yearling consignors
Playing the long game Derek Veitch of Ringfort Stud is pleased he made the decision not to sell his Slade Power filly last November – she is now a half-sister to the dual Group 2 winner Threat
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ORTUNE SOMETIMES has a strange way of turning in your favour, transforming a disappointment into a stroke of good luck. Last December, Derek and Gaye Veitch and the team from the couple’s County Offaly Ringfort Stud left Newmarket after the December Foal Sales with mixed feelings. For the second successive December Sale, Ringfort Stud had enjoyed enormous success with a foal out of Indigo Lady, a mare owned in partnership with Paul Hancock. In 2017, the partnership sold her Dark Angel filly to Capital Bloodstock for 600,000gns (Indie Lady is now owned by Cheveley Park and in training with John Gosden) and 12 months later her Lope De Vega colt made 500,000gns to Stroud Coleman on behalf of Godolphin. However, not all the foals Ringfort took to Newmarket were sold and there was disappointment about the failure of one in particular. That was a Slade Power filly from a fine Niarchos family whose year-older Footstepsinthesand half-brother had sold for 100,000gns to Capital Bloodstock a year previously. Now the Veitchs are preparing a return to Park Paddocks with the filly, only the second time since 2008 that Ringfort Farm has offered yearlings in Book 1. Significantly that first year was in 2016 when the farm sold Indigo Lady’s first foal, a Camelot filly, to Tim Gredley for 155,000gns. The Slade Power filly overlooked by purchasers on her first trip to the sales is certain to be on the shortlists of many second time around. What has changed since December? Two vitally important things – her
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Derek Veitch: does not often sell yearlings
Footstepsinthesand half-brother is now the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes and Group 2 Champagne Stakes winner Threat, and her sire Slade Power has produced the Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes winner, the Group 2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes winner and Group 1 Prix Morny runner-up Raffle Prize from his second crop. “I normally consign foals, not yearlings, and I tried to sell this filly as a foal but she didn’t meet her reserve of €29,000 so I took her home,” reports Veitch. “Threat has given the pedigree a big update since then and we are blessed to have her now! And with Raffle Prize coming on the scene for Slade Power, hopefully he will be more acceptable to buyers now as well.” A veterinary surgeon by profession, Veitch is thoughtful and reflective and he allows a glimpse into the reasoning behind the mating which produced Lot 287 of Book 1. “Slade Power is by Dutch Art and that sire line was important as the mare had produced a good-looking Garswood foal who made 80,000gns as a foal – that was a lot of money for a foal by the sire,” he remarks. “I liked the foal enough to find another Dutch Art line stallion and Slade Power is a good-looking son of Dutch Art, a multiple Group 1 winner who was standing for a reasonable fee at Kildangan. He looked the sort to get maturing sprinting horses so the cover made economic sense.” The resulting filly is now a half-sister to the two-time Group 2-winning juvenile, but before Threat had even set foot on a racecourse, his sibling’s looks and pedigree had secured her a place in Book 1. That pedigree has done mothing but improve since Veitch purchased dam Flare Of Firelight for just 9,000gns at the 2014 December Mare Sale.
