Carmichael's Intellogent Approach To Racing

If Fiona Carmichael had her own stallion operation she'd have quite a roster by now. The Jersey-based owner has only been involved in racing since 2011 but she has already raced, through various partnerships, the Group winners Toronado (Ire), Havana Gold (Ire) and Ivawood (Ire), all of whom are now in the nascent stages of their stud careers.

All three of those Richard Hannon-trained colts ran in Classics. Toronado and Havana Gold had already been sold on to their respective Qatari owners by that stage and went on to win Group 1 contests later in the season, but Ivawood fared best of the trio in that early test of 3-year-old prowess when finishing third in both the English and Irish 2,000 Guineas.

Tomorrow, Carmichael is represented by another colt who will certainly be in demand for a stallion career if all goes to plan in the G1 Prix du Jockey Club for Intellogent (Fr). The first-crop son of Intello (Ger) is trained by Fabrice Chappet, who handles the owner's French-based horses, while Hugo Palmer, William Haggas and Jane Chapple-Hyam are employed in Britain, Jessica Harrington in Ireland and Brett Crawford in South Africa.

Such extensive international racing interests have come about from a chance conversation on a riding holiday, as Carmichael explains. “I was in Spain with some girlfriends and one of their husbands had a racehorse so I came home and said to my late husband, 'Do you fancy a racehorse?', and he said, 'No'. So that was it really.”

During a meeting with her financial adviser Douglas Pryde—the co-owner of 2013 Grand National winner Auroras Encore (Ire)—after the death of her husband, the subject of racing was raised again when Pryde asked permission to use her husband's nickname Mark Carmers for a colt he owned by Mark Of Esteem (Ire).

“My daughter and I went over to Deauville to watch him race but in the end he didn't run and I ended up being invited to the sales by the husband of my friend from the riding holiday,” says Carmichael. “I went along for the morning and by lunchtime I'd asked if I could take a leg in the horse they were buying.”

That morning was also the first time she met her bloodstock agent and racing manager Amanda Skiffington, who has been instrumental in the success Carmichael has enjoyed. The initial partnership between Carmichael, Roger Simmons and Chris Humber didn't celebrate instant triumph but it wasn't long in coming, and when it did, it was notable. Shaken but undeterred by her first horse fracturing a pastern on course at Windsor after she and her daughter had taken a helicopter from the Glastonbury festival to watch him run, Carmichael had clearly been sufficiently bitten by the bug to pursue her burgeoning interest in the turf.

“Amanda thought we wouldn't get back into it again as it was a bit of a shock,” she says. “But we did regroup and we got Rockinante (Fr), who won a listed race in Deauville and then we took him to Italy for the Guineas which was quite exciting. Then the next year we had Havana Gold and Toronado and I've never looked back.”

With competition now fierce for stallion prospects from the early stages of their racing careers, both Havana Gold and Toronado were the subject of lucrative offers after becoming Group-winning juveniles for Carmichael and Humber, and they completed their racing days for other people. It's not a situation Carmichael is keen to replicate, despite having had plenty of interest in her G3 Prix de Guiche winner Intellogent, bought by Skiffington for €320,000 at the Arqana August Yearling Sale.

She says, “My love is the racing first but I do follow their stallion careers. I bought an Ivawood foal and I've been trying to get a Havana Gold and a Toronado but we haven't quite found the right one yet. Amanda has strict rules when it comes to buying and I guess that's why she's so successful. It can be frustrating when you set your heart on a horse and she turns around and says, 'That's it Fiona, we're walking away'. We all have dreams to win the Derby or the 2,000 Guineas and that's really one of the questions I ask when we're buying a horse—what race is he going to win?”

She continues, “Intellogent had such presence when we saw him at the sales. To be going to the Prix du Jockey Club with him is what dreams are made of. We've had a few attempts at the 2,000 Guineas before but never a chance at something like this. That's why I go on my own now, after what happened with Toronado. I wanted to keep him and I couldn't but it's a learning curve so I race on my own now. My dream is to win one of these big races, that's why I do it.”

Intellogent passed the strict test imposed by Skiffington with flying colours. The agent, who buys six horses each year for Carmichael, says, “He was a stand-out individual. I never worry about first-crop sires because sometimes people have a limit on first-crop sires. I know I can't buy a really beautiful Galileo so I just buy the best Individual that I can.

“Fiona is fantastic to work with as she just loves her racing and is so enthusiastic. After I've seen everything in a sale, she likes me to compile a short-list of ten—never more—and we go off and see them together. She likes to be involved but equally she's wonderful because if I go off a horse late on, which I can do, she's fine and we'll walk away. She absolutely fell in love with Ivawood as a yearling and last year for the first time I bought her a foal, an Ivawood colt who was the image of his father.”

The most significant single outlay on a youngster was the €1.1 million paid for Signe (Ire), a Sea The Stars (Ire) half-sister to Group 1 winners Lord Shanakill (Speightstown), Together Forever (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and yesterday's Oaks winner Forever Together (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), at the Goffs Orby Sale of 2014. The filly made a belated debut at four but won her first three starts and is now one of two broodmares owned by Carmichael, who boards Signe where she was born, at Ballylinch Stud.

“It hadn't been my intention to go down that route but it's very interesting and I'm learning about it,” says Carmichael of her fledgling breeding operation.

“I have two broodmares now. I used to have a yacht and my accountant kept saying I had to sell it because I was never using it as I didn't know whether I was going to be at the races or not. So when I sold it I happened to be at the sales and I asked Amanda to buy me the best pedigree I could afford, so we bought Signe.”

Now five, Signe is carrying her first foal by Siyouni (Fr) but Carmichael will have plenty to engage her interest until the mare's offspring start racing, not least a Classic date on Sunday.

“I'm suddenly having to get my act together. It's very exciting. When you get in at the beginning you've no idea what racing is all about really, so to have Toronado and Havana Gold, bang, bang, like that was incredible. I thought it was quite normal,” she says with a laugh. “I've only had horses with Fabrice this year but I've been over to see him a few times and it's a beautiful set-up. He's doing a great job.”

In fact, Chappet has done such a great job in recent seasons that Intellogent will be one of three runners he has to saddle for the Prix du Jockey Club. And if that particular colt's owner's run of luck since starting in racing is anything to go by, Carmichael shouldn't have to wait too long to cheer home a Classic winner in her own colours. Perhaps only until tomorrow.