Peter Stanley: Let's Make It Pay to Stay

Ouija Board & Peter Stanley | Emma Berry

By

It is not just genetics. There is a cultural legacy that abides, as well–whether in the aristocrat sitting here in his Newmarket drawing room, or in the other type of Thoroughbred stabled in the adjacent yard.

In Peter Stanley himself, that means strong opinions about the direction of the breed are just as soundly rooted as you would expect, in a great-grandson of the man who founded arguably its single most important stud, the 17th Earl of Derby. Or, come to that, in anyone who cherishes the heritage of the Turf sufficiently to have John Wootton's glorious panorama of the Heath hanging just behind his chair. Tregonwell Frampton, and all the other marvellous 18th Century characters clustered in the foreground of the canvas, appear to be craning forward and nodding as Stanley berates the reckless agenda of their modern successors.

For in Stanley's view, the commercial breeder of the 21st Century is unpicking some of the Thoroughbred's definitive wiring: all those Classic hallmarks that generations past strove to select, to replicate, to preserve.

“There is no doubt if you breed the stamina out of your mares, that's it, you can't get it back,” he says animatedly. “If it's gone, it's gone. End of. And you'll end up like they are in Australia, where there's barely an Australian-bred winner in any of their staying races. Royal Ascot works for five days only because there are so many different types of race we look forward to and love. There are genuine sprinters, genuine stayers, genuine middle-distance horses. The day it's just an amalgam in the middle, you'll have sprinters running a mile and a half.”

“In Australia, they have their Derbys and Oaks, and they're won by what they consider to be good horses,” he says. “But I wonder how well these horses stay. With the importance of the Golden Slipper, the accent has been on sprint races, and in my opinions they breed the best sprinters in the world. But I would love Winx (Aus) (Street Cry {Ire}) to come over here. Firstly because it would be fascinating to see this remarkable mare; but also to see exactly how she measures up against international opposition. I fully expect Australian horses to win many of our top sprints–but I'd be genuinely surprised to see them win any of our best races at 10 furlongs or farther.”

If doubts about Winx's invincibility are received as sacrilege Down Under, then the obvious recourse would be to take up the gauntlet in the G1 Prince of Wales's S. over 10f. But Australians should resist discovering additional provocation in their patrician source. Yes, Stanley also supervises the stud of his brother, the 19th Earl of Derby; and duly takes credit for Ouija Board (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}), the Oaks and Breeders' Cup winner who has since become dam of a Derby winner in Australia (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). But Stanley is no dilettante; quite the reverse, in fact. To make his New England Stud viable, he has to come to hard-headed terms with precisely those fashions he most deplores.

As such, he resembles a man adamant that the lifeboat is being pointed away from land, but with no choice but to wield his oar in unison with everyone else. The alternative, after all, is to throw yourself into the boat's icy wake, and hope against hope that you get picked up by one of the few seaworthy vessels travelling the right way.

Almost invariably, then, the 20-odd mares in which he has a stake are sent to sires chosen not so much on account of their eligibility to sire a Classic racehorse, as according to the anticipated whims of the sales ring.

One of those mares was supposed to go to Coolmore to be covered by Australia (GB), only to be grounded by a touch of laminitis. An alternative from the same sire-line had to be found closer to home, and Stanley admits that strong consideration was given to a first-season sire before accepting the claims of Nathaniel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}).

“There has to be something wrong in the mindset of breeders, if we think for a moment that an unproven stallion is somehow 'sexier' than the sire of the Arc winner and an out-and-out champion in his first crop,” he says. “I mean, what more can you do than that? And it wasn't as though Enable (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) was his only good horse, there were several other stakes winners. But that is the mindset breeders have. And we've got to change it, we really do.”

Stanley admits a candid distaste for his own pragmatism. “As a commercial breeder, it doesn't matter what I like,” he says. “I always had to ask myself what will the market like, two or three years hence; and what will it hate? So, no, I don't like some of my mating plans. There's far too much of an influence of speed and precocity.”

“Why aren't I rushing to use Nathaniel more? Because, rather remarkably, even after Enable, in commercial terms, he had a median of 37,000gns [2017 yearlings] compared with a nomination fee of £20,000. It's an awful thing to say, because this is a horse we should be rushing to; he should be chock-full. I bought a share in him because I believed in him; and I still believe in him, he looks like becoming a really significant sire. So I'm not demeaning Nathaniel, but the industry.”

As it is, Stanley feels obliged to confine himself to polar opposites: either a proven sire or a complete rookie. But since “proven” means in the ring, too, that excludes the sires he considers best value of all: the likes of Champs Elysees (GB) (Danehill) or Mount Nelson (GB) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}).

Both moved on to National Hunt farms in Ireland last year after falling out of commercial favour. The staggering dividends of this switch–expanding their final books in Britain from 54 and 22 respectively to 241 and 210–causes Stanley to exclaim in bewilderment.

“How scary is that?” he says. “Of course, they'd still have every right to produce a good Flat horse, if sent the right mares. And if you were an owner-breeder, why wouldn't you? I think over time you could breed an Oaks winner, or something like that, from Champs Elysees. You're not going to get a sharp, whizzy 2-year-old. But you are going to get something with a chance.”

“And these horses have a residual value,” he says. “What do you with that little buzzy 2-year-old, sprint-bred and rated 78? Can't go jumping, can't go abroad. Whereas with a later-maturing horse, that keeps on improving, you've somewhere to go.”

The obvious issue, as he acknowledges, is that you would often have to factor another year's training fees into that equation. Which is why, on the same pragmatic principle that governs his dealings with the market as it stands, Stanley believes that its prejudices can only be corrected by appealing to the bottom line.

“The only way to get breeders to do the right thing is to make owners go to the marketplace wanting to buy the right kind of horse,” he says. “And, for the first time ever, I do feel the industry is on side. All of us are alarmed and there's now a genuine will to do something. The question is what? I'm pushing for something, and I feel I'm a lot closer than a year ago–and that is a Plus 10 for older horses.”

“Why are we running a Plus 10 which is ultimately designed to encourage whizzy 2-year-olds? That seems exactly the area of the market that needs no assistance. So perhaps we could agree not to have Plus 10 races before Royal Ascot, say, and instead fund maiden and conditions races for 3-year-olds at a mile and above–and to make some of these races Plus 20, rather than Plus 10. I think that could dramatically increase the profile of those races.”

“Yes, the BHA understand the problem and are putting on various extra [staying] races, with good prizemoney, and they're topping up races like the Jockey Club Cup. And that's helpful–but only in a tiny way, because it's a dozen or 20 races. We need to hit the mainstream. We want people saying: 'I don't want something that can run in May [at two] but a nice stayer. Because my friend had one last year, and he won a Plus 10 and a Plus 20, and then sold it to Australia for 80 grand; or even 800 grand.'”

The breeder's element of a Plus 20 prize, moreover, might well double the original covering fee: a tonic to morale, at the very least. After all, it is not as though the current dysfunctions of the market are helping many breeders to prosper.

“Especially here,” Stanley noted. “The English breeder is disappearing. One of the problems we have is that we no longer have an agrarian economy. If people don't do it themselves, they have to pay keep fees to the likes of me. And the awful thing is that it prices the smaller breeders out of the market, because the cost of keep is really too big for a potential return unless it's a frightfully smart mare–which, of course, most people can't afford. I think that's why we've so few smaller breeders in this country: at the bottom of the pile, it just doesn't add up.”

“Whereas in Ireland, with so many horsemen, there's this huge enthusiasm to breed,” says Stanley. “The small breeder has a friend with 10 acres and says can I keep a couple of horses with you, or shall we go into partnership on a mare, and they've a friend who'll prep it as a yearling or breeze it and take 10%. And that works. They're all helping each other, which is marvellous.”

“Unfortunately, that then leads to overproduction, which costs all of us because it devalues the product. Some of the sires that fill are horses of no relevance. But they've stud masters behind them who are great salesmen, and market their stallions so well.”

But if everyone recognises overproduction as a problem, might that at least mean Stanley can benefit from a buyer's market in mating his mares? After all, anecdotal evidence suggests many advertised fees are merely an opening gambit for negotiation.

“But that's only if you're happy not to go to the crème de la crème of the commercial market,” Stanley says. “Because in reality there's a price to be paid, in three years' time, when you take your yearling to market. Then you'll discover why they were discounting the nomination 40%, or even giving it away. It's a buyers' market unless you want the premium product. And if you want that, you've got to pay through the nose.”

“It's unusual to have a marketplace in which you have something for sale that doesn't cost anything to produce. Literally: a bit of semen. So actually to cover an extra mare is zilch, it'll cost you fifty quid in labour or whatever. So if you're not full and give away a nomination, or discount it down, it's meaningless. By the beginning of May a nomination is only worth what you want to pay for it, because nobody else will be using it.”

However stale he considers the forces driving the market, every year still represents a fresh challenge. Stanley plainly finds stimulation in having to box clever: to decide which among countless new sires will strike a lasting chord; or which of the proven sires will prove equal to the extra investment.

“I love to use a proven horse if I can, but they relatively quickly become unaffordable,” he shrugs. “At what stage do you stop using Dark Angel (Ire) (Acclamation {GB})? He has been an amazing success, and I am sending him a couple of mares, but at some stage it will be impossible to make money. He's now up to a significant fee, at €85,000. So it's going to be fascinating to see whether he can make that quantum leap, can get a Guineas winner maybe.”

“What's terrifying is that when I discuss matings with other professionals, we all home in on the same tiny group of stallions. And it's pathetic how small it is. Siyouni (Fr) (Pivotal {GB}), Dark Angel, Kodiac (GB) (Danehill). Okay, Australia. And Nathaniel maybe. Muhaarar (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}). Maybe some foal shares. New Approach (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) I love, I think he's very under-rated. His fee went way up quickly and has gone down just as quickly, it's all been a bit of a mess but any horse that can get three Royal Ascot winners in his first year, and then go on and have Classic winners, is a serious stallion. I think I'm sending three mares to him. So occasionally you do take a punt: Cape Cross (Ire) (Green Desert) I obviously had a lot of luck with, for instance, and I started using Pivotal (GB) (Polar Falcon {GB}) early.”

By helping Evelyn de Rothschild with his broodmare band, Stanley can at least partly satisfy his yearning to plan matings on the outlandish premise that he might end up with a horse that can gallop, rather than one that can merely walk round a sales ring. And he does also accept that things could be so much worse. Everyone has by now heard that Galileo himself was designated T:T (i.e. an outright stamina profile) by the Equinome genetic testing–but that never stopped him producing Frankel (GB), and countless top-class juveniles.

And the farm that stands the most potent sire of his era, for all its commercial imperatives, has made a mighty stand for the values Stanley fears to be under threat–to the extent that Camelot (GB) (Montjeu {Ire}), himself making a fine start at stud, was given a crack at a Triple Crown.

“Which is surely telling you more about the horse, as a stallion prospect, than any amount of anything else,” Stanley enthuses. “We're so lucky that Coolmore recognise that. They've been magnificent for middle-distance racing: Sadler's Wells, Galileo, Montjeu. They've supported the Derby more than any other race. And do you remember how, 15 years ago, the Gold Cup was in danger of being a little bit of a jumping race? By running all these wonderful mile-and-a-half horses, they've brought it back and made it a great spectacle again.”

Coolmore raced Australia, of course, and now stand him too. For obvious reasons, Stanley would love to see Australia help to restore the commercial lustre of Classic assets: a Derby winner by a Derby winner out of an Oaks winner.

“With Galileo and Montjeu, you're talking about beautifully-bred Classic horses who did what it said on the tin,” he remarks. “And I think it's brilliant for the industry that it's now happening with Frankel too. I'd love to see Australia become a champion stallion, of course I would. And he's getting very good-looking stock, the trainers are giving me very good vibes.”

“But yes, we've all seen these horses crash, Dancing Brave, Entrepreneur, any number of them over the years. We're so often wrong. Good stallions can come from surprising places. Look at everything Dark Angel has achieved. And just look at how Sunday Silence, rejected by the American industry, has transformed the Japanese one. In fact, I can see the Japanese breeding the best stayers in the world in years to come–taking over a role traditionally held by British owner-breeders.”

“So while there's always the sale-topper that wins a Classic, there'll also be a cheap one that wins something big as well. And in the end that's what keeps us all going. Because the day the top lot is champion every year is the day there's no point any of us getting out of bed.”

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