The Not 606 Stud Visit - Pictures & Stories

PNkt Thank you very much for organising this trip. Both me and my brother really enjoyed it. I certainly learned alot and it has opened my eyes to that side of the racing industry. It was a real privilege to see up close the very best thoroughbred racehorses around and to see the facilities in which they live (and work!). It is amazing how quiet and peaceful these places are and the care and attention that the billionaire owners give to these horses. Overall, it was a brilliant day and thanks again for putting the time and effort in to this.

 

Any chance of identifying these people it would be good to put some faces to the names of the forum members

 

Looks like an episode of Crimewatch............just joking.

Frankel looks stunning!

 

Oh lord, don't ask me to accurately identify 606ers!

Attendees were:

Me (not in picture, obv!)
QuarterMoon
The Don
NewApproach +1
Reebok +1
SportingJohn
Dan Starkey +1
Jambawamba +1
Floridaspearl +1

 

Cheers appreciate it. Glad you all had a good day the pics are amazing

 

Great Princess and thanks so much for organising the trip for the forum. Gutted I couldn't come. Looking forward to more photos and reports.

 

First post for ages!!

Thanks so so much to PN for organising today. Also to Reebok for sorting out the transport and driving us.

Was absolutely amazing to see this side of racing and get up close to the best stallions in the business. Darley really was an amazing place and the care and attention paid to the stallions at both studs was a real eye opener.

Personally I loved seeing Bated Breath as was one of my favourites on the course and to me he looked a bargain at £8k if judging on looks. Will be watching his book with great interest now!
Amazingly I thought Dubawi was the worst looking horse of the lot but obviously one of the most successful at stud. He was also the most precocious!

Frankel looked sublime and it sounded and looked like he was very happy in his new career.

Brilliant day all round and lovely to meet and chat with other people from the forum.

Thanks so much again PN

 

Thank you PNkt for going out of you way to make sure we all had a great day. Feel privileged to have been able to view such fine horses. Am sure I speak for everyone that attended today when I say a grand day was had by all. Look forward to any future meets you organize,

 

Thanks once again to PNkt for organising such a fantastic event. It was really nice to meet some forum members after all these years. It was nice to put faces to names.

All the horses looked fabulous, in particular Oasis Dream and Frankel and we were given an expert insight into how these organisations operate by both our very friendly hosts. On the way back princess regaled us with stories of Newmarket's racing history.

A very memorable day.

P.S. I have some photos and a video of Frankel, will upload when can work out how to do it, could take a long time!

Cheers.

 

Glad you guys enjoyed the day.

Sabine, our host at Juddmonte, has given me her email so if anyone wants a Juddmonte 2014 brochure when they come out in a few weeks time let me know and I'll pass on details.

 

Did Reebok drive you all in his dumb and dumber car?

 

Doths cap.

Brilliant by PN sad I missed it.

 

First off - Reebok you let nobody down and it was a fantastic gesture by you to organise the minibus in the first place. It's just a shame you never got to partake in the whole visit.

it was a fascinating day and a real privilege to see such amazing animals at such close quarters. The staff who took us around were excellent and very happy to answer any questions we had. I actually think they enjoyed showing their operations off to us!

It was great to meet some of the forum members and to put names to faces. My biggest thanks goes to yestetday's star of the show - our very own Princess. It was an extraordinary act of generosity on her part to organise such a special day for us all and it was a pleasure to meet her and listen to the extensive knowledge that she has of this side of the sport. Thanks again PN - it was very much appreciated.

 

Gutted i couldnt come. If only to bring the average age down.. joking aside, it looks like you all had a great time and there are some amazing pictures there.

 

I will be the first to confess to who I am in the Rogue’s Gallery picture that Princess posted: the guy in the faded chinos and the 80s leather jacket at the right hand end. When the cobwebs are normally blown off this jacket, I have the opportunity to tell somebody that it is older than them. Although I am usually a dreadful judge of women’s ages, the fact that Princess had told us that she worked at Darley a dozen years ago indicated that either she had been underage slave labour or that she was just over twenty four. No disrespect to any of the other Rogues but I figured we were all the wrong side of twenty five.

Out of those attending, I think that I made the longest trek in terms of distance. When I got home, I saw that Princess had sent out an early morning email warning about the M11 being closed; not part of the route for us Northerners, so I had got to Newmarket in around my normal leisurely three hours as we were meeting just near the Rowley Mile course entrance.

I suspect that most of our party were making first ever visits to a stud and we probably had all seen the ‘mechanics’ of horse breeding on various racing/wildlife/science programmes. It was very interesting to see at Darley just how the whole ‘process’ works from beginning to end. Obviously the boys stay at home and the girls come to visit, so it is they that do all the moving from one stage to the next. At both Darley and Banstead Manor it was great to see so many old (equine) faces, all enjoying their life of leisure. It does illustrate how quickly years pass when you see a champion horse like Oasis Dream, who is now thirteen. He had a bit more ‘luck’ on the racecourse than six year old Bated Breath.

After our visit, I took a walk down Newmarket High Street as I have not been into Newmarket itself in years as the two courses are West of town and I drive these days. Whilst a lot of the shops had changed hands and they had gained a couple of BetFred offices, a lot of the little side streets and alleyways still seemed to retain the same character, although I do not remember quite so many estate agents.

I knew on my return journey that I would catch the queuing traffic at all the Cambridge exits of the A14; however, these minor delays were nothing. On the traffic news, the radio was reporting congestion on the A1 at Stamford because of an accident on the slip road. On the A1 North when the motorway ended near Peterborough, it became a two-lane car park. It took me more than an hour to cover the thirteen miles to Stamford after which it became a 40mph rolling road-block until near Grantham. Three hours became almost four-and-a-half hours going home. I need a Star Trek teleporter or the TARDIS!

As for pictures, I am a Luddite – I still use that old fashioned stuff called film (but have negative scanner). You may be able to spot me on some of the pictures that Princess posted by the fact that I am carrying the large camera bag with two cameras and four lenses to try and cover all eventualities. I shot about half a film of Frankel alone and I am thinking (before the film is developed) that what should be my best portrait is going to be a classic example of the commonest form of subject failure – I think he blinked as I clicked. Over the years I have several examples of horses doing that to me, which is why I tend to use the high speed motor wind and shoot loads these days.

 

Hoping a few others will share their photos as I'm conscious that mine are not the best! Certainly I didn't get good shots of Dubawi or Farhh.

The Don is right in that Dubawi is not the best looking individual - he's small and compact, quite the opposite of his father. In his defence he had also not long had a bath, so his coat was not quite dry and therefore lacked shine. However, handsome is as handsome does and it certainly hasn't held him back as a sire. It was interesting to hear our host, Dawn, explain that many people were put off him when his first crop hit the yearling sales, as many of them took after him in the looks department. As a result his sale average was quite disappointing, but once they hit the racecourse and proved they could produce the goods he became more popular.

The second and third seasons are always the toughest for a new stallion and many of them will see a marked drop in number and quality of mares. This is because most people make their stallion selections in the November/December so no one will have seen what his foals look like yet. If his foals then sell disappointingly the following year it has another knock on effect. You need to remember that the results of a stallion's first crop on the racecourse will not have any effect on him at stud until his 5th season, by which time he may have already been written off/sold etc.