Dec_88_TBA_Forum_Layout 1 17/11/2011 14:28 Page 92
BREEDER OF THE MONTH/SPECIAL MERIT Sponsored by Blue Chip Feed Ltd
Words Alan Yuill Walker
OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2011
Sheikh Abdulla Bin Isa Al-Khalifa
GEORGE SELWYN
Back in the mists of time, John Warren bought the Cheshire and Lancashire Oaks winner One Over Parr as an ageing broodmare and this cleverly named own-sister to 1974 Oaks winner Polygamy now features as the fourth dam of Racing Post Trophy hero Camelot. “This is a fascinating example of the extraordinary continuity that can occur in bloodstock breeding,” said Warren. “We named Camelot’s third dam Fade as she proved to have a fading heart. Having failed the vet as a yearling she at one time became a permanent resident with Twink Allen at the Equine Fertility Unit so that students could become familiar with a chronic heart condition.” Despite being born with “a nasty hind leg”, Camelot’s grandam Fickle became a Listed winner for John and Carolyn Warren, while her daughter Tarfah won a Group 3 for Camelot’s breeder Sheikh Abdulla Bin Isa Al-Khalifa from Bahrain, who wins six sacks of Blue Chip Pro, to help prepare youngstock for the sales, and some Blue Chip clothing. “He keeps four mares at Highclere and he has been a close friend and client for about 20 years,” Warren continued. “It was certainly an act of faith to send Fickle to Kingmambo in the USA, the mating that produced Tarfah. At the time Kingmambo’s fee was probably $100,000.” Camelot: easy winner of the Group 1 Racing Post Trophy
At present, Tarfah has a yearling filly by Cape Cross, who is being retained, and is back in foal to Camelot’s sire Montjeu. This year she produced a colt by Pivotal but sadly he died. Meanwhile the Warrens, who retained Fade until she died in the summer of 2004, have two of Fickle’s half-sisters as broodmares, Eve and Birdie. This female family has certainly made a handsome contribution to Highclere’s top ranking at Tattersalls’ October Yearling Sale Book 1. Camelot himself realised 525,000gns. In 2009 his half-sister Ideal sold for 240,000gns and in 2004 the Warrens obtained 360,000gns for Camelot’s close relative Extreme Measures (Montjeu – Fade).
3HUIHFW IRU VDOHV SUHSDUDWLRQ
SPECIAL MERIT: OCTOBER 2011
Marie Matthews The proud owner/breeder of Tangerine Trees, recent winner of the Prix de l’Abbaye de Longchamp, is Marie Matthews, from South Cave in East Yorkshire. A quarter-share in the horse belongs to her good friend Patricia Barrell, a retired nurse, and they race as the Tangerine Trees Partnership. Back in April, Tangerine Trees, whose name comes from a line in The Beatles’ ‘Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds’, had won the Palace House Stakes, the race immediately after Frankel’s 2,000 Guineas victory, on his Group race debut. This he followed with victory in the Listed Beverley Bullet Sprint Stakes. “A great thrill at my local course,” said Matthews. At Newmarket, trainer Bryan Smart predicted that the son of Mind Games could well go to the top of the sprinting tree, notwithstanding the fact that up until then the six-year-old gelding had excelled at Hamilton Park, where he had a race named after him the very next day. Smart had already won the Palace House Stakes with Captain Gerrard in 2008 and Mind Games himself won the same event for another
3URPRWHV 0XVFOH WRQH (YHQ JURZWK UDWHV *ORVV\ FRDW 6WURQJ %RQHV +HDOWK\ KRRYHV
_ LQIR#EOXHFKLSIHHG FRP _ ZZZ EOXHFKLSIHHG FRP
92
THOROUGHBRED OWNER & BREEDER INC PACEMAKER