KEVIN Blake and Nick Luck are two of the most familiar names in racing, and they are half of the four-strong team that owns the five-year-old mare Beset. She is trained by Joseph O’Brien, with whom Blake has built a strong association professionally and personally.

At the 2024 Tattersalls Autumn Horses-In-Training Sale, utilising the services of Blandford Bloodstock, Beset was purchased for 25,000gns. The Dunchurch Lodge Stud-owned and bred daughter of the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Mile winner Expert Eye (Acclamation) had just won a 12-furlong handicap on the all-weather for Henry Candy, and came from a smart female line. She appeared to be improving, and connections hoped she would continue to do so.

Their wish came true, and on her first start at four she won a sizeable part of her purchase price back with a win in Sligo. She was second next time up at Goodwood, beaten by Santorini Star who later won a Group 2 and was second on Arc weekend in a Group 1. Though not prominently involved with the finishes on a couple of outings after that, Beset maintained her rating each time, and then showed huge improvement to run second in the Listed Bluebell Stakes at Naas.

For her last run of 2025, connections chose the Listed Finale Stakes at the Curragh, and Beset blasted the opposition to earn valuable blacktype, winning by more than seven lengths. It was probably an easy decision to keep her in training at five, and already she has rewarded that call with a comfortable success in the Listed Devoy Stakes at Naas. Now, the obvious target has to be a Group 3 somewhere, and some juice in the ground.

As delighted as the connections of Beset are with this win, another man who will be overjoyed is John Bourke in Hyde Park Stud. He bought the dam of Beset, the French three-year-old winner Beshayer (Galileo), for just 13,000gns in 2024, carrying a colt by Ardad (Kodiac). Beshayer was sold as a yearling for €300,000. She is a full-sister to Group 3 winner Leo’s Starlet (Galileo), and a half-sister to listed winner and Grade 1 Clement L Hirsch Stakes runner-up Anabaa’s Creation (Anabaa).

Starlet’s Sister

From a breeding perspective, it is significant that another own-sister to Beset’s dam Beshayer is the placed Starlet’s Sister (Galileo). She bred four high-class winners with seven-time Grade 1 winner Sistercharlie (Myboycharlie), Group 1 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and French Derby winner Sottsass (Siyouni), Group 2 winner and Group 1 Japan Cup runner-up Shin Emperor (Siyouni), and triple Group/Grade 3 winner My Sister Nat (Acclamation) who ran second in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Filly and Mare Turf.

Expert Eye has completed two seasons at stud in South Africa, where he relocated to after five years at Banstead Manor Stud. There he had seen his fee fall every year, from a starting point of £20,000 to just £7,500. He has 13 stakes performers, the best of which was the Group 2 winner Witness Stand. He and the Listed Chesham Stakes winner Snellan, who later added the Group 3 Meld Stakes, were from his second crop.

Hope for the future of Nathaniel’s daughters

THE valuable Goffs Hundred Grand Bumper at Newbury attracted a competitive field of 20 runners, almost double the number who ran in 2025. On that occasion, the subsequent Grade 1 winner Talk The Talk was runner-up.

This year the race was won by the four-year-old filly Lady Hope (Nathaniel), trained by Hughie Morrison. She took home a first prize of £65,000, putting her owners in profit after she cost them £55,000 at the Goffs UK Spring Store Sale, purchased by Ross Doyle and Paul Webber. Bred by David Redvers, Lady Hope was sold through Peter Molony’s Rathmore Stud. She thus becomes the second winner this year for her dam, Mary Eleanor (Midnight Legend).

This win comes after Lady Hope’s six-year-old half-brother Bue Run (Blue Bresil) won at Southwell in February, and this late developer was making just his second start. Blue Run held an entry at Warwick on Thursday. These winners are the second and third offspring of their dam, and the first raced once in a bumper for Venetia Williams and once last year in a point-to-point. Michael Fennessy’s Ballinaroone Stud has a three-year-old Lightning Spear (Pivotal) son of Mary Eleanor, and there is a two-year-old full-sister to Lady Hope.

Mary Eleanor won in the colours of David Redvers’ mother, on what was her last start but her first over hurdles. She had been placed on three of her four runs in bumpers for trainer Tom Lacey. She was quickly sent to stud, and not risked any more, as she has great significane for Redvers. She is one of four winners from the triple Grade 1 Cleeve Hurdle winner Lady Rebecca (Rolfe), successful 13 times in 19 starts.

Minimum bid

Lady Rebecca’s purchase price of 400gns at Doncaster has often been credited by Redvers as the transaction that got him started, and look where he is now! Was the minimum bid at a sale ever so wisely spent? At stud, Lady Rebecca had eight foals, six runners and four winners. Lord Generous (Generous) won a listed bumper at Cheltenham and two hurdle races, while the mares Lady Karina (Kayf Tara) and Lady Samantha (Fraam) won over hurdles.

Three of the non-winning daughters of Lady Rebecca went on to be successful broodmares, two breeding blacktype winners. The bumper and hurdle-placed La Bella Sauvage (Old Vic) got Thunder Rock (Shirocco), a Grade 1-placed chaser who won a couple of listed chases in the north of England. The unraced Leading Lady (Fraam) had a couple of blacktype runners, the best being Royal Kahala (Flemensfirth), winner of the Grade 2 Galmoy Hurdle at Gowran Park.

Lady Rebecca was the best of her dam’s four winners, and that mare Needwood Fortune (Tycoon) was a full-sister to the Listed Timeform Chase winner and Grade 3 Scottish Grand National second Takeover Target (Tycoon). He won eight races, one more than another full-brother, Tartan Tyrant (Tycoon), who placed in a Grade 3 Grand National Trial at Haydock, and won six point-to-points.

Nathaniel

Lady Hope’s win came just after another daughter of Nathaniel (Galileo), Charisma Cat, won a Grade 2 mares’ novices’ hurdle, her fifth victory in 10 starts. The Alan King-trained six-year-old has been second four times.

Charisma Cat was bred by Robert Waley-Cohen at his Upton Viva Stud, and races for Annabel Waley-Cohen, family and friends. While two of Charisma Cat’s siblings are point-to-point winners, she is the first racecourse winner for her dam Tidara Angel (Oratorio). Charisma Cat’s previous wins included a listed Sandown bumper.

Tidara Angel was a talented racemare and won the Grade 1 Prix Alain du Breil d’Ete Hurdle for four-year-olds in France. She cost Waley-Cohen €160,000 as a seven-year-old. Her half-brother Tidal Fury (Night Shift) won a Grade 1 hurdle at three in France, while two half-sisters were talented runners in the flat. Fiesolana (Aussie Rules) won the Group 1 Matron Stakes for Willie McCreery, while Innit (Distinctly North) was a Grade 2 winner in the USA.

Standing this year at Newsells Park Stud, his home since 2013, Nathaniel’s fee is £17,500. It started at £20,000, and has never dropped below £15,000, and yet he attracts lots of National Hunt mares in addition to flat mares. On the level, he is responsible for 38 stakes winners, nine Group 1 winners, and they include the 11-time Group/Grade 1 winner Enable, and the Derby winner Desert Crown. The Grade 1 Triumph Hurdle winner Burning Victory is his best National Hunt winner, and he has nine other sons and daughters who won blacktype races.