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TBA Annual General Meeting Held

The Annual General Meeting of the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association was held online for the first time on Sunday. TBA Chairman Julian Richmond-Watson detailed several key strategic priorities, while also acknowledging the challenges created by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to the UK Thoroughbred industry. Five 2021 focal points for the TBA Board of Trustees and executive team are as follows:

Resolving issues arising from the UK’s exit from the EU; to include working with industry partners at home and abroad to ensure best possible outcomes for the industry, its people, trade and horse movement.
Maintaining and developing relationships with key industry and government figures who can potentially influence and support TBA activities.
Providing further direct support for breeders, including development of the Great British Bonus scheme.
Participating and influencing industry decisions on prize-money, ensuring racing is adequately funded at every level, while maintaining the appeal and competitiveness of Britain’s top-level races globally.
Improving the TBA’s digital services, including developing and launching a new e-learning platform to provide easy and affordable access to industry training.

Several positive developments in 2020 include: the TBA gaining approval from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) for the Great British Bonus scheme which has already paid out over £1 million in prize-money. The quick adaption of communications and services for members through the coronavirus crises was also recognised as a success.

“British breeders need more support,” said Richmond-Watson. “GBB [the Great British Bonus] is a great start, but if racecourses wish to run the size of the programme they desire, they will need us to maintain and produce more foals on the ground and that will only happen if breeders feel confident about the future.”

Also during the meeting, the term of the incumbent chairman was increased from six years to eight after a special resolution was adopted, with upcoming challenges ranging from Brexit, COVID-19, prize-money issues, and Levy reform. A new membership category was also created, the associate subscription, allowing discounted or free access to TBA courses and events for £60 per year. In addition, Laundry Cottage Stud owner Colin Bryce and Kate Sigsworth of West Moor Stud were elected to the Board of Trustees. For more details on the TBA Annual General Meeting, please visit www.tba.co.uk.

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Tweenhills to Hold Online Virtual Stallion Parade

An online virtual stallion parade of the Tweenhills 2021 roster is now available to view (click here), as breeders are currently unable to observe the Qatar Racing stallions in person due to COVID-19 restrictions. The parade, featuring stallions Kameko (Kitten’s Joy, £25,000), Havana Gold (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}, £7,500), and Lightning Spear (GB) (Pivotal {GB}, £5,000), is hosted by ITV Racing presenter Francesca Cumani. There is also a segment on Zoustar (Aus) (Northern Meteor {Aus}, £25,000), but he has not returned from Australia yet to cover his third book of Northern Hemisphere mares. Cumani speaks with Tweenhills owner/manager David Redvers, Tweenhills Bloodstock Manager Hannah Wall, and other members of the Tweenhills staff to learn more about their stallions, from record-breaking G1 2000 Guineas hero Kameko, to former UK champion first-season sire Havana Gold, to durable Group 1 runner Lightning Spear and reverse-shuttling sensation Zoustar. Barring Zoustar, the remainder of the stallions will be paraded for breeders at Longholes Stud in Newmarket during the Tattersalls December Sales from Nov. 28 to Dec. 2.

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From the Experts: Joseph Burke

On the back of the eagerly anticipated stallion fee announcements in Europe, Gary King spoke with a number of leading industry figures about value. Today we hear from Joseph Burke.

GK: Who have you identified as a first-year stallion at an appealing opening fee?

JB: I must admit that whilst I have not inspected any of the first-season sires yet, on paper I expected Earthlight (Ire) (Shamardal) to be standing for a little more than €20,000. So I booked one of our better mares to him, a Group 3-winning 2-year-old currently carrying her second foal to Night Of Thunder (Ire), as soon as I read about his fee via a TDN alert whilst in Lexington. For a horse who finished his career rated just two pounds behind another leading 2-year-old and freshman son of Shamardal in Pinatubo (Ire), it would appear the value lies with Earthlight given that Pinatubo has been pitched at £35,000.

Kameko (Kitten’s Joy) is also very competitively priced at £25,000 and I would definitely be using him were it not for the uncertainty surrounding Brexit. Breeding is difficult enough without all the hassle Brexit could potentially entail next season, something the chair of Britain’s Thoroughbred Industries Steering Group confirmed when he advised members “not to schedule movements for the first two weeks of 2021.” Nevertheless, Kameko has to rate a very attractive prospect for breeders with mares based in England.

In the U.S. we have booked two mares to Game Winner (Candy Ride {Arg}) whom I think is comfortably the best value first-season sire over there for 2021, priced at $30,000.

GK: Best value proven stallion, and why?

JB: To me this is a no-brainer. In the breeding game, the evidence is often there in black and white for anybody willing to do their own independent research and place a lot of stock in statistics. That said, a mere glance is all that’s needed at the second-crop sire’s results for 2020 illustrates that Make Believe (GB) (Makfi {GB}) is the only stallion to have sired a Group 1 winner in Mishriff (Ire), and not just any ordinary top level winner but a Classic winner who has inherited his sire’s turn of foot. Mishriff is the shortest price of any English-trained horse to take next year’s Arc, a trip he might possibly get as a 4-year-old.

Make Believe has also sired three individual group winners including the multiple Group 3 winner Rose Of Kildare (Ire). He’s a correct horse whom you can rely upon to throw a good physical. Oghill House Stud sold the full-brother to Rose Of Kildare for 175,000gns at Book 2 this year, and he is priced at €15,000.

From a commercial perspective, it is essential to go to stallions who don’t cover huge books and with that in mind, Ballylinch manages him very well which gives breeders a better opportunity to earn a decent return in the sales ring. In fact, when you look at the overall sire list, of those with more than three winners in 2020, no other living stallion in GB or Ireland has a higher percentage of winners-to-runners this year, not a single one. He has a pretty outstanding 47% strike rate with 28 winners from 59 runners. In his short career thus far, he is outperforming his contemporaries on every level and most of the established sires as well. As the clock at the old Curragh racecourse famously stated ‘Time discloses all’, but I don’t think one requires hindsight to see that Make Believe is the best-value proven sire who is only going one way.

In the U.S., Twirling Candy (Candy Ride {Arg}) at $40,000 and Munnings (Speightstown) at $50,000 appeal in this category.

GK: Who would you consider to be an under the radar stallion?

JB: Elzaam (Aus) (Redoute’s Choice {Aus}) has an overall strike rate of 42% winners-to-runners and has sired 12 stakes horses including the G1 Matron S. winner on Irish Champions Weekend, as well as the runner-up in the Hong Kong Derby. Yet Elzaam is available at just €5,000 for 2021. I think that is surely the definition of under the radar.

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Gran Alegria Imperious in Mile Championship

Although she left it until late, Gran Alegria (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) displayed a scintillating turn of foot once she found running room to rush by her rivals and claim the G1 Mile Championship at Hanshin on Sunday. It was the fourth Group 1 win for the daughter of Breeders’ Cup heroine Tapitsfly and she is the eighth horse-after the runner-up Indy Champ (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn})–to claim both mile events in Japan having earlier scored in the G1 Yasuda Kinen.

The first filly or mare to claim the Mile Championship since Blumenblatt (Jpn) (Admire Vega {Jpn}) in 2008 and the third horse to double up in the G1 Sprinters S./Mile Championship following Durandal (Jpn) (Sunday Silence) in 2003, the 3-5 chalk settled in between horses in fifth as Resistencia (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}) set the pace, covering the first quarter in :23.50 while shadowed by Lauda Sion (Jpn) (Real Impact {Jpn}).

Unhurried with 600 metres to travel, the bay was poised to pounce, but Gran Alegria’s rally was stymied, as a gap closed in front of her inside the final quarter mile. Christophe Lemaire prepared to send his charge through another hole, but her path forward was once again blocked, this time by the strong-closing Indy Champ who surged up to lead inside the final 100 metres. Undeterred, Lemaire steered his charge to the outside of Indy Champ and she burst past last year’s winner in a matter of strides to win by a deceptive three-quarter lengths as much the best. Admire Mars (Jpn) (Daiwa Major {Jpn}), who had stalked the pace throughout, hung on for third a neck in front of Scarlet Color (Jpn) (Victoire Pisa {Jpn}).

“She had a good break so we were able to sit in a good position,” said Lemaire. “She’s matured and a lot easier to ride now being a 4-year-old so she was relaxed and we had a good trip until the last turn where, as a favorite you’re marked and it so happens, but we weren’t able to make our move to the outside smoothly for the stretch run. I was a little worried but the way she exploded into gear in the last 150 meters, it just shows how powerful she is and I’m looking forward to a great season from her as a 5-year-old.”

A winner of the G3 Saudi Arabia Royal Cup and third in the G1 Asahi Hai Futurity S. in December of 2018, Gran Alegria captured the 2019 G1 Japanese 1000 Guineas first up that April and added the G2 Hanshin Cup two starts later last December. Promoted to second in the 1200-metre G1 Takamatsunomiya Kinen resuming this March, the 4-year-old saluted in the one-mile G1 Yasuda Kinen on June 7 and added the Oct. 4 G1 Sprinters S. cutting back to 1200 metres.

Pedigree Notes

One of 47 Group 1 winners for her late supersire, Gran Alegria also has the second highest tally of top-level victories of Deep Impact progeny with four. Only Gentildonna (Jpn), with seven, was more successful. The 4-year-old filly is also the fourth Mile Championship scorer for Deep Impact following Danon Shark (Jpn), Tosen Ra (Jpn) and Mikki Isle (Jpn). To date, the former Shadai Stallion Station supremo has sired 165 black-type winners 132 of them at the group level. In addition to Gran Alegria, he is also responsible for Japanese listed winner and group-placed Arusha (Jpn), who is also out of a Tapit mare.

A winner of the then-Listed Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf in 2009, the late Tapitsfly progressed to take the GI Just a Game S. and GI First lady S. as a 5-year-old. Knocked down to Katsumi Yoshida for $1.85 million at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton November Sale, Tapitsfly’s first foal is Gran Alegria after a barren year in 2015. She also has a 3-year-old full-brother to the Mile Championship winner named Blutgang (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), who sports a victory in one start.

Tapit’s daughters have produced four Grade/Group 1 winners so far among 40 black-type winners, and the Gainesway sire was in the spotlight earlier this weekend with Finite (Munnings)’s win in the GIII Chilukki S. at Churchill Downs.

Sunday, Hanshin, Japan
MILE CHAMPIONSHIP-G1, ¥253,100,000 (US$2,436,714/£1,835,394/€2,055,149), Hanshin, 11-22, 3yo/up, 1600mT, 1:32.00, fm.
1–GRAN ALEGRIA (JPN), 121, f, 4, by Deep Impact (Jpn)
                1st Dam: Tapitsfly (MGISW-US, $1,495,503), by Tapit
                2nd Dam: Flying Marlin, by Marlin
                3rd Dam: Morning Dove, by Fortunate Prospect
O-Sunday Racing; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); T-Kazuo Fujisawa;
J-Kenichi Ikezoe. ¥133,570,000. Lifetime Record: Ch. 3yo
Filly-Jpn, 10-7-1-1. Werk Nick Rating: A+++. *Triple Plus*.
   Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree.
2–Indy Champ (Jpn), 126, h, 5, Stay Gold (Jpn)–Will Power
(Jpn), by King Kamehameha (Jpn). O-Silk Racing; B-Northern
Farm (Jpn); ¥53,020,000.
3–Admire Mars (Jpn), 126, c, 4, Daiwa Major (Jpn)–Via Medici
(Ire), by Medicean (GB). (¥52,000,000 Ylg ’17 JRHAJUL).
O-Junko Kondo; B-Northern Farm (Jpn); ¥33,510,000.
Margins: 3/4, NK, 1. Odds: 0.60, 7.80, 10.10.
Also Ran: Scarlet Color (Jpn), Salios (Jpn), Vin de Garde (Jpn), Persian Knight(Jpn), Resistencia (Jpn), Besten Dank (Jpn), Soind Chiara (Jpn), Meikei Die Hard (Jpn), A Will a Way (Jpn). Keiai Nautique (Jpn), Taisei Vision (Jpn), Lauda Shion (Jpn), Black Moon (Jpn), Katsuji (Jpn).
Click for the JRA chart & video or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.

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