Owner-breeders are, by their very nature, an optimistic bunch. But if they were handing out awards for the most enthusiastic around, Jeffrey Hobby would be a short-priced favourite to collect. The man behind Brightwalton Stud in West Berkshire is rarely seen without a pep in his step, and recent events have given him more reason to smile than usual. If he wasn’t high on life before, he certainly is now.
Hobby and his wife, Phoebe, enjoyed their first taste of homebred Group 1 success when the likeable and steadily progressive Makarova brought the curtain down on her racing career with a clear-cut victory over Bradsell in the Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamp on Arc day. Then, just three days later, a barnstorming renewal of Book 1 at Tattersalls saw Brightwalton realise its biggest ever price in the sales ring when Godolphin gave 750,000gns for a Lope De Vega colt sold through Barton Stud.
And, as if to prove that Hobby could practically walk on water during the first few days in October, sandwiched between those two triumphs was another success, albeit at a more routine level, when Fernando, the first foal out of a half-sister to Makarova, opened his account at Yarmouth. Hobby says he does not bet, but he could be forgiven for buying a lottery ticket after such a red-hot run of form.
“It’s unbelievable, it means everything,”
Most questions throughout the course of this interview are met with an effervescent response. However, when asked what that breakthrough Group 1 victory meant, the reply is uncharacteristically brief. “It’s unbelievable, it means everything,” he says gesturing to the tear in his eye and the lump in his throat. “It’s the whole dream.”
And the dream has been a lifetime in the making. Although Hobby has ploughed his own particularly successful furrow in the commercial property business, he is not some flash Harry who got rich and bought his own farm. He was born into the bloodstock world having grown up at his parents’ Hillwood Stud, meaning he has ridden enough of the lows to realise just how hard it is to reach that Group 1-winning high.
“I was hunting mad and worked on the stud prepping yearlings and helping the mares as a young boy,” he says. “That was my passion and what I was brought up with. My parents bred a good horse called Torus who went on to become a jumps stallion, so as a small kid I had a small share in him. I got some money from Torus when I was 18 and that bought me my first really good hunter.
“We had a very good stud groom, John Thomas, who took it upon himself to share his knowledge. He always thought I’d take the stud on at home so he took me under his wing and trained me up. I was brought into conversations with the vets, he’d bring me to the sales and send me off when we had a horse by something like Caerleon and make me go look at all the others by the same sire and rank ours against the rest.”
Makarova is not the first instance of Hobby being involved with a top-notch sprinter, as he continues, “Paris House would’ve been one of the last horses I prepped. I remember him as a foal – and him jumping the fence as a youngster. His mum was a nightmare! I remember foaling him, and within a few hours the hormones had subsided and she was properly savage.”
Horses may have always been Hobby’s passion, but a connection with one of racing’s most famous families did not just provide company while out hunting, but some formative feedback that shaped his future relationship with the industry. “I was advised that property was a better career than horses,” he continues. “I think it was Emma Balding that said that to me when I was young and we used to drag hunt together. Ian was a joint master of mine for years, so we used to do a lot of drag hunting with the Baldings. Andrew wasn’t so keen, but Claire and her parents came out a lot.”
I’m happy to take a bit of a gamble
Although the crossover between commercial property and breeding Group 1-winning racehorses may, in practical terms, be minimal to non-existent, Hobby says a similar mindset has underpinned success in both spheres.
“I did an estate management degree and ended up with my own business investing in commercial property,” he says. “I’m quite unusual as most people are agents but I buy on my own account and do it myself. I suppose it’s the same with horses as I don’t tend to do syndicates, I tend to invest on my own and do it myself.
“It’s probably a bit mad on both scores but I suppose I’m happy to take a bit of a gamble. I never bet but I’m undoubtedly a risk taker – at least I’m happy to take calculated risks. Buying and breeding horses is a big calculated risk, especially when you start buying nominations. As a mate pointed out to me the other day, he said ‘Trainers worry about buying horses on spec, but we breed them on spec!’
“We pay for stallions on spec in the hope that we might get something out at the other end. You’re just hoping that when you get there with a foal or a yearling, or whatever your journey is with them, that there’ll be some success at the end of it. By nature that’s quite a lot of risk. But that’s breeding.”
While Hobby may be comfortable with the idea of calculated gambles, the chain of events that led to the establishment of Brightwalton Stud was more down to serendipity than high-risk strategy.
“My parents always had horses but I went off to London for a few years so they took a back seat as I tried to progress my career,” he says. “I was living in Brightwalton and commuting to London, doing quite serious stuff in property, but still drag hunting every weekend. That was an absolute priority in life. When my family sold the farm at Aldbourne in 2000, the stud went with it, so I had hunters I needed to put somewhere.
“I rang up the man who owned the farm across the road and asked if I could buy a field off him. He said he wouldn’t sell me the field, but then rang up a couple of weeks later and spoke to my wife one snowy evening and said ‘You can tell your husband that I won’t sell him the field but he can buy the farm.’ I looked at it and thought it was a great opportunity. It was around 120 acres at the time, a former dairy farm with a couple of tumbled down barns and nothing else on it. So I set about building a stud farm from scratch. I’m a bit of a mad idiot really so I had this vision and just thought ‘Of course it’s going to happen.’”
Suffice to say, things were not quite so simple. But, after some significant wrangling over planning permission, Hobby set about laying the foundations for a high-end boutique thoroughbred nursery with all the mod-cons – and some of mother nature’s finest nourishment.
“It was a huge project,” he says. “It’s a very pretty farm and we’ve done it all from scratch. We’ve just bought the farm next door too, so we’re up to about 230 acres. It’s good chalk downland, which rears horses well. And the grass is the most important thing. Anyone can build some stables and buy a bag of feed, but actually the grass is what it’s about.”
We’re very hands-on and we live right next to the yard
Developing Brightwalton may have been a labour love, but Hobby says he keeps a firm grip on the financials, along with the more day-to-day happenings.
“I’m not some billionaire, the stud has to work,” he says. “Now it doesn’t necessarily have to produce cash but I want to feel that at the end of the year the stock’s value has gone up and that we have horses that are justifying what we’re doing. It’s not run as a rich man’s toy to pour money into, it’s very much run along commercial lines.
“I’m pretty passionate about it, though,” he continues with some understatement. “I won’t pretend that I go out with a pitchfork and I won’t pretend I get on the tractor, but I’m there looking at the weanlings and the yearlings with the farriers and the vets, looking at the mares, attending the foalings when I can.
“We’re very hands-on and we live right next to the yard so I spend a lot of time there. The main office for the property business is on the farm, in order that I can be there keeping an eye on what’s going on. And we prep all our yearlings at home, which I really enjoy because you get to know the horses so well. I take a great interest in that, then Tom puts them through the ring.”
Tom is Tom Blain of Barton Stud, who has become a key cog in the Brightwalton machine.
“I first met Tom when we were selling down in the Highflyer yard [at Tattersalls] around 11 years ago and he was next door,” says Hobby. “We got on well and he used to use me as a bit of a sounding board for a while. Then I started using him as a sounding board, and now we work together. I’m getting a bit old and grumpy for standing outside boxes for days on end so it’s easier to let Tom get on with selling our yearlings because he does it incredibly well.”
Another ally is bloodstock agent Matt Coleman. “I linked up with Matt shortly after he came off the Flying Start,” says Hobby. “So Matt and I have worked together for a long time. He helps me buy the mares, helps with mating decisions and race planning, and is generally there to keep me on the straight and narrow.”
Coleman was also there when the Makarova story began in earnest back in July 2015 when her dam, Vesnina, was bought for 68,000gns. The mare had a somewhat unusual profile as she was out of a Listed-placed daughter of Russian Rhythm and by Sea The Stars, yet had won and been Group 3-placed over six furlongs as a two-year-old.
“Russian Rhythm was a great mare, and the Tesio theory is that when you have those really good racemares, often the talent skips a generation,” says Hobby. “Vesnina’s dam, Safina, was a decent racemare and was Listed placed, and Vesnina was her first daughter, so we could forgive her being a bit small. I liked her and thought she was athletic when I was taken to see her by Matt. Yes she was slightly too small, but that made her affordable. If they’re perfect, you’ll go in the ring and find they’re too expensive.”
It’s always a balancing act of physical, pedigree, risk, return and cost.
Hobby says he considers a range of factors and opinions when it comes to forming mating plans, although as Makarova, the result of Vesnina visiting Rathbarry Stud stalwart Acclamation proves, he is not afraid to go his own way when the mood strikes him.
“I take advice from Matt Coleman, Tom Blain is very helpful too, and my wife has some strong views as well,” he says. “So I usually sit down, distil it all and then do what I like! Acclamation was deemed a bit left field when I came up with that. It’s always a balancing act of physical, pedigree, risk, return and cost.”
Makarova ran 28 times over the course of four seasons in training with Ed Walker. Although she ended up winning at the very highest level, it would be fair to say she was not an instant hit. Her first of five victories came in a Salisbury handicap off an official mark of just 68 on her first attempt at sprinting. Despite those humble beginnings, she never looked back as her record went on to include wins in the Listed Land O’Burns Stakes and the Group 3 Coral Charge, while she was third in the Flying Five Stakes for good measure.
“She’s a bloody tough filly,” Hobby says. “I loved her as a foal and as a yearling. She went a bit clumpy and had a bit of a growth spurt as a two-year-old. Other people didn’t love her quite so much at that stage, but I kept saying she’s got it in her and I always believed in her. She’s just gradually built and we’ve persevered with her, and what a journey. It means everything to me.”
Some in Hobby’s position might be tempted to move Makarova on in return for a hefty payday. Her breeder won’t hear a word of it, though.
“I’ve been fairly clear I don’t want to sell her,” he says firmly. “I’m not a big trader. In property I don’t sell all that often; in the past I’ve gone 12 years without selling anything. I’m more of a collector by nature. Why sell your dream? I understand there are a number of people who would be keen to buy her but I don’t really want an offer because I don’t want to deal with that.”
All of which leads to the inevitable question about which stallion Hobby has in mind for his Group 1 winner. “I’m going around in circles,” he says. “There are some obvious choices and I know she’d be well received, but I’ve just got to get my head straight and work out a plan. I need to get the filly home and have a good look at her before we make any decisions.”
The Brightwalton broodmare band contained 14 names in 2024, including the homebred Group 3 winner Maid Up. Makarova is not the only new addition for the 2025 breeding season, as Hobby has also retired Sea Of Thieves, who carried home silks to victory in the Listed Prix Maurice Zilber. His portfolio will also include around half a dozen racehorses spread between his local trainers Walker, Hughie Morrison and Paul and Oliver Cole.
being an owner-breeder is a hard thing to do
Makarova has already helped Hobby realise one dream, and her presence in the Brightwalton broodmare band may yet define what comes next. Asked what his ambitions are for his operation, he says, “As an owner-breeder I’d love to breed a Derby winner, but it’s unlikely I’d still own the horse. Whereas there’s a chance I might still own an Oaks winner, so that’s what I’d really like to breed. But a winner in a Yarmouth nursery is still exciting to me. A winner’s a winner.”
If this year is anything to go by, more winners is the least Hobby can expect.
“There’s plenty of headwinds and being an owner-breeder is a hard thing to do,” he says. “I’m lucky in so much as I can probably flatter myself and call myself a horseman. So many people have stud farms in Britain and they come to it later in life through racing and don’t really have that basic horse knowledge, but I think you need that because there’s plenty of lows too.”
For a moment his mood appears to darken. “We had a brutal year a couple of years back when we lost a number of mares and foals, we had problems with contracted tendons and colics. It just goes like that sometimes, but it’s still brutal. You have to pick yourself up and remember the good times. And that’s why the good times are so good, because you’ve had enough of the lows. It’s a bit like heroin I suppose! The comedown means you need to go back to it. I’ve always had a passion for horses and, fundamentally, that’s what drives it. I love racing, but for me it’s much more about breeding and the horses.”
And with that normal service is resumed. If Hobby is not high on life, he’s certainly high on his horses. And after the season he’s had, who can blame him?
