A new blog and a new arrival
Welcome to the first posting on what I hope will become an occasional rather than regular blog.
We’ve just returned from a busy week in Newmarket, much of which was spent at the Tattersalls July Sale looking for a broodmare prospect for myself and a racing prospect for John and Emma Berry. I was really pleased to be able to buy Clutter (pictured above), an unraced three-year-old from the Juddmonte draft to join my mares Nut and Villabella here at Clairemont Stud.
I'm very much a buyer of a type and having seen Clutter, I was really keen to take her home. Her dam has been rather disappointing but being a full-sister to the stallions Zamindar and Zafonic, I saw little risk in investing in such a good-looking filly. These top-class pedigrees are well known for missing a generation so I will take my chance and mate her wisely next year.
In addition to Nut, Villabella and Clutter, I also have a nice Dubawi mare named Plebeya in partnership with William Huntingdon and she boards at Haras de Maulepaire in France. After she spent several months in Germany, I’m pleased to report that, like Villabella, she is now in foal to the very good-looking first-crop sire Dabirsim. In the spring, William, Emma and I visited Dabirsim at Gestüt Karlshof and also saw Plebeya with her first foal, a colt by Tin Horse, while they were boarding temporarily at Gestüt Westerberg. You can read about our eventful trip on Emma’s blog via this link.
Along with the serious business of the sales last week, Jenny and I were lucky to be invited to the TBA Awards, the Darley stallion parade, to Juddmonte to see a number of the first Frankel foals plus Frankel’s dam Kind, and we also spent an afternoon at the July Course as guests of Keeneland. As always in racing, the social activities mingled well with the business and it was great to have a few days away before the yearling prep gets seriously underway.
First to come under the hammer for us will be a gorgeous Zamindar colt out of Tender Morn, who is Lot 27 at Arqana’s August Sale, where we will be consigning under the name Clairemont Stud for the first time. We will then have a bigger batch of yearlings heading to Tattersalls for the October Sale. We were extremely pleased with the results of the yearlings we sold last year. All bar one homebred, the members of last year's draft were pinhooked as foals by Norris/Huntingdon, and we’re very much hoping we can repeat that success this time around. Jenny and Rachael do an excellent job in preparing our horses for the sales and we’re really looking forward to showing them off later this year.
William and I will also be at the Arqana August Sale, and all the major yearling sales, with our buying boots on. As ever, we’ll be happy to help with purchases for any interested parties so please do get in touch if we can be of assistance.
Liam
