ALAN VAREY WORTHY RECIPIENT OF QUEEN MOTHER SILVER SALVER AT ANNUAL TBA NATIONAL HUNT BREEDERS’ AWARDS
Alan Varey, driving force behind the hugely successful Batsford Stud in Gloucestershire, was the recipient of the prestigious Queen Mother’s Silver Salver at the TBA’s 11th annual National Hunt Breeders’ Awards, on Monday evening, generously sponsored by Goffs.
The special recognition award is the highest honour bestowed by the TBA’s NH committee and recognition of Varey’s long and distinguished career in the racing and breeding industry.
On being awarded the accolade, Alan Varey commented: “I’m lost for words, I’m utterly speechless.” When asked by host Nick Luck what gets him up in the morning, Varey said: “Just seeing what we have in front of us, beautiful stallions who are performing well, all their offspring doing well and seeing the foals in the paddock - the up and coming.”
Varey paid tribute to his son, Tim and the role he has played in their success, saying: “He’s fifty per cent of the business. We didn’t let him come in early, he had to go out and learn his trade and then said we need you - we need your skills.”
An emotional Tim Varey added: “He’s (Alan) taught me a lot, I can’t deny that, and I feel very proud to accept this award.”
Varey, who runs Batsford Stud with wife Anna, son Tim and his wife Linzi, got a first experience of horses in his native Manchester where he was born in 1952 with his father delivering the Manchester Evening News by horse and carriage.
Sharing his father’s passion for racing, Varey left home at 15 and moved south, first working for trainer Jack Yeomans and then Matt McCourt, who supplied his first winner as a jockey.
Varey’s determination to set up on his own saw him first start a livery yard, training point to pointers, resting horses and preparing horses for the sales, before first leasing Hillwood Stud near Lambourn in 1995 and then moving to Batsford in 2001.
Kadastrof was Varey’s first stallion. Ones that have followed include two 2,000 Guineas winners, Haafhd and Cockney Rebel, Derby winner Erhaab and two St Leger winners Harbour Law and newest recruit Kew Gardens, one of four stallions on the current Batsford roster which also includes Passing Glance.
Hugely supportive of the TBA and its initiatives, Varey also proactively shares his knowledge and experience with future generations through work placements with students from Bristol and Hartpury Universities.
TBA National Hunt Committee Chairman Simon Cox said: “"Once again, last night’s NH Breeders’ Awards Evening was filled with wonderful and inspiring stories. Huge congratulations to all the winners on the night.
"It was a great honour to present the Queen Mother Silver Salver to Alan Varey and his family who were extremely deserving recipients of this prestigious award.
"Our sincere thanks go to Goffs for their continued support of the event, to Nick Luck for his excellent hosting, and to all of the evening’s sponsors—your support is hugely valued and appreciated."
TBA NATIONAL HUNT BREEDERS AWARD WINNERS
Earlier in the evening, the late Robert and his wife Jackie Chugg-bred The New Lion, one of the most exciting British-trained National Hunt horses in training after victories in Newbury’s Grade One Challow Hurdle and the Grade One Turners Novices’ Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival for trainer Dan Skelton, won the Overbury Stud Trophy for Leading Novice Hurdler.
The New Lion’s exploits, along with his Listed-winning sibling Kateira, ensured his dam Raitera was named National Hunt Broodmare of the Year with her owners, Little Lodge Farm, presented with the Dudgeon Cup, sponsored by Batsford Stud.
The Mickley Stud Trophy for leading steeplechaser went to Yorton Farm and the late Maggie Luck, breeders of Mouse Morris-trained Gentlemansgame, who finished third in both the Savills Chase and the Cheltenham Gold Cup.
Golden Horn, sire of Champion Hurdle winner Golden Ace and Triumph Hurdle winner, Poniros, won the Whitbread Silver Salver awarded to the Leading Active British-based stallion by prize money for his owner, Jayne McGivern.
Jayne McGivern said: “I wanted to own a stallion, but it seemed impossible to find the sort of stallion that I wanted for National Hunt. And we looked at a couple and eventually I said, actually this is the one I want, and we'll wait for him. And we did wait for him.
“There was competition and I'm immensely grateful to Mr. Oppenheimer to trust me with his horse. He bred him, he loved him, he owes Mr. Oppenheimer not one dollar. But more than anything else I think it's because he wanted the very best for his horse. And I wanted to keep the horse in the United Kingdom for British breeders and on that we aligned. And that is how I got Golden Horn. And it's my life's privilege just to look at him, let alone own him.
“I think some people may have read the Racing Post this morning when I said I was going to blub if my horses didn't sell or even if my horses did sell, but nothing makes me blub more than Golden Horn. He's just fantastic.”
McGivern paid tribute to all those breeders who have sent their mares to the stallion adding: “I can't tell you how much I appreciate every single one of you who support him. I wanted him in Britain for British breeders. I hope I'm giving you good value for British breeding. And it's wonderful that he's here for us all.”
Despite a season which did not go to plan with falls at Cheltenham and Aintree, Constitution Hill did enough when winning the Christmas Hurdle at Kempton and Cheltenham’s Unibet Hurdle to be named Leading Hurdler. He won the Highflyer Bloodstock Trophy for breeder Sally Noott.
In contrast, Lucy Wadham-trained Telepathique’s season could hardly have gone better with four wins, including a success against more seasoned rivals in the Listed Lady Protectress Mares’ Chase at Huntingdon, plus a second from five starts as her official rating leapt a massive 45lb. The performances earned owner-breeder Elizabeth Gordon-Lennox the Yorton Trophy for Leading Chase Mare.
The Fergal O’Brien-trained That’ll Do Moss won at Uttoxeter and Ayr but the stand-out performance which earned the Shade Oak Stud Trophy for Leading Hurdle Mare for breeders the Reveley family was her second to Aurora Vega in the Grade One Honeysuckle Mares’ Novice Hurdle at Fairyhouse.
The Harry Fry-trained Gidleigh Park, winner of the Grade Two Lightning Chase at Windsor and runner-up in the Grade One Manifesto Novices’ Chase at Aintree, lifted the Midnight Legend Trophy for Leading Novice Chaser for breeders Richard and Lizzie Kelvin-Hughes, while the Peel Bloodstock Trophy for Leading National Hunt Flat horse went to Rowland Crellin, breeder of Green Splendour, the Willie Mullins-trained winner of the Grade Two Weatherbys nhstallions.co.uk Standard Open National Hunt Flat race at Aintree.
The Horse & Hound Cup for the Leading active British-based National Hunt stallion by individual steeplechase winners in Britain & Ireland was won for the fifth time by Overbury Stud’s Schiaparelli, whose daughter Marsh Wren was a Listed winner over fences at Market Rasen in November.
Three wins for the Joe Tizzard-trained rejuvenated 11-year-old Copperhead, culminating in the final of the Veterans’ Chase Series at Market Rasen, earned the Eric Gillie Trophy for special achievement for his breeder Jane Micklethwait.
Jane Micklethwait said: “He's (Copperhead) given me huge pleasure, but I do feel that I'm accepting this on behalf of two other people, because he has an amazing owner, Gill Pritchard, and an amazing trainer in Joe Tizzard.
“Copperhead was very badly injured in the Sun Alliance at Cheltenham. I don't know how many people know Copperhead, actually. I ran down to see him coming in, and I watched him come past me on the walkway, and he was trotting sound. I thought, that's all right. And a fortnight later, Gill rang me, and she said, I've just rang you to tell you he's still alive. And I said, what? And she said, he'd been kicked by the horse on the floor on his eye. All the bones around his eye had been smashed. He was rushed to hospital and was there for some time. And then for that year, he was touch and go. He lived.
“They took three years getting him back, giving him his confidence. And then suddenly, he came back. Helped, I think, greatly by Freddie Gingell, a young boy with confidence riding beautifully on an old horse. Sometimes it works, doesn't it? But I think, as an achievement by an owner and trainer, to wait for a horse to come back for four years is pretty unique and I'd like to dedicate this to Jill and to Joe.”