Quick ground no concern for Balding ahead of Chaldean’s Ascot run

Quick ground no concern for Balding ahead of Chaldean’s Ascot run

By Racing TV
Last Updated: Tue 5 Dec 2023
Andrew Balding is eyeing up Royal Ascot glory with Classic winning colt Chaldean, a decisive winner of the QIPCO 2,000 Guineas when last seen. The Juddmonte owned son of Frankel was purchased at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale for 550,000 guineas from Whitsbury Manor Stud.
Chaldean was an impressive juvenile performer last season, winning four of his five starts. Having won the Group 3 Tattersalls Acomb Stakes, he capped off his two-year-old campaign with Group 1 victory in the Dewhurst Stakes at Newmarket.
Despite going to post in the Group 3 Greenham Stakes at Newbury, Chaldean unseated rider Frankie Dettori coming out of the stalls. Although normally deemed a key trial race ahead of the QIPCO 2,000 Guineas, this son of Frankel overcame his missed prep run by winning the first Classic of the year in decisive fashion. In doing so he replicated the Dewhurst and Guineas win that his sire [Frankel] also achieved.
Looking back on that Classic win, Balding told Tattersalls: “The Classics are a big deal, particularly the Guineas. To get it early in the season is a huge effort.
“Having won the Dewhurst, you spend the whole winter with high expectations. You then get there, and it was more of a relief than a feeling of ecstasy. It was a great one to get on the board and everyone was rightfully very happy with themselves.”
Reflecting on the progression of Chaldean as a two-year-old Balding said: “He was a May foal, so we started him a little later.
“He learned a lot on his debut and then won well and kept improving with each race. He impressed in the Acomb, the form of which is pretty strong and again at Doncaster.
“We went into the Dewhurst with high hopes, and he got the race won, despite idling in the last two furlongs of the race. He’s just a lovely horse to have around, he’s so professional and talented as well.”
Chaldean currently heads the early betting market in the Group 1 St. James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot to which Balding has confirmed all preparations are currently aimed towards.
Balding told Tattersalls: “The St James’s Palace is the intended target. Chances are he is going to have to encounter some faster ground at some stage. I haven’t got a concern myself; it was quite fast when he won at York and I think at Ascot, the round track there should really play to his strengths, we’re looking forward to it.”
Ed Harper, Stud Director at Whitsbury Manor who bred Chaldean is no stranger to success. The Whitsbury team currently stand top class stallions Showcasing and Havana Grey and have enjoyed numerous high-class homebred winners.
Breeding a Classic winner from their own broodmare band would have proved extremely poignant for the Harper family who have been operating successfully for over 50 years.
Dam of Chaldean, Suelita was a 21,500 guineas purchase by Whitsbury Manor Stud from Castletown Stud at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale in 2013. Since then, the mare has produced six winners from six foals of racing age and is the dam of five black type performers including the Group 2 Mill Reef Stakes winner Alkumait, the Listed winner Get Ahead and now Classic winner, Chaldean.
Harper states: “It’s almost rags to riches, 21,500 guineas is a lot of money in the real world but to buy a mare, that would still be in the cheaper bracket.
“Dad had handed over the reins to me at that stage and had promised not to buy any more horses and to leave it up to me, but I strolled up to the chute at Tattersalls and he came out and said, ‘Oh I hope you don’t mind I’ve bought a mare.”
Thinking back on the mating of Frankel and Suelita, Harper told Tattersalls: “It was a bit of a 50/50 decision to breed the mare at that late time of the season. We were getting into June, so it was a toss of a coin as to whether we would send her back for a cover.
“Luckily, we took that decision. He [Chaldean] was a very late foal, he was the last foal born on the stud that year, so he got a lot of attention. Not just because he was a Frankel foal out of a very nice mare of ours but because he was the last one by quite some way. He was very natural around people from the start.”
When asked if the son of Frankel was a standout foal Harper said: “People love to sound clever when they say that, but he always had that sort of look, very confident horses often look smart, and he was unbelievably confident and always had lovely movement. The mare does pop out pretty smart ones. She’s a bit of a golden mare to have, so we were very happy from day one.”
Physical attributes can heavily influence breeders mating choices and sending Suelita to Frankel was no different as Harper explains: “She’s not a big mare, but she’s so pretty, and I just thought she needed a bit of size and scope, and Frankel obviously does that.
“We’ve bred a couple of good Showcasings out of her which is great to make the most out of the speed in her pedigree but to maybe get more of a Book 1 type yearling, Frankel would just put a bit more scope in.”
Harper highlighted the conscious effort Whitsbury Manor Stud are making to offer quality stock at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale as he states: “We are really trying to get a reputation for selling a real quality type of foal at the sales, sometimes the best time to sell is when it’s an agonising decision. That’s when you really raise the interest of the market.
“We are really trying to push ourselves to sell the ones that maybe other people wouldn’t choose to sell as foals, that might give us the point of difference. It was a difficult decision but it’s one we want to keep making.”
Chaldean’s success has brought about return business for Whitsbury Manor Stud as Juddmonte went to 1,000,000 guineas to purchase his half-sister at last year’s Tattersalls December Foal Sale.
Harper told Tattersalls: “We really appreciated Juddmonte supporting us and buying him at the time, we’re even happier for them when they’ve gone in again and bought the Kingman half-sister last year at the foal sales for a lot of money.
“They deserve all the success they’re getting with him. She [Suelita] is just becoming the superstar of the stud and we want to wrap her up in cotton wool.”
After selling Chaldean as a foal there were no apparent whispers about Chaldean’s ability ahead of his racing debut. Harper said: “I was hearing nothing, I’m not in the know on those sorts of things and to be honest I wasn’t blown away by his first two starts.
“He looked like a nice horse but I’m no judge of a race. He’s just amazing how he keeps improving and loving his racing, he looks like he really enjoys the job and long may that continue.”
Reflecting on QIPCO 2,000 Guineas Day at Newmarket and the feeling of becoming a Classic winning breeder, Harper added: “It just never stopped raining! You’re standing there in the pre-parade ring shivering and thinking of all the things that are going to go wrong, especially with his previous race in the Greenham.
“I’m a bit doom and gloom before a race starts but with a furlong to go, I couldn’t see him getting beaten. I was screaming and yelling, and I feel sorry for the people that were around me in the seats, I didn’t feel cold and wet after that, it was fantastic.”
Harper concluded: “It’s justification of my father’s hard work for 50 years.”
Andrew Balding’s Kingsclere yard is also set to target long distance specialist Coltrane at the Group 1 Ascot Gold Cup at the Royal Meeting. Owned by Mick and Janice Mariscotti, the six-year-old was purchased at Book 1 of the 2018 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale for 50,000 guineas by his trainer from Rockfield Farm.
Coltrane was highly progressive last season, he was a winner of the Ascot Stakes at the Royal meeting, had success in the Listed Coral Marathon at Sandown, running away from his rivals in emphatic style to win by 10-lengths, as well as landing the Group 2 Doncaster Stakes when getting the better of longtime rival Trueshan.
He looked to be on top form when winning the Group 3 Sagaro Stakes at Ascot last month on his seasonal reappearance.
Balding said: “He’s a bit of a star, he wasn’t an expensive yearling. He has been a pleasant surprise from day one in everything he’s done. He looked stone cold useless as a two-year-old to be honest. He could hardly get up to the top of the gallop and just improved and improved.
He had improved with racing but had a setback at the beginning of his four-year-old career. He missed a lot and the way he’s come back is an absolute tribute to his steel. He’s just a fabulous horse to train and I thought he was very impressive in the Sagaro Stakes.
“If he can produce that sort of a performance at Ascot on Gold Cup Day then he’s got to be a player.”
The son of Mastercraftsman has appeared to show a lot of versatility when it comes to both ground conditions and style of running. Balding added: “He seems so versatile in terms of the way the race could be run and in terms of the ground, so we’re relaxed about it. If we can just get him there in his best health, he’s got to have a chance.”
When asked if Coltrane could be at his very best this season Balding said: “I think the last run [Group 3 Sagaro Stakes] suggests he is better than ever. I thought he was very impressive. He put in a similar performance at Sandown last year where he looked very good, and we were just thrilled with the way he won at Ascot.
“It was obvious that we didn’t need to be running again before the Gold Cup because there’s a busy time after that as well so hopefully, if we can get him there in the same form, he should have a great chance.”
Looking back at the purchase of Coltrane as a yearling Balding recalled: “We were always looking for Mick and Janice [Mariscotti]. We look for something that represents a bit of value, something that we can buy for a reasonable price and have the ability to sell for more at some stage during his racing career. That’s what we were trying to achieve.
“We were particularly looking for a couple of staying horses. with the markets opening up in Australia and the jump market as well, it’s quite a good resale option if you don’t get a Coltrane and get something that’s below that level, there’s still a good out at the end of the day. That’s essentially what we were looking for, but he really has exceeded all of our expectations.
“Usually for Mick and Janice, we’ve traded very well in the past, but we couldn’t trade him because he was injured. We’re incredibly lucky to still have him and we’ll have him until his career is over, I would say.”
Mick Mariscotti also spoke with Tattersalls on the success of Coltrane and the luck they have had with his sire Mastercraftsman. Mariscotti said: “He’s the third Mastercraftsman that we’ve owned. The other two were both very good horses so it wasn’t difficult for us to look at a Mastercraftsman.
“We didn’t buy him based on the page, we’ve been taught by Emma [Balding] that you look at the animal rather than the page, so he was from a sire that we like, relatively unfashionable at that time and he was the type of horse that we buy.
"The brief is the budget really. Andrew and the team know what kind of horse we are looking for, we tend to go for horses that like a longer trip - there’s more value. He doesn’t have the deepest page and that’s fine for us."
Despite having success with this long-distance specialist, connections look to different types of horses when sourcing yearlings at the sales. Mariscotti said: “We mix it up a little, we’ll go for horses that take a shorter trip too.
“We’re learning every year. Truthfully, Janice and I know what we like. if we like a horse then we will fight for that one, but we would never dream of trying to say that we know more than the people who really know what they’re doing.”
Coltrane has proved a real flag bearer for the Kingsclere stable in recent seasons, entering some of racing’s most prestigious winners’ enclosures. However, it has been well documented that Coltrane’s journey has encountered ups and downs as Mariscotti explained: “He was broken by Katie Lyons, who loved him to bits. He was the last horse of our string to come to Andrew [Balding] and the feedback from Andrew as soon as he arrived was, he's very slow.
“It got to the point where Andrew said, ‘I’m going to have to put him on a racecourse, but I think it might be embarrassing.’ He turned up and came second first time out and he’s never really looked back. He had a good three-year-old career where he won the Melrose and ran a credible race in the Cesarewitch.”
“He then got injured. We honestly didn’t know whether he was ever going to come back at all. He reappeared at the back end of his four-year-old career on the all-weather, it's fair to say he didn’t set the world on fire. The Chester Cup onwards last year he just got better and better and improved with every run.
“He’s now part of the family, he’s one that we won’t sell, we are known for trading our horses, it’s how we keep the whole thing afloat but he’s part of the family.”
Coltrane is another early market leader for the Balding team ahead of The Ascot Gold Cup, which brings added pressure for connections. Mariscotti said: “We generally don’t like being favourite, so part of me is hoping that something else comes along. He deserves his place, and he deserves where he is in the betting market right now. I just hope we can enjoy the day.
“There’s going to be a lot of good horses there and I hope he turns in a performance. We’ll be proud of him whatever happens.”
Given the success enjoyed from this Book 1 Tattersalls October Yearling Sale purchase, Mariscotti added: “We’ve been lucky the last two years we’ve done all of our buying in Book 1.
“It’s tough because our budget is not a Book 1 type budget, but we are looking for possibly unfashionable sires, new sires and we’ve been able to do it. If we don’t do it at Book 1, we’ll be at Book 2 so one way or another we’ll get it done.”
The next sale to take place at Tattersalls’ Park Paddocks in Newmarket is the Tattersalls July Sale from Tuesday 11th – Friday 14th July. The sale consists of fillies and mares from outstanding international families and an abundance of progressive horses in training which annually attracts buyers from all corners of the world. Please see www.tattersalls.com.
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