Delacroix masterpiece
The son of Dubawi produces a devasting turn of foot to win the Irish Champion Stakes
INSIDE: Mount Coote Stud, La Motteraye Consignment, Folland-Bowen Bloodstock, debut consignor John Bourke, and women at the top of bloodstock and racing
FRANKEL
Galileo - Kind (Danehill)
Endless possibilities
Yearlings at this year’s premier British and Irish sales feature the very best pedigrees, including progeny of and siblings to:
A Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner, Champion sprinters, Classic winners, Multiple Group 1 winners and top Two-Year-Olds
Explore the possibilities
Contact Ed Sackville, Shane Horan or Tom Parry +44 (0)1638 731115 | nominations@juddmonte.co.uk www.juddmonte.com
AL RIFFA – won the Gr.1 Irish St Leger at the Curragh for Australian Bloodstock on Sunday
DIEGO VELAZQUEZ – after winning the Gr.1 Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville for Sam Sangster
CAIRO – placed in the Gr.1 Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot, Gr.2 Huxley Stakes at Chester, Gr.2 Rashidiya at Meydan, Gr.3 Dubai Millennium Stakes at Meydan etc. for Alice Haynes
PRAGUE – 10,000Gns Tattersalls Horses-in-Training graduate who won the Gr.2 Joel Stakes at Newmarket for Dylan Cunha
MASSIVE SOVEREIGN – 2024 Gr.1 Hong Kong Derby winner
CAP FERRAT – 2025 Gr.1 Hong Kong Derby winner
Al Riffa
Diego Velazquez
Prague
“ …a continual source of quality horses that consistently progress to the highest level.” Hubie De Burgh
“Coolmore is an unrivalled source of the highest quality bloodstock anywhere in the World.” Johnny McKeever
“For decades, Coolmore has been investing in the best of the best. So, when I am looking to buy a top-class stallion prospect or a racing prospect, they are No. 1 on my list. The depth of quality is just unbelievable.” Ajay Anne Don’t Miss Your Chance! Get In Touch
MICK FLANAGAN
MOB: +353 86 609 8119 mflanagan@coolmore.ie
DAVID KEEGAN
MOB: +353 87 412 7313 dkeegan@coolmore.ie
ROBYN MURRAY
MOB: +1 859 619 8770 rmurray@coolmore.com
JOHN KENNEDY
MOB: + 61 (4) 23 559 828 jkennedy@coolmore.com.au
48 Weatherbys Stallion Scene I
82 Debuting at Newmarket
Leo had a fine summer meeting the Princess Royal at the RDS, celebrating success for Kids In America Bloodstock and going along to the Red Mills / The Irish Field breeders awards
In his debut column for the magazine, Jamie Lloyd reports from the record-breaking Keeneland September, and moots the possibility of a new Netflix series featuring the feuding Mike Repole and John Stewart
A weekend of top-class racing in Ireland that saw both domestic and UK
The St Leger and Irish Champions Festival produced the very best that the sport has to offer
A personal tribute to the late Bill Turner from Simon Milham
It was July in September... ...writes Jill Williams, as this year’s huge Keeneland September Sale had all the hallmarks of the company’s old July Sale 38 On trial in France
Jocelyn de Moubray reports on the Arc prelims, which have seen smart performances, particularly from the Japanese hopefuls
Rayif, a smart winner of Deauville’s Group 3 Prix François Boutin, is an exciting juvenile for Lanwades Stud’s Sea The Moon
52 Weatherbys Stallion Scene II
Norton Grove Stud’s stallion Mattmu, who had something of an interrupted start to his stallion career, is now firing on the track and in the sale ring
54 Weatherbys Stallion Scene III
In a unique marketing campaign for 2025, Phil Cunningham offered Rajasinghe to breeders for free – we find out if the one-off opportunity was a success
58 Stallion stats
Featuring leading European sires with the list compiled by Weatherbys
62 Expert in the field
Mount Coote Stud graduates have been enjoying a great summer on the track –the farm’s third-generation owner Luke Lillingston reports that the success is all down to the land
70 Less is much more
Folland-Bowen Bloodstock is concentrating on a quality approach at Fonthill Stud, and is heading on a debut mission to Ireland for the Goffs Orby Sale
78 Diversity
La Motteraye Consignment is crossing the Channel to sell at the October Sale with a select draft of five lots
John Bourke of Lackagh Springs Stud is looking forward to offering his first draft at Tattersalls in October Book 2
90 Back yourself!
Leo Powell talks to four women, based in Ireland and now managing and running some of the biggest businesses on the bloodstock industry, to find out their paths and advice for career success
100 Mare of the month
Miss Lucifer: dam of first-season Group 1-producing sire Space Blues and the juvenile filly Dance To The Music
104 Photo finish
Moments together on the sales grounds
from Alamy
the
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Leo enjoys the summer season
Royalty, awards and racing
MY JOURNEYS AND EVENTS in August and September included seven days spent at the Dublin Horse Show held at the Royal Dublin Society (RDS) in Dublin, plenty of racing, a trip to London to lunch with Cartier and vote for the Award of Merit winner, interviews with four inspiring women for a feature in this month’s magazine, and acting as master of ceremonies for the Thoroughbred 360 conference, jointly hosted by the Irish Equine Centre and the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association.
This was the 150th year of the Dublin Horse Show, staged over five days and with something for everyone. The iconic event is unique, comprising world-class showjumping, featuring the Aga Khan Trophy for the Nations Cup, showing and riding classes, and with a host of side attractions for those looking for a fun day out. I am a volunteer steward for a couple of days before the show starts, and had an extra special treat on the first day of the actual show. Invited to lunch that day by the President of the RDS, John Dardis, we were graced with the presence of the Princess Royal. This was not her first visit to the Dublin Horse Show, and I had the honour of meeting her on the previous occasion. She thoroughly enjoyed her day trip to Dublin from Scotland, but had to forego her lunch starter when she spent more
Leo is making a habit of meeting the Princess Royal at RDS: this photo is from 2016 when he was first introduced; our man got to meet her again during her second visit to the show this year
time than was expected with the outgoing of Ireland, President Michael D Higgins, and visiting the Riding for the Disabled group.
Saturday of that week was a busy day, combining generous hospitality from Keeneland’s Tony Lacy at The Curragh – the US sales company has since had an outstanding sale – with a rush to the RDS to watch the Puissance.
This was a tremendous spectacle, won by a young woman about whom we will hear much, much moreBritain’s Rachel Proudley riding Easy Boy de Laubry Z. She made history by becoming the first woman to win the competition in 61 years, clearing a height of 2.15 metres to secure her win.
My trip to London to join Laurent Feniou at Mark’s Club in Mayfair was a joy, and ranks as one of the best lunches of the year.
I sat in close proximity with Alan Byrne, Alex Frost, Marcus Armytage and Ralph Beckett, among many others, and we had a robust and very close contest for the 2025 Award of Merit winner. I will not spoil the announcement which will be made at the Cartier Awards, but I advocated for the winner, and he or she is truly deserving. Watch this space!
RELAXATION in the aftermath of the lunch was a maiden visit to the Royal Albert Hall for the Proms. I have been a huge fan of the event on television, love classical music, and cannot believe it took me this long to get there.
I hope readers enjoy my interviews with four female leaders in racing and breeding this month as much as I delighted in talking with each of them.
I have been a strong feminist since my school days, and was on the fringes of history when I was aged eight, though I cannot say I recall the time. My father worked for Anne Biddle, as she was then known, at Palmerstown Stud – beside the present Goffs sale complex.
While women have always played a significant role in racing and breeding, it was often behind the name of a man. Before 1966, women could only train in an unofficial capacity, and were forced to employ men who held licences on their behalf, or have licences in a husband’s name.
For example, Helen Johnson Houghton, twin sister of Fulke Walwyn and grandmother of Eve, was the first woman to train a Classic winner in Britain when Gilles De Retz won the 2000 Guineas in 1956, but the horse ran under the name of her assistant, Charles Jerdein.
70 INDIVIDUAL STAKES PERFORMERS INCLUDING 5 GROUP 1 WINNERS
FANTASTIC MOON • MUSKOKA
ASSISTENT• ALPINE STAR • DURSTON
Sire of German Derby and Oaks winners
Sire of 3 Champion 2yos In 2025 sire of unbeaten 2yo Group 3 winner in France RAYIF dual Group 3 winner QUEST THE MOON and dual Listed winner INSTANT FRAGILE
RAYIF winning the Group 3 Prix Francois Boutin at 2 in 2025
STUDY OF MAN
14 INDIVIDUAL STAKES PERFORMERS INCLUDING 4 GROUP WINNERS
Sire of Group 1 winner KALPANA Group 2 winners DEEPONE and BIRTHE 2025 Group 3 winner SONS AND LOVERS 2025 Listed winners ALLONSY, ALMERIC and SUITE FRANCAISE
Sire of 6 individual 2yo winners so far in 2025 including promising dual winner in France ARLONG FAL
The Leading British-based 3rd crop sire by % Black-Type winners to runners in 2025
SONS AND LOVERS winning the Group 3 Ballyroan Stakes in 2025
A decade later things changed in Britain and Ireland, but it took a long legal action to get the Jockey Club to grant licences to women. The pioneers were Florence Nagle and Norah Wilmot, and a day after they were granted licences in August 1966, Wilmot saddled a winner in her own name. In quick succession the Irish authorities capitulated, and on the last day of August 1966, Anne Biddle saddled a winner at Naas, just down the road from her farm.
I mentioned earlier about being an advocate for young people, and I took tremendous pleasure in joining the celebrations following victory for Bottle Of Rouge in the Grade 1 Debutante Stakes at Del Mar, a leading race for two-year-old fillies in the US.
The filly was pinhooked by three young Irish people, and what a boost it gave them to enjoy such a prestigious success. Roll on the Breeders’ Cup!
Two years ago, Goffs bloodstock executive Conor Wixted, Boherguy Stud boss Clare Manning and Eleanor Dunne came together and, using the tag Kids In America Bloodstock, bought a Vino Rosso filly foal at the Keeneland November Sale for $60,000.
She resold at Keeneland last year through Adrian Regan and Fergus Galvin’s Hunter Valley Farm for $100,000 to Big Sky Racing. Named Bottle Of Rouge, she is trained by Bob Baffert for his wife Jill, and she won the Debutante in style, giving her trainer a twelfth win in the race.
Wixted and Dunne are both former chairs of Next Generation, the youth wing within the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, while Manning, a granddaughter of Jim Bolger, won a major accolade at the ITBA’s national awards a couple of years ago. The industry is in safe hands with talent like this trio.
What is work?!
They say that variety is the spice of life, and I will not argue with that. A look back at my diary since my last column reveals that has not too much downtime – my better half would suggest I had none. Maybe it is a hint that he feels a little neglected!
Writing, which includes book reviews for an Irish publication, takes up most of my working time, but many of my other involvements are equine-related activities, and, if I am honest, I could not really term them work. While I am a great advocate for young people in the business, as a senior I also can see the value of experience and knowledge! The mix of the two is surely the best recipe for success.
Thompson is a man who goes about his business quietly, letting his horses do the talking, and he won not only for breeding one of the best runners of last season, Bambino Fever, but for a lifetime of winners
A highlight has been hosting the Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Breeders of the Year dinner at Orby’s by Lucy on The Curragh Racecourse.
An evening of celebration saw a dozen winners, all chosen by public vote, presented with prizes, and then two overall winners named, one on the Flat and another for the NH division. Both were hugely popular and each was a deserving winner.
The first to be named, at the 20th such awards, was in the jumps category. This was Geoffrey Thompson of Morning Star Stud. Thompson is a man who goes about his business quietly, letting his horses do the talking, and he won not only for breeding one of the best runners of last season, Bambino Fever, but for a lifetime of winners – mostly from the one family.
The unbeaten Bambino Fever is from a female line that Geoffrey and his family has developed over generations. Her dam is the fourth daughter of the unraced Midnight Pond to produce a black-type jumps winner.
The best of the others is the Grade 2-placed Presenting mare Midnight Gift, responsible for the
The Kids In America Bloodstock syndicate of Clare Manning, Conor Wixted and Eleanor Dunne, pinhooked the Vino Rosso filly Bottle Of Rouge, winner of August’s Grade1 Debutante Stakes
Photo: Lorraine O’Sullivan
Grade 1 hurdle and chase star Death Duty.
The Grade 1 Cheltenham Festival chase winner One Knight, the Grade 1 hurdle winner and Cheltenham Festival winner Commander Of Fleet, and the Grade A-winning chaser Foxrock are among other familiar names that appear under Bambino Fever’s third dam Midnight Oil, daughter of Menelek.
The Flat award winners are also neighbours and friends of Geoffrey and Eithne Thompson.
The Flat award was won a year previously by John Magnier, and it tells you how hard it is to land the accolade that he did so in the 19th year of this competition. The new winners join a list that includes Jim Bolger, Barronstown Stud, Ballymacoll Stud, Tally-Ho Stud, Moyglare Stud, Yeomanstown Stud, Ringfort Stud and Ballylinch Stud, Aidan and Annemarie O’Brien, and the late Aga Khan, among others. Step forward, Honora and Bobby Donworth.
Field Of Gold earned the couple their prize, and it was fitting that the dinner was held at The Curragh, which has provided the son of Kingman’s family with great moments and memories. Who can forget Clive Brittain’s dance after Rizeena won the Moyglare Stud Stakes?
Field Of Gold is the latest star in a line that the Roundhill Stud has had since the purchase of his grandam Princess Serena for $150,000 in 2003.
In the two decades since, she is the dam of a
Group 1 winner, grandam of two Group 1 winners, and Field Of Gold is the seventh black-type winner under Princess Serena.
It was a Champion meeting
The two-day Irish Champions Festival saw some 20,000 people racing at Leopardstown and The Curragh, producing no end of high-class winners, and plenty of talking points - as it should. After all, six Group 1 races and a host of competitive supporting contests over the weekend should have the racing world’s focus – and it did.
That said, prominent among the commentary about the two meetings continues to be the same old chestnuts – why are there not bigger crowds, and why are some of the most prestigious juvenile races on the European calendar attracting so few runners?
The answers are the same as they were last year, and the years before that. We need to stop nitpicking and instead accentuate the positives. In Ireland, as a spectacle, NH racing is more popular, and most of the best two-year-olds are in a small number of hands.
Tepin had four foals, has bred two Group 1 winners with her only runners, but she left behind three daughters to continue the line
Picking one highlight of the Irish Champions Festival weekend is difficult, almost impossible, and there was much to savour. The Group 1 Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes will be among the world’s best races of 2025 after Aidan O’Brien secured the €700,000 winners’ purse for his team with Delacroix, who was followed home by two British challengers. And what a standard the runner-up Anmaat continues to set, and he is my choice for the title of the most admirable horse in training.
This was a crucial victory for Delacroix, who displayed a devastating turn of foot out to take control – he will be a prized addition to the stallion ranks at Coolmore, most likely in 2026.
He will provide the Tipperary farm with a handsome, top-class son of Dubawi out of an exceptional mare in Tepin. She was a Royal Ascot heroine in the Queen Anne Stakes (G1), who also triumphed at the highest level in the US and Canada.
Her $8 million purchase by M.V. Magnier has certainly paid off, as she also bred the Group 1 winner Grateful before her untimely death.
It is remarkable that news of Tepin’s death was not in the public arena for a year, until O’Brien revealed it in the aftermath of Grateful’s win in last year’s Prix de Royallieu at ParisLongchamp. Tepin had four foals, has bred two Group 1 winners with her only runners, but she left behind three daughters to continue the line.
Joe Connolly awards Geoffrey Thompson the Connolly’s Red Mills/The Irish Field Flat breeder award for Bambino Fever, winner of the Grade 1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper
The ball is in your court...
Emphatic winner of the Gr.1 Commonwealth Cup & Gr.1 July Cup
Cartier Champion Sprinter & Longines World’s Best 3YO Sprinter in 2023
Standing at ACE STUD
The Lloyd Report
This colt, a half-brother to Golden Pal and by the exciting first-crop yearling sire Flightline was bought by John Stewart
TV gold?
The ongoing spat between Repole and Stewart could be coming to a channel with you, writes Jamie Lloyd in his debut column for International Thoroughbred
WITH THIS year’s editions of the Goffs UK Premier Sale and the Tattersalls Somerville Sale both in the bag there is a brief lull in the European sale storm before our attentions move to Ireland.
As usual this brief domestic hiatus allows us to either attend, or at least follow, all the action from the world’s largest yearling auction – the Keeneland September Sale in Lexington, Kentucky.
As a regular at the sale I look forward to my annual pilgrimage to the Bluegrass state; it’s been a
happy hunting ground for me over the past 20 years as both a trainer and a bloodstock agent.
The recent Kentucky Downs winner Ag Bullet, who doubled up in the Never Say Die Ladies Turf Sprint (G2) after her victory in the Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes in June, was purchased under our MeahLloyd banner in 2021, bought for Calvin Nguyen and Johnny Tran for $220,000 from Eaton Sales.
Her most recent victory took her earnings in excess of $2.7 million and she serves as a great advertisement for the sale – her victory was also a timely reminder to go back!
When I got there and was
The feud has even prompted an idea for a reality TV show, with the pitch submitted to Netflix and believed to be under consideration “ “
chatting with Zoe Cadman on the Keeneland sale ground, she was quick to point out the immediate impact that the exciting first-season sire Flightline made in Book 1 and 2.
The freshman had eight hips return over $1 million through the first 1,000 hips through the ring, and, as of writing, he shows no signs of slowing down.
Zoe and her business partner Marette Farrell had a busy week through Book 1 and 2 purchasing nine yearlings for varied clients.
The team was also brimming with excitement over their recent purchase of Hip 777, a son of Corniche and another exciting freshman sire. He won
the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile at Del Mar in 2021, but, sadly, his racing career was cut short. The son of Quality Road was very well represented at the sale.
Another of Flightline’s many accolades from this year’s auction was being the first shot fired in the ongoing and everentertaining feud between Mike Repole’s Stable and John Stewart’s Resolute Racing.
In the sale’s opening session the latter went to $1.5 million for Hip 10, a chestnut half-brother to the Breeders’ Cup champion Golden Pal.
The rivalry between the two camps is as well-documented as it is long-standing.
The two stables have wildly
different approaches for their own purchasing strategies, and to racing in general.
Neither camp is slow to miss an opportunity to highlight the other’s perceived shortcomings; giving social media followers a constant source of action and an insight into these two multi-million dollar stables.
In August, the two went headto-head at Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga Sale, Resolute making headlines with purchase of a $3 million Into Mischief colt, while Repole fired back purchasing a colt by Not This Time and a filly by first-season sire Life Is Good, an outlay that totalled over $2.4 million.
By the end of Keeneland’s two sessions in Book 1, the two teams had taken dramatically different approaches to the sale.
Repole had signed tickets on 24 individual hips totalling $11,800,000, whereas the more conservative approach of Stewart had him signing for three hips totalling $2,850,000.
A common criticism between the two men is Repole’s assessment that Stewart’s approach to all things racing is naïve; leading him to often refer to him as “Little John!”.
In contrast, Stewart is clearly not a fan of Repole’s traditional,
yet bullish, approach to the sport.
Some would argue that the results speak for themselves –Repole, the longer established of the two, is having another banner year on the track and his horses have won 34 races to date and amassed over $2.7 million in purse money, putting him ninth on the national standings.
Resolute Racing is sitting in 20th place, and has 15 winners with collective earnings of just over $1.9 million.
BOTH STABLES have benefited from some headline acts this year with Excellent Truth winning the Diana Stakes (G1) for Resolute Racing and Fierceness taking the Pacific Classic (G1) for Repole Stable.
One recent exchange saw the two focus on the rivalry between Fierceness and Stewart’s Sierra Leone, who is trained by his main trainer Chad Brown.
This difference on opinions then led Repole to post the stats from the then current Saratoga meeting:
“1st Place – Repole Stable, 59 starts: 14 wins.
“Tied for last place – Resolute Racing, 16 starts: 1 win.
“Lil John, you keep sponsoring races, I’ll keep winning them!”
The feud has even prompted an idea for a reality TV show, with the pitch submitted to
Netflix and believed to be under consideration for production.
The idea was thought up by East Coast trainer Ron Moquette, who trained Whitmore to win the Breeders’ Cup Sprint at Keeneland in 2020.
Moquette proposes that both stables are given a budget of $1 million to purchase either yearlings or two-year-olds.
The horse or horses must go to different trainers with the end goal of seeing who can get closest to the Kentucky Derby (G1). Film crews could document the whole journey showing all the thrills and spills, setbacks and successes.
The idea of the show, even at this early stage, has created huge buzz within the industry and could serve to open the door to other creative ideas to highlight the sport in a similar way that major streaming services have advanced the profiles of Formula 1, the NFL and PGA.
This isn’t the first time the racing world has watched on as two of the sports titans go head to head.
Sea Biscuit and War Admiral started the trend back in 1938 when the four-year-old Sea Biscuit conquered that year’s Triple Crown winner, the three-year-old War Admiral in a match at Pimlico.
Other great rivalries over the years include, Sham and Secretariat, Affirmed and Alydar, and Sunday Silence and Easy Goer.
However, in this modern world of social media and live streaming we have never had such a front row seat, with, hopefully, more of the drama coming to all our living rooms soon.
Mike Repole: enjoys goading John Stewart of Resolute Racing on social media and using the nickname “Little John” for his rival
...Girls aloud
WHILE THE IRISH WEATHER didn’t seem to get the memo for the Irish Champions Festivalsadly not unusual - it did not dampen spirits and racegoers flocked to the tracks in their finery to witness top-class performances for their racing heroes.
One such legend of Irish racing who was celebrating this weekend was Johnny Murtagh. An international superstar as a jockey and now a Curragh-based trainer, Murtagh had a stellar weekend, with three winners.
He bagged a double at Leopardstown on Saturday with Rahmi landing the Irish Stallion Farms EBF Sovereign Handicap and then Alakazi, under Ben Coen, winning the Group 2 Solonaway Stakes.
This second victory was a poignant win for the team, as it was in the colours of the late HH Aga Khan, with whom Murtagh has had a long association both as a rider and handler. It was especially lovely to see the joy with which the win was celebrated and Murtagh’s daughters, Caroline and Lauren had even come dressed in the iconic green and red to keep the theme!
Murtagh’s success continued at The Curragh, with Shaool winning the last race on Day 2, again with Ben Coen in the saddle.
Another trainer to have a stellar weekend at the Irish Champions Festival was UK visitor Karl Burke, who was well rewarded for his journey with two Group winners at Leopardstown. Convergent won the Group 3 CMG Group Stakes
Farm. All three of the Burke winners were ridden by Clifford Lee. Alparslan was purchased at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale for €75,000 by Federico Barberini and has now won over £115,000 from his two wins for his owner Mohamed Saeed Al Shehhi.
it is a sale that really punches above its weight and the sales race gives a great option for owners.
When it comes to Irish racing there is one trainer name that can be never forgotten or underestimated, and yet again it was an incredible weekend for Aidan O’Brien and the Coolmore partners.
Saturday saw the Ballydoyle team get a Listed winner for exciting young sire St Mark’s Basilica with Diamond Necklace, fittingly he himself was a previous Group 1 winner at Irish Champions weekend at Leopardstown.
THE WEEKEND continued with impressive Group 2 winner for Benvenuto Cellini, a son of Frankel and superstar racemare Newspaperofrecord.
The icing on the cake was the Group 1 win of Delacroix, under Christophe Soumillon in the Irish Champions Weekend Stakes.
The success continued at The Curragh on Sunday with victory in the Group 1 Moyglare Stakes for thr Starspangledbanner twoyear-old filly Precise.
The Curragh didn’t fail to deliver on added entertainment, too, with a host of displays by former racehorses who are now leading a new career.
Never one to rest on his laurels, Burke was far from finished for the weekend
This was supported by Moyglare Stud and organised by the excellent Treo Eile, which supports the retraining of racehorses in Ireland.
The parade even featured Native River in side saddle ridden beautifully by Emily McMahon, the Gold Cup winner in Ireland and on loan from now owner Tom Malone.
Another former superstar to grace The Curragh grass was the stunning Kyprios – sadly he was not defending his Classic title in the Irish St Leger, but although now retired he was strutting his stuff all the same.
The final Group race of the day went to Barnavarna for Jessica Harrington and Shane Foley and was a well deserved success for this improving daughter of the late Calyx. The son of Kingman sadly died earlier this year and is proving to be a loss to breeders, who supported him as a solid commercial stallion.
It was another enjoyable year of Irish championship racing and it would be wonderful to see more and more international horses come and compete.
Now it’s time to put the nice outfits away and take out the warmer coats and get down to work for all the exciting yearling sales to come!
Irish Champions Festival by Cathy Grassick Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association
ROLL OF HONOUR LIKE NO OTHER Europe’s #1 ‘Guineas’ sire
A RICH VEIN OF FORM Current Graduates
CARMERS
Won Gr.2 Queen's Vase, Royal Ascot
Won L Yeats Stakes, Navan
Bred by Westward Bloodstock
BE YOUR BEST
Won Gr.1 Gamely Stakes, Santa Anita
2nd Gr.1 American Oaks, Santa Anita
2nd Gr.1 Del Mar Oaks, Del Mar
Bred by St Croix Bloodstock
SPIRITUAL
Purchased by Blandford Bloodstock for €280,000
Won Gr.3 Princess Elizabeth Stakes, Epsom Bred by Ballylinch Stud
CARL SPACKLER
Won Gr.1 Maker’s Mark Mile, Keeneland
Won Gr.1 Turf Mile, Keeneland
Won Gr.1 Fourstardave Handicap, Saratoga 122
Bred by Fifth Avenue Bloodstock
NOBLE CHAMPION
Purchased by Chasemore Farm for 140,000gns
Won Gr.3 Jersey Stakes, Royal Ascot 115
Bred by Thomas Foy
FURTHUR
Purchased by TDM Bloodstock for €65,000
Won Gr.3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes, Newbury
2nd Gr.2 Queen's Vase, Royal Ascot
Bred by Max Morris
Top of the game
A fantastic weekend’s racing in Britain and Ireland for the St Leger meeting and Irish Champions Weekend saw Justify claim a third European Classic victory courtesy of Scandinavia, Delacroix impress at Leopardstown, first-time Group 1 winners for two second-season sires, and a debut Group winner for first-season sire St Mark’s Basilica
SCANDINAVIA became the third European Classic winner in just three crops aged three or more sired by Coolmore America’s Triple Crown winner Justify with his victory in the St Leger.
As with City Of Troy, last year’s Derby hero and Horse of the Year, Scandinavia is out of a talented daughter of Galileo, while the late 2,000 Guineas victor Ruling Court who had to be euthanised this summer due to serious complications of laminitis, has another Derby-winning son of Sadler’s Wells as his broodmare sire in High Chaparral.
The unbeaten Justify has sired nine top-level winners from his first three crops with four of them out of mares by Sadler’s Wells, Galileo or High Chaparral.
Already a Group 1 winner courtesy of his victory in the Goodwood Cup, Scandinavia is a half-brother to a Group 1 winner by another Triple Crown hero in American Pharoah, who also stands at Coolmore America.
Above The Curve and her Group 3-placed full-sister Thinking Of You are the first two winners out of the unraced
Delacroix’s value to Coolmore’s stallion
operation is immense as a son of Dubawi and out of a champion by Bernstein; he offers a complete outcross for a broodmare band that is rich in Galileo
Fabulous, who has had four foals.
By Galileo and out of Mariah’s Storm, thus making her a half-sister to the Iron Horse Giant’s Causeway, Fabulous is very closely related to Blue Diamond Stud’s Eclipse winner and former Irish National Stud sire Decorated Knight, who is by Galileo and out of Pearling, a Storm Cat full-sister to Giant’s Causeway.
Fabulous is also very closely related to the Group 1 winners Gleneagles, Happily, Joan Of Arc and Marvellous and the Group winners and Group 1-placed Taj Mahal, Coolmore and Toy as well as the Irish 2,000 Guineas second Vatican City.
They are all by Galileo and out of You’resothrilling, the Group 2 Cherry Hinton-winning full-sister to Giant’s Causeway.
While plans for Scandinavia call for another season in training, Coolmore’s
other Group 1 winner of a busy weekend of action may have run his last race.
Aidan O’Brien hinted quite strongly at Leopardstown that Delacroix’s victory in the Irish Champion Stakes has earned him the right to early retirement and a berth at Coolmore’s Fethard HQ.
As a dual Group 1 winner over 1m2f, he is a prized asset but his bloodlines are a precious out-cross for a broodmare band saturated with Galileo blood.
Delacroix’s value to Coolmore’s stallion operation is immense as a son of Dubawi and out of a champion by Bernstein; he offers a complete outcross for a broodmare band that is rich in Galileo genes and a stallion pool dominated by him, with Wootton Bassett and his line growing in prominence. His dam Tepin’s premature death has not prevented the Queen Anne Stakes (G1) winner from leaving a potentially valuable legacy to European breeding.
She is also the dam of last year’s Group 1 Prix de Royallieu winner Grateful, who is from the penultimate crop of Galileo.
Grateful finished third in the Group 2 Park Hill Stakes prior to her Longchamp triumph and connections of this year’s winner Santorini Star will be hoping she
can add to her win record in the same race in October.
The filly was continuing sire Golden Horn’s golden spell on the Flat with her victory in the Group 2 fillies’ Leger for owners Tony Bloom and Ian McAleavy.
With trainer’s wife Maureen Haggas indicating that the Brighton
chairman is planning to branch out from his racing interests, which include this year’s shock Triumph Hurdle victor Poniros, into breeding, he has the perfect filly to join Prix Morny (G1) heroine Venetian Sun as foundation mares.
Santorini Star is a half-sister to Dreamloper, winner of the Prix du Moulin (G1) and Prix d’Ispahan (G1), and now a resident in one of Shadai’s star-studded broodmare barns.
The Teofilo mare was purchased by Katsumi Yoshida for $2.7m at Keeneland in November 2022 and produced a colt by Kingman in 2024 and a filly by Suave Richard this year.
Two stakes winners in two days for St Mark’s Basilica
St Mark’s Basilica’s first crop have hit their stride as the summer falls away and the champion three-year-old added to his tally of stakes winners in 24 hours with black-type winners at Doncaster and Leopardstown, both hugely significant wins for the son of Siyouni.
At Doncaster, Aylin powered to victory
in the Group 2 May Hill Stakes, to become a first Group winner for the sire and a boost for the partnership between Amo Racing and Al Shaqab, who went to 600,000gns to purchase her from breeder Yeomanstown Stud at Book 1 last October.
The third foal out of the Listed Bosra Sham Stakes winner Angelic Light by Yeomanstown’s Dark Angel, Aylin achieved the third-highest price of a yearling from the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1) and Prix du Jockey Club (G1) winner’s first crop.
She is also the third winner for her dam who was bought by Yeomanstown for 195,000gns from trainer Michael
O’Callaghan and her fourth foal is a filly by Galiway, foaled this spring.
Under Aylin’s fourth dam is the Irish Derby (G1) and Secretariat Stakes (G1) winner Treasure Beach, who was runner-up in the Epsom Derby (G1) for Coolmore.
As a €1,700,000 purchase Diamond Necklace was the most expensive yearling by St Mark’s Basilica last year and continued a family tradition of topping Arqana’s August Yearling Sale where she was sold by Ecurie des Monceaux to MV Magnier.
The half-sister to the Irish Oaks (G1) winner Chicquita and Magic Wand, successful in the Group 1 Mackinnon
the first Group winner for first-season sire St Mark’s Basilica, part of a great weekend for part-owner Amo Racing and holds a Fillies’ Mile (G1) entry
Aylin:
Diamond Necklace’s victory will have pleased more than Coolmoreher yearling Night Of Thunder half-sister was bought for
€3,000,000 at Arqana in August by Amo Racing
Stakes, made an impressive debut at The Curragh in August, after which trainer Aidan O’Brien mentioned the Fillies’ Mile (G1) as a possible target for Diamond Necklace.
On her way to Newmarket, she stopped off at Leopardstown and opened Irish Champions’ Festival with her victory in the Listed Ingabelle Fillies’ Stakes under Christophe Soumillon.
The bay impressed with how she quickened off a strong pace despite looking to still be somewhat green and the Fillies’ Mile remains on the agenda.
Diamond Necklace’s victory will have pleased more than Coolmore - her yearling Night Of Thunder half-sister was bought for €3,000,000 at Arqana in August by Amo Racing, shattering the sale’s record price.
A Titian of a broodmare
Titian Saga’s progeny may not have accumulated the same amount of wealth in the sales ring, but the 23-yearold Titus Livius mare has been an outstanding producer for the Burns family of Newlands House Stud.
Revival Power’s all-the-way success in the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes at Doncaster came on top of her Listed win in August and the Bungle Inthejungle filly is the fourth stakes performer bred by Newlands House Stud from Titian Saga.
The chestnut represents the same connections as her older full-sister, the Nunthorpe heroine Winter Power, and was bought by Sackville Donald for €125,000 at the Goffs Orby Sale last October.
Titian Saga won only one of her 21 starts, a 6f juvenile fillies’ maiden at Newmarket, but as a broodmare she has excelled.
Prior to her regular date with Bungle Inthejungle, she had produced the Listed Land O’Burns Fillies Stakes winner Hay Chewed to Camacho and Flying Sparkle, a Listed Two-Year-Old Trophy runner-up, to Fast Company.
In addition to her Group winners by Bungle, she is also the dam of three-year-old Ortley Avenue, who is a full-brother to the two Group winners, and was second in a Grade 3 sprint at Saratoga over the summer.
Titian Saga, who is a half-sister to
Nova Tor (Trans Island), the dam of Group 2 winner Devonshire and Listed winner Hurryupharriet, hasn’t produced anything since Revival Power but she was covered once again this year by Bungle Inthejungle.
Zavateri: one for Without Parole Zavateri’s success in the Group 1 National Stakes at The Curragh was a boost for breeders, trainers and owners everywhere who don’t have the resources to patronise six-figure stallions or compete for their offspring at the sales.
The second-crop son of Without Parole was bought by Anthony Bromley and trainer Eve Johnson-Houghton for 35,000gns from Newsells Park Stud at Tattersalls October Book 2 last year, a transaction which is looking ever more like a steal.
Given the colt’s illustrious pedigree, how the team bought him for such relative inexpensive is mysterious.
The chestnut, who was part-bred by John Gunther, owner-breeder along with his daughter Tanya of
Zavateri (right): has put himself to the top of the juvenile tree with his Group 1 National Stakes victory
Zavateri has a yearling Ghaiyyath half-sister going to Book 1 (Lot 534) and she will not be a bargain buy from Newsells this year; now that Zavateri has proven himself one of the best of his generation
Without Parole, is the first foal of a granddaughter of the great Zarkava.
His dam Zeroua (Siyouni) was bought by Avenue Bloodstock for €90,000 out of the Aga Khan Studs’ draft at Arqana in December 2021.
Unraced Zeroua is a half-sister to the Australian Group 3 winner Zeyrek by Sea The Stars, and they are out of Zerkaza.
She, likewise, was unraced and the daughter of Dalakhani is the first foal of Zarkava.
Zerkaza is a half-sister to the leading young French sire Zarak, as well as to the Listed winner and Prix Vermeille third-placed Zarkamiya, who is the dam of Zarigana. She was promoted to first place earlier this year in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches.
Zavateri is now unbeaten in his four career starts for Johnson-Houghton and Mick and Janice Mariscotti. The chestnut began his career in a Salisbury novice in June before connections sent him straight to university and the Group 2 July Stakes.
He graduated with honours before adding the Group 2 Vintage Stakes to his impressive curriculum vitae. His stiffest test so has been the National Stakes and he showed grit and determination to defeat 400,000gns foal purchase Gstaad.
The Ballydoyle colt had finished runner-up to Venetian Sun in the Prix Morny prior to stepping up to 7f, but the half-brother to the champion two-yearold Vandeek just could not find a way past Zavteri.
Zavateri has a yearling Ghaiyyath half-sister in Book 1 (Lot 534) and she will not be a bargain buy from Newsells this year; now that Zavateri has proven to be one of the best of his generation.
A Precise win
It was close to being a juvenile Group 1 double for Gstaad’s sire
Starspangledbanner at The Curragh as his daughter Precise won the Moyglare Stud Stakes ahead of stable companion Beautify, and the
aforementioned Venetian Sun.
Bred by her trainer Aidan O’Brien and his wife Anne Marie’s Whisperview Trading out of the Galileo mare Way To My Heart, Precise was another to come from Group race success at Goodwood to Group 1 glory at The Curragh.
Her victory was in the Group 3 Prestige Stakes where she had Aylin behind her in third, and Precise was also making the fourth start of her career having won a Cork maiden in mid-August having finished runner-up on debut at Fairyhouse in July.
As with Zavateri she has boosted the
Starspangledbanner: so nearly had a juvenile Group 1 double on the Irish Champions Sunday
prospects of another Book 1 yearling – her Wootton Bassett half-brother is to be offered by The Castlebridge Consignment (Lot 514).
Precise is the third winner from four runners out of Way To My Heart, who also has a colt foal by Wootton Bassett.
Way To My Heart is a full-sister to Kingfisher, winner of Chester’s Dee Stakes (L) and Saval Beg Stakes (L) and second in both the Irish Derby and Ascot Gold Cup.
Second dam Mystical Lady won the Listed Ruby Stakes and is a Halling halfsister to the stakes winners and Classicplaced duo of Furners Green and Lady Lupus. She is also a half-sister to Listed Cairn Rouge Stakes winner Palace, dam
of two Beresford Stakes (G2) winners in High Definition and Innisfree, who both went on to be placed in Group 1 races.
Precise’s fourth dam is the champion three-year-old filly Sonic Lady, victorious at the top level in the Irish 1,000 Guineas, the Prix du Moulin and the Sussex Stakes. Sonic Lady is also the third dam of Deirdre, Japan’s winner of the Nassau Stakes (G1).
Way To My Heart was another reasonably purchased mare for the O’Briens, bought at Goffs for €57,000.
As Leo Powell mentioned at the races, an analysis of the many great runners bred by the couple would surely show there are few better to spot talent in breeding stock than Anne-Marie.
Sergei off the mark with a Blaze Newsells Park Stud wasn’t the only stallion farm with a second-crop sire to celebrate Group 1 success at Irish Champions’ Festival.
Whitsbury Manor Stud was rewarded for its belief in Sergei Prokofiev as Arizona Blaze finally landed the Group 1 success he had threatened to earn since his victory over Camille Pissarro in the Group 3 Marble Hill Stakes at The Curragh in May 2024.
Podium positions earned in the Phoenix Stakes (G1), Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) and Commonwealth Cup (G1) followed with victories in the Group 3 Red Rocks Stakes and Group 2 Sapphire Stakes sandwiching his Royal Ascot near-miss.
A disappointing 11th behind Mgheera in the Nunthorpe Stakes (G1) meant that Arizona Blaze had something to prove in the Flying Five, but he duly answered doubters and critics emphatically, much to the delight of owner Kia Joorabchian, who is gathering quite a potential stallion band.
One of three winners from three runners out Liberisque, a winner at three and a daughter of Equiano and the Listed Finale Stakes winner Jane Austen by Galileo.
Arizona Blaze was bred by Andrew Bengough & Partners, and Liberisque has a yearling half-brother from the first crop of Blackbeard going to October Book 1 (Lot 230).
He will be consigned by Flash Conroy’s Glenvale Stud, who bought the colt from Fittocks Stud for 190,000gns at the December Foal Sale.
Arizona Blaze was sold by Sara Cumani’s farm to Amanda Skiffington for 36,000gns and became the first winner, first Group winner and first Group 1 winner by his sire Sergei Prokofiev, a $1.1m yearling from the final crop of Scat Daddy.
Arizona Blaze (left): the first Group 1 winner for his Whitsbury Manor Stud sire Sergei Prokofiev
Brocklesby Bill
Photo: Debbie Burt
A personal tribute from Simon Milham who remembers the late trainer Bill Turner, a true horseman who loved training cheaply-bought two-year-olds and won with horses others had dismissed
ROCKLESBY BILL was what I’d dubbed him. I’ll always be proud of that. He’d chuckle when he saw that in the paper. In recent years, mine was the one official phone call he received from a journalist every year at the start of each Flat season.
There were social calls, too. I’d bemoan the fact his talent for breaking in horses and working with precocious juveniles had been dismissed or forgotten. He’d brush it off: “I’ve had my days, and we’ve had
Time and fashion waits for no-one. Bill Turner, who died on August 14, at the age of 78, may have been seen as yesterday’s man by the end, with no more than a dozen horses in his care at his Sigwells yard on the Dorset/Somerset border.
Yet nothing could dim his passion for horses. His wit was still razor sharp, and those that knew him always feared his runners, whatever the level.
His greatest triumphs had come in the Brocklesby Stakes at Doncaster, where he turned cheap, sharp youngsters into sprinters who took scalps of those representing “those bloody big Newmarket yards”.
Bill won the 5f Brocklesby six times – with Indian Spark (1996), The Lord (2002), Spoof Master (2006), Sally’s Dilemma (2008), He’s So Cool (2011), and Mick’s Yer Man (2013) – and went close on a few others.
“I can’t remember how many times I’ve been second, probably five or six times,” he
He liked nothing more than bloodying the nose of those blessed with the patronage of blue-bloods, that underdog mentality and
fighting spirit passed on from his Romany roots, of which he remained fiercely proud.
Bill learned plenty about life from his father, also named Bill, who was a champion amateur boxer in the army and while he had few hobbies, boxing remained the trainer’s passion, as master handler David Elsworth found out.
The pair locked horns in an infamous brawl at Epsom, a simmering row over some trivial matter that had festered for a few years.
Both men - shirtless, fiery and formidablecame to blows in the heat of old rivalries. The Jockey Club fined them heavily for “violent and improper conduct,” but if you knew Bill, you knew it wasn’t malice - it was passion, raw and unfiltered.
“He was a great man,” said fellow trainer Sir Mark Prescott, who used to ride alongside Turner in their younger days as jump jockeys.
Recalling the altercation, he laughed: “They had that wonderful fight in the car park and neither could remember why. They were so cross at the time. They are two legends. You don’t get people like that now. They are proper people and, of course, they are country people.”
TURNER DIED IN AUGUST after sustaining a serious fracture to his skull, having been knocked over by a horse in a freak accident at Sigwells.
Those injuries were sadly insurmountable.
He had also suffered some serious injuries when riding many years ago.
Prescott revealed: “When I broke my back at Wye Racecourse, Bill was one of the people who was brought down, and we went off to Ashford Cottage hospital together.
“He had asked for something for the pain, as he’d broken two or three ribs and broke his pelvis, and was in absolutely terrible pain.
“I was paralysed, but I was in no pain. He asked this sort of Hattie Jacques woman [a matron-like figure from the Carry On films] if he could have something, but in those days there was nothing they could give you for pain before they operated.
“The woman said, ‘I’m afraid not, Mr Turner’. He insisted, ‘But I really need something for this pain’, but she said, ‘No. I’m
afraid not – we don’t call this pain, we call this ‘discomfort’!
“So, the joke was, whenever I saw Bill and either of us was having a bad time, or just got disqualified, or got one nicked out of a seller or something, I’d say ‘I don’t call that pain, Bill, I call that discomfort.’”
The Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe-winning trainer Prescott also remembers Bill’s own prowess as rider and then as a trainer.
He added: “Bill could certainly train those two-year-olds, and they were bought for nothing. If we think some big sales race winning-trainer is good now, Bill was better.
“He’d ride anything when he was riding. He had Cuban heels and cowboy boots. I loved him – Bill is an absolute hero of mine. I think even Elsie liked him in the end, really.”
Bill really was a lovely bloke, but he was never going to give up training. When asked on several occasions if he’d ever jack it in, he’d said: “Dad, bless him, told me, ‘Don’t retire, because there are two chairs that will kill you –the electric chair and the armchair!”
Brocklesby Bill’s legacy will live on in every scrappy two-year-old he transformed, in every shared laugh at the paddock, and in the stubborn refusal to slow down.
Rest well, Bill. The race goes on - and hopefully you will be winning races at some gaff track in the sky soon enough. God Bless.
Bill could certainly train those two-year-olds, and they were bought for nothing.
If we think some big sales race winning-trainer is good now, Bill was better
The Lord: was trained by Turner and seen here winning the Lily Agnes Stakes in 2002 on his third career start, the son of Averti having won the Brocklesby Stakes on his debut. He went on to run 68 times, win eight races, and pick up over £100,000 in prize-money
THE CUP IS Calling CUP IS CALLING THE
BREEDERS’ CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
Oct. 31 & Nov. 1, 2025 • 14 Grade I Championship Races • Del Mar Over $34 million in Purses and Awards
It’s time to take your place among the world’s greats. Pre-entry for the 2025 Breeders’ Cup World Championships opens online October 1 and closes at Noon (PDT), on Monday, October 20. All Breeders’ Cup World Championships races are non-invitational and are open to all thoroughbreds competing around the globe.
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Enjoy exclusive world-class hospitality on racing’s biggest stage, including premium reserved seating for you and your guests, participant hotel accommodations including a credit for your stay, access to hospitality lounges, executive car service, and invitations to exclusive events.
To view the digital Horsemen’s Information Guide, visit members.breederscup.com.
SCAN TO PRE-ENTER
It was like July in September
Jill Williams reports from the summer’s record-breaking yearling sales in the US – Keeneland September and Fasig-Tipton’s Saratoga Sale
LONG BEFORE THE INK dried on the sales tickets signed by buyers during Book 1 of Keeneland’s marathon September yearling sale, it was clear there was something special about the 2025 edition in Lexington, Kentucky.
“It felt like the old July Sale. And that really is what we are trying to create,” Keeneland’s vice president of sales Tony Lacy told reporters gathered in the pavilion at the conclusion of the second and final session of Book 1. “We are trying to create that theatre and that excitement.”
Mission accomplished. Keeneland’s July Selected Yearling Sale, which was held from 1943-2002, was an eagerly anticipated boutique event each year which saw the top yearlings bring eye-popping prices.
The world record price for a yearling is still held by a July graduate – Seattle Dancer (Nijinsky), who was sold for $13.1 million in 1985 bought by the BBA.
This year’s September Sale was also one for the record books, and started off in style in Book 1.
While the days of yearlings selling for eight figures may be a thing of the past, an era of sustained elevation in yearling prices across the board seems to be the new vogue at the top level.
A packed Keeneland pavilion during Book 1 translated to records broken with the average and median both climbing significantly over last year’s sale and the buy-back rate free falling.
All told, 217 yearlings changed hands during Keeneland’s Book 1, grossing $144,185,000, which was up 20.59 per cent over last year’s edition.
The remarkable $664,447 average and $550,00 median were up by 13.37 per cent and 15.79 per cent, respectively. The RNA rate over the two sessions concluded at 21.09 per cent, representing 58 of the yearlings through the ring and a marked 29.27 per cent decrease from the previous year.
Thirty-five yearlings sold in the two Book 1 sessions cracked the $1 million
threshold, led by a Gun Runner colt out of the Tapit mare Thoughtfully, who won the Grade 2 Adirondack Stakes in 2020 (Lot 177). The dark bay colt was bought by the partnership of M.V. Magnier, White Birch, and Winchell Thoroughbreds for $3,300,000.
Nine different sires were represented among the 35 seven-figure yearlings, with Gun Runner leading the way with total of 10 seven-figure yearlings.
The young Three Chimneys stallion, whose plethora of career Grade 1 winners
includes the recent Grade 1 Whitney Stakes victor Sierra Leone and the Grade 1 Del Mar Futurity winner Brant, averaged $1,035,833 during Book 1 from 24 sold.
Incidentally, Brant was sold at last year’s Keeneland September Sale as a post-sale Book 2 purchase for $200,000, before reselling six months later at the OBS March Sale for a record $3,000,000.
Sharing the second-highest price in this year’s Book 1 were a colt by Gun Runner and a filly by Flightline,
Left, the Keeneland September Sale top lot son of Gun Runner (Lot 177), who fetched $3,300,000 and was bought by M.V. Magnier/White Birch/Winchell Thoroughbreds
Above, the daughter of new sire Flightline was joint-second best priced lot and top filly when seling for $2,200,000 (Lot 338), bought by LSU Stables
who each brought the hammer down for $2,200,000.
The son of Gun Runner is out the unraced Tiznow mare Amour D’Ete and is a full-brother to Grade 1 Preakness Stakes winner Early Voting from the immediate family of champion Speightstown. Trainer Wesley Ward, who in 2009 became the first US trainer to saddle a winner at Royal Ascot and has since won 11 further races at the Royal meeting, signed the ticket for a partnership that included breeder Three Chimneys.
The $2,200,000 Flightline filly went to LSU Stables. She is out of the multiple graded winner Four Graces, a daughter of Majesticperfection, who was also runner-up in the 2022 Grade 1 Derby City Distaff.
From a long-time Whitham Thoroughbreds family, Four Graces is a half-sister to multiple graded winner McCraken and sold as a broodmare prospect at the Keeneland November Sale in 2022 for $2.3 million to Whisper Hill Farm. The Flightline filly was her first foal.
The unbeaten Horse of the Year Flightline, whose much-anticipated first crop are yearlings this year, was the only first-crop yearling sire to achieve a seven-figure sale in Book 1. He had seven yearlings top the $1 million mark, with his 23 to sell averaging a heady $880,435.
No matter where one turned, the Book 1 numbers were spectacular.
Taylor Made completed Book 1 as the leading consignor, selling 44 yearlings for $26 million and for an average of $590,909. Mike Repole led all buyers with 24 yearlings purchased, alone or in partnership, for $12.3 million, and an average of $512,500.
“Keeneland has a tradition of selling champions year after year,” said SF Racing’s Tom Ryan. “It’s an incredibly deep bench of quality and it’s a sale that you have to shop. Everybody in the world who wants to buy a good Dirt horse has to shop at Keeneland.”
Over and over again, buyers commented on the difficulty involved in completing transactions, sharing how they’d been repeatedly outbid and sometimes shut out altogether. Several said they hadn’t seen a market of this ilk since the 1980s, which provided a thrill for both officials at Keeneland and for sellers in later books, who saw a trickledown effect through the subsequent books.
And yet, despite the exceptionally strong market which made orders a challenge to fill – or maybe because of it, for those on the selling end –a palpable energy crackled through the
crowd from beginning to end during both days of Book 1.
Ward best summed up the prevailing good vibes felt through both days of Keeneland’s Book 1: “I’m excited for horseracing. The future looks bright. It’s beautiful weather for a sale like this with such wonderful horses. There’s hills and valleys for every sport and it looks like ours is on the way up.”
Fasig-Tipton Saratoga set the record-breaking trend
A month before the Keeneland sale, Fasig-Tipton got a turn in the spotlight
The most expensive yearling in the US this year: the $4,100,000 Into Mischief colt was sold at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, bought by Coolmore and White Birch Farm
Ultimately, with 25 lots selling for $1 million or more, it meant every sixth or seventh horse through the Fasig-Tipton ring, on average, sold for seven figures
with its Saratoga Sale of selected yearlings.
It, too, smashed records and established a heightened expectation of excellence. Over the two August nights, 160 yearlings sold for a record $100,715,000, averaging $629,469 with a median of $450,000. The buy-back rate was a sparkling 11.6 per cent.
A colt by Into Mischief out of multiple graded-placed Steller Sound, by Tapit, topped the sale when going for $4,100,000 million to Coolmore and White Birch.
Ultimately, with 25 lots selling for $1 million or more, it meant every sixth or seventh horse through the FasigTipton ring, on average, sold for seven figures.
Into Mischief : five new Grade 1 winners Spendthrift Farm’s Into Mischief, who had four yearlings sell for $1 million or more during Keeneland’s Book 1, continues to extend his legacy on the racetrack.
He’s added five individual new Grade I winners in the last six months, including a pair of exciting twoyear-olds on the final weekend of Saratoga.
Tommy Jo and Ted Noffey, winners of the Spinaway Stakes and the Hopeful
Stakes, became the 26th and 27th Grade 1 winners sired by the stallion.
Into Mischief has won the last six US leading sires’ titles and looks unstoppable in a quest to add a seventh to his laurels.
His nearly $23 million in progeny earnings for the year through midSeptember dwarfs his nearest competitor by approximately $8 million, a nearly insurmountable lead.
While Into Mischief has top runners in almost every category, his leading horse in 2025 is undoubtedly Sovereignty, who proved victorious once again when prevailing in the Grade 1 Travers Stakes
Sovereignty earned a 115 Beyer Speed Figure – the highest on Dirt or Turf at any distance or division for the year –in the Travers and became the first horse since Thunder Gulch in 1995 to add the Midsummer Derby to his Grade 1 Kentucky Derby and Grade 1 Belmont Stakes wins.
Twenty Grand (1931), Whirlaway (1941), and Shut Out (1942) are the only other horses to have previously achieved the triple.
Trailing Into Mischief by graded stakes winners in 2025 is Gun Runner, who had such a tremendous Book 1 at Keeneland.
He has had nine graded winners so far on the year, matched by Not This Time and only behind Into Mischief’s 13.
Gun Runner’s Grade 1 Whitney Stakes victor Sierra Leone will aim to defend his title in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic on November 1, but he will have to get by
Tommy Jo became leading sire Into Mischief’s 26th Grade 1 winner when successful in the Spinaway Stakes
On trial in France
Jocelyn de Moubray reports on
the
Arc preliminaries,
which has revealed the European-trained three-year-olds to be far from a “vintage crop”
Photography courtesy of France Galop
THE WERTHEIMER
BROTHERS’ Aventure earned her first Group 1 with a comfortable length-anda-half victory win over the Prix de Diane winner Gezora in the Qatar Prix Vermeille to become the new ante-post favourite for the Arc de Triomphe.
The Christophe Ferland-trained
daughter of Sea The Stars has been a consistent top-class performer since first making her name with a 7l victory in the Group 3 Prix de Royaumont at Chantilly last June.
Over the last 12 months she has won three of her six races and finished second to Bluestocking and Calandagan in the other three; on really soft ground only Bluestocking has been able to beat
her and the Juddmonte-owned Arc and Vermeille winner had to give everything to be able to do so.
Aventure will surely be among those contesting the Arc this year, and if the ground comes up soft or very soft, she will be hard indeed to beat.
If Aventure is France’s leading Arc contender, it is looking increasingly likely that her main rivals will include
Aventure: the daughter of Sea The Stars collected a deserved first Group 1 in the Prix Vermeille – she has finished second three times at the highest level
Alohi Alii ran from the 400m to 200m mark in 10.56sec, one of the fastest splits of this Deauville season, and did so with only minimal urging from his jockey Christophe Lemaire
at least one of the Japanese-trained contingent.
The highest-rated Japanese challengers, the Derby winner Croix Du Nord, won the Group 3 Prince D’Orange as we went to press, but there was bad news for the Japan Cup (G1) runnerup Shin Emperor – after disappointing behind Delacroix in Ireland, he was found to be sick and will not start in the Arc.
Two of the others, however, could not have been more impressive when winning their prep races.
At Deauville in August, Alohi Alii, a three-year-old son of Duramente trained by Hiroyasu Tanaka, took on the Group 1 performers Rashabar and Cualificer in the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano over 1m2f, and, coming from behind in a slowly run race, he thrashed them, winning unchallenged by threeand-a-half lengths with Rashabar just beating Cualificar by a head for second.
Alohi Alii ran from the 400m to 200m mark in 10.56sec, one of the fastest splits of the Deauville season, and did so with only minimal urging from his jockey Christophe Lemaire.
Three weeks later the four-yearold Epiphaneia colt Byzantine Dream won the 1m4f Group 2 Prix Foy run at ParisLongchamp in a similar style, beating a field which included several Group 1 winners and some of the stars of the 2025 European season –Sosie, Almaqam, Los Angeles and Map Of Stars amongst others.
Byzantine Dream, whose best previous performances had come over long trips, displayed plenty of speed in the Foy, running the fastest 200m of all, 10.75sec from the 400m to the 200m,
and covering the final 400m some 13 per cent faster than his race average.
It is, of course, possible that in both races the beaten horses did not show their best form.
After Cualificar’s good win in the Group 2 Prix Niel, trainer André Fabre explained that he had run him in Deauville as he was worried the son of Lope De Vega was putting on too much weight!
Sosie was returning from a disappointing run in the Eclipse at a time when the Fabre horses were not in the best of form, and so he will almost certainly put up a far better
performance in the big race itself.
However, neither of the Japanese winners had run recently either. Alohi Alii had not run since finishing eighth in April’s Group 1 Satsuki Sho (the Japanese 2,000 Guineas), some 4l behind the second-placed Croix Du Nord, while Byzantine Dream’s previous start was a second place in the Group 1 Tenno Sho on May 4.
Alohi Alii and Byzantine Dream are both top-class horses with ratings of 120 or higher and both will have a chance in the Arc. Stamina will not be a problem for either as Byzantine Dream has already shown top class form over two miles, while if Alohi Alii has yet to run over further than 1m2f his dam was stakes-placed over 1m1f on soft ground and her half-brother Admirable was third in the Group 1 Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby).
As good as both Byzantine Dream and Alohi Alii are, the Derby winner Croix Du Nord is significantly better – he will be
The fast-finishing Katzumi Yoshida-owned Byzantine Dream (Epiphaneia) winning the Group 2 Prix Foy
ROYAL PATRONAGE
Canterbury Stakes, purchased for 300,000 gns Gr. 1
WITNESS STAND winner of Lennox Stakes, Gr. 2 purchased for 100,000 gns
victory was significant as, for French trainers and breeders, it is not a prep race at all, but the most prestigious race of all for fillies and mares, and one in which Aventure’s family has played a major role more than once.
Left Hand, a Dubawi half-sister to Aventure, won the race in 2016 for trainer Carlos Laffon Parias, and then Plumania, an Anabaa half-sister to Aventure’s dam Balladeuse, was second to Stacelita and Midday in 2009 and
The Wertheimers purchased Aventure’s third dam Featherhill in 1990 when she was in-foal to Alydar.
Featherhill’s first three foals had included the Group 1 winner Groom Dancer and Group 1 performer Tagel and so the Lyphard mare must have been expensive. She didn’t produce another stakes winner herself, but her daughters Featherquest and Sea Hill have created a dynasty of top-class
middle-distance horses, including the Group 1 winners Aventure, Plumania, Double Major and Left Hand.
The Vermeille was run a regular pace with Christophe Soumillon making the running on the Aidan O’Brien-trained Whirl, the winner of Group 1 races on her previous two starts.
When the sprint began at the entrance to the straight it was obvious very quickly that Whirl was well beaten and Aventure was going better than her rivals. The Sea The Stars filly ran from the 400m to the 200m in 10.59secs and had only to be kept going to win comfortably after that burst of speed.
She was followed in her effort by the Diane winner Gezora, who was making her first start since the Chantilly Classic and her first over 1m4f.
Peter Brant’s Almanzor filly looks to have improved and will also have a role to play in the Arc and other top races in the future.
The fourth, the Nicolas Clement-
Above, the Group 2 Prix Guillaume d’Ornano winner Alohi Alii goes clear of Rashabar and Cualificar, and, below, his trainer Hiroyasu Tanaka
trained four-year-old Survie, has been running against the best fillies and mares all year and gives a guide to the standard of the race. The Churchill filly had been beaten by over a length easily by Aventure in the Corrida in May, 3l by Whirl and Kalpana in the Pretty Polly in June, by nearly 2l by Quisisana in the Group 1 Prix Jean Rommanet in August and three-and-a-quarter lengths by Aventure in the Vermeille.
Aventure, Gezora and Quisisiana will all have a chance in the Arc itself.
It is, however, harder to find a European-trained colt, let alone a threeyear-old, who looks likely to play a major role.
Overall, the three-year-olds in Europe in 2025 are not a vintage group. Only ten are currently rated 120 or higher by the Racing Post, compared with as many as 16 at the same time in 2022 and 15 last year, and the leaders of the generation, Field Of Gold and Delacroix, have been
The Moulin underlined again just how difficult it is to win a Group 1 over a mile at Longchamp from a wide draw –Sahlan was drawn six,
while Rosallion came from stall 11 of 12, ran the fastest final 600m, but came up just short
In the last edition, we wrote that Graffard had trained five Group 1 winners this year; that number has already increased to eight
Rosallion (3) could not overcome his wide draw and comes up short against the three-year-old Sahlan (Wootton Bassett) in the Prix du Moulin (G1)
racing over shorter distances.
The Godolphin-owned Cualificar is probably the best, particularly as he is being prepared by Fabre. The son of Lope De Vega and the Oaks winner Qualify has progressed steadily but surely throughout his career. Beaten on his first two starts he then won a maiden, two Group 3s over 1m1f before finishing second in the Jockey-Club and only third in the Guillaume d’Ornano behind Alohi Alii.
The Niel was his best performance to date and he showed plenty of spirit to fight his way out of a pocket on the rail and come with a late run to catch Bay City Roller.
The Group 1 Grand Prix de Paris winner Leffard disappointed finishing
only sixth some 3l behind Cualificar, but he was held up in the rear in a slowly run race and then had failed to settle in the early part of the race, too. The son of Le Havre will prove to be better than this in the future.
The other Group 1 on the second Sunday of Longchamp’s autumn season was the mile Prix du Moulin won, just by a diminishing short head, by Al Shaqab’s homebred three-year-old Wootton Bassett colt Sahlan, who held the late challenge of Rosallion.
The Moulin underlined again just how difficult it is to win a Group 1 over a mile at Longchamp from a wide draw – Sahlan was drawn six, while Rosallion came from stall 11 of 12, ran the fastest final 600m, but came
up just short on the line.
This century, the Moulin has usually had small fields and so the draw has not played a decisive role, but the only winners at the track of the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches from double digit draws have been Ervedya, who won from 12 of 14, and the remarkable Lope De Vega who won from 15 of 15 in 2010.
For a horse to win from a wide draw there must be a strong early pace, which there was this time with the Coolmore pacemaker and Alcantor going off in front, and the horse has to be significantly better than his rivals.
Rosallion ran the final 600m in 33.15secs, faster than his rivals but not quite enough to make up the ground conceded early on the race to Sahlan,
who finished in 33.47sec.
Sahlan is the fourth three-year-old Group 1 winner from the first Coolmore crop of his sire Wootton Bassett, four out of only 20 three-year-old Group 1 winners in Europe this year.
He is the fifth three-year-old to win a Group 1 beating older horses after
Big Mojo, Tornado Alert, Delacroix and Minnie Hauk.
Sahlan had shown plenty of promise before, winning on his two-year-old debut by 4l, finishing a close second in the main trial for the Poule d’Essai des Poulains, in which he finished ninth from a wide draw, and outclassing
strong field in a Group 3 in Deauville.
Sahlan is the eighth Group 1 winner of 2025 for his trainer Francis-Henri Graffard, who looks more or less sure to win the French trainer championship with a lead at the time of writing of nearly €4 million over Fabre.
Big win for Goliath in Germany
ON THE SAME DAY, Graffard also won a Group 1 in Germany with Goliath who, returning to something like his best, defeated Dubai Honour to win the Grosser Preis von Baden.
A fine performance but disappointing that the race attracted only six runners and no top-class three or four-year-old, leaving the five-year-old and seven-year-old geldings to contest the finish.
Goliath is a fourth Grosser Preis winner for his sire Adlerflug after Iquitos, Torquator Tasso and Mendocino.
Sadly, Adlerflug died before British and Irish breeders fully realised what an outstanding middle-distance stallion he was, and much the same can be said of Soldier Hollow, the other son of In The Wings who made a mark in Germany.
Solider Hollow only attracted better mares late in his career, but his recent results are outstanding.
He has only 22 three-year-olds but they include three Group winners, 16 per cent of his foals which puts him well
ahead of his main rivals in this respect Dubawi and Wootton Bassett.
The four-year-old filly Egina became his latest Group winner when taking the Group 2 T von Zastrow Stutenpreis over 1m4f for her owner-breeder Helmut von Finck, defeating among others Nyra, who had been third in the Preis der Diana (G1) at Dusseldorf in August.
Egina is the first foal of the Le Havre mare Elvira, who comes from a Roettgen family, which has produced the Japanese Group 2 winner Energico, the Group 1 Diana winner Erle and the 2025 Derby fourth Enzian over the last two years.
Enzian, a son of Zarak owned by Eckard Sauren, made his first start since the Derby at the meeting in the threeyear-old sales race where he seemed to idle after hitting the front and in the end only just held on to win by a head from Zauberkonig.
Enzian is likely to return to Group races in the future and will improve from this which was only the fourth race of his career.
Jockey Clement Lecoeuvre celebrates victory on Goliath in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Baden
TOO DARN HOT
Now up to six G1 wins in Europe, matching the achievement of Justif y and Giant’s Causeway: no stallion this century has had more at this point in his career. Heʼs now sired the winners of 33 Group races –more than any other European stallion this centur y. His own sire, Dubawi, and Frankel are next on the list. The hottest ticket? His 2025 yearlings, selling now.
WHERE CARE SHOWS. AND STANDARDS
Breeders & Consignors know they can rely on us. For that extra bit of back up and support, Saracen are always here to help.
Rayif: shone in Deauville
The Sea The Moon colt was an impressive winner of the Group 3 Prix François Boutin at Deauville on just his second career start
Photo: Alisha Meeder
THE LANWADES STUD
STALLION SEA THE MOON is well-known for his prowess in getting middle-distance and Classic horses, but the son of Sea The Stars has not been viewed quite so much as a propagator of two-year-olds – at least outside of Germany.
The Aga Khan Studs juvenile colt Rayif, a smart two-and-a-half length winner of the Group 3 7f Prix François Boutin on just his second start, the race sponsored by the stud and run on Prix Jacques Le Marois day, is now unbeaten in two starts, has a Group 1 juvenile assignment ahead and is an exciting prospect.
Rayif, a likeable chestnut, is trained by this season’s all-conquering Francis-Henri Graffard. The colt has put over £49,132 into his prize fund already, and became the sire’s tenth juvenile stakes winner and his first two-yearold Group race winner since 2023.
And, by the time you read this, the well-regarded colt may well have run in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère or the Criterium International.
He is Sea The Moon’s second juvenile stakes winner to have won in August following in the footsteps of a mighty predecessor – The Curragh Debutante Stakes heroine Alpine Star, the sire’s only Group 2-winning juvenile to date.
The Jessica Harrington-trained filly won that Curragh race on her last two-year-old start.
She went on to win the Coronation Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot on her seasonal debut at three and finished runner-up three times at the highest level, that trio of runs coming in France and those efforts including a second in the 2020 Prix Jacques Les Marois behind Palace Pier and when runner-up in the Prix de l’Opera to Tarnawa.
“Rayif has progressed a lot from his first run,” said Aga Khan Stud’s director and French racing manager Nemone Routh speaking from
Rayif, is a likeable chestnut, is trained by this season’s all-conquering Francis-Henri Graffard, has put £49,132 into his prize fund already, became Sea The Moon’s tenth juvenile stakes winner, and his first juvenile Group race winner since 2023
Deauville winner’s enclosure after his Group 3 victory, adding: “A couple of weeks before his second start we worked him with a couple of fillies, and he did not work well, and we were a bit humm….
“But he worked before this race, went well and it was a different story.
“He was still a bit immature, he got behind here and was not really focused, and was looking around, but once
Sea
he got his mind on the job he was impressive.
“They went fast, he was able to lay up, he is a relaxed horse and doesn’t pull.”
Of plans for the autumn, she outlined in September: “Rayif is in good form, and the plan is to run him in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardère.
“We don’t know if he will handle very soft/heavy ground, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
The Moon: the Lanwades Stud sire has produced ten stakes-winning juveniles, Rayif the latest
Rayif is a colt who will probably be suited to 7f to a mile – we find that Sea The Moon gives us that speed
Rayif is out of Rayisa, a daughter of Holy Roman Emperor, who won as a juvenile over a mile and was runner-up over the same distance in the Staffordstown Stakes (L). She went on at three to finish second in the 7f Corrib Stakes (L).
She is from the extended family of Kinnaird and Laurens and is dam of five winners, all of whom have won over a wide variety of distances.
“She really does throw to the stallion – she has given us a sprinter [Rayevka, third in the Group 1 Commonwealth Cup] by Blue Point, Rauzan, who is a hurdler by Australia, and she also got a 1m4f horse,” says Routh.
“Rayif is a colt who we think will probably be suited to 7f to a mile – we find that Sea The Moon give us that speed.”
On the distance front, Sea The Moon’s two-year-old average winning distance is 7.62f and for his older horses it is 10.51f.
Sea The Moon won himself as a juvenile over a mile at Cologne in the September, his sole start as a two-yearold, and went on to claim the UnionRennen (G2), the Deutsches Derby (G1) and European and German championship three-year-old honours in 2014.
His top performing filly to date is Alpine Star, while his best colt
10
20
68
40
is the Deutsches Derby winner Fantastic Moon, who came home in front as a juvenile in the 7f Preis des Winterfavoriten (G3), the same race previously won by paternal sibling Noble Moon in 2018.
Wonderful Moon, another colt by the stallion, finished second in the 2019 Winterfavoriten, and all three have been crowned champion two-year-olds in Germany.
The stallion’s leading two-year-old earner so far is Quest The Moon, who won the 7f Preis Zukunftsrennen (G3) and finished second in the 7f Gran Criterium (G2).
He went on to be successful at Group 2 and Group 3 level in Germany and Italy over 1m2f and finish second and third in the Group 1 1m4f Grosser Dallmayr-Preis-Bayerisches Zuchtrennen (G1) two years in
Fantastic Moon: the Deutsches Derby and Grosser Preis von Baden winner is the sire’s top performer so far
CONSTITUTION RIVER
wins like a champion in the G2 Futury Stakes, on only his third outing!
Bred and raised at stud and sold yearling at Arqana
Bought by Michael Vincent Magnier
LEFFARD
G1 Grand Prix de Paris
Sold yearling at Arqana
Bought by Jean-Claude Rouget
GODSPEED
G2 Prix de Sandringham
Sold yearling at Arqana
Bought by Carlos & Yann Lerner
Don’t miss our 18 HOMEBREDS at the Arqana October Sale
Pedigrees
Mattmu is making up for lost time
The son of Indesatchel had an interrupted start to his stud career, but he is getting results on the track and in the sale ring
MATTMU, WHO STANDS AT NORTON GROVE STUD, is a 13-year-old sprint stallion who has had something of a start-stop-start to his early career as a stallion, but who has enjoyed a breakout year in 2025 courtesy of his fast and Group 2-placed juvenile filly Argentine Tango.
She is trained by Tim Easterby, and the trainer’s son William reports her to be “as tough as nails”; judging by the evidence of her eight-race career so far Easterby Jnr is pretty accurate in his assessment.
Argentine Tango made her career debut at Beverley on April 16, broke her maiden on her second start at Pontefract on April 30, was second in a novice race at Carlisle on May 19, and then won the well-regarded Hilary Needler Trophy conditions race on May 24.
After a month’s break, she collected
a Listed race victory with success in the Empress Stakes at Newmarket on June 26 before picking up Group-placed form when third in the 6f Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes (G2) behind subsequent Prix Morny (G1) winner Venetian Sun.
She went a place better when dropped back a furlong in the Molecomb Stakes (G3) at the Qatar Goodwood Festival.
At York’s Ebor meeting she broke so fast in the 6f Lowther Stakes (G2) she failed to get cover, but she still managed to lead the field to the 5f marker before fading to finish sixth of the 11 runners, only 2l off the third spot.
“She ran really well, and deserved to be in the places at York,” says Jessica Rummel of Norton Grove Stud. “She is so fast and so tough to have taken her racing so well.”
From the second place spot at Goodwood, Easterby Jnr credited her ability to her sire, who was also trained by the Easterbys at their Habton Grange Stables in Yorkshire.
“He was so hardy,” recalled Easterby Jnr of Mattmu who is by former Bearstone Stud stallion Indesatchel, adding: “I am sure her attitude comes from her Dad.”
The winner of six races from a 20-race career, Mattmu is out of Katie Boo, a daughter of the Group 1 sprinter Namid, and a filly with her own hardy attitude being the granite-tough winner of six races and 15 placings from 49 starts for trainer Alan Berry and owner James Bowers. All bar one of her runs came over 5f or 6f.
Mattmu was initially retired to Norton Grove Stud for the spring of 2017 after his four-year-old season.
His form records a juvenile win in the 2014 Criterium de Maison-Laffitte (G2) and success as a three-year-old in the 6f Phoenix Sprint Stakes (G3), the same season achieving his career highlight with an impressive Group 1 third placing in the Nunthorpe Stakes behind Mecca’s Angel.
He was retired by his owner-breeder
Capable: Mattmu has just two crops of racing age, but those runners have been doing him proud
Bowers to stud for spring 2017, but, despite those accomplishments, Mattmu’s initial venture into the production equation was not a success and, lacking the support from breeders, Bowers, who had at that point been to the races with his colt 18 times for five wins and nine placed results, decided that racing was more fun.
That spring, Mattmu found his way back to his stable at the Easterby’s training establishment and Bowers was proved to have made a winning decision. Despite the colt’s 413-day absence from the track the resurgent runner collected a fourth placing in a conditions race at Doncaster and went on to win the Great St Wilfrid Handicap, the victory taking his career earnings to £390,007.
A second stint at stud for 2018 then beckoned, this time in Shropshire at Terry Holdcroft’s Bearstone Stud.
He subsequently enjoyed a European jaunt to Germany, before, in what has been a boomerang stud career, he returned to Bearstone for the 2022 season.
AT THE beginning of his second term he was visited by the Holdcroftowned Showdanse, a daughter of Showcasing. She hails from a long-curated Bearstone Stud family being a half-sister to the farm’s Group 1 Gran Criterium winner Hearts Of Fire, the pair out of the homebred Alexander Ballet (Mind Games).
in the covering shed he doesn’t mess around, just gets on with the job.”
Of his physique she adds: “He is a good size, around 16.1hh and, as you would expect from a sprinter, is well-built, well-muscled and has plenty of strength, and his progeny are like that, too.”
Although Mattmu’s stud books have not been overflowing, he offers breeders speed options for their mares, a facet that is so loved by the marketplace.
He has now proven to be capable of producing that speed at stakes-level, alongside resilience, soundness and a tough-running attitude in his progeny – in addition to Argentine Tango, his runners include the 95-rated Favorite Child, the 85-rated Mattice and the six-time winner Matty Too.
This summer, he has also shown success in the sale ring.
At September’s Tattersalls Somerville Sale, Anthony Bromley of Highflyer Bloodstock with trainer Eve JohnsonHoughton spent 55,000gns on a colt by the stallion.
Sold by Easterby, he was bred by the trainer too, and is a half-brother to Anaisa, the Easterby-bred and trained winner of this year’s Ripon Champion Two Year Old Trophy.
“That colt was the buy of the sale,” laughed Bromley at Tattersalls. “He is a real dinger and looks hardy.
“Eve really liked him and I am pleased she did, I think he has been bought for the owners of Havana Hurricane.”
Showdanse’s mating to Mattmu resulted in Argentine Tango, who is advertising her sire in style and could be the one to increase the queue for Mattmu’s services in the covering shed, the stallion having returned to Yorkshire and Norton Grove Stud for the 2024 season.
And while Rummel shares the view as regards Mattmu’s undoubted robustness, she feels that there is a
softer side to the stallion, too.
“He puts on this tough front, but he does like his home comforts,” laughs the grand-daughter of Norton Grove Stud’s long-standing owners Maggie and Richard Lingwood.
She adds, “He does like his daily treats! I have done all the coverings with him, he is so straightforward and he passes that on to his progeny; they really are trainer’s horses.
“He is so easy to work with, and
With the colt purchased by such a renowned bloodstock agent and to be trained by a top level producer of thoroughbred talent, particularly one who is so successful with juveniles, it is likely that we will be hearing a lot more about Mattmu over the seasons to come.
So, with proven success on the track as well as in the sale ring, and available at an affordable price, what is there for breeders not to like about Mattmu? ■
Argentine Tango: the filly is winner of this year’s Listed Empress Stakes and finished second in the Group 3 Molecomb Stakes at Goodwood
Photo: Dan Abraham – focusonracing.com
Use this QR code to listen to Cunningham in the Weatherbys section of the Nick Luck podcast
EVERYONE LOVES A FREEBIE, AND PARTICULARLY IF IT IS EQUINE RELATED – the costs of production, feeding and keeping thoroughbreds, broodmares and their followers, has risen so much over recent years.
One cost that is frequently bemoaned by breeders is the price of nominations and there are frequent calls by broodmare owners for a wholescale reduction in the prices charged by the farms to enable them to cover their mares with a reasonably commercial and proven stallion.
Step forward Rajasinghe, who was available this spring, for free. Yeap… zero, nothing, zilch, no money at all. Any breeder who used the sire (with a mare who was rated 70+ or who has produced a runner who has obtained the same mark), will not have to be dealing with that heart-fluttering October
A unique marketing campaign
This
spring, Phil Cunningham offered free nominations to his stallion Rajasinghe –we find out if breeders made the most of the one-off opportunity
moment when that big bill arrives through the post, or see the income from the autumn’s yearling sales be given in one hand and go straight out of the other to cover the cost of his fee.
The cost-effective opportunity was a no-brainer for any breeder thinking
of covering a mare with a sprint sire, especially considering Rajasinghe boasts a lifetime winners-to-runners rate of 59.5 per cent.
With the benefit of end-of-summer hindsight it would have been an even more inspired decision - the stallion
has enjoyed an outstanding British Flat season as sire of Two Tribes, the Stewards’ Cup winner, and Run Boy Run, placed in the big sprint at Goodwood and then winner of the Ayr Gold Cup.
Between them the two Phil Cunningham-owned Rebel Racing runners have netted earnings this season of over £420,000.
Rajasinghe stands at the National Stud, and is owned by Cunningham, who though hugely keen to support his Group 2 Coventry Stakes-winning stallion, does not have a triple-digit broodmare band to help establish Rajasinghe commercially.
It has meant that since the son of Choisir retired to stud in 2019 his book had been hovering in the high 30s with a high of 41 in 2023.
Unfortunately, in the numbers-game required to make a stallion, it is not enough – each new season will see some debut sires covering books in the high hundreds.
And while Cunningham does love breeding his horses, he is also happy to admit that his real racing passion is on the track; it is where he prefers to dedicate his funds rather than to the purchase of broodmares.
YET IT WAS still a frustration to the owner that his stallion, whom he is sure to remind people still holds the clock record for the Coventry Stakes, has not been busier in the covering shed – it was a problem that the successful businessman decided to meet head on.
“He has been standing at £3,000 and we have been dealing down to £1,500,” says Cunningham. “I popped to a meeting at the stud in February to discuss what more could we do.
“And that is when the idea came up – we decided to give him away for free, but with the conditions for the mare.”
A right result for any supportive
breeder who had booked to the stallion early doors last year as they were also in on the deal.
“Of course, everyone who used him had his services for free, it would have been totally wrong if early breeders had not been part of it, too,” he rationalises.
That decision made at the meeting at the National Stud last February has been pivotal – this spring Rajasinghe covered his biggest-ever book of mares at 53; in a summer through which it has emerged that mare coverings are likely to be down, for Rajasinghe to have bucked the predominate trend is impressive.
The success of the decision has even
surprised Cunningham.
“It has been so well received!” laughs the stallion’s loyal owner. “And when you look at the list of breeders who made use of the deal, there are a lot of trainers who breed racehorses amongst the names – I think they recognise that he gets trainers’ horses.
“They are so straightforward to deal with and are like Mercedes cars – you put fuel in them and nothing goes wrong!”
He adds, “And, as he has a fertility rate of 90 per cent, there should be plenty of runners in years to come. That will give him a chance and some
And, he has a fertility rate of 90 per cent, there should be plenty of runners on the track in years to come. That will give him a chance and some momentum moving forward
Rajasinghe: boasts a winners-to-runners rate of 59 per cent, sire of this season’s Stewards’ Cup and Ayr Gold Cup winners Two Tribes and Run Boy Run, who have picked up over £420,000 between them
500 acre stud farm in an area celebrated for breeding racehorses. Family owned and run for almost 70 years.
• A generous stocking ratio of 10 acres per mare unit. leading European yearling consignor. the most expensive broodmare ever sold in Europe. Stakes winners EVERY YEAR for the past 23 years.
• Producer of the winners of 115 Stakes races since 2000.
• One hour from Shannon and Cork airports.
LAURELIN
Mount Coote
momentum moving forward.”
The plan has obviously worked a treat, but was it not a worry that the free offering would just devalue the stallion too much?
“Yes, it was an original concern, but he was only standing at £3,000 anyway,” explains Cunningham. “And because I have sort of fallen into this, it means I can come up with an idea that might be a little ‘out there’ and it not be too detrimental if it did not work.”
THE FREE deal undoubtedly made a dent in finances, but, as Cunningham argues, he could have spent the same sum that 20 mares would have brought in, the amount he surmises he has forgone, on a marketing effort and yet not seen such an immediate result.
“I am just a bit annoyed that I had not thought of it sooner and got some numbers into him before!” he says, adding with sincerity: “I would just love to see the horse be a success.”
So will this freebie be something that breeders can look forward to enthusiastically again?
Sadly, not – the amazing racing summer the stallion has enjoyed has put Rajasinghe’s abilities as a win-making stallion in the spotlight.
And, as his enthusiastic owner has also made the most of subsequent TV appearances, as well as on the Weatherbys section of the Nick Luck Podcast, to name check his equine pride and joy, anyone in the bloodstock world should be well aware that the season of 2025 belongs to Rajasinghe.
It means the free deal is off the table.
“But,” says Cunningham, “we are going to keep his fee at £3,000, we’d like to get to another book of 50-odd, maybe more.”
After the way this summer has gone for Rajasinghe, the numbers could be a whole lot more. ■
Above, Two Tribes (David Egan) returning after his Stewards’ Cup victory in August. Below, Cunningham was in the ring at Tattersalls for the September Somerville Sale having previously also been busy at the Goffs UK Premier Sale, restocking for his Rebel Racing team
Photo: Francesca Altoft, focusonracing.com
Photo: Alisha Meeder, Tattersalls
Leading European Sires 2025 (by prize-money earned to September 16, 2025)
Courtesy of Weatherbys
Leading
European
Sires of Two-Year-Olds
2025 (by prize-money earned to September 16, 2025) Courtesy of Weatherbys
Tattersalls October Yearling Sales 2025
BOOK ONE
Lot 25 B.F. Palace Pier x Anapurna (Frankel – Dash to the Top)
Lot 60 B.C. Nathaniel x Bizzi Lizzi (Muhaarar – Izzi Top)
DASHING WILLOUGHBY • CAROLINAE • ALESSANDRO VOLTA
MILLIGRAM
KAYF TARA
KISSOGRAM
NOUSHKEY
MONA LISA
MOVIEGOER
COQUET • HIPPY HIPPY SHAKE
STARCASTER
AL SUHAIL
TWIST ‘N’ SHAKE
SUEZ
Lot 83 B.C. New Bay x Clipper Class (Frankel – Speedy Boarding)
Lot 127 B.F. Gleneagles x Elmetto (Helmet – Italian Connection)
DYNASTY
Lot 140 Ch.C. Space Blues x Farzeen (Farhh – Zee Zee Gee)
MEDIA HYPE
VALUE PROPOSITION
ONE SO WONDERFUL
SUN BOAT • FRANCE
MUDEER
SAN SEBASTIAN
CROESO
MISTRAL STAR
SPY CHIEF
MARSH DAISY
JAZZI
Lot 523 Ch.F. Showcasing x Wilbury Twist (Pivotal – Dylanesque)
BOOK TWO
ALKAADHEM
KAYF TARA
HYABELLA
KISSOGRAM
SHIROCCO STAR
ANAPURNA
LADY CARLA
IZZI
PHOTOGENIC
BALALAIKA
Lot 690 B.C. Kameko x Cosmic Princess (Kingman – Galaxy Highflyer)
Lot 952 Ch.F. Churchill x Last Tango InParis (Aqlaam – Strictly Lambada)
ANAPURNA
TWIST ‘N’ SHAKE
TELECASTER
DASHING WILLOUGHBY
ALESSANDRO VOLTA
OPERA HOUSE • ZEE ZEE TOP • DASH TO THE FRONT
POET
ONE SO WONDERFUL
COLORSPIN
MILLIGRAM
NOUSHKEY
SOMEONE
Lot 1251 B.C. Zoustar x Strictly Lambada (Red Ransom – Bella Lambada)
YOUR OLD PAL
YANKEE DOODLE • LADY CARLA • IZZI TOP • SUEZ • SUN BOAT • FRANCE • ALKAADHEM • KAYF TARA
JUST SPECIAL
NECKLACE
BALALAIKA
DYNASTY
Lot 1300 B.C. Sergei Prokofiev x Tropicana Bay (Oasis Dream – Ballet Ballon)
STAGECRAFT
CHESA PLANA • RAPPA TAP TAP • PICK OF THE POPS
TORCH ROUGE
Lot 1306 B.C. Harry Angel x Twist ‘N’ Shake (Kingman – Hippy Hippy Shake)
TOP • SPEEDY BOARDING • DEUCE AGAIN • CAROLINAE • BALLET CONCERTO
STARCASTER
AL SUHAIL
VALUE PROPOSITION • HOO YA MAL • CHECKANDCHALLENGE • ZAGATO • EMERAATY • MISTRAL STAR • SPY CHIEF • ANAPURNA • TWIST ‘N’ SHAKE • TELECASTER • DASHING WILLOUGHBY • CAROLINAE • ALESSANDRO VOLTA • OPERA HOUSE • ZEE ZEE TOP • DASH TO THE FRONT • POET
BOOK THREE
ONE SO WONDERFUL
COLORSPIN
MILLIGRAM
NOUSHKEY • SOMEONE SPECIAL • YOUR OLD PAL • YANKEE DOODLE • LADY CARLA • IZZI
SUEZ
Lot 1560 B.C. Naval Crown x Perfectly Spirited (Invincible Spirit – Design Perfection)
PHOTOGENIC • BALALAIKA
ONE OF THE SMILIEST and most positive people on the sale ground is Mount Coote Stud’s Luke Lillingston.
Whatever the weather, whatever the variable market is doing and at whatever point we are at in the long stretch of autumn sales, Lillingston is always smiling, has a twinkle in his eye and always makes an effort to give a cheery hello.
This autumn the stud man has more reason for that beaming smile than usual as his Mount Coote Stud has hit a rich vein of form.
In the US, the three-year-old filly Laurelin, bred by the farm in partnership with long-term client and friend Mark Dixon, has been dancing her way to the top of the podium, while the William Haggas-trained Santorini Star has lined herself up for a tilt at the Group 1 Prix de Royallieu after victory in the Group 2 Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster.
Laurelin, a daughter of Zarak, is unbeaten in five starts, her last victory coming in the Grade 2 Saratoga Oaks Invitational Stakes. As we write she is slated for Keeneland’s Grade 1 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup Stakes on October 11.
She is trained by Graham Motion, was bought by Form Bloodstock at the Goffs Orby Sale for €180,000 for Mary Slack’s Newstead Stables, and is out of the Cape Cross mare Bari, who was bred by Dixon and Lillingston.
She is out of Genoa, a daughter of the champion filly Yawl, who hailed from legendary breeder Dick Hollingsworth’s broodmare band.
Santorini Star was bred by another long term Mount Coote client Olivia Hoare, is out of Livia’s Dream, by Golden Horn and was bought by Haggas from the stud at Tattersalls October Book 1 Sale for 290,000gns.
Livia’s Dream, bred by Mount Coote and Dixon, is from the same family as
Photos from Bit-Media and Tattersalls
She is already the producer of the dual and has a daughter by Sea The Stars catalogued in
meeting between Dixon and Lillingston has led to a partnership that has
bloodstock and the stud farm to Mark,” recalls Lillingston, adding: “He sold the mares and I was introduced. Ultimately, some of the mares came to Mount Coote and hit the Classic heights in 2013 when Prowess, a Chester Oaks-placed daughter
We chat with Luke Lillingston, whose Mount Coote Stud is enjoying a rich vein of form being part-breeder of the five-time unbeaten and US Grade 2 winner Laurelin, whose connections are hosting Grade 1 ambitions, and producer of the Group 2 winner and Group 1 prospect Santorini Star.
The farm has consistently produced countless top horses successful across the globe –it is all down to the land says the stud’s owner
Luke Lillingston
Mount Coote’s yearling draft: Goffs Orby
Lot 48 c Cracksman Bibury Royal Applause
Lot 452 c Zoustar Whazzis Desert Prince
Mount Coote’s yearling draft: Tattersalls October Book 1, 2, 3
Lot 26 f Sea The Stars Ancona Amaron
Lot 174 f Mehmas Grizzel Kodiac
Lot 238 f Sea The Stars Livia’s Dream Teofilo
Lot 306 f Lope de Vega Nkosikazi Cape Cross
Lot 456 c Lope de Vega Sunny Again Shirocco
Lot 912 c Study of Man Just One Kiss Cape Cross
Lot 934 c Space Blues La Superba Medicean
Lot 968 f Dark Angel Long Ridge Road Ribchester
Lot 1158 c Invincible Spirit Sagrada Familia Golden Horn
Lot 1456 f Space Blues Freiheit Acclamation
Lot 1499 c Naval Crown Lara Camelot
the Mount Coote Stud
a leader in
Group winners are hard to come by at the best of times so to get two in a day and they be closely related, it was rather extraordinary!
of Yawl and by Peintre Celebre, became the dam of the Epsom Oaks winner Talent (New Approach).
Prowess was not one of the Mount Coote inductees, but was bred by Dixon and then owned in partnership with James Rowsell of the UK’s Ashbrittle Stud.
Talent was bred by the pair, is at Ashbrittle and she is now the dam of Ambition, winner of the Prix Corrida (G2), the Prix Fille de l’Air (G2), and Group 1 runner-up in the Prix Jean Romanet.
The side of the family that did ship to Ireland, while so far unable to claim Classic glory, quickly added its own weight to the black-type on the pedigree
page through Genoa, who was placed in the Listed Newbury Classic Trial, and Brindisi, who won the Dick Hern Stakes (L) in 2004, recorded as bred by the Exors of the late Hollingsworth.
Brindisi’s 2009-born and latematuring daughter Livia’s Dream, who was bought at the October Book 1 Sale in 2010 by Hoare, won the Listed Wild Flower Stakes on her last career start as a five-year-old.
Unlike in her racing career she has flown early as a broodmare, and introduced Group 1 form to the family courtesy of that second foal, the miler Dreamloper, winner of the Prix du Moulin (G1) and the Prix d’Ispahan (G1) and subsequently bought by Katsumi
Yoshida for $2,700,0000 at the Keeneland November Sale in 2022.
Santorini Star is her fourth foal.
Genoa’s last recorded foal was a filly and she was sensibly retained by her Mount Coote breeders.
Named Bari, she managed to win an apprentice handicap at Newbury, and was retired to the Irish paddocks.
Things also got off to a fabulous start for her at stud as she hit the mark with her very first foal, the 2017-born daughter of Intello called Maud Gonne Spirit. Also sold to Hoare, the filly ran 26 times, won six races, including the Listed Listowel Stakes as a six-year-old.
She has also been retired to the Mount Coote paddocks finishing her career at her highest rating of 96.
Laurelin is Bari’s fifth foal and is by the highly progressive Aga Khan Stud’s stallion Zarak.
“We were lucky enough to buy a share him,” says Lillingston. “It was something of a no-brainer – by Dubawi and out of
Laurelin, the exciting daughter of Zarak and out of Bari, winning the Grade 2 Saratoga Oak Invitational Stakes – she is unbeaten in five starts
Zarkarva, the blood is extraordinary. You always look good when things come right, but I always do like breeding to those stallions we have invested in.”
It was not the first mare sent to the Group 1-winning stallion by the team, as Marquisat, out of the unraced La Marchesa, who is a 2012 daughter of Brindisi, is also by the sire and from his second crop.
Bought as a yearling by Godolphin, he won the Group 3 Prix Dubai Racing Club in August, the same day that Laurelin collected her first graded race victory at Sararoga.
“It was an extraordinary coincidence Laurelin and Marquisat won a graded and a Group race on the same day.” laughs Lillingston. “He finally won his Group race in Deauville, and she won the Saratoga, and they are so closely related.
“Group winners are hard to come by at the best of times so to get two in a day and they be closely related, it was rather extraordinary!”
The Zarak influence has been further engineered at Mount Coote, as Maude Gonne Spirit’s first foal, born this spring, is by the stallion, too.
All being well, Lillingston reports that the colt will be sold as a yearling, the point at which the stud prefers to offer its stock – as the stud is able to make use of 500 acres of fine thoroughbredgrowing grass, it makes sense of it to be in charge of all stages of the early equine development programme.
Moote Coote is situated in the River Maigue valley, part of the Golden Vale of County Limerick. The farm was bought in the 1930s by Lillingston’s grandfather, Luke Theodore Lillingston, a Britishborn, talented horseman and master of hounds, who flew some of the early planes and travelled back and forth to Ireland to hunt.
In the 1930s, he decided he wanted a base in Ireland; when the Greenall family-owned Mount Coote came on the market, Lillingston’s agent rang to see if
Santorini Star winning the Park Hill Stakes (G2): she has a Sea The Stars half-sister catalogued in Book 1
The stud has raised over 100 stakes winners, with many international and global successes
A lot of good horses have come from Mount Coote, it’s just been so consistent, and I think the consistency is almost more important than anything
he was interested. A deal was done without Lillingston even visiting the property to take a look at what he was signing up for.
It is reported that the enthusiastic purchaser could remember staying at the house and admiring the view from the bedroom window, he declared that was good enough for him.
Sadly, the new buyer only got to spend a few nights at the farm – when war broke out, he dutifully signed up to the Leicestershire Yeomanry. Sent in 1944 to fight in Normandy, he sadly never made it home, shot and killed on August 11.
He is buried at Saint Charles de Percy War Cemetery, near to Caen.
His son Alan, then just nine years of age, inherited Moote Coote and took over its management at 23.
Like his father, he was an outstanding horseman and went on to become a champion amateur rider in Ireland and
won the Champion Hurdle in 1963 on the one-eyed Winning Fair, becoming just the second amateur to ever win the race.
He switched to three-day eventing after breaking his neck in a fall at Tramore, and once again rose to the top with selection for the 1968 Mexico Olympics, only for his horse Biddlecombe to suffer an injury two days before the competition. Eleven years later, he won a team gold medal at the 1979 European championships.
As a breeder, Lillingston transferred the breeding operation at Mount Coote from one that produced hunters and a few thoroughbreds to something far more commercial.
His first big result came in 1964 with Ragtime, winner of the Richmond Stakes and July Stakes, and four years later he and Jocelyn Hambro bred Deep Run from a shared mare named Trial By Fire.
He won the Beresford Stakes, the Trigo Stakes, was the champion juvenile of 1968, Timeform rated 113, and become a multiple champion NH sire.
The partnership with Hambro also produced a first Classic winner for Mount Coote in One In A Million, winner of the 1,000 Guineas, and a wonderful foundation mare for Meon Valley Stud.
Home is certainly where the heart is for the current guardian of Moote Coote: Lillingston recognises that the familynurtured land that he walks on every day is not only gloriously beautiful but it is also the bed rock for the farm’s thoroughbred production with Laurelin and Santorini Star just the latest names from a long lineage of stakes success.
“It’s a very special place, and it’s got this amazing bloodstock history,” he outlines. “So many good horses have come from Mount Coote over the years, it’s just been so consistent, and I think the consistency is almost more important than anything – year after year after year, breeding good horses.”
HE PROUDLY acknowledges that the locality and its productive land in the Golden Vale is a pearl in the Irish thoroughbred industry, the cherished acres developing horses in their formative years to the benefit of Irish bloodstock.
“It is a very small area, but there are a lot of breeders who are successful every season. For instance, this summer, in the Maigue valley, we’ve got Roundhill Stud’s Field Of Gold, the Prix Jacques le Marois winner Diego Velazquez, who was born and reared at Croom House Stud, and Power Blue, who was produced at Manister House Stud.
“Down the road is Knocktoran Stud and JP McManus’s Martinstown, which bred this year’s Gold Cup winner.
“It just shows what the land is so really important, and we’re lucky to have to be here and be the third generation to have it.”
With such beautiful facilities to hand on the farm, it is the perfect place to raise and prep yearlings
Maintaining that legacy is very much the driving force for Lillingston; securing the future for the luxurious, commercially-vibrant acres based on the fertile hinterland of the River Loobagh, a tributary to the Maigue.
As we have seen the Lillingston family line from the 1930s is tangible and the current incumbent still refers to the lessons his father taught him regarding land management.
“My father drilled into me that we have got to look after the land,” he explains. “It is all very well having good land, but you’ve got to manage it well, and you mustn’t overuse it.
“And this, I think, is what has led to that consistency, we don’t ‘over horse’ the land, we are disciplined and not greedy. We keep it to 10 acres for every mare unit – that is exactly what my father said will do the job right.
“It means we can have horses on the land all winter, our horses are raised out of doors the whole year round. They never come in much – even when they
We can have horses on the land all winter, our horses are raised out of doors the whole year round. They never come in, and even when they come in for their yearling prep, they’re out as much as possible
are in for their yearling prep, they’re out as much as possible.”
And while his father’s mantra is still closely adhered to, when Lillingston took over management 25 years ago, he made one significant change that he still views as key.
“Before moving back home, I remember going to Ballyhimikin Stud on a couple of occasions for business and visiting James [Hanly] and asking him how he managed his young horses in winter.
“At that point, we always brought ours in then, but James said, ‘I just leave him out and I don’t worry about them!’”
It led to a radical change of policy at Mount Coote, and a re-purposing of cattle yards for the thoroughbreds.
“Dad had fattened cattle and had a very good beef unit; raising beef cattle had been good business back in the late 1970s and the 1980s, but the money had gone out of it.
“So we turned the cattle barns into concreted areas for the horses, we call them compounds.
“The horses who are wintering out come into these areas twice a day to be fed. It means the land doesn’t get poached – if you’re feeding them outside,
you can just tear up your land doing that.
“So we just go out and toot the horn, and they come in, almost by themselves.
“It also means they’re checked twice a day while they are in, which is so much easier to do then. The horses are all very relaxed about it, which is great. They are occasions when it has been a really wet winter and I look and think it is tough, but generally they do fine.”
He adds: “I do wonder if that it is another factor relevant to our consistency? After all horses are herd animals and it is much more similar to how they would be raised in the wild, horses are not born to be in barns.
“It also means they are getting fully exercised all the time, which it has been found is so good for bone development.”
In addition to the countless domestic stakes stars reared at Mount Coote, many of its leading graduates have claimed success internationally, a lot of them being fillies.
Maintaining a strict policy on stocking density and caring for the land is the strategy at Mount Coote
When you buy a horse, or sell a horse, or buy a horse, there’s immediately a conversation piece and a relationship, and that’s wonderful. The sport of racing it is fantastic in that regard
“It is quite interesting that we have raised two winners of the Frizette Stakes, we have produced two Hong Kong Derby winners, a Caulfield Cup winner, a Breeders’ Cup winner, a Sydney Cup winner, a winner of the Hollywood Derby, winner of the Del Mar Mile, and now Laurelin,” reflects Lillingston.
And while the farm clearly aims to be producing, and has done to such great success, for the top of the racing ladder, Lillingston is not dismissive of the achievements of actually staying in business in this notoriously competitive and high-risk industry.
“That is a sort of success in a way, as well,” he says. “It is certainly something that shouldn’t be taken for granted, and a continuing family-run business is a wonderful thing.
“I think seeing our children come through and enjoy the horses is another part of it, being able to give them this opportunity to them, too.”
So, keen to ensure that the legacy continues, and realising that despite the glories of the Maigue Valley, County Limerick is not on every bloodstock person’s sat nav, this year he has commissioned a publicity video, and, under the advice of his children, has revamped the Mount Coote website.
“It was a wonderful spring, and I just thought, we’ve just got to capture this,” he said of the creative thought behind the video, adding: “And although Ireland is a small country, we are still a little bit out of the way here. Limerick doesn’t have any stallions and I think that stallions are hub, they attract people, a good stallion creates business by itself. So I thought it was time that we actually promoted the farm.”
After such an amazing season on the track, the timing has been perfect.
But, despite his keenness to press forward, with an eye on the future for his children, does he share the concern of some in the thoroughbred business as to its relevancy moving forwards with both economic and social headwinds battering at the sports roots? Is he still happy to see his children take their careers into the bloodstock and stud farming businesses?
“On the balance, yes, there’s all the sort of worry about whether there will be a business in future, but probably my parents had exactly the same worry, and we’re still going,” he says, rationalising: “I do think that the positives outweigh the negatives.”
Moote Coote’s man really could be a marketing campaign poster boy for ITM and HRI as he goes on to enthuse, “The racing and bloodstock industries are great worlds. There is something to do and think about every single day, and there’s great camaraderie.
“For instance, when you come to the sales, we all get pleasure from interacting with each other. When you buy a horse, or sell a horse, or buy a horse for someone,
immediately there is a conversation piece and a relationship, and that’s wonderful.
“The sport of racing it is fantastic in that regard.”
And in this world in which mental health challenges are deemed to be affecting so many people, the younger generation in particular, Lillingston believes that the inherent nature of the industry does help to mitigate those difficult issues.
“I do feel very passionate that horses are good for us in all sorts of different ways from a mental health perspective and for our well-being; there are all sorts of aspects that a horse gives us that are good for us – and, from the farming side of the business, what is better than being outdoors for most of the day?
“We’ve got to promote that part of it because it’s 100 per cent promotable.”
Lillingston undoubtedly was born lucky to have been brought up in such a glorious location, and on a farm blessed with such wonderful natural attributes.
It is certainly not something that he takes for granted, and as he says it is not something that can be maintained by just looking at that view his grandfather admired so much in the 1930s.
“Yes, I’m very lucky. I had wonderful parents, I’ve a wonderful wife, I’ve got a wonderful family, and I’m basically of a positive disposition,” he smiles, adding: “But then this business enhances that, too, and I am doing something that I love.
“But you’ve got to get up every morning and make it happen. There’s no doubt about that.
“And, if you’re going to be successful, you’ve got to work hard and you’ve got to think hard, you’ve got to be somehow smart, you’ve got to figure out how to do it better than the next person.”
Seen from the sky: the working stud farm
Less makes more
Folland-Bowen Bloodstock hit six-figure headlines at October Book 2 last year, is set to make an Irish debut at Goffs Orby and has some big plans ahead –yet is going to stay true to its vision and is not going to start playing the numbers game
Photography by Debbie Burt
The beautiful Fonthill Stud in Wiltshire
STICK OR TWIST? It’s the dilemma faced by so many when the success they have grafted for and dreamed of becomes a reality.
When your goal has been to scale the mountain, where do you turn when you’ve summited that particular peak?
That’s been the question that Natalie Folland and Matt Bowen, who operate Folland-Bowen Bloodstock from the historic and gorgeous Fonthill Stud in Wiltshire, have grappled with over the last 12 months following on from last year’s triumphant Tattersalls October Book 2 Sale.
Folland-Bowen Bloodstock consigned three horses to the sale on behalf of clients and ended up leaving with a turnover of 1,000,000gns – each one of
the trio was sold for a six-figure sum.
That achievement caught the further attention of many who have been watching the pair quietly make their mark in the sales ring since establishing their business in 2021.
It’s easy to be swayed by big sums, to have your head turned by acclaim and to drift away from the path you had chosen, to chase higher peaks but at the cost of betraying your principles.
The last year has been one of challenges and recalibration as the duo remain true to their original vision for Folland-Bowen Bloodstock.
Natalie Folland explains what that is: “The sales results last year emphasised that we really need to keep the focus on quality over quantity.
“We have never wanted to be a ‘big stud’, so to keep it in line with the vision
we had setting up the business our permanent boarder numbers are going to be more bespoke moving forward.
“We have a real emphasis on how we manage our stock. For example, we have always weaned later than most studs because, anecdotally, we’ve found the weanlings do better [and recent studies have shown this to have a positive impact on racing ability].
“We aim to keep the horses as
Folland-Bowen yearling draft: Goffs Orby
Folland-Bowen
naturally as possible and treat them all as individuals. We treat all the horses as if they’re our own, and we want to keep it that way.”
Despite the headline-grabbing sales, it is their commitment to that vision, to offer the highest standards of individual attention to every horse in their care that is the lighthouse beacon guiding their work.
“We’re focusing on our strengths between sales, for instance, we have a really strong foaling team.
“We foaled 40 mares last season, and we’ll be close to those numbers again this season, but that will be our yearly limit. We have also started offering transport to studs in the UK wanting to walk in to Irish stallions.
“We will continue to focus on quality over quantity and we have diversified with the walk-ins to Ireland and taking in temporary boarders for foaling only.”
To support this emphasis, they have expanded their acreage with the addition of another local facility to enhance the facilities the pair can offer to their clients.
We will continue to focus on quality over quantity and we have diversified with the walk-ins to Ireland and taking in temporary boarders for foaling only
“We have taken on a second yard for isolation and additional grazing.
“Obviously, if we have mares retire we will have spaces come up now and again, but we won’t be actively pushing for more permanent boarders. We have the numbers we are comfortable with.
“We’ll also be breeding and racing more of our own stock,” she adds.
The first Folland-Bowen homebred to reach the track is a colt from the second crop of Without Parole.
He is out of Jadwiga, a Pivotal mare with whom Folland has a long association having had the mare in her
care in her previous role as manager of Jane Keir’s Elkington Stud.
Named Paroled, he was runner-up in a maiden for trainer Jack Jones and a partnership that includes Without Parole’s owner-breeder John Gunther.
The pair also marked the significant milestone of seeing a horse foaled, raised and sold by them contest a Group 1 when Pivotal Attack ran in the Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Irish Champions’ Festival.
Bred by Keir out of Romp, the dam of Group 2 winner Flight Plan, the filly from the second crop of Pinatubo was sold to Crampscastle Bloodstock for
75,000gns at the December Yearling Sale.
Successful in the Galway maiden that has produced such stars including Tahiyra and Hermosa, Pivotal Attack was just 5l behind Precise in The Curragh contest.
Folland says: “We were really excited to have homebred Pivotal Attack running in the Moyglare Stakes. It was a big ask for her as it was a hot race and only her third race - her run was reflective of that, but to even have a homebred for Jane running in a Group 1 was so exciting.
“We actually bought her dam, Romp, from Jane in the Tattersalls December Sale last year for a new client; we’re confident there’s more to come from the mare.”
That includes a beautiful Oasis Dream filly foal who is a standout in the paddocks on the Fonthill estate and who will perhaps be a star at the sales next year; she is one of a promising bunch of
Natalie Folland and Matt Bowen with Frangipanni, dam of the multiple Group race winner Tropbeau
foals who call the sloping Wiltshire hills home.
“Our clients have some fantastic horses to look forward to selling next year, but for this autumn’s yearling sales we’ll have a full-sister to Isaac Shelby, an Oasis Dream half-sister to Flight Plan and a Havana Grey half-brother to Tropbeau.
“Stand out foals due in 2026 include a City Of Troy sibling to Isaac Shelby, a full-sibling to Tropbeau and a full-sibling to the 91-rated Mishal Star, who is by Mehmas.”
It is Isaac Shelby, who completed his first season as a stallion at Newsells Park this year, and his family that have
provided Folland-Bowen Bloodstock with the opportunity to break new ground this yearling sales season.
They are due to appear in the index of Goffs’ Orby Sale consignors for the first time as they offer a Pinatubo half-brother to the Richmond and Greenham Stakes winner on behalf of breeder Elaine Chivers.
Their Irish debut is one that is exciting them and offers a chance to test the market in a different venue.
And they believe that the Pinatubo colt has much in common with the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1) runner-up.
“He’s got a great work ethic and
wants to please you. He’s similar to Isaac in that as a yearling he doesn’t look the sharpest at this stage but you can see he’s improving, he’s all quality. He’s come on so much recently,” she says.
The yearling sales market to date has forced vendors to navigate choppy waters as buyers and, in response, sales companies become ever more selective in their processes.
Folland remarks: “The market this year has cemented our thought process, too. It’s felt sticky in places - even with nice individuals, if the page isn’t spot on, you’re struggling to get them in sales.”
She and Bowen have had to chart a course through treacherous seas themselves over the last 18 months as behind the sales ring success, their business was pushed to
The tem is happy with the number of mares currently resident at Fonthill, but has also taken on extra land for “isolation purposes and grazing” in order to give more room, to walk-in Irish mares and foal temporary boarders
the brink by the actions of a client.
“We had a client fail financially, which was a shame and stressful for everyone involved,” she reflects.
“The horses still need caring for and the bills don’t just stop. We did what we thought was best for the horses and our client, but it was a big risk for the business and it was a headache in terms of cash flow for a prolonged period of time.”
The hazardous times have made a deep impression, but Folland stresses that, unfortunately, their experience is far from unique.
“The support [from other stud owners] has been phenomenal but we were saddened to hear of many other similar stories across the board.
The forfeit list aims to protect trainers and their businesses, but in the breeding industry, there is no such list, I really think this needs serious consideration
The hot dry UK summers are perhaps becoming the “norm” and are impacting on breeders and studs – but the lovely estate and the acres at Fonthill helps to cope with such difficulties
“We also heard of people moving from one stud to another each season and leaving a trail of debt behind them.”
True to her nature, Folland is looking for ways in which the industry can come together to provide real support and protection to others so they do not have to endure the fraught year and a half she and Bowen have been through.
“The forfeit list aims to protect trainers and their businesses, but in the breeding industry, there is no such list, I really think this needs serious consideration. Unfortunately the situation we were put in isn’t an isolated case. People just don’t talk about it,” she says sadly.
Something that can’t be legislated for is the weather and how climate change is having an impact on the seasons creating a domino effect on farming in general. Having experienced yet another extremely dry summer, the heat is turning up in more ways than one.
“The price increases for direct costs have been dramatic and made worse by the weather this year.
“We have been haying horses in the fields for months now so that they don’t take a knock back ahead of winters and we’ve been feeding winter rations on hard feed throughout the summer.
“Everyone is in the same boat; these hot, dry summers seem to be becoming the norm and that’s having an impact on the hay and straw production.”
But the team they have created at Folland-Bowen is one of the successes of which she is most proud.
“Finding experienced stud staff in this area has proven more difficult than we initially anticipated, but we’ve managed to get solid seasonal teams together and that’s working well for us. We have gorgeous accommodation and facilities at Fonthill Stud.”
Natalie Folland and Matt Bowen have climbed every mountain they have faced, forded the streams in their way and now they have found their rainbow.
Stick or twist? For Folland-Bowen Bloodstock the answer is easy.
HASCOMBE & VALIANT STUD
HASCOMBE & VALIANT STUD is pleased to offer an outstanding draft of yearlings at Tattersalls October Sale.
All yearlings will have x-rays and scopes available in the repository. All our colts are being offered for sale.
Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Book 1
50 b.c. NEW BAY - Bartzella (Golden Horn)
Listed winner of three races, from the family of Peintre Celebre
97 ch.c. MEHMAS - Dawn Horizons (New Approach)
Multiple winner, dam of Crack Of Light (LR winner), family of Rebecca Sharp and Frankly Darling
338 b.c SEA THE STARS / Precious Ramotswe (Nathaniel) A Gr 3 winner & Gr 2 placed, dam of Devils Advocate
380 b.c. CRACKSMAN / Riviera Belle (Medaglia d’Oro) Immediate family of Derby winner Golden Horn
481 b.c. ST MARK’S BASILICA / Token of Love (Cape Cross)
LR winner and already dam of dual Gr.3 winner Mighty Ulysses
Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Book 2
614 b.f. PINATUBO / Belle d’Or (Medaglia d’Oro)
LR winner from family of Footstepsinthesand
623 ch.c. BATED BREATH / Bizzarria (Lemon Drop Kid)
2-y-o winner from the family of Star Catcher
737 b.c. STUDY OF MAN / Domino Darling (Golden Horn)
Winner from the family of Pursuit Of Love
811 b.f. BAAEED / Frankellina (Frankel)
2-y-o winner from the family of Rebecca Sharp, dam Group placed
1055 b.c. BLUE POINT / Nyarhini (Fantastic Light)
LR placed winner from family of Rebecca Sharp
1090 b.c SHOWCASING / Plucky Lass (Medaglia d’Oro) Family of Courage Mon Ami, dam of 3 winners
1114 b.f. CRACKSMAN / Purple Ribbon (Gleneagles)
Dual winner from family of Courage Mon Ami
1277 b.f. SAXON WARRIOR / Tempest Fugit (High Chaparral) A Listed winner
In 2025, Hascombe bred horses have already won £851,444
Over 200 races per year
Over 350 ind. winning owners
Over €6m awarded to date
€10,000 bonus for Irishbreds
Fortifying Irish breeding & sales
“For the owners to have that winner with their first ever horse & then immeditately offer a €10,000 incentive, it’s a massive deal for them. It makes a big difference when you’re buying.”
Einer Eismark, Kings Bloodstock
€10,000 IRE Incentive winner with Elsie’s Ruan (IRE)
Over €27m in sales generated
www.itm.ie/IRE_Incentive
Terms & Conditions apply
Photography Alisha Meeder
Diversity
The Normandy-based La Motteraye Consignment is heading to Tattersalls this October on a sales mission. We find out more with Gwen Monneraye
SUMMER AND AUTUMN ARE busy seasons for Gwenael Monneraye and Lucie Lamotte of La Motteraye Consignment, the team prepping yearlings from July through to October.
La Motteraye, based in the Pays d’Auge, Normandy, sold as is usual
for the first week of the October Sale and three in the second, and the couple are hoping that their results achieved at Arqana, which saw a 100 per cent clearance rate, will be repeated.
“We were delighted with the results in Deauvillle, which was an incredible sale and hopefully bodes well for the rest of the sales season,” says
“We are always busy at that sale, there were a lot of people there and if you had the right horse you were
“Our top lot was the Siyouni out of Curvy – she did not sell in the ring on the first day, everyone then was a little wary as to what was going to happen, but overnight we sold her privately to the North Hills Co Ltd from Japan.” He adds: “What was more noticeable is that there were more foreign-based sellers than ever at the
“We had a slightly smaller draft as some of our clients decided to come to Tattersalls or we decided to wait for the Arqana October Sale –we have a big draft of 51 for the later sale.”
As Monneraye explains the October
Gwen Monneraye
An inquisitive yearling at
this August’s Arqana Sale eyes up the draft’s success banner
Photo: Alisha Meeder
la motteraye consignment
Sale in Deauville has now become a destination in itself and so now mimics the August Sale; and the later autumn date means that some find it more suitable with their commercially-bred yearlings.
“Due to the calendar the August Sale was particularly early this year to get a yearling ready,” he explains.
“When I was younger, the October Sale was an average sale, but it has made great strides in recent years.
“It is a tricky balancing act for Arqana - the team, of course, wants the October Sale to be strong and has worked hard on it, but obviously not to the detriment of the August Sale. I think on the whole they get it right.
“The Arqana team also works very closely with us and we usually also get the right decision with our horses.”
Before October in Deauville, however, La Motteraye has its group of five to sell in Newmarket – and with its two Book 1 horses catalogued for the last hour or so of the last session on Day 3, it will give Monneraye plenty of time on the sale ground.
“I will be fully able to assess the market!” he laughs, adding: “The decision was made by the owners to go to Newmarket, for instance, Guy Heald owns his farm in Newmarket so it makes sense to sell at Tattersalls.”
The team headed to Newmarket wearing a consigning hat with a first sizable draft of yearlings in 2023, but missed a trip to the UK last year.
“It something that we wish to develop more, and we want to build as good a relationship with Tattersalls as we have with Arqana.
“I have to say that Tattersalls has been very helpful and I am looking forward to the trip. Lucie will be staying at home to supervise the next draft for Arqana.”
The quintet of yearlings are from families well known to La Motteraye and are bred by long-term clients.
The two in Book 1 are both Motteraye born and raised, are both siblings to
Group 1 winners.
La Motteraye’s yearling draft: Tattersalls October Book 1 & 2
The Sea The Stars colt out of Soho Rose (Lot 431) was bred by the G.B. Partnership from the pedigree that provided the top lot and the fourth best-priced lot on the first day of the Arqana August Sale.
Lot 431
c Sea The Stars Soho Rose Hernando
Lot 524 f Siyouni Wild Blossom Areion
Lot 936 f Siyouni Lady Baker Pioneerof The Nile
Lot 1096
c Siyouni Power Of The Moon Acclamation
Lot 1326 c Study Of Man Wait For The Lord Bated Breath
“He is a full to Sea La Rosa, winner of the Group 1 Prix de Royallieu, and to the Group 2 winner Deauville Legend. We have been working with Guy for around 10 years and it is a pleasure to deal with him, he was keen to have some horses in Tattersalls.
“The Siyouni filly out of Wild Blossom [Lot 524] is a half-sister to the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup winner Alenquer, who was bred on the farm. She looks like a fast Siyouni with a lot of strength and a very good walk.
“I know everyone thinks that we need to take very big horses to Tattersalls, but if you have horses bred to be fast and they look to be fast, it works well.
“In 2023, we sold the 96-rated Nardra, a filly by Night Of Thunder, to Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock for 440,000gns; she was very much of this mould.
“The Solo Rose colt is much more of a Classic type, is very typical to the family and similar to Deauville Legend – hopefully, he will go on to have the same career.”
Of the Book 2 three, he says: “They are all good individuals, and the Study Of Man colt [Lot 1326] is a first foal out of a Group 3 fourthplaced mare, was bred on the farm for Guy.
“We also have a colt
and a filly by Siyouni for Haras Voltaire.
“The filly is out of Lady Baker. Her first foal has been named Zalina, is by Pinatubo and she won by 3l at Deauville on her debut in August. She was very impressive, she could be a smart sort and it is a nice update.
“We have sold a few of the progeny out of the Siyouni colt’s dam Power Of The Moon before, and so we know the family pretty well, too.
“We hope that they will both stand out because of the sire – there are just seven catalogued by him in Book 2, and just two fillies.”
The couple, who first sold horses from a rented farm of 25 acres, now farm their own 500 acres.
Continually reinvesting in the property, they are currently in the process of developing a barn that will be dedicated to the preparation of sales horses.
“We have recently added to the farm – I am a farmer’s son and I like to own land!” laughs Monneraye.
“The new barn will be able to accommodate 78, so we will be well positioned with every facility to offer decent sized drafts at both Deauville and Newmarket, we will be able to sell easily where ever clients want to go.”
Organising the draft: Lucie Lamotte
Grosser Preis von Baden, Gr.1, Baden-Baden
October Mixed Sales: 17th and 18th October 2025
Spring HIT Sale with Breeze Up: 5th June 2026
Premier Yearling Sale: 4th September 2026
October Mixed Sales: 16th and 17th October 2026
Grosser Dallmayr-Preis, Gr.1, Munich
Grosser Preis von Bayern, Gr.1, Munich
Deutsches Derby, Gr.1, Hamburg
Arkle Chase, Gr.1, Cheltenham
Sun Chariot Stakes, Gr.1, Newmarket
john bourke
Bourke in action on a syndicates.racing open day in his role as racing and bloodstock manager, one of the many hats he wears in the industry
Debuting at Newmarket
John Bourke of Lackagh Springs Stud, who sold the mare Ambiguous for a tidy profit at the Goffs November Sale, is looking forward to consigning his first draft of yearlings at Tattersalls October Book 2 Sale, writes Ronan Groome
WHEN JOHN BOURKE walked into the 2021 Goffs November Sale, he had one simple plan - buy a nice mare with a good cover.
It was time to get his business Lackagh Springs Stud up and running, and this, he thought, was the way to do it.
A simple plan but it’s rarely simple in this game. Hours went by, gavels went down and the numbers went too high.
Then came Ambiguous. She was a barren mare but Bourke loved everything about her besides that.
He knew her well as she’d been booked into Far Above, who alongside friend and business partner Jack Cantillon, he is associated with.
He loved the pedigree, loved her dam (Easy To Imagine, the dam of Alpha Delphini and Tangerine Trees) and loved that the family only had a handful of breeding mares, and they were all with top studs. He used his experience from working on the Godolphin Flying Start to get an insight into Ambiguous’s latest progeny who was about to hit the track – Marine Wave, knowing that she was graded favourably as a foal and yearling.
And he loved that Ambiguous had
proven herself already, producing a filly to win first time out and reach a BHA mark of 82 from four starts.
Lots of pros to weigh against the one big con.
It was towards the tail end of the sale when he stood beside Cantillon and watched Ambiguous walk around the ring.
Auctioneer Bernard Condren got to €7,000 and Bourke, in his own words, got watery. Stick to the original plan began to ring loud. Cantillon decided to take action. He raced down the stairs with his iPad and found Michael Orlandi. When he came back, it was written on the iPad: “One free nom to Kuroshio”.
It was the push he needed and at €8,000 the mare was his. Straight after, he turned to his friend bloodstock agent Nico Archdale and asked if he would take a leg. Archdale said he would.
Then, from nowhere, Eoin Fives of Ballylinch Stud, came running over and asked for a leg.
And after a typical topsy-turvy day at the sales, everything was simple again.
A fun day in the pub
When Bourke walked into O’Brien’s pub on Mespil Road, Dublin, he was
already in good form, about to kick off the second day session of a good friend’s wedding.
A round of pints found the table and before he got a first sip, he took out his phone to watch the 4.45pm at Pontefract. You’d have been forgiven for presuming he’d had a tenner on one in the race run in the north England, but in reality, there was a lot more riding on this particular race.
The aforementioned Marine Wave had already done plenty for her dam in 13 starts, but when she powered away to take this Listed contest, she hit the apex of her career, and Bourke knew it there and then.
“I started to shake,” he recalls, with a laugh. “Now, maybe that was something to do with the wedding the night before, but I’m pretty sure I realised straight away the enormity of it.
“The lads I was with, wouldn’t have been big racing heads at all, and I’m there explaining it to them. It was unbelievable. I got a few calls straight away and you’re just thinking, this could be a big, big moment for the stud.”
It was that indeed.
There was a case for keeping Ambiguous and plenty told him he should, that she’d make a fantastic
foundation mare. The other side of the weigh-up was the investment he could put into the farm at home and in acquiring more stock, and that won the day.
Last November, nearly three years to the day he bought Ambiguous, he sold her back at Goffs for €230,000 to Amo Racing.
That has been enough to get Lackagh Springs Stud up and running alright.
A year later...
John Bourke sits back now reflecting on the last year or so. The funds that came his way from the sale of Ambiguous have been reinvested into the farm via a new walker, a new lunge ring, new stables and new stock, and it’s all very exciting.
The 31-year-old Kildare native has been in love with the game from as long as he can remember. He recalls begging his parents to let him go to the RACE Academy off The Curragh when he was midway through school, with firm aspirations of becoming a jockey.
An amateur’s license after his Leaving Cert exams was the begrudging compromise, but his undergrad since then has been first class. He has completed the Irish National Stud Course, the Godolphin Flying Start, has a degree in Agricultural Science from University College Dublin and is on the verge of qualifying with a Masters in Sports Management from the same university.
From a hands-on perspective, while he admits his jockey career was likely never to take off, the experience he acquired was useful, and he notably spent two years with Joseph O’Brien before gaining a huge insight to the bloodstock side when taken on by Dermot Cantillon.
It was through that time he became friendly with Jack, son of Dermot, and they have batted together since - most notably through the hugely successful Syndicates.Racing operation.
I love the NH side, I love breezers, I love pinhooking, I love the work with Syndicates.Racing and I’m trying to keep a couple of horses in training
On his own accord, Bourke has had success trading breezers, pinhooks, NH mares and racing stock - which has taken a notable spike this season through the exploits of She’s Quality, a filly he bought in conjunction with her current trainer Jack Davison and Barry Lynch at the 2022 Goffs Orby Sale.
In October he will break yet more new ground when he takes two yearlings to the Tattersalls October Book 2 Sale where he will be a seller for the first time.
“It’s probably a bit mad but I want to
do everything,” he says with a laugh. “I love the NH side, I love breezers, I love pinhooking, I love the work with Syndicates.Racing and I’m trying to keep a couple of horses in training.
“I think it’s good to do as much as you can in that it gives you cash flow at every point of the year.
“Maybe I’d be conscious of getting labelled a jack of all trades, master of none, but I think the wisest thing to do is keep going with everything for as long as I can, and eventually I will land on
Ambiguous at the Goffs November Sale: she sold for €230,000 and help fund Bourke’s yard investments
one or two things to concentrate on.
“I’d imagine it will be mares and breeding - I love that side.
“It’s very exciting to be going to Book 2 as sellers under the Lackagh Springs Banner. It’s probably my favourite sale of the year as I’ve had great luck buying from it, but it’ll be different this time.
“I’ve got the Minzaal colt out of Ambiguous [Lot 569] and we’ve very happy with him. He missed the foal sale last year with a foot abscess and I was heartbroken because he was an exceptional foal, but he has done really well since.
“He will be joined by a Starspangledbanner filly out a mare called Zawiyah [Lot 1347], whom I purchased with a good friend of mine Stan Begley for €52,000 as a foal. At the time it was kind of lunacy buying her for that much because I was completely punting on the fact that the mare was going to sell well, thankfully that paid off.
“She is a big, strong-looking filly,
I like the yearlings I am taking to Newmarket a lot and the new facilities have allowed us to get them there in tip-top shape so we’ll see what the market says about them
half-sister to the Group 1 horse Twilight Calls, from a very good sprinting/miler family.
“I like the yearlings I am taking to Newmarket a lot and the new facilities have allowed us to get them there in tip-top shape so we’ll see what the market says about them.”
That is enough to keep anyone busy, but Bourke has the small matter of acting as racing and bloodstock manager for the now 3,000-strong Syndicates. Racing, and with horses in Ireland, Britain and now France and Australia, plus a new breeding syndicate, it’s 24:7.
“My general role is to go to the sales, look at as many horses as I can, do the shortlists and sit down with Jack to review everything,” he explains.
“In Jack’s world he doesn’t really do shortlists as such, it’s a case of going to the ring and buying what he perceives as value. It has worked for us very well.
“From buying them at the sales, I’ll get them into pre-trainers, keep everyone updated all the way, then progress them into training.
“We’re very much focused on delivering a top-class experience, whether it be through communication or through an event.
“The big goal for me is sourcing winners - that’s what I get the biggest kick off and that’s what I enjoy most.”
It’s a winner! Syndicates.Racing with the Henry De Bromhead-trained Adaliz (Waldgeist) successful in a 2m7f handicap hurdle at Tipperary in May
Bourke is quick to point to Cantillon as having a big impact on his career.
“His brain is just at a completely different level!” he says. “He’s obviously very intelligent as a qualified lawyer, and he could just have stuck into a golden circle and taken a nice wage but he’s born an entrepreneur, a born syndicator as well I think, like a Harry Herbert.
“I wouldn’t be able to dream about some of the things he comes up with. He’s almost like a mad scientist, and I mean that in the best way, whereas I have a bit more of a reserved view on things, and I think that allows us to work well together.
“He’s a great guy to work with and I’ve a lot to be thankful for, to him and Dermot and Meta.”
THE PAIR HAVE “traded away” with a couple of others for a few years now, always looking for new angles and approaches.
Bourke says the most exciting project was Far Above –acquiring the horse to stand at Michael Orlandi’s Starfield Stud, fending off far more prominent and established stud farms in the process.
It was a coup that made the industry sit up and take notice, and once acquired, the marketing campaign that followed went one better, and got people talking.
“We just went on this insane marketing run,” Bourke recalls.
“There were the beers, the yellow jackets, the videos. It was something that hadn’t been done before and sometimes when someone does something new, you can get a bit of kickback. There was certainly slagging, people wondering what are these guys were at, but it meant they were talking about Far Above and that was the goal.
“The slagging went quiet when the return of mares came out and Far Above has proven to be a very commercial option for breeders.
“We’ve got Fifty Stars as well and that was great to get him back from Australia. As a Group-winning son of Sea The Stars, and a half-brother to Whiskey Sour, I was thinking we need to get this lad to Willie Mullins but Jack was like ‘no way - he’s going to be a valuable stallion!’
“The NH side is a little trickier, but he’s had two good books of mares and he has a good chance. We’re also involved with a larger group of friends with Cold Case, who we sent to the south of France and that’s exciting as well.”
As young guy more than happy to devote his life to the bloodstock and racing industries, and with the experience of just about every sector so far, Bourke offers a unique perspective.
“I am just finishing up the Sports
Management Masters in UCD and I actually based my thesis on gambling regulation,” he reveals. “As an industry, I don’t think we should be shying away from gambling, horseracing is intrinsically linked to gambling.
“All the data from the thesis shows that increasing gambling regulation anywhere in the world is a bad thing and has forced people into the black market.
“I think we need to embrace gambling. I think it’s incredibly important as it feeds directly into prize-money and once you have the prize-money, everything else falls into line.
“Are we working towards a Tote Monopoly? Personally I’ve always had the opinion, having worked down in Australia, that they have the best betting system in the world. Look at the health of racing nations in Japan and Hong Kong where gambling and horseracing go hand and hand and the sport is healthy.
“It’s up to my own generation and the next to take on the issues facing the sport. That was instilled to us on the Flying Start, to be the leaders.”
He adds: “I feel the game is in a good place bar a few issues, and from my perspective I am fully committed to the industry if I am afforded that opportunity.”
The commitment is there and the dream is simple.
“Group 1 winners. To buy a Group 1 winner, to breed a Group 1 winner. We were really hopeful for She’s Quality this year, and she has had a fantastic season.
“To be involved with a Group 1 winner in anyway - breed, pinhook, buy, whatever - would be amazing. I think that’s what we all strive for, to be at that top level.”
Lackagh Springs yearling draft: Tattersalls October Book 2
She’s Quality (right) bought by Burke with Jack Davison and Barry Lynch at the Goffs Orby Sale Bourke’s
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Back yourself!
Is the advice from women who are now running some of the biggest organisations in racing and bloodstock, writes Leo Powell
FFounded by James Weatherby in 1770, the company has served the racing and bloodstock industries with integrity and diligence for over two and a half centuries.
EW BUSINESS NAMES ARE more synonymous in the world of horseracing and breeding than that of Weatherbys.
Recently, the company has seen some of its most seismic shifts in its long and distinguished history. It has enhanced its offering – not only has it become more global but its business now includes many different avenues as it continues to change, meeting the needs of a world that is more and more dependent on digitisation.
And meet Sharon O’Regan, the person in whose hands the future of Weatherbys lies; in July she succeeded Russell Ferris to become CEO of Weatherbys Limited, and her appointment was notable – O’Regan is the first female to head the company.
She joins a growing number of women who have taken leadership roles in Ireland’s racing and breeding sectors; shattering remaining glass ceilings, and with an influence spreading outside the country.
There have been many trailblazers, and in racing few can match the incredible achievements of jockey Rachael Blackmore, someone who sat at the pinnacle of the sport, and
Sharon O’Regan:
Weatherbys CEO and a working mother
Two of the industry leaders are mothers, Sharon O’Regan being one. She does not have an “equine pedigree” or background, but was attracted to the industry at an early age. Supportive parents, who still play an important role in her life alongside an encouraging husband, have allowed Sharon to take on the busy role she stepped into in July. That said, more than two decades of hard work and devotion was dedicated to getting to this point.
“I don’t come from an equine background, and my parents are a traditional rural kind of family. My love for horses really came from my
brought racing to a wider audience.
Meta Osborne, a high-achiever in many areas, was the first female to become a senior steward anywhere in the world.
Women have always been to the forefront when it came to breeding racehorses, but in other sectors the changes have had to be fought for and earned.
Can you imagine the training ranks without Jessica Harrington, one of the most successful trainers to regularly enjoy success at the highest levels under both codes? Two generations ago, she wouldn’t have been allowed to have her name on the racecard.
The biggest challenge for this feature, when trying to narrow down a list of women to speak with, was not who to include, but rather who to omit.
The aforementioned Meta Osborne, Jessica Harrington and Rachael Blackmore, fellow columnist Cathy Grassick, Sonia Rogers and Clodagh Kavanagh are just a selection of names who could well have been profiled, with apologies to a myriad of other high achievers.
The final four, representing a broad range of backgrounds but all now excelling in different aspects of racing and breeding administration, spoke about challenges, role models, mentoring, networking and more, and while many common views were expressed, they also provided contrasting pictures of their lives to date.
dad; he liked to take us racing when we were children. That developed into a passion for me. When I spoke to my career guidance teacher in school, I was told I would be mad to try to get into the business, and that it would be hard to get the type of job I would like in the industry.
“I decided, however, to go my own way. I did Ag Science in school and had a really good teacher who was super supportive. I wanted to go to Kildare,
the thoroughbred county, and I did a two-year course there. This involved a placement every Friday, and I did mine with Maurice Burns at Rathasker Stud.
“I was the only girl there at the time, and I extended those Friday placements to working weekends and summer holidays. I also spent time with the late Con Power, one of Ireland’s greatest showjumping riders and trainers.
“A friend of mine was working at Weatherbys and she said there was a job
Everyone, whether you are a man or a woman and you have to travel a lot with work, can have parent guilt
female leaders
going, covering maternity leave. I went in, and 25 years later I am still there!
“It was a very different company to today – basically then it was just a stud book authority. It was very traditional.
“My boss Joe Kiernan was a fantastic man and a great mentor. He worked very calmly and very openly. He was an unsung hero of the industry.
“Today, Weatherbys is a very different business. The science side has exploded, we encompass many other strands, and we help racing nations around the world.
“Johnny Weatherby has been a fantastic influence, and he is so passionate. It is all about the industry for him. He did a really good job getting good people to support his vision.”
A challenge for many women can be balancing motherhood and career. Some companies can use it to hinder progress, while some women are held back by their own worries about a work life balance.
O’Regan admits that she was lucky. “I certainly didn’t feel that I was at a disadvantage. Everyone, whether you are a man or a woman and you have to travel a lot with work, can have parent guilt. I am very lucky, and know I am, to live close to my parents and have a supportive husband and a good family network. Not everyone has this.
Eimear Mulhern: has worked tirelessly in the roles she has had in the bloodstock industry
position? She may not be happy to admit it, but she did.
Her career trajectory is one that makes her an ideal role model for women, though she admits to being on the fence when it comes to whether women face greater challenges than
“There are certain instances when you perhaps have to find ways to navigate situations – working in the some parts of the world, for example. You have to find balance and compromise – it can’t just be about getting what you want.
“I have never faced deliberate discrimination on the basis of gender, and I have never felt at a disadvantage because I am a woman. Life isn’t always perfect, and that applies to men, too.
“We need different voices, different opinions and a different mindset in the room – the collective is much better than an individual voice.
A healthy mix is much better for everyone.”
Eimear Mulhern: a lifetime as a leader
“This business is not a Monday to Friday one – it can be seven days a week at times. Again, I have been very lucky at Weatherbys. Nick Craven has been a super help, while Simon Cooper and Russell Ferris have, too. Russell in particular mentored me during his time with the company.”
Given its “tradition” history, does O’Regan believe that she had to smash a glass ceiling with her rise to the top
However, she is someone with her feet firmly planted on the ground, and brings pragmatism and common sense to everything she does. She has worked hard to achieve what she has today, and went quickly from being general manager in both countries, to the role of deputy chief executive.
Some 18 months later she finds herself, at the age of 45, in the key position.
I believe that we need different voices, different opinions and a different mindset in the room –the collective is much better than an individual voice
As chairman of Goffs, and having devoted a lifetime to the business, Eimear Mulhern is better placed than most to speak on the subject of women in the industry. When she was honoured at the start of the year with the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association’s Hall of Fame, she spoke about her own journey, making it very clear that she was a believer in meritocracy, and not in quotas when it came to appointments. This is an issue that can be divisive, with arguments for and against.
Mulhern’s induction into the Hall of Fame came just after she completed 20 years as chairman of Goffs, one of a long list of roles she has held in the industry. With a passion for horses since birth, she was closely associated with the world of showjumping for some years.
Her father Charles Haughey’s commitment to the thoroughbred industry was recognised when he, too, was honoured by the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association.
A strength that Mulhern possesses is her vast experience of almost every aspect of the business. Apart from running her own farm, Abbeville Stud, she was the first female chairman of the ITBA, made great contributions to Horse Racing Ireland, and worked with Irish Thoroughbred Marketing from its foundation in 1991, stepping down after more than three decades of involvement.
At the time of her award back in January, I wrote that “Eimear’s record of success, leadership, drive, commitment and passion for all things thoroughbred, alongside personal attributes of friendliness and loyalty, make her an outstanding role model for all in the worlds of breeding and racing in Ireland and abroad.”
MULHERN IS A DOER, someone who sees what they want and goes for it. She believes that you can only make changes if you are involved, and her mantra when speaking to all young people is to put your hand up and join in. “It never arose, and I never had reason for it to arise”, was her reply to being asked if she faced additional challenges as a woman. “I never met it myself in a direct way.
“I think our business traditionally was male dominated, as are so many industries, but I think we have come an enormously long way in Ireland.
“We always have a way to go, but I don’t think women meet any more challenges than men, other than those which apply to women who are homemakers as well. The workforce needs a balance of sexes.
“Ireland has become a very broadminded, forward thinking, progressive European country.
“On farms you have the likes of
Kirsten Rausing, Sonia Rogers, Honora Donworth, Antoinette Kavanagh and many more. Things have changed in administration and leadership roles, and this is because Ireland is mentally and socially progressive. This allows for more equal opportunity, and has encouraged women to go forward. There are some areas where improvements can be made, but things are much better.
“It sometimes is the case that women need to have more confidence in themselves. Now that more women are getting into leadership positions, it should encourage the next generation.
“I try to instill this in young woman, and in young men. Put your hand up, join committees, make yourself seen. You will not regret it.”
Having quotas is something that society is demanding more and more, making sure that boards and organisations have a proper balance of males and females.
Mulhern is not a fan.
“I think that there is probably nothing more degrading than to be a token or quota woman.
“People should be in positions through their ability, and women can be.
“If we ended up with 10 women on the board of Goffs, or one woman on the board, that’s because at the time they were the best.
“A blended board or organisation works best. I understand the strength of men, perhaps the bravery to push the boundaries more.
“I see the practicality of women, thinking things through, and balancing things a bit more. That blend is good.
“In the past, pay wasn’t equal, and neither were opportunities, but we are getting there. More and more we are seeing this – look at Britain and Dido Harding, a successful businesswoman and now Senior Steward of the Jockey Club.”
Mulhern was inducted into the ITBA Hall Of Fame at the 2024 Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association awards, and is seen here with Beverley O’Keeffe, stud manager at Mulhern’s Abbeville Stud
female leaders
people looking to make bloodstock or racing their career.
“Just be strong, drive on and be true to yourself. Know who you are and what you want. Stand your ground. All is not utopia, but things have improved and come a long way.
“Be confident. If I can help in any way I do. I am not saying I know it all, but I am older and have more experience than younger people.”
Suzanne Eade: head of Irish Racing
There is no more onerous role in racing
When I look at a lot of the brilliant women that I have come across, sometimes they don’t know how good they are, I think women are very hard on themselves
of life. I was in FMCG [fast-moving consumer goods] for at least 30 years, and the same decisions faced women when they got to a certain point in their career. That’s definitely a real issue for a lot of women.
“In terms of my own entry into
doing extremely well. What I would like to see is more people putting themselves outside their comfort zone.”
HRI has a requirement to have a quota of women on the board. “We’ve worked really hard and now we have the required percentage, and we try to
Suzanne Eade: CEO of Horse Racing Ireland and comes from a consumer background
“When I look at a lot of the brilliant women that I have come across, sometimes they don’t know how good they are, I think women are very hard on themselves. There are enough people knocking and criticising; the last thing you want is to be hypercritical of yourself. It takes a long time to learn that.
“I know people asked when I took the role, ‘What does she know about racing?’ All my life I have been a sports enthusiast. I always had a great regard for jockeys, incredibly brave sportsmen and women. I had six years as CFO learning everything about the industry.
“I indoctrinated myself. I will never know as much as someone who is born into it.
“What I have to do is guide the industry to be successful and take advantage of opportunities.
“It is about knowing how best to use your skills. The team around me have the expertise in all the different areas.
“I am very lucky because my chairman, Nicky Hartery, is very pro-diversity. He comes from businesses that have all been enhanced by having a board or a leadership team that is diverse. The quality of discussion and debate is enhanced in these circumstances. The women now on our board are there because they are capable. There is no other reason for them to be there.
“When I go to IFHA [International Federation of Horseracing Authority] events, I acknowledge that the majority of the women there who are in leadership roles are coming from Ireland. I don’t know why that is. There is a sense that so many women here are making a living out of the industry.
“If you look at all the big families in racing, there is always a woman at the forefront. When you look at the likes of Eimear, she is beyond Ireland. She is international.”
If everything in the garden was rosy for women, some argue that groups such as Women In Racing would not be
needed. Eade takes a different view.
“Women In Racing is about making sure we get the best people and provide opportunities to those who may not push themselves forward, may not have the confidence. I think that anybody working to promote women back into the workforce, and women to get the best opportunities, is a good thing. It is about enhancing and bringing everybody on.
“You can’t be unhappy that there is a cohort of people trying to better the future for women in the industry. Remember, many men in the industry have sisters and daughters. Don’t they want to see them get on?”
Mentoring is a topic that came up time and time again with leaders. Eade is a believer.
“I feel that there is a lot more of it among women. I would definitely like to be a force for good; I don’t know whether I could be called an inspiration.
“However, I’d like to encourage
women to take a risk with themselves.
“I love taking risks with people if I can see something in them that perhaps they can’t. I would like to be an influence, not just for women.”
Echoing Mulhern, Eade concluded: “The one thing to be is confident in your ability. You are where you are because you are good enough. You have to look for opportunities and then put your hand up. Don’t be afraid to do something out of your comfort zone.
“Nobody knows everything, and neither do you. Take chances, and don’t be hard on yourself.”
Debbie
Grey:
heading up the Irish Equine Centre
In 2023, the Irish Equine Centre celebrated its 40th anniversary. Its primary role is the surveillance of the herd health in Ireland, which is vital for the ability of Ireland to export and have free movements.
Debbie Grey: has worked hard for her career, believes in a blended workplace, and says that some of her ”closest confidantes have four legs and hooves!”
Debbie Grey joined in March of that year. She was born in Zimbabwe where she lived until she was five, before moving to South Africa. Her dad was a Minister of Religion, which entailed moving quite a lot.
She went to senior school in the Eastern Cape, but wanting to have a
horse and study, she did her degree through correspondence.
Her first was in English and sociology. She got up at six every morning, did her university studies for a few hours, and then taught in the local riding school.
Grey’s early career saw her move
from banking to working with the Cerebral Palsy Association. The latter she found to b life-changing.
After three years she was drawn back to horses, working in an equine veterinary practice, and as she was then married to someone who used to compete a lot, they moved to
So who are their role models?
ALL FOUR LEADERS were asked to talk about their roles Kavanagh [executive director of Godolphin Flying Start].
to go out there and get things done, not just in Ireland
“Another I admire is a friend of mine who works in design and communications, is married with four children.
“How she managed a full-time career, and had a fine family who are a credit to her and her husband, is amazing. I barely get myself to work in the morning!”
When it comes to women excelling, Mulhern has a special mention for Princess Zahra Aga Khan.
“It is lovely to see how she embraces the mantle of the Aga Khan Studs. This is her world now, and she is taking it forward with enormous zeal, a sense of great history, and pride in the achievements of her father and grandfather. She is wonderful.”
Suzanne Eade namechecked five people.
“What I love to see in people I work with, whether male or female, is selfawareness. It is such a powerful tool. If you realise how you sound, how you might be impacting someone
Rachael Blackmore: all the women who chatted with Leo picked out Blackmore, but really the former jockey is everyone’s role model
Johannesburg, and Grey took on a role in recruitment consultancy. She rapidly moved into a position of importance.
Being shot at and burgled, hijacked, beaten up and left on the side of the road in a township proved to be the final straw for the couple, who relocated to Britain. Grey remained in recruitment,
but when pregnant after six weeks in England, she took on a role with a s tart-up operated by her then husband.
After a divorce, Grey moved to Newmarket. She started working for the National Association of Racing Staff, and studied for an MBA through Liverpool University. That took her to The Racing
Centre for 18 months, a charity in Newmarket, before a short stint at the British Horseracing Authority as part of the whip review consultation.
During the pandemic she saw the job as Head of Operations for the Injured Jockeys Association advertised. Her time there only ended when she was
in the room, it makes for a much better working environment.
“I find Debbie Grey very interesting to listen to, and she has a lot of really good qualities. There are a lot of strong women out there.
Cathy Grassick is another; I love watching her operate.
“I think Rachael Blackmore is a superstar. That was a tough road she was on. Competing day in, day out to get rides, that is a constant battle. I still think
participants in the sport.
“We have got to look at ways to make it more equal, and that is something I would like to do. It is probably about changing the mindset of the employers.”
Eade also mentioned Dr Jennifer Pugh, who works in the area of welfare and care is so valuable.
“The one thing that strikes me with all these women is their capacity to deliver. That’s what I find amazing; their energy and capacity to deliver across a wide range of
“Look at Meta Osborne – having a career, doing further studies, podcasting, running a stud farm with her husband, and being an incredible mother.”
Debbie Grey is unsure about whether glass ceilings really exist anymore in our industry, though she admits that she can only speak about this from a personal perspective. With that, she produced a list she had compiled of people in her own network in key roles in Britain, and what a group it is-
it includes: Eleanor Boden, Tansy Challis, Diana Cooper, Lisa Delaney, Annie Dobbs, Helena Flynn, Susannah Gill, Dawn Goodfellow, Lisa Hancock, Dido Harding, Julie Harrington, Anna Kerr, Pip Kirby, Naomi Mellor, Dena Merson, Simone Sear, Claire Sheppard, Louise Stewart and Sulekha Varma.
Above, Clodagh Kavanagh is applauded by all for her work on the Godolphin Flying Start, while outside of racing, Eimear Mulhern nominates Christine Lagarde (bottom left), president of the European Central Bank, as an inspiration, within the sport she recognises Princess Zahra Aga Khan’s passion and zeal
For me, a large part of being a leader is being vulnerable, and I think society probably allows women to be so, more easily than its allows men
appointed CEO of the Irish Equine Centre.
Grey is a busy lady, running the Irish Equine Centre, preparing for a new phase in its storied history, and also doing further studies, working towards her DBA. She is very much a fact-based person, and someone with clear views on issues. “Get the best person for the job; end of!” With that she summarises her view on meritocracy. She is also in favour of blended workforces.
“If you look at how it influences the bottom line and profits, there is no denying that it really does. It is all mixed voices, our LGBTQ+ communities, people with disabilities both seen and unseen, people of colour, and younger voices. I think the stretch is more than just women.
“Having said that, when women don’t feel that they can have a voice, or that they cannot speak up, it is very tricky.
“We all need to understand that everybody has a lens that they view the world through. From my perspective, I’ve always been quite outspoken.
“If I have faced something, I am not afraid to call it out. That is not everyone’s strength, and not everyone feels comfortable doing so. When I was working in England, the levels of misogyny and sexual discrimination among stable staff that we heard about were high, but largely unreported. It is not a level playing field in all sectors.
“Being a parent has taught me a lot, and made me more compassionate, and to be a better listener. It has probably also made me a better problem solver.
“Children don’t always do what you want them to; you have got to pick your battles. The transferable skills of being a working mum work both ways. The ability of mums to juggle,
compartmentalise and put their heads down, are to be valued. Working mums are some of the most productive people you will find. Running a home is like managing a small business.”
Given her background and education, it was no surprise to hear Grey say that being a leader entails opening up opportunities for others.
“A lot of responsibility and accountability that goes with the role makes me want to empower other women, particularly those who maybe haven’t had chances before. I like to do it for anyone, male or female, who works with me, to look for the options and find what is going to make them thrive.
“Women are still sometimes stereotyped. I had a conversation the other day with a friend of mine in aviation. She was saying that women pilots still face the belief that they must be cabin crew.
“As much as we would like to say this is in the past, it isn’t.
“For me, a large part of being a leader is being vulnerable, and I think society probably allows women to be so, more easily than it allows men.
“We still have those tropes; men don’t cry, and to man up. People should have the emotional intelligence to be vulnerable.
“You have to be able to acknowledge when you don’t have the answers, when you need to ask for help. It takes courage, bravery and boldness; all really good qualities in a leader.
“Staying humble as a leader is super
important. There’s always someone you can learn from, ask enough questions and you will always find out something really interesting. I would say as I have got older, my ability to listen has become much better. I am also listening with interest.
“Everyone needs a mentor, someone who is not afraid to challenge you. My last two mentors, and my current one, are male. Its more about personality, or about something I would love to learn from them.”
When questioned about quotas, Grey offered a different and interesting perspective. She has seen what some believe to be a crude instrument resulting in a welcome change.
“The one thing that has worked particularly well for South Africa is quotas. Look outside the workforce to their rugby team.
“When quotas were first brought in, I would say the country was pretty resistant, though this one was in terms of colour and not gender.
Grey believes that the use of quotas in the boardroom as a useful tool and argues, from a racial perspective, it has worked in South Africa
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mare of the month miss lucifer
Miss Lucifer’s name has been in lights courtesy of the achievements of her daughter Dance To The Music and son Space Blues
Lucifer is flying
Power Blue winning the Phoenix Stakes (G1), a first Group 1 winner for first-season stallion Spacec Blues, who is a son of Miss Lucifer
mare of the month miss lucifer
COMPARING SIBLINGS is pretty much the raison d’etre of the bloodstock community but let’s spare a thought for Dance To The Music.
No sooner had the two-year-old filly posted her debut Group victory, than “big brother” Space Blues went and hit the headlines with his first Group 1 winner as a sire on the very same day. An occasion for sibling rivalry perhaps, but oh, what a red-letter day for their dam, Miss Lucifer (Noverre).
Dance To The Music, a daughter of Dubawi bred and owned by Godolphin, promised more when winning on debut in a 6f Newmarket fillies’ novice contest in May.
She duly built on that when stepping up a furlong to land the Sweet Solera Stakes (G3) on Newmarket’s July course in early August, holding off some determined challenges to land the odds by a neck.
Charlie Appleby’s charge is, of course, a full-sister to one of the royal blue brigade’s young guns at stud, Space Blues. One of a string of top 7f-mile performers currently on the Darley roster alongside their illustrious sire, Space Blues notched up top-level triumphs in the Prix Maurice de Gheest, the Prix de la Forêt and the Breeders’ Cup Mile before retiring to Kildangan Stud.
He was quickest out of the blocks as a new sire this year, with Power Blue landing the first juvenile contest of the year in Ireland, winning easily at The Curragh on March 16.
Having collected black-type twice before Royal Ascot, he was Group 2-placed behind True Love in the 6f Railway Stakes before reversing that form on The Curragh to triumph in the Phoenix Stakes (G1) over course and distance.
Dance To The Music’s bragging rights lasted all of 20 minutes before her big brother could lay claim as the fastest son of Dubawi to sire a Group 1 winner. In addition, Space Blues is also responsible for Do Or Do Not, who has been placed in Group 2 company at Royal Ascot, Glorious Goodwood and York, as well as the Listed-placed filly Polly Shelby.
Since that impressive August day, Miss Lucifer’s headline-grabbing son has continued to fire home the winners, with 13 on the board to the start of the yearling sales at Doncaster.
Miss Lucifer
Noverre-Devil’s Imp (Cadeaux Genereux) Bay mare 11.03.2004
2010 SHURUQ filly by Elusive Quality, winner of five races, including four Group races
2011 GHOST TOUR, gelding by Street Cry, ran twice in the USA
2012 CAPEL PATH, colt by Street Cry, winner, died at 3
2013 NEXT TRIAL , filly by Hard Spun, unraced
2014 FAST LANDING , gelding by Raven’s Pass, winner
2015 Not Covered in 2014
2016 SPACE BLUES, colt by Dubawi
Top-rated older sprinter in France, winner of 11 races, including the Group 1 Prix de la Forêt (7f), Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest (6.5f), Group 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile (8f)
2017 by Exceed And Excel, filly died at 2
2018 BEAUTIFUL FUTURE, filly by Night of Thunder, unraced
2019 Not Covered in 2018
2020 BEAUTIFUL SUMMER, filly by Dark Angel, winner in France
2021 Barren to Dubawi
2022 WILD ANGEL, filly by Too Darn Hot, winner in France
2023 DANCE TO THE MUSIC, filly by Dubawi, two-time winner at 2, including the Group 3 Sweet Solera Stakes (7f)
2024 (April 25) filly by Dubawi
Dance To The Music’s bragging rights lasted all of 20 minutes before her big brother could lay claim as the fastest son of Dubawi to sire a Group 1 winner
mare of the month miss lucifer
Miss Lucifer’s talented daughter and stallion son are making the black-type headines at present, but Miss Lucifer had already produced a black-type scorer six years before foaling Space Blues
In addition, his son out of the Wootton Bassett mare Wootton Valley topped the Arqana v2 Sale, when knocked down to Ghislain Bozo of Meridian International for €110,000, while a filly out of Africa (Dabirsim) was snapped up for €200,000 on the opening night of Arqana’s blue-chip yearling sale.
Both Dance To Music and Power Blue hold some smart entries – the filly in the Rockfel Stakes (G2) and Fillies’ Mile (G1), the colt in the Middle Park Stakes and Dewhurst, all Group 1s.
Miss Lucifer’s talented daughter and stallion son may be making the black-type headlines at present, but their dam Miss Lucifer had already produced a black-type scorer six years before foaling Space Blues.
Shuruq, a daughter of Elusive Quality, landed a trio of Graded contests at Meydan, including the Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1 (G2) in 2014 for Saeed bin Suroor.
She later added the International Istanbul Trophy (G3) in Turkey to her tally before becoming a pretty useful producer herself. Her offspring include Antoinette (Hard Spun), a Group 3 winner and Group 1-placed for Godolphin in the US, as well as Javanica (Medaglia D’Oro), who earned plenty of black type, without ever getting her head in front in graded company.
MISS LUCIFER was bred under the name of Sheikh Maktoum al Maktoum’s Gainsborough Stud Management, out of the Cadeaux Genereux mare Devil’s Imp, herself a 210,000gns purchase by the operation from the 1997 Tattersalls Houghton Yearling Sale. Trained by Ed Dunlop, Devil’s Imp won a match race for the Newmarket Challenge Cup at two, before collecting a win at three in a maiden at Thirsk. Devil’s Imp may not have set the world alight, but she deserved a place in the paddocks, hailing as she did from an outstanding family that had already produced such luminaries as Sheikh Mohammed’s top-class In The Wings, the Derby winner High-Rise, and of course, a certain Zomaradah.
That filly captured the Oaks d’Italia, then a Group 1, about six months before Devil’s Imp made her debut, and went on to chisel her name
into the record books as sire of Dubawi.
The sheer weight of black-type in this family would have more than justified Miss Lucifer her spot at stud, but the daughter of Noverre claimed her place on her own merits.
A winner at two, she spent much of her three-year-old season placing the role of bridesmaid – runner-up no fewer than five times. However, her luck changed in the nick of time, and she collected a Listed success at Ascot in September, before rounding things off in Britain with success in the Challenge Stakes (G2), under the care of Barry Hills.
From eight runners to date, she has produced seven winners, by sires ranging from Street Cry to Raven’s Pass, to Too Darn Hot, as well as producing the dual winner Beautiful Summer from a mating to Dark Angel.
A mating to Hard Spun in 2012 failed to produce a winner, but her daughter, Next Trial, did go on to produce Taj Dragon (Mehmas), a Group 3 winner in Hong Kong.
It is no great surprise that Miss Lucifer returned to Dubawi in 2023 after foaling Dance To The Music, meaning there is a full-sister to both she and Space Blues waiting in the wings. Let the family rivalry continue!
Space Blues: made a bright start to his stud career
Photographers: Debbie Burt, Sarah Farnsworth, Laura Green, Alisha Meeder, Zuzanna Lupa, Z
Courtesy: Arqana, Goffs UK, Keeneland, Tattersalls,
“Horses
William Haggas Trainer
Filly x Dubai Rose purchased for €800,000 by Al Shira’aa Racing at Arqana, consigned by Ecurie des Monceaux
Stands at Beech House Stud, UK To book a nomination or arrange a viewing contact Will Wright: +44 (0)7787 422901 | nominations@shadwellstud.co.uk View our stallion roster: www.shadwellstud.com