There has been lots going on since our last post in February, with the completion of the breeding season, under strict new protocols, all of our foals safely delivered, the start of yearling prep as well as some great results on the track, so there is plenty to be thankful for, to celebrate and to look forward to. In what has been a strange period for everyone over the last few months with the world going in to lockdown, we have still been very busy and as ever we are extremely grateful to all our staff, vets and farriers for continuing to work and for getting us through one of the busiest periods on a stud farm. Obviously we have a lot of new protocols in place to work safely but we have managed to keep the show on the road. We finished foaling on the 18th of May and have again had some really lovely foals, with the fillies just winning out on the average this time, albeit marginally, with 18 fillies and 17 colts.
In March we took over the Thoroughbred Tales Twitter account for a week, a great initiative set up by Sally-Ann Grassick and a team of journalists, to show the greater public what goes on behind the scenes here at Salcey Forest. Each week someone new takes over the Twitter handle, whether that be a stud farm, racing yard, pre-training facility, breeze-up consignor or even a sales complex and the idea is to show different roles in the industry and what they do on a daily basis. If you don’t already it is well worth a follow as there is some really great content on there. (Follow on Twitter: @ThoroughbrdTale)
We are currently well in to yearling prep and our first bunch of horses are heading off to the GoffsUK Premier Sale in Doncaster this Friday. We have a really smashing bunch of yearlings on offer, with fillies by Kodiac and Cotai Glory, and colts by Belardo, Bungle Inthejungle, Time Test and Pearl Secret. Due to the pandemic and everything becoming more digital, including the option of people being able to bid online, we had Laragh from deBurgh Productions here last week to take photos and videos of the sales yearlings which will be uploaded on to Twitter and Facebook once they are ready!
We have had plenty to celebrate since the resumption of racing with Jouska (Cable Bay ex Quiet Protest), a filly we bought as foal for Andrew Davis and Gary Doran, adding more black-type to her CV when finishing second in the Listed Flying Fillies’ Stakes at Pontefract earlier this month. We are excited about Bahrain Pride (Kodiac ex Life of Pi), who was bred here at the farm by John and Jess Dance and sold for 125,000gns at Tattersalls as a foal. He went on to make 300,000gns at the Craven Breeze-Up Sale this year and won first time out for Simon and Ed Crisford at Windsor. We will be offering his half-brother by Showcasing at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale this year. A filly to keep a close eye on is recent debut winner Pornstar Martini (Bungle Inthejungle ex Misplace), whom we bought at the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale this year. She is the first flat horse for her new owners Chris Haughey and Abi Keany who have a handful of jumpers in training. She is trained by Henry Candy and following her recent three-length Chepstow romp, connections are now looking at Listed entries for her. Roman Dynasty (Mehmas ex Empress Ella) was another recent first time out winner for Creighton/Schwartz Bloodstock and he is now rated 97. Purchased from the September Yearling Sale at Fairyhouse, he was subsequently sold by Katie McGivern at the GoffsUK Breeze-Up Sale. Disco Beats (Pearl Secret ex Indigo Beat) was the first winner for our own sire Pearl Secret, which was a special moment. He was sold by us as a foal, but we liked him so much we ended up purchasing him as yearling from Book 2 at Tattersalls for John and Jess Dance, who raced his dam. John and Jess also enjoyed success with Toussarok (Iffraaj ex Frangipanni), a Creighton/Schwartz Bloodstock Tattersalls Book 2 purchase, who won at Newcastle in June and is now rated 85. The highlight of our season so far and the most exciting for the season ahead is of course Rhythm Master (Dark Angel ex Pastoral Girl), whom we bought at Tattersalls Book 2 for John and Jess Dance. He was an easy winner first time out, scoring by four and a half lengths at Haydock in July. The vibes have been great on him all along and after his debut win the excitement was building and on just his second start he put up a cracking performance stepped up to the highest level to run third in the the Gr.1 Prix Morny last weekend. Running on soft ground and not getting the best of starts, fly jumping leaving the stalls and getting a bump, he was beaten by two top-class Royal Ascot winners so with the experience the future looks very exciting for this colt.
We are also delighted to have had some updates for some of the mares on the farm with Bimble (Acclamation ex Cape Violet), owned by Andrew Davis and Gary Doran, winning well on her second start for Henry Candy at Goodwood in June. She is out of Cape Violet, who has a Kuroshio colt foal at foot. Andrew and Gary also own Solfilia who is the dam of Gr.1 Gamely Stakes runner-up Bodhicita (Showcasing). We purchased Solfilia for them for 4,500gns at the 2018 Tattersalls July Sale and she has a Pearl Secret colt at foot and is back in foal to Showcasing (carrying a full-sibling to Bodhicita!). We also purchased Utrecht at this year’s Tattersalls February Sale for Blackberry Farm in foal to Dark Angel and she is the dam of Clog Maker (Dark Angel), who has won two on the bounce since and is currently rated 80.