Catching Up With 27-Year-Old Active Sire Well Chosen

See? I told you in Wednesday's email that the British EBF were helpful souls. You might remember that elsewhere in the article I wrote that I reckoned Haras de la Hetraie stalwart Great Pretender must be Europe's oldest active stallion, having been foaled Feb. 24, 1999, and that Batsford Stud resident Passing Glance was a close second, having been born 15 days later. Well, Cheryl Caves, head of operations for the British EBF, wrote in to set the record straight. She pointed out that it was probably Well Chosen who should actually take the title, as he was foaled Feb. 11, 1999, and is recorded as having covered five mares at Kedrah House Stud in County Tipperary last year. I should have thought of Well Chosen myself, as he happens to be in fine form, having supplied two exciting bumper winners in the past fortnight—The Mourne Rambler at Leopardstown and Moonverrin at Cork—and also delivering Old Park Star, who is as low as 5-1 for the Supreme Novices' Hurdle after bolting up on his last two starts for Nicky Henderson. They could take high order on the sire's roll of honor, which is headed at present by such classy performers as Adamantly Chosen, Billaway, Burtons Well, Carefully Selected, Chemical Energy, Chosen Mate, Jury Duty, Midnight Run, and Sixshooter. I rang Tom Meagher at Kedrah House Stud to see whether Well Chosen was indeed still with us, and likely to be in service again this season. The response was a resounding yes to the first part of the question but only a partial affirmative to the second. "We don't talk about age here any more, for horses or humans," said Meagher with a chuckle. "He's in good health, he's on the walker and out in his paddock every day, and he's still a bit of a character—he goes bonkers when he sees the dentist coming. "He'll maybe cover a handful of mares again this year, but he's very close to retirement as he's not as strong as he was when it comes to getting up on them." Well Chosen is not only a Thoroughbred methuselah, but also a throwback to a different culture in Irish National Hunt breeding. He was what used to be termed a country stallion: a horse without brilliant qualifications, but with maybe a decent pedigree or a victory in a Classic trial or prestigious handicap to compensate, who would cover mainly local farmers' mares for small money. Well Chosen won only one of his eight races for trainer Ed Dunlop and owner-breeder Maktoum Al Maktoum, and that was a lowly Lingfield maiden, but his saving grace was a stellar page, being by the outstanding jumps influence Sadler's Wells and out of Hawajiss, a daughter of Kris who finished placed in the Oaks at both Epsom and the Curragh and later won the Nassau Stakes. "I'd done veterinary work at Sheikh Mohammed's Ballysheehan Stud nearby, so I asked them if they had anything that I could stand as a side venture," said Meagher. "The criteria I had were that he had to be big, that he had to have a very good pedigree, and that he had to be by a proven, fashionable sire. I had to pass up a good race record, as if he'd won the Derby or an event at Royal Ascot I wouldn't have been able to afford him. "Well Chosen ticked all those boxes. He was big, and by Sadler's Wells out of a talented race mare, who in turn was a granddaughter of Par Excellance, a champion in Canada. Ed Dunlop told me that he thought he could've been a Derby horse as a 2-year-old but he never had a chance to get there, as he kept having little training setbacks. "Well Chosen started out here as a sport horse stallion but covered a few Thoroughbred mares too, and when the progeny hit racing age they turned out to be very good. At one time he had as many good hunters in Tipperary as he did good chasers on the track, but that changed in the last few years." Well Chosen's highest-rated son, Jury Duty—who won the Florida Pearl Novice Chase at Punchestown and later the American Grand National Hurdle—is a good example of how the sire upgraded the poor opportunities he received in the early days. His page is so light that he is still the only runner under rules, let alone winner, beneath his first two dams. "Jury Duty was bred by an elderly gentleman with one leg called Tom Carroll, a good friend of mine who's since died," recalled Meagher. "He'd bred a show champion by Ricardo, one of our sport stallions, from the horse's dam Swan Heart. One year when he came back with the mare, Well Chosen had just started to get a few better mares and I wanted to increase his book a bit, so I asked Tom if he'd cover Swan Heart with the stallion. "Tom said sure, he didn't mind what we covered her with. To be honest, I think by that stage he was coming up for a glass of whiskey and some socialising as much as for the cover. I took her papers to the office but when I looked at her details I saw she had no racing pedigree. There hadn't been a winner in four generations. "I went back and told Tom this might not be the best idea after all, but he said we'd made the decision and it would be bad luck to change it now. So we stuck with it, and that's how Jury Duty came to be bred." There are many such cases among Well Chosen's best progeny. Remarkably, the full brothers Carefully Selected and Midnight Run were the only winners out of their unraced dam Knockamullen Girl, and the same is true, for the moment at least, for the other full brothers Chosen Mate and Old Park Star and their unraced dam Norwich Star. We should hear more about the sire for a good few years, as he has 11 5-year-olds—two of whom are those recent winners Moonverrin and The Mourne Rambler—as well as eight 4-year-olds, ten 3-year-olds and eight 2-year-olds, plus whatever results from his more recent small books of mares. Naturally, Meagher is immensely proud of Well Chosen's achievements, but his focus now is on building the sire's successor at Kedrah House Stud into a similar success. Rich History, whose first crop has just turned 3 years old, is in a similar mold, as he is all about pedigree rather than performance, although he did muster a fair amount of prize-money by winning three races in Qatar. He is by Dubawi (IRE) and out of Polished Gem, who is one of the most accomplished broodmares of the new millennium, having produced champions Kyprios, Search For A Song and Free Eagle, as well as black-type winners Amma Grace, Custom Cut, Falcon Eight, Sapphire, and Valac. Meagher didn't mince his words, calling Rich History "the messiah." "It's all about the blood again," he continued. "It's not just that this is the best family in the stud book, it's also that it's proven for National Hunt, with Falcon Eight having been a useful hurdler and many of Polished Gem's siblings having won over jumps, including Archive Footage, who took the Ladbroke Hurdle by nine lengths. "Dubawi is also one of the best sires of recent years, and his sons have really come to the fore at stud, with several having shown they can get good jump stock. "The most important thing, though, is that the jumps game is changing, and people now want earlier 3-year-olds for the Academy and Junior hurdles, to replicate what the French do. I know this guy can do that, but the trouble is getting the message out there, as we don't have a big marketing budget or sales scouts." Meagher revealed that he has resorted to showing the way with Rich History's first crop himself. "We have a handful of very nice horses by him broken in and schooling over hurdles, and they're going well, but unfortunately there isn't a race in Ireland for them until September," he said. "So I'm going to send some to Philip and Louisa Carberry in France, and the first one has already gone over there. "He's out of the Fascinating Rock mare Fascinating Day, from that good family of Quarter Moon and Yesterday. He was with Andy Slattery, who said he had all the gears and was the best jumper in the yard. "I'd rather race him over hurdles in Ireland but the Academy series doesn't start until the autumn. It's a shame, as I don't think the French are breeding better horses than us, but they're giving young horses better opportunities to race and show their talent, and the bigger yards in Ireland and Britain are gobbling up the best ones. That's been to the detriment of Irish-breds, who aren't displaying their ability early enough." "Because Well Chosen and, to be fair, another of our former sires, Berkshire, improved so many pedigrees, Rich History is getting a little bonus as the mares he's getting have nicer profiles," said Meagher. "I really do believe in Rich History. At this stage of my life, and with the National Hunt breeding industry in the shape it's in, I wouldn't stand a stallion for the sake of it. The one reason I'm staying in the game is that I think that he's going to make it." Meagher has so much faith in the future, in fact, that last year he branched out by taking on a first Flat stallion in the shape of Beckford, the group 2-winning son of Bated Breath who has sired four winners, including stakes-placed Beckman and highly rated pair Iceford and Starford, from just six runners. Rich History and Beckford might very well turn out to be as good, if not better, than Well Chosen in their respective fields. But they'll be fortunate to survive and thrive for as long as their 27-year-old studmate has. Let's hope they do, anyhow. By the way, there is an important footnote to this story, also courtesy of Cheryl at the British EBF: Well Chosen might be Europe's oldest active sire, but he is only the joint longest-serving with Oasis Dream, who is a year younger but was also retired to stud in 2004. That length of service is impressive, although they still have some way to go to beat the Irish St Leger (G1) winner Turgeon, who covered mares for 25 consecutive seasons in France. His final crop, which includes last year's Bet365 Gold Cup runner-up Lombron, was conceived when he was 32. Good Morning Bloodstock is an exclusive daily email sent by the Racing Post bloodstock team and published here as a free sample. Please consider subscribing and supporting our BloodHorse partner by signing up and then read at your leisure each weekday morning.