WHILE everyone else has been enjoying the Indian summer we have been experiencing this past week, Fascinating Rock’s trainer Dermot Weld and his owners, the Regan family from Listowel have been praying for rain for their homebred colt who was in readiness for a defence of his Quipco British Champion Stakes crown at Ascot today before retiring to stud.

Weld was due to go over and walk the track yesterday to see whether the forecast showers had any impact on the ground but both parties are resigned to the fact that he will be an unlikely runner. In contrast to last year, when it rained for a week in the run-up to the race, the weather has been very much against Fascinating Rock this season.

American-based Maurice Regan, jnr said: “He’s a weather-dependent horse. He’ll run if the ground is a little bit on the soft side of good, but the race is being run on the tighter, drier inner course which is usually used for the jump horses.

“We’ll just have to wait and see, but if he gets to run we’ll all be there, including my sister Rebecca. Last year we weren’t expecting him to win the race and went over for the experience.”

Irrespective of the outcome, this will be Fascinating Rock’s final race and the horse of a lifetime will bow out as the winner of eight of his 14 races including two Group 1s and four Group 3s, having amassed nearly €1.3 million in prize money and being rated one of the leading middle distance turf horse in the world.

Maurice revealed: “We’ve had two early conversations with studs in Ireland and Australia but nothing has been decided as yet. His sire Fastnet Rock is the number one sire in Australia and Fascinating Rock is his top earner at the moment. Laganore (a four-length winner for Tony Martin in a listed event at Newmarket on Friday of last week) was his 100th stakes winner.

“We’ve been very lucky with Fastnet Rock who has given us two blacktype horses. Fascinating Rock won the Tattersalls Gold Cup for us this year, another Group 1, so it was worth keeping him in training.

“He’s a very attractive stallion prospect, having beaten Postponed, the Arc winner Found, and Jack Hobbs on the big stage.”

ROCKY’S FANS

Fascinating Rock is known as Rocky to his fans, possibly the biggest being Stephanie Heeran, who looks after all the horses at the Co Tipperary branch of Newtown Anner Stud Ltd’s global operation, which also extends to a 700-acre farm in upstate New York and a 560-acre farm in Lexington, Kentucky.

She has done everything with him since he was three days old and agrees with Maurice and his father Maurice, snr. that the horse has never been given the credit he deserves. Stephanie remarked. “He always gives 100% and never goes out half-hearted. He’s just the coolest customer with a fabulous temperament and he thinks Newtown Anner is the best place in the world – he just stays eating all the time.”

Rocky is a good judge because the 681-acre farm, situated two miles outside Clonmel, is a tranquil haven in which horses can enjoy some quality downtime and forget about the stresses of being a racehorse or recovering from injury.

OSBORNE FAMILY

Newtown Anner, the former seat of the Osborne family, has a wealth of history behind it and is now divided into two parts; first the stud farm and then there’s the four-storey Georgian house together with its famed gardens, purchased in the late 1980s by Nigel Cathcart, who is 10 years into the mammoth task of restoring them to their former grandeur.

The original glass house is nearing completion and Nigel has also maintained the canals and artificial slopes, built in the style of Italian landscaped gardens which were popular in the 18th and 19th centuries, plus the dovecote, which is still standing. He modestly stated: “They’re as close as I can get them to when Lady Osborne was here and I’ve done quite a bit to the house, as well.”

Both projects can accurately be described as labours of love and Maurice, snr, known as Monty to his friends, and his wife Patricia have built a new house for themselves on their land, a structure that blends in beautifully with its scenic surroundings.

Everywhere you look there are hundreds of mature trees, including a majestic Norwegian maple, the largest of its kind in Ireland and Britain, plus many specimen trees. The Regans pride themselves on replacing any tree that is lost and new trees are planted every year.

The avenue that leads up from the electric entrance gates is lined with lime trees. That entrance was built for the proposed visit of Queen Victoria at the start of the last century but, as Monty quipped: “She was supposed to visit here but only came as far as Killarney!”

FRED ASTAIRE

One very important visitor who did make it to Newtown Anner, however, was Fred Astaire whose sister Adele was married to the Duke of Devonshire. He danced in the original house, which record books state had a drawing room that could accommodate 30 dancing couples.

It is a truly fascinating place and the Regans have employed as many local craftspeople as possible in the restoration. Nevertheless, it is not just a place of beauty where the staff work in harmony with their environment; it is also a working farm, accommodating both cattle and around 60 horses, divided between mares, foals, yearlings and horses out of training, including Rocky’s three-year-old half-brother Newcross.

The estate was very run down when the Regans bought it in 2000 and there was no fencing or gates on the property, but they were quick to recognise its potential as a stud farm. The Regans have also purchased Anner Castle, which was burnt down in 1926, and the 120 acres it stands on at the back of their property.

They are currently renovating that, too, and also have a tillage farm at nearby Kilsheelan, growing everything for the cattle and horses. Add in fruit orchards in the restored walled garden and they are almost self-sufficient.

Newtown Anner was previously owned and managed by Colonel John Silcock who, by a remarkable coincidence, bred a filly named Willya who won the Oranmore Handicap at Galway in 1966 under Michael Kennedy, 50 years after the Regans’ Golden Spear was successful for Tony Martin in the Guinness Handicap at Ballybrit.

The Regans have more than 200 horses, divided between America and Ireland, including 70 broodmares and up to 50 horses in training each year. They have had 50 winners in America, among them Off The Track, winner of this year’s Grade 1 Mother Goose Stakes at Belmont for Todd Pletcher.

In this country they spread the 20 or 25 horses they have in training between Dermot Weld, John Oxx and Tony Martin and the trio have produced 50 to 60 wins between them.

Maurice stated: “We started off with just a few horses, and kept building them up. We’ve had dual Group 1 winners this year, one in Ireland and the other in the States and it’s very unusual for a young stud like ours to have produced what we have. The fact that Fascinating Rock is homebred is exciting for us.”

DERMOT WELD

The Regans like to match their horses to their trainers and just felt that Fascinating Rock and Weld could turn out to be a match made in heaven. “Dermot has had a lot of success and his record speaks for itself,” was the way Monty put it.

Unusually for a stud, Newtown Anner, which houses 24 mares and 18 foals this year, breeds exclusively to race rather than to sell. Maurice explained: “We come from a good livestock background and it started off as a small thing 10 years ago, but the whole place has evolved and the numbers add up quite quickly.

“My father is a real stockman, with a good eye for a horse and we race everything, if possible. Most of our horses get to the track. We give them plenty of time to mature and try and make sure they reach their true potential. We’re perfectly happy for some of them to have their first run at three, rather than rushing them.”

Rocky’s dam Miss Polaris, better known as Polly, is a very feminine, young-looking mare with a foal at foot by Exceed And Excel.

She is safely back in foal to Fastnet Rock which means she is carrying a full-sister to Fascinating Rock. Last year’s Galway Hurdle winner Quick Jack was her first foal.

Colonel Silcock is believed to have owned an Irish Oaks winner while he was at Newtown Anner, so another classic winner around the place would be nice, according to Monty. He made the quiet observation: “You’re always looking for one and the quality of the foals we’re breeding here is getting better all the time.”