Amid the frenzied trade of the Tuesday evening session at last month's Tattersalls December Mares Sale, there were plenty of plaudits being passed around, and rightly so, for the sellers and the purchasers of the session's most sought-after mares. Partaking in a lower-profile-but equally deserved–celebration was the Grassick family of Newtown Stud, which had bred two of the top five lots at the sale: the Group 1-placed 2-year-old filly Flotus (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) (lot 1798), sold to Katsumi Yoshida for 1-million gns, and the listed-winning and group-placed Shades Of Blue (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) (lot 1765), sold in foal for the first time to Frankel (GB) for 850,000gns to Peter Brant's White Birch Farm.
Those results were extra-special for Sheila, Cathy and Sally Ann Grassick because both Flotus and Shades Of Blue are descendants of mares purchased and cultivated by the stud's late patriarch, the highly respected horseman Brian Grassick.
“It was such an evening,” recalled Cathy Grassick, who runs Newtown Stud and Brian Grassick Bloodstock alongside her mother Sheila and sister Sally Ann. “Myself and Sally Ann were there together and it was such an emotional evening. It was really a culmination of a long effort with those families and to be able to do that with them was amazing.”
Fittingly in a year where buyers, including Grassick, clamoured to purchase mares from extra-large Shadwell drafts, both Flotus and Shades Of Blue descend from mares that Brian Grassick purchased from Sheikh Hamdan.
“I was still going back to the well this year buying mares from Shadwell,” Grassick said. “My father always said, 'buy from people who breed their horses well, because they are the families that keep coming back.'”
The sequence began when Brian Grassick purchased the winning Mathaayl (Shadeed), for a client, out of the Goffs November sale in 1999 for 42,000 Irish pounds. Mathaayl's first two foals had been winners, but she went through the ring off an unfortunate run of four blank years. Sent to Unfuwain the following spring, Mathaayl produced a filly that was bought back by Shadwell for 180,000gns as a yearling. Named Sahool (Ire), she reversed Mathaayl's fortunes by giving her a first black-type foal with a win in the Listed Chalice S. and placings in the G2 Ribblesdale S. and G2 Lancashire Oaks.
Mathaayl's fortunes temporarily reversed thereafter, her next six foals either unraced or unplaced. She was offered again by owner John Davis at the 2006 Tattersalls December Mares Sale, where Brian Grassick purchased her for himself for 29,000gns.
“Mathaayl came back up in the sale carrying to Alhaarth, and my father was just besotted by this mare, and always had been, and he decided he was going to buy her,” Cathy Grassick said. “He wanted to buy her to get a filly from her because he really loved this mare. Unfortunately, my father never lived to see a filly.”
Mathaayl produced a colt by Alhaarth (Ire) in 2007 and, in 2009, a colt by King's Best that was born about a month after Grassick's premature passing from cancer, aged just 54. Mathaayl's 2010 foal by Jeremy died, but at last in 2011, along came Brian Grassick's filly out of Mathaayl, a daughter of Verglas (Ire).
“My father so much longed for a filly [out of Mathaayl], and she didn't arrive until just after my father passed away,” Cathy Grassick said. “That was tough, but it was lovely, and she's by Verglas and she's called Enjoyable.”
Enjoyable went into training, Grassick explained, but was ultimately kept unraced after suffering a minor injury. She was covered by Kodiac at the age of four.
“My mother decided it wasn't worth risking her because she was so planned for and so longed for that we didn't want to risk racing her,” Grassick said. “So we kept her unraced and her first foal is Shades Of Blue.”
Shades Of Blue was bought by Rathbarry Stud for 105,000gns as a Tattersalls December Foal, and was a 110,000gns buyback when re-visiting the Park Paddocks ring the following autumn for Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. Racing for Alison Jones and trainer Clive Cox, Shades Of Blue won on debut at Ascot in May of 2018 before finishing third in the G2 Queen Mary S. Traveling to Maisons-Laffitte for the five-furlong Listed Prix Hampton the following June, Shades Of Blue earned a first black-type victory before stringing together second-place finishes in the G3 Summer S., Listed Flying Fillies' S. and the G3 Prix du Petit Couvert, the last of those when she was beaten a short neck by the future multiple Group 1 winner Glass Slippers (GB) (Dream Ahead). Returning to Tattersalls last December, Shades Of Blue was picked up by BBA Ireland for 320,000gns and put in foal to Frankel before her latest, and most lucrative, turn through the ring. She is set to visit Peter Brant's G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe winner Sottsass (Fr) for her second mating.
“It's been really lovely to be so well-rewarded; my father really wanted that filly [Enjoyable] and to have her come out and produce a black-type horse with her first foal was amazing,” Grassick said. “Then to have that foal go on and turn up at the sales in foal to Frankel looking amazing-I have to say all credit to Bill Dwan, she looked a million dollars at the sale. And to have her come into the ring in foal to Frankel and make 850,000gns, it was spectacular.”
And despite her sometimes frustrating produce record, Brian Grassick was ultimately proven correct about Mathaayl by more than just Shades Of Blue. Today, seven of Mathaayl's daughters are stakes producers, and her descendants include the Group 2-winning sire Gutaifan (Ire); the dual G2 Hardwicke S. winner and multiple Group 1-placed Maraahel (Ire); the G1 Lockinge S. winner Mustashry (GB); this year's G2 Premio Gran Criterium scorer Don Chicco (GB); G3 Cumberland Lodge S. winner Laraaib (Ire); and G1 Premio Jockey Club winner and G1 St Leger second Ventura Storm (Ire). Enjoyable's yearling colt by Invincible Spirit will run in America after being purchased by Klaravich Stables for 170,000gns at Tattersalls in October, and Enjoyable is back in foal to Invincible Spirit, having not had a foal in 2021.
The Grassicks had to wait little more than an hour after Shades Of Blue's turn to see Brian's legacy once again honoured through the sale of Flotus. The foundations for her story were laid nearly 20 years ago, in the autumn of 2002, when Brian Grassick purchased the 9-year-old Naazeq (GB) (Nashwan) from Shadwell for $115,000, in partnership with Tim Pabst, at Keeneland November in foal to Elusive Quality. Naazeq had three foals of racing age at that stage, but it would still be almost two years before her filly Tamweel (Gulch) would win the Listed Mariah's Storm S. and finish second in the GI Spinster S. at Keeneland.
“My father was very enamoured with Elusive Quality,” Cathy Grassick said. “Naazeq was by Nashwan, whose influence as a broodmare sire needs no explanation. My dad really wanted an Elusive Quality filly.”
Unlike Mathaayl, Naazeq didn't make the Grassicks wait for their filly. She foaled a daughter of Elusive Quality five months later, and the filly was retained to race for Sheila Grassick and Joe Higgins. She was named Sharapova after rising tennis star Maria Sharapova.
“Mum and dad were away and they were watching tennis, and dad asked me to reserve the name Sharapova,” Grassick recalled. “We reserved the name and it was on the back of Joe Higgins having a very good horse called Dimitrova, who was very lucky, and dad liked the Russian-sounding name.”
Put into training with Brian Grassick's brother Michael Grassick at Fenpark Stables just down the road from Newtown Stud, Sharapova broke her maiden at The Curragh in her first start at three, and was retired back to the Newtown paddocks after an abbreviated 4-year-old campaign. Brian Grassick had been pivotal in the purchase of Invincible Spirit (Ire) to stand at the nearby Irish National Stud, and he and Sheila were shareholders in the Group 1-winning sprinter. Thus, Sharapova-now owned by the Grassicks in partnership with Matt Duffy–visited Invincible Spirit for her first covering in 2007 off the back of the horse's excellent first year with runners, a start that he would continually build on to become a perennial leading sire.
Sharapova produced an Invincible Spirit filly, later named Floriade (Ire), in the spring of 2008 and she was sold to Dick O'Gorman on behalf of Godolphin for 130,000gns at the Tattersalls Craven Sale. After Brian's death, Sharapova was sent through the sales ring to dissolve the partnership, with Duffy buying out Newtown.
“My mother really wanted to get back into the family, but we didn't have any of the other daughters and Naazeq had since retired as a broodmare,” Cathy Grassick said. “So I went looking for another daughter and found Floriade in the [December] sale in Arqana [in 2011] and we purchased her there for €15,000, back from Godolphin, and we started breeding from her.”
Floriade, now owned in partnership with the Grassicks' longtime friend and business associate Tim Pabst, started out with a touch of bad luck, losing her first two foals, but she soon began to show promise with colts by Nathaniel (Ire) and Iffraaj (GB) fetching €50,000 and 75,000gns at the sales. Floriade produced a filly by Starspangledbanner in 2019, and there was a feeling, Grassick said, that she was exactly what her father had had in mind when he bought Naazeq almost 20 years ago.
“Floriade then bred Flotus, and that was the result of generations of my father wanting an Elusive Quality mare,” Grassick said. “Flotus was beautiful from the moment she was born. It's one of the reasons that the mare is already back in foal to Starspangledbanner. When we were deciding who to send the mare to, having seen Flotus as a yearling, you couldn't but want to breed her back.”
Offered by Newtown Stud at Goffs November, Flotus was purchased for €65,000 by Glenvale Stud, which pinhooked her for 125,000gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale when she was purchased by Arthur Hoyeau on behalf of a partnership. Sent to Simon and Ed Crisford, Flotus won by 4 3/4 lengths on debut at Goodwood in May, earning 'TDN Rising Star' status. She added the Listed Ripon Champion Two Yrs Old Trophy S. in August before finishing second to Tenebrism (Caravaggio) in the G1 Cheveley Park S., leading for all but the final five strides when caught late on.
“Simon Crisford's team have been so lovely and involved us, and Arthur Hoyeau, who bought her as a yearling-they have been so nice to us as breeders,” Grassick said. “Quite often that doesn't happen, but they've been so nice to us all and let us be slightly involved along the way. It's been such a pleasure and I really hope that Flotus gets to stay with the Crisfords, because they've done such an amazing job. Interestingly Simon Crisford also trains a filly called Miss Marble, who is by Iffraaj and has won her last two starts and who is out of a full-sister to Floriade. So he knows how to handle the family.”
Floriade has a yearling colt by Camacho that has been retained and will most likely race for Sheila Grassick and Tim Pabst. Like Enjoyable, Floriade didn't have a foal this year but is back in foal to Starspangledbanner and, unsurprisingly, already booked back to him for 2022. Sharapova, for her part, has also been a very useful producer, with Miss Marble's Group 1-placed dam Lottie Dod (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) and the dual group-placed 2-year-old Rockaway Valley (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) in addition to Floriade.
Making Tattersalls all the more special was the fact that it came on the heels of an excellent foal sale for Newtown Stud at Goffs. Newtown brought eight foals to Kildare paddocks and sold all eight including the sale-topping Frankel (GB) half-sister to Classic winner and sire Sea The Moon (Ger) to Juddmonte Farms for €550,000. The Frankel filly, who was born and raised at Newtown, was sold on behalf of breeders Heike Bischoff and Niko Lafrentz of Gestut Gorlsdorf. Grassick got to know Bischoff and Lafrentz when they brought Sea The Moon to Tattersalls as a yearling in 2012.
“We met because of Sea The Moon; I fell in love with him as a bloodstock agent at the sales,” Grassick said. “They knew I was a big fan of his and that's how I got to know them.”
Sea The Moon was a 230,000gns buyback by his breeders.
“Unfortunately I didn't have enough money to buy him for my clients, but they retained him and we got to know each other then,” Grassick continued. “We kept in touch and not long after that they sent [his dam] Sanwa to Newtown. She was coming back to see Sea The Stars when Sea The Moon was a 2-year-old, and she boarded with us then and she's been back to visit us a few times. She's here with us still at the moment, which is a very big honour to be entrusted with something so precious. They've been great supporters of us and great friends.”
Grassick was quick to acknowledge, too, the contribution of the entire Newtown Stud team.
“For a small farm to bring eight foals to the sale and have the week we had at Goffs was a great result,” she said. “Caroline Hannon, who is our manager here, puts a huge amount of work into it, and we wouldn't be able to do what we do without her. It's been a real testament to the effort we've all put in and for myself, Sally Ann and mum it's great to be able to carry on dad's legacy. That's really important to all of us.”
This latest success, and everything that has come along the way, has, of course, been the realization of Brian and Sheila Grassick's vision all those years ago.
“My parents bought the farm together in 1996,” Grassick said. “They set it up together. And grew it from being their own personal broodmare band into a real commercial entity. When my dad passed away myself and my mum were running the farm until Sally Ann came back from France, and now the three of us work together with Caroline Hannon. The three of us work really well together with Caroline and it's gone from strength to strength. After my father passed away we increased the size of the farm; we purchased more land, which was very brave of my mother at the time. She's been amazing. She's put a lot of work and effort into the farm and it's really paid off now.
“It will be exciting to see what they go on to do now,” Grassick said of Flotus and Shades Of Blue. “It's great with those families going forward, and we have a lot of other young mares on the farm that we're hoping we can do the same with.”
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