A Yorkshire-bred winner of one of the county’s most prestigious races: there could be no more appropriate recipient of the TBA Breeder of the Month award for May than Copgrove Hall Stud, after Economics claimed Group 2 success in the Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Dante Stakes at York.

Founded by one successful Yorkshire businessman in Vaguely Noble’s breeder Lionel Holliday in 1939, Copgrove Hall was brought back up from scratch by another, Guy Reed, after he purchased the hall and 50 acres of land in 1969.

Less than a year earlier, Reed bought his foundation mare, the four-year-old Ardneaskan, at the Tattersalls December Sales for 4,000gns on the advice of his trainer Sam Hall. Ardneaskan was carrying to Sovereign Path, and the resulting foal immediately put Reed on the road to success, since he was the useful stayer and subsequent stallion Warpath, whose son Shotgun finished fourth in Shergar’s Derby. Now, Ardneaskan is the fourth dam of Economics.

Copgrove Hall manager Brian O’Rourke rightly notes: “Guy Reed would have been so proud. Not only did he breed and race the female side of the family, but Peintre Celebre, the sire of Economics’ dam La Pomme D’Amour, was raised on the stud by the Wildensteins. Guy won decent races at York, such as the Nunthorpe with La Cucaracha and the Ebor with Dakota, but this would have been extra special to him.”

La Pomme D’Amour, trained by Andre Fabre, recorded her crowning glory in August 2013, just a month after Reed’s death, by winning the Prix de Pomone for the second time, for her fifth success in a 16-race career. However, her stud career did not immediately spark.

O’Rourke points out: “From her first six foals she had just one winner, and that was in a Newcastle bumper. She’d been mated largely with Northern Dancer horses, so we thought we’d send her to Night Of Thunder, a son of Dubawi, whom we could afford at the time, and along came the colt who grew into Economics.

“He was a cracking foal, a big, strong boy, but maybe lacked a step. We had to sell him as a foal to keep the business’s cash flow going, and he was bought by a very shrewd man, Adrian O’Brien of Hazelwood Bloodstock, for 42,000gns, and he turned him over as a yearling for 160,000gns.”

Economics had not burst on the scene when La Pomme D’Amour’s next foal, by Masar, died, and then a Nathaniel colt foal was sold last year for 19,000gns. She was rested last year but is safely in foal to Stradivarius. “After Economics, we’ll probably go back to a Dubawi next year,” O’Rourke reflects.

La Pomme D’Amour’s mating with Stradivarius was perhaps no surprise, since O’Rourke spent from 2008 to 2017 as manager of the Gold Cup winner’s base, the National Stud, after 12 years in Kentucky and before his move to Copgrove Hall, which continues to operate in the ownership of the Guy Reed Trust.

Reed had no children and everything to do with the stud has been put into the trust for 20 years, with his nephews Clive and John Reed taking nominal charge from their respective homes in Harrogate and Monte Carlo.

The daily business side of the enterprise has been entrusted to O’Rourke, who explains: “I was brought on board to make the place commercial, which I have done. We’ve put up 60 new boxes, and have some very good clients – Jim and Fitri Hay, James and Anita Wigan, David and Vimy Aykroyd and Yulong, so the place is washing its face.”

With 99 per cent of Copgrove Hall’s business conducted among outside clients, the emphasis is hugely different from Reed’s heyday, when he had two dozen mares and a large string of horses split among four or five trainers.

“We have just three mares, all from Guy’s original stock. There’s La Napoule, a half-sister to La Cucuracha, who won seven races, and Le Toreador, who won 13. She won only a small race at Wolverhampton but has bred three winners, including Peggy Sioux, a very fast filly over five furlongs who was rated in the high-80s and has been retained for the stud.

“Then, of course, there’s La Pomme D’Amour. Who could forget her after Economics?”