SATURDAY’S July Cup offers Vandeek a chance of redemption, as Simon and Ed Crisford’s dual Group 1 winner seeks to reproduce his juvenile form on his second outing of the season.

Roderic Kavanagh knows the colt better than most, having sourced him as a yearling with Cormac O’Flynn for 42,000gns, before reselling the grey under his Glending Stables banner for a top price of 625,000gns at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale.

“You’d have to be hopeful,” Kavanagh said ahead of Saturday’s test. “If he’s back to his old form, he should put up a bold show, though Inisherin will be tough to beat. It would be great to see him back in that kind of form.”

Several questioned whether Vandeek had trained on when he failed to fire in the Group 2 Sandy Lane Stakes, so it’s interesting to hear Kavanagh’s recollections from last spring. “When a horse goes so fast at an early breeze, you’d imagine they’re aiming for Royal Ascot. At the time, I was glad that they didn’t, because he was a mid-April foal and had loads of scope. He’s not a typical Havana Grey, in that he’s a big horse. I have every faith that he’ll be as good a three-year-old as he was a two-year-old.”

Little by little

Vandeek wasn’t always the standout of the Glendings Stables draft, Kavanagh reveals, “He was a big, rangy horse; a bit untidy, a bit gangly. When we were breaking him, he probably got maybe 10 days or two weeks driving, just because I wanted him to carry himself a bit better.

“We really took our time and in fairness to him, it was on pure natural ability that he was able to do it when we did ask the questions. Whether I ever knew really what I had until he breezed? Probably not.”

A horse’s movement is a top priority for Kavanagh, he tells me. “We do one day in the arena a week. You can only do so much on the gallop, but they can get into bad habits, and it’s good to get them back in and twist and turn and changing the rein. If they do the slow paces properly, hopefully when they get to top gear they are using themselves as they should be.”

Vandeek was one of four Glending breezers that fetched six-figure sums last year, but what they do on the track is just as important, according to Kavanagh. “You can only dream to have a horse that’s going to win two Group 1s and we’re just lucky to have had a horse of his profile through our hands. It’s essential to be selling good horses. It helps the whole thing - the breeze-up game was probably as good this year in places as a result of graduates like him.”

Following a successful 2023 breeze-up season, Kavanagh’s reinvestments raised eyebrows at the Tattersalls December Yearling Sale, where he, along with business partner O’Flynn, purchased the last Galileo yearling to be offered at auction for 125,000gns.

Though a sizeable outlay for a resale prospect, it still looked cheap given the colt’s breeding, being a three-parts brother to a stakes winner and out of 1000 Guineas fourth Mandlerley, herself a full-sister to Gregorian. You’d have to wonder what Kavanagh overlooked, albeit intentionally. He tells me, “Sometimes you’ve got to be brave.”

Bravery rewarded

Their bravery was rewarded when the May-born colt brought a million guineas from Godolphin, earning Glending Stables top lot status at the Craven Sale for the second year running. “We were lucky with the personnel that turned up on the day,” Kavanagh explains. “They’re people that don’t like getting beat, and so he made a maximum price because of the competition to buy him.”

Buying a six-figure yearling for resale might strike fear in most, no less a 32-year-old, but it seems Kavanagh never felt much reason for concern. “A bit like Vandeek, it didn’t take much imagination. To buy the last ever Galileo to go to an unraced auction, there was always going to be a bit of hype around him. And then when we got him home, we knew from an early stage, bar mishap or an accident, he was going to be able to perform as well as have the title of the last Galileo. We were hopeful from a long way out that we were in a good position.”

Vandeek’s yearling price also looks like great value now, especially considering his sire’s first runners had already made a big impression. “In motion he was a beautiful horse,” Kavanagh says. “When he was stationary, you could probably pick a hole in him, through his fore leg. But he had great use of it and he vetted perfect. We took a bit of a punt in that regard, but having said that, the mare was 100% and he just looked like an athlete to us.”

A family affair

The Galileo colt and Vandeek were both sourced at the Tattersalls December Yearling Sale, with Kavanagh busier consigning earlier in the season through his parents’ Kildaragh Stud. Peter and Antoinette’s Kildare farm is a regular source of blacktype performers, including Group 1 winners Frozen Fire, G Force, Glencadam Gold, Jukebox Jury, Mr Medici, Native Trail, Ransom O’War and Sea Silk Road.

Both are important cogs in the Glending Stables wheel. “He’s a great sounding board,” Roderic says of his father. “He’s seen some things you might never get to see and, be it bloodlines or pedigrees, he’ll always have an opinion.” Antoinette, meanwhile, runs a tight ship. “It’s a costly business and it’s easy to get carried away, but she will keep an eye on the outlays. You need somebody like that, or it could turn into a free-for-all!”

Gordon ‘Flash’ Power is also an important influence, riding the two-year-olds in fast work and at the breezes themselves. “He does a great job in guiding us,” says Kavanagh. “It’s another string to our bow having a guy with that kind of experience.”

Kavanagh is keen to mention another key member of the team. “Rory Fox Scott was riding with me the last two seasons, and he’s the common denominator in how it’s gone. He’s just a really solid guy, a very good horseman. He gives it great consistency and he keeps me on an even keel.”

Roderic’s sister Sophie is on hand during the major sales, though her priority is a PR role in Newmarket, while sister Alice runs the farm’s busy foaling unit, as well as consigning mares and foals under AK Thoroughbreds. Alice came close to celebrating her own Group 1 winner last weekend when Havana Cigar, who she successfully pinhooked with friends, ran second in the Prix Jean Prat.

Reality bites

Despite Glendings Stables’ high-profile success, the breeze-up sector experienced a testing few months this year, as clearance rates dropped and figures fell. “[The Galileo colt] took off a lot of pressure financially, but we weren’t blind to the fact that it was very tricky in places,” Kavanagh admits. “It was ruthless, really; if you didn’t have the goods, it was very difficult. We were lucky that everything we brought to the market sold, some of them made money, and some lost money. But on the whole, it was good.”

Brexit and the resulting lack of European buyers at British sales has been a factor, with Goffs and Goresbridge Sale responding by each proposing a new breeze-up sale next year. On whether he supports the idea, Kavanagh says, “To a degree, yes. I do think there is the scope, considering both sales are going to be held in Ireland, and when you see that probably the best clearance rate of the year was at the Irish sale. Two more is obviously pushing it.”

Looking ahead to next year, he continues, “I do think the odd sale was difficult to get into, and they’ll probably take down the numbers in each sale. I still think the bottom 50% of the sale will probably be harder to trade next year as a result. But you’ve just got to try and keep yourself above the bar.”

The other unavoidable talking point on the subject of breeze-up sales is the suggestion to officially publish the times clocked by horses, but Kavanagh wouldn’t support this. “I don’t see much advantage in it, because it doesn’t all come down to the clock. I think it would really hurt our clearance rate. I think the bottom half of the official times would struggle where somebody might see a mitigating factor that shows they should be given a chance. I’d be very hesitant to let that come in.”

Thinking outside the box

Perhaps once pigeonholed as a source of speedy two-year-olds, the breeze-up sales have proven themselves as producers of a wide range of top performers, with graduates including multiple Group 1-winning stayer Trueshan, who continues to win stakes races at eight years of age. Kavanagh tapped into that market when selling an Amaron colt for 120,000gns at the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale, returning a tidy profit on his yearling price of €26,000.

He was sourced at Baden-Baden, as was a Shalaa filly whose value went from €28,000 to 65,000gns. Their less fashionable sires dictated their yearling value, but appealed in other ways, Kavanagh explains. “Both of them were exceptional individuals, and they breezed accordingly, in relation to their pedigrees. Hopefully they’ll go on to be good racehorses.”

He hopes to repeat the feat with a return trip. “I enjoy going to the Baden-Baden sale because I can really focus on the buying end of it. In fairness to the Germans, much as they’re not following fashion or the commercial aspect, you’d have to admire what they’re doing in terms of breeding racehorses. You see it across the globe, their horses have great success in Australia and Japan, and they’re very sound horses.

“I just think those horses, much and all that they’re light, and they might be a little bit light for our game, if you can mind them, they are very light in their feet. I’ve been lucky anyway, they haven’t had any physical issues, because they only skip along the ground. They’re not landing heavily. It’s probably the opposite to a lot of sprinters back this direction. You wouldn’t want to have a barn full of them, but just having variety in your draft is important for different markets.”

A time to reflect

It ties in with Kavanagh’s answer when asked what his biggest learning curve has been. “There’s been any amount of them,” he says. “I suppose that every horse is an individual and that even the same agent might have completely different specifications for different clients. You always have to bear that in mind.”

I follow by asking what advice he would give to someone hoping to follow in his footsteps. “Am I even in a position to give that?” he asks, before saying, “No matter where you are, there are constantly things to be learned. Whether you’re at a mare sale or a yearling sale, whether it’s from a buying point of view, or selling.

“Take every opportunity to enhance your knowledge and grow your confidence.”

Having sold a dual Group 1 winner and reached the million mark, what’s next for Glending Stables? “We’d like to continue in the same vein,” Kavanagh says. “You’re always looking for graduates to go on and fly your flag, so I suppose we want to get as many good horses as we can through our hands.”

“We were very lucky that we landed on Vandeek - he completely changed the game. It gave us an opportunity to be able to get close to a horse like the Galileo. When that happened, it raised the bar, and hopefully we can continue to do so.”