I WAS delighted to read a piece by Martin Stevens recently when he wrote about the 27-year-old Well Chosen (Sadler’s Wells) who stands at Tom Meagher’s Kedrah House Stud in Tipperary. The piece, in Good Morning Bloodstock, was written following a call to readers to help identify the oldest active stallion at stud.
It turns out that 1999 was a good year to be born, as it was also when Great Pretender and Passing Glance were born, and all three were foaled within a month. Well Chosen, by a matter of 13 days, earns the title of the oldest of that trio, and Meagher hopes that he will cover a small number of mares this year. I am not sure what the plans are for the unraced Norwich Star (Norwich), no spring chicken herself at the age of 20, but her strike rate with Well Chosen is three foals, two Grade 2 winners. Maybe she is worth one more try.
That said, the Matthew Fogarty-owned mare, who went to stud at the age of six in 2012, has only had four offspring in 13 years, the most recent being a now three-year-old son of another Kedrah Stud sire in Rich History (Dubawi). Donal Kenneally gave €10,000 for him as a newly-turned yearling in 2024, and it would be no surprise should he reappear at a store sale this year. His pedigree would certainly make for interesting reading, and attract plenty of lookers. There might be even more of the latter after Cheltenham.
Blacktype winner
Well Chosen’s latest blacktype winner is the Nicky Henderson-trained Old Park Star, and he is being backed on a daily basis for the Grade 1 Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. This comes after he took his unbeaten run over hurdles to three with an impressive success in the Grade 2 Rossington Main Novices’ Hurdle. Old Park Star was also something of a sale winner too, selling for €50,000 as a foal at Tattersalls Ireland to Norman Williamson, and for €120,000 at the Goffs Arkle Sale to Tom Malone and Paul Nicholls.
In case you think that there must be a mistake in my text, saying that Old Park Star is trained by Nicky Henderson, there isn’t. He did join Paul Nicholls, was placed on all his three starts in bumpers for Gordon and Su Hall, but last summer they moved their horses from Ditcheat and they are now with Henderson. Old Park Star, for one, has thrived since moving.
Old Park Star is a full-brother to Chosen Mate, and that point-to-point winner went on to do well for Gordon Elliott, winning a Grade 2 novice hurdle at Naas, and the Grade 3 Johnny Henderson Grand Annual Chase at Cheltenham six years ago. After he raced from Cullentra in the USA, Chosen Mate stayed there and won three more races over jumps at the age of 10.
Impeccably bred
Well Chosen is impeccably bred, raced for Maktoum Al Maktoum, and won once over 13 furlongs.
His second crop included his first blacktype winner, Grade 3 chaser Mallards In Flight, and while he was never to cover books like many of his peers, he more than held his own, and has shown time and again that he can get a good horse. His best runners include the Thyestes Chase winner Carefully Selected, Jury Duty, Adamantly Chosen, and Midnight Run.
Back to Old Park Star. What an achievement it would be for him, his connections, Well Chosen and his breeder were he to power to victory at Cheltenham. What an achievement it would also be for Norwich Star to breed a pair of Cheltenham Festival winners. If you go far enough back in the family, there is another winner at National Hunt racing’s greatest meeting.
Old Park Star’s fifth dam was born in 1962. She was Darken (Black Tarquin), a point-to-point winner whose best runner was Bannow Rambler (Wrekin Rambler). Trained by Padge Berry, Bannow Rambler won the 1977 Harold Clarke Leopardstown Chase, the third most valuable National Hunt race in Ireland at the time, two years after he travelled to Cheltenham and won the now Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. Frank Berry was in the saddle when Bannow Rambler won the Champion Novice Hurdle at Punchestown, while Michael Furlong partnered the gelding to a Thyestes Chase win.
IMAGINE starting a race meeting in Ireland with a bumper? Well, it happened on Monday this week at Lingfield, and resulted in a tight finish, with debutante Broken Vow (Decorated Knight), a four-year-old filly, getting the win by a head from the year older gelding Itsinthename (Order Of St George) who had placed on his only start in a point-to-point.
Itsinthename cost owner David Proos £70,000 at the Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale in November and is with Nigel and Willy Twiston-Davies. The winner, Broken Vow, was sold at the Tattersalls Online Sale in July last year as part of the dispersal of the stock owned by the then recently deceased Kevin Prendergast, and she cost Offerton Farm Racing 7,000gns. Bred by Kevin, Broken Vow is now trained by Olly Murphy, and is the fifth winner for her dam Brown Butterfly (Medicean).
Decorated Knight (Galileo) was a top-class runner, from an exceptional female line, but he has been disappointing at stud. He has sired two blacktype winners, one each on the flat and over jumps, but this has been scant reward for a sire who went to stud at a fee of €15,000 and high hopes. However, Broken Vow has a decent pedigree on her female side, and it is a family that has thrown up an occasional smart performer over jumps.
Winning-most
Three of the four winning siblings to Broken Vow have each won three times, but the honour of being her winning-most half-brother goes to Tribunal (Bushranger), and all of his 11 wins were gained in Poland. Their dam Brown Butterfly was bred by Cheveley Park Stud, sold for 2,000gns as a foal, and then resold from Lodge Park Stud to Frank Barry at the Goffs Orby Sale for €65,000. She won three races and was one of nine winners from Auspicious (Shirley Heights).
Auspicious was a full-sister to the Group 2 Great Voltigeur Stakes winner Sacrament (Shirley Heights), and their dam was Blessed Event (Kings Lake). That mare ran nine times, her only win coming in the Listed Ballymacoll Stud Stakes at Newbury. She was placed seven times, among them being runner-up in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks. Blessed Event was also second in the Pretty Polly Stakes at the Curragh, then a Group 2 race, but her granddaughter Chorist (Pivotal) won it when it was upgraded to Group 1 status.
Blessed Event was the only blacktype runner out of Friedrichsruh (Dschingis Khan), In 1977 she was one of the best fillies in Germany, winning the Group 2 Preis der Diana (Oaks) and running second in their 1000 Guineas. Among her descendants is Foreman (Monsun), and Irish racegoers will remember him for his victory in the Grade 1 AIG Europe Champion Hurdle at Leopardstown. He was later a Grade 1 novice chase winner at Aintree.