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Racing News |
2009 TBA Breeders’ Awards Winners Announced - Overbury Stud Thrilled with Kayf Tara Recognition
21/12/09
Six 2009 Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association (TBA) Award Winners are revealed today, acknowledging the achievements of some of Britain’s most successful stud farms.
This year’s TBA Awards will be presented in a new format, with the remaining winners announced at a dinner at Newmarket in June, following the TBA’s Annual General Meeting.
Prince Khalid Abdulla’s Juddmonte Farms has, for the sixth time this century, won the Queen’s Silver Cup, awarded to the leading British-based breeder (Flat) who has accrued the most prize money in Great Britain and Ireland from mares normally resident in the UK.
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Juddmonte has secured the award for the second year in succession, having accrued £2,342,000 in prize money from the 61 victors of 95 races. Prince Khalid Abdulla’s team was led by the Group One winners Midday (Nassau Stakes), Twice Over (Champion Stakes) and Special Duty (Cheveley Park Stakes).
The Juddmonte operation reaps further reward thanks to the excellent achievement of Oasis Dream. The Green Desert stallion was awarded the 2008 Tattersalls’ Silver Salver and followed up this year by clinching the BBA Silver Cigar Box as the leading British-based Stallion according to Flat earnings.
Resident at Prince Khalid’s Banstead Manor Stud, Oasis Dream’s domestic earnings of £2.86 million were the fourth-highest overall. The champion sprinter of 2003 is versatile with regard to his progeny’s stamina potential and his 2009 star performer was the home-bred filly Midday, who rounded off a fantastic year with victory in the Grade One Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf over 10 furlongs.
Pivotal maintains his position as the top British-based stallion, taking his third successive Barleythorpe Cup for the leading Flat sire in terms of individual winners. The Cheveley Park Stud stallion sired 78 individual winners in 2009, nine more than his nearest rivals, Kyllachy and Oasis Dream.
Oaks heroine Sariska, Lockinge Stakes victor Virtual and Haydock Park Sprint Cup winner Regal Parade were Pivotal’s Group One scorers in Britain this year, while Siyouni landed the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere in France.
Dubawi, a Classic-winning son of the late Dubai Millennium, wins the 2009 Tattersalls’ Silver Salver as the leading British-based first season sire based on Flat earnings. Sheikh Mohammed’s Dalham Hall Stud resident finished second in the overall list of new sires to Darley’s Shamardal, who stands at the Sheikh’s Kildangan Stud in Ireland.
Dubawi is from the sole crop of his sire and the standouts from the Darley home-bred’s first runners were the Doncaster Group Two winners Poet’s Voice and Sand Vixen.
In the world of jump racing, Kayf Tara enjoyed a notable 2009. The Darley stallion, resident at Overbury Stud, wins the Whitbread Silver Salver as the leading active British-based National Hunt Stallion according to earnings.
A dual Ascot Gold Cup winner when racing for Godolphin, the Sadler’s Wells stallion’s progeny earned over £680,000. His leading performers were the Grade Two winners Carruthers, Kornati Kid, Clan Tara and Tarablaze, while Kayf Aramis triumphed in the Pertemps Final at the Cheltenham Festival.
Kayf Tara has boarded at Overbury Stud since retiring from racing after his second Royal Ascot success in June, 2000, and is about to embark on his 10th season as a stallion.
Simon Sweeting, manager at Overbury Stud, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to receive the Whitbread Silver Salver. He is still a very young horse, so to achieve this relatively quickly for a National Hunt stallion is great. The strength of horses that are standing in this country now, compared to what they have got in Ireland, is improving all the time, so the competition is getting hotter. It is a real thrill to have the chap at the top of our pile. It would be nicer if he was a little bit closer to the top of the whole list but hopefully we will get a little bit higher up as time goes by. His oldest progeny are still only seven years old, so they’re only young.
“With a racehorse like him - a champion two years running - one expects him to do well but there are so many top racehorses with good pedigrees that don’t. So, the first thing to say is that, on paper, he looked the real deal and we have been very fortunate that he has proven to be just that.
“The second thing to draw attention to is the support of Sheikh Mohammed and his decision to let Kayf Tara stand in this country. He could have easily taken the easy option with a potential National Hunt stallion and sent him to Ireland. And of course, he could have made a good buck in the meantime with all the offers that have been coming in. So we are very lucky that Sheikh Mohammed has stuck with it and let us get to this stage because there have been many opportunities for him to go to Ireland. Hopefully Kayf Tara will remain here and see it right through.
“He has been with us since day one and covered 275 mares this year. Like most stallions, he was very popular early on when he was fresh in people’s minds as a racehorse. He covered 160 to 200 mares for the first three years and then it went down, although there was only one year that he did not cover 100 mares. When he started to have success on the track, it pushed up very quickly again. We are very fortunate that he is a fertile horse, he has a very strong libido and he will cover a lot of mares. He is one of those horses that is happier the harder he is working.
“We were fortunate that the Irish buyers latched on to him early, those people who sell the end product, the potential racehorses and the point-to-point winners. John Costello has been coming over for five years and he will ring up and ask to be pointed in the direction of the colt foals. He will come and buy several every year and that gets them into the right places. Also, the top breeders in this country, Stephen Kemble, Robert Chugg and the Astons at Goldford, have always supported him consistently. That means that he has been getting good mares and his offspring have always been well-presented at the right sales at the right time, which leads to them getting in with the big trainers and owners and that has to be a huge advantage for a stallion.
“We are absolutely thrilled to have the award and to have him to keep us going. He has made life a lot easier through this recession and we certainly appreciate it.”
Overbury collected the 2008 Whitbread Silver Salver and this year the Mickley Stud sire was awarded the Horse & Hound Cup as the leading active British-based National Hunt Stallion according to individual chase winners.
A high-class globe-trotter in his racing days on the Flat for Sheikh Mohammed, Overbury has made his mark as a stallion and in the 2008/09 season he sired 16 individual chase winners of 27 races for prize-money of £237,626. Perhaps his most recognisable runner is Ballyfitz, successful in the Pertemps Final at the 2008 Cheltenham Festival.
2009 THOROUGHBRED BREEDERS’ ASSOCIATION AWARDS
Queen’s Silver Cup (Leading British-based Breeder - Flat earnings) - Juddmonte Farms
BBA Silver Cigar Box (Leading British-based Stallion - Flat earnings) - Oasis Dream
Barleythorpe Cup (Leading British-based Stallion - individual winners) - Pivotal
Tattersalls’ Silver Salver (Leading British-based first season sire) - Dubawi
Whitbread Silver Salver (Leading Active British-based NH Stallion, earnings - Kayf Tara
Horse & Hound Cup (Leading Active British-based Stallion, individual chase wins) - Overbury
The following winners will be announced in 2010
TBA Silver Salver (Special Merit)
The Langham Cup (Small Breeder of the Year)
H J Joel Silver Salver (Leading British-based Flat Broodmare of the Year)
TBA Silver Rose Bowl (Flat Breeder of the Year)
Dudgeon Cup (NH Broodmare of the Year)
HM Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother’s Silver Salver (Outstanding contribution to National Hunt racing and breeding)
Duke of Devonshire Award
Dominion Award
