1) Horse you are most looking forward to seeing this season (and why)?
JB: Order Of St George (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). There was an element of 'Was that too good to be true?' about his win in the Irish St Leger; but if he really is as good as he looked that day (and has the resilience to keep reproducing the merit of that performance) then he has the potential to light up my favourite division of racing, the top races run at 12 furlongs and beyond.
2) A stallion who could feature prominently (doesn't have to be first season)?
JB: Youmzain (Ire) (Sinndar {Ire}). One of my bugbears is that the most admirable horses–.i.e those of proven soundness and resilience–are more or less written off as stallions from the outset. The collective preference seems to be for lightly-raced horses at stud, which is madness. Few European horses in recent years have demonstrated their toughness (and class) better than Youmzain, so I was delighted when he started to exceed general expectations last year, when he had a 3-year-old daughter, Yorkshire Oaks place-getter Sea Calisi (Fr), who nearly won a Group 1 race and a 2-year-old son, Suits You (Fr), who won at Royal Ascot. I hope that more good Youmzains emerge this season–including, fingers crossed, White Valiant (Fr), an unraced 3-year-old gelding whom I bred, own and train). I'm also looking forward to seeing the first 3-year-olds by Pour Moi (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}). He surely has to sire some nice middle-distance horses.
3) Positive change you would like to see for the industry in 2016?
JB: See above: I'd like to see a change in the general mind-set which prefers to use lightly-raced horses at stud and shuns horses who have been raced rigorously. It is not just that this madness cannot be good for the breed: the fact that it puts huge financial pressure on the owners of the best horses to retire them at the first rather than the last opportunity is very harmful to the health of racing. How can our sport appeal to a wider audience if the best horses are retired to stud so quickly and after so few races that they have little opportunity to become household names?
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