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Benvenuto Cellini

Benvenuto Cellini

1 of the top judges in Europe
Jun 12, 2012
47,094
58,154
113
Restorer 20/1

Has been overlooked again, no fluke about his last run and he is no 20/1 shot here, especially if they get the rain. Elm Park will take a bit of beating, preferred him in the Mill Reef colours though! Snoano and Best Of Times are nice too but it looks a pretty shallow race and I think Restorer will go close.
 
20s gone, hope you shrewdies snapped it up

Still plenty of 16s

Be lucky to get 16s for the Derby after this demo job!
 
A victory for Elm Park would be bordering on something of fairytale proportions (and as Boris says a great shame he's not still sporting the Mill Reef/Kingsclere Racing Club/Paul Mellon colours). He couldn't be more Kingsclere!

The sire Phoenix Reach was the stables' flagship bearer (especially overseas) for many years. He stood at the National Stud but has now been dispatched to a small stud in Shropshire. By Alhaarth he probably qualifies as that stallion's best son, only Bandari and Dominica can challenge that. But if the sire was Kingsclere the distaff side is even more so.
The dam Lady Brora is by Dashing Blade (trained by Ian at Kingsclere and who ran in Mill Reef colours) who is by Elegant Air (owned by Paul Mellon) and by Mill Reef's son Shirley Heights out of Mellon's Elegant Tern (all trained at Kingsclere by Ian Balding).
Lady Brora's dam Tweed Mill was owned by Ian Balding's wife and is by Selkirk (trained by Ian) out of Island Mill (owned and bred by Mrs Balding) by Mill Reef (as above) out of a smart filly called Siliciana (that Ian trained and bred) and by the first good horse Balding trained for Paul Mellon called Silly Season.
Objectively Lady Brora shows interesting in-breeding to the sires Mill Reef (no bad thing!!) and Sharpen Up (who always had lovely horses). Mating her with Phoenix Reach was almost a total outcross as other than a line of Never Bend (Mill Reef's sire) he's an outcross in the first 5 generations: he introduces a line of Northern Dancer and some other American blood (Raise a Native giving in-breeding to Native Dancer on both sides of the pedigree as Sharpen Up's sire was by him). [One thought: just because Elm Park is running over 8f as a 2yo doesn't mean he's bred to be a stayer. He wouldn't definitely get 12f].

Amazing really, and I hope he wins but I can only repeat Boris's sentiment that he should be running in the black with gold cross colours. It doesn't seem right that he's not.
 
Ah, Bustino, you've brought it all back. A relative of mine ran the village post office/shop in Kingsclere in the '50s, and I spent a fair amount of time there. My abiding memory is of Supreme Court winning the first running of the King George (then, I think, the richest race run in Europe) trained by Evan Williams, with the entire village on it, at 100-9, for all the money they could scrape together. Poor old Evan, who was a very good trainer, has been airbrushed out of history, and the world seems to believe that modern Kingsclere's racing traditions began with Peter Hastings (subsequently Hastings-Bass, who begat William, who sold it on to his assistant Ian Balding). But long before Evan, old John Porter trained the great Ormonde there in the 1880s.

I'd never diminish Paul Mellon's contribution to British racing, and I agree that it would be absolutely fitting if Elm Park were to win a top-class race as a sort of In Memoriam. But if John Arlott were here, he'd tell you that it ought to be in blue and white hoops !
 
Thanks for that rainermarialike. I remember Hastings Bass dying but that's as far as I go. I didn't realise Ormonde was trained there. It seems that Kingsclere is right up there with Beckhampton.

Mellon's contribution to British racing was immense. I'm always astonished that he virtually gave Mill Reef to the National Stud. I will never hear a word said against Ian Balding as a man as I believe he was the one person (other than Hern) to come out of the Hern/Porchester debacle with any integrity: his actions were brave, consistent and selfless. But he was extremely lucky to have had such an understanding owner as Mellon and I think you can only class Ian as a very good trainer. I think his son Andrew is better and I really hope he gets the support his ability justifies.

Thanks again for your memories.
 
Thanks, Bustino. For what it's worth, I'd put in a word for Willie Carson in the Hern/Porchester thing: Willie spoke his mind, in public, at a time when his own career was probably past its zenith, and I've always suspected that it must have cost him something. At the risk of hastening the hardening of Sir Barney's arteries, I didn't think Her Maj came out of it that well either.
 
No you are right Rainermarialike, Carson did act selflessly as well. Balding had more to lose, especially as William Hastings-Bass was his close relation. He stopped being a Royal trainer soon after, though the Queen Mum then started sending him a horse or two.
I'm sure Sir Barney would say she was badly advised. But she did take that advice.
 
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