By Emma Berry
There are few, if any other, 12-week-old babies with races named after them but Victor Veitch will have his name in lights early in life as the namesake for the EBF fillies' maiden which opens the card at Newmarket on Friday evening.
In fact, Newmarket's entire meeting is sponsored by Victor's grandparents, Derek and Gay Veitch of Ringfort Stud in Rhode, Co Offaly. The second and third races on the card will be run in the name of two Shadwell Group 1 winners, Minzaal (Ire) and Anmaat (Ire), both of whom were bred at Ringfort, along with the Group 2-winning trio of Threat (Ire), Indie Angel (Ire) and Ubettabelieveit (Ire), who will also have races run in their names on the July Course.
“We've invited a few people along who have helped us at the sales over the years, as we've never given anything back to Newmarket directly,” explained Derek Veitch, a familiar face on the sales circuit in Britain and Ireland, predominantly as a vendor of foals and yearlings.
“Tatts has been very lucky for us in the past and we're at the stage where we are getting close to retirement, so we thought we would use the sponsorship as a launchpad for selling the farm on 1 July.”
The plans have now changed somewhat for the Veitch family, however, as daughter Stephanie, who recently married John Kilbride and has been resident in England, has recently decided to return to Ireland.
“Stephanie said that she and John are interested in coming back to the farm, so that has changed our minds and we are going to hold off selling for now,” Veitch added. “She will do some of the veterinary work on the farm and hopefully there will be a seamless transition. We're going to try it for a year, and if we are not happy or they are not happy then we'll think again about selling.”
Shadwell is not the only major operation to have enjoyed success with a Ringfort graduate. Indie Angel, a daughter of Dark Angel (Ire) and the Sir Percy (GB) mare Indigo Lady (GB), was bred by the Veitches in partnership with Paul Hancock and was one of the top lots of her generation at the December Foal Sale at Tattersalls when selling for 600,000gns to Cheveley Park Stud. Trained by John and Thady Gosden, she went on to win the G2 Duke of Cambridge S. at Royal Ascot.
Veitch said, “Indie Angel is breeding away at Cheveley Park and has a Frankel colt as her first foal and a Kingman filly. The other horses have their first crops coming to the sales, so we felt that it was nice to identify the fact that Ubettabelieveit has his first crop of foals and Threat has his first yearlings. That's all we were trying to do.”
He added, “We've about 60 people invited over from Ireland. Instead of having a summer barbecue here on the farm we thought we'd have a bit of a do in England. Everybody has managed to take a few days off and Laura Gibson-Brabazon at Newmarket Racecourses is a great friend who has helped to get everything organised for us. We're looking forward to what should be a really fun weekend for everyone, and our grandson Victor will be there, too.”
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