Mating Plans: Fittocks Stud

Every breeder aims for Classic success and achieving that feat must have been extra sweet for Luca and Sara Cumani of Fittocks Stud given that the horse in question was named in honour of Luca's birthplace. Coolmore's 2001 St Leger winner Milan (GB) (Sadler's Wells) is now leading all active National Hunt stallions in Britain and Ireland on the sire table for 2018/19 while his dam Kithanga (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}) has just turned 29 and lives in glorious retirement at Fittocks.

Two of her daughters are among the 14 mares that the Cumanis will be breeding from in 2019. The G3 St Simon S. winner Koora (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) has been graced with a special partner for her first two seasons at stud. She has a yearling colt by Dubawi (Ire) and is back in foal to the Darley flagbearer. Her rendezvous this season will be no less special as she is set to visit the champion, Galileo (Ire).

“Koora is precious to us as she is the last of Kithanga's 12 foals and her Dubawi colt is lovely,” admits Sara Cumani.

Koora's older full-sister Kindu (GB) has also been retained and is in foal to Mastercraftsman (Ire) with a visit to Showcasing (GB) in the diary.

“Deciding on matings has been more testing than ever this year if you want to stick to proven sires,” she adds. “It's becoming more and more competitive and you have to have the right mare. We tend to go with proven sires. Luca feels that it's a bit less of an unknown, especially with a young mare. With an older mare you can take a bit more of a chance but with a young mare you don't know what type of stock they are going to produce.”

With the uncertainties of Brexit casting a potentially dark shadow over this year's covering season, Cumani admits that they will be cautious in their travel plans for mares en route to Ireland.

“We've talked about Brexit and we've tried to stay calm but we don't want to be travelling any horses around Mar. 29,” she says. “We do have two due in early April who are booked to stallions in Ireland. We like to have them foal with us in case there are any dramas and then we'd send them at 20 days once our wonderful vet has given his blessing.”

The Fittocks Stud broodmare band has been enhanced in the last month by the purchase of the Aga Khan Studs-bred Shomaria (Fr) (Exceed And Excel {Aus}), a daughter of the dual Group 3 winner Shemima (Ire) (Dalakhani {Ire}), at Arqana's December Sale. Just turned four, she was bought in partnership with Andrew Stone of St Albans Bloodstock, who provided Luca Cumani with his final Group 1 winner as a trainer in God Given (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}). Shomaria's year-younger half-sister Shendam (Fr) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) won on her sole start in France for Mikel Delzangles in 2018.

“She's a very pretty mare and she's going to Lope De Vega (Ire),” says Cumani. “We hope that Shendam might improve the pedigree this year.”

The 8-year-old Blue Waltz (GB), a Pivotal (GB) half-sister to Fantasia (GB) (Sadler's Wells) who was bred and raced by Fittocks in partnership with Andrew Bengough, is currently carrying to Frankel (GB) and will visit Kodiac (GB).

“She's a speedy mare from the family of Blue Duster and her first foal by Oasis Dream (GB) is now in training with William Haggas,” says Cumani.

Fittocks Stud will forever be synonymous with the wide-reaching success of the family of Souk (Ire) (Ahonoora {GB}) and four direct descendants of this celebrated foundation mare remain in the paddocks at Upend, just outside Newmarket. Souk's 13-year-old daughter Barter (GB) (Daylami {Ire}), the dam of Group 3 winner Haggle (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), is in foal to Siyouni (Fr) and is booked to Kingman (GB), while Barter's unraced Oasis Dream daughter Marketeer (GB) is in foal to Churchill (Ire) and will visit Camelot (GB).

Pongee (GB) (Barathea {Ire}), now 19 and out of Souk's first foal Puce (GB) (Darshaan {GB}), is in foal to the former Cumani-trained Group 1 winner Postponed (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), “for obvious reasons,” says her breeder.

“Pongee will go to Cracksman (GB) next year. She's been mostly to proven horses in the past but Cracksman was a wonderful racehorse and he's such a fantastic mover.”

Pongee's 6-year-old daughter Materialistic (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) is carrying her first foal by Churchill (Ire) and will be covered this season by Lope De Vega (Ire).

“In a sense we're broken our own rule here but Camilla Trotter, who helps us with our matings and provides invaluable facts and figures, says we need to take the odd plunge with unproven sires and she can be very persuasive,” says Cumani. “It's very much a team effort when it comes to deciding on stallions.”

So Silk (GB), by Rainbow Quest out of the Cumani-trained dual Group 1 winner Gossamer (GB) (Sadler's Wells), could be seen as having been an understandably sentimental purchase by Fittocks Stud from the dispersal of her late breeder Gerald Leigh back in 2008. Two of her daughters remain at the farm: the G2 Park Hill S. winner Silk Sari (GB) (Dalakhani {Ire}), who is in foal to Dubawi (Ire) and will visit Sea The Stars (Ire), and Dreamlike (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), who is carrying to Dark Angel (Ire) and is another who will be on her way to Lope De Vega (Ire).

“Her first foal is a colt by Siyouni who we didn't manage to sell but we've named him Bonneval (GB) and he will be going into training with Sir Michael Stoute,” notes Cumani.

Another homebred, the 8-year-old Got To Dream (GB) (Duke Of Marmalade {Ire}), has returned to the fold after being sold as a yearling, and she is in foal to Tamayuz (GB) with a visit to Zoffany (Ire) on the cards.

“We bought her back when we thought her half-sister Lady Of Dubai (GB) was going to win the Oaks,” explains Cumani. The daughter of Dubawi ended up finishing third to Qualify (Ire) at Epsom and is also the winner of the Listed Height Of Fashion S.

Representing some new blood on the farm are Umniyah (Ire) (Shamardal) and Slatey Hen (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}). Cumani says of the latter, “She is a pretty, sprinter mare and is a half-sister to the dam of Tiggy Wiggy (Ire). She's in foal to Kodiac —no surprise there—and will go to Churchill.”

Umniyah by contrast was bought from Godolphin and is out of a half-sister to Storming Home (GB) (Machiavellian). After delivering a foal by Sea The Stars this season she will be covered by Dark Angel (Ire).

Completing the set is Baltic Best (Ire) (King's Best), bought in December 2017 from Gestut Ammerland and representing one of the stud's foundation families. Her grandam was the globetrotter Borgia (Ger) (Acatenango {Ger}), winner at home of the G1 Deutsches Derby and abroad the G1 Hong Kong Vase while also being placed in the Arc and the Breeders' Cup Turf. The Cumanis are the owners of what is likely to be the only yearling in Britain by Ammerland's young resident Ito (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}), to whom Baltic Best was carrying when purchased, and the mare is now in foal to Siyouni. As befits her illustrious pedigree, she has a date with Frankel (GB) this spring.