by Racing Post
28 August 2023
Good Morning Bloodstock is Martin Stevens’ daily morning email and presented here online as a sample.
Here he speaks to Adam Sangster and Patrick Robinson about the legacy of Horsetrader – subscribers can get more great insight from Martin every Monday to Friday.
All you need do is click on the link above, sign up and then read at your leisure each weekday morning from 7am.
There is no book on my shelves that has been as well thumbed, and has acquired so many dog ears and such a cracked spine, as Horsetrader. None I’m owning up to here, anyway.
Written in the early 1990s by renowned author Patrick Robinson with Pacemaker magazine publisher and racing syndicate pioneer Nick Robinson (no relation, just an odd coincidence), it describes how Vernons Pools heir Robert Sangster teamed up with John Magnier and Vincent O’Brien to buy the best stallion prospects at the Kentucky yearling sales in the seventies and eighties, driving prices to unheard of, and ultimately unsustainable, levels.
Horsetrader is, without a doubt, the seminal text on the modern breeding industry; the landmark study into how we got to where we are. It also happens to be a rollicking good read, full of gripping sales-ring battles, amusing anecdotes and poignant reflections.
The index alone is a godsend. Many’s the time I’ve made myself sound more knowledgeable than I actually am by scouring those back pages when writing historical articles, finding the references and shamelessly cribbing the information I need.
The only problem with Horsetrader is that it’s so hard to find. I bought my copy on Ebay when I got my first job in bloodstock journalism, at Pacemaker funnily enough, at the behest of then publisher Milo Corbett. If I remember correctly, it cost around £10, which I thought was pretty steep for a second-hand paperback.
Little did I know then that I had bagged a bargain. The book, which has been out of print for decades, has rocketed in value almost as much as a Northern Dancer yearling colt. The few that come up for sale on Ebay now fetch more like £50 or £60. I’ve written my name in big block capitals in my copy, often loaned to friends and colleagues, as a security measure.
There is unexpected good news on this score, though. Horsetrader is about to become a whole lot more affordable and much easier to get hold of – and therefore hopefully more widely known – as it is about to be released as an audiobook for the first time.
Adam Sangster: “It’s massively sought after here in Australia, just as in Europe”
Credit: Sarah Farnsworth
The happy turn of events is the result of Sangster’s son Adam, principal of Swettenham Stud in Victoria, growing increasingly frustrated by the book’s unavailability and reaching out to the author Patrick Robinson, who was more than happy to help.
“It’s massively sought after here in Australia, just as in Europe,” says Sangster. “A lot of the big breeders and trainers have given it to their clients over the years, telling them this is how you go about buying yearlings and making stallions.
“Then in March a pal of mine said he wanted to read it too. I own only one copy myself, so I went to a local bookshop and ordered two of them. I got a call a few weeks later to say they had a couple of hardback copies in, and so I went down there to pick them up.
“I went to pay and the shopkeeper said ‘that’ll be $850, thank you’. I replied ‘Christ, $850 for two books?’
“He said ‘no, that’s the price for one’.”
Robinson has had similarly exasperating experiences of procuring copies of his own masterpiece for friends and acquaintances.
“I own a few mares and foals in partnership with Harry McCalmont of Norelands Stud, and he called me one day to say that another of his clients who keeps some mares with him was looking for a copy of Horsetrader, but couldn’t find one that wasn’t an exorbitant price, so could I help?” he says, speaking from his summer home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
“I somehow managed to find one and sent it on, and it turned out it was for Anthony Oppenheimer. When the chairman of De Beers is unable to get the book because it’s too expensive, it rather sums it up.”
McCalmont forged a link between Robinson and Sangster, who were previously unknown to each other, that enabled the audiobook to get off the ground.
“The stars aligned,” says Sangster. “Long story short, it was during lunch with Jonathan Munz, who bred Giga Kick, that the idea came up. His CFO was there, who didn’t know anything about racing, but instantly suggested the audiobook idea when I was telling them how I was trying to get Horsetrader reprinted but to no avail.
“I still had no idea how to get in touch with the author, though, so I spoke to my brother Ben, whose godfather is Nick Robinson, and he told me how Patrick has some mares with Harry. Around that time Harry was down here looking at yearlings, so I got Patrick’s number from him and rang him, and we hit it off straight away.”
John Magnier and Robert Sangster at Newmarket
Credit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)
Robinson, who lives in the Cayman Islands for most of the year, jumped at the chance when Sangster put the idea to him.
He says: “Adam came to me out of the blue, and said ‘you were my father’s friend who wrote his life story, and it’s said to be the best book about horse racing ever written – to which I did a modest little cough as I didn’t know what to say – but it’s too bloody expensive for everyone to buy, so can we do an audiobook?’
“Adam explained that the audiobook format is especially popular in Australia, where people drive for hours on end to get from city to city, and that he wanted to put his proceeds back into the industry. So I said let’s do it.”
The audiobook of Horsetrader has consequently been in production for the past few months. Sangster tells me it is being recorded by noted voice actor Chris Tester, and it will be the entire original text with no cuts or additions, which goes on for around 18 hours.
“Patrick’s really been versing the narrator to get the names right and everything spicko,” he says. “Chris is doing a really good job, he’s not just reading it aloud, you can hear him really getting into the story and becoming passionate about it.
“It’s the original book, word for word; nothing has been changed. A few people advised tightening it up, but it has to be the authorised story in its entirety, as it all links together. You can’t start just hacking things off, it wouldn’t make sense.
”Horsetrader 2.0 is expected to become available around the middle of next month. It will be distributed on the major audiobook online stores and priced at $24.95 (a little under £20), with Sangster’s share of any profits going to good causes within racing.
Robinson has been basking in warm memories of writing the book since receiving the surprise request to produce an audiobook version.
A lifelong racing fan, he cut his teeth as a journalist on the sports desk of the Daily Express, whose racing pages were graced by Clive Graham, Peter O’Sullevan and Robert Sangster’s great friend Charles Benson at the time.
Robert Sangster: “He knew the bloodstock business was about to go bananas in the early 1970s, and was determined to take advantage of it”
Credit: Edward Whitaker
He later published three art books containing the work of renowned equine artist Richard Stone Reeves – one of which, A Decade of Champions, was presented by Ronald Reagan to the late Queen on the occasion of his state visit to Britain in 1982 – and co-wrote Born To Win, the legendary Australian yachtsman John Bertrand’s bestselling account of his historic victory in the America’s Cup, and One Hundred Days, the biography of Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward.
He is now better known to the wider public as the author of a series of naval-based thrillers.
“It was 1990 and I’d just finished Sandy Woodward’s book when Nick Robinson came to my house – we both lived in Yattendon in Berkshire at the time – and gave me his idea to write the story of his best friend Robert Sangster,” says Robinson. “I’d do the writing, he’d do the research and Robert would put up the money, he said.
“I flew to the Isle of Man and met Robert, found we had much in common and much to talk about, and thus Horsetrader was born.
“We both had a big interest in boxing, we had a mutual friend in Charlie Benson, and I’d spoken to him several times before when I was writing the essays on horses that accompanied the pictures in the art books.
“It was all very agreeable, and after about a year of working closely together we got the book done. I suppose one could say it was a pretty major success. We remained good friends until the end of his life.”
Robinson might have been pally with Sangster but he didn’t flinch from writing about his failed personal relationships or financial missteps in Horsetrader.
“It’s not a hagiography, it mentions all the problems,” he says. “But he was a great man. He knew the bloodstock business was about to go bananas in the early 1970s, and was determined to take advantage of it. People might look at it and say ‘oh well, he had a lot of money’ but he also had a lot of brains. He got it right.
“He put his money where his mouth was, and I don’t think he got enough credit for that. He knew John Magnier was a great stallion master, he knew Vincent O’Brien was the greatest trainer there had ever been, and he said that’s who I’m going to back.
“When Robert read Horsetrader he was absolutely thrilled with it. You’ve got me, he said.”
Magnier, another long-time friend of the author who is of course featured extensively throughout the book, was apparently less demonstrative with his praise after publication.
“A few weeks later we were all having a drink after Punchestown – John, John’s wife Sue, Philip Myerscough, Nicky Henderson, all the usual suspects – and I said to John, ‘well, how did you like Horsetrader?’” remembers Robinson.
“‘Ah, I wouldn’t be reading that drivel you write about horses’, he said. I thought crikey, it can’t be that bad, it’s already on the bestseller lists. But Sue turned to me and said ‘Patrick, ask him how many copies of the book he’s got by the side of his bed.’
“So I duly put the question to John, and he replied: ‘twenty-nine, and I’m not admitting that to anyone else. I don’t need a visiting card any more. If anyone wants to know anything about me I just give them a copy of that bloody book.’
No Nay Never: “He’s such a wonderful sire”
Credit: Zuzanna LUPA
“We’re great friends, and I usually send two or three mares to Coolmore sires each year. I’m never far away from them.”
Robinson’s mares, owned in partnership with McCalmont, are Emotion, an Exceed And Excel half-sister to high-class racemare Enbihaar; Golden Bugle, a daughter of Golden Horn from the family of Classic victors Footstepsinthesand and Power; Hint Of Pink, a Teofilo mare who is dam of dual Listed winner Parchemin; Marie Antoinette, a daughter of Kingman and Oaks d’Italia scorer Contredanse; and Soltada, a Dawn Approach half-sister to Nunthorpe heroine Margot Did.
Emotion, who also hails from the family of top-notchers Amonita, Cox Orange and Vista Bella, has a No Nay Never colt foal heading to the sales this year.
“Seeing No Nay Never sire the Gimcrack winner [Lake Forest] last week pleased me no end,” says Robinson. “He’s such a wonderful sire, he gets high-class winners like that all the time.”
The man behind Horsetrader must have taken a leaf out of his subjects Sangster and Magnier’s cross-hemisphere breeding exploits, as he is getting in on the act too.
“Hint Of Pink was bred to Lope De Vega to southern hemisphere time in 2021 and sent down to Australia, where she produced a filly,” reports Robinson. “She’s now about to give birth to a foal by I Am Invincible, which as you can imagine is something we’re not altogether unhappy about.”
Listening to Robinson describe his breeding ventures in such vivid detail, with so much enthusiasm and humour, you can see how he was the right man to write Horsetrader.
“Looking back, it was a magical book,” he reflects. “That moment when John Magnier and Robert Sangster first met was a turning point in history.”
Horsetrader’s reinvention as an audiobook also has Adam Sangster in a reflective mood.
“The first time I read the book I got close to the end, to the chapter entitled ‘Running out of Cash’, and had to put it down as I thought it might be about the divorce and I didn’t want to read that,” he says. “I asked my brothers if they were going to read it, and we agreed we would, and fortunately it turned out to be about the financial situation in Kentucky at the time.
“When I was at school there’d been a few unauthorised biographies doing the rounds, and Dad was getting a bit narked off with the right version of events not being out there, which was where Nick Robinson came in to get the proper story told.
“Dad was such an amazing man, and a great father. He loved having people around him, sharing jokes and memories, and he loved Australia. We were lucky to have him. All of us children are still very close, and that’s testament to our parents.”
Toronado: Swettenham Stud sire descends from Sadler’s Wells and El Gran Senor
Credit: Racing Post Photos
Sangster has living proof of his father’s influence on breeding on his farm, as Swettenham Stud’s most expensive stallion, Toronado, is descended from both Sadler’s Wells and El Gran Senor – two Robert Sangster colourbearers by Northern Dancer who feature prominently in Horsetrader.
“And do you know what?” says Sangster of the fully booked sire of Australian Group 1 winners Mariamia, Masked Crusader, Shelby Sixtysix and Tribhuvan. “You can see Sadler’s Wells in Toronado. He really comes through.”
The Swettenham Stud roster also contains a horse who serves as an oblique reminder of a stallion who arrives late on the scene in Horsetrader, in Ahonoora.
Prix de l’Abbaye hero Wooded, like Toronado, stood in association with Al Shaqab Racing, is by Wootton Bassett, who sired a high ratio of classy runners from small, indifferently bred early crops and was purchased by Coolmore in a big-money private deal, just as happened with Ahonoora in the late eighties.
“Fair play to Coolmore, they don’t often step out of the crease and buy something already proven from a different line,” says Sangster. “They’ve quite rightly put up Wootton Bassett’s price in Australia. It’s an unusual move as he hasn’t had any southern hemisphere-bred runners here, it’s purely on the back of what he’s done in the northern hemisphere.
“But the small sprinkling of European-bred horses who’ve been brought to race here are doing well, and I popped into Inglis the other day and the representatives who have been doing the yearling inspections in New South Wales were raving about his offspring, saying they’ve got absolutely everything you could want.”
Sangster has been receiving support for re-releasing Horsetrader in audio format from some of the most prominent names in Australian racing.
Gai Waterhouse reportedly bought 100 copies of the book for owners and staff after reading it herself the first time – so it was her who pushed up the prices – and has said she’ll do the same with the audiobook, and Winx’s owner Debbie Kepitis, daughter of the great breeder Bob Ingham, who raced in partnership with Robert Sangster in the 1980s before selling his bloodstock empire to Sheikh Mohammed in 2008, is all for it too.
“Debbie came to see the stallions for the first time last week and said something very poignant while she was here,” says Sangster. “She saw all the new operations setting up around Nagambie and told me the industry needs people like me to remind them of the history of breeding here, how it all started, and said I’ve got to keep telling the story, as otherwise people will forget it.
“That’s why I’ve been so keen to get Horsetrader out there again. It’s not for the money, it’s purely for the sake of educating the industry. People need to hear it.”
I read Horsetrader for the fifth or sixth time just the other month, to set the scene ahead of my first trip to Kentucky. It won’t stop me listening to the audiobook when it’s released, though. This really is a tale that bears retelling.
Even better, an audio file can’t fall apart like my physical copy of the book.
The Horse Trader audiobook is available for purchase by CLICKING HERE.
Maid’s mouth-to-mouth miracle
Performing mouth to mouth on a horse is an odd feeling.
Chances are you’ve never done it. Most people, including the most experienced of horsemen, haven’t.
But Jackie Congdon has.
On a now-memorable night in September 2020, the long-time employee of Swettenham Stud’s foaling unit literally breathed life into a dying filly foal.
Congdon noticed something odd about prized mare Manhattan Maid, who wasn’t due to drop her Puissance de Lune foal for several weeks and hadn’t yet started to show any signs of producing milk.
It turned out that the mare, who produced Group 2 winner and G1-placed filly Moonlight Maid, was having a dreaded ‘red bag’ foaling and was quickly rushed to the farm’s foaling yards.
In a ‘red bag’ delivery, the placenta separates from the mare prior to foaling, limiting or restricting oxygen to the foal.
How long the filly went without oxygen isn’t clear, but the signs when she was wrenched out of her mother weren’t good.
With few other options, Congdon began resuscitating the sickly chestnut filly, who was barely clinging to life.
As she cradled her tiny head, waiting for further veterinary intervention, she willed the little horse to live.
Swettenham Stud Principal Adam Sangster recounted Congdon’s heroics to Racing.com.
“The mare wasn’t due to foal, she wasn’t producing any milk or waxing up, so she was actually still in the paddock,” Sangster said.
“Jackie went checking the mares out in the paddocks as she does two or three times a day and she noticed that the mare was looking like she was about to foal.
“She saw the bag and it was a red bag foaling, so whether the mare was trying to abort the foal or whether it was just natural (we don’t know), but it was a very strange circumstance.
“Jackie quickly led her to the foaling paddock and phoned up Jason, our assistant manager at the farm, who came out with some oxygen.
“It was an incredibly hard foaling and they basically had to pull the foal out.
“The foal came out and she wasn’t breathing at all, so Jackie started to give her mouth to mouth.
“The foal exhaled but wouldn’t inhale, so Jackie kept trying mouth to mouth.
“The foal started to become a bit more alert, but it looked like it had been deprived oxygen to the brain for a period of time.
“Jackie stayed there and nursed the foal’s head for two hours while they got her completely out of the mare.”
Jackie’s Maid as a foal (Image: Swettenham Stud)
While Manhattan Maid emerged from the foaling in good health, the same could not be said of the filly.
She remained in intensive care for several weeks as vets battled side effects of the horror birth and attempted to pair her back with her mother.
But with persistence, came results. Despite the initial challenges, the foal showed consistent improvement and by the time she was weaned, she was completely healthy.
At Echuca on Sunday, the filly had her first start and duly saluted in head-turning fashion for Ballarat-based trainer Mitch Freedman and jockey Jarrod Fry.
Her name is Jackie’s Maid and she might be well above average.
For some, she’s already a star.
Sangster explained that owners John Sutcliffe, Gerry Ryan and Tony Merrifield chose to honour Congdon’s commitment and love of the horse in those early hours.
“It took quite a bit out of the mare herself, so things were looking bad for both of them, but luckily Manhatten Maid survived, which was great, but the foal was in dire straits,” he said.
“Jackie and the team nurtured her all night and into the morning before Tony Merrifield (from Limerick Lane) picked her up and took her up to the emergency unit at the veterinary practice.
“It was touch and go for about two weeks.
“The mare still wasn’t producing milk and she actually refused the foal because she was so sick.
“The foal was a dummy foal, but she made a remarkable recovery, the mare eventually accepted her life was pretty normal for them after that.
“It’s a remarkable story and one that involved some incredible horsemanship from the team, most notably Jackie.
“John was so enamoured by and so taken with what Jackie did that he named the horse after her.”
Premier Sales Success for Toronado
SWETTENHAM STRIKE ON LOFTY – NEW IN 2024
Fifth G1 winner for Toronado – Victor the Winner Captures G1 Centenary Sprint Cup
A new lease of life for Horsetrader, the seminal text on the breeding business
by Racing Post
28 August 2023
Good Morning Bloodstock is Martin Stevens’ daily morning email and presented here online as a sample.
Here he speaks to Adam Sangster and Patrick Robinson about the legacy of Horsetrader – subscribers can get more great insight from Martin every Monday to Friday.
All you need do is click on the link above, sign up and then read at your leisure each weekday morning from 7am.
There is no book on my shelves that has been as well thumbed, and has acquired so many dog ears and such a cracked spine, as Horsetrader. None I’m owning up to here, anyway.
Written in the early 1990s by renowned author Patrick Robinson with Pacemaker magazine publisher and racing syndicate pioneer Nick Robinson (no relation, just an odd coincidence), it describes how Vernons Pools heir Robert Sangster teamed up with John Magnier and Vincent O’Brien to buy the best stallion prospects at the Kentucky yearling sales in the seventies and eighties, driving prices to unheard of, and ultimately unsustainable, levels.
Horsetrader is, without a doubt, the seminal text on the modern breeding industry; the landmark study into how we got to where we are. It also happens to be a rollicking good read, full of gripping sales-ring battles, amusing anecdotes and poignant reflections.
The index alone is a godsend. Many’s the time I’ve made myself sound more knowledgeable than I actually am by scouring those back pages when writing historical articles, finding the references and shamelessly cribbing the information I need.
The only problem with Horsetrader is that it’s so hard to find. I bought my copy on Ebay when I got my first job in bloodstock journalism, at Pacemaker funnily enough, at the behest of then publisher Milo Corbett. If I remember correctly, it cost around £10, which I thought was pretty steep for a second-hand paperback.
Little did I know then that I had bagged a bargain. The book, which has been out of print for decades, has rocketed in value almost as much as a Northern Dancer yearling colt. The few that come up for sale on Ebay now fetch more like £50 or £60. I’ve written my name in big block capitals in my copy, often loaned to friends and colleagues, as a security measure.
There is unexpected good news on this score, though. Horsetrader is about to become a whole lot more affordable and much easier to get hold of – and therefore hopefully more widely known – as it is about to be released as an audiobook for the first time.
Adam Sangster: “It’s massively sought after here in Australia, just as in Europe”
Credit: Sarah Farnsworth
The happy turn of events is the result of Sangster’s son Adam, principal of Swettenham Stud in Victoria, growing increasingly frustrated by the book’s unavailability and reaching out to the author Patrick Robinson, who was more than happy to help.
“It’s massively sought after here in Australia, just as in Europe,” says Sangster. “A lot of the big breeders and trainers have given it to their clients over the years, telling them this is how you go about buying yearlings and making stallions.
“Then in March a pal of mine said he wanted to read it too. I own only one copy myself, so I went to a local bookshop and ordered two of them. I got a call a few weeks later to say they had a couple of hardback copies in, and so I went down there to pick them up.
“I went to pay and the shopkeeper said ‘that’ll be $850, thank you’. I replied ‘Christ, $850 for two books?’
“He said ‘no, that’s the price for one’.”
Robinson has had similarly exasperating experiences of procuring copies of his own masterpiece for friends and acquaintances.
“I own a few mares and foals in partnership with Harry McCalmont of Norelands Stud, and he called me one day to say that another of his clients who keeps some mares with him was looking for a copy of Horsetrader, but couldn’t find one that wasn’t an exorbitant price, so could I help?” he says, speaking from his summer home in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
“I somehow managed to find one and sent it on, and it turned out it was for Anthony Oppenheimer. When the chairman of De Beers is unable to get the book because it’s too expensive, it rather sums it up.”
McCalmont forged a link between Robinson and Sangster, who were previously unknown to each other, that enabled the audiobook to get off the ground.
“The stars aligned,” says Sangster. “Long story short, it was during lunch with Jonathan Munz, who bred Giga Kick, that the idea came up. His CFO was there, who didn’t know anything about racing, but instantly suggested the audiobook idea when I was telling them how I was trying to get Horsetrader reprinted but to no avail.
“I still had no idea how to get in touch with the author, though, so I spoke to my brother Ben, whose godfather is Nick Robinson, and he told me how Patrick has some mares with Harry. Around that time Harry was down here looking at yearlings, so I got Patrick’s number from him and rang him, and we hit it off straight away.”
John Magnier and Robert Sangster at Newmarket
Credit: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)
Robinson, who lives in the Cayman Islands for most of the year, jumped at the chance when Sangster put the idea to him.
He says: “Adam came to me out of the blue, and said ‘you were my father’s friend who wrote his life story, and it’s said to be the best book about horse racing ever written – to which I did a modest little cough as I didn’t know what to say – but it’s too bloody expensive for everyone to buy, so can we do an audiobook?’
“Adam explained that the audiobook format is especially popular in Australia, where people drive for hours on end to get from city to city, and that he wanted to put his proceeds back into the industry. So I said let’s do it.”
The audiobook of Horsetrader has consequently been in production for the past few months. Sangster tells me it is being recorded by noted voice actor Chris Tester, and it will be the entire original text with no cuts or additions, which goes on for around 18 hours.
“Patrick’s really been versing the narrator to get the names right and everything spicko,” he says. “Chris is doing a really good job, he’s not just reading it aloud, you can hear him really getting into the story and becoming passionate about it.
“It’s the original book, word for word; nothing has been changed. A few people advised tightening it up, but it has to be the authorised story in its entirety, as it all links together. You can’t start just hacking things off, it wouldn’t make sense.
”Horsetrader 2.0 is expected to become available around the middle of next month. It will be distributed on the major audiobook online stores and priced at $24.95 (a little under £20), with Sangster’s share of any profits going to good causes within racing.
Robinson has been basking in warm memories of writing the book since receiving the surprise request to produce an audiobook version.
A lifelong racing fan, he cut his teeth as a journalist on the sports desk of the Daily Express, whose racing pages were graced by Clive Graham, Peter O’Sullevan and Robert Sangster’s great friend Charles Benson at the time.
Robert Sangster: “He knew the bloodstock business was about to go bananas in the early 1970s, and was determined to take advantage of it”
Credit: Edward Whitaker
He later published three art books containing the work of renowned equine artist Richard Stone Reeves – one of which, A Decade of Champions, was presented by Ronald Reagan to the late Queen on the occasion of his state visit to Britain in 1982 – and co-wrote Born To Win, the legendary Australian yachtsman John Bertrand’s bestselling account of his historic victory in the America’s Cup, and One Hundred Days, the biography of Admiral Sir Sandy Woodward.
He is now better known to the wider public as the author of a series of naval-based thrillers.
“It was 1990 and I’d just finished Sandy Woodward’s book when Nick Robinson came to my house – we both lived in Yattendon in Berkshire at the time – and gave me his idea to write the story of his best friend Robert Sangster,” says Robinson. “I’d do the writing, he’d do the research and Robert would put up the money, he said.
“I flew to the Isle of Man and met Robert, found we had much in common and much to talk about, and thus Horsetrader was born.
“We both had a big interest in boxing, we had a mutual friend in Charlie Benson, and I’d spoken to him several times before when I was writing the essays on horses that accompanied the pictures in the art books.
“It was all very agreeable, and after about a year of working closely together we got the book done. I suppose one could say it was a pretty major success. We remained good friends until the end of his life.”
Robinson might have been pally with Sangster but he didn’t flinch from writing about his failed personal relationships or financial missteps in Horsetrader.
“It’s not a hagiography, it mentions all the problems,” he says. “But he was a great man. He knew the bloodstock business was about to go bananas in the early 1970s, and was determined to take advantage of it. People might look at it and say ‘oh well, he had a lot of money’ but he also had a lot of brains. He got it right.
“He put his money where his mouth was, and I don’t think he got enough credit for that. He knew John Magnier was a great stallion master, he knew Vincent O’Brien was the greatest trainer there had ever been, and he said that’s who I’m going to back.
“When Robert read Horsetrader he was absolutely thrilled with it. You’ve got me, he said.”
Magnier, another long-time friend of the author who is of course featured extensively throughout the book, was apparently less demonstrative with his praise after publication.
“A few weeks later we were all having a drink after Punchestown – John, John’s wife Sue, Philip Myerscough, Nicky Henderson, all the usual suspects – and I said to John, ‘well, how did you like Horsetrader?’” remembers Robinson.
“‘Ah, I wouldn’t be reading that drivel you write about horses’, he said. I thought crikey, it can’t be that bad, it’s already on the bestseller lists. But Sue turned to me and said ‘Patrick, ask him how many copies of the book he’s got by the side of his bed.’
“So I duly put the question to John, and he replied: ‘twenty-nine, and I’m not admitting that to anyone else. I don’t need a visiting card any more. If anyone wants to know anything about me I just give them a copy of that bloody book.’
No Nay Never: “He’s such a wonderful sire”
Credit: Zuzanna LUPA
“We’re great friends, and I usually send two or three mares to Coolmore sires each year. I’m never far away from them.”
Robinson’s mares, owned in partnership with McCalmont, are Emotion, an Exceed And Excel half-sister to high-class racemare Enbihaar; Golden Bugle, a daughter of Golden Horn from the family of Classic victors Footstepsinthesand and Power; Hint Of Pink, a Teofilo mare who is dam of dual Listed winner Parchemin; Marie Antoinette, a daughter of Kingman and Oaks d’Italia scorer Contredanse; and Soltada, a Dawn Approach half-sister to Nunthorpe heroine Margot Did.
Emotion, who also hails from the family of top-notchers Amonita, Cox Orange and Vista Bella, has a No Nay Never colt foal heading to the sales this year.
“Seeing No Nay Never sire the Gimcrack winner [Lake Forest] last week pleased me no end,” says Robinson. “He’s such a wonderful sire, he gets high-class winners like that all the time.”
The man behind Horsetrader must have taken a leaf out of his subjects Sangster and Magnier’s cross-hemisphere breeding exploits, as he is getting in on the act too.
“Hint Of Pink was bred to Lope De Vega to southern hemisphere time in 2021 and sent down to Australia, where she produced a filly,” reports Robinson. “She’s now about to give birth to a foal by I Am Invincible, which as you can imagine is something we’re not altogether unhappy about.”
Listening to Robinson describe his breeding ventures in such vivid detail, with so much enthusiasm and humour, you can see how he was the right man to write Horsetrader.
“Looking back, it was a magical book,” he reflects. “That moment when John Magnier and Robert Sangster first met was a turning point in history.”
Horsetrader’s reinvention as an audiobook also has Adam Sangster in a reflective mood.
“The first time I read the book I got close to the end, to the chapter entitled ‘Running out of Cash’, and had to put it down as I thought it might be about the divorce and I didn’t want to read that,” he says. “I asked my brothers if they were going to read it, and we agreed we would, and fortunately it turned out to be about the financial situation in Kentucky at the time.
“When I was at school there’d been a few unauthorised biographies doing the rounds, and Dad was getting a bit narked off with the right version of events not being out there, which was where Nick Robinson came in to get the proper story told.
“Dad was such an amazing man, and a great father. He loved having people around him, sharing jokes and memories, and he loved Australia. We were lucky to have him. All of us children are still very close, and that’s testament to our parents.”
Toronado: Swettenham Stud sire descends from Sadler’s Wells and El Gran Senor
Credit: Racing Post Photos
Sangster has living proof of his father’s influence on breeding on his farm, as Swettenham Stud’s most expensive stallion, Toronado, is descended from both Sadler’s Wells and El Gran Senor – two Robert Sangster colourbearers by Northern Dancer who feature prominently in Horsetrader.
“And do you know what?” says Sangster of the fully booked sire of Australian Group 1 winners Mariamia, Masked Crusader, Shelby Sixtysix and Tribhuvan. “You can see Sadler’s Wells in Toronado. He really comes through.”
The Swettenham Stud roster also contains a horse who serves as an oblique reminder of a stallion who arrives late on the scene in Horsetrader, in Ahonoora.
Prix de l’Abbaye hero Wooded, like Toronado, stood in association with Al Shaqab Racing, is by Wootton Bassett, who sired a high ratio of classy runners from small, indifferently bred early crops and was purchased by Coolmore in a big-money private deal, just as happened with Ahonoora in the late eighties.
“Fair play to Coolmore, they don’t often step out of the crease and buy something already proven from a different line,” says Sangster. “They’ve quite rightly put up Wootton Bassett’s price in Australia. It’s an unusual move as he hasn’t had any southern hemisphere-bred runners here, it’s purely on the back of what he’s done in the northern hemisphere.
“But the small sprinkling of European-bred horses who’ve been brought to race here are doing well, and I popped into Inglis the other day and the representatives who have been doing the yearling inspections in New South Wales were raving about his offspring, saying they’ve got absolutely everything you could want.”
Sangster has been receiving support for re-releasing Horsetrader in audio format from some of the most prominent names in Australian racing.
Gai Waterhouse reportedly bought 100 copies of the book for owners and staff after reading it herself the first time – so it was her who pushed up the prices – and has said she’ll do the same with the audiobook, and Winx’s owner Debbie Kepitis, daughter of the great breeder Bob Ingham, who raced in partnership with Robert Sangster in the 1980s before selling his bloodstock empire to Sheikh Mohammed in 2008, is all for it too.
“Debbie came to see the stallions for the first time last week and said something very poignant while she was here,” says Sangster. “She saw all the new operations setting up around Nagambie and told me the industry needs people like me to remind them of the history of breeding here, how it all started, and said I’ve got to keep telling the story, as otherwise people will forget it.
“That’s why I’ve been so keen to get Horsetrader out there again. It’s not for the money, it’s purely for the sake of educating the industry. People need to hear it.”
I read Horsetrader for the fifth or sixth time just the other month, to set the scene ahead of my first trip to Kentucky. It won’t stop me listening to the audiobook when it’s released, though. This really is a tale that bears retelling.
Even better, an audio file can’t fall apart like my physical copy of the book.
The Horse Trader audiobook is available for purchase by CLICKING HERE.
Rubick’s Erno’s Cube Magic Millions Bound
by Breednet
Saturday November 18
Well-fancied when unplaced in the Gimcrack Stakes in September, the Rubick filly Erno’s Cube made no mistake at start two when defeating a good-looking field of youngsters in Saturday’s Max Lees Classic (900m) at Newcastle.
Erno’s Cube takes out the Max Lees Classic! ??
@cmaherracing pic.twitter.com/iN0KLSBeOD
— 7HorseRacing ?? (@7horseracing) November 18, 2023
Ridden by Jason Collett for Ciaron Maher and David Eustace, Erno’s Cube tracked the early speed set by Efharisto and Market Magic. After levelling up at the 100m, the Rubick filly drew clear to defeat the Blue Point (IRE) filly Efharisto by two and a quarter lengths with a head back to stablemate Gram (Exceed and Excel), which came from last to finish third.
Ciaron Maher Bloodstock purchased Erno’s Cube for $230,000 from the Edinglassie Thoroughbred draft at the 2023 Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale.
Erno’s Cube has been showing plenty of ability and improvement in the lead up to today’s victory.
pic.twitter.com/lRepQkzeUK
— SKY Racing (@SkyRacingAU) November 18, 2023
Assistant trainer Johann Gerard-Dubord said the Calaway Gal Stakes, followed by the Magic Millions 2yo Classic, is the likely path Erno’s Cube will take.
Jason Collett said the winner had taken quite a bit from a recent barrier trial.
“The barrier assisted us. She had a trial after disappointing in the Gimcrack. She did things right in the trial and replicated that today,” Collett said.
Erno’s Cube a $230,000 Magic Millions yearling
Bred by Daleigh Park Livestock, Erno’s Cube is the second winner from three to race for the unraced Stratum mare Long Wink, a sister to the Listed MRC Debutant Stakes winner Eramor, and to the dam of the multiple stakes-winners Emerald kingdom and Steel Frost.
A daughter of the Listed Dark Jewel Classic winner Romare (Marscay), Long Wink has suffered misfortune in the last two seasons, with her North Pacific foal dying after birth in 2021 and missing last spring.
Toronado 3YO Wins $100,000 Super Maiden
By Breednet
October 25, 2023
The $100,000 Super Maiden for three year-olds at Randwick over 1300m on Wednesday produced an eye-catching last to first winner for leading Victorian sire Toronado (IRE) with Sly Boots arriving on the line for a valuable victory.
Trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, Sly Boots was placed in two of three starts earlier this year, but was gelded ahead of this preparation and that may prove a good decision. Tuned up with a couple of recent trials, Sly Boots was well fancied and ran accordingly unleashing a big finish from last on the turn for Regan Bayliss to win by three-quarters of a length running away.
A powerful bay gelding, with a good turn of foot he is reminiscent of Toronado’s G1 sprinter Masked Crusader, who has won over $4million in prizemoney.
Sly Boots was a $375,000 Magic Millions purchase.
A $375,000 Magic Millions purchase from the Newhaven Park draft for Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott/Kestrel Thoroughbreds, Sly Boots is the first winner for good metro winning bel Esprit mare Miss Softhands, a half-sister to stakes-placed Kazio and to the dam of Group III winner Hellova Street and stakes-winner Streetwise Savoire.
Miss Softhands has a yearling colt by Toronado (IRE) and was covered last spring by Russian Camelot (IRE).
Visit the profile page for Toronado
Toronado in upcoming sales:
Winning Debut for Toronado’s Manchego
by Mark Smith, Breednet
Monday October 2
Trainer Matt Cumani will search for some black-type at the Flemington Carnival for Manchego after the son of Toronado (IRE) made a winning career debut over 1200m at Ballarat on Monday.
Black-type beckons (image Pat Scala/Racing Photos)
Ridden by Declan Bates, Manchego was hung up on the fence halfway down the straight but did not flinch when the gap appeared to deny The Autumn Sun filly Alectrona by a half-neck with the Written Tycoon colt Fury a length back in third.
Cumani said they arrived with the expectation of a forward showing.
Manchego bursts through the pack to claim the first at Ballarat ??
— Racing.com (@Racing) October 2, 2023
“It’s always a relief when there’s a bit of talk about them, and everyone at the track here for the last week has said you have a good one there,” Cuumani said.
“You wonder how it gets out; although his trial form has been impressive, he had every right to come here and do something good.
“He saved a bit of ground on the rails. It was a brilliant ride by Declan; I was worried the gap might not open up.
“I think he has the right sought of brain for it. He is tough, with a big action and uses it well. It’s difficult to know at their first start, so it was good to see him do it.
Toronado has put his stamp on Manchego (image Pat Scala/Racing Photos)
“I would like to give him a couple more races. There is a 1400m during Melbourne Cup week and we will try and aim for that.
“I think this was a good maiden, it’s a bit difficult to know; we will see in hindsight.”
Bred by Ken Breese, Manchego was a $95,000 purchase for Cumani Racing from the Armidale Stud draft at the 2022 Magic Millions Tasmanian Yearling Sale.
Manchego a $95,000 Tasmanian Magic Millions yearling
He is the second winner from as many foal for the winning Snitzel mare Dream Food a half-sister to Group II SAJC Euclase Stakes winner and Group 1 Goodwood Hcp third I’ll Have a Bit (Smart Missile), and a three-quarter sister to Listed winner Snitz (Snitzel).
Matthew Williams Racing/ Sheamus Mills Bloodstock (FBAA) shelled out $160,000 for a brother to Manchego from the Armidale Stud draft at the 2023 Magic Millions Adelaide Yearling Sale.
Dream Food has a yearling filly by Ghaiyyath (IRE).
Visit the profile page for Toronado
Toronado in upcoming sales:
Bred To Win – Wooded, Sept 2023
Bred To Win visited Swettenham Stud this season and featured the fastest son of Wootton Bassett – WOODED.
Wooded foals are on the ground and his first yearlings are selling in the Northern Hemisphere.
Foundations: the story of Sangster legacy
By Kristen Manning, TTR
19 September, 2023
“The beginning of every racing story can be told from a slightly different angle,” Alastair Forres said and that is certainly the case when it comes to the mare he brought to Australia in the early 1980s – the mighty Eight Carat (GB) (Pieces Of Eight {Ire}).
Just where does her story begin? With Lady Sykes who, from her Sledmere Stud in Yorkshire, bred ‘The Flying Filly’ Mumtaz Mahal (GB) (The Tetrarch {GB}) or with the Aga Khan who purchased that famed grey as a yearling, overseeing the beginning of the dynasty she established?
Mumtaz Mahal (GB) | Image courtesy of Wikipedia
One to which Eight Carat can trace her roots with Mumtaz Mahal’s lightly raced but fast daughter Mumtaz Begum (Fr) (Blenheim {GB}) being her fifth dam.
A case of superior racing genes shining throughout the generations and how fortunate we are that Forres put in the winning bid of 9400gns (AU$19,000) for Eight Carat at the 1979 Tattersalls December Mare Sale.
And like that mare, Forres has a rather interesting family tree with his uncle Edward (Ruby) Holland-Martin an accomplished horseman who enjoyed a successful career as a steeplechase jockey before founding, with his brothers, Overbury Stud in Gloucestershire.
Fundamental beginings
From that base the family bred the wonderful galloper Grundy (Ire) – the British Horse of the Year whose defeat over a game Bustino (GB) in the the 1975 G1 King George VI & Queen Elizabeth S. is still fondly referred to as ‘the race of the Century.’
Grundy’s success had his sire Great Nephew (GB) in Forres’ mind when he purchased his daughter Great Klaire (GB) as a weanling during his many trips to the UK as the first Australian representative for Tattersalls.
‘Ticker’ is a word Forres likes to use when expressing his admiration for a great horse – ‘heart and courage’ – credentials he saw in both Grundy and Great Nephew and then in Great Klaire.
Great Klaire (GB) | Image supplied
“I remember riding her as a young horse at home in a stock saddle and she took off on me,” he laughed. “I knew then that I was sitting on something pretty extraordinary.”
Sold to Sydney trainer Neville Begg who raced her with Dominic Beirne and Colin Tidy, Great Klaire won three of her six starts enroute to a successful career at stud, one which saw her produce the stakes winner St. Klaire (Bletchingly), in turn dam of the three Star Way (GB) Group 1 gallopers – Bonanova (NZ), Fraternity (NZ) and Telesto (NZ).
On a subsequent trip back to the UK, Forres circled in his catalogue Great Klaire’s one-year-older half-sister – Eight Carat. She was soon his and once she foaled, she and her daughter made their way to Australia, Forres naming the filly foal after his home in New South Wales – Cotehele House (GB) (My Swanee {GB}).
With his new mare needing to have an Australian brand, Forres chose AC (Alastair’s Cattle over the mathematical sign of Pi).
A fan of the toughness – again that “ticker” – of the Star Kingdom (Ire) sireline, Forres chose as Eight Carat’s first local mate a stallion by the name of Sticks And Stones. A multiple city winner who had been placed in the G1 Oakleigh Plate, he was a stallion without fanfare, but he helped launch the Eight Carat story with her foal by him being the first of her five big-race winners – the G1 Railway H. winner Diamond Lover.
Eight Carat (GB) | Image courtesy of Sportpix
A story that would end up later on returning to Dawson Stud where Sticks And Stones stood – that farm purchased by the Inghams and renamed Woodlands Stud, now home to a statue of Eight Carat’s finest son Octagonal (NZ).
Robert Sangster acquisition
Selling Eight Carat – with Diamond Lover inside – to Robert Sangster, Forres took a step back from the racing world but has followed the progress of the family ever since, enjoying reminiscing about the black mare who has made such a mark on local racing.
“She was a sweetie,” he said – “I adored her!”
Cotehele House, he recalled, was by no means her most impressive foal – “I was always quite amazed that she turned out as good a broodmare as she did,” Forres said. “But there is something in the bloodlines of this family that transcends what they look like!”
A mare who had several owners over the years, Cotehele House – who is now proving a high-class line-breeding subject – produced two high-class stallions, the five-time Group 1 winner Danewin and his G3 Missile S.-winning full brother Commands.
Eight Carat, who also changed hands a few times, was owned by Robert Sangster when her second Group 1 winner came along and his son – Swettenham Stud’s Adam Sangster – remembers very well the morning of that colt’s arrival.
Working at Cambridge Stud, Sangster – along with Russell Warwick – was on foaling duty when Eight Carat laid down to foal the first of her four progeny by the stud’s great stallion Sir Tristram (Ire).
When a rather flashy dark colt with four socks emerged, Warwick was quick to say, “You should ring your dad and ask to lease this colt.”
Kaapstad (NZ) when racing | Image courtesy of Sportpix
“And I did just that,” Sangster recalled, getting a couple of people (including Patrick Hogan) in to race with him and cheering on Kaapstad (NZ) to seven victories including the G1 VRC Sires’ Produce S.
Such fondness does Sangster hold for Eight Carat and Kaapstad that they feature on his walls including a photo of Kaapstad winning, in his own colours, the G3 National S. at Morphettville in 1987.
Sangster enjoyed spending time with Eight Carat, remembering her as “a very pleasant mare to be around – she had such a good nature.”
Adam Sangster and John Messara | Image courtesy of The Image Is Everything
‘I chased Eight Carat because I wanted that family badly!’
Eight Carat was subsequently sold to Sir Patrick Hogan whose knowledge of international pedigrees came to the fore. In a TTR AusNZ interview in the spring of 2020 he told us that, “In those days different thoroughbred families had different numbers to identify them by.
“Eight Carat came directly from the number nine family which was well noted at the time for having the most speed of any other family. So, I chased that family to try and buy something from it… I chased Eight Carat because I wanted that family badly!”
Plus, he had some inside knowledge with Diamond Lover showing talent.
“Colin Jillings trained her and he rang me one day and said, ‘Look, this filly is a very fast filly and I believe that if nothing goes wrong with her, she’ll win a Group 1 race’.
“And that also helped me to make the decision to buy Eight Carat.”
It was not a case of instant success for Cambridge with Eight Carat, with a seven-year gap between Group 1 winners but wow, it was worth the wait as between 1991 and 1993 she produced three in a row!
Sir Patrick Hogan | Image courtesy of New Zealand Bloodstock
The first of those was Marquise (NZ) (Gold And Ivory {USA}) who was sold by Wrightson Bloodstock for NZ$130,000 at their Premier Yearling Sale. Racing 31 times, she won nine races including the G1 Captain Cook S. and she ventured to Australia on three occasions, taking out the G2 Sedgwick Classic and the Listed Veuve Clicquot S. at Morphettville.
And, so aptly the G3 Tesio S. on the very same day that her one-year younger half-brother Octagonal won the G1 WS Cox Plate.
A pretty good day for Cambridge and for the stud’s broodmare manager Bevan McCallum who fondly remembers Octagonal as being the “most memorable” of his dam’s progeny.
Octagonal (NZ) | Image courtesy of Darley
“Octagonal was a beautiful, balanced yearling,” he recalled of the member of the debut crop of Zabeel (NZ) who also went to Wrightsons where he was picked up for NZ$210,000 by the Inghams.
McCallum noted that Octagonal was not the only great time produced by Eight Carat during her time at Cambridge… “She always left a cracking foal. Patrick loved Kaapstad when he was born and he loved Eight Carat’s pedigree.
“He had already had success with Diamond Lover so eventually he made Robert Sangster an offer to purchase Eight Carat which was accepted.”
Sir Patrick Hogan had hoped to end up with daughters of Eight Carat but Diamond Lover was the only long-term Cambridge resident with a Sir Tristram filly dying as a yearling whilst Nine Carat (NZ) (Sir Tristram {Ire}) died young with her Listed-winning son Court Of Jewels (NZ) at foot.
Eight Carat (GB) and her final foal Colombia (NZ) | Image courtesy of Cambridge Stud
The stud did however fare well with her other sons – Octagonal’s triple Group 1-winning year-younger brother Mouawad (NZ), fetching $400,000 at the Inglis Australian Easter Yearling Sale, whilst her last born foal Colombia (NZ) memorably made NZ$1.6 million at the New Zealand Bloodstock Karaka Yearling Sale.
McCallum remembers Eight Carat as a “big, rangy type of mare” who “could get a bit hot at times as a young mare” but who “mellowed as she got older.”
“She loved having a good mate and would often cling to one particular mare. She was a great mother to her foals which was obviously part of the reason that she was such a good producer.”
Descendants of Eight Carat
Eight Carat (who was buried close to Sir Tristram) helped forge the Cambridge Stud and Zabeel stories. And whilst the farm has changed hands, it is still proudly home to 10 of Eight Carat’s descendants…
Ardeche (NZ) (Dehere {USA}), the stakes-placed dam of the G3 Waikato Cup winner Mongolian Marshal (NZ) (High Chaparral {Ire}) served last spring by Almanzor (Fr).
Deepdene (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}), served by Sword Of State.
Love Diamonds (Danehill {USA}), a winning dam of eight winners including the NZ Filly of the Year Queen Of Diamonds (NZ) (Savabeel) and the promising stakes-placed 3-year-old Paragon (NZ) (Embellish {NZ}), served by Embellish (NZ).
Love Diamonds | Image courtesy of Cambridge Stud
Lovetrista (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), the G2 Waikato Gold Cup-winning dam of four winners, served by Embellish.
Tavi L’Amour (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}): a recently retired, two-time winning, city-placed daughter of Love Diamonds.
Onlyarose (NZ) (One Cool Cat {USA}): a three-time stakes-placed, four-time winner who has produced the G3 Standish H. winner Snapper (NZ) (Power {GB}) and the stakes-placed Fireglow (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}), served by Sword Of State.
Onlyarose (NZ) with her Almanzor (Fr) foal, now named Villon (NZ), in 2019 | Image courtesy of Cambridge Stud
Special Diamond (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}): dam of three stakes-placed winners and grandam of the G3 Blue Diamond Preview winner Miss Roseiano (Exceed And Excel) who was purchased through Inglis Digital by Tom Magnier for $1.275 million in July.
Zabay (NZ) (Stravinsky {USA}): a Group 3-placed, four-time winner, served by Hello Youmzain (Fr).
Zendora (NZ) (Medaglia D’Oro {USA}): a metropolitan three-time winner.
Zenella (NZ) (Zabeel {NZ}): a city winning, G1 Queensland Oaks runner-up whose first four foals are all winners including the Listed Auckland Oaks Prelude winner Miss Ella (NZ) (Iffraaj {GB}), served by Almanzor.
Miss Ella (NZ) | Image courtesy of Trish Dunell
Eight Carat died at Cambridge Stud in 2000, aged 25. She had earned three New Zealand Broodmare of the Year Awards and was also recognised as Broodmare of the Year by the international journal Owner-Breeder.
Of her 692 descendants to race, 466 (67.3 per cent) have been winners with 67 of those (9.6 per cent) being stakes winners, 18 of those at Group 1 level. The most recent star is Verry Elleegant (NZ) whose fourth dam Cotehele House is the third dam of her sire Zed (NZ).
Zed is one of the 34 male Eight Carat descendants to have stood at stud and one of the 20 to have sired stakes winners, 13 of whom have been represented by Group 1 winners.
Zed (NZ) | Standing at Grangewilliam Stud
And Zed is one of the five still at stud alongside Shooting To Win, Court Of Jewels (NZ), Dedline and Jonker whose dam Hearts And Arrows (Kempinsky) is bred on a 4 X 4 Eight Carat cross.
Little wonder he inherited the family’s trademark dark colouring with Alastair Forres remembering Lester Piggott once saying that, “Every time he threw his leg over a Klairon-line horse with a dark coat he knew he had a good chance of winning.”
And that eye-catching G1 French 2000 Guineas winner is the damsire of Eight Carat.