By Daithi Harvey
In just over a decade involved in bloodstock, Mark Gittins and his family have unearthed two stallions in Lord Shanakill (Speightstown) and Shalaa (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), and the owner of Castlefarm Stud brings three foals to Goffs this week, with two of them having direct family links to the above- mentioned sires. The pick of the trio, on pedigree anyway, is lot 740. The filly by Invincible Spirit is a full-sister to Shalaa, who was a dual Group 1 winning 2-year-old in 2015 for John Gosden and Al Shaqab Racing. The fact the filly is being offered at Goffs is a policy shift for the husband and wife team of Mark and Aisling Gittins. Mark said, “Usually we'd send the majority of our foals to Newmarket but we have a smaller crop to sell this year so we decided to change tack and test the water in Goffs with a view to next year, when we will hopefully have up to three times the number of foals to sell. Goffs have proved that if you bring a nice a horse there you will get paid for it just the same as bringing it across the water. Also it's only half an hour down the road so it's a lot less stressful on the foals than sending them on a long ferry journey.”
Shalaa has his first crop of mares in foal off a €27,500 fee at Al Shaqab's Haras de Bouquetot in France, and Gittins is looking forward to offering the seventh foal of his dam Ghurra (War Chant), who is due to come under the hammer late on Wednesday evening. “She is developing into a really nice filly and has thrived throughout her prep, which in my opinion is a great sign. The majority that we have sold well over the years who thrived in their prep all went on to be successful racehorses. She hasn't put a foot wrong and I'm excited about her prospects in the ring. I'm sure Goffs will have assembled a strong collection of international buyers and although she is probably more of a foal for an end user, a lot of traders have been very successful this year and I'm equally happy to sell to a pinhooker as much as an owner. Her full-brother was a successful pinhook and there is no reason this filly couldn't do the same.”
Gittins reports the 15-year-old Ghurra to be in fine fettle and is looking forward to welcoming a son or daughter of Dubawi (Ire) next spring before she pays a visit to Galileo (Ire). They retained a filly out of the mare by High Chaparral (Ire) and the now 2-year-old has recently returned from a stint in training with Karl Burke where, although she didn't run, she showed enough promise to go back into training as a 3-year-old.
“She only went over to Karl's in August and she showed a good attitude. She's probably typical of her sire in that she needs a little time and Karl thinks she'll win, but how good she can become we don't know. It would be nice to get a win into her before she comes back here to start breeding.”
Lord Shanakill, unlike Shalaa, actually raced for Gittins and provided the young owner with a memorable day when winning the G1 Prix Jean Prat in 2009. The stallion, who has sired a Group 1 winner in My Dream Boat (Ire) and is still owned by Gittins, these days plies his trade at Pin Oak Lane Farm in Pennsylvania and Castlefarm offer a daughter of Starspangledbanner (Aus) out of the Lord Shanakill mare The Last Sister (Ire) as lot 431 on Tuesday. The February born filly has further ties to the Gittins family as the dam is a half-sister to Lady Springbank (Ire) (Choisir {Aus}), a homebred mare who won a pair of Group 3s for Gittins in 2010. “She is from a family we know well and she is a lovely, scopey filly. We went to Starspangledbanner as the Choisir cross has worked well already with the family and she has a fantastic temperament and hopefully she will be popular.”
The third foal Castlefarm will offer is lot 739 and this son of Sea The Stars (Ire) has an attractive profile being out of the young winning mare Ghostflower (Ire) (Dansili {GB}), whose first foal by Pivotal (GB) was bought by Shadwell for 170,000gns as a yearling in Newmarket last month. However, that did not represent a sales ring bonanza for Castlefarm, as they had sold the youngster last year as a foal for 20,000gns. Gittins is philosophical about results such as this and knows enough about the game to accept the rough with the smooth. “He's a lovely individual and he will make up into a cracking yearling,” he said about the March-born son of Sea The Stars. “He has plenty of size and substance but he is a horse who will improve an awful lot between now and next October.” While Gittins and his wife, who is a daughter of the legendary Mick Kinane, have retained a few over the years to offer as yearlings, their policy in general is to sell their stock as foals.
“I think there are more end users buying foals at the moment than was the case a few years ago and while there will always be plenty of foals whose sale price increases significantly from foal to yearling, from a vendor's point of view you are cutting out another 12 months of risk by going down the foal route. Also yearling prep is something you have to be geared up for as it requires a lot more time, staff and resources and we've just made the decision that we are better equipped to sell them as foals and if pinhookers make money out of buying from us that's fine, as it means the next year they will be back to have a good look at our draft.”
While taking the rough with the smooth is a fact of life in the sales ring, it also applies to results on the racetrack and the extended Gittins family has certainly experienced joy and heartache in equal measure through the exploits of the dual Grade 1-winning National Hunt mare Fayonagh (Ire) (Kalanisi {Ire}), who ran in the colours of Maura Gittins, Mark's mother. Having displayed brilliance to win Grade 1 bumpers at Cheltenham and Punchestown last season, the Gordon Elliott-trained 6-year-old had made a winning start to her hurdling career at Fairyhouse in October and looked to have a glorious season ahead of her only to fatally break a hind leg in a piece of work late last month. “That was hard to take. If it had been a career-ending injury it wouldn't have been so bad as she would have made a fantastic broodmare, but to lose her completely was heartbreaking,” Gittins said.
Gittins is keen to move forward and a more positive example of some significant recent investment in fillies to race and ultimately breed from is Ellthea (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}). Gittins paid €88,000 for the daughter of MGSW Tropical Lady (Ire) (Sri Pekan) as a yearling and the Karl Burke-trained 2-year-old repaid that investment in spades when winning the G3 C.L. & M.F. Weld Park S. at Naas in September, one of three juvenile wins for the filly. “We have about eight fillies to go back to Karl [Burke] for next year, obviously Ellthea is probably the highest profile one at the moment so hopefully she can have a good year next year and more importantly retire back here in one piece. We also have a nice Oasis Dream filly and a Dark Angel that Karl thinks a lot of too. Ellthea has been a star for us this year, though and we think she has more to offer and we're dreaming of a Guineas somewhere with her next year.”
While the Gittins family have had horses with a number of trainers over the years they have enjoyed a long association with, Burke who trained Lord Shanakill, and Gittins is a fully subscribed member of the trainer's growing fan base. “He's a fantastic communicator and he knows what we are trying to achieve in the long run, which is to make potential broodmares. So winning, attaining black-type if possible and also protecting the ratings of these fillies are all priorities and Karl's results speak for themselves. It's great to have a trainer who understands our priorities and long may it continue.”
While Gittins has plenty of young stock of his own to be excited about, he is particularly looking forward to seeing the first foals of his former protege Shalaa enter the world in the spring. There are two mares at Castlefarm carrying to the rookie stallion including Rakiza (Ire) (Elnadim), who has already bred a smart type in the 108-rated Godolphin runner Parfait (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}).
“Even looking objectively at Shalaa, he has all the qualities of an exciting stallion, with his own sire line, his race record and his looks and we are obviously keen to do our bit to try and support him.”
Within eight years of acquiring Castlefarm, Mark Gittins has developed a growing, 20-strong band of mares, matching them with strong sire power. Such a strategy should bear significant fruit in the coming years both in the sales ring and on the racecourse.
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