Spoilt rotten

Dream Well at Haras du Fresnay-le-Buffard

I usually dislike the start of the year but in the last fortnight I’ve had such brilliant assignments that it would be very hard not to be happy. Two weekends ago John and I headed over to France with Kerry Murphy, the new head of the EBF, to join in La Route des Etalons. This has become an annual pilgrimage for me. I’ve been lucky to have been in Normandy for each of the last four years and during that time to have seen some tremendous stallions.

This time around Australian import Redoute's Choice was the ‘must-see’ stallion and Haras de Bonneval was packed with visitors on the Sunday. I also really enjoyed seeing the stunning Haras du Fresnay-le-Buffard, now owned by the Niarchos family but formerly home to Marcel Boussac. Their resident stallion is Dream Well, a Sadler’s Wells half-brother to Sulamani and winner of the Irish Derby and Prix du Jockey-Club. I will be very interested to see the first runners of Vision d'Etat in a few years' time as he was a horse who really caught my eye.

A proud owner/breeder with his yearling, So Much Water

Alix Choppin, freshly returned from the South Pacific and about to start an exciting new job in the French racing industry, was our host once more and with her we paid our usual visit to Minnie’s Mystery, John’s broodmare, who has lived at Haras de la Cauvinière for the past six years. Minnie has produced two winners from her three runners to date. Her three-year-old, Roy Rocket, is here in training. Sadly her two-year-old filly died last year after a paddock accident but her yearling by Le Havre, named So Much Water in a tribute to Paul Kelly, looks a cracking sort and it will be a treat when she arrives here later this year. Minnie is expecting a foal to Youmzain in the same week as Desiree’s Archipenko foal is due, and this year she will go to Cauviniere’s new stallion Rajsaman, a really nice son of Linamix.

Donald McCain and Overturn

After a lot of driving all weekend we arrived back in Newmarket on Sunday evening and I was rather regretting having organised to go to Donald McCain’s Cheshire stable early the next morning to interview him for Trainer magazine. Admittedly the 4.30am alarm call wasn’t great but once at Bankhouse any such regrets slipped away. Not only did the McCain family make me feel enormously welcome but to be able to see such horses as Peddlers Cross, Ballabriggs and my personal favourite, Overturn, in the flesh was a massive treat. Donald, who had the misfortune of sharing a house in Newmarket with John when they were both young whippersnappers employed by Luca Cumani, couldn’t have been nicer and I will certainly be cheering his horses home at Cheltenham and Aintree.

From one stable of top-class National Hunt horses on Monday, it was off to Nicky Henderson’s on Wednesday for a Thoroughbred Owner & Breeder feature. Seven Barrows really does harbour an embarrassment of riches. Quite apart from the current excitement of Sprinter Sacre and Simonsig, a wander round the main yard takes you past two Champion Hurdlers and a Gold Cup winner, then of course there’s Bobs Worth, Oscar Whisky, Grandouet, Captain Conan, My Tent Or Yours, Utopie Des Bordes, Riverside Theatre….The list goes on.

Last Thursday brought the February Sale at Tattersalls and an unexpected but really enjoyable visit to Banstead Manor Stud to see Frankel, Oasis Dream, Dansili, Bated Breath and Champs Elysees. The world’s top-rated racehorse of all time looked tremendous and has clearly settled into his new life. I was also really taken by Champs Elysees who is a beautiful horse and is of course the full-brother to Dansili and Cacique (and their half-sister Heat Haze is on the list of extremely nice mares going to Frankel). What a family.

Frankel in his new home at Banstead Manor Stud

I saw Frankel plenty of times when he was in training but the trip to see him at stud was fortuitous as, out of the blue, I was asked to take part in a BBC Radio 5 Live programme on his conversion from champion racehorse to stallion. That entailed an enjoyable trip to the swanky new BBC studios at Salford, along with fellow guest Tony Morris, where we met up with Cornelius Lysaght, the well-known voice of BBC radio’s racing coverage.

The BBC team had put a huge amount of effort into its research and pre-recorded interviews with Sir Henry Cecil, Teddy Grimthorpe and Philip Mitchell. It was fantastic for the breeding industry to have a 90-minute programme on a mainstream sports channel devoted to the subject. If you missed the programme you can listen to it online or download it from here.

Back at home, we’ve had a lovely, almost spring-like weekend in Newmarket. The Heath suddenly seemed to be buzzing on Saturday morning, with big strings and trainers and owners everywhere. A sure sign that it’s only six weeks to the start of the Flat season. At noon on Saturday, the Thurlow hounds met at Tattersalls and this is always a popular fixture with the local racing fraternity. Hugo Palmer, Jimmy Quinn and Jono Mills were spotted mounted, as well as our vet David Dugdale and his colleague at NEH, James Crowhurst. Plenty were out on foot, including Dawn Laidlaw, Gemma and Beau Waterhouse, Angie and Johnny Winter, Olly and Zoe Fowlston, Toby Coles and Alex Merriam.

Oscar's dam Desiree, the first racehorse I ever rode

For Stephen McCormick and me, this weekend has been about counting down the hours until the debut of Oscar Bernadotte in the bumper at Southwell on Monday. Oscar was the first horse I bred and is out of the lovely Desiree, whom John bought as a yearling and was the first racehorse I ever sat on.  I’ve been dreaming about his debut since before he was born. Steve’s been a great friend to this yard over the years, and he and I shared success with the bumper winner Anis Etoile, so I'm delighted he is now the co-owner of Oscar. We're not expecting him to go out and win. It looks a decent race with a couple of winners in the field and he is the only debutant. I’ll be happy to see him enjoy himself, hopefully learn something, and come back safe and sound. After almost five years of waiting just to get him to the track is exciting in itself. Not long to go now...