Ballymacoll Stud Not the start of the season but the start of the dispersal of Ballymacoll. Goff’s sale is selling 5 lots from Ballymacoll. One mare is included and in addition there are 3 3yo fillies (all unraced) and a further 2yo filly. At the end of 2014 season I wrote an article ( http://www.not606.com/threads/ballymacoll-stud-a-critique-of-their-mares.280465/ ) that suggested that the stud had lost its way and needed to both weed out some mares (I suggested Kitty Hawk, La Davina, Scottish Stage and Leocorno) and to start using stallions to increase the speed in their mares. Well Kitty Hawk is to be sold at Goff’s, but the other 3 survive for now. However La Davina’s 3yo La Donna e Mobile (by Pivotal) and her 2yo La Vestale (by Iffraj): so effectively they are selling out of her. As a 10yo mare she is yet to have a winner, and has not even had one of her offspring placed. She is currently in foal to Lawman and has a yearling by Sharmadal. Goff’s also sees the sale of Islington’s 3yo filly Edith Wharton (by Dubawi), whom I’m sure will be of great interest. But they must be selling these fillies now because they feel they’ll get more for them now than at the end of the season. It’s all water under the bridge now because the main reason they are selling is because the Weinstock family is not prepared to continue. It is not likely to be because they have had an unsuccessful patch (though success might have inspired interest) but because the widow of Simon Weinstock and her children show no enthusiasm to keep Ballymacoll going. What is surprising is that such a famous stud has not been able to sell itself and its stock as a job-lot. The likely reason for that is that they are not viewed as that special and purchasers would rather pick and choose what they buy. So I am left with the feeling that Ballymacoll have definitely lost their way and devalued their asset. I’m going to say there are a number of reasons for this. The first was the loss of Simon Weinstock in 1996. He was a relatively young man who had made his mark with a few inspired matings (Petingo to La Milo, English Prince to Sunny Valley) and purchases (Ela Mana Mou). His loss wasn’t then noticed, perhaps, while his father was still alive but he too was gone by 2002 and as excellent a stud manager as Peter Reynolds may have been I do think things went off the boil after that. In the referenced thread and another about the teachings of Tesio I made the point (some may say laboured it) that Tesio would have been very upset with the sending of their star mare (3 Group 1 offspring) Hellenic to Sadler’s Wells so many times. Sure she produced 2 Group 1 winners to him, but by 2002 they already had had them and had 2 daughters by him and that was enough. Instead of trying others sires from the Danzig line, Monsun or Rainbow Quest she spent the rest of her life just about in conjugation with Sadler’s Wells. Only when Sadler’s Wells expired did they look at his sons and then they used Galileo who produced the unraced mare Justlookdountouch (who has started promisingly with Abingdon). I also feel they overdid it with taking unraced mares into the stud. I admit with some they found success: Well Head produced Conduit and Olympienne produced Patkai. But too many mares didn’t prove themselves on the racecourse and too many matings ended in foals that either never raced as 2yos or saw the racecourse very few times. I remember in the early 2000s the statement being made that Sir Michael Stoute was helping Ballymacoll with its matings. While I’ve no doubt a trainer’s perspective can be useful (for example I have little doubt Noel Murless had a positive impact on the Sassoon studs) a trainer’s perspective is about training winners and may conflict with the ultimate aim of an owner-breeder. Of course a stud wants to breed winners but it also has to have one eye on the future or at least it does if it wants to retain the strength in the families that it has. The prime example of this approach is the Aga Khan’s stud which is easily able to send a handful of its mares to the sexiest stallions every year: but it doesn’t. The stud’s mares often visit a range of surprising sires, and never slavishly does he send a top mare again and again to the same sire. One has only to think of the Aga’s Derby winner’s sires to see this: they were Sea the Stars, Grand Lodge, Isle de Bourbon and Great Nephew. Few would argue the Aga Khan has kept the strength of his families. The Meon Valley stud is also a good example. For Stoute it is understandable that if after 2 Group 1 Hellenic produce by Sadler’s Wells (Greek Dance and Islington) that the order to the stud was let’s have more of that please. Stoute has gained a reputation for bringing along horses slowly and for them blooming as 4yos or even 5yos. But this has become a self-fulfilling prophecy and most of the horses sent to Stoute were expected to be ‘3yos’ or even late developing 3yos: many of them hardly saw the racecourse in Ballymacoll’s case. There was a depletion of speed in the pedigrees of the stud’s mares. This needn’t have happened as even Stoute first made his name with a sprinter, Blue Cashmere. I’m sure he’s perfectly capable of training 2yos and fast horses he’s just not being sent them. Stoute is a great trainer. Maybe I’m wrong or I’m being unfair. Maybe they are not the strength they once were because the competition is that much greater. Maybe that’s right. But look at the matings Ballymacoll did make and the sires were out of the top drawer. I’ve no doubt the biggest issue was the loss of the Weinstock direction and that fed through to many failings. At the same time I am sure some clever breeders will pick up fillies and mares that will enrich their studs. The families that made Ballymacoll great (and they have been great) will persist: they just won’t be in those pale colours we all know. Arab Spring is entered for the Winter Derby by the way. Meanwhile in the paddocks Islington has had her 11th foal and 11th filly (by Oasis Dream this time but they already have 2 sisters in the stud!!). She is joined by an Elzaam filly out of a half-sister to Derby winner North Light. More on Ballymacoll later As regards the Queen there is not much to say this early: though she has had her first winner of the year with the soon to be sold Elementary.
