Mar_139_ShadeOak_Owner Breeder 19/02/2016 11:06 Page 63
SHADE OAK STUD
Peter Hockenhull on… The TBA’s National Hunt Mare Owners’ Prize Scheme (MOPS): “I think this is the most important thing we have managed to do within the TBA and the National Hunt committee. This could be an historic turnaround in the way we view jump racing. We haven’t inherited a race programme like they have on the Flat, in which there have been races for colts and fillies for generations, and so fillies and mares have had to race against geldings over jumps. Can MOPS be the answer? It won’t happen overnight, but I hope so, because if we can get more mares into racing we can have more mares’ races, and in turn more elite mares’ races. More elite mares will be created which will put more money into the system, because we will breed from them, and in turn that will lead to better offspring, which will fuel it round again. If we can get trainers to handle more fillies they will get used to training them – we need to encourage trainers who tend not to buy fillies to get involved. “We know geldings are easier, and mares can be demanding, but it is interesting that some of the best trainers are also the best trainers of mares.” Sales: “I sell at all the sales – I have to, because if I put all my stock in one sale my groom Sharon Cushley, who does the preps, would go mad. We’ve slightly gone away from selling foals towards three-year-old stores – the [foal] market is heavily fashion-orientated, and towards Irish sires and proven sires. When it comes to stores you are dealing with trainers, and they often have a horse in their yard by a stallion no one has heard of, which suggests they are not quite so swayed by fashion. “The sales at Cheltenham open up a more diverse market, because anything can win a point-to-point and it gives stallions and mares a chance. I sell in Ireland, and the Irish system of point-to-points gives every horse a chance, which can help my stallions and mares.” Elite mares: “They produce better foals, but they also help British stallions. If we’re not able to find another Kayf Tara we could seriously struggle, although it must be remembered he started in the year of foot and mouth, which restricted travel to Ireland, and mares stayed here, so he got a good book. It was like an Elite Scheme rolled out by foot and mouth. It enabled him to get his foot on the ladder, although he has done it himself since.” Exchange rates: “Anyone can read a board and see the Pound and Euro signs. I don’t think it makes any difference. The only danger is if there is a swing in the Euro in the 28 days before you get paid.”
>> prepared to give you them. Getting the right
stallion is very hard, one that generates enthusiasm and a decent book of mares, which means you have a good crop of foals, which attracts more mares. It’s a spiral that can go one way or the other. “I don’t think we’ll ever see another Midnight Legend – he did not have the mares, he covered minuscule books, but somehow he managed to get racehorses. He is a lottery ticket – there is no other way of working it out. If you look at the model of the larger Irish studs, they cover huge numbers of mares, and if you throw enough darts you will get one or two to stick. Are their elite stallions so much better than the rest, are the worst so inferior? There’s not a lot in it, and while there are THOROUGHBRED OWNER & BREEDER INC PACEMAKER
Peter Hockenhull receives the Horse & Hound Cup from Sue Montgomery on Alflora’s behalf at the 2014 TBA Awards
Point-to-pointing as a platform for mares: “Point-to-pointing is hugely important, because so many social links and ties start for people in pointing and drives them into National Hunt racing later on. If we lost pointing I’d fear for jump racing. I welcome mares’ races at British point-to-points, but it’s a long way from the Irish model. If it developed that way I think it would be a good thing, and it may need to, to maintain itself.” Looking back: “The breakthrough for Shade Oak was Gunner B. First his son Royal Gait won the Champion Hurdle, then along came Red Marauder to win the Grand National. He was an amazing stallion – he started as a Flat sire, and had the audacity to go on covering until he was 28. At 29 he got one mare in foal, and we were going for the world record of a live foal at 30, but he didn’t get there. He paved the way for Alflora – our client base quadrupled after Red Marauder, and Alflora copped the lot!” A grand slam for mares: “It would be great if someone would put up a £1,000,000 bonus for any mare that could win the mares’ bumper at Aintree, the new mares’ novices’ hurdle at the Festival and the David Nicholson mares’ race, also at Cheltenham. That is the triple crown, but we could then add a mares’ novices’ chase to create a grand slam. It would be very hard to win.”
“Gunner B was an
amazing stallion – he started as a Flat sire and went on covering until he was 28” freaks like Midnight Legend, it generally comes down to the mares covered.” Hockenhull is unequivocal in saying, “I love National Hunt racing,” but admits, “My son,
Sam, who is 20 and studying at Bristol University, probably loves it more than me, but I’m not encouraging him to come back to the stud. It’s a great way of life and I enjoy getting up in the morning, but it’s in a fragile way. If he said ‘I want to come back,’ I would support him, but there are many other avenues in racing and I would urge him to explore those. With Telescope the stud is on a good footing for the next ten to 15 years, but we’ll see. “I reaped my father’s hard work and I was very fortuitous that at the time I came back here it was suddenly going forward after he had put in 15 to 20 years of hard graft. It had taken him a long time to get established and make contacts with breeders.”
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