Newsletter Winter 2019
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Newsletter Winter 2019 “Telescope” by Grace. THE SHADE OAK NEWSLETTER: 2020 SEASON This is the sort of winter day I love: crisp, dry, the sun rising low in the sky and the fields and hedges glistening with dew as they invite the thrilling chase that surely awaits me and my trusty charge, Sir Francis. So, why, you might very well ask (as I did myself not five minutes ago), am I locked in the loo with just an ipad for company? “That’s where most people read it so that’s where you can write it,” my lovely wifie kindly explained. So here I am, poised to bring you informative information and insightful insights into stud life, stallions, breeding and anything else that comes into my head so that I can produce sufficient words to earn early release, aided only by my trusty assistant who sits poised at the other end of an email connection ready to dig up some relevant statistic I can’t quite call to mind or remind me of the odd fact that I asked him to make a note of for just this moment. So here, just so long as the broadband doesn’t go down, is the annual Shade Oak Newsletter… THE SEARCH FOR A STALLION For the second year running we have no news of a new both Telescope and Dartmouth and a great trainer of stallion arriving at Shade Oak for the forthcoming season. I middle-distance horses, made the dreadful mistake of realise that breeders are often excited at the thought of using running him in a 10 furlong Group 1 rather than tackling a new stallion. It is a little like having a new car, shiny and the much simpler task of a 12 furlong Group 2 – and he full of exciting possibilities – for about a week, until you went and won it! My assistant rebuked Sir Michael in no realise that it does pretty much the same thing in getting uncertain terms when he encountered him at a TBA event you from A to B but maybe lacks some of the things you shortly afterwards, but the only response from the eminent really liked about the previous car. However, the fact that knight was a roar of laughter. we don’t have a shiny, expensive new model to offer will be a disappointment to some, as in some ways it is to me. Nonetheless I continued with my usual practice in such cases of developing a 10 year spreadsheet forecast of the However, there is no point bringing in a new stallion if he is numbers of nominations we might sell each year, and at simply not as good as the ones we already have here, which what fees, and then performing a Discounted Cash Flow in I believe is the case for all those arriving at British studs in order to indicate what price might sensibly be afforded to 2020. Our policies in buying stallions are simple: purchase him – I just love doing this stuff! Eventually, the 1. We buy a stallion with the intention of keeping him at horse suffered an injury and had to be retired. With several Shade Oak for the rest of his stud career, rather than friends that own good NH broodmares we formed a small selling him on if we receive a tempting offer or if it syndicate and put in our best offer, which involved a sum looks as if he is proving a disappointment. of money that certainly made my eyes water. Unfortunately, 2. We only buy a stallion if we think he is good enough ‘the lads’ whose eyes are already located over the water to send significant numbers of our own mares to, in (in Barbados usually) have ready access to rather greater the expectation that the sales and racing results of their amounts of money and were prepared to spend a tiny produce will advertise his merits to other breeders. portion of it purchasing the horse to stand in Ireland, so it 3. We look for stallions that were high-class racehorses was bye bye and goodnight to dreams of looking out of the with the combination of high cruising speed, stamina, window gazing at a crystal ocean. size, scope, soundness, athleticism and toughness that is required in a top-class NH horse. We also believe The alternative approach, of course, is to look for a stallion that they should themselves be by outstanding sires that has stood abroad or as a Flat sire and is good enough and with good pedigrees. These factors indicate that to be credible but not so good that he can’t be bought. This the stallion is likely to pass on the right genes to a approach can work if you are clever enough (or more likely sufficient number of his produce such that he proves lucky enough) to spot one that is under-rated at the time himself a high-class sire. you buy him, even by his owners! However, the risk for breeders using him is that they are vulnerable to the results Each year I spend many hours, aided only by the odd of a relatively small number of his produce that are likely to observation from my trusty assistant, tracking well-bred Flat race over Jumps in Great Britain and Ireland. horses racing over middle-distances, looking for just these characteristics. Some fall by the wayside, not realising the If some do well the stallion will be regarded as a success. If potential they once appeared to have. The odd one becomes they fail, which is far more likely for a sire with only a few simply too successful to obtain as a Jumps sire – if he wins a representatives (often bred from moderate mares), the foals major Group 1 other than over 1¾ miles or more he is likely you produce by the ‘new hot sire’ may be as cold as yesterday’s to be tried as a Flat stallion and will only become available tea by the time you come to sell them. Using unproven for Jumps breeding if he comes to be regarded as a failure stallions is always a gamble, but the odds are much longer if in that role - not a great advertisement! You are looking for you are relying on hearsay of what is in the pipeline rather one good enough to win at Group 1 level but that for some than hard facts about the stallion’s race record, pedigree and reason didn’t quite succeed – like Telescope when he was produce record – which, coincidentally, we seek to provide collared in the last furlong of the King George VI & Queen below. Elizabeth S by a top-class filly (Taghrooda) to whom he was giving 15lbs, a near-impossible task. Anyway, we don’t have a new stallion that ticks all the boxes we want, and we certainly don’t have one that has been at In 2018 we thought we had spotted one, a middle-distance stud for several years but we have been able to identify as Flat horse by a stallion we admire, who had won several a hot-shot that no-one else has noticed; so instead I must Group races but not a Group 1. We were poised to strike. move on to the stallions we actually have – plus one we Then in 2019 Sir Michael Stoute, the man who developed might have one day…. Newsletter 2019 CHOOSING A STALLION FOR YOUR MARE Choosing a stallion for your mare depends upon why you are request one. The problem is that, like those on Black Friday, trying to breed a foal in the first place. If you are doing so to these discounts are often achieved by the ingenious plan of earn a living, then skip this part because I don’t know how to applying them to fees that are excessive in the first place, do that since I earn my living with the help of my good friends which in addition are dependent on the euro/£ exchange Mr Wind-Turbine, Mrs Solar-Panel and Ms Bio-Boiler, and rate. When you look at the most important measure, what by standing a few carefully selected stallions. I breed foals so you will actually pay in pounds sterling, the ‘great deal’ may as to support these stallions and because I enjoy breeding not be quite as great as it seemed to be. them. However, most of the people reading this newsletter probably have the following hopes and aspirations: Then you come to the important issue of getting the mare in foal, which not only affects when the foal will be born (1) They are trying to produce good racehorses. and how much in keep and veterinary charges you will have (2) If they have to sell foals to make ends meet they want incurred by then, but whether she gets in foal at all. Far be to make decent money. it from me to comment, but you may have heard rumours that some studs ‘over the water’ take unlimited numbers of In both cases the choice of the stallion is critical (as, of bookings to their most in demand stallions so that, if your course, is choosing the right mare to breed from in the first mare comes in season on a particular day in Spring, then, as place – but that is a topic for another day!). the well-known bloodstock reporter ‘Dirty Harry’ Callaghan might suggest: “The question you gotta ask is ‘Do I feel The general principle that many hours of in depth research lucky?’”.