A First For Fittocks

[Wandering Eyes]

Yearling viewers with a penchant for Italian food will be in for a treat at one of the hospitality boxes at the Tattersalls October Sale. It probably wouldn’t take a genius to work out that the consignors behind the Italian-themed pitstop in the Wall Boxes are Luca and Sara Cumani.

There’s some debate over who will slice the Parma ham—Sara’s suggestion that Luca could perform this task in a side room is not met with great enthusiasm by the former master trainer—but what the couple does agree on is that the time is now right for their Fittocks Stud to make its debut as yearling consignors.

“We always sold our own mares and foals,” says Sara Cumani in the kitchen of their sumptuous new home on the stud which they have owned for 35 years. “And horses in training,” adds her husband quickly.

From the window, a sweeping view over the most rolling part of Suffolk takes the eye across the ha-ha to a paddock of mares and foals, the last group on the stud still to be weaned. It’s a scene worthy of Stubbs’s paintbrush and, if there were any lingering sorrow at leaving Bedford House Stables, one of Newmarket’s most beautiful training yards, this would provide a soothing balm.

Sara Cumani continues, “So we have experience of selling horses but we’ve never done the yearlings because we always thought that being trainers and trying to sell your yearlings makes it difficult for people to understand what role you’re filling—are you buying or selling? But we can sell our own now.”

It is not just the Fittocks homebreds filling the 12-strong October draft but also yearlings bred by a select bunch of friends and clients at the farm. The pair of colts for Book 1 represent one of each. In 2015, Koora (GB), trained by Luca in the Fittocks colours, won the G3 St Simon S. before going on to be runner-up in the G2 Middleton S. The decision to retain the Pivotal (GB) filly as a youngster was easy. Not only is she by one of the best broodmare sires in the land but, as a half-sister to St Leger winner Milan (GB) (Sadler’s Wells), she continues a line which has been good to the Cumanis.

Koora’s dam Kithanga (Ire) (Darshaan {GB}) has a yard named in her honour at Fittocks, and it is from here that Koora’s first foal by Dubawi (Ire) (lot 381) is being prepared for the sale.

“He’s a super exciting first foal,” says Sara. “To have a colt like that out of a Pivotal mare is very exciting. He has a full-brother foal to come and now the mare is in foal to Galileo (Ire), so she has been given every chance, which she deserves.”

The colt will be accompanied to Book 1 by a son of Frankel (GB) (lot 214) out of Cascata (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}), a sister to the brilliant St Nicholas Abbey (Ire). Another G1 Racing Post Trophy winner, Aristotle (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells), features among a rash of group winners under his third dam.

Cascata was herself a winner as a 2-year-old, and for her owner Stuart Stuckey she has already produced the listed-placed seven-time winner Pacharana (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) among her four winners. Her 2-year-old colt by Siyouni (Fr), named Matthew Flinders (GB) with a nod to Stuckey’s Australian heritage, is in training with Ed Walker.

“He’s a very good moving horse, I just love watching him on the lunge,” says Sara Cumani as the Frankel colt parades around the Kithanga yard. As a trainer’s wife for so many years and an accomplished amateur rider in her day, it is clear she still very much enjoys the hands-on nature of life on a stud farm.

“Sara has been panicking for the last month already,” says Luca as talk turns to the key fortnight of the October Sale, at which they will offer a further eight yearlings in Book 2 and two in Book 3.

His wife adds,  “I’m very happy prepping the horses, showing them, dealing with the lads, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty of the finances and all that side of life, Luca is much better at that, so I can offload my panic a bit onto him. As long as I can just be with horses and concentrate on what they’re doing then I’m happy and that works well.

“What’s quite fun about being at the stud rather than at the racing yard is that you very much have your seasons, and after foaling you have a bit of a lull in the early summer to get on with the maintenance before you start the yearling prep and foal sales. And then you start the whole thing over again.”

She continues, “We prefer to sell our own horses as yearlings and we sell a few foals for other people, and would like to sell a few more foals. But we very much want to keep it to a nice select number of good quality horses to sell.”

The Italian theme doesn’t end with the food on offer in the Fittocks hospitality box but continues through to a number of the farm’s clients with yearlings to sell. Another excellent former amateur rider and old friend Franca Vittadini is the breeder of a racy-looking Wootton Basset (GB) filly who will be offered as lot 684 on the opening day of Book 2. Vittadini also bred lot 947, a Le Havre (Ire) filly from the same family and the first foal of the winning Exceed And Excel (Aus) mare Encore Moi (GB). The filly’s grandam is the dual Group 3 winner Di Moi Oui (GB) (Warning {GB}), who is also the third dam of the Wootton Bassett filly.

Furthermore, the draft includes a Mayson (GB) half-sister to dual Group 3-winning sprinter Speak In Colours (GB) (Excelebration {Ire}) (lot 1142), bred by Paolo and Emma Agostini, who were also the owner-breeders of the Cumani-trained G2 Challenge S. winner Le Vie Dei Colori (GB) (Efisio {GB}).

The Cumanis will doubtless be eager to witness the progress of a number of yearlings from Floors Stud who took their first steps at Fittocks, where many of the Duke of Roxburghe’s mares have been foaled over the years. This year’s draft from the Kelso farm, which includes a brother to Attraction (GB)’s son Elarqam (GB) (Frankel {GB}) (lot 180), carries with it an air of poignancy following the death of the duke in late August.

Sara Cumani says, “We were so lucky to have his mares here to foal for the last 12 years and it was a great privilege to have been entrusted with Attraction. From 2007 to 2019 Attraction had 12 foals and she is in foal again now, and Comic, who is now retired, had 14 foals. They both had a great record and Attraction is the most lovely mare—he adored her.”

She continues, “[The duke’s] efforts with the National Stud were beginning to pay off and it would be a great tribute if Time Test (GB) turns out to be a superstar.  We haven’t got many of his sort left in the business. He was a real fan of racing and everything to do with it. He did his bit for the Jockey Club and had tremendous success building up a lovely stud. It’s a great loss because he was brilliant with everybody and he will be sorely missed.”

As owner-breeders themselves, the Cumanis landed one of Newmarket’s more unusual races on Sept. 26 when Felix (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) won the Newmarket Challenge Whip, which is restricted to horses owned by Jockey Club members and run for no prize-money but a rather grand Charlie Langton bronze as a trophy, as well as a small slice of Jockey Club history.

Felix’s trainer Sir Michael Stoute is one of three men in Newmarket now entrusted with the second stage of nurturing the Fittocks graduates and, despite Luca Cumani’s proximity to the training centre, he insists that he is not meddling in their education.

“There’s no point having trained for 43 years without having learned how to behave as an owner,” he says with a wry grin.

 

The post A First For Fittocks appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.

View the full article