Thoroughbred Owner Breeder

THE £6.95 APRIL 2022 ISSUE 212

Heart and foal

Andrew Black talks community, care and karma at Chasemore Farm

PLUS

George Boughey

Trainer’s big hopes for 2022

British EBF

New race series launched

Ted Durcan

Riding high away from the track

www.theownerbreeder.com

Next in line ALL EYES ON THE FUTURE

To Stud

2004

Oasis Dream Gr.1 sire and Leading First Season Sire

To Stud

2013

Frankel Champion Sire and Leading First Season Sire

To Stud

2013

Bated Breath Gr.1 sire

To Stud

2015

Kingman Gr.1 sire and Leading First Season Sire

To Stud

2019

Expert Eye 2015 Acclamation - Exemplify (Dansili)

First runners in 2022 2022 Fee £10,000 1st Oct, Special Live Foal

Contact Shane Horan, Henry Bletsoe or Claire Curry +44 (0)1638 731115 | nominations@juddmonte.co.uk

www.juddmonte.com

Welcome Editor: Edward Rosenthal Bloodstock Editor: Nancy Sexton Design/production: Thoroughbred Group Editorial: 12 Forbury Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 1SB editor@ownerbreeder.co.uk www.theownerbreeder.com Twitter: @TheOwnerBreeder Instagram: theownerbreeder Advertising: Giles Anderson UK: 01380 816777 IRE: 041 971 2000 USA: 1 888 218 4430 advertise@anderson-co.com Subscriptions: Keely Brewer subscriptions@ownerbreeder.co.uk 01183 385 686 The Owner Breeder can be purchased by non-members at the following rates: UK Europe RoW

1 Year £60 £90 £120

2 Year £100 £150 £195

The Owner Breeder is published by a Mutual Trading Company owned jointly by the Racehorse Owners Association and Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association The Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association is a registered charity No. 1134293 Editorial views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the ROA or TBA Our monthly average readership is 20,000 Racehorse Owners Association Ltd 12 Forbury Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 1SB Tel: 01183 385680 info@roa.co.uk • www.roa.co.uk

THE

Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association Stanstead House, The Avenue, Newmarket CB8 9AA Tel: 01638 661 321 • Fax: 01638 665621 info@thetba.co.uk • www.thetba.co.uk

£6.95 APRIL 2022 ISSUE 212

Heart and foal

Andrew Black talks community, care and karma at Chasemore Farm

PLUS

George Boughey

Trainer’s big hopes for 2022

British EBF

New race series launched

Ted Durcan

Riding high away from the track

www.theownerbreeder.com

Cover: Andrew Black with a filly foal by Lope De Vega out of his Group 3 winner Boomer at Chasemore Farm in Cobham, Surrey Photo: Bill Selwyn

Edward Rosenthal Editor

Black puts peacefulness before profits at Chasemore I

first visited Andrew Black at his Chasemore Farm in October 2008. At that point there wasn’t a single horse on the 330-acre property in Surrey, just some dogs, including an over-friendly Newfoundland – nicknamed Slobby Robbie – who took great delight in drooling over a pair of my best suit trousers.

Such is life.

At that point, Black, best known as the man who had introduced punters to the world of exchange betting through Betfair, had decided to concentrate his breeding efforts on the farm and was looking forward to welcoming his first broodmares the following year.

“I’m thinking of having around 40 broodmares here, plus yearlings and foals,” Black explained. “I would think that some of what I produce here would go to the sales, and the ones I keep would go to my trainers.

“I’m now in a period of discovery and for my long-term racing business to be sustainable it has to be profit-making. I’m looking to build something that will be around for a very long time.

“My wife Jane used to be a lawyer. I think she is slowly becoming interested in racing and breeding.”

Fast forward 14-odd years and true to his word, the current number of broodmares at Chasemore Farm is hovering around 40, including boarders for outside breeders. The set policy is for most of the colts to go to auction, with the fillies retained to race ahead of a return to the paddocks. A profit, albeit a relatively modest one according to Black, is being recorded by the operation.

Not only that, but Jane is now a vital part of the management team, having taken on additional responsibilities following a period of restructuring in 2018 (see feature pages 36-41).

Four out of four ain’t bad – but then again Black’s best subject at school was always maths, inspired by a mathematician father and an entrepreneurial grandfather, the Conservative MP Sir Cyril Black, who

incidentally was a vociferous opponent of the 1960 Betting and Gaming Act, which liberalised gambling laws and led to the legalisation of betting shops.

Back to [Andrew] Black, who has applied his mathematical brain to the matter of pedigrees and breeding with the aim of producing high-class horses, something he has achieved on a consistent basis with a number of Group-race performers and Royal Ascot winners, while also achieving impressive results in the sale ring.

One fascinating aspect of the Chasemore Farm set-up is the focus on community and providing a welcoming and pleasant atmosphere for employees. In an industry which has endured a staffing crisis in recent years, perhaps more operations could take a leaf out of the Chasemore book.

“He has applied his mathematical brain to pedigrees and breeding” George Boughey isn’t on the Chasemore roster of trainers at present, but the master of Saffron House Stables is certainly making a name for himself and has attracted an impressive list of prominent owner-breeders to his Newmarket yard.

James Thomas visited Boughey to find out about his approach to training and hopes for the year ahead, which include a possible Classic contender in the shape of Highclere Thoroughbred Racing’s Cachet, last seen finishing a close fourth behind Pizza Bianca in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf at Del Mar in November (The Big Interview, pages 30-33).

THE OWNER BREEDER

1

Contents

April 2022

18

News & Views ROA Leader Affordability checks spell danger

7

TBA Leader US rescinds rule on coverings

9

News Death of Sir Robert Ogden

11

Changes News in a nutshell

14

Howard Wright Sponsorship conundrum for courses

28

Features The Big Picture Cheltenham Festival action

18

The Big Interview With trainer George Boughey

30

Chasemore Farm Andrew Black's Surrey operation

36

British EBF 2yo Series Lucrative bonus initiative launched

2

THE OWNER BREEDER

42

››

72

visit studlife online: tweenhills.com/studlife

April 2022

An eye for success

KAMEKO FOALS ON SHOW We welcomed many breeders to Tweenhills each morning of the Cheltenham Festival to see our Gr.1-winning stallions Kameko, Zoustar, Havana Gold and Lightning Spear.

Zoustar shows for breeders

STAFF PROFILE Marie O’Brien Foaling Manager

Background…

I was born and raised in Tipperary and my great grandfather used to train National Hunt horses, but I only really got into horses at 17 when looking for a new hobby. I started grooming showjumpers and eventers then got a night job at Ballylinch Stud, where I stayed for four seasons. I then went to New Zealand and returned to Coolmore Ireland before a couple of working trips to Australia. I started at Tweenhills in 2022.

Best part of the job…

I particularly love foaling the maiden mares – when they nicker their foal for the first time it pulls on your heartstrings. It’s great to work with such high-class mares too; I was lucky enough to foal down Zoustar’s dam Zouzou at Coolmore and Just The Judge’s dam Faraday Light at Ballylinch.

I also foaled Lone Eagle, narrow runnerup in last year’s Irish Derby.

Hobbies…

I do enjoy podcasts such as James Smith ‘s ‘Fair Points Podcast’ which is really funny but serious at the same time, and I listen to all sorts of music – I currently have Apricots by Bicep on loop. I will hack my horse when she arrives – she’s named Nina after Nina Carberry, who won the Cross-Country Chase at Cheltenham when I bought her in 2007.

Also on parade and impressing were some of Kameko’s stunning bunch of first foals, including this daughter of dual Stakes winner and Stakes producer Ripples Maid (pictured with Alicia).

READY EDDY, GO! What a day our own Alice Thurtle had on the Tuesday of the Cheltenham Festival when her beloved Edwardstone was an easy winner of the Gr.1 Arkle Novices’ Chase.

Bred and owned by Alice’s parents and godparents and named after the village where he was born, Edwardstone is out of one of just two mares owned by the Thurtles and Abreys.

How it started

“We are still on Cloud 9 and it’s going to take a long time to sink in! It’s beyond our wildest dreams to even have a runner at the Festival let alone a winner and we can’t thank Alan King and his team enough.”

Alice Thurtle Tweenhills Nominations and Marketing LAST ISSUE OF STUDLIFE IN THIS FORMAT

WIN GUINEAS TRIP WITH OUR NEW E-NEWSLETTER This will be our last issue of Studlife in hard copy as we will be switching to a brandnew e-newsletter – make sure you sign up to our mailing list by using this QR code. It will give you entry into our draw to win two tickets to the QIPCO 2000 Guineas and lunch at Newmarket on Saturday April 30!

How it’s going

TOP TIPSTER Bullseye! Yearling Manager Scott Marshall blew the competition out of the water when finding 50/1 winner Commander of Fleet in the Tweenhills Cheltenham Festival Tipping Competition.

Here he is taking a winning selfie with (from left to right) Gold Cup and Champion Hurdle-winning jockey Graham McCourt, Tweenhills’ Kath Pennels and Karen Holmes, and Graham’s wife Annabel.

DONT MISS OUT! - JOIN OUR MAILING LIST

Tweenhills, Hartpury, Gloucestershire, GL19 3BG W: www.tweenhills.com T: + 44 (0) 1452 700177 M: + 44 (0) 7767 436373 E: davidredvers@tweenhills.com

Contents 36

››

Features continued Breeders' Digest Inspirational Dulcie West

Sales Circuit Four-year-old point-to-pointers popular

Caulfield Files Celebrating Ribot and Sea Bird

Dr Statz Fascinating foaling dates data

The Finish Line With Ted Durcan

47 48 52 54 72

Forum ROA Forum Making Tax Digital made easy

TBA Forum British-breds excel worldwide

Great British Bonus Latest news

Breeder of the Month Marietta Fox-Pitt for Snow Leopardess

Vet Forum Subchondral bone issues in focus

4

THE OWNER BREEDER

30

56 62 67 68 70

Did you know?

Our monthly average readership is

20,000

C R AV E N B R E E Z E U P

CHAMPION

2YO NATIVE TRAIL Unbeaten European Champion 2YO, Dewhurst Stakes, Gr. 1, National Stakes, Gr. 1, etc. purchased at Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale

CRAVEN BREEZE UP SALE April 11 - 13

featuring the £250,000 Craven Royal Ascot/Group 1 Bonus and the £15,000 Craven Breeze Up Bonus

+44 (0) 1638 665931 sales@tattersalls.com

ROA_PrintAds_Support_2.pdf

2

18/04/2020

10:17

At the ROA we work tirelessly to support, protect and promote the interests of racehorse owners everywhere. We collaborate across the industry to make sure that owners’ voices are heard within racing – making it a more open, enjoyable and rewarding sport for everyone.

SUPPORTING YOUR OWNERSHIP JOURNEY AT EVERY STEP. DISCOVER HOW - ROA.CO.UK

C

M

Y

CM

MY

CY

CMY

K

SUPPORT AT EVERY STEP

ROA Leader

Charlie Parker President

Review must not gamble with racing’s future

I

t was great to see the crowds and atmosphere return to the Cheltenham Festival following last year’s scenes of deserted and desolate stands. This year saw record numbers through the turnstiles, with 375,000 spectators welcomed over the four days. It has been estimated that somewhere in the region of £500 million was wagered in the UK alone over the four days of racing.

Hopefully the Festival served as a timely reminder to those sitting 100 miles away in Westminster to avoid jeopardising our much-loved sport through careful consideration of what will be included in the forthcoming Gambling Act Review. There are so many positives to be derived from horseracing and on a most basic level it is an opportunity for people from all walks of life to come together for a great day out, allowing a small interest in the action through a wager if desired.

It is thought that the Gambling Act Review plans to respect individuals’ right to gambling as a leisure activity while also better protecting those at risk of gambling harm by introducing affordability checks. The big question here is what stringent checks regarding how much customers can afford to gamble will look like – and how in practical terms will this be implemented. It is predicted that advertising and sponsorship will also be reviewed to further protect vulnerable customers.

The Gambling Act Review could have a hefty impact on the racing industry and Treasury alike. The implementation of blanket affordability checks could result in annual revenue losses of £100m or more. Overnight the racing industry could be catastrophically damaged, translating into job losses and threatening the fabric of the rural economy. The impact to the Treasury’s coffers would be even more significant, as this could endanger the gambling industry’s current contribution of close to £3 billion each fiscal year.

It is also worth considering whether adopting these measures will achieve its aim of protecting the financially vulnerable – or simply drive gambling into unregulated black markets. This is a real issue that must be taken seriously. A scan of recently commissioned pan-European research into black market gambling shows that countries such as Norway and Italy – where stricter regulation is in place – have seen an increase in illegal online wagering, a trend which we cannot ignore.

Back to Cheltenham and it was a welcome sight to see plenty of British-trained runners in the winner’s enclosure, preventing a repeat of the Irish rout of 2021. It was particularly enjoyable to see winners trained in Scotland, Wales and England, roared home with success for sole owners, syndicates and owner-breeders. Truly diverse, and a much-needed boost for British racing. This year’s meeting will be remembered as a year for record breakers. Willie Mullins, with ten winners in total,

took home a haul of more than a third of all the trophies on offer; no trainer had ever won more than eight races at a single meeting in the history of Cheltenham. Mullins’ five winners on the final day took his total tally of winners to 88 and put him top of the leading trainer standings for the ninth time.

Rachael Blackmore continued to break records and garner some well-deserved national headlines, with British-bred Honeysuckle defending her Champion Hurdle title, becoming the first mare to win successive renewals. The jockey then made more history by partnering A Plus Tard to success in the Gold Cup, the first ever triumph for a female rider, a story that was picked up by all the major media outlets.

“Implementing blanket affordability checks could result in annual revenue losses of £100 million” Earlier this month, Annamarie Phelps revealed she would not be seeking a second term as Chair of the BHA. Her successor is Joe Saumarez Smith, currently an independent NonExecutive Director at the BHA, who will take on the position of Chair from June until September next year. His pedigree and form speak for themselves. He has been Chair of British racing’s Cross Industry Gambling Strategy Group, which has been concentrating on levy development and of course the aforementioned Gambling Act Review. Joe joined the BHA board in 2014 and is CEO of Sports Gaming Limited, a Londonbased management consultancy to the gaming industry, and Chairman of technology supplier Bede Gaming.

Our sport faces many headwinds and we will all need to help Joe and the BHA in coordinating racing’s efforts, particularly on the imminent white paper and the levy structure as a whole.

THE OWNER BREEDER

7

SEPTEMBER YEARLING SALE 20 - 21 SEPTEMBER 2022 | PART II 22 SEPTEMBER 2022

TOP OF THE 2016

2017

2018

PSRA Licence Number 001971

€150k €230k €275k

LOTS 2020

2021

£325k £200k

“This sale is progressive, there’s a lot of buyers here”

“It’s been a lucky sale for me, the sale has increased year on year”

Violet Hesketh,WH Bloodstock

Brendan Holland, Grove Stud

ENTER NOW

T: +353 1 8864300

TBA Leader

Julian Richmond-Watson Chairman

Sires limited by nature only after US ruling T

he recent decision by the United States Jockey Club to rescind its rule limiting the number of broodmares that can be served by each individual stallion in the American Stud Book is extremely important. It has far-reaching consequences for all thoroughbred breeding nations and their own Stud Books.

The original proposal by the US Jockey Club, adopted in May 2020, introduced a cap of 140 mares that could be bred to a stallion per calendar year for foals of 2020 and thereafter.

The authority, which pointed out that the percentage of mares bred in the US to stallions with books of 140 or more grew from 9.5 per cent in 2007 to 27 per cent 12 years later, said the purpose was to “preserve the health of the thoroughbred breed for the long term.”

Not surprisingly, the ruling failed to gain universal approval, and three of the biggest studs in Kentucky – Coolmore’s Ashford Stud, Spendthrift Farm and Three Chimneys Farm – mounted a legal challenge, claiming that the stallion cap had been adopted “to serve the interests of a discreet group of participants in the thoroughbred industry.” Interestingly, these three studs collectively stood 16 stallions who each served more than 140 mares in 2020.

With the state legislature on the studs’ side, it was clear that the Jockey Club’s decision was going to be overruled by the Kentucky House of Representatives, and discretion became the better part of valour.

Presumably, the new rule was carefully debated by the US Jockey Club, which must have believed there was sound legal reasoning behind its introduction. The obvious restraint of trade issues would have been discussed and tested, and arguments about diversity and the health of the breed must have been considered as overwhelmingly in support of such a rule. The fact that the ruling was swept away by the threat of legislation, which never even came to court, demonstrates how difficult any similar proposal would be to introduce in another jurisdiction.

US Jockey Club stewards were clearly uncomfortable with the way in which scientific and veterinary advances had progressed, allowing a much larger number of mares to be bred to one stallion than had been the case in the past. This new normal clearly divides opinion on the risk of inbreeding and the diminution of the genetic pool of the thoroughbred, but now that the US stallion cap has been abandoned, there can be little chance of restrictions being introduced anywhere else in the thoroughbred world.

Through the International Stud Book Committee (ISBC), which is recognised worldwide, and back-up from the

International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA), there are very clear rulings about natural breeding methods, sitting alongside the definition of a thoroughbred as being the produce of a physical mating between a stallion and a mare. This means there is a physical limit, albeit considerably increased by veterinary scientific advances, on the number of mares a stallion can breed to in the covering seasons in each hemisphere.

This naturally leads on to the argument about artificial insemination, where without some form of limitation – which at the moment is the physical one – there would be potential for thousands of mares to be impregnated by one stallion, with much more far-reaching consequences for the genetic

“There is little chance of restrictions being introduced anywhere in the thoroughbred world” diversity of the breed. The defence of natural breeding provided through the ISBC and the IFHS has remained robust and worldwide, and anything that risked compromising that regulation would have to be thought through very carefully.

While there may well be important practical reasons why artificial insemination should be considered, the fact that the largest thoroughbred breeding nation in the world cannot find a way to limit the number of mares bred to a stallion makes the chance of coming to a consensus on how artificial insemination would work in practice difficult to imagine.

With the environment in which the industry operates continuing to change significantly, a better understanding of the recent developments in these practices is required, alongside robust arguments in place to defend current practice from challenge by those both internal and external to the sport.

THE OWNER BREEDER

9

www.bbag-sales.de

Torquator Tasso Winner Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Gr.1 Gr.1 winner as 3 and 4yo

Another Arc winner sold at BBAG sales Spring Breeze Up Sale: 27th May 2022 Entries close: Friday, 22nd April

Premier Yearling Sale: 2nd September 2022 Entries close: Friday, 15th April

October Mixed Sales: 14th and 15th October 2022 Entries close: Monday, 5th September

News

Stories from the racing world

Sir Robert Ogden, leading owner and businessman, dies aged 86

GEORGE SELWYN

S

Sir Robert Ogden enjoyed top-level victories under both codes

the 2008 Lexus Chase under AP McCoy. In January 2000, Sir Robert bought a share in the Cheltenham Gold Cup winner See More Business, owned jointly with Paul Barber and trained by Paul Nicholls.

Nicky Henderson, who trained Sir Robert’s first Cheltenham Festival winner, Marlborough, in the 2000 National Hunt Chase, said: “We had some wonderful times and they were lovely horses. I used to go and stay up at Sickling Hall for York or to go and see the horses out in the fields. He lived a very, very full life.

“The horses and the racing were his passion and we were very lucky to be involved. I know he went Flat racing in the end, but I think he was a National Hunt man through and through – he loved his jumping.”

GEORGE SELWYN

ir Robert Ogden, whose famous mauve and pink checked silks were carried to many big-race successes on the Flat and over jumps, died last month aged 86.

The Yorkshireman, who made his fortune in the quarrying and mining business before moving into property development, focused on the National Hunt scene initially, having been encouraged to become involved in ownership by his friend and neighbour Jack Hanson.

Fadalko, winner of the Melling Chase, Tote Gold Trophy winner Marlborough and talented chaser Kingsmark all shone for Sir Robert in the late 1990s/early 2000s, a period when he was champion jumps owner on three occasions.

Sir Robert’s first major winner had arrived many years earlier, when Winter Melody won the 1978 Imperial Cup, though under Hanson’s name, but his first Pattern-race success did not come until 1993, when Frickley took the Rossington Main Novices’ Hurdle.

The owner enjoyed plenty of magical moments at the Cheltenham Festival – Star De Mohaison landed the Royal & Sun Alliance Chase in 2006, top-class two-mile chaser Voy Por Ustedes captured the Queen Mother Champion Chase in 2007, also taking the Melling Chase at Aintree in 2008 and 2009 among five Grade 1 wins in total, while the fabulously consistent Exotic Dancer was placed behind Kauto Star in both the 2007 and 2009 Cheltenham Gold Cups, having made his Grade 1 breakthrough in

Homebred Amazing Maria carried her owner’s silks to success in two Group 1 contests

While he had enjoyed his fair share of Flat winners during his high-flying days over jumps – La Chunga and Sander Camillo were both Pattern-race winners in 2006 while Sans Frontieres claimed the 2010 Irish St Leger – Sir Robert decided to concentrate on the summer game and sold his jumps horses in 2012.

Like La Chunga and Sander Camillo, Thomas Chippendale was a Royal Ascot victor in 2012 (King Edward VII Stakes) and 2013 (Hardwicke Stakes), while his best Flat runner was homebred filly Amazing Maria, a dual Group 1 winner in 2015 in the Falmouth Stakes and Prix Rothschild.

Sir Robert, the eldest of six children, was renowned for his donations to charities, including cancer research, and was awarded his knighthood in 2001.

Perhaps the greatest indication of Sir Robert’s character is evidenced by the care he provided for his former racehorses in retirement. Squire Silk, his first Grade 1 winner over jumps, passed away in August last year at the grand old age of 32, having lived at Sir Robert’s Sicklinghall Stud since he finished his racing career in 1999.

His colleagues in retirement included his owner’s former high-class performers Kingsmark, Ad Hoc, Calling Brave, Iris Royal, The Market Man, Star De Mohaison and Voy Por Ustedes.

Sir Robert is survived by his second wife Lady Ana and sons Adam and Robert from his first marriage.

THE OWNER BREEDER

11

News

The future is hopefully bright but it is not orange, with a meeting at Stratford last month marking the start of a new era over jumps in Britain.

For it was the first time that markings on obstacles were white, rather than orange, the change coming as part of a welfare-driven project to develop new ways to help make hurdle and fence design safer.

The transformation, to be phased in over a period of ten months, will see an estimated 368 fences and 2,132 hurdle panels across 40 racecourses change markings to white.

The project, being delivered by the Horse Welfare Board as part of the ‘Life Well Lived’ strategy, follows research carried out by Exeter University into equine vision, commissioned by the British Horseracing Authority and backed by The Racing Foundation.

As horses have reduced ‘dichromatic’ colour vision compared to humans, they see mainly hues we would perceive as blue and yellow, and are unable to tell apart shades of red, green and orange.

Runners jump a hurdle with the new white markings at Stratford

veterinary research to constantly improve racehorse welfare.

“Looking through the eyes of the horse to understand how they perceive their world, and making changes because of this new knowledge, shows how racing is continuously striving to increase the safety of all participants in our sport, both human and equine.”

The faller rate in British racing has reduced by a third over the last 20 years as a result of ongoing investment in racecourse safety, and constant enhancements in racehorse and training standards.

The study found that changing the wood and vinyl padding of take-off boards, guard rails and top boards to white provided increased contrast and visibility, leading to improved jumping performance.

Nine courses will make the change during the first six months of the rollout, from last month to August, with all jumps tracks to make the switch by December. Point-to-point courses will follow for the 2022/23 season.

Barry Johnson, Chair of the Horse Welfare Board, said: “This important project is an example of how British racing uses advanced scientific and

Andy Turnell, the stylish former jockey who rode the great Birds Nest and who went on to win the Grand National as a trainer with Maori Venture, has died aged 73.

Turnell, who gave up his licence at the end of 2015 after suffering a stroke, was based at Broad Hinton in Wiltshire towards the end of his successful training career, which, as well as delivering Grand National glory in 1987, yielded Grade 1 triumphs with Katabatic (1991 Champion Chase and 1992 Castleford Chase) and Squire Silk (1997 Maghull Novices’ Chase).

The last-named triumph, of course, associates him with another big name lost to racing in March, his owner Sir Robert Ogden.

As a jockey, Turnell was best remembered for his association with Birds Nest, widely regarded as the best hurdler never to win the Champion Hurdle.

The pair won the Bula Hurdle three times, the Fighting Fifth Hurdle twice, the Scottish Champion Hurdle twice,

12

THE OWNER BREEDER

GEORGE SELWYN

Remembering top jockey and trainer Andy Turnell

Andy Turnell: outstanding horseman

and the Christmas Hurdle, and were placed in the Champion Hurdle twice, but had the misfortune of being around in the golden age of hurdlers, coming up against Sea Pigeon, Monksfield and Night Nurse.

Turnell also won the Christmas Hurdle on Tree Tangle, along with the Black & White Whisky Gold Cup and Mecca Bookmakers’ (Tingle Creek) Chase, considering him the best he rode among 482 winners over jumps,

delivered by riding with his stirrups much shorter than most and sitting tall in the saddle.

Turnell’s training career was at its height in the 1990s, though one of his proudest moments came in 2002, when he saddled Jelani to be fourth at 100-1 behind High Chaparral in the Derby.

Maori Venture, for Jim Joel, at Aintree was his most famous winner, while at the Cheltenham Festival he won the 1984 National Hunt Handicap Chase with Tracys Special, the 1990 Grand Annual with Katabatic and 1996 Mildmay of Flete with Old Bridge, in addition to Katabatic’s Champion Chase success. He also won the 1993 Hennessy with Cogent.

Luke Harvey, who rode for Turnell, said: “I don’t think I have admired anyone more as a horseman. He trained on instinct. He didn’t do things in a conventional way, but his results speak for themselves, winning Grand Nationals, Champion Chases and numerous races at the Cheltenham Festival.”

STEVE DAVIES

Welfare project sees colour change over jumps

were numerous talented two-yearolds during that time as well, notably Magic Ring and Dilum, who between them landed Royal Ascot’s Norfolk and Coventry Stakes of 1991. Dilum, in particular, showcased Penfold’s strengths and ability to think outside the box as the only European runner of note by the moderate American sire Tasso.

All the while, Salman’s Newgate Stud Company was gaining momentum as a breeder and by the end of the decade could boast alumni

GEORGE SELWYN

Tributes have been paid to Anthony Penfold, an influential and popular industry figure who died last month following a long illness at the age of 74.

A man of charm with a gifted eye for a horse and a flair for understanding pedigrees, Penfold is best remembered as a driving force behind the success of Prince Fahd Salman. However, he was also a successful breeder in his own right, as was in evidence again only last year through the Group 2-winning twoyear-old Velocidad.

Penfold was educated at Seaford College, not far from Lavington Stud in West Sussex, and in 1972 formed Goodwood Bloodstock with former jump jockey John Woodman. He began working for Prince Fahd Salman in 1983 and by 1985 had been employed on a full-time basis.

Thus began an exceptionally fruitful association that would come to yield eight Classic winners in those famous dark green colours as well as 90 Group/Graded stakes winners.

The bulk of the European string were trained by Paul Cole at Whatcombe while Neil Drysdale handled many of the horses that were sent to race in the US. There was almost immediate success.

Nomination, a 180,000gns yearling purchase out of Tattersalls, and Nomrood, bought for $275,000 in the US, were two of the better two-yearolds of 1985, winning the Richmond Stakes and running second in the William Hill Futurity respectively.

Another good Cole-trained horse of that era, Broken Hearted, won the 1986 Lockinge Stakes before a first Group 1 arrived the following summer when Bint Pasha landed the 1987 Yorkshire Oaks.

The horse for which Salman and Penfold were most readily associated with, however, is Generous. Bought for Ir200,000gns at Goffs in 1989, the flashy son of Caerleon sprang a 50-1 shock in the 1990 Dewhurst Stakes and went on to carry all before him at three when sweeping the Derby, Irish Derby and King George.

Generous was the highlight of an array of middle-distance stars that paid tribute to Penfold’s eye, as were the likes of 1990 Irish Oaks heroine Knight’s Baroness and 1992 Prix d’Ispahan winner Zoman. Yet there

GEORGE SELWYN

Death of leading bloodstock agent Anthony Penfold

Derby victor Generous was bought for Prince Fahd Salman by Anthony Penfold (inset)

such as the 1999 Oaks and Irish Oaks heroine Ramruma and top American racemare Fiji.

“Anthony Penfold was a dear friend,” said Headley Bell of Mill Ridge Farm, which boarded Newgate’s Kentuckybased mares. “As a person he was kind and gentle, and loved his girls. As a horseman he had a gifted eye and natural talent in keeping it simple and surrounding himself with the very best.

He was a fabric of our lives for many years and a great friend.”

Salman died in 2001 at the age of only 46 and within two years the stock had been dispersed. Fiji sold for $3.1 million at Keeneland in 2002 while Ramruma set a record for a broodmare at a European auction by selling for 2.1 million guineas at Tattersalls in 2003.

That same draft of Newgate horses, which were offered through Ted Voute, also included Salman’s homebred Oaks third Midnight Line, who realised 1.3 million guineas.

Voute said: “Anthony was a gentleman of the sport, a very knowledgeable breeder, and he will be sorely missed by the industry. We had some great fun.”

Penfold’s position with Newgate in the aftermath of Salman’s death sadly ended in acrimony and a costly court case. He was later appointed as stud manager and racing advisor to Roger Baines’s Britton House Stud in Somerset and with his wife Mary-Ann ran his own operation, Bugley Stud in Dorset, from where he bred the 2006 Vintage Stakes winner Strategic Prince, a colt appropriately trained by Paul Cole, and last year’s Airlie Stud Stakes winner Velocidad out of Strategic Prince’s sister Astrantia. The family goes back to Ausherra, a half-sister to Ramruma.

Penfold leaves three daughters from his first marriage and two sons and a daughter from his second.

THE OWNER BREEDER

13

Changes

Racing’s news in a nutshell

People and business Annamarie Phelps

Chair of the British Horseracing Authority will step down at the end of May, with Joe Saumarez Smith taking on the role from June 1.

Arlington Million

Grade 1 contest will take place at Churchill Downs in Kentucky on August 13 with Arlington racecourse set to be sold to the Chicago Bears.

Ralph Beckett

Tony and Anne O’Callaghan

Tally-Ho Stud owners inducted into the Hall of Fame by the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association

Henry Brooke

Succeeds Emma Lavelle as President of the National Trainers Federation, his term running until 2023.

Jump jockey set to miss the rest of the season after fracturing two vertebrae in his neck following a fall at Sedgefield in February.

Bob Baffert

Kentucky Horse Racing Commission bans trainer for 90 days and disqualifies Medina Spirit from his Kentucky Derby win for drugs violations.

Hugo Palmer

Classic-winning trainer relocates from Newmarket to take over at Michael Owen’s Manor House Stables in Cheshire, replacing Tom Dascombe.

Harry Fowler

Joins Goffs UK as Bloodstock Manager following 23 years with the Tattersalls group.

Tom Dascombe

Trainer relocates to the famous Uplands stables in Lambourn after losing his position at Michael Owen’s Manor House Stables in Cheshire.

People obituaries

Andrew Howell

Sir Robert Ogden 86

Leaves his role as Head of Regulation at the BHA to work for golf’s European Tour; barrister Aja Hall is his replacement.

888

Online betting company fined £9.4 million by the Gambling Commission for failings around social responsibility and money laundering.

US Jockey Club

Rescinds rule that limited a stallion to covering a maximum of 140 mares per season.

Mansion Group

Closes its sports betting arm MansionBet, which sponsored hundreds of races in Britain last year, to focus on its casino business.

Ian McMahon

Succeeds Paul Struthers as Chief Executive of the Professional Jockeys Association, having spent the last five years in the golf industry.

Mark Kemp

Leaves role as Chief Executive of Boylesports after less than a year, joining sports streaming platform DAZN.

14

THE OWNER BREEDER

Businessman and philanthropist who enjoyed success at the highest level as an owner under both codes.

Anthony Penfold 74

Tommy Morton 90

Scottish bookmaker celebrated 60 years as an on-course layer in 2017.

He passed away after working at Ayr in March.

Racing manager to the late Prince Fahd Salman, for whom he selected dual Derby and King George winner Generous.

Andy Turnell 73

Stylish jump jockey who rode high-class hurdler Birds Nest and trained 1987 Grand National winner Maori Venture.

Sandra Arkwright 76

Racecourse judge, later a steward, who owned horses – including Listed winner Flirtatious Girl – with husband Philip.

Neil Kernick 79

Former West Country-based jockey and trainer who rode 89 winners between 1960 and 1981.

Norman Mason 85 Successful north-east businessman owned Red Marauder, winner of the 2001 Grand National under Richard Guest.

20

THE BRITISH

22

0 00

2yo

00

AL

,

SERIES

| £100,00 0 FIN

F I NA L S | E B FR

T

E D 2 YO S E RI E S

ES

CT RI

S

£1

2 Finals

100 chances to qualify

£100,000

E B F 2 YO S E R I E S C O LT S & G E L D I N G S

£100,000 E B F 2 YO S E R I E S F I L L I E S

7f, Goodwood

7f, York

7th October 2022

6th September 2022

P R I Z E M O N E Y T O 8 T H P L A C E | N O E A R LY C L O S I N G E N T R Y | N O S U P P L E M E N TAT I O N

For full details, qualification & entry requirements

www.ebfstallions.com

#GoodForRacing T: +44 1638 667960 E: info@ebfhorseracing.co.uk @BritishEBF www.ebfstallions.com

Changes

Racehorse and stallion

Movements and retirements

Rekindling

Son of High Chaparral, winner of the Melbourne Cup in 2017, begins his stallion career at Kenmare Castle Stud in County Limerick.

Behesht

Superbly bred son of Sea The Stars is recruited by Ronnie O’Neill to stand at his Whytemount Stud in County Kilkenny.

Marche Lorraine

Daughter of Orfevre who sprang a surprise in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff in November is retired aged six and will be covered by Drefong.

Enjoy D’Allen

JP McManus buys Ciaran Murphy-trained eight-year-old chaser, a contender for this month’s Grand National at Aintree.

Tiger Roll Dual Grand National hero, also the winner of five races at the Cheltenham Festival with career earnings of £1.43 million, is retired aged 12.

Horse obituaries Ginto 6

Walk In The Park gelding became Bective Stud’s first Grade 1 winner in the Lawlor’s Of Naas Novice Hurdle in January.

Go For Gin 31

Son of Cormorant won the 1994 Kentucky Derby and sired Albert The Great, winner of the 2000 Jockey Club Gold Cup.

Strike The Tiger 15

Wesley Ward’s first Royal Ascot winner in the Windsor Castle Stakes is killed in a barn fire caused by an electrical storm.

Get Stormy 16

Multiple Grade 1 winner in the US sired top-class miler Got Stormy, dual winner of the Grade 1 Fourstardave Handicap.

Shallwehaveonemore 5

Promising novice hurdler for owner Steve Packham and trainer Gary Moore suffers a fatal injury at Cheltenham.

16

THE OWNER BREEDER

Le Havre 16

Gerard Augustin-Normand’s Prix du Jockey-Club winner sired many top-class performers including Wonderful Tonight.

Dream Ahead TOB April 2022:Layout 2

18/3/22

10:38

Page 1

NEW to British Breeders for 2022

Don't miss your chance to use Dream Ahead this season. He was all speed on the racecourse and is already the sire of 53 stakes performers, of which 13 are Group winners, 4 at Group 1 level.

Call us today 01630 647197 or 07974948755

DREAM AHEAD Fee: £7,500 Oct 1st SLF

Bearstone Stud ~ The Source Of Speed Tel: 07974948755 or 01630 647197

G

www.bearstonestud.co.uk

The Big Picture Queens of the turf age Honeysuckle is a once-in-a-generation performer and the brilliant daughter of Sulamani became the first mare to win back-to-back Unibet Champion Hurdles under regular rider Rachael Blackmore, taking their unbeaten partnership to 15 races under Rules. Honeysuckle, trained

by Henry de Bromhead for Kenny Alexander (pictured leading in) and bred in Britain by Dr Geoffrey Guy at The Glanvilles Stud, will likely try and join Hatton’s Grace, Sir Ken, Persian War, See You Then and Istabraq as a three-time winner of the Champion Hurdle in 2023.

Photos Bill Selwyn

18

THE OWNER BREEDER

Cheltenham Festival

THE OWNER BREEDER

19

The Big Picture

20

THE OWNER BREEDER

Cheltenham Festival

Cannon strikes Edwardstone was a decent hurdler but he has been transformed by the switch to fences and the British-bred Kayf Tara gelding made it five wins in succession with a convincing success over Gabynako in the Grade 1 Sporting Life Arkle Challenge Trophy Novices’ Chase. The oldest runner in the Arkle field at eight, Edwardstone races for his owner-breeders Robert Abrey and Ian Thurtle and was providing jockey Tom Cannon with his maiden success at the Cheltenham Festival. For trainer Alan King it was a 16th Festival success and his first since Uxizandre took the 2015 Ryanair Chase under AP McCoy. Photos Bill Selwyn

THE OWNER BREEDER

21

The Big Picture Keeping the British end up The Irish rout at the 2021 Cheltenham Festival was not repeated this year even if the visitors claimed the overall spoils by 18 winners to ten. The home team’s triumphant dectet included (clockwise from right) Constitution Hill’s breathtaking victory in the Grade 1 Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle, Love Envoi extending her unbeaten run in the Grade 2 Ryanair Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle, Corach Rambler’s last-to-first effort for owners The Ramblers in the Grade 3 Ultima Handicap Chase, Wayne Clifford’s Coole Cody battling back in the Grade 3 Craft Irish Whiskey Co. Plate Handicap Chase, Middleham Park Racing’s Marie’s Rock (noseband) staying on strongly in the Grade 1 Close Brothers Mares’ Hurdle, and L’Homme Presse and Charlie Deutsch’s thrilling win in the Grade 1 Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase.

Photos Bill Selwyn

22

THE OWNER BREEDER

Cheltenham Festival

THE OWNER BREEDER

23

The Big Picture

Strength in depth Willie Mullins enjoyed an outstanding four days, his ten winners a record for a single Cheltenham Festival, that number including Energumene’s ready victory in the Grade 1 Betway Queen Mother Champion Chase under Paul Townend for owner Tony Bloom.

Cheveley Park Stud’s Allaho (top right) looks unbeatable over two and a half miles and duly captured his second Grade 1 Ryanair Chase for the Mullins stable, while the Gavin Cromwelltrained Flooring Porter also made it back-to-back Festival wins in the Grade 1 Paddy Power Stayers’ Hurdle, to the delight of jockey Danny Mullins and owners the Flooring Porter Syndicate.

Photos Bill Selwyn

24

THE OWNER BREEDER

Cheltenham Festival

THE OWNER BREEDER

25

The Big Picture

26

THE OWNER BREEDER

Cheltenham Festival

Patience is a virtue Rachael Blackmore produced a perfect waiting ride on A Plus Tard in the Grade 1 Boodles Cheltenham Gold Cup as she became the first female jockey to win jump racing’s Blue Riband.

Our main image shows Blackmore ready to pounce on A Plus Tard as 2021 Gold Cup victor and stablemate Minella Indo looks to be in pole position under Robbie Power. Blackmore delivered Cheveley Park Stud’s eightyear-old with his challenge at the final fence (top left) and he simply left Minella Indo in his wake, powering up the famous hill to score by 15 lengths, reversing the placings from the previous year and providing trainer Henry de Bromhead with his second 1-2 in the Gold Cup. Photos Bill Selwyn

THE OWNER BREEDER

27

The Howard Wright Column

Gamble on bookmaker backers yields uncertainty

N

ow you see it, now you don’t: it would be no surprise if the Scarlet Pimpernel, were he real and still around, had a sideline organising sponsorships in British horseracing, especially on behalf of bookmaking firms. The names change with alarming regularity, as those which are instantly recognisable jostle with unfamiliar and sometimes transitory titles.

Take the Lincoln Handicap of a week ago for example, the time-honoured feature event of the start of the Flat turf season, which this year claimed its eighth individual sponsor in the last 32 years, in the form of SBK, a sportsbook app powered by Smarkets.

All but one of the commercial backers in that time have been betting operators, with just the beer seller Worthington interrupting a post-1990 sequence that has twice involved William Hill, as well as Stanley Racing, Betway, Kindred Group stablemates 32Red and Unibet, and one other, of whom more later. Yet this is not a new phenomenon.

Digging through the archives produced a long-forgotten photograph taken in July 1964, showing Ladbrokes’ boss Cyril Stein handing over a cheque for £4,500 – almost £100,000 at today’s rates – to Doncaster racecourse Committee Chairman Alderman Albert Cammidge, as Track Manager Noel Nettleship and Clerk of the Course Malcolm Hancock looked on with beaming acknowledgement.

The picture amply reflects the passage of time both in practical and business terms. Doncaster was still council owned and run, and Cammidge was leader of the ruling Labour party, with Nettleship a well-respected local government employee and Hancock an equally well-respected member of a famous racing family.

Bookmaker sponsorship was clearly getting off the ground, just three years after betting shops were legalised, for the caption noted that Ladbrokes’ funding “will form part of the prize-money for the Lincoln Handicap.”

With the Lincoln’s traditional home across the county border on the Carholme closed, Doncaster first took on the seasonal starter in 1965 with a three-day mixed meeting due to open on a Monday. Ironically the first day was abandoned due to snow, but 48 hours later, the Lincoln, with six fewer runners than the 44-strong field that turned out for a three-year-old maiden race the day before, beat the weather.

Despite the previously very public involvement of Ladbrokes, the race’s formal title in those earliest Doncaster days did not include a sponsor’s name, but recent history has more than made up for the deficiency. There is an even more pertinent difference between then and now, in that bookmaker sponsorship over the first 50 years of the Lincoln at Doncaster naturally involved betting-shop operators, with one exception, whereas most recent support has come from the online sector.

Awards ceremony takes off thanks to Zoom Zoom used to be little more than an onomatopoeiac expression of speed or the title of a 1980s one-hit wonder

by Fat Larry’s Band. Then along came the Covid-19 pandemic and it became an essential mode of communication, as evidenced by its powering the recent annual Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards ceremony, which has never failed to provide one of the year’s most uplifting British racing industry events and in an odd sort of way was actually enhanced by the extension of its boundaries.

Normally, the event takes the form of a dinner in a London hotel, which is fine for those privileged to be invited but the limitation of numbers and space leaves out many colleagues of the nominated finalists. Zoom allows access to anyone with a laptop and the right password, and live coverage of the Godolphin Awards by Racing TV enabled even greater interaction.

Zoom’s deficiencies will have been experienced by anyone who has attended a virtual meeting with more

28

THE OWNER BREEDER

Paddy Trainor: Employee of the Year

than one other person. Mute buttons are pressed and unpressed at precisely the wrong time; positioning of the laptop camera can paint an unflattering picture; and people talking over each other is a constant menace.

All those instances came together at the Godolphin Awards when Oli Bell introduced Freedom Zampaladus as a finalist in and later winner of the

Community category, for his founding the Urban Equestrian Academy in Leicester. As students crowded round and a television blared in the background, Bell’s questions took an age to register. For a time chaos reigned, but it was happy chaos.

In that sense, the scenes of unbridled enthusiasm at the Zampaladus academy were typical of the evening’s events, for the Zoom effect was repeated times over, as the announcement of individual category winners was greeted with unexpected outpourings of spontaneous joy.

Trainer James Ferguson leaped over the back of a sofa in the stable restroom to congratulate Alyson West on her success in the Dedication category, while Dulcie West, named winner of the Stud Staff category, had her incredulous reaction photobombed by boss Grace Muir, who could never be accused of being a shrinking violet.

Zoom brought out the best in everyone involved.

PA IMAGES

Cyril Stein of Ladbrokes (dark suit) presents a cheque for £4,500 to Alderman Albert Cammidge, Chairman of Doncaster racecourse

Sandwiched between William Hill’s first venture and Stanley Racing’s opportune involvement came a new name, Randombet, a Leeds-based outfit which launched in 2001 with Kevin Keegan as ambassador and a unique betting offer, where every outcome of a sporting event was subject to fixed odds, often higher than the true price, but customers’ choices were made by a random bet generator.

Too good to be true? It certainly proved that way for

Doncaster, which was promised prize-money support of £250,000 over three years. The course staged two runnings of the Lincoln under the Randombet name but eventually stood in the lengthy creditors’ queue, vainly seeking more than £100,000 from a minus pot of over £1 million, when the company went into voluntary liquidation.

Once bitten twice shy, Doncaster’s subsequent operator Arena Racing Company took fewer chances when William Hill quit after the 2014 running, turning to the established online betting sector, but whether those operators have demonstrated the old betting-shop preference for, or allegiance to, horseracing is questionable.

The rush to name races after the casino and gaming branches of their business told a disquieting tale of where their ambitions laid. Thankfully, at least one group of racecourses eventually saw through that disguise and called a halt, although there seems to be no limit to the ingenuity of marketing departments in naming races linked to fancy offers for punters.

As for loyalty towards horseracing among the online newcomers, that too is open to debate. Today’s disappearance of MansionBet as a sports-betting unit, to allow the group to concentrate on its casino brands, closes the door on 360 race names and an unidentifiable amount of sponsorship.

With the government’s gambling review fast coming up, and trepidation about its impact on advertising rising, racecourses seeking future sponsorship could be well advised to look seriously in a different direction.

By Appointment to HRH The Prince of Wales Manufacturer of Horse Bedding Bedmax Limited, Northumberland

By Appointment to Her Majesty The Queen Manufacturer of Horse Bedding Bedmax Limited, Northumberland

MAKING BEDDING BET TER Bedding made specially to

maximise their potential...

To find out more about the respiratory, hoofcare and hygiene benefits our shavings offer in the stable, please contact us and we will arrange a visit from our Racing & Stud Specialist, Brent Adamson.

+44 (0) 1668 213467 BEDMAX Owner Breeder Half Page Ad.indd 1

www.bedmaxshavings.com 22/03/2022 14:14

THE OWNER BREEDER

29

The Big Interview

30

THE OWNER BREEDER

?????????????????

George Boughey is looking to build on a terrific 2021 when he sent out 85 winners in the UK

George Boughey

A certain

xxx xxx xx

CACHET

George Boughey has gained plenty of admirers since taking out his licence in 2019 and with a Classic candidate in his ranks the Newmarket trainer is full of hope for the new Flat season Words: James Thomas • Photos: Bill Selwyn

A

successful training operation is a lot like an iceberg, as the peaks that break the surface are only a fraction of what goes unseen beneath.

So, while things may appear to have gone rather swimmingly since George Boughey took out his licence midway through 2019, there is more to his backstory than meets the eye.

There is no doubt that Boughey has come an awfully long way in a very short space of time, having saddled 85 British winners, a pair of Group-winning twoyear-olds and a Classic-placed three-yearold in just his third season, but he admits there was a point in the not too distant past when he wondered whether going it alone had been a titanic mistake.

“There were times when I thought I’d bitten off more than I can chew,” he says from his desk inside the Portakabin that serves as the Saffron House Stables office. “Especially when I only had four horses and I was mucking them out myself and Adi [Rogers, head lad] was riding them all. The first horse we took out bolted down the farm canter and when Adi got off, he just looked at me and I was sure he was about to say he was going back to his old job.”

To Boughey’s relief, Rogers kept the faith and the yard duly sent out its first winner when Three C’s recorded a game success in a Lingfield handicap on August 13, 2019. A fortnight later Cotton Club bolted up at Bath and Boughey was on his way, or so he thought. But those successes proved to be the stable’s only two winners from 37 runners that year, and a strike-rate of just 5 per cent certainly had not been part of the plan.

“We had a couple of winners early doors but we also had eight seconds and it was just a bit tricky,” he recalls. “There were times during that winter when I had to pay the staff but didn’t have any training fees coming in. There was probably a six-month period where I just had to get on with it because it would either work or it wouldn’t.”

Despite those teething troubles, Boughey’s rise from four-horse rookie to one of the hottest young trainers around has been little short of meteoric.

He set out with a clear strategy to build a business and a reputation and by his second season it was starting to bear fruit.

He registered 26 successes at a strike-rate of 20 per cent during the 2020 season as a succession of cheaply bought acquisitions were transformed into eye-catching winners. Three C’s won four more races, Songkran rattled off a four-timer, improving 25lb in the process, and the likes of Involved, Lua De Mel and Mirage Mac each registered multiple victories.

“My view on it before I started training was to go out and buy some horses to win claimers and sellers and 0-50s,” says the 30-year-old. “I didn’t have any other way of doing it as I didn’t get sent horses in those early days. A syndicate of mates owned Three C’s, who was bought for a round of drinks, and Cotton Club, who my dad owned, was bought for five grand out of a selling hurdle at Newton Abbot.

“I thought if I could buy horses who could win races, I didn’t care what they were, because my belief was that if people see you can train, they will start to

THE OWNER BREEDER

31

››

The Big Interview Boughey is excited by the quality of his string at Saffron House Stables

›› send you horses. And that’s how owners

like Nick Bradley came in.”

The association with Bradley has been an important one, with the leading syndicator supplying the ammunition for some of Boughey’s most notable successes, including the likes of Corazon, winner of the Group 3 Prix d’Arenberg, Oscula, who struck in the Group 3 Prix Six Perfections, and Mystery Angel, who gave Boughey a first black-type victory in the Listed Pretty Polly Stakes.

The latter-named pair were also responsible for Boughey’s personal highlight of a stellar 2021 season, as Oscula recorded a facile success in the Woodcote Stakes and Mystery

“Cachet has done well and will hopefully fly the flag for us this year” Angel, who had been supplemented at considerable expense, outran odds of 50-1 to be second in Snowfall’s Oaks just a couple of hours later.

“It was a miserable day, but I was pretty sure Oscula would like soft ground and Mystery Angel had been training well so it was a punt worth taking,” he says. “Oscula bolted up and if it wasn’t for Snowfall we might’ve nicked an Oaks from the front, so that felt like a huge day.”

Mystery Angel provided connections with another day to remember when

32

THE OWNER BREEDER

she was sold on to Haruya Yoshida for 500,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale. She had been signed for

by Bradley at just 22,000gns some 16 months earlier.

Other talented performers have left Boughey’s yard when good money has been put on the table too. And while the sale of promising prospects may seem antithetical to the aims of an ambitious young trainer, Boughey is pragmatic about the harsh economic realities of training in 2022. He says this commercially minded approach is necessitated by Britain’s chronic lack of prize-money.

“We’ve sold horses over the last couple of years and it’s been a huge part of our business,” he says. “We’ll continue to trade this year because we’ve got to make hay while the sun shines.

“I don’t really want to do it but because prize-money is like it is, selling is one way of lining an owner’s pocket.

We sold fillies like Belacqua and Party On Girl and they made the kind of money they just can’t race for over here. They’d have to win the Guineas to earn £150,000 and although they were nice horses, they weren’t going to win the Guineas.”

Boughey’s impressive statistics coupled with a growing track record of buying low and selling high have seen him offset the talent drain by welcoming a growing client base of prominent owners to the yard. In 2021 he saddled runners for the likes of Al Asayl Bloodstock, Amo Racing, Highclere, Kirsten Rausing and Sheikh Abdullah Almalek Alsabah, to name but a few. With such strong support, the boxes at Saffron House tend not to remain empty for long.

Despite having attracted some significant owners into the yard, Boughey

says he was never going to sit on his hands during the latest sales season as, aided by close friend and bloodstock agent Sam Haggas, the challenge of finding runners whose talent outweighs their price tag remains an ongoing motivation.

“We’ve been sent horses this year, although it probably isn’t as many as the general public think,” he says. “I’m getting more orders than I had to start with, but I certainly didn’t walk up to Book 1 with ten hundred-grand horses to buy. I still have to purchase them on spec and then an owner will either buy them off me or not, and I’ve never been one to drive people into horses as I’d rather let the horses do the talking themselves. We do have a full stable though and that’s what you want.”

With the hard yards at the sales done, at least until the breeze-ups begin, and with a squad of around 100 horses almost ready to roll from his base on Newmarket’s Hamilton Road, Boughey can look ahead to what promises to be another fruitful campaign.

“I’d have never dreamt we’d have 50 winners last year, never mind 85 and two in France, so it’s quite a tall order to go and do it again,” he says. “Our target this year is to try and have better horses again. Obviously we’d love to have more winners than we had last year but I know that’s going to mean having nearly 100.

We have got a nicer team of horses coming through though.”

Having made his name by rejuvenating others’ castoffs and then enhanced his reputation with his two-year-old results, with 39 juvenile winners in 2021,

George Boughey

Experience across the board from the sales to Sydney Boughey is not only a product of his environment but his grounding too. He grew up in close proximity to racing, with Nick and Richard Mitchell training on his father’s farm in Dorset, which is also where Champion Hurdle hero Rooster Booster was bred.

But with no direct family ties, it wasn’t until Boughey was into his teens that he began to get hands-on. He rode out for local trainers during his time at university in Newcastle, where he studied business management and agriculture, but says that being “too heavy and a terrible rider” soon erased any ambitions of a career in the saddle.

With no family favours to call in, Boughey recognised that to start training he would need connections, but rather than stepping into a role with a trainer and hoping for the best, he turned to the bloodstock sector and took on jobs with agents Luke Lillingston and Tom Goff.

“I was trying to find a way in and my Boughey hopes the likes of Cachet will advertise his ability to nurture the Classic generation. The daughter of Aclaim ran some mighty races at two, most notably when third to Inspiral in the Fillies’ Mile and when fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf, won by Pizza Bianca.

She is due to begin her season in the Nell Gwyn Stakes.

“Cachet has done as well as I could’ve hoped,” he says. “She was on the weak

view on it was I needed to meet the right people,” he says. “The bloodstock side of it offered that, as you can meet most breeders, owners and trainers at the sales. It was a great way of being introduced to people who you’re probably going to deal with for the rest of your life.”

It was Lillingston’s suggestion that Boughey spend time with Gai Waterhouse. The trip to Australia proved to be a formative experience, as exposure to her winning methods and mentality brought Boughey’s vision for the future into sharp relief.

“Luke said that experience would tell me what I wanted to do, and I just loved it,” he says. “I saw everything Gai did while looking over her shoulder, basically. She’s one of the most extraordinary people on planet Earth and seeing how much energy and drive she has really instilled a bit of direction in me.”

While Boughey credits Waterhouse side at the back end at two, which probably showed at the Breeders’ Cup and the Fillies’ Mile, but if she’s improved ten per cent she’s going to be rated in the one-teens and hopefully she’ll fly the flag for us this year.

“I’m really looking forward to training some of these three-year-olds as we’ve tried to keep only those who are either slightly well-treated or unexposed. I don’t want people thinking we can only

High-class filly Cachet (right) finishes a fine third behind Inspiral and Prosperous Voyage in the Group 1 Fillies’ Mile at Newmarket

for setting him on the right path, he nominates Hugo Palmer, to whom he spent six years as assistant trainer, as having the biggest impact on his development.

Boughey says he was “probably surplus to requirements” when he joined the Kremlin Cottage team, which was only just beginning its own rapid ascendancy, but before long the stable was firing in Classic winners like Covert Love and Galileo Gold, and he was running the satellite yard at Yellowstone Park Stables on the Hamilton Road.

“I was in the process of getting my visa to go to Todd Pletcher’s in America when Hugo took the other yard on,” says Boughey. “It was an amazing preparation for training myself and I’m forever indebted to Hugo. He was very open and included me in everything and without a doubt he was the biggest influence on my career.

We’re still close friends now.” train whizz bang two-year-olds as I enjoy training any horse, whether it’s a fivefurlong sprinter or a two-miler.

“We’d have just over 50 two-year-olds in at present, which is more than last year but we ended up getting quite a few at the breeze-ups and horses who came to us over the summer and that may well happen again. They’re a nice bunch and there’s probably a few better pedigrees than we had last year too.”

There are many moving parts behind a successful training operation, from sourcing the right horses to keeping them fit and placing them effectively, as well as running a marketable business capable of attracting the kind of staff and owners able to make a difference. So far Boughey appears to be equally adept at all of the above.

He also possesses two qualities that, given the challenges involved in training racehorses, are all but essential yet often overlooked, namely a sense of perspective and a sense of humour. These are revealed when Boughey is asked about where he sees himself in five years’ time.

“We want to be competing at the biggest meetings rather than just making up the numbers, so in five years I’d like to have an increasing quality of horse and be winning good races,” he says before pausing for a moment and surveying his surroundings. “And hopefully we’ll have made it out of the Portakabin.”

THE OWNER BREEDER

33

Published here is the Final List of European stallions registered in full with the EBF for the 2021 covering season.The progeny of these stallions, CONCEIVED IN 2021 IN THE NORTHERN HEMISPHERE, (the foal crop of 2022) will be eligible to enter the EBF races to be held during the year 2024 and thereafter. They will also be eligible for other relevant benefits under the EBF terms and conditions in force in Great Britain, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland.

A ABYDOS (GER) ACCLAMATION (GB) ACCON (GER) ACLAIM (IRE) ADAAY (IRE) ADLERFLUG (GER) ADVERTISE (GB) AFANDEM (FR) AFFINISEA (IRE) AGE OF JAPE (POL) AIZAVOSKI (IRE) AL KAZEEM (GB) AL WUKAIR (IRE) ALBERT DOCK (JPN) ALHADAB (FR) ALHEBAYEB (IRE) ALKAADHEM (GB) ALMANAARA (IRE) ALMANZOR (FR) ALTRUISTIC (IRE) AMARILLO (IRE) AMARON (GB) ANODIN (IRE) ARCANO (IRE) ARCTIC COSMOS (USA) ARDAD (IRE) AREION (GER) ARIZONA (IRE) ARRIGO (GER) ASCALON (GB) ASK (GB) ATTENDU (FR) AUSTRALIA (GB) AUSTRIAN SCHOOL (IRE) AUTHORIZED (IRE) AWTAAD (IRE) AXXOS (GER) B BALKO (FR) BANDE (IRE) BANKNOTE (GB) BARASTRAIGHT (GB) BARRAQUERO (IRE) BATED BREATH (GB) BATHYRHON (GER) BATTLE OF MARENGO (IRE) BEAUMEC DE HOUELLE (FR) BELARDO (IRE) BERKSHIRE (IRE) BEST SOLUTION (IRE) BIRCHWOOD (IRE) BLEK (FR) BLUE BRESIL (FR) BLUE POINT (IRE) BOBBY’S KITTEN (USA) BODEMEISTER (USA) BODYGUARD HERO (USA) BORN TO SEA (IRE) BOSWINGER (IRE) BOW CREEK (IRE) BRAMETOT (IRE) BRAVE MANSONNIEN (FR)

BULLET TRAIN (GB) BUNGLE INTHEJUNGLE (GB) BURATINO (IRE) C CABLE BAY (IRE) CALYX (GB) CAMACHO (GB) CAMELOT (GB) CANNOCK CHASE (USA) CAPPELLA SANSEVERO (GB) CAPRI (IRE) CAPTAIN CHOP (FR) CARLOTAMIX (FR) CASTLE DU BERLAIS (FR) CAT JUNIOR (USA) CENTAURIAN (IRE) CHACHNAK (FR) CHANDUCOQ (FR) CHAPA (FR) CHARDONNEY TCHEQUE (FR) CHARM SPIRIT (IRE) CHARMING THOUGHT (GB) CHEMICAL CHARGE (IRE) CHOEUR DU NORD (FR) CHURCHILL (IRE) CIRCUS MAXIMUS (IRE) CITY LIGHT (FR) CITYSCAPE (GB) CLODOVIL (IRE) CLOTH OF STARS (IRE) CLOUDINGS (IRE) CLOVIS DU BERLAIS (FR) COACH HOUSE (IRE) COKORIKO (FR) COTAI GLORY (GB) COULSTY (IRE) COUNTERATTACK (AUS) COURT CAVE (IRE) CRACKSMAN (GB) CREACHADOIR (IRE) CRYSTAL OCEAN (GB) CULPRIT (USA) CURTAIN TIME (IRE) D DABIRSIM (FR) DALYAKAN (FR) DANCOURT (FR) DANDY MAN (IRE) DARIYAN (FR) DARK ANGEL (IRE) DARTMOUTH (GB) DAWN APPROACH (IRE) DE TREVILLE (GB) DECORATED KNIGHT (GB) DESINVOLTE (FR) DESTINO (GER) DEVASTAR (GER) DIAMOND BOY (FR) DICK WHITTINGTON (IRE) DINK (FR) DIPLOMAT (GER) DOCTOR DINO (FR) DOHA DREAM (FR)

DONJUAN TRIUMPHANT (IRE) DOYEN (IRE) DRAGON DANCER (GB) DRAGON PULSE (IRE) DREAM AHEAD (USA) DSCHINGIS SECRET (GER) DUBAWI (IRE) DUE DILIGENCE (USA) DUTCH ART (GB) DUX SCHOLAR (GB) E EAGLE TOP (GB) EARL OF TINSDAL (GER) EARNSHAW (USA) EARTHLIGHT (IRE) EASTERN ANTHEM (IRE) ECTOT (GB) EL KABEIR (USA) EL SALVADOR (IRE) ELARQAM (GB) ELIOT (GER) ELLIPTIQUE (IRE) ELM PARK (GB) ELUSIVE PIMPERNEL (USA) ELVSTROEM (AUS) ELZAAM (AUS) EQTIDAAR (IRE) EQUIANO (FR) ERASMUS (GER) EREWHON (USA) ESTIDHKAAR (IRE) EXPERT EYE (GB) F FALCO (USA) FAMOUS NAME (GB) FANTASTIC MOON (GB) FAR ABOVE (IRE) FARHH (GB) FAS (IRE) FASCINATING ROCK (IRE) FASTNET ROCK (AUS) FAYDHAN (USA) FEEL LIKE DANCING (GB) FIGHT CLUB (GER) FIGHTING IRISH (IRE) FINSCEAL FIOR (IRE) FIRST ELEVEN (GB) FLAG OF HONOUR (IRE) FLASH GORDON (IRE) FOOTSTEPSINTHESAND (GB) FOR FUN (FR) FRACAS (IRE) FRAMMASSONE (IRE) FRANKEL (GB) FREE EAGLE (IRE) FREE PORT LUX (GB) FRENCH FIFTEEN (FR) FRONTIERSMAN (GB) FUISSE (FR) G GALIKEO (GB) GALILEO (IRE) GALILEO CHROME (IRE)

GALILEO GOLD (GB) GALIWAY (GB) GAMMARTH (FR) GAMUT (IRE) GARSWOOD (GB) GARY DU CHENET (FR) GEMIX (FR) GENGIS (FR) GENIALE (JPN) GENTLEWAVE (IRE) GEORDIELAND (FR) GEORGE VANCOUVER (USA) GETAWAY (GER) GHAIYYATH (IRE) GIUSEPPE GARIBALDI (IRE) GLADIATORUS (USA) GLENEAGLES (IRE) GOKEN (FR) GOLDEN HORDE (IRE) GOLDEN HORN (GB) GOLDEN LARIAT (USA) GOLIATH DU BERLAIS (FR) GREAT PRETENDER (IRE) GREEN MOON (IRE) GREGORIAN (IRE) GRENDISAR (IRE) GRIS DE GRIS (IRE) GUILIANI (IRE) GUSTAV KLIMT (IRE) GUTAIFAN (IRE) H HAAFHD (GB) HAATEF (USA) HARBOUR LAW (GB) HARRY ANGEL (IRE) HARZAND (IRE) HAVANA GOLD (IRE) HAVANA GREY (GB) HEADMAN (GB) HELLO YOUMZAIN (FR) HELLVELYN (GB) HEP BERABER (TUR) HERALD THE DAWN (IRE) HEY GAMAN (GB) HIGHLAND REEL (IRE) HILLSTAR (GB) HOLY ROMAN EMPEROR (IRE) HONOLULU (IRE) HOT STREAK (IRE) HUNTER’S LIGHT (IRE) HUNTING HORN (IRE) I ICE BREEZE (GB) IDAHO (IRE) IFFRAAJ (GB) IMPERIAL MONARCH (IRE) INDIAN HAVEN (GB) INNS OF COURT (IRE) INTELLO (GER) INTRINSIC (GB) INVINCIBLE ARMY (IRE) INVINCIBLE SPIRIT (IRE) IQUITOS (GER)

ISFAHAN (GER) ITO (GER) IT’S GINO (GER) IVANHOWE (GER) IVAWOOD (IRE) J JACK HOBBS (GB) JAMES GARFIELD (IRE) JARN (GB) JET AWAY (GB) JEU ST ELOI (FR) JIMMY TWO TIMES (FR) JOHNNY BARNES (IRE) JOSHUA TREE (IRE) JUKEBOX JURY (IRE) K KAMEKO (USA) KAMSIN (GER) KAP ROCK (FR) KAPGARDE (FR) KARAKTAR (IRE) KENDARGENT (FR) KESSAAR (IRE) KEW GARDENS (IRE) KHELEYF (USA) KIKUJIROU (GB) KING DAVID (USA) KING EDWARD (FR) KING OF CHANGE (GB) KINGFISHER (IRE) KINGMAN (GB) KINGSTON HILL (GB) KLUGER (JPN) KODI BEAR (IRE) KODIAC (GB) KONIG BERNARD (FR) KUROSHIO (AUS) L LAND FORCE (IRE) LANGTANG (GER) LATROBE (IRE) LAURO (GER) LAWMAN (FR) LE BRIVIDO (FR) LE HAVRE (IRE) LE REBEL (FR) LEADING LIGHT (IRE) LEGAL POMP (IRE) LEGENDS OF WAR (USA) LEHAIM (FR) LIBERTARIAN (GB) LIFE FORCE (IRE) LIGHTNING SPEAR (GB) LIMARIO (GER) LINDA’S LAD (GB) LION HEART (USA) LITERATO (FR) LOPE DE VEGA (IRE) LORD OF ENGLAND (GER) LUCAYAN (FR) LUCKY JOE (IRE) LUCKY LION (GB) LUCKY SPEED (IRE)

LUCKY TEAM (FR) M MACHUCAMBO (FR) MADHMOON (IRE) MAGNA GRECIA (IRE) MAGNETICJIM (IRE) MAHLER (GB) MAHSOOB (GB) MAKE BELIEVE (GB) MALINAS (GER) MANATEE (GB) MARCAVELLY (USA) MARCEL (IRE) MARKAZ (IRE) MARTINBOROUGH (JPN) MASAR (IRE) MASKED MARVEL (GB) MASSAAT (IRE) MASTER CARPENTER (IRE) MASTERCRAFTSMAN (IRE) MASTEROFTHEHORSE (IRE) MASTER’S SPIRIT (IRE) MASTERSTROKE (USA) MAXIOS (GB) MAYSON (GB) MEHMAS (IRE) MEKHTAAL (GB) MIDI (GB) MIKESH (IRE) MIKHAIL GLINKA (IRE) MILAN (GB) MILLOWITSCH (GER) MISTER FOTIS (USA) MIZZOU (IRE) MOBSTA (IRE) MOHAATHER (GB) MOISES HAS (FR) MOKARRIS (USA) MONDIALISTE (IRE) MONITOR CLOSELY (IRE) MONTGOLFIER (GER) MONTMARTRE (FR) MORANDI (FR) MORES WELLS (GB) MORPHEUS (GB) MOTIVATOR (GB) MOURAYAN (IRE) MR OWEN (USA) MUHAARAR (GB) MUKHADRAM (GB) MY DREAM BOAT (IRE) MYBOYCHARLIE (IRE) N NATHANIEL (IRE) NATIONAL DEFENSE (GB) NEW APPROACH (IRE) NEW BAY (GB) NICARON (GER) NIGHT OF THUNDER (IRE) NIGHT WISH (GER) NIRVANA DU BERLAIS (FR) NO NAY NEVER (USA) NO RISK AT ALL (FR)

Prepared by: The European Breeders’ Fund, Lushington House, 119 High Street, Newmarket, Suffolk, CB8 9AE, UK T: +44 (0) 1638 667960 E: info@ebfhorseracing.co.uk www.ebfstallions.com

NOM DE D’LA (FR) NON RIEN DE RIEN (FR) NOOZHOH CANARIAS (SPA) NORSE DANCER (IRE) NUTAN (IRE) O OASIS DREAM (GB) OCOVANGO (GB) OCTOKING (FR) OL’ MAN RIVER (IRE) OLD PERSIAN (GB) OLYMPIC GLORY (IRE) ORDER OF ST GEORGE (IRE) OUTSTRIP (GB) P PALAVICINI (USA) PANYU (GER) PAPAL BULL (GB) PARISH HALL (IRE) PASSING GLANCE (GB) PASTORAL PURSUITS (GB) PASTORIUS (GER) PEARL SECRET (GB) PENNY’S PICNIC (IRE) PERSIAN KING (IRE) PETHER’S MOON (IRE) PETILLO (FR) PHELPS WIN (FR) PHOENIX OF SPAIN (IRE) PHOENIX REACH (IRE) PIGEON CATCHER (IRE) PILLAR CORAL (GB) PINATUBO (IRE) PLANTEUR (IRE) POET’S WORD (IRE) POLARIX (GB) POLICY MAKER (IRE) POLISH VULCANO (GER) POMELLATO (GER) PORTAGE (IRE) PORTAMENTO (IRE) POSTPONED (IRE) POUNCED (USA) POUR MOI (IRE) POUVOIR ABSOLU (GB) PRESIDENCY (GB) PRIMARY (USA) PRINCE GIBRALTAR (FR) PRINCE OF LIR (IRE) PROFITABLE (IRE) PROTECTIONIST (GER) PUIT D’OR (IRE) Q QUEST FOR PEACE (IRE) R RAA ATOLL (GB) RAJASINGHE (IRE) RAJJ (IRE) RAVEN’S PASS (USA) RECOLETOS (FR) RECORDER (GB) RED JAZZ (USA) RELIABLE MAN (GB)

RENAISSANCE MAN (IRE) RETIREMENT PLAN (GB) RIBCHESTER (IRE) RIO DE LA PLATA (USA) RIVER BOYNE (IRE) ROBIN OF NAVAN (FR) ROCK OF GIBRALTAR (IRE) ROMAN CANDLE (GB) ROMANISED (IRE) ROSENDHAL (IRE) ROSENSTURM (IRE) ROSS (IRE) ROYAL LYTHAM (FR) RULE OF LAW (USA) RULER OF THE WORLD (IRE) RUMBLE INTHEJUNGLE (IRE) S SADDEX (GB) SADDLER’S ROCK (IRE) SAGEBURG (IRE) SAINT DES SAINTS (FR) SALUTINO (GER) SANDS OF MALI (FR) SANS FRONTIERES (IRE) SAVOIR VIVRE (IRE) SAXON WARRIOR (JPN) SCALO (GB) SCHIAPARELLI (GER) SCISSOR KICK (AUS) SCORPION (IRE) SEA MOON (GB) SEA THE MOON (GER) SEA THE STARS (IRE) SEABHAC (USA) SEAHENGE (USA) SECOND THOUGHT (IRE) SERGEI PROKOFIEV (CAN) SHALAA (IRE) SHAMALGAN (FR) SHAMAN (IRE) SHANTARAM (GB) SHAYWAN (IRE) SHIROCCO (GER) SHOLOKHOV (IRE) SHOWCASING (GB) SILAS MARNER (FR) SILVER FROST (IRE) SILVERWAVE (FR) SIOUX NATION (USA) SIR PERCY (GB) SIXTIES ICON (GB) SIYOUNI (FR) SLEEPING INDIAN (GB) SMOOTH DADDY (USA) SNOW SKY (GB) SOGANN (FR) SOLDIER HOLLOW (GB) SOLDIER OF FORTUNE (IRE) SOLDIER’S CALL (GB) SOTTSASS (FR) SOUTHERN HILLS (IRE) SPANISH MOON (USA) SRI PUTRA (GB)

STARSPANGLEDBANNER (AUS) STELLAR MASS (IRE) STORM THE STARS (USA) STORMY RIVER (FR) STUDY OF MAN (IRE) STUNNING SPIRIT (GB) STYLE VENDOME (FR) SUCCESS DAYS (IRE) SUMBAL (IRE) SUPER SAVER (USA) SWIPE (USA) SWISS SPIRIT (GB) T TAAREEF (USA) TAI CHI (GER) TAJ MAHAL (IRE) TAMAYUZ (GB) TASLEET (GB) TAU CETI (GB) TELECASTER (GB) TELESCOPE (IRE) TEN SOVEREIGNS (IRE) TEOFILO (IRE) TERRITORIES (IRE) THE ANVIL (IRE) THE GREAT SPIRIT (FR) THE GREY GATSBY (IRE) THE GURKHA (IRE) THE IRISH ROVER (IRE) THE TURNING POINT (FR) THREAT (IRE) TIBERIAN (FR) TIGRON (USA) TIME TEST (GB) TIN HORSE (IRE) TIP TWO WIN (GB) TIRWANAKO (FR) TONKIN (IRE) TOO DARN HOT (GB) TOP TRIP (GB) TORNIBUSH (IRE) TORONADO (IRE) TOTXO (IRE) TOUGH AS NAILS (IRE) TRADE STORM (GB) TRAJANO (USA) TRIPLE THREAT (FR) TUNIS (POL) TWILIGHT SON (GB) U U S NAVY FLAG (USA) ULTRA (IRE) ULYSSES (IRE) UNFORTUNATELY (IRE) UNIVERSAL (IRE) URBAN POET (USA) V VADAMOS (FR) VALIRANN (FR) VAN BEETHOVEN (CAN) VANISHING CUPID (SWI) VENDANGEUR (IRE) VERBAL DEXTERITY (IRE)

VERTIGINEUX (FR) VICTOIRE PISA (JPN) VICTORY GALLOP (CAN) VICTORY SONG (IRE) VIF MONSIEUR (GER) VITA VENTURI (IRE) VOCALISED (USA) VOL DE NUIT (GB) W WALDGEIST (GB) WALDPARK (GER) WALDPFAD (GER) WALK IN THE PARK (IRE) WALZERTAKT (GER) WAR COMMAND (USA) WASHINGTON DC (IRE) WATAR (IRE) WAY TO PARIS (GB) WELL CHOSEN (GB) WELTSTAR (GER) WESTERN FRONTIER (USA) WESTERNER (GB) WHIPPER (USA) WHITECLIFFSOFDOVER (USA) WIESENPFAD (FR) WINGS OF EAGLES (FR) WIRELESS (FR) WITHOUT PAROLE (GB) WOODED (IRE) WOOTTON BASSETT (GB) WOOTTON’S COLT (FR) WORKFORCE (GB) Y YAFTA (GB) YEATS (IRE) YORGUNNABELUCKY (USA) YOUMZAIN (IRE) Z ZAMBEZI SUN (GB) ZANZIBARI (USA) ZARAK (FR) ZAZOU (GER) ZEBADIAH (IRE) ZELZAL (FR) ZOUSTAR (AUS)

EBF INTERNATIONAL STALLIONS STALLION ADMIRE MARS (JPN) BOLD QUEST (IRE) BRICKS AND MORTAR (USA) CITY OF LIGHT (USA) DAIWA MAJOR (JPN) DREFONG (USA) DURAMENTE (JPN) ENDURING SPIRIT (GB) EPIPHANEIA (JPN) HARBINGER (GB) HATHAL (USA) JUST A WAY (JPN) KARAKONTIE (JPN) KINSHASA NO KISEKI (AUS) KITASAN BLACK (JPN) KIZUNA (JPN) LIAM’S MAP (USA) LORD KANALOA (JPN) MANIACO (GB) MAURICE (JPN) MIKKI ISLE (JPN) MOHAYMEN (USA) MONDE CHAT LUNA (JPN) NADAL (USA) NEW YEAR’S DAY (USA) ORFEVRE (JPN) OSCAR PERFORMANCE (USA) QUALITY ROAD (USA) QURBAAN (USA) REAL STEEL (JPN) REY DE ORO (JPN) RULERSHIP (JPN) SATONO DIAMOND (JPN) SATURNALIA (JPN) TAMARKUZ (USA) THE FACTOR (USA)

STANDS JPN MOR JPN USA JPN JPN JPN MOR JPN JPN MOR JPN USA JPN JPN JPN USA JPN MOR JPN JPN USA MOR JPN JPN JPN USA USA USA JPN JPN JPN JPN JPN USA USA

The stallions listed above stood OUTSIDE THE EBF AREA IN 2021 and have been registered as EBF International Stallions.

The progeny of these stallions, CONCEIVED IN 2021, (the foal crop of 2022), will be eligible to enter and run in EBF races to be held during 2024 and thereafter, with no further nomination payments.

Further details from the Chief Executive, European Breeders’ Fund.

Chasemore Farm

XXXX

Andrew Black with Eartha Kitt and her filly foal by Camelot at his Chasemore Farm in Surrey

36

THE OWNER BREEDER

Pursuit of

HAPPINESS Andrew Black has refined his approach to breeding and racing at Chasemore Farm, with a community-focused outlook that extends to his roster of trainers and employees alike Words: Edward Rosenthal • Photos: Bill Selwyn

I

“

don’t think there’s a huge difference between the mental process of selecting a horse to back and selecting a stallion for your mare.

There’s a lot of overlap in that thought process.” Andrew ‘Bert’ Black is reflecting on the similarities between betting and breeding having just finished giving the guided tour of his Chasemore Farm in Cobham.

It’s a crisp spring morning in March and many of the broodmares on the impressive 330-acre property have recently foaled, or are due to foal at any moment, providing an unmistakable air of optimism in the Surrey countryside.

For Black, who revolutionised betting in Britain by launching the Betfair exchange with Ed Wray in 2000, Chasemore Farm represents his love of the sport of horseracing, a serious investment in an age when the British owner-breeder is said to be in terminal decline.

The animals on the property – and their pedigrees – reflect a man who has always backed his own judgement in his business ventures. Fourteen years ago, before a horse had barely set foot on the farm, Black told this magazine that bloodlines on these shores were becoming “a little bit stale”, as he explained why he had invested in two filly foals by Japanese sire Deep Impact.

His natural inclination to think outside the box continues to this day as, sat with wife Jane in the stud office, he expands on his thoughts about

breeding thoroughbreds.

“When you look at a mating, you picture it as preferring to have either a filly or a colt,” Black explains. “For me you want to have a filly that has a slightly distorted pedigree – that might be an outcross or inbred to an unusual animal.

“Most interesting mares have pedigrees that I consider to have a certain distortion that you are looking to correct with a good mating. So you would almost look for that deliberate distortion.

“Look at Kenzadargent – she has almost no Northern Dancer in her at all. She is inbred to a couple of unusual horses in Kalamoun and Gay Mecene.

“We went to Japan years ago and bought two Deep Impacts and one by Kurofune. They have low numbers of inbreeding in Japan. I’m very conscious about inbreeding, looking at the way we breed.

“I’m more concerned about it not so much for individual horses but looking further into the future – it’s important to have variety in your gene pool. I don’t mind looking to other countries in order to get hold of that.”

He continues: “The most interesting observation I have made from breeding that impacts my thinking is from dogs.

For example, if you want to have a Labradoodle, you have one parent that’s a Labrador and the other parent that’s a Poodle. Then you’ll have a consistent result because a certain

THE OWNER BREEDER

37

››

Chasemore Farm

›› number of genes will always come out

one way for you. All Labradoodles look very similar.

“If, however, you mate two Labradoodles, then there’s a huge genetic variety to their paths – they could come out looking like a Labrador or a Poodle, and almost anything in between, because the dominant recessive relationship from the first mating is lost in subsequent matings.

“When you have horses that are very different, bringing them together you can get consistent results that you wouldn’t get if they were very similar to each other.”

The aforementioned Kenzadargent, a daughter of Kendargent out of the Epistolaire mare Quiza Bere, has had

38

THE OWNER BREEDER

two runners so far and both are blacktype performers.

Taipan, by Frankel, was sold for €500,000 at Arqana and has shown useful form over middle distance and staying trips, while the Black-owned Brad The Brief, a Dutch Art gelding, is a Group 3-winning sprinter who remains in training aged five.

Kenzadargent was purchased for 210,000 guineas at Tattersalls in 2015 yet the sale ring is not the only route to securing a high-class broodmare.

Baldovina, who established a legacy at Chasemore through her late daughter Ceiling Kitty, was picked up for just £17,000 after finishing third in a claiming race at Lingfield in 2007.

Ceiling Kitty, produced to a mating

with Red Clubs, won the 2012 Group 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot and retired after her two-year-old season.

Tragically she died foaling her third offspring, Arthur Kitt (by Camelot), who had to be resuscitated following emergency caesarean, yet amazingly he recovered from that shocking start to life and emulated his mother by triumphing at the royal meeting, in the 2018 Chesham Stakes.

In leaving Chasemore with her daughters Eartha Kitt (Pivotal) and Formidable Kitt (Invincible Spirit), Ceiling Kitty will continue to influence the farm’s future, and Black is aware how much luck can play a part in the fortunes – or otherwise – of a breeding outfit.

From l-r: Pat Sells and Fred Meyrick with Eartha Kitt’s filly foal by Camelot, Jane and Andrew Black with Eartha Kitt, Nathan Minnett with Wall Of Sound’s colt foal by Sea The Moon, and Patrick Souberbielle with Wall Of Sound

He says: “Baldovina, who we subsequently sold to King Power Racing [for £300,000], didn’t produce another Ceiling Kitty. We got very lucky.

Ceiling Kitty had three foals, and they were all good.

“In my first year in breeding, when I was making the decisions myself, I had three mares, two of which were Wall Of Sound and Ceiling Kitty. Both went on to become proper foundation mares for this stud. That’s when I didn’t have a clue what I was doing. I don’t know how you make sense of that.

“I’ve spent a lot of money on more expensive animals that haven’t worked out. Yet so much of the success here came from a time when I was learning and didn’t know an awful lot.

“If we don’t have strong sales this place doesn’t work. It’s nice that we don’t have to prop Chasemore up now.

I don’t want to pretend that we’re making fortunes but we’re turning a small profit.”

New strategy

A semi-commercial operation, with the majority of the colts offered at auction – Eartha Kitt’s yearling colt by Kingman was purchased by Godolphin for 525,000gns at Book 1 last year – and the fillies retained for breeding, Chasemore is instigating a new strategy with some of its horses in training this season.

Black has co-owned Manor House Stables in Cheshire for over a decade,

“Manor House Stables doesn’t really work for us because it’s too far away” yet he is currently in the process of selling his stake to Michael Owen, with whom he campaigned a number of top horses, including Irish St Leger winner Brown Panther.

Owen recently took the decision to replace Tom Dascombe with Hugo Palmer, who has made the move north from Newmarket having established a reputation as one of the best young trainers in the country.

While he plans to keep a horse in training at Manor House for the foreseeable future, Black is keen to support his local training community and to that end has decided to send a couple of homebreds to the Epsom stables of Simon Dow and Jim Boyle.

“I want to keep having a relationship with Manor House Stables but not as an owner of the yard,” Black explains.

“I’ll sell my half back to Michael at some point soon and have an agreement to do so. I’m still friendly with Michael – I’ve always got on very well with him. But it doesn’t really work for us because it’s too far away.

“We have reached out to Epsom. We know the town is not the force it was.

It hasn’t had the same level of support [as other training centres] and some of the facilities are a bit run down, which is a problem. We have been part of a campaign to get reinvestment in some of those facilities, such as the gallops, and to try and get the Jockey Club to up its game.

“I have sent three-year-old gelding Woe Betide [Siyouni-Kenzadargent] to Simon Dow and a two-year-old colt [Le Havre-Clotilde] to Jim Boyle.

They could be anything. We’re trying to be part of something, although the concern about Epsom is the quality of animal is not what you would want it to be. So we are sending a few of our nicer animals to be trained there.

“We think Epsom has a natural community and we want to be more closely involved and supportive of that. Ultimately the facilities must receive investment for us to send more

THE OWNER BREEDER

39

››

Chasemore Farm

Black with Sassy Dresser and her colt foal by Zoustar

›› horses there – we have sent two in the

hope that will bolster the argument for improvement.”

That sense of wanting to be part of a community extends to the working practices at Chasemore Farm itself.

When Paul Coombe departed as general manager in 2018, it was decided not to replace him. Instead, Black and Jane took on additional responsibilities, aided by stud vet Pat Sells and farm manager Jack Conroy.

Black says: “All our staff members carry a card on them referencing the values of the stud: integrity, professionalism and community. It was a big reorganisation after Paul left and we became much more focused on organisational structure, safety and HR. “It sounds like a trendy mission statement, but we really believe it. If at any stage anybody does anything inconsistent with our values, then it gets raised at a board meeting.

“For a long time, the farm was a little bit military, an autocratic regime almost.

Orders were barked down. It creates efficiency but not good karma. We believe that a stud should be a place of peace and harmony.

“We want to train the staff and bring them on so that when they leave here,

40

THE OWNER BREEDER

they’re better qualified for bigger jobs.

The shift into community thinking was an effort to try and make this place calmer and happier. A lot of studs and training operations are not like that – I don’t knock it and lots of people are comfortable in that regimented environment.”

Jane, who has just completed her

“We believe that a stud should be a place of peace and harmony” Thoroughbred Horseracing Industries MBA from the University of Liverpool, explains: “Sometimes your employees are new to the area, often coming from overseas, so you do have a duty of care to your staff.

“I was a lawyer previously and I’ve always been interested in the employment angle. My dissertation

was on employee retention in breeding.

Training yards struggle to retain staff but so do studs.

“The main issue it seems is the working pattern and achieving a happy work-life balance. Staff here work one weekend in three – we want to make Chasemore Farm a pleasant place to work as it helps in attracting the right calibre of staff.”

Talent drain

Aside from the staffing crisis, British racing faces a number of challenges, including the perennial debate about poor prize-money, which continues to see a ‘talent drain’ as foreign buyers pick off the choicest youngstock at the sales plus assorted horses in training.

Black understands only too well the mindset of the owner who receives an offer they cannot refuse – his talented homebred Uncle Bryn, formerly with John Gosden, is now stabled in Melbourne with Trent Busuttin and Natalie Young, having sold a 50 per cent share in the Sea The Stars gelding to Seymour Bloodstock.

He says: “Australian racing has so much money. The situation doesn’t seem to have an obvious resolution – there simply isn’t enough money here.

You can’t apply the same economic rationale to racing in the UK as you do in Australia.

“An international audience is what you need at the sales, which is a positive, but more horses are leaving these shores and we don’t want to see any further erosion of the product.

We’ve got to push forward, and I believe we need more support from the government.

“Inevitably change needs to occur and we will need to move away a little from our history and adapt to the 21st century. We need to have people at the head of the game who really empathise with the sport and are forward-looking.

“If our only plan is to sit here looking at our history, desperately trying to preserve it at all costs, we’ll have a hard landing. Maybe we have too many small racecourses and races. We must embrace economic reality, whatever that means.”

The ongoing Gambling Act Review is another bone of contention for Black. Echoing the view of ROA President Charlie Parker in this month’s

xxxx

Leader column, he feels that imposing xxxx restrictions on an individual’s right to wager would be a concerning development for a sport that relies on betting turnover to fund the levy system.

“I’m a little worried about the affordability checks,” he explains.

“Racing needs betting to generate revenue and the numbers are falling, more sharply than I’ve seen before.

It’s because people are fed up with the affordability checks. The impact is starting to hit. If at some point the levy money starts to fall it will have a huge impact across the whole industry.

“Maintaining gambling turnover where it’s always been and keeping racing’s percentage up is a challenge.

People have also voiced concerns about the rise of the black market – I don’t know if that’s true.

“Joe Saumarez Smith will take over as Chair at the BHA and it’s an interesting appointment. I believe that racing needs to be as commercial as possible. For a while we have not been focused on the commercial aspects and I hope Joe as Chairman will shift that axis back

because to me it’s mostly about money.”

Finances aside, it’s foals, pedigrees and runners – plus the odd game of bridge, as he continues to represent England in tournaments around the world – that mainly occupies the thoughts of Chasemore Farm’s founder, who is sticking to a strict healthcare regime following a period of ill health, much to the relief of Jane and their four children.

“I suffered a heart attack at Christmas – it was the best thing that could have happened to me,” Black remarks. “I didn’t have either the resolution or discipline to lose the weight that I needed to shift. I’ve lost three and a half stone in two months. That’s a big difference to me physically. It was absolutely a wake-up call.

“If you’re running a stud where it’s all about keeping the animals healthy and getting the feed and exercise right, yet you’re not looking after yourself, that’s not a very good sign. It’s been interesting to impose the sort of discipline on myself that we impose on our horses.”

DINK Fee 2022: £3,000

Only breeding son of Poliglote One of 4 active stallions in UK to have sired G1 or G2 winner over jumps in 2020/21.

10 time winner including Spanish 2000 Guineas.

Sire of Multiple graded winner Nube Negra.

Alne Park Stud, Park Lane, Great Alne, Warwickshire B49 6HS 07464 633 938 info@alneparkstud.com www.alneparkstud.com Follow us @alneparkstud

THE OWNER BREEDER

41

British EBF 2yo Series

A shot in

THE ARM Owners of two-year-olds by middle-market stallions will have the opportunity to target a lucrative bonus this year thanks to the launch of the British European Breeders’ Fund 2yo Race Series, to be run at Goodwood and York

E

very cloud has a silver lining they say, and out of the bleakness of the Covid pandemic has emerged the opportunity for more prize-money to filter back into the system.

Come the end of 2020 and the British European Breeders’ Fund (EBF) was in possession of a small surplus of funds following the reduction of racing during the virus-ravaged season. As has been the ethos behind the EBF since it was established in 1983, that money is now going to be put to good use, with a plan in place for it to be channelled back into racing via a new and lucrative race series for the two-year-old progeny of middle-market stallions.

The British EBF 2yo Series will be run for the first time this year with a total prize fund of £200,000 split equally across two seven-furlong finals, one for fillies at Goodwood on Tuesday, September 6, and another for colts and geldings to be held at York on Friday, October 7.

The initiative has won support from trainers for its inclusive nature.

There are no early closing entries and therefore no early deadline payments to be made. Nor are there any additional entry fees.

Instead, a horse needs only to run in the first six in a restricted novice or maiden race to ensure eligibility.

As over 100 such races are scheduled prior to the finals, starting at Pontefract

42

THE OWNER BREEDER

in April, there will be no shortage of opportunity for owners and trainers to qualify their horses.

“The EBF had allocated £1.68 million into prize-money in 2020,” says Rachael Gowland, Marketing and Communications Manager of the EBF. “Obviously there was a lot of uncertainty at the time but we ended up placing £1.4 million into the system that year, which was really pleasing.

“But that meant there was a small surplus left over and we all felt that it shouldn’t be placed in our reserves – we wanted to do something constructive with it and support the industry following such a critical period.”

And so the British EBF 2yo Series was born. “The idea was to make it as inclusive as possible but we were also keen to focus it towards the progeny of middle-market stallions,” says Gowland.

When a number of two-year-old auction and median auction races were phased out in 2021, they were replaced by restricted races. Twoyear-olds qualify through an auction value at a recognised yearling sale or breeze-up sale. If not sold through the ring, they qualify through their sire’s median auction value. Horses are then organised into bands against their respective values; Band A caters for horses in the £50,001 - £80,000 bracket while Band D represents those in the £1 - £15,000 bracket.

››

GEORGE SELWYN

Words: Nancy Sexton

York will host the second of two £100,000 finals for colts and geldings on October 7

THE OWNER BREEDER

43

British EBF 2yo Series Restricted races are framed so that horses in different bands can race against each other, and where applicable, a horse in a lower band receives a 2lb allowance against its higher-banded rivals.

Goodwood and York have backed the initiative with enthusiasm, with both pledging the full financial support requested by the British EBF in their tender process by match-funding the organisation’s £100,000 contribution.

“We all share a commitment to British racing and are pleased to have created the two new six-figure targets for juveniles,” says William Derby, York racecourse Chief Executive and Clerk of the Course. “Modern sport is about creating development pathways for emerging talent and this innovative series seeks to further reward owners, horsemen and breeders as well as creating compelling and competitive racing.

“It is a great option for younger horses and potentially those connections who are in the early stages of their experience of our sport.”

It is hoped that the timing of the races not only gives trainers and owners a lucrative target to aim at but will also encourage them to reinvest at the yearling sales.

“The Trustees of the British EBF were keen to make sure that the surplus was re-focused to do the maximum good it could for the industry,” says Simon Sweeting, Chairman of the British EBF. “This series not only provides tantalising prize-money targets but also aims to add the EBF’s weight to encouraging owners to reinvest at the yearling sales. With no early closing

HOW IT WORKS British EBF 2yo Race Series 2022 • £200,000 total prize fund split across two finals • £100,000 Fillies’ Final to be held over 7f at Goodwood, Tuesday, September 6 • £100,000 Colts and Geldings’ Final to be held over 7f at York, Friday, October 7 To qualify, two-year-olds must run in the first six places of a restricted novice or maiden race.

There are over 100 qualifying races. Prize-money is paid down to eighth place.

44

THE OWNER BREEDER

David Menuisier: “a great initiative for middle-market horses”

BILL SELWYN

››

stages and over 100 chances to qualify a horse, we hope that owners and trainers will support this new initiative.”

By all accounts, those hopes are well on the way to being met, with various trainers quick to signal their interest, among them Kevin Ryan.

“Such initiatives are a great reward for owners who have supported the industry through the pandemic and give great optimism for the Flat season ahead,” he says.

“We very much look forward to competing in both the series and, hopefully, both finals with our current crop of two-year-olds, who are shaping up nicely for the season ahead.”

It has also attracted the attention of fellow Group 1-winning trainer David Menuisier, who trains not far from Goodwood in Pulborough.

“The British EBF has created a series that all trainers will want to have horses running in,” he says. “It is a great initiative for middle-market horses and gives them a valuable end of season target.”

He adds: “The finals being normal closing races makes a big difference and prevents a slower-developing horse

from being penalised.”

Racing has proven time and time again its ability to self help, the Great British Bonus Scheme [whereby the connections of a qualified winning British-bred filly or mare receives a bonus of up to £20,000] being one of the most recent successful examples.

Another successful initiative, the Irish EBF Ballyhane Stud Stakes at Naas, has also caught the imagination. In fact so popular is this six-furlong event, which is likely to be worth €300,000 in 2022 and is open to juveniles by an EBF sire whose median sales price is no more than €75,000, that consolation races have been run against both its renewals to date.

In addition, a number of auction incentives are also out there to be won, such as the £25,000 Tattersalls October Book 1 bonus.

The British EBF 2yo series is another string to that bow of self-help initiatives. Accessible and inclusive, it promises to provide owners with a meaningful reward, making it a very welcome addition to racing’s landscape at a time when prize-money remains under pressure.

The value of the EBF

Line Of Duty: Grade 1 winner broke his maiden in a ‘Future Stayers’ novice at Goodwood

the progeny of stallions and mares who won over ten furlongs or more.

As with the latest two-year-old series, Goodwood assumes a key role as the host of several of these staying races and must take pride in a roll call of recent winners that includes subsequent Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Line Of Duty and Derby runner-up Khalifa Sat. While the majority of EBF money goes towards the Flat, a share is also spent on jump racing, including on EBF Finals Day at Sandown in March.

“The race programme is something we’re looking at all the time, whether a certain race is working or if there are other areas we can look at

GEORGE SELWYN

Few organisations are as acutely aware of the issue of woeful prizemoney in this country than the European Breeders’ Fund, which has been at the forefront of the debate since it was formed in 1983.

The EBF was set up primarily in response to the announcement that the Levy Board would be cutting back its contribution to maiden races.

At around the same time in America, the Breeders’ Cup scheme had been launched with great success. A selfhelp initiative that derived its income from stallion fees, it did its part to revitalise racing in the US to aid the suggestion that something along similar lines could work effectively in Europe.

The EBF operates by collecting annual contributions from stallion owners equal to the average value of that stallion’s nomination. Those with stallions who cover larger books are required to pay a greater sum – up to three times the standard contribution for those covering in excess of 121 mares.

The money is redistributed as a form of sponsorship and in return, the progeny of those participating stallions are eligible to compete in EBF-supported races; the fact that over 75 per cent of maiden and novice races in Britain today carry EBF status underlines just how crucial the organisation has become to the industry.

A horse by a non-participating stallion (most of whom are likely to be international) can be also made eligible via a contribution up to June 30 of its two-year-old year.

The first EBF-supported race was run in April 1984. Since then, it has contributed just under £40 million to prize-money in British racing.

It supports over 700 races on the Flat and 80 National Hunt races.

Racecourses have to be running at minimum values to receive EBF funding.

In addition to numerous novice and maiden races, the list includes a number of high value fillies’ handicaps, the Carrie Red Fillies’ Nursery at Doncaster’s St Leger meeting being a notable example. It has also thrown its weight behind a programme of ‘Future Stayers’ novice and maiden races, which are open to

supporting,” says Rachael Gowland.

“As for prize-money, we’re able to measure where the money goes.

That’s vitally important – if a stallion owner wants to ask us about the allocation and where it is all going, we can account for it straight away.”

The EBF has stood the test of time. Indeed, a number of today’s participants would be unable to recall a time when its sponsorship wasn’t part of racing’s fabric. That is a testament to its success, its quiet yet firm presence within the sport. Yet it also allows for the threat of complacency. It is worth remembering how much poorer racing would be without it.

THE OWNER BREEDER

45

STALLIONS, RACING CLUB, TRAINING AND SPELLING

NUNSTAINTON STUD DRAGON DANCER

KINGSTON HILL

By Sadler’s Wells ex. Alakananda

l

l l l

By Mastercraftsman ex. Audacieuse

Consistent Group Level Performer over 12f, incl. beaten a short head in the 2006 Derby.

Sire of Winners under Both Codes.

Top class pedigree, looks, confirmation and temperament.

One of a few remaining stallions by the great SADLER’S WELLS.

l l l l

Unbeaten Group 1 winning 2yo.

Classic Winner & Champion Stayer in Europe at 3.

Already a Sire of Winners under Both Codes.

Exciting books of progeny ahead.

Fee: £2,000

Fee: £1,500

CANNOCK CHASE

NORSE DANCER

By Lemon Drop Kid ex. Lynwood Chase l

l l l

Group Winner over 10/12f, incl. Canadian International at Woodbine.

Oldest Crop just turned 4.

Sire of Winners under Both Codes.

4 NH runners to date (1 won 2 placed).

By Halling ex. River Patrol

l l

l

Winner of his first two 2yo races.

Group winner and placed, incl. 2nd in the Irish Champion Stakes and 3rd in the 2000 Guineas.

Proven Black-Type Producer under Both Codes, including YANWORTH and NORSE KING. Fee: £2,000

Fee: £1,000

For further details contact; Chris Dawson: Gypsy Lane, Ferryhill, Co. Durham, DL17 0LG www.nunstaintonstud.com • Facebook: Nunstainton Stud • Tel: 07796 530084

The source of last year’s Group 1 winners Native Trail, Perfect Power, Trueshan... ...who will you find at this year’s Breeze Up Tattersalls Craven

Goffs UK Doncaster

Tattersalls Guineas

Arqana May

Tattersalls Goresbridge

11-13th April

19-21st April

26-28th April

12-13th May

18-19th May

Perfect Power

Native Trail

DURABILITY

46

sales?

THE OWNER BREEDER

VALUE

Trueshan

SUCCESS

www.br zups.com

Breeders’ Digest

Nancy Sexton Bloodstock Editor

‘If you have dreams, you have to commit and go for it’

GRACE MUIR

I

f ever any inspiration was needed of the satisfaction that young people can gain by working in this industry, then look no further than Dulcie West.

West was crowned this year’s winner of the Stud Staff category at the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards in February in recognition of her role as pupil assistant at North Farm Stud.

The Wantage-based operation is home to well over 100 horses during a busy season, ranging from stud stock to exracehorses passing through its HEROS retraining and rehoming programme.

Under the stewardship of the stud’s director Grace Muir, West is a key player within the retraining and riding arm, having worked her way through the ranks from her original part-time role.

Yet along the way, she has had to overcome great adversity, notably a stroke that weakened her left hand.

“I met Grace in 2009 and used to come to the stud during weekends and school holidays,” says West. “I’d never been around horses before so in the first year I got to grips with the health and safety and started riding in 2010.

“I started working at the stud in 2018 and that’s when I really got into the retraining and the breeding side.”

Muir belongs to a family steeped in racing as the daughter of Ian Muir, who bred the 1969 Cheltenham Gold Cup winner What A Myth and stood top stayer Buckskin and Lockinge Stakes winner Supreme Sovereign at his nearby Fawley Stud. Thoroughbred breeding remains part of North Farm Stud today but through HEROS, established as a charity in 2006, it is also a longestablished leader when it comes to the rehoming of ex-racehorses. It has also won many fans for its range of educational programmes, all of which involve interaction with the stud’s equine residents. Indeed, the BHA recognises HEROS as a bespoke ‘Route to Racing’.

“In 2015 with help from The Racing Foundation, we were able to set up our education arm,” says Muir. “We have special educational needs children coming through and we’ll start them off with cobs. But we try to get them on to thoroughbreds as soon as we can because they are amazing with children – they are far more intuitive and will

Dulcie West with Dave’ll Do, a youngster she is now helping to bring on at North Farm Stud

interact with them in the most amazing way. We’ve had a lot of success and our students are now going out into the industry and doing really well.”

It was in this environment back in 2018 that West was able to embark on a Level 3 apprenticeship in Horse Care at Senior Groom level. Several months ago, she passed with distinction – achieved despite the adversity that at times has been thrown in her way.

“School wasn’t easy as I was bullied – I’d do everything I could not to go,” says West. “And then in 2015, I had a stroke, potentially from a fall. I was sent to Great Ormond Street Hospital but even after a lot of tests they couldn’t give me an answer as to why it happened. It has affected my left hand and I now use it differently to other people. But I can still use it – I think if you have dreams that you want to achieve, then you have to commit and go for it, get over the fact that something might have happened.

“I really enjoy the retraining. You never get a thoroughbred that isn’t willing to learn. They’re kind, versatile and always try their best.”

Muir adds: “Dulcie has worked really hard on her riding and she rides now to a really high level. And we’ve done a lot of work to get her hand stronger. She’s an integral game player, all my owners like her and she has an important role as my assistant. I wouldn’t want to run the stud

now without her.”

Muir is also quick to pay tribute to the support of Godolphin.

“How lucky are we to have Godolphin supporting this?” she says. “Godolphin are also partners with the HEROS Enrichment Programme [designed for 11 to 16-year-old students who are not coping in mainstream school and need to learn in a different environment].

They are amazing. An award like this is a massive thing for staff.

“The racing industry is very much a family and we as an organisation try to instil that into people, to help them understand what a brilliant network racing has. There are so many jobs and so many different things people can do.”

For West, her role at North Farm Stud is one where she continues to thrive.

She has forged a good relationship with ex-racer Shipping Forecast, with the pair having recently qualified for the Retraining of Racehorses regionals. Then there is Dave’ll Do, a two-year-old Adaay filly she helped foal and is now bringing on ahead of her entry into training.

“I think it takes a lot for people to come into our industry because you’re dealing with big animals, which can be daunting,” says West. “But if they’re brave, confident and committed, then they’ll be fine. You have to enjoy it and be loving to the animals. It’s a job I love and I look forward to doing it every day.”

THE OWNER BREEDER

47

Sales Circuit • By Carl Evans

Four-year-olds add further spice to healthy point market Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale

TATTERSALLS CHELTENHAM

Willmount: Comea winner commanded £340,000 to join Neil Mulholland

Mags O’Toole: signed for the Walk In The Park gelding Shannon Royale

TATTERSALLS CHELTENHAM

sold for notable sums as store horses.

The market liked each horse, and it required a bid of £340,000 by Bath trainer Neil Mulholland to secure the Colin Bowe-consigned Willmount, while Shannon Royale left Denis Murphy’s stable bound for Gordon Elliott after Mags O’Toole lowered the hammer with an offer of £300,000. Shannon Royale had been bought by Murphy for €100,000 as a store.

O’Toole could not name the new owner of Shannon Royale, but Mulholland was acting for investment manager Olly Harris, who owns this season’s Finale Juvenile Hurdle winner Porticello.

Five-year-old Captain Checkdown from Andrew Latta’s yard forced a

TATTERSALLS CHELTENHAM

Tattersalls held its second Cheltenham sale of 2022 in late February, when four-year-old point-to-pointers were added to the mix.

They tend to be the most highlyvalued age group, for they give prospective owners and licensed trainers an additional year in which to assess their merit and work on a racing strategy. It was therefore no great surprise that a pair of four-year-olds finished first and second in the table of prices.

The duo had also filled the first two places in a race at Comea in County Tipperary 11 days before their ring appearance, with Willmount defeating Shannon Royale by two lengths. They had therefore shown clear signs of ability, they were sons of leading sires Blue Bresil and Walk In The Park, and they had

dead-heat in an Irish point-to-point and then sold for £180,000 at this sale to trainer Tony Martin, while Glamorgan trainer Evan Williams gained four-yearold Out Of Office with a bid of £160,000. He too had been a winner on debut, scoring at Belharbour under trainer Rob James, who is based in County Wexford.

From a catalogue of 37 horses, 33 found a buyer (89 per cent) and eight were sold for a six-figure sum. The sale was not held in 2021 due to Covid restrictions, but turnover of just over £2.7 million was an increase of 15 per cent on the 2020 sale. The average price in 2018 and 2019 had been in excess of £100,000, and while the latest average could not match the figures gained in those two years it rose five per cent on the 2020 mark when reaching £82,364.

The median was unchanged at £60,000.

Shannon Royale: originally bought for €100,000, he resold for £300,000

Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale Top lots Name/age/sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (£)

Buyer

Willmount 4 g Blue Bresil – Youngstar

Milestone Stables (Colin Bowe)

340,000

Neil Mulholland Racing

Shannon Royale 4 g Walk In The Park - Shannon Rose

Ballyboy Stables (Denis Murphy)

300,000

Margaret O’Toole

Captain Checkdown 5 g Getaway - Come On Rosie

Ballinakill Stables (Andrew Latta)

180,000

Bloodstock Accountancy Services

Out Of Office 4 g Shirocco - Shuil Dorcha

Rob James Racing

160,000

Evan Williams

Well Dick 5 g Well Chosen - Midnight Benefit

Moate Stables (Mick Goff)

135,000

Highflyer Bloodstock

Figures Year

Sold

Aggregate (£)

Average (£)

Median (£)

Top price (£)

2022

33

2,718,000

82,364

60,000

340,000

2020

30

2,367,000

78,900

60,000

215,000

2019

25

2,542,000

101,680

66,000

400,000

48

THE OWNER BREEDER

Tremendous racing and top-quality performances during the first three days of the Cheltenham Festival would have given any well-heeled buyer of jumpers desire to find the next Constitution Hill or Honeysuckle.

This sale provided an opportunity, and since the aforementioned pair of equine talents started life in the Irish point-to-point field, horses from that sphere were in strong demand. Yet traders of British point-to-pointers gained plenty of cheer through sales of two horses in particular.

This was another auction which was returning to action after a fallow, Covid-related 2021, and once again it stood out among Cheltenham sales run

by Tattersalls. The average price has been in six figures since the company took on the event from Brightwells in 2016, coming in this year at £145,783.

The median achieved £120,000, while turnover of £3,353,000 had been narrowly bettered at this auction only once before in 2019. Twenty-six horses walked the ring and 23 (88 per cent) found a buyer.

Fillies grabbed much of the glory headed by four-year-old Kudasheva, who was sold for £370,000 to Honeysuckle’s trainer Henry de Bromhead. A daughter of Pour Moi, Kudasheva had won a point-to-point on debut at Ballycahane in County Limerick just ahead of the sale and her catalogue page showed that her dam – who won on the Flat in France – was a half-sister to Cheltenham Gold Cup winner Don Cossack.

Kudasheva was owned by her breeder, David Connors, who passed up

TATTERSALLS CHELTENHAM

Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale

Henry de Bromhead went to £370,000 for the top lot, Ballycahane winner Kudasheva

opportunities to sell her as a foal or store and sent her to County Tipperarybased Pat Doyle to try the point-topoint route. The outcome justified the method.

Ireland is surfing a wave of success at all levels of jump breeding and racing, and while Britain could boast some excellent results at the Cheltenham Festival, the team from across the Irish Sea proved strongest. Trainers from Ireland are happy to secure good young horses produced in Britain – Queen Mother Champion Chase winner Energumene being an example – and they lifted one such gem at this sale.

Four-year-old filly Kap D’Attente, a daughter of Kapgarde trained by Tom

Ellis to win on debut at Brocklesby Park in Lincolnshire, had been bought last year by her trainer for £30,000 at Goffs UK’s Spring Sale. At this event she was knocked down to Peter Molony for £160,000, a record for a filly from Britain’s point-to-point circuit. Her next stop was destined to be a place alongside Honeysuckle at Henry de Bromhead’s stable.

She might carry the Honeysuckle colours of Kenny Alexander, although Molony chose not to say for whom he was acting.

Gordon Elliott gained two prized Irish point-to-point assets in the form of four-year-old Better Days Ahead, who sold for £350,000, and five-year-old Stellar Story, who made £310,000.

Better Days Ahead, who will carry the Bective Stud colours of Noel and Valerie Moran, was consigned by Northern Ireland trainer Warren Ewing on behalf of himself and his brother-in-law Barry Geraghty. The same two men had bought Constitution Hill as a foal from Worcestershire breeder Sally Noott for €16,500 and then sold him to racehorse owner Michael Buckley for £120,000 after he had finished second in an Irish point-to-point.

Another good result for vendors of British point-to-pointers came through

TALKING POINT • Former Flat jockey Ted Durcan has become a familiar buyer of Flat horses-in-training on behalf of Middle Eastern buyers, but he was a new face at this sale of jumpers.

His bid of £240,000 secured Irish pointer Peaky Boy, by Kayf

Tara, and he subsequently said the gelding would be joining Michael Scudamore, who trains near Rosson-Wye in Herefordshire. It was a first public link-up between the agent and trainer, and it will be interesting to see whose colours Peaky Boy will carry.

Tattersalls Cheltenham Festival Sale Top lots Name/age/sex/breeding

Vendor

Price (£)

Kudasheva 4 f Pour Moi – Daboya

Suirview Stables (Pat Doyle)

370,000

Henry De Bromhead

Better Days Ahead 4 g Milan - Bonnie And Bright

Bernice Stables (Warren Ewing)

350,000

Bective Stud/Gordon Elliott

Stellar Story 5 g Shantou - Bally Bolshoi

Monbeg Stables (Donnchadh Doyle)

Peaky Boy 4 g Kayf Tara - Joanne One

Ballyboy Stables (Denis Murphy)

Alfie’s Princess 5 m Shirocco - Dunahall Queen Salt Rock 4 g Soldier Of Fortune – Saltbarrow

310,000

Buyer

Gordon Elliott Racing

240,000

Durcan Bloodstock

Greenhills Farm (Ross O’Sullivan)

220,000

Walters Plant Hire/Jean and James Potter

tation Yard (Fran Poste)

205,000

Kim Bailey

Figures Year

Sold

Aggregate (£)

Average (£)

Median (£)

Top price (£)

2022

23

3,353,000

145,783

120,000

370,000

2020

15

2,195,000

146,333

115,000

300,000

2019

21

3,410,000

162,381

150,000

400,000

THE OWNER BREEDER

49

››

Sales Circuit ›› the sale of four-year-old gelding Salt

directly out of the British point-to-point field. Interconnected (£220,000) and Ramillies (£215,000) head that table, the pair having been sold at past editions of the Festival Sale by Tom Lacey.

Some solid results for Tattersalls might have been even better if waterlogging had not claimed a point-to-point at County Down on the

Rock, a £38,000 store who was trained

by Fran Poste to win at a meeting in Dorset just ahead of the sale. Kim Bailey took a shine to this fine, big future chaser and against stiff competition he made the decisive bid of £205,000.

That was the best ring result for Poste and her husband Charlie, and put Salt Rock third on the list of horses sold

The North American breeze-up market roared into life with the two-day Ocala Breeders Sales’ Company’s (OBS) March Sale in Ocala, Florida, writes Nancy Sexton.

Following a two-year absence of million-dollar horses, the seven-figure barrier on this occasion was broken not once but four times. The average of $133,418 represented a rise of 14 per cent from 2021 while the median increased by 25 per cent to $75,000. Along the way, there were a number of impressive pinhook scores, among them a first-crop son of American Triple Crown hero Justify, who sold for $425,000 having been sourced for just $25,000 by vendor Parrish Farms as a yearling, and a first-crop son of Preakness Stakes winner Cloud Computing, who blossomed from a $50,000 yearling into a $560,000 two-year-old for vendor Paul Sharp.

The sale-topping More Than Ready colt was another such horse. Ciaran Dunne of Wavertree Stables, signing as Lehigh Bloodstock, paid $120,000 for the youngster at last year’s Keeneland September Sale and was well rewarded as, aided by a furlong breeze of 9.4 seconds, he resold for $1,200,000 to prominent owner Kaleem Shah. Two-year-

OBS

OBS March Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale

A $125,000 pinhook, this More Than Ready colt sold for $1,200,000 to Kaleem Shah

old auctions have been a happy hunting ground in the past for Shah, who picked up future Grade 1 winner Klimt at this sale in 2016 and other top performers such as Bayern and Dortmund out of FasigTipton.

As ever when it comes to high-end North American bloodstock trading, Into Mischief was never far from the action, in this instance as the sire of two million dollar lots. There was a home run for vendor Eddie Woods in a colt out of Zapara, a $180,000 pinhook who realised $1,100,000, while Chester and Mary Broman will stay in on their homebred colt out of Grade 1 winner Artemis Agrotera following his sale for $1,000,000 to Spendthrift Farm and the BSW Crow

weekend before the meeting. That left just one Irish fixture in County Wexford, and from it came five-year-old mare Alfie’s Princess, a daughter of Shirocco who scored at that meeting for trainer Ross O’Sullivan. She was sold for £220,000 to Dai Walters and James and Jean Potter, and will join the South Wales yard run by ascending trainer Sam Thomas.

Colts Group. It was at this sale in 2006 that B. Wayne Hughes, the late owner of Spendthrift Farm, paid $180,000 for Into Mischief; 16 years on and Spendthrift is in possession of a record-breaking stallion who remains in huge demand worldwide.

A key feature was the level of international trade, notably from Japan.

The Into Mischief colt out of Zapara was one of seven purchases worth $3,550,000 made by Japanese trainer Hideyuki Mori, while Katsumi Yoshida came away with five two-year-olds worth a total of $1,760,000.

Saudi Arabian interests, no doubt buoyed by the achievements of Saudi Cup hero Emblem Road, a graduate of OBS’ June Two-year-old Sale, were also extremely active as was the BBA Ireland, which signed for six horses worth $940,000.

A European flavour was also added by a smattering of yearling pinhooks out of Goffs. While not every one was successful, Niall Brennan did turn a profit on his Invincible Spirit filly out of Seeharn, a €100,000 Orby purchase who will race in Japan after reselling for $225,000 to Toshiyuki Fukumori. Similarly, Top Lines Sales’ first-crop daughter of US Navy Flag was knocked down to Alex Cole for $200,000 having been sourced out of the Orby Sale for €100,000.

OBS March Two-Year-Olds in Training Sale Top lots Sex/breeding

Vendor

c More Than Ready - Broad Spectrum

Wavertree Stables, Inc.

1,200,000

Price ($)

Buyer KSI

c Into Mischief - Zapara

Eddie Woods, agent

1,100,000

Hideyuki Mori

f American Pharoah - Just Parker

Top Line Sales LLC

1,000,000

Donato Lanni, agent

c Into Mischief – Artemis Agrotera

Sequel Bloodstock

1,000,000

Spendthrift, BSW/Crow Colts Group

c Bolt d’Oro - Foolish Cause

Top Line Sales LLC

900,000

Hideyuki Mori

Figures Year

Sold

Aggregate ($)

Average ($)

Median ($)

Top price ($)

2022

371

49,498,000

133,418

75,000

1,200,000

2021

325

37,790,000

116,831

60,000

750,000

2020

295

27,349,500

92,170

50,000

650,000

50

THE OWNER BREEDER

 Share in three horses for only €385 / £325 per month  Experience the thrills of ownership for a fraction of the cost  Prize money paid to you each time one of your horses earns

 Full information at:

 Irish Champion Apprentice Dylan

www.lechracing.co.uk/lech-racing-club/

Browne-McMonagle is our LECH Racing Ambassador

 Regular pictures, videos and updates from Joseph and Gary

about your horses

 Included social events free.

LECH members enjoy hospitality at Oaks Day (Epsom) St. Leger Day (The Curragh) and Opening Day (Cheltenham)

 Stable visits included and some great tips on our members group, last year

included a 50/1 winner!

1 - Grandmaster Flash Ultra-consistent 96 rated handicapper with 14 top three finishes from 25 starts. He’s targeting the all-weather championships marathon race in April and some nice staying handicaps over the summer in Ireland. (Joseph O’Brien)

2 - Libby Bought out of Phillip Makin’s yard after an impressive 2nd at Beverley, this tall, rangy filly has muscled up nicely over the winter and really started to fill her frame. Currently rated 69 she’ll be aimed at a summer campaign. (Joseph O’Brien)

3 - Time to Burn After an impressive debut, this filly had a few niggles and disappointed in her summer races. Since transferred to the in-form Gary Moore she is now back to full work and moving nicely. Rated 63, she’ll target some all-weather races before getting back on the grass tracks over the summer. (Gary Moore)

Join LECH Racing Club before 1st May to qualify for Oaks day hospitality

Caulfield Files

Landmark anniversaries serve to celebrate two turf greats U ntil the magnificent Frankel took the racing scene by storm, anyone could have been forgiven for wondering whether the days of truly exceptional racehorses were a thing of the past. In achieving his eye-watering ratings of 143 in 2011 and 147 in 2012, Frankel had become only the seventh horse in Timeform’s extensive history to earn a rating of over 140. His emergence ended a void of 46 years, as the previous six superstars – Tudor Minstrel, Abernant, Ribot, Mill Reef, Brigadier Gerard and Sea Bird II – had all been born either in the 1940s, ’50s or ’60s.

Coincidentally, 2022 marked landmark anniversaries for two of these luminaries.

February 27 marked 70 years since the birth of Ribot, the unlikely Italian hero who triumphed in all 16 of his races, including the 1956 King George by five lengths, and the 1955 and ’56 editions of the Arc, the latter by six lengths. And March 8 marked 60 years since Sea Bird II was foaled in France for breeder Jean Ternynck.

Unlike Frankel and Ribot, Sea Bird didn’t retire unbeaten but some would argue that he should have done. The story goes that he was somewhat unlucky when meeting his sole defeat, in the Grand Criterium, when he failed to catch his more experienced stablemate Grey Dawn, already a clear-cut winner of the Prix Morny and Prix de la Salamandre.

But let’s not concentrate on the one setback in an otherwise glorious career.

All three of Sea Bird’s strong-finishing efforts as a juvenile suggested that he would be much more effective over middle distances and his pedigree supported this theory. Although his sire, the American-bred Dan Cupid, had shaped like a sprinter at two, he showed a very different facet to his talents in the Prix du Jockey-Club over a mile and a half, keeping on so bravely that the highly talented Herbager won by only a shorthead. Sea Bird’s broodmare sire, Sicambre, had stayed even better, winning the Prix du Jockey-Club as well as the 15-furlong Grand Prix de Paris.

Never asked to tackle less than 2,100 metres as a three-year-old, Sea Bird never came close to defeat in his five starts. He gave a hint at what was to come when he romped home six lengths clear of Diatome (future winner of the

52

THE OWNER BREEDER

Sea Bird: 60 years since the birth of the brilliant French colt

Washington D.C. International) in the Prix Lupin. This effort resulted in his starting a clear favourite to win a 22-runner edition of the Derby and his supporters never had cause to worry. Always travelling extremely easily, he swept past the leaders in a matter of strides and would have won by substantially more than the official two-length margin had he not been eased.

He was just as impressive in the Arc, even though his 19 opponents included Reliance, Diatome and Carvin, the first three from the Prix du Jockey-Club, Meadow Court, who had followed up his Derby second with victories in the Irish Derby and the King George, and the top American colt Tom Rolfe, a Ribot colt who numbered the Preakness Stakes among his nine victories from 12 threeyear-old starts in his native land. There were also several accomplished four-yearolds, including winners of the Prix Ganay and Coronation Cup. Even though Sea Bird veered markedly to his left in the closing stages, he still had six lengths to spare over Reliance, the previously unbeaten winner of the Jockey-Club, who in turn had five lengths to spare over third-placed Diatome.

So Ribot and Sea Bird had plenty in common during their racing careers and their stallion careers also ran along parallel lines, up to a point. Ribot spent his first two seasons at Lord Derby’s Woodland Stud in Newmarket, followed by two more in Italy, but he was virtually unproven when his owners accepted an

offer to lease him for five years to John W. Galbreath of Darby Dan Farm in Kentucky. Even though he was believed to be paying $300,000 a year to lease Ribot, Galbreath soon had evidence that the money was being very well spent. His first crop produced Molvedo, who followed in his sire’s footsteps by easily winning the Arc in 1961. Then Ribot’s second crop was led by the top miler Romulus, with the third doing even better, thanks to Ragusa. In winning the Irish Derby, Eclipse, King George and St Leger, Ragusa played a leading role in securing Ribot the 1963 sires’ championship. The last of Ribot’s four European crops also struck gold, with Prince Royal becoming his second winner of the Arc. Ribot earned two more sires’ championships, with Ribocco being largely responsible for the second title in 1967, thanks to his victories in the Irish Derby and St Leger and a second in the Derby. Ribot repeated the magic a year later, this time with Ribero, also winner of the Irish Derby and St Leger. There were also Classic victories for Long Look (1965 Oaks), Boucher (1972 St Leger) and Regal Exception (1972 Irish Oaks).

By the time Ribot gained his second and third championships, he could theoretically have been repatriated to Europe. However, he was proving similarly successful in the US, thanks to such as Tom Rolfe (champion three-year-old colt of 1965) and the exciting Graustark (the second highest-rated juvenile of 1965).

Ribot was later to be represented by Arts

Bloodstock world views And Letters, 1969’s Horse of the Year, so it was understandable that Galbreath and Darby Dan were tremendously keen to retain him. And retain him they did, with the lease being renewed in 1965. The reason given was that Ribot had become so temperamental that it was feared he might injure himself on the journey back to Europe. Judging by the colourful stories about the stallion’s extraordinary quirks, the danger was real, not fabricated.

But that wasn’t the only lease entered into by Darby Dan in 1965. A five-year deal was arranged with a syndicate of American breeders for Sea Bird to join Ribot, reportedly at a cost of £95,000 per year. Timeform commented that “it is a great pity that he was not allowed to remain in training for another season, and an even greater pity that he was allowed to fall into American hands. After five years his first crop will have raced as three-year-olds, and the Americans will have had ample opportunity of deciding whether to honour the terms of the lease, or to discover that he is ‘too temperamental’ to be returned home. One fears that we have seen the last of him.”

The fact that Sea Bird died in his native France suggests that, unlike Ribot, his abilities as a sire did not match exceptional talent as a racehorse. This strikes me as harsh, as it is expecting a great deal for a phenomenal racehorse to develop into an equally phenomenal stallion. Even Frankel had to convince the doubters after the initial flush of enthusiasm had worn off.

Numbers game

These superstars from different generations illustrate perfectly how much the breeding industry has changed over the decades. Frankel is currently credited with 920 foals of racing age, all conceived by the time he was 11. Ribot, on the other hand, is credited with siring a total of 428 foals during a career which saw him sire the last of his stakes winners at the age of 20. He is variously credited with siring 64, 65 and 67 stakes winners. Whichever it is, it still amounts to a prodigious figure of around 15 per cent.

Sea Bird had a much shorter innings, succumbing to colitis shortly after passing his actual 11th birthday. He left only 175 foals, of which more than 30 – equivalent to more than 18 per cent – became stakes winners. That is not the record of a failure, or anything like one.

In retiring ten years later than Ribot, Sea Bird found himself in an American industry which was already becoming obsessed with speed and precocity, at the expense of stamina. This was hardly

ideal for a horse who reserved his best efforts for 2,100 and 2,400 metres.

Sea Bird must also have had to overcome some questions about his pedigree. Admittedly American breeders would have loved the fact that he was a grandson of Native Dancer, a two-time Horse of the Year whose only defeat in 22 starts was his second in the 1953 Kentucky Derby. But his sire Dan Cupid hadn’t won a major race and he was to sire only a handful of Group 1 performers.

Then there was the extraordinary statistic that none of Sea Bird’s first five dams was a winner under rules on the Flat.

Sea Bird’s dam Sicalade showed some talent, finishing second of 26 on her second of her two starts. One sensationalist aspect of Sicalade’s story is that she reportedly ended up being sold for £100 as butcher’s meat, after she had been suffering increasing circulatory problems with each foaling. To put a more positive slant on Sea Bird’s pedigree, both his grandsires had been outstanding performers and his second dam was a sister to Camaree, who had landed the 1950 1,000 Guineas for Monsieur Ternynck.

“Sea Bird left behind 175 foals of which more than 30 were stakes winners” It didn’t take long for Sea Bird to draw attention to himself as a stallion. His first crop, born in 1967, featured the strapping Gyr, who beat all bar Nijinsky in the Derby.

Gyr inherited his sire’s impressively long stride and used it to win the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. Another colt from this first crop was Great Heron, a short-head second in the Irish 2,000 Guineas.

There wasn’t a great deal to shout about in Sea Bird’s second crop, and none of the three Group/Graded winners in his third crop managed to score at the top level, racing in 1972. It is easy, then, to understand why Sea Bird the stallion was deemed to be falling short of the standards set by Sea Bird the racehorse.

Cruelly, it was Sea Bird’s fourth and fifth crops, born in 1970 and 1971, which would really have put him on the map, but his death in early 1973 meant that he wasn’t able to capitalise on his success with the likes of Allez France, Sea Pigeon

and Little Current. Their glory days largely came after his death, though Allez France did win the 1972 Criterium des Pouliches in spectacular style. Allez France shone at up to 12 furlonga notably winning the 1974 Arc, and Little Current also stayed well, taking the title of champion three-yearold colt in 1974, when he landed the second and third legs of the Triple Crown.

Needless to say, the much-loved Sea Pigeon also appreciated a test of stamina, winning the Ebor and two editions of the Chester Cup. Incidentally, Little Current was one of seven Group/Graded winners (and a total of ten black-type winners) in Sea Bird’s fifth crop. Don’t forget that his seven full crops contained little more than 170 foals, an average of around 25 foals per crop.

So who wouldn’t have wanted to breed to him when he returned to France, where the structure of racing was likely to play to his strengths? The chances are that Sea Bird would have added more outstanding performers to his tally, had he lived.

Fortunately, his last full crop included Arctic Tern. This winner of the 1977 Prix Ganay shared with Northern Dancer and Halo the distinction of having a daughter of Almahmoud as his dam, and he too developed into a champion sire. Thanks to the Prix de Diane winners Harbour and Escaline and 1986 Prix du Jockey-Club winner Bering, Arctic Tern sired a Classic winner in three of his first five crops.

Unfortunately, his early success also led to American interest and he joined the exodus from France in late-summer 1983.

Another son, Glacial Storm, was second in the 1988 Derby but Arctic Tern’s American sojourn was to prove less productive than his years in France.

Bering, of course, was given the chance to keep the Sea Bird line to the fore, but he too started his stallion career in the US before being returned to France. He enjoyed Classic success, with Pennekamp, Matiara and American Post respectively winning the 2,000 Guineas, the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches and the Poule d’Essai des Poulains.

This meant that Sea Bird, his son Arctic Tern and grandson Bering were all Classic sires, and great-grandson American Post would have also achieved that distinction had Liliside not been disqualified after the 2010 Poule d’Essai des Pouliches. Sadly, though, all good things come to an end, and that appears to be the case with the Sea Bird male line, in much the same way that the male line descending from Ribot has gradually faded away during the era of the all-conquering Northern Dancer line.

THE OWNER BREEDER

53

Dr Statz

After an early foal? The data behind foaling dates

54

THE OWNER BREEDER

GEORGE SELWYN

T

hose of you faced with the task of buying foals or yearlings on a regular basis will recognise the indeterminate number of mental calculations that need to be made when assessing any young prospect. For some, one of those could be foaling date, especially if its pedigree suggests that it ought to reach its full potential as a two-year-old rather than later on in its career. A speedily-bred youngster with an early foaling date would surely be ideal if you want to strike early and perhaps put yourself in a position to have a go at one of the big Royal Ascot two-year-old contests? Well, the data suggests that it’s not as straightforward as that.

In a study of over 150,000 foals born in Britain and Ireland over a period of ten years from 2008 to 2017 that sought to examine their effectiveness as two-yearolds, the results were certainly interesting. Perhaps the biggest take away is that you can be too early with a foal. Those foaled in January were at a distinct disadvantage compared to their February- and March-foaled counterparts. This will not surprise most of us, as we all know how a harsh winter month can curtail the development of a young foal – from preventing it getting valuable exercise to the lack of spring grass for its mother.

Although January-foaled two-yearolds only made up 11 per cent of the total sample, the findings were based on 16,803 individuals – certainly a robust sample size on which to base some worthwhile conclusions.

The first thing to note is the fact that fewer January foals than February and March foals even make it to the racecourse as two-year-olds – 32 per cent compared to 46 per cent among February foals and 39 per cent of the March foals. That is quite a significant reduction given the perceived advantage they have over their younger rivals. Even when they do make it to the racecourse, they are less likely to win than February and March foals, as our strike-rates of 31.5 per cent, 34.3 per cent and 33.2 per cent suggest. True, these differences are less significant, but when stacked up against the number of foals they become very stark indeed.

A study on foaling dates revealed that early-born foals aren’t always the most successful

The two-year-old winner-to-foal percentage for January foals stands at just 10 per cent, compared to nearly 16 per cent for those born in February and the 13 per cent in March. It’s an identical story for percentage juvenile stakes horses from foals – 3.4 per cent among those born in January and counter intuitively very nearly double that rate at 6.2 per cent among February foals.

March-foaled two-year-olds, with their 4.9 per cent stakes horses from foals, are also comfortably clear. In fact, April foals, with 3.2 per cent, are just about as successful as January’s.

We can also detect the same patterns using Timeform ratings, with January foals failing to post the highest average rating, as one might expect. January notwithstanding, all other months line up in a logical way, February, March, April and May producing 15.8 per cent, 13.0 per cent, 9.3 per cent and 3.4 per cent juvenile winners to foals, plus 6.2 per cent, 4.9 per cent, 3.2 per cent and 1.1 per cent juvenile stakes horses to foals.

So, to summarise, it seems getting your mare pregnant on the earliest possible cover is demonstrably not the best way to go. It’s also patently clear that later foals are also compromised to one degree or another by their lack of maturity when it comes to two-year-old racing.

But what are their prospects of catching up through their three-year-old

season? Well the short answer is that they do not recover the lost ground, certainly not to the degree we might expect. January foals still cannot match the rates of success of those born in the following two months.

Your probability of getting a threeyear-old winner from a January foal stands at 46.2 per cent, up from the 31.9 per cent at two, but again well below the 61.1 per cent of February foals and the 52.9 per cent of those with a birthdate in March. Moreover, it’s not just January foals that cannot make up lost ground, it’s also those foaled in April and May, and they do not have the excuse of having had to deal with a harsh winter in their early life. Their strike-rates of 18.7 per cent and 9.2 per cent are rather disappointing given the extra time they have had to mature.

These trends are also manifest in the black-type scores of the various groups, the five monthly totals panning out at 6.5 per cent, 11.2 per cent, 9.1 per cent, 6.7 per cent and 3.2 per cent. And things don’t get any better when you examine the record of the various groups as older horses, the winner-to runner and stakes horse-to-runner rates following a very similar downward spiral after February.

So why, after three years on the racecourse, should there be any discernable difference in the performance of various racehorses based solely on the month they were

John Boyce cracks the code GB-IRE FOALS 2008-2017: PERFORMANCE BY FOALING MONTH – TWO-YEAR-OLDS

Month

Age

Foals

% Total

Runners

% Rnrs-F

Winners

% W-F

% W-R

BTH

% BTH-F

% BTH-R

January

2YO

16,803

11.0

5,353

31.9

1,687

10.0

31.5

568

3.4

10.6

February

2YO

22,959

15.0

10,577

46.1

3,626

15.8

34.3

1,418

6.2

13.4

March

2YO

37,299

24.4

14,615

39.2

4,849

13.0

33.2

1,822

4.9

12.5

April

2YO

47,088

30.8

14,565

30.9

4,358

9.3

29.9

1,509

3.2

10.4

May

2YO

28,627

18.7

3,870

13.5

987

3.4

25.5

325

1.1

8.4

GB-IRE FOALS 2008-2017: PERFORMANCE BY FOALING MONTH – THREE-YEAR-OLDS

Month

Age

Foals

% Total

Runners

% Rnrs-F

Winners

% W-F

% W-R

BTH

% BTH-F

% BTH-R

January

3YO

16,803

11.0

7,770

46.2

3,378

20.1

43.5

1,085

6.5

14.0

February

3YO

22,959

15.0

14,021

61.1

6,425

28.0

45.8

2,563

11.2

18.3

March

3YO

37,299

24.4

19,741

52.9

8,939

24.0

45.3

3,376

9.1

17.1

April

3YO

47,088

30.8

20,270

43.0

8,826

18.7

43.5

3,159

6.7

15.6

May

3YO

28,627

18.7

6,190

21.6

2,641

9.2

42.7

911

3.2

14.7

GB-IRE FOALS 2008-2017: PERFORMANCE BY FOALING MONTH – FOUR-YEAR-OLDS +

Month

Age

Foals

% Total

Runners

% Rnrs-F

Winners

% W-F

%W-R

BTH

% BTH-F

% BTH-R

January

4YO+

16,803

11.0

5,284

31.4

2,739

16.3

51.8

303

1.8

5.7

February

4YO+

22,959

15.0

9,781

42.6

5,275

23.0

53.9

906

3.9

9.3

March

4YO+

37,299

24.4

14,003

37.5

7,446

20.0

53.2

1,154

3.1

8.2

April

4YO+

47,088

30.8

14,282

30.3

7,446

15.8

52.1

1,034

2.2

7.2

May

4YO+

28,627

18.7

4,732

16.5

2,364

8.3

50.0

309

1.1

6.5

GB-IRE FOALS 2008-2017 BY % BLACK-TYPE HORSES TO FOALS PER FOALING MONTH

GB-IRE Foals 2008-2017 by %BTH-Foals per foaling month 11.2

January February March April May

9.1

6.7

6.5

6.2 4.9

3.9

3.4

3.2

3.2

3.1 2.2

1.8 1.1

2YO born? I must admit I have one extra theory that I’m sure plays a significant part in the phenomenon. During many hours looking at broodmare reproductive patterns, I have noticed that the progeny of mares, particularly younger mares, with no breaks in production, tend to have better

1.1

3YO

4YO+ outcomes on the racecourse. I can see that very same pattern in the data I have chosen for this study. Racehorses with both a year older and a year younger sibling are over 60 per cent more likely to be a stakes horse than a runner whose dam was barren both the year before and the year after it was born.

In fact any break in production seems to have an adverse effect on the foals either side of that break.

Now, there are many reasons why this might be, ranging from the benefits of having a more equitable temperament of pregnant mares nursing a foal at foot compared to less patient barren mares, right through to the possibility of a change in the constituents of a mare’s milk once she becomes pregnant.

Clearly, this is an area that requires further study, but whatever the reason, there is no denying that the existence of siblings the year before and the year after has a huge beneficial effect on the athletic ability of a racehorse.

Assuming then that this is the case, ask yourself this question: what months of the year is this scenario most likely to play out? Common sense tells us that if your foal is late, there is less likelihood of the mare getting pregnant again. And our data bears this out, with only 58 per cent of mares in our study producing a May foal going on to produce a foal the following year. Compare this to the 68 per cent of mares producing February foals that then have a foal a year later.

Could it be that when we talk about the effect of foaling dates on performance, we are really talking about something quite different.

THE OWNER BREEDER

55

ROA Forum

The special section for ROA members

TAX MADE EASY WITH ROA VAT SOLUTION

M

aking Tax Digital (MTD) came into effect for all VAT-registered businesses on April 1. Racehorse owners are no longer able to submit their VAT returns directly through their business government gateway account.

Racehorse owners will be required to establish a connection between their MTD compliant software and their VAT registration number, as well as keeping digital records of VAT documents from the first day following the end of their pre-MTD VAT period.

How do I sign up to MTD?

You can authorise ROA VAT Solution as your appointed VAT agent and we will take care of your MTD sign up, digital document storage, compilation, and submission of your MTD VAT returns.

How do I appoint ROA VAT Solution as my agent?

Complete a copy of our Agent Flyer and send it to vat@roa.co.uk.

What does the racehorse owners VAT scheme bring to the horseracing industry?

The racehorse owners VAT scheme

56

THE OWNER BREEDER

STEVE DAVIES

Ben Clarke, trainer of talented stayer The Galloping Bear, is a big fan of the Tote/ROA Owner Sponsorship Scheme

was agreed between HM Revenue & Customs on March 16, 1993 and enables racehorse owners to register and recover their racing-related VAT with HMRC. As a racehorse owner, you are eligible to reclaim your racing-related VAT under the scheme if you meet the following conditions: The ownership entity owns a minimum share of 50% in your racehorse(s); Racehorse(s) must be registered in the relevant ownership with the BHA; Racehorse(s) must be registered under the care and control of a UKbased licensed trainer; Third-party sponsorship is required for all horses under the registration scheme for racehorse owners.

Registering for VAT enables owners to reclaim a significant proportion of their ownership costs as well as any VAT payable on the capital cost of purchasing the horse. The average saving per owner, per year, in VAT is over £4,700, based on the average racing-related expenses and excluding any VAT incurred on the purchase cost.

How can the ROA help you with your racing VAT?

Sponsorship The ROA provides Tote sponsorship for members who have horse(s) in training.

Securing Tote sponsorship enables owners to register for and reclaim VAT on racing costs through the scheme.

Trainer Ben Clarke, who sent out The Galloping Bear to win the Grade 3 Grand National Trial at Haydock in February, explained the importance of the Tote/ROA Owner Sponsorship Scheme for a small yard like his. He said: “It’s imperative to be honest.

Without it, it would put a huge strain on myself and the owners. We’re incredibly grateful for their support and all of the benefits that come with it.”

To find out more about the Tote sponsorship scheme please visit www. roa.co.uk/sponsor.

ROA VAT Solution

The Racehorse Owners Association launched ROA VAT Solution to provide a bespoke VAT service for racehorse owners. With over 20 years’ experience in the scheme, our dedicated VAT team are on hand to guide you on VAT

New contact details:

www.roa.co.uk • 01183 385680 • info@roa.co.uk @racehorseowners

RacehorseOwnersUK

Racehorseownersassociation

matters throughout every stage of your ownership journey.

A Plus Tard’s Cheltenham Gold Cup success under Rachael Blackmore helped Cheveley Park Stud to secure leading owner status

What can ROA VAT Solution do for you?

New and existing VAT registrations From start to finish, we take care of the whole process – all you need to do is complete our Agent Flyer and send it to vat@roa.co.uk.

MTD sign up and compliance Once instructed as your appointed VAT Agent, we will sign your VAT registration up to MTD, store your VAT documents digitally in HubDoc, and compile and submit your returns via our MTD compliant partner software XERO. Bespoke financial reporting Whether you are a sole owner, partnership, or syndicate with one or multiple horses, we can provide a detailed breakdown of income and expenditure, profit and loss and partnership/syndicate member share value on request. Our reporting is also compliant with the BHA’s syndicate Code of Conduct financial reporting requirements.

HMRC liaison HMRC will contact us directly if they have any queries regarding your VAT returns. No home visits or retrieving historic paperwork.

Complete transparency You will have access to your VAT return at any time through your bespoke Xero & HubDoc organisations, only accessible to you and the ROA VAT Solution team.

If you have any additional queries, concerns or would like to discuss MTD, the scheme or VAT further, please email vat@roa.co.uk or call 01183 385 685 to speak to Davina or Glen.

Owner focus at the Festival Every year the Cheltenham Festival attracts thousands from around the world to experience the heartthumping excitement of racing, as the brilliant and moving stories of owners big and small and their horses play out at Prestbury Park.

Once again the ROA helped to put owners at the heart of Cheltenham Festival coverage over the course of the four days. For a second year we sponsored the Leading Owner Awards, won for the second successive year by Cheveley Park Stud, whose three wins were capped with the fantastic success of A Plus Tard in the Cheltenham Gold Cup. We also repeated our ROA Owner of the Day initiative, where one lucky owner a day was recognised and their story shared on the day their horse ran. We would like to thank all four owners and connections for sharing their stories, and they are curated at roa.co.uk/news: Tommy’s Oscar, Ian Hamilton Editeur Du Gite, Steve Preston

Ballyandy, Steve Wignall, Options O Porticello, Olly Harris Charlie Liverton, Chief Executive of the ROA, said: “Every time we see a winning owner at Cheltenham it shows you the pure ecstasy that being an owner can bring. It is always a fantastic advert to anyone thinking of getting into ownership. The ROA is simply here to help people on that journey and make sure the sport understands the value owners provide on a daily basis.”

As usual the ROA marquee at the Festival was of one the most popular gatherings for members during the year. After last year’s hiatus, members were once again able to convene in our facility, ideally located in the old tented village area, and were able to take part in our usual free daily tipping competition, offering £100 in Tote bet credits and a pair of tickets to a Totesponsored raceday.

Competition was typically strong so congratulations to our winners William Brindle, Nicky Rushman, Mark Nunn and Craig Blackburn.

HAVE YOUR SAY ON THE ROA BOARD At this time of year we start to invite members to stand for election to the ROA board. This is an exciting time for the ROA with considerable work under way across the industry, be that supporting on corporate governance reform, equine welfare or funding, as well as focusing on tackling the major challenges racing faces.

As we continue our shift to a skills-based board, we will be looking for candidates that can demonstrate key skills across technology, communications and finance to fill the two board vacancies. The ROA is looking for candidates that are passionate about horseracing, who can draw on their area of expertise to help us improve the ownership experience and

shape the future of our industry.

Board terms would commence from the 2022 ROA AGM in September this year and successful candidates would be expected to attend board meetings eight times a year. Board members serve a four-year term, after which they can stand for re-election.

Over the coming weeks we will communicate directly with ROA owners about the next steps of the election process for 2022, but if you would like further background or information relating to the skills-based approach or board member obligations please do not hesitate to contact Chief Executive Charlie Liverton at cliverton@roa.co.uk.

THE OWNER BREEDER

57

ROA Forum

Improving the raceday experience

The raceday experience is important to all owners

The ROA is pleased to announce that the ROA Racecourse Quality Mark and ROA Gold Standard were reactivated from March 2022 as we look to continue our work to improve the raceday experience for owners and other attendees.

The ROA sees the racecourse experience as a huge part of ownership and vital to retaining and attracting owners and spectators now and in the future. The Racecourse Quality Mark reflects the importance of the

ROA’s work to engage racecourses in the feedback from owners, which has continued throughout the pandemic.

Charlie Parker, President of the ROA, said: “We have seen time and again in our surveys that the raceday experience is so important to owners. We are focused on trying to improve standards and facilities across the UK. It is good for the whole of racing, attracting new fans, new owners and new investment.

“Ultimately, we know that to compete

internationally and grow we need to keep improving the experience and the Quality Mark will support that work. We are looking forward to working with the racecourses on the reactivation and giving owners and spectators the facilities they deserve.”

Despite the pandemic, the ROA has continued to engage with owners, racecourses and attendees to inform the latest criteria, which has been built upon since 2019. Working alongside racecourses, the newly restarted scheme will look to further improve racecourse facilities with new, clear and improved parameters that create a 360-degree raceday experience that accommodates all types of owners, from syndicates to super owners.

Owners are encouraged to submit their racecourse experience feedback to the ROA to support the Racecourse Quality Mark scheme at www.roa.co.uk/ feedback.

The key updates to the scheme relate to: Pass mark – The 2019 ROA Quality Mark was developed with a ‘pass mark of 60%. In order to recognise the evolution of the Quality Mark and service expectations, the ROA has recommended that the 2022 Quality Mark is awarded on the basis of achieving a score of 70%.

Prize-money – The 2022 ROA Quality Mark will assess prize-money levels in reference to minimum values, with bands and scoring according to a racecourse average daily surplus percentage. This measurement will be

Open days in Lambourn and Middleham Following a hiatus of two years due to the pandemic, the ever-popular Good Friday open days will once again take place in Lambourn and Middleham on April 15. The open days provide a unique opportunity to visit trainers’ yards and come face to face with the horses and trainers along with stable staff and jockeys.

LAMBOURN For over 30 years the Lambourn open day has supported local charities including the Lambourn Valley Housing Trust and the Thames Valley Air Ambulance. As well as the yards being open to visitors, there will be a parade of equine heroes and racehorse schooling, with top jockeys also getting involved in the

58

THE OWNER BREEDER

showjumping and camel racing in the afternoon!

Tickets cost £15 per person on the day with children under 12 free. The yards are open from 8.30am until 1pm.

Visit lambournopenday.com for more information.

MIDDLEHAM Shuttle buses have been arranged at the latest Middleham open day to transport visitors around the 12 yards open on Good Friday, which include the new trainer combination of Mark and Charlie Johnston. Car parking will be available on Middleham Low Moor (DL8 4RH), on the Coverham road out of Middleham, The Busks on Leyburn Road out of Middleham (DL8 4PP), and at Tennants in Leyburn (DL8

Mark Johnston will open his stable doors on April 15

developed collaboratively.

Measurement against 2019 recommendations – Reference will be made to the recommendations delivered to racecourses in the 2019 ROA Quality Mark reports, and whether these have been considered and delivered against.

Covid protocols – The impact of any potential future Covid measures will be incorporated as required within the 2022 ROA Quality Mark.

ROA Gold Standard – Racecourses achieving 80% or above are to be assessed separately. The top-performing racecourses would also receive recognition via an ROA Gold Standard.

These would be awarded by the ROA Gold Standard Committee with reference to Quality Mark scores, ROA member feedback and reference to NARS racecourse assessments.

Pre- and post-raceday – The 2022 ROA Quality Mark will assess delivery of the raceday experience before and after the raceday. For many, this is equally important to making owners feel valued, from the direct correspondence outlining what to expect on the day and meeting their needs, to a simple follow up thank you.

ROA visits – An additional racecourse visit could be undertaken by the ROA if deemed necessary to understand and allow the promotion of best practice in top performing racecourses, or to review and support courses in need of additional development.

Awards – Racecourses will receive plaques for the ROA Quality Mark and ROA Gold Standard where relevant.

5SG), as parking is not permitted to the public at any of the yards.

From 2pm on Middleham Low Moor, teams of stable staff from the yards across the town will be competing against one another to decide who will be crowned the leading yard in Middleham, with challenges including the White Rose Saddlery Tug of War, the Bishopton Vets Relay and the Wensleybale Bale Push.

Be sure to head to the arena on the Low Moor from 1pm where there is a display from local retired racehorses, a dog show, and the coveted inter-yard challenge. Tickets are £12.50 when booked in advance and children under 12 are free. Visit middlehamopenday.co.uk for more information.

Chelmsford City has linked up with Irish Thoroughbred Marketing to offer new incentives this year

Racecourse news Chelmsford City boosts purses

Racing at Chelmsford City has received another boost to prizemoney with a new link up with Irish Thoroughbred Marketing, which is contributing €120,00 of bonus and sales incentives across 12 races in 2022.

As part of this initiative Chelmsford City’s two Listed races, the Chelmer Stakes and Queen Charlotte Stakes, will be included in the ‘IRE Incentive’ scheme. They will form part of a series of races with a €10,000 Irish sales voucher attached for the owner if the winner is Irish-bred and foal levy compliant. These €10,000 sale vouchers can be used when travelling to Ireland to purchase similarly IREqualified stock.

Chelmsford City, which lost a number of meetings due to storm damage in February but was due to race again at the end of March, will join York, Doncaster, Newbury and several other prominent racecourses as a part of ITM’s British sponsorship portfolio.

The ROA is delighted to announce an extension to the pre-booked admission scheme with the inclusion of Chelmsford City racecourse. This scheme was developed for ROA members who are non-registered owners in syndicates and racing clubs, and offers admission to a number of race meetings throughout the year.

To book these tickets, members should log into the members area of the ROA website, click through to the ROA Pre-Booked Admission Scheme and then select Chelmsford City from the list of participating racecourses.

There you will find the application form and list of excluded fixtures. Please note that the deadline is 4pm, two weekdays prior to the race meeting to be attended.

Hamilton Park’s new team

Ashley Moon and Fiona Murdoch will be the new leadership team at Hamilton Park following the announcement in December that Vivien Currie MBE will step down to take up the role of Chief Executive of Ascot racecourse.

Ashley has been appointed as Managing Director whilst Fiona has been appointed as Managing Director of the Hampton by Hilton Hamilton Park Hotel alongside her role as Group Finance Director for the resort.

Sir Ian Good, Chairman of Hamilton Park, said: “Ashley and Fiona have played an integral part in the development of both the racecourse and the hotel and are already directors of the parent company. I am confident they will deliver further success across the resort.”

The Lanarkshire racecourse has also announced that prize-money is set to exceed £1.6m for the first time as part of increased investment in the race programme, as well as an enhanced offering to visiting owners.

This summer will see a number of firsts for Hamilton Park, including their richest ever raceday, the Sky Bet Sunday Series, on Sunday, May 8 worth £200,000, and the richest single race, as it has been confirmed that the historic Lanark Silver Bell will be run as a heritage handicap worth £100,000 on Friday, August 26.

New bar for owners at Ascot

A new exclusive trackside viewing bar for owners and trainers with runners on the day is now open at Ascot racecourse. The bar will offer casual track viewing in a relaxed atmosphere, with complimentary tea and coffee and a fully stocked bar, on all racedays outside of Royal Ascot.

THE OWNER BREEDER

59

ROA Forum

MAGICAL MOMENTS

Sue Howell is flying high with Eider Chase heroine Win My Wings

W

hen a trainer enjoys the best half-hour of his progressive career, as Christian Williams did with a 1-2 in the Coral Trophy at Kempton followed by success in the Eider Chase at Newcastle, the focus understandably is on them, rather than the owners.

It is still a little too much like that generally, though the media is getting better, assisted by the ROA, and certainly on Williams’ super Saturday the owners of his big-race double went under the radar – despite the trainer’s best efforts to divert attention.

For the owner of Eider Chase heroine Win My Wings, Sue Howell, the victory capped a few notable days of her own, as she had enjoyed a first and second at Ludlow through Duneomeno and Groom D’Oudairies just before.

It was good to see the Eider – which can be the most hard-to-watch race of the year, given often gruelling conditions – contested by 16 runners, with an incredible 14 finishing the four-mile test on good to soft ground.

Win My Wings, who made the 600-mile round trip from Williams’s Glamorgan base with Potters Corner, who was unable to contribute to the diesel and service station pies as he trailed home in rear, started favourite having scored at Exeter the time before and gelled immediately with Ryan Mania to win by a length and three-quarters.

Howell’s white, black and yellow silks are familiar – asked how many horses she has owned in all, her reply is “too many!”

– and as a big supporter of racing the success was fully deserved, her previous big-race triumph having come when the Evan Williams-trained Tiger O’Toole won the 2011 Grade 2 Holloway’s Hurdle at Ascot, Explaining her route into racing and ownership, she says: “Brought up with cattle, sheep and horses, there was never a dull moment as a child, and I have loved horses for as long as I can remember.

“From a young age I went through Pony Club, competing in local shows, eventing and hunting. Family summer holidays were on the south Devon coast, where we were taken racing as children

60

THE OWNER BREEDER

Sue Howell with trainer Christian Williams and nine-year-old mare Win My Wings, gutsy winner of the Eider Chase in February

– I have two older brothers – to Devon & Exeter and Newton Abbot, so the racing interest began at a young age.

“My mother and father always had horses. In my late teens I began point-topointing as an owner, qualifying horses myself, then moving on to horses under Rules, which I have continued to enjoy for 20-plus years.

“It’s a family affair, with my son Jason, daughter Amy, and their partners, Paige and Edward, not forgetting my partner Mark; we all have passion for the sport and the love of horses.”

Business as well as pleasure is a family affair, which of course underpins their involvement in racing.

“In a nutshell, our business is recycling,” says Howell. “To expand

“Any winner is fabulous and gererates the desire to reinvest again” on that, I am co-owner in our family business under the banner of Wye Valley Group, comprising waste management, metal recycling, quarrying and secondary aggregate production, demolition and architectural salvage.

“Year on year, the companies have grown and my role is varied but predominantly finance. For just under five years now I have been a board member of British Metals Recycling Association; my true passion in business is around metal recycling.”

Howell’s runners this season have been handled by Williams and Worcestershire-based Henry Oliver, and the owner says of her choice of trainers: “Working with trainers that we can relate to and communicate well with has always been high on our list of priorities.

“In recent years, supporting younger trainers has become important.

Christian Williams and Henry Oliver

have previously both been successful jockeys and have much enthusiasm and ambition. They have both achieved great results so far and are both true horsemen and great characters.

“Supporting Henry with his first ever winner as a trainer was really quite something, and following on have been more winners, both Flat and National Hunt, plus the desire for many more future runners and winners.

“Christian has proved himself to be a very successful young trainer, achieving victory in bigger feature races. His decision to run Win My Wings in the Vertem Eider was quite a surprise, which paid off handsomely for a nine-yearold mare who was a reasonably-priced purchase.”

She adds: “Dual-purpose trainer Ian Williams is not to be forgotten either, with proven success over the years.

That has also come through Milton Bradley, David Evans, Evan Williams, John Spearing, John O’Shea, Graeme McPherson and Bernard Llewellyn.”

Howell has enjoyed more than 70 winners under both codes, so there have been plenty of highlights, and she says: “Magical moments include winning the Eider with Win My Wings this year, trained by Christian; that will always be very memorable.

“Also, winning at Cheltenham and Compiegne with her last year – she has proved to be extremely versatile. She has been entered for the Scottish Grand National at Ayr, and we could well go back to France again.

“Winning a Grade 2 hurdle at Ascot some 11 years ago with Tiger O’Toole, who went off at 40-1, trained by Evan Williams, was another brilliant day not to be forgotten.

“Any winner at any grade is fabulous, and always generates the desire to reinvest again.”

Howell continues: “The best times of being an owner is buying young stock and seeing them grow and develop over time, nothing rushed, and seeing them run for the first time – patience is a virtue.

“When the horses are not in training, or when they are youngsters, it is a pleasure to have them at home. It gives us much more involvement and features

highly in our everyday lives.

“Also important is giving them, or finding them, a good home after racing, or a different discipline such as eventing, hunting, team chasing, or placement with Retraining of Racehorses.

“The worst times are getting balloted out of a race, which is frustrating when we fancy one to run well.

“Also, the prize-money in the UK doesn’t compare well with prize-money in France, as we found out last year. We are hopeful of going back to France again this year, a trip, or trips, which will include some well-chosen French wines, as we should be able to travel this year.”

Now that sounds something we could all raise a glass to.

Howell with her eight-time winner Tiger O’Toole

THE OWNER BREEDER

61

TBA Forum

The special section for TBA members

he Dublin Racing Festival at Leopardstown produced plenty of high-quality racing and supermare Honeysuckle maintained her unbeaten record with a third victory in the Grade 1 Irish Champion Hurdle, emulating Hurricane Fly and Istabraq in becoming at least triple winners of the historic contest.

Honeysucke, who would then make it 15 wins under Rules in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham, was bred in Dorset

by Dr Geoffrey Guy at The Glanvilles Stud, which is run by Doug Procter.

The final race of the two-day fixture was the Grade 2 mares’ bumper, which witnessed a one-two for British-breds, with Lily Du Berlais coming out best from Battling Bessie in what was a tight finish.

Bred by Devon-based breeder John Lightfoot, the six-year-old was sold as a store by Juliet Minton’s Mill House Stud.

The month of February was a strong one for mares. The Rita Vaughan-bred Elle Est Belle won her second Listed contest of the season, but first against geldings, in the Sidney Banks Novices’ Hurdle at Huntingdon, whilst the Michael Tuckey-bred Brampton Belle captured the Listed Apple’s Jade Mares’ Novices’ Hurdle at Navan.

At Exeter in the middle of the month, the Marietta Fox-Pitt-bred Snow Leopardess won her third race of the season from as many starts in the Listed mares’ chase over three miles, putting her spot on for an assault on the Grand National.

Others to have big targets following wins during the month included the Robert Abrey and Ian Thurtle-bred Edwardstone (Midnight Legend), who won the Grade 2 Kingmaker Novices’ Chase and would follow up in the Arkle, and Knight Salute. The son of Sir Percy was bred by Minster Stud and Mrs H Dalgety and took top honours in the Grade 2 Adonis Juvenile Hurdle.

The third Saturday proved to be a strong weekend on either side of the Irish Sea. The Newsells Park Stud-bred Melon (Medicean) gained a deserved first success since December 2019 in the Grade 2 Red Mills Chase.

At Haydock Park in the Grade 3 Grand National Trial Handicap Chase, the Goldford Stud-bred The Galloping Bear, a rapid improver this term, kept going

62

THE OWNER BREEDER

CAROLINE NORRIS

Honeysuckle joins the greats with third Irish Champion win T

Honeysuckle and Rachael Blackmore claimed their third Irish Champion Hurdle together

through the deep ground to win well.

Down at Ascot and the Tim Nixon homebred Fortescue stayed on best to land the Listed Swinley Chase, sponsored by the Great British Stallion Showcase, and the Mick Easterby-bred Does He Know landed the Grade 2 Reynoldstown Novices’ Chase.

On the level and on the domestic front, One Night Stand provided a couple of firsts when winning the Listed Hever Sprint Stakes at Lingfield Park. Bred by Sam Hoskins and Trickledown Stud, it was a first stakes success as a breeder for the former, while it was also a first stakes winner for the five-year-old’s sire Swiss Spirit.

In France the Mrs B E Moore-bred Legionario took the Listed Prix Saonois at Cagnes-sur-Mer. The Australian autumn started to swing into gear and there was success for the Cheveley Park Stud-bred Earlswood (Pivotal) in the Group 3 Carlyon Cup, the Kirsten Rausing & BBA 2010 Ltdbred Wyclif (Archipenko) in the Listed

Premier’s Plate at Morphetville, and for the Godolphin homebred Cascadian (New Approach) in the Group 2 Peter Young Stakes.

In the Middle East, Godolphin homebreds were in fine form at Meydan.

Royal Fleet (Dubawi) took the Group 3 Dubai Millennium Stakes, while Sovereign Prince (Dubawi) and Storm Damage took out the Listed Jumeirah Classic and Listed Business Bay Challenge respectively.

The Rabbah Bloodstock Limited-bred Oasis Dream gelding Meraas won the Group 3 Al Shindagha Sprint on the dirt at Meydan.

In Qatar, the feature contest of the year, the local Group 1 HH the Amir Trophy, was won by the Sheikh Obaidbred Outbox, a son of Frankel, who is trained by Archie Watson and was ridden

by Hollie Doyle.

The local Group 2 Al Rayyan Mile was won by the Cheveley Park Stud-bred Nuance, also a son of Frankel.

Results up to and including February 28. Produced in association with GBRI.

Robert Chugg One of Britain’s finest National Hunt breeders, Robert Chugg died at the age of 79 in the middle of February.

A former long-standing member of the TBA’s National Hunt Committee, Chugg was awarded the Queen Mother’s Silver Salver in 2008. A great supporter of the TBA, he embraced a number of the association’s initiatives, including the foal show and Elite Mares’ Scheme.

A true gentleman, of whom nobody had a bad word to say, Chugg was one of the best point-to-point riders of his generation; his wins included the Lady Dudley Cup, United Hunts’ Challenge Cup and Foxhunters’ Chase at Aintree, all victories coming aboard Bright Willow.

Born into a farming family, he milked cows at the family’s Little Lodge Farm, just outside Droitwich, upon retiring from race-riding. He decided to sell the dairy herd and concentrate his attentions on breeding, and success for him and wife Jackie flowed thereafter.

Probably the best he bred was Marello. Sold as a store, the daughter of Supreme Leader won 11 of her 15 starts, including a pair of Grade 2s and also the Silver Trophy Handicap. Siblings to that mare were retained, including the black-

Outstanding horseman: Robert Chugg was highly respected within the NH fraternity

type-placed Ravello Bay and Wydello, the latter going down by a neck to her niece Karello Bay (also retained) in the Listed EBF mares’ bumper at Sandown Park in 2006. Wydello has since produced the admirable staying chaser Cogry.

Cogry was owned by Graham and Alison Jelley, who have had good success with Little Lodge graduates, including this season with Guard Your Dreams, winner of the Grade 2 International Hurdle at Cheltenham in December.

Nominations open for 2022 Stud Employee Award The annual TBA Stud Employee Award, which is kindly sponsored by New England Stud, has opened for nominations. Last year's winner was Ron Lott, who had given over 40 years of service to Shadwell Stud.

The award winner is selected from six shortlisted candidates and receives the perpetual Charlie Langton bronze trophy, a £2,000 cash prize, and is invited to attend the TBA's Flat Breeders' Awards evening on

Ron Lott (left) dedicated 40 years of his working life to Shadwell Stud

Wednesday, July 6. The remaining five shortlisted nominees will receive a certificate and £250 each, in recognition of their achievement.

The award recognises the significant contribution that stud employees make to the thoroughbred breeding industry and rewards those individuals who have shown dedication and excellence within their roles.

Nominations can be submitted by an employer, or a fellow colleague, by downloading a form from the TBA website at www.thetba.co.uk where you will find the terms and conditions, and further information about the award.

The chance to nominate will close on Tuesday, May 3. Any late nominations will not be accepted beyond this date.

Completed nomination forms should be sent to the TBA office or emailed to Heather Ewence at heather.ewence@ thetba.co.uk.

THE OWNER BREEDER

63

TBA Forum NH Breeders’ Awards Evening: secure your tickets now The TBA is delighted to announce that this year’s NH Breeders’ Awards Evening will take place on the evening of Monday, May 16.

To be held at the Hilton Garden Inn, just down the road from the Goffs UK sales complex, the celebratory affair will take place on the first evening of the Goffs UK Spring Store Sale.

Kindly sponsored by Goffs UK, the evening is a celebration of British National Hunt breeding and success on the racecourse during the 2021/22

season.

Owners, breeders, trainers and National Hunt enthusiasts are invited to attend what is always an entertaining event, which will commence with a drinks reception and three-course dinner, followed by the presentation of the awards.

Tickets for the event, which have been priced at £65 per person, can be purchased on the TBA website, where there is further information on the event and awards.

May 16 is the date for your diary

Congratulations Dulcie

Codes of Practice videos online The TBA has released a two-part discussion video on the HBLB International Codes of Practice with Professor Sidney Ricketts, which includes information on screening for Equine Viral Arteritis (EVA) and Equine Infectious Anaemia (EIA). The first focuses on the significance of the codes in maintaining high health status, while the second contained information on pre-breeding season screening for Contagious Equine Metritis (CEM). Both videos, which are free to watch, can be found on the TB-Ed platform at www.tb-ed.co.uk.

Nominees for Devonshire and Dominion Award winners welcomed The TBA is calling on members to put forward nominees for both the Devonshire and Dominion Awards, which will be presented at the Flat Breeders’ Awards Evening in early

64

THE OWNER BREEDER

July.

The Andrew Devonshire Award recognises outstanding achievement and contribution to the British thoroughbred breeding industry, and

For the second successive year the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards, which took place on February 21, were staged virtually due to the pandemic. Hosted by Oli Bell and broadcast live on Racing TV, the Stud Staff category winner was Dulcie West, who works at North Farm Stud, just outside Wantage.

A shocked West thanked her colleagues in an exchange with Bell, before North Farm Stud owner Grace Muir said: “She [Dulcie] has come to us and made such a difference, you wouldn’t get a harder worker.”

The TBA would like to congratulate Dulcie on her victory, along with the Stud Staff Award category runners-up Balazs Karoly Sipos of Hascombe and Valiant Stud and Richard Heaynes-Corrick of Chapel Stud.

was last year won by Lady Emma Balding.

The Dominion Award, which recognises outstanding contribution and long-term commitment to the improvement of the thoroughbred, was last year presented to Ken Crozier.

If you have a suggestion, please email olivia.may@thetba.co.uk.

Young pointers grab opportunity in TBA-sponsored 4yo maiden series TBA regional representative Karina Cassini with trainerjockey Bradley Gibbs, Shirley Anderson-Jolag and Tim Talbot of Ratkatcha Racing

At Larkhill on February 27 the first spring four-year-old only maiden point-to-point was run. Sponsored like all five in the series by the TBA, victory went to the Fernham Farmbred Kayf Tara filly My Little Toni Trained and ridden by Bradley Gibbs for owners Ratkatcha Racing,

Reminder – animal transporter regulations renewal The Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA) is reminding all animal transporters to check the expiry date of their current transporter authorisation and apply for renewal at the earliest possible opportunity, to ensure continued authorisation.

Valid for five years, a significant number of authorisations are due for renewal in 2022. For further information regarding transporter authorisations, including how to renew, visit www.gov.uk and search transporter authorisations.

she had been purchased for £14,000 at the Goffs UK Spring Store Sale by Dan Astbury and Tim Talbot.

The second sponsored race, run a week later at Charm Park, was won in good style by the Tom Ellis-trained Hoe Joly Smoke, a son of Kayf Tara, who was front rank for most of the

way and won well from fellow British-bred Mount Bonete (Proconsul).

The winner was bred by John Benfield and had been purchased by connections having been offered at the Goffs UK Spring Store Sale last May.

Register your interest for the 2022 regional days Preparations are in full swing for the popular TBA regional days.

With a minimum of two visits, plus a leisurely lunch, these days are a great way for members to catch up with old and new acquaintances, as well as having the opportunity to see behind the scenes at some of Britain’s most renowned studs and trainers' yards. Full details will be released in the TBA’s fortnightly e-bulletins or you can contact alix. jones@thetba.co.uk.

• May 10, West – Ed Walker’s Kingsdown Stables and Watership Down Stud

• June 22, South East – Gary Moore’s Cisswood Racing Stables (afternoon visit tbc) • June 28, East – Bedford House Stables (Charlie Fellowes), Godolphin ROR (afternoon visit tbc) • July 20 or 21, Wales and West Midlands – Steph Hollinshead and Pool House Equine in Staffordshire • July 29, Scotland – Kenny Alexander’s New Hall Stud (afternoon visit tbc) • September, North – awaiting further details • TBC, South West – awaiting further details

THE OWNER BREEDER

65

TBA Forum

Employment law changes coming into effect this month In this occasional article, TBA members’ legal adviser Rachel Flynn of Keystone Law looks at some changes to employment law that will come into force this month.

As with the previous year, the last 12 months have been a Covid-19 affected whirlwind for employment lawyers as the effects of the pandemic have ebbed and flowed. Furlough ended then started again, new government initiatives came and went (including high profile and much disputed compulsory vaccination for care workers and NHS workers), and ultimately, we emerged from furlough with the end of the scheme having little impact on the levels of unemployment.

Resolution Foundation analysis shows that only around 136,000 workers moved to either unemployment or inactivity when the scheme was closed and the expected spike in unemployment did not materialise.

There are currently major shortages of workers in a number of industries, with demand for staff high in sectors including hospitality and care.

Demand for staff in studs and racing stables also remains high, so at a time when many stud employers will be emerging from their busiest season, it is worth including a reminder about working time and compensatory rest.

TBA members will recall that the Working Time Regulations provide all workers with the following rights: • A limit of 48 working hours in any one working week averaged over a 17-week period; • 5.6 weeks paid leave in each year; • An uninterrupted rest break (‘rest break’) of at least 20 minutes if the working day exceeds six hours; • At least one 24-hour rest period (‘rest period’) per week; and • A limit on the working hours of night workers to an average of eight hours in any 24-hour period.

Where a worker is required to work over their rest period or break during the breeding season, the employer must wherever possible allow the employee to take an “equivalent period of compensatory rest”. Provided that the break has the same value to the employee then it may not exactly mirror the break sacrificed.

66

THE OWNER BREEDER

Rachel Flynn: 'this year's employment landscape remains uncertain'

The compensatory rest break/rest period does not have to follow immediately on the heels of that sacrificed, although it seems that ‘the sooner the better’ is the general rule.

The Working Time Regulations contain a statutory exemption for activities where there is a foreseeable surge of activity (examples being agriculture, tourism or postal services), and the TBA has taken recent legal advice to the effect that is likely that this exemption would also apply to the foaling season, albeit this has not been tested in court.

Studs should bear in mind that this exemption may be initiated only for the period of the foreseeable surge of activity (being – in most cases – the foaling season).

For more information on this please see the TBA’s employment information on the website.

Increases to the national living wage and national minimum wage rates come into effect on April 6 and affect all employers. The National Living Wage increased on April 1 to £9.50 per hour.

Statutory family leave payments – the rate of statutory maternity pay, paternity pay, adoption pay, shared parental leave and parental bereavement pay – will increase to £156.66 per week. Statutory sick pay will increase from £96.35 to £99.35.

The financial award for compensation for unfair dismissal will increase to £93,878 from £89,493 (or 52 weeks' salary, whichever is lower).

The new limits will apply to dismissals occurring on or after April 6, 2022.

The Employment Bill, containing a wide-ranging suite of rights for workers, was initially announced in the Queen’s Speech in 2019. Its progress through parliament was put on hold during the pandemic. It is likely to be published in 2022 though no deadlines have yet been announced.

The current proposals to be set out in the Bill include: Unpaid carer’s leave of one week (to be taken as a block or in individual days); Changes to flexible working rights – possibly the right to request (but not necessarily be awarded) flexible working from day one of employment and changes to the eight business grounds for rejecting such request; Extension of the priority entitlement for alternative employment during a redundancy situation (which exists for those on maternity leave) to pregnant employees and new parents; Neonatal leave and pay of 12 weeks; The right to request a more predictable contract for those with variable hours after 26 weeks’ service; and The establishment of a single enforcement body for employment rights.

This year may also be crucial for progress on the topical issue of menopause in the workplace, after consideration of the response to the Women and Equalities Committee’s inquiry.

Employers can voluntarily progress many of the issues raised above in order to make the workplace a fairer place and assist with recruitment and retention.

Overall, 2022’s employment landscape holds almost as much uncertainty as its predecessor. The news in relation to the u-turn on mandatory vaccinations for carers and NHS workers was remarkable, and we expect there to be further unexpected changes that will affect all employers in the year to come.

The at G

If you like a lot of money from your winner, join our club!

More than £3 million in GBB bonuses already paid out to owners We’re delighted that RIBBON ROSE has secured another GBB bonus. Her record is now two wins from two runs and two GBB bonuses, taking her total prize money to more than £40,000. She is an exciting filly to have in the yard.

Marco Botti, trainer of multiple-bonus winner RIBBON ROSE

GBB Jumps winners:

119

GBB Jumps bonus payments:

GBB Flat winners:

213

£1,447,375

GBB Flat bonus payments:

Total bonus payments:

£4,600,875

£3,153,500

When I was looking through the February sale catalogue, OBTAIN stood out due to her being qualified for the full £20,000 GB Bonus, and having shown a level of form that would give her a strong chance of winning one, I was delighted to get her for 24,000gns.

Considering there was such a good chance of recouping a large part of the purchase price by winning a GBB race, it was very easy to pitch her to owners. The number of races that come with the bonus attached meant we had several chances to try to win one if we weren’t successful the first time. I will very much be looking for similar opportunities to purchase qualified horses at the sales in future.

Alice Haynes, trainer

Be sure to buy GBB fillies at the Breeze Up Sales!

For more information on eligibility, visit greatbritishbonus.co.uk

Information correct at time of going to press

Breeder of the Month Words Howard Wright

Sponsored by

Manufacturers of

BREEDER OF THE MONTH (February 2022)

Anyone with a spirit of adventure will applaud the decision to nominate Marietta Fox-Pitt as TBA Breeder of the Month for February for the exploits of her owner-bred ten-year-old Snow Leopardess, who completed a hattrick in a Listed mares’ chase at Exeter, following her groundbreaking success in the Becher Handicap Chase at Aintree, to where, all being well, she will return for the Randox Grand National this month.

Mother of Olympic gold medallist three-day eventer William Fox-Pitt and mother-in-law of ITV Racing presenter Alice Plunkett, octogenarian Marietta has always been her own woman, notably when her eventing career took her to international honours and close finishes at Badminton and Burghley in the mid-1960s.

The foundation for today’s success with Snow Leopardess was laid at around the same time, when on December 2, 1963 at Tattersalls in Newmarket she paid 800gns for an Elopement foal out of You’ll Be Lucky, bred by the stage and radio comedian Al Read and who was sold immediately after leading northern trainer Charlie Elsey had paid 1,500gns for the mare’s Rockefella yearling, who proved to be the Galtres Stakes winner Take A Chance.

Newmarket trainer Jack Waugh signed the docket for Fox-Pitt’s purchase, taking the lead from his owner Lord Howard de Walden. She recalls: “Lord Howard gave me a list of horses I was allowed to proceed on. I

BILL SELWYN

MARIETTA FOX-PITT

Snow Leopardess: “she loves every minute of running and jumping”

went round them all, decided which I liked the best and we bid for her.”

There have been few regrets over the 60 years since, for the filly, named Ysolda and trained by Waugh, finished third in the Blue Seal Stakes at two before running up a sequence of four wins in maiden races at three.

In direct female line she has been responsible for St Isabel (1968, by Saint Crespin III), St Isadora (1978,

by Lyphard), Fairlead (1990, by Slip Anchor), Queen Soraya (1998, by Persian Bold) and ultimately Snow Leopardess (2012, by Martaline).

Fox-Pitt reflects: “As you can see, I’ve had the family a very long time, and it’s done me proud over the years. I’m very fond of Snow Leopardess. She loves every minute of running and jumping, and thinks it’s great.

“I decided she was a good one the day she was born. After my husband Oliver died [in January 2012] it was the first day that I felt really happy. As soon as she was born, she stood straight up as if to say, ‘I own the world,’ and I knew

then she would be something special.

She likes being Queen Bee.” Something special hardly seems expansive enough to describe Snow Leopardess, who has a 50 per cent record of success, with wins on the Flat and over hurdles and fences in Britain, Ireland and France. In addition, she had a couple of lengthy breaks to recover from injury and during the second, 27-month lay-off, foaled a filly by Sir Percy, now a three-year-old, who is at Fox-Pitt’s home in Kent and will go into training soon.

More than that, Fox-Pitt reveals: “I’ve got two frozen embryos by Chocco Blue, the leading showjumping stallion in the world for five years in a row, from Snow Leopardess. They’re waiting to be inserted into mares. I want to breed a top showjumper and eventer from her, as I’ve never had a horse who jumps as well as she does, so this is the ideal way of going about it.”

As if by way of explanation, she adds: “I have very funny ideas,” although no-one would argue with her general premise of making the most of her opportunities, such as continuing to race Snow Leopardess beyond this season.

“I’ll get her in foal again in 2024, because I’m not in any hurry with her,” Fox-Pitt reasons. “There’s no point in not racing her. You don’t get many good racehorses in a lifetime, so you might as well enjoy them.

“I was at the top of the world in eventing, so I wasn’t entirely stuck on racing then, whereas now racing is nearly everything. It’s always more fun to do things for yourself. And it’s more fun as you get older.”

EXCELLENCE IN EQUINE NUTRITION

New Resealable STAY FRESH Bag! Mineral Feed for Bone Support & Development

80%

LESS PLASTIC

PACKAGING

@TRMNutrition

68

THE OWNER BREEDER

www.farmstable.com

UBETTABLEIEVEIT KODIAC - LADYLISHANDRA (MUJADIL)

NEW FOR 2022

Brilliantly fast Gr.2 winning 2YO son of Leading Sire KODIAC from the speed family of AJDAL and Leading Gr.1 Sires FORMIDABLE and NOVERRE GROUP WINNER of 3 races at 2 years and £116,500 Won Gr.2 Flying Childers Stakes in faster time than previous winners Green Desert, Marwell, etc.

MASSAAT TEOFILO - MADANY (ACCLAMATION) FIRST CROP S YEARLING 2022

By Teofilo, sire of 6 Gr.1 winners in 2020 Brother to Gr.1 Commonwealth Cup winner EQTIDAAR and exciting Gr.3 Winning 2YO MUJBAR, from the immediate family of PRECIEUSE, etc.

Gr.1 placed at 2, 3 & 4 • Gr.2 winner over 7f • TFR 122

Standing at MICKLEY STUD • www.mickleystud.co.uk Enquiries: Richard Kent T: 079 73 315722 • E: mickleystud@btconnect.com or Clare Lloyd Tel: 07875 673260 email: karinga@btinternet.com

THE OWNER BREEDER

69

Vet Forum: The Expert View

Subchondral bone issues in the equine athlete S ubchondral bone disease is defined as a repetitive stress injury of the subchondral bone and is an umbrella term that encompasses a number of different pathological processes that result from maladaptive bone remodelling in response to fast exercise.

Whilst the racing thoroughbred has almost certainly been affected by this condition for many years, an increased knowledge of the bone remodelling processes in the equine athlete, in addition to the use of advanced diagnostic imaging modalities, has led to a clearer understanding of the pathological processes involved and the development of effective management and early treatment strategies.

Although particularly common in racehorses, subchondral bone disease has been recognised in many disciplines and types of horses. Affecting multiple bones in the equine skeleton, those most commonly involved are the distal cannon bones of both the forelimbs and the hindlimbs, the third carpal bone in the knee, and the third tarsal bone in the hock.

WHAT IS SUBCHONDRAL BONE? Subchondral bone is located deep to the articular cartilage that sits on the joint surface, nourishing the cartilage with its relatively rich vascular supply. Being in close apposition to many high-motion and weight-bearing joint surfaces means that subchondral bone is subjected to significant stresses as the horse exercises.

These stresses necessitate continuous remodelling to allow the bone to adapt in order to cope with exercise. In healthy bone the remodelling processes should be proportional to the stresses that bone is experiencing.

THE BONE MODELLING PROCESS

Bone modelling and remodelling are adaptive processes that take place in response to the forces placed through a given bone. Adaptive modelling processes ensure that bone formation and resorption both occur to produce a mechanically functional architecture, appropriate to the stresses experienced by the bone, i.e. the amount of exercise the horse is undertaking. These formation and resorption processes occur independently and ensure that bones can not only model at a microscopic level but also change in size and shape to adapt to the function to which they are committed.

A common example of this is the shin of the racehorse. The thickness of the dorsal cortex of the cannon bone (the shin) will increase dramatically in response to increased training loads.

However, the location of shin remodelling, along the diaphysis of a long bone, is very different to the remodelling that must occur in the subchondral bone of a joint where significant changes in size and shape are not possible as the architecture of the joint must be preserved. Here, instead, the mineral density of the

Figure 1 A flexed plantarodorsal radiograph of a hind fetlock joint demonstrating a fissure fracture at the bottom of the cannon bone (red arrow). Marked density (sclerosis) is also noted in the surrounding area

70

THE OWNER BREEDER

subchondral bone will be increased as the body tries to lay down more bone. This increase in bone density means that the subchondral bone becomes more brittle and less able to act as a shock absorber.

With recurrent loading this can lead to bone failure at this site.

Maladaptive bone remodelling occurs when a certain threshold has been reached and the remodelling processes can no longer keep apace with that required to preserve the normal micro-architecture of bone. The result is a pathological series of events leading to subchondral bone disease. The threshold will be dependent upon a number of factors and will vary between each bone. These can include the size and weight of the horse, conformation, the current exercise intensity (both distance and speed), the joint of concern and the surface on which the horse exercises. Subchondral bone disease can occur even in bones that have been well conditioned through a steady and graded training programme.

Microdamage can accumulate faster than the remodelling processes can repair, with the end result being fatigued bone with subchondral bone disease.

HOW DO WE IDENTIFY HORSES WITH SUBCHONDRAL BONE DISEASE?

Lameness as a result of subchondral bone disease can present in a single limb or can involve multiple limbs. The classic description of a horse returning ‘jarred up’ following a race on fast ground typically refers to subchondral bone disease, often termed ‘bone pain’, in all four fetlocks.

When performing a clinical examination, most horses experiencing subchondral bone disease do not demonstrate distension of the affected joint, nor pain upon flexion of that joint. Nerve blocking is therefore most commonly employed in the first instance to isolate the source of the lameness.

Those horses with subchondral bone pain of the distal cannons will have their lameness altered by intraarticular anaesthesia of the fetlock joint or by subcutaneous anaesthesia of the palmar metacarpal (forelimb) or plantar metatarsal (hindlimb) nerves at the level of the distal end of the splint bones.

Frequently one is able to block out each

By Stuart Williamson BVSC MRCVS

Figure 2 A CT scan demonstrating the fissure fracture (red arrow) and surrounding sclerosis. CT examination provides a 3D construct of the bone and therefore aids in screw placement across the fissure fracture

fetlock sequentially to result in a horse that trots level and with a much more fluent action. Diagnostic imaging is indicated following isolation of the lameness in an attempt to qualify the pathology present. X-ray is the primary imaging modality and certain x-ray projections are used to highlight the subchondral area of a particular bone. In some cases, no abnormalities are identified on x-ray and this may prompt the use of more advanced imaging modalities such as MRI or CT examination to more fully examine the region and to direct management.

Common x-ray imaging findings include sclerosis (an increased density) of the subchondral area. Palmar or plantar osteochondral disease (a POD lesion) may be suspected on x-ray but may require MRI imaging to confirm. MRI can also detect early changes such as distinct areas of hypermineralisation or inflammation (sometimes referred to as bone oedema) of the subchondral bone that would not be

visible on another modality. The presence of a fissure that indicates early fracture pathology is a less common finding that can be visible on x-ray.

HOW DO WE MANAGE HORSES WITH SUBCHONDRAL BONE DISEASE?

Management will be dependent upon the pathology underlying the subchondral bone disease. Most clinicians would be in agreement that following diagnosis in the young horse, a period of reduced exercise or time out of training altogether is essential to allow the bone to recover without continued training pressures.

However, sudden changes in exercise intensity, even in horses returning to rest from cantering or galloping exercise, can result in further derangement in the complex remodelling processes and can exacerbate the condition. For this reason long periods of immobility and stable rest are not the best course of action, and so

Figure 3 An intraoperative radiograph showing the lag screw placed across the fissure fracture at the bottom of the cannon

a graded reduction in exercise will often be advised.

For older horses where pathology has been identified that does not suggest significant bone failure, intra-articular medication with low dose corticosteroids may be advised in order to alleviate the associated inflammation and provide some analgesia. Oral medication with phenylbutazone (bute) or aspirin can also be beneficial due to their antiinflammatory and analgesic properties.

A modified training programme may be adopted. For example, horses with hind fetlock pain will often train on the flat rather than on an incline where more effort would be required from the hindlimbs to push up a hill. If a fissure (pre-fracture) is identified then surgical options exist to stabilise the subchondral bone plate. Lag screw placement is a successful approach and barring complications the horse can often return to cantering exercise within two months.

OUR SCIENCE, YOUR SUCCESS OPTIMISE BREEDING POTENTIAL WITH THE POWER OF UBIQUINOL (COQ10)

Provides a natural source of Ubiquinol (CoQ10), Vitamin E and organic Selenium Yeast to help support maintained semen quality throughout the breeding season.

CONTACT OUR SPECIALIST TEAM:

UK: Adam Johnson T: +44 7860 771063 Ire: Lorraine Fradl T: +353 87 2575398 Email: info@foranequine.com

Delivers a natural source of Ubiquinol (CoQ10) and a protected source of Omega 3, added Vitamin E and organic Selenium Yeast to provide ideal support for mares in preparation for covering and during early gestation.

www.foranequine.com #OURSCIENCEYOURSUCCESS

THE OWNER BREEDER

71

The Finish Line with Ted Durcan When Ted Durcan retired from the saddle four years ago at the age of 44, he had been champion jockey in the UAE on seven occasions and partnered around 1,500 winners worldwide, including Light Shift for Sir Henry Cecil in the 2007 Oaks and Mastery for Godolphin in the 2009 St Leger. He already had a close working relationship with Newmarket trainer Sir Michael Stoute, which continues to this day, and he also rides out for William Haggas. The Irishman is now using his considerable experience to help the next generation of riders as a jockey coach while also building up his thriving Durcan Bloodstock business. Happiest when busy, he is a man of many parts.

Interview: Graham Dench

T

he thing I am most proud of from my time as a jockey is that I ended up riding for most of the trainers who had been my idols when I was growing up as a racing nut at boarding school. My achievements in the saddle were modest and nobody needs to tell me I wasn’t the most natural jockey, so I know how lucky I was to ride two Classic winners. They were lovely moments, and being leading rider in the UAE was a huge kick too, but with hindsight riding winners for idols like John Dunlop, Geoff Wragg, the Easterbys, Sir Henry Cecil, Sir Michael Stoute and many more is something I’m particularly proud of.

for some of the top owner-breeders like Godolphin and the Niarchos family.

I spent a lot of winters in the Middle East and people there would often ask me to look out for horses for them, especially older horses. I made a lot of contacts and buying horses in training for them is a big part of my business. I still buy a lot of older horses for Saudi Arabia and Dubai, but I’m also supported now by a lot of trainers in England and Ireland.

Owners have increasingly been more than happy for me to source their yearlings, breeze-up horses and breeding stock, and I must have bought 75 to 80 horses in the second half of last year. I find it mindblowing how resilient the bloodstock industry has been with all that has been going on. It just shows that the racing world is made up of very brave people who are happy to put their money where their mouth is and press on.

Racing is a way of life and so when my riding days were coming to a close I wanted to get into something else that would keep me involved in the sport and keep me interested. Plenty of areas were easy to rule out, but bloodstock was something I’d become increasingly interested in as time went on. Like most riders, I was too busy and focused in my early years to appreciate the importance of families and pedigrees, but my interest grew, and I was lucky enough to ride

GEORGE SELWYN

While Dubai has led the way for racing in the Middle East there’s no question that Bahrain, Qatar and Saudi Arabia have all massively upped the ante in recent years. The amenities and facilities, especially for the horses, are absolutely first class now, and it’s also easier to travel horses, so owners are a lot more open to it now. I used to ride now and again in Riyadh but when I went out there for the first Saudi Cup in 2020 it was my first time there in five years or so – I was amazed at the transformation. I was back again in February and the progress made there, and elsewhere in the Middle East, with first-class turf and dirt tracks, is extraordinary.

Durcan guides the Niarchos family’s Light Shift (right) to victory in the 2007 Oaks

72

THE OWNER BREEDER

I have been helping out at Sir Michael Stoute’s for a number of years and I’ve ridden a lot of work for him. I now also do the same sort of thing for William Haggas, although I’ve become a bit of a fair-weather work rider! I hibernate

through the worst of the winter, but once things get going, I’m riding out five or six mornings a week. I only go racing when I have a reason to, as since I retired I’ve found it can be awkward at the races without a purpose, but I love being involved with those nicer horses. Riding work also keeps me very fit.

I qualified a few years ago as a jockey coach and it’s another thing I enjoy. I’d be up to speed on the form, and I watch a hell of a lot of racing, so I don’t find it hard work at all speaking to young jockeys before and after they’ve ridden about different courses, how races might be run, and so on. I helped Adam Farragher come over from Ireland to join William Haggas, and people like him are a pleasure to deal with. He’s an unbelievably hard worker and a very smart guy.

I’m aware of the whip consultation and project that’s going on at the moment, but I’m glad I’m not directly involved. It’s a difficult one, and it will be impossible to please everyone. If I was still riding, I would find it very hard to accept horses being disqualified for whip contraventions, but I totally understand why the ‘win at all costs and then accept the ban afterwards’ mentality isn’t right either. Horse welfare is a hugely important area – we have to find a happy medium.

We were always very friendly with Pat Smullen and his wife Frances, so I approached Newmarket a year ago about sponsoring a race in Pat’s memory. They couldn’t have been more helpful, so we are looking forward to doing it again at the Craven meeting, and hoping that Frances will be able to come over this time. It isn’t much, and Pat wasn’t going to be forgotten in a hurry anyway, but he was always very popular when he came over here to ride. It’s hopefully a nice way to remember him.

We’ve got five and they have a lot of similarities with him.

They look like they’ll be early.

As we’ve stepped them up, I’m really pleased to say all five have kept in their comfort zone.

They’re all really pleasing me!

Harry Angel’s trainer Clive Cox on his first juveniles.

Get in quick! Prize draw for everyone who signs a contract to Harry Angel before his first winner. Call for details: +44 (0)1638 730070 or +353 (0)45 527600 Breeding the future