By Emma Berry
There must have been times when those connected to Saffron Beach (Ire) (New Bay {GB}) in her early years were shaking their heads in frustration.
Four times she was entered for a sale as a young horse. She made the first of those engagements, no problem, when she was sold by Ballylinch Stud at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale on behalf of her breeder China Horse Club. Liam Norris, a man with a noted eye for foals, signed for her at 55,000gns, bought for a partnership headed by Ben Sangster, with the intention of bringing the New Bay filly back to the yearling sales the following October.
Thereafter, she was scratched from October Book 2, then the December Yearling Sale and, during the following topsy-turvy first year of Covid, she was also withdrawn from the July Sale, in which she would have appeared as an unraced two-year-old. By that stage, however, the minor foot issue which had meant Sangster and Saffron Beach's co-owner James Wigan had to forget the yearling sales, had come good, and Jane Chapple-Hyam had paid a visit to Manton to see the filly and to decide if she would like to train her. Fortunately she did like her. Very much so, in fact, and with a raft of group wins now to her credit, it's easy to imagine that Saffron Beach has shot to the top of the charts of Chapple-Hyam's all-time favourite horses.
It will, then, be a bittersweet moment for all involved at Abington Place when their stable star returns to Tattersalls for the December Mares' Sale, even though as a full-fledged dual Group 1 winner she reflects much credit on the yard. And there could yet be the opportunity for one last hurrah.
“She's being sold as a horse in training and hopefully the lucky purchaser might enjoy having a trip to Hong Kong,” says Chapple-Hyam. “She's in the $4 million Hong Kong Mile and we've accepted the invitation, so it would be a lovely swansong.”
It would indeed, but then right from the off, the filly from the first crop of New Bay has fuelled the dreams of her trainer and ownership team of Lucy Sangster, Ollie Sangster and James Wigan. Making her debut at Newmarket on September 26, 2020, the powerful chestnut strode away from her 14 rivals in her maiden race to finish more than four lengths clear of her nearest pursuer. Such an eye-catching start made her fully entitled to step straight into pattern company, which she did just a fortnight later, back at her home track, in the G3 Oh So Sharp S.
“She's just gone from strength to strength,” says Chapple-Hyam. “But in a funny kind of way, her first two runs showed a lot when she won a maiden, and then two weeks later she backed up for the Oh So Sharp. And when Adam Kirby got off her, we knew there and then because he said she felt like a special filly.”
Kirby, a jockey not prone to hyperbole, was spot on. Put away for the winter, Saffron Beach returned to run second in her 1,000 Guineas trial, the G3 Nell Gwyn S., and was then runner-up in the Classic itself, finishing just a length behind the winner Mother Earth (Ire).
Failing to properly see out the mile and a half when contesting the Oaks at Epsom, Saffron Beach had unleashed her true potential by the end of her three-year-old season, winning the G3 Atalanta S. en route to landing her first Group 1 in the Sun Chariot back at her beloved Rowley Mile.
“She did really well in the Nell Gwyn,” her trainer recalls. “We used that as a stepping stone and she was probably only 85% fit, then we waited another two weeks to run in the Guineas. So that was a highlight and then since then she's picked up Group 1s, whether it be at Newmarket or over in Deauville, and she's just proved a tough, consistent filly.”
Returned to training at four, Saffron Beach's warm-up fourth place in the G1 Dubai Turf at Meydan proved the perfect springboard for another lucrative summer campaign in Europe. At Royal Ascot she waltzed away with the G2 Duke of Cambridge S. before beating dual Group 1 winner Tenebrism (Ire) in the G1 Prix Rothschild in Deauville. She also had her fellow Sceptre Sessions entrant Pearls Galore (Fr) behind her that day, but the tables were turned when all three classy fillies met again on Irish Champions Weekend, with Pearls Galore landing the G1 Matron S. ahead of Saffron Beach in second, and Tenebrism third, with the Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Homeless Songs (Ire) claiming fourth.
Saffron Beach, who hails from the family of the young sire Cotai Glory (GB), was the first Group 1 winner for her upwardly mobile sire, and she has been joined in that category this year by Bay Bridge (GB) and Bayside Boy (Ire), who notched a notable Group 1 double for the Ballylinch Stud resident on British Champions Day.
Chapple-Hyam says of the statuesque trailblazer, “She's feisty, but she's a nice, feisty mare. She's she's got a kind side to her. It's going to be hard when she goes because she's in box one, and so for a couple of years, [we've been] seeing her every morning. But hopefully she'll have a nice career at stud and go to some top stallions.”
She adds, “It will be up to the new purchasers if they would like her to run in Hong Kong in their colours and we will do some quick paperwork, but we're all set at this end.
“Everyone's very thrilled with what she's done throughout the last couple of years so I'm sure they'll all miss cheering her on. But we were lucky enough to keep her on as a four-year-old so, especially the last month, we've just been enjoying seeing her every day.”
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