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Punt Drunk: Who doesn’t love a Raging Pole?
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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Since the death of Ian Balding, we have been reflecting on treasured memories not only of the highly respected trainer but also of one of Kingsclere's greatest patrons, Paul Mellon. It was fitting, therefore, that Andrew Balding should have won at Newcastle last Friday with Level Look, who was bred by Emma Balding at Kingsclere Stud and is raced by the Kingsclere Racing Club, whose horses keep the famous black and gold Mellon silks alive. On a much grander scale, another fitting recent result was that of the General Sires' Championship of Great Britain and Ireland for 2025, in which both the new champion sire (Night Of Thunder) and the runner-up (Wootton Bassett) hail from families developed by Mellon. Continuity was a keystone of Paul Mellon's racing enterprise. The decades passed and he continued to enjoy success with the same families, equine and human. That too is the theme at Kingsclere Stud and Level Look is a classic example. His sixth dam Anippe (Aggressor) was among the two-year-olds trained at Kingsclere by Ian Balding in his second season as the licence-holder, 1965, during which year she won at Salisbury and Newbury. In 1968 she visited the first top-class horse whom Balding trained, Paul Mellon's home-bred 1964 Coventry and Dewhurst Stakes winner Silly Season. The result of that mating was Level Look's fifth dam Siliciana, who was trained by Balding to win the Lincoln Handicap in 1973. All the mares along the line from there to Little Look were trained at Kingsclere, as were all their sires except Little Look's maternal grandsire Intello. (The other stallions who contributed were Mill Reef, Selkirk, Dashing Blade and, most recently, Little Look's sire Passing Glance). Paul Mellon's connection with Kingsclere's human family dates back even farther. He began owning horses in England early in 1936 when sending Drinmore Lad, winner of the Camden Steeplechase Cup in Virginia, to the Wroughton stable owned by the widow of the Hon. Aubrey Hastings, on the suggestion of his compatriot and friend Ambrose Clark. The trainer there was Ivor Anthony, who had taken over the licence after Hastings had died in 1929 and who had subsequently sent out Mrs Clark's Kellsboro' Jack to win the Grand National in 1933. Mellon was welcomed at Wroughton by Mrs Hastings and her family, which included her teenaged son Peter, who was still at school at the time. The plan had been that Drinmore Lad would contest the Grand National. Early betting markets had him disputing favouritism with the mighty Golden Miller, who by this time was trained by Ivor Anthony's brother Owen at Letcombe Bassett, having left Basil Briscoe's Exning stable at the end of the 1934/'35 season. However, Drinmore Lad ran poorly in his lead-up race and didn't contest the great race (in which Golden Miller, who had just won his fifth Cheltenham Gold Cup, fell at the first fence). Drinmore Lad ended up never running in a Grand National but Mellon's love of England and its racing, both National Hunt and Flat, meant that plenty of other big races in Britain would feature his famous silks. There was, incidentally, a nice post-script to Drinmore Lad's tale when, 30 years later, Mellon owned a young National Hunt horse who looked so like him that he named him Drinny's Double. Trained by Bob Turnell, Drinny's Double carried Mellon's colours to victory in the Two-Mile Champion Chase at two consecutive Cheltenham Festivals, in 1967 and '68. Peter (whose surname became Hastings-Bass in 1954 to comply with a stipulation in the will of his maternal uncle, Sir William Bass) reached adulthood in time to serve in the Welsh Guards during the war, after which he acted as assistant to Ivor Anthony for six years before taking over the Wroughton stable. Mellon was a staunchly supportive patron from the outset. In 1953 Peter moved to Kingsclere, which he had bought from Evan Williams. The latter had ridden the Ivor Anthony-trained Royal Mail to victory in the Grand National in 1937 before starting to train at Kingsclere, whence he sent out Supreme Court to win the inaugural King George VI And Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, whose value of £25,000 made it the most valuable race ever run in Britain at that time. Peter Hastings-Bass quickly became one of Britain's leading trainers. One notable result came when he provided Mellon with his first major victory in England courtesy of his home-bred American colt Midsummer Night in the Cambridgeshire Handicap in 1960. Three years later, the trainer enjoyed further success with another of Mellon's American home-breds when Secret Step, a four-year-old daughter of Native Dancer, won the July Cup at Newmarket and the King George Stakes at Goodwood. Tragically, Peter Hastings-Bass died of cancer in June 1964, aged only 44. Jockey Club rules did not permit his widow Priscilla to take over, so the license at Kingsclere passed to his 25-year-old assistant Ian Balding. Five years later, Balding married Peter and Priscilla's daughter Emma; two years after that, owner/breeder and trainer secured the biggest prize of them all when Mill Reef won the Derby. And now in 2026, 55 years after Mill Reef's superb three-year-old campaign and 90 years after Mellon made the acquaintance of Peter Hastings and his mother, we have just seen Mellon's colours carried to victory by a horse who has both Silly Season and Mill Reef in his pedigree, who was bred by Emma's Kingsclere Stud and is trained by Andrew. Long-running sagas of friendship don't come much better than that. Level Look's victory at Newcastle, of course, was not at a high level, unlike many of the triumphs during 2025 of the sons and daughters of Night Of Thunder and Wootton Bassett. Fittingly, one of the best contributors to Night Of Thunder's championship season was the Balding-trained Dewhurst winner Gewan. Mellon would have enjoyed that but, in truth, he would have appreciated all of the success enjoyed by both Night Of Thunder and Wootton Bassett. Both stallions have Mellon's Rokeby Farm in Virginia etched firmly in their pedigrees, each descending from one of his best mares. Night Of Thunder's family came to Europe in the autumn of 1979 when his fifth dam Leap Lively (Nijinsky) was one of the yearlings who left Rokeby Farm and headed across the Atlantic to Kingsclere. Ten years previously Mill Reef had made the same journey. She proved to be a very good filly, winning the G2 Fillies' Mile at Ascot as a juvenile in record time and finishing third in the following year's Oaks. She returned to Rokeby and in 1983 was one of the first mares to visit the Star Kingdom-line stallion Green Forest (Shecky Greene) who had been a champion miler in France the previous year. The resultant filly was tiny but had the heart of a lion. Trained by Ian Balding, Forest Flower gave Mellon two of his happiest days in the game. She won three major races as a two-year-old including, most appropriately, the G2 Mill Reef Stakes. The following year she galloped to even greater glory in the Irish 1,000 Guineas. Forest Flower bred nothing as special as she herself had been, despite visiting leading stallions on both sides of the Atlantic including Mr. Prospector and Shirley Heights. She also visited (in 1991) Mill Reef's Derby- and St Leger-winning son Reference Point, a magnificent racehorse who was disappointing at stud. The filly which that mating produced, Hertford Castle, turned out to be one of the most modest horses ever to carry Mellon's silks, cutting no ice at all in three maiden races in 1994. Consequently, she did not gain a place in Mellon's broodmare band. However, at stud she produced two listed-placed winners including Night Of Thunder's granddam Quiet Storm (Desert Prince). Sent to Galileo in 2005, Quiet Storm produced Forest Storm who, trained by Jim Bolger for Miss A. H. Marshall, emulated her dam by winning a maiden race and finishing second in listed company. Those were good achievements by Forest Storm but have been totally eclipsed by her greatest feat, producing a Dubawi colt in 2011 who stands proud as a 2,000 Guineas winner and now the Champion Sire of Britain and Ireland. Wootton Bassett comes from a family which garnered even greater honours for Rokeby. Mellon bought his fifth dam Blue Banner (War Admiral) as a yearling in 1953, on the advice of his original jumps trainer Jack Skinner, and she became a multiple stakes winner and then a terrific broodmare. In the short term she bred several stakes winners, but long term it was her unraced daughter Key Bridge who proved most significant. A daughter of Princequillo (who was also responsible for Mill Reef's dam Milan Mill), Key Bridge is notable not just as the fourth dam of Wootton Bassett but also as dam of two of the best horses ever raced by Rokeby Stable. Key Bridge's first star was Fort Marcy (Amerigo), an outstanding turf horse who won 21 races including the Washington DC International (which in the pre-Breeders' Cup days was easily the most significant turf race in North America) in both 1967 and 1970. In the latter year he was the Daily Racing Form's Horse of the Year. Nearly as great was Key To The Mint (Graustark). Despite not contesting the Kentucky Derby and then finishing only third in the Preakness and fourth in the Belmont, Key To The Mint ended 1972 voted American's Champion Three-Year-Old Colt thanks to a slew of stakes victories including Grade I triumphs in the Whitney, Travers and Woodward Stakes and the Suburban Handicap. Mellon subsequently bred several good horses by him including Java Gold (a three-time US Grade I winner) and Gold And Ivory, winner of three Group 1 races in Europe. Key Bridge's foals also included maiden winner Gliding By (Tom Rolfe), who produced two stakes winners trained by Ian Balding: Clare Bridge (Little Current), who won the Masaka Stakes at Kempton and the Gilltown Stud Stakes at the Curragh, and Song Of Sixpence (The Minstrel), the winner of 10 races including the Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor. Another daughter, Susquehanna Days (Chief's Crown), was less talented but scored at Warwick and Nottingham before being sold by Mellon at Tattersalls' December Sale in 1993 for 16,500gns. She now holds the considerably greater distinction of being the granddam of Wootton Bassett. One of the great gentlemen of the turf, Paul Mellon died in 1999 at the age of 91, but it seems as if his legacy will live forever. The post Mellon’s Great Legacy Encompasses Kingsclere And The Sires’ Championship appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Irish Thoroughbred Marketing boss Charles O'Neill has reported that the five new stallion sons of the late Wootton Bassett – Coolmore's Classic winners Henri Matisse and Camille Pisarro, Tally-Ho Stud's Maranoa Charlie, Rathbarry Stud newbie Unquestionable and Capital Stud's Topgear – are proving to be “a huge draw” for breeders and racing fans embarking on the two-day Stallion Trail, which kicks on Friday morning. Interest in the initiative, which began back in 2015, was also described by O'Neill to be “stronger than ever” with a number of foreign visitors expected to join the loyal cohort of racing fans on the Trail over the next two days. O'Neill said, “We're thrilled by the uptake and, more importantly, how the stud farms have really got behind the initiative. The stud farms have embraced the idea and, only for them, it wouldn't be possible. The first running of the Stallion Trail was back in 2015 and, in year three or four, interest did start to dwindle a little. However, the interest and the enthusiasm for the Stallion Trail from breeders and general racing fans is unbelievable, really. I would go as far as saying it is stronger than ever.” He added, “I think a big factor in that has to be down to the amount of new stallions that are retiring to Irish studs in recent years. And do you know what? The Wootton Bassett factor is proving to be a massive draw for this year's renewal. We have five new stallions by Wootton Bassett and, every second person I talk to, they tell me that they can't wait to get around to see them all. Racing fans love to see good horses, be that on the racecourse or when they retire to stud, so fingers crossed everyone has an enjoyable weekend.” The ITM Stallion Trail is not a parochial event, either. O'Neill reports that, along with the strong cohort of Irish breeders and racing fans, a good number of international visitors will be in attendance over the weekend. He concluded, “We have people from England, France and even Hungary who have come over for the tour. There will be plenty of international visitors on the Trail and I have actually been surprised just how busy the stud farms have been even before the Stallion Trail has kicked off. I'm kicking off the tour myself at nine o'clock in Tally-Ho Stud and I can't wait. There is actually a television crew coming over from France and they start filming at Tally-Ho and we will finish off at Ballyhane Stud before the ITM Mark O'Hanlon Memorial Quiz at The Lord Bagenal Inn in Leighlinbridge, County Carlow. Mark was with us for the first year of the Trail so it's going to be a big thing for us tomorrow night. It's 10 years since his passing and he was a great guy so we will be remembering him this weekend.” The post ‘The Wootton Bassett Factor Is Proving To Be A Huge Draw To The Stallion Trail’ appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
The Dec. 20 Gun Runner Stakes at Fair Grounds Race Course & Slots proved closely matched. A month later on Jan. 17, the next leg of the stakes series for current 3-year-olds there, the $250,000 Lecomte Stakes (G3), appears equally competitive.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Ocean Bear stretches out to a route for the first time in kicking off his 3-year-old season in the $175,000 California Chrome Cal Cup Derby.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Johnny Velazquez, who has served as Chairman of the Jockeys' Guild for more than 20 years and as Co-Chair with Mike Smith since 2018, will be stepping down from that role, the organization announced Thursday. The members have elected Smith and Javier Castellano as Co-Chairs; Joe Bravo, James Flores, and Julien Leparoux as Co-Vice Chairs; Tyler Gaffalione as Secretary; and Julien Leparoux as Treasurer. In addition, Alex Birzer, James Graham, Rodney Prescott, and Velazquez will serve on the Board of Directors. Velazquez will also remain actively involved with the Guild as a Board member. “There are absolutely no words to adequately recognize Johnny Velazquez and all that he has done,” said Hall of Fame jockey and longtime Guild Co-Chair Smith. “On behalf of the Guild and our members, we cannot thank him enough for his unwavering commitment, endless time, and relentless effort, not only on behalf of the jockeys and the Guild, but the industry as a whole. Although Johnny is stepping down as Co-Chair, he will remain on the Board and be active in the organization.” “I am proud of the strides that have been made in the areas of respect for the riders and the benefits that have been achieved over the years I presided as Chairman and as Co-Chairman of the Guild,” said Velazquez. “I look forward to being a part of the Guild and helping any way I can as a new generation takes the helm.” “I am so honored and appreciate Johnny, along with our Board, for having the confidence in me to join Mike as Co-Chair,” said Castellano. “Every single jockey is forever indebted to Johnny for where we are today. I am committed to representing the jockeys and the Guild in the best way possible.” “It has been my privilege to know Johnny personally for more than 30 years and worked with him closely for almost two decades as Chairman of the Guild,” said Terry Meyocks, President and CEO. “Through his leadership, the Guild was able to overcome many challenges and regain the respect of the industry leaders. I admire him and hold him in the highest regard and greatly appreciate all he has done for the jockeys and the industry. He has been, and will continue to be, an integral member of the Guild.” The post Velazquez Stepping Down as Chairman of the Jockeys’ Guild appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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