NIGEL King is missing his racing more than most. The owner-breeder is based in Nottingham but all his stock are in Ireland, so he can’t even see his mares and foals, let along his winners on the track.

For 20 years, Nigel has had horses in training with Willie Mullins, almost all mares, and his sky blue silks with a claret chevron have been in the winner’s enclosure plenty of times. Daisy’s Gift, Screaming Rose and the prolific Good Thyne Tara have been Nigel’s flagbearers and his latest winner was Bohemian Birch at Tramore in December.

A daughter of Mahler, Bohemian Birch had previously won a Sligo bumper but the Tramore maiden hurdle was especially rewarding as, confined to mares, it generated a €5,000 bonus for Nigel as he had nominated the mare to the Weatherbys ITBA National Hunt Fillies Scheme.

Silver Birch family

“She’s the first winner I have bred out of the mare,” Nigel told us this week. “She’s from the family of Silver Birch. When Silver Birch was in training but before he won the Grand National, I owned his dam All Gone, in partnership with my neighbour Chris Treitline. We bred Over It from the mare and she is the dam of Bohemian Birch.”

Nigel keeps his mares with Ted and Margaret Power in The Hook, Wexford. The Powers, including son Pierce, have been keeping Nigel in the loop with photographs, videos and phone calls. Daisy’s Gift and Screaming Rose are with the Powers, and they are in-foal to Jet Away and Getaway respectively.

“I also have a full-sister to Good Thyne Tara named Tara Rocks. She is in foal to Poet’s Word and is with Tracy Gilmour. Good Thyne Tara picked up an injury and has been retired. We will get her covered as early as we can.”

Business model

Nigel sells his colt foals to keep the show on the road. “I am not affluent as some of Willie’s owners, so my business model is to try and improve the quality of my broodmares through racing and breeding. I can only afford to do that by selling the colts as foals.”

He had hoped to sell a Mount Nelson colt foal out of Tara Rocks at the recent Goffs December National Hunt Sale but the foal wasn’t well at the time of the sale and has since been sold privately.

He says Willie and Patrick Mullins are great to send on videos of his horses in training when they are working, schooling, at the races and recovering afterwards. He recently sent a Shirocco filly out of Tara Rocks to Closutton for pre-training. Hopefully she will also win a €5,000 Weatherbys ITBA NH Fillies Bonus one day.