Europe | Horse Racing Free Tips

Big Books and Breaking Records

The setting of new sire records in the modern era tends more than not to be a direct consequence of ever-greater book sizes. But they must still be acknowledged as legitimate breeding benchmarks as they will inevitably feature some outstanding performances. Just look at Mehmas (Ire)‘s tally of first-crop 2-year-old winners this term. Currently on 56 winners, he is already 17 clear of Iffraaj’s old record and in normal circumstances we might be entitled to expect his record to stand for many years. It may well do, but his strike rate of 53% winners to runners, achieved by quite a few other freshman sires down the years, suggests that the big total of winners is just as much a function of a big crop of runners. So, we cannot rule out another Mehmas-like total in the near future.

We could say the same about black-type records. Larger numbers of runners tend to be the reason why these records fall, but it’s not always so. Take the case of Frankel (GB), the sire who has posted the highest number of stakes winners (56) and group winners (41) of any European sire in the first five years of his career. Frankel has already eclipsed the previous records set by Dubawi after his first five years, which stood at 53 stakes winners and 35 group winners. Dubawi, in turn, took the record away from Galileo (Ire), who had amassed 51 stakes winners and 30 group winners after his first five years.

No one could accuse Frankel of relying on sheer numbers of runners to outpace Dubawi and Galileo. In fact, he has set the new standards with fewer runners than either of his major rivals. Hence he has posted superior strike rates–14.2% stakes and 10.4% group winners–than Dubawi and Galileo had at the same point in their careers. But Frankel really did get a head start on all his rivals by covering Europe’s best mares from the outset of his career, unlike either Galileo or Dubawi. As many as 62% of the mares that have produced Frankel’s runners so far can be classed as elite, which is in stark contrast to the corresponding percentages for the early runners by Dubawi (30%) and Galileo (35%). What’s certain is that Frankel will need to have very long innings at his current strike rate to overhaul Dubawi’s current mark of 171 stakes winners and, by my calculations, another 20-plus years to reach his sire’s tally of 298. It’s a sure sign of the times that Frankel not only has more group winners than Galileo after five years but also has nearly double the number of his grandsire Sadler’s Wells and has over three times what the great Northern Dancer had in their first five years.

Remarkably, there is yet another sire that can boast an even higher number of group winners in his first five years. Shadai’s Deep Impact (Jpn), the very definition of a big fish in a small pond, sired 47 group winners in his first five years with runners. The lack of serious competition among Japan’s stallion ranks possibly casts a shadow over such an achievement, as does the fact that Deep Impact’s percentage of group winners (7.4%) is not quite as good as the percentages posted by Frankel, Galileo or Dubawi all of whom average above 10% group winners to runners. To counter that argument, though, it must also be recognized that Japan has far fewer group races per head of population than Europe does. So, 47 group winners in five years is still a formidable achievement.

Not surprisingly, North America’s records for stakes winners and graded winners at the end of five years have also fallen quite recently. The phenomenal Uncle Mo set new standards at the end of 2019 with his 48 stakes winners and 26 graded winners. It’s hard to believe that there are now 19 sires with more stakes winners in their first five years than the great Danzig, but none will ever get close to his 21% strike rate.

Among sires who stood exclusively in America, few would have guessed that it wasn’t Speightstown, nor Distorted Humor, nor Scat Daddy that held the record prior to Uncle Mo, but the one and only Kitten’s Joy, a sire that perhaps still struggles for due recognition.

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Global Views: Australian Extension

In Global Views, Godolphin Flying Start trainees provide insight into practices experienced and observations taken on their worldwide travels. Second-year trainee Lowri Allen shares the news of the course’s syllabus change that will see them attend the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

The Godolphin Flying Start Programme offers a unique opportunity to spend time working in and learning about the Thoroughbred industry in five major racing jurisdictions; Ireland, Britain, America, Australia and Dubai. The 2019-2021 class of trainees are now in the fourth phase of the programme, spending time in the capital of Australian Thoroughbred breeding, the Hunter Valley, in New South Wales. Prior to this we spent time in Kildare, Newmarket, and Lexington, learning a tremendous amount about the Irish, British and American Thoroughbred industries.

Spending time shadowing bloodstock agents at the sales forms an integral part of the programme’s syllabus, and consequently we attend many of the major sales internationally. Many of the programme’s graduates have gone on to be highly successful in the bloodstock field.

Ordinarily, trainees would finish the Australian phase of Flying Start in mid-December. But a change resulting from previous year’s feedback, which suggested that the Australian phase should be extended to provide trainees with the opportunity to attend an additional major yearling sale, will see us staying in Australia until the end of February for the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.

The Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale is one of Australia’s premier yearling sales and this year, a quality line up of 1273 lots has been confirmed by vendors for the seven-day extravaganza. Yearling inspections by trainers and bloodstock agents are currently well underway as they tour the Hunter Valley stud farms looking for the next champion. Legendary trainer Gai Waterhouse places great value in conducting stud farm inspections and is usually one of the earliest visitors on the stud farms. This practice is a noticeable difference between Australia and other jurisdictions, where prospective purchasers might see the yearlings for the first time at the sales complex. From my limited experience, it seems hugely beneficial to see a horse on its home turf and observe how it develops from mid-way through its sales preparation, to the finished product on sales day.

Further to this, the practice of pre-sales inspections was, I think, a major contributor to the success of the 2020 Inglis Easter Yearling Sale. It was the first major sale to take place during the coronavirus pandemic, and it was held at a time when many countries and Australian states were in lockdown. Whilst the sale was conducted with online bidding in a virtual auction format, many prospective buyers had already had the opportunity to view the yearlings through stud farm inspections. Consequently, there was greater buyer confidence and the sales results held up remarkably well considering that the global Covid-19 pandemic drove some challenging economic factors.

Whilst the traditional sales calendar has been kept broadly in line, digital sales continue to gain in popularity. Many in the industry say that the pandemic has pushed forward their usage. Inglis held its first digital sale back in May 2017 and the platform has grown steadily since then. This year was one of exponential growth, with the platform’s gross having doubled that of 2019 by the end of November, being just shy of $50-million.

Across the waters, at Keeneland in Lexington, similar growth was shown at their digital sales. Keeneland debuted its first digital sale in June, offering 31 horses. This number was more than doubled at the December digital sale where 70 horses were offered. The bloodstock industry has been resilient and flexible during 2020, with online bidding and digital sales rapidly establishing themselves alongside those of a traditional format.

The opportunity to learn about and experience sales across all the major racing jurisdictions has been an advantageous aspect of the programme. In Australia, syndicates form a major part of racehorse ownership, with one in every 244 Australians owning a share in a racehorse. In America and Europe, syndication forms a much smaller part of racehorse ownership and syndication groups take up far less of the buying bench at sales in these countries. Another difference is the speed of auctioneering, which is noticeably quicker in Australia and allows the working hours for sales staff to be more favourable than those in Europe, where sales could often go on late into the evening.

The applications for the 2021-2023 intake of Godolphin Flying Start trainees are currently open and close on Monday, Feb. 8, 2021. For more information and to apply, click here.

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Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

It has been a year of change at Haras d’Etreham. In August it was announced that the farm’s flagship stallion Wootton Bassett (GB) had been sold to Coolmore. The dominant Irish operation was wise to catch a rising tide but it is Etreham, and in particular Nicolas de Chambure, who must be credited with establishing the increasingly popular stallion.

If we accept the conservative estimate that only one in ten stallions really make it, then it is clear that finding Wootton Bassett’s replacement will be no easy task. Perhaps Etreham already has a worthy successor in his first-crop champion son Almanzor (Fr). Time will tell. And as back up, the farm welcomes two new stallions this year, both Group 1 winners, both by hugely popular sires, and one of them a Classic winner.

Most farms would welcome the chance to start the career of Persian King (GB) or Hello Youmzain (Fr). Etreham has the golden opportunity of launching them both together, having kept the latter in training for 2020 after buying him the previous season in partnership with New Zealand’s Cambridge Stud. Persian King, who was raced by Godolphin in partnership with his breeder Ballymore Thoroughbred, also raced on at four, adding the G1 Prix d’Ispahan and G1 Prix du Moulin to his victory in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains at three, as well as finishing an honourable third in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe as his parting shot before retirement.

“Persian King is one of the best sons of Kingman so he was attractive to many studs around Europe,” says de Chambure. “I think the dynamism of France recently helped us to be able to buy into him and for his owners to be happy about the idea of our partnership, and for the horse to stand in France.”

Persian King was one of the early stars among Kingman’s offspring, winning three of his four starts at two, including beating subsequent 2000 Guineas winner Magna Grecia (Ire) in the G3 Autumn S. at Newmarket. While that outing from his native France suggested that his trainer Andre Fabre may well target the 2000 Guineas with the imposing colt, Persian King stayed at home as a 3-year-old, winning the G3 Prix de Fontainebleau en route to his Classic success and then finishing second to Sottsass (Fr) in the Prix du Jockey Club.

De Chambure says, “He came back better than ever this year as a 4-year-old. I think his run in the Arc was a bit special for the breeders. They saw something that they didn’t think he was capable of doing. We don’t see that much these days, trainers trying something a bit different with their horses. I think people like the fact that he tried and ran very well in the Arc.”

He adds, “When we buy a stallion prospect their sire is very important so the fact that he is by Kingman is a big plus. It gives French breeders access to that sireline.”

Thanks to Haras d’Etreham and Cambridge Stud, French breeders now also have easy access to a son of Kodiac (GB) in the dual Group 1-winning sprinter Hello Youmzain. While there is a growing throng of Kodiac’s stallion sons in Ireland and Britain, the former Kevin Ryan trainee is the first to retire to stud in France.

“There was never much of a culture of sprinters in France,” de Chambure explains. “The last really good one to retire was Anabaa. This is something a little bit new, and when we found out that he could be bought last year as a 3-year-old it didn’t take us too long to make up our minds. And we were very happy also to keep him in training this year because he won another Group 1 for us and was second in the Maurice de Gheest. So even though we couldn’t go racing, it was a very good year for us and Kevin Ryan did a very good job with him.”

Though sprinting was clearly his game, Hello Youmzain could well be multi-dimensional as a stallion prospect. His dam Spasha (GB) (Shamardal) has produced another two stakes winners on the Flat, including the G2 Gran Criterium winner and G1 Deutsches Derby place-getter Royal Youmzain (Fr) (Youmzain {Ire}), as well as that colt’s full-brother, the Grade 2-winning hurdler Saglawy (Fr). Furthermore, though his first two dams are unraced, his third dam, the G3 Lancashire Oaks winner Sandy Island (GB), is a Mill Reef half-sister to Lord Howard de Walden’s Derby winner Slip Anchor (GB) (Shirley Heights {GB}).

“For a sprinter he has a lot of scope,” de Chambure says. “He’s a good size for a Kodiac and a very good walker, so this, as well as the fact that he’s out of a Shamardal mare with a bit of pedigree as well, I think he ticks a lot of the boxes. I’m sure he’ll get some good 2-year-olds but I can see him getting good milers, and even ten-furlong horses, because he’s got a great mind, and bred with mares with a just a little bit more stamina I’m sure he will be able to. And we hope for that because I always like a stallion who can produce horses that can stay a bit more.”

The winner of the G2 Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte in his debut season, Hello Youmzain made two successful trips to Haydock at three to win the G2 Sandy Lane S. followed by the G1 Betfair Sprint Cup. For most stallion operations that would have been enough but, in announcing their purchase of him in October 2019, the partners also declared that he would remain in training at four.

“I think I’ll always do that,” says de Chambure of a decision which was not without its risks. “With Almanzor, we bought into him when he was three and he won the Champion Stakes, and everybody through that we were going to retire him because it was the easy thing to do. But I feel we are all retiring horses too soon these days—stallions and mares. We are driven by the whole economy of the thing but we are all in the industry to have horses to win races, and for me that must be the most important thing rather than the economy around it. When you are lucky enough to own part of a Group 1 horse I think it is important to keep them in training, and horses still progress from three to four. We have enough stallions, we have enough mares, and I think we need to enjoy the sport more. Obviously prize-money doesn’t help in Europe but I still think we need to give the horses more exposure and keep them running more. So in the end, yes, it was a little bit of a risk, but we were happy to do it.”

Of course, this investment in enticing stallion prospects would have been harder to do without the trading of Wootton Bassett. Now firmly established in the vanguard of European stallions, when he retired to stud in 2012 following a winless 3-year-old season he was no easy sell.

De Chambure reflects, “He was very hard work the first couple of years. He was the first stallion I bought when I took over the stud in 2011. I guess people didn’t know me then and the horse wasn’t perfect and there was a question mark over [his sire] Iffraaj (GB) at the time, and so all that together made him not that attractive for breeders.”

He continues, “Everything he did was from very little opportunity but then he got bigger numbers of mares and he has just shown that he is an exceptional stallion. It’s good to see all the French breeders who used him at €4,000, €6,000, €20,000 doing well. He has helped them at the sales and with their families, and there were a lot of French people who bought into him over the years. It’s really a success story for France and it was good to be able to share it with breeders.”

Following a year in which Wootton Bassett has been represented by the Group 1 winners Audarya (Fr) and Wooded (Ire), the horse who was the first to score for him at the top level, Almanzor, will now be faced with another test as his first runners take to the track in 2021.

Of his yearlings, de Chambure says, “It wasn’t the easiest year to be launching a stallion with their first yearlings but I think they were well received. Obviously the reputation now of Wootton Bassett is different to a few years ago and that has given Almanzor even more credit.

“They have a bit of size and quality and there’s a good vibe. Obviously we bred him and we raced him for a while so there’s huge expectations for his first 2-year-olds but there’s not a lot we can do now, we just have to wait and watch them run next spring.”

Haras d’Etreham actually welcomes three new stallions for 2021 as its National Hunt wing, Haras de la Tuilerie, is the new home of the Irish Derby winner Latrobe (Ire) (Camelot {GB}). The operation has a history of standing top-class dual-purpose and jump sires, with Poliglote (GB) and Saint Des Saints (Fr) being two stand-outs in this division in recent years. Last year the stud recruited Goliath Du Berlais (Fr)-a relatively rare National Hunt stallion with jumping form himself— to stand alongside his sire Saint Des Saints and the St Leger winner Masked Marvel (GB).

“Goliath Du Berlais won over fences in France so I was kind of looking for a Flat horse who could bring something different. The Montjeu (Ire) sireline has done really well [in jump racing] and there’s no reason that Camelot won’t. Funnily enough, Latrobe is also out of a Shamardal mare, the same as Hello Youmzain. He is a beautiful horse with a lot of quality, and plenty of size and scope for the National Hunt mares.”

With the size of modern-day stallion books being a bone of contention in the industry, breeders may take some comfort in the knowledge that the Etreham horses are limited to 140 mares in a season, including the newcomers.

“We do the same for all our stallions, the National Hunt stallions as well,” de Chambure says. “We just feel it is creating a little bit of a rarity and it’s a way to respect the breeders’ investment in a share, or a nomination. They know they have a foal or a yearling that has a certain value because the market is not loaded with them. There are different ways to help breeders and I feel it is one of the good ways to help them to create value.”

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HBLB Will Contribute to Jockeys’ Insurance for Another Six Months

A financial contribution has been agreed upon by the Levy to ensure the continuation of the career-ending insurance scheme for jockeys for another six months, the Horserace Betting Levy Board announced on Wednesday. The grant, which will total up to £80,000 max, will be combined with funding provided by the Professional Jockeys’ Association (PJA), as the PJA continues to search for a sponsor in the long term.

“This scheme has been in place for almost 10 years, paid for by commercial sponsorship and contributions from jockeys,” said HBLB Chairman Paul Darling. “It provided a critical safety net for jockeys, for whom the risk of serious injury is part of everyday normality. I and others at the Levy Board were deeply concerned when the scheme had to lapse at the end of November after the PJA had been unable to find a new sponsor in the current economic climate or other funding from within Racing. The HBLB has stepped in to ensure that the scheme is immediately reinstated.

“I stress that this is a one-off contribution. We will now keep a close liaison with the PJA as it looks to find a new sponsor. It is essential that fresh funding is found to continue this scheme and I am sure that Racing organisations will play an active part in ensuring that the scheme is continued.”

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