By Emma Berry
NEWMARKET, UK–Trueshan (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}) may have been overturned in Wednesday's G3 Sagaro S. at Ascot, but the five-time group-winning stayer remains a great advertisement of the diversity of horses on offer across the range of breeze-up sales in Europe.
We've seen plenty of those dubbed as 'Royal Ascot two-year-olds' over the last week or so, and as the British leg of the breeze-up action comes to a close at Tattersalls on Thursday, the focus generally adjusts slightly to more of a later-maturing specimen. It was at the Guineas Sale of 2018 that Trueshan was bought for 31,000gns by Alan King and Anthony Bromley, a duo which is now a regular fixture at these auctions. He was plucked from the draft of Thomond O'Mara's Knockanglass Stables and, as the sun and wind continued to dry the Rowley Mile on Wednesday morning, two of O'Mara's seven juveniles on offer in this year's sale posted times within the top five of the day.
Of course, every vendor and buyer will tell you that it's not all about the time, and indeed there have been some notable examples of slower breezers going on to success at the top, including Derby runner-up Libertarian (GB) and Gold Cup winner Trip To Paris (Ire). But it can help when the clock speaks in your favour, as was seen a fortnight ago at the Craven Sale, when Glending Stables' son of Havana Grey (GB) sold for 15 times his yearling price at 650,000gns after posting the fastest breeze of the session. Roderick Kavanagh's outfit again had one of the fastest breezers on the unofficial times recorded for the Guineas Sale in lot 193, a colt by freshman sire Inns Of Court (Ire).
Last week we spoke to Robbie Mills of RMM Bloodstock about his burgeoning breeze-up and pre-training business, and one of his neighbours on Newmarket's Hamilton Road, George Peckham, is in a similar position. Under the George Peckham Racing banner, the former trainer brings a colt and a filly to the Guineas Sale, only the second and third he has consigned to breeze following an initial foray in 2021 when selling treble winner Straits Of Moyle (Ire) (Prince Of Lir {Ire}) to the Cool Silk Partnership for 105,000gns.
“That's our only previous breezer at the sales,” Peckham said. “We did have one last year for the Guineas that had a setback before the sale so we sold him privately to Niels Petersen through Edgar Byrne. He won his first start by eight lengths in Norway and they quite like him, so I'm excited to see what he can do.”
Now a sought-after pre-trainer in Britain's busiest training centre, Peckham's involvement in the breeze-ups remains on the select side at present.
“It's something that we wanted to give a go,” he noted. “It's never going to be a big business for us. We're flat out with the pre-training, and that's our main business, but we are lucky to have the facilities on the Heath in Newmarket. We'll see what happens but, we're very happy with how they went this morning.”
His two-strong draft currently at Park Paddocks consists of lot 174, a colt by Twilight Son (GB) whose full-sister The Twilight Lady (GB) won twice at two last year. Their grand-dam Confidential Lady (GB) (Singspiel {Ire}) won the G1 Prix de Diane for her breeders Cheveley Park Stud.
He is followed by lot 258, a filly by Ardad (Ire) out of Broughton's Secret (GB) (Aqlaam {GB}) whose half-brother Spioradalta (GB) (Rajasinghe {Ire}) was another juvenile to win last year.
Peckham said, “The Twilight Son is a speedy little horse who does what it says on the tin, and the Ardad is a nice, big, rangey filly who will need a little bit more time. She probably wants seven furlongs or a mile at this stage, and the last few weeks it's all just come a little bit quick for her. She has a lovely, big stride on her, so it will be towards the back end of the season and into next year that she'll really come to the fore, I think. But to do what she's doing at the moment, I'm really happy with her.”
For the breeze, both juveniles benefited by being in the experienced hands of Arc-winning jockey Luke Morris.
“Luke used to ride for us when we were training and he's obviously a very hard-working fellow and nice and light as well,” Peckham explained. “We have a good relationship. He rode the one a couple of years ago for us, and we go back a long way.”
He added, “I was a little bit disappointed that they watered the breeze strip. It was just a little bit tacky, which hasn't suited many people, and it was a little bit chopped up after the Craven, but it was the same for everyone.”
George Peckham Racing is based in Yellowstone Stables next-door to trainers Simon and Ed Crisford, and with easy access to the vast expanse of the all-weather and Southfields turf gallops on 'racecourse side', behind the Rowley Mile grandstand.
“It's been really busy over the winter and still going strong at the moment, which is great. We're very lucky with the people that support us, and we're very grateful to them,” he said.
“Yellowstone is brilliant for doing our job. We've got 50 boxes, and we're looking to expand a bit as well. It's a perfect location with all that grass we have on Southfields.
“I've been using the grass all winter and I'm a big believer in it. I try to stay on it as much as I can. That's a big advantage of being in town here. We tend to target the Tattersalls sales so we have a little bit of home advantage, and it would be silly not to use that. The horses have been over to the flat gallop plenty before they went up the watered gallop this morning.”
After withdrawals, 100 horses in training will take to the ring during Thursday morning, followed by 170 juveniles for the breeze-up session. The action gets underway at Tattersalls at 9.30am.
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