'It’s just exciting to have a contender' - Englemere the leading lady in film producer George Waud's growing empire

A memorable double achieved by George Waud this month came only a little over two years after the first semblance of a plan to own some Flat horses was hatched.

Waud, who has a team of five fillies in training at George Boughey’s Newmarket stable, had his aperitif when Ashwiyaa got off the mark in his silks in a handicap at Epsom. 

An hour later at Newbury he would own his first ever black-type winner through Englemere, delivered with aplomb by Billy Loughnane to lead on the line in the Listed St Hugh's Stakes.

The only minor disappointment was that Waud could watch only remotely while on a family holiday, for all that there were probably far worse places to be.

"Despite rumours being spread by Billy that I was on a yacht, I was actually just sitting in a bar by the beach," he confesses. "Billy’s been bigging me up on TV."

Racing has always been a background interest of London-based Waud, a film producer who spent more than 20 years of his life immersed in the industry in Hollywood and part-owned Society's Chairman, a Grade 1-placed miler and subsequent Canadian stallion, with Charles Fipke. 

A few years ago he made the business-based decision to buy into Old Gold Racing, the polished micro-ownership syndicate, at a time when it had been focusing primarily on the jumps. Keen to have some horses of his own for pleasure, he decided to look at the Flat instead.

Film producer George Waud is very much enjoying the ride with his recent investment in horses

"Funnily enough, George and [agent] Sam Haggas had won the Buckingham Palace Stakes at Ascot [in 2022], it was George’s first winner there as a trainer," says Waud.

"Gavin Chengalanee, who is a great old pal of mine and helps me with the racing, saw these two young guys leaping around and decided he should go and meet them. So when I started talking about being more serious about buying some horses, Gavin knew Sam and George and they came into my life."

That young combination has advised him well. Waud’s first winner was achieved a little over a year ago through Moonspirit, a Kingman half-sister to international Group 3 winner Local Time who was picked up for £52,000 unraced from a Godolphin draft at the Tattersalls Ascot March Sale.

"I was at Cheltenham on the Wednesday last year and I went through the card, a seven-horse, seven-race accumulator," says Waud. "So of course I went out and bought a horse, that was Moonspirit.

"Gav and I went down to Bath to watch her. It was the first time I’d been to the track with a jockey wearing my silks. Billy was up and he brought her home in front, it was absolutely thrilling."

Five-time winner Moonspirit is another who could potentially become one of Waud's broodmaresCredit: John Grossick

Englemere, who once went through the virtual ring for £1,000 at a ThoroughBid sale, began life at Boughey’s representing her breeders, the Kavanagh family of Kildaragh Stud. The Goken filly won on her second start at Catterick in late April.

"I got a call from Sam, who said there was a filly in George’s yard that the owners might sell," says Waud. "He said she was really quick and that he thought I should have a serious look at her. 

"I watched her win her maiden and just liked the look of her. We bought her on a Friday, raced her at Carlisle on the Monday and she won about 20 grand up there, which was a very good start!

"We took her to the Queen Mary at Ascot, but she got a bad draw and the ground was like cement; she finished mid-pack and didn’t really feature in the race, which was a bit disappointing after Carlisle. 

"I think she does need ground with a bit more juice in it, but we kept our belief in her. George has done so well and all the horses I’ve got with him look fantastic right now. He had a bit of a slow start this season but he sure has picked up."

Englemere is a half-sister to Family One, who landed the Prix Robert Papin and finished second to Dabirsim in the 2011 Prix Morny. 

As a black-type earner herself, she will one day be able to join the next phase of a rapidly developing story; breeding.

George Boughey and Sam Haggas have been a helpful combination for the new ownerCredit: Tattersalls Ascot

"I had a lovely filly called Eleutheromania, who broke her maiden for me at Newcastle earlier in the year," says Waud. "She didn’t come out of her next race very well, we discovered she had a hairline fracture in her knee and had to retire her. 

"She’s very well bred [family of Bago and Maxios] and her grandpa was Galileo, so I sent her to see Mehmas. She’s now with Violet Hesketh [of WH Bloodstock] getting bigger and bigger and should be due in April. 

"Moonspirit has meanwhile won five for me now and I’d love to see if she could produce some babies as well one day."

Waud, whose credits from the entertainment industry include the Samuel L Jackson cult classic Snakes On A Plane, and, earlier this year, a stage adaptation of Withnail and I, is unquestionably enthusiastic and knowledgeable about his horses, but it was all stimulated slightly by chance.

"Ed Seyfried, who founded Old Gold, is an old school friend of mine," he explains. "It started when he had a horse called Braqueur D'Or that he thought he could maybe get a few other people involved with co-owning.

"I hadn’t seen him for years but I saw this post he put up on Facebook about Braqueur D'Or, selling microshares, and I rang him and had lunch with him; I think he thought I was going to buy one of his 60 quid shares in his horse, but I actually wanted to buy his company!"

Waud was certainly impressed by Seyfried’s work ethic and the technology around which he has built the business; what he didn’t expect to be so taken with was its human element.

"Old Gold was really the catalyst for owning horses on my own," he says. "It’s a fantastic business, we’ve got thousands of individual owners and we bring people to the track that might never have done that before. 

Apple Away: Aintree queen has been a flagbearer for Old Gold RacingCredit: Grossick Racing

"There are Facebook pages for each horse and these little communities spring up around them, people make new friends. It’s such a positive thing. We've had huge success with Lucinda Russell’s horse Apple Away. When she won the Sefton Novices’ Hurdle there must have been 200 owners at Aintree that day. The joy of winning, it was just unparalleled."

Yacht or no yacht, Waud was feeling about as elated as Haggas and Boughey had been that afternoon at Royal Ascot as he is already well aware that such occasions do not come around too often.

It is also not out of the question that his filly, who has an entry in the Juddmonte Cheveley Park Stakes, could have even brighter days ahead in 2024.

He says: "It’s just exciting to have a contender, you know. It makes all the disappointments worthwhile, somehow.

"I was having lunch with a group of friends, some had been at Ascot with me when she had run on the Wednesday. We were all pretty stoked."

Goffs Doncaster Premier Yearling Sale

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