Aug_132_BreederOfTheMonth_Owner 23/07/2015 11:38 Page 94
BREEDER OF THE MONTH
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BREEDER OF THE MONTH – June 2015
Footstepsinthesand (2005 2,000 Guineas) – she is also the third dam of recent Ribblesdale Stakes heroine Curvy. It was at Goodwood that Anthony’s then father-in-law, John Walker of Sullington Stud in West Sussex, bred the 1977 Goodwood Cup winner Grey Baron. Subsequently his daughter Penny married Fred Barker, the former owner of King Edward’s Place Stud and Master of the Quorn. Anthony used to live at Burghclere, where the Lloyd-Webbers founded Watership Down Stud, and a Hascombe cull features as the grandam of The Fugue. Of course the latest star mare to be sold from Hascombe is Golden Horn’s own dam Fleche d’Or, who realised 62,000gns in 2012. Following the death of his father in 1995, Anthony, a former Chairman of the TBA, switched the emphasis from breeding to race to a commercial yearling operation, but it was his good fortune to retain Golden Horn when the Cape Cross colt was unsold at 190,000gns. Anthony Oppenheimer is never one to overlook the contribution made by his staff. For many years his manager was Walter Cowe from Berwickshire. Remarkably, two of Walter’s brothers were also managers associated with Derby winners; the eldest Jim at Juddmonte Farms (Quest For Fame, Commander-In-Chief and Workforce) and Bill at Deerfield Farm (Motivator).
Hascombe & Valiant Studs Although Golden Horn’s fourth dam Lora was purchased by the Oppenheimers’ Hascombe & Valiant Studs as a yearling from Marston Stud for 28,000gns at Tattersalls in 1973, his direct distaff relations at Hascombe predate that acquisition. Back in November 1965, Anthony’s father, Sir Philip, bought Hascombe Stud on the outskirts of Newmarket from the late Sir Adrian Jarvis. His foundation mare Sun Princess (the seventh dam of Golden Horn) was acquired privately as a yearling from the Aga Khan in 1938. The Jarvis family and Anthony Oppenheimer’s parents used to live in Surrey, the former at Hascombe Court, near Godalming (hence the name of their stud: Valiant is an amalgam of Anthony and his sister Valerie), and the latter at Park Place, Englefield Green. In July 1982, Philip Oppenheimer recorded a memorable homebred double at Goodwood, that season’s 1,000 Guineas heroine On The House winning the Sussex Stakes and Dancing Rocks defeating the Oaks heroine Time Charter in the Nassau Stakes. Ironically, Golden Horn descends from an undistinguished half-sister to On The House, while Dancing Rocks is the grandam of
SPECIAL MERIT – June 2015
Minster Stud
EMMA BERRY
In the summer of 2013 there was a West Regional meeting in the Cotswolds hosted by neighbouring friends Willie Carson of Minster Stud and Chris Wright of Stratford Place Stud. That very season their Chriselliam was rated the leading British-trained juvenile filly following victory at the Breeders’ Cup, but sadly this 40,000gns yearling purchase had to be put down the following February due to an infected off-hind foot. However, unbeknown to Willie and his wife Elaine, their 2012 batch of foals included a saviour in the shape of a colt by Halling out of an American-bred mare Swain’s Gold, who realised 60,000gns at Tattersalls’ October Sale, one of three yearlings they consigned to Book 2. Triumphant in the Irish Derby as Jack Hobbs, the Curragh Classic was a highly satisfactory result as the first three home finished in exactly the same order as when placed behind Jack Hobbs’s stable companion Golden Horn at Epsom. Memorably, Scotsman Willie Carson is the only man to ride an English Classic winner who he bred himself – Minster Son in the 1988 St Leger. It may not have escaped his notice that Walter Buick (father of Jack Hobbs’s jockey William) is a native of Arbroath, on Scotland’s east coast.
English and Irish Derby winners Golden Horn and Jack Hobbs
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AUSTRALIA Winner of the 2014 Epsom Derby & Irish Derby and the International Stakes at York. Bred by Stanley House Stud, UK. RAISED ON CALPHORMIN
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