One day last week Bloom addressed the Gimcrack dinner as an owner of Lake Forest, the Gimcrack Stakes winner. A couple of nights later, Brighton finished top of their Europa League group to cruise through to the last 16 in their first ever European campaign.

To Bloom, owning and breeding horses is no mere hobby. At York he signalled his intent to play for big stakes on the Flat (over jumps he owns the two-time 2m champion chaser Energumene). This may turn out to be just another mathematical challenge for Bloom's restless mind. If he can beat the plutocrats of English football, why not try the same formula against Coolmore and Godolphin? You can bet your stud farm those giants will be watching him.

But how might the sport itself benefit from a large injection of street smarts? Racing folk tend to disdain external Messiahs. Bloom though isn't an outsider. He has strong form in racing and especially betting, where he made his fortune. It's tempting to wonder how a football club owner who has outflanked nation states, oligarchs and private equity hotshots would fare in a poker game with racing's warring stakeholders.

The crucial point about him is that he took Brighton from the verge of extinction 26 years ago to the top six in the Premier League by drawing on his world-class poker decision-making skills – and the best data processing model in British football. Bloom buys low and sells high, always replenishing the squad with young talent picked out around the world by algorithms built by Starlizard, an analytics firm whose work wipes the floor with the research carried out by other clubs.

Bloom loves racing almost as much as he loves the Seagulls, as Brighton are known. His Gimcrack speech will have excited breeders and trainers. Bloom owns Lake Forest with Starlizard's head of football, Ian McAleavy. Radars buzzed at Tattersalls a fortnight ago when Get Ahead, a half-sister to the 2,000 Guineas winner Chaldean, was sold to First Bloodstock for 2,500,000 gns. First Bloodstock is registered in Brighton in McAleavy's name.

The questions multiply. What if Bloom and McAleavy develop a data model for racing as good as their football prototype? Are there gaps in the knowledge of trainers and breeders begging to be filled by revolutionary algorithms? I can hear breeders crying out indignantly. Do these football folk think there is a clue unreached by centuries of evidence sifting and trial and error?

Fair question. But then it's also worth reminding sceptics that Bloom is so far ahead of the game in football that he sold one player (Moises Caicedo) to Chelsea for more than the original cost of Brighton's handsome 30,000-seat Amex Stadium. Caicedo cost £4.5m and went two and half years later for £115m.

[Bloom's] opinion carries the weight of one whose
work in football is envied across the world

To Bloom business is never just a game. He told his audience in York that he and McAleavy were determined to pursue “more successes on the flat in the near future. That will mean investing in more horses, expanding our stable and, through that, in our own way, making a bigger contribution to UK racing.”

Lots of clever people have theories about how racing can attract new disciples. At York, Bloom backed Premiersation, under which, he argued, “a shorter, more impactful fixture list, will be much easier for new, lesser-committed racing followers to keep pace with.”

His call for a two-week closed season in a 12-month cycle of relentless betting shop fodder with the aim of “focusing attention and building anticipation” for a new campaign will struggle to get past bookmakers and the collectors of racing's meagre levy. But his opinion carries the weight of one whose work in football is envied across the world. “As the saying goes, sometimes less is more,” he said. “And I believe that a few tweaks to schedules here and there, and a small reduction in the sheer volume of racing, will bring more and greater benefits to the sport as a whole in the UK.”

So: less racing, more emphasis on the big events, a break between seasons and good relations with the bookmaking industry. These were the tips from a racehorse owner whose club was playing in the lower leagues at a converted municipal running track when he took over. 

If racing isn't in the market for creative thinking from 'outside' the sport then it really ought to be. Bloom has made himself pivotal to the growth of the English Premier League as the world's favourite football division while rewriting the rules about how players are scouted, bought and sold. We wait to see whether he can repeat that trick with bloodstock (he has made a decent start).

Mick Channon spoke recently about how many rich owners enter racing expecting success on the scale they achieved in business, only to leave with reduced wealth and a thousand-yard stare. A talent for one trade isn't necessarily transferable to every other. Bloom won't be making many mistakes. At a recent club function, I practically begged him to buy Brighton racecourse to save it from stagnation. He didn't sound keen. 

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Rapid from the gates, rapid throughout the first three furlongs and ruthlessly determined for the final two, the kingpin of Adam West's small Epsom base strained every nerve and sinew to lift the little-known Sean Kirrane to a momentous triumph. A length behind was last year's heroine Highfield Princess (Ire) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}), with another 3/4 of a length back to fellow headline-maker TDN Rising Star Bradsell (GB) (Tasleet {GB}) in third as the big guns wilted in his wake.

“I never thought it was possible to win. We were laughing about there being six places and how his odds were so skinny,” West said of the 28-1 winner, who now has his ticket to Santa Anita having mastered this “Win and You're In” contest. “I think we'll go to the Breeders' Cup, as I think he's 10 pounds better on a turning track. That's a big statement, but I do. He can get a breather round a bend, whereas on these straight courses he usually can't but he just nicked enough today.”

“We were going to take him for a race at Del Mar but we costed it, we're not a big yard and it was too expensive to go. Trying to make ends meet to try to get that money together and both get him over there and get him back is just all taken care of and it's some rollercoaster.”

Starting his ascent in the ratings with a brace of handicap wins last spring, Live In The Dream managed a second in Sandown's Listed Scurry S. on his black-type bow last June but was on the shelf come August with no sign that he would ultimately be able to mix it at this level. Despite that, the extremities of the sprinting and staying divisions still remain open to the possibility of these rare David and Goliath moments and this was another to add to a small yet precious collection.

In each start during this transformative season, he had carried Kirrane who had a three-pound claim for the gelding's two wins at Lingfield and Pontefract in March and April and it has proven a partnership made in heaven. Wearing his heart on his sleeve every time, the chestnut who was a bargain £24,000 buy at the 2020 Goffs Sportsman's Sale was worn down late by Vadream (GB) (Brazen Beau {Aus}) in Newmarket's G3 Palace House S., by Dramatised (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}) and Wednesday's handicap winner Equilateral (GB) (Equiano {Fr}) in Haydock's G2 Temple S. and when fourth in the Listed Prix du Cercle at Deauville in August.

This time, the pace-favouring flat track at York and the good-to-firm ground presented the ideal scenario for his unflinching style of racing and by the time he had put in second and third-furlong splits of :10.21 and :10.46 he had already dragged most into an outright brawl. From there, it was merely a case of how tired he would finish off but his closing effort was comfortably enough to see it out and give York's revered Ebor Festival one of it's most heartwarming stories in recent times.

“It's a surreal feeling and it hasn't really sunk in yet, it just feels like winning another race at the moment,” the 22-year-old Kirrane said. “The feeling in the last 60 yards when I could hear the cracks of the whips behind me but I knew I wasn't going to get caught was like nothing I've ever felt before. A massive amount of credit goes to the horse, he's really stepped up this year and it's been an incredible journey for all of us.”

“Adam has produced this horse brilliantly in top form today,” he added. “He needed the run out in France last time in a listed race, as he'd had a month off. It brought him forward perfectly. Every time you go out on him you quietly fancy him, as he is so effective over a fast five and York can play into the hands of front runners on this ground. We make lengths out of the gate and ride him aggressively, but he has a turn of foot as well. We try to take them off their feet in the closing stages, but today I was able to keep him on the bridle longer than I ever have as nothing ever came to me at the furlong pole. When I took him off it he found another gear again.”

For West, the outcome represents a major turning point for his 45-strong stable which like so many others of its size is struggling with the financial climate at present. “I never thought anything like this would happen,” he said. “For seven years I've been training and we've had him from a yearling and the journey has been incredible. It's a really tough game at the moment and you look at how things are and you think 'is this a future?' and then you get something like this and it changes everything.

“Epsom is the perfect mix of town and country for me, I can be out with my ferrets in 20 minutes one way and out in town with my owners 20 minutes the other. The owners in that tight-knit community have been fantastic. All this week and the last six months Epsom has been quoted saying it needs a Group 1 winner and they have just had one. The BHA do their best to govern and mind us as trainers, but realistically unless you are on the top, top scale, training is not a viable option. But money is not why any of us do it, we do it because we love the animals and we love the whole sport.”

John Quinn said of the 7-5 favourite Highfield Princess, who put in her customary honest effort, “The winner got away and well done to them,” he said. “She's run a fantastic race and she's a horse of two lifetimes. As long as she's alright we'll go to the Curragh [for the G1 Flying Five], that's the plan.”

Archie Watson said of Bradsell, “Probably the draw has worked against us, because the winner has blazed a trail and stuck on really well and that has probably favoured Highfield Princess in our battle for second. He's run a huge race and I would imagine he'll go to the Flying Five, [that] will be next. The Abbaye would probably be my less-favoured race, I would prefer to go Ireland and then America, but we'll see.”

Pedigree Notes

Live In The Dream's unraced dam Approaching Autumn, who is also responsible for the Listed Scarbrough S. runner-up Live In The Moment (Ire) (Zebedee {GB}), is a daughter of the Listed Pinnacle S.-winning middle-distance performer Autumn Wealth (Ire) (Cadeaux Genereux {GB}). A descendant of the GI E. P. Taylor S. and G2 Sun Chariot S. winner Braiswick (GB) (King Of Spain {GB}), she has an unraced 2-year-old colt by Proconsul (GB), a yearling filly by Elzaam (Aus) who was a €27,000 purchase by Sam Hoskins at the Goffs November Foal Sale, and a filly foal by James Garfield (Ire). Joe Foley's Ballyhane Stud acquired Approaching Autumn for 35,000gns out of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in 2022.

Friday, York, Britain
COOLMORE WOOTTON BASSETT NUNTHORPE S.-G1, £533,750, York, 8-25, 2yo/up, 5fT, 0:56.87, g/f.
1–LIVE IN THE DREAM (IRE), 139, g, 4, by Prince Of Lir (Ire)
         1st Dam: Approaching Autumn (GB), by New Approach (Ire)
         2nd Dam: Autumn Wealth (Ire), by Cadeaux Genereux (GB)
         3rd Dam: Prickwillow, by Nureyev
   1ST BLACK-TYPE WIN, 1ST GROUP WIN, 1ST GROUP 1 WIN.
(€4,000 Ylg '20 GOFFEB; £24,000 Ylg '20 GOFSPT). O-Steve &
Jolene de'Lemos; B-Lorna Doyle (IRE); T-Adam West; J-Sean
Kirrane. £302,690. Lifetime Record: 18-6-2-2, $538,881. Werk
   Nick Rating: A. Click for the eNicks report & 5-cross pedigree,
   or the free Equineline.com catalogue-style pedigree.
2–Highfield Princess (Fr), 136, m, 6, Night Of Thunder (Ire)–
Pure Illusion (Ire), by Danehill. (29,000gns RNA Ylg '18
TATDEY). O/B-Trainers House Enterprises Ltd (FR); T-John
Quinn. £114,756.
3–Bradsell (GB), 137, c, 3, Tasleet (GB)–Russian Punch (GB), by
Archipenko. TDN Rising Star. (12,000gns Ylg '21 TATSOM;
£47,000 2yo '22 GOFTY). O-Victorious Racing; B-Mrs D O'Brien
(GB); T-Archie Watson. £57,432.
Margins: 1, 3/4, HF. Odds: 28.00, 1.40, 4.50.
Also Ran: Makarova (GB), Regional (GB), Equality (GB), Khaadem (Ire), Get Ahead (GB), Nymphadora (GB), Twilight Calls (GB), Queen Me (Ire), Ladies Church (GB), Dramatised (Ire), Big Evs (Ire), Tees Spirit (GB), Aesop's Fables (Ire). VIDEO.

BOMBSHELL in the Nunthorpe

28/1 outsider Live In The Dream takes down the big guns with a stunning pillar to post success in the Group 1 @coolmorestud Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes.

What a day for Adam West and @sb_kirrane

Remarkable scenes on the Knavesmire! pic.twitter.com/U7QyZtEYYE

— Racing TV (@RacingTV) August 25, 2023

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“[He] pulled up lame after breezing this morning; [he's] being assessed at [the] equine hospital, [his] career [is] in balance,” Raymond told racing broadcaster Nick Luck on Sunday.

A winner at first asking at two, the Sir Michael Stoute trainee swept the G2 Dante S. over the Knavesmire last May and won the Derby by 2 1/2 lengths that June. An ankle injury kept the son of Desert Berry (GB) (Green Desert) away from the races for almost a year until his second-place finish in the G3 Brigadier Gerard S. at Sandown on May 25. He was similarly on course for Royal Ascot but sustained a setback. After recovering, the G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth S. was his next target, but Desert Crown contracted a leg infection which ruled him out of that Ascot showpiece.

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“We didn't confirm him today for York,” said Tom Pennington, racing manager for owners, Amo Racing. “I know when you look at the prize-money and think it could be quite a small field, you might get a bit carried away, but we are going back to what was always Plan A and go to Ireland.

“We've been patient with him all the way along and I don't think another couple of weeks is going to do us any harm. He's in good form and he's on the right track, we're very happy with him.

“When you look at his size, touch wood, he should be even better again next year and we're playing the long game with him.”

The G2 King Edward VII S. hero, who is trained by Roger Varian, was due to face four-time Group 1 winner Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}), G1 Prince Of Wales's S. hero Mostahdaf (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), and 2022 G1 Derby victor Desert Crown (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) among others in the York showpiece.

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“Desert Crown worked this morning, he worked nicely and everybody was happy with him,” said Bruce Raymond, racing manager to owner Saeed Suhail. “He's not a great worker, as has been stated before, but everyone was very happy with him this morning and everything went as well as expected.”

The Sir Michael Stoute trainee was due to run in the G1 King George VI And Queen Elizabeth S. at Ascot, but was forced to miss the race due to a leg infection. Missing since last year's King George with an ankle injury, the 4-year-old finished second to subsequent King George hero Hukum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the G3 Brigadier Gerard S. on May 25.

Added Raymond of the work, “William [Buick] didn't ride him. Ryan Moore rode him this morning. He's ridden him a lot of times at home and Sir Michael just sometimes likes a different opinion.

“One thing I can definitely tell you is this horse needed it badly at Sandown, it wasn't said at the time but Michael was quite surprised how much he was blowing afterwards. He had worked on the grass but nowhere near as much as we would have liked as it kept on pouring down.

“We're looking forward to next week. He's got to go somewhere and when you are in his class, there are only certain races you can run in.”

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Dettori is deputising for regular jockey Jim Crowley, who will be sidelined while suspended for his winning ride aboard Hukum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) in the G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S. on July 29.

“I rode him the other morning and he is a beautiful specimen of a horse,” Dettori said of Mostahdaf. “He's strong and has got a lovely stride. He doesn't overdo himself in the mornings, but we know exactly what he can do and I'm excited. What he did in the [June 21] Prince of Wales's, I was pretty taken, so he's going to be there with every chance.”

And while confident in the John and Thady Gosden-trained 5-year-old, the veteran reinsman indicated his utmost respect Ballydole's stable star, who is riding a six-race win skein into the 1 5/16-mile event.

“He's a good horse,” Dettori said. “The [Aug. 2] Sussex was a non-event, but Paddington is still–he put Chaldean to bed in the [June 20] St James's Palace, when I was second, in good style and he beat Emily [Upjohn] (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), so he is the best 3-year-old around at the moment.

“But I think this is his test now, he's taking on a four-length winner of the Prince of Wales's. It's going to be a different race to what he's faced (before), but I have no doubt he is a good horse because it looks like he only does what he has to do and he looks like he's still got something in the locker.

“We will give him a race and see what happens.”

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“John put Frankie on him this morning and said 'I think Frankie's the man', so he will ride him at York,” Gold said. “He had a sit on him this morning and seemed very happy with the horse. We'll try and keep him in one piece and then they'll both be reunited at York.”

Though Dettori has not regularly ridden for the late Sheikh Hamdan Al Maktoum's Shadwell recently, he has worn the distinctive blue and white silks to victory on the international stage a number of times. Dettori is set to hang up his tack at the end of this year.

“He obviously won on Sakhee (Bahri) back in the day and more recently I remember him winning the [G3] Greenham at Newbury on Muhaarar (GB) (Oasis Dream [GB]) [in 2015],” Gold said. “He's ridden plenty for us over the years and it will be very nice to hopefully give him a decent ride in his final year.”

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A listed winner last October, the 4-year-old claimed the Listed Ellen Chaloner S. at Newmarket at the beginning of May before her group heroics. She was sixth in the G1 July Cup S. at Newmarket, but is reportedly doing well.

“At the moment we're thinking of going to York and the Nunthorpe,” said Dods, who has won the Knavesmire feature three times with Mecca's Angel (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) in 2015/2016 and Mabs Cross (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) in 2018.

“We're pulling her back a furlong and it will be very competitive if the 2-year-olds come in and also Highfield Princess was so impressive at Goodwood.

“We had had a run and Highfield had not when we met before and she's obviously come on a lot from then. But it is the obvious race and at the moment the plan is to go there.”

The five-furlong Group 1 is new territory for the filly, who has raced at six furlongs or farther in every other start to date.

“We're travelling into the unknown,” Dods acknowledged. “They will go a hard gallop and hopefully she will be fine. We're looking forward to it and at the minute it is all systems go.”

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Trained by Ralph Beckett, the daughter of 2011 G1 Matron S. heroine Emulous (GB) (Dansili {GB}) has never been off the board in four starts. After breaking her maiden at Salisbury in September, she ran second in a listed at Newbury behind Warm Heart (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) making her 3-year-old bow, and was third behind that filly in the G2 Ribblesdale S. at Royal Ascot in June.

Mahon said, “Whilst we thought the world of her, her form before the Irish Oaks wouldn't have suggested she was going to put in a run like that, but we sort of always felt she had that in her.

“We'll look towards York for her. It will more than likely be the Yorkshire Oaks, but because she hasn't won yet this year she has the option of the race we won with Haskoy (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}) last year [Listed Galtres S.].”

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All yearlings sold through the auction will be eligible for the Harry's Half Million, currently known as the Goffs Harry Beeby Premier Yearling S. and re-branded for 2024 in honour of Goffs UK's late Chairman Harry Beeby. Next year's race will still be held at York with a guaranteed prize fund of £500,000.

“The 2023 Premier Sale catalogue remains true to the central pillars of the sale's long enduring philosophy,” Goffs UK Managing Director Tim Kent said. “Buyers already know what they are going to be presented with when they arrive at Doncaster in August–a complex full of precocious, athletic yearlings.To put it another way–a complex full of the famous Donny Rockets.”

Some of the more notable offerings for the sale include a Showcasing (GB) half-sister to the G2 winner Without A Fight (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) out of the G3 winner Khor Sheed (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), selling as lot 5; a Siyouni colt out of the G1-placed mare Lady Darshaan (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) and a half-brother to the Listed winners Beholding (GB) (Le Havre {Ire}) and Let's Go (Street Cry {Ire}) catalogued as lot 11; a Wootton Bassett (GB) half-brother to the G2 winner Trillium (GB) (No Nay Never) (lot 48); and a Kingman (GB) filly (lot 123) out of the G3 winner mare Queen of Bermuda (Ire) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}). Other standouts include lot 234, a Sea The Stars (Ire) colt out of a Frankel (GB) half-sister to the G2 winners Spirit Quartz (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), Caspian Prince (Ire) (Dylan Thomas {Ire}) and Tuscan Gaze (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}); and lot 433, a No Nay Never colt out of an Invincible Spirit (Ire) half-sister to the G1 winner Lillie Langtry (Ire) (Danehill Dancer {Ire}), the dam of G1 winners Minding (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Tuesday (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).

“We continue to invest in this sale and its bright future and earlier this year we announced that we are rebranding the sale's long enduring race at York and significantly increasing the guaranteed prize fund,” Kent continued. “For next year's race, for which all yearlings sold this year are eligible to enter, all runners will be racing for their share of £500,000 in the re-branded Harry's Half Million by Goffs.

“When the race was launched over 20 years ago it was Europe's richest 2-year-old race and since then it has been won by some outstanding horses; Acclamation, Dark Angel, Tasleet and Wootton Bassett to name but a few, and increasing the prize fund to £500,000 demonstrates our commitment to the race and the Premier Sale.”

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