THE £200,000 Weatherbys Super Sprint will be run for the 30th time today at Newmarket. It has been a race dominated by females, and to date it has been won 18 times by fillies.
In the race’s first decade, seven renewals went the way of fillies.
Trainer Tim Easterby is the second-most successful Super Sprint trainer with three victories, level with Richard Fahey and Richard Hanon Jnr, but well behind Richard Hannon Snr’s seven. All three of Easterby’s wins have come courtesy of fillies, and his first Super Sprint success came in 1998 with a daughter of Common Grounds (Kris) named Flanders.
She was a 21,000gns Doncaster St Leger Yearling Sale purchase by Easterby and, as one of the more expensively bought runners in that year’s field, was allotted 8st 11lb, one of the higher weights. By mid-July, Flanders was already the winner of three races from three career starts, her victories including the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot, now a listed race.
Her weight burden was not seen as a hindrance by punters and she was sent off the 6/5 favourite to land the cash. Ridden by Lindsay Charnock, she jumped off well, used her natural speed to make all, was never headed, and won by a neck to pick up a winning prize fund of £68,860 for owner Mrs Jean Connew.
After Newbury she went on to finish third in the six-furlong Group 2 Lowther Stakes, second in the £200,000 St Leger Yearling Sales race at Doncaster, and was down the field in the Group 1 Cheveley Park Stakes.
Career high
As a three- and four-year-old she raced 12 times, mainly over five furlongs. Flanders hit a high BHA mark of 113, which remained above 100 for the whole of her racing career. She won the Listed Scarborough Stakes and finished second in the then Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes, now Group 1.
Flanders was retired with race earnings of £238,287, nearly £140,000 of that picked in her juvenile year with her Super Sprint win and her runner-up spot in the Doncaster sales race. At the end of her racing career she was bought privately as a breeding prospect for a partnership put together by the Kavanagh family of Kildaragh Stud and the Hayes family of Knocktoran Stud.
“She was very quick and very good,” says Brendan Hayes. “She is good-looking; she has a good hip, a good head and is very strong. I also particularly liked her because she looks a ‘double’ of the stallion Lyphard (Northern Dancer), who is in her third generation. I had flown with him to Gainsborough Stud in Kentucky in 1977. She has also been a remarkably fertile mare.”
Prolific
The last comment is something of an understatement. The mare is now 25, she has had 19 foals and bred 13 winners to date.
“She’s been very prolific; she is as tough as teak and her progeny has been similar,” adds Peter Kavanagh who now owns the mare outright. “Her first foal Louvain (Sinndar) had the heart of a lion. She has been a super broodmare and she has bred a classic winner [Flotilla (Mizzen Mast)].”
Flanders has produced four blacktype runners. Louvain won a US Grade 3, her 2007 Oasis Dream (Green Desert) filly Desert Poppy was Group 3 and listed-placed, her 2008 Azamour (Night Shift) gelding named Laajood was a listed winner, while her 2011 foal, named G Force (Tamayuz), tops them all and boasts sprint success at the highest level.
Champion sprinter
G Force was awarded the title of European champion three-year-old sprinter in 2014 after a career highlight which saw him win the Group 1 Sprint Cup at Haydock from the likes of Gordon Lord Byron, Music Master, Sole Power and Pearl Secret. His racecourse success was subsequently reflected in the auction prices achieved by Flanders’ progeny. Her yearlings sold at the Tattersalls October Book 1 Yearling Sale in 2014 and 2015 fetched 400,000gns and 300,000gns.
This year Flanders has produced an Awtaad (Cape Cross) filly who will be retained by Kildaragh to carry on the line. In spite of her advancing years she is still full of life.
“She is great shape,” said Kavanagh. “She is easy on herself and looks after herself, she loves a routine. I’d love one or two more like her!”
The Weatherbys ePassport has gone live for British and Irish thoroughbred markets. The first foal to be issued with an ePassport and the accompanying smart card was bred at Julian Richmond-Watson’s Lawn Stud.
The colt foal is by Coolmore’s Calyx (Kingman) out of Skipinnish (Exceed And Excel), a half-sister to this year’s Group 3 winner Kinross (Kingman). The foal was born on Valentine’s Day.
His is the first ePassport to be issued, and over the coming months every other thoroughbred born in Ireland and Britain this year will be receiving their own version. In its simplest form, the Weatherbys ePassport is a single, secure platform for all regulatory and legislative requirements relating to identification, health, welfare, movement, and ownership.
The ePassport is available through both Android and iPhone App stores. Weatherbys is contacting users with more detail around functionality and registration.
Elements of the Weatherbys ePassport are in use in Britain, Ireland and other jurisdictions. These include vaccination and movement functionality to support the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) with their ‘Return to Racing’ protocols. The same technology has helped trace the movement of breeding stock, working with the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association.
Central tool
Weatherbys is working closely with HRI and the BHA on the rollout of the ePassport. HRI has made it the central digital recording and data repository tool within its welfare strategy.
In addition, the ePassport now includes stallion, mare and foal registration functionality, medication recording, along with ownership updates and full identification details.
Having downloaded the ePassport App, users will simply have to register by entering their contact details and, on receipt of a confirmation code, can then follow on screen instructions. On the ePassport home page are the horse’s details and from that point users can then interact through the full ePassport functionality. This will include assigning a veterinary surgeon who will be able to update medical information.
A smart card that, along with the traditional printed passport, will be issued for all British and Irish thoroughbred foals born this year and can also be used to access the ePassport App.
Importance
Brian Kavanagh, CEO of HRI, said: “The importance of the Weatherbys ePassport cannot be overstated, and we see it as a central part of the welfare and traceability strategy for Irish racing over the coming years.”
James Given, director of equine health and welfare at the BHA, said: “The vaccination functionality within the Weatherbys ePassport played an important role within the protocols that allowed for racing to resume last year. The additional functionality that comes with the full rollout will be vital for the traceability of thoroughbreds, a central pillar of our horse welfare strategy.”
Claire Sheppard, CEO of the TBA, added: “The movement functionality within the Weatherbys ePassport was hugely important when it came to maintaining the movement and traceability of stock during the 2020 and 2021 breeding season as part of the TBA’s Covid 19 protocols. The enhanced functionality within the ePassport will bring many more benefits to breeders and the thoroughbred industry, and we welcome its introduction.”
Meanwhile, the CEO of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association, Shane O’Dwyer, said: The Weatherbys ePassport functionality will bring with it identification, traceability, health and welfare benefits for the thoroughbred industry, and the ITBA looks forward to continue working with Weatherbys on the ePassport rollout.”