Destination Deauville as yearling season kicks off

We’re counting down the days now until we load our beautiful Zamindar colt onto the lorry for France. He’ll be the first of our yearlings to sell this year when he goes under the hammer as Lot 27 on the opening night of Arqana’a August Sale. I always really look forward to the French yearling sales – William and I have had plenty of luck buying in France – but there’ll be a bit of extra pressure this year with this colt becoming our first horse to be consigned in Deauville under the Clairemont banner. That said, we couldn’t be happier with him. Everyone who sees him agrees that he’s a fine specimen and Jenny’s done a fantastic job bringing him through to the stage where he’s starting to look like a proper racehorse. We’ve been giving him plenty of walking about the farm with the Lawman colt who is Lot 99 in Book 1 of Tattersalls’ October Sale, and the rest of our draft for that sale is starting to take shape nicely too. We’ve had a long dry spell in Hampshire but the farm is still looking good and the mares and foals seem pretty happy with life. Nut is back with us, having been covered in France by Rajsaman earlier this year, and we enjoyed watching her three-year-old son Rex Kalejs win easily at Taby last week. Please click on this link if you'd like to see the race. Rex was a very good two-year-old in Sweden last year so it’s good to see him go on and get another win under his belt. He’s by Captain Gerrard and his half-sister by another Mickley stallion, Multiplex, is heading to Book 3 at Tattersalls this year. Nut’s current two-year-old, Heavenlyfriendship, is also by Multiplex and she’s in training with Brendan Powell. It’s been pretty busy on the farm but I managed a hugely enjoyable day at Glorious Goodwood last week and later in the meeting enjoyed seeing Hors De Combat run such a good race in the G3 Thoroughbred Stakes. After striking the front in the home straight, he looked set to bag his first Group victory only to be run down in the shadow of the post by Wannabe Yours.

William and I bought Hors De Combat as a yearling for Chris Van Hoorn and we’ve followed his career with pride. He’s a highly progressive individual and, in James Fanshawe, is with just the right trainer to realise his potential in the coming months and years. His next target is the G2 Celebration Mile back at Goodwood later this month.

The one consolation is that the winner of his race last week hails from the same family as a very smart Mastercraftsman colt we bought in Deauville last December. He heads to Book 1 of the October Sale as Lot 191 and now has a rather nice update to his page.

#norrishuntingdon #clairemontstud #arqana #tattersalls #rexkalejs #horsdecombat