SATURDAY, 26 JANUARY 2019 should not be forgotten than among the 10 career wins of STALLIONS FOR ALL Sheikh Fahad Al Thani's Dunaden (Fr) (Nicobar {GB}) are also the G1 Caulfield Cup and G1 Hong Kong Vase. Then there's G1 Irish SEASONS AT OVERBURY Derby hero Jack Hobbs (GB) (Halling), a fellow high-earner thanks also to his victory in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic. Another to have landed the spoils on Dubai's biggest raceday is Cityscape (GB) (Selkirk), the Juddmonte-bred G1 Dubai Duty Free winner who made eye-catching strides with his first crop of 3-year-old runners last season. To reinforce the breadth of stallion talent on offer at Overbury, one of the busiest members of the crew last year was Ardad (Ire), whose similarity to his sire Kodiac (GB) mixed with his commercial market appeal of speed and precocity had the owners of 132 mares beating a path to his door during his debut season. In looks and background, he is almost a polar opposite to the 16.3-hand Schiaparelli (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}), whose 12 victories--including five Group 1s--from 21 starts across four seasons tell their own tale of his particular brand of reliable Kayf Tara at Overbury Stud | Emma Berry German engineering. As if this line-up wasn't enough, a late entry announced just By Emma Berry last week is the well-bred Frontiersman (GB), a son of Dubawi Within hollering distance of jump racing's unofficial (Ire) and Ouija Board (GB), no less, who didn't quite scale the headquarters of Cheltenham sits Overbury Stud. There could be heights of his Derby-winning half-brother Australia (GB) (Galileo no more appropriate base for the horse who has been Britain's {Ire}) on the track but on pedigree alone deserves a chance at champion National Hunt sire nine times, but there is much more stud. to lure breeders to step inside the honeystone walls of this Cont. p2 understated farm than just Kayf Tara (GB) (Sadler's Wells). At 25, the Meon Valley Stud-bred dual G1 Ascot Gold Cup winner has bragging rights as the stallion who put Overbury, in IN TDN AMERICA TODAY its current guise, on the map, but he is far from the only IT’S PEGASUS DAY AT GULFSTREAM PARK top-class racehorse within the stallion yard. Kayf Tara's fellow No less than $16 million is at stake Saturday at Gulfstream Park near residents have been well travelled in their quest for success. Top Miami for the $9-million GI Pegasus World Cup Invitational and the of the tree on prize-money earnings is the horse who is instantly inaugural running of the $7-million GI Pegasus World Cup Turf. synonymous with his Melbourne Cup victory of 2011, but it Click or tap here to go straight to TDN America. TDN EUROPE • PAGE 2 OF 8 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • 26 JANUARY 2019 Stallions For All Seasons At Overbury cont. from p1 particularly on the Flat side of things as well." From the newest arrival to the farm's lynchpin, eagle-eyed He continues, "Tim Holland-Martin had finished and moved observers will have spotted a link with Sheikh Mohammed's on, and Penelope Bossom, who owns the estate, didn't want to Godolphin operation. It is an association which has helped carry on the breeding enterprise, which had obviously been Simon Sweeting, who leases the stud from the Bossom family, hugely successful with [treble Classic winner] Grundy (GB) being return Overbury to a thriving the pinnacle." Thoroughbred breeding Sweeting's arrival marked a operation since his arrival there new era for the farm as a in late 2000. stallion operation, with Kayf "I was very fortunate that Tara, freshly retired with eight Sheikh Mohammed was happy victories at Group 1 and Group to trust, on his agent's advice, to 2 level to his credit, a notable send horses here," says first incumbent. The stallion Sweeting, a former assistant to master can be forgiven his Luca Cumani and Henry Cecil obvious soft spot for his who grew up on his family's veteran. "He's been an absolute Conduit Farm Stud in superstar--a horse that you Oxfordshire. "They were horses Click for an interview with Simon Sweeting on the Overbury stallions dream about but you'd never that [Darley] wanted to retire, expect to get," he says. "Really, but didn't necessarily want to have at Dalham Hall Stud at that if I'd known how difficult it is, and how tough it is to find a horse stage. An example of that was Bertolini, who came here in 2002, like that I probably never would have started the enterprise at and was a huge success in his first year. They didn't necessarily all. He came and he was popular, and he's never put a foot want to be selling all the stallions or the potential stallions as wrong for us. He's been the horse that we've built the business they had done in the past. So it helped us get established, on, it's as simple as that. TDN EUROPE • PAGE 3 OF 8 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • 26 JANUARY 2019 Stallions For All Seasons At Overbury cont. He's kept going, he's been very fertile, he's got tremendous libido, and he's been a success at stud. He's done everything for us that we could have possibly dreamt that he might do." With a much smaller pool of National Hunt mares in Britain compared to Ireland and France, the UK has often struggled to compete when attempting to attract appealing jump stallions. To an extent, Kayf Tara can be credited with turning the tide, and the recent retirement of Telescope (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) to Shade Oak Stud, as well as some classy French imports to Yorton Vice President, International Operations Farm, means that the British National Hunt stallion scene is Gary King gradually improving. Twitter: @garykingTDN Whether Schiaparelli can follow the example set by a number [email protected] of other sons of Monsun in the jumping ranks remains to be + 1.732.320.0975 seen, and it will also take time to establish the imposing Jack International Editor Hobbs, who drew many favourable comments at this week's Kelsey Riley TBA National Hunt Stallion Showcase at Goffs UK, and whose Twitter: @kelseynrileyTDN book of 168 in 2018 contained only four Flat mares. [email protected] European Editor Emma Berry Twitter: @collingsberry [email protected] Associate International Editor Heather Anderson Twitter: @HLAndersonTDN Marketing Manager Alayna Cullen Twitter: @AlaynaCullen [email protected] Jacks Hobbs and Frankie Dettori | Sarah Farnsworth Contributing Editor Alan Carasso Twitter: @EquinealTDN Sweeting says, "He is a horse who 20 years ago would have been very popular at the start of his career as a Flat stallion. Cafe Racing Nowadays, unless you are the Derby winner, and a highly-rated Sean Cronin one at that, middle-distance horses don't get the same Tom Frary opportunities at stud. Commercially, people want faster [email protected] stallions, they want more precocious stallions. So in a way it's Irish Correspondent good luck for us, really. We've had a chance to stand him as a Daithi Harvey National Hunt stallion from the start. It's great for UK-based National Hunt breeders to have a horse like that. I think he is as Regular Columnists good a racehorse to retire to the National Hunt ranks, or to be Andrew Caulfield priced up as a National Hunt stallion straight away, that I can John Berry remember." Kevin Blake With the Sharpen Up sireline hanging on by a thread, Overbury Tom Peacock Stud is a rarity in being able provide a double dose, with Cityscape backing up Jack Hobbs in this regard. TDN EUROPE • PAGE 4 OF 8 • THETDN.COM SATURDAY • 26 JANUARY 2019 Stallions For All Seasons At Overbury cont. And as we work our way down the distance spectrum we Physically reminiscent of both his sire and grandsire, the arrive, eventually, at the speedball Ardad, whose first foal long-striding chestnut with the broad blaze made many arrived last week and who, like Jack Hobbs, joined Overbury breeders sit up and take note last season when he was Stud last season from John Gosden's Clarehaven Stables. responsible for the Classic trial winners Dan's Dream (GB) and "He's totally the opposite kind of animal [to Jack Hobbs]," says Give And Take (GB), as well as listed-winning sprinter The Sweeting of the G2 Flying Childers S. winner. "He's a small horse, Broghie Man (GB). Furthermore, his son formerly known as he's well put together, a ball of muscle, really. He always looked Urban Aspect (GB) and trained by Andrew Balding, recently a sharp type of horse and he is what the market wants at the made an explosive debut in Hong Kong under his new moniker moment. He's by Kodiac, he's a Royal Ascot-winning 2-year-old, of Ka Ying Star and runs Sunday in the Hong Kong Classic Mile. and he made plenty of money at the breeze-up sales. So if he can produce foals that look like him, I very much hope that the breeders will make some money from him, and that we'll have another good stallion. He's had some shrewd support, a lot of what I would describe as the hard-nosed commercial breeders have supported him. That's only going to help him, but it's all in the lap of the gods.