Ringfort To Focus On Quality

[Wandering Eyes]

Since being established by Derek and Gay Veitch at the turn of the century, Ringfort Stud in County Offaly has grown to be one of Ireland’s premier nurseries and was among the leading vendors at both the Goffs and Tattersalls foal sales last year.

For the last few years the farm has enjoyed stellar returns from one mare in particular, Indigo Lady (GB) (Sir Percy {GB}), whose first three offspring have grossed 1.255-million gns in the sales ring. The mare is owned in partnership by Derek Veitch and Paul Hancock and has been a massive success story for the pair since Veitch bought a 50% share in the mare six years ago. Last year a colt by Lope De Vega (Ire) out of Indigo Lady sold to Stroud Coleman on behalf of Godolphin for 500,000gns, while a year previously her filly foal by Dark Angel (Ire) made 600,000gns to Capital Bloodstock.

“Indigo Lady is in foal to Churchill (Ire) and we have decided to send her to Roaring Lion this year,” Veitch said. “We considered a lot of different options for her but the value for money aspect is crucial for us. This mare is at an interesting stage in her career and it is important that at least one of her first three foals is a good horse. Her first runner [Expensive Liaison (Ire) (Camelot {GB}] was a winner but had a training accident and was killed before we found out how good she was going to be. The next two are very nice horses and the Dark Angel 2-year-old filly is called Indie Angel (Ire) and is in training with John Gosden and belongs to Cheveley Park Stud. The Lope De Vega colt is just a yearling so it will be a while before we know about him.”

The decision to opt for another unproven sire with a high profile mare that has had only one runner to date may seem unusual to some, but a lot of thought and analysis went into the decision-making process. “Roaring Lion’s race performance was one aspect of it and we also did some work on pedigree analysis which suggested it could be a good match. Market trends were also a factor and thinking longer term we feel the Al Thani family could become very significant in the yearling buying market at a certain level. A mare like Indigo Lady could get into the top 20% of Roaring Lion’s mares and if her offspring do well on the track in the meantime she could well be even higher. She is not due to foal until early April so we have taken the view that next year’s produce will not be aimed at a foal sale; rather, we will hold off and offer it as a yearling. When planning a mating we have to think ahead and consider who might buy the product and we think Roaring Lion’s first crop will prove popular and they should also be well-promoted.”

Whatever happens in the future with the mare and her progeny, Indigo Lady has already proved a game-changer for connections. She originally raced for Hancock and showed smart form as a juvenile when with Peter Chapple-Hyam, winning her maiden on her second attempt before finishing third in a Group 3 race in France. She failed to build on that as a 3-year-old and Veitch invested in a half-share when she failed to make her reserve at the Tattersalls December Sale in 2013.

Recalling the early days Veitch said, “She came straight back to Ringfort with the intention of covering her soon after. However, she was so healthy and well we decided to do a bit of pre-training with her which went well so we decided to cover her and try her back at the track. So we covered her with Camelot and sent her to Willie McCreery. She seemed to improve a lot, whether it was down to the cover or the training but she regained the form she showed as a 2-year-old and managed to win a listed race at The Curragh for us. It was a brilliant start for the partnership and it has gone from strength to strength since.”

The Veitch’s broodmare band has swelled in recent years and numbers approximately 50, so the farm is not just about Indigo Lady. African Moonlight (UAE) (Halling) is another deemed worthy of a mention by Veitch and the 13-year-old is the dam of four winners from four runners headed by the American GSW Syntax (Ire) (Haatef). Her latest foal brought to the market was a colt by Awtaad (Ire) who was bought by Shadwell for 140,000gns at Tattersalls last November.

“African Moonlight is in foal to Dark Angel (Ire) and she will then be covered by Invincible Spirit (Ire),” Veitch said. “She has bred some good winners by lower tier stallions so it will be interesting to see what she can produce over the next few years now that we have upgraded her.”

The 20-year-old Esterlina (Ire) (Highest Honor {Fr}) has been another grand servant to Ringfort breeding six winners, one being the stakes-winning and Group 1-placed Redolent (Ire) (Redback {GB}), and Veitch is still mulling over what to cover her with this year. Her now 2-year-old Kodiac (GB) colt made €125,000 as a foal in Goffs in 2017 and while she was barren this year, Veitch has a Mehmas (Ire) yearling filly out of her to look forward to. “We’re trying to decide the right thing to do with her as she is getting on in years. She has produced some good horses and it is a family I like. We have a lovely Mehmas filly out of her, we didn’t bring her to the foal sales last year as we are thinking of racing her. She would have been one of the nicest Mehmas foals on offer had we offered her for sale.”

Veitch knows a thing or two about Mehmas foals as he actually sold the highest priced one in 2018, a colt out of Pardoven (Ire) (Clodovil {Ire}) who made 85,000gns at Tattersalls in November.

“Pardoven actually had her first winner recently, a horse called Cabo Da Cruz (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}) who won in South Africa so hopefully she can kick on from there. She is in foal to Tamayuz (GB) and will go to Belardo (Ire), who I have a breeding right for. Her Mehmas foal was really nice and he could be the one to get her going.”

A recent Ringfort mare purchase who has already proved a sound investment is the 8-year-old Miss Kenton (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}). She went through the ring at Tattersalls just over a year ago for 82,000gns carrying to Showcasing but it wasn’t until a month later that Veitch invested in a share of her. She delivered a filly at Ringfort last April and seven months later that filly made €110,000 at Goffs.

“The foal sold for a lot more than we had to pay for the mare so it was a good start; it’s not often you get your money back on the first foal so that was great,” Veitch said. “The foal was actually bought on behalf of Andre Fabre as a present for his wife so I hope she turns out lucky for her.”

Fabre actually trained Miss Kenton and despite not making the grade as a racehorse she obviously left a lasting impression on him. Miss Kenton’s new owners had the good fortune of seeing her first produce, a colt by Nathaniel (Ire) develop into the smart 2018 Richard Hannon trained juvenile Floating Artist (GB). They can look forward to her delivering a foal by Highland Reel (Ire) this year and have penciled in a potential date with Caravaggio following that.

While the Veitchs have enjoyed some great days in the sale ring over the last few years those days are necessary to run the business and make up for the inevitable losses that are incurred by other mares and their stock. Veitch and his wife are commercial breeders and are very cognisant that the market is extremely unforgiving to many in the business at the moment.

“We’ve been very lucky and we got through what, for a lot of people in bloodstock, has been a difficult year, very well,” Veitch said. “The business is very tricky at a certain level and there are a lot of people out there trying to breed horses with a view to making money at a level which is nearly impossible to do at the moment.”

Far from looking to build on recent success, Veitch is starting to think of a future with fewer horses and more free time. “We both turned 60 last year and are at the stage where we are now planning on consolidating. None of our kids have any real interest in taking over the farm, the three of them have professional jobs and while they have an interest in what goes on here I don’t think its sufficient for them to do the job full time, despite my best efforts at exposing them to the lifestyle and the ups and downs.”

He continued, “We plan to start reducing the numbers and ideally we’d like to end up with 10 or 15 quality mares. The last six or seven years have been an expansion programme and we have more yearlings this year than ever before. But from now on the focus will be to consolidate and maintain mares of the calibre of the ones discussed today, who are very hard to find. You might have to have 10 mares through your hands to find one of that quality, so that is the plan because we would still like to have a draft of eight or 10 foals to offer at the sales each year. We’re both keen to adopt a better work-life balance and we think we have the foundations in place to allow that to happen in the next few years.”

We all know the significant amounts of blood, sweat and tears that go into breeding and rearing horses and that often the least well looked after individuals on the farm are the owners. Having poured their life and soul into Ringfort for the last 20 years, the Veitchs can now look forward to having more time to enjoy following their many successful graduates and even get in the odd bit of fishing, if Derek has his way.

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