He’s Mustard: The Champion Hurdle Contender Carrying Big Dreams for the Fowlers’ Small Stable

Sometime in the next few days there will likely be footage of a convoy of vast wagons carrying Gordon Elliott's army of horses from Co Meath to Cheltenham. Ten minutes down the road from Elliott's stable, a single two-box will pull out of the drive at Rahinston to make that same journey. On board will be Colonel Mustard (Fr), an outsider for the Champion Hurdle but very much the star of Lorna Fowler's string of 15 jumpers. 

Of all the Festival races, the Champion Hurdle has been hogging the headlines of the last week as we awaited news of the likely defection of odds-on favourite Constitution Hill (GB). He's now out, his stable-mate Iberico Lord (Fr) is in, State Man (Fr) is the new favourite and the brilliant young mare Lossiemouth (Fr) may or may not stand her ground against her own sex this year. We'll see.

What is certain, however, is that, with fair winds and following seas, Colonel Mustard will be belatedly fulfilling what now looks to have been a cunning plan. Nine years ago it was probably more just a pipe dream for two old school friends to buy a backward-looking Flat horse at the foal sales and try to turn him into a top-class jumper. One of that duo is Fowler's husband, Harry, the Goffs UK bloodstock manager who still part-owns Colonel Mustard with the man now best known for rejuvenating the Tote, Alex Frost. They were joined in the partnership in the early days of the horse's racing career by Pete Davies.

“I was joking with Frosty and said, 'Let's find a horse to run in the 2022 Champion Hurdle' when we were traipsing around the foal sale in 2015,” says Harry, casting his mind back to the first time he saw the son of Makfi (GB). “It was a bit of a fantasy really, but Matt Coleman came across this horse and we all agreed. No one wanted him in the sales ring – big, backward foal, German staying pedigree, wasn't what the market was looking for. He was a bit out of place in the December sales.

“And lo and behold, we broke him in, and I rode him as a two-year-old and straight away he'd lob around the sand with the greatest of ease. I thought, 'Oh, we've got one here. He could be all right.' He told us straight away. And then he took a long time to mature, with a few niggles and growing pains, and he didn't run until he was five.”

Coleman, Frost and Fowler weren't far off, though. Colonel Mustard won a Punchestown bumper at five and was second to Echoes In Rain (Fr) in the G1 Champion Novice Hurdle at 40/1 to close his debut season. Subsequent placings in smart company at Ascot and Leopardstown, behind Jonbon (Fr) and Sir Gerhard (Ire), saw him make it to the Cheltenham Festival in 2022, but for the County Hurdle rather than the Champion. The form of that race now reads very well indeed, as he was third, just three lengths behind State Man, the subsequent winner of eight Grade 1 races whom he will meet again on Tuesday. 

You have to make him feel like he's the king and
that he's the most important person in the world.

Colonel Mustard's progression has been the old-fashioned route of a trainer bringing a horse through the ranks without shopping at the boutique ready-made jumper sales. At such auctions, the price tags are usually at least 10 times the 20,000gns it took to buy the backward Makfi (GB) foal. It is a way that both Lorna and Harry Fowler would have witnessed first hand in their formative years as the children respectively of National Hunt training and riding stalwarts Sue and Johnny Bradburne and John and Lady Jennifer 'Chich' Fowler.

Lorna grew up in Scotland and is unique in being the only person to have ridden a winner at the Cheltenham Festival for Sir Henry Cecil thanks to landing the St Patrick's Day Derby – a charity race for amateurs – aboard the Niarchos family's Plato (Jpn). Her brother is the former jump jockey Mark Bradburne. Having a runner in her own name in one of the championship races takes it to another level, however.

“It means a huge amount,” she says. “In a funny way, I perhaps don't appreciate it as much as I should because I'm always thinking about the next plan with him and what to do, so you're not looking from the outside in. But the amount of people that know Colonel Mustard – he's the horse the children talk about all the time. 

“And I think where he's been so special is he's brought us to the big stage so many times, which is a huge deal for a yard this size. You need to do the very best for him, and you need to do as well as you can with him. He's an exceptional horse in this yard, but in a big yard he'd be one of many. In a way it gives you a lot more scope to think outside the box because you want to make him stand out.”

The 'Ginger Ninja', as he is known at home, does indeed stand out as he bowls around Fowler's expansive sand oval at Rahinston under Diego Rodrigues. It's not just because he is the sole chestnut out at exercise, and he's not even the most physically imposing in the yard, but Colonel Mustard does just have a look of feeling rather pleased with himself. 

Lorna Fowler on the Rahinston gallops | Emma Berry

 

“You have to make him feel like he's the king and that he's the most important person in the world,” says his trainer. “And that's pretty easy around here, because he is pretty important. But that for him is important. He's a very bright horse. And when you have very intelligent horses, it can work two ways. If you get them on side, they'll work it out and they'll do anything for you.”

Reflecting on Colonel Mustard's first Festival appearance she adds, “He ran a huge race and he loved it. He loves the big stage. There are some horses that come alive on it.

“In a way he has campaigned himself. You have big plans at the beginning of the season and nothing goes exactly according to plan. But every year, for some reason by the time I get into the new year, the pieces fall into place.

“You always let the horses tell you. You also have to be very respectful of what the owners want. It's very important, and quite rightly. They want days out, they want to enjoy the horse, and I think he's done very well on that score so far.”

Few could argue with that assertion. To Cheltenham, Aintree, Punchestown, Leopardstown, Ascot, Ayr and Newbury, Colonel Mustard has taken his happy band of followers to some of the best jumps courses in Britain and Ireland, most recently finishing second in Wincanton's G2 Kingwell Hurdle, a traditional Champion Hurdle trial. Though his nine runner-up finishes may have left them thinking 'if only' at times, one can but admire his consistency. In 19 starts he has finished in the first three on 15 occasions.

Rahinston's training yard and stud was set up by John Fowler, the brother of Jessica Harrington, on the 700-acre estate which has been home to generations of the family for two centuries. Following his death in 2008, his wife Chich took on the role of trainer until her passing in 2013. Their son and daughter-in-law have continued the business, bringing about significant rejuvenation to the racing and breeding operations which are run in tandem. Alex Frost, who owns Ladyswood Stud in England, has been a staunch backer of their plans.

“He's been phenomenal,” admits Harry. “He wanted to get involved in racehorses more and I remember saying to him shortly after my mother died, 'We can do the equine stuff here if you want to get involved.' And he said, 'Yeah, let's give it a go.'

“He was already involved in a horse in training here when Dad was alive. And then obviously he got further stuck in after that. He said, 'Anything you fancy, I'll come in with you.' We bought a few horses along the way. A few didn't work out, but we bought the dam of Don Poli (Fr) before he was a big name, and that sort of launched us really.”

Lorna adds of Frost, “You'll never meet anybody who has such a genuinely enthusiastic passion for the sport. It's also important to note that he's bringing that to the Tote. It's such a massive undertaking but he's doing this for the good of racing. And for somebody to be doing that right now in this industry is massive. I think that in itself is pretty amazing.”

The Fowlers are a formidable couple in their breadth of experience, with Lorna's eloquence in talking about her role offering a reminder of her former job as a presenter on Racing UK. It is an oft-heard lament that the big yards are getting bigger while smaller trainers struggle to pick up business. Perhaps nowhere is this more apparent than in the Irish National Hunt scene, which is dominated by the super stables of Gordon Elliott and Willie Mullins in particular. Lorna takes a pragmatic view of the situation.

It's not just about how good a trainer you are. You have to go out, you have
to get the owners, you have to get the right people involved.

“I think that National Hunt has become more professional and I think everybody has to take that into account and to up their game,” she says. “I'm a small trainer and I'm a very small fish in a big pond. And I think those that have made it have done so because, not only are they excellent trainers, but they're excellent business people, excellent at surrounding themselves with the right people.

“And I think what you have to do is say, 'Right, do I want that or not?' And you have to make the effort to get it. It's not just about how good a trainer you are. You have to go out, you have to get the owners, you have to get the right people involved, but the small trainers have to work out what they want. 

“Having said that, yes, it's very difficult because you are pushing against battalions. But at the same time that small trainer needs to say 'What else do I need to do to try and achieve that?' I've got to try harder if I want that.”

She continues, “The one disappointing thing is that there's a lot of people that have licenses, but they're perceived as pre-trainers to feed into the bigger yards. And I think that's a shame. Now, some people are really happy to do that because they get great income from it, but I personally don't find that a very healthy angle for the sport, this concept of pre-training and then there being just a handful of big trainers.”

It is not hard to envisage the Fowler operation growing in stature in years to come. For a start, Rahinston is a magical place. A step back in time in many ways, but for the family members running it now, all eyes are firmly on its future, including those of the Fowlers' young children, Rosie and Johnny.

“The children enjoy everything about this place and they're very much part of it,” says Lorna during a break between her first and second lots, with Harry having just returned from his feeding round of the mares and young horses about the place. “My focus is the training because that's what I enjoy, but I also know the business. I've got to keep that separate, but our business has to survive and we have to make everything work. Pete Davis has some fabulous broodmares here now and some young stock coming through that are very exciting for him.

“Harry has Goffs, so that gives him his sanity away from his wife and here. But I think you just have to make it work. What do they say? 'If you want to get something done, ask a busy person.' That's how it works.

“Here, like anything in life, it's still a work in progress. It's a big place and we need to maximise its scope and potential from every point of view.”

Despite both her own late parents and in-laws having run their own training businesses, Lorna insists that this wasn't necessarily Plan A for her, even though she is plainly a natural. 

“I always said I wouldn't train. I remember after Harry's mother died and I was talking to our head man Dermot Fagan and I said, 'We'll be down to just a couple of horses and we'll rent out the land for tillage and whatever.' And he said, 'Yeah, yeah.' And anyway, here we are,” she says.

“My mother never said 'Don't do it.' For Mark and I growing up, we were very lucky as a family, the same with Harry, that we had that shared interest with our parents. That's something I'm hugely appreciative of, because it was just really special. It was incredible. And I think that my parents, if they knew we were having a runner in the Champion Hurdle, oh my God, they would just be beside themselves.”

Her husband, with not quite the same level of eloquence, agrees and says of his own parents, “They'd love it. I could imagine them saying, 'What the f*** are you going to the Champion Hurdle for, you mad bastards?'”

 

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‘Managing Numbers And Expectations’ – Breeze-Up Inspections In Full Swing

Never has the demand to get horses into the breeze-up sales in Europe been higher. It begs the question; how do the big sales companies limit their catalogues? 

Inspectors from Tattersalls, Arqana and Goffs have been out in force in recent weeks trawling through the breeze-up consignors' barns to come up with their shortlists. 

According to Harry Fowler, one of the main inspectors at Goffs, entries for the company's only breeze-up sale have sky-rocketed this year. With most of the viewing done at this stage, the Goffs inspectors will meet in the coming weeks before calling on vendors to make up their mind on Valentine's Day at the latest. By the end of February, the 210 slots for Goffs will be finalised and the catalogue will be sent off to be printed. 

Explaining the process, Fowler said, “You will have definite yeses, some maybes and then straight nos. With the nos, you would discuss them there and then with the consignor so that there are no surprises later on. 

“We get all of our inspections done by the end of January and then have a meeting and go through things on a horse-by-horse basis. We can't have any more than 210 horses in the sale. In the current economic climate that we are in, it's important that we keep it tight and it seemed to work well last year, as the sale leapt forward by 30 per cent on average and over 50 per cent on turnover. It was a rocking sale.”

He added, “The results on the track proved buyers right as well. So we want to keep it tight and, by doing this, we basically allocate vendors a certain number and try to keep them to that number unless they have an exceptional bunch. In that case, we might give them a couple more slots. The same might be the case if, say, they didn't perform last year, we might cut them back a couple of spots. By Valentine's Day, we will have asked vendors to commit about who is going where and then we will send the catalogue off to get printed by the end of February.”

Harry Fowler | Goffs

It may seem a little soon to be making these calls. The Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale is the earliest of them all yet it doesn't take place until April 23 and 24. That's over two months of galloping to be done between making a decision about where you are going with a horse and the fall of the hammer. A lot of time for some to turn a corner and bob their heads above the parapet and, unavoidably, others to go the wrong way. Therein lies the risks.

Tattersalls Ireland boss Simon Kerins is in a unique position in that, not only are he and his team of inspectors searching for that Royal Ascot two-year-old for the Craven Sale in mid April, but there are also slots to be filled for the Guineas Sale in early May and the Tattersalls Ireland Breeze-Up Sale later that month. Without a deep trust and strong working relationship with the vendors, Kerins explains, making these calls in February would be close to impossible. 

He said, “So much of it is down to the trust that we, as inspectors, have with the vendors. The guys who have been doing this a while will be able to tell you if they really think something is good or not. The bonus with the breeze-ups is, if you have a horse by a sire who is just about acceptable from a commercial perspective, they can surpass what they would ever make as yearlings if they go and breeze very well. The same can be said for a horse who is not one hundred per cent correct or if one is a little bit small. 

“From getting out and seeing a lot of the horses over the past few weeks, many of the vendors have done very little with them, and wouldn't have tested them in a way that would determine their ability. A lot of it is faith between the vendor and the inspector.” 

Kerins admitted that while some horses who are just about acceptable in terms of pedigree and conformation get into breeze-up sales provided they are showing the right signs to their respective handlers, the margin for error has become even narrower such is demand for sale slots. 

Kerins added, “The standard is rising. Certainly with our own Tattersalls Ireland Breeze-Up Sale, the standard is rising exponentially. The challenge that we can sometimes face is we have some people who have been stalwart supporters of us down through the years and always sent us a similar type of horse. Now there are newer people on the scene with a better calibre of horse they want to send us and we have to just marry the loyalty and the quality. It can be very challenging managing numbers and managing expectations as well. We are ultimately delivering bad news to some vendors given there are only a certain number of slots up for grabs. Entries are through the roof but we do have the option in June for those horses who don't get into the Craven, Guineas or Tattersalls Ireland sales, to breeze at Dundalk and then sell online afterwards. That is an option.”

One man who has had more good news than bad in recent times is Shane Power of Tradewinds Stud. It was his Beautiful Diamond (GB) (Twilight Son {GB}) who lit up the breeze-up circuit when selling for £360,000 at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale just seven months after being sourced for 30,000gns as a yearling. Those are the types of results that earn a hungry young consignor some clout by the time it comes to inspections. 

“It's like anything, when you turn up and get the results, they repay you the following year and the relationship grows,” Power explains. “We sold our first breezer five years ago at Donny. It was a little horse by Arcano (Ire) and he went and won a couple of races for Michael Dods. A couple of years ago we had only two breezers, last year we had five and this year we have 11, so we are trying to up our game the whole time. We've had all of the sales companies out already this year and you'd have a fair idea about where they are all going at this stage.” 

He added, “But, if you have sold a few good horses the previous year, it's definitely a big help to the sales companies coming back to you because, at the end of the day, that's what they want. We obviously want to get paid as well but the sales companies really need to sell the good horses year in year out to be able to compete with their rival sales companies. In fairness to the inspectors, they do use their imagination and they are well aware that the breeze-ups, in particular, are designed to produce racehorses, and not just sales horses.”

Power also went on to pour cold water on the theory that it's too early to make a prediction on what horse should go where in January and February.

Shane Power | Tattersalls

He explained, “You'd probably have half an idea about who would be likely to go where at the yearlings sales. And, in fairness to the inspectors, they are nearly always on the same page as you when they do come out. The earlier bunch will end up in the Craven or at Donny and, those who need a bit more time, you have the Guineas Sale or Tattersalls Ireland. The horse tells you more so than anything else.”

Power added, “It definitely helps when they have cost a few quid as yearlings. It's probably the most obvious barometer for which people can judge the horses on. It's the same for the foals to yearlings, the first thing a sales inspector can go off is what the market thought of the horse four or five months ago.”

It was Fowler who inspected Beautiful Diamond this time 12 months ago. They don't always stick out like she did, but the Goffs scout recalled what drew him to Beautiful Diamond and how she encapsulates everything that the sale company searches for when out and about in the winter months.

He said, “We understand that, for an earlier sale, our buyers are coming in search of Royal Ascot horses. In the past eight years, we have had nine Royal Ascot winners, and not all of those have been two-year-olds, many have trained on as well. 

“Perfect Power (Ire) and Bradsell (GB) are brilliant examples of top-class Goffs graduates who have not only gone on and won at Royal Ascot, but become stallions as well. Buyers come to Goffs looking for horses who will be early but it's not just the whizzbang two-year-old they are looking for, they want the horses who can train on, just like Perfect Power and Bradsell did.”

He added, “I remember walking into Shane Power's yard last year and being taken by two lovely horses. Both were inexpensive yearlings but they had a lot of quality. One of them turned out to be Beautiful Diamond who, not only breezed very well and made £360,000 to Blandford Bloodstock, but she won first time out and then went on to finish third in the Queen Mary. That's your perfect Donny horse. She has her whole three-year-old career ahead of herself and, in the meantime, she paid for a new barn at Shane Power's yard. That's what we're all hoping for. We were just lucky enough that Shane wanted to bring her to us. He knew exactly what he had from an early stage.

“The flip side of that is there are plenty of examples of when it doesn't work out but Beautiful Diamond was one who just hit you right between your eyes. You've got to rely on your instincts doing this job and, generally, the ones who look as though they might be a little bit chancy at this stage, they are the ones who need a lot of luck.”

They say it's the talented breeze-up men and women who will know quicker than anyone else in the industry who will make it and who will drift away when it comes to the freshman sires. After all, these are the people who are separating the wheat from the chaff. But what do the inspectors think?

Fowler mused, “You would get a fair feel at the yearling sales and again when going around and speaking with all of the breeze-up consignors. Pinatubo, for example, is the favourite for the first-season sires' championship but I have only seen a couple of those so far. A lot of the first-season sires, their progeny look as though they will make up into two-year-olds. I've seen plenty of Shamans and they look like they'll be two-year-olds. The Sergei Prokofievs are big horses so, whether the power of those horses will make them two-year-olds or not, I don't know.”

He added, “I've seen a few sharp and early types by Sands Of Mali, some by Far Above who look to be big and powerful horses like he was and then a few nice Mohaathers. I think they have plenty of quality about them. Arizona is another stallion who I have seen a few nice two-year-olds by. They look to be very powerful horses. There are plenty of good reports on Earthlight but they look to be horses for later on in the season. They look as though they'll train on. The same could be said about Ghaiyyath. They look to be more three-year-old types.”

Like Fowler, Pinatubo and Earthlight were nominated as the more obvious young sires to keep the right side of by Kerins, who admitted that the progeny of younger stallions can often be an easier sell at public auction.

He concluded, “I have only seen a couple of Pinatubos and they were very nice. The same with Earthlight. I've seen a couple of those that were quite nice but that's quite obvious. It's the same with the foals and years, the progeny of the first-season sires sell like hot cakes, and the breeze-ups are no different. With the two-year-olds, if they can gallop and they look the part, they will be an easy sell if they are by any of the first-season sires. Again, it's buying that dream that appeals to so many people.”

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Fowler Joins Goffs UK

Following 23 years with the Tattersalls group, including a stint as director of sales at Tattersalls Ireland, Harry Fowler joins Goffs UK has bloodstock manager. Fowler also runs Rahinston Farm & Stud in Co. Meath with his wife Lorna, and will be based there. Fowler will join the Goffs inspection team and attend all Goffs sales as well as traveling to other sales and race meetings across the country to interact with new and existing clients.

Goffs UK Managing Director Tim Kent said, “Harry brings a wealth of industry knowledge, contacts and experience to Goffs UK and we are delighted to welcome him as part of the growing Goffs UK team. We look forward to working with Harry to further develop the Goffs brand under both codes and enhance our customer service. Harry is the third new recruit to join Goffs UK in 2022 alongside Bernard Condren and Jerry McGrath. It is an exciting time for the business, and we are very much looking forward to the years ahead.”

Fowler said, “It's a pleasure to be joining Goffs and I am really looking forward to my new role. Goffs is a wonderful company which is focused on doing the very best for everyone involved in all Goffs sales, both its clients and the Goffs team. This is an approach that I find extremely refreshing, and I cannot wait to be part of their big future plans.”

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