Fee Increase for Golden Horn 

Overbury Stud has released the fees for its Flat roster, with Ardad (Ire) remaining at £12,500 in 2024 while the fee for Golden Horn (GB) has been increased to £10,000 (from £8,000) on the back of a season in which he was represented by the G2 Queen's Vase winner Gregory (GB) and G2 British Champions Long Distance Cup winner Trawlerman (GB).

Golden Horn, who covered 173 mares this spring, stood his first season at Overbury Stud in 2023, having moved from Dalham Hall Stud after his purchase by Jayne McGivern. His fellow new recruit was Caturra (Ire), a son of Mehmas (Ire), who has been cut to £5,000 from an opening fee of £6,500. He covered a book of 110 mares in his first season.

Caturra's fellow Flying Childers winner Ardad has 101 juveniles to run in 2024. His current crop of foals numbers 144 and he covered a further 154 mares in 2023, his increased numbers being a result of a successful first crop of runners åwhich included the treble Group 1 winner Perfect Power (Ire). 

Simon Sweeting, manager of Overbury Stud, said, “We are very lucky to have such popular stallions who are achieving plenty and yet have even more to look forward to. Ardad's young stock from his excellent 2022 book of mares includes many quite outstanding individuals, and so many breeders have bred back to him to get more of the same. These big books he's had really do stand him in great stead. Meanwhile, Golden Horn has had a really tremendous year: nine Stakes winners, five at Group level – he's outperforming many stallions at far higher fees.”

The fees for Overbury's other stallions, Jack Hobbs (GB), Frontiersman (GB) and Schiaparelli (Ger), will be set later in the year.

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Group 3-Winning Haskoy Retired Due To Tendon Injury

Trainer Ralph Beckett has revealed that Group 3-winning filly Haskoy (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}–Natavia {GB}, by Nathaniel {Ire}) has been retired due to a tendon injury.

Haskoy, fourth in the St Leger last year, having gone past the post in second, made a winning return at Newbury when landing the G3 Al Rayyan S. She had been just 8-1 for the Gold Cup at Ascot.

Beckett said of the Juddmonte-owned filly on Twitter, “Haskoy has strained a tendon, consequently she is being retired to the paddocks.”

Haskoy is the first foal from a listed-winning half-sister to Spinning Queen (GB) (Spinning World), who left the likes of Soviet Song (Ire) and Alexander Goldrun (Ire) nine lengths behind when upsetting the G1 Kingdom of Bahrain Sun Chariot S. in 2006.

 

 

 

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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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Seven Days: Perfect News For Haggas

Few, if any, trainers have been in more consistent form this season than William Haggas, who now finds himself atop the table in Britain, with a strike-rate of 27% for the season. His earnings of £4,611,340 at the time of writing place him narrowly ahead of reigning champion Charlie Appleby.

Top of the Somerville Lodge list of horses, and the earner of roughly a third of the yard's prize-money this year, is of course arguably the best horse in the world, Baaeed (GB), around whom continues to swirl uncertainty as to where we will see him next. What we now know with some certainty is that he will appear only once more on the racecourse, but whether that will be at Ascot or ParisLongchamp seems largely dependent on how soft the ground becomes in October following a drought-ridden summer.

The Haggas stable is no one-trick pony, however. Star of the show Baaeed is backed by a supporting cast which includes G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup winner Alenquer (Fr), the Group 2 and 3 winners Sea La Rosa (Ire), Maljoom (Ire), Purlepay (Fr), Lilac Road (Ire), My Prospero (Ire), Ilarab (Ire), Bashkirova (GB), and the Haggas family homebred, Hamish (GB). A particularly pleasing result for the team would have been the victory nine days ago of Perfect News (GB) in the G3 Ballyogan S., a first at group level for the daughter of Frankel (GB) and the former Haggas-trained G2 Lowther S. winner Besharah (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), who died earlier this year at the age of just nine.

The championship is far from over, with some of the most valuable races of the season still to be run during an action-packed autumn. Haggas will doubtless be guided not just by weather forecasts but by Baaeed's owner Sheikha Hissa when it comes to deciding on the colt's swansong. While the Arc is the more valuable race overall, the near £750,000 on offer for the winner of the QIPCO British Champion S. could potentially make the difference for Haggas to gain his own championship for the first time.

The relentless winner-producing machine that is Mark Johnston reached a new milestone in the last week when passing the 5,000 mark. Technically speaking, the Johnston counter was reset to zero on New Year's Day 2022 when the trainer brought son Charlie on board as co-trainer, but only a pedant could insist that Johnston senior, one of racing's most successful participants and clearest thinkers, could be denied a continuing tally. 

Donny Dances to the Tune

I was strolling on a quiet Scottish beach last week while my colleague Brian Sheerin did the hard yards at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale. The Highland idyll was interrupted every now and then to check on proceedings at Doncaster, where the words 'frenetic' and 'hunger' appeared to be being bandied around with frequency. Indeed, the final results testified to the strength in demand across the board that is extremely welcome at a yearling sale pitched at a more everyday level than the elite boutiques of Arqana August, Goffs Orby or Tattersalls October Book 1.

There had been pre-sale angst in some quarters that the relatively new Tattersalls Somerville Sale had been taking some of the Premier Sale's ground but that appears to have been unfounded, and Donny did as Donny does, only better again than last year. A rise in the number of six-figure lots and strong clearance rate pulled the rest of the sale up by its bootstraps to deliver what appears to be a satisfying set of figures.

The results from next Tuesday's Somerville Sale will be indicative as to whether this level of demand is set to continue as the season wears on. Considering racing's myriad problems, particularly in Britain, it is heartening, and perhaps somewhat mystifying, that this bullish market for horses continues not just at the very top level but on lower tiers as well. Yes, to a degree, there will be people buying with a close eye on the overseas resale market, and that includes the bold breeze-up pinhookers. But a scroll through the results shows that there remains a huge range of trainers waving their catalogues to start the annual restocking of their yards, which is an encouraging sign.

John and Jess Dance's Manor House Farm was the second-leading buyer at the sale which must remain a favourite to them, having purchased the mighty Laurens (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) at Doncaster six years ago. The Dances can also take encouragement from the excellent start made at Manor House by their resident trainer James Horton, who now has 12 wins to his name and sent out his first stakes winner at the weekend when Sam Maximus (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) won the Listed Hopeful S. at Newmarket. The 3-year-old was bred by Whitsbury Manor Stud, which continues to enjoy an excellent year courtesy of its graduates. 

The sales caravan rolls on next to the somewhat depleted Osarus Yearling Sale at La Teste de Buch on Tuesday, with much livelier fare likely to emanate from Germany's main event, the BBAG Yearling Sale, on Friday. I've been lured back from the beach for a return to the glorious spa town of Baden-Baden later this week. Go figure. 

Buick Forges On

There are few nicer people to bump into for a quick chat at the sales than Walter Buick and his son Martin, who now works with agent Hubie de Burgh having completed a stint with the Niarchos family. Walter, a former multiple champion jockey in Scandinavia, is a regular buyer for a number of his contacts in that part of the world and can count this year's Swedish Derby and Norwegian Derby winner Hard One To Please (Ire) (Fast Company {Ire}) among his recent purchases. 

The greatest result of the season for the Buick family, however, will be if William, the eldest of Walter's three sons, is crowned champion jockey at Ascot in October, and it is a scenario that becomes more likely by the day.

After an extraordinary week, particularly at Goodwood, where he won all three group races on Saturday and eight of his 12 rides there across the weekend, William added another 13 wins to his name and is now 43 clear in the championship (though only nine wins ahead of Hollie Doyle for the year as a whole). 

Tempus Fugit

While William Buick was hogging the Goodwood group action, his nearest pursuer for the title of champion jockey, Hollie Doyle, added yet another black-type victory to her increasingly impressive record at Deauville on Tempus (GB) (Kingman {GB}), who has now won back-to-back Group 3 races for Archie Watson and the Hambleton Racing syndicate.

Tempus was already a four-time winner with a rating of 97 for Roger Charlton and Juddmonte when he came up for sale exactly a year ago, and it now seems scarcely believable that the half-brother to Time Test (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) was bought for just 25,000gns. But by the time he popped up in the Tattersalls August Sale he had missed all of the 2021 season with what Juddmonte's useful and typically fulsome sales notes described as “sub condyle bone bruising in his left fore and left hind cannon bones” and which noted that Tempus had “exhibited a high level of form but is delicate”.

So, caveat emptor and all that, but in this case the outlay of 25,000gns was a risk worth taking because Tempus really is now flying. Making his first start for more than a year, and since being gelded, the 6-year-old won at Newcastle on January 2 and, with another five starts and a ratings rise to 103, he struck again at Ascot on July 23. Following that latest handicap success his two subsequent runs–and wins–have been in the G3 Sovereign S. at Salisbury, followed by Sunday's G3 Prix de Quincey. What next for the son of Group 1 winner Passage Of Time (GB)?

And talking of time flying, Deauville's August meeting has passed in what seems like the blink of an eye, and it has been a fruitful one for the Andre Fabre-trained Botanik (GB), who won the G3 Prix de Reux followed by Sunday's G2 Grand Prix de Deauville. With seven wins under his belt he thus becomes the top performer for his sire Golden Horn (GB). The Derby and Arc winner of 2015 recently moved from Dalham Hall Stud to Overbury Stud and has been represented in the past fortnight by the Ebor winner Trawlerman (GB) and Juddmonte's Listed Galtres S. winner Haskoy (GB), who appears to be heading next to the G2 Park Hill S. at Doncaster. 

Classic Potential?

If you saddle a horse with the name Classic, you'd have to be pretty sure he was worthy of such a portentous moniker. In the case of the 2-year-old Classic (GB), a winner at Newmarket for Richard Hannon on Friday, he had justifiable claims to a proper name just on paper, for the colt is a son of Dubawi (Ire) out of the stakes-placed Date With Destiny (Ire), the only offspring of the subfertile and ill-fated superstar George Washington (Ire).

Date With Destiny raced in the colours of Julie Wood, who now owns her son Classic. She has already produced the Group 3 winner Beautiful Morning (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), and Classic could yet surpass his elder sister as he has some pretty fancy entries in the coming months. 

“He still has signs of immaturity there but he is a very talented horse,” said Hannon of the colt, who was making his third start on Friday. “It wouldn't surprise me if we see him turn up at the top level, especially on soft ground. We will speak to Julie but she is never afraid of taking on these big races. I'd say there is a fair chance we go to the Champagne at Doncaster next.”

The Group 2 on September 10 is certainly a race in which the trainer has enjoyed plenty of success, having won three of the last eight runnings of the Champagne S.

Date With Destiny, who is now 14, remains in the Newsells Park Stud broodmare band and will be represented at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale by her colt from the first crop of another Newsells Park graduate, the Arc winner Waldgeist (GB).

Secretariat's Silks For Sale

With the yearling sales in full flow, there is of course no guarantee that any of us will ever find a horse as good as Secretariat, but next Tuesday there is (bizarrely) a chance to bid for the right to register the famous colours carried by Penny Chenery's Triple Crown winner.

Officially described as 'royal blue and white check, striped sleeves, royal blue cap', the set of colours formerly worn by the champion lovingly known as 'Big Red' is one of six to be offered for auction by the BHA during Sotheby's sporting memorabilia sale on September 6. The sextet of cherished colours also includes the distinctive set of aquamarine jacket and black cap and, according to the BHA's notes, the auction “presents the opportunity to purchase a unique set of silks that are not available to own through any alternative avenue”. 

The guide price for Secretariat's silks is £5,000-£10,000. Then all you have to do is find a horse to wear them who moves like a tremendous machine. 

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