Ben Sangster is not one to underestimate the influence of luck in this sport. But there is a lot to be said for people making their own, and having made most of the opportunities to come his way, luck is now shining kindly on his Swettenham Stud operation.
Years of cultivating one branch of a favoured family could be on the cusp of yielding Classic rewards in the form of Luxembourg (Ire) (Camelot {GB}), the current ante-post Derby favourite who was bred by Sangster out of Attire (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}). An understanding of the mare and her family allied to the horse's upbringing on some of Ireland's best land ahead of joining Aidan O'Brien has undoubtedly aided luck in the emergence of Luxembourg as one of Europe's top 2-year-olds of 2021, a standing garnered by an unbeaten campaign that culminated with a resounding victory in the G1 Vertem Futurity at Doncaster.
Luck, however, has very much played its role in Sangster retaining co-ownership of Saffron Beach (Ire) (New Bay {GB}), the current Group 1 star of Jane Chapple-Hyam's Newmarket yard who was forced to miss her sale engagements as a young horse through injury.
Successful in last year's G1 Sun Chariot S. and G3 Atalanta S., Saffron Beach recently opened her 4-year-old campaign with a highly creditable fourth against colts in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic at Meydan. It was a performance that suggested the filly had not only thrived from three to four years but also took her travelling well enough to open up the idea of further participation in other major international races down the line.
Before then, there is the prospect of Luxembourg putting his unbeaten record on the line in the 2000 Guineas at Newmarket, for which he is as short as 4/1 behind Native Trail (Fr) (Oasis Dream {GB}). Should he triumph, it would maintain a wonderful association between the Classic and the Sangster family that harks back to the involvement of his father Robert with the Vincent O'Brien-trained winners Lomond (Northern Dancer {Can}) and El Gran Senor (Northern Dancer). Robert Sangster also bred and owned the 1992 winner Rodrigo De Triano (El Gran Senor), who was trained at the family's Manton estate by Peter Chapple-Hyam.
“Luxembourg is from one of those families that is deep in black type that keeps expanding,” says Sangster. “It's a great Wildenstein line with proper Group 1 black type – there is Group 1 winner after Group 1 winner on the page, champions like Arcangues and Aquarelliste.
“It's a family that we have bought into several times over the years. There is a mare called Afrique Bleu Azur in there who I bought for my father. She was a Sagace mare and we sent her to Caerleon and out of that we bred Cape Verdi. Angara is another out of that family that we had. She was a very good mare that we raced, she won the Diana Stakes at Saratoga and the Beverly D. And then we also had her half-sister Altesse Imperiale.
“Then you come to Asnieres, a half-sister to Afrique Bleu Azur. She was another we bought out of the family and out of her we bred Forgotten Voice, a good horse. And later in life, she produced Attire, the dam of Luxembourg. So it's a family we have a lot of time for and one we've been lucky with.”
This remarkable family descends from Daniel Wildenstein's Listed Prix Omnium winner Almyre (Fr), a 1964-foaled daughter of Wild Risk (Fr) (Rialto {Fr}). Almyre left behind nine winners including Group 2 scorer Ashmore (Fr) (Luthier {Fr}) and the Group 2-placed Albertine (Fr) (Irish River {Fr}), herself the dam of Arcangues (Sagace {Fr}), who sprang an almighty 133/1 shock for Andre Fabre in the 1993 G1 Breeders' Cup Classic, and Group 3 winner Agathe (Manila), the dam of Aquarelliste (Fr) (Danehill).
Cape Verdi (Ire), foaled in 1995, was one of the first top-flight descendants of Almyre to be bred outside Wildenstein hands. Initially trained at Manton by Chapple-Hyam, she carried the Sangster colours to victory in the 1997 G2 Lowther S. before changing hands in a package to Godolphin, for whom she won the following year's 1,000 Guineas prior to a fruitless attempt against colts in the Derby.
As for Angara (GB) (Alzao) and Altesse Imperiale (Ire) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), they were out of Albertine's daughter Ange Bleu (Fr) (Alleged). Altesse Imperiale has left her own mark on the stud book as dam of the Group 1-placed Altruistic (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) for Swettenham Stud and Scout Stable LLC.
Minor winner Asnieres, born in 1992, was the sixth foal out of Albertine and a daughter of the 1985 Kentucky Derby winner Spend A Buck, a horse rarely seen in northern hemisphere pedigrees nowadays (for all he was a successful sire in Brazil). She foaled nine winners, of which Forgotten Voice (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), winner of the G3 Glorious S., and Listed scorer Australie (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) were the most accomplished.
Attire was not one of the winning nine, being placed three times in eight starts for David Wachman. However, she has swiftly made amends at stud.
Her second foal, Leo De Fury (Ire) (Australia {Ire}), won the 2020 G2 Mooresbridge S. for Jessica Harrington and remains in training while her third, Sense Of Style (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), came within a head of winning the Listed Staffordstown Stud S. as a 2-year-old and was Group 3-placed for Sangster and Joseph O'Brien last season. Luxembourg is her fifth foal and followed by a full-brother who sold for €1.2 million to MV Magnier at last year's Goffs Orby Sale. He is also in training with Aidan O'Brien.
“Attire, a sister to Forgotten Voice, was one of the last foals out of Asnieres and a beautiful yearling,” says Sangster. “We put her into training but she didn't quite live up to expectations.
“But three of her foals are now black type. Leo De Fury is a beautiful horse and he's still running. I had Sense Of Style with Joseph, she was a good filly who was placed in a few stakes races. She was covered recently by Camelot.
“Luxembourg was sold during the Covid yearling sales. He was a beautiful yearling – he was Lot 40 in Book 1 and MV Magnier bought him on behalf of a partnership [for 150,000gns]. I was pleased with that because it meant he was going to a very good hotel.
“Her yearling last year was another beautiful horse. He was maybe a bit stronger than Luxembourg and a great mover with great quality and a good colour.”
Attire also has a yearling sister to Luxembourg and is due to foal to Camelot later this spring.
He adds: “We have some mares at home but Attire resides at Coolmore. Land is such an important part of the jigsaw and Luxembourg came off one of Coolmore's satellite farms called Kilsheelan. Where these animals are reared is so important and the list of horses to have come off that farm is remarkable, it goes to show what great land – the Golden Vale – it sits on. And it's run by a wonderful, dedicated team of staff. I am indebted to the Magnier family for letting me board horses on such a wonderful farm.”
If the rearing of Luxembourg was a straightforward process, then the same can't be said for Saffron Beach. Bred by the China Horse Club out of Falling Petals (Ire) (Raven's Pass), the filly was purchased as a foal for 55,000gns through Liam Norris of Norris/Huntingdon. As a first-crop daughter of a Prix du Jockey Club winner in New Bay – who has subsequently emerged as a young sire of real note – from the immediate family of Cotai Glory (GB) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}), Saffron Beach was undoubtedly an appealing commercial proposition. But then fate intervened.
“Liam Norris, who I regard as a great judge – he bought [Oaks winner] Dancing Rain as a yearling from me – bought Saffron Beach for me as a foal,” says Sangster. “But as a young horse, she had an injury in the paddock that meant we couldn't sell her at the yearling sales. We couldn't even take her to a 2-year-old sale. We ended up breaking her in very late, around April of her 2-year-old year.”
Saffron Beach missed not one but three sale engagements over the span of ten months, including in the Tattersalls July Sale as an unnamed 2-year-old.
“I had her here at home,” says Sangster. “It was during the Covid lockdown and my daughter was here as well. We have a couple of hunters here and the wife of my stud manager, who is an excellent horsewoman, would ride her out every day. They would go out with my daughter on a hunter, single file up the gallops, and that happened every day for about three months.
“It got to around June time and we thought it was then time for her to move on, and that was when she went to Jane's. It just goes to show you need luck in this game, and we got lucky as she should have gone to a sale where we would have most likely sold her.”
Carrying the colours of Sangster, son Ollie and James Wigan, Saffron Beach made a sparkling winning debut on Newmarket's Rowley Mile in late September 2020 before following up at the same course in the G2 Rockfel S. two weeks later. After running second on her 3-year-old return in the G3 Nell Gwyn S., she wasn't beaten far into second by Mother Earth (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) in the 1000 Guineas and although subsequently disappointing in the Oaks and G1 Falmouth S., bounced back to win the G3 Atalanta S. and G1 Sun Chariot S. in a testament to the skills of her trainer.
“She's a competitive filly who hates being headed,” says Sangster. “Mentally, she's very tough. She ran a formidable race at Meydan up against those colts. Hollie [Doyle] had her in a very good position and she ran a great race. She's come out really well from that. There is a nice programme for those middle-distance fillies and mares and she should be competitive.”
He adds: “Jane is a really super trainer. She leaves no stone unturned, she's a great communicator and she makes it fun. But most of all, she's an extremely capable trainer.”
Sangster deflects the credit for two such high-flying Group 1 performers to the skill of the people around them. But having been immersed in the sport since childhood, an innate instinct to do what's right for the animal is also surely at play.
His achievements as a breeder also includes the 2011 Classic winners Dancing Rain (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}) and Roderic O'Connor (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). There is also a potential dark horse for 2022 to look out for in Changingoftheguard (Ire), a Galileo colt out of Group 2 winner Lady Lara (Ire) (Excellent Art {GB}) who broke his maiden by six lengths for Aidan O'Brien at Dundalk on Friday.
Sangster also pinhooked the 1992 Derby winner Dr Devious (Ire) (Ahonoora {GB}) as a foal alongside Paul Shanahan, while more recently he served a six-year stint as chairman of The National Stud in Newmarket. All the while, the historic Manton Estate near Marlborough, Wiltshire, which was purchased by Robert Sangster in 1984, remains at the heart of the family's involvement, notably as the current base for trainers Brian Meehan and Martyn Meade.
Indeed, the legacy of Robert Sangster, a pioneer of the sport who was so instrumental in the rise of Coolmore as an international force, continues to stretch across the globe.
Ben's brother Adam Sangster is at the helm of Swettenham Stud in Victoria, Australia, which stands six stallions including the wildly popular Toronado (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) and Group 1 globe-trotter Highland Reel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).
Younger brother Sam, meanwhile, is a successful syndicator and agent who hit a high point last autumn when his Hannibal Barba (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), a 55,000gns yearling purchase, ran fourth in the G1 Vertem Futurity. That colt was sold not long after for 500,000gns.
Nor is it likely to be long until we see the name of Ben's son Ollie as a trainer in his own right.
“Ollie is working with Joseph O'Brien at the moment and will embark on a training career sooner rather than later,” says Sangster. “He's worked with some excellent people – David Hayes in Australia, Charlie Hills over here and Wesley Ward – so he's had an excellent grounding. He's enjoying it and not afraid of hard work.”
That recipe of enjoyment and hard work has been a theme of the Sangsters' success over the years, and with Luxembourg and Saffron Beach primed to take high order again this season, such an approach looks poised to reap yet further rewards.
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