Shared News Europe | Horse Racing Free Tips

Letter to the Editor: A Tale of Two Frankels

I think we can all agree that Juddmonte both know what they are doing and have an eye on the bottom line.

Last year they had two Group 1-winning Frankel colts with stud potential. Both have similar profile dam-lines and both are good-looking colts. One was rated seven pounds superior to the other.

You can't get in to the winner of the less-than-vintage renewal of the 2,000 Guineas the 119-rated Chaldean (GB) at Banstead, meanwhile the 126-rated Irish Derby winner Westover (GB) was quietly shuffled off to Japan without a whimper and I would suspect at a fraction of the €12million Prix du Jockey Club winner and his Arc conqueror Ace Impact is being syndicated for in France. Frankel's last son to win the Irish Derby is standing at Coolmore's National Hunt division for €6,000. There's your valuation.

Juddmonte know they would hardly get a Flat mare to Westover and certainly not at £25,000 because he is a mile-and-a-half horse and Flat breeders aren't interested in them, but the Champion two-year-old and Guineas winner is a different proposition altogether. We can also assume that Juddmonte believe that Chaldean is the better stallion prospect and they would prefer to use him for their own mares rather than Westover, who was by far the better racehorse.

Would Westover have won the same Irish Derby at 10 furlongs? As he only beat a Group 3 winner and a horse that never even won a Listed race (sadly the norm these days) we can assume so. Would he then have been worth considerably more? Yes.

So because the race is run at a distance that no longer interests European mare owners and, after all they are the ones that decide a stallion's value, Juddmonte's racing arm has missed out on the extra millions that a potential bidding war between European and Japanese interests would have attracted, and Japan has ended up with the better of the two Frankels.

The Prix du Jockey Cub is without any doubt the preeminent stallion-making race for middle-distance horses in Europe. The reason is simple. It is a 10.5-furlong race and a proven success in the stallion-making business since it became so. St Mark's Basilica (Fr), Vadeni (Fr) and Ace Impact (Ire) are the next three in line. All will be given a proper shot.

Westover is just the latest example of an Irish Derby winner who was both unloved and unwanted by European breeders. The present format makes no sense for owner, breeder, fan or even for the breed in Europe.

Shorten the Irish Derby.

Patrick Cooper, BBA Ireland

Do you agree or disagree with this view? Please let us know your thoughts by emailing emmaberry@thetdn.com.

The post Letter to the Editor: A Tale of Two Frankels appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Plumpton Goes Premier as BHA Experiment Makes Unconvincing Start

Anfield or Old Trafford it isn't, but that didn't stop Premierisation coming to Plumpton, a National Hunt track at the foot of the South Downs more easily associated with farmers, pensioners and Brighton sharps on country forays than marketing resets.

The second track to stage a Premier fixture in a two-year trial of 170 meetings each season, dear old Plumpton didn't need labels to tell you how good it is. In the most valuable race since racing began here in 1888, a 5lb claimer called Joe Anderson found himself hanging from his horse's neck after a bad mistake, rode a circuit with no irons, finally hooked his feet back in and then thundered up the hill to win the new £75,000 stayers' hurdle on Transmission. It was a miracle ride. The Plumpton crowd fell in love with Anderson, who could make a living in rodeos.

Premierisation is on a debut tour of British racing, picking out sellable, mass market meetings and adorning them with prize-money, banners and high hopes for the sport's future. Racing is playing catch-up here. There is a Premier League of darts, an Indian Premier League in cricket and Premierships scattered across professional sport.

The use of a tag to bestow mystique on sporting events reflects trends in society, where seductive designations appeal to our social climbing. Premier accounts. Flex-Plus savings. Platinum clubs. And special-entry levels in short-term airport car parks that enable you to skip a whole flight of stairs to get to departures.

It's the cachet, you see. The message it sends about you. And in case anyone thought racing would simply swallow these trends by Premierising only Cheltenham, Ascot and Newmarket, Plumpton became the first 'gaff track' to be invited behind the velvet rope, with a card that featured an 86% increase in prize-money for Sussex National raceday, from £105,000 last year to £195,000.

Give them better runners and a prize-money injection and the crowd swells, the excitement grows, and the nectar-like local Harvey's Ale runs out even quicker than usual in the racecourse bars.

As a Plumpton regular for 40 years, I motored down Sussex lanes half proud for the course and half in trepidation that Premierisation might compromise its character. Much as non-league football is a haven from the money mania of the Premier League, so Plumpton trades on its picturesque setting and authenticity. On Monday afternoons, mostly, a familiar cast of characters greet winners with murmurs of approval or resignation.

This is National Hunt racing's heartland, and nobody ever expected to see it reclassified as 'Premier' sport, which is meant not as an insult but a compliment. The undemonstrative but hardcore Plumpton crowd knows what it wants on a cold January Monday, and none of it corresponds to what you might call glamour.

But they know their horses. Give them better runners and a prize-money injection and the crowd swells, the excitement grows, and the nectar-like local Harvey's Ale runs out even quicker than usual in the racecourse bars. Plumpton's management are skilled at looking after the regulars while also trying to entice the uninitiated. Premierisation is largely about focusing attention on the top end while rebranding the rest as the sport's 'core' (in football, they call that the second-tier 'Championship.')

Sundays are considered ripe for plunder, which is why Plumpton was followed by a scrubbed-up evening card at Wolverhampton, with £160,000 spread across eight races. Of the 1,468 fixtures in 2024, 170 are Premier. The launch could charitably be called low-key. Cheltenham kicked it off on New Year's Day without plastering itself in logos. At Plumpton the tannoy announcements made frequent reference to the course's first Premier event but it felt like any other Sussex National day. Unlike newcomers, aficionados don't need to be told what they're watching.

From the directors' box a thoroughly enjoyable day was observed by Plumpton's joint-owner, Peter Savill, who also happens to be one of the prime movers behind Premierisation. And here's an irony. Savill, who has held secret talks with major players to improve the Premierisation concept, told the Nick Luck podcast recently that all his horses are now trained in France and Ireland. Why, Luck asked. “Prize-money,” Savill replied.

At Plumpton, Savill's son Tom told me they have an interest in a horse trained by Charlie Johnston. Otherwise, Savill snr has voted with his feet while also doubling back with a mission to rescue British racing from its broken business model.

A £90million funding boost over five years is an ambitious target, if labelling and higher prize-money are not backed up by better marketing and improved racecourse facilities. An overlooked part of racing's great survival debate is that the experience offered by many racecourses has not changed in 30 years. In other sports, what you might call infrastructure investment is far more conspicuous. Dated catering, too few toilets and a lack of comfortable places to sit are unlikely to appeal to a generation not inclined to tolerate a 1980s ambience.

Was Plumpton's jump into the big time a success? You bet it was. But I doubt whether many attended just because someone called it a 'Premier' meeting. They went because Plumpton has charm and always draws a big Sussex National day crowd.

Maybe Joe Anderson's ride on Transmission was an allegory for racing. You can be hanging on for dear life but recover and still come through to win. Dressing up 170 meetings a year may set off a rebirth. In its very earliest days, though, it seems to lack conviction. The theory will need supporting evidence.

The post Plumpton Goes Premier as BHA Experiment Makes Unconvincing Start appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

Paul Thorman Q&A: Trickledown Boss On Ambitions In Retirement And More

The Tattersalls December Mares Sale marked the end of an era with Paul and Sara Thorman bringing the curtain down on their Trickledown Stud.

Trickledown made its first public offering back in 1990 and has seen a kaleidoscope of change in the industry ever since.

The Thormans will forever be associated for having back-to-back 2,000 Guineas winners–George Washington (Ire) and Cockney Rebel (Ire)–through their hands in the early noughties

George Washington was sold by Trickledown on behalf of his breeder at Tattersalls in 2004, where he topped Book 1 when selling to Demi O'Byrne on behalf of Coolmore for 1,150,000gns.

Meanwhile, Cockney Rebel, who was bought as a foal by Trickledown for 15,000gns, turned a pinhooking profit when selling to Bobby O'Ryan for £30,000 as a yearling. George Washington won the 2,000 Guineas in 2006 while Cockney Rebel followed up the following year.

Amazingly, Thorman's association with back-to-back Guineas winners does not rank as his greatest day in the sport. Instead, it was the pinhooking of Dutch Art's dam–12,000gns into 710,000gns in less than a year–which towers above everything else.

In this week's Q&A, Thorman reflects on some of those great days as well as his concerns for the sport and future ambitions.

You brought the curtain down on the Trickledown consignment at Tattersalls in December. Was the much emotion involved in that process?

It wasn't so much emotion but more relief. Sara got hurt at Book 3 and when I went to see her in hospital that night I said, 'right, that's it, we'll finish now.' I'd been pushing out the retirement and I know Sara was ready for it as well. You know, when there is a yearling or a foal misbehaving, you are the one who has to grab a hold of it. There comes a time where that is no longer the sensible thing to do and we were ready to retire. We have been the luckiest people in this industry and had the most amazing staff. Some of the staff have been with us since they were 15 or 16 and came back to us after they've had a family. We've also had some brilliant owners, the likes of Chris Mills and Ray Townsend, who have been with us for 30-odd years. No outfit can operate and survive without good owners and staff and we have been blessed with both.

The consignment business has changed a lot since you and Sara started. Trickledown would have been one of the first major consignors in Britain back in 1990. What have been the biggest changes that you have seen since you started?

Since we have started, we have seen the likes of Castlebridge, Barton and similar outfits become huge. We've had our loyal bunch of supporters but, as they have gotten older, some have dropped away. Young people like to work with young people and that's why maybe Castlebridge and Barton consign major numbers. I mean, when we started, we used to consign 80-odd foals and we had the best owners that anyone could ask for. We consigned over 1.5m gns worth of foals three years running at one point. This year, the same group of owners were down to just 30 foals to consign. We haven't have a new client for five years. Certainly not a major client. But things evolve and we certainly hadn't been looking for that same volume of work as we were. It has dwindled down without us doing anything and things move on. It was time.

I know you've had a lot of good horses through your hands but, in many ways, you have been the champion of the smaller breeder. With that in mind, how tough was it to watch on at the breeding stock sales last year?

Oh, for sure. We gave, and I mean gave, two mares and two foals away. These are animals that, five years ago, they would have made five or six grand to Italy or wherever. I had to work hard to give those horses away and, I promise you, they weren't wrecks. You can very quickly work out if a foal is a wreck and if it is never going to be worth anything but these were not wrecks. The two mares we gave away would certainly have been viable three or four years ago. These mares and foals belonged to smaller breeders who have been great clients of ours and it was bloody hard turning to them to explain what was going to happen. Now, we did telegraph it a long way out because the horse were all by stallions who had fallen off a cliff. But, even when you put no reserve on the horse and you don't even get a bid in the ring, that takes a shine off things. Fashion has never been stronger. We used to be able to sell yearlings by unpopular stallions. If they were good-looking horses out of reasonable mares, they'd find a level and sometimes that level was quite good. Sir Mark Prescott, Peter Makin, the likes of those people would always buy a good-looking horse by an unfashionable sire. Now, if you have picked the wrong sire, there is nobody for it. Stallions are never as good or bad as fashion says they are.

Dutch Art: Thorman pinhooked the horse's dam for major profit | Racingfotos.com

Will fashion play much of a role in your pinhooking? I suppose it will have to.

The only thing about fashion when pinhooking is that you have a year for things to change. You couldn't buy a Havana Grey (GB) at Tattersalls in December unless you had a big budget but there were some stallions out there that you felt still had mileage in them so you were happy to buy a foal out of those horses. The most expensive foal we bought was an Ardad (Ire). He had 108 foals two years ago so he has plenty of runners to represent him this year. He was also one of the leading first-crop sires two years ago so he must still have a chance, mustn't he? This foal was a dinger. Now, if Ardad doesn't come off, we might be lucky to get thirty grand for him. But if Ardad comes back into fashion, this could easily be a one-hundred grand yearling. It's buying a lottery ticket, isn't it? There are several horses you could have said would have had the makings of being a decent first-crop sire last year. There are probably four of those stallions who have absolutely been canned already. I mean, you cannot get a bid if you are by any of those stallions. But they are not that bad. Fashion has multiplied their disappointment.

Getting back to the foal sales, have you any other thoughts as to why things were so bad for your clients?

There weren't any foreign buyers at Tattersalls. I got talking to one of the transport men and, I don't know if he was spinning a yarn or not, but he told me that between Brexit and the English paperwork, it costs the foreign buyers on average one thousand pounds more to get a foal home from England compared to Ireland. That has certainly made a difference. There was more of a market at the lower end at the foal sales at Goffs in Ireland. But at the other end of the spectrum, we had a decent order to go and buy a foal. We were prepared to spend fifty, sixty or seventy grand but, everything we liked, we just kept on getting blown out of the water. We weren't even finishing second or third on these nicer foals.

Your broodmare band is down to four. How hard has it become to breed commercially? It's obviously a lot more expensive to produce the horses and perhaps now more so than ever you have to be very careful about what stallions you choose.

Our philosophy to breeding has changed a lot but that is due to circumstances. We don't have the farm anymore. When you have a farm, whether you've six mares in a field or eight mares in a field, it doesn't make a fat lot of difference. You can kid yourself that you are keeping them for nothing so, that chancy mare, you might sit with her an extra year or two. When we gave up the tenancy of the farm, we looked at our mares very critically and decided that, if they had two runners that were no good, we shifted them on. Again, I wanted to buy a decent mare in December but didn't because my want list was bigger than my budget. The mares I have are getting a bit older and I could do with some new blood in there. But it's funny, all the good mares I have bought down through the years, I've almost bought them by mistake. The cliche is that the good mare finds you and that you don't find the good mare.

You've had your fair share of good touches. Is there one result that towers above another?

It would have to be Halland Park Lass (Ire) (Spectrum {Ire}), the dam of Dutch Art (GB), because, again, I bought her by mistake. I had no intention of buying her. I had a bunch of friends who told me that, if I saw a cheap mare, they'd like to come in on one with me. They were two veterinary surgeons from Newmarket and an auctioneer [Ollie Fowlsten]. Every mare I tried to buy for us, I got blown out of the water. A friend came up to me to tell me about Halland Park Lass and said 'she won't do you any harm.' I couldn't find a reason not to buy her so I bought her. I had seen Dutch Art at Doncaster and, although he wasn't the best-looking yearling, I remember being taken by how athletic he was. That was a great story because the two vets bought houses on the proceeds of her sale, as did the auctioneer. I sold a foal out of the mare to my daughter when Dutch Art won his maiden and that ended up helping her to buy a house. For me and Sara, the biggest thrill of all was the fact we did it for relatively small people. When we sold George [Washington], yes it was great and he was the only yearling that year to make over a million, but the owner was already a millionaire and had a big reserve on the horse. So, it was almost a relief when he sold rather than a slap on the back moment. Anybody could have sold George. Well, maybe not anybody, as he wasn't the simplest fella to deal with. The bulk of the fun we had at Trickledown was when people got a touch and it really mattered to them.

Given everything you achieved–being associated with back-to-back Guineas winners and that massive profit with Halland Park Lass–is there more left to tick off?

I'd love to own a very good racehorse. We've had plenty of fun with the horses we've raced but never had a real one. But then again, we tend to race what we're left with rather than what we really like. There might be an opportunity to keep one that we really like going forward. Sara and I are very much into our point-to-pointing and we've got two pointers in training with Chris Barber, one of which we know is only going to be a fun horse. We went to 17 or 18 points last year and had so much fun. If I was to ever win one of the big races, the Foxhunters at Cheltenham or Aintree would be top of my list. Could you imagine the buzz? That would be a dream.

And who will consign your horses going forward?

David Hegarty, who has just set up on his own, and Robbie Mills, who is actually the son of Chris Mills, who we have sold horses for for over 30 years. He's trading as RMM Bloodstock. You watch them over the next year or two. Both are exceptional talents. They'll find it easy following us!

The post Paul Thorman Q&A: Trickledown Boss On Ambitions In Retirement And More appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post

‘Moment Of Impulse’ Has Legendary Hall Looking Forward To First Runner At Naas

The much-loved Robert Hall, who fronted Ireland's terrestrial television coverage of racing on RTE for 37 years before retiring in 2020, says he is optimistic of “a forward showing” but more importantly “something to build on” with his first horse, Frogman (Ire) (Ol' Man River {Ire}), who makes his eagerly-anticipated debut in the closing bumper at Naas on Sunday.

Frogman may be Hall's first runner but eagle-eyed observers may recognise the black and red silks that the four-year-old will carry as they are the exact colours of the old Stablemate Racing Syndicate, a successful ownership venture that Hall was involved with alongside Denny Cordell in the late eighties. After a 30-year hiatus, the black and red is back and the hope is that Frogman can prove up to the task.

“It's my first runner in my own name,” the legendary broadcaster explained. “They are the old Stablemate Racing colours. Stablemate was an old syndicate that we had and there were just short of 800 subscribers to it. It was a company set up by the late Denny Cordell, a famous music producer and racehorse trainer, and we had horses with about seven or eight different trainers.

“A lot of our proceeds came from the telephone lines. Premium numbers had just come in at the time and we realised there was an opportunity there. So, we did very well and had a lot of fun. All bar one of our horses won races and we had one or two decent ones. We had horses with Willie Mullins when he started out–and I actually won on one of those! We also had horses with Michael Cunningham, Denny himself, Dermot Weld, Arthur Moore and a good few others. They've been lucky enough colours.”

He added, “We closed Stablemate Racing down after six years. When we closed it down, the subscribers very kindly registered these colours for a lifetime to myself. I think it is the first time since 1993 since these colours have been used and it's the first time I've had one in my own name.”

Hall has been retired from broadcasting for over three years now but remains part of the Tattersalls Ireland media team. It was at the May Sale last year when Frogman first caught his attention and, while he didn't set out to snap up a store on the day, came home from work the proud new owner with trainer Richard O'Brien, who he'd previously never met.

He explained, “I got this fella at the May Sale at Tattersalls Ireland. I do a bit of work with Tattersalls and I can remember I absolutely loved this horse when he came into the ring. I couldn't buy him because I hadn't seen him outside. Anyway, he got knocked down to Gerry Hogan who was standing beside me and I said to him, 'what a lovely horse'. He then told me that the horse was for Richard O'Brien.

“I was interested in the horse because he has a lovely pedigree. It goes all the way back to Mumtaz Mahal, who was an incredible filly, one of the best of all time. I mean, she has just been the most incredible mare and so many good horses, including Alpinista (GB), can be traced back to Mumtaz Mahal. You know, I love all of those old families and, sometimes in this game, you need to look back and see what's not on the page to get a bit of value.”

Hall added, “The next thing I did was look up Richard O'Brien. I liked hugely what I saw of him and then I said to Gerry that, if Richard hadn't found anyone for the horse, I'd love to have him. By the end of the day, I owned him.”

In O'Brien, Hall has identified a man with a proven track record for winning this race at Naas. The County Limerick trainer sent out Impulsive Dancer (Ire) (Dragon Pulse {Ire})–who would later be sold to Simon Munir and Isaac Souede to race with Willie Mullins–to win this in 2022 while his fingerprints were over last year's scorer Cut The Rope (Fr) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) given he sold the horse to Paul Nolan just a few weeks before the first four-year-old bumper of the year. But Sunday is not about winning for Hall. It's about much more than that.

“Since giving up my television role,” he explained, “I just felt there was a danger of me not drifting away completely, but losing my connection with racing. It's funny, the last horse I bought on impulse like this turned out to be the dam of Indigenous (Ire) and she was incredible. I've always kept my eye in and it's good to have an interest.”

Hall bid adieu to RTE Racing after almost 40 years at the helm of Ireland's terrestrial television coverage of the sport. He provided countless hours of entertainment, often alongside Ted Walsh, with the duo building up a loyal following, especially through the infamous Ask Ted segment, which generated lots of laughs–and some hairy moments–in more recent times.

However, all good things comes to an end, according to Hall, with the 68-year-old revealing that he doesn't miss broadcasting. He also acknowledged how much things have changed, especially over jumps, since his departure.

“I don't miss it and I'm glad I got out when I did because I would have hated to have broadcast during Covid when there was nobody on the track. Also, when we were doing it, there was a hell of a bigger spread of talent among the leading trainers which you're not getting these days. That's tough for them, but that's the way it is.”

When it was put to Hall that it was therefore admirable that he kept Frogman with O'Brien, a trainer who doesn't have the same numbers to go to war with compared to a Willie Mullins or a Gordon Elliott, he explained how working with someone of O'Brien's ilk is what provides him with the biggest buzz.

Hall said, “I love them all. I mean, Willie is a pal and I appreciate Gordon hugely, but do you know something, I don't think I'd have gotten any buzz about having a horse in a big yard. I really don't. I love the smaller operations and I think it's great sport. We'll see how good this fella is but I really enjoy working with the smaller trainers. Of course I do. And when we had Stablemate, a lot of our horses were with smaller trainers as well.”

If you're waiting for a clever explanation into the backstory of where Hall came up with the name for his first ever runner, there isn't one. Ask Ted may well have been a better fit but, as long as Frogman can gallop, Hall won't be heard complaining.

He concluded, “Ol' Man River is obviously the Mississippi and Paul Robeson wrote that wonderful song. The Mississippi is full of interesting frogs and the dam's name is sort of northern Ukraine and Southern Russia and they are all quite ugly names. I couldn't attach any names to the horse so I just went with Frogman. I'm not into my nature, terribly, but it will be a great name if he turns out to be any good.

“Before they run, you've always got a smile on your face, haven't you? We think he's a nice horse but he is obviously going to come on a lot from the run. He's a horse for the future. I'm hoping there will be a tomorrow and that he can progress.”

The post ‘Moment Of Impulse’ Has Legendary Hall Looking Forward To First Runner At Naas appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

Source of original post