By Chris McGrath
As the most avowedly commercial of those stud managers to have contributed to an ongoing TDN series, detailing mating plans for some of Europe's top mares, Peter Stanley offers a valuable shift of perspective. For the routine ups and downs of breeding, raising and selling thoroughbreds are gaining an extra steepness, to the manager of New England Stud, from what he perceives as a giddy variation in stallion fees.
“We aren't all sheep,” Stanley stressed. “The trouble is that when we go to market we tend to find that the trainers and agents all want the same few stallions – and the nomination fees of those stallions, as a result, are becoming extremely expensive. It's a very unhealthy situation. It narrows the gene pool, for one thing, and obviously it also makes it hard for breeders to achieve any kind of significant return. People are just looking for fashionable crosses, designed for the marketplace, rather than trying to produce racehorses. There are plenty of stallions out there, with fair fees and a very respectable record of upgrading mares, who you fear to use because you know they're going to struggle in the market. It's a fairly ridiculous situation, really.”
Stanley juggles various pragmatic solutions at his family's Newmarket farm. Its mares tend to be owned in partnership, for instance, while foal-share schemes also help to prevent undue exposure in using stallions at unnerving fees. “That way, even if things don't work out, at least you have only wasted a year of a mare's life,” Stanley reasoned. “It can get very scary if you have to write off a huge nomination fee as well. With some mares, of course, you can only take a punt. I suppose the challenge is to identify a stallion on the way up, who has proven himself at a level without being given maximum opportunity.”
Tamayuz (GB) (Nayef), Camacho (GB) (Danehill) and Champs Elysees (GB) (Danehill) are among those he can envisage breaking through in this way, while he applauds Shadwell for pitching the initial fees of Mukhadram (GB) (Shamardal) and now Muhaarar (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) at a realistic level. “Both very good-looking horses by very good stallions, and both well priced,” he said. “I believe Muhaarar has been inundated as a result, so I'm extremely pleased that we've been able to get access to him for one of our good mares.”
The lady in question is All For Laura (GB) (Cadeaux Genereux {GB}), previously dam of the Group 2 winner Misheer (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). She is scheduled to visit the Nunnery Stud rookie after delivering a foal to New Approach (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), due later this month–itself, in turn, a reflection of Stanley's regard for the 2008 Derby winner.
Sure enough, two of the younger mares on the stud–Da'Quonde (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) and Illandrane (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire})–are on their way to New Approach this spring. “I'm a big fan,” Stanley confirmed. “He's gone a little quiet, but I refuse to believe that any horse can have a first crop like that and not bounce back. And at least it has brought his fee down a little.”
The New Approach foal she is carrying was only one of many things about Padmini (GB) (Tiger Hill {Ire}) that made her seem a rare bargain at 65,000 guineas at Tattersalls a few weeks ago. Winner of her one and only start for Godolphin, she is a daughter of the top-class Petrushka (Ire) (Unfuwain).
“She's had a bit of misfortune, with only one foal on the ground so far, and Petrushka has largely been disappointing as a broodmare,” Stanley acknowledged. “But sometimes it's the daughters of these champion racemares that end up keeping the line going–and Petrushka does have a very good family behind her. The bottom line is that we've bought a very good-looking mare carrying a New Approach foal for less than the sire's fee [at the time]. As you can imagine, people have been falling over each other to get involved.”
Another new recruit is Stirring Ballad (GB) (Compton Place {GB}), a multiple winner for George Strawbridge acquired at the same sale, in foal to Lawman (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) for 230,000 guineas. “She's from a very good Oppenheimer family and the most beautiful model, physically, an absolute queen,” Stanley enthused. “She was just one of those you fall in love with the moment you see her. She could be a pretty exciting foundation mare, and as such we're going to be giving her every chance. It's hardly a commercial decision to go to Invincible Spirit (Ire) (Green Desert) at his current fee. But it's a mating that could make the mare, if she can throw a foal that walks like she does.”
Certainly Stanley believes that if ever it is worth soaking up a big nomination fee, it is with a young mare. “At least by giving them a chance with proven, top-class sires, you soon learn what you're dealing with,” he explained. On the same principle, Making Eyes (Ire) (Dansili {GB}) has produced a colt by Invincible Spirit and will next proceed, after delivering a foal by his son Kingman (GB), to Dark Angel (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}). “She's an exciting mare,” Stanley said. “A stakes winner by a very influential stallion, and her yearling is very nice.”
Among the more established mares at New England, Ruby Rocket (Ire) (Indian Rocket {GB}) is adapting the formula that produced her son, the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye winner Maarek (GB) (Pivotal {GB}). “She's in foal to Siyouni (Fr) (Pivotal {GB}) and will be going back to him,” Stanley reported. “He's an exciting young stallion, extremely good value in my book, who could become very interesting when his better mares come through. The chance of having a three-parts brother to a Group 1 winner made it a pretty obvious match.”
And then there is the venerable Wosaita (GB) (Generous {Ire}), who is now 21 years old but raised no less than 490,000 guineas inside two months at Tattersalls this autumn – more or less evenly divided between a yearling filly by Sepoy (Aus) (Elusive Quality) and a colt foal by Sea The Stars (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}). “That warmed the cockles of my heart,” Stanley said. “She's been a wonderful mare and, having sold her foal so well, the obvious thing was to send her back to Sea The Stars.”
Her Group 3-winning daughter Whazzis (GB) (Desert Prince {Ire}), incidentally, is in foal to Shamardal (Giant's Causeway) and next visits Zoffany (Ire) (Dansili {GB}). “His jump in fee is fairly dramatic but he does look as though he might just go all the way,” Stanley said.
“This mare has done us proud and she deserves us to throw the dice. She has had a couple of lovely foals by Dubawi (Ire) (Dubai Millennium {GB}) sold privately to Sheikh Mohammed: a colt, now three, who looks a useful prospect after winning his last two starts, and then a most gorgeous sister.”
Like all commercial breeders, Stanley must tread a high wire between affordability and marketability. It's a variation on the paradox that as many people complain about excessive stallion fees as about the over-production of foals. “I think over-production is a word that has to be used carefully,” Stanley said. “There is demand for nice horses, but the reality is that keeping a horse in training is so expensive that spending less on the initial investment can be a false economy. At the lower end, then, there just won't be the demand. I guess the market is a lot more professional than it used to be, and getting rid of lesser horses is increasingly difficult. If you breed a horse with a fault, or end up having backed an unfashionable stallion, you end up writing off pretty much the entire investment.”
Stanley's management portfolio also includes the Stanley House Stud of his brother, Lord Derby. Unfortunately, attempts to breed another sibling to Australia (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), the Derby winner produced by the great Ouija Board (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}), have proved frustrating.
“Sadly Ouija Board absorbed her pregnancy to Galileo at 40 days,” Stanley reported, in a melancholy sequel to the loss of her foal from her previous visit to the Coolmore champion. “But she'll be returning to him again, hopefully for a nice early cover, and we'd love to think she will produce another sister to Australia. Meanwhile we're delighted that Filia Regina (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) has been scanned carrying a filly by Dubawi. Filia Regina has already got a big, strapping Oasis Dream colt, but it's exciting to know that there's a filly on her way who will be able to take the family forward.”
Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up for the daily PDF or alerts.
