Wandering Eyes

Here we address your thoughts, questions and statements about Hong Kong racing. Have something to say? Send a tweet to @SCMPRacingPost Can’t believe there’s no racing the one Wednesday I’m in Hong Kong! – @RealRichWhitney Sorry Rich, it’s a combination of bad luck, bad timing and poor scheduling. Obviously, Typhoon Mangkhut threw a large spanner in the works, forcing Sunday’s meeting at Sha Tin to be cancelled and it was absolutely the right call. Full credit... View the full article

A $370,000 colt by Super Saver (Hip 2865) led the way Wednesday to kick off Book 4 during another strong day of trade at Keeneland September. A total of 283 yearlings changed hands during the auction’s ninth session for a gross of $13,354,600. The average was $47,189 and the median stood at $35,000. Seventy-two horses failed to meet their reserves for an RNA rate of 20.3%. Over the past nine days of trade, Keeneland has sold 1,987 yearlings for a total of $359,245,200, an average of $180,798 and a median of $100,000. There have been 669 youngsters led out of the ring unsold for an RNA rate of 25.2%. Wednesday’s session was topped by a Super Saver colt out of GSP Welcome Guest (Unbridled’s Song), who was purchased by Solis Bloodstock on behalf of the Roth family’s LNJ Foxwoods for $190,000 at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton November sale. She raced for another season for her new connections before retiring to their broodmare band. Consigned by Darby Dan Farm, Hip 2865 hails from the family of Grade I winners Glitter Woman, Political Force and Unbridled Elaine. The day’s top filly was a $360,000 daughter of Into Mischief (Hip 2907) purchased by agents Salusto and Albina from the Gainesway consignment. Bred by Double K and Helen K. Groves Revocable Trust, the bay is out of the unraced Asian Empress (Empire Maker), a full-sister to Grade I-winning millionaire Acoma; and a half-sister to GISW sire Arch (Kris S). The yearling herself is a half-sister to MSW Tea Time (Pulpit). Gainesway was the session’s leading consignor with 23 yearlings selling for $1,504,00. Red Wings was the day’s top buyer, taking home five horses for $469,000. Keeneland September continues through Sunday with sessions beginning at 10a.m. View the full article

Old friends come full Circuit at Kranji View the full article

Logan still taking stok of Kiwi stable star View the full article

Tan books Yeni for Nova Strike View the full article

Team Asia draws well for PGI Jockeys Challenge View the full article

With a step forward in the $300,000 Kelso Handicap (G2) Sept. 22 at Belmont Park, Don Alberto Stable and WinStar Farm's Battle of Midway could be in a position to defend his title in the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile (G1). View the full article

With a step forward in the $300,000 Kelso Handicap (G2) Sept. 22 at Belmont Park, Don Alberto Stable and WinStar Farm's Battle of Midway could be in a position to defend his title in the Breeders' Dirt Mile (G1). View the full article

Slated as the 123-pound highweight for the $300,000 Charles Town Oaks (G3), Peter Deutsch's Take Charge Paula will give the overflow field of 13 3-year-old fillies three to five pounds Sept. 22 at Hollywood Casino at Charles Town Races. View the full article

Unbeaten in two starts this year, Uni will try to make it 3-for-3 when she takes on a field of five older fillies and mares Sept. 22 in the $200,000 Noble Damsel Stakes (G3T) over one mile at Belmont Park. View the full article

University of Kentucky Markey Cancer Foundation will hold The Betsy Gala and Grand Prix, an annual fundraiser held each year to support the UK Markey Cancer Foundation. Presented by Hagyard Equine Medical Institute, the event is held in memory of Betsy Fishback, the wife of renowned veterinarian Dr. Dave Fishback who passed away from breast cancer in 2009. Guests can bid on live and silent auction items and enjoy dinner as they take in the show jumping action in the arena below. Guests will also have the opportunity to “back” their favorite riders by bidding on one of the eight or more Calcutta teams. If the winning rider is on their team, they split the pot with the charity. Included in this year’s live auction are a barrel of bourbon from one of Kentucky’s premier distilleries and a 2018 John Deere TS Gator. “Each year the team at Hagyard goes above and beyond to help us make this such a fantastic and lucrative event for us,” said UK Markey Cancer Foundation President and CEO Mike Delzotti. “Every hour of every day, someone in Kentucky loses their battle with cancer. Our friends at Hagyard help us honor not only the memory of the incredible Betsy Fishback, but so many others through this event, and the money they raise makes a profound impact on those fighting this disease.” A limited number of tickets ($350) and tables ($2,500) are still available and can be reserved by calling 859-323-6448. For further information, go to UKmarkey.org. View the full article

Knowing undefeated Instagrand is healthy and ready to run, owner Larry Best is going to go against the horseman's mantra of "run them when they're ready" and will give the 2-year-old Into Mischief colt the remainder of the 2018 racing season off. View the full article

It its 34-year history and over hundreds of races, the Breeders’ Cup has provided many a thrill and many a great race. But virtually everyone agrees that one race stands alone: that the 1988 Distaff, won by Personal Ensign, was the greatest Breeders’ Cup race ever run. This year marks the 30th anniversary of that race and on this week’s Thoroughbred Daily News podcast, brought to you by Taylor Made, we’ll look back at this great race with trainer Shug McGaughey and jockey Randy Romero. Recalls McGaughey of the race, “When you see something like that…she ran down the Derby winner and the Oaks winner to win. I don’t know if you ever know they have that much determination, particularly because in her other races she was kind of winning easily. It’s hard to measure that kind of heart until they’ve showed it to you, but she certainly showed it that day.” Click here to listen to the podcast, but first, relive the race by watching it below. View the full article

Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider’s MGISW Elate (Medaglia d’Oro) will miss an expected appearance in Belmont’s GI Beldame S. Oct. 6 after inflammation was discovered in the area of the splint bone in her right foreleg, the Daily Racing Form reported Wednesday. Trainer Bill Mott told the Form that Elate could return to training by Oct. 1 at the earliest, and it is still possible that she could train up to the GI Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Churchill Downs Nov. 3. A two-time Grade I winner at three in the Alabama and Beldame, Elate kicked off her 4-year-old season in 2018 with a victory in the GII Delaware H. before recently finishing a hard-fought second behind Abel Tasman (Quality Road) in the GI Personal Ensign S. at Saratoga Aug. 25. View the full article

Old Glory (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) began the seven-furlong Irish Stallion Farms EBF Maiden at Naas the 6-4 favourite based on a number of factors, with one of them being the fact he was the 2017 Goffs Orby Yearling Sale topper at €1.6million. Racing in the Zayat Stables silks, the bay who is owned in partnership with Sue Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith broke well before being positioned just off the pace by Donnacha O’Brien. Moving smoothly to the front with a furlong remaining, he eased clear of Erich Bloch (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}) to score by 1 1/2 lengths. Aidan O’Brien was on hand to witness a perfect racing introduction for the half-brother to the G2 Herbert Power S. winner Assign (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) and the G3 Scandinavian Open Championship and G3 Oslo Cup-winning champion Giuseppe Piazzi (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and said, “We’re delighted. He’s a lovely horse I’d say to win first time like that, as he’ll come forward plenty. John who rides him in his work was very happy with him and so was Seamus and everyone close to him. We’ve always liked him and Donnacha said he travelled well, did everything well and took a blow. We’d like to go steady and we won’t overdo it, so the seven-furlong race at Leopardstown [the Oct. 20] G3 Killavullan S.] or something like that will do. He’s a horse that will stay much further than seven.” OLD GLORY (IRE) (c, 2, Frankel {GB}–Belesta {GB}, by Xaar {GB}) Sales history: €1,600,000 Ylg ’17 GOFORB. Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, €10,164. Video, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton. O-Mrs John Magnier & Michael Tabor & Derrick Smith; B-Earl Ecurie du Grand Chene (IRE); T-Aidan O’Brien. View the full article

Meagher’s Flag (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) (lot 179), a winning 3-year-old colt from Jim Bolger’s Glebe House Stables, topped Wednesday’s Goffs UK Horses-In-Training Sale when picked up by Tom Malone for £65,000. An annual highlight of this sale is the Gigginstown House Stud Annual Dispersal, and that draft produced six horses in excess of £35,000 including All Hell Let Loose (Ire) (Shantou) (lot 151), a 9-year-old Group 1-placed hurdler bought by Brendan Bashford Bloodstock for £62,000. Trade closed with an 88% clearance rate, with 192 horses sold for £2,094,800. The average and median each dipped slightly at £10,910 (-3%) and £7,500 (-6%), respectively. View the full article

A stakes-winning owner during Kentucky Downs recent meet is donating $5,000 to assist jockey Kendrick Carmouche, who severely fractured his leg when his mount fell after clipping heels. “Our group was fortunate enough to win a large purse at Kentucky Downs,” said the owner, who did not want to be identified. “Sadly, Kendrick Carmouche did not fare as well as we did. Jockeys are as integral a part of our sport as are owners and the horses themselves. Kendrick is expected to be sidelined four to six months. Even with insurance, that’s a very long time to be unable to work, and expenses mount quickly. We are pleased to share some of our good fortune with Kendrick and his family for their use during his recovery. We hope other owners who benefited from the racing at Kentucky Downs will do the same.” Those wishing to contribute can send checks made out to Kendrick Carmouche and mailed to the Jockeys’ Guild, 448 Lewis Hargett Circle, Suite 220, Lexington, KY 40503. The Guild will ensure all contributions go directly to the jockey and his family. Carmouche’s mount, Chattel (Giant Oak), was among the leaders in midstretch of the $500,000 Kentucky Downs Juvenile Turf Sprint Sept. 8 when another horse vying for the lead, Sovereign Impact (Munnings), came out and forced Chattel to clip heels and fall. Chattel sustained a fractured shoulder and had to be euthanized. Sovereign Impact was disqualified to last for interference and his rider, Adam Beschizza, was handed a three-day suspension for careless riding by the stewards for causing the mishap. Carmouche suffered a fracture to his right femur. He had surgery the following day to insert a rod and four surgical screws to stabilize the injury. View the full article

Undefeated recent GI Test S. winner Dream Tree (Uncle Mo–Afleet Maggi, by Afleet Alex) will be offered as a racing or broodmare prospect in the Taylor Made consignment at the upcoming Keeneland November Sale. “We are really excited about running Dream Tree in the Breeders’ Cup,” said Tom Ludt, head of U.S. operations for owner Phoenix Thoroughbreds. “She showed her class last month at Saratoga [with her win in the GII Prioress S.], coming off a layoff and just accelerating down the lane like she did.” He continued, “It is with mixed emotions that we are selling her, but Phoenix has to maintain a focused vision for the fund. We see her as an exceptional filly worth a lot to a long-term breeder, and we have to consider managing the fund, so we thought it was best to sell her this year.” A debut winner at Santa Anita in October, Dream Tree followed suit with a win in the Desi Arnaz S. at Del Mar a month later and capped off her juvenile campaign with a win in the GI Starlet S. at Los Alamitos Dec. 9. Kicking off this term with a decisive score in the GII Las Virgenes S. in Arcadia Feb. 4, the bay was sidelined for the spring and returned with an ultra-impressive victory in the Prioress at Saratoga Sept. 2. “Keeneland is pleased to offer Dream Tree, a beautiful filly with exceptional talent who successfully competed at the elite level,” Keeneland Vice President of Racing and Sales Bob Elliston said. “She will be a highly prized addition to a racing stable or broodmare band.” View the full article

American steeplechasing increasingly is an international sport, with horses formerly based in England and Ireland filling the stables of U.S. owners. While horses bred overseas have had an influence on the American sport for decades, the growing interest in finding the right horse for U.S. jump racing is evident in the field for Thursday’s $175,000 G1 Lonesome Glory Handicap at Belmont Park. Of eight entrants, six were bred outside the United States, and the favorites most likely will have country codes after their names. (It’s hardly an anomaly. The preceding race on Belmont’s card, the William Entenmann Memorial Novice Hurdle, also will have six overseas-born horses from nine entrants.) The big-money American races, notably the Far Hills Races’ $450,000 G1 Grand National in New Jersey Oct. 20, are the principal magnet, and leading Irish trainer Gordon Elliott has felt the pull. He will have one starter in the 2 1/2-mile Lonesome Glory, Clarcam (Fr) (Califet {Fr}), now owned by Rosbrian Farm and Wendy and Ben Griswold. The County Meath horseman was also responsible for developing another favorite for the Lonesome Glory, Zanjabeel (GB) (Aussie Rules), who visited Far Hills last October and romped to an easy victory in the Foxbrook Champion Hurdle for novices, or horses in their first seasons of racing over fences. Purchased by the Griswolds and the Rosbrian operation of Marylanders Mandy and George Mahoney, the now 5-year-old has blossomed into a championship contender for Pennsylvania-based trainer Ricky Hendriks. Zanjabeel scored a five-length victory in the G1 Calvin Houghland Iroquois May 12 and was given the summer off to prepare for the Lonesome Glory and the Grand National. Zanjabeel will be ridden by Irish-based jockey Jack Kennedy, who was in the irons for the Foxbrook victory last fall. Zanjabeel’s regular rider, Ross Geraghty, will stay on another member of Hendriks’ stable, Optimus Prime (Fr) (Deportivo {GB}), who scored a relatively easy 1 1/4-length victory in Saratoga Race Course’s G1 New York Turf Writers Cup H. Aug. 23 in his U.S. debut. Clarcam, who also made his U.S. bow in the New York Turf Writers, stumbled on landing after Saratoga’s Clubhouse fence, causing jockey Lisa O’Neill to lose her left iron. She stayed in the saddle and regained the iron, but by then Clarcam had lost all chance. Still, Clarcam is a legitimate threat in the Lonesome Glory. The 8-year-old has won more than $600,000 in 48 career starts, and he arrived in America off a free-running victory in the €250,000 thetote.com Galway Plate Steeplechase Aug. 1. He will be ridden by Jack Doyle, who currently leads the jockey standings by wins. (Geraghty leads by earnings.) Clarcam and Optimus Prime share the 158-pound highweight assignment in the Lonesome Glory, and Zanjabeel is next in the weights at 156. Another overseas-bred horse, Show Court (Ire) (Vinnie Roe {Ire}), accounted for Saratoga’s other major steeplechase race, the G1 A. P. Smithwick Memorial H. July 30. Trained by Arch Kingsley Jr., Mark W. Buyck’s Show Court finished fourth in the New York Turf Writers. View the full article

Peter O’Callaghan sells horses. That is to say, he gets them sold. Not because of any kind of unusually slick sales pitch, or complimentary coffee and cookies at the Woods Edge barn. He gets them sold for two reasons: first and foremost, because of an innate eye for the arc of development implied in the weanlings he examines every winter; but also because he resists the kind of stubborn reserves that can leave a pinhooker with too many balls in the air. “Your clearance rate, in our business, is just vital,” the Irishman said, taking a break from showing his wares at Keeneland. “You have to keep selling. If you’re coming out the right side of them, as long as you’re getting one or two good ones along the way, you’re making money. We’re very pragmatic. I think we RNA’d one horse in the ring here last year. We will RNA, with one or two, but you don’t want to be gathering them up. Whatever you paid for them, that was nine months ago. If it doesn’t play out on the day, you have to accept it. In our experience, our first loss is our best loss.” As such, even the spectacular touch that lit up the opening session of the ongoing September Sale needs placing in perspective. Yes, the unprecedented $400,000 punt O’Callaghan took on a colt from the first crop of American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile) in the same ring last November was lavishly vindicated when Godolphin paid $2.2 million for Hip 91. And yes, there have been several other profitable transactions since, notably $1,025,000 from Stonestreet Stables for the Ghostzapper (Awesome Again) filly O’Callaghan presented as Hip 740, who had been another white-knuckle $335,000 docket at the November Sale. But there will also have been hits to absorb among no fewer than 58 lots catalogued from Woods Edge across 11 sessions. And, while a net profit this time appears guaranteed, it could easily go in the next pile of chips. Certainly O’Callaghan is not deceived that bigger and bigger investment, at the foal sales, will lead inexorably to bigger dividends. “The American Pharoah was the most we ever paid for a foal,” he said. “But you know what, with these weanlings you can’t have too many of those big price-tags in your barn. At $400,000, you’re cutting out a lot of people on the selling end. Really the market for those good weanlings is either side of $200,000. Much past that, you’re cutting out so many people that can potentially buy your horse. And last November was particularly tough. It seemed like every good foal cost $200,000, where in other years they just came in a bit less. It you can stay south of 200, you’re giving yourself a chance. But this year the whole thing was a bit steeper.” O’Callaghan was duly at full stretch for the son of the Triple Crown winner consigned last fall by Darby Dan. One more bid, in fact, would have denied him the second foal of the multiple graded stakes-placed Kindle (Indian Charlie). “That was our absolute limit, no question,” he said. “Another bid and we were done. We knew we’d probably have to give $350,000, and a couple of bids-and we were on the wrong foot. At $375,000 you either leave him, or you bid $400,000. Which we did, and we got him. It was kind of a unique opportunity. He was a beautiful specimen by a great racehorse, the greatest we’ve had here since Secretariat. And he had a lovely female family: a fast mare, by Indian Charlie, out of a Carson City mare. So it was speed, speed, speed all through the bottom side.” “He was the first Pharoah in the ring [at that sale], but we also felt he was the best one. We weren’t sure we’d have a chance to buy him: there’s a lot of racing money in the weanling market, particularly in November. So all you can do is be prepared, go in there knowing what kind of level you might still have a chance of making some money. If a big end-user came in over the top of us, so be it. So we just went in and stretched for him.” For those who faced a similar test of their own resolve and resources, when the colt returned to the ring last week, there was an additional incentive in the proven benefits of the Woods Edge regime. O’Callaghan, after all, processed such future stallions as Drefong (Gio Ponti), Eskendereya (Giant’s Causeway) and Street Boss (Street Cry {Ire}) through this same auction. That record is unsurprising in a member of the extraordinary family that has produced two authentic rags-to-riches stallions back home in Ireland: his father Gay, mother Annette and brother David stand Dark Angel (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) at Yeomanstown Stud, while his uncle Tony, aunt Anne and cousins Roger and Henry have Kodiac (GB) (Danehill) at Tally-Ho. “We grew up around horses, me and my brothers,” O’Callaghan reflected. “Our father is a gifted horseman and taught us from a young age what a good horse looks like, and also taught us the value of a horse-both from a purchasing and reselling point of view. He bought horses here in Keeneland for years, to bring home, and always thought it a great market. So he suggested I come out here to work for a season. I enjoyed it so much I decided maybe we’d rent a little place, see if we could buy a few foals, a few mares, see how it goes. Instead we ended up buying this beautiful farm. The first year went badly, very badly. But the second year went really well, and then it just snowballed. And now I’m embedded so deep in it all: we have another farm, we have a lot of friends here, and the next thing you know you’ve been here 17 years.” His father and brothers travel over to Fayette County to contribute their own expertise and foot-slogging to the arduous ritual of prospecting each new crop of weanlings. “We cover a lot of ground, you know, we work it hard,” O’Callaghan said. “There’s no one formula. We look for good strong horses that are balanced and correct and move well. You’re always looking for a little bit of X-factor, but as weanlings we find you can’t be overcritical. As long as they have some good basic structure, a lot of the other stuff can develop the right way for you: you know, the little bit of quality, the little bit of something extra.” O’Callaghan is increasingly incorporating homebreds into his draft, to ease the pressure of restocking. In purchasing foals, without seeing their dams, you only ever get half the picture-for better or worse. As O’Callaghan says, sometimes an animal will be “not quite finished;” sometimes, equally, it will simply be presenting a family look. “We’ve sharpened it up pretty well, though,” he said. “I’d like to think we’re getting better all the time, at identifying what we think could make a really nice yearling-and a really nice racehorse. Because at the end of the day, it’s the racehorses you need for your brand. We’re definitely on a good roll with that now, selling a lot of winners the last five or six years. We’re not trying to buy ‘fixer-uppers,’ you know. We’re trying to buy legit horses that have a chance of making into yearlings that will make into racehorses.” And perhaps that famous family instinct is as much about knowing when to leave things to nature, as sensing when she can be given a helping hand. “Time is a great thing for these horses,” O’Callaghan said. “There’s only so much you can do with your feeding and your working. Every month for these horses, at this stage of their life, is important. If you can get them on an upward trajectory, they’ll be getting better every month. That’s why the fall is such a great time to sell yearlings: they’ve had that summer’s grass, and time to develop before you have to start getting into them.” Which is another reason for being realistic when it comes to the sales. The horses have to respond to the program they’re on. Unless there is a short-term veterinary issue, O’Callaghan is prepared to accept that a horse might simply be less than he had hoped. (Not least because he dislikes the idea of treating breeze-up sales as a clearing house for unwanted yearlings. He thinks you need a specific type of horse for such a specific job.) “No doubt about it, your biggest lessons come from your mistakes and your failures,” he said. “Whether you’re breeding or trading or training. Successes are great, but you can’t dwell on them. I always think about the ones I got wrong a lot more than ones I got right. And I think most people who are successful in this game think the same way.” “So we’re trying to learn, year on year; we learn as a group, we makes mistakes every year, but we learn from them quickly, and don’t blame each other. If something goes wrong, we just take it on the chin and move on. And if it goes well, we don’t get too high about it either. You have to stay pretty even about the whole thing. Because it’s never over the line until it’s over the line. You can never get too high on any horse, be it the week of the sale or two months before, until he’s sold.” O’Callaghan continued, “Same in the racing game. You go through a lot of tough phone calls, a lot of disappointments along the way. But there’s no other sport that gives you the satisfaction of a good racehorse, there really isn’t. You work a lifetime for a horse like Dark Angel. It’s no accident that it happened to Gay. He’s been through a lot of them, you know, to find Dark Angel. The horse is an incredibly humbling animal. They just bring you to your knees. But when they’re good to you, they’re really good to you.” View the full article

Royal Meeting is a son of the G1 Alan Robertson Fillies’ Championship-winning champion 2-year-old filly Rock Opera (SAf) (Lecture) and therefore a half-sister to Heavy Metal (GB) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}), winner of the 2012 G2 Richmond S. and this year’s G2 Al Maktoum Challenge Round 1 and G2 Godolphin Mile, $1,790,704. Sent off the 2-1 favourite, he was slowly away but unhurried in rear throughout the early stages. Creeping closer passing halfway, the homebred was cajoled by Alrajaa (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) in the last 50 yards to score by a half length. The dam is a full-sister to the G2 P. G. Bison Nursery winner Hit Song (SAf) (Lecture) and the Allan Robertson Fillies Championship third Rock Concert (SAf), with the latter being responsible for Van Halen (SAf) (Oratorio {Ire}) who captured the G1 Gold Medallion. Also connected to the G1 Cape Flying Championship hero Gulf Storm (SAf) (Sail From Seattle), she has a yearling colt by Shamardal. 2nd-Great Yarmouth, £7,400, Mdn, 9-19, 2yo, 7f 3yT, 1:26.08, g/f. ROYAL MEETING (IRE) (c, 2, Invincible Spirit {Ire}–Rock Opera {SAf} {Ch. 2-y-o Filly-SAf, G1SW-SAf & SP-UAE, $115,777}, by Lecture) Lifetime Record: 1-1-0-0, $6,293. Video, sponsored by Fasig-Tipton. O/B-Godolphin (IRE); T-Saeed bin Suroor. View the full article

Dual Guineas winner Cockney Rebel (Ire) (Val Royal {Fr}-Factice, by Known Fact) will stand at Batsford Stud in Gloucestershire, with Phil Cunningham having reacquired his full ownership. Cockney Rebel, winner of the 2000 Guineas and Irish 2000 Guineas in 2007, stood initially at the National Stud in Newmarket before relocating to France in 2013. Cunningham raced Cockney Rebel and in 2016 formed Rebel Racing with Richard Spencer. Cockney Rebel will stand for £2,500. “When I bought Cockney Rebel for £30,000 in 2005, I had no idea of the journey he would take me on,” Cunningham said. “To win two Guineas with him was amazing and it feels only right to have him back home. As possibly the fastest winning stallion of the 2000 Guineas still at stud, he represents outstanding value for both flat and jump mares.” View the full article

Commissions retained by British racecourses on the sale of any winning horse sold through the post-race auction of a selling race will be capped at 10% of the sale price from Oct. 1. Currently, commissions charged vary by racecourse and can be anything up to 50% above the minimum bid. The commission was reduced by the British Horseracing Authority to encourage horse people to run horses in selling races. Paul Johnson, Head of Racing for the BHA, said, “Having once been a popular race type, in recent years we have seen a decline in the attractiveness of sellers. We hope that these steps will go some way to revitalising sellers and make them a more appealing proposition for racecourses to stage as an alternative to handicaps.” View the full article

Clear Height. The sign on the stable gate is perfectly descriptive, but we are not on the High Moor in Middleham, looking down from a vantage point above the Lambourn Valley, or atop Warren Hill. This is Epsom. It’s a place known to racing fans the world over. Home, not to the oldest Classic but to the most significant, and to a racecourse which once teamed with every variant of human life in the Derby’s heyday as Britain’s foremost sporting outing. At the evocatively named Clear Height Stables is trainer Simon Dow, who admits that he could sell tickets for people to watch London’s New Year’s Eve fireworks from his back yard. On this beautiful late summer morning it’s easy to see his point. From his eyrie, Dow has the perfect view of the capital’s cityscape, from the Wembley arch to Canary Wharf, some 15 miles to the north as the crow flies. Turn 180 degrees and the picture is markedly different, however. As Dow’s horses leave the stable for exercise every morning, they are immediately in the shadow of one of the world’s most famous grandstands. Once having crossed that sacred turf on which champions are made or reputations torn asunder, the horses and their riders filter out onto the Epsom Downs, their morning exertions carried out on rolling gallops that would rival many facilities in more isolated settings. “There’s always the issue of operating an essentially rural, or certainly semi-rural, activity in an increasingly urbanised environment. And I think that all of us, wherever you are [training], unless you’re completely out in the middle of nowhere on your own property, are experiencing that,” says Dow, whose biggest successes to date have come via the globetrotting multiple group winner Young Ern (GB) (Efisio {GB}) and, more recently, Mr Scaramanga (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}), who took the valuable Al Biddah Mile during Qatar’s major racing festival last year. “I was up in Middleham in the winter with Karl Burke, and you’ve got the same problems. It’s a small village but you’ve still got cars on the road. We all have to put up with modern-day life and things changing, people not being quite so sympathetic to horses. But still, here, yes we can see the London skyline as we talk, and there’s a huge expanse of incredible facilities here that are racing’s best kept secret in a way—the Epsom gallops.” Dow’s a local man who grew up running cross-country races on the Downs. Drawn to racing when taken to local meetings by a school teacher, he is very clearly proud of the area’s sporting heritage while discussing the training grounds and what he describes as “the jewel of the borough”. A long-serving Chairman of the Epsom Trainers’ Federation, he is now Vice Chairman to Jim Boyle and is one of the town’s greatest advocates. “Most local people that you talk to really like having the horses here and recognise that the presence of the horses protects the Green Belt and the open space,” he says. “And also that Epsom Downs is flat and open with no scrub because of the presence of the training industry, not the racecourse. So if there wasn’t the money coming in from the gallops fees, there wouldn’t be the money to keep mowing the grass, and so on.” Local cooperation aside, there’s no escaping the fact that the number of horses and trainers in Epsom continues to decline. From just over 500 horses with 19 trainers in 1970, current-day figures stand at around 200 horses in 10 training yards. That’s less than a 10th of the number in training in Newmarket, which has seen an increase in horses in recent years. Dow, with 22 horses, works tirelessly, in common with many smaller trainers in the racing industry. By the time the TDN arrives in his yard at 7am, he’s already ridden two horses, and he’ll complete another three lots before heading to the races with two runners. “I thought, when I started training when I was 23, that if I hadn’t sorted it out by the time I was 30 I’d have got it out of my system and I’d still have enough time to stop and do a proper job. And now I’m 57 and I’m still thinking,” he says. If he hadn’t volunteered his age, it would be hard to guess. A natural fitness that comes with the daily physical exertion is paired with an enquiring mind receptive to the ever-changing demands of training. Clever people realise that there are always plenty of new tricks to be learned, and Dow is clearly still enamoured of a way of life that can be as mentally stressful as it is physically demanding. “It’s been a wonderfully rewarding thing, and I’m not even half done yet,” he says. “I’ve found it fascinating, and I’ve learned a lot about myself. But you learn a lot about people, not just about the horses. I think the most exciting thing, for me, is that as a horseman you continue to learn so much. It’s like the universe expanding. Every time you do another year you think, ‘I now realise how little I know’. By comparison, I’ve opened my mind up to learn a lot during this period. Whereas you can go at it quite closed-minded and you think, ‘Well, I’ve done it for 10 years so I must know what I’m doing’, but actually, the reverse is true. You just keep learning and learning and learning.” The most important lesson to be learned for all trainers—alongside the important retention of staff—is how to attract new owners to the sport, and for Dow and his Epsom colleagues, the proximity to a busy capital city should be a bonus. For some reason, however, as a training centre it has fallen out of fashion. And without the support of owners, if training yards become vacant, the premium on land and house prices around London makes it much harder to prevent those stables being snapped up by property developers. “We need to understand why Newmarket is overflowing with horses and the great and the good choose to have their horses there. Perhaps there would be some merit in some of those horses being more personally cared for in smaller environments,” Dow muses. “I meet countless people that actually live in local villages to Epsom and have horses trained in Newmarket and haven’t ever considered having them trained in Epsom. Why? It just doesn’t make sense. It’s very important to identify why that’s the case.” He is not alone in seeking answers. The Jockey Club, which owns the gallops and racecourse at Epsom, as it does in Newmarket, is involved, along with the BHA, in a project called The Epsom Vision. The taskforce is looking at ways to revitalise the training centre to attract both more trainers and owners. The fact that both Dow and his neighbour Jim Boyle are in the early stages of having new yards built, and that plans have been submitted to build another two 30-box stableyards in the town, is also a much needed shot in the arm. If his fellow trainers have a similarly forward-looking approach to running their businesses as Dow, then it’s hard to imagine that some progress won’t be made in ensuring that this historic racing centre is preserved. “Understanding what that client wants, and making sure that you can deliver it if you can, is extremely important,” he says. “In 2018, you kind of need to be five different people doing the job: you want one person in charge of your staff, one person in charge of your clients. But you also want to be doing this stuff with the horses and making sure the whole thing just binds and it all works. But we mustn’t lose sight of the customer. Retention of clients is very important.” Dow continues, “It’s been heartening to see that the leaders of the industry recognise the significance and importance of Epsom as a training centre, and possibly that it’s been a little bit forgotten. You could say I’m passionate about the place. It’s almost exclusive. The facilities really are first class. You can train any sort of horse here.” We live in different times to the melee depicted in painter William Powell Frith’s celebrated 1850s masterpiece ‘The Derby Day’. The fact that Epsom was, and still is, so easily accessible to a mass of city-dwellers, is also today one of the elements which poses the biggest threat to its continuation as a famous base from which to prepare racehorses. One senses that while Dow remains in the town with a training licence, the very idea that Epsom’s long tradition could be halted would be met with a stern, “Not on my watch”. He says, “This is where the Derby originated. There’s probably 100 races around the globe now which have Derby in their title. But there’s only one Epsom Derby and this is where it all started. So we’ve got history and we’ve got the site and the location. It’s very emotive.” View the full article

A filly by Quality Road brought $420,000 from Jamie McCalmont, agent for Sarah Kelly, to top Tuesday’s second and final session of Book 3 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale. Keeneland sold 271 yearlings for $19,603,400 during the eighth session of the marathon sale Tuesday. The average was $72,337 and the median was $50,000. With five sessions to go, Keeneland has sold 1,704 horses for $345,890,600, good for a cumulative average of $202,987 and a cumulative median of $130,000. Tuesday’s session topper was produced by Chapel (Pulpit), an unplaced daughter of MGSW Owsley (Harlan). Owsley has produced the stakes-winning and multiple graded-placed Senada (Pulpit) and GI Resorts World New York Casino Wood Memorial S. runner-up Arthur’s Tale (Bernardini). The Kentucky-bred was consigned by her breeder Stone Farm as Hip 2550. Arthur B. Hancock III’s Stone Farm was also represented by a $1.05-million Curlin filly (Hip 814) and a $975,000 Quality Road (Hip 457) colt during Book 1. Stone Farm sold a $285,000 Lea filly (Hip 2604) during Tuesday’s session as well. McCalmont, acting on behalf of the Kelly family throughout the Keeneland September Sale, has also signed for: Hip 353, a $700,000 Medaglia d’Oro colt; Hip 473, a $400,000 Pioneerof the Nile colt; and Hip 807, a $500,000 Uncle Mo colt. A son of Into Mischief led the way for the colts during Tuesday’s session, bringing $350,000 from the very active SF Bloodstock/Starlight West partnership. Bred in Kentucky by Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds, Hip 2616 was consigned by Bridie Harrison, agent for Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds. Out of the winning Mr. Greeley mare Flawless, he is from the family of Group 1 winner Reynaldothewizard and Grade I winners American Gal and Seventh Street. The SF Bloodstock/Starlight West tandem have purchased a total of 19 yearlings at KEESEP thus far, good for a total of $9,315,000 and an average of $490,263. Bridie Harrison, agent for Peter E. Blum Thoroughbreds, also consigned the day’s third-highest-priced yearling, a $335,000 Malibu Moon filly (Hip 2575), who was purchased by Spartan Bloodstock. West Point Thoroughbreds & Vosburgh were the day’s leading buyer, purchasing four yearlings for $595,000. Paramount Sales led all consignors, selling 22 horses for $1,783,000. The September Sale continues through Sunday with all sessions beginning at 10 a.m. ET. View the full article