New faces at the National Stud

The 2005 stud season will get underway with a host of new faces joining the established favourites at the National Stud.

First-season sires Passing Glance and Deportivo have been purchased to enhance the current group of established sires standing at the stud, which include the highly successful Bahamian Bounty. The stud is also home to Helissio, Silver Patriarch and Passing Glance, while Bollin Eric will spend the 2005 season at Wood Farm Stud in Shropshire.

The National Stud stallions will be joined by Lee Fleming’s Desert Sun, who will stand at the stud during the 2005 and 2006 seasons, while one for the future will be the recently purchased Pastoral Pursuits — who is one of Bahamian Bounty’s most promising progeny.

Pastoral Pursuits will continue his racing career with trainer Hughie Morrison through 2005, during which the National Stud will have 40% ownership of the stallion. At the end of the 2005 season the National Stud will purchase the remaining 60% and he will stand at the stud in 2006. The stud plans to syndicate a 40% share of the horse.

Morrisson says: “I am delighted at the prospect of Pastoral Pursuits being raced next year in partnership with the National Stud. He is a superb racehorse and I am confident that he has at least one Group 1 victory in him. He certainly justifies the current confidence of the market in the offspring of Bahamian Bounty.”

The stud’s ongoing development will ensure that it can hold its own in the highly competitive racing breeding industry should its funding from the Levy Board be lost and includes the expansion of its broodmare band, which now totals some 24 mares.

Stud general manager Reid Coulter recently told H&H: “There is no point in waiting for the Levy Board to disappear, or whatever might happen to it. We must become more commercially aware and competitive and get out and find the stallions people want and can afford.”

• Don’t miss an Horse & Hound New Stallion Special (6 January ’04), on sale now, which includes a feature on the changing times at the National Stud

Carol Phillips

H&H website editor

Carol is an experienced journalist and editor, who is also a passionate amateur rider and dedicated horse owner, having ridden since childhood. She has a particular interest in the emotional well-being and ethical training of horses, alongside veterinary matters, having garnered extensive first-hand experience of numerous equine health conditions through more than 30 years of horse ownership.