John and Jess Dance have purchased Manor House Farm & Stud in Middleham and plan to develop the property for their yearlings and racing stock, they announced on Twitter Monday morning. The MG1SW Laurens (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) is the best runner so far in John Dance's name, and going forward, all of the Dance runners will race in the name of John and Jess Dance. The couple also have new black and gold colours, with Laurens's colours acting as second colours. James Horton will become a private trainer at Manor House for the Dances in late 2021.
“As you know, we announced a temporary wind down of our operations last summer so we could step back from racing for a period and re-evaluate,” the Dances said in a statement released on Twitter. “We sold the majority of our horses in training, all of our homebred yearling (bar one that had an issue) and didn't buy anything from the yearling sales…
“In November last year we bought Manor House Farm & Stud in Middleham, the birthplace of the great Derby winner Dante…Subject to planning approval we hope to redevelop the property. We intend to split the farm in to two separate operations, one a top-class private facility and the other as a development stud for some of our homebred yearlings…
“We did buy a few sneaky yearlings from the December sale, bought a few previously unsold 2yos earlier this year from trainers…[we] were very active at the Craven Breeze-Up Sale…All bar a few who we will need to be very patient with will be going to existing trainers and we must extend our thanks to both Creighton Schwartz and SackvilleDonald, who as always, were invaluable in advising, assessing and helping us buy…
“We are all both delighted and proud to announce that from the late end of 2021, James Horton will be our private trainer. James has a fantastic CV for moving in to the training ranks and has most recently been assistant to the great Sir Michael Stoute.
“The 'team' that now includes James, have very similar aspirations and philosophies and whilst he has already been incredibly useful in helping with designs and layouts of our proposed facility, we are all looking forward to the yearling sales where we will officially start this exciting journey.”
Among the eight lots purchased by Manor House Stud at the recent Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale was a bay colt by Kingman (GB) out of Flying Fairies (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) (lot 8), who cost 335,000gns from Kilminfoyle House Stud.
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