An exciting year ahead for Manton Thoroughbreds

Manton Thoroughbreds II and III embark into what looks to be a very exciting year.

Manton Thoroughbreds II’s star Barraquero has done very well since his time off, he has been brought gradually up to speed and is looking a picture of health. 

His win in the Richmond Stakes Group 2 was very impressive, the form out of the race has been strong with Nebo winning a Group 3 and Headway winning a recent Listed race.

After a slight set back it was our decision to put him away for the season with a fresh start in 2018 the target.

A French Guineas entry has been made with the Greenham at Newbury very much our target for his start. 

Now handicapped Soldier’s Bay is expected to build on his 3 progressive runs as a two year old and will look to kick off his season with a winning start.

3 other horses remain unraced Brexiteer (Zoffany), Malangen (Born To Sea) and Eternal Frame (Dutch Art) will be flying the Green and Blue flag soon enough.

Manton Thoroughbreds III, have 6 two year old colts to go to battle with. 2 bought from Doncaster a Zebedee colt and an Acclamation, the Zebedee looks nice and sharp it would be very exciting if he could live up to the benchmark Barraquero (Zebedee) has set.

From Goffs we bought a Holy Roman Emperor, this proven sire is a fantastic source of winners which make great trade horses, he is a good looking colt that would attract the attention of certain export routes should he win a race or two.

The remaining horses were bought from Tattersalls, a Charm Spirit that was infact partly owned by Brians new assistant James Ferguson lets hope he can reward us for our purchase. A Dandy Man and an Archipenko were also acquired, the former looks sharp and the latter just might be one for next year.

A lot to look forward to for all those involved.

Tattersalls December Sale 2016

We attended the December Sale with a number of targets the first was to buy a yearling for an owner that shall we say we had a good season for.

The catalogue is a funny one as there is a very mixed bunch, horses that missed the earlier sales due to injury or being very backward or simply not good enough.

We had a strong list of 6 or 7 but unfortunately it seemed as though everyone else had the same horses it was not to be our day.

Stop The Wages was part of a syndicate I was part of and with high hopes off a back of a great run in the Weatherbys Sales Race (4th) and only beaten 3L in a Group 2 on her last start we had high hopes which unfortunately were not met by the market with a high reserve she returned to Manton.

Following this however she was sold privately and will next be seen racing in Sweden.

Partnering up with Blandford Bloodstock Stu Boman we were looking for a Racing/Breeding prospect and after getting blown out of the water on a couple we bought late on giving 45,000gns for Mimicking a daughter of Invincible Spirt rated 97 from the family of Group 1 winners Mutafaweq and Dimitrova, she has gone to Ireland where she is to be covered by Acclamation.

Mimicking (Invincible Spirit x Her Own Kind)

Tattersalls Horses In Training Sale 2016

It was a strong sale for team at Tattersalls.

There were a number of different horses that Sangster Bloodstock was involved with;

Moi Moi Moi was the first of them, a lightly raced two year old who after winning his maiden well at Redcar stepped up to Listed Class at Bordeaux running a promising 3rd. It showed that there was more to come from this horse and Ibrahim Al Malki was the final bidder in the ring buying him for 90,000gns to race in Qatar. He has since run there finishing a good 6th only beaten 2.5L in December. 

Faithful Creek was an emotional tie for me. This horse took me to races that both me and especially my syndicate members would never have dreamt of when buying him for 35,000gns as a yearling.

After breaking his maiden from last to first at Epsom, he then went Goodwood in the Champagne Stakes where he struggled to settle and was very unbalanced in the home straight. From there it was to the fabulous Deauville to be an unlucky 2nd in bottomless ground at Listed level, from there it was to Leopardstown to run 3rd in a Group 3 behind J F Kennedy but it was the next race that will always stay in the forefront of my memory his run in the Group 1 Breeder's Cup Turf at Santa Anita. From an unlucky draw of 14 what a run I let you be the judge! 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPv0CfF-7e4

Calvinist was the next in who off the back of his win in the 0-105 Handicap at York was commanding a lot of attention. He was part of the Manton Thoroughbreds Syndicate so he was there to be sold. It was another horse for this partnership that turned a profit making 85,000gns in the ring as well as the £35K in prize money they were in good shape with him. I have since heard he has joined the ranks of young trainer Archie Watson I wish him the very best of luck with him.

John T Chance was the last of my connections a winner off a mark of 54 was bought for 17,000gns by Salah Safar I can only imagine that he will be off to the Middle East.

2016 Yearling Sale Roundup

We found the yearling sales this year considerably tougher than in 2015. The market was strong across all sales and we found we were giving 10% more for horses that we really liked.

We walked away with 20 yearlings, 17 colts and 3 fillies. 

This lot really is a diverse group of horses, from Doncaster we bought some very nice, sharp early two year olds, as expected from this sale. Two first season sires that stood out for me were Havana Gold and Most Improved trained by Brian. At Goffs, one I felt slipped under the radar was a colt by Redoutes Choice (three-time champion sire in Australia), purchased for €42k hailing from a very strong family including this years Derby winner Harzand. Tattersalls book two has produced plenty of winners for us in the past and I'm very happy with the 11 horses we walked away with. Proven sires were hard to come by but the two Zoffany's we bought at good value shows that they can be bought.  

These were for a number of different clients and syndicates, with a few bought on spec for Brian Meehan and are available for purchase. Please take the time to have a look on www.brianmeehan.co.uk.