Turnbull=S BC Journey with Mondialiste Cont
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TUESDAY, 1 NOVEMBER, 2016 DUBAWI HEADS EXPANDED DARLEY ROSTER TURNBULL=S BC JOURNEY Darley announced their 2017 European stallion fees for a WITH MONDIALISTE roster that features nine new stallions across three countries, Monday. Heading the roster is the brilliant Dubawi (Ire) (Dubai Millennium {GB}), sire of Postponed (GB) among many others, who will stand for a fee of ,250,000 at Dalham Hall next year. His Irish counterpart, Shamardal (Giant=s Causeway), will stand for a private fee again this year. Among the newest offerings, the most expensive to retire for 2017 is former champion 2-year-old Belardo (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) who will stand at Kildangan Stud for a fee of i15,000. An interesting addition to Haras du Logis in France is Australian champion 3-year-old Exosphere (Aus) (Lonhro {Aus}), shuttling from Australia. The Group 1 winner broke records over both six and seven furlongs and will stand for i6,000. Cont. p4 Mondialiste (#9) | Horsephotos by Chris McGrath IN TDN AMERICA TODAY John Magnier couldn't believe it, either, the day Geoff Turnbull CALIFORNIA CHROME HEADS BC CLASSIC told him how he first fell in love with horses during his Co 2014 Horse of the Year California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit) drew Durham boyhood. post four for the $6-million GI Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa "My father was a horse-keeper down the mines," Turnbull Anita Park Nov. 5. Click or tap here to go straight to TDN explained. "They had 3,000 pit-ponies in five collieries, and America. eventually he became head horse-keeper in the North-East, with a couple of hundred men under him. He loved those horses, and used to look after them when they got injured--they didn't use vets in those days. And the stables were immaculate. He would take me along on Saturdays, when he was breaking them, and I'll always remember as a 10-year-old running around while he walked them round this post, it was like a ship's capstan. And I said to him, >Daddy, one day I'm going to have my own horses. Racehorses.' And he looked at me and told me I was Walter Mitty." If only the old man could see him now. Turnbull is having a coffee at Clockers' Corner at Santa Anita Park, having just visited one of the leading European fancies at the Breeders' Cup in the quarantine barn. Mondialiste (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was second in the GI Breeders= Cup Mile at Keeneland last year, crowning a season of remarkable improvement after Turnbull had picked him out from a Horses-in-Training sale at Deauville and sent him to David O'Meara. Cont. p2 The Stars of the Spring are born, raised and sold in Australia. PRIZED ICON Gr 1 Victoria Derby FLYING ARTIE Gr 1 Coolmore Stud S. WINX Gr 1 Cox Plate JAMEKA Gr 1 Caulfield Cup 4 more examples of Australian breeders offering their best at the yearling sales. Best of luck to JAMEKA Tom Reilly in today’s Emirates Melbourne Cup CEO Aushorse Marketing M | +61 (0) 423 146 334 E | [email protected] Jessica McKeown Communications Manager M | +61 (0) 498 807 205 E | [email protected] Aushorse.com.au TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 2 OF 12• THETDN.COM TUESDAY • 1 NOVEMBER, 2016 Turnbull=s BC Journey With Mondialiste Cont. from p1 Having since confirmed his flair for North American racing by winning the GI Arlington Million, Mondialiste is set to break new ground with a crack at 12f in the GI Breeders= Cup Turf. But however astonishing his transformation, since his days of servitude as a pacemaker in France, it does not begin to compare with the story of his owner. Turnbull remembers his dismay when it was ruled that he was not to work in the Horden mine. His brother had suffered a life-changing disaster down there, breaking his back when trapped for three days by a rockfall. His mother had lost her own father in just the same way. "But in those days you never went out of the village, it was all you knew, the mine," Turnbull said. "So yes, I was upset. I had to go off and do an apprenticeship instead. Tailor, photographer or engineer. So I chose engineering, and started with Castrol Oils at ,2 15s a week. That was with overtime as well. I met my wife there, she was working in the design office. And we've been married 52 years." The parallel benefits have been no less sustained. By 1973, two years after the pit-ponies were brought out of service, he was able to enter a partnership as a subcontracting engineer. In time he took sole control of the GT Group and, even as the collieries began their terminal decline, Turnbull remained so far ahead of the game in environmental engineering that when he finally sold the business, in August, it had a payroll of 300 and a turnover of ,50 Mondialiste | Racing Post million. "I was a design nut," he explained. "Research and development has always been a passion. The latest thing we did was ship-to-ship refuelling of liquid nitrogen gas, though probably the biggest thing we did was develop an emissions system for heavy goods vehicles. We sold three million of those, worldwide." Critically, Turnbull understood not only that industrial processes would have to be cleansed, for the sake of the planet, but also that the legislation required as a result would drive a massive commercial market. In the years that followed, his counsel was sought by statesmen--he accompanied David Cameron to Russia, and has a picture on his phone of a barbecue in the garden of No. 10 Downing Street--and he sat on advisory panels alongside the bosses of BP and Tesco. Cont. p3 TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 3 OF 12• THETDN.COM TUESDAY • 1 NOVEMBER, 2016 Turnbull=s BC Journey With Mondialiste Cont. Nor is there the remotest danger, even at 70, of Turnbull retiring to enjoy the proceeds of his remarkable career. Since selling up, he has already started new ventures in finance and construction. But his unequivocal priority is Elwick Stud, embracing a 200-acre site on a former arable farm near Hartlepool and the state-of-the-art stallion station he is erecting on the grounds of his nearby house. If you did not know of his deeds in business, of course, you might attribute a bigger role to luck than judgement in Turnbull managing to meet a challenge as ambitious as unearthing a legitimate stallion prospect at auction. But the rest of his owner's story suggests the rise of Mondialiste to be no coincidence. "Freddy Head had been using him as a pacemaker, and he had held on for third in the G1 Prix Jean Prat," Turnbull recalls. "But when I saw him I was very disappointed. I thought he must have a pelvis injury, he was so weak, so thin, he had no condition at all. That could have been the stress of racing, it could have been any number of things. The fact was he'd been able to run very well just a few days before, and I thought if he could do that, looking like that, then he'd do for me. At least the way he looked kept the price down [€190,000]. So we took him home, put him in a field, and gave him plenty of time, plenty of care and attention, plenty of carrots." IN TDN AMERICA TODAY The dividends were immediately apparent when Mondialiste TDN Q&A: JIMMY BELL resurfaced in the Lincoln H. last year, going under by just a neck under a big weight. Sue Finley catches up with Jimmy Bell, President of the Board "I got that wrong," Danny Tudhope said on dismounting. of Directors of the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. Click or tap "Should have won. But we've got something here. This is some here to go straight to TDN America. horse." True, the horse would not vindicate that assessment until the summer, but once getting on a roll it took 2015 GI Breeders= Cup Mile heroine Tepin (Bernstein) herself to stop him. Mondialiste won a race at Pontefract by 10 lengths, made his G3 breakthrough at York and then won the G1 Woodbine Mile before overcoming an unsuitably steady tempo and heavy traffic to finish second at Keeneland. This time round, Mondialiste again came to hand in midsummer. "To be fair, David was training from a building site at the start of the season, and there was a bit of a bug in the yard for a time as well," Turnbull said. "But he's a bit like me. Everything must be the best. He has gone from a round field, where you couldn't get two 2-year-olds side by side, to a facility that's going to be as good as there is." Turnbull is bringing that same trademark ambition to a bloodstock investment that is already far bigger than many realise: there are already 70 head of horses at the stud, while he has 23 to be distributed among several northern yards next year. As in business, picking the right team is essential: whether at the stud--where he has hired Gary Moore, seasoned by long stints at Coolmore and Whatton Manor--or in the stable. Cont. p4 TDN EUROPE/INTERNATIONAL • PAGE 4 OF 12• THETDN.COM TUESDAY • 1 NOVEMBER, 2016 Turnbull=s BC Journey With Mondialiste Cont. BREEDERS= CUP MEMORIES "Each trainer has his strengths, and you try to match them to the horse," Turnbull explained.