A round up of 2010

All in all our first year at Egerton House Stables has been a pretty successful one and was kicked off in style with Beauchamp Viceroy landing a valuable conditions race at Lingfield followed Quarante Deux scoring by a head on his debut run.

We then sent 4 horses off to Dubai to try our luck in warmer climates.

As always, the racing in Dubai was of an extremely high standard and very competitive. For whatever reason, 3 out of 4 of our team where left found wanting but Beauchamp Viceroy managed to get onto the podium in 2nd place. We were very pleased with that performance as he was obviously up against world class horses.

The team from Dubai made the long journey home to the UK, and it wasn’t long before Beauchamp Viceroy struck again when winning a valuable 50K handicap at Kempton.

The runners then gradually started to build and April saw a collection of promising runs. 

Tinaar finished a very close 2nd on her first run of 2010 in a very competitive handicap. Pachattack made a couple of good efforts in high class races, Dubai Bounty was beaten a short head and a neck and Elliptical finished 2nd to Forte Di Marmi, a horse Elliptical was to encounter on 3 other occasions throughout the season!

May saw the arrival of Guineas weekend here at Head Quarters. Elliptical was just held off by a typically tough competitor of Mark Johnston’s however Tinaar put the spring back in our step when scoring by over a length in the Stanjames.com handicap worth 50k. Being the only filly in a field of 17, her work was always going to be cut out for her. However she made light work of her rivals and looked the clear winner a long way from home. 

Sing Sweetly made her 2010 debut after a long layoff following an injury last year, and managed to finish a close second behind a progressive type of Luca Cumani’s. 

Beauchamp Xerxes left his disappointing time at Meydan behind him and went on to land a listed win at Goodwood. Although he had SP of 20-1, we had confidence that despite his poor runs in Meydan he had the ability to win. 

The Epsom Derby meeting fell quickly upon us and both our runners there, whilst not winning, both ran extremely well. 

Pachattack finished a close third in the group 3 Princess Elizabeth stakes, and Beauchamp Xerxes fresh from his listed win ran a creditable 5th in the group 3 Diomed stakes. 

Following her group placing, Pachattack then went to tackle the northerners and came out on top when beating Lady Jane Digby in a competitive listed event at Newcastle. 

 

Also taking on the northerners was Sing Sweetly who made the long journey up to Musselburgh to line up in the 15 strong Edinburgh handicap and was beaten into second place by the impressive Harris Tweed who went on to win multiple listed races afterwards.  

Newcomer Akhmatova made her debut at Salisbury and gave us a sure sign of things to come when finishing 5th of 13 without the clearest of runs and sure enough 2 weeks later went on to win her maiden at Windsor. 

Good Again put in a solid effort in a competitive listed event at Pontefract and was a very unlucky 5th when she found herself short of room in the straight. Obviously we were disappointed with this but that’s racing!

Our disappointment was quickly put to one side however as the next couple weeks saw Akhmatova land her second win by a cosy 2l at Lingfield, Sing Sweetly by an even cosier 12l and the highlight of the month was Elliptical winning the last race of Glorious Goodwood. After overcoming a terrible draw and sitting last, he spread-eagled the field to win by almost 3 lengths! We were of course delighted with Elliptical’s impressive performance and it’s always nice to have a winner at a big meeting!

Pachattack’s upward curve continued as she battled bravely to land her 2nd listed event at Newbury by a short head. It was fast becoming apparent that Pachattack had the talent and class to move on to bigger things, and with that, we packed her off to the USA to line up in the Beverly D stakes. 

As bad luck would have it, she missed the break by 10 lengths or more, only to get beaten just over 5. So we came home with our tail between our legs looking for the next opportunity which was to be in Canada.

Meanwhile back in Europe, having suffered a very serious bought of colic over the winter, Dansant had made a full recovery and made his way over to Deauville to compete in a conditions race. It was exactly a year to date since his last run and after such a traumatic experience, we were not sure what to expect. Having settled towards the rear of the field, it was a long race for us to watch however Olivier Peslier obviously knew how much horse he had underneath him and when the time came, he pushed the button and we were delighted to watch Dansant accelerate into first place. 

Dubai Bounty also knuckled down to score for the Distaff 2 Partnership when she won a nice handicap at Chester by a head. It was to be a bitter sweet victory  as Dubai Bounty had fractured her leg. She was whisked off to the University of Liverpool where they put 4 screws into her leg. When she returned home, it was fair to say that she was feeling quite sorry for herself. Luckily for us, her surgery was a success and she is now well into her recovery program and will be ready for racing again next season.

Elliptical went off to Sandown to take part in another high class handicap, and after racing at the back of the field and running into every blocked route possible, he ran on to finish and extremely close 5th, once again behind Forte Di Marmi.

Fresh from his victory in France, Dansant travelled out to Turkey to run in the Anatolia Trophy. A group 2 race with a total prize fund of nearly £175,000. Unfortunately, the race did not pan out in Dansant’s favour and we could only manage a 4th.

Elliptical ran his heart out in the 100K Dubai Duty Free heritage handicap at Newbury. Whilst he was powering down the outside however, Forte Di Marmi was doing the exact same on the inside and when the two met yet again at the front, Elliptical was held off by ¼ length.

October was quite a busy month, 3 year olds Maristar and Swiss Cross both made it into the winners circle whilst on the other side of the pond, Pachattack ran in the E.P Taylor stakes in Canada and ran very well to finish in 5th place. She then stayed in Canada in preparation for the Maple Leaf stakes. Her owner, Michael Deegan’s patience paid off and he was lucky enough to be there to watch his filly leave the rest of the field a long way behind and smash the track record. 

A smart debut was made by the very attractive 2 year old Quiz Mistress at Newmarket and an extremely smart debut was made by Burj Alzain who broke his maiden on the first time of asking.

The season ended but our horses remained in flying form. Despite the depressive winter creeping up on us, November had 5 winners in store for us. 

The increasingly progressive Akhmatova went out to win twice more. Such professionalism shown from her to still be performing as well as ever and still improving at this late stage in the year is outstanding. 

The 2 year olds shone as Quiz Mistress went out and lost her maiden tag in style, Burj Alzain kept his unbeaten record intact when landing a very smart nursery and Towering Storm miraculously overcame his poor start to pass the entire field and win on the first time of asking. 

Unfortunately, November also brought us some very bad news.

Following an unusually poor run in the Cambridgeshire, Elliptical went off to the vets in Newbury where it was decided he needed a wind operation. Despite his surgery going well, Elliptical was unfortunately found dead in his stable the next morning. It was an awful shock and heart breaking news to all those concerned. To lose any horse is very sad, but to lose one of such a standard and with such potential really took the wind out of our sails. 

Barbara Keller’s long standing servant Dansant has now been placed in retirement. He was the winner of 9 races, 6 of those were listed class and he has run in 6 different countries. In the USA he ran in one of the most famous races in the world, the Santa Anita Handicap and was very unlucky not be placed. He currently holds track records at both Lingfield and Kempton and has been a joy to train over the last 4 years and has created a lot of happy memories. He is now destined to become a stallion, quite a suitable payback for his many years of good service. He will be sadly missed, but we are already looking forward to seeing lots of little Dan’s in the future.  

Distinctive Image made his way to the races for the first time since his return from Dubai at the start of the year. He ran very well and he was only just caught near the line. No doubt the race will have done him the world of good and he could well be back on the track next week.

The two full brothers Beauchamp Xerxes and Beauchamp Viceroy both went to run in Deauville and unfortunately both ran well below par. We were obviously very disappointed but every horse has their off days. 

Burj Alzain also travelled to Deauville in hopes of maintaining his unbeaten record in a juvenile conditions race. Unfortunately, his regular jockey Neil Callan was away in Hong Kong so we paired up with local jockey, Anthony Crastus. On the turn for home he looked to have the race well and truly in the bag. Burj Alzain was getting lonely on his own in front and due to the heavy fog, his jockey misjudged the line and we consequently lost out by a head when another horse came and caught him on the line. In our minds we know we should have won the race which rightly proves Burj Alzain’s talent. 

We will now have a quiet couple days to deal with Christmas, but are making a swift return on Boxing Day with the reappearance of Towering Storm and Sing Sweetly. We will settle for a double!