Watching Cachet win the QIPCO 1000 Guineas was the greatest moment imaginable for me. I have dreamed of those pale blue silks winning a domestic Classic for thirty years and so when it happened in this our 30th Anniversary year I guess it wasn’t surprising that the tears of utter joy flowed!!

*Cachet with some of her Share Owners in the winners enclosure at Newmarket after winning the 1000 Guineas*

When John, Jake and I saw Cachet walking round the stables ring stripped we looked at one another and knew that she was in the form of her life. You couldn’t see a more perfectly trained and conditioned racehorse and my brother in law’s smile said it all! “She’s the one they all have to beat” he said which made the nerves jangle even more. Our lunch with all her shareowners who made it to Newmarket in the Jockey Club Rooms beforehand was brilliant to help settle the nerves slightly but I think that everyone knew that in Cachet we had a filly who could realise all of our dreams.

*Congratulations all round for a terrific ride from James Doyle*

Many of us watched the race from the paddock where we could get a good look at the big screen there. Opposition owners and trainers were all around us, eyes glued to that screen! And then the stalls opened and out flew Cachet with James Doyle allowing her to get into a wonderful rhythm. Her weapon at Newmarket where she has always run good races is that ability to quicken into and through the dip where others get unbalanced. As the opposition queued up behind her James asked Cachet for her ultimate effort and she stole a couple of lengths on her challengers. Ralph Beckett’s Prosperous Voyage was closing rapidly along with Aidan O’Brien’s Tuesday.

This was the moment when everyone started to properly scream her home willing that winning post to come and when it did and Cachet was still a neck in front her supporters in the parade ring went completely bonkers with joy! Please click here to see the reaction from the paddock.

Cachet Leading the charge across the line

I broke down in tears (again!) just as Oli Bell with microphone in hand approached for an ITV immediate reaction to winning. I simply couldn’t get a word out as the emotion overcame me. Jake’s children dancing around and around, James Boughey hugging us all, James’s father and mother who I have known forever also in tears and her shareowners in rapture.

*Triumphant scenes for bright young trainer, George Boughey*

I had dreamed of this when I set up Highclere in 1992 hoping beyond hope that we could bring sole ownership and multiple ownership as close as possible and that we could compete at the top table in the best races. Petrushka’s Irish Oaks in 2000 was fabulous as she became the first syndicate owned Classic winner. Then Motivator for the Royal Ascot Racing Club that we bought and managed winning the 2005 Derby. These proved that we could compete in and win at this level and so Cachet’s victory realised a very special dream! To all of Cachet’s owners many many congratulations, Jakie Warren take a bow for buying her at the breeze ups for 60,000 gns! To George Boughey and his lovely team especially Cachet’s lass Antonia Peck thank you for training her to perfection and for making all our dreams come true.

We all went through more nerves and excitement in Paris where she tried to complete the Guineas double, only failing by a neck to achieve that. Another phenomenal effort and now its on to Royal Ascot for the Coronation Stakes (Gr 1) where she will take on her conqueror in France Mangoustine as well as the hugely impressive Irish 1000 Guineas winner Homeless Songs trained by Dermot Weld.

Meanwhile here all eyes are on Royal Patronage as he prepares to run in the Cazoo Derby at Epsom on June 4th. He ran a terrific race in the Dante (Gr 2) to finish second to Desert Crown who currently heads the ante post betting at 2/1. We hope and believe that Royal Patronage will stay the mile and a half trip and of course he has experience of this very tricky race course having won impressively at Epsom on his third start. What a thrill to have him lining up at Epsom in the pale blue - Housemaster carried the silks into fourth place in 1999 and was only beaten three and a half lengths by Oath that year. What a shout we had!!

*Royal Patronage heads to the Cazoo Derby Group 1 on 4th June*

Wishing you all a very happy and fun filled Platinum Jubilee weekend and if you are watching the Derby do give Royal Patronage a huge shout as he begins to make ground around Tattenham Corner with the most famous winning post in racing in site! More 30th anniversary dreams!!

On the track - May 22

By Frances Howard

*Believing winning at Wolverhampton for trainer George Boughey*

Whilst Cachet has very much stolen the limelight this month, we have also celebrated the victories of six other winners and seven placed efforts including a Group 2 placed treble at York’s Dante meeting. We kicked off May with Rockstar Ronnie heading to Warwick for what became his last run and victory in the Highclere silks. He was a super servant for his syndicate winning five races no less, and we wish him well for his new connections down under. Treyarnon Bay trained by Nicky Henderson made her Highclere debut a winning one, scoring comfortably in the mares bumper at Southwell by 2 ¼ lengths. She looks an exciting prospect for novice hurdling this Autumn.

*Rockstar Ronnie leaping the last at Warwick*

*Treyarnon Bay romping home at Southwell*

The main action has of course been on the flat - Hebrides and Atrium carried on the winning momentum by scoring at Nottingham and Ascot respectively, with Atrium booking his ticket to the Britannia Stakes at Royal Ascot as a result. We then turned our attention to the Knavesmire for the Dante festival, a lucky course for us in recent years. Spycatcher kick-started the action with a career best performance to finish 2nd in the G2 Clipper Logistics Stakes. He is due to line up at Haydock on Saturday where he looks to have a good chance of gaining his first Group victory. The incredibly tough Thunderous has returned this season as a 5yo in terrific form – after an unsurprisingly quiet comeback run at Newbury, he has since gone on to finish a close second in two Gr 2’s - most recently at York where he threw down a strong challenge to Stradivarius in the Yorkshire Cup, beaten just a length by Gosdens star stayer. Thunderous heads to Sandown this evening for the Gr 3 Henry II stakes and everything is crossed for another big performance, hopefully another Group victory! Royal Patronage left us scratching our heads after the Guineas but all faith in this colt is now well restored following an excellent second in the Dante – where he was beaten just over 2 lengths by Derby favourite, Desert Crown. So to Epsom we go which is incredibly exciting and whilst we have a bit to find on form against the market principals, he definitely deserves his place in the lineup and it would not be a total shock should he provide more Classic success for HTR!!

*Stevie Donohoe driving Hebrides home to win at Nottingham*

*Atrium victorious at Ascot for the second time*

It was then the turn of the two-year-olds who have put in some excellent performances so far this season. Fragrance won nicely at third attempt at Catterick a fortnight ago - earning her owners a GBB fillies’ bonus (£20,000) in the process. She faces a much tougher task at Beverley on Saturday in the Hilary Needler Conditions Stakes but she looks a promising filly and this will obviously tell us a lot more about her. Believing followed the footsteps of stablemate Cachet- making her debut at Newmarket in the 6f fillies’ novice, and whilst she wasn’t victorious, she ran a hugely promising race beaten only by a Godolphin hotpot. She then went to Wolverhampton for a ‘confidence booster’ where she started 1/3 favourite - well it was far from plain sailing as Believing reared in the stalls as the gates opened, missing the break by some 8-10 lengths. It looked an impossibility from there but this filly showed a great attitude and not to mention a massive engine, to win by just under 2 lengths! She is a very exciting filly and Royal Ascot is firmly on the agenda now, where we hope she will better Cachet’s 5th place result in last year’s renewal of the Albany Stakes. Most recently – breeze up purchase Estate put a lacklustre debut at Chester well and truly behind him when running an excellent race to finish second at Bath last week. He looks a winner waiting to happen on that evidence and trainer Andrew Balding is even eyeing up some fancy targets for later in the season.. On the same day - Lysander who bolted up at Newcastle on his 3yo debut last month, was just narrowly denied in the Derby trial at Goodwood. The decision has since been made to swerve Epsom and aim for Group victory at Ascot instead. He is held in very high regard by his trainer William Haggas and he looks a potentially top class middle distance prospect in the making.

*Fragrance battled it out bravely to win at Catterick*

If you would like to get involved in the action please get in touch as we do have shares available in both flat and jumping syndicates (please click here for full details). Including this lovely grey son of El Kabeir called Reflex who is progressing very well with trainer Charlie Fellowes, and will hopefully make his 2yo debut in July. There are a few shares remaining in this syndicate at a cost of just £5,800 per share.

*Reflex (El Kabeir (USA) ex Knapton Hill) 2yo G.C*

Please click here for the latest video of him exercising in Newmarket earlier this week.

With all eyes turning towards Epsom and Royal Ascot, June is set to provide an action packed month on the track and hopefully a very fruitful one – fingers crossed!!

Eventful Year for the Scotts and London 52

By Rolf Johnson

As we know, there’s only one Derby, at Epsom, for three-year-olds: and there’s only one Badminton Horse Trials, in Gloucestershire, for three-day eventers. There were though, a lot more contenders, eighty-four, for Badminton, May 8th than we’ll see at Epsom, June 4th, maximum field twenty.

For devotees of Badminton it is their Derby and Grand National (Cup Final even) rolled into one!

The £100,000 Badminton Horse Trials, inaugurated 1949, incorporate the disciplines of dressage, cross-country and showjumping, a fearsome test of horse and rider which ensures nobody monopolizes; not since the 1970s anyway when Lucinda Prior-Palmer won five times in seven years.

The prospect of more future triumphs there, and worldwide, is a realistic one for Keith and Louise Scott, their rider Laura Collett and their horse London 52. With a record (low) score London 52 has just added Badminton victory to his Tokyo Olympics team gold. At thirteen he’s in his prime and has the eventing world at his hooves.

“I didn’t think there could be a more emotional moment than when Laura rode him so superbly in Tokyo. But Badminton is our Derby,” said Keith.

*Laura Collet and London 52 Lap of Honour after winning Badminton*

Scott sold his company in 2000. He took up eventing but a riding accident cut short that new career. The Scott’s joined Highclere and have had twenty winners so far including shares in top handicappers Gothic and Glenard and multiple jumps winner Bury Parade.

“All the horses we were involved in won at least once,” said Keith. “We are committed horse lovers. Like everybody in Highclere we appreciate what the horses give us. In eventing the horse is actually ‘ours’ but he competes for the nation too. At Highclere we are made to feel that we are THE owners. The social side is done so well.”

Keith continued: “We plunged into eventing. At one time we were involved in seven competition horses. Mr Bass was second at Blenheim (second only to Badminton) in 2018. Believe it or not the costs are higher than racing. Purchase prices are mad too. We went to Germany to see Chef d’Equipe of the German team, Peter Thompson and did a deal over ‘Dan’ – London 52 - who had done little at the time. We got lucky, very lucky.”

Thoroughbreds do compete in three-day eventing and through the Scott’s obvious affinity with horses, when Highclere’s The Last Euro jumping career stalled in 2015 they took him on as a potential eventer, to give him a new purpose in life. It was the kind of gesture characteristic of Highclere owners for whom horses are so much more than vehicles.

“He was a lovely, lovely individual,” said Keith. “You couldn’t find a better-looking horse but he’d only risen to pre-novice level when he went out for his summer holidays, tripped in the paddock and broke his neck. What was it Sir Mark Prescott said? ‘My job is to thwart every horse’s intentions to kill themselves from the moment they arrive’.”

*The Last Euro ridden by Kitty King in his second career*

The Scott’s next connection may be with Ollie Murphy, high on Highclere’s list of prospective jumps trainers. Rising star Murphy is based near Stratford-upon-Avon and he has gone to the expense of building an arena for Laura Collett to school his jumpers.

Any manifestation of the horse world is bound to excite Keith: though he sports a ‘mane’ of steel grey hair there is nothing ‘grey’ about him. A shot of a Highclere owner throwing a bucket of refreshing, cooling water over an Olympic champion would be treasured. That was Keith’s role in Tokyo.

“I get so involved, yes there are tears when we survive the cross-country and I washed the horse down myself when he came back in Tokyo. I sing the National Anthem when we’re on the winner’s rostrum. The World Games are at Pratoni in Italy in September, then the dream, the Paris Olympics in 2024 by which time London 52 will be fifteen - the upper limit for an eventer’s peak. He’s thankfully always been very sound and has such a strong mind I’m confident he will take us there.”

Laura Collett was asked: “Would she ever swap her horse?”

“No, I’d swap the rider,” was her humble reply.

If he could let us know London 52, I guess he wouldn’t swap rider or owners.

“We’ve got the next in line, Creggan Quality, he’s only six,” said Keith enthusiastically.

Creggan is ‘stoney ground’ in Gaelic: with his current connections the horse has ‘fallen on his feet’. And with the Scott’s record the sooner they are back in the Highclere fold the better – with their luck, not least for the horses fortunes!

Godolphin Flying Start

By Devon Dougherty

Two years. Five countries. Twelve individuals chosen throughout the world. Godolphin Flying Start is truly an opportunity of a lifetime. Godolphin Flying Start is afforded by His Highness Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid al Maktoum, and is “a two year, full-time international management and leadership training programme for the thoroughbred industry.”

My name is Devon Dougherty, and I am twenty-four years old from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. My previous experience in the industry before commencing the course included working as an assistant trainer at Parx Racing, which led me to win the 2018 Godolphin TIEA Newcomer Award. My time on the program so far could be described as a whirlwind, whistle stop tour of the global thoroughbred industry. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, my fellow trainees and I have taken an unconventional, albeit, rewarding journey to fulfill the requirements of the course.

The next stop on my journey was to Dubai, where we were able to navigate around Dubai and Abu Dhabi, visiting the top training operations within the UAE. Next, we jet set to England, where we were able to stand atop the Newmarket Heath and watch training with Roger Varian and William Haggas. Then, in March, we were off to America for five weeks, where our highlights included visiting top stud farms like Spendthrift Farm and Three Chimneys, and attending the spring racing meeting at Keeneland.

Most recently on the course, we completed our business plan proposals and pitches, which is the cornerstone of the graduate certificate from the University College Dublin Michael Smurfit Business School. My business proposal was a company called Entry Edge Technology, which aims be the first mobile application for American trainers to enter horses directly from their smartphone.

*Devon talking to media whilst in Australia*

My third and final externship on the course is with the Highclere Thoroughbred Racing team. I am very fortunate that the team has welcomed me over the next four weeks, where I have a keen interest to learn about how a top racing syndicate operates and produces success annually. I am most looking forward to helping the team in any way possible, and to learn about the intricacies of what makes Highclere the premier racehorse syndicate. I look forward to meeting all of you and your fellow owners during my externship, and also cheering on the horses in their exciting future endeavors this season.

Top Marks For Emily Upjohn

By Rolf Johnson

A Day at the Races features a scene in which Emily, a wealthy sanatorium patient and hypochondriac, is treated by Groucho’s character, Dr Hugo Z Hackenbush, who is a horse doctor in disguise.

Whitmore (the officious sanatorium director): “Just a minute Mrs Upjohn. That looks like a horse pill to me.”

Hackenbush: “Oh, you’ve taken them before.”

Mrs Upjohn: “Are you sure Doctor, you haven’t made a mistake?”

Hackenbush: “You have nothing to worry about. The last patient I gave one of those to won the Kentucky Derby.”

The only ‘outside assistance’ the four-legged Emily Upjohn is that of her irresistible jockey. The next Enable? Frankie mentioned his filly in the same breath as his Prix de l’Arc and Oaks winner, after their Musidora romp at York.

You could mention Frankie Dettori in the same breath as the Marx Brothers – he could have stepped out of (or into) one of their movies. Their madcap comedies earned critical acclaim as “zany”: is there a better description of Frankie whose quirky ebullience captivates audiences worldwide?

Films featuring horseracing tend to be saccharine romances or slushy tearjerkers. One starring Dettori with a touch of his anarchic levity wouldn’t come amiss. Last year he was in the wings until the late call came from Coolmore for Musidora winner Snowfall in the Oaks. Of course he only went and won by the outrageous margin of sixteen lengths!

Emily Upjohn and her mercurial partner look booked for starring roles in the fillies’ classic at Epsom on June 3rd.

Dumont was a ‘large’ lady who, in ‘Duck Soup’, lauded Groucho as “the most able statesman in all Freedonia”. In that film Marx played President Rufus T Firefly – for whom a winning racehorse of the 1980s was named, as was found for another Groucho role, J Cheever Loophole.

Using familiar racing terminology, Groucho responds to Mrs Upjohn’s compliment with: “That covers a lot of ground. Say, you cover a lot of ground yourself.”

And that’s certainly the first characteristic which grabs you when confronted by the Gosden’s ‘Amazonian’ filly!

In another scene Groucho woos Emily Upjohn with the line: “I could dance with you til the cows come home. On second thoughts I’d rather dance with the cows til you come home.”

Groucho isn’t finished there. “Remember men, we’re fighting for this woman’s honour – which is probably more than she ever did.”

Emily Upjohn’s form is so good it looks as though her Oaks rivals will be fighting for places.

*Frankie Dettori winning on Emily Upjohn*