RODERIC KAVANAGH
Lightening Rod
Vandeek was a stunning success for breeze-up producer Glending Stables but the aim now is to repeat the trick
Photos: Caroline Norris & Healy Racing • Words: Daragh Ó Conchúir
The breeze-up game is more like team sport than individual pursuits such as golf and tennis, where you retain your ranking as a new season comes around.
For Roderic Kavanagh and his colleagues, it is back to square one. Everyone starts off with a clean slate. Of course budget is a factor when it comes to acquiring yearlings, not to mention developing top-class facilities and paying staff, but perhaps reputation is as important as anything and that certainly comes from previous achievement.
Kavanagh is well known and immersed in the industry as son of Peter and Antoinette of Kildaragh Stud. He has learned and branched off to run a breeze-up arm of the operation, Glending Stables, along with business partner Cormac O’Flynn. Given his grounding, it should be no surprise that he could select good stock without breaking the bank and then be able to educate them and keep them healthy so that they thrive, not just at the sales but in their racing careers afterwards.
Vandeek is his poster boy, picked up at Tattersalls December Sale from Childwickbury Stud for 42,000gns at the end of November 2022 with Kavanagh, O’Flynn and Kavanagh Snr all having a share. That value was multiplied almost 15 times just five months later, as Anthony Stroud went to 625,000gns to acquire the son of Havana Grey for KHK Racing at the Craven Breeze-Up.
He is worth a whole lot more now again, having finished the year unbeaten from four outings at six furlongs under the guidance of Simon and Ed Crisford. He seemed to get better with every outing from his July maiden debut at Nottingham. The Group 2 Richmond Stakes followed at Goodwood in August before he showed tremendous resolution to snatch a first Group 1 prize on the line, grabbing the Prix Morny by a short neck from Ramatuelle.
His best performance was his last, sauntering to a two-and-a-quarter-length victory in the Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket, where Kavanagh waved goodbye to him last April. “You know I was getting a bit sick of talking about it at this stage but it’s funny, when you start at it again, you appreciate what goes into it to make it happen,” muses Kavanagh. “You are back to zero. But I suppose realistically, that is the ultimate dream: buy a horse, ride it, make a fortune and for them to go on to be good.”
While the cheque book might have a bit more power to it 12 months on, Kavanagh is not going to forego the pragmatism that comes from a lifetime in the breeding, sales and racing game. Not entirely, anyway.
“We try to be realistic. There are only so many horses that can make that kind of money and we try to buy them right at a lower level and hitting the six-figure target. Doubling your money at that level is good. There was one that we went out and splashed the money on, on a big horse (a son of Sea The Stars out of Group 3-winning No Nay Never mare Nikisophia at Tattersalls October Book 1 costing £155,000) because we felt like we had been reserved until then. Time will tell.”
Vandeek fit the general spending profile and Kavanagh deflects any praise for picking him up relatively cheaply.
“Havana Grey was leading first-season sire at the time. We weren’t reinventing the wheel. Both myself and my sister (AK Thoroughbreds boss, Alice) had foals that year when he was about to have runners so she was watching him and I was watching him. The one I had he has actually turned out to be a grand horse. He didn’t hit it on the sale day whereas she got a great touch.
Everyone was very keen on the stallion but Vandeek was untypical which is fairly well documented. He was a big, tall, elegant, really well-moving horse. That’s the main thing in a racehorse. Stationary is one thing but when they can move and they use an action in all their paces it gives them a great chance when they are galloping. I suppose it was just the motion that really got me.
Vandeek (Andrea Atzeni) gets up on the line to win the Prix Morny at Deauville, before sauntering to victory in the Juddmonte Middle Park Stakes (HR)
“I am big on flatwork and groundwork. I was always trying to get him to do it right because he was a big frame of a horse and I wanted him to use himself properly. A lot of it is down to our rider, the former jockey Gordon Power. ‘Flash’ is invaluable to us, he’s so good. The first day he rode him, it was a bit untidy and disorganised and he loved him. I was like, ‘How is he positive on the horse?’ He went, ‘This is a racehorse.’ From then on I knew all I had to do was nurture him and natural ability would get him there.
“In hindsight he’s such a freak that it would have worked out well no matter what way you did it. He just had loads of ability and he showed it on the day. Flash knew from the get-go. He’s generally the judge. I don’t know what I have. I just either like them or I don’t and then I am just trying to get them to do it right and get them in a condition that they can take the next step.
“We got lucky that we were able to access a horse that wasn’t perfect on the day but had all the credentials and he went on and he performed.”
There was “great pride” in seeing him deliver on the promise in such scintillating fashion. Indications from the Crisfords are that he will be kept to sprinting next year and Kavanagh is excited to see what he expects to be considerable improvement, given the frame that is there to grow into.
But as referred to earlier, it’s back to the beginning now. They went to America to pick up four yearlings this year after O’Flynn went on his own to pick up two last year that worked out well. They have bought a few more, which along with some homebreds that didn’t quite hit the mark for the yearling sales, will be prepped for next year’s breeze-ups.
“We are trying to put something together. I think a lot of it is moving that way towards breeze-ups. You look at the national hunt game and a lot of it is gone towards point-to-point. It just brings you closer to the end product. I suppose to an extent it reduces the risk on the purchaser as to what they are getting their hands on.
“We are very lucky that we have great facilities here to start a young horse off, with lunging rings and so on. We built the gallop on site, a two-and-a-half-furlong round and last year was our first year on it. It just lets us get the groundwork into them at home and we can get a number out in a short space of time.”
He is excited about what he will bring to the market in 2024.“Oh definitely. We have a nice bunch. I hate to really single anyone out but I can go on all night. The whole lot of them are great. We have a good bunch of strong horses to go to Doncaster and some quality horses that might not be the six-furlong specialists for France. We had 20 last year and we are just one or two above that this year.”