There She Goes: Honeysuckle Leaves Cheltenham in Raptures

CHELTENHAM, UK–One champion crowned as another exits. But there was no quiet shuffling off, stage left, for Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}), who was roared home, roared in, and roared out of the Cheltenham winner's circle that provides no better setting for equine coronations. 

Just forty minutes earlier the new king of the hurdling division, Constitution Hill (GB), had delivered exactly the performance expected of him but one which can never be guaranteed in the hurly-burly of championship races at the Festival. Plenty of commentators are already suggesting that the son of Blue Bresil (Fr) is the greatest hurdler of all time after he has made just six spotless starts under Rules. Whether he is or isn't is almost irrelevant. The horse who gave Nicky Henderson his record ninth win in the Unibet Champion Hurdle is the best there is right now by a long way: nine lengths, in fact, if we take his winning margin as a measure. And on any other day, in any other week, his superb round under Nico de Boinville would have been the stand-alone performance that gave all comers at Prestbury Park that special I-was-there moment. 

Who, after all, will forget that flamboyant, spring-heeled leap at the last, not because he needed to but just because he could? The image of that split second alone will linger on, serving as it did to underline the untapped reserves of Constitution Hill at the end of a race that had his rivals hard to the pump in fruitless pursuit. Then along came Honeysuckle.

“This is just a horse race and a bit of fun, it's not real life,” said the great mare's owner Kenny Alexander in the aftermath of the Close Brother Mares' Hurdle, and his may have been the coolest head there, for all around him others were losing theirs. “We knew it would be Honeysuckle's final race, and those who have adored her and Rachael Blackmore–because, let's face it, this is a dream double act–will have shared the pain of her two defeats this season, even though her mighty record now stands at 19 for 17. Honeysuckle owed us nothing, but there was a score to be settled nonetheless. 

When the headstrong Love Envoi (Ire) (Westerner {GB}) looked as though she would have her freewheeling way all the way to the line, there was for a moment a feeling of resignation, that this would be okay, to see Honeysuckle finish second for the second time; an honourable swansong. But Honeysuckle herself, driven by Blackmore and responding all the way from the back of the last, had other ideas. 

“She's tried to kill me for five years now,” said her trainer Henry de Bromhead, and you could see that feisty mare dig deep to give everything she had left to power up the hill for one glorious last hurrah. Four runs at the Cheltenham Festival: two Champion Hurdles, two Mares' Hurdles. What a girl. 

With Blackmore still breathless after her own heroic effort, she immediately understood that this was about more than just winning a horse race. 

“We all wish a very special kid could be here today, but he's watching down on us,” she said, with thoughts of Jack de Bromhead, the 13-year-old son of Honeysuckle's trainer and his wife Heather, who lost his life last September in a pony racing accident. He is officially commemorated at Cheltenham on Thursday with the running of the Jack de Bromhead Mares' Novices' Hurdle in which his father will field five of the 21 runners. 

For the de Bromhead stable, Honeysuckle's work is done, but she will remain very much within the Alexander fold. The owner-breeder, who some years ago bought New Hall Stud in Ayrshire from the Thom family, has, with the help of Peter Molony, set about establishing an elite band of National Hunt broodmares. Now that colony has its queen, who will head to Scotland eventually once she is safely in foal. Molony confirmed in the winner's enclosure, lump in throat as he spoke, that Honeysuckle would return to Ireland to his Rathmore Stud initially, and that she is already booked for a first tryst with Coolmore's Walk In The Park (Ire).

Alexander added, “She's retired now and I've had an absolute blast owning her. I'm lost for words to be honest, the celebration was out of control. If you can't lose it a bit after winning a race like that though, you probably shouldn't own racehorses.

“It just shows you how great the sport is when she's getting a cheer like that. They don't love me, that's for sure. They may love Rachael, and even Henry a bit, but they really love that horse.”

As one industry stalwart put it as Honeysuckle took a final lap of honour of the Cheltenham parade ring: “What an hour of magic.”

At times, it is easy to get ground down by some of racing's woes, from major issues to petty bureaucracies. But on days like Tuesday, when the winter sun finally showed its face after weeks of brutal weather, as if to say, “Go on then, have your fun”, the fun never felt so good. From Marine Nationale (Fr) (French Navy {Ire}) in the opening Supreme Novices' Hurdle and two victories on the day for his engaging young jockey Michael O'Sullivan, to a dust-up in the last between another three of the best amateurs in the game, it was a day to remember exactly why we love this great sport. A day that belonged, equally, to Constitution Hill and Honeysuckle. 

 

 

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Sean Doyle: ‘You’re Better Off Thinking Of The Rewards Rather Than The Risks’

Sean Doyle pulls Monbeg Park (Ire) (Walk In The Park {Ire}) out of his stable and says proudly, “That's the type of horse the likes of Willie Mullins and Eddie O'Leary want to buy.” 

It begs the question, why is Monbeg Park lining out for Doyle and not any of the powerhouse stables in Sunday's G1 Lawlor's Of Naas Novice Hurdle?

After all, Doyle has earned a reputation for selling future stars rather than racing them and can count a Cheltenham Festival-winning graduate to his roll of honour almost every year since Holywell (Ire) broke that particular duck in 2013. 

Horses like The Last Samuri (Ire), Invitation Only (Ire) and American Mike (Ire) have also passed through this renowned County Wexford production line. 

Meanwhile, a couple of hundred yards across the field, his brother Donnchadh has blooded Paul Nicholls' latest King George winner Bravemansgame (Fr) and stablemate Tahmuras (Fr), winner of the G1 Tolworth Novices Hurdle on Saturday. 

The Doyles have mastered the craft of buying National Hunt stores and turning them into red-hot commodities. However, Monbeg Park was never going to be a selling prospect due to the fact he picked up a minor injury earlier on in his career. 

Doyle explained, “The big day for us is not the day these horses win their point or even the day we get paid for them. It's the day they win for the next man. You can't grind them out to win their point. They need to train on. 

“We're running a business here and repeat business is important. Even Monbeg Park there, he's grand now and we're getting a great run out of him, but you could never sell a horse like him. We could have sold him but you are risking losing the sale of a different horse a year or two down the line if you did.”

The 38-year-old added, “He had a small suspensory problem. Willie Mullins actually came to look at him twice and he was close to chancing him. When you are talking about a horse to go chasing, he's exactly what you'd want. To be fair to him, he's won his bumper and maiden hurdle and has placed twice. In six runs he's been very consistent. We're dreaming that he'll win a big chase for us some day. He's a big quality-looking horse but you just couldn't sell him for fear of him not standing up to training for the next man.”

Any hopes of a six-figure sale with Monbeg Park may have been dashed when he damaged his suspensory but a new dream stares back at Doyle, who is quietly excited about his first runner in Grade 1 company.

 “We were actually a little disappointed with him at Cork but it was our own fault. We got caught with the frost and didn't do a lot with him. He was way too fresh and we rode him upsides in front and Bryan [Cooper] rode him like a slow horse. We might have been better off riding a waiting race with him and, while I don't think we'd have won, he would have run a nicer race if we rode him differently. We made too much use of him. 

“He's in great form now and, as long as we can keep him sound, there should be a lot of fun to be had with him. He's the classiest horse I've ever run on the track anyway.”

Sean Doyle (left) with Colin Bowe | Tattersalls

This place has been a soundtrack to classy horses for over a decade now. What was once a busy dairy farm has developed into a multi-million euro point-to-point operation with even Doyle admitting his surprise as to how quickly things have taken off. 

“We started in 2008 which was the time of the recession so you could buy horses fairly cheap back then. One of the first horses we sold was Rudemeister (Ire). He cost €6,500 and we sold him for £75,000 after he won his point. Then we bought a horse called Padge (Ire) for €16,000, which was a lot of money back then, but for luck he went on and made £160,000. We've been very lucky and are blessed that the father had the land here for us. If we didn't have that, we wouldn't be doing it to the level that we are.”

He added, “We are able to run a fairly tight ship. Everything is on site and we don't have to go away an awful lot and we have all our own haylage so it's very doable. I spent a summer with Willie Mullins as a young lad but we all love point-to-pointing and learned as we went along. You learn from your mistakes. 

“We never went away to any big trainer for any long period of time or anything like that. It's always been drilled into me from a young age to take money when it's being offered. Don't ever be sorry for selling. Then, when we kept selling, the whole thing kept rotating and the money kept coming.

“The thing that would frighten you is that we got into millions of euros very quickly. From a few thousand here and there, our turnover shot into the millions. It's very easy to do it when you've the numbers we have but, as I said, we're lucky we can do a lot of the work ourselves to keep the costs down.”

They say that faith is believing in something when common sense might advise otherwise. Doyle, along with his brothers Donnchadh, Cormac and Gearoid, would invest over €2 million a year in National Hunt stores. 

Fellow Countymen Colin Bowe and Denis Murphy could also invest seven figures in a given year which goes some way to illustrating Wexford's status in producing jumps horses. Call it what you like, but this is high stakes poker and there are only so many Monbeg Parks an operation the size of Doyle's can carry. Every horse is important here. Every horse is contributing. 

“You don't open the post from June to the following May,” he jokes. “It's only then when you'd start worrying about what's left over! It's a risky game but sometimes you're better off not thinking about the risks involved and you're better off thinking about the rewards. It's gone great for us and you'd never have dreamed we'd be operating at the level that we are. We could end up broke yet but we'll keep going for another few years please God. 

“When things are going well for you, there's no better feeling. We've gone through a fair bit since we started in fairness. We started out during a recession and managed to keep going and then there was Brexit, a worldwide pandemic and now there's a war. The average spend this year was up to about 40 grand whereas it dropped to about 25 grand during Covid.”

He added, “The sales companies have been very good to us from the start. At the end of the day, these horses have to be paid for. Between us all [Donnchadh, Gearoid, Sean and Cormac], we're only spending about two and a half million a year. If you get three good horses to any of those boutique sales, that's a million quid back straight away. You have to be thinking forward the whole time. There's plenty of those 20 or 30 grand stores who finish second and go on to make 50, 60 or 70 grand. They still leave a lot of money behind in one season. They only have to leave us about 12 grand per head. But even those 10 and 15 grand horses, it's highly important to get that for them because you need the clearance as well. They all add up.

“Horses are going to let you down every day of the week but you can't be thinking that way. I know plenty of lads who started out at this and they were worrying about money and worrying about this and that. If you're worrying about money, it's not really the job for you. You have to let it unfold in front of you. When you get a run of good luck, you have to be ready to take it. You see some of the lads who have been with us, the likes of my younger brother Cormac with 40 horses and Rob James with 30 horses, they'd have seen what we went through and there's a certain amount of calmness with those lads as well. They'll wait and wait and let it happen rather than trying to force it.”

The National Hunt game is a completely different ballgame to when Doyle set out buying and selling in 2008. In many ways, he and his contemporaries between the flags have had a massive role to play in the revolution of the sport. 

Following a similar trajectory to the breeze-up sphere, where the demand for ready-made winners-in-waiting has soared, the point-to-point handlers have experienced a similar shot in the arm of their business. 

Not only has there been a clamour for point winners, but the short supply of Flat horses to go jumping has developed into a perfect storm which has resulted in the point-to-point horse with form selling for a premium. 

Doyle explained, “The top end National Hunt store is going point-to-pointing now, which is kind of crazy when you think about it, but it suits the next man who wants the big Saturday horse. He doesn't have to go buying 10 stores to find it. He can wait and see them win their point-to-point and just buy one or two. Look at the horses who have come out of here recently–Bravemansgame, Love Envoi (Ire), American Mike–there's loads. I actually think the best is yet to come, too.”

He added, “Those Flat stayers who are making big money to go to Hong Kong and Australia–that has brought us point-to-point men back in at a big level. There was a time those horses would be sold to go jumping but they're gone unaffordable now. If the demand for those Flat horses can be maintained, then we are safe. 

“Even our 30 grand horse, if they've got any sort of form at all, they'll slot into the north of England no problem. Whereas, there was a time the trainers up there would head down to Ascot to buy six or seven castoffs from the Flat to go jumping for the same money. They can't do that anymore. 

“But the top end is fairly scarce. Even for us to get the three or four hundred grand for one, they have to win their point but they also have to have the pedigree, size and scope and good conformation as well.”

The parallels between buying National Hunt horses who can jump and gallop three miles on heavy ground to sourcing a yearling who can go on and clock a good time at the breeze-ups as a 2-year-old may not be plain to see for everyone. 

But, in an effort to maintain cash flow and more crucially in a bid to retain staff throughout the summer, Doyle has revealed an audacious plan to branch out into breezers and this particular wheel has already been set to motion. 

“We've put in a three-and-a-half furlong uphill carpet gallop to run alongside our sand gallop on the hill. The reason for that is that we'd like to start training 2-year-olds. Donnchadh and myself will do the 2-year-olds and they'll run in my name but there'll be a few other lads involved with us I'd say. We'll probably do a few breezers as well. The carpet gallop would be great for breezers.”

He added, “The whole thinking behind it all is that we're carrying a lot of staff all year round and it would be something to keep everyone ticking over from May until the autumn because we can't afford to lose staff anymore. I bought a couple of 2-year-olds last year but they were no good. We've four this year–two colts and two fillies. We'll probably run the colts. The Invincible Army (Ire) came out of the Orby. He cost €80,000. The other fella is by Churchill (Ire) and he cost €45,000 at the Sportsman's. It's something we'd like to develop.”

A tapestry of Grade 1 horses have emerged from these Monbeg stables down through the years. Until now, Doyle has never had a chance to secure a top-level triumph in his own name. Step forward Monbeg Park. 

Sean Doyle | Tattersalls

Doyle on . . . the National Hunt sires

There's a big opening for a sire over jumps. Anything could come through because there are not enough No Risk At All (Fr)s, Walk In The Parks or any of those horses by the good French sires coming through to go around. Affinisea (Ire) is the one who's popular now. It's probably a great time for him because there's not enough of them running for anyone to say he's going bad. I'd only two by him and I got them sold easy. They just wanted Affinisea. I'll tell you what now, the Sea The Stars (Ire) element probably has a lot to do with it. He's a new influence on the National Hunt scene and people are getting a little bit excited about him. He's just an easier sell than any of the stallion sons of Galileo (Ire) over jumps. I was a fan of Nathaniel (Ire) but he seems to have gone back more on the Flat now and I couldn't get near anything by Blue Bresil (Fr) at the sales this season. I bought Arctic Bresil (GB) (Blue Bresil {Fr}) for €62,000 and sold him for £305,000 to Henry de Bromhead after he won his point. I know he wasn't cheap as a store but I can remember coming home from the Derby Sale and thinking that he wasn't dear either. I reckon that if Eddie O'Leary had been flat out buying for Gigginstown that year, he'd have been a one hundred grand store. I've done okay with Getaway (Ger). You'd have a filly by him all day long and, at the back of it all, the fillies probably get a better chance given the programme that's there for them. 

Doyle on . . . private sales

Private sales will become more popular. When they are talking on the telly about a horse costing this or that after winning his point-to-point, and say he only finishes fifth in a maiden hurdle, the real big owner doesn't want that. We're after getting three or four real good orders for between three and four hundred thousand if we can find the right horse. It's there in black in white so, when a race is about to start and the television presenters are stuck for something to say, you can't really blame them for mentioning what a horse costs. There's not a lot more to talk about at that stage. I reckon the private sales will get bigger and bigger.

Doyle on . . . producing 4-year-olds to win their point-to-point

We leave them in a routine as long as we can and it's probably only in the second or third week in January where we start pairing them up. But usually everything is just build them up, build them up, build them up and try not to think if they are good, bad or middling. If you start going looking for them earlier than you should, you won't get to run them. A lot of lads want to run them in February but the season goes on a long time so, if you start lighting them all up for February before they are ready, you might not get to run anything. At one time, you'd have been kicking yourself if you didn't have them out but you can always wait until October and you saw what some of the 4-year-olds who won their points in the autumn made at some of the sales recently. There's no hurry on us whatsoever. The only thing that might happen is that, say you had 35 4-year-olds and were left with 25 in the autumn, you probably wouldn't get to buy as many three-year-olds at the store sales that year. But that sort of thing levels itself out every three years. It just depends on the run that you're on. But before we'd run anything, they'd nearly want to go down over the fences with no wings on them. That's how ready they'd want to be. They need to know their job so well. They don't even have to go that fast, it's once they go straight. I don't believe in giving horses leads either. They have to go in front and do it themselves. If we came out to school a week before a race and they didn't go down over 12 fences straight as a die we'd leave them and wouldn't run them. 

Doyle on . . . the Wexford handlers

There's been lads before us and there'll be lads after us. Padge Berry was a great name in Wexford when we were growing up. Denis Murphy is another. He's a great man to watch when he's selling a horse. You don't have to ask him too many questions, just watch him, as he's a great way of explaining things. Colin Bowe is brilliant as well. For a man who has a massive yard, he runs a very simple operation and we tried to do what those lads have been doing. We don't try to complicate it.

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The Sweet Roar Of Success For Cheltenham’s Golden Girls

CHELTENHAM, UK–There are horses, and then there's Honeysuckle (GB). Thought it may seem like sacrilege to compare the superstar hurdler to the greatest racehorse of the modern era, there has been no better winning sequence on the turf since Frankel (GB) stepped off it to the breeding shed a decade ago, and Honeysuckle isn't stopping yet.

The daughter of Sulamani (Ire) is now a dual Champion Hurdle winner, a treble Irish Champion Hurdle winner, unbeaten in 15 starts under rules, plus her debut triumph in a point-to-point at Dromahane at the age of four. It was that romp of a maiden win when still a raw frame of a filly that pricked up the ears of Peter Molony, who manages the racing and breeding interests of Honeysuckle's owner Kenny Alexander and bought the mare at the Goffs Punchestown HIT Sale on his behalf for €110,000.

Visibly emotional as Honeysuckle was led in from her third consecutive victory at the Cheltenham Festival, Molony admitted, “I looked at her pedigree and I wasn't interested. But I was working for Goffs and I thought I had better go and have a look at her. And to do what she did in her point-to-point when she was just such a big frame of a horse was quite something. Then I just had to persuade Kenny.”

It is an understatement to say that Alexander will be glad that he did. For there is currently no bigger star in National Hunt racing than Honeysuckle. The mare's lustre is enhanced immeasurably for her unbreakable partnership with Rachael Blackmore, who owned Cheltenham last year with her six Festival wins. All that was missing then was the famous roar, but boy did she and Honeysuckle receive one this time around.

With the crowds returned to Prestbury Park two years on from the world coming almost to a standstill as the pandemic took its grip, those who packed the tiers that make up the heady amphitheatre surrounding Cheltenham's winner's enclosure gave it their lusty best as the golden girls returned triumphant again.

“It was incredible, walking back down there,” said Blackmore. “I've never felt an atmosphere like that. There wasn't a moment's silence. People here, it's just an amazing crowd, an amazing atmosphere. It's easy to say that when you're winning, but it's a very special place and to hear those cheers this year was very special.”

She continued, “Part of me was thinking that I should have been more nervous before the race, but I actually do have a lot of confidence in her. It would be weird if I didn't, because she's never let me down. She's incredible. Henry [de Bromhead] gets her to the races every day in the form he does, and that's an extremely tough feat, to train a horse to win all those races in succession.”

While Blackmore was happy to put her faith in her faultless mount, Molony confessed that the nerves had been getting to him.

“To be honest, the weeks leading up to her races, it's torture,” he said. “But it's first-world torture, and we'll enjoy it now looking back.”

He added, “She's eight now and we're probably looking at next year being her last season.”

Whenever Honeysuckle does eventually retire she will become an important foundation mare at Alexander's New Hall Stud in his native Scotland, a farm made famous by the Thom family, breeders of Group 1 winner Donna Blini (GB), who went on to greater fame as the dam of Japanese superstar Gentildonna (Jpn).

Alexander, who predominantly races mares with a view to establishing a formidable National Hunt broodmare band, has the majority of his horses in training in Ireland, and the British-bred Honeysuckle, a graduate of Dorset-based The Glanvilles Stud, has been a huge credit to her trainer Henry de Bromhead, whose annus mirabilis in 2021 included landing Cheltenham's holy trinity of the Champion Hurdle, Champion Chase and Gold Cup, and then adding his first Grand National success to the mix. 

Four of the last seven runnings of the Champion Hurdles have been won by mares, the last two by Honeysuckle, who on Tuesday was chased home by Epatante (Fr) (No Risk At All {Fr}), the 2020 winner. The latter's trainer Nicky Henderson has had plenty of success in that race over the years, with his eight wins stretching back to 1985, and though he had to settle for second in the day's feature race, he will have returned to Lambourn a happy man on Tuesday evening. 

Henderson drew first blood at Prestbury Park during the afternoon, sending out Constitution Hill (GB) (Blue Bresil {Fr}) and Jonbon (Fr) (Walk In The Park {Ire}) to finish first and second in a fiercely competitive running of the G1 Sky Bet Supreme Novices' Hurdle. He then struck again in the G1 Close Brothers Mares' Hurdle with Marie's Rock (Ire) (Milan {Ire}) for the Middleham Park Racing team. 

“We had four runners today and if you'd have told me this morning I'd have had all four finishing in the first two I'd have said it was going to be a good day,” said Henderson, the most successful British trainer of all time at the Festival with 72 wins. “In golf you're meant to play to your age, so when you're 66 you've got to go round in 66 and so on. I'm 71 so the first winner this week took me to that and we've put one in the bank for next year just in case I don't last.”

With 23 horses set to run at Cheltenham this week, Henderson is the best represented among the British trainers but his team pales into relative insignificance against the amassed troops from the Irish stables of Willie Mullins and Gordon Elliott, who have 71 and 68 potential runners respectively. 

Mullins had to wait until the last race of the day for his first win in the Ukraine Appeal National Hunt Challenge Cup with Stattler (Ire) (Stowaway {Ire}), ridden by his son Patrick. As an acknowledgement of the grave troubles beyond the bubble of the Cheltenham Festival, the six runners in the finale all carried saddle cloths in the colours of the Ukrainian flag, while the jockeys bore armbands in blue and yellow throughout the day. 

Edwardstone A Homegrown Star

Prices for the top National Hunt horses may have skyrocketed past the reach of many owners but there is still the odd fairytale to be written, even at Cheltenham. And it will be hard to find a more heartwarming result all season than that of Edwardstone (GB) (Kayf Tara {GB}) in the G1 Sporting Life Arkle Trophy. 

Bred by his owners Robert Abrey and Ian Thurtle, the 8-year-old has been the star turn this season for Alan King, who in the last 12 months has been represented by the dual Group 1-winning stayer Trueshan (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}) and Group 2-winning juvenile Asymmetric (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}). Such results are testament to his all-round skills as a horseman, but it is the jumps world with which King has been more readily associated over the years, and in Edwardstone he looks to have a prospect to rival former stable stars such as Voy Por Ustedes (Fr), My Way De Solzen (Fr) and Katchit (GB).

Abrey and Thurtle, two old friends based in Norfolk, currently have only Edwardstone's dam, the 17-year-old Nothingtoloose (Ire) (Luso {GB}), in their paddocks. She is soon to be joined by Midnightreferendum (GB) (Midnight Legend {GB}), the Grade 2-placed four-time winner and daughter of their late broodmare Forget The Ref (Ire) (Dr Massini {Ire}). Both the latter and Nothingtoloose were campaigned in the point-to-point field by the pair before retiring to stud, and are now both black-type producers.

Edwardstone, already a treble winner over hurdles, has been one of the revelations of the season since going novice chasing and, after being brought down on his debut over fences in November, hasn't looked back, remaining unbeaten in his last five starts. 

Hailing the result “a dream come true”, Robert Abrey said, “The adrenaline is running a bit at the moment. We were just trying to breed a nice horse and this fella turned up.”

He added, “We're just a couple of amateurs. We looked down the list even in our bumpers and thought 'what are we doing here?'. Alan got him going and the horse could be quite bullish as a youngster. It's really all credit to Alan and his team at Barbury Castle for all the work they have put into this horse over the last three or four years.”

With Nothingtoloose heading to Ireland to visit Walk In The Park (Ire) this season, the mare is set to be represented by another runner in the coming days as Edwardstone's full-sister Nothingtochance (GB) is entered to make her debut in the bumper at Southwell on Monday. 

As James Thomas outlined in Tuesday's TDN, the numbers are stacked against British breeders in the National Hunt division but the opening day at Cheltenham was one to savour in that regard, with three Grade 1 winners carrying the GB suffix. And, as also referenced, top-class jumpers are often not that far removed from top-class horses on the Flat. 

A reminder of that was delivered by Brazil (Ire), winner of the G3 Boodles Juvenile Handicap Hurdle to give trainer Padraig Roche his debut Festival victory with his first runner. This time last year, the 4-year-old son of Galileo (Ire) was still under the care of Aidan O'Brien at Ballydoyle, where his full-brother Capri (Ire) was also trained to win the St Leger for the Coolmore partners. Capri, bred, like Brazil, by Lynch Bages Ltd and Camas Park Stud, is now ensconced at Grange Stud and has been presented with a rather nice update by his brother as he embarks on his career as a National Hunt stallion.

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Racing League Teams Taking Shape

John Gosden, alongside fellow Newmarket trainers Sir Mark Prescott, Robert Cowell and David Simcock, will make up one of the dozen teams of the Racing League tournament which begins next summer. Another Newmarket team is comprised of Michael Bell, Ed Dunlop, James Fanshawe and Roger Varian. Clive Cox, Nicky Henderson, Charlie Hills and Jamie Osborne are representing Lambourn. Another team is Mick Appleby, Michael Dods, David O’Meara and Paul Midgley. Mick Channon has joined Paul and Oliver Cole, Eve Johnson Houghton and Hughie Morrison. France will also send a team combining trainers Philippe Decouz, Gavin Hernon, and Edouard Monfort.

The Racing League will see 12 teams of 30 horses each compete over 36 races during a six-week period at Newcastle, Doncaster, Lingfield and Windsor. Each event is worth £50,000, with an overall prizemoney of £1.8 million for the series beginning on July 29 and running until Sept. 2.

In November, six previous teams were released: Tim Easterby and Richard Fahey; Charlie Fellowes, Hugo Palmer and George Scott; Andrew Balding and Richard Hannon; George Baker, David Menuisier, Gary Moore and Amanda Perrett; Roger Charlton, Alan King, Martyn Meade and Brian Meehan; and, representing Ireland, Joseph O’Brien and his brother Donnacha.

Jeremy Wray, Racing League Chief Executive said, “We are really pleased to have such an illustrious group of trainers forming the 12 teams and are delighted to be adding an international flavour with the teams from Ireland and France. The next step will be for each team to select their three jockeys.”

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