Awards Success Still Sinking In For Stallion Devotee Porter-Mackrell

Almost apologetically, David Porter-Mackrell laments that he might not make the most engaging subject for an interview, despite the practice he's gained in the days since he was named the Employee of the Year at the 2024 Godolphin-sponsored Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards, organised by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA).

“I feel a bit awkward doing these things to be perfectly honest with you,” he confesses. “It is overwhelming, talking about me, what I do and all that–I'm more comfortable hidden behind the horse!

“I'm just keen to make sure I get across a genuine feel for what the job means to me and how important the horses are. It can be tricky vocalising it.”

As it turns out, Porter-Mackrell is a lot better at the task at hand than he might think, at least from this interviewer's perspective, making a difficult job look easy, just as he has his role as head stallion man at Newsells Park Stud for the last 15 years.

Self-promotion and basking in the spotlight might come even less easily to him than it does trying to pick a favourite among the stallions he's doted on in his time at Newsells Park, but then ask him why this career path is the one for him and suddenly he comes into his own.

“One of the reasons why I always wanted to do stallions, apart from the magic of the horses themselves, is the fact that you're so close to them and have such a bond with them,” he explains.

“All being well, you're looking after the same horses over an extended period of time, whereas obviously the yearlings are very seasonal, they come and go, and even the mares move around different yards depending on where they're at in their cycle in the year.

“You're with the stallions day in, day out, year in, year out, and the bond that you build with them is sustained over a long period of time.”

The stallion venture at Newsells Park was in its infancy when Porter-Mackrell joined the team in December 2008, having previously gained experience at Whitsbury Manor Stud and Banstead Manor Stud.

Various bonds have been built in the interim, first with the G1 Criterium International and G1 Eclipse S. winner Mount Nelson (GB) when he retired to become the first stallion to stand at Newsells Park in 2009. He was joined two years later by Equiano (Fr), the dual winner of the G1 King's Stand S. at Royal Ascot.

Both horses went on to spend at least eight years in the devoted care of Porter-Mackrell, but sometimes bonds have to be sacrificed, especially in the ever-evolving stallion business where market forces seem to rule above all else.

In 2017, Mount Nelson moved to Boardsmill Stud in Ireland to cement his position as a National Hunt stallion, while pastures new also beckoned for Equiano in 2021 when he made the transfer to the Irish National Stud.

“It's always a heartbreaker to lose one of the stallions to be honest,” Porter-Mackrell says. “Mount Nelson and Equiano were both here for the best part of 10 years. That's a long time looking after a horse and then one day they're there and the next day they're not.

“Mount Nelson was the first one I lost. He was hard work and everything was hard-earned with him, so that was particularly difficult. It was hard to gain his trust.

“There was the sort of compensation that they're getting another chance in Ireland and a new market to hopefully do well in and get a bit of a second wind. You hope to see them do well, but you hope to have them for their whole career and it's always disappointing to lose them to be honest.”

David Porter-Mackrell with Mount Nelson | Newsells Park Stud

Porter-Mackrell can find comfort in the three stallions currently in his care at Newsells Park, headed by the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. and G1 Eclipse S. winner Nathaniel (Ire), who produced the legendary racemare Enable (GB) from his very first crop conceived at the stud in 2013.

Nathaniel has since been joined on the roster by the G1 St James's Palace S. hero Without Parole (GB) in 2021 and the multiple Group 2 winner A'Ali (Ire) in 2022, keeping Porter-Mackrell on his toes with three very different personalities to contend with.

“They are all different, so different, and you learn something from all of them as well,” he says. “You need to be flexible in your approach and work out what works for that individual and how you can best get the job done in a way that keeps them happy.

“The nicest thing is when you get a horse from the very beginning, when they first get off the track. They've got to learn an entirely different way of life–one minute they're in full work and training and the next minute you're asking them to be calm and relaxed and to saunter around the paddock without being stupid.

“They've got to get used to that lifestyle and make that transition. Watching them become happy with that and seeing them happy, that's where the reward is because if they're happy then you're doing a good job.”

It's a job that not everybody is cut out for. And nor should the responsibility of handling 500kg of horseflesh, brimming with testosterone, ever be taken lightly, requiring a very specific skillset to make a success of it.

Explaining which quality is prized in a stallion handler above all others, Porter-Mackrell says, “First and foremost, patience. If you've got the patience and you have a genuine love and care for them, and you listen to what they're telling you, then you'll come up with the right answers.

“They can be testing, but the one thing that you always have to bear in mind is that they live quite a solitary life. They're not mingling in a herd, like the mares, foals and yearlings.

“You are such a huge part of their life and they're so reliant on you, so if they're having a bad day they're going to tell you about it. The important thing is to listen to them and try to understand and think 'okay, what's making you unhappy here and what can we do about it?' That's the key really.”

Perhaps it's for fear of making one of the others unhappy that Porter-Mackrell couldn't possibly imagine nominating a favourite among the stallions he's looked after. “You can't even engage with that line of thought,” he protests. “They're all so special and you learn something from each of them. It's nigh on impossible to single one out.”

For an interviewer who lazily assumed that Nathaniel would be top of the pile, Porter-Mackrell's parently attitude towards the charges in his care gives a glimpse into why he's so valued by the team at Newsells Park, headed by general manager Julian Dollar who made the nomination for the Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards.

Together the team has enjoyed some memorable days, such as that in 2022 when Desert Crown (GB) proved himself a top-class colt for Nathaniel when sprinting away from his rivals in the G1 Derby at Epsom.

“It's incredible and, professionally, that's what it's all about,” Porter-Mackrell sums up. “You kind of avidly support them [the stallions], believe in them right from the beginning, and look forward to those sorts of days.

“You believe they'll come and, when they do come, it's just magic. And part of the joy of it is watching everybody else appreciate them, hopefully, as much as you do.”

David Porter-Mackrell receives his trophy from Princess Anne | Dan Abraham

It's been less than two weeks since the industry came together to show their appreciation for Porter-Mackrell himself and his efforts over the years. He took home the Stud Staff award, as well as the title of Employee of the Year, not to mention £15,000 in cash and the same amount to be shared amongst his colleagues at Newsells Park.

As enjoyable as it is to talk about the horses who helped to make it all possible, now is the time to find out a bit more about the man himself, even if it means taking him out of comfort zone just a little.

“It all began with the horses as opposed to an interest in racing as such,” he says of his background. “I came into contact with horses when I was about 10 or 11, just on a very casual basis, looking after them and riding.

“I was only ever an average rider and it was never something I was going to do professionally, but I wanted to be around the horses and work with them. I was lucky enough to have somebody sensible tell me that stud work was an obvious line of employment and it just went from there really.”

The 2024 breeding season is Porter-Mackrell's 16th at Newsells Park and three stallions at one time is as many as he's ever had to deal with. Typically, he expects to be working flat out in the coming weeks and months, but don't ever expect to hear him complaining about his lot.

That's simply not his way, instead preferring to focus on the plus points of the industry and everything it has to offer, from the work/life balance he's able to strike to all the boundless opportunities that are available to the right candidate.

“You know that during the breeding season the level of commitment is going to be very high and very time-consuming,” he says. “But you also know that outside of the breeding season you're under far less pressure and you're able to give a bit more back at home. For me it's quite a good balance.

“One of the messages I would love to get across is actually how great this business is. If you have an interest in horses and you have a care for horses, then you're kind of 90 percent of the way there.

“If you don't mind grafting and you're willing to learn, then the opportunities are endless in this job. It's a message I feel quite strongly about because it's quite difficult to attract staff in this industry at the moment and I think it's a shame because it offers a lot.”

Porter-Mackrell's story should certainly be an inspiration to anyone who is thinking of following in his footsteps and pursuing a career in the industry. The rewards that come with it might not ever be as public as those he received at the Thoroughbred Industry Employee Awards, but at least then you won't have a pesky interviewer asking you to sum up how it feels.

“It's completely overwhelming to be honest,” Porter-Mackrell explains. “It was over a week ago now and it's still sinking in. You don't expect anything like this and it's been incredible really. How happy people are for you is just amazing. I've had emails from clients and stuff like that, congratulating me.”

Reacting to being nominated by Dollar, he adds, “From the beginning that was the most important thing, since I was first made aware that I'd been nominated.

“Just the fact that Julian has taken the time to nominate me and thought me worthy of it, that's the biggest compliment of all really. He knows me better than anybody and he sees what I do day in, day out, year in, year out.

“And you've got to be in the right environment, with the right support, to be seen to your best, in any walk of life. The fact that I've had that here [at Newsells Park] is also something to be grateful for.”

As for what the future might hold, this is one question Porter-Mackrell has no problem answering, with no plans to change the status quo in the foreseeable future.

“It's what I wanted to do when I was young and it's still what I want to do now,” he sums up. “There are endless opportunities in this industry and there's all sorts of directions you could divert into, but what I do here now, day-to-day, is what I want to do–long may it continue.”

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Godolphin Pays 1 Million For A Dubawi Colt Out Of Shastye At Tattersalls

Godolphin snapped up lot 96, a son of Dubawi (Ire) and the late blue hen Shastye (Ire) (Danehill), for 1 million gns to take the lead during Tuesday's session of Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. Consigned by Newsells Park Stud, the bay is a half-brother to six winners anchored by multiple Group 1-winning Galileo (Ire) sires Japan (GB) and Mogul (GB). In addition, Shastye produced G2 Middleton S. heroine Secret Gesture (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), Group 3 winner Sir Isaac Newton (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), and the listed winner Maurus (GB) (Medicean {GB}), who was also placed at group level. This colt's second dam is the G2 Prix de Royallieu heroine Saganeca (Sagace {Fr}), who was also runner-up in the G1 Gran Premio di Milano.

 

 

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End of an Era as Newsells Park Stud Offers Shastye’s Last Colt

“We're in the home straight,” says Julian Dollar and, though the long-term manager of Newsells Park Stud is all too aware that the home straights that matter are those on racecourses around the world, for his team it's all about getting the crop of 2022 to the yearling sales in great shape. So, as the wagons roll to transport those youngsters from Royston to Newmarket, it's a home straight of a kind, with the winning post this week being that famous ring at Tattersalls.

No matter the experience of the folk behind the yearlings for sale, there is always a degree of trepidation in the build-up, and at Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale the stakes are perhaps higher than anywhere else. For the last five years straight, and for a number of other editions of the sale before that, Newsells Park Stud has been the leading vendor at Book 1, with that success maintained throughout the sale of the stud in 2021 to Graham Smith-Bernal by the Jacobs family. This year's draft of 31 looks as strong as ever.

A chapter will be closed on Tuesday on an extraordinary run at Tattersalls for the great mare Shastye (Ire) (Danehill), the dam of Group 1 winners Japan (Ire) and Mogul (Ire), Group 2 winner Secret Gesture (Ire) and Group 3 winner Sir Isaac Newton (Ire), all of whom are by Galileo (Ire). Shastye died last year after at the age of 21 foaling a colt by Dubawi (Ire), who sells as lot 96. A May foal, he will have plenty of hopes resting on his bay shoulders considering not just the racecourse performances of his half-siblings but also their sale-ring records: eight of Shastye's offspring have previously sold at Tattersalls for a collective 14,430,000gns.

“I don't think we'll ever find another one like her,” says Dollar of Shastye. “Obviously that was quite emotional for all of us last year when she produced the Dubawi colt. It was just great to see them both out in the nursery paddock on that first day, and they looked so happy. And then suddenly we got a call that all was not well. She was haemorrhaging and we lost her, and it was a really sad day.

He adds, “But she left us with a lovely Dubawi colt, and he was always the apple of Graham's eye. He actually did some hand-feeding, giving him a bottle for a few sessions. So he quickly made a bond with the colt and I never thought actually he could bear to part with him, but sensibly, he's a businessman, and we are taking him to the sales.”

Newsells Park's flagship stallion Nathaniel (Ire) is represented by three yearlings in Book 1, with the colt in the Newsells draft being a brother to the 2022 Derby winner Desert Crown (GB), bred by Gary Robinson, and consigned as lot 316 on Wednesday.

“We've got a couple of very nice fillies by Nathaniel in Book 2 that could arguably be in Book 1,” Dollar says. “But this colt is a very good-looking horse, very good mover. I like him a lot and he's been entrusted to us through Gary Robinson's Strawberry Fields Stud, who asked us if we'd take him on in January. So we've had him with us for a while, and he's a nice person, and nice to do anything with. Hopefully he'll be well received.”

Earlier on Wednesday, the stud will offer a Kingman (GB) half-brother to another of its resident stallions, Without Parole (GB), on behalf of breeders John and Tanya Gunther. Without Parole himself has his first yearlings for sale this year, including three in Book 1, while Newsells Park will offer two by him in Book 2, both of whom are half-brothers to stakes winners.

“The Without Parole foals were very well received and we hope the yearlings will be as well. Those that we've got have really developed well from foals to yearlings. They're very much like their dad, which is good. They've got great minds and they're really easy to work with and very trainable,” he says.

“Sadly, it was a tough year for us last year, because not only did we lose Shastye, but we also lost [Without Parole's dam] Without You Babe. So both Shastye's and Without You Babe's foals were brought up by foster mares and I don't know if it's a result of that, but they've both got the most incredible temperaments.”

Despite Andreas Jacobs of Gestut Fahrhof no longer being directly involved with Newsells Park Stud, he still has an association in that he is selling two smart yearlings in the farm's draft in Book 1.

“The vast majority of the yearlings are born and bred here,” Dollar says. “We always have a couple of guests, if you like. It's nice to keep a strong relationship with Andreas Jacobs, and he's entrusted us with two yearlings this year, a colt by Wootton Bassett [lot 179], who's very classy, and a very well-bred Mehmas filly [lot 520] whose two half-siblings, the only two other foals that the mare has had, are stakes winner. She's hit the board in spectacular style twice.”

He continues, “We've also always had a link with Al Shahania, and they've selling a cracking Siyouni colt out of Vorda [lot 178]. He's everything you'd want a Siyouni to look like, for me. And then there's Sea The Moon colt out of Teppal [lot 147] is what who is a big, strong, scopey horse with a lot of class.

“But otherwise, pretty much everything else is bred on the farm. And we have that confidence that we know the mares. We know their other progeny. We know these progeny from day one. And when people ask us about them, we can tell them with confidence what they're like. It helps.”

On that theme, Dollar admits that, although almost the entire Newsells Park yearling crop is at the sales over the next few weeks, there is the potential for the operation to race more homebreds in future.

He says, “We always had to make a profit if we possibly could, and look after our bottom line. And we still do have to do that, of course we do. Graham expects us to do that as much as we possibly can but I think there is more scope for Newsells to race fillies especially. We're prepared to put confidence behind them and race them. I'm not saying what we've done in the past has been wrong, because we've been lucky enough to buy some nice mares, Shastye among them, Yummy Mummy and others. But there is a big advantage in understanding families, and putting those horses into training with the right trainers. Obviously, operations like Juddmonte are brilliant. Having those families going back generations, understanding those families, putting them with trainers who also trained that family for generations, has a big advantage. And I'd like to see us developing a few more of our families. I know Graham very much feels that way.”

Despite admitting to being a “pessimist at heart”, Dollar has drawn some encouragement from results from the first half of the European yearling sales.

“Arqana read like a very strong sale,” he says. “Donny was okay, Baden-Baden was okay. We sold a couple of horses in Somerville, which I'd never done before, but the traffic through Somerville was extraordinary. Over the years, we've always seen that the prices at the top remain strong, and we've always felt that if we want to play in this business, commercially, we've got to be playing at the top level because that's where the big money is.”

He continues, “But this is the most amazing business, isn't it? You sort of scratch your head and think, well, how is this happening? A year ago we'd just lost Her Majesty the Queen, and I always felt that our business was almost held together by a 90-odd-year-old lady. But you turn it around, nine months later, and the King and Queen are at Royal Ascot and they have a winner, and there's huge warmth for them both, and then they turned up at Doncaster for the St Leger, and had a live contender who ran a great race, and they seemed to be really enjoying it. And suddenly you think, well, we're still going strong, and everybody still loves and appreciates racing in this country.

“We still have the best racing, and we still seem to breeding some extraordinary good horses. So long may it continue. And while it does, I think we're going to be the focus of buyers from all over the globe. I'd love us not to be such an export market. In the long run, I don't think that's good. But it is where we are at the moment, and I'd rather have that than nobody be interested in buying our stock.

“But as long as we've got top-class stallions, and as long as we've got fellow breeders of the quality of Juddmonte, Cheveley Park, et cetera, we're in pretty good shape.”

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Daughter of Street Cry Tops Tatts Online April

The top priced lot of the Tattersalls Online April sale was black-type producing mare Jumeirah Street (Street Cry {Ire}–Fashion's Flight, by Dixie Union) who was secured by Richard Knight, Newsells Park Stud and the A'Ali Partnership for 70,000 guineas. Consigned by Sophie Buckley's Culworth Grounds Farm, the 8-year-old-mare was offered in foal to the Darley stallion Masar (Ire). Offered as Lot 4, the bay is out of a full-sister to multiple graded winner and Grade I stakes-placed Justwhistledixie, who in turn is responsible for Grade I winners New Year's Day and Mohaymen.

Jumeirah Street has already produced stakes placed Jumbeau (GB) (Brazen Beau {Aus}) followed by an unraced juvenile colt by Harry Angel (Ire) and a yearling filly by Sands of Mali (Fr).

The mare is intended to visit Newsells resident stallion, multiple group winner A'Ali (Ire) (Society Rock {Ire}).

“One of the partners in A'Ali identified the mare and we thought she was worth the punt,” said Julian Dollar of Newsells Park Stud. “We like Street Cry as a broodmare sire. The mare has made a good start with Jumbeau, her first 2-year-old, placed in the Marygate S. last season in the earliest stakes race of the year, showing she was fast and precocious.”

“She comes from a good family and we thought she fitted the profile for A'Ali who was a very fast and precocious racehorse himself. We have been really pleased with the A'Ali foals and that has emboldened us to be confident and to invest in more mares to support him. She has proven she can produce a fast and precocious horse and A'Ali should only help to strengthen that.”

The next highest priced offer, Lot 25, was secured by trainer Jamie Osborne who went to 25,000 gns for the three-time winner Elzaam Blue (Ire) (Elzaam {Aus}–Ghostflower {Ire}, by Dansili {GB}). Offered by Darren Bunyan's Blackmiller Stables, the 5-year-old gelding's most recent win came at Dundalk in February over 1 mile 2 1/2 furlongs.

The Tattersalls Online April Sale realised a turnover of 196,600 gns for the sale of 16 lots at an average of 12,288 gns. Over 130 bidders registered for the sale from across Great Britain, Ireland, Germany, Italy, Australia, and the Gulf region.

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