Golden Stars Lining Up For Oppenheimer

Exactly five years ago, Golden Horn (GB) led home his stable-mate Jack Hobbs (GB) for a John Gosden-trained one-two in the G2 Dante S. at York, foreshadowing the result of the Derby a little over three weeks later.

Golden Horn's Classic victory ignited a glorious season for his owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer, whose colt by Cape Cross (Ire) represented generations of his family's Hascombe And Valiant Studs' breeding. Golden Horn went on to claim victory in the Coral-Eclipse S., Irish Champion S. and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe before narrowly losing out in the Breeders' Cup Turf and retiring to Dalham Hall Stud.

Oppenheimer may well have reflected on that triumphant year, which came half a century after his father Sir Philip Oppenheimer had bought Hascombe Stud, and felt that it would be hard to top. Indeed, a homebred Derby winner is the realisation of excellence in the pursuit of Thoroughbred breeding, and though Golden Horn's achievements have not been topped, they have come close to being equalled by another two homebreds in recent seasons.

Two years later, Oppenheimer had another legitimate Classic contender on his hands in the shape of Cracksman (GB), a huge-striding son of the mighty Frankel (GB). The winner of the Derby Trial on only the second start of his life, Cracksman returned to Epsom for the big one, beaten only a length in third behind Wings Of Eagles (Fr) and Cliffs Of Moher (Ire) in a classy Derby field which included subsequent Group 1 winners Capri (Ire), Benbatl (GB), Best Solution (Ire) and Rekindling (GB). Second on his next start in the Irish Derby, Cracksman remained unbeaten in another three starts that season, culminating in the G1 Champion S. His near-faultless career continued at four, with wins in the Prix Ganay and Coronation Cup, before signing off with a second Champion S. victory.

“I would never have imagined it possible,” says Oppenheimer as he sits out lockdown at his home near Newbury, awaiting, along with the rest of the British and Irish racing fraternity, a call to action. “We are extremely fortunate to have had two top-class colts. Two champions in a way, it's absolutely amazing. And then the filly.”

The filly is of course Star Catcher (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), a horse who, with three consecutive Group 1 wins to her name last season, would be a standout in most stables. But when you have Enable (GB) as your stable-mate, it is perhaps understandable to be a tad overlooked. Star Catcher is also a horse who, had she been owned by a number of other owner-breeders might well already be in foal by now. But Oppenheimer has elected to roll the dice and enjoy some more sport this season, even though subsequent events have given him pause for thought.

He says, “When I took the decision to keep Star Catcher in training, the one thing I hadn't reckoned on was that Enable was going to stay in training. Then of course with the coronavirus, a month or so ago I began to wonder whether I should be covering her. If it had gone on much longer I'd have been wondering how many races we would have had to run in but I think we should be okay as long as we can get going soon.”

Star Catcher almost inveigled her way onto the Classic scene last year. A sixth-place finish in a Chelmsford maiden in the December of her juvenile season would not have put her in many notebooks ahead of the start of the turf season. Though impressively winning her maiden at Newbury's Greenham meeting, she was then turned over when returning to the Berkshire course for the listed Haras de Bouquetot Fillies' Trial.

Oppenheimer credits Frankie Dettori with setting her on a winning path with some invaluable feedback from that race. He recalls, “Frankie got off her that day and said 'I'm terribly sorry, I made a disastrous mistake. I had so much more in the filly that I could have won it easily. Run her in the Ribblesdale and you'll win, but don't run her in the Oaks because she's not ready for it.' And that's what we did. She was almost unbelievable. Each time we thought to ourselves 'she can't win that', and off she went and won.”

Following the Ribblesdale S., Star Catcher sailed through the Irish Oaks and Prix Vermeille and then delivered Oppenheimer a third Group 1 victory on British Champions Day in successive years when winning the British Champions Fillies & Mares S.

He adds, “That's what we're so lucky with—John Gosden training the horses and Frankie Dettori riding them. The combination of those two talking to each other and being able to feel their way forward is incredible.”

Regarding Star Catcher's longer-range targets this year, Oppenheimer is naturally entertaining the possibility of taking on Enable as she bids for a historic third victory in the Arc. He says, “She's done well and she is growing stronger, which is what we need. Obviously we wouldn't want to take on Enable immediately, being from the same stable and everything, but that would probably be our target.”

Unlike Golden Horn and Cracksman, who share Lora (GB) (Lorenzaccio {GB}) as a fourth dam and represent two branches of a longstanding Hascombe And Valiant family, Star Catcher hails from a more recent addition to the stud. Her dam Lynnwood Chase (Horse Chestnut {SAf}) was bred in the U.S. and was of particular interest to Oppenheimer at the Deauville yearling sale in August 2003 because of her sire.

“Lynnwood Chase was amazing quite honestly,” he says. “I bought her in Deauville and she was quite small and not terribly exciting, and she does get small stock. But I bought her because of Horse Chestnut, who was a South African horse my cousin owned. I remember being at Deauville and it was very hot and I wanted to find a horse for Richard Gibson to train, so I bought her and then rushed back to the hotel to get out of the heat. We were just terribly lucky.”

Though she ran only twice in France, Lynnwood Chase, who died last year at the age of 17, made amends at stud. Her second foal, from the second of five matings with Lemon Drop Kid, was Pisco Sour, winner of the G2 Prix Eugene Adam and G3 Tercentenary S. at Royal Ascot for Hughie Morrison and Michael Kerr-Dineen. Three years later his brother Cannock Chase won the same race at the Royal Meeting for Sir Michael Stoute and Saeed Suhail and went on to win the G1 Pattison Canadian International. Star Catcher has eclipsed them both and her dam has several chances still to come. The mare's 3-year-old daughter Maurimo (GB) (Kingman (GB)}) is in training with Roger Charlton, and Oppenheimer has a Frankel 2-year-old filly named Nettleton (GB) as well as a yearling colt by Time Test (GB).

Star Catcher is not the only horse to remain in training at four for Oppenheimer this year. The 108-rated stayer First In Line (GB) (New Approach {GB}) has stayed at Gosden's Clarehaven Stables and indeed looks likely to be first in line to resume.

“I hope First In Line will be out very soon once racing starts. Star Catcher will probably be much later because most of the races for a 4-year-old fillies are much later in the year, so I don't see her being out in the immediate future,” says Oppenheimer, who also has last season's G2 Prix de Pomone winner Dame Malliot (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) in training with Ed Vaughan.

The extended lockdown restrictions mean that the breeder has not been able to inspect any of his new arrivals at his stud near Newmarket, though he has kept an eye on those waiting in the wings to be assigned to a trainer, as he explains.

“I have 21 foals, two of them are in America, but I haven't seen any of them unfortunately. The only horses I've really seen [this year] are the 2-year-olds in pre-training with Malcolm Bastard. I have 10 there at the moment and I was lucky to be able to go there quite a lot before lockdown, as that's just up the road from me. My policy is to keep my 2-year olds with Malcolm until he or the trainers feel they're ready to go into training, which is normally July, August or September. Malcolm does a marvellous job. He said to me that he thinks I have the best bunch of 2-year-olds that I've ever had this year so that's encouraging.”

It's also quite a thought considering the potential chances of this year's 3-year-olds, which include four fillies being campaigned with the Classics in mind. Leading that quartet and of particular significance to Oppenheimer as she is a first-crop daughter of Golden Horn is Domino Darling (GB), who featured in Tom Frary's Under The Radar column last week. He also has high hopes for a member of Golden Horn and Cracksman's family, Frankly Darling (GB), a Frankel half-sister to First In Line, as well as for the impressive Newcastle maiden winners Tiempo Vuela (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and Little Becky (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}).

“Little Becky won her race very easily and is coming along,” he says. “We're very excited about Domino Darling. She really put her foot forward to win her first and only race and she beat one of Mr Varian's top fillies. It was very heavy ground, and the one thing about Golden Horn was that he hated heavy ground, but being out of a Sadler's Wells mare maybe helps her. But we have two others to take her on.”

He adds, “One of the best things about the lockdown for horses is that a lot of them will have needed a bit more time. It's not such a bad thing for some of the trainers to be forced to give them a little bit more time.”

One of the great joys for many breeders is pondering over matings, and Oppenheimer admits that he starts making tentative plans as early as August.

He says, “I sex-test all my mares and as soon as I know what they are carrying, when I go to France on holiday I do some trial matings myself. One of the things I really enjoy more than anything else is doing the matings. The top stallions are terribly expensive, so if you just stick with them you begin to panic a little bit on the cost front. I think we might see stallion fees coming down a little bit next year with everything that's going on.”

While his late father put everything he bred into training, Oppenheimer generally races his fillies and sells his colts, as he did with the 2000 Guineas winner of 2005, Footstepsinthesand (GB) (Giant's Causeway). Fortuitously, Golden Horn failed to reach his reserve when offered as a yearling, giving Hascombe And Valiant Studs their first homebred Classic winner since On The House (Fr) (Be My Guest) won the 1000 Guineas in 1982.

The value-added excitement for Oppenheimer since his star colts have retired to the Darley stallion barn is being able to follow their stock. Cracksman's first foals have arrived this season, four of which are at Hascombe And Valiant, and Golden Horn's eldest offspring are now three

“It's terribly exciting,” he says. “I'm really looking forward to seeing what Golden Horn's 3-year-olds can do this year, not just our own but those bred by other people as well. He's having another good year at stud and is going to get at least 110 nice mares. People are coming back, saying they are so pleased with their Golden Horns. This is the year that really counts now and I hope we'll see some good ground for his runners.”

Despite a rash of recent success, there is one blank on the stud's roll of honour which Oppenheimer is longing to fill.

“I'm very keen to win the Oaks, wherever and whenever it may be,” he says.

And if that happens to be achieved with a homebred daughter of Golden Horn, then so much the better.