Hipodromos y caballos - Racetracks and horses BloodStockReview2013 | Page 21
DALHAM HALL AND KILDANGAN
Tragedy marred
start of year
WHAT turned out to be a triumphant year
for the Darley stallions began with tragedy,
with the sudden death in January of
Kildangan Stud’s popular and well respected
nominations manager Mick Buckley aged
only 45.
‘‘Mick wasn’t just a great loss to Kildangan
but to the whole bloodstock industry, and it
was a difficult year coming to terms with his
death,’’ reflects the stud’s managing director
Joe Osborne.
It would be impossible to replace Buckley,
described by his close friend John Joseph
Murphy ‘‘as at home coaching young people in
their careers as he was dealing with princes’’,
but Kildangan has a new team who will be
managing no fewer than three first-season
stallions to look forward to in 2014 – Dawn
Approach, Epaulette and Reckless Abandon.
Former Darley Flying Start trainee Gerry
Duffy was appointed general manager and
Eamon Moloney nominations manager.
‘‘Gerry has settled in well, we knew him
already from when he worked at [Darley’s
Kentucky arm] Jonabell Farm,’’ Osborne says.
‘‘We’ve always held him in high regard.
‘‘Our stallion roster is now up to ten
and with the three new stallions we have
something for all different price points.
They have been very popular and well
received.’’
ring with steep fee increases for 2014;
Dubawi is up by a third to £100,000
from £75,000 and New Approach has
been raised by 60 per cent to £80,000
from £50,000. Fees for Teofilo – the
sire of top-level winners Havana Gold,
Trading Leather and Voleuse De Coeurs
in 2013 – and Iffraaj, who supplied the
juvenile Group 1 winners Chriselliam and
Rizeena, have also been increased.
Bullard defends the fee hikes. “It’s
a question of supply and demand,” he
says. “All of the most expensive Darley
stallions are already chock-a-block for
We don’t limit books but
we do limit what we
think each sire can cover
2014; there is huge demand for them.
Our online auctions will show whether
they are underpriced or overpriced. It will
be interesting to see how it goes.”
Nominations to Exceed And Excel,
Farhh, Iffraaj, New Approach, Reckless
Abandon and Teofilo were put up
for auction without reserve on the
Darley website in December. A similar
auction of covers by Darley’s Kentucky
and Australian stallions saw final bids
constantly exceed advertised fees.
Demand for the nominations in the
auction were likely to be driven by the
difficulty some outside breeders have
WORLDWIDE GROUP/GRADE 1 WINNERS BY DARLEY’S EUROPEAN STALLIONS IN 2013*
STALLION
HORSE
RACE(S), COUNTRY
Authorized0
0
0
Dubawi0
0
0
Exceed And Excel0
0
0
Iffraaj0
0
Manduro0
New Approach0
0
Shamardal0
0
Slickly0
Teofilo0
0
0
Ambivalent
Complacent
Seal Of Approval
Al Kazeem
Hunter’s Light
Lucky Nine
Guelph
Outstrip
Overreach
Chriselliam
Rizeena
Charity Line
Dawn Approach
Talent
Dan Excel
Maybe Discreet
Meandre
Havana Gold
Trading Leather (right )
Voleuse De Coeurs
Pretty Polly Stakes-Ire
Spring Champion Stakes-Aus
British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes-GB
Tattersalls Gold Cup-Ire; Prince of Wales’s Stakes-GB, Eclipse-GB
Al Maktoum Challenge-UAE
Krisflyer International-Sin; Chairman’s Sprint-HK
AJC Sires Produce Stakes-Aus; Champagne Stakes-Aus; Flight Stakes-Aus; 1,000 Guineas-Aus
Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf-US
Golden Slipper-Aus
Fillies’ Mile-GB; Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf-US
Moyglare Stud Stakes-GB
Premio Lydia Tesio-Ity
2,000 Guineas-GB; St James’s Palace Stakes-GB
Oaks-GB
Champions Mile-HK
Australasian Oaks-Aus
Preis von Europa-Ger
Prix Jean Prat-Fr
Irish Derby-Ire
Irish St Leger-Ire
*up to November 30
racingpost.com/ipad
1 21
getting multiple mares into Darley’s
most popular stallions, an issue Bullard
acknowledges.
“When you have a top stallion all
breeders want to send you their mares,
but they know the owner has more right
to use that stallion than anyone else,” he
says. “Sheikh Mohammed is sending top
mares to his stallions and my job is to
ensure that, on the open market, there
is the best opportunity for third-party
mares. Racecourse results are showing the
value of this and breeders’ confidence in
us is increasing, and therefore so is the
quality of mares they send.”
Bullard considers 140 to be about
the right book size for a fit and healthy
horse, with a few more mares being
taken towards the end of the season if the
stallion can take it.
“We don’t limit books but we do limit
what we think each sire can cover,” he
says. “So Exceed And Excel covered fewer
at Dalham Hall this year as he’d been
busy in his southern hemisphere season.
“As far as mare numbers go, we hope
everyone who signs a contract with Darley
has a fair opportunity of getting a foal.”
An example of Darley limiting
numbers to what a stal lion can manage
was the late decision to hold New
Approach back from shuttling to
Australia even though he featured in the
southern hemisphere stallion brochure.
“Every stallion is individual and some are
more efficient than others,” Bullard says.
“Our philosophy is to safeguard each
horse, not to abuse him – that comes
right from the top.”
High achieving, in demand and
oversubscribed, the Darley stallions have
clearly come a long way over the past
decade, and yet Bullard thinks they can
do even better.
“The happiest day of the year for
me – apart from getting married! – was
when Al Kazeem and Mukhadram, sons
of Dubawi and Shamardal, fought out
the finish of the Prince of Wales’s Stakes.
I really want the Dubai Millennium line
to flourish and I hope in ten years’ time
we’re talking about Dubawi as a sire
of sires in a way people do now about
Galileo. I think we will be.”