The Derby’s Guiding Light: Why the Epsom Classic is a North Star for Breeders

[Wandering Eyes]

“The Derby is the only thing that matters.” It's a pretty definitive opening gambit, even from a man whose words generally don't spend much time in the mincer. 

Later, Jeremy Brummitt will temper this statement but first let's deal with the Derby, a race which, for this week at least, really is the only thing that matters.

“I honestly think the people who come into racing and breeding with a passion are all led by the north star of the Derby,” he says. “And the people who think there are rival claims, almost without exception, are driven by financial gain. In other words, they see the business as a means for them to make a living or make a lot of money. But the fundamental essence of the sport is the pursuit to try and win the Derby. Every sport – not just every sport, every human pursuit – has one holy grail. Everything has a pinnacle.”

Towards this year's summit climb two horses with which Brummitt has had a direct involvement. They are both outsiders in the Derby betting but, at the time of writing, they represent 10 per cent of the likely field. 

Lazy Griff was a €75,000 yearling purchase at BBAG, the year after Brummitt had bought subsequent Group 1 winner Tamfana there for €20,000. Tuscan Hills was bred by Australian owner-breeder John Wheeler, for whom the agent bought the colt's dam Taqleed for 70,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale. Among the Shadwell draft of 2021, the mare was unraced but, as a daughter of Sea The Stars out of the 2005 Oaks winner Eswarah, her bloodlines held obvious appeal for a man with a laser focus on Epsom. 

“Every racing jurisdiction in the world has a flagship race called the Derby. There isn't a South Australian Arc de Triomphe. And if we ever put a man on the moon, the feature race for their first racing season will be called the Moon Derby,” he says.

Brummitt doesn't really like to be labelled as a bloodstock agent, even though that's an essential part of his work. He is also a breeder and advises other breeders, but overall he would probably be happiest being called a racing fan, and he is keen to ensure that others follow.

“It's so important to get young, impressionable people through the turnstiles at the races, paying attention to the horses, more than the gambling, certainly more than adjuncts of entertainment, because once you fall in love with the horses, you inevitably will get it,” he says. “It's an unusual person who studies horses, thinks they have an opinion and doesn't want to back them.”

Brummitt continues, “I'm lucky enough to work for a few people of very different backgrounds who've taken very different paths to where they are now. But they all started off the same way, by a fascination with horse racing. And the banner races from their early periods are the ones that are still synonymous with achievement, 50 or 60 years later.

“I'm a great believer in heritage handicaps as well. I think it's high-minded of the professionals to sneer at the value of the Cambridgeshire and the Cesarewitch, but the racing public like them, and when racing was exceptionally popular, they were front-page news.

“That appeal of asking top horses to run in top handicaps is massively underestimated. What's surprising is how often the best horse defies increasing imposts. However much people like to use metrics to prove that horses can't run beyond the exactitudes of a slide rule, you can't ever quantify spirit. And the best horses have an indomitable spirit that overcomes an extra three pounds.”

 

The Charlie Johnston-trained Lazy Griff wins the G3 Prix de Conde | Scoop Dyga

 

Lazy Griff, bred by Peter and Aline Rodde at Gestut Westerberg, is by Protectionist, who won one of the world's great staying handicaps, the Melbourne Cup.

“It's one of my favourite families,” he says of the late son of Monsun who is from the same dynasty as Stradivarius, with whom Brummitt has close ties through his work for owner-breeder Bjorn Nielsen, another man with a Derby dream. 

“I remember Protectionist because he ran in the Grosser Preis von Berlin, and I think Hoppegarten may well have been the first racecourse in Europe to display sectional times live during the race. Protectionist ran an exceptional last 600 metres, admittedly in a slowly-run race, but as with so many stayers, it sets a lie to the idea that they're slow. Although he's perceived as a Melbourne Cup winner and a two-miler, he won that race by running 600 metres in a very quick time indeed. And there's very few horses who race over any distance who can sustain the run for 600 metres. Recently, Sosie ran the last 600 metres in the Ispahan in just over 33 seconds.”

Tuscan Hills, who carries the hopes of Amo Racing in the Derby, shares his sire Night Of Thunder with the Oaks favourite Desert Flower. It is 20 years since Night Of Thunder's sire Dubawi ran third in the Derby to Motivator and Walk In The Park and, as mentioned above, the Epsom pointers loom large in Tuscan Hills's pedigree. Not only did Eswarah win the Oaks, but so too did her dam Midway Lady. And it never hurts to see the name Galileo nestled in there as broodmare sire of Night Of Thunder, meaning that Tuscan Hills is inbred 4×3 to Urban Sea through her two Derby-winning sons. 

Reflecting on the purchase of the colt's dam Taqleed for Wheeler, Brummitt says, “It's a shame really, because John wanted me to buy a mare that we could breed to Camelot Southern Hemisphere time and then send to Australia to breed to [South Australian Derby winner] Russian Camelot. I bought Russian Camelot for John.

“Quite soon after I bought the mare, her second foal came up as a weanling, and I thought he was the standout weanling at Goffs in February, so we bought him to send to Australia to advertise the mare. Her first two foals were by Tamayuz.

“Six months after that, the first foal won a Listed race in Italy and was second favourite for the Gran Criterium, so everything was coming up roses. Then the mare had a Night of Thunder, which again was ideal. We only had to pay 70,000gns [for the mare] because she had a very late cover, which put off a lot of people, but it wouldn't deter you if you were planning to campaign the horse with a view to taking him to Australia as a mature horse. So the mare went in foal to Camelot, was shipped to Australia, and unfortunately, in the space of a week, her first foal broke a leg and didn't turn up in the Criterium, and the mare died in quarantine in Australia.”

 

Tuscan Hills, trained by Raphael Freire, gives Amo Racing another Derby chance | Racingfotos

 

It is a story which will resonate with many breeders, who will be all-too familiar with the heartbreak that so often underpins any successful endeavour. The mare's demise changed the plan for her Night Of Thunder colt, who ended up being offered at the Goffs Orby Sale through Manister House Stud and sold to the Amo Racing team for €100,000.

“[Tuscan Hills] wasn't the most correct as a foal. He's very athletic with an absolutely sublime temperament, but because we thought we were going to race him, we jealously defended him from interference from farrier and vet,” Brummitt says. “So he's grown up naturally with a very good foot, which I'm passionate about. But also, he is what would be considered incorrect, exactly like his sire. But [Night Of Thunder] did manage to win the Guineas and it didn't stop him winning the Lockinge at four either. So he ticked, in my opinion, the most important criteria in that he stayed sound for three seasons at the top level.”

He adds of Tuscan Hills,  who won both his starts at two, including the Listed EBF Silver Tankard Stakes at Pontefract, and was seventh on comeback in the Dante, “It held down his sales price because we didn't do any cosmetic work on him, but importantly he's a sound racing proposition.

“He's such a good mover and he's compact, very well-balanced. I'd be shocked if he couldn't handle Epsom or fast ground. And whatever he does at Epsom, I hope he rewards the people who bought him, and he manages to win at the top level because he's got the temperament that you would expect to handle rollercoasters and open-top buses.”

Brummitt indicates that Lazy Griff, a full-brother to G3 Bavarian Classic winner Lambo, is a similarly phlegmatic character. The colt was second to Lambourn in his sole start this year in the G3 Chester Vase this year and his trainer Charlie Johnston is attempting to secure the services in the Derby of Christophe Soumillon, who rode Lazy Griff to victory at Chantilly last year.

Brummitt says, “I thought he was a fantastic individual with a great temperament, and I think he'll run his race. His price suggests that's not going to be good enough, which may be the case, but there'll definitely be horses shorter in the betting that won't run their race because of temperamental flaws. That's as much a part of the equine make-up as physique and action. I think both horses are likely to give everything they've got.”

Lest anyone think that Brummitt cannot appreciate those glorious speedballs that blaze a trail down the straights of York or Ascot, he says, “I like sprinters. It's the subversion of speed to precocity that annoys me. But I do like sprinters.”

He adds, “I think what's generally less appreciated is how many top sprinters are out of mares by Classic-winning sires. Everyone is raving about Starman at the moment, and he is out of a Montjeu mare.

“It doesn't matter to me that a horse runs over six furlongs. That's great. But a horse that runs three times at two, it doesn't matter if they win by a distance, to the general public and the punter – and that's what sustains racing – he's retired before they ever realise he ran. He's done nothing for this sport. He's made the breeder and the buyer and the connections happy. He'd make me very happy if I was connected to him, but he's not actually advanced horseracing one jot. But a horse that stays sound and runs for six seasons and turns up in the Stewards' Cup and the Ayr Gold Cup and the Wokingham: he's a tremendous servant to racing.”

A sire very much on the rise who falls between these two stools is Mehmas, who was never out of the first three in his eight starts but raced only in his juvenile season. There can be no denying the tremendous start he has made to his stud career, however, with those connected to his stock often pointing to their equable temperaments.

“Mehmas is an interesting horse,” says Brummitt. “[His offspring] are tough. They have a very recognisable way of galloping. He's by a horse in Acclamation who was widely regarded as a source of two-year-old speed, and most popularly promoted as the winner of the Doncaster sales race, but he actually had his finest day as a four-year-old. So what's wrong with that? Kodiac did the same as a five-year-old. It didn't stop them being superior progenitors of juveniles, and Mehmas is out of tremendous middle-distance family. He goes back to Lucayan Princess, who bred Luso and Needle Gun. That's a fantastic female family.”

He would, however, like to see a greater range of stallions being given a chance at stud, rather than a decreasing number of sires covering increasingly large books.

“Because the one thing we know about breeders, myself included, is none of us are smart enough to be right even half the time,” Brummitt says. “Otherwise, you wouldn't have been able to go to Dubawi with a four grand fee in his third season, and more than 23 people would've wanted to breed to Wootton Bassett in his first crop. That's why it's important that we give more stallions a proper chance, and I don't pretend that I would be any more accurate in my estimation. I'd just like to be able to choose from 30 instead of 12, that's all.”

Properly into his stride now, Brummitt continues, “And I think the great shame of modern racing is people feel proving a horse can stay beyond a mile and a quarter, let alone a mile and a half, is in some way indicative of a potential weakness in the breeding shed that they might be slow. But the point of trying the racehorse is to prove how good they are, not to conceal how bad they are. And we've got far too many stallions at stud who've been campaigned to conceal how bad they are instead of campaigned to prove how good they are.”

Lazy Griff and Tuscan Hills probably won't feature too prominently in the Derby tips ahead of Saturday but in Middleham Park Racing and Amo Racing they represent ownership groups who have never been afraid to campaign their horses with ambition. There should be no greater ambition in racing than to win the Derby, and for Brummittt, the vicarious thrill of having played a role in these two colts lining up at Epsom will be satisfying indeed. 

 

 

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