Classic-winning jockey Chris Hayes bought his first broodmare prospect by paying the princely sum of 10,000gns (US$13,488) for the Oasis Dream filly Butoolat at the Tattersalls July Sale of 2017. The venture, made when he had only a rudimentary knowledge of breeding and bloodlines, was solely for the purpose of using the nomination he owned to his Irish Two Thousand Guineas (G1) winner Awtaad.
Six years later, and now a self-confessed breeding nut, he is bringing the mare back to Park Paddocks with an upgraded page, thanks to her siblings Mostahdaf and Nazeef having won multiple group 1s in recent seasons, and having accomplished the mission to breed a winner by Awtaad from her.
Needless to say the 9-year-old mare, who will be offered in foal to Cotai Glory by Ringfort Stud as Lot 1733 at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale Dec. 5, is now worth many multiples of that original outlay of 10,000gns.
She got her date with Awtaad in his second season at Derrinstown Stud in 2018 and the result was a colt who was sold to Tally-Ho Stud as a foal for €65,000. Eventually named Bobby Dassler, he broke his duck—and got Hayes off the mark as a breeder—in a Nottingham handicap this summer.
"I got as much of a kick out of that now as most winners I've ridden," says the man whose social media profile proudly states 'journeyman jockey and winning breeder'. "I wouldn't usually be one for celebrating, but after he won I got a bottle of champagne and brought it home and my wife Rachel and I toasted it.
"Look, it hadn't been straightforward getting to that point. He sold well as a foal and I foolishly thought this was an easy game, and went and invested in another mare, whose page went dead as soon as I bought her, and I ended up losing money on her.
"Then Butoolat slipped a foal late into her pregnancy for no reason one year, so we got another kick up the backside. I thought racing brought you down to earth, but the breeding side brings you down a hell of a lot quicker."
Butoolat also has a 3-year-old son by Awtaad named On Sabbatical and a yearling colt by Kodiac who sold for 80,000gns as a yearling in October and will be trained by William Haggas.
Butoolat clearly holds a special place in Hayes' heart, but since the mare's half sister Nazeef won the Falmouth Stakes (G1) and Sun Chariot Stakes (G1), and half brother Mostahdaf established himself as a star by winning the Prince of Wales's Stakes (G1) and Juddmonte International (G1) this year, the decision has been made to let her go on to bigger and better things.
"Mostahdaf doing what he did this year made it a no-brainer for us," reports Hayes. "It's really time for Butoolat to find a bigger farm, who can afford the more expensive stallions she deserves. When I say that, I don't mean to knock the ones we've been to so far, as we've been very lucky that Tony and Roger O'Callaghan have supported us and let us use Kodiac.
"If Butoolat sells, my intention is to do similar to what we did with her, and buy another young filly with a big farm's pedigree to send to Awtaad.
Hayes will be taking a little time out of his busy schedule to be at Tattersalls for the sale of Butoolat next Tuesday, though.
"I wouldn't want to miss that," he says. "I've been there from when she was a 2-year-old and then when we bought her and my brother raced her in Kevin's and I used to go back and give her a few picks of grass. It was like going back to my apprenticeship in those days.
"It'll be a strange feeling if she sells, but I think it's the right time for both of us, with the way her pedigree is going. And it's not as if Mostahdaf is the end of the line, of course, she's got more half siblings coming through: a Frankel 2-year-old colt, a Kingman yearling colt, and a Frankel filly foal."
Shadwell's homebreds will no doubt enhance Butoolat's page further in the years to come, but the newly converted breeding aficionado Hayes might just do his bit for the pedigree too, with the Kodiac yearling colt and Cotai Glory foal in-utero.
And with his perceptiveness, passion, and perseverance, it would be no surprise to see him join the likes of Mick Kinane and Willie Carson in becoming a jockey turned group 1-winning breeder.
