Feb_126_TBA-BreederOfTheMonth_Owner 21/01/2015 17:53 Page 80
BREEDER OF THE MONTH
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BREEDER OF THE MONTH – December 2014
Bryan & Sandra Mayoh, Eskdale Stud
EMMA BERRY
On the Saturday after Christmas, Irish-based trainer Henry de Bromhead celebrated a splendid winning double with two Britishbreds, Sizing John (by Midnight Legend) in the Grade 1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown, and Special Tiara (by Kayf Tara) in the Grade 2 Desert Orchid Chase at Kempton. Sizing John provided one half of another notable double in December as Bryan and Sandra Mayoh bred not only him but also Lifeboat Mona, and this daughter of Kayf Tara won the inaugural running of the mares’ Listed bumper at Huntingdon named after that course’s staunch supporter Henrietta Knight. This was a poignant occasion for Bryan Mayoh, a TBA board member, who explained: “I have long been an advocate for an improved race programme for National Hunt mares and wrote several papers arguing the case. So it was a pleasant irony that we should breed the winner of one of only two such races recently introduced by the BHA.” One of his colleagues on the TBA’s National Hunt Committee is Peter Hockenhull of Shade Oak Stud. Having moved from Yorkshire to Shropshire, Mayoh now lives at Upton Magna, outside Shrewsbury, and he has transferred three broodmares to Shade Oak, which is only about 15 miles from his new home. Rather incongruously this arrangement brings together two rather well qualified individuals who share a scientific bent. Dr Mayoh, a company director who has spent most of his working life in retailing, holds a doctorate in chemistry from Oxford University, while Hockenhull graduated from Newcastle University with an honours degree in agricultural engineering. As exact contemporaries, both Sizing John and Lifeboat Mona were sold as foals by Tattersalls Ireland in November 2010. “Sizing John realised €16,000,” Mayoh recalled. “But Lifeboat Mona fetched only €600 the next day. Although she was a most attractive foal, nobody wanted a filly and nobody came to see her.” Lifeboat Mona is the last of Astar Love’s only three progeny and her solitary winner. “Mona’s foaling caused irreparable damage to her uterus so her breeding career was short-lived,” explained Mayoh. “However, Sizing John’s dam, another French-bred, has had a more rewarding innings
La Perrotine, dam of Sizing John, at last year’s TBA Foal Show
during her career as a broodmare. She won a bumper and three hurdle races before her racing career was terminated through injury. “I bought her privately in the bar at the Doncaster November Sales of 2006 from her trainer Howard Johnson,” said Mayoh. The price was rather less than the 54,000gns which the County Durham trainer paid Robert Chugg at Doncaster in May 2003 after she had won her class at the pre-sales show. After Sizing John, La Perrotine, who is named after an island creek off the coast of Brittany, produced three younger siblings. All retained, they are the fillies Batoutahell, a three-year-old by Kayf Tara and Deadringerforlove; a yearling by Black Sam Bellamy; and an unnamed two-year-old gelding by Schiaparelli. La Perrtoine is carrying once more to Shade Oak’s Black Sam Bellamy. Mayoh’s other two mares at Shade Oak Stud are Sizing John’s halfsister La Doelenaise (by King’s Theatre), and Sierra. They were covered last season by Lucarno and Fame And Glory respectively. La Doelenaise is owned in half shares with Hockenhull. A half-sister to Sillery, and a winner in her native France, Sierra was acquired as an in-foal mare at Tattersalls’ 2007 December Sale. Mayoh added: “It’s another irony, as Sierra is an Anabaa mare we bought from Alec Head and we mated her with Motivator with little success. Alec Head repeated exactly the same cross and came up with Treve!”
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