Take A Good Look At The Diomed Draft

It has been quite the year for Bated Breath (GB), the Juddmonte stallion who could be all too easily overlooked against some of his more in-vogue stud mates but who nevertheless continues to provide a decent ratio of stakes winners.

One of his most reliable performers in this regard is Breathtaking Look (GB), who heads to the Tattersalls December Mare Sale (lot 1662) from Diomed Stables. Her combination of speed, class and consistency gives the 5-year-old a profile with a commercial outlook.

Of her six victories for trainer Stuart Williams and his brother-in-law Jonathan Parry, two have been Group 3 contests, at Doncaster last year and in Deauville in August, where she beat Air De Valse (Fr) in the Prix de Meautry. Her form this season has a particularly solid look to it with two runner-up finishes behind subsequent Group 1 winners Oxted (GB) and Dream Of Dreams (Ire).

“I'd be surprised if there are many mares in the catalogue whose first three dams all black-type performers and producers,” says Williams, who selected Breathtaking Look at Tattersalls as a yearling from October Book 3. “We're excited to take her to the sale and would like to see her do well. I'm selling her as 'in training' as she is still here with me in training. I'd like to see her sell as a broodmare but she is sound, she has never taken a lame step, and if someone wanted to race her on they could do.”

Breathtaking Look started her racing career at three with two wins from her three starts that year. Her racing tally now stands at 18 starts, with those six wins backed up a string of placed efforts.

Recalling what he saw in her when he first viewed her in the Mickley Stud draft at Park Paddocks, Williams adds, “I just really liked her presence. She was quite big, and my brother-in-law, who we call Ralph though his name is actually Jonathan, always like to have a filly. He breeds one or two horses himself and we've had a few over the years that have done well. We've always been of the opinion that you got more of a chance if you buy a filly. The colts that turn out to be stallions are few and far between, so the plan was to buy something that would hopefully do well and then we could either breed from her or sell her. With Breathtaking Look, we knew she would want a bit of time but I just loved her outlook and, even though she was big, she was athletic.”

Parry's red and pink silks have made numerous appearances on the racecourse aboard Williams-trained fillies, including the stakes-placed Oakley Girl (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}), who sold for 925,000gns in 2017. He has retained the listed-placed Holley Shiftwell (GB) (Bahamian Bounty {GB}) and another four-time winner Stellar Surprise (GB) (Notnowcato {GB}), who is out of a half-sister to Crystal Ocean (GB) and Crystal Capella (GB).

“He is retiring this year from his job so he is going to cut down on the horses a bit,” says Williams of his brother-in-law, who boards mares with James Thom of Galloway Stud, which is based at Woburn. “He's a great guy and he has supported me well, buying two or three every year.”

While Breathtaking Look has been the star of Diomed Stables this year, some of the yard's former residents have also been making names for themselves from the paddocks in 2020, including the dams of two Classic winners Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Dream And Do (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}).

Venetias Dream (Ire) (Librettist) produced the latter, who won the G1 Poule d'Essai des Pouliches in June before being sold to Katsumi Yoshida of Northern Farm.

Williams recalls, “Barry Root bought an old mare and had her at Old Mill Stud with my stepfather David. She was carrying an Oasis Dream (GB) foal at the time and we trained her [Dreamacha (GB)] for Barry. She won quite a few races, was rated 90, and we took her to Germany and just missed out on some black type with her.  Then he sent the mare to Librettist and she produced Venetias Dream. I couldn't keep her sound but I managed to get her to the track about four or five times and she ended up being rated about 52. She was sold for minimum bid at one of the sales to go to Libya, but her dam had quite a good back page and her sister then produced [treble Group 1-winning miler] Charm Spirit (Ire), so one of the agents went and bought Venetias Dream back from Libya, put her in foal to Siyouni, and sold her on. And her first foal is now a Classic winner.”

In the case of Pikaboo (GB) (Pivotal {GB}), the dam of Love, she was bought by David Redvers for 20,000gns after making two starts for John Gosden.

“David and I have been friends for years and he would always have a leg of something with me, me. and I'd have something with him. When he bought Pikaboo, he handed me the ticket and said 'have a leg and win a race with her and we'll breed from her'. I completely failed to win a race with her. Third at Southwell was the best I could do. So we retired her and covered her with Ishiguru. That filly made 40,000gns at the breeze-ups and won a couple of races. Then the mare went to Sleeping Indian (GB). The next one was by Lucky Story, all David's stallions obviously, and she was quite a nice filly, turned out a touch in front but a good-bodied filly. George Margarson bought her as a yearling and that was Lucky Kristale (GB).”

Following his introduction to Sheikh Fahad, Redvers sold a number of mares he owned in partnership to focus on the burgeoning Qatar Bloodstock empire. Thus, before Lucky Kristale had taken to the track and won two Group 2 races as a juvenile, her dam had gone to the sales the previous December, where Pikaboo sold for 50,000gns to Paul Venner. Her subsequent private sale to Coolmore would have been for many multiples of that.

And Willliams also has first-hand knowledge of another of the mares in the sale this year, Shena's Dream (Ire) (Oasis Dream {GB}) (lot 1602). She has her own tale of sales high and lows and is now better known as the dam of another Lowther S. winner, Miss Amulet (Ire) (Sir Prancealot {Ire}).

“Gordon Thom picked her out at the December Sale. She had won four races for William Haggas and we decided to buy her to try to get some black type,” Williams says. She was a really strong, good-looking filly and we ran her in the good fillies' handicap during the Victoria Cup meeting at Ascot. Unfortunately she reared up in the stalls and hit her head and just had a bad experience. We had already covered her with Sepoy (Aus) by then so she was retired to stud.”

He adds with a laugh, “I'm not sure it's a good selling point-send me your filly and if she doesn't win a race at least she will breed a Group winner!'

It may well persuade breeders to make close inspection of the five-strong draft heading to Tattersalls from Diomed Stables, but as Breathtaking Look and so many before her have shown, Williams is more than capable of training winners.