£50,000 Ex-Racehorse Class Added To Cornbury House Horse Trials

A new class for ex-racehorses, worth £50,000, will be conducted at the Cornbury House Horse Trials in 2025, Jayne McGivern and Cornbury House Horse Trials announced on Friday.

The new class is the initiative of McGivern of Dash Grange Stud, who owns top event horses, and David Howden, group CEO and founder of Howden and founder and president of the Cornbury House Horse Trials. Her aim is to also raise the profile of the adaptable nature of Thoroughbreds, especially in terms of their suitability for eventing. She is donating £50,000 in prize-money, and the class will be run alongside the other classes at Cornbury House Horse Trials. The class will showcase Thoroughbreds and their abilities, aiming to encourage riders to take on and retrain ex-racehorses and incentivise riders to work towards the 2025 class. It will also provide an additional opportunity for ex-racehorses, building on the existing resource and guidance provided by Retraining of Racehorses (RoR).

Jayne McGivern of Dash Grange Stud said, “I am thrilled to be able to launch a new ex-racehorse class that will run in 2025 and thank David Howden for his support in allowing my idea to come to fruition. Racing and eventing are both my passions and through this class we will be able to showcase the talent that Thoroughbreds have in their second careers.”

The class will begin at CCI2*/Novice level with further details to be announced in due course.

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Givemethebeatboys the Star of Goffs London Sale at £1.1m

By Emma Berry and Brian Sheerin

“Everyone who is anyone” assembled at Kensington Palace ahead of one of the great weeks in world racing, and Goffs will be hoping that the star of its London Sale on Monday night will go on to be one of the stars of Tuesday afternoon at Royal Ascot. The G3 Marble Hill S. winner Givemethebeatboys (Ire) (Bungle Inthejungle {GB}) led allcomers when sold for £1,100,000 to Con and Neil Sands of Bronsan Racing. He will remain in training with Jessica Harrington and heads almost immediately to the G2 Coventry S.

Generally 10/3 third-favourite for the Coventry, Givemethebeatboys is set to be ridden by Frankie Dettori but he will not now carry the colours of Theresa Marnane, whose husband Con and daughter Amy bought the dual winner for just €11,000 at the Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale last November.

Amy Marnane said, “It's completely surreal, really, to buy Givemethebeatboys for €11,000 and then for him to not get into a breeze-up sale, and then to go on to win his maiden so impressively at Navan, and then to win the Marble Hill Stakes at the Curragh. It was won by Blackbeard last year, and has been won by Caravaggio, it's a fantastic race to win.”

She continued, “Goffs put on such a show. Everybody who is anybody is here and we just hope that the horse goes on to win the Coventry tomorrow. Mrs Harrington and Kate Harrington have been a huge part of this horse's career and they are so excited to see him run tomorrow, which gives us huge confidence in him.”

Kate Harrington confirmed that the colt will return to her family's stable. She said, “We're delighted for Bronsan Racing to have bought such an exciting horse in Givemethebeatboys and let's hope he can go and do them justice in the Coventry. He will stay in training with us after Ascot which is very exciting.”

The Marnanes will not be without a runner at Royal Ascot, however, as they retained the recent Tipperary winner Supersonic Man (GB), another son of Bungle Inthejungle who is declared for Wednesday's Windsor Castle S., at £270,000.

“He'll go close,” said a delighted Con Marnane, while his daughter added, “We didn't sell Supersonic Man but we are very excited to see what he can do on Wednesday. He's not just a small, sharp two-year-old, he's a big, robust horse who will go on and hopefully we'll have a lot of fun with him throughout the summer.”

It was nine years ago that the racing crowd first descended on London on the eve of Royal Ascot for the sale of a select group of Thoroughbreds, plenty of whom had some smart entries for the week ahead. It is a unique concept in Europe, and as much a lavish cocktail party as it is a horse sale. But since that inaugural event of 2014, the boutique auction, which has been tweaked and trimmed in the process, has sold 148 lots for just shy of £37 million. That tally was boosted by the £3,770,000 bid on Monday, when, from 21 lots offered, including breeding rights to Havana Grey (GB) and Soldier's Call (GB), 11 were sold at an average of £342,727 and median of £250,000.

Other highlights of the sale include:

  • No Nay Mets (Ire) won a Royal Ascot qualifying race on his sole start at Gulfstream Park for trainer George Weaver and Bergman Family Racing.  Not only has he had his airfare paid by Ascot Racecourse, but he has now netted his owners £800,000 before even setting foot on a racecourse again. The No Nay Never colt, who was bred by Coolmore and sold as a yearling by Baroda Stud at Arqana for €180,000, was bought by Liam Culman's Tuckernuck Stables.
  • Gai Waterhouse has supported the Goffs London Sale since its inaugural year and she and co-trainer Adrian Bott purchased two lots on Monday assisted by bloodstock agent Johnny McKeever. The first, bought in partnership with Craig Thompson's Mount Hallowell Stud, was Cuban Dawn (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}), bought for £300,000 from his breeder Jim Bolger and co-owner Teme Valley Racing. The three-year-old colt has finished second in two of his three starts during May, having made his debut in the Listed Tetrarch S., in which he was fourth behind subsequent Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}). Teme Valley was also the co-owner, with Ballylinch Stud, of Waterhouse's other purchase, New Endeavour (Ire). The New Bay (GB) gelding was sold for £260,000 and is entered for both the Britannia and the Buckingham Palace S. on Thursday for Roger Varian.
  • Ocean Vision (Ire) (U S Navy Flag) was knocked down to Marquee Bloodstock, with bloodstock agent Martin Buick acting on behalf of Ramiro Restrepo, best known for purchasing Kentucky Derby winner Mage (Good Magic). It is understood that the three-year-old will remain with his trainer Tim Donworth in France for the immediate future but the plan is for the colt to continue his career in America. Ocean Vision, who was sold for £250,000, was one of three French-trained horses to be offered at the sale. He won the Listed Prix de Pontarme in May among his four victories from 10 starts for Jonathon Kirkland and Geraldine Ryan.
  • Joseph O'Brien's useful dual-purpose campaigner Nusret (GB) was knocked down at £300,000 to Jayne McGivern of Dash Grange Stud, who also owns his sire Golden Horn (GB). The four-year-old, a multiple winner on the Flat and over hurdles for Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, holds an entry for Friday's Duke of Edinburgh S.
  • Breeding rights to last year's champion first-season sire Havana Grey and one of this season's leading lights of the freshman division, Soldier's Call, were offered at the start of the sale. They were bought respectively for £205,000 by China Horse Club and £80,000 by Oliver St Lawrence.

Speaking at the conclusion of the London Sale, Goffs Group chief executive Henry Beeby said, “We are delighted with today's London Sale, which saw strong demand from an international audience capped by a dream result for the connections of Givemethebeatboys. We are delighted for the Marnane family and wish new owners Bronsan Racing the very best of luck in the Coventry Stakes tomorrow. The chance to offer the dream of a Royal Ascot runner is very special, and everyone at Goffs will be shouting as loud as anybody for Givemethebeatboys, or indeed any of the other Ascot runners from today's sale, over the next few days.”

He added, “For Goffs to be here in the grounds of Kensington Palace welcoming so many friends and colleagues from international racing is something we are very proud of.  It's what we're all about – the business of buying and selling top-class horses but making it as enjoyable a process as possible. Of course we cannot deliver an event of this level without the incredible support of our partners and I wish to thank our title sponsor Privat 3 Money who have helped bring the sale to a new level, along with Ascot, Chateau Leoube, Ampito and IYC who have been tremendous supporters of the London Sale for many years now, while we were delighted to welcome two new partners this year in Aston Martin and Hofmeister.”



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McGivern Grasps A Golden Opportunity

“I'm on a mission to make GB great in its own right.” A statement from Britain's new prime minister, perhaps? No. Forget Westminster, and cast your mind instead to the rolling Cotswold hills that frame the area around Cheltenham.

Those words are uttered not far up the road from the home of National Hunt racing, at Overbury Stud, by the new owner of the stud's newest stallion. Jayne McGivern is unashamedly proud of her recent purchase of Golden Horn (GB), the horse who lit up the 2015 Flat season, graduating from Derby trials, to winning the Derby itself, followed by the Eclipse, the Irish Champion S. and the Arc. No prizes then for guessing that by the end of that glorious season he was made Horse of the Year.

Since those days, Golden Horn, now 10, has resided at Dalham Hall Stud on the Darley roster. But with his Flat stallion career perhaps not as explosive as it might have been hoped for, but with some eye-catching early results over jumps, he was sold this summer by his owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer to McGivern, whose passion for all things equine is equal to her formidable curriculum vitae in the construction industry. With a track record that includes London's Crossrail project, a major construction development at Madison Square Gardens in New York, and a seat on the board of one of the world's leading construction companies, McGivern has recently been appointed as the CEO of the Sports Boulevard Foundation in Saudi Arabia. Currently on her plate is that company's major urban regeneration of the Saudi capital, Riyadh.

Horses, then, provide a pleasurable respite during McGivern's return trips from Riyadh to the green pastures of her Dash Grange Stud, or nearby Overbury, which is temporarily home to her four broodmares and their followers. Golden Horn, meanwhile, is now a permanent resident at the latter and has been reunited with two old stablemates from his time at John and Thady Gosden's Clarehaven Stables in Jack Hobbs (GB), who was runner-up to him in the Derby, and Ardad (Ire), whose more precocious profile makes him a rather different prospect.

McGivern has been steadily making some notable purchases in her establishment of a boutique broodmare band. Queen Of The Stage (Ire) (King's Theatre {Ire}), the dam of the outstanding young hurdler Constitution Hill (GB) (Blue Bresil {Fr}), is perhaps the stand-out and was bought for €340,000 in May. Buildmeupbuttercup (GB) (Sixties Icon {GB}) was acquired last November, a year after the purchase of Jelan (Ire) (Milan {GB}), a full-sister to the Champion Hurdler Jezki (Ire). She had good reason then to wish to secure a stallion whose profile is rising fast among the National Hunt sector.

Of her mission to ensure that good stallions remains in Britain, McGivern told visitors to Overbury Stud last week as Golden Horn paraded before them, “I'm starting with the very best. I've looked for a stallion for some time and missed a couple for various reasons. I had a little go for Nathaniel and then [Newsells Park] stud got sold. But for the right reasons, I've ended up with this magnificent horse. I can pinch myself. I'm the luckiest person on the planet that he's mine. He's very intelligent and fortunately very fertile.”

Indeed he is. Golden Horn may have seen his appeal adjusting more from the Flat towards the National Hunt crowd but he has not been standing idle, and he covered more than 150 mares this spring before he left Newmarket. One of those was McGivern's treble listed-winning hurdler Buildmeupbuttercup, and while there are some smart jumping names on the list, such as L'Unique (Fr) and My Petra (GB), there are also still some Flat names to conjure with. At Overbury, which has been home to two leading first-season sires in Bertolini and Ardad, as well as multiple British champion National Hunt sire Kayf Tara (GB), it could be said that Golden Horn will have the chance to be involved in the best of both worlds.

McGivern is quick to emphasise that it is Golden Horn's genuine dual-purpose profile that appeals to her and, she hopes, to her fellow breeders. While his smattering of jumps runners to date can boast a strike-rate in excess of 60%, with 14 of his 23 representatives in this sphere having won, including the smart Grade 2 winner Stag Horn (GB), he has also had an encouraging summer on the Flat since relocating to Overbury. The thrice-raced Juddmonte filly Haskoy (GB) has won twice, including the Listed Galtres S., and may yet win back her second-past-the-post finish in the St Leger that was taken away in the stewards' room. The Andre Fabre-trained dual group winner Botanik (GB), meanwhile, is heading to the Breeders' Cup Turf, and another Godolphin representative, Trawlerman (GB), won the valuable Ebor.

“I do think that he's proving himself on the Flat and is a proper dual-purpose stallion,” says McGivern, who also owns 4% of Nathaniel (Ire), another stallion who has piqued the interest of jumps breeders but is eminently capable of siring top-class runners on the Flat.

“And I don't want to get political, but I think everybody may agree that Brexit has been a bit of a disaster for the thoroughbred breeding industry. I look at my own mares and the thought of sending them to Ireland, as we might have done some years ago, just doesn't work for me any more. It's incredibly expensive, it's a huge amount of admin, and I don't think that it's practical.”

She adds, “I have lovely mares, and I think it's really important that we start securing these terrific stallions for the United Kingdom.”

McGivern's broader-brush interests on the equine front run to the ownership of some smart eventers ridden by the current Burghley champion Piggy March. Together they won last weekend's CCI4* class for young horses at Blenheim Horse Trials with the grey stallion Halo.

“I'm fortunate enough that Pig rides for me, but really racing is my heart,” says the effervescent McGivern, who, like her husband David Crossland, previously rode in point-to-points.

“I am a National Hunt person. I love National Hunt racing. It is my passion and has been for most of my life. But that said, I'm moving to the dark side.”

It could be described as returning to the dark side, as McGivern's current horse on the Flat, the winning juvenile Sirona (Ger) (Soldier Hollow {GB}), is with Mark Johnston, whom she and Crossland previously had horses with in the 1990s. She also bid on the filly's full-brother at the recent BBAG Yearling Sale, but he was eventually bought by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

She says of Sirona, who was recently second in the valuable British EBF Fillies' Series Final, “I'm really chuffed at the way that she's panned out. We're entering her for a listed race at the end of this month and then a Group 3 in Dusseldorf in mid-November. And then I think we'll just turn her out and see what we've got as a 3-year-old, but her pedigree's perfect for Golden Horn.”

McGivern adds, “I'm moving over into Flat racing a little bit, because this is a dual-purpose stallion by anybody's measure. If it had been six weeks later, the deal might have been slightly different, but as soon as I heard he might be available, we moved very quickly. I think I was extremely lucky to get him and he will be with me for the rest of his life.”

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