Here he comes With a well-received first-crop of yearlings for Heeraat, Mickley Stud is looking forward to the stallion’s runners hitting the track in the spring. Aisling Crowe chats with Richard Kent 48 mickley stud Photo by Emma Berry LL BOODSTOCK investment IS HIGH RISK, but backing a new stallion is at the very top of the “beware” pyramid and should come with a government health warning.A Launching a new stallion onto the market takes nerves of steel, and particularly so when the stud in question is not perhaps located in the more fashionable enclaves of the thoroughbred world and the sire does not command the astronomical covering fee that attracts the attention, and mares, of the industry’s influencers. The process is fraught with as much risk as that of a space launch. Luckily, Richard Kent of Mickley Stud possesses the pedigree, experience and nous which have helped him guide the first three seasons of Heeraat toward lift-off, the son of Dark Angel due to have his first runners next spring, The process is also aided by Heeraat himself, a talented sprinter from a fast family, and by a sire who is establishing himself as a dominant force in the breed. “It has taken 25 years to try and understand how to get a stallion’s career going and to develop the confidence to do it,” confides the Cork-born Kent who runs the stud in Shropshire with his partner Claire Lloyd. “I spoke to Tony O’Callaghan about how he had achieved success with Danetime, Kodiac, and now Society Rock and he said you just have to keep working away, even though you can be unlucky and get average horses until one day the good ones come along.” Danetime and Kodiac began life at similar fees to the £4,000 that Heeraat has stood at for his first three seasons. His own sire Dark Angel has headed upwards from his initial fee of €12,000 and is set to command €85,000 next season; breeders looking to tap into his successful DNA at a lower price will be looking to his sons, but it is “snobbish” attitudes towards covering fees that Kent decries. “People look at a stallion’s fee and they see stallions standing for a lot of money and then they look at a £4,000 horse and they pooh- pooh him on the basis that because he doesn’t have a fancy price he can’t be any good,” says Kent. “The horse doesn’t know his fee, they don’t know how much they cost when they race, but unfortunately you have to accept it as part of the industry. “You look at Kodiac and Dark Angel Richard Kent Photo courtesy of Tattersalls though and they did it off low fees.” www.internationalthoroughbred.net 49 mickley stud Heeraat might just be to Kent and Mickley There are five daughters of Dark Angel what Danetime and Kodiac have been for “When it comes to buying amongst the broodmare band at Mickley O’Callaghan and Tally Ho Stud. Certainly the Stud, and Kent would love at least double early indicators from his first yearlings have horses, people should that, or more if he could get them. been positive – and Shadwell, who raced And it’s no wonder – in partnership with Heeraat, paid £150,000 for a colt from Paul listen more to what trainers Lady Lonsdale he bred leading juvenile and McCartan’s Ballyphilip Stud at Doncaster’s Group 1 Prix Morny runner-up Havana Grey Premier Yearling Sale. have to say about stallions from the first crop of Havana Gold out of the Another of his sons topped Doncaster’s Dark Angel mare Blanc De Chine. Silver Yearling Sale making £48,000 for the and their offspring Peggy’s Angel is another winning juvenile Flannerys’ Egmont Stud. from Mickley Stud this season who boasts McCartan, who bred this year’s Dark Angel as their damsire. Group 1 winners Harry Angel and Baattash, strongly to Kent, who cites the strength which “The mares have the same traits as their both by Heeraat’s sire Dark Angel, has been the grey sire imparts to his offspring as the father; they are tough and genuine, and are a believer and supporter from the start in the defining factor in his success. producing horses in that shape as we saw this Mickley-based sire. “I love the toughness of Dark Angels. year with the first crop of two-year-olds from “Paul is a very shrewd judge and he loved Richard Hughes was talking recently about Dark Angel’s oldest daughters,” Kent adds. him as a racehorse, he had three of Heeraat’s Guitar Pete whom his late father Dessie That durability and honesty which first foals and he has breeding rights to the trained to win two Grade 1 hurdles as a four- characterise Dark Angel’s offspring and is horse,” says Kent. “Paul also believed in year-old. associated with his dam-sire Machiavellian Kodiac and he bred his first Group 1 winner “He started racing on the Flat at three are two of the traits Kent is adamant breeders Tiggy Wiggy and he believed in Dark Angel, and yet he won a Listed handicap chase at should be looking to put into their produce. too, so it’s great that he is so strongly behind Wetherby at the start of this November. That Heeraat.” shows you the toughness of the Dark Angel It is the Dark Angel factor which appeals blood,” states Kent. T APPEAls to owners who want to have a horse in training and be competitive for multiple seasons, Proconsul: the full-brother to Frankel arrived at Mickley late last spring and is priced at £3,500 for whilst, he argues, trainers like horses this covering season. Kent says that he is a “lovely, kind horse with a great step on him” who take their work and racing. Photo by Equine Creative Media “When it comes to buying horses, peopleI should listen more to what trainers have to say about stallions and their offspring,” is Kent’s pragamtic view. “We should use more local stallions who have been successful on the track here, use what we are familiar with. You see a lot of those Australian horses that are raved about there, but when they come here we don’t know anything about them, their temperament, whether they were injured or anything. People need to consider more local horses.” Long before establishing Mickley, Kent received the best education in stallions and bloodstock that anyone could ask for – his father John, a farmer and a breeder from north Cork, bred the champion juvenile filly Pass The Peace. She became the dam of Embassy and Tarfshi and appears in the pedigrees of numerous top-class racehorses today. Kent Snr’s adage was to breed horses to outrun their pedigrees. He advised a lot of people and worked closely with the likes of Richard Galpin, Bert Kerr, Frank Carr, Tom Warner and Robert Percival. Pass The Peace was by Alzao, who stood nearby at Liam Cashman’s Rathbarry Stud, and was not then considered fashionable. Sarcastically nicknamed “Charlie Chaplin”, the flashy bay still managed to sire the Oaks winner Shahtoush, Winona, who was 50 www.internationalthoroughbred.net mickley stud victorious in the Irish Oaks, the Champion of Heeraat, Kent has not only called on all Stakes heroine Alborada, Second Set, who “You see a lot of those those early experiences built at the side won the Sussex Stakes, as well as the multiple of Cashman, but is also armed with the Group 1 winner Albanova amongst other Australian horses that knowledge picked up producing Karinga Bay classy offspring. and Overbury at his former base at Helshaw Kent went to work for Cashman and are raved about there, Grange Stud. observed at close quarters how to build and Partnerships with other breeders, develop a successful stallion career right but when they come especially trainers, have become an important from the foundations up to the ridge tiles method of building up the profile of the on the roof. It is expertise he is applying to here we don’t know stallions. Foal shares with other farms, the nascent career of Heeraat, who Mickley trading nominations for Heeraat and the Stud recently bought outright from Shadwell anything about them, their other stallions at Mickley with trusted although the international stud concern partners at other studs, including Bearstone, has retained breeding rights to the Group 3 temperament, whether they allows Kent to develop his client base, while Hackwood Stakes winner. increasing the chances of success for Heeraat. “We know Kate [Whitehouse] who used were injured or anything He says: “We have a number of trusted to be Angus Gold’s PA and she was always partners and that is vital when you are telling us about this beautiful, high-class breeding horses in partnership with other colt with a great temperament they had and in order to survive and build a business as an people.” that we should try and get him as a stallion,” independent stallion farm and stud. Mickley, though, is far from a recalls Kent. “Kate said this right from when Initially in the business of NH stallions, one-stallion farm and in Yorgunnabelucky, Heeraat was a two-year-old so we followed the 2008 recession meant the market for a winner on the Flat and over hurdles for his her advice and Angus Gold and Shadwell were jumps horses collapsed. Due to this difficult owner Roger Brookhouse, it stands one of the very good and helpful.