Willie Browne - trainer profile

Article by Daragh Ó Conchúir

He may be in his 77th year, with a resumé of excellence as an industry pioneer and a well-earned sobriquet, King of the Breeze-Ups, but all along, Willie Browne has had a trainer inside of him, straining to be let off the leash.

Economic pragmatism meant he travelled another route, and it has paid rich dividends. The Grangebarry Stables boss, who operates under the Mocklershill banner in his primary occupation, bought, educated and sold the first ever breeze-up graduate to win a Classic - the 1000 Guineas heroine Speciosa. 

Willie and daughter Jane

That came a year after Penkenna Princess was beaten a short head in the Irish equivalent. Derby runner-up and now darling of National Hunt breeders Walk In The Park and Ascot Gold Cup victor Trip To Paris are other alumnae.

Browne has consigned the top lot at all the marquee sales, breaking the million-pound barrier twice, and in Mill Reef Stakes winner Sakheer, he has a real contender for 2000 Guineas honours in 2023.

Son of Zoffany, Sakheer powers clear to win the 2022 Mill Reef Stakes at Newbury for trainer Roger Varian.

Yet greeting a winner of a 0-65 in Dundalk on a wet Friday night would, he insists, give him more of an adrenaline infusion.

Sure, the monetary rewards are oceans apart, but training is about something far more elemental. It is about DNA and who he is.

“I wanted to be a trainer for as long as I can remember,” says Browne over a mug of tea and a plate of sandwiches in his kitchen. Roxy and Chanelle are his two dogs, happy with scratches but with longing eyes on the platter on the table.

“Give me a winner at a small track any day to a big day at the sales, you know? Economically, it doesn’t make sense, but I just love it.”

His father Mickey was a talented jump jockey, who had learned his trade at Athassel House, which is now where trainer Paddy Twomey has built his select but quality-laden empire. From there, Mickey moved on to work for Tim Hyde, father of Camas Park supremo Timmy.

The family moved to Mocklershill from Ballagh when Willie was five. School took a back seat because he was needed to work at home.

“I would regret that now. Apart from the education, in this day and age, it’s so important to go out in the world and see how other people do stuff.”

His equine instruction was top class however, and he would go on to ride around 250 winners in total under Rules and in point-to-points, with the race that became the GPT Galway Amateur Handicap and is now the Connacht Hotel Handicap – Galway’s unofficial amateur riders’ Derby – among the highlights thanks to Troubled Sole in 1965 along with a big handicap hurdle win on Pearl Of Montreal for his father.

With Michael, also a jockey, at home as well, they were struggling to make enough for three families. It was all well and good having this passion and talent but not much use if you were struggling to keep a roof over your head.

Willie noticed Tony O’Callaghan landing a few nice touches by selling two-year-olds he had bought as yearlings. That was in 1976, and he reckoned that maybe it would be worth dipping their toe in this particular water the following year.

It was a life-changing decision; and when the first official breeze-up sales were held in 1978, the Brownes were ready. Willie has been at the sharp end of that sphere since, an amazing feat given how it has changed along with modern trends, demands and fashion. One thing that never changed, of course, was the horseman’s judgement and depth of knowledge.

It was all very satisfying, building houses, putting children through school and all the rest, but it was really just business. 

So, the opportunities that presented themselves in the past 12 months have been manna, miraculous sustenance to satisfy the inner desire. 

After registering a grand total of 18 winners as a trainer in almost 30 years up to the beginning of last season, mostly with horses that didn’t get picked up at the breeze-ups or were not up to scaling the sort of heights some of the clients he pre-trained for (such as Coolmore and the Niarchos family) operated at, Browne has added seven more in 15 months.

Spirit Gal provided two of those, including the most prestigious success of his life as a conditioner when scoring in the Listed Star Appeal Stakes; and she subsequently brought him to Keeneland for the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf last November, a couple of months after he had been there buying yearlings.

She has now been moved to France to be trained by Andre Fabre, and while he was disappointed to see her go, Browne has another project for the same owner-breeder, Charles ‘Chuck’ Fipke. A geologist and diamond prospector, Fipke has seen his colours carried to victory in 16 Gr.1 contests in America, including at the Breeders’ Cup, and is now keen to do something similar in Europe.

Stormy Entry (blue cap) prevailed at the line in a cracking finish to a recent Winter Series race at Dundalk

That said, Stormy Entry’s initial goal this spring was qualification to the Kentucky Derby. Not seen on the track until last December, the Point Of Entry colt was a promising second on the all-weather to the far more experienced Song For Whoever, who followed up with a facile triumph at odds-on subsequently.

Browne’s charge improved to win his three-year-old maiden in January under the septuagenarian’s go-to jockey Seamie Heffernan and scored again before finishing a close third at in the Listed Patton Stakes won by Killavullan Stakes winner Cairo, a Ballydoyle horse that was runner-up to Spirit Gal in the Star Appeal Stakes.

“It was all by accident really,” Browne explains. “I used to pre-train quite a bit for Chuck Fipke—a very rich Canadian man about the same cut and go as myself age-wise. I met him in Kentucky, 20 years ago; and for some reason, we palled up.

“I’d always be pre-training them to go somewhere else—first John Oxx and now Joseph O’Brien or Mark Prescott—and I was dead happy with that, being honest. I trained one or two horses for him okay, but they didn’t amount to anything.

“Out of the blue last year, at the end of January, he sent me six horses over from Florida, which was unusual at that time of the year, and said he wanted the Invincible Spirit and No Nay Never fillies to be aimed for the Doncaster Breeze-Up.”

The Invincible Spirit would turn out to be “a machine” called Spirit Gal, but after breezing like a “jet”, she developed some lameness due to sore shins and was withdrawn from the sale.

“It was a bit of a blow but I tipped along with her when she came back home, gave her a bit of a break after the breeze-up, and she was flying. I said, ‘Chuck, I’m going to keep this filly for a bit, give her a run and see what happens.’ She had a nice first run at The Curragh, was just touched off in Naas and then she won the two including the Listed race which qualified her for the Breeders’ Cup.”

Fipke wanted an American-based jockey on board, though Heffernan had won the Breeders’ Cup Turf and Secretariat Stakes on board Highland Reel in the past and played a significant role in Spirit Gal becoming more amenable to training and racing.

Ricardo Santana Jnr got the nod, but nothing went right for the pair on the day. Spirit Gal broke like a rocket from the stalls, ironically not the norm for European-trained horses, but raced far too keenly and trailed in 13th of 14.

The race aside, Browne enjoyed the occasion and feels that there is a lot that European racing can learn from their US counterparts when it comes to promoting the sport of horse racing.

“It was a great occasion. It was so much different from sitting down at home in front of the telly watching it. It was fantastic.

“The Americans know how to do it. There were busloads of them there every morning—groupies you could call them—watching the horses. You’d never see that in Europe. They were like film stars—that’s the way they were treating the horses.”

He can’t deny that he would have liked to have kept Spirit Gal, having played such a part in her development, but that’s racing and he is eager to see her take things to the next level under Fabre’s tutelage.

Now, he and Fipke are dreaming with Stormy Entry, he's qualified for both The Preakness and Belmont Stakes - the last two legs of the US Triple Crown.

“He is a good horse in his own right. He ran nicely in the Kentucky Derby qualifier at Dundalk behind a good horse [Cairo] of Aidan (O’Brien’s) that was actually beaten by Spirit Gal but I know they like [him].”

Among the half-dozen horses that arrived in January 2022 was Shirl’s Bee, who was only beaten a length in the Gp.3 UAE Derby in February, on just his second run. 

His half-sister is being put through her paces in Tipperary’s Golden Vale now and will begin her juvenile career at least under Browne’s eagle eye.

This is an extremely busy time for him, with the major breeze-up sales looming into view but he has thoroughly enjoyed proving his ability as a trainer.

“If I died 12 months ago, I’d have died wondering, ‘Would I? Or could I?’, but you know the secret of training horses? Get a few good ones. It’s simple. If you feed them and exercise them, that’s the secret. There’s an awful lot of very good people in Ireland who train horses. The problem is they are training 50-rated horses. And if you are dead lucky, you can win one race a year with a 50-rated horse. Most of the time, you’ll come home and blame the horse or yourself: ‘What am I doing wrong?’”

Spirit Gal’s progress didn’t precipitate any offers to train more racehorses. Would he accept if they came?

“I would,” comes the succinct reply, though he notes that perhaps people view a conflict between training and prepping horses for the sales.

“Maybe people would think I’m keeping the best of them for myself? I’m a straight shooter, but it’s hard to know what people think and maybe they’d think that if I got into it more.”

After all, he has always maintained a full licence. That tells you all you need to know about the kid inside him, bursting to spend his time prepping horses to run at the track with his name alongside them, even though laying the groundwork for someone else to do it leaves him far more handsomely recompensed.

Mind you, he tends to keep some sort of lid on his glee when a horse he trains wins. Unlike Michael, who could be heard in the next county roaring one home from the stands. And he would be as animated for Willie as he would for himself.

“I get a good buzz out of him having a winner, of course, yeah. Not as much as him though, he’s a complete lunatic!”

The older sibling smiles. And he has every right to. It’s been a long road from when his father got the show up and running. He has taken things another level and it must be a source of pride.

But seeing a horse trained by W P Browne being led into the winner’s enclosure? Nothing will ever top that.

Equine Nutrition - be wary of false feeding economies

Article by Louise Jones

Many horses, especially performance horses, breeding stallions, and broodmares at certain stages of production, require additional calories in the form of hard feed. Whilst in the current economic climate, with rising costs and inflation, it might be tempting to look at lower cost feeding options; in reality, this could be a false economy. When choosing a feed, in order to ensure that you are getting the best value for money and are providing your horses with the essential nutrients they require, there are a number of factors to consider.

Quality 

The ingredients included in feed are referred to as the raw materials. These are usually listed on the feed bag or label in descending order by weight. Usually they are listed by name (e.g., oats, barley wheat) but in some cases are listed by category (e.g., cereals). Each raw material will be included for a specific nutritional purpose. For example, full-fat soya is a high-quality source of protein, whilst cereals such as oats are mainly included for their energy content, also contributing towards protein, fibre and to a lesser degree, fat intake.

Waste by-products from human food processing are sometimes used in the manufacture of horse feed. Whilst it is true that they do still hold a nutritional value, in most cases they are predominantly providing fibre but contain poor levels of other essential nutrients. Two of the most commonly used by-products are oatfeed and distillers grains. Oatfeed is the fibrous husks and outer layer of the oat and it mainly provides fibre. Distillers grains are what is left over after yeast fermentation of cereal grains used to produce alcohol. The leftover grain is dried and used in the feed industry as a protein source. Distillers grains can be high in mycotoxins, which are toxic chemicals produced by fungi in certain crops, including maize. Furthermore, despite being used as a protein source, distillers grains are typically low in lysine. As one of the first limiting amino acids, lysine is a very important part of the horse’s diet; horses in work, pregnant mares and youngstock all have increased lysine requirements.

Another ingredient to look out for on the back of your bag of feed is nutritionally improved straw, often referred to as “NIS”. This is straw that has been treated with chemicals such as sodium hydroxide (caustic soda) to break down the structural fibre (lignins) and increase its digestibility. Straw is a good example of a forage which contains filler fibre; in fact, you can think of it as the horse’s equivalent of humans eating celery. Traditionally, oat straw was used to make NIS, however many manufacturers now use cheaper wheat or barley straw due to the rising cost of good quality oat straw.  Not all companies state what straw is used and instead use generic terms such as cereal straw, which again, allows them to vary the ingredients used depending on cost and availability. 

By law, feed manufacturers must declare certain nutrients on the feed bag, one of which is the percentage crude protein. This tells you how much protein the feed contains. However, not all protein is created equal; some protein is of very high quality, whilst other proteins can be so low in quality that they will limit a horse’s ability to grow, reproduce, perform or build muscle. Protein ‘quality’ is often measured by the levels of essential amino acids (e.g., lysine, methionine) it contains. In most cases feed manufacturers do not have to list the amount of these essential amino acids; but looking at the ingredient list will give you a clue as to how good the protein quality is. Good sources of high-quality protein include legumes and soybean meal, whereas by-products often contain moderate- or low-quality protein, even though they may be relatively high in crude protein. 

Understanding more about the ingredients in your bag of horse feed will help you to assess whether they are providing good, quality nutrition. Feeds containing large proportions of lower quality ingredients will obviously be cheaper, but this could compromise quality of the products. The goal therefore is to ensure that the nutritional makeup of the products remains high quality and consistent. 

Cooking for digestibility 

Digestibility is a term used to describe the amount of nutrients that are actually absorbed by a horse and are therefore available for growth, reproduction, and performance. Understanding digestibility of energy sources—such as fibre, fat, starch, and sugar as well as protein, vitamin and mineral digestibility—is important when devising optimal diets for horses. 

Most of the energy in grains is contained in the starch; however, horses cannot fully digest starch from uncooked (raw) grains in the small intestine, which results in this undigested starch traveling into the hindgut where it will ferment and potentially cause hindgut acidosis. Therefore, in order to maximise pre-caecal digestibility, feed manufacturers cook the grain. Similarly, soya beans must be carefully processed prior to feeding them to horses. This is because raw soybeans contain a specific enzyme that blocks the action of trypsin, an enzyme needed for protein absorption.

There are various methods of cooking including pelleting, micronizing, extrusion, and steam-flaking.  This is a fine art as, for example, undercooking soya beans will not deactivate the enzymes correctly, thus resulting in reduced protein absorption. On the other hand, overcooking will destroy essential amino acids such as lysine, methionine, threonine, and possibly others.

Variation in cooking methods, and hence digestibility, can have a direct impact on how the finished product performs. Your individual feed manufacturer should be able to tell you more about the cooking processes they use to maximise digestibility.

Micronutrient and functional ingredients specification

The back of your bag of feed should list the inclusion of vitamins, such as vitamin E, and minerals including copper and zinc. A lower vitamin and mineral specification is one way feed companies can keep the cost of their products down. For example, the vitamin E level in one unbranded Stud Cube is just 200 iu/kg—50% lower than in a branded alternative.

For most vitamins and minerals, the levels declared on the back of the bag/label only tell the amount actually added and do not include any background levels provided by the raw materials. In other marketing materials, such as brochures, some companies will combine the added figure with the amount provided by other raw materials in order to elevate the overall figure. For example, a feed with 50 mg/kg of added copper may list the total copper as 60 mg/kg on their website or brochure.  Whilst it is perfectly acceptable to do this, it is equally important to recognise that background levels in different raw materials can vary and hence should not be relied upon to meet requirements. To complicate this slightly further, chelated minerals (e.g., cupric chelate of amino acids hydrate, a copper chelate) may be included. Chelated minerals have a higher bioavailability, and so a feed with a high inclusion of chelated copper may perform as well as one that has an even higher overall copper level but does not include any chelates.

Equally important is the need to verify that any specific functional ingredients such as prebiotics or yeast are included at levels that are likely to be efficacious. 

Feeding rates

Whilst the cost of a bag of feed is undeniably important, another aspect that should be considered is the amount of feed required to achieve the desired body condition and provide a balanced diet. Feeding higher volumes of hard feed not only presents a challenge from a gastrointestinal health point of view but also increases the cost per day of feeding an individual. For example, the daily cost of feeding 8kg of a feed costing £400/€460 per tonne vs 5¼ kg of a feed costing £600/€680 per tonne are exactly the same. Plus, the lower feeding rate of the more expensive product will be a better option in terms of the horse’s digestive health, which is linked to overall health and performance. To keep feeding costs in perspective, look at the cost of feeding a horse per day rather than relying on individual product prices.

Consistency 

When a nutritionist creates a recipe for a horse feed, they can either create a ‘set recipe’ for the feed or a ‘least cost formulation’. A set recipe is one that doesn’t change and will use exactly the same ingredients in the same quantities. The benefit of this is that you can rest assured that each bag will deliver the same nutritional profile as the next. However, the downside is that if the price of a specific ingredient increases, unfortunately, so will the cost of the product.

On the other hand, least-cost formulations use software to make short-term recipes based on the cost of available ingredients. It will use the cheapest ingredient available. When done correctly, they will provide the amount of calories (energy), crude protein, vitamins and minerals as specified on the label. However, the ingredients will change, and protein quality can be compromised. Often feed companies using least-cost formulations will print their ingredients on a label, rather than the bag itself, as the label can be amended quickly and cheaply, should they alter the recipe.

Checking the list of ingredients in your feed regularly should alert you to any formulation changes.  Equally look out for feeds that include vague ingredient listings such as ‘cereal grains and grain by-products, vegetable protein meals and vegetable oil’; these terms are often used to give the flexibility to change the ingredients depending on how costly they are.

Peace of mind

Another important issue is that some companies producing lower-cost feeds may not have invested in the resources required to carry out testing for naturally occurring prohibited substances (NOPS) such as theophylline, banned substances (e.g., zilpaterol - an anabolic steroid) or mycotoxins (e.g., zearalenone). It is true that, even with the most stringent testing regime, identifying potential contamination is difficult; and over recent years, a number of feed companies have had issues.  However, by choosing a feed manufacturer who is at the top of their game in terms of testing and monitoring for the presence of such substances will give you peace of mind that they are aware of the threat these substances pose, and they are taking significant precautions to prevent their presence in their products. It is important to source horse feed from a BETA NOPS registered feed manufacturer at a minimum. It may also be prudent to ask questions about the feed manufacturer’s testing regime and frequency of testing.  

Supplements – to use or not to use?

A good nutritionist will be able to assess any supplements that are fed, making note of why each is added to the diet and the key nutrients they provide. It is easy to get stuck into the trap of feeding multiple supplements that contain the same nutrients, effectively doubling up on intake. Whilst in many cases this isn’t nutritionally an issue, it is an ineffective financial spend. For example, B vitamins can be a very useful addition to the diet, but if provided in levels much higher than the horse needs, they will simply be excreted in the urine. Reviewing the supplements you are feeding with your nutritionist to ensure they are essential and eliminating nutritional double-ups is one of the simplest ways to shave off some expense.

Review and revise

A periodic review of your horse’s diet ensures that you’re providing the best nutrition in the most cost-effective way. This will require the expertise of a nutritionist. Seeking advice on online forums and social media is not recommended as this can lead to misinformed, biased advice or frankly, dangerous recommendations. On the other hand, a properly qualified and experienced nutritionist will be able to undertake a thorough diet evaluation, carefully collecting information about forages, concentrates, and supplements. 

Working with a nutritionist has many advantages; they will be able to work with you to ensure optimal nutrition, whilst also helping to limit needless expenses. Some nutritionists are better than others, so choose wisely. (Does the person in question have the level of qualifications?) Bear in mind that while qualifications can assure you that the nutritionist has rigorous science-based training, experience is also exceptionally important. Ask them about their industry experience and what other clients they work with to ensure they have the right skill set for your needs. In addition, a competent nutritionist will be willing and able to interact with your vet where and when required to ensure that the health, well-being, and nutrition of your horses is as good as it can be. 

There are independent nutritionists available, but you will likely incur a charge—often quite a significant one. On the other hand, the majority of feed companies employ qualified, experienced nutritionists and offer their advice, free of charge.

Treating 'bucked shins' in the thoroughbred racehorse

Article by Adam Jackson MRCVS 

One of the most common causes of lost days to training and racing in racehorses is dorsal metacarpal disease (DMD), which is often referred to as “bucked shins” or “sore shins”.  

Often a frustration to trainers and owners, this problem rears its ugly head at the time of highest expectations, such as arising the last day of work before a horse’s first race; right after a horse’s first victory; or after a horse was purchased at a two-year old sale.

This disease presents with heat, pain with or without inflammation (swelling) on the dorsal (front) surface or the dorsomedial (front inside) surface of the third metacarpal bone (cannon) referred to as acute periostitis. With rest and reduced exercise, the condition can improve, but catastrophic fractures of the cannon may occur at the site of previous DMD episodes.  A good understanding of this disease and strategies of prevention are vital in order to improve the welfare of the horse and reduce the potential expenses to all shareholders.  

Introduction

The cannon bone is an important structure in the weight-bearing and absorbing shock. As the horse moves, the bone bends a little and then returns to its original shape like an elastic band, often referred to as elastic deformation.  In addition, it has been observed that horses that work slowly have tension on the front of the cannon bone; in other words, the bone is stressed by a stretching force rather than a compressing force. However, at higher speeds, these forces change from stretching to compressing forces.

Repeated bending forces (stress cycle) on the cannon bone causes dorsal metatarsal disease. When the horse is young, it has a thin bone cortex. As the horse grows and is repeatedly subjected to these forces, the bones remodel and the cortex thickens, making it stronger. However, if the bending forces exceed the bone’s ability to remodel, then this leads to stress fatigue and bone damage.

The occurrence of bucked shins is most common when horses are developing, typically two–three years old as training becomes more intensive. But it must be noted that if the horse is not bone fit, any aged racehorse is susceptible to these diseases when they begin training. Roughly at the age of five years old when a horse is fit, they are at a low risk of this disease. Within the first six months of training, DMD may present in one or both front limbs. If the condition does occur in both front limbs and the horse is being trained on a circular track, then it is likely the inside leg is where it will occur first.  In other words, if the training tends to be in a counterclockwise training circuit, then there are greater forces on the left limb than the right; thus the left is more likely to develop the disease before the right limb.

Risk Factors of DMD

Age: DMD occurs most commonly in 2–3 year olds, often within their first 6 months of training. It is rarely seen in horses with a mature skeleton (age 4 and over). However, this disease has been seen in 5 year olds especially if they have been stalled for a long amount of time after weaning and not racing until that age.

Gender: It is believed that the gender of the horse does not alter its risk to DMD.

Breed: Most common in thoroughbreds but may be seen in both standardbreds and quarter horses. 

Genetics: The risk of DMD is influenced by genetics as variation in limb bone geometry (inherited) behaves differently to force/strains on the bone. In addition, the longer the cannon bone, the greater the load is at flexion of the dorsal cortex of the bone, making it more susceptible to DMD.

Training and racing surfaces: The different types of training and racing surface alter the risk to DMD because there are variations in the force applied to limbs as well as the acceleration rates of hoof impact.  Furthermore, the impact of these forces is increased with greater speed.  Dirt tracks tend to be the hardest surface, whereas synthetic tracks reduce hoof and limb impact and loading force.  However, it is important to remember that the hardness of all of these surfaces can be altered by a number of other factors such as:

1. Different surface materials

2. Changes in weather, temperature and humidity

3. Surface maintenance (i.e., soaking, harrowing)

4. Changes in horse body weight

5. Age of surface – wear and tear of surface

6. Human opinion of track’s condition

Training: The length of time for bones to respond to different training practices is unknown. Although further research is required, it is suggested that fast work should be avoided in the early stages of training as it is thought that high-speed exercise introduced too quickly (within 1 month) was detrimental to bone health.

Direction of training: Track direction varies globally. Thoroughbreds tend to lead with the inside forelimb around turns then switch to the outer forelimb on the straight. It has been suggested that due to greater forces on the leading limb on the turn, that limb is more at risk of bucked shins. However, more research is required to make accurate conclusions.

Speed: Current research is contradictory. Some research indicates a reduction in the risk of DMD if the horse is trained at high speeds with every extra mile worked and canter work increases the risk. However, other research suggests that short periods of work (< 1 month) at high speed increases the risk of DMD.

Camber:  European tracks, with turf being the prevalent surface, tend to vary in their design, often including slopes, twists, turns, uphill sections, and cambers. In addition, races may be run straight, clockwise or counterclockwise. This is in contrast to the USA where the tracks are usually flat. Although it is known that this variation in track characteristics alters the horse’s gait, thus altering forces on the forelimbs, further research is needed to understand if these variations increase the risk of DMD.

How does DMD develop?

Buck shin is the formation of tiny stress fractures on the front or inside of the cannon bone of the horse’s front legs. DMD occurs when the stress on the legs with high-speed training exceeds the bone’s ability to adapt to those stresses. 

Bone is a dynamic tissue that is constantly adapting its structure. Once the bone is formed in immature animals, the bone grows and changes shape by a process called modelling. Bone remodelling is different from modelling in that its function is to renew the skeleton and involves both bone resorption and formation to occur at the same location in a sequential manner.   

With high-speed training, there is high-strain fatigue, which causes excessive compression of the bone. During this compression, there is insufficient amount of bone remodelling at the point of stress. At this site, this new bone is much weaker; thus, it is susceptible to inflammation and pain and may lead to fractures.

Treatment of dorsal metacarpal disease

Treatment of DMD is designed to alleviate pain and inflammation while allowing the remodelling process of the bone to catch up with the damage that has been caused from stress cycling.

The core of the treatment is rest and providing pain relief, followed by a slow and gradual increase in exercise levels. 

Fractures of the bone cortex can be treated with surgery using lag screw fixation and osteostixis. Osteostixis is the drilling of many holes around the site of fracture in order to promote bone healing. Lag screw fixation is the drilling of a screw across the fracture line to compress and stabilise the bone. However, fracture recurrence is common with both techniques and requires 5–6 months out of training.

There are additional treatments that may be used to complement core treatments. Extracorporeal shock wave therapy (ESWT) is commonly used for treatment and involves a highly concentrated, powerful acoustic (sound) energy source being applied to the site of injury. The rationale is that ESWT increases blood flow, increases growth of new blood vessels and increases the production of natural healing factors in the treated area. The research findings are limited on its effectiveness but anecdotally amongst the veterinary profession, it seems to work on bucked shins and stress fractures. 

In Europe, horses must not have had shock wave therapy on the day of racing, or on any of the five days before the race day in which the horse is declared to run. In North America, horses are not permitted to race or breeze for 30 days following treatment as per the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority’s (HISA) rulings. 

With all treatment options, there must be a careful and considered discussion with the veterinarian and all stakeholders on the desired outcome while bearing in mind the important factor of the horse’s welfare and wellbeing.

What about bisphosphonates?

Some clinicians are using a combination of shockwave and bisphosphonates (Tildren TM, OsPhos, TM) to treat DMD. Bisphosphonates were first seen in human medicine and used for osteoporosis. Bones are constantly remodelling in a process that removes old bone cells and deposits new ones. Bisphosphonates help prevent bones from losing calcium and other minerals by slowing or stopping that natural process that dissolves bone tissue, thus, helping bones remain strong and intact. Veterinary surgeons report mixed results with these therapies, and long-term use of bisphosphonates is expensive and has serious consequences. Bisphosphonates are toxic to the gastrointestinal and renal systems, thus, potentially causing colic and kidney disease. Their safety has not been evaluated for the use in horses younger than four years old nor in pregnant and lactating mares.

RULES ARE CHANGING - Bisphosphonates

Bisphosphonates are not to be administered to a racehorse under the age of three years and six months as determined by its recorded date of birth, on the day of the race or on any of the 30 days before the day of the race in which the horse is declared to run as per The International Federation of Horseracing Authorities rulings for Europe. 

In America, HISA’s Anti-Doping and Medication Control (ADMC) Program came into effect on March 27 and with it, new regulations regarding the presence and use of bisphosphonates.

The Horseracing Integrity & Welfare Unit (HIWU) states “The ADMC Program regulations categorise bisphosphonates as a Banned Substance, meaning that they are prohibited from being administered to, or present in, covered horses at any time. Covered horses that test positive for bisphosphonates under the ADMC Program are subject to lifetime ineligibility, and associated covered persons may incur an Anti-Doping Rule Violation.”

“HIWU will not pursue disciplinary action against Covered Horses or their associated covered person(s) for the presence of bisphosphonates if the covered person(s) can provide documentation (e.g. medical records or a positive test result) to HIWU of the administration or presence of bisphosphonates prior to the implementation date of the ADMC Program.” 

Training regimens

With DMD, it must be remembered that it is an appropriate response for new bone formation when the cannon endures cyclic stress and injury. This injury cannot be ignored but addressed to reduce the risk of serious consequences.  Exercise is the root of the problem; therefore, the solution is to alter the patterns of exercise.   

Dr David Nunamaker DVM of the University of Pennsylvania has developed a training programme, which is believed to reduce the risk of DMD. The rationale when developing this modified training programme is that horses are not born with the right bone structure for racing. The bones are to develop and adapt to racing. By providing training programmes that mimic racing, the bones can adapt to the forces that are applied during racing, thus reducing the risk of developing bucked shins.

When initiating this training regimen, it is assumed that young horses are broken to ride in autumn and able to gallop a mile by January so that training can start. 

Stage 1 (5 week duration) – Horses finish the gallops two times a week with the last 1/8th of the mile (last 200 metres of 1600 metres) completed in an open gallop in 15 seconds.

Stage 2 (5 week duration) – Twice a week open gallops for ¼ of a mile (400 metres of 1600 metres) in 30 seconds, including a 1 mile (1600 metres) gallop.

Stage 3 (7 week duration) – The addition of speed work once per week.  Breezing (moderate speed) for ¼ mile (400 metres) and daily gallops lengthened to 1 ¼ miles twice per week for 4 weeks. The following 3 weeks, the ¼ mile breeze is continued with a strong gallop out for another furlong (roughly 40 seconds total for a breeze).

Conclusion

The findings of exercise research are often varied and contradictory due to many research variables making comparisons and conclusions difficult. In addition, most of the research of musculoskeletal issues in racehorses uses racing data, but most injuries occur during training

Because more research is needed, there remain conflicting views of the effects of racing on horses before skeletal maturity and the most effective and safe way to introduce speed exercise. At present, the data suggests that distance and speed be implemented gradually and should include high-speed work at full racing speed.

The racing industry must continue to work cooperatively to address the welfare concerns associated with horses experiencing DMD.

How racing is making strides into ‘Big Data’

Article by Alysen Miller

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you may have noticed many male footballers wearing what appears to be a sports bra during training and matches. This is not a political statement, a show of solidarity with their female counterparts, perhaps; nor is it the latest fashion craze. Rather the bras are, in reality, GPS tracker vests. Containing a small Global Positioning System gadget, they allow team managers and trainers to collect and analyse players’ individualised GPS data in order to make informed decisions about tactics and training.

Like all big-money sports, the top football clubs now employ legions of data nerds to crunch the numbers on all aspects of their players’ performances. Premier League football club, Arsenal, uses the STATSports system to gather physical data on all their players, from the under-12s to the men’s and women’s first teams. Marketed as “the most advanced wearable tech on the market” (that’s the famous bra), it records some 250 separate metrics, including accelerations and decelerations, average heart rate, calories burned, distance per minute, high-speed running, high-intensity distance, max speed, sprints and strain. The statistics are available live during training sessions so coaches can make real-time adjustments where necessary. 

And it goes beyond wearable tech. Players at last year’s World Cup in Qatar were able to get insights into their on-field performance through FIFA’s own player app. Physical performance metrics were collected through a highly accurate in-stadium tracking system, including multiple cameras located around the pitch. These included distance covered at various speed thresholds, number of actions above 25 miles per hour (about 40 kilometres per hour), and maximum speed – all displayed on positional heat maps. Thanks to this data, we know that Kylian Mbappé hit a top speed of 35.3 kilometres per hour (about 22 miles per hour) against Poland in the round of 16. Impressive for a two-legged athlete, even if he won’t be giving the likes of Flightline or Baaeed a run for their money.

Football is following in the footsteps of baseball and American football by embracing “Big Data”. Not only does this enhance teams’ abilities to play and train, it adds another dimension to the spectator experience. Who doesn’t want to know how far their favourite player ran? Horse racing, by contrast, still relies on a mathematical speed model, Timeform, developed in the 1950s.

“When you look at other professional sports, racing’s a fair way behind in terms of how we measure the athlete,” says David Hawke. “Basically, we don’t measure the athlete in a biometric sense at all, whereas most other professional sports measure their athletes in competition, when the athletes are at their highest output and highest exertion. And this is the crucial point.” Hawke is hoping to change all that. He is the managing director of StrideMaster, a system that combines GPS and motion capture technologies to produce detailed insights into the horse’s performance. 

“When we developed the technology, back in 2010, it was essentially technology for race day: tracking horses, getting all their times—all the normal race track performance information that punters might want to see,” he explains. In the course of gathering this information, Hawke accumulated a treasure trove of biometric data. In 2018, he joined up with Dr David Lambert. Kentucky-based Dr Lambert is an expert on equine physiology and the founder of a company called Equine Analysis Systems, which leverages this understanding of how the horse moves to select elite, high-performance thoroughbreds. 

He is looking for the top one percent, the cream of the crop. Hawke’s idea was to take this hypothesis and turn it on its head; in other words, to find the one percent “who were in trouble.” In this way, by identifying the horses that are trying to cope with a problem, vets and trainers would have a crucial data point which could be used to help prevent injuries before they happen.

So how does it work? Here comes the science part. Essentially, every horse has a unique stride “fingerprint.” Thanks to Hawke’s data, we not only know what that fingerprint looks like, but also when the horse deviates substantially from that fingerprint.

 The first step is to collect high-resolution data of the horse at the gallop. This is because, as prey animals, horses are disinclined to show lameness at the walk or trot (the traditional way of assessing a horse’s soundness). “The forces that are at play when a horse is going at 40 miles per hour compared to when it’s being trotted up at five miles per hour are completely different,” says Hawke. “The price that the horse pays for going fast is that it gives up autonomy over a number of things,” he continues. “It gives up autonomy over its breathing, for example. It becomes a mechanical breather. It also gives up autonomy over its footfall. If it’s got a raging foot abscess at the walk or the trot, it will decide not to put its foot down. But at the gallop, it can’t do that. It has no choice over when it puts each foot down. So the only option it’s got left to manage an issue that’s impacting it is postural change: it’s going to hold itself differently; it’s going to use different muscles to try and take the pressure off.” 

To capture these changes, samples are taken from three axes: the vertical, the longitudinal and the medial. This data is captured by a device about the size of an iPhone that’s slipped into the saddle cloth. These samples are then broken down further: “We split the stride up into three parts,” Hawke explains. “We have the hind leg stance phase, which is the primary propulsion and power source for the horse. Hind leg spring function is absolutely critical to a good stride, so if anything’s wrong at the back end, that immediately gets transferred to the front end on the corresponding diagonal. Then we have the forelimb stance phase. And then we have the flight phase, or the collection phase, when the horse is off the ground. The flight phase is where the horse is making most of its postural adjustments in the air. So if it’s got a problem it’s managing, it’s trying desperately to accommodate that problem during the stride. And then when it goes into the air, it’s trying desperately to get itself ready for the next stride to do it all over again.”

The system is capable of detecting minute variations in the horse’s stride that are effectively invisible to the human eye. “From an observational point of view, humans can’t detect these sorts of changes that we’re picking up. It’s simply happening too fast,” he says. The sample rate in StrideMaster’s sensors is 800 hertz, or 800 frames per second. The human eye, by contrast, cannot directly perceive more than about 60 frames per second. “That enables us to look at the stride in a very high level of detail,” he says. 

Hawke has accumulated so much data that it’s no longer necessary to have historic data on an individual horse in order to make a judgement about its soundness. Rather, there exists an “ideal” fingerprint for different categories of horse: “We have a Gp.1 fingerprint, we have a Gp.2 fingerprint, right down to a $10,000 claimer fingerprint, to use the American parlance,” he explains. In other words, soundness can be assessed against an ideal archetype. If a horse is more than two standard deviations outside of this ideal, that is considered an adverse change that the system then flags for the attention of the trainer.

So how is this “deviation” measured? “We’re tracking two or three things that are important: we’re tracking the amount of power they produce, and we’re tracking the amount of vibration they produce,” Hawke explains. Vibration is, essentially, any rapid change in acceleration. That is what is most likely to cause injury. Think of the horse as a four-cylinder engine, with the legs as the pistons. Each piston—or leg—moves in a set rhythm. As long as this rhythm is maintained, vibration will be kept to a minimum. But changes in rhythm (for example, because the horse is managing a problem) generate vibration which, in turn, generates damage. The sounder the horse, in other words, the less vibration. But with great power comes the potential to generate huge amounts of vibration. This explains why most of the horses that get flagged are competitive horses in whatever cohort they’re in. “They’re not horses that are running 20 lengths down the track,” says Hawke. “Generally, those horses are not producing enough power or vibration to get themselves into trouble. [The good horses] will always find a way to go fast,” he says.

While Hawke sees the technology primarily as an injury prevention tool, he acknowledges that its potential is broader than that: “From a social licence point of view, that’s where the pressure is: to manage these injury rates and welfare outcomes better than we have been. So that’s the primary focus,” he says. But the same technology could, in theory, be used to identify future elite performers: 

“When you compare, say, a Gp.1 horse to a low-rating handicapper, what we see is increased deviation from optimum,” he explains. “To take a metric at random: gravity. The acceleration of an object toward the ground caused by gravity alone, near the surface of Earth, is called ‘normal gravity,’ or 1g. This acceleration is equal to 32.2 ft/sec2 (9.8 m/sec2). If you drop an apple on Earth, it falls at 1g”. 

“The Gp.1 horse will be much closer to that 1g than the lower rating handicapper,” he explains. “[The lower-rated horse] is not as efficient. They’re losing power in all directions. They’re going up and down more, they’re going side to side more. Whereas the elite horse actually generates surprisingly less power, but it’s all pointing down the road in the right direction.”

Hawke is keen to emphasise that he is not marketing a diagnostic tool. Rather, trainers should see this technology as another tool in their toolkit: “When the trainer gets the information, either they come and seek more information or talk to their vets about what’s going on. The vet can review the stride on a stride-by-stride basis. And when we get down to that level of detail, we can actually, on most occasions, give some indication of what quadrant the problem is emanating from.”
But what if you could identify such problems without even galloping the horse? 

Stephen O’Dwyer thinks he has a solution. O’Dwyer is the founder of Irish start-up TrojanTrack, which uses video cameras to record the horse at the walk and, from there, identify any variations in its movement. “We take video data of 52 different parts of the horse at 120 frames per second,” he explains. “We then convert those parts into biomechanical data: joint velocities, accelerations, angles. And then we can compare that to the horse’s healthy baseline movement to track any deteriorations or imbalances that might be creeping in.” But wait. Horses are prey animals. Won’t they naturally try to mask any injuries at the walk? “Horses are herd animals, so rather than show any sign of injury, they try to hide it as much as possible, and that means compensating on a different limb or something like that,” O’Dwyer acknowledges. “But because we’re tracking 52 points, we’re able to pick up any tiny deviations, tiny nuances that won’t be picked up by the human eye. 

“In talking to a few of the vets, they say that when the horse is in its walk, it’s at its most comfortable,” he continues. “And because they’re in their most comfortable state, they won’t be trying to hide their injury as much.” O’Dwyer plans to incorporate trot movements in the future.

Like Hawke, O’Dwyer sees his technology primarily as another arrow in the trainer’s quiver, rather than a diagnostic tool. “It’s hard for the trainer to pick up on the whole horse at once,” he explains. “They might be staring at one limb while the hip isn’t moving, and they’d have to walk by again and check the hip, and then they’re not looking at another limb. We look at all four limbs landing, the hip movement as one of the limbs is landing. So it’s the whole package of the horse in one to really show the trainer exactly what is going on.”

O’Dwyer acknowledges that the technology is still in its nascency. He is currently running customer trials a couple of yards in Ireland while he tries to drum up the next round of investment. StrideMaster, meanwhile, has been adopted by racing authorities in the United States and in Hawke’s native Australia. But any technologies that can help spot potentially catastrophic injuries before a horse hits the track must be taken extremely seriously by an industry that can, at times, feel like it is operating on the razor’s edge of public acceptability. As Hawke says, “The first priority is welfare because we have to look after the animal. If we’re not seen to be looking after the animal, the whole game’s in trouble.”

It seems like it is only a matter of time before racing joins the ranks of other sports in embracing Big Data. Says Hawke: “If I walked into a major football club and said, ‘Who here’s got expertise in biometric sensor analysis,' half the football department would put their hand up because they’ve been doing it for 20 years. But the information can be used in so many different ways in terms of performance, breeding and training techniques. We’re just scratching the surface.”

Have horse will travel - incentives to race in 2023

Article by Lissa Oliver

Fitness is one thing, but placing horses in suitable races to provide the best opportunity for them is quite possibly the trickiest part of a trainer’s role. It can be hard enough to search our own racing calendar for suitable races, and yet, delving further into international calendars could well pay dividends, if not in prize money then in adding valuable black type. Despite problems with travel, the racing world grows ever smaller, and it can certainly pay to shop around and look further afield. Many racecourses will offer travel incentives to encourage international participation, and the VIP experience for visiting owners will provide a lasting memory. 

France

Close to home and a regular destination for most European trainers, prize money in France rose to €278 million last year, up on 2021 by €30 million (+12%) and on 2019 by €20 million (7.75%). The 2023 France Galop budget includes a €10 million increase in prize money, with an objective to stimulate the number of young horses in training in France. 

As a result, 19 races at Parisian racecourses will see their total prize money raised to €50,000, paid out to the first seven finishers. The winner will earn €25,000, increased by 80% for two-year-olds if the winner is eligible for the owner's premium. The total sum of earnings to the winner could be €45,000. The selected 19 races take place throughout the year and include various distances. France Galop describes them as the most sought-after and competitive events for unraced horses in the French programme, with a consistent track record of producing a number of Group horses.

In the French provinces, two races for unraced horses have been selected to be included in this scheme. They are the Prix du Four à Chaux and the Prix Didier Vezia, which will be run in September at Bordeaux. Each race will offer a total prize money of €35,000; and the winner will earn €31,500 if eligible for the owner's premium. 

The increase in prize money has also been spread throughout maiden races, and races for unraced horses, across all of France. 

The new Arqana Series is also of interest to those racing in France - the sales company offering a series of races worth €1.2m (£1.06m), open only to the yearlings and foals offered at Arqana Sales in 2022 and the two-year-olds offered at the forthcoming Arqana May Breeze Up. The Arqana Series will consist of five races, for two-year-olds and three-year-olds (the latter run in 2024) on a Thursday evening during the prestigious Deauville meeting and on the Saturday of the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe weekend. Each race of the Arqana Series will reward both owners and vendors.

The juvenile races at Deauville will be run over 1400m (7f) for unraced horses and 1200m (6f) conditions, with a 2000m (10f) race in 2024 for three-year-olds. At ParisLongchamp, the two-year-old race will be a conditions race over 1600m (8f).

Of course, all races in France already carry a lucrative system of owners’ premiums on top of prize money. Two-year-olds and three-year-olds win an additional 80%, four and five-year-olds win an additional 55%, and six-year-olds and up receive an additional 45%. An additional 35% is paid to winners of Gp.1 races, whatever their age.

Germany

Deutsches Derby

Germany is still not yet back to the level of pre-Covid 2019, but significantly more prize money and bonuses were paid out in 2022 than in 2021 [€12.39m (£10.95m)], which will rise to €13m (£11.47m) in 2023. An increase of €2.15m (£1.90m) was recorded in prize money, and the average race value is higher than in previous years at €12,039/£10,651. The Deutsches Derby 2023 will be worth €650,000/£574,967, the Preis der Diana €500,000/£442,290, and the Grosser Preis von Baden worth €400,000/£ 353,985.

At smaller German tracks, the Harzburg meeting, 22–30 July, has significantly increased prize money for 2023, and the showcase handicaps carry €17,500/£15,475. The highlight of the meeting is the BBAG Auction Race worth €37,000/£32,683. "We want to support basic racing in particular," explains Racing Club President Stephan Ahrens, "because the costs of keeping horses have risen enormously. That is why we have increased the race values by up to 25%.” 

Scandinavia

Further afield for some, the full potential of Scandinavia has yet to be tapped, particularly the prize money on offer at Bro Park in Sweden. Bro Park covers 500 acres and has permanent stabling and training facilities, able to accommodate a further 100 horses on race days. The facilities provide the best possible environment for horses and those working with them. It is just over 30 minutes from the centre of Stockholm by car and a similar distance from Arlanda Airport.

Bro Park

Foreign raiders might be tempted by Sweden’s major race, the 2400m (12f) Gr3 Stockholm Cup for three-year-olds and up, at Bro Park on Sunday, 17 September—worth €125,825/£111,103. Earlier, on 11 June at Bro Park is the Gp.3 Stockholm Stora Pris, 1750m (8 1/2f) for three-year-olds and up— worth €89,882/£79,357. The Stockholm Cup card includes Sweden's most important two-year-old race, the 1400m (7f) Appel Au Maitre Svealandlöpning—worth €23,108/£20,424—and won by British trainer Archie Watson last year, who completed a double on the day.

On dirt, for three-year-olds and up, Jägersro hosts the 1750m (8 1/2f) Listed Pramms Memorial—worth €89,882/£79,357—21 May; the 2400m (12f) Svensk Derby—worth €223,869/£197,629,—16 July; and the €71,925/£63,509 Zawawi Cup over 1200m (6f), 16 July. Both Bro Park and Jägersro offer plenty of other opportunities at distances of 1200m (6f) up to 2400m (12f) with values ranging from €26,971/£23,809 up to €59,339/£52,386. 

In Norway, the 2400m (12f) Norsk Derby at Ovrevoll 20 August has a total value of €108,662/£96,067; and the 2400m (12f) Gp.3 Oslo Cup 15 June is worth €23,721/£20,973 to the winner. On 21 August, the Gp.3 Marit Sveaas Minnelop is run at Ovrevoll over 1800m (9f), carrying a first prize of €66,406/£58,724.

Let’s not forget Denmark, where the Gp.3 Scandinavian Open Championship for three-year-olds and up, over 2400m (12f) at Klampenborg on 27 May, is worth €57,545/£50,903, and a first prize of €31,967/£28,280. 

Spain

While there may not be high levels of prize money to chase on a regular basis in Spain, it is worth noting the major prizes in the Spanish calendar. The Listed Gran Premio de Madrid over 2500m (12 1/2f) at the end of June, for three-year-olds and up, is the major summer highlight, worth €68,000/£60,068 (€40,000/£35,330 to the winner; €16,000/£14,132 to the second; €8,000/£7,065 to the third; and €4,000/£3,532 to the fourth). 

In 2023, it will be run on Saturday, 24 June and is supported on the card by the Premio Baldoria for three-year-olds and older fillies and mares: over 1600m (8f), worth €15,000/£13,247 to the winner; €6,000/£5,299 to the second; €3,000/£2,649 to the third; and €1,500/£1,324 to the fourth.

August at San Sebastián sees the 1500m (7 1/2f) Premio Santander Cup (Criterium International) for two-year-olds, with prize money of €40,800/£36,018. The €59,500/£52,532 Gran Premio Copa De Oro De San Sebastián, over 2400m for three-year-olds and up, is the meeting highlight, worth €35,000/£30,900 to the winner; in addition to an impressive gold cup, €14,000/£12,360 goes to the second, €7,000/£6,180 to the third and €3,500/£3,090 to the fourth. On the supporting card is the Gran Premio Turismo Gobierno Vasco, 1600m (8f) for three-year-olds and up with a total prize of €40,800/£36,018. 

On Sunday, 15 October, the highlight of the Spanish season will be Champions Day, with a card that includes the Gran Premio Memorial Duque de Toledo over 2400m (12f) for three-year-olds and up, with a value of €68,000/£60,068 (€40,000/£35,330 to the winner, €16,000/£14,132 to the second, €8,000/£7,065 to the third and €4,000/£3,532 to the fourth). Also run on the day is the Gran Premio Ruban over 1200m (6f) worth €40,800/£36,018, with the winner taking home €24,000/£21,191, down to €2,400/£2,119 for fourth. A strong supporting card boasts lucrative added premiums of €5,000 for Spanish-breds.

Belgium

There are also opportunities for an average rated horse closer to home for some, in Belgium. As in Spain, the prize money might not be eye-catching, but neither is the competitiveness in comparison to similar races at home. The showpiece is the Prix Prince Rose, a National Listed Race over 2100m (10 1/2f) run at Ostend on Monday, 7 August with total prize money of €12,800/£11,304, with €8,000/£7,065 to the winner. The Prix Prince Rose is open to three-year-olds and older who have never been placed in the first five of a Pattern race. 
Ostend also hosts three interesting conditions races in July and August: the Miler Cup, 1600m (8f); the Prijs Half Oogst and BFG Galop, 1800m (9f); and the Prijs BFG and Nymphenburger, 2200m (11f)—each with a total prize money of €8,000/£7,065, with €5,000/£4,416 for the winner. They are for four-year-olds and older without a handicap value or a value equal or lower than 30kg (66 lbs). Penalties for prize money received for wins and places since 1 July 2023 are 1kg per €1,000. There is also the UAE Sprint Cup Handicap over 1000m (5f) in August for four-year-olds and older with a handicap value equal or lower than 30kg (66 lbs). See the complete list of races and conditions here: www.bgalopf.be/Meetings.htm

Britain

In Britain, the BHA, Darley and Juddmonte have come together to sponsor a high-value developmental races series of 60 races, also supported in funding by host racecourses, offering increased prize money to horses at the start of their career. As with the French developmental programme, the hope is that they will be retained to race in Britain going forward. The BHA hopes to expand on the idea of increasing the values of Flat maidens and novice races in 2024 and long-term. 

There will be 20 two-year-old restricted maiden and novice races worth €33,975/£30,000, supported by Juddmonte; 21 two-year-old open maiden and novice races worth €33,975/£30,000, supported by the BHA Development Fund; and 22 three-year-old and up open maiden and novice races worth €33,975–€56,626 (£30,000–£50,000), supported by Darley and the BHA Development Fund. The €56,626/£50,000 races will be run over longer distances to support middle-distance and staying horses.

Elsewhere in Britain, Newbury, having been infamously boycotted by trainers for one of its flat races last year, will see a 16% prize money increase this year, taking overall levels at the track to just over €6.79m/£6m. Newbury will host six novice and maiden races during the Flat season with prize money of €33,975 up to €56,626 (£30,000–£50,000).

The Racing League also returns for 2023, in which seven teams compete in 42 races over six meetings for over €2.2m/£2m prize money. The meetings for 2023 are Yarmouth 27 July, Chepstow 10 August, Windsor 17 August, Newcastle 31 August, Wolverhampton 7 September and Southwell 13 September. All races are handicaps with a range of ratings bands and distances, with normal BHA distribution for race prize money.

As with Arqana, British racing is boosted by the sponsorship of sales company Tattersalls, targeting yearlings purchased at the Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale, who will be eligible for the 1200m (6f) €112,826/£100,000 Tattersalls Somerville Auction Stakes run at Newmarket 26 August, as well as the 1200m (6f) €169,242/£150,000 Tattersalls October Auction Stakes, Newmarket 5 October.

Charlie Appleby-trained Regal Honour broke his maiden in the 2022 Stephen Rowley Remembered Novice Stakes at Newmarket to collect the 312th £20,000 Tattersalls October Book 1 Bonus.

The Goffs UK Harry Beeby Premier Yearling Stakes, 1200m (6f) on 24 August at York carries a guaranteed minimum value of €394,092/£350,000, for two-years-olds sold at the 2022 Doncaster Premier Yearling Sale.

Tattersalls also offer the €22,684/£20,000 Tattersalls October Book 1 Bonus Scheme for 2023. Participating owners will receive a €22,684/£20,000 bonus if their 2022 October Book 1 purchase wins a Class 2, 3 or 4 two-year-old maiden or novice race in Britain between 1 April and 11 November 2023, or any 'Open' two-year-old maiden run in Ireland between 25 March and 5 November 2023. The cost to enter the €22,684/£20,000 Tattersalls October ‘Book 1 Bonus’ Scheme is €1,928/£1,700, and there are over 300 qualifying British and Irish two-year-old maiden and novice races. All yearlings sold, bought in or failing to meet their reserve at Book 1 of the 2022 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale are eligible.

Ireland 

Tattersalls are also major sponsors in Ireland, with the Tattersalls Ireland Super Auction Sale Stakes of €300,000/£265,889, worth €150,000/£132,942 to the winner and prize money of at least €5,000/£4,431 down to 10th. Over 1200m (6f) at the Curragh, it is of course limited to those yearlings sold at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale and the Tattersalls Ireland Sapphire Sale in November 2022.

Tattersalls also continues to support the first two Irish Classics and Gp.1 Tattersalls Gold, as well as enhanced owners’ and trainers’ facilities at the Curragh. The Irish 1000 Guineas and Irish 2000 Guineas will each have prize money of €500,000/£443,081, while the Tattersalls Gold Cup will increase in value to €450,000/£398,754.

Goffs also continue to be major sponsors in Ireland, supporting premier National Hunt and Flat races. The Goffs Sportsman Challenge Day at Naas, 14 September 2023, will be a mid-week all juvenile card featuring the 1200m (6f) €100,000/£88,653 Goffs Sportsman’s Challenge, a two-year-old race exclusive to yearlings purchased at the Goffs Sportsman’s Sale. Prize money also goes to the first 10 finishers.

Europe’s richest two-year-old race, the 1400m (7f) Goffs Million, run at the Curragh 23 September 2023, is for graduates of the Goffs Orby Sale (2022)  and is worth €500,000/£443,081 to the winner, down to €10,000/£8,869 for 10th.

Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) saw a number of restorations to prize money levels last year and an increase in funding for the IRE Incentive Scheme for breeders, which grew from €1.1m (£0.97m) paid out in 2021 as vouchers to be spent on Irish-bred horses at Irish sales, to €1.3m (£1.14m) last year. It will again provide €1.3m (£1.14m) in vouchers for 2023.

HRI’s commitment to ensuring the quality of racing is also extended to grassroots level, with a targeted increase of €1.7m (£1.5m) to prize money levels, bringing 2023 to €68.6m (+2.5%) (£60.58m).

“Prize money is a key enabler in building and maintaining the number of quality horses in training in Ireland,” says Suzanne Eade, chief executive of HRI. “Approximately 70% of horses competing [in Ireland] receive some prize money, so it is important that we prioritise its growth…in order to sustain the significant rural jobs created by the industry.” 

European Breeders’ Fund

Throughout Europe, the European Breeders Fund (EBF), with national representation in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, continues to be one of the largest sponsors of races. Only the progeny of EBF registered stallions and horses nominated to the EBF can enter these races, but of course they are free to run in any EBF race throughout Europe.

The European Breeders’ Fund celebrates its 40 th year of operation in 2023 and in that time has contributed over €130m to prize money throughout Europe. The emphasis is on the two-year-old programme and fillies races, and there are valuable opportunities to be found. The EBF regularly reviews where the funds are best directed and is a vital support to both racing and bloodstock industries.

Highlights of the EBF support in 2023:

Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes €200,000 minimum at Naas, August

British EBF 2yo series £100,000 finals at Goodwood and York, September and October

Criterium FEE €130,000 Deauville, August

Italy is recovering from difficult times and this season there will be four EBF-sponsored races with an added €2,000/£1,766 to the winner if EBF qualified.

In France, the EBF (FEE) will pay out over €1m into prize money, with over €200,000 in premiums for fillies Listed Races, and over €500,000 for two and three-year-old maidens, debutants and conditions races in both Paris and the regions.

The British EBF will in 2023 invest around €2.27m (£2m) for both Flat and National Hunt and the Irish EBF current investment has increased from €2.6m (£2.25m) to €2.7m (£2.38m), making Irish Stallion Farms EBF the largest sponsor of racing in Ireland. This year all Listed Fillies races in Ireland will be sponsored by Irish EBF and will run for a minimum of €50,000/£44,000 and all other Listed races will run for a minimum of €40,000/£35,000. Highlights include the 26-race Median Sires Series, each worth a minimum €25,000/£22,000, for horses by a sire with a median fee of €75,000/£66,045 or less. The €200,000/£177,506 Irish EBF Ballyhane Stakes has the same conditions and is the showcase, run over 1000m (5f) at Naas 7 August. The 24-race Irish EBF Auction Series for two-year-olds worth a minimum €20,000/£17,750 each has two finals, worth €120,000/£10,5672. Horses must have been bought at auction for €72,000/£63,403 or less.

*Euros converted to sterling at XE rate 03/03/2023

Prep school - the role of the pre-trainer in the flat racing world

Article by Daragh Ó Conchúir

WC Equine’s Ellie Whitaker & Tegan Clark

Having had a little poke around the inner workings of pre-training in jumps racing for the last edition, it is now time to do the same in the Flat world.

In both National Hunt and Flat, owners and trainers send horses to be broken and prepped specifically to race, enabling trainers to get on with the job of attending to those in their yard that are ready to run.

Then there is the trading side. In jumps racing, that revolves around the point-to-point scene, where proving a level of ability in competition increases value. In the Flat division, the breeze-up sales are not competitive, but they illustrate athleticism, temperament, physical prowess and of course, raw speed.

While very successful, pre-trainers aren’t universally popular. As mentioned in the pre-training jumpers article, retired trainer and former CEO of the Irish Racehorse Trainers’ Association Michael Grassick argued that they were making an already difficult staffing situation for trainers even worse.

Last February, recently retired trainer Chris Wall asserted in a Racing Post feature that the proliferation of pre-trainers was accelerating the growth of the so-called super trainer, enabling them to stockpile horses.

But then, in the same article, Ben de Haan described the demand for pre-training as a very welcome opportunity to improve revenue streams.

Obviously, Flat racing is a more global field than jumps, so we had to be a little less parochial in sourcing our contributors; we touched base with successful operators in England, France and Ireland, namely Nicolas Martineau, Ellie Whitaker, Tegan Clark, Willie Browne and Ian McCarthy. 

Willie Browne

Browne is featured elsewhere in this publication for his training prowess, but it is his nonpareil acumen in sourcing future champions as young stock and then producing them through the breeze-ups that he can hang his hat on. It’s also a lot better way to pay the ever-escalating bills. 

Now approaching his 77th birthday, he has more than 40 years’ experience in this sector, having consigned a draft at the very first breeze-up sale in 1978. And though he has moved from the original Mocklershill location outside Fethard, Co Tipperary, to build Grangebarry Stables just over the road, he has retained the home label as a brand for excellence.
It was Browne who sold the first breeze-up graduate to win a Classic, when Speciosa galloped to victory in the 1000 Guineas in 2006, little over a year after breezing at Doncaster. Walk In The Park and Trip To Paris are others to go through his hands while Mill Reef Stakes victor Sakheer has the 2000 Guineas in his sights in the coming months.

Zoffany colt Sakheer

He has broken the million-pound barrier twice at the sales and was one of the first to explore the American market for value when buying horses to breeze—Sakheer, a most recent example having been acquired as a yearling at Keeneland for $65,000 in September 2021 and then making €550,000 at Arqana, eight months later. A year and two days after he was picked up in his native land, the Zoffany colt was a three-and-a-half-length winner of the Mill Reef.

Browne also has a lengthy list of clients who send horses his way to break and pre-train, including Coolmore, the Niarchos family and Canadian owner Chuck Fipke. He trained Spirit Gal to bag a listed prize for Fipke last season before she was moved on to continue her career with André Fabre.

“When we are at it as long as we are, and we know our gallops, it’s fairly smooth,” says Browne. “Basically, we train horses here to run fast for two and a half furlongs, maybe three furlongs. That is what they are gauging you on.

“If you are training and you get to your three-furlong pole, and when you go to the next furlong, then you know if you have a racehorse or not. Because if horses are going very fast for two and a half or three, they’ll invariably slow down. But Spirit Gal wouldn’t slow down. That’s our yardstick, if we think we have something good.

“In pre-training, you wouldn’t have to put in the miles that you’d put in with the horses that are breezing—less time on their backs, you know? I have two horses going away tomorrow—one to John Gosden and one to Ralph Beckett—and we would never have put a gun to their head. I wouldn’t want anybody to think we gun the daylights out of these breeze-up horses, but you have a better idea.

“The horses for trainers, the half-speed is as far as they’d have ever gone, unless they gave them to you until July or August. They’d usually go between March and May. The pre-training is great … it keeps the whole business ticking along.”

Le Mans is noted for horsepower of a different kind, but Nicolas Martineau and his wife Pauline Bottin have a premises just 20 minutes from the venue for the world-famous 24-hour rally that in five years, has established a reputation for producing speed on four legs, rather than wheels. 

Among their clients are the Devin family, Louisa Carberry, Tim Donworth and Alessandro Botti. Last year’s Gp. 1 Prix Royal-Oak winner Iresine was one of the earliest graduates from the Martineau school while of the younger crop, Good Guess was placed in a listed race as a two-year-old last term. Starlet du Mesnil and Enfant Roi are some of the graded jumpers he has prepped, while British and Irish followers will know the high-class Fil Dor well.

“At the stable I work with a lot of trainers,” Martineau . And with each horse, we work like the trainer works. We don’t work a horse for Francois Nicolle like we do for Gabriel Leenders. We do specific work, horse by horse.

“The big problem in France is staff, personnel for racing stables. So the trainer, when they call me, they want me to prep the horse to be ready to go racing in four or five weeks, six weeks maximum, just after they leave me. You are doing all the pre-training but up to the stage too where they are ready to go racing.”

That is clearly a dissimilar approach to what is required by most British and Irish trainers, but one aspect of it that is very similar is the staffing shortage, which Browne attributes to his numbers being down to around 50 this year. 

Back in France, Martineau even has different feed for the breeze-up two-year-olds and those in pre-training because they are not being trained for the same jobs; and his time learning about both sides of the equation has informed his methods.

“I have my experience from Ireland. I worked for Mick Murphy at Longways Stables. For me, he is the best for the breeze-ups, and I learned so much. He’s exceptional, and I took a lot from working with him.

“I worked for a long time for Jean-Claude Rouget. I worked for a year as well with my wife Pauline for Willie Mullins, and she worked as well for Joseph O’Brien. That was very good experience for pre-training.”

Indeed, the woodchip gallop is a mid-way point between what Mullins and O’Brien have at Closutton and Carriganóg respectively, so that they can cater for all types of horses.

McCarthy is a former NH jockey who had already built his breaking, pre-training and breeze-up operation, Grangecoor Farm on a greenfield site in Kildangan, Co Kildare by the time he had retired in July 2021.

The 34-year-old, who expects to have between six and eight juveniles bound for the Craven, Guineas and Goresbridge Breeze-Ups (while also breaking and pre training Flat and NH youngsters for the racetrack directly and producing jumps horses through the point-to-point sector), places a heavy emphasis on detail and that means not taking any shortcuts, even with spiralling costs.

“I spent ten years with Dessie Hughes and he was a horseman in himself,” McCarthy explains. “I was always interested in the breaking side of it with the stores during the summer, so it was always something that was in my mind from then that I might do.

“I went from there to Ted Walsh, where I learned an awful lot that stood to me when I started breaking and pre-training.

“I put it out there that I was doing it and was lucky enough to have ridden for some good owners that supported me when I was starting out and good trainers when I was freelancing that supported me as well.

“We have about 50–55 horses here, which is a number that works very well. I am so lucky, given how difficult it is for everyone to get staff in that I have five excellent full-time people here. Niall Kelly is head man, and Alan Davison, Johnny Wixted, Sean Donovan, Christine Worrell and Orla McKenna are with me as well. They are vital. We also have eight part-time workers.”

In his experience, there are varying techniques for getting to the same end game of a horse being prepared to give its best on race day. What is sure is that you cannot bring the same approach to every model. 

“You try and get to know the horse the best you can. You’ve different types of horses—horses coming from the sale and homebred horses coming from the farm. The sales horses will have a sales prep done and will have that under their belt. Horses coming in off the farm just won’t be as advanced, so they’ll take a little more TLC.

“Here, the yearlings are started off in the lunge ring and are driven for a couple of weeks. They then go on the furlong sand-and-fibre gallop. Then, just before Christmas, they’re put on the three-furlong round sand-and-fibre gallop.

“From day one they’re driven through the stalls so that they adapt to it really well. 

“I do like to get the two-year-olds away at the end of January, start of February. We use The Curragh on a regular basis for a day away. It’s an important part of it.”

Two of the best illustrations of Grangecoor’s work arrived in 2021, starting when he had Hierarchy for the Tattersalls’ Guineas Sale. The son of Mehmas breezed the second-fastest time and was sold to David Redvers for 105,000 guineas, going on in the following months to win twice and be placed twice at group level, before only being beaten a length and a quarter in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.

Hierarchy – Tattersalls Guineas Breeze Up Sale 2021

The same year, he was sent a Profitable filly that had been purchased privately by Liam Donovan on behalf of the Dunphy family. The pocket rocket turned out to be Quick Suzy, who would shed her maiden status at Curragh Racecourse before blitzing the opposition in the Gp. 2 Queen Mary Stakes at Royal Ascot.

“You get a great thrill and satisfaction from something like that. I’d say it’s more satisfying than when riding a winner because you’re putting an awful lot more time into them, and you actually get attached to them and love to see them do well.”

Ellie Whitaker (26) and Tegan Clark (33)

Ellie Whitaker (26) and Tegan Clark (33) set up WC Equine in September 2020, as the world was in Covid lockdown. It wasn’t ideal, but with Robert Cowell looking to let out a yard at Bottisham Heath Stud in Six Mile Bottom, just outside Newmarket, they took the plunge.

What has been so vital for them, given the difficulties in finding enough good staff, is that they are both hands-on, able to muck out and ride, with 35 boxes full. Between the two of them, they broke 64 horses in a five-month period.

Having Newmarket facilities was a considerable help in getting established quickly but so was the initial support of trainers Kevin Philippart de Foy and Roger Varian. They sent yearlings to break and pre-train, while Brendan Morrin of Pier House Stud utilised their services to prep some more for the breeze-ups.

Tegan Clark

Whitaker was working for Cowell at the time, having started out with Mark Dwyer, the former Gold Cup-winning pilot who is a wizard of the breeze-up realm and indeed, has enjoyed extensive success in tandem with Browne. She also worked for Charlie Appleby and among the horses she broke in was triple Gp. 1 winner and champion two-year-old, Pinatubo.

Meanwhile, Clark had worked for Varian. That early support allowed them to showcase their talents, with James Fanshaw and Sean Woods among new clients this year.

“Last year was the first year we managed to get a good client specifically for the breeze-ups,” Clark explains further. “We also bought a few ourselves and have shares here and there, but this is the first year people have rung us and put horses with us to specifically breeze; and we want to try and build on that this year to take those relationships and partnerships into the future.”

This was on the back of two notable successes at the Guineas Sale. In 2021, Royal Aclaim won a maiden within a month of being consigned by WC Equine for Pier House. She won twice more at three and though losing her unbeaten status in the Gp.1 Nunthorpe when favourite, she ran creditably in sixth and was placed subsequently at group level.

Having Newmarket facilities was a considerable help in getting WC Equine established quickly.

Twelve months later, Village Voice was sold. Not the same type of model, she holds an entry in the Irish Oaks for Jessica Harrington, after having just two runs in October, winning her maiden and finishing third in a Gp.3.

“You’ve got to be honest and educate the horses as well as you can so that they do have a lasting career within the sport. It’s brilliant to have a mature two-year-old that’s breezed, but then that’s going to go on and probably have a lovely three-year-old, if not four-year-old career with Jessie Harrington. She already has her black type. So as long as you keep producing that sort of quality, people take notice.”

Initially, all the yearlings go through the same routine, though never together.

“The breezers go through the same process as the pre-trainers from breaking until Christmas time. We give them all a break then; but when the breezers come back in, they have to start knuckling down. You can’t expect a pre-trainer to lay up with them because we are putting the breezers under pressure a lot earlier.”

“There’s a fine line,” notes Whitaker in relation to horses being pre-trained for owners and trainers. “We’re not here to physically break horses or to see how good they are. Our job is to get them through the breaking process and get them up to a path in the training process where they can go up to town (Newmarket) and go up Warren Hill with ease—get them to a business level. 

“Every trainer is different, their standards are different and it’s about meeting their standards and what they require. At the end of the day, it’s a product we’re selling and that product needs to appeal to each individual. We’re equipping these young horses with the right tools; and if they can go into a training facility with the right sort of attitude—be calm and confident, we know we’ve done our job well then.”

In terms of the breeze-ups, with Browne owning most of those horses himself or in partnership with others, sourcing is key. He dabbles in buying foals with long-time ally Dwyer, but the majority are yearlings.

“The trouble with nice horses is they might not be racehorses. When we are looking now, we are looking for a completely different type of animal than that we used to look at 10 to 15 years ago. You’d buy a nice-looking horse, with a nice pedigree and if he breezes up with a nice action but maybe not going that quick, he’s compared against nothing else; and if they like what they see and if they like the movement and the horse’s page, and he’s good looking, you are going to get him well done.

McCarthy learned from the likes of Dessie Hughes and Ted Walsh that stood him in good stead when he started breaking and pre-training

“Now I’ve a horse out there that I gave three hundred grand for, and he’s going to the sale in France. He’s by a sexy American sire Into Mischief, he’s training very well and we hope we’ve struck gold; but If he doesn’t breeze well, no matter how well he’s bred or how nice he is, you’ll get badly hurt.”

Nice horses are pricier than ever before, so Browne will prioritise the page and walk if he must. McCarthy suggests that at his price range, “you have to be lenient towards the page... I’ll focus on the individual.”

And while the breezers are pressed far more than pre-trainers because of the more immediate job they must do, McCarthy argues that you can’t make them faster than they are.

“You’re just trying to get the nice individual with the suitable and affordable pedigree, and then to keep them sound and watch their minds, as they are only two-year-olds and still developing.” 

“We would be riding horses ten days after they came in,” Browne details his system for the breezers. “When you’ve big numbers, it is a matter of getting them done, but I wouldn’t say a word to somebody who is five or six weeks breaking a horse. There is nothing wrong with that; it’s good practice.”

Everyone agrees that good communication is crucial, be that in terms of honesty about the calibre of animal you are selling or being able to pass on as much information as possible to whoever is taking on a horse you have pre-trained.

In France, once again, it goes a little further.

“Sometimes clients will say, ‘I would like to go to this trainer with this horse’; but I might say, ‘I’m not sure, for this horse, it might be better to go to this one,’” Martineau reveals. “When you know the horses, you know what trainers might be suitable, and that gives the client confidence.”

Apart from staffing, increased costs is a huge challenge. Browne changes the wood chip on his gallop twice a year, and says it is 50 percent more expensive than before.

Martineau points out that the expenses are like those of a licenced trainer but that pre-trainers in France charge around €30–32 a day, while full trainers will get in the region of €70. Still though, he likes having a little more time and a little less pressure. The trade-off is worth it, particularly as the business has been built up now and is making money.

McCarthy offers a pragmatic tone abouts the price of everything rising. It eats into the bottom line, but it cannot lead to a reduction in the calibre of his service, given how appreciative he is of the loyalty shown to him by his various clients.
“The big thing for me is attention to detail,” McCarthy emphasises. “That is of the utmost importance through the entire process, and that starts with feed and every step of the way after that.

“Everything is more expensive now, but I look at it that you put in the best of what you need. You can’t cut corners. What you’re doing is educating young horses, and that’s how we see ourselves—as educators of young horses before they join the big boys and go into the next stage of their lives. You need to do everything right, no matter what it costs.”

It is interesting, given Wall’s criticism in particular, that McCarthy will have horses all year around, but that is imperative according to the Galway native, as you have to tailor your approach to the systems horses will be entering.

“For the different trainers we work for, we know their regimes and try to have the horse prepared for them to fit into their regime when they think they’re up to it. The ideal is for them to go in February, but it doesn’t always work like that as all horses are different.

“All the big trainers are going up in numbers. Early into the year and early into the Flat season, we’d be dealing with a lot of the backward two-year-olds and trying to organise them for trainers, giving an opinion of what’s early and of what wants a little more time. And the ones that want a little more time, we’ll be holding onto them and letting them progress and grow into themselves.

“Plenty of trainers would have a couple with me that are not going to be early two-year-olds. They’ll be built up and they’ll be rode in bungees to try [to] strengthen them up and put a top line on them. It’s basically strength and conditioning we’re doing with them.”

Browne states that even the horses he has pre-trained that are being sent to England will most likely go to another pre-trainer, due partly to offset fears of any bug being transmitted, but also because they are full. 

“Chris Wall wouldn’t be mad about what we do, but I would go along with what he said about it helping the big trainers stock up,” Browne remarks. “You are taking away half a year’s livelihood from him by doing what you are doing.”

“Unfortunately, trainers don’t have the staff,” observes Clark. “We’ve got the room, we’ve got the availability, we’ve got the staff.

“We’ve got trainers in the hustle and bustle of Newmarket who send horses to us 10 minutes down the road. They might only use us for 10 or 14 days in the summer on grass, keep them ticking over; and then they go back in and are running straight off of that and are happy with the results. The horses are running well.”

And that’s the point. Be it breaking, pre-training, a little R&R, prepping for breeze-ups—the results speak for themselves. 

“It’s about being calm and straight,” concludes Martineau. “The voice is always calm. I want my horses very calm and straight on the gallop. If that happens, they can go to the races anywhere and whenever you want.

“They are ready.”

"The Captain" - Cecil Boyd-Rochfort

Article by Jennifer Kelly

Captain Cecil Boyd-Rochfort

In the hours leading up to her coronation, Elizabeth sat deep in thought, quiet with contemplation. A lady-in-waiting saw the new Queen’s preoccupied countenance and asked her if all was well. 

"Oh, yes,” Her Majesty replied, “the captain has just rung up to say that Aureole went really well." 

On the precipice of great responsibility, the new monarch’s mind was not only on the serious matters of state, but on the Derby candidate she hoped would carry her colors to victory in a matter of days.

The man entrusted with Aureole’s preparation, the Irishman whose skills had inspired the confidence of a sovereign and the daughter that succeeded him, was Captain Cecil Boyd-Rochfort. The youngest son of a family known for its service to the Empire and a fondness for sport, Boyd-Rochfort spent his life with horses, a calling that took him from the countryside of County Westmeath, Ireland to the gallops of Newmarket and inspired the confidence of royalty from both sides of the Atlantic. 

Aureole, and jockey Harry Carr before the 1953 Epsom Derby, where he eventually finished second, four lengths behind winner Pinza.

A life in sport 

When Cecil Charles Boyd-Rochfort greeted the world on April 16, 1887, he was the last of Hamilton and Florence Boyd-Rochfort’s sons, joining brothers Arthur and Harold. His father had been a major in the 15th Hussars and had served as high sheriff of County Westmeath, Ireland, where the family made their home at Middleton. 

There, the Boyd-Rochfort family hunted. They rode. They farmed. After his father’s early death, his mother bred horses and raised cattle, sheep, and pigs and even had a racing stable. Cecil carried this love of horses into his education at Eton, where he was an indifferent student, focused more on pedigrees and racing than his studies.

He attended the races along with his coterie of friends who were also keen for the sport. When Cecil left Eton in 1903, his next step was uncertain. His brother Harold encouraged his younger brother to follow him into military service, but Boyd-Rochfort was unwilling to commit, still awaiting his chance to work in racing. That came in 1906, when one of his heroes came knocking with an offer too irresistible to refuse.

Lessons from the best

Like Boyd-Rochfort, Henry Seymour ‘Atty’ Persse heard the siren’s call of the racetrack and followed it to a career as both a rider and a trainer. He finished third in the 1906 Grand National and soon after switched to training at his Park Gate stables near the village of Grately. In need of an assistant, Persse offered the job to the aspiring horseman. 

The Irishman had long been a hero of Boyd-Rochfort’s, since the young man had seen Persse win the Conyngham Cup in 1897. Boyd-Rochfort’s tenure with Persse, though, was short, as the latter became the private trainer for Colonel William Hall Walker, the future Lord Wavertree, in 1908. He soon found a position with Colonel Robert Dewhurst’s Bedford Lodge in Newmarket. The young man so impressed his new boss with his knowledge of racing and breeding that Dewhurst allowed him to help with the business of running the stable and sent him with the horses running out of the Newmarket area. 

When Sir Ernest Cassel sought a new racing manager, Boyd-Rochfort was suggested for the task. Alongside trainer William Halsey, he bought yearlings, learned more about keeping horses sound, and watched preparations for tries at the English classics. In 1912, Boyd-Rochfort bought a yearling by leading sire Desmond for 3200 guineas. The colt, later named Hapsburg, proved to be worth the price: he finished second in the 1914 Derby and then won the Eclipse and Champion Stakes. He later became a good sire, a testament to the young man’s eye for bloodstock. Boyd-Rochfort would not have long to enjoy his success as World War I prompted him to join the Scots Guard. Cassel promised that his job as racing manager would be there when he returned.

A good start

After the war, where his experience at the Somme had earned him the Croix de Guerre and a promotion, he returned to England as Captain Boyd-Rochfort, a title he would go by for the rest of his life. Back in Newmarket, he found Cassel’s racing stable in a sad state. Sir Ernest himself was in poor health and the stable reflected the same; they had only one win in 1917 and then none in 1918. After William Halsey retired, the captain found a new trainer for the ailing stable, but their fortunes did not improve. 

However, the captain’s did. He connected with the American horseman and businessman Marshall Field III, heir to the Marshall Field department store fortune. Field was looking for a trainer for his English stable and Boyd-Rochfort volunteered for the job provided Cassel was open to it. Sir Ernest was cutting back his racing interests and gave the captain permission to work for Field as well. 

One of the first horses the captain bought for Field was a filly named Golden Corn. At two, she won the Champagne and the Middle Park Stakes, a rare double achieved by greats like Pretty Polly, the Filly Triple Crown winner of 1904. Field and the captain had struck gold with one of the first horses he picked out for his new owner. Though Golden Corn showed her best at age two, her success promised much for the captain and his association with the American owner. 

As Golden Corn was winning, the captain‘s grand year turned sad with the passing of Sir Ernest Cassel. He left the captain a year’s wages in his will, but it was not enough for a new yard for the fledgling trainer. Both his mother and Field lent the needed funds for the purchase of Freemason Lodge in Newmarket. With fifty stalls to fill, the captain took out his trainer’s license in 1923 and got to work.

On his own

That first year, Boyd-Rochfort trained for several owners, including his brother Arthur and Field. He won nineteen races, one of those a victory with Golden Corn in the July Cup at Newmarket. In 1924, he scored his first win in the Irish Oaks, the Irish equivalent of the Oaks at Epsom, with Amethystine. 

Through his connection with Marshall Field III, Boyd-Rochfort soon had horses from more American owners, including William Woodward, a banker and chairman of the American Jockey Club, with whom the captain would win races like the Ascot Gold Cup and the St. Leger. In addition to Woodward and Field, his list of American owners counted some of the sport’s biggest names, like Joseph Widener, John Hay Whitney, cosmetics magnate Elizabeth Arden, and diplomat and businessman Harry Guggenheim. 

1955 Fillies Triple Crown winner Meld.

Boyd-Rochfort soon picked up another important owner, Lady Zia Wernher. The daughter of the Countess Torby, a granddaughter of Alexander Pushkin, and Grand Duke Michael Mikhailovich, a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I, Lady Zia invested heavily in racing after her marriage to Sir Harold Wernher. For Lady Zia, the captain won the Ascot Gold Cup with Precipitation; the Coronation Cup with Persian Gulf; and the One-Thousand Guineas, the Oaks, and the St. Leger, the Filly Triple Crown, with Meld. 

Boyd-Rochfort’s old friend Sir Humphrey de Trafford was another of his earliest owners and one that would stay with him the whole of his career. The captain trained Alcide, who won the 1958 St. Leger, and Parthia, who gave both men their only Derby victory in 1959. In addition to training for his old friend, Boyd-Rochfort made Sir Humphrey best man at his 1944 wedding to Rohays Cecil, the widow of Lieutenant Henry Cecil and mother of four sons, including Henry, who would follow in his stepfather’s footsteps. 

To attract owners like Wernher and de Trafford and that cadre of Americans spoke to the skills and expertise that the captain offered, developed through tangibles like hard work and discipline and intangibles born of a life spent with horses. 

The man behind it all  

His prodigious success had its roots in a confluence of factors. He was brought up in a family with a lifelong interest in horses and racing. He was mentored by two former riders turned trainers who shared the benefits of their time in the saddle and their knowledge acquired while developing horses. The captain was keen to learn from others, from his earliest years at school studying racing and pedigree between lessons to those years with Persse, Dewhurst, and Cassel, where he took in the lessons of healing ailments, feeding the bodies and minds of the horses in his care, and any other topic related to racing and breeding Thoroughbreds. He was a patient trainer, focused on the horse as an individual and less on the expectations that might put his charge in the wrong race at the wrong time.  

He was keen to hire the best and set them to the tasks needed to run the yard, but he also had his hands on the horses in his care. He trusted his employees to keep the rigorous schedule he set each day. He felt the legs of his charges, mandated soft water and weighed and measured specific feeding plans for each horse, and believed in long walks for his horses to warm them up for their exercise. He broke in horses at the Lodge in the early days and then later leased Heath Lodge Stud for that purpose. Trainer Sir Mark Prescott, who was a young assistant to Jack Waugh in the late 1960s, remembered that the captain’s horses “used to run in a sheepskin noseband, the lot of them and they always looked marvelous, something maybe a bit above themselves.”

At a given time, as his son Arthur remembers, he would have upwards of 65-70 horses and a stable of around twenty-five staff, from a farrier to a collection of exercise riders and jockeys, that were, as Sir Mark put it, well-mannered “like little gentlemen.” At 6’5”, the captain towered over most of his staff, and was, as his secretary Anne Scriven recalled, “a very stately Irish gentleman. Very upright, very Edwardian.” 

“He would say, ‘You boy do that,’ even to [assistant trainer] Bruce Hobbs,” she shared. After winning the Grand National on Battleship, the youngest jockey to do so, Hobbs spent a decade and a half as Boyd-Rochfort’s assistant. 

Arthur remembered his father as “being a Victorian and very upright. They were brought up in a different era then they were very strict in the yard, and everything was immaculate.”

“The captain was old school, aristocratic, he was completely confident in his superiority to most people,” Sir Mark remembered. “But he was always nice, very polite.” 

As a trainer, he was an observation horseman and a stickler for detail and demanded the same of his employees. He eschewed gossiping on the Heath as some trainers were wont to do, preferring to watch his charges intently. The captain no doubt stood at attention watching one horse in particular for owner William Woodward, a long and lanky chestnut with a wide white blaze, a champion in America who was trusted to this singular conditioner for a tall task: winning the Ascot Gold Cup. 

A challenge for the captain

Americans know Omaha as the third name on the short list of horses to have won the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes, the American Triple Crown. Owner William Woodward’s aspirations were not limited to winning classic races in his own country, but also in England, the place where he cultivated his grand ambitions as a young man working for the American Ambassador Joseph Choate in the earliest years of the 20th century. One of the classics he aspired to was the 2½-mile Ascot Gold Cup. 

Omaha with jockey pat beasley and groom bart sweeney

Omaha’s three-year-old season had been cut short by injury, and, with his sire Triple Crown winner Gallant Fox already representing Woodward’s Belair at stud, the American did not need to retire his second Triple Crown winner. Instead, he took the risk of sending Omaha via the Aquitania to England, his ultimate destination Freemason Lodge. The Triple Crown winner was not the first Woodward had sent to the captain, but the task ahead of the trusted horseman could be considered somewhat of a titanic one: take a horse primarily trained on dirt, who had only raced counterclockwise and never more than 1½ miles and prepare him to run a mile longer clockwise on grass. 

The captain would send the American horse on longer gallops, from a mile and a quarter to two miles at least once a week, building the colt’s stamina and giving him the chance to stretch out the long stride that had made him such a success at distances over a mile. Couple those regular gallops under Pat Beasley, the stable’s lead jockey, with the captain’s regimen of walking, water, and feed, and Omaha was quickly fit enough to easily win his first start in England, the 1½-mile Victor Wild Stakes at Kempton Park. Three weeks later, back at Kempton Park,  he took the two-mile Queen’s Plate with ease. Clearly, the captain’s plan to acclimate and prepare the American horse for the Ascot Gold Cup was working.

In the Gold Cup itself, nearly three weeks later, the 2½ miles came down to the last two furlongs, as Omaha and the filly Quashed, herself an accomplished stayer, battled down the stretch. Anytime one pulled ahead, the other fought back, neither giving way until the very end. In what would be a photo finish today, the ultimate decision came down to judge Malcolm Hancock. The difference between the winning Quashed and the captain’s charge Omaha was a simple nose. That Omaha was able to come so far in such a short amount of time was testament to not only the well-bred champion but also Cecil Boyd-Rochfort, a horseman whose true brilliance came through in how he was able to sense and cultivate a horse’s potential. 

It was this instinct about the individual horse, the care he put into their development, and the discipline he imbued into his staff and himself that brought him an opportunity afforded to few: a chance to train for the Royal Stable. First for King George VI and then for Queen Elizabeth II, he brought his beloved monarchs great victories, ones befitting a man who had made horses his life's work.

A royal opportunity  

When Captain Cecil Boyd-Rochfort took over the Royal Stable, he had already been leading trainer in 1937 and won his share of both English and Irish stakes. As he went to work for the Royal Family, whom he greatly admired according to son Arthur, he was able to continue working with Lady Zia and Sir Humphrey as well as his American owners. With the Royal Stable, though, came some of his signature wins.

For the King, he won the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot with Avila, the One Thousand Guineas and the Dewhurst with Hypericum, and the Cesarewitch with Above Board. Days after Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation, the captain started Aureole in the Derby, seeking a Classic victory for the lifelong horsewoman. Aureole mounted a bid in the stretch but could not catch Pinza. Aureole would go on to win the King George and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Royal Ascot the following year, giving the Queen her first victory on the Ascot Heath. 

Captain Cecil Boyd-Rochfort and Queen Elizabeth II in the paddock at Kempton Park as she watched her colt Agreement being unsaddled after his victory in the Coventry Three Year Old Stakes.

Though the Derby would elude them, the captain would bring the Queen a Classic win in the Two-Thousand Guineas with Pall Mall. In all, he conditioned fifty-seven winners for the King, one hundred and thirty-six for Queen Elizabeth II, and three for the Queen Mother. As he approached his eighty-first year and the end of his time as a conditioner, the Queen made him a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order for his service to the Royal Stable.

As he prepared his exit, the captain named his stepson Henry Cecil as his successor at Freemason Lodge. Cecil had been his assistant for four years, his education and experience preparing him to take the helm from his stepfather. Though his temperament differed from that of his stepfather and their relationship could be fragile at times, Henry picked up where the captain left off and crafted a Hall of Fame career of his own. 

A legacy of excellence  

Forty years after his death and a century after he took out his trainer’s license, Sir Captain Cecil Boyd-Rochfort lives on in racing’s record books, as the conditioner of champions and the mentor of a man named Cecil, the one who gave us Frankel in all of his glory. The friends of his time are all gone yet his regal bearing and enduring reputation for discipline and detail live on in the stories of the horses he conditioned.

His patience for developing horses yielded a trio of victories in the Ascot Gold Cup and a Triple Crown with a girl named Meld. It was his brilliance that capitalized on the untapped potential of Omaha, already an elite name in America, and brought him to the precipice of victory at Ascot. 

The captain took his boyhood love of horses and turned it into his calling as a conditioner of champions for royalty on both sides of the Atlantic. Though his name may ring unfamiliar to 21st century ears, Cecil Boyd-Rochfort made his mark on the century that preceded it, etching his name into the record books many times over for King, Queen, country, and beyond. 

The captain (left) and trainers Ben and Jimmy Jones with American Triple Crown winner Citation at Hialeah, c1949.

TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter - Tony Martin and Good Time Jonny

Tony Martin and Good Time Jonny

Article by Lissa Oliver

It might be hard for some to choose a single highlight from the Cheltenham Festival, but it was very easy indeed to single out a shrewd training performance by AJ (Tony) Martin, who is our TopSpec Trainer of the Quarter following Good Time Jonny’s fine win in the Pertemps Network Final Handicap Hurdle. Martin mapped a clever campaign to the Final and had the eight-year-old gelding spot-on for the day to secure Martin’s first win at the Festival since 2015.

Based in the tranquil Irish countryside at Trimblestown Stud in Kildalkey, County Meath, Irish handler Martin has the ideal facilities for both Flat and National Hunt horses. A successful amateur jockey in his day, Martin has now been training for over 20 years and has earned a reputation for getting the best out of his horses and for his patience at allowing every horse to progress at their own pace.

Just such a horse is Good Time Jonny, who notched two wins at Leopardstown in the 2021/22 season and promised enough to start in the Gr.1 Albert Bartlett Novices' Hurdle at last year’s Cheltenham Festival before being pulled up in the Gr.1 Novice Hurdle at Punchestown. 

This season, his jumping let him down somewhat when he was tried over fences, although he managed a fourth place in the Beginners’ Chase at Listowel. Having lost his way a little, he bounced back with a qualifying run when third in the Pertemps Network Handicap Hurdle, enough to secure his place at Cheltenham in the Final. In between, he warmed up at Leopardstown, when hampered by a faller.

The ups and downs of jumping stood him in good stead, though. In the Final, Good Time Jonny lost ground at the start, was hampered by a second-flight faller and was just about last turning for home. Under a superb ride from Liam McKenna, he kept persevering and hit the front on the run-in to win, going away by three and a quarter lengths.

Martin was predictably delighted to land another Festival winner. “Days like this are the ones you live for. He was last at the top of the hill but Liam had the patience to sit and wait, and it turned out well," he says. "It’s been a few years now since we had a winner here, but it is worth the agony and the hardship. It’s absolutely brilliant. A bit of a gap makes it better!

“The horse has been coming along really well since Leopardstown last time, I just thought the ground might not suit him—he likes better ground, but he went through it well.

“We had a lot of good years and some bad luck, and it’s nice to be back with some good horses. They are not Gr.1 horses, but in their own category, they are all right. I have some great men, jockeys and staff behind me this year, and I’m just so happy for them. These colours, the Beneficial colours, have given us great days.

Product Focus

Three new products available for trainers this spring 2023

PAVESCO - TWYDIL® ARTRIDAY

NEW feed supplement for joints from TWYDIL®, Switzerland.

Since MSM has been registered as a controlled substance, we decided to launch on the equine market a product that can be used daily and long term.

Following our recent scientific investigations, it appears that the combination of chondroïtin, glucosamine, pro-anthocyanin and ASU brings an active and efficient support on the cartilage health and its functionality. 

ASU means « avocado and soybean unsaponifiable fatty acids ». This extract is particularly efficient for the stabilisation of the cartilage extra-cellular matrix, bringing a noticeable preventive effect. The combination of these ingredients have an effect on all parts of the joints: cartilage, synovial fluid and membrane. The pro-anthocyanin fraction has a powerful anti-oxidant property with a high tropism for joints, so breaking the vicious circle conducting to lameness.

Horses show an improvement of their general suppleness and of their stride. The well-being is also taken into consideration because training is better tolerated. 

50g daily for 30 days minimum is recommended to observe an improvement. It may be needed to continue for a longer period in sensitive horses.

The product is available in 1.5 kg pails.

For more information visit: www.twydil.com

NAF Five Star Metazone 

By Dr Andy Richardson BVSc CertAVP(ESM) MRCVS, Veterinary Director at NAF

Whatever the challenge, keep your yard ‘in the zone’ with NEW NAF Five Star Metazone. 

Metazone has been formulated by the Veterinary and Nutrition experts at NAF and is an innovative, evidence based nutraceutical that targets the support of natural anti-inflammatory pathways in all racehorses. The synergistic blend of plant based phytochemicals that make up this product support these pathways wherever they are needed in the body - whether that be for joints, hooves, tendons, ligaments, muscles or skin. The unique herbal complex of Metazone works in synergy wherever those triggers occur within the system, to ensure we maintain freedom from discomfort. Maintaining optimum comfort ensures racehorse welfare and provides an optimal environment for recovery and maximising athletic potential.

Unwanted or excessive inflammation is a major issue for the well-being and performance of horses in training and a major cause of lost training days and missed races. Metazone is the culmination of many years of research and knowledge gathered by the scientific team at NAF on how plant based phytochemicals can positively influence the body.

Formulated specifically to manage, relieve and control, Metazone provides nutritional support for common issues that may interrupt a training schedule. Metazone supports a horse’s natural anti-inflammatory responses, which are often under maximum stress when in training, helping them to stay sound through periods of repeated, strenuous exercise. The product is suitable when a short term boost is needed but may also be used for long term daily administration when comfort is key. The natural formula is gut kind and designed to work effectively without compromising gut health. It can be fed alongside any other NAF product that will support underlying structures as required.

Independently trialled, Metazone has been robustly trialled by equine researchers at The Royal Agricultural University, Cirencester in a blinded, cross-over designed trial, and assessed by a panel of external vets. Real results research also includes trials with leading trainers, who have all seen the benefit of getting their horses ‘in the Metazone’. 

Metazone is available as a fast-acting liquid, in an instant use syringe and as palatable powder. The liquid comes in 5L and 1L sizes with the syringes available as 3 x 30ml and the powder is in a 1.2kg tub. 

For more information on pricing and the product, contact NAF’s Racing Manager Sammy Martin on 07980 922041 or smartin@naf-uk.com. 

Plusvital - Neutragast

Plusvital Neutragast is now available in pellets.

Ideal for fussy eaters, Neutragast Pellets promote gastrointestinal health in convenient & palatable soy protein base pellet form.

Using research proven ingredients to promote digestive performance the pellets contain key ingredients boswellia extract, calcified seaweed, saccharomyces cerevisiae and provides a source of B vitamins to help with food metabolism.

Boswellia extract (Terepenes and Boswellic acids) have been shown to have several beneficial effects including anti-inflammatory and analgesic properties. Boswellia compounds have been shown to be of benefit in cases of intestinal inflammation. This is achieved through modulation of the inflammatory cell (leukocyte) response.

Calcified seaweed has been reported to have a positive effect on buffering of pH in equine stomachs. Presented in the form of Lithothamnium Calcareum this acts as a safeguard against excess acid within the stomach.

Additionally Plusvital Neutragast Pellets contain the amino acid Threonine which is one of the main amino acid components of the protein mucin. Mucin forms a gel-like structure which makes up the mucosal barrier that protects the stomach wall against its own acidic secretions.

Saccharomyces cerevisiae (active yeast) is a probiotic which promotes intestinal health through multiple pathways including increased fibre digestion.

As it is a pellet supplement it works well with pelleted feed or straight feed concentrates and can be used as part of a daily routine.

For more information visit: www.plusvital.com