Search

The Sunday Syndicates Post – Vol. 3, Issue 35

I posted last week about how Dermot had eulogised about Lady Breffni’s first foal and she certainly lived up to the hype. She barely stepped foot inside her stable all week she was that busy. Everyone came down to see her and she soon became the “talk horse” of the sales complex with numerous judges claiming her as the best filly on the complex.

She went upto the back walking ring 15 lots before she was due to sell and she absolutely bounced off the rubber. I could count on one hand the amount of laps she did of the ring, she was constantly being pulled out to be inspected and re-inspected. Not one single person faulted her all week and to be fair to the filly she did not turn a hair the whole week, she was the ultimate professional and had that bomb proof constitution of both of her parents.

Fifty Stars ex. Lady Breffni taking in her Goffs sales ring experience.

All the top judges were on her with Will Kinsey and Hamish MacCauley fighting it out until €25,000 when Pat Fennessy of Ballinaroone Stud came in with one bid which proved to be the winning strike at €26,000 making her the highest priced filly by a first season sire sold at Goffs. We look forward to inspecting her in a couple of years time and maybe even buy her back to race in our colours!

Lady Breffni herself gained a lot of attention after the success and hype around her foal. She sold for €62,000 making her the highest priced mare in foal to Blue Bresil to sell at the sale. She owned the sales complex and was turned out impeccably. We look forward to following both of their next careers for their new owners.

Nós na Gaoithe en route to a 13 length maiden hurdle victory. Photo Credit: Pat Healy

Nós was bought by a lovely young couple for €30,000 and will have a fantastic second career. It was bittersweet as those involved with the filly knew that she had so much more to give only for a minor injury bringing her career to a premature end. Again she matured, grew and strengthened so well over time and has all of the right attributes to make up into a top broodmare.

Cabaret Queen’s foal was brought home after failing to meet her reserve. Overall the market at the minute is very tricky but whilst we didn’t hit the heights of Grangee last year the draft still took in €122,500 with an 83% clearance rate. The national hunt market is going through a bit of a transition period with the older cohort of sires after moving on and a new influx of unproven sires looking to establish themselves. The demand for good race mares with decent pedigrees is still there highlighted by the sale topping Zarkareva & Scarlet And Dove.

Syndicates Horse Of The Week

Even though we’re in the depths of the natioanl hunt season we said that we’d take a small break and introduce about of flat action into this new segment for the first time. No better place to start than our Ravens Pass filly heading to Johnny Murtagh.

She was picked up for €22,000 at the Goffs Orby Part II. I’d go as far as to say she is the best looking yearling we have nought in the past three to four years. As soon as she came out of the box I loved her. She was a fine, big, strong, good looking filly with a lovely elegant, light action. She has the body and conformation of a sprinter and the walk of a miler. I found Jack straight away and told him to go look at her. He had already seen her as she belonged to his forst cousins who had pinhooked the foal the year previous. We were both in agreement, she was the one.

>
Best looking yearling we’ve bought in three to four years.
— John Bourke

Not only did she have the looks but she has the pedogree to match. Ravens Pass was one of my favourtite racehorses during his time with John Gosden. He still remains the only English trained winner of the Breeders Cup Classic in a remarkable career which included a 3rd place finish in the Dewhurst before going onto lift the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes over 1m at Ascot on his penultimate start.

Ravens Pass has a remarkable record of siring stakes winners at a clip of 8% making him probably one of the most underrated sires standing at stud. He is a classic case of a sire ‘“the market” deems unfashionable but if you break down his stats it is clear for all to see that he is one of the best value sires standing at stud in Europe. What makes it even better is that this fillies full sister was blacktype and had an RPR of 94. Furthermore, the first foal out of Castle Of May made €250,000 and was 3rd on debut as a juvenile on her only start to date.

The power packed Ravens Pass filly at Goffs.

So we had the sire, the pedigree and the physical alls we needed was the trainer. There was only one man for the job and it just so happened that he found us first asking could he train the horse he loved her that much. Johnny Murtagh cornered Jack and said “how did you buy her for that? I didn’t follow her in as I thought she’d make at least double”.

>
I thought she’d cost at least double.
— Johnny Murtagh

Johnny has been our most successful flat trainer to date. Think Mise le Meas, New Emerald Bay and Fast Tara. He consistently dines at the top table of Irish racing and he’s unbelievable craic to boot. Conor Hoban broke and pre-trained her and reported her as a “lovely filly with a nice way of going.” She is already in the main yard under Johnny’s care as he aims to get his horses out on track a little bit earlier next season.

For the icing on the cake – The Goffs Two Million Series. Building on from two successful years of Europes richest 2-y-o race, The Goffs Million, they have now added the Goffs 500 with a guaranteed minimum prize fund of €500,000 and prize money to 10th place, it will be staged on the same day as the Goffs Million ensuring that at least €1.5 Million is open to Orby graduates on the eve of the 2024 Orby Sale. The Goffs €50,000 Bonus Series which will see €50,000 Goffs Bonuses awarded to the winners of a series of 2-year-old maidens run throughout the 2024 season at various Irish racecourses when that winner is a qualified Orby graduate. A programme of diverse 2-year-old maidens carrying the unique Goffs €50,000 Bonus will be published with a total of €500,000 distributed to 10 winning connections between the start of the season and Million Day at the Curragh. We firmly believe that this is a filly that has the capabilities to feature prominently in this series and no better man to get the job done.

Thank you.

Thanks for reading. If there’s anything we can do please do get in touch john@syndicates.racing.

Share:

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

Related articles:

Experience racing.

We're everything you need.

Join our Community WhatsApp Group

To receive early access, news and exclusive events