Grade 1 Winner Caldwell Potter Off To Paul Nicholls For Record 740k

Grade 1 winner and live Cheltenham festival contender Caldwell Potter will continue his career for trainer Paul Nicholls after lighting up the Caldwell Construction Dispersal at Tattersalls Ireland on Monday when selling to Highflyer Bloodstock's Anthony Bromley for a National Hunt record of €740,000.

The Gordon Elliott-trained Caldwell Potter, who won the Paddy Power Future Champions Novice Hurdle at Leopardstown and is as short as 10-1 for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle, will race for a partnership comprising John Hales, Ged Mason, Sir Alex Ferguson and Peter Done. 

Bromley commented, “You just don't get these rare commodities come on the market. My heart was skyrocketing when I was watching El Fabiolo jumping at Leopardstown yesterday, but this was far more nerve-wracking!

“I have bought him for great clients John Hales, Ged Mason, Sir Alex Ferguson and Peter Done, who have a lovely horse in Kalif Du Berlais and this horse will join him at Paul Nicholls.”

Elliott put up a determined fight to keep Caldwell Potter at Cullentra House Stables and finished up as underbidder on the horse who was spoken about as a potential Gold Cup prospect by Bromley.

The agent continued, “He is a standout, a lovely horse, I loved him as a youngster as a store. I have watched his career closely – he has only been running over two miles yet he looks a stayer. He may potentially be a Gold Cup horse, long term.

“I can't say what plans Paul will have for the horse and we will see how it all works out, obviously there are the Cheltenham entries and Aintree would be a consideration, but he has been bought really as a chaser of the future.”

The session turnover of €5,290,000 for the 29 lots on offer was a record-breaking aggregate for a one-day boutique National Hunt Sale. The average price for the session was €182,414.

Staffordshire Knot finished the afternoon's trade as the most expensive horse that Elliott managed to keep a hold of on €510,000. Elliott also signed for Sa Fureur, Doctor Elvis and Chemical Energy, bringing his total spend to €1,315,000, while prominent buyers for the stable such as Mags O'Toole stepped in to buy other smart prospects on behalf of current owners within the stable.

Elliott commented, “I was disappointed to lose the big horse, but that is the way it is – hopefully he will be lucky for the new owners. Pied Piper is coming back and we have got all the ones we wanted apart from Caldwell Potter.

“Staffordshire Knot is an exciting six-year-old and we are delighted we have bought him. The horses all looked great – we only had a week's notice for this sale and it is a credit to the staff.”

Simon Kerins, chief executive at Tattersalls Ireland, described staging the dispersal as an honour before labelling the sale as “a phenomenal success.”

He said, “First and foremost, I extend my sincere gratitude to Andy and Gemma Brown, as well as Joey Logan, for entrusting us with their dispersal sale, it has been an honour.

“I would like to express my appreciation to Gordon Elliott and his team – every single horse in this draft has been produced looking in superb order and, finally, the Tattersalls Ireland team for turning this sale around at such speed. It is testament to the team's professionalism and hard work, proof of the flexibility that we have and ability to act as the industry requires.

“The sale has been a phenomenal success and the figures paid have been mind blowing. We knew these horses would be in high demand given their proven level of form, and all the big players were here today.

“We look forward to watching today's sales horses going on to achieve great things on the racecourse, and we hope to see the Browns return to the racing scene in the near future.

“We now look ahead to the National Hunt Store season and inspections, which, of course, will be highlighted by the 50th year of the industry-leading Derby Sale on June 26-27th.”

 

The post Grade 1 Winner Caldwell Potter Off To Paul Nicholls For Record 740k appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Cheer Up, It Might Never Happen

We've never had it so bad, apparently. That of course depends on whether you're a glass-half-full or half-empty kind of person. Mine has been mostly empty so far in 2024, of the good stuff at least, but the swapping of a decent claret for chai tea has not lowered the spirits as much as might have been imagined at the start of January. In fact, optimism levels are running high in this very small corner of Newmarket at present. 

For a start we have made it through storms Isha and Jocelyn with the loss of only one roof tile and a fence panel. There were no loose horses or fallers, and there has been no ice under the hooves of the fresh horses just back from their winter holidays. These sound like minor considerations, but in a small stable, when the horses who live below and the staff who come in every day to ride them feel like family members, every day that passes without dramatic incident is a good day. 

Don't get me wrong, I don't skip around every minute of the day being irritatingly upbeat. I have grave concerns over the way racing is heading in some areas, particularly that so many people seem willing to gamble on trading horses but have no interest in racing them. With little acknowledgement of their importance to the Levy, the paltry level of funding for lower-tier races is making it increasingly unsustainable for many of the sport's smaller participants to continue and is in part deterring others to get involved. It is becoming harder not to conclude that there is now no place for the small breeder, the small owner or the small trainer with their lesser horses. That would be a shame. 

In the long history of sport, fans have deified the very best, and rightly so. We all need a Pele, a Piggott, a Klopp or a Cecil to sprinkle a little magic. But the sporting public also loves an underdog. Only recently, the exploits of Hewick on Boxing Day reminded us of this. And I long to see another horse of the ilk of Sergeant Cecil or Speciosa in the hands of trainers whose talents lack only the supply of horses. 

For a start, what a story. Fresh faces, a new narrative. And then there's the knock-on effect; the hope brought to others in a similar situation, that encouragement to roll the dice. 

Racing has always been built on dreams. People come and people go, and new people replace them with that same old dream. Retention is important, of course, and it is hard not to look upon last week's announcement from Andrew and Gemma Brown of Caldwell Construction with anything other than concern. Here are owners who have enjoyed major success, with some exciting young National Hunt prospects on their hands, withdrawing from racing and dispersing their stock, apparently following three recent fatalities among their string. One can sympathise with the Browns while wondering how long jump racing will be tolerated by the general public, particularly in Britain. 

Among the other issues of the day are prize-money, concerns over Britain and Ireland becoming nurseries for other racing nations with deeper pockets, and the hoovering up of top-class stallion prospects by our friends in Japan. Well, guess what. None of this is new. 

'No Racing and no Money as 1968 comes in' ran the cheery headline on the editorial leader in the February 1968 edition of Stud And Stable. Britain was then in the grip of a foot-and-mouth epidemic which had halted racing during the previous December (the same disease later caused the cancellation of the Cheltenham Festival of 2001). Remarkably, the December Sales of 1967 had been permitted to go ahead by the government under strict protocols and they recorded some notable returns despite some epidemic-enforced withdrawals. Sound familiar? 

Vaguely Noble sold for a record 136,000 guineas, and he was far from the only high-priced lot to fall into the hands of owners from overseas.

The gloomy leader stated, “Already supported by racing programmes that justified the payment of high prices, French and American buyers were afforded a field day.”

It continued, “Throughout the century, England and Ireland have acted as a storehouse from which to supply the world's Thoroughbred requirements. This year's December Sales raised more dramatically than ever the question of how long we shall be able to go on doing so unless we can increase our prizes and keep the best at home.”

These words, written 56 years ago, could so easily have been penned today.

Elsewhere in the same magazine there was a short report on the sale of the stallions Larkspur and Hard Ridden to Japan, which began, “Following on from the rather alarming foreign purchases of the top lots at the Newmarket December Sales comes news of the export to Japan of two Derby winners.” Again, this has a familiar ring of recency to it (as did an advertisement in the same edition for Rathduff Stud's promising young stallion by the name of Cracksman).

In fact, the only thing that felt a little different in this edition of Stud And Stable from 1968 was a photograph of the packed stands at the Curragh in an advert for the Irish Sweeps Derby which boasted of the higher average prices of yearlings with Irish Derby entries. Just don't tell Patrick Cooper or he might write another letter. 

Over the years we have had epidemics of the human and bovine variety temporarily halt racing in its tracks. It would have felt catastrophic at the time, and the worry of the months of April and May 2020 in particular is still fresh in the mind. 

Somehow, though, this industry bounces back, often stronger than ever. 

Racing limped on, restricted and reduced, through the far graver years of the Second World War. The Derby and the Oaks were run at Newmarket, but at least they took place. It must be said that the influential owner-breeders of the day played a major role in persuading the government that a certain amount of racing must continue for the morale of the people, not to mention the important continuation and testing of the breed on the racecourse.

And yet even in those desperate times we find in the Bloodstock Breeders' Review similar buoyancy at the sales, which is quite staggering considering what was taking place in the real world. A report written in the sixth year of war concluded, “Bloodstock Sales in 1944 showed the highest aggregate ever known…The December Sales results alone beat all hitherto established records…The same story is to be recorded regarding the Dublin Sales. All records were surpassed by the results in 1944.”

I've lost track of the times I've reported on a “record-breaking” sale over the last decade. Of course the vitality of the bloodstock market should not be confused with the overall health of racing. As stated, an increased number of people treat the sales like the stock market and are not involved beyond that, while plenty of money that changes hand comes from foreign investors. 

That's not all bad though. We have always needed international interest in our bloodstock market, and the breed itself needs it. Many of those investors hail from countries which are not conducive to the breeding and rearing of horses, and the fact that the green and pleasant lands of Britain and Ireland are ideally suited to that pursuit has not gone unnoticed by those from overseas who have decided to establish their own breeding operations in this part of the world. 

And yes, to a degree, it is facetious to imply that little has changed. Glancing through those old books and magazines, the most telling difference is that there were once so many small, independent studs that each stood a stallion or two. Now, many have been subsumed by those major investors whose breeding operations have become empires. Whether that is good or bad is almost a moot point. It's different, but we still have the choice of a large range of stallions, with many of the best in the world standing in these isles.

None of this means that we can simply think all is well and turn to complacency. Those quickly expanding racing programmes in the Middle East will need more and more horses to meet their demands, at a rate and standard which exceeds the potential of their local breeding industries. In part that is good news for European breeders, but it may well prove detrimental to racing here.

A personal gripe is how much owners appear to be encouraged to sell on a horse as soon as it shows a glimmer of talent. Obviously lucrative offers are hard to turn down, and horses can suddenly be lame in the blink of an eye, so this isn't pointing the finger of blame at anyone who has cashed in. But what happened to that dream? Isn't it what drew people in in the first place, the chance to race a top horse? 

There really is nothing like the thrill of being connected to a winner, whether in a syndicate or as a sole owner-breeder. That's the dream we should be selling, for no get-rich-quick scheme can equal that high.

The politics of racing can certainly detract from our enjoyment of the sport if we let it. So it's time to stop doom-scrolling. Put down your phone and get yourself out to a paddock or a racecourse to marvel at the beauty of the Thoroughbred. The start of the Flat turf season is now but two months away and the foaling barns are once again filling up with the stars of the future. 

If we get it right now and treat these wonderful creatures with the respect they deserve throughout their lives, then there is hope that in another 80 years the bloodstock journalists of the future will be writing about yet more sales records and why the Irish Derby should remain at a mile and a half. 

The post Cheer Up, It Might Never Happen appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Verified by MonsterInsights