Diamond Set To Sparkle Twice At Goodwood

[Wandering Eyes]

A majority decision can have great ramifications for the electorate, as anyone who has cast the briefest eye over British news over the last couple of years will recognise only too well.

Fortunately, there are no such spiky 52-48 outcomes when members of Middleham Park Racing are asked to cast their votes. It is not quite exiting the European Union, but whether to sell a horse or not is still a topic which can cause a heated difference of opinion among interested parties.

“Our contractual agreement is pretty clear,” says its director of racing, Tim Palin.

“A vote goes out to the syndicate members and they vote to sell or to keep. It’s e-mail communication and we stack the votes up.

“It’s a 65% threshold and if 64% say let’s sell, then it’s no sell, and if it’s 65 or more, we say yes.”

Palin chuckles when reminded of the irony in the wider world. “No politician in the history of British politics has been ever been voted in with 65 or more percent,” he replies.

The latest time that Middleham Park took its members to the virtual polling booth was over the recent G3. Anglesey S. winner Marie’s Diamond (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}), who heads to today’s inaugural Goodwood Sale.

The juvenile son of the Aga Khan-bred mare Sindiyma (Ire) (Kalanisi {Ire}) is among the most accomplished names in the 13 lots listed to go under the hammer in the winner’s enclosure at the West Sussex track after racing concludes.

Marie’s Diamond has already provided a handsome return on the track, having been bought by agent Federico Barberini and Middleham Park for €35,000 at Tatts Ireland last September.

He has won half of his six starts in the care of Mark Johnston, from a debut success at Leicester to a conditions event at Chester before being partnered by an unstoppable James Doyle to add that Pattern race to his account at the Curragh on Irish Oaks day. Marie’s Diamond had already visited the Curragh three weeks earlier to bustle up Van Beethoven (Can) (Scat Daddy) in the G2 Railway S.

“Every new initiative that comes out in racing, we like to support it if we can,” Palin says. “For instance, the optional claiming handicaps that came out, I think they’ve run two of them and we’ve won on.

“This is another new initiative that Goffs UK and racing has put out as part of the Qatar Goodwood Festival and we were keen to support it if we had the right product.

“I remember when they were trying to get the September (Horses-in-Training) Sale at Doncaster off the ground, we sent a draft of horses to that, and we send a draft every year.

“At the Goffs London Sale two years ago we sold Viren’s Army (Ire) (Twirling Candy) for £700,000 and we also sold Great Page (Ire) (Roderic O’Connor {Ire}) at the same sale for £300,000. At the time, the London Sale was relatively in its infancy.

“We just felt with Marie’s Diamond that we had a fairly high-profile 2-year-old that might be appealing to the clients that were attending, especially if he was going to go off as favourite or second-favourite for the G2 Richmond S. on Thursday, which now it looks like he might do. I suppose there’s also an element of looking to secure a good return on that €35,000 that our owners invested in him before he started racing. If he does sell and were to run a big race for the new owners on Thursday, we could be helping to kickstart something.”

Although Middleham Park’s raison d’etre is to provide entertainment and success to many on a budget, the horses tend to be available at the right price. Toormore (Ire) (Arakan), a £36,000 Doncaster purchase who became 2013 European champion 2-year-old and later joined Godolphin, is a prime example.

Only a few days ago it was announced that Tigre Du Terre (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}, who cost just €55,000 at the Osarus sale in September 2016 and took the Coral Charge H. at Sandown for Richard Hannon, would be departing for Hong Kong after what was described by Palin as an “astronomical” offer.

Multiple listed-placed Dark Acclaim (Ire)(Dark Angel) also managed an incredible mark-up on his £45,000 breeze-up price in little over a year when changing hands to Avenue Bloodstock for £330,000 at the Goffs London event. Dual juvenile winner and G2 Coventry S. sixth Ninetythreetwenty (Ire) (Dragon Pulse {Ire}) is also heading to Hong Kong in what was reported to be a private six-figure deal.

“It’s probably as busy and high-profile a sales season as we’ve ever had,” Palin explains. “That’s indicative of us having a few good, 100-plus rated horses that generate interest abroad.

“I think the vote to sell Tigre Du Terre to Hong Kong was unanimous. Our business model doesn’t necessitate sales but one thing it definitely does do is afford our members the luxury of going into the yearling and horses-in-training sales with maybe a few more quid in their pockets so that they can then start to decide what horses they’d like to replace them with. Obviously not everyone leaves every penny in but we try to encourage people to reinvest because we think that the chap in the street being able to compete at this kind of level in the sport of kings is infectious and something that we aspire towards.

“Horses that finished behind Marie’s Diamond at the Curragh were owned by Juddmonte and Michael Tabor. If we can compete with them then that’s a feather in our owners’ caps that they’ve made the right decision in the right horse.”

There is still one more decision ahead for Marie’s Diamond, when members decide upon his reserve.

“We don’t want to give him away,” Palin says. “We’d be more than happy to race in the Richmond and beyond, and he’s having an entry in the Prix Morny at Deauville. Equally, if we can find a suitor that would like to race him at the sort of price we’re envisaging, then we’d wish them well with the future for the horse.”

 

 

 

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