1) Horse you are most looking forward to seeing this season?
JD: Can I mention two horses?
White Hot (Ire) (f, 3, Galileo {Ire}–Gwynn {Ire}, by Darshaan {GB}). Bobby Flay sold two yearling fillies in 2014, both the first foals of young mares that raced in his colours. The two yearlings raised $2.1 million, which Bobby boldly reinvested in White Hot, a drop-dead gorgeous filly by a Derby winner out of the dam of a Derby winner. Thus, Flay Bloodstock secured another diamond pedigree–it remains to be seen if he also secured a racehorse. White Hot is with John Gosden in Newmarket and has yet to make her first start. We are still at the wishing 'n' hoping stage.
Empathy N Respect (f, 3, Bernardini–Better Than Honour, by Deputy Minister). I first encountered this family in the early 1980s when I purchased Blush With Pride's stakes-winning daughter Monroe as a 3-year-old filly in training with Vincent O'Brien. She went on to become one of Juddmonte's long-serving foundation mares. Fast forward to 2005 when I purchased a Fasliyev filly foal out of Blush With Pride's daughter Butterfly Blue on behalf of Jim Sapara for $290,000. Jim named his filly Lacadena, raced her with Josie Carroll and sold her privately to Bobby Flay at the end of her stakes-placed 2-year-old career. Fortuitously, at about that time Peeping Fawn and Rags To Riches became champions of their respective jurisdictions just to remind everyone of the strength in depth of this family. Having bred Grade III winner and Grade I-placed America out of Lacadena, Bobby Flay sold Lacadena for $1.3 million at Keeneland November in 2015, retaining America and two other younger fillies. This family seems to be all wax and no wane, so when a beautiful 2-year-old daughter of Bernardini and Better Than Honour appeared at Fasig-Tipton's November 2015 jamboree, she was not going to escape me without a fight. A nice American couple who had come to Newtown Paddocks to purchase a broodmare found themselves proud owners of a $1.3 million racehorse. She is currently in pre-training in Ocala, whence she will head to the barn of Todd Beattie.
Whatever happens to these two lovely fillies, their residual value is assured, a thought which (I hope) is helping their brave owners to sleep at night!
2) A stallion who could feature prominently (doesn't have to be first season)?
JD: Rewind to the early 80's again when the death of Jock Whitney, former U.S. Ambassador to Great Britain and a confirmed anglophile, brought an opportunity to purchase a group of his mares and fillies. Much encouraged by Jeremy Tree, Prince Khalid asked me to assess the mares, and a package duly joined his Juddmonte Farms broodmare band. Among them was a 1979 Stage Door Johnny filly named Rockfest who had managed two minor victories as a 2-year-old but had not trained on. To be truthful, she was not particularly prepossessing and only made the cut as part of the package. Mated to my yearling purchase Rainbow Quest, she produced Rainbow Lake. Another of my yearling purchases, Razyana, had foaled Danehill. When Danehill met Rainbow Lake their daughter Kind went on to prove how right Mr. Jeremy Tree's insistence had been. Kind's son Frankel has his first runners this year, and I have seen enough of them to be confident his story is only half-written. The chattering classes have as usual had their little go at denigrating someone else's commercial property–he doesn't stamp his stock, they say. To which my reply is neither did Northern Dancer or Habitat, the two most influential stallions of my apprenticeship years.
Go Frankel, show them what you have got.
A happy footnote is that my recent purchase Ribbons was covered by Frankel on St. Valentine's Day, his first cover of 2016. Thus proving that I am putting my (client's) money where my mouth is!
3) Positive change you would like to see for the industry in 2016?
JD: I hope to live long enough to see drug-free racing worldwide. It will not happen in 2016 but it can and must happen very soon.
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