Fillies leading the way at Granham
Jenny and I are now properly settled in at Granham Farm and we’re loving being back in our old stomping ground of Wiltshire, not far from where we spent a very happy year in Wilcot when renting a farm from Lady Rothschild.
David and Dawn Hearson have built up a first-class facility at Granham and we’ve been pleased to show the place to new clients and welcome their horses to the farm.
We have a good bunch of mares and youngsters in residence now and the foaling season is in full swing. There’s very much a pink theme – with three fillies so far – but we’re very pleased with two lovely daughters of the excellent Dutch Art and first-crop sire Charm Spirit for clients, as well as a bold chestnut filly by Sri Putra (pictured left) from my recent Arqana December purchase, High Will, a good-looking mare by High Chaparral and from the family of Solow. Both mother and daughter keep putting their ears back at me, but I suppose I should be used to that reaction from women by now, and I’ve always liked a filly with a bit of spirit!
Our two mares in France have both foaled – Clutter has produced a good colt for her first foal and he’s by Dabirsim (pictured below), a stallion I really believe in. Our Dubawi mare Plebeya, who is owned in partnership with William, has a filly from the first crop of Anodin and will visit Kendargent this year, which is an exciting prospect. Clutter has already been covered by Haras de la Cauviniere’s bright young prospect, Rajsaman, whose first runners I’m really looking forward to seeing this year.
A real old favourite at the farm is our Fasliyev mare Nut, who is due to foal to Mickley Stud’s exciting young sire Heeraat this year and who has received a nice boost lately with her four-year-old son Rex Kalejs winning twice in the last week in Sweden. He was one of the best two-year-olds in the country, winning two races in his debut season, and won again last year so it’s been great to see that he retains his enthusiasm for the job, with each of his last two victories coming from bold front-running efforts which have been a joy to watch.
As well as the breeding stock, we’ve also been breaking in our Roderic O’Connnor filly Amenta, who will be going into training in the next couple of weeks. She’s a good strong filly who has always had a good temperament so she has been pretty straightforward to get going and we’re looking forward to seeing what she can do this year.
