fleche d’Or (Dubai Destination) Dubawi-Cinnamon Bay (Zamindar) Oasis Dream-Arabesque (Zafonic) Danehill-Patrona (Lomond) Anabaa-Born Gold (Blushing Groom)

2013 2011 2015 2006 2010 2011 2019 2008 2002 2007 2012 2015 2018 2016 2016 2016 2014 2015 2019 2015 2012 1899 2013 2011 2018 2003 2010 2015 2019 2017 2016 2017 2011 2005 2015 2010 2010 2007 2014 2017 2004 2019 2009 2006 2015 2020 2016

218 222 237 193 230 297 110 293 148 342 155 189 207 166 152 175 164 186 140 166 261 12 143 207 98 179 286 132 142 140 126 122 225 163 118 186 157 181 184 164 192 114 67 191 112 99 81

858 985 1062 745 859 1354 421 1540 545 1911 683 813 863 721 861 762 663 846 750 745 1293 52 618 990 439 968 1750 845 692 709 513 523 1101 809 750 829 713 920 1158 879 1011 470 279 1019 703 307 414

105 95 112 92 100 146 41 122 61 137 66 70 73 75 69 68 59 67 72 66 95 6 52 79 49 80 109 57 60 54 56 55 74 64 59 64 72 57 63 70 58 40 25 66 49 39 36

149 138 165 131 143 219 67 182 82 204 103 111 106 104 108 99 83 102 119 92 128 9 85 115 83 123 165 85 91 77 74 83 102 102 88 95 105 82 96 102 93 58 36 102 91 53 55

48.16 42.79 47.25 47.66 43.47 49.15 37.27 41.63 41.21 40.05 42.58 37.03 35.26 45.18 45.39 38.85 35.97 36.02 51.42 39.75 36.39 50.00 36.36 38.16 50.00 44.69 38.11 43.18 42.25 38.57 44.44 45.08 32.88 39.26 50.00 34.40 45.85 31.49 34.23 42.68 30.20 35.08 37.31 34.55 43.75 39.39 44.44

29 6 18 23 15 17 4 9 13 11 9 13 7 8 5 9 8 7 10 6 5 2 6 5 8 5 2 3 8 3 8 7 5 4 1 4 4 5 1 5 1 5 4 1 0 4 5

40 10,517,308 13 5,575,919 22 5,353,465 29 4,785,753 18 4,753,961 20 4,667,454 7 4,355,557 12 4,216,611 17 4,101,404 14 3,779,744 13 3,565,500 15 3,222,356 10 2,970,685 9 2,965,218 6 2,781,074 12 2,677,495 10 2,644,014 9 2,482,877 13 2,406,170 13 2,276,575 6 2,255,695 4 2,219,482 8 2,210,628 5 2,178,051 10 2,098,792 6 2,078,727 2 1,944,177 5 1,905,632 14 1,868,696 4 1,859,970 9 1,839,607 7 1,828,590 5 1,825,499 4 1,807,836 2 1,796,231 5 1,773,519 4 1,713,957 6 1,698,247 4 1,664,500 7 1,605,231 1 1,554,124 5 1,452,897 8 1,425,272 1 1,355,869 0 1,351,153 7 1,330,540 6 1,283,221

38

Danehill Dancer-Starlight Dreams (Black Tie Affair)

Noverre-Marie Rheinberg (Surako) Zafonic-Pastorale (Nureyev) Hat Trick-Rumored (Royal Academy) Acclamation-Lucina (Machiavellian) Green Desert-Hope (Dancing Brave) Deep Impact-Maybe (Galileo) Danehill-Piccadilly Circus (Royal Academy) Giant’s Causeway-Glatisant (Rainbow Quest) High Chaparral-Wana Doo (Grand Slam) Shamardal-Scarlett Rose (Royal Applause) Galileo-Danzigaway (Danehill

www.internationalthoroughbred.co.uk

£

STUDY OF MAN Sire of a Group 2 winning 2yo in 2023

A LEADING EUROPEAN FIRST CROP SIRE IN 2023 DEEPONE (winner of 3 races including Gr.2 Beresford Stakes), GHORGAN (debut winner of BBAG Sales race), FRANCOPHONE (debut winner), JUBILEE WALK (novice winner), LINGUA FRANCA (novice winner), SONS AND LOVERS (debut winner at Newmarket on 7th October 2023) and LOOK UPON (winner in Rome on 15th October 2023).

DEEPONE wins the Gr.2 Beresford Stakes for trainer Paddy Twomey, owner Vimal Khosla and breeder Andreas Bezzola.

STUDY OF MAN’s 2023 yearlings sold have so far made up to 220,000gns info@lanwades.com

LANWADES

•

w w w. l a n w a d e s . c o m •

Te l : + 4 4 ( 0 ) 1 6 3 8 7 5 0 2 2 2 The independent option TM

stallion stats Leading European sires of two-year-olds (by prize-money earned to October 17, 2023)

Courtesy of Weatherbys

Stallion

Pedigree

To Stud

Rnrs

Runs

Wnrs

Wins

Wnrs/Rnrs%

SWnrs

SWs

£

No Nay Never Blue Point Havana Grey Wootton Bassett Kodiac Justify Too Darn Hot Gleneagles Lope de Vega Dubawi Ten Sovereigns Frankel Night of Thunder Dark Angel Starspangledbanner Calyx Sioux Nation Soldier’s Call Inns of Court Caravaggio Siyouni Mehmas New Bay Sea The Stars Invincible Spirit El Kabeir Bungle Inthejungle Goken Phoenix of Spain Expert Eye Dandy Man Churchill Territories Kingman Showcasing Cotai Glory Profitable Harry Angel City Light Zoustar Shalaa Galiway Invincible Army Kodi Bear Zarak U S Navy Flag Seahenge

Scat Daddy-Cat’s Eye Witness (Elusive Quality) Shamardal-Scarlett Rose (Royal Applause) Havana Gold-Blanc de Chine (Dark Angel) Iffraaj-Balladonia (Primo Dominie) Danehill-Rafha (Kris) Scat Daddy-Stage Magic (Ghostzapper) Dubawi-Dar Re Mi (Singspiel) Galileo-You’resothrilling (Storm Cat) Shamardal-Lady Vettori (Vettori) Dubai Millennium-Zomaradah (Deploy) No Nay Never-Seeking Solace (Exceed And Excel) Galileo-Kind (Danehill) Dubawi-Forest Storm (Galileo) Acclamation-Midnight Angel (Machiavellian) Choisir-Gold Anthe (Made of Gold) Kingman-Helleborine (Observatory) Scat Daddy-Dream The Blues (Oasis Dream) Showcasing-Dijarvo (Iceman) Invincible Spirit-Learned Frien (Seeking the Gold) Scat Daddy-Mekko Hokte (Holy Bull) Pivotal-Sichilla (Danehill) Acclamation-Lucina (Machiavellian) Dubawi-Cinnamon Bay (Zamindar) Cape Cross-Urban Sea (Miswaki) Green Desert-Rafha (Kris) Scat Daddy-Great Venue (Unbridled’s Song) Exceed And Excel-Licence To Thrill (Wolfhound) Kendargent-Gooseley Chope (Indian Rocket) Lope de Vega-Lucky Clio (Key of Luck) Acclamation-Exemplify (Dansili) Mozart-Lady Alexander (Night Shift) Galileo-Meow (Storm Cat) Invincible Spirit-Taranto (Machiavellian) Invincible Spirit-Zenda (Zamindar) Oasis Dream-Arabesque (Zafonic) Exceed And Excel-Continua (Elusive Quality) Invincible Spirit-Dani Ridge (Indian Ridge) Dark Angel-Beatrix Potter (Cadeaux Genereux) Siyouni-Light Saber (Kendor) Northern Meteor-Zouzou (Redoute’s Choice) Invincible Spirit-Ghurra (War Chant) Galileo-Danzigaway (Danehill) Invincible Spirit-Rajeem (Diktat) Kodiac-Hawattef (Mujtahid) Dubawi-Zarkava (Zamindar) War Front-Misty For Me (Galileo) Scat Daddy-Fools in Love (Not For Love)

2015 2020 2019 2012 2007 2019 2020 2016 2011 2006 2020 2013 2016 2008 2011 2020 2019 2020 2020 2018 2011 2017 2017 2010 2003 2018 2015 2017 2020 2019 2010 2018 2017 2015 2011 2018 2018 2019 2020 2019 2017 2016 2020 2017 2018 2019 2019

58 99 68 42 84 15 54 32 48 38 64 42 58 61 54 40 44 66 73 21 45 52 38 46 39 22 35 26 34 38 71 66 40 42 70 36 68 36 29 36 28 11 42 23 20 51 14

190 307 275 106 328 44 155 77 98 92 203 86 152 198 180 126 131 263 293 67 100 213 118 92 128 74 167 116 96 143 287 166 145 85 255 129 225 113 99 98 88 28 144 82 39 190 50

26 39 32 11 34 8 21 14 17 16 21 11 26 18 19 15 15 22 21 4 14 20 11 16 18 5 11 6 13 13 17 17 13 14 18 13 20 18 13 11 10 5 10 7 8 12 5

36 53 48 20 47 14 29 17 24 24 31 15 28 23 24 20 20 29 29 8 15 27 16 16 22 9 16 10 17 17 23 21 16 15 21 21 24 27 16 16 11 6 13 10 10 19 13

44.82 39.39 47.05 26.19 40.47 53.33 38.88 43.75 35.41 42.10 32.81 26.19 44.82 29.50 35.18 37.50 34.09 33.33 28.76 19.04 31.11 38.46 28.94 34.78 46.15 22.72 31.42 23.07 38.23 34.21 23.94 25.75 32.50 33.33 25.71 36.11 29.41 50.00 44.82 30.55 35.71 45.45 23.80 30.43 40.00 23.52 35.71

8 4 5 5 3 3 4 1 2 5 3 3 2 2 3 2 3 1 1 1 0 1 2 0 2 1 1 1 1 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0

9 7 8 6 3 6 6 1 3 7 4 4 2 2 3 2 4 1 1 3 0 1 2 0 2 1 1 1 1 2 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 0 2 0 0 1 0 1 0 0

1,543,825 1,330,540 1,277,835 1,198,818 1,010,459 908,181 880,797 802,167 712,332 689,452 687,594 657,329 653,997 647,226 636,133 600,279 528,570 526,189 502,617 475,823 457,089 456,129 415,223 371,280 363,104 355,767 343,549 336,211 320,095 319,181 316,672 315,282 308,831 306,166 304,509 301,324 294,914 291,352 290,576 278,464 272,054 263,711 260,947 257,523 240,512 239,702 239,006

40

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stallion stats Leading European Flat broodmare sires (by prize-money earned to October 17, 2023) Stallion

Pedigree

Galileo Sadler’s Wells-Urban Sea (Miswaki) Oasis Dream Green Desert-Hope (Dancing Brave) Montjeu Sadler’s Wells-Floripedes (Top Ville) Dansili Danehill-Hasili (Kahyasi) Pivotal Polar Falcon-Fearless Revival (Cozzene) Dubawi Dubai Millennium-Zomaradah (Deploy) Shamardal Giant’s Causeway-Helsinki (Machiavellian) Sea The Stars Cape Cross-Urban Sea (Miswaki) Invincible Spirit Green Desert-Rafha (Kris) Anabaa Blue Anabaa-Allez Les Trois (Riverman) Danehill Dancer Danehill-Mira Adonde (Sharpen Up) Cape Cross Green Desert-Park Appeal (Ahonoora) Holy Roman Emperor Danehill-L’On Vite (Secretariat) New Approach Galileo-Park Express (Ahonoora) Exceed And Excel Danehill-Patrona (Lomond) Acclamation Royal Applause-Princess Athena (Ahonoora) Selkirk Sharpen Up-Annie Edge (Nebbiolo) Fastnet Rock Danehill-Piccadilly Circus (Royal Academy) Dutch Art Medicean-Halland Park Lass (Spectrum) Teofilo Galileo-Speirbhean (Danehill) Dalakhani Darshaan-Daltawa (Miswaki) High Chaparral Sadler’s Wells-Kasora (Darshaan) Verglas Highest Honor-Rahaam (Secreto) Danehill Danzig-Razyana (His Majesty) Kodiac Danehill-Rafha (Kris) Singspiel In the Wings-Glorious Song (Halo) Rock of Gibraltar Danehill-Offshore Boom (Be My Guest) Dark Angel Acclamation-Midnight Angel (Machiavellian) Lear Fan Roberto-Wac (Lt. Stevens) Nayef Gulch-Height of Fashion (Bustino) Iffraaj Zafonic-Pastorale (Nureyev) Monsun Konigsstuhl-Mosella (Surumu) Peintre Celebre Nureyev-Peinture Bleue (Alydar) Elusive City Elusive Quality-Star of Paris (Dayjur) Lawman Invincible Spirit-Laramie (Gulch) Street Cry Machiavellian-Helen Street (Troy) Kingmambo Mr. Prospector-Miesque (Nureyev) Sadler’s Wells Northern Dancer-Fairy Bridge (Bold Reason) Duke of Marmalade Danehill-Love Me True (Kingmambo) Medicean Machiavellian-Mystic Goddess (Storm Bird) Giant’s Causeway Storm Cat-Mariah’s Storm (Rahy) Footstepsinthesand Giant’s Causeway-Glatisant (Rainbow Quest) Anabaa Danzig-Balbonella (Gay Mecene) Kyllachy Pivotal-Pretty Poppy (Song) Kendargent Kendor-Pax Bella (Linamix) Jeremy Danehill Dancer-Glint in Her Eye (Arazi) Lope de Vega Shamardal-Lady Vettori (Vettori)

42

www.internationalthoroughbred.co.uk

Courtesy of Weatherbys

To Stud

Rnrs

Runs

Wnrs

Wins

Wnrs/Rnrs%

SWnrs

SWs

£

2002 2004 2001 2001 1997 2006 2005 2010 2003 2003 1998 2000 2007 2009 2005 2004 1993 2009 2008 2008 2003 2004 2000 1990 2007 1998 2003 2008 1985 2004 2007 1996 1999 2005 2008 2003 1994 1985 2009 2002 2001 2006 1997 2003 2008 2008 2011

656 480 270 422 398 343 358 184 480 29 272 291 230 197 279 285 123 163 169 241 234 193 131 111 194 167 208 217 11 153 184 143 139 124 180 140 66 152 122 164 133 105 115 159 101 27 84

2865 2453 1218 2244 1949 1718 1891 756 2519 152 1384 1527 1270 881 1393 1450 595 708 939 1188 1097 958 710 508 927 949 1051 1194 55 748 958 690 657 778 799 697 338 701 616 922 701 583 549 816 532 149 401

266 193 96 171 156 142 155 72 167 12 102 100 89 68 109 94 48 55 65 89 77 72 60 43 66 73 61 78 7 60 73 62 47 56 55 55 32 53 56 62 56 32 37 59 41 10 38

367 286 162 262 236 202 248 96 258 17 144 156 144 102 153 133 73 79 96 140 105 108 85 61 101 111 90 114 8 89 104 86 71 85 81 83 46 77 74 90 80 47 52 87 67 14 58

40.54 40.20 35.55 40.52 39.19 41.39 43.29 39.13 34.79 41.37 37.50 34.36 38.69 34.51 39.06 32.98 39.02 33.74 38.46 36.92 32.90 37.30 45.80 38.73 34.02 43.71 29.32 35.94 63.63 39.21 39.67 43.35 33.81 45.16 30.55 39.28 48.48 34.86 45.90 37.80 42.10 30.47 32.17 37.10 40.59 37.03 45.23

40 15 10 15 14 16 13 10 5 1 11 6 7 13 10 8 4 4 5 6 1 8 2 3 4 1 4 2 2 2 4 8 4 4 3 4 3 7 7 6 4 3 3 1 4 1 5

55 24 17 19 17 22 16 15 6 4 11 8 13 17 12 11 8 7 5 7 1 8 2 4 6 1 5 2 2 3 4 9 7 7 4 4 4 10 8 7 5 4 3 1 4 4 8

13,662,473 6,411,445 5,921,194 5,723,199 5,158,035 5,066,215 4,752,541 4,256,276 4,087,366 3,621,999 3,579,488 3,242,773 3,017,219 2,974,396 2,672,515 2,557,656 2,487,501 2,260,490 2,144,258 2,088,255 1,967,600 1,961,383 1,886,983 1,849,197 1,838,684 1,736,584 1,732,492 1,658,137 1,653,602 1,641,476 1,628,199 1,620,061 1,613,793 1,609,787 1,582,296 1,570,608 1,553,730 1,535,817 1,509,802 1,428,955 1,359,294 1,355,227 1,303,800 1,230,697 1,218,970 1,213,594 1,189,651

Kodiac – Chibola (Roy)

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niarchos mares

A bloodstock recalibration

The Niarchos family is in the midst of restructing its Flaxman Holdings breeding empire, racing manager Alan Cooper chats to Daragh O’Conchuir about plans

I

T IS ARC WEEKEND so you might expect Alan Cooper to be speaking from Paris, at the arena in which Bago provided the Niarchos family and their racing manager with a lifetime peak by winning the autumn feature in 2004.

Instead, Cooper is in Ireland, having taken in an All-Weather meeting at Dundalk the night before.

Initial impressions are that it is a little off-piste at this time of the year for the British-based Cooper, who began his association with the heavyweight Niarchos/ Flaxman Holdings operation in 1984 as an assistant to Philip Payne-Gallwey, the bloodstock agent that the Greek shipping magnate Stavros Niarchos turned to when taking the first concerted steps towards establishing what would become a breeding and racing empire.

By the time Cooper joined the organisation, Nureyev had already been a headline purchase at $1.3m as a yearling in 1978 and after finishing first past the post in the 2000 Guineas two years later, the son of Northern Dancer would go on to be an exceptional stallion.

Ten-time Group 1-winning homebred Miesque was his greatest flagbearer and she continues to deliver, with in excess of 40 individual black-type winners amongst her descendants.

Astute distaff acquisitions would prove to be the cornerstone of what was to come and Stavros Niarchos with Nureyev

44

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niarchos mares what has endured, however. Miesque’s dam, Pasadoble, was amongst those, bought for just $45,000.

Cooper was only 25 when joining the expanding Niarchos business but he had a raft of experience already having worked at Goffs, as well as a number of studs around the world. His late father, Tom Cooper, was the first European bloodstock agent to make his presence felt in Keeneland and was co-founder of BBA Ireland, where Cooper’s brother Patrick is a director now.

Meanwhile, their sister Diana has worked for Darley/Godolphin for 30 years.

Their mother Valerie remains a regular at Irish racecourses, the popular owner-breeder only retiring last month after a lengthy stint as a steward at Listowel’s famed Harvest Festival.

C

OOPER took over the reins as Niarchos/Flaxman racing manager from Payne-Gallwey in 1987 and so oversaw most of Miesque’s globetrotting dominance, from France to Britain and finally, gloriously, in America’s Breeders’ Cup Mile, a race the pale and dark blue silks almost made their own for a period.

And, of course, he has steered the careers of so many of her heirs, continuing after Niarchos died in 1996 when his daughter Maria Niarchos-Gouazé assumed ultimate stewardship.

Apart from Miesque and Bago, Hernando, Light Shift, Divine Proportions, Six Perfections, Ulysses, Study Of Man, Maxios and Alpha Centauri are others to have flourished on the grandest stage.

Dundalk serves a vital role in Irish racing, but it is not where you expect to see racing royalty outside of trainers and habitants of the weighing room. The reasoning for the visit is sound, however, and the trip is rewarded as Gavin Ryan elicits a sterling response from the Donnacha O’Brientrained Piz Badile to score in the Listed Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Diamond Stakes.

It is a welcome return to the winners’ enclosure for last year’s Group 3 PW McGrath Memorial Ballysax Stakes victor,

It is not a dispersal

and the Niarchos family will be breeding next year and in the years to come who subsequently finished runner-up when Westover romped to Dubai Duty Free Irish Derby (G1) glory.

Cooper’s appearance and Piz Badile’s triumph also offer yet another reminder of the durability of the breeding lines begun

by Niarchos and Payne-Gallwey, as the lightly-raced four-year-old is a first-crop son of Ulysses and a fourth generation descendant of another foundation mare, Northern Trick.

“I was in Dundalk for a Listed race because we like the horse,” explains Cooper.

“He hadn’t won for a while, but he showed he was a very happy horse to win.

“His fourth dam was Northern Trick, who was the first Niarchos Classic winner I was associated with back in 1984 [landing the Prix de Diane]. That’s part of the great excitement of this, the continuity.

“Sometimes you see a family that died out and you wonder why?

“It’s just one of the many intriguing

factors of the industry. It’s not an exact science.

“I got a great kick out of Piz Badile winning because of that history.”

Clearly Cooper’s passion is still strong.

And that remains the case for the Niarchos family, too. This is business, of course, but for owner-breeders, there is a significant degree of emotion – dare one say it, nostalgia – when it comes to families; equine, and of course, the human ancestors who started it all.

Cooper emphasises, and re-emphasises under gentle interrogation, that nothing has changed in that regard, despite every broodmare in foal (who is not at or on the precipice of retirement age) being put on the market.

A draft of 41 going under the hammer at Goffs’ November Breeding Stock Sale includes the quadruple Group 1 star and Classic winner Alpha Centauri and other elite mares such as Alpine Star and Albigna.

Many of the mares are in-foal to red-hot stallions such as Frankel, Wootton Bassett and No Nay Never.

There will be further offerings at Tattersalls and Arqana.

Alan Cooper: the family’s racing manager since 1987

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niarchos mares “The family has decided to have a restructuring of the broodmares going forward.

“It is not a dispersal and the Niarchos family will be breeding next year and in the years to come,” says Cooper.

And that means they will be racing for a long time ahead under the Niarchos and Flaxman banners?

“Absolutely. They’ve got the racing stable, they’ve got the regular numbers of foals of 2023, they’ve got the yearlings of 2023, they’ve got the two-year-olds of 2023, all ongoing. That’s hopefully many years of having the colours on the racetrack.

“We’ve had some nice two-year-old winners, maiden winners to look forward to for next year,” he adds. “Piz Badile was good last night, Foniska trained by Jessica Harrington won the Listed race [the Navigation Stakes at Cork] during the week confirming her quality. We haven’t had a Group 1 winner this year, but the quality is there. As you well know, racing is very competitive and sometimes you can be the best and sometimes you’re the runner-up.”

A

N UNLUCKY third in the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes, Passenger didn’t stay in the Epsom Derby but the son of Ulysses landed Group 3 spoils on his return to 1m2f and is an exciting prospect for next year.

Sir Michael Stoute is an owner-breeder’s dream of a trainer in terms of having endless reservoirs of patience and lets a horse develop at its own pace rather than forcing matters.

“Sir Michael said he was a lovely horse and he wants to keep him fresh for next year,”reports Cooper. “He’s a 1m2f horse and wants good ground so there wasn’t another race to go for this year. But he really likes him.

“And again, there is so much history there.

Passenger’s fifth dam, Misinskie, was bought and raced for the family. Then we sold off a daughter of Misinskie [Aifan I] to Sheikh Hamdan and we bought back into the family with Pachattack, who had Dilmun who is Passenger’s dam. So again, it’s going back to

Photo courtesy of the Breeders’ Cup

families of the early 1980s.”

The current restructuring is centred on horses. The announcement seven months ago that the family was putting Haras de Fresnay-le Buffard up for sale is unrelated, owing more to the increasingly international

Above: Pipe Of Peace finishing third in the 2,000 Guineas behind Crepello.

The son of Supreme Court was a champion juvenile and was Niarchos’ first top horse Opposite: the nine-time Group and Grade 1 winner Miesque winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile in 1988 at Churchill Downs Below: Kingmambo going to post under Cash Asmussen in 1993 for the Prix Djebel

dimension of the business.

Horses bred at the historic farm in Normandy since it was bought by Stavros Niarchos from Marcel Boussac in 1979 have accumulated 45 European Classics and seven Breeders’ Cup victories.

www.internationalthoroughbred.net

47

niarchos mares Those Breeders’ Cups were particularly sweet, given the primacy the Niarchos patriarch and his daughter have placed on the self-styled world championships since their inauguration in 1984, not least by winning the Breeders’ Cup Mile six times.

“When the Breeders’ Cup was first conceived, as a much younger enthusiast, I was very much excited by the concept of a world championship,” says Cooper. “It’s always difficult in our business to have the link between horses who retire. You don’t have the champion horse running every year, but you have the championships to make the history. You’re joining the greats.

“It’s tremendous in my view now to see the Japanese interests adding to the international element and it’s all for the good of the breed.

“Stavros Niarchos was a friend of John Gaines, the main founder of the Breeders’ Cup and so he was a supporter from the very beginning. With the back-to-back successes of Miesque in the Mile that confirmed the family’s interest and we’ve tried to find suitable candidates. Of course, you don’t have them every year.”

F

REDDY HEAD navigating the François Boutin-trained Miesque to that scintillating double in 1987 and 1988 is clearly a highlight.

“You have your highs and lows in racing and breeding. There are too many to single out, but an example of a high and a low is Light Shift, who won the Oaks.

“She produced a filly, she produced Ulysses and then she had a paddock accident. You get hit by things like that, too.”

There is that reminder of that extra depth of feeling again that comes with having had stewardship over countless generations of the same family.

“It’s a hobby business, if you like, because it’s so much a pleasure for the family. We’re still working with descendants of good race fillies who were bought in the early 80s, such as Pasadoble, such as Northern Trick, such as Coup De Folie; those families are still producing 40 years later.

“Part of the pleasure is being able to see the generations. You cast your mind back to

48

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Top level success: trainer Jessica Harrington, Maria Niarchos-Gouazé, Electra Niarchos and Colm O’Donoghue after Alpha Centauri won the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2018

the third or fourth dam, and you see similarities or exceptions. It is great to have so many generations to work with.”

That there is the prospect of more to come is tremendous for the sport and the industry.

Meanwhile, Cooper is deriving as much enjoyment from it all as when he first joined the fold. Next year, he will celebrate the 40th anniversary of being brought onto the Niarchos team but as evidenced by the satisfaction he derived from Piz Badile delivering at Dundalk, he remains as committed as ever.

But then, seeing his mother holding court at the likes of Listowel or Naas, where her super mare Opera Hat, bought by son Tom, won nine times, it doesn’t come as a surprise.

As the Niarchos breeding outfit has shown, good genes count for a lot.

Valerie bred Woodland Opera from Opera Hat and enjoyed some notable success in joint ownership with Diana, and Carolyn Waters, who had also been joint-owner of Opera Hat, and in training with Jessica Harrington, sister of Opera Hat’s late trainer John Fowler.

It’s a hobby business, if you like,

because it’s so much a pleasure for the family Woodland Opera is now enjoying considerable success on the Racehorse to Riding Horse circuit “It was emotional for my mother when she retired as a steward. She has given so much of her life to it since my father died.

She’s really enjoyed it all. I gather she got a presentation at Listowel, which was lovely.

“Woodland Opera is giving my mother and Diana a lot of joy that he’s doing so well with Jamie Buckley. It’s absolutely brilliant.

“It is exciting that my mother, my brother, my sister and myself have been able to participate in this wonderful industry along with my father.

“Horses are great friends. They are also a great passport around the globe. There are so many countries you can go to and you’ll find a thoroughbred, somebody who knows somebody and a particular bloodline.

“I’ve made my life in it but I think this is a tremendous sport and industry.”

And who can argue with that?

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Lanwades bred/owned and Andrew Balding trained SANDRINE, now a Group winner at 2, 3 & 4 following her thrilling success in the Group 2 Park Stakes at Doncaster in 2023.

Two-year-old ALMOTAHED (GB) unbeaten winner of two races in Saudi Arabia so far winning £48,677 in prize money in 2023.

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moortown house stud

Joe and Edel Banahan: had a very special Goffs Orby Sale this autumn

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moortown house stud

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HEN JOE BANAHAN watched the price for his New Bay filly soar past the €400,000 mark at the Goffs Orby Sale earlier this month, it all became a bit too surreal, and he got lost in his own abyss for a couple of

Moor the merrier

Joe and Edel Banahan of Moortown House Stud enjoyed a fine Goffs Orby touch when selling their sole offering, a filly by New Bay out of their mare Coco Rouge, for the stud’s best-ever sale ring price of €480,000.

Ronan Groome chats to Joe, who breeds horses alongside his day job is as a race starter for IHRB

Photography by Laura Green

seconds.

The slam of the gavel, a clap on the back and a few congratulatory outstretched hands clicked him back into the room, and he soon became enveloped in a sense of pride he has never felt before. When the dust settled, it felt like everything he had done as a breeder up until that moment and everything he’d do after it was all worth it.

“We knew there was a lot of interest in her and, after the couple of days, we thought we might get a little more than we had initially hoped for,” reflected Banahan.

“Everything went to plan with her. You felt the interest was there. I thought maybe she might hit €300,000, which would have been incredible, but you never know, do you?

“She went past that mark and it was like rapid fire, the bidding just took off. When she got to €400,000 you just go numb. The hairs stood up on the back of my neck. I said, to myself, ‘This is our animal in the ring. We created this animal!’

“I got a bit of a tingle all right. It was an unbelievable feeling.”

The sale of the sixth foal, a filly by New Bay, out of his mare Coco Rouge was easily the biggest touch landed by Moortown House Stud, which is based just outside Navan, County Meath. The farm is run by Banahan and his wife Edel, having previously been developed into a stud farm by Joe’s parents Percy and Elaine.

Their operation is small and select because it has to be. Banahan has worked for the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board for 25 years and his job as a race starter requires him to travel the length and breadth of the country. There are only so many hours in the day and consequentially, so many mares at home, where Edel also plays an integral role.

Like plenty of small scale breeders their budget for prospective broodmares is comparatively very low and so they’ve already defied huge odds in breeding a filly that, at a sales price of €480,000, was the eighth highest-priced lot sold at the Orby Sale.

Of course, luck played a part, but if there are two things that describe the Banahan operation, it’s attention to detail and patience, and in this case those characteristics paid off in spades.

“I had Coco Rouge picked out before I went over to Newmarket,” recalls Banahan when remembering

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moortown house stud

“...we’re happy to stay as small as we are, you get to have that unique touch.

Our goal is always be to have our horses looking nicer than the fella next door at the sales

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how he came to buy the daughter of Shamardal. “She is a half-sister to Jacqueline Quest, who was first past the post in the 1,000 Guineas, but was demoted in the stewards’ room. Coco Rouge won a maiden for James Fanshawe and we got her for £17,000.

“When we first started going to Newmarket, you’d have numerous mares to choose from for a €15,000 budget but the market exploded, and it is four or five times that price now. There were stints when we came home with nothing.

“So now we’ve adjusted to buying a mare in the hope you can make something happen for her.

We like a young mare who has a bit of black-type in the first dam, and enough class to warrant her to go to reasonable sires. Coco Rouge fitted that bill.

“It didn’t happen for her early on and, to be honest, we were probably getting close to the stage where you’d have to sell her on and cut your losses. But we really liked what we saw in her daughter You Send Me and it would have been foolish to have sold the mare until we had seen what this filly could do.”

You Send Me, sold for 100,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 2 2021 and now trained by Fozzy Stack, didn’t appear on the racecourse until September 2022 when a 10l fifth in a Curragh maiden. It didn’t look anything really special, but it was a game-changer for Banahan.

“She fell out of the stalls, finished fifth, probably should have been fourth, but the weakness caught her out,” he recalls. “Everything about the run said she was going to improve something fierce and she was going to be a very good filly the following year.

“The next week they gave her an entry in the Irish 1,000 Guineas. At the time we had the New Bay filly entered in the foal sales, but we just thought that we should really hold on to her and roll the dice to sell her as a yearling. It was well worth the risk.”

That decision immediately started to look better by the day. Bay Bridge and Bayside Boy further enhanced New Bay’s reputation with Group 1 wins on British Champions Day the following month, while early this season You Send Me bolted up in a Cork maiden, before finishing second in the Group 3 Amethyst and fifth in the Irish 1,000 Guineas.

Most importantly, the New Bay filly herself developed into a stunning individual and the potential is clearly there for her to make up into a top-class filly.

With the one filly on the track already a Group 1 performer and another lovely filly to race for the farm next season, Banahan’s dream of breeding a Group 1 winner is very much alive. That quest began all of 34 years ago when he bred his first yearling.

“I used to rent a flat off a woman named Mrs Cuddy in a place down on The Curragh,” he recalls.

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“Her husband was a developer in England and he made a lot of money. He had horses with Liam Browne, who trained two Moyglare Stakes winners for him.

“When he passed away, Mrs Cuddy wanted to off-load the horses and one of them was a half-sister to one of the Moyglare winners called Royaltess. I knew the pedigree well enough and so offered her IR£5,000 and she was happy enough to sell.

“Sadler’s Wells was all the rage at the time and he had a full-brother called Fairy King, who raced just once. I went down to see him and thought he looked exactly like Sadler’s Wells, so I took a chance on him for IR£5,000.

“Luckily, I got a colt foal. My parents helped me to prep him and I took him to Goffs for the foal sale.

I didn’t have a clue what I had. Philip Myerscough had bred Fairy King so he came down to have a look at this foal. He came back 20 minutes later with none other than Vincent O’Brien himself.

“Vincent had just retired from training; I couldn’t believe it. Here was the maestro himself, spending 20 minutes looking at my first-ever foal. They ended up buying him for IR£18,000. I thought I’d won the lotto! I was hooked forever more after that, addicted to it.”

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OE AND EDEL married in 1995 and around the same time bought a mare called Chaturanga, the first foal out of 1990 Pretty Polly winner Game Plan. She was a wonderful mare and provided a number of nice touches, including a Footstepsinthesand colt bought by John Magnier for €160,000.

Once Banahan began his own quest into bloodstock, he was able to develop his parents’ breeding interest further and, uniquely, they benefited off each other.

“My parents bought Moortown House in 1981,” he recalls. “They always had a mare or two, but one was worse than the other.

“After I’d been to Newmarket, I told them they had to go over, that it was a different world.

“My mother got a bit of inheritance from her parents and we went over to the Tattersalls December Sale and they bought the first-ever foal out of Al Bahatari, a Dancing Brave filly called Almaaseh.

“She was an incredible mare for them. The very first foal that she had was the top-rated Irish two-yearold, a horse called Almaty, trained by Con Collins and owned by Peter Savill. As a result of that horse they were able to go to some of the best sires around.

“She bred a Peintre Celebre filly called Artisia, who produced Red Cadeaux, who earned over €5 million,

moortown house stud and she bred Miss Brown To You (Fasliyev), who bred Big Orange.

“She had a lovely Galileo filly who was heading to the Houghton Sale, but she got injured. As a result Coolmore let the mare into Oratorio at a reduced fee. The resulting foal only sold okay but he was subsequently bought to race in Hong Kong and was champion out there – Military Attack.

“My parents had the best part of 15 years of huge excitement and enjoyment out of that. That mare was basically the only one they had, they didn’t need any more.”

Both Banahan’s parents have passed away but they left him and Edel with a base in Moortown and a really unique sense of pride when it comes to rearing and prepping foals.

“My parents always wanted to fly their own flag,” Banahan says. “They did the work themselves and they never had anybody else; they took the mare to stud, foaled them down, prepped them for the sales; they were in for the long haul.

“Myself and Edel do the exact same thing. You have to say you’d be very proud of what Moortown House has done. We take great satisfaction out of producing a nice horse at the sales so there is a lot to selling your own product.

“That would be one of the reasons we’re happy to stay as small as we are, you get to have that unique touch. Our goal is always be to have our horses looking nicer than the fella next door at the sales.”

The Banahans have five mares on the books at the moment, and the breeder says that is an absolute max.

“We take great satisfaction out of producing a nice horse at the sales so there is a lot to selling your own product

The Banahans did not to sell their New Bay filly as a foal and rolled the dice on the back of You Send Me: they were rewarded to the tune of €480,000

Photo courtesy of ITM | Alex Cairns

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moortown house stud

“The dream we’ve always had has been two-fold – to produce a yearling for €1 million and produce a Group 1 winner.

A tall order!

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They will still travel to Newmarket for the Tattersalls December Mare Sale for as much of a social occasion as anything else, while the exciting task of going to see the new stallions in the new year is always something they look forward to.

In the spring, Banahan is heading to Saudi Arabia, to start the races for the two-day Saudi Cup meeting, which he considers a huge privilege.

“I’ve been with the IHRB/Turf Club for 25 years now,” he says of the day job. “I did all everything you could think of on track before taking up the role of a full-time starter 15 years ago.

“I suppose the job has changed a lot since then.

There is now a lot more scrutiny and pressure, and starting races isn’t an exact science.

“But I like the job – it’s great to be able to travel around the country to work with different people.

“I couldn’t work in an office, the monotony of it! And the horses are a great release when I come home.”

Coco Rouge has a Space Blues filly on the ground and is in-foal to Starspangledbanner. There is much to look forward to.

“We’re hoping for fillies now and thank god we have one by Space Blues,” Banahan says. “If we got another filly by Starspangledbanner, we’ll have to seriously consider keeping one of them – it would be lovely to keep the family going. The dream we’ve always had has been two-fold – to produce a yearling for €1 million and produce a Group 1 winner. A tall order!

“But you have to believe it is going to happen because if you didn’t believe it, you wouldn’t do it.

“The New Bay filly gives us a chance. If she goes on to become a top racehorse, we have her progeny coming along behind. It’s a huge ask, but it’s what we strive for.”

Banahan: although he also works as a full-time race starter he and Edel are both very much hands-on with the horses

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maywood stud The icing on the cake: Vandeek wins his second Group 1, the Middle Park Stakes, with first-time jockey James Doyle

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maywood stud

Kelly Thomas of Maywood Stud has had a summer to remember as breeder of this year’s star juvenile Vandeek. She explains how she made the decision to cover his dam with Havana Grey, recalls raising and selling him as a foal, and outlines the joy of watching him as a Group 1 winner

Van the man

By James Thomas

T

HERE IS MORE than one way to breed a good horse. Some invest millions on blue-chip stallion nominations, top-class broodmare prospects and high-end infrastructure.

Others roll their sleeves up, work hard with what they’ve got and hope that hands-on attention to detail will help turn base metal into solid gold. Kelly Thomas fits firmly into the latter category.

Thomas keeps just five broodmares at her Maywood Stud in Carmarthenshire, and one of those, Mosa Mine, bought back for £800, visited Havana Grey when the Whitsbury Manor Stud resident was still unheralded during his second season on covering duty.

The result was the outstanding, unbeaten dual Group 1-winning juvenile Vandeek.

Producing a Group 1 winner had been a long-held ambition, although Thomas admits she rather fell into thoroughbred breeding after “failing miserably” during further education.

“After my A levels my Mum found me an equine course to do at college,” she says.

“Having not been the most academic, not through lack of ability but more lack of commitment, I became an almost perpetual student. As soon as I found an area of study I enjoyed, I put all that behind me.”

Like so many reluctant pupils before and since, Thomas found learning about horses an altogether more engaging experience.

She graduated from Aberystwyth University with a masters degree in equine Breeder Kelly Thomas of Maywood Stud

science. During her studies she underwent a formative experience on placement at Howard and Monica Joyce’s Pantaquesta Stud, breeders of the 1995 Stewards’ Cup scorer Shikari’s Son. “I looked after the place for them during my term there and fell in love with one of the mares specifically,” recalls Thomas. “Risalah, a daughter of Marju, was quite young and pretty spirited, but that’s what I liked about her and I used to joke that one day she’d be mine.”

When the Joyces decided to call time on their breeding career, they knew where to turn with Risalah.

“They approached my parents in the place where all the best deals are made, in the local pub!” Thomas continues.

“They said if you want her you can have her, but you have to buy her now otherwise you’ll have to buy the mare and foal, because she was fairly close to her due date.

“We bought her without a second thought. She was in-foal to Compton Place and I took the resulting colt to the December Foal Sales, made a small profit and was basically hooked from there.”

At this stage Thomas had limited involvement in racing, joking that her riding horse, an ex-racer

nicknamed the “Newmarket Reject”, was as close as she’d got.

“I didn’t really have any involvement in racing, bar going to the odd point-to-point,” she says. “I just enjoyed horses in general and didn’t have a connection to racing until we started breeding. It’s been a steep learning curve but an enjoyable one, and we’re still learning all the time.”

In due course Thomas moved from the family small-holding to the acreage that now

Photo by Laura Green

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She is the full-time team, but says her parents, Barbara and Andrew, husband Huw, and three children Jessica (14), Holly (12) and Siôn (7) all pitch in to help keep the wheels turning.

The Vandeek story began in earnest back in 2005 with the purchase of grand-dam Baldemosa, who was carrying to Diktat when she was picked up through Mead Goodbody at 12,000gns. Thomas says it feels like things have come full circle in some ways – Baldemosa was offered by Gainsborough Stud Management, while Vandeek is now in training at Simon and Ed Crisford’s Gainsborough Stables.

B

ALDEMOSA’s first mating after joining Thomas’s broodmare band was with Exceed And Excel during his first stint at Dalham Hall Stud.

The resulting foal, bred at a fee of just £7,500, was Mosa Mine, the dam of Vandeek.

Mosa Mine was sold to David Brown as a £9,000 yearling. Although she showed ability for Brown and a few other trainers, she retired from racing as a maiden.

“She was a beautiful foal and a lovely

Photo by Laura Green

Vandeek as a foal at home: Thomas’s family-run Maywood Stud is near Pencader in Carmarthenshire

yearling and I suppose we can be a little bit sentimental about our own horses,” says Thomas. “To have a filly back out of the family was an easy decision to make so we bought her back for £800 after my Dad paid

At the Tattersalls December Foal Sale he was bought by Childwickbury Stud for 52,000gns

Photo courtesy of Tattersalls

Jill Lamb to go to Doncaster to buy her.”

Not only did Thomas spend just £800 on buying Mosa Mine back, she didn’t spend a fortune when she sent the mare to Havana Grey in the rising star’s second season at Whitsbury Manor Stud, when his fee was just £6,500.

Thomas says she routinely “does her own head in” assembling the “jigsaw puzzle” of mating plans, but the decision to send Mosa Mine to Havana Grey was actually the result of landing on another covering sire for a different mare altogether.

Another of the stud’s accomplished producers Frabjous, dam of Zoffany’s first stakes winner Argentero, helped make a “dream come true” when Ed Harper agreed to a Showcasing foal share arrangement.

As luck would have it, the same arrangement also helped bring Vandeek into the world.

“Ed suggested that as part of the deal with the foal share to Showcasing we sent something to Havana Grey,” Thomas says.

“Ed told me they’d rolled the red carpet out for Havana Grey and supported him heavily, and his faith in the horse was infectious. It suited us to use him but we

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maywood stud Childwickbury Stud for 52,000gns at the Tattersalls December Foal Sales was a fruitful transaction, albeit one that prompted slightly mixed emotions.

“It was a great result, apart from the fact I didn’t want to sell him at all!” she says.

“People have asked me if I thought he’d be a superstar and I really thought he was going to be good. I didn’t know how good, but I knew he had all the qualities that I hope to breed into a foal. I was very reluctant to sell him but another of ours didn’t sell that year so we had to let him go. And, considering what we paid for the covering, 52,000gns wasn’t to be sniffed at.”

Photo courtesy of Childwickbury Stud

At the December Yearling Sale he was purchased by Glending Stables for 42,000gns to breeze

just had to choose which mare.”

Mosa Mine was selected and on April 19 the following year Vandeek was born. Were Thomas not so eagle-eyed she could so easily have missed the moment.

“Mosa Mine was about 16 days overdue,” she recalls. “She’d been in her stable overnight and under the cameras. She’d just gone out to her paddock and I was about to take the children to school, which is only a mile away so I wouldn’t have been long.

“I took one last glance at her as I was heading out of the driveway and she gave one slight movement of her leg and a flick of her tail and I said ‘I’m not going’ and told my husband he’d have to take the children to school instead. By the time he’d come back from dropping the children off, Vandeek was half out.”

Reflecting on what the young Vandeek was like, Thomas says, “He was quite a big foal but he was lovely. He was sweet and all our foals are handled a lot. We love to cuddle them and he was as cuddly as any of the others. We weren’t really sure what to make of him as a young foal because he had these long legs and not a lot else but, after weaning and during his prep for the sales, he really

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kicked on and you could see that the top half of him was starting to catch up.”

Thomas says that selling Vandeek to

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HOMAS CREDITS Sally Flatt from Childwickbury with doing a fine job raising Vandeek from foal to yearling, and still can’t understand how he only realised 42,000gns at his next sale venue.

However, his third appearance at public auction proved much more profitable as Roderic Kavanagh’s Glending Stables jointly topped the Craven Breeze-Up Sale when Vandeek was bought by Anthony Stroud for 625,000gns.

In action on the Rowley Mile: the colt reportedly posted the fastest two-furlong time in his breeze Photo courtesy of Tattersalls and by Laura Green

maywood stud Photo courtesy of Tattersalls and by Laura Green

The son of Havana Grey sold late in the Craven Sale, but made 625,000gns, a joint top-price, bought by Anthony Stroud on behalf of KHK Racing

Vandeek sold exactly two years after he was foaled, and three months later he was sent off evens favourite for his racecourse debut at Nottingham. Although he dwelt markedly in the stalls, he came home three-quarters of a length to the good.

Thomas has been with Vandeek virtually every step of the way, but watched this particular performance from her car after a family outing to the park.

“We were blown away, especially because he’d been half asleep in the stalls,” she says.

“My daughter and I were sitting in the car and watching it on the phone and we were like ‘Oh my god!’”

Things quickly got serious as Vandeek reappeared less than a fortnight later and duly landed the Group 2 Richmond Stakes with the minimum of fuss. Thomas wasn’t about to watch this effort from a car park.

“I didn’t feel terribly pressured that day at Goodwood,” she says. “I was just hoping to see him learn from the mistakes he’d made in his first race. We’ve had a horse run in a

People have asked me if I thought he’d be a superstar and I really thought he was going to be good

Group 3 before but I was determined to be at Goodwood. It was a brilliant day, and to follow that up so quickly at Deauville, it was an absolute whirlwind.”

Seventeen days after Goodwood, Vandeek lined up in a red-hot renewal of the Group 1 Prix Morny against the likes of Elite Status, Jasour, River Tiber and Valiant Force.

As the field entered the final furlong it looked as though the French-trained favourite Ramatuelle had got first run, but, with the post looming, Vandeek

noticeably dropped his head, knuckled down and prevailed by a short neck. It was a performance that proved he had the attitude to match his ability.

“They do seem to have the mentality in this family,” says Thomas. “Baldemosa was very independent and very determined, and I loved that in her. The family are all the same and they tend to have a fair amount of spark.

“They’re all very kind horses but they all have that will to win and the desire to have their head in front. The female line has bred that into them for years, and the faith that it will keep doing that is what’s kept me breeding from the family.”

The breeder may not have been surprised to see Vandeek show the will to win, but being in France to witness that Group 1 success first hand was an altogether more overwhelming experience.

“I was thinking ‘He’s going to be runnerup, second in a Group 1 is brilliant’,” says Thomas. “All of a sudden he stuck his head down in the last three strides and got to the

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maywood stud line in front. We were jumping up and down and my Mum was screaming her head off, then I just crumpled into a heap between everybody. I was crying and completely breathless because it was such a release.

It was the most amazing moment.”

Thomas was invited to join connections on the Deauville podium to collect her breeders’ trophy, but between a communication breakdown and being far too modest to actively go looking for the limelight, she remained among the paying racegoers giving her applause to the owner and trainers.

“We couldn’t understand what they were saying as it was all in French and we didn’t have badges to go into the paddock because we’d just paid our way in, so we didn’t hear them mention the breeders’ prize,” she says. “Laura Green, the photographer, was working there and told us there was a trophy that the lads had taken to the stables. We got it back and had our picture taken on the podium eventually. We also went down the stables and saw Vandeek after the race, gave him a big cuddle and fed him some of his

It’s very surreal

and difficult to put into words because it just means everything dinner out of the trophy, as you do!”

Those are clearly treasured memories for Thomas, and Vandeek added yet another Group 1-winning chapter to the tale as he remained unbeaten in the prestigious Middle Park Stakes. His fourth outing was his most polished yet, travelling with notable enthusiasm behind the pace before exploding through a gap a furlong out.

He quickened out of the Dip to score by a decisive two-and-a-quarter lengths.

“I was much more nervous that time because he’d already made it to the top and the question then was could he stay there?” says Thomas. “It started off feeling like

Above, the first stakes success in Goodwood’s Group 2 Richmond Stakes, and, below, his Group 1 debut in France was a winning one in the Prix Morny

Photo by Laura Green

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maywood stud everything was a bonus, but once you’ve won a Group 1 you want them to stay at that level.

That turn of foot really is electric.”

Reflecting on reaching the pinnacle of thoroughbred breeding, Thomas says, “I didn’t know a huge amount about racing when I started, everything has been picked up along the way, but when you see other people having success, then you want a part of it yourself!

“I wanted to breed a Group 1 winner by the time I was 40. I didn’t quite manage that, but I did breed one well before I’m 50. It’s very surreal and difficult to put into words because it just means everything. You just wonder if you’ll ever be able to do it again.

“In my bones I feel like it could happen again, and that’s the reason we keep going.”

Photo courtesy of Maywood Stud

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ANDEEK possesses the physical scope to provide his breeder with more big days, although Thomas expects that sprinting will be his metier, which chimes with connections’ suggestion that the Commonwealth Cup is likely to be his early target in 2024.

Thomas also brings three lots to this year’s December Foal Sales, and while any of the trio could potentially be the next Vandeek, it is his half-brother by Starspangledbanner who will undoubtedly attract the most attention. His breeder says she has already seen the similarities between the siblings.

“This chap really is cut from the same cloth, but is a bit further along than Vandeek was at this stage of his development,” she says. “He has a great attitude to life and has that same desire to have his head in front that Vandeek has – whenever I take the quad bike out to give them their meals on wheels, he’s always in front. I have no doubt that he’ll make into a very nice horse.”

There is no simple recipe for success when it comes to breeding top-class racehorses, but when you consistently apply high levels of care, unwavering commitment and a deep understanding of your stock, you can’t go too far wrong.

Given she seems to be bringing an abundance of those elements to the mix, here’s betting Vandeek isn’t the last good horse that Thomas produces.

Vandeek’s little brother by Starspangledbanner is Lot 961 at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale

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Starspangledbanner ex Awohaam (Iffraaj)

NEW FOR 2024

Brilliant Gr.1 2yo sprinter

Broke his maiden in the Listed First Flier Stakes at the Curragh Followed up with an effortless win in the Gr.3 Marble Hill Stakes “It's not often you see someone taking a pull a furlong out. He's very straightforward, has a great constitution, bounces out of his races & is uncomplicated.” trainer, Fozzy Stack after the Gr.3 Marble Hill

Close runner-up in the Gr.1 Middle Park Stakes when denied a clear run

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A SIRE LINE NOT TO BE MISSED! Danzig - Danehill - Choisir - Starspangledbanner - CASTLE STAR By proven Gr.1 sire Starspangledbanner Out of a half-sister to Gr.3 Pinnacle Stakes winner & Gr.1 E. P. Taylor Stakes-placed Moment In Time From the immediate family of Gr.1 Dewhurst & Gr.1 2000 Guineas winner Chaldean His grandam is by MACHIAVELLIAN - damsire of Mehmas, Dark Angel, Shamardal etc.

Darragh McCarthy +353 (0) 87 670 0758

Ger O’Neill +353 (0) 86 384 4560

Jerry Horan +353 (0) 87 416 1729

Joe Sinnott + 353 (0) 87 644 7223

bloodstock sales

Now then and Jocelyn de Moubray assesses 25 years of bloodstock business He reviews price movements for international buyers in dollar terms, the growing influence of sire power, which has seen stallion owners become the real winners, and the ever-reducing distance of European stakes races

T

WENTY-FIVE YEARS is a long time in any business, and particularly so for the world of bloodstock sales where the names on catalogue pages are always changing.

The most sought after stallions at the yearling sales of 1998 have long since disappeared and, if like Sadler’s Wells they are still in pedigrees, it is these days likely to be in the third generation. Some things, however, seem to stay the same.

In 1998, the top two yearling sales at Tattersalls were the Houghton and then the October Sale and at the two combined sales 1,006 yearlings were sold for 55 million guineas at an average price of 55,000gns and the two biggest buyers were the Coolmore partnership and Godolphin.

Move forward 25 years and 1,017 yearlings were sold at this year’s Tattersalls October Book 1 and Book 2 sales for just over 149 million guineas and an average price of 146,876gns.The biggest buyers were the Coolmore partnership and Godolphin.

Do these figures mean there has been a significant rise in prices over this period and the value of bloodstock?

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.. for those buyers whose income is in sterling, prices at the top of the yearling market have indeed risen significantly Have the prices really gone up?

Once you have factored in inflation – very slight until 2008 and rising since – and the decline of sterling, the value of the yearlings sold at the Tattersalls’ top yearling sales has changed very little, at least for international buyers.

Few of the major buyers in either 1998 or 2023 receive income in sterling and it makes sense to put bloodstock prices into US dollars, which is still the major international reserve currency.

Over this 25-year period sterling’s value has declined by 25 per cent against the dollar

and 16 per cent against the euro, it has not recovered from the post-Brexit fall in 2016.

During the same time span cumulative inflation in Britain has been 18 per cent.

So, in today’s US dollar value, turnover at the two Tattersalls sales of 1998 was $180 million. With the same number sold we are looking at about $190 million this year, or an advance of five per cent over a 25-year period.

In dollar terms there was a significant rise in the value of yearlings sold at Newmarket between 1998 and 2007 when the combined turnover at October Book 1 and Book 2 reached $300 million, but since then inflation, the financial crisis of 2008, the covid year of 2020 and the decline of sterling, 40 per cent against the dollar between 2007 and 2023, has seen real values fall. The top of the market has dropped by more than 15 per cent on three different occasions in 2008, 2020 and again in 2023.

At the same time for those buyers whose income is in sterling, prices at the top of the yearling market have indeed risen significantly.

Once you have put the 1998 figures into 2023 sterling, the rise in the turnover and

bloodstock sales

In 1998 Caerleon stood at the equivalent to €130,000, while Sadler’s Wells’ fee was €215,000 – they were the only sires standing for six-figure sums

average price at Tattersalls’ two major yearling sales progressed by 165 per cent or an average of seven per cent a year, which has to be one of the reasons there are so few domestic buyers in Britain at the top of the yearling market.

Such a progression in prices in real terms suggests that this has been a golden period for commercial breeders, however, the real winners from these trends lie elsewhere as becomes clear when you factor in changes in the stallion market.

I looked at two different ways to measure how the stallion market has changed between the yearling sales in 1998 and those of 2022.

In 1998, the stallions with the most yearlings on offer at auction were Barathea, Sadler’s Wells, Caerleon, Cadeaux Genereux,

Grand Lodge, Indian Ridge, Common Grounds and Night Shift.

Of these only two, Sadler’s Wells at €215,000 and Caerleon at €130,000, stood at the equivalent of more than €100,000 in current euro prices.

Between them these eight sires, all with 27 or more yearlings catalogued, had a total of 302 yearlings in the catalogue, 13 per cent of the total of 2,300 yearlings offered in Britain and Ireland in 1998.

The average covering fee of these sires in current euros was €60,000 and they had an average of 38 yearlings each.

...these eight sires had a total of 302 yearlings

in the catalogue, 13 per cent of the total of 2,300 yearlings offered in Britain and Ireland in 1998 The outlier and sire who pointed the way to the future was Yeomanstown Stud’s Common Grounds, who had 63 yearlings from his second crop entered in sales.

Fast forward to the 2022 yearling sales and the sires with the most yearlings catalogued were Galileo, Sea The Stars, Dark Angel, Kodiac, Lope De Vega, Zoffany, Showcasing, Iffraaj, Muhaarar and Fast Company. They had a total of 878 yearlings or 22 per cent of

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69

FIRST

S

YEARLING

2024

UBETTABELIEVEIT

MASSAAT

KODIAC – LADY LISHANDRA (MUJADIL) Fee: £5,000 1st Oct S.L.F

TEOFILO - MADANY (ACCLAMATION) Fee: £3,000 1st Oct S.L.F

By KODIAC - World Record Holder for 2-y-o winners, Champion European Sire of 2-y-os 2020, Sire of emerging young sires Ardad, Prince of Lir, Coulsty and Kodi Bear, all Gr.1 producers

By Teofilo, sire of 15 Gr.1 winners

UBETTABELIEVEIT – 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.

UBETTABELIEVEIT

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 include LR Pat Eddery Stakes Placed Mascapone, US Stakes-Performer Mas Rapido, Docklands (Royal Ascot winner), Coco Jamboo (3 wins), Granny Budgie (3 wins) Yearlings sold for £45,000, £44,000, £43,000, etc.

MASCAPONE Enquiries: Richard Kent T: 079 73 315722 • E: mickleystud@btconnect.com • www.mickleystud.co.uk Or Clare Lloyd Tel: 07875 673260 email: richard@mickleystud.co.uk

bloodstock sales Twenty-five years ago the bloodstock market was deep into its Sadler’s Wells era and 1998 was another year that saw the Coolmore sire top the Houghton Sale leading sires’ list by aggregate with sales totalling over $7 million In 1999, the sire’s gross at the sale was over $11 million and by 2000 that figure had reached $15 million.

The priciest horse sold at the Houghton Sale in 1998 was by Nureyev and out of the Riverman mare Go Solo, while Columbus

by Sadler’s Wells and out of Northern Script, sold by Camas Park Stud and bought by Demi O’Byrne, was Sadler’s Wells’s most expensive horse of that year.

The big winners in the bloodstock business over the last 25 years have been stallion owners – not only have fees increased by around 70 per cent in real terms but the number of live foals produced has

the total of 4,000 yearlings offered.

The ten sires averaged 90 yearlings and had an average price in current euros of €100,000.

By this measure real prices of popular sires rose by 67 per cent over the period, while the number of yearlings offered by them rose by 140 per cent. It suggests that the income for stallion owners has increased by something like 200 per cent in real terms, or an average annual increase of eight per cent in real terms.

The stallions with the most representatives sold at the 1998 Tattersalls Houghton Sale were Rainbow Quest, Green Desert, Polish Precedent, Fairy King, Machiavellian, Sadler’s Wells, Caerleon, Barathea, Cadeaux Genereux, Indian Ridge and Night Shift, all of whom had at least seven yearlings sold.

Aside from Sadler’s Wells and Caerleon the most expensive of these were Rainbow

It suggests that the income for stallion owners has increased by something like 200 per cent in real terms Quest and Machiavellian, who stood at the equivalent of €70,000 in current terms.

The average covering fee of these sires was €75,000 in current terms.

In 2022, the sires with the most yearlings sold at October 1, all of whom had 17 or more sold, were Blue Point, Too Darn Hot, Dubawi, Frankel, Siyouni, Kingman, Lope De Vega, No Nay Never, Sea The Stars and Night of Thunder.

Of these seven, Dubawi, Frankel, Siyouni, Kingman, Lope De Vega, No Nay Never and Sea The Stars stood at six-figure fees and the average price in current euros was €130,000.

And so, by the measure of the most successful sires in the select sale, covering

fees rose by 73 per cent in real terms and the number of products on offer increased significantly, too.

Whichever way you assess it, the last 25 years has been a golden period for the owners of the most popular stallions.

Not only have average covering fees gone up by about 70 per cent in real terms, but the number of live foals produced by each of these stallions has also increased by about 150 per cent.

There have been crises following outside events such as the financial crisis and the covid pandemic, but very few alternative investments outside the bloodstock world could begin to match this return.

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71

bloodstock sales a year in real terms while stallion fees have risen by three per cent, the real winners have been the stallion owners, as well, of course, as the sales companies.

For stallion owners the major problem is securing future sire prospects, while for commercial breeders the risks and capital outlay required to compete at the top level have climbed significantly.

The most popular stallions are more expensive, and because each is likely to have at least 90 products in the yearling sales,

for commercial breeders the risks and capital outlay required to compete at the top level have climbed significantly How many other commodities have seen their price rise by 70 per cent in real terms and the volume of business more than double over the last 25 years?

There are commercial breeders who have prospered over this period, which has seen the value of yearlings rise by seven per cent

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securing a nomination to a popular sire is no guarantee of a return on the investment.

How the numbers have grown

In numbers alone the bloodstock business has grown over the last 25 years with the peak coming in 2008 before the financial crisis.

In 1997 there were 6,026 foals born in Britain and Ireland destined to race on the Flat. Of these 1,568 (26 per cent) were offered for sale as foals, 2,356 (39 per cent) as yearlings and 331 (5.5 per cent) as two-year-olds.

These figures do give an idea, but, of

bloodstock sales course, some were offered more than once and some of those offered at British and Irish sales were born in France, the US or elsewhere.

In 2019, 8,771 Flat-destined foals were born in Britain and Ireland of which 1,566 were offered for sale as foals (18 per cent), 3,972 as yearlings (45 per cent) and 688 (7.8 per cent) as two-year-olds.

Over this period the number offered for sale rose by about 50 per cent, and while a smaller proportion were offered as foals, the percentage of foals offered for sale as yearlings or two-year-olds increased.

The Flat foal crop rose by 16 per cent in Britain and by 76 per cent in Ireland, while

The Prix du Jockey-Club of 2005 was the first shortened version of the Classic and was won by Shamardal.

Many European middle-distance stakes races have been lost from the calendar completely.

The proportion of Group 1 races run in Britain over 1m2f or more has dropped from 59 per cent to 45 per cent

the number of races rose by 46 per cent in Britain and by 75 per cent in Ireland.

An increasing Pattern but in decreasing distance

This dramatic increase in the number of races run in Ireland and Britain also included an expansion of the number of Group races.

In Ireland there were 36 group races in 2000, five per cent of the total number of races; in 2021 this has grown to a total of 73 group races, 5.9 per cent of the total.

In Britain, the proportion of all races which are group races has remained unchanged at 2.5 per cent, but this, of course, means that in 2021 there were 160 group races up from 110 in 2000.

It has never been fully explained – in whose interest has this expansion of group races supposed to be for?

These races are used to select the best horses and, to some degree, determine the value of untried horses, as well as of breeding stock. The number of group races is important as an expansion gives more opportunities for horses to gain the status of black-type in sales catalogues, which is supposed to be a standard of quality.

The balance between different types of races, for two and three-year-olds or older horses, as well as the distance they are run over, will also have an effect on values and demand at yearling and breeding stock sales.

There is no obvious reason why more races should mean more group races, after all there is no international benchmark of the relation between the two.

In Britain, 2.5 per cent of all races are group races, in Ireland it is 5.9 per cent and in Japan there are only 129 group races, which represents 0.8 per cent of all races.

For British group races to be as competitive and of a similar quality to those in Japan the number would have to be divided by three – if there were only 55 group races a year you can be sure they would attract large competitive fields!

In Ireland the balance between the different age groups and distances has remained broadly the same as the number of group races has grown.

The most obvious change has been the fall

in the number of group races for three-yearolds alone over 1m2f or further.

No doubt in in an attempt to maintain competitive fields, many have been opened up to older horses. It means that the proportion of group races for three-year-olds alone over 1m2f or further has gone from 30 per cent to only nine per cent.

In Britain, there have been more fundamental changes in group races.

Of the races for three-year-olds and upwards over 1m2f or further, the proportion has gone from 50 per cent (42 of the 84 group races for three-year-olds and upwards) to 59 of the 124 in 2021, which is 46 per cent.

For Group 1 races, those which are likely to give the winners a chance at stud, the changes have been greater.

The proportion of Group 1 races over 1m2f or further has dropped from 59 per cent in 2000 to 45 per cent in 2021, while that of races over less than a mile has increased from 14 per cent in 2000 to 23 per cent in 2021.

The decline in the proportion of group races run over 1m2f or further has been reflected in the market for untried horses, and in the type of stallions likely to attract strong support when they first retire to stud.

Market correction?

Few predicted that the market would be down at this year’s Tattersalls October Book 1 and 2 sales and so the question has to be asked whether this is a one-off or whether it is likely to mark the beginning of a larger correction?

This has happened before, even if few of those trading today were active in the 1980s, when the market lost around 40 per cent of its value in three years after reaching a peak in 1984.

This was a correction due to internal factors rather than the fall in equine values following the financial crisis of 2008 or the covid pandemic of 2020.

In general terms, any market will fall if there are more people who wish to sell at the current price than those who wish to buy.

Those who are concerned about future trends have to assess whether or not the bloodstock market has reached this point.

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73

machine learning

Model M

behaviour

ODEL STACKING is a machine-learning technique that combines the predictions of multiple models to make a better forecast.

Imagine you have a group of bloodstock agents who are all trying to predict if a yearling is potentially an elite racehorse.

Each agent will have their own unique perspective and will take their own view (let’s say a score from 1 to 100).

If you took the average of the independent predictions of all the experts, you will get a better prediction than any individual expert could make.

Model stacking works in a similar way.

We train multiple models – some that are based on video recognition and some on image recognition – on the same dataset.

Each model will learn different patterns in the data and will make its own prediction.

Some models will be very precise (they have a high-strike rate for the ones they like, but miss a lot of good horses), while others will have higher recall (they like more of the good horses, but like a lot more in general), but having variation and ensuring that their predictions are different enough, but useful overall, is what builds a strong model stack.

So, for instance, the diagram opposite shows the five models that we have as the

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WE HAVE DECIDED to extend this short run of features, taken as an edited version from Byron Rogers’s blog (www.performancegenetics.com) to three parts instead of the anticipated two, in order to give the detailed explanations that are required.

In this Part II, Rogers explains in detail about how he has used video and image recognition to create his predictive models.

Part I can be accessed online (www.internationalthoroughbred.co.uk) and in that article Rogers explains how he has brought together a data set in order for the computer to categorise the elite and non-elite racehorse.

base models for our tabular Biomechanics model.

Each base model is trained on the same dataset and then we score all the records in the database and create a second dataset, which is just the probabilities from each of the base models.

The second dataset then produces the overall prediction.

But let’s rewind a little in order to explain the elements of the base models and how they are used.

The Biomechanics Model

The tabular Biomechanics model is our most predictive model, mainly because it is trained on the largest dataset and it uses five different base models to generate the data to make a prediction. Let’s walk (no pun intended) through the process.

We start by clipping a 10-second raw video of the horse walking left to right. It is important to get a good representation of the horse so we want to see it walk as best we can.

Once we have the video, the first process that is undertaken when it is loaded into the application is what is known as “Embedding Clustering”.

In machine learning, embeddings are a type of feature representation that can be used to represent data as vectors.

To explain, let’s say we have a dataset of images of different flowers. We can use a deep-learning model to learn the embeddings for these images.

Once we have the embeddings, we can then use a process called “k-means clustering” to group the images together so that all the roses are in the one cluster, while all the pansies are in another.

machine learning It’s not saying one flower is better than another, rather it is just getting them into the same group.

We use Embedding Clustering of the walk videos we input as the first process in order to deal with two things: 1. Variation of distance of the horse from the camera 2. Variation in light/contrast in the video.

So the clustering algorithm puts each of the videos into a cluster, depending on its similarity to other videos.

If they pass the clustering process they are then sorted into one of 10 different clusters.

Each cluster then has its own video and image models trained.

What this means is that within each cluster we are training models that have “like” videos together, but are looking at fine-grained differences between them.

It is significantly more accurate to train the base models on a per-cluster basis than it is to have one general base model.

If you took the average of the independent predictions of all the experts, you will get a better prediction than any individual expert

The Custom Raw Image model: A custom video model is a machine-learning model that is trained on your own data to perform a specific task, such as classifying videos or detecting objects in videos.

For our purposes we are looking at using the custom models for a variety of tasks, but specifically its ability to separate out elite and non-elite horses from walk video.

Effectively we are trying to train a model to judge a “way of going” at a yearling sale

and see if it is predictive of its performance later.

It’s no different to what anyone does at a yearling sale, watching a horse walk from left to right, but the model has the benefit of knowing what turned out to be bad as well as good.

The first probability that is scored with any new video is from the raw video model.

As I said each cluster has its own model, so their predictive power is slightly different depending on the cluster. That said, the raw video models for all clusters are invariably the ones with the highest predictive power.

This is the first probability that we get out when a new video is put into the application.

The Keypoint Probability model: DeepLabCut is an open source toolbox that uses deep neural networks to track the posture of animals in different settings.

DeepLabCut was primarily built for neuro science studies to understand how the brain

From video to prediction: the process of computer probability prediction taken from a simple video of a horse walking

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75

machine learning

An example of a horse with the Deeplabcut markers picking out the points of movement and this can be used in video to train a custom video

controls movement or how animals interact socially but, for our purpose, we wanted to quantify the variation in bone lengths and angles on a horse at the walk as accurately as possible.

The basics of Deeplabcut is that it is a

“markerless biomechanics programme” that allows you to train a neural network to place landmarks on a horse.

We did this and trained a model that had a pixel error of about 6 pixels, meaning it was quite accurate at placing the markers.

What the Deeplabcut package also allows you to do is generate a Keypoint video output of the markers as the horse walks (see above).

Those Keypoint videos, which are representations of the markers of joint

The Conformation model IN ADDITION to the biomechanics model, we have a conformation model that uses a conformation pose of the horse.

There is a bit of a process that is undertaken, but one of the variables that the tabular model uses is a prediction from a trained image model.

The single pose photo is cropped and resized in the application to the same size, which means that the computer vision model is seeing data of the same size.

It’s sort of the same idea as we have with putting videos in clusters. From there the image model is asked to try to learn the difference between elite and non-elite horses by just looking at its conformation as it stands in an image.

We used a larger dataset here with 3,000 images, 1,500 who are elite, and 1,500 who are non-elite, but as you can imagine, it is not a straightforward task to predict if a horse is an elite horse just by looking at a photo!

That said, just using an image, we have a somewhat useful model.

It can correctly predict the elite horse 60 per cent of the time and correctly predict the non-elite horse 70 per cent of the time.

Similar to the biomechanics model, we use the probability from this model in a larger tabular model.

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machine learning positions on the horse, can be used to train a second custom video model that produces another probability for the tabular models.

Generally speaking the Keypoint video models aren’t nearly as predictive as the raw video models. That is understandable as we have stripped away a lot of the informative data in each image of the video.

It struggles to find the elite horse, incorrectly predicting 76 per cent of all elite horses as non-elite.

The Keypoint models are what are known as “weak learners” for the tabular models.

It is a little like a bloodstock agent who goes to a sale who doesn’t like many of the horses, misses lots of good ones, but those he does like turn out to be good so he’s somewhat useful.

The Joint Recurrance Plot model: In addition to being able to produce the Keypoint style videos, Deeplabcut also provides output of the time series data for the markers that it places.

If you can imagine that a 10-second video, shot at 30 frame per seconds is 300 images, one after another, the time series provided is the x,y position on the image for that body part, for every frame/image of the video.

You can do a lot with this data but one of the thoughts that I had was to convert this data into an image – at the time I felt that image recognition was a more mature technology than other methods to analyse time series data.

There is a package known as PYTS: a Python package for time series classification.

PYTS allows you to take time series data and transform it into an image, one of these being a Joint Recurrence Plot.

A recurrence plot is an image representing the distances between trajectories extracted from the original time series data.

Similar to the Raw Video and also the Keypoint Video model, we train a separate model for each cluster using the Joint Recurrance Plot.

The plot is a single image, so it is quicker to train, but it is not as good a predictive model as the raw video model.

The JRP image model is quite good at predicting an elite horse, getting it right 68 per cent of the time, but when it comes to

The Cardio model THE cardiovascular video model works the same way as the biomechanics model.

Once the video is fed into the application, the first thing it does is apply a clustering algorithm to it.

This clustering algorithm works the same way as the biomechanics clustering algorithm in that it is able to separate them into distinct groups.

Interestingly, when we looked at the race outcomes of the horses in each cluster, it became apparent that it was quite easy to label each of the clusters with a group name (see table below).

Cardio Type

Count

Bullseye Dirt Miler

886

Bullseye Dirt Classic/ Miler

675

Australian Bullseye Turf Sprinter

561

Bullseye On-Pace Dirt Miler

530

Late Maturing Turf Sprinter/Miler

369

Turf/Off Speed Dirt Miler

321

On-pace Turf Sprinter/Miler

286

Bullseye Dirt Sprinter

234

Euro Bullseye Turf Sprinter

229

Failed

30

The cardio models are good at predicting if a cardio is an elite cardio, getting that right 74 per cent of the time, but it finds it difficult to predict the nonelite, with success at only 39 per cent.

This speaks to what is generally true about cardiovascular measurements in racehorses “there are more good hearts in horses than there are good horses”.

Cardiovascular scans are only useful under certain circumstances!

predicting the non-elite, it is a coin-flip, so not that useful.

Again, similar to the Keypoint videos, it is a “weak learner” that is useful, but not definitive.

The Gramian Angular Field model: The other way of looking at the time series data as an image is to create it as a “Gramian Angular Field”.

Gramian Angular Field (GAF) Imaging turns out one of the most popular time series imaging algorithms.

Similar to the Joint Recurrance Plot, the approach transforms time-series into images and uses a Convoluted Neural Network, or image recognition model, to identify visual patterns for prediction.

What we are trying to do is look at the way a horse moves in a totally different way to just looking at the video. All body parts (nose, eye, withers, etc) are plotted in the time series data over the walk of the horse.

Similar to the Joint Recurrance Plot, we train a separate model for each cluster using the Gramian Angular Field (GAF) Image as the input to train on.

What is interesting here is that the model for the GAF is somewhat the inverse of the JRP image model.

Where the JRP was able to correctly identify the elite horses 68 per cent of the time, the GAF model can only do so 37 per cent of the time.

But where the JRP model could identify the non-elite 50 per cent of the time, the GAF model can do it 61 per cent of the time.

This discordance is actually quite important as it gets back to what we talked about earlier where if you have one agent who predicts a type of horse well, and another agent that predicts another type well, a judgment of their opinions is better than one alone.

So after all this we end up with five variables from the models.

One of the variables is the Cluster value (so it is a number from 1 to 10) while the others are the probabilities (a range from 0 to 1, with 1 being it is sure it is elite) of the four other models detailed above.

It is these five variables that we use as the basis of the tabular models which we will discuss in the next piece.

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77

Showcasing ex Suelita (Dutch Art)

High-class 2yo, fastest ever winner of the Gr.2 Mill Reef Stakes Quicker than Harry Angel, Dark Angel etc.

Half-brother to Gr.1 Dewhurst and 2000 Guineas winner CHALDEAN

SHOWCASING’S FASTEST & BEST BRED SON AT STUD

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FIRST FOALS SELLING IN 2023 Covered 110+ mares in both his first and second seasons at stud

Patrick Turley Glashare House Stud Edmond Kent Highfort Stud Paul McEnery Ard Erin Stud Derryluskin Stud Bridgetown Stud & Trickledown Stud Misty Lodge Stud Ballinafad Stud Tullogher House Stud Knockatrina House Wardstown Stud Darragh McCarthy +353 (0) 87 670 0758

Ger O’Neill +353 (0) 86 384 4560

PLENTY OF SUPPORT

Jerry Horan +353 (0) 87 416 1729

Joe Sinnott + 353 (0) 87 644 7223

stakes dam sires

Broodmare stakes sires 2023

From Weatherbys

Broodmare sires of stakes winners in Europe and UAE in 2023 Horses are listed under their broodmare sire with the respective sire in brackets. Includes Group (1,2,3) and Listed (L) wins in Europe and UAE to 10/10/2023

Academy Award Good Fortune (Appel Au Maitre)...............L

Amadeus Wolf Powerful Aggie (Protectionist)....................L

Acclamation Bolthole (Free Eagle).................................. L, L Broome (Australia)...........................................2 Diego Velazquez (Frankel)............................2 Jumby (New Bay)..............................................3 Letsbefrankaboutit (Sioux Nation)............3 Megarry (Inns of Court)..................................L Point Lonsdale (Australia)........................2, 3 Rogue Lightning (Kodiac).............................L Tiger Belle (Cotai Glory)............................3, L

American Post American Flag (Wootton Bassett).........3, L

Arch Bold Discovery (Bolt D’oro)...........................L Zarinsk (Kodiac)....................................... 2, 3, 3 Archipenko Bradsell (Tasleet)...............................................1

Moon de Vega (Lope de Vega)....................L Rio Natal (Sir Prancealot)...............................L Shamida (Australia).....................................3, 3 Talentuosa (Samysilver).................................L Bachelor Duke Tempesti (Albert Dock).............................3, L

Anabaa Breizh Sky (Pedro The Great)........................3 Panjari (Camelot)..............................................L Tower of London (Galileo).............................L

Areion Dishina (Soldier Hollow)................................L Sean (Excelebration).......................................3

Bahamian Bounty Jasour (Havana Grey)......................................2

Anabaa Blue Ace Impact (Cracksman)..................1, 1, 2, L

Aussie Rules Hotline Bling (Cotai Glory)............................L Virtual Rock (Fascinating Rock)...................L

Barathea Emily Upjohn (Sea The Stars).......................1

Adlerflug Lotterbov (Protectionist)...............................L River of Stars (Sea The Stars)........................3 Tasmania (Australia)........................................L

Aqlaam Ocean Quest (Sioux Nation)....................3, L

Australia Dancing Gemini (Camelot)...........................L

Bering Little Big Bear (No Nay Never).....................2

Alamshar Snapraeterea (Buratino).................................L

Aragorn Sauterne (Kingman)...................................1, L

Bertolini Zorken (Goken)..................................................L

Aldebaran Sound Money (Flatter)....................................3

Arakan Power Under Me (Mehmas).........................3

Authorized Andromede (Sea The Stars)..........................L Danelo (Exceed And Excel)...........................L Lord Charming (Charm Spirit).....................3 Rosscarbery (Sea The Stars)..........................3

Alkalde Aggenstein (Amaron).....................................L Empore (Oasis Dream)....................................L

Arcano Hans Andersen (Frankel)...............................3 River Tiber (Wootton Bassett)......................2

Azamour Derida (Reliable Man).....................................L Eliyass (Le Havre)..............................................L Folgaria (Due Diligence).......................3, L, L

Big Shuffle Best Lightning (Sidestep)..............................3 Lips Freedom (Free Eagle).............................L Parol (Pastorius).................................................L

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Big Bad Bob Foniska (Galileo)................................................L

stakes dam sires Siskany at York racecourse with William Buick riding.

The Dubawi colt, subsequent winner of the Grade 2 Belmont Gold Cup, is bred on the successful cross of a Dansili mare with Darley’s champion sire

Bin Ajwaad Run To Freedom (Muhaarar)........................L

Clodovil Popmaster (Gutaifan)......................................L

Vero Atleta (Gleneagles)................................3 Waipiro (Australia)............................................3

Dashing Blade Valpolicella (Amaron)......................................L

Blame Sacred (Exceed And Excel)............................3

Country Reel Breizh Eagle (Bow Creek)...............................L

Dayjur Let’s Go Crazy (Moohaajim)..........................L

Camelot Maturlo (Starspangledbanner)...................L Never Ending Story (Dubawi)......................3

Curlin Scotland Yard (Quality Road).......................L

Dansili Admiral de Vega (Lope de Vega)................3 Al Dasim (Harry Angel)...................................3 Daramethos (Sea The Stars).........................L Double Major (Daiwa Major).......................2 Global Heat (Toronado).................................L Jewel House (Dubawi)....................................L La Mehana (Al Wukair)............................... L, L Library (Galileo).................................................L Pensee du Jour (Camelot)........................3, L Quickstep (Wootton Bassett).......................L Regional (Territories)..................................1, L Roberto Escobarr (Galileo)............................3 Running Lion (Roaring Lion)........................L Siskany (Dubawi)..............................................3 Soul Sister (Frankel)....................................1, 3 Spring Promise (Lope de Vega)...................L Vespertilio (Night of Thunder)....................2 Yashin (Churchill)..............................................3 Zeeyara (Nathaniel).........................................L

Canford Cliffs Greenland (Saxon Warrior)...........................3 Cape Cross Alfareeq (Dark Angel).....................................1 Emaraaty Ana (Shamardal)...........................L Haatem (Phoenix of Spain)...........................2 Maud Gonne Spirit (Intello)..........................L Mighty Ulysses (Ulysses)................................3 Tahiyra (Siyouni)...................................... 1, 1, 1 Caradak Showay (Galiway).............................................3 Champs Elysees Ghostwriter (Invincible Spirit).....................2 Remarquee (Kingman)...................................3 Choisir Kitty Rose (Invincible Army).........................L Myconian (Magna Grecia).............................L

Dabirsim Maigret (Counterattack)................................L Dai Jin Princess Zelda (Zarak).....................................3 Daliapour Almacado Gree (Domedriver).....................L Danehill Highfield Princess (Night of Thunder).1, 2 Laurel (Kingman)..............................................L Master of The Seas (Dubawi)..................2, 2 Danehill Dancer Calmly (Dubawi)................................................L Clounmacon (Kodi Bear)...............................L Indian Run (Sioux Nation).............................3 Insinuendo (Gleneagles)...............................3 Luxembourg (Camelot)..................................1 Maxux (Frankel).................................................3 Thornbrook (Saxon Warrior).........................L

Dark Angel Content (Galileo)...............................................3 Mystic Pearl (Invincible Spirit).....................L

Darshaan The Foxes (Churchill).......................................2

Daylami Tregony (New Bay)...........................................L Definite Article Ascot Brass (Juniper Tree).............................L Diktat Zerostress (Areion)...........................................3 Distorted Humor Voodoo Queen (Frankel)...............................L Doyen Balsam (Wootton Bassett).............................L Sea Silk Road (Sea The Stars)...................1, 3 Dragon Pulse Diamond Vega (Lope de Vega)...................L Dream Ahead Cold Case (Showcasing).................................3 Poptronic (Nathaniel)......................................2 Dubai Destination Arabian Crown (Dubawi)...............................L

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81

stakes dam sires Khaadem winning the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes.

The seven-year-old is out of the Footstepsinthesand mare White Daffodil and is by Dark Angel

Russian Emperor (Galileo).............................L Warm Heart (Galileo).........................1, 1, 2, L Fayruz Relief Rally (Kodiac).........................................2 Footstepsinthesand Khaadem (Dark Angel)...................................1 Plantstepsdream (Planteur).................... L, L Valiant Prince (Dubawi).............................2, 2 Warnie (Highland Reel)..................................L Forest Wildcat Russipant Fal (Russian Cross).......................L Foxwedge Great State (Havana Grey).............................L

Grand Alliance (Churchill).............................3 Nostrum (Kingman).........................................L Shembala (Cracksman)..................................L Warren Point (Dubawi)...................................L Dubawi Adayar (Frankel)................................................3 Aguirre (Camelot).............................................L Bold Act (New Approach).............................L Clever Candy (Intello)................................ L, L Desert Hero (Sea The Stars)..........................3 Eternal Hope (Teofilo).....................................L Go On Carlras (Harzand)................................3 Hooking (Lope de Vega)........................... L, L Le Destrier (Le Havre)......................................L Left Sea (Frankel)..............................................L Lordano (Adlerflug)....................................3, L Manaafith (Exceed And Excel).....................L Military Order (Frankel)..................................L Mostahdaf (Frankel).............................. 1, 1, 3 Nano Nagle (Frankel)......................................L Naval Power (Teofilo)......................................L Time Lock (Frankel).....................................3, L White Moonlight (Medaglia d’Oro)...... L, L With The Moonlight (Frankel).................2, 2 Duke of Marmalade Fortunino (Golden Horn)...............................L Free Wind (Galileo)...........................................2 Lost Empire (Footstepsinthesand)............L Luisa Casati (Vadamos)..................................L Place du Carrousel (Lope de Vega).......2, 3 Shavasana (Gleneagles)............................2, 3 Zabiari (Wootton Bassett).............................3

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Dunkerque Woodchuck (Birchwood)...............................L Dutch Art Chaldean (Frankel)...........................................1 Geologist (Territories).....................................L Get Ahead (Showcasing)...............................L Givemethebeatboys (Bungle Inthejungle)....3 White Birch (Ulysses).......................................3

Vicious Harry (Harry Angel)..........................L Enrique Horizon Dore (Dabirsim)..................2, 2, 3, L Equiano Shouldvebeenaring (Havana Grey)...........L

Elnadim Mammas Girl (Havana Grey)........................3

Exceed And Excel Action Point (Blue Point)...............................L Douriann (Golden Horn)................................L Game Run (Olympic Glory)...........................2 Holguin (Havana Grey)...................................L Kimngrace (Profitable)...................................L Rainbow Sky (Sea The Stars)........................L Son of Corballis (Raven’s Pass).....................L Twilight Jet (Twilight Son)............................L Vandeek (Havana Grey)........................ 1, 1, 2

Elusive City Bucanero Fuerte (Wootton Bassett)....1, 2 City Code (Kodiac)............................................L Haya Zark (Zarak).........................................3, 3 Immensitude (Lawman)...........................3, L

Excellent Art Kendly (Kendargent).......................................L Melo Melo (Gleneagles)............................2, L The Revenant (Dubawi).................................L

Elusive Quality Duca di Como (Clodovil)........................... L, L Piz Badile (Ulysses)...........................................L Takeko (Mehmas).............................................L

Fasliyev Have Dancer (Le Havre)..................................L Lazuli (Dubawi)..................................................L Olivia Maralda (Kodiac)..................................L

Empire Maker Flight Leader (Frankel)....................................3

Fastnet Rock Age of Kings (Kingman).................................3 Bouttemont (Acclamation)...........................L Canberra Legend (Australia)........................L

Dynaformer Junko (Intello)....................................................3 El Prado Lake Forest (No Nay Never)..........................2

Encosta de Lago

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Galileo Above The Curve (American Pharoah).....2 Angel Bleu (Dark Angel)...........................2, L Auguste Rodin (Deep Impact).......... 1, 1, 1 Aussie Girl (Starspangledbanner)..............L Autumn Starlight (Lope de Vega)..............L Buckaroo (Fastnet Rock)................................L Cairo (Quality Road)........................................L Cell Sa Beela (Kingman).................................L City of Troy (Justify)..........................................2 Continuous (Heart’s Cry)..........................1, 2 Danyah (Invincible Spirit).........................1, L Darnation (Too Darn Hot)........................2, 3 Deepone (Study of Man)...............................2 Drumroll (Deep Impact)................................3 Fenelon (Fastnet Rock).............................. L, L Final Gesture (Dubawi)...................................L Foxes Tales (Zoffany).......................................L Giavellotto (Mastercraftsman)....................2 Gregarina (De Treville)....................................L Gregory (Golden Horn).............................2, L Henry Adams (No Nay Never).....................3 Henry Longfellow (Dubawi)....................1, 2 Marhaba Ya Sanafi (Muhaarar)....................1 Marshman (Harry Angel)...............................3 Middle Earth (Roaring Lion).........................L Midnight Mile (No Nay Never)....................L Naranco (Kingman)..........................................3 Persian Dreamer (Calyx).................................2 Poker Face (Fastnet Rock).....................2, 3, L Red Riding Hood (Justify)..............................3 Rue Boissonade (Seabhac)...........................2 San Antonio (Dubawi)....................................L Sevenna’s Knight (Camelot).........................L Shaquille (Charm Spirit)........................1, 1, L Sounds of Heaven (Kingman)......................L

stakes dam sires

The Good Man (Manduro).......................2, L Unless (Justify)...................................................L Via Sistina (Fastnet Rock)..........................1, 2 Watch Him (Elvstroem)..................................L Wonderful Times (Golden Horn)................L Garswood Classic Flower (Calyx)......................................2 General Holme Trueshan (Planteur)....................................1, 2 Gentlewave Cracksmania (Cracksman).............................L Giant’s Causeway First Minister (Galileo).....................................3

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Lord North (Dubawi)..................................1, 3 Mutasaabeq (Invincible Spirit)...............2, 2 Sivka Burka (Siyouni).......................................L Gold Away Lumiere Rock (Saxon Warrior).....................2 Green Desert Ocean Jewel (Sioux Nation).........................3 Green Tune Stella (Neatico)...................................................L

Sacred Angel (Dark Angel)............................3

Task Force (Frankel)..........................................L

Halling Anmaat (Awtaad).............................................1 Chichester (Dansili)..........................................L

Henrythenavigator Straight (Zarak)..................................................2

Hard Spun Aablan (Dubawi)...............................................3 Heliostatic Isaac Shelby (Night of Thunder).................3

Haafhd Lord Massusus (Markaz)................................3

Hellvelyn Asymmetric (Showcasing)............................L Mill Stream (Gleneagles)...........................3, L

Haatef

Hennessy

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Hernando Alpenblume (Kendargent)............................L Shanroe (Multiplex).........................................L High Chaparral Estrosa (Sioux Nation).....................................L God Blessing (Siyouni)....................................L Iberian (Lope de Vega)...................................2 Matrika (No Nay Never)..................................2 Mysterious Shadow (Ten Sovereigns)......L Norge (Dylan Thomas)...................................L Pipsy (Kodiac).....................................................L

stakes dam sires Iffraaj Amellata (Pomellato)......................................L Embesto (Roaring Lion).................................3 Fix You (Night of Thunder)............................L Iconic Moment (Harry Angel)......................L Imperialism Road Bloc (Street Sense)................................L Inchrory Espen Hill (Helsinki).........................................3 Indian Charlie Switzerland (Speightstown).........................3 Indian Ridge Jannah Rose (Frankel)........................... 1, 2, 3 Intikhab Arrest (Frankel).............................................3, 3 Invasor Mitbaahy (Profitable)......................................L Vafortino (New Bay).........................................L

The Saudi Cup winner Panthalassa is out of Miss Pemberley by the ever-successful broodmare sire Montjeu

High Rock Harry Way (Galiway)........................................L Holy Roman Emperor Angers (Seabhac).............................................2 Brave Emperor (Sioux Nation).......3, 3, 3, L Kerdos (Profitable)...........................................L Layfayette (French Navy)..........................3, L Miaharris (Zoustar)...........................................L Mountain Bear (No Nay Never)...................L Porta Fortuna (Caravaggio)................ 1, 3, 3

Hurricane Run Drawn To Dream (Iquitos).............................L Mr Hollywood (Iquitos)..................................3 Vauban (Galiway)..............................................3

Invincible Spirit Equality (Equiano)............................................3 One For Bobby (Frankel)...........................3, L Sajir (Make Believe)..........................................L Starlust (Zoustar)..............................................3 Une Perle (Mount Nelson).............................L

Perdika (Unfortunately)............................ L, L King Halo Equinox (Kitasan Black)..................................1 King Kamehameha Ushba Tesoro (Orfevre)...................................1 Kingmambo Hukum (Sea The Stars)..............................1, 3 Irish Action (Zoffany).......................................L Royal Rhyme (Lope de Vega).......................L Kingsalsa King Gold (Anodin).....................................1, 3 Kitten’s Joy Al Musmak (Night of Thunder)....................L Alyanaabi (Too Darn Hot)..............................3 Kodiac American Sonja (Tasleet)...............................L Believing (Mehmas)................................3, L, L The Fixer (No Nay Never)...............................L Washington Heights (Washington DC)...L Konig Turf Loliwood (Birchwood)....................................L Kyllachy Salt Lake City (Galileo)....................................L

Iron Mask Winter Pudding (Seahenge).........................L

Lando Weracruz (Cracksman)....................................L

Jeremy Blue Rose Cen (Churchill)................1, 1, 1, 3

Lawman Al Asifah (Frankel).............................................L Fallen Angel (Too Darn Hot)....................1, 3 The Antarctic (Dark Angel)...........................3

Jukebox Jury Fantastic Moon (Sea The Moon)....... 1, 2, 3 Kallisto Assistent (Sea The Moon).....................2, 2, L Keltos Art Power (Dark Angel).............................2, 2 Kendargent Arnis Master (Tai Chi)......................................3 Grey Tornado (The Grey Gatsby)................L Rock Joyeux (Rock of Gibraltar)..................L Rubis Vendome (Galiway).............................3 Kheleyf

Lethal Force Beautiful Diamond (Twilight Son).............L Juniper Berries (Expert Eye)..........................3 Lilbourne Lad Man With The Plan (James Garfield).........L Linamix Grey Man (Wootton Bassett).......................3 Turn Cartwheels (Dream Ahead)................L Lope de Vega Kairyu (Kuroshio)..............................................3 Self Belief (Make Believe)...............................3 Shalromy (Shalaa)........................................ L, L Sober (Camelot)...........................................2, 2 Sumo Sam (Nathaniel)...............................2, 2 Machiavellian West Wind Blows (Teofilo).............................3 Makfi Just Beautiful (Pride of Dubai).....................2 Manduro Al Nayyir (Dubawi)...................................... L, L Marju Happy Romance (Dandy Man)....................L Kick On (Charm Spirit)............................... L, L Mark of Esteem Captain Winters (Lope de Vega).................L Commanche Falls (Lethal Force).......3, L, L Triple Time (Frankel)........................................1

Layman Got To Love A Grey (Dark Angel)................L

Mastercraftsman Caught U Looking (Harzand).......................3 Elounda Queen (Australia)............................3 Espionage (Galileo)..........................................L Heredia (Dark Angel)..................................3, L Zarakem (Zarak)........................................... L, L

Le Havre Freville (Gleneagles)........................................3 Pyledriver (Harbour Watch)..........................2

Medaglia d’Oro Chaika (TUR) (Marcavelly).............................3 Goldenas (Golden Horn)................................2 Western Writer (Shamardal).........................L

Lear Fan Peripatetic (Ulysses).........................................L Westover (Frankel)...........................................1 Lemon Drop Kid Courage Mon Ami (Frankel).........................1

Medicean Alcantor (New Bay)..........................................3 Araminta (Gleneagles)...............................3, L Garrus (Acclamation)......................................3 Jir Sun (Shamardal)..........................................L Magical Sunset (Kodiac)................................3

stakes dam sires Regal Reality (Intello)......................................3 Meshaheer Fort Payne (Rio de La Plata)..........................3 Mind Games Inquisitively (Ten Sovereigns)......................L Mineshaft Palerma (Alex The Winner)............................L Mizzen Mast Prosperous Voyage (Zoffany).......................3 Monsun Akua’rius (Sea The Stars)................................L Arabian Legend (Night of Thunder)..........L Nastaria (Outstrip)....................................... L, L Northern Ruler (Ruler of The World).........2 Ottery (Dubawi)................................................3 Trawlerman (Golden Horn)...........................L Yibir (Dubawi)....................................................L Montjeu Coltrane (Mastercraftsman)....................2, 3 Emily Dickinson (Dubawi)........................2, L Feed The Flame (Kingman)...........................1 Geography (Holy Roman Emperor)..........3 Laulne (Starspangledbanner)......................3 Manisha (Lope de Vega)................................L Mashhoor (Kingman).................................3, L Paddington (Siyouni)................... 1, 1, 1, 1, L Panthalassa (Lord Kanaloa)..........................1 Term of Endearment (Sea The Moon)......3

Nunthorpe winner Live In The Dream: evidence of the success of New Approach mares and Danehill line sires

More Than Ready Sicilian Defense (Muhaarar).........................L

Roman Mist (Holy Roman Emperor)....3, L

Motivator Ottoman Fleet (Sea The Stars).....................3

Multiplex Bay Bridge (New Bay)......................................3

Mount Nelson Savvy Victory (New Bay)................................L Mr Greeley Ocean Vision (U S Navy Flag).......................L

Namid Rajinsky (Zoffany).............................................L

Muhaymin Skalleti (Kendargent)......................................2 Skazino (Kendargent).....................................L

Nathaniel All Iron (SPA) (Noozhoh Canarias (SPA))..L Haskoy (Golden Horn)....................................3 Novakai (Lope de Vega).................................L Tribalist (Farhh)........................................ 2, 3, 3

Muhtathir Fang (Goken)......................................................3 Lastotchka (Myboycharlie)...........................3

Nayef Castle Way (Almanzor)...............................3, L Rogue Millennium (Dubawi).......................2

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Neo Universe Derma Sotogake (Mind Your Biscuits)......2

New Approach Bathrat Leon (Kizuna).....................................3 Cadeau Belle (Harry Angel)..........................L Carla’s Way (Starspangledbanner).............2 Crack of Light (Kingman)...............................L Dawn Charger (Soldier’s Call)......................3 Gallerist (Zoffany)........................................3, L Hard One To Please (Fast Company)....3, L Live In The Dream (Prince of Lir).................1 Mawj (Exceed And Excel)...............................1 Modern Games (Dubawi)..............................1 Rosallion (Blue Point).................................1, L See Hector (Counterattack).....................3, 3 Vetiver (Twilight Son)......................................L

Norse Dancer Candleford (Kingman)....................................L Numerous Kimi Orenda (Bated Breath).........................L Oasis Dream Alflaila (Dark Angel).........................................2 Array (No Nay Never)......................................2 Audience (Iffraaj)..............................................3 Azure Blue (El Kabeir).................................2, L Berkshire Shadow (Dark Angel)..................L Big Evs (Blue Point).................................2, 3, L Chindit (Wootton Bassett)...................3, L, L Dragon Leader (El Kabeir).............................L Iresine (Manduro).............................................1 Kelina (Frankel).............................................1, 2 Les Pavots (No Nay Never).......................2, L

stakes dam sires Sandrine (Bobby’s Kitten)..............................2 Simca Mille (Tamayuz).......................... 1, 2, 2 Tenebrism (Caravaggio).................................L Thunder Roll (Night of Thunder)................L Platini Aff Un Zo (Kallisto)...........................................2 Algiers (Shamardal)....................................2, 2 Muhalif (Lawman)............................................L Polish Precedent Lady Ewelina (Mukhadram).........................3 Power Pink Crystal (Shamardal)................................L Proud Citizen Crimson Advocate (Nyquist)........................2 Pulpit Sibelius (Not This Time)..................................1 Tuz (Oxbow)........................................................3 Quality Road Valiant Force (Malibu Moon)........................2 Rainbow Quest Jack Darcy (Gleneagles).................................2 Raven’s Pass Exxtra (Starspangledbanner).......................L Fast Raaj (Iffraaj)...........................................3, L Ramatuelle (Justify)....................................2, 3 Thunderbear (Kodi Bear)...............................3 Tiber Flow (Caravaggio).................................3 Merkur (Kingman)............................................L Nations Pride (Teofilo)...............................1, 3 Quickthorn (Nathaniel).............................1, L Spirit Dancer (Frankel)....................................3 Unconquerable (Churchill)...........................L Observatory Coppice (Kingman)..........................................L Dha Leath (Mehmas).......................................L Miramis (The Gurkha).....................................L Okawango Grasyas (Lion Heart)........................................3 One Cool Cat Indian Wish (The Grey Gatsby)............... L, L Matilda Picotte (Sioux Nation)....................3 Melfi (Kessaar)....................................................L

Moracana (Elzaam)..........................................L Orientate Iron Butterfly (SWE) (Swipe).........................L Orpen Enigma Dei Grif (Full Drago)........................L Witch Hunter (Siyouni)...................................2 Panis Tulipa Chope (Born To Sea)...........................L Pastoral Pursuits Moss Tucker (Excelebration)...............1, 3, L Peintre Celebre India (Adlerflug)...........................................1, 3 Muskoka (Sea The Moon).....................1, 3, L

Nina’s Lob (Lope de Vega).............................L Sans Voix (Saxon Warrior)..............................L Pioneerof The Nile Shiffrin (Olympic Glory).................................3 Pivotal Ability (Mastercraftsman)..............................L Cosmic Vega (Lope de Vega)........................L Flight Plan (Night of Thunder).....................2 Goldana (Galileo Gold)...................................3 Good Guess (Kodiac)..................................1, 3 Harbour Wind (Nathaniel).............................L Kemari (Dubawi)...............................................L Nashwa (Frankel)..............................................1 Nymphadora (No Nay Never)......................L Prince Eiji (Dubawi)..........................................3 Random Harvest (War Front).......................3

Red Clubs Lezoo (Zoustar)..................................................L Spycatcher (Vadamos)....................................3 Redback Mangiafuoco (Buratino).................................L Sprewell (Churchill)..........................................3 Refuse To Bend Life In Motion (Sea The Stars)......................L Rio de La Plata Amorevole (Mehmas).....................................L Ladies Church (Churchill)..............................L Rip Van Winkle Indestructible (Kodiac)...................................3 Sioux Life (Sioux Nation)........................... L, L

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stakes dam sires White Lavender (Heeraat).............................3

Plesant Jane (Pivotal)......................................L

Rock of Gibraltar Calif (Areion)..................................................2, 3 Coachello (Dunkerque)..................................L Coeur de Pierre (Zanzibari)...........................3 Jackie Oh (Galileo)............................................3 Romina Power (Le Havre)..............................L

Seeking The Gold Bahja Del Sol (The Gurkha)...................... L, L

Roderic O’Connor Kylian (Invincible Spirit).................................L Royal Academy Fanaar (Dark Angel).........................................3 Royal Applause State Occasion (Iffraaj)....................................L Sadler’s Wells El Caney (Golden Horn)..................................L Opera Singer (Justify).................................1, 3 Sweet Memories (Sea The Stars)................L Tiffany (Farhh)....................................................L Visualisation (No Nay Never)...................2, L Sageburg Go Athletico (Goken).............................3, L, L Sakhee Hamish (Motivator)................................ 3, 3, 3 Mika d’O (Martinborough)............................L Samum Bukhara (Isfahan)..............................................3 Kolossal (Outstrip)...................................3, 3, L Scat Daddy Big Call (Animal Kingdom)............................3 Savethelastdance (Galileo)......................1, L Tall Boy (Lookin At Lucky).............................3 Sea The Moon Snellen (Expert Eye).........................................L Sea The Stars Al Husn (Dubawi).....................................1, 3, L Astral Beau (Brazen Beau).............................L Beauvatier (Lope de Vega).......................3, L Big Rock (Rock of Gibraltar).................3, 3, L Eldar Eldarov (Dubawi)...................................1 Israr (Muhaarar).................................................2 Makarova (Acclamation)................................L Mr Moliere (Kingman).....................................L My Prospero (Iffraaj)........................................L

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Selkirk Darkaniya (Frankel).....................................2, L Epictetus (Kingman)...................................3, L Inspiral (Frankel)...........................................1, 1 Kinross (Kingman).......................................2, 2 Sepoy Evina (Kodiac).....................................................L Sevres Rose Mqse de Sevigne (Siyouni)......................1, 1 Shamardal Al Aasy (Sea The Stars)...............................3, L Calistoga (Sea The Stars)................................L Carolina Reaper (Too Darn Hot)..................3 Chesspiece (Nathaniel)..................................L Discovery Island (Dubawi)............................3 Goliath (Adlerflug)...........................................L Lady Hamana (I Am Invincible)...................L Star of Mystery (Kodiac).................................L Swingalong (Showcasing)............................3 Vadream (Brazen Beau).............................3, L Ylang Ylang (Frankel)......................................3 Shirocco Al Suhail (Dubawi)............................................2 Hurricane Lane (Frankel)...............................2 Winning Spirit (Soldier Hollow)..................L Silver Frost Best of Lips (The Gurkha)..............................3

Engaliwe (Galiway)......................................3, L Zagrey (Zarak)....................................................1 Smart Strike (CAN) Zulu Warrior (Saxon Warrior)........................L So You Think Caroline Street (No Nay Never)...................3 Starry Heavens (Mastercraftsman)............L Soldier Hollow Kassada (Sea The Moon)................................3 Songandaprayer Commissioner King (Commissioner)........3 Soviet Star Incantatrice (Morpheus)........................... L, L Speightstown Habana (Kingman)...........................................2 Storm Cat Annaf (Muhaarar)........................................3, L Street Cry Egot (Invincible Spirit)....................................L Global Storm (Night of Thunder)...............2 Passion And Glory (Cape Cross)..................L Royal Champion (Shamardal)......................L Salute The Soldier (Sepoy)............................1 Sapphire Seas (Frankel)..................................L Street Sense Village Voice (Zarak)........................................L Strike The Gold Go Hero (Torok).................................................2

Singspiel Captain Chorus (Paco Boy)...........................L Miqyaas (Oasis Dream)...................................2

Swiss Spirit Elite Status (Havana Grey)........................3, L

Sinndar Budrio (El Kabeir)......................................... L, L

Tagula Byline (Muhaarar).............................................L

Sir Percy Hey Honey (Adaay)..........................................L Honey Girl (Mayson)........................................3 Shuwari (New Bay)...........................................L

Tai Chi Extrabunt (Lord of England).........................L

Sixties Icon His Majesty (No Nay Never)..........................L Slickly

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Teofilo Al Qareem (Awtaad)...................................3, L Amabile (Caravaggio).....................................L Dear My Friend (Pivotal)................................L Excellent Truth (Cotai Glory)........................3 Fakarava (Le Havre)..........................................L

King of Conquest (Lope de Vega)..............L Thunder Gulch Go Soldier Go (Tapiture)................................L Tillerman Mansour (Tai Chi)..............................................3 Titus Livius Il Sindacalista (Bungle Inthejungle)..........L Tobougg Shady Lady (Blue Point).................................L Tony Bin Silver Sonic (Orfevre).......................................3 Torrential Lajoscha (Gleneagles).....................................L Turtle Bowl Birr Castle (Cloth of Stars)..............................L Dramatised (Showcasing).............................2 Unbridled’s Song Isolate (Mark Valeski).......................................2 Spanish Honey (Iffraaj)...................................L Verglas Graceful Thunder (Havana Grey)................L King of Steel (Wootton Bassett)..................2 Vicar Mimi Kakushi (City of Light)....................3, L Vindication Elite Power (Curlin)...........................................3 War Front Adelaide River (Australia)..............................3 Moonu (Sea The Moon)............................3, L Passenger (Ulysses)..........................................3 Peking Opera (Galileo)....................................L Prime Art (Churchill)........................................3 Whipper Clever And Cool (Vocalised)....................3, L Sea Theme (Sea The Stars)............................L Zafeen Crown Princesse (Zarak)................................3 Zoffany Asean (Ten Sovereigns)..................................L

CApe Premier yearling sale POWERED BY TATTERSALLS

“Where your future champion awaits”

25 January 2024 | Cape Town International Convention Centre

www.caperacingsales.co.za | For sale related queries, please contact Justin Vermaak - justin@caperacing.co.za or Robyn Collyer - robyn@caperacing.co.za

photo finish: westover by the sea

BEFORE HIS FINE RUN in France in the Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Westover enjoyed a bit of down-time at the seaside on Hayling Island with big race jockey Rob Hornby.

Westover was accompanied by Davideo, a 99-rated son of Galileo ex Stormy Atlantic, bred by Kirsten Rausing and ridden here by Joao O S Cardoso.

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It proved to be the perfect prep for the Ralph Beckett-trained son of Frankel as the Juddmonte homebred four-year-old put in an excellent performance at ParisLongchamp to finish second to Ace Impact. Sadly, Westover picked up an injury in France and has been retired to stud – as we go to press, there has been no further news on that front.

Photos by Debbie Burt

IT’S TIME TO GET ON THE RIGHT TRACK

From conception to the sales ring or racetrack, correct nutrition plays a vital part in maximising a horse’s potential.

ARE YOU ON THE RIGHT TRACK?

Contact our specialist thoroughbred team: UK: Adam Johnson +44 7860 771063 IRL: Lorraine Fradl +353 87 2575398 FR: Sylvain Prouvoyeur +33 6 9867 5138 Goresbridge, Co. Kilkenny, Ireland. Email: info@redmills.com

www.redmillshorse.com

Areion - Assisi (Galileo) - Amarette (Monsun)

Including siblings to Prix de l‘Arc de Triomphe winner TORQUATOR TASSO, group 1 winner TÜNNES and out of classic winners WELL TIMED, AKUA‘DA.