ONLY four two-year-olds this year have so far impressed the sages in Timeform more than Threat has. The son of Footstepsinthesand (Giant’s Causeway) won the Group 2 Al Basti Gimcrack Stakes, one of the best and most famous juvenile races in the calendar, on his fourth start. Just over a length is all that separates him from an unbeaten four-start record, as he was a close runner-up in both the Group 2 Coventry Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group 2 Qatar Richmond Stakes at Goodwood.

While some eagle-eyed race watchers have Threat pencilled in for Royal Ascot’s Group 1 Commonwealth Cup next summer already, trainer Richard Hannon thinks that he could make into a miler, and a real classic contender in the Group 1 2000 Guineas. Threat is a winner already over the minimum trip and over six furlongs, but the trainer has the seven-furlong Group 1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes on October 12th as a real option for the colt.

That race would come three days after Threat’s Slade Power (Dutch Art) half-sister goes through the sale ring at Tattersalls in Book 1 of the October Yearling Sale. Buyers would then have to gamble on whether they were bidding for a half-sister to a potential Group 1 winner, while a victory in the weeks before the sale in the Group 1 Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes for Threat would end such speculation. That race, over six furlongs, is also being considered by Richard Hannon for Threat.

Meanwhile the Slade Power filly is doing everything right at Derek and Gay Veitch’s Ringfort Stud, situated just outside the sleepy village of Rhode in Co Offaly. The couple bred Threat and her siblings with local friends Michelle O’Donnell and Derek Owens in the La Lumiere Partnership. The name for the breeding entity was inspired by the name of Threat’s dam, Flare Of Firelight, and she is an American-bred daughter of Birdstone (Grindstone).

Placed on a few occasions at two and three, Flare Of Firelight was purchased for just 9,000gns by Derek at the Tattersalls December Sale at the end of her three-year-old season. She raced in Ireland and France, trained here by David Wachman, and she was bred by the Niarchos Family. Her dam was their top-class Japanese-bred Shiva (Hector Protector) who won the Group 1 Tattersalls Gold Cup and was twice runner-up in the Group 1 Dubai Champion Stakes.

While Shiva had yet to breed a stakes horse at the time of Flare Of Firelight’s sale in Newmarket, Derek went to battle with some extra knowledge up his sleeve. Four years earlier he paid 10,500gns to buy an unplaced daughter of Shiva, Tymora (Giant’s Causeway), and having sold that mare’s son, the subsequent Group 2 Coventry Stakes-placed Eltezam (Kodiac) as a foal for 60,000gns and watched him go on realise 280,000gns as a yearling, Derek knew what the family could produce. He had also profited from the private sale of Tymora herself.

Shiva then delivered a timely stakes winner in the shape of the Andre Fabre-trained This Which Is Not (Elusive Quality), and Derek was now sitting on a young mare who had a bright future ahead. Flare Of Firelight’s first covering was by Garswood (Dutch Art) and the resulting colt was a cracker, selling for €80,000 as a foal. Better was to come when Threat was offered for sale as a foal, being picked out by Capital Bloodstock’s representatives Neil Gilchrist and Peter Vaughan and purchased at Newmarket for Cheveley Park Stud for 100,000gns.

When I spoke to Derek and Gay this week in Ringfort, the always pragmatic Derek was clear about his intentions when sending Flare Of Firelight to Footstepsinthesand. “My plan was to try and get a racehorse out of her. The decision was not necessarily based on an economic return. When Threat was born he was a beautiful foal. He sold for 100,000gns, a great price for one by his sire, but we were extremely lucky to get a really nice horse.

“Ulysses appeared in the family about this time too and perhaps that was influential in him being bought for Mr and Mrs Thompson of Cheveley Park. Tally-Ho had been lucky with the family too and they were under bidders. Luck plays a great part in any such success, and we had great luck with him.”

Buyers last year had an opportunity to buy the Slade Power daughter of Flare Of Firelight, but it was at a time when perhaps the jury was undecided about the sire. The emergence this year of the top juvenile filly Raffle Prize, narrowly denied a Group 1 last time out, has changed that and now all agents and trainers in search of a filly will have her page marked to be inspected at the sale.

Also bound for the sales in December is the Galileo Gold (Paco Boy) filly foal out of Flare Of Firelight, though Derek admits that a good sale in October could influence that decision. He is also delighted to be able to report that Threat’s dam is back in foal to Footstepsinthesand, a decision he is happy to admit was a ‘no-brainer’.

Stories of success such as this with Threat are what make so many breeders persist in their quest to produce winners, and hopefully group winners. Derek is not a man who runs away with himself at the sales, preferring to buy value.

Ringfort Stud will have more than 20 yearlings to offer at the upcoming sales, and many more foals. The farm really hit the headlines at Newmarket in the last few years, selling quality drafts of foals. One of the stud’s mare, the stakes winner and group-placed Indigo Lady (Sir Percy), bred a winner with her first foal, the ill-fated Expensive Liaison (Camelot). The mare’s second foal, the unraced two-year-old Indie Angel (Dark Angel), sold at the same sale as Threat, realising 600,000gns when again bought by Capital Bloodstock’s agents Neil Gilchrist and Peter Vaughan.

Last December Indigo Lady’s first colt, a son of Lope De Vega (Shamardal) caught the eye of Stroud Coleman and ended up on their ticket for 500,000gns, while this year the mare has a filly from the first crop of Churchill (Galileo).

The peace and tranquillity of Ringfort Stud makes it an ideal place to breed and raise thoroughbreds. Under the watchful eye of veterinarian Derek, his wife Gay and all the team, the products of this nursery get the best start in life. Doing the business at the sales and on the racecourse may involve some luck, but you feel that Derek also makes his own luck.