NOVEMBER 2024
Believing sells for a staggering 3 million Guineas at Tattersalls
By Harry Herbert
This month has seen huge success both on and off the track. Our wonderful mare Believing sold for a phenomenal 3,000,000 Guineas at the Sceptre session during the Tattersalls December Mare sale. An emotional evening for owners who saw purchasers from all over the world make their bids for the filly. In the end she was bought by Coolmore, which is a fairytale ending for a horse that has competed at the very top end of the sport so consistently. She is a six time winner including the Group 2 Sapphire Stakes and the Group 3 Prix Texanita as well as three Listed successes. She has also been placed in no less than six Group One races including two at Royal Ascot. She has given our owners a racing experience only dreams are made of and we look forward to following her career under the banner of Coolmore.
I must also mention George Boughey and his team, particularly Holly who have looked after Believing so well over the years. It’s been a truly special relationship and one we look forward to carrying on with our next crop of yearlings we have in training with George.
Back on the track our national hunt horses have been flying and it has been fantastic to see Mount Tempest and Beau Balko in the winners enclosure as well as Valgrand following up on his Grade Two win with an impressive second place in the Handicap Hurdle (Grade 2) at Cheltenham on Countryside Day.
Amongst our flat horses Merchant has shown great improvement finishing second by a short head and I’m confident it won’t be long before we see him joining our rosta of winning two year olds!
Our yearlings have been going great guns and it is exciting to see them progressing so well at their respective pre-training yards. Some have already started to move into full training, and it feels like our class of 2025 are really developing into a serious bunch of horses to go to war with next season. I have no doubt there will be some stars amongst them!
With my best wishes,
Harry Herbert, Chairman
HORSE IN FOCUS
MOJITO - Palace Pier ex Swing Out Sister
The horse in focus this month is the newly named Mojito our stunning Palace Pier filly. I want to bring her to your attention as she has been progressing both physically mentally through her pre-training process in great strides. She has a very impressive physique, and her attitude to training has been second to none. She covers the ground with ease with a wonderfully athletic action as you can see here. She is certainly shaping to be an exciting filly for the two year old season.
There are only a couple of shares left in her and so do not hesitate to get in touch if you don’t want to miss out!
On the track
By Frances de Haan
This month has been a thrilling one for our national hunt runners, most recently Mount Tempest powered home to repeat his 2023 success in the Handicap Chase at Sandown despite carrying top weight! Mount Tempest jumped brilliantly and finished with enough in hand.
This horse continues to show improvement mentally and physically and we cannot wait to see where we go with him next!
Mount Tempest flying to victory at Sandown 6.12.24
Mount Tempest wins the Handicap Chase at Sandown two years on the trot - with winning owners 6.12.24
Beau Balko carried our Highclere silks to victory in emphatic style at Wincanton earlier in the month, storming up the home straight to take up the running two from home. His jumping seemed to improve markedly when Ben let the handbrake off and he hit the line 2 3/4 lengths in front!
He stepped up markedly in class three weeks later in the Handicap Chase on Coral Gold Cup day at Newbury. Beau Balko jumped beautifully the whole way round to take runner up spot against some very good horses. A hugely pleasing performance, and as Harry Cobden commented after the race, he seems to be improving which is exciting!
Over hurdles Valgrand put in a sterling performance at Cheltenham following his grade two victory a couple of weeks before, this time taking second place in the Novice Hurdle (Grade 2) on Countryside Day. We were unfortunate to bump into one, and Potters Charm is a high class act. It was an excellent performance with the commentator mentioning his fine jumping ability once again, which is always pleasing to hear.
All being well Dan plans to get another run into him back at Cheltenham on Friday the 13th, which will hopefully be lucky for us!
Valgrand and David Satchell at Cheltenham
Followcato put in a pleasing debut over hurdles at Aintree earlier in November finishing in fourth place. He has come on both physically and mentally under the care of Ben and his team at Naunton Downs, and Ben hopes to get him back on the track again soon where he will no doubt come forward for that run.
Back on the flat Merchant took a big step forward from his debut at Newmarket to finish second in an agonisingly close finish at Newcastle. Had the line been a couple of yards further on we could have had another two year old winner on our hands as he was in front just after the post and Jason Hart struggled to pull him up. He showed such improvement that William is keen to get him on the track again before the new year and hopefully make him a winner! Either way he's been worth the wait and everyone’s patience has certainly paid off.
YEARLING VISITS 2024
By Frances de Haan
This month has been a hive of activity with many stable visits to see the yearlings. These visits have been hugely popular with those of you that have attended.
This is only the second year we have run these visits, and they have been a resounding success! It is so exciting to be see behind the scenes at this stage of their development and they provide an incredible insight into how the pre training process works. Harry Whittington, Jamie Magee, Malcolm Bastard and Richard Morgan-Evcans and their respective teams have been hugely hospitable in hosting us and keeping us up to date with their progress.
Not only are the visits a chance to see how well your horses are progressing, in fact some of you are seeing them for the first time, but it is a wonderful way to meet fellow owners. That is what so much of this is about and it is so special that new friends, and lifelong friends can be made through the experience of owning a horse with Highclere.
So far this month we have had some glorious sunny days, but the English winter has tested us, we have battled the elements of Storm Bert and various snowy blizzards, an insight into how hard these horsemen work whatever the weather. The lunches afterwards have been jolly events, with delicious heartwarming meals to thaw the extremities! Exciting chatter about what you think the horse might be called and dreams of the races they may take us to next year are coined.
In a relatively short space of time the yearlings have progressed through various stages from long reining, backing, and riding away in a string and more. A big step up in their education and one they all seem to have taken easily in their stride. Mentally and physically they have all developed and are looking fantastic. They are certainly a forward bunch of two year olds and it looks set to be an exciting year in 2025. Roll on next season!
BREEDERS’ CUP 2024
by Emily Scott
Believing & Soprano owners at the Breeders’ Cup 2024
The Breeders’ Cup was conceived 40 years ago to create a year-end championship for horse racing and celebrate the best of the sport. This year marked the 40th anniversary of the Breeders’ Cup which was first run at Hollywood Park in 1984. Since then, it has moved around to some of the best tracks in America, including Santa Anita, Churchill Downs, Keeneland, Belmont Park and this year in Del Mar ‘where the surf meets the turf’.
Highclere Thoroughbred Racing have sent some brilliant horses over the years to compete on this world stage with some notable success. Petrushka, the European Champion Three-Year-Old Filly, finished 4th in the Breeders’ Cup Fillies & Mares Turf in 2000; Telescope was 4th in the Breeders’ Cup Turf in 2014; and our brilliant 1,000 Guineas winner Cachet finished 4th in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies’ Turf in 2021.
This year we were double handed with two superb fillies, Soprano and Believing, both trained by George Boughey. Soprano has excelled this year winning at Royal Ascot in June, running away with a Group 3 at Deauville in August and finishing a close 3rd to two of the best fillies of her generation in the Matron Stakes (Gr 1) at Leopardstown in September. Her stablemate Believing has danced every dance, taking on some of the best sprinters in the world and finishing placed in a staggering 6 Group 1 races.
They both deserved to take their chance at the Breeders’ Cup and although neither performed on the day, their respective owners still had a ball in San Diego. The Breeders’ Cup fanfare begins with the Trackwork Breakfast for four days in the run up to the big weekend of racing. All competing horses can be seen exercising in the morning whilst horse owners enjoy a lavish breakfast and get a chance to meet their rivals over a late morning Bellini or Bloody Mary.
The big pre-racing event is known as the ‘Call to Post’, which this year was held at the luxurious Fairmont Grand hotel. Picture the scene…guests cascading on multiple levels down to the hotel garden with full champagne glasses appearing out of the hedges, oyster servers roaming and caviar on tap. The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly a fantastic set from The Eagles, which really got everyone in the party spirit.
The racing action takes place on Friday and Saturday with the world’s best juveniles taking part on day one and then the older horses compete for huge prizes on day two, culminating in the $7,000,000 Breeders’ Cup Classic. Racing at this level is incredibly competitive and to have a horse good enough to line up is very rare. The atmosphere at the track is electric, with horse connections and the betting public all hoping to witness the next great champion of the sport.
Soprano and Believing weren’t able to make history for Highclere in 2024 but their loyal owners have been taken on a fantastic journey round the world. Soprano’s story will continue next year as a four-year-old, while Believing’s next date is in the sale ring at Tattersalls in December where she will hopefully be very popular with prospective buyers. The question is, which of the current Highclere crop will be capable of taking us to the Breeders’ Cup at Del Mar in 2025?
YOU JUST HAD TO BELIEVE
by Believing owner Peter Hall
Believing at Tattersalls December Mare Sale where she sold for 3,000,000gns
So the incredible journey ends on a cold misty atmospheric night in the Tattersalls ring as Believing is sold to Coolmore after a tense auction with MV sealing it with a quick twirl of his finger. Delight all round as she stays in training next year with George before she eventually heads over to Ireland.
We knew she was tough when first seen thrusting herself out of a tight pack of horses at HQ chasing home the eventual 1000 Guineas winner but we didn't know how good she really was until the back end of her 3 year old career and into this year when she developed into a brilliant, consistent serial Group 1 placed sprinter.
Her Believers were a bunch of owners who formed a very strong bond following her to Hong Kong, Del Mar and all the most important sprint races in Europe with Highclere organising us all handsomely.
We never lost faith even with her quirks and unlucky draws - we knew she was total class but also we knew we had in George, Christian and Holly (who looked after her) 3 devoted people who would do everything to ensure that her preparation into a race was clinical.
We were all aware that we were experiencing a horse of a lifetime who remained remarkably fit throughout her career , tried her heart out every time and never went down without a fight, pulling her jockey to the line each time. Neatly summed up in May this year when asking Harry - Ascot this year? Well she goes Tuesday and Saturday and didn’t she just, what a Mare.
Rolf’s Ramblings
by Rolf Johnson
Between Newsletters a couple of phenomena struck me. Never, in my experience, have bookmakers been absent from Tattersalls. Yet on a desolate Wednesday evening at Kempton last month there was nary a layer standing in ‘Tatts’ to accommodate the dribble of punters. Up and down the country more and more cemetery headstones bear bookmaker’s names than appear on bookmaker’s joints at our fifty-nine racecourses.
A second ‘first’: I’d never seen a race over the Grand National fences with no fallers - until this latest Grand Sefton Chase. Disrupters glue themselves to the famous obstacles. They needn’t bother. The Sitka Spruce has been pruned. In Grittar’s Grand National ten horses fell at the first.
That master hunter chaser skipped round in 1982, ably assisted by his 48-year-old amateur jockey Dick Saunders. (Grittar’s hunting with the Quorn wasn’t a help - he hated it). The previous year John Thorne was second to Aldaniti on the supreme hunter chaser Spartan Missile. Thorne was 54. The following year he was killed at Mollington point-to-point.
So to Larkhill on Salisbury Plain for the Hursley Hambledon Hunt point-to-point on the first Sunday in December. If professional racing is, so some say, in intensive care, amateur pointing ought to be saying its prayers. And yet at Larkhill you couldn’t move for old friends or fail to make new ones - or avoid bloodstock agents. The remarkable thing was the youth of the crowd - under 16s free; to enjoy Cheltenham’s concession you have to be under six. No harassing or hassling either; no ‘Checkpoint Charlies’, just the freedom any emerging audience craves.
Salisbury Plain is twinned with the Russian Steppes; for the seven meetings there is a cease fire with the Army artillery’s practice range. The guns fall silent; the crowd rugs up against vicious elements.
We haven’t, yet, brought the whole shebang to the industrial proportions of the Irish pointing scene. Hunting foxes is still permitted in Ireland but the object is not so much chasing ‘Reynard’ as chasing buyers. There, everything runs with two numbers – the one on the race-card and a price tag. Irish pinhooking from the point-to-point field for potential Cheltenham stars is on a par with Newmarket foal sales.
In past times home-breds were part of the family, raced from the farm on which they were born and raised for the next generation to take up the challenge. Nowadays generations X Y Z, even before the arrival of inheritance tax on farmland (too big a subject to take on here) head for higher education and pastures new. In 2018 Energumene won his debut maiden at Larkhill and was sold to Willie Mullins for 50,000gns. He went on to win just short of £1million including two Champion Chases. The Irish turn over legions of young stock yet somehow seem to keep the best for themselves: the French likewise. Together they dominate the Festival at Cheltenham where, at the recent Sales, the top price lot at 330,000gns came from pointing in Ireland – and went back there, to Gordon Elliott.
Energumene. A two-time Queen Mother Champion Chase winner. ©Getty Images
There was no Mullins horsebox at Larkhill this time. Energumene means ‘fanatic’ (I looked it up). The first race ‘between the points of church steeples’ took place in Cork in 1752 (I looked that up too). Followers are unashamedly zealous ranging in intensity from ‘trainspotters’ to devotees who will ‘rub shoulders’ with anybody they bump into. Everybody knows their place – nobody is ‘put in it’. Meetings are dependent on volunteers - admittedly a diminishing number but still the sinews of the sport, along with fierce eccentricity. (Hunting didn’t attract me but I used to feel duty bound, ok dragooned into raising our ancient horsebox’s impossibly heavy ramp to allow the distaff side, wife and daughters, to meet with the R A and the Tedworth).
Pointing is a labour of love, no better examples of which were the Hunter Chasers and Point-to-Point annuals published, until 2012, from voluntary reports brought together in hard back by Iain Mackenzie, Gary Selby and Martin Harris. They were as comprehensive as the Timeform Annual also sorrowfully interred. Point–to-point zealots lapped up their ‘catechisms’: more sensitive souls tut-tutted at the authors’ constant impertinence. But the old saying won out - “the one thing in life worse than being talked about is not being talked about”. Sample:
Melancholy Rose - the antithesis of her most courageous dam, and always doing her utmost to stop. Ruining the sport for others and should be retired.
Scally Beau - Putting a bolting mare to Scallywag was the sort of experiment Frankenstein would have treasured, and has so far finished a remote last in all three races
Ballyvenie - Foolishly risked on firm in his Members. Although quickly tailed off, his rider insisted on bumping all the way to the finish and once she finally got off he was hobbling badly. A great and totally avoidable shame.
Another runner (identity withheld) “carried 17 stone to the first in his members’ and dumped it there”.
The authors never minced words. In the Preview to the 1998 annual they spelled out: “A book of this nature that made no conclusions would be valueless, one that was invariably correct, miraculous.” They went on: “The confident prediction in these pages last year that a Labour government would be elected proved all too correct and a Private Members bill was introduced to ban hunting. That provoked a magnificent assembly of over 110,000 country people in Hyde Park.”
Four years later the ban became law and Mackenzie & Co contributed: “What with the anti-hunting Bill, BSE, foot and mouth…the gods seem to have it in for rural Britain (but) lets enjoy ourselves as people like us have done for centuries.”
Pointing has survived apparently mortal blows. As far back as 1970 a worthy work, ‘The Continuing Story of Point-to-point Racing’ tried to capture a bucolic Corinthian past. The foreword was penned by Major Guy Cunard, a scion of the shipping line. In cavalier, not to say rustic fashion, in baggy jodhpurs, he rode many winners.
“What a damned silly title!” exploded Cunard. His confusion arose from title similarities with that of “The continuing story of Peyton Place”. “Never heard of it,” he thundered. “Is it one of those dark horses from Wales or the West Country”. If only I could tell him, unlike Peyton Place those dark horses are still around!
Mackenzie was never ashamed to suggest accuracy should sometimes be sacrificed to perception. And yet back then Cunard saw “the threat to its (pointing’s) survival in this age of inflation” pleading for more prize money. More and more the amateurs have been obliged to take a more ‘professional approach’. Some yards, here as well as in Ireland are as big as those of licensed trainers. But do they have the soul?
Sandboy the judge was in the minority of one when thinking he had won his maiden,
Prince of Tullow produced a bolt from blue in Dudley Cup. Can be discarded as a future winner unless lightning really does strike twice in the same place.
Ballet Dancer pulled up in seven consecutive races but belatedly showed improvement when his nearest rival ran so wide some thought he’d gone shopping in Ludlow. Rather slow.
Combatants such of these embodied pointing. Dearest to me was a horse I saddled for his last, ignominious, race under Rules, for Toby Balding at Newton Abbot. His adorable owner still loved him.
Four by Two. “Failed to finish 55 times (left once, ran out 4, PU 50). Failed to improve at 21. We suspect that the rider has been holding him back for something special and please God let him run again as he has now made 97 appearances and it would be so exciting if he could actually win 100th time out.”
Mackenzie and co were just as provocative about venues. Pepper Harrow was the Surrey Union course between Guildford and Godalming: “Appalling viewing with no chance of following races from ground level and stewards on their tower cannot see much more. Attracts huge crowds of people watchers to whom racing is totally inconsequential (and they’re about right). Tweseldown, second last course in Hampshire, “needed a dose of Agent Orange”: verdant foliage hiding the action (fortuitously the death of pensioned Schweppes winner Geos). It has thickened since the place shut for all but eventing.
A particular favourite of mine involved, yes, pointing’s flagship course Larkhill. Mackenzie acknowledged its outstanding galloping nature while bemoaning the fact that the toilets “may have been used for target practice by the Army”. They have been restored.
Larkhill Point-to-Point. © Alamy
Siegfried Sassoon, hunting and pointing laureate, revealed the sport’s ethos in’ his poem What the Captain said at the Point-to-point’:
I’ve had a good bump round; my little horse
Refused the brook first time,
Then jumped it prime;
And ran out at the double,
But of course
There’s always trouble at a double:
And then—I don’t know how
It was—he turned it up
At that big, hairy fence before the plough;
But we finished full of running, and quite sound:
And anyhow I’ve had a good bump round.
Where Are They Now?
by Frances de Haan
This month on Where Are They Now? we have Suspicion with his new owner, and former groom, Harry Jenkins. Harry asked to have Suspicion in his retirement, where he will be given all the time he needs before being re-trained as a riding horse.
Clodagh’s recipe
by Clodagh McKenna Herbert
CHOCOLATE PECAN BROWNIE TRIFLE WITH ORANGE BLOSSOM CREAM
METHOD:
1. Start by making the brownies. Preheat the oven to 180oC/Gas 4 and grease a 30x20cm/12x8in tin.
2. Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Stir gently until smooth then set aside to cool slightly. In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until pale and fluffy. Whisk the chocolate and butter mix into the eggs then gently fold in the flour and chopped pecans until fully incorporated. Pour into the prepared tin, smooth the surface then bake in the oven for 25 minutes, until the sheet of brownies are firm in the rim but a bit soft in the middle. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then place on a wire rack until cooled completely.
3. While the brownies are cooling make the chocolate mousse. Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Once melted stir in the cocoa powder then remove from the heat and stir in the cream and orange blossom water. Whisk the egg whites in a clean bowl, and half way through whisk in the sugar bit by bit, continue to whisk until stiff. Then gently fold them into the cooled chocolate mixture.
4. Pour the orange blossom water into the cream and whisk together, until softly whipped.
5. Assemble the trifle. Break pieces of the cooled chocolate pecan brownie and add half of them to your trifle bowl, to create the first layer. Then spoon half of the chocolate mousse on top, followed by the orange blossom cream, repeat with another layer and sprinkle the chopped pecans and chocolate curls on top.
Serves 10
Ingredients:
For the chocolate brownies
300g dark chocolate, broken into chunks
100g butter
4 free-range eggs
200g muscovado sugar
200g plain flour
100g pecans, roughly chopped
For the chocolate mousse
250g good quality chocolate
2 tbsps cocoa powder
6 eggs egg whites
100ml cream
120g caster sugar
2 tbsps orange blossom water
For the rest of the trifle
500ml cream
1 tbsp orange blossom water
1 orange
50g dark chocolate curls or flakes
50g pecans, chopped
Taittinger Moment
JULIE AND JOHN MARSHALL
This months Taittinger moment goes to John and Julie Marshall who are new owners this year. They have gone into the Silver Birch syndicate, the wonderfully eye catching Galiway colt called Home Secretary, who is trained by Sir Mark Prescott.
Their joining marks the start of the second generation who have been involved in Highclere, as Julie's parents were also owners circa 1995, in a syndicate called the Cedar (another year of trees)! They were involved in a couple of our original syndicates back when it all first began, horses called Regiment and Cherry Blossom. Both won on debut and Regiment went onto win a Listed race as a 3YO. Both were trained by Richard Hannon Snr.
'My parents were Dennis and Janice Taylor and they were proud to be involved in Highclere. John fondly remembers being the designated driver during their many trips down to Highclere Castle and to the many Stable visits. We have decided to follow on in their footsteps and replicate the thrill of being involved in Highclere and fulfilling our dream of becoming racehorse owners. We are looking forward to many good times ahead with Home Secretary and Highclere.'
A wonderful story and it means so much that Julie and John have come in to Highclere this year to carry on what appears to be developing into a family tradition! I am sure Home Secretary will go on to create as many fantastic memories for John and Julie as Julie's parents had with their horses.
Out and about with the Highclere camera
