Sangster success in the blood

Minnie Hauk, the brave winner of this year’s Oaks, joins a long list of top-class horses bred by Ben Sangster that includes other Classic scorers Dancing Rain and Roderic O’Connor, champion Luxembourg and smart performers Changingoftheguard, Forgotten Voice and Nayef Road.

The man himself deflects any credit for those achievements, though.

“Don’t make me sound like a cocky so-and-so or a know-it-all, because I’m neither,” says Sangster with a chuckle. “It’s all luck. Sometimes it goes your way and sometimes it doesn’t. Everyone needs a little luck in their life.”

Fellow breeders will sympathise with that sentiment. Good fortune is indeed required at every stage of production: from purchasing the right mare to choosing the best stallion for her, to hoping that she becomes pregnant without fuss, to safely foaling her offspring and to keeping all the stock free of injury and infection.

Blood will out: always has, always will

Then it is up to divine providence whether the prized foal has inherited the optimum combination of traits from its parents, and up to the even more capricious commercial market whether it enters training with a handler who will have the skill and patience to get the best out of it.

Sangster has, however, probably marshalled the odds a little more in his favour through his appreciation and understanding of pedigrees.

“Blood will out: always has, always will,” he says. “That’s what I think, anyhow. It all comes down to pedigree. Some people are lucky enough to make their own families, but it’s a long, drawn-out process.

“Otherwise you have to hope to  be able to get into some of those outstanding families that have been cultivated for decades by the great breeders like Juddmonte, the Aga Khan, the Wildensteins or John Magnier.

“I love going through those pedigrees. Look at the Irish 2,000 Guineas winner this year [Field Of Gold]. He goes back to the wonderful family of Serena’s Song and Sophisticat. It’s those deep families that seem to be the ones that come back time and time again.”

Minnie Hauk is proof positive of Sangster’s fondness for a big pedigree. The Frankel filly is out of the Dansili mare Multilingual, who didn’t show an awful lot on her sole start for her owner and breeder Juddmonte, but hailed from one of that operation’s finest families, being a half-sister to the exceptional Kingman out of Poule d’Essai des Pouliches heroine Zenda, a Zamindar half-sister to champion two-year-old and sprinter Oasis Dream.

Moreover, Zenda was out of Hope, a Dancing Brave full-sister to Irish Oaks victress Wemyss Bight, later the dam of multiple US Grade 1 winner Beat Hollow. Prix du Jockey Club scorer New Bay, whose classy daughter Saffron Beach was co-owned by Sangster, is another member of this dynasty, which must be considered one of the most important of recent times.

Sangster’s son Ollie, now an accomplished trainer based at the family’s part of the Manton estate, paid $525,000 for Multilingual on behalf of his father when she was sold by Juddmonte, through Mill Ridge Sales, at the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale of 2019.

“Her page caught the eye because it’s a seriously strong European family,”  says Sangster. “It was actually even better than it looked at the time as her two-year-old, Tilsit, was with Charlie Hills but unraced at that point.

“She had that lovely pedigree and she was also a big, tall, scopey, correct model, so we thought we’d have a go and see if we can buy her – and we got her, which was wonderful.

“In the following year Tilsit came out and won the Thoroughbred Stakes, and in the season after that he was just touched off in the Prix d’Ispahan, so he was a pretty good horse. Charlie did an excellent job with him.”

The Noble Mission filly that was carried by Multilingual in the ring in Kentucky was named Decipher and raced by Sangster and partners with Jane Chapple-Hyam, but failed to reach a winner’s enclosure. She was sent to Starspangledbanner for her first cover last year.

The No Nay Never filly who was the result of Sangster’s own first choice of mating for Multilingual was so attractive that she caused a bit of a stir at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale of 2022. She was bought by Tina Rau on behalf of Gestüt Schlenderhan for a cool 780,000gns.

“I thought No Nay Never would suit the mare and luckily the result was the most beautiful filly,” says Sangster. “She was bought for good money but wasn’t that great on the track. She ended up winning a maiden in the French provinces earlier this year, and I assume she’s gone to stud now.”

The real McCoy

Multilingual’s next offspring was Minnie Hauk, who was sold to Coolmore for the top price of €1.85 million at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale.

MV Magnier paid tribute to Sangster after he signed the docket for the filly at Kildare Paddocks, saying, “I’m delighted for Ben. We’ve had a long history with the Sangster family and we’ve been very lucky buying from them in the past, most recently with Luxembourg.”

Fortunately for her new owners she has turned out to have a great deal of ability as well as good looks. “The real McCoy,” sums up Sangster.

Reflecting on how Minnie Hauk has continued the rich association between the Sangster family and Coolmore, which goes all the way back to when his father Robert teamed up with John Magnier and Vincent O’Brien to raid the Kentucky yearling sales for the most attractive stallion prospects, fuelling the boom in the Bluegrass in the late 1970s and early 1980s, he adds: “We go back a long way and I’m very fond of MV and the Magnier family.

“We know each other well, and they’re very supportive. They send horses to Manton for Ollie to train, and I have a few mares boarded at Coolmore. It’s a very amicable arrangement.

“I worked there for a short period of time, and I’ve got a lot of friends in the whole organisation. They’re still there because the team is incredibly loyal, it means more than just work to many of the people there.

“Coolmore is a top operation with wonderful farms and staff, and Ballydoyle is arguably as good a situation as there is for training horses anywhere in the world. If you sell a horse and it ends up going there, you know you’ve got a good chance that it will be a good one.”

Multilingual, now 13, is still going strong and has been on her travels in recent years.

“After she foaled Minnie Hauk she went back to No Nay Never on the strength of the earlier filly by him,” says Sangster. “We’ve got the two-year-old filly here with Ollie. She’s been named Voice Coach.

“She wasn’t a physical standout like the first one, but she’s still a nice, strong, good-moving filly who should be capable of winning. We don’t know how far up the ladder she’ll go, as she hasn’t been asked any questions yet.

“Multilingual went back to Frankel after that, and she was nicely in foal, but sadly lost the pregnancy in the November of her covering year. That would have been a yearling this year, and if it had been a handsome beast it would have been highly desirable to go into training or be sold, but there we are, these things happen.

Concerted effort

“The mare was barren after that so we sent her to America and she went to Justify. She has a filly foal who I’ve seen photos of, and the guys on the farm tell me is very, very nice. She went back to Justify on the back of that, and she’s safely in foal, touch wood.

“All being well we’ll bring her back over here. I suppose Frankel would be the obvious choice for her if they’re both in good health, as they should be.”

Multilingual is one of around a dozen mares owned by Sangster, who says he has made a concerted effort to keep numbers down and quality up in light of the market seemingly becoming ever more polarised.

Attire, the dam of Luxembourg, is the other star name in the fold. The 16-year-old is by Danehill Dancer and is a full-sister to Group 3 winner Forgotten Voice, out of Asnieres, a winning Spend A Buck half-sister to Breeders’ Cup Classic hero Arcangues and to the dams of brilliant racemares Aquarelliste and Cape Verdi.

She has produced four other winners including Mooresbridge Stakes scorer Leo De Fury (by Australia) and the Group 3-placed pair Hiawatha (by Camelot, so a full-brother to Luxembourg) and Sense Of Style (by Zoffany).

“Attire is alive and well, thankfully,” says Sangster. “She’s got a Frankel yearling filly and then she missed to Frankel last year, but she’s in foal to City Of Troy now.

“We also have Sense Of Style. She’s a really good-looking mare, and was just short of being a Group-race winner. She was touched off once or twice. Her first offspring, a Camelot filly, was very nice, and sold well at Book 1 last year [made 2,900,000gns]. She was bought by Amo Racing and has gone into training in Newmarket.

“The mare has another Camelot yearling filly this year. She’s exciting. If all goes well, big things could happen with her.”

Returning to his favourite topic of blue-chip breeding, he adds: “I bought Attire’s dam Asnieres in the late 1990s. It’s wonderful blood, the famous Wildenstein ‘A’ family. The page features lots of champions in England, Ireland, France and the US, where it’s not easy to be a champion.”

It’s a question of getting lucky with the right mare

Sangster’s broodmare band also features relations to some of his past successes. He owns two unraced halfsisters to Dancing Rain in Rock Orchid (by Fastnet Rock, and already the dam of Curragh Cup third Amusement) and Monsoon Lady (by Zoffany).

“It’s a great family through and through, there are champions going all the way down the page,” says Sangster.

“It’s just a question of getting lucky with the right mare who’ll produce the next one. Rock Orchid and Monsoon Lady have been well mated so we’ll have to see if they can do it.”

Dancing Rain was out of Rain Flower, an Indian Ridge three-parts sister to Dr Devious, the Derby hero who was bought as a foal by Sangster and his good friend Paul Shanahan in their salad days.

“Paul reared him and we sold him, but no profit was taken,” recalls Sangster. “He ended up coming to Peter Chapple-Hyam at Manton, of course.

“I was in my late 20s when I got stuck in and got my feet wet. The best way to learn about the business is to invest yourself, and then you find out pretty quickly what’s right and what’s wrong. You never stop learning, though.”

Sangster had accompanied his father and the Coolmore partners on some of their legendary buying trips to Kentucky to pick out the prime yearlings by Northern Dancer and his sire sons, and says the main lesson he learned was an exceedingly basic one.

“I would have been in my late teens when all those enormous prices were being paid,” he continues. “It was heavy stuff, but it was hard to conceive what was going on in the moment, and I was probably too young to comprehend the importance of it, to be honest.

“It was the start of my fascination with pedigrees, though, and being in the company of such a formidable team I did at least realise that the main thing I needed to do was to keep my mouth shut and my ears open.”

Sangster’s admiration for elite breeding resulted in him adding a particularly blueblooded mare to his team recently. He gave, with Norelands Stud, 170,000gns for the then 15-year-old Very Good News, an Empire Maker half-sister to top-level winners Banks Hill, Cacique, Champs Elysees, Heat Haze and Intercontinental and leading sire Dansili, at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale of 2023.

Very Good News had already produced the smart pair Media Stream and Weekender for Juddmonte when she became the first ever progeny of the operation’s exceptional matriarch Hasili to be offered at auction.

“I bought her with Harry McCalmont, a good pal of mine, and she’s in Ireland,” says Sangster. “We’ve got a New Bay yearling colt and a Teofilo colt foal out of her, but we’re really looking for a filly because, again, that blood is just about the best in the stud book.

“She’s gone to Australia, who’s a highly underrated sire for what he’s achieved and is still doing. But then a lot of people are more interested in speed than those types of horses now.

“When you’re breeding commercially you have to respect what the market wants, but it does seem quite harsh on those classy staying horses sometimes.

“That’s not to say that sprinting isn’t important. My father got all his good luck from fast mares. He loved fillies who had run in the Queen Mary or Cheveley Park Stakes, and then breeding them up to the mile and mile-and- a-quarter sires. He would always preach the virtues of speed on the dam’s side. If they had placed in those juvenile speed contests, he loved them.”

Robert Sangster would surely have approved of Lambourn, who completed the Epsom-Irish Derby double for Coolmore last month. He is by Australia and out of Gossamer Wings, a daughter of Scat Daddy who finished a short-head second in the Queen Mary Stakes in her racing pomp.

“There you go,” exclaims Ben Sangster. “Coolmore have been incredibly successful breeding along those lines, it’s been a tried and tested formula for years. That’s why they keep pursuing those  quick fillies, like Believing [Group 1 winner] now.”

Sangster might not enjoy talking about his own achievements, but he clearly relishes chatting about pedigrees and the mysteries of breeding. He is as much an enthusiast as an entrepreneur when it comes to keeping mares.

“It’s a privilege to have them,” he agrees. “I love sitting down and working out the matings, and then waiting for the foals, hoping it will be a case of black cat, black kitten, and discussing all of it with friends.

“It really is all about luck, though, and that’s what’s made Minnie Hauk so special. I was lucky to be able to buy her dam, lucky to be able to send her dam to Frankel, and lucky to sell her for a nice price and for her to go to a good hotel.

“You’ve got to have luck on your side.”