I think that the industry is at last beginning to recognise the problem, way too late of course. On a tour of the National Stud last week the guide touched on the problem & there was a big pie chart on a wall that showed the high concentration of Northern Dancer; I was rather surprised that Danzig was a bigger influence than Sadlers Wells in Europe. The National Stud trip was an expensive waste of time as there were only nine animals on the place & two of those were cows! When we booked the Newmarket tour they said "stud" & we thought it was one of the other fifty or so, I know the National no longer has a broodmare band. Really they shouldn't charge for tours at this time of the year, or the museum should forge a relationship with one of the other studs. Also information for anyone going on a tour, you are not allowed within six feet of a horse, so photograpers need to take a zoom with them.
Winning families are what breeding horses is all about and the Queen has been fairly short of them for sometime. I’d consider the best she had was Highlight, who had a run of winners, headed by her 1000G/Prix Diane winner Highclere. But at last the Queen appears to have one now and she may have two. Definitely showing characteristics of being a ‘winning’ mare is Daring Aim. A bit of a madam as a racehorse (often failing to exert herself), she has had 5 foals of racing age and all winners. This mare is well-bred and is by Daylami out of Phantom Gold, so a half-sister to amongst other Flight of Fancy (Oaks 2nd) and her speedier sister Golden Stream. Until this week you’d have said her best produce was Bold Sniper who has won 3 races this year and following him Highland Glen (who also won 3 for the Queen as a 3yo). What is certain that her first 4 foals (all colts) were difficult and needed to have headgear applied and/or to be gelded (Bold Sniper is the exception as he is currently still intact). Her fifth foal is different: first of all she’s a filly and secondly on current evidence looks straightforward. By Dansili this filly is cleverly named Queen’s Prize and showed plenty of speed on her debut to take a maiden at Kempton. A victory for the Royal colours will be welcomed by some, but more surprising is this was a Stoute debut winner and that’s a rare bird. Expect this filly to be even sharper if she appears at the back-end and as they say she could be anything. Daring Aim has followed this filly with 2 more: Dexterous (by Mastercraftman) and an un-named Duke of Marmalade filly. But another good winning family for the Queen has been Daring Aim’s dam Phantom Gold. This mare was very useful on the racecourse and her best victory was the Ribblesdale. As a mare she has produced a pile of winners headed by Flight of Fancy. She has missed twice (Lucky Sweep and Playground weren’t winners) but other than that has had some useful horses and the Queen has 3 daughters, a granddaughter and even a great granddaughter at stud. Lately she’s been quiet but mostly because she’s been rested twice in that time. However she now has a 2yo filly in the shape of Silver Mirage who has been showing up well on the gallops and has been tried with some of Bell’s winning 2yos. Phantom Gold seemed destined to spend her life being bred to Sadler’s Wells or his sons, but this filly is by the speedier Oasis Dream. This family has been producing plenty of good 2nd XI horses, this filly (along with Queen’s Prize) may be the one to at last produce a 1st XI performer. If she wins this year (runs tomorrow: Queally in the plate as he was with Queen’s Prize) she will be the Queen’s third 2yo winner of the season: which is 3 more than she had last year. The other winner is Musical Comedy who looked promising when winner his maiden at Windsor and then ran a good second in a Nursery giving weight to the winner. This colt may be the type to be a good handicapper or listed animal, and is from a family developed by the Queen at her Sandringham stud. It is noticeable tha the brought in youngsters are not winning,
To conclude this for the year The great Federico Tesio (breeder of the two champions Nearco and Ribot) was once asked what sort of horse should you breed. He flippantly more or less replied ‘a very big one and then it will take the fewest steps to finish’. Well he was joking and I’m sure the Aga Khan (and the Queen) didn’t intend to breed a very big one, but this afternoon the Queen’s 2yo Shama debuts at Kempton in a 7f maiden and she’s reputedly, already, 18 hands: that’s big for a jumper, let alone a 2yo filly!! She’s nicely bred by Danehill Dancer out of the Kahyasi mare Shamadara. Her 3rd generation is revealing and has the sires Danzig, Sharpen Up, Ile de Bourbon and Darshaan, but in that same generation at the bottom of the pedigree is a certain mare called Sharmeen: who just happens to be the dam of Shergar. So an interesting filly from that great horse’s family for the Queen (she apparently chooses the sire and if it’s a filly she pays the nomination and gets to own her). Although the saying is that a big good’un will beat a small good’un this filly is rather large. Despite that she has been noted on the gallops several times and certainly getting good mentions. I would just want to see how she comes round the Kempton turns. Now towards the end of the season the Queen must be pleased with her lot this year mainly as Estimate gave her a Group 1 winner (from the same deal as Shama). Her winnings meant she had her best winning prize money total for a very long time, even though her total prize money wasn’t as large as the last two years (thanks to Carlton House’s placings). So far she has won 17 races which is her best result since 2009 when she had 20 winners. 13 of these winners were home bred and pride of place probably goes to Bold Sniper who should be a horse to follow next year. He won a couple of good handicaps and if he behaves himself can do better next year. Hannon had two good homebred winning 3yos in Sea Shanty and Prince’s Trust. The latter should improve even more next year. A relief was that the Queen at last had a 2yo winner. In fact she had two: both home breds, the ‘brought in’ horses were disappointing (unless Shama surprises us). Musical Comedy won 3 races at the end of the year and looked better each time. He is much the best 2yo the Queen has bred for some time and he could be the sort of horse to win races like the Free Handicap or Jersey Stakes as a 3yo. Possibly more exciting is the once-raced Queen’s Prize, who won her only race (a Stoute first time out winner!!) really promisingly. The form however doesn’t amount to much as the horses she beat didn’t cause the judge much trouble afterwards, but the nature of her win was taking. She could be a Group filly next year, and as a half-sister to Bold Sniper is liable to get 10 to 12f. Other than her on the Classic front there’s not much to hope for. Somewhere out there is Enticement’s first foal Appleton Drove ( a filly by Street Cry), but nothing has been heard of her. I’m sure fillies like Good Hope, Silver Mirage and Dalmatia will win races next year but are unlikely to step up to Group class. One has to say that as an end of term report Mr Warren and his team must do better. As for Ballymacoll if they could have replicated April and May, it would have been a great year. But early season promise soon turned a little disappointing. Having said that they have so far had 12 wins, which is their best score since the Conduit-Tartan Bearer-Patkai year of 2008. But total winnings of £150,000 are hardly enough to justify the stud. A lot of hope was placed on Liber Nauticus who didn’t spoil the party when she won the Musidora in a workmanlike fashion. However after a slightly disappointing 5th in the Oaks she suffered an injury and also had a wind-operation that failed. By the end of July she was retired to stud. At the same time Sir John Hawkwood who had looked an improved animal this year, winning two tough handicaps, was sold to Australia. The stud had 4 maiden 3yo fillies at the start of the season and they all won, but only Centred (won twice) is so far certain to join Liber Nauticus at stud, while Bohemian Dancer may join her. The others, along with Supernova Heights (who I was sure would be retained), are either sold or to be sold. The only colt, Arab Spring, made his debut, came second and wasn’t seen again. Of the 2yos disappointingly only 3 have run. The stable seemed to like Festival Theatre, who won his maiden and their second winner was Love Tangle who was actually entered to be sold but was withdrawn and won his second race comfortably. The big sadness for the stud was Juvenile Lead (by Sea the Stars) who broke his knee and was destroyed mid-July. A lot of the 2yos never made it in to training, let-alone raced. So next season, there will be a whole pack of unraced 3yos (possibly 9) of unknown ability. In conclusion 2013 was not a bad year but a touch disappointing. The stud’s horses don’t seem to have that necessary spark. Maybe they need some of that nervous energy New Approach seems to impart: they haven’t used him so far. But as purely a stud they had a fine year when Fiorente won the Melbourne Cup. He also won a Group 2 race (over 8f!!), while a relative Ruscello won a couple of races including a Group 3 in Australia. Look out for Sir John Hawkwood down-under next year. That seems to be where they do well.
