Stable-Mates to Stud-Mates: Golden Horn and Jack Hobbs Together Again

[Wandering Eyes]

On the morning of Sunday, June 7, 2015, a small gathering at John Gosden's Clarehaven Stables celebrated the previous day's Derby one-two of stable-mates Golden Horn (GB) and Jack Hobbs (GB). The two colts posed either side of their trainer, with their regular riders, the late Michael Curran and Taffy Williams, proudly at their sides.

Golden Horn would end the season as Horse of the Year, thanks to his subsequent triumphs in the Eclipse, Irish Champion Stakes and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Only the fillies Arabian Queen (GB) and Found (Ire) would get the better of him, in the Juddmonte International and Breeders' Cup Turf respectively. Jack Hobbs went on to win the Irish Derby and stayed in training for another two seasons, adding the Dubai Sheema Classic to his list of wins before retirement.

A decade after their Classic season, Golden Horn and Jack Hobbs are back together in the same yard at Overbury Stud, as they have been for the last few years, and in their different ways they are beginning to compile decent records as National Hunt sires. For Jack Hobbs that had always been the plan: the strapping son of Halling went straight into the care of Simon Sweeting's Gloucestershire operation upon retirement. In the case of Golden Horn, this was very much Plan B but, as back-up plans go, it is working out rather well.

Anthony Oppenheimer's homebred son of Cape Cross (Ire) retired with some fanfare to Dalham Hall Stud in 2016, where his opening fee of £60,000 was held for three years before gradually being trimmed. While Golden Horn is unquestionably a useful Flat stallion, he had not fulfilled the lofty expectations of those breeders who had backed him in the early years to maintain his position in Newmarket and, ahead of the 2023 covering season, with some notable early success from a smattering of runners over jumps, he was sold. Thankfully for British breeding, it was Jayne McGivern of Dash Grange Stud who stepped in to buy Golden Horn, opting to stand him not too far from her home at Overbury, which has a proven track record with its National Hunt stallions. Indeed, not long after Golden Horn's arrival, the Overbury stalwart and multiple leading jumps sire in Britain, Kayf Tara, died, leaving a vacancy to be filled in the British standings. It didn't take long for Golden Horn to stick his hand up to apply.

“It's huge good fortune, really,” says Sweeting as he looks forward to a week of decent contenders by Golden Horn at the Cheltenham Festival. These include last year's G2 Ryanair Mares' Novices' Hurdle winner Golden Ace (GB) – famed conqueror of the mighty Brighterdaysahead (Ire) – along with Nemean Lion (GB), East India Dock (GB), First Street (GB) and, potentially, Poniros (GB) and Too Bossy For Us (Ire), both of whom have now joined Willie Mullins but are unraced over hurdles to date.

He continues, “What are the chances of it happening? We are very, very lucky to have them both here. So you enjoy it, but you can't rest on your laurels.”

Mention of the good seasons currently being enjoyed by Golden Horn and Jack Hobbs prompt Sweeting to a swift response. “Don't forget Kayf Tara, as well. He's having an amazing time.”

He is understandably sentimental about the stallion who put Overbury Stud on the map under his tenure and lived with him in the Cotswolds until the age of 28. This season alone, Kaya Tara has been represented by the The New Lion (GB), currently favourite for the G1 Turners Novices' Hurdle, and G1 Future Champions Novice Hurdle winner Romeo Coolio (GB) among others, and he sits in 12th position in the National Hunt sires' table for Britain and Ireland. In the jumping game, it takes a long time for them really to leave us.

“When Midnight Legend died, I said to David [Holmes], 'You've got 10 more years of Saturday afternoon racing that you can enjoy',” recalls Sweeting, who is now experiencing the same bittersweet aftermath with Kayf Tara.

“Obviously it's much more fun when you've got a good horse that is keeping you busy through the day and you can enjoy watching the racing in the afternoon as well. That's really what it's all about, isn't it? So, lucky us.”

 

Golden Horn at Overbury Stud | Emma Berry

 

Golden Horn has now embarked on his third covering season at Overbury and, as in the previous two, it certainly looks as though he will be keeping Sweeting and his team busy.

“Jayne has always said 175 mares maximum and the first two years we had to turn mares away,” he says. “This year, I would be surprised if the same thing doesn't happen, but it's a good position to be in. It's a sensible number. It's a working number. It's fairly straightforward for him to get that number covered and it works for us. And there is no finer way of advertising a horse than turning a few people down. But, from the word go, he was very well received, and the way the horses are running, it just helps.”

Golden Horn still comes up with some good Flat runners, of course, with Caius Chorister (GB), Gregory (GB), Botanik (GB), Higher Leaves (GB) and Goldenas (GB) among the group winners to have advertised his prowess in this sphere. In this week's G1 JCB Triumph Hurdle, the Gredley family's 90-rated Flat winner East India Dock will bid to maintain his unbeaten record over hurdles.

Sweeting says, “It's a very unfashionable aim to breed a dual-purpose horse these days. But if you could breed a horse that could run sound and well on the Flat and then go on over jumps, who could want any more? East India Dock is the absolute classic example of that.”

 

Golden Ace and Lorcan Williams triumph at the 2024 Cheltenham Festival | Racingfotos

 

The runners for Jack Hobbs – bar the 91-rated The Gadget Man (GB) who was sold for 310,000gns to race in Australia – have predominantly been seen in point-to-points and under National Hunt rules. Members of his first crop are now six-year-olds and, collectively, his offspring appear to be gathering a head of steam this season.

“They're finding their feet, ” Sweeting agrees. “Jax Junior and Intense Approach are entered in the Albert Bartlett at Cheltenham. And Bossman Jack's run at Wincanton for Dan Skelton was absolutely extraordinary.

“I talked to Dan about his Jack Hobbs [horses] at the end of last season and he said that he thought they just all needed a little bit of time. And this is one of those typical horses where he's been given lots of time, and he's still not going to be rushed but you just wonder what a horse like that is going to be capable of in a year or so.”

He adds, “There are still some nice point-to-point winners coming out of Ireland and there's one coming up for sale this week at Cheltenham. So it's all go for him, and hopefully moving in the right direction now.”

Golden Horn, with his impressive 40 per cent winners to runners over jumps this season, has edged into 31st position in the National Hunt sires' table and is currently the leading active sire in Britain, which routinely struggles to match step with the strength and depth of the jump sires available in Ireland. Telescope (Ire) and Yorton Farm's Pether's Moon (Ire), who has a similarly eye-catching strike-rate to Golden Horn, come next among the Brit pack, followed by Passing Glance (GB) and then Jack Hobbs.

With some more traditionally National Hunt-bred crops on the way through, it would be no surprise to see Golden Horn take higher order in the years to come, and he may yet have Jack Hobbs breathing down his neck once more, just as he did at Epsom.

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