‘This Game is Built On Dreams’: Merry Pranksters Seeking Furthur Success

[Wandering Eyes]

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE — One of the happiest men at Arqana on Saturday was a Tatts man. Yep, you read that right. 

Tattersalls' marketing director Jason Singh contemplated leaving Deauville early in order to watch his syndicate horse Furthur in action but, having stayed put, he yelled the horse home from the Arqana sales complex instead.

The son of Waldgeist, trained by Andrew Balding, claimed Newbury's G3 Geoffrey Freer Stakes by three lengths to ignite a Classic dream for Singh and his band of Merry Pranksters who own the horse. Furthur is, of course, a Tattersalls graduate, having been bought by Balding at Book 2 of the October Sale, though in the name of balance we must also say that his breeder Max Morris sold him as a foal at Goffs through Ballylinch Stud. That's a lot of sales companies already, so let's add Kat Sheridan of Tattersalls Online, who is one of the syndicate members, and Singh's great friend Ed Prosser of Keeneland, who has somehow managed to inveigle his way into the accompanying photograph.

An understandably thrilled Singh said, “I thought, if I don't go, it'll ensure he wins.

“When he won his novice at Newbury at the start of the year, which he did very well, I remember saying to Andrew, kind of half in jest, 'You know, he could be a Leger horse.' And Andrew said, 'Could be.' That was part of the reason we left him entire, to keep that dream alive. The game is built on dreams.”

For Saturday's dream result, Furthur went one better than his second-place finish behind Carmers in the Queen's Vase, and he was also fifth in one of the hottest Classic trials of the spring. Ahead of him in the Chester Vase were subsequent dual Derby winner Lambourn, Lazy Griff, who has been placed in both the Derby and Irish Derby, and Convergent, who was beaten a whisker in the Deutsches Derby. 

“Other than your super stallions – your Galileos and Frankels – by and large, there's value to be had trying to buy middle-distance horses,” says Singh, who buys one horse per year to syndicate with Balding. Furthur is the fourth of this project and two of the other three have won. 

“I also think that is your best return when you want to sell on, so it's always been a bit of a no-brainer for me to want to buy that sort of horse because that's in the price range and because it gives you the potential for a good sale later on. You can't buy the sexy stallion and the good-looking horse at the same time when you're on a budget.”

He continues, “Andrew gives me a list that his mother [Emma Balding] and Tess [Hetherington] have put together. I go and look at them and pretend I know what I'm looking at, and then we create a short list and follow them in.”

Furthur's yearling price of 58,000gns was slightly beyond his usual budget, meaning that a couple of regular members of his syndicates did not get involved in the colt and Singh had to widen the net. Stefano di Piazza, owner of the popular Newmarket Italian restaurant Unico, was recruited, along with his colleague Francesco Izzo, and when Furthur won his maiden they named a pizza on the menu in his honour. Also among those involved are longtime sales reporter Carl Evans and Lady Barbara Fitzgerald.

The Australian-born Singh says, “I've got two mates who I've known for 20 years who play on a little cricket team that I run called the Hippie Eleven. We're all pretty dreadful cricketers but we'd been to Lord's for a nets session and we were sat around having a beer afterwards and I said to them, 'You don't fancy owning a racehorse, do you?' And they both said, 'Yeah, that sounds like a great idea.'

“And then the last share I sold was to David Bowe of Littleton Stud. We were chatting at the foal sales, I sent him the details and within two hours he'd said he was in.”

Despite Furthur's prowess prior to his latest success, Singh says that he has not been inundated with offers to buy the horse.

“Now, the great thing about not having an offer is you don't have to make a difficult decision. You keep racing, but we've always got to be mindful that we've got to take any good offer seriously. But we're probably never going to have one as good as this ever again. This horse has taken us to Chester for the Chester Vase, to Ascot for the Queen's Vase, and to the Geoffrey Freer. Hopefully the next stop is the St Leger,” he says.

But, as a Melbourne native, there is of course one race uppermost in his mind for the progressive stayer. 

“You'd love some Aussies, or whoever, to give you a good offer, buy half of him, and he stays up here with Andrew next year and you enjoy the Cup campaign, and then he heads down for the Melbourne Cup next year.

“The contract says at the end of his three-year-old year, we put him in a sale and sell him. So, it's certainly something that I've got to discuss with everybody.”

Even with the Horses-in-Training Sale looming, Singh for once lets his heart rule his head, however, when he adds, “I just love this horse though.”

As for the naming of both syndicate and horse, the inspiration came from a book Singh was reading on 1960s counterculture.

“The Yippees and the Merry Pranksters were very prominent groups at the time and I thought both were great names for a syndicate, so we alternate one each year. The Merry Pranksters were led by Ken Kesey, who drove from California to Woodstock in his bus, and that bus was called Furthur. We managed to convince some of the other owners that this was a good name for the horse, especially since he always looked like he was going to need further from the moment we started.”

He is also full of praise for the team at Kingsclere. “The great thing about Andrew and his team is that when I take any of the owners down there, whether you've got two and a half per cent, which some of our members do, or a bit more, they always treat you like you're someone special. And one of the things that I think a lot of people have really enjoyed is that whole process.”

 

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