Breeding Bradsell: 'He has Undoubtedly Changed my Life'

The reputation of Yorkshire as the cradle of the Thoroughbred was reinforced through some of the key results of the Irish Champions Festival last weekend. Economics (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) provided a reminder of the importance of his birthplace, the Reed family's Copgrove Hall Stud, where his broodmare sire, the Arc winner Peintre Celebre, had grazed as a youngster. His dam, the dual Group 2 winner La Pomme d'Amour (GB), a third-generation Guy Reed homebred, resides there still. 

Just a little farther south from Copgrove lives Deborah O'Brien, the breeder of treble Group 1 winner and star of the sprinting ranks, Bradsell (GB) (Tasleet {GB}). She may not keep her broodmares at home but as a resident of Goldsborough in North Yorkshire, O'Brien could hardly be closer to the roots of the Thoroughbred breed. 

It was at Goldsborough Hall that Captain Byerley stood his old war horse, The Byerley Turk, one of the three acknowledged foundation stallions. The Byerley Turk's male-line has all but petered out but he has nevertheless played an immensely significant role over the last three centuries in the development of the breed as we know it. O'Brien has now written her own chapter in the breeding history books, and it was one which she has carefully researched and painstakingly developed over four generations of Bradsell's female family. 

Members of that clan including Bradsell's dam Russian Punch (GB) (Archipenko) and his young sister by Oasis Dream (GB), are based at Bearstone Stud in Shropshire.

“I must admit, the Byerley Turk's descendants haven't tended to mix well with my mares, despite the fact I would like to help out,” says O'Brien, who says that she “can hardly believe” that she is now associated with a horse such as Bradsell, whose roll of honour includes the King's Stand, Nunthorpe and Flying Five Stakes at the top level, plus the G2 Coventry Stakes.

“Isn't he astonishing? He's absolutely marvellous. I love him to bits,” she adds.

It was the Nunthorpe, in her home county, which gave the breeder the most pleasure, especially as she was invited into the parade ring beforehand by Oliver St Lawrence, who manages Victorious Racing for owner Shaikh Nasser Al Khalifa. 

“Oliver was just so absolutely lovely,” she continues. “He said that we would be welcome to join them in the ring. And then of course, it was the celebrations afterwards, so it made it absolutely amazing. I actually got to touch Bradsell again. You know what it's like when you sell them young.”

Bradsell had left O'Brien's ownership as a yearling, when sold through Bearstone for 12,000gns at Tattersalls. The following spring he was back in the ring, this time up at Doncaster, where he fetched £47,000 and joined the stable of Archie Watson. After his extraordinary nine-length win on debut at York a month later he changed hands again and, on his next start, became an important first Royal Ascot winner for his Bahraini owner. 

“It is a feature of the family that they all want to win, they all want to run. Some of them in a very limited way, but they all still try,” says O'Brien, and she would know, having bred his first three dams and raced them in her own colours, having first become involved in racehorse ownership through his fourth dam, Champenoise (GB) (Forzando {GB}).

“He was bred to be quick. I've come to the conclusion, with the mare, that she's usually better with something speedy. She's got quite a lot of stamina in her own family. Archipenko was a mile-and-a-quarter horse, and she's got stamina back in the pedigree,” she says.

Trained by James Given, Russian Punch, now 12, showed plenty of precocity herself, winning on debut at two in May and then twice more in her juvenile season, which ended with victory in the Listed Radley Stakes at Newbury. 

“I absolutely adore Russian Punch, because I lost her mother carrying the next foal. She'd only had two foals, and only one filly. So she was, and is, incredibly special,” she adds. “I got into the family originally as just a small partner in a share in Champenoise. Then she went to the sales, Michael Bell bought her, and we rolled in and joined into that partnership as well. And then she was sold for more than I could afford, went up to Ron Barr, who trained her, and I'd always said to them, 'If anything goes wrong, I'd love to have her back.' She got injured and I bought her back for the princely sum of a thousand pounds.

“She bred me seven or eight winners, all very quick, but I wanted to improve each generation, if I could, within a reasonable budget. And, thank the Lord, I have managed to do exactly that. And, of course, every breeder's dream is to breed a stallion, isn't it?”

That dream is doubtless close to being fulfilled as there are reportedly several offers in play for Bradsell when he graduates to his second career, which is hardly a surprise given his achievements to date. It hasn't all been plain sailing since Bradsell left the fold. His half-brother by Ulysses (Ire) fetched £150,000 at the yearling sales, but then Russian Punch lost her Twilight Son (GB) filly the following year and then had to be rested for a season. O'Brien does however have a special filly from the mare to spark a new dream.

“She was conceived on Valentine's Day and born on our ruby wedding anniversary, so she's going nowhere, except to race of course, and she's already called Ruby Punch. Oasis Dream is a very good broodmare sire and she's a lovely specimen.”

I just bumbled along quietly, and bred lots of winners, but not so that anybody really noticed me

With Tasleet having been sold to stand in India, the mare is now in foal to another son of Showcasing (GB) in Soldier's Call (GB). It is a mating which has the Juddmonte full-sisters Hope (Ire) and Wemyss Bight (GB) on the top and bottom of the pedigree, a pattern which pleases the mathematician's eye of the breeder. 

“That was why I was doing it with Tasleet, to get that,” she says. “So I thought the closest thing I can do is use Soldier's Call. It's in the same place in the pedigree, and fingers crossed that might turn out to be good.”

O'Brien admits that her broodmare band has “crept up to seven”, all of whom board at Bearstone, which she first visited when looking for a mate for Champenoise and decided upon Nureyev's son Tragic Role.

“When I had spare time I'd go to the TBA library, which was my only resource at the time,” she says. “I think my interest in pedigrees grew a little from that, but also because I'm a mathematician by degree, and I just like the patterns and the thought process behind it. I don't follow any specific theories, but I just have a sort of gut feeling, looking at things, whether they're right or wrong, and I do go back about 10 or 12 generations. I don't use somebody to help me, I do it myself.”

O'Brien continues, “I'm not hands-on with the horses, so that's really my big input. The plan: where they go, and why they go.

“I believe in all of the mares. I believe they can all produce good horses, if I get it right. Sometimes, like with Champenoise, you have to develop the family before what's in the history comes out again. I thought the world of Archipenko and I was really upset when he died, because I had grand plans. I think, again, blood will out. It doesn't always do it for that individual, but it will come out somewhere else.”

The careful planning has certainly been rewarding for the breeder, if not in the most obvious commercial sense. 

She says, “I am actually still slightly unbelieving of it, and completely overwhelmed, but he has undoubtedly changed my life. My social calendar suddenly erupted when Bradsell won the Coventry. Ascot do the breeders' lunch, which was absolutely amazing. For breeders to get acknowledged like that is fantastic. And then all the big studs invite you to all sorts of occasions, and I've never really thought about anything like that at all. I just bumbled along quietly, and bred lots of winners, but not so that anybody really noticed me.”

The horse who made sure people did sit up and take notice was named after the “cocktail king” and inventor of the Russian Punch, Dick Bradsell. There was no particular fizz to the young colt, however, who is described by O'Brien as “uncomplicated”.

She says, “He didn't stand out from the crowd but he had a lovely physique, and he got in the Somerville Sale that year. I thought he should net me 20,000, which would have been a profit, and he made 12,000, which wasn't. I still joke that I'm the only one that never made any money out of him. I think a lot of people passed over him because he wasn't big.”

She has three yearlings heading to Book 3 of the October Sale in a few weeks, including a Mohaather (GB) filly out of Tawaasul (GB), a Ulysses half-sister to the Listed Rockingham Stakes winner Vintage Brut (GB), and a Mattmu (GB) colt from the same family.

“The way the market is at the moment this year doesn't give huge confidence, but I hope they find good homes and go to good trainers. That's all I can really ask,” she says. 

“I owe a lot to Archie and Hollie [Doyle], because Bradsell ended up in the right place to be a good horse. I love seeing him and Hollie together. They're a pair of pocket rockets. 

“I always thought he'd make a nice sprinter, but I'm bowled over by how good he is. I'd been trying to breed a good horse, obviously, as we all do, and trying to find the pedigrees to do it, but you never know which way the genetic dice will roll.”