I’m so proud of the horse, jockey, trainer and @Tweenhills and @Qatar_Racing teams. No owner has ever deserved to realise a dream more than @FahadAlthaniQR and @Qatar_Racing. Today was a day of pure joy. #Kameko – David Redvers @dredvers

HE might have passed the winning post to the sound of silence in Newmarket but to all those connected with last week’s 2000 Guineas winner Kameko, he generated a pretty big noise.

Oisin Murphy celebrated his first British classic winner with a roar to the empty stands, Sheikh Fahad Al Thani’s wife Melissa tweeted out a photo of his owner cheering him home, and his lass Marie was captured cheering him from the empty lawn at Newmarket.

And the most satisfied man amid the individual celebrations was Qatar Racing’s manager David Redvers.

The result pulled together all the strands of modern flat racing. Tradition from the trainer, Andrew Balding, son of Ian, of the famed Derby winner Mill Reef; the Irish-born youthful British champion jockey Oisin Murphy; and the ‘foreign’ investment of Qatar’s Sheikh Fahad Al Thani.

Sheikh Fahad Al Thani presenting the trophy for the Qipco Irish Champion Stakes won by his own Roaring Lion to Oisin Murphy /Carolinenorris.ie

Pulling all the moving parts together is the Tweenhills Stud boss and long established bloodstock agent, awarded the Chris Deuters Award from the ROA in 2017 and Bloodstock Agent of the Year in 2018.

The classic win was due recompense for a 10-month period that saw Redvers’ team experience the highs and desperate lows of thoroughbred breeding.

The impressive Tweenhills website leads with the mission statement “our ambition is to become one of the top three stallion farms in Britain.”

The first step on that road is to establish a headline stallion and in 2018, after a long list of Group 1 winners, Redvers appeared to have ticked that box.

In the yearling son of Kitten’s Joy who grew into the racehorse Roaring Lion, Redvers had found for Sheikh Fahad’s Qatar Racing the foundation to build their dreams on. The charismatic roan colt had blazed a trail through the 2018 season winning four Group 1s and being crowned the Horse of the Year. He even had the Queen of England share his owner’s delight as he battled home in the QEII Stakes on Qipco Champions Day at Ascot.

Losing Roaring Lion was utterly devastating for us, not only was he part of the family – the stallion boxes at Tweenhills are opposite the house, I walked out to him every morning, I just adored the horse.

But after one season at stud, he suffered a severe colic on arrival in Cambridge Stud in New Zealand last August and despite his own courage and veterinary skills, he could not be saved.

Redvers had travelled down to Cambridge Stud after the colt became ill and posted regular updates as first he looked like recovering.

“Losing Roaring Lion was utterly devastating for us, not only was he part of the family – the stallion boxes at Tweenhills are opposite the house, I walked out to him every morning, I just adored the horse. It had taken 10 years of hard work, of putting together a team of smart racehorses for Sheikh Fahad to finally land on a champion who had an outstanding book of mares, his first foals this year are just breathtaking. It was like 10 years’ work went up in smoke.

The US-bred son of Ken Ramsey’s top US turf horse Kitten’s Joy, out of a Street Sense mare, he had cost Redvers $160,000 in Keeneland in September 2016. Kameko shares the same sire – an even more astute purchase for $90,000 in September 2018 as Roaring Lion was in his pomp.

Kameko and Oisin Murphy winning the Vertem Futurity Trophy Stakes in Newcastle/Healy Racing.

Why did Kitten’s Joy appeal in a UK landscape of sons of Galileo and Dubawi?

“I was one of the underbidders on Hawkbill, I was really disappointed not to buy him but he was on the Godolphin list and that really switched me on to Kitten’s Joy. He was turning into the outstanding turf sire and it was an obvious angle to bring those horses back to the UK especially as Hawkbill went on and won the Eclipse.

“I remember having a discussion with Peter Molony and Hannah [Wall], ‘this is obviously a very good stallion, if you see a good-moving son of Kitten’s Joy that looks like a racehorse – leave it on the list for me to look at.’

“Hannah spotted Roaring Lion and said ‘I’ve seen the most beautiful son of Kitten’s Joy, make sure you see it in all the Taylormade madness.’

“The second I saw him I loved him – he ticked the box we were looking for. The best moving, most athletic horse.

“This horse was exactly a year later, the mare’s breeding record was poor at that stage, she hadn’t produced a good one. It stood out to me that it was a worthwhile gamble, he was by Kitten’s Joy, out of a Grade 3 winner with a proper European pedigree.”

Sheikh Fahad watches Roaring Lion win the QEII with Queen Elizabeth

Bargain

Now a Group 1-winning two-year-old and classic winner, Kameko’s price tag makes him look a proper bargain. He’s even a few steps ahead of Roaring Lion at this stage; what more have we to come?

Andrew Balding joked in the after-race interview on Saturday of needing to convince Redvers that a win in the Derby might not have a negative effect on the colt’s stud value, and he took a bit of stick on social media.

He is quick to explain there’s nothing wrong with the Derby! “It was nothing more than looking at the pedigree. The discussion we had is, what was the likelihood of him staying?

“I don’t have a particular view on him running in or winning the Derby affecting his value negatively, though from a southern hemisphere point of view, they don’t like seeing horses winning over a mile and a half.

The Derby is the most exciting horse race in the world.

“At the end of the day, the horse is owned by a sportsman in Sheikh Fahad. He thinks, as I do, that the Derby is the most exciting horse race in the world.

“Andrew Balding has grown up in the shadow of Mill Reef, two or three years after he was born and there always was Mill Reef and the Derby and he has a very good opportunity to do the same.

“Now that the horse has won the Guineas there’s very little to be lost – my only concern is whether or not the race leaves its mark on him. Roaring Lion famously bounced straight back out of the Derby and won the Eclipse. They have many similar characteristics, a great mind and constitution. If he could win it, it would put him into a very rare pantheon of outstanding racehorses.”

Adam Brookes, Hannah Wall, Sheikha Melissa Al Thani, David Redvers, Peter Molony, Alex Lowe and Karen Smith after Roaring Lion had won the Qipco Irish Champion Stakes carolinenorris.ie

It was a big week for Redvers who celebrated the half-century birthday on Thursday. The filly Run Wild, bought at the BBAG September sale for €160,000, landed the Pretty Polly Stakes in impressive fashion.

Though she looks cheap now, as a daughter of the Shamardal horse Amaron who stands for €4,500, her appeal may not have been instant on a catalogue.

“She was the standout filly in the sale, I had said to Ghislain Bozo of Meridan Bloodstock that if we found a nice filly together I’d be interested as I was setting up a fillies’ syndicate. I didn’t look at her first because Amaron had just floated over my head but as soon as I saw her, it was obvious she was the best filly in the sale.

“We decided to be quite brave – we actually paid an awful lot of money for an Amaron filly – she has a very good page, and I said as she’s our best filly she’d better go to the master trainer and we now have a hugely exciting filly for a Group 1 somewhere.” And it’s boom or bust next week as John Gosden now intends running her in the Coronation Stakes.

Tweenhills, set in the Gloucestershire countryside, has been a public stud since 1995, covering over 750 acres and home to four Qatar Racing stallions (Hot Streak has been sold to France), as well as the majority of the operation’s band of broodmares and young stock.

“Somebody asked me a while ago what legacy do you want to leave – the problem is with stud men, the only legacy you can leave other than the few acres around you is the stallions that you have, if you can find a Sir Tristram or a Galileo.”

The loss of Roaring Lion hit deep but “we have been fortunate to end up with Zoustar who is another potential champion stallion and now thank God we are back on course because we have got a classic-winning, Group 1-winning two-year-old.

“Havana Gold’s got 140/150 yearlings on the ground this year, he’s hopefully going to have a massive year on the racetrack next year, Charm Spirit (a triple Group 1-winning son of Invincible Spirit for €8,500) is doing well, Lightning Spear had slightly fertility issues but is doing well now.

The investment and enthusiasm of Sheikh Fahad buoys the whole operation and the family have been a huge investor in racing in recent years, both in bloodstock and sponsorship. Lightening Pearl in the 2011 Cheveley Park Stakes was the first Group 1 winner to the operation under the Pearl Bloodstock banner also carried by Dunaden to victory in the Melbourne Cup that year.

“When you come up with those sort of results, it whets the appetite – when you have a top-class horse, all you want is to have another one.

“As you and I have been taking, he’s just bought another lovely Kitten’s Joy two-year-old in the Ocala Breeze-Up sale. He loves every angle of it.

“I don’t think we’ve seen the like of him before. The personal hardship he put himself through to ride in charity races, to run in the London Marathon. To do the Mongol Derby – he’s a sportsman – there was always only going to be one option with Kameko – to run in the Derby. The likelihood of him not running as favourite would be unheard of.”

David Redvers at Tattersalls

Sales season

Tweenhills survived the Covid-19 lockdown with a few ‘tricky’ weeks but the emphasis is now on the resumed flat season. Despite losing 11 weeks, racing is almost back on track with Royal Ascot in its usual slot next week, albeit with no crowds or pageantry. The sales season will offer another challenge in the next months.

“It’s nasty but can you imagine how much worse it would have been if it had struck in September with the winter ahead of us. With the yearling and breeding stock sales – it would have wreaked absolute chaos.

“If the hardest thing that we’ve had to suffer is the Guineas and Derby being a month late and none of us being there to celebrate, we’ve got off very, very lightly.”

With the legacy of the coronavirus being social distancing and still uncertainty over international travel, how does he think the yearling sales season will adjust?

“I’m obviously very worried for the breeze-up boys but you can buy breeze-up horses online very, very easily the same way you can buy horses in training and broodmares, but with yearlings and weanlings – you need to see those.

“You get a subliminal feeling when you are looking at a horse as a result of many years of looking at them. The good horses, all the good things you’ve seen and the bad things, the horse’s temperament – the way he looks you in the eye, his action, and presence. None of those things you can get on a computer screen.

“It’s more than looking, it’s also listening. That’s a strange thing to say but I find the rhythm of a horse’s feet on tarmac… I remember saying to Sheikh Fahad when Roaring Lion was walking round – ‘listen, you can’t hear him, he’s so light on his feet’. All those factors you cannot get from a remote platform.”

With so many industries affected by the impending downturn in economies, racing’s funding is a topic forever on any agenda, and with his international experience, he is well qualified to comment.

“When it comes to the funding crisis, we are all going to have to take a hard look at the way racing in the UK is funded, it’s a chicken and egg, we may come to the situation where there are not enough horses going into training to sustain the betting market.

“Even a look at some form of two-tier racing they have in Japan so that those people who want racing for racing sake and betting sake don’t mind the quality and are prepared to race for a much lower figure and then those people who are prepared to pay the big money to keep the modern thoroughbred on an upward trajectory are rewarded. It’s a huge debate to be had.”

Racing has been a target of a lot of negative publicity in recent years and over the last months. The connection with gambling, as it becomes less acceptable and added attention on horse welfare, have been two main issues. How can we address the negativity?

“The key thing is if you have a round of golf in Manilla or play a game of football in Johannesburg, if you decide to go and play anybody in Sydney in a game of tennis – you have the same rules apply to all.

“If you could wave a magic wand and bring about parity of rules worldwide so that everyone knew that if you get caught giving bute or lasix or anabolic steroids, you are out the gate.

“One set of drug rules, enforceable worldwide, one set of whip rules, the game would be revolutionised.

“There was talk of trying to raise money at the Guineas meeting for the NHS and the NHS turned around and said we don’t want to be associated with gambling.”

Best things

And if we are to project the positives thing in racing, Qatar Racing has one of the best in its jockey. It’s a fact Redvers readily acknowledges.

I do believe in Oisin, racing has a magic asset

“Racing has done an outstanding job getting sport back on our televisions. One of the best things about the weekend was that Oisin was interviewed on BBC Breakfast news on Saturday and Sunday morning – I can’t remember the last time a jockey was interviewed; BBC don’t cover racing.

“Oisin wooed the presenters to such a degree that they kept talking about racing for two or three minutes afterwards. He’s got it all.

“He’s one of the most likeable people I know – we’ve known him since he was about 17. He stays with Sheikh Fahad everytime they are in Newmarket, they couldn’t be closer friends really. We’re all terribly fond of him – he takes a good bollocking but he rarely needs one! I do believe in Oisin, racing has a magic asset, someone who is very comfortable talking to the media but thoughtful about what he says.

“I have no doubt there would have been another 20,000/30,000 people having heard him on Sunday morning saying, ‘I’m going to watch the 1000 Guineas and see how he gets on’.”

While we all still look on from afar, the team are primed for Royal Ascot next week and have added the impressive two-year-old winner The Lir Jet to the team this week. The two-year-old band also include a Wesley Ward-trained speedster for the first time in the Norfolk Stakes-bound colt Sheriff Bianco.

But all eyes will then turn to that Epsom straight on July 4th and a colt in the claret and gold braid. “It will depend on the horse’s well-being but the definite plan is the Derby.”

Who started that conversation that David Redvers didn’t want to win the Derby?

“ONE of the things that incenses me, not just irritates me, incenses me, is the fact that Australian racing does not have to rely on two or three billionaires for the sport to survive because they have totally embraced the concept of syndication and shared ownership being the most exciting part of racehorse ownership.

“If you go to the Magic Millions sale, and see the colt or filly you love, and you are in that Australian market, you’ve got as much money to spend as Sheikh Mohammed because you’ll get 20 people together, agree to put in 10,000 or 20,000 grand apiece. You have this incredibly dynamic bloodstock industry where trainers work hard, get people together, keep them very well informed or they’ll lose them, they are in a different league to European trainers in that respect. Admittedly with good prize money – the business is absolutely booming as a result.

An Australian racecard with all the owners names printed

“British racing needs to get itself sorted out so that it’s actively encouraging racehorse ownership and shared ownership. This ridiculous notion that you can’t put every owner’s name in the racecard or that when you get up to six tickets to a racecourse you then get charged.

“If they don’t address that issue they will find at some stage in the next decade, there are not the horses in training and the whole industry is going into decline. We might be lucky and keep finding billionaires to prop up our sport but in wouldn’t bank on it!

“The fact that it’s the sport of our Queen is an amazing draw and a great asset for international owners, and the fact that people dress up to come to the big days is a lovely part of it but it needs to become much more accessible.

“The only way to make people take a real part of it is by concentrating on the shared ownership.”