MAURICE Regan’s Newtown Anner Stud near Clonmel is well-known as both a racing name and as a stud farm. Standing stallions would not be something that it is recognised for doing, but it was home for three seasons to Beckford (Bated Breath).

Gordon Elliott trained Beckford and turned him into a pretty smart juvenile, winning the Group 2 Railway Stakes from Verbal Dexterity, but those places were reversed in the Group 1 National Stakes. In between those races Beckford was third to Sioux Nation in the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes. Perhaps sensing that he may prove to be better suited to racing in America, Beckford joined Brendan Walsh who saddled him for one run and win in the five-furlong William Walker Stakes at Churchill Downs.