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?

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.

“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.

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.”

“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.”

‘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!

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 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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

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.