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Although racing purists oftende-cry all weather racing, itcontinues to go fromstrength to strength.The 2017 all-weatherchampionship features a big£1 million finals day on GoodFriday and qualifying racesare to be run in France,Ireland and Dubai - as well asat all the UK’s all-weathertracks. The championship’s

feature six categories - forThree Year Olds, Milers, Filliesand Mares, Sprint, Marathonand Middle Distance.There are additional prizesfor most successful owner,trainer, jockey, horse and sire.This year’s winners wereGodolphin (owner), MichaelAppleby (trainer), Luke Morris(jockey), Grendisar (horse)and Cape Cross (sire).

It’ll be interesting to see howfar challengers will travel -the UK’s courses see regularraiders from Ireland wherethe only all-weather track isat Dundalk, close to Dublin.The French courses involvedare Deauville, ChantillyPornichet, Paris, Lyon,Cagnes-Sur-Mere andMarseille whilst further awayMeydan represents Dubai.

Sylvester Kirk - has trained our mares

We all appreciate the risksjockeys take in pursuit of ourentertainment. The terriblefall at Kempton on October31 left Freddy Tylicki withparalysis of the lower half ofhis body due to a T7 spinalinjury. Within days an onlinefund set up by TV presenterMatt Chapman had raisedover £300,000 for Freddy’srehabilitation.Although Homebred’scontribution was only modest,some individual contributorswere for as much as £20,000and promises of even largersums from Dubai whereFreddy performed so welland gained many admirersduring last winter. Freddynow faces months ofrehabilitation in the care ofthe injured jockey’s fund atOaksey House in Lambourn.Freddy tweeted from hishospital bed. “Struggling andfighting! Thank you everysingle one of you for all thesupport. Here is to a longroad in front of me - muchlove to everyone!”Let’s hope that intensivetherapy can help Freddyregain some movement.

Fundraisingfor Freddyreaches£300,000

The major bloodstock salesreport strong sales whichhave largely been the resultof overseas interest. A newinfluence on sales has beenthe entry of the Chinese whohave made big investments.There are moves afoot to re-introduce racing to China

which have previously beenresisted by the authoritiesconcerned about the impactof gambling. China also hasmany of the super-rich whonow look to horseracing as away to enjoy their wealth -albeit that their horsesnormally race overseas.

There’s much debate aboutthe elimination of horses fromhandicaps where the numberof declarations exceeds thepermitted safety factor for thenumber of runners. This isdetermined by a horse’s ratingand its age - 3-year-olds and 2-year-olds receive a weightallowance from their elderswhich complicates things. A 6-year-old rated the same as a 3-year-old would automaticallybe given preference as thesystem is based upon being a‘meritocracy’ - the older horsehas proven to have abilityworthy of his handicap rank,whereas the 3-year-old’s markhas been distorted throughhaving an allowance made forits relative maturity andinexperience. This inevitablyfrustrates owners of 3-year-olds that are eliminated byolder horses with the samerating - but to change thesystem would potentiallycause chaos. Abandoninghandicapping would be analtogether different approach- but not one that the bookiescould possibly support. It justmight get a whole lot easierto find the winners!

Salute toSylvester...

Is it fair?

Bloodstock remains buoyant

We are extremely grateful forSylvester Kirk’s skills to secureso many wins for our maresCelestial Bay and Delagoa Bay.To perform so well and oversuch extended careers is a realtestament to his care andjudgement to keep themrunning and winning when 7and 8 years old respectively.Thank you so much.

This winter sees the curtaincome down on the stellarcareers of our multiplewinning mares Celestial Bayand Delagoa Bay.They have given us reallyexceptional entertainmentand performed up to theirbest up to the very end.They’ll now be coming hometo raise, what we hope, will

be the next generation ofHomebred winners. Details ofplans for producing these areinside this issue of WinningPost. The snapshot from theRacing Post website showsjust how successful they’vebeen in scooping 12 wins andnumerous places betweenthem. The plan will be forour mares to transfer to

At 780 feet above sealevel, Bath is Britain’shighest flat racecourse.

Did youknow?

Thanks to Sylvester Kirk’sskills Homebred Racing hasemerged as one of the UK’stop owners’ groups with

runners averaging 17% winrate and winnings of up to£32 for a £1 stake on all ourrunners during a year.

All weather championshipsgo international

Kempton Park had morerunners than any otherracecourse last year -

7,151 horses.

Did youknow?

Muddy marvels - Sweep Home,Keep A Welcome and

Homebred Star all rugged upfor winter - they share a barnand ad-lib haylage, two feeds aday and free access to grazing -

not a bad retirement!

Snapshot Homebred is a winner!

Whitsbury Stud early in 2017and be covered to ideallyproduce a March or April foal.We’d rather our youngstersare on the ground when theweather is hopefullyimproving and spring grass isbeginning to show!

It’s another winner!Homebred owners in thewinner’s enclosure at

Kempton Park where we’vebeen regular visitors in the

past few seasons!

Snapshot

Signing off in style!From left to right - Sweep Home, Keep A Welcome and Homebred Star

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When researching stallions forour mares Ed Harper, director ofWhitsbury Manor Stud,immediately asked how onearth we managed to becomethe owners of an Encosta deLago mare! Encosta de Lago wasthe world’s most expensivestallion standing at £180,000when Coolmore’s much vauntedGeorge Washington, whoembarrassingly was proven tobe infertile, was flown in toIreland as a late replacement.

The result was that Encosta deLago had a small crop of foalsconsigned to the NewmarketSales - of which Delagoa Baywas one. Simply becauseEncosta de Lago was anunknown name in thenorthern hemisphere, his fillyfoal out of a winning Germanmare attracted just a single bidof £2,000 - which happily wasours! Whitsbury Stud standsseveral stallions rated a 20/20mating for Delagoa Bay -

Due Diligence, Adaay andSwiss Spirit who all re-inforceelements of Poppy’s pedigree.Ed Harper suggests that, givenPoppy’s quirky nature, thatSwiss Spirit would be the mostappropriate. “He’s bomb proof and so maybe the ideal.”Swiss Spirit’s a group winningsprinter by sire of siresInvincible Spirit. His first cropof foals was well receivedwith several reaching sixfigure bids.

We’ve been pre-occupied forsome while to find the perfectmatch for our multiplewinning mare Celestial Bay -which has involved manyhours reviewing pedigrees.After much thought andresearch we’ve selected DueDiligence who stands at theWhitsbury Manor Stud inHampshire. It’s a proposedmating which holds out everyprospect of a successful

pairing rated 20/20 by theGoldMine stallion match.Due Diligence was a reallyspectacular 8 lengths winnerof his maiden and won 3races for Aiden O’Brien whodescribed him as “a Group 1winner waiting to happenbefore his injury.” His injurywas sustained when a strongfinishing second to SolePower at Royal Ascot. SeattleSlew features prominently in

his pedigree - as he does inCelestial Bay’s - making himan ideal match.Due Diligence is lighter builtthan our own mare which isalso a positive as she’s a reallybig strapping girl!The plan is for Sky to becovered early in 2017 and ifall goes well, for a resultingfoal to arrive 11 monthslater. The next task will be tothink of a suitable name!

Chelmsford City is aiming tostage a full meeting ofharness racing after runningtwo events last month.However, Betfred’s JoeScanlon, chairman ofChelmsford said: “On balanceit was a successful first toe inthe water for us and our aimwould be to stage a fullmeeting, provided thetrotting authorities canprovide the runners at afuture date on a customer-friendly day.”It was the latest of a series offlirtations with trottingwhich began with Ladbrokespromoting Sterrebeek fromBelgium in the late 1980s,and more recently SIS alsoshowing action fromWolverhampton.With two lines of harnesseslining up, starting positionsare determined by previousprize-money won, and theadvantage of being in thefront rank does need to bemade clearer to punters.During the races it was alsoconfusing trying to work outwhich runner was which.SIS head of horseracingcontent Brent Dolan said:“From an operational pointof view there were no issues.The more coverage the morefamiliar the punter willbecome with the runners andSIS is always receptive to suchinitiatives. Like all newcontent unfamiliar withcustomers and punters, ittakes time and it’s a case ofone step at a time.”Chelmsford’s racecoursemanager Fraser Garrityadded: “From an operationalangle, the two events wentreally smoothly.”

WhitsburyManor Stud

Chelmsford tostage moretrotting races

Checkmate for Due Diligence

Established in 1948, WhitsburyManor Stud has a long historyof producing top classracehorses. Famous stallions tohave stood at the stud includeBallymoss, Compton Place,Distant Relative, YoungGeneration and CadeauxGenereux who still feature inworld class pedigrees today.Current star stallion isShowcasing who standsalongside Due Dilligence andSwiss Spirit.Whitsbury Manor’s StudDirector Ed Harpercommented on Homebredmares “To win as many racesas they have is unusual - andmany more than most - and torace over 4 seasons provestheir soundness. Due Diligencelooks an exciting match forCelestial Bay and Swiss Spiritshould counterbalanceDelagoa Bay’s quirks!”

17 year old Eddy, who won sospectacularly for us onDelagoa Bay at Kempton, isapprenticed to the leadingyard of Andrew Balding and isson of Lambourn trainerWarren Greatrex. Eddycurrently claims a 3lballowance (until he’s ridden 75winners) when he’ll be havingto take on senior jockeys atlevel weights - which is likelyto be very soon with 36winners already in the bag thisseason to add to 34 last year.

Eddy Greatrex

A truly international matchDue Diligence - potentially top class Swiss Spirit - has a very speedy pedigree

Ed Harper, director of Whitsbury Manor Harness racing on the all-weather

California Chrome - out on his own

Now that the major flat fixturesare finished, the rankings havebeen finalised for the world'sbest horses in 2016. CaliforniaChrome is way out on his own -and sadly not a single Europeanrunner is represented in thisyear's top 10. California Chromewas never truly challenged inthe Awesome Again, as he ledthe entire way and finished 21⁄4lengths ahead of his nearestcompetition, multiple Grade 1winner DORTMUND (USA) [122].In his previous start, CaliforniaChrome had beaten championBeholder by five lengths in the$1 Million TVG Pacific ClassicStakes (G1). The 5-year-oldchestnut is now a perfect six-from-six in 2016.

It’s official - he’s the best!Rank Horse Rating1 California Chrome (USA) 133 2 A Shin Hikari (JPN) 1292 Arrogate (USA) 129 4 Almanzor (FR) 1274 Winx (AUS) 127 6 Frosted (USA) 1267 Maurice (JPN) 1247 Postponed (IRE) 124

7 Werther (NZ) 124

There are 465 licensedtrainers in the UK.

Did youknow?

SnapshotInjured jockey Freddy Tylikiposted this amazing picture.The horse was extracted

without any injury!

The world’s top 10

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