Pink Lady apples and a visit to Too Darn Hot for Emma Banks's star mare

Some big decisions await Emma Banks with Lady Bowthorpe and her progeny in the next few weeks. One Dubawi yearling colt is already on the ground and if the star racemare times the imminent arrival of her foal just right, then his owner will be even more torn.

"If she has the foal on my birthday, early in February, then that makes it even more lovable," says Banks. "There’s a possibility she could, it's around that time but who knows how long it will take her."

Lady Bowthorpe was a fairytale story, having risen up every step of the ladder from handicaps to Group 1s, hitting the top spot in the 2021 Nassau Stakes and putting in exceptional placed efforts behind Palace Pier and Baaeed.

While Banks is an internationally renowned music agent, the co-head of Creative Artists Agency, and gets particularly attached to her horses, she is mindful of the astonishing cost of Premier League-level breeding.

"If it all goes well with the foal I’ll need to sell one of them for sure; the music industry isn’t that great," she says light-heartedly. "I have to be sensible about this. Even if there’s not an overall massive return – I don’t do it for a living – I can’t have it costing me an absolute fortune.

"The yearling is a chestnut so he doesn’t look like his parents but I’m assured there was no hanky-panky going on and his parents are who they say they are.

"He’s done really well for himself and I think Luca and Sara Cumani and everyone who has seen him thinks he’s a nice young man."

The necessity to keep a lid on spending has in some way influenced Lady Bowthorpe’s next covering, but it is also a major reward for another Dalham Hall-based stallion who caught the eye with results from his first crop.

"She’s going to see Too Darn Hot this year," reveals Banks. 

"He’s made a great start, he’s got a beautiful pedigree, he's a very attractive-looking horse. David Appleton from Darley went to have another look at Lady B and make sure they thought physically she was the right type of mare for him; they were happy with that. 

"All of it is something to look forward to but, from my point of view, I needed to mix it up a little bit. Two Dubawis is good. Two future stallions – amazing!"

Lady Bowthorpe moved to the Cumanis’ Fittocks Stud, from where her dam Maglietta Fina has also produced Group winner and stallion Speak In Colours.

As befitting her lofty name, she is a mare of refined tastes.

"I went to see her just before Christmas," says Banks. "She was out with four or five other mares and she actually came over.

"Who knows if she knows me, but she always knows she’s going to get Pink Lady apples. She apparently won’t eat any other apples, which I didn’t believe when Yarmy [Steve Dyble], who used to put her in the stalls, told me, but I took her Braeburns, which are my favourite, and she literally took a bite and spat it out.

"So it’s off to Waitrose to buy a packet of hugely expensive apples. She’s loving life, and she’s been such an amazing mum. She could be a little bit of a tricky racehorse but she immediately knew how to do it."

Gallagher to make her Point

Before the arrival of Lady Bowthorpe, Banks had another smart filly in Mrs Gallagher, a dual Listed winner at Naas and Bath for the same trainer, William Jarvis.

The Oasis Dream mare boards with Peter Stanley in Newmarket, alongside her own dam A Huge Dream. Banks retained her first foal by Dark Angel, Miss Gallagher, who was sold on to Glebe Farm at the last Tattersalls December Mare Sale, while her next two, a Frankel filly and the Starspangledbanner colt Markakol, a Newcastle novice winner, were sold for hefty six-figure sums to Nurlan Bizakov’s Sumbe.

"It’s still early days for her," says Banks. "Markakol did okay as a two-year-old and from what I hear Roger Varian seems to think there’ll be more to come from him; he’s rated 88. The Frankel foal will just have turned two and I think she’s at Roger’s too.

Emma Banks has become fascinated by thoroughbred breedingCredit: Edward Whitaker

"I’ve realised that actually having bred them, I’m just as excited about them as if I owned them. I’m cheering them on, I’m interrogating the jockeys when I see them. 

"Before you start, it’s really hard to imagine you could sell one of them and get any pleasure out of it and not just feel pissed off, but it’s actually the opposite and you want them to do better."

Mrs Gallagher is also set to be covered by an exciting young talent, in the shape of the champion freshman.

Banks says: "She’s in foal to Night Of Thunder with a filly and she’s got a very nice Pinatubo filly who has just turned a yearling. She only seems to like giving birth to girls, apart from Markakol every one is female. Then when she’s had her baby she’s going off to see Blue Point."

Banks says she has become fascinated by the process of choosing the matings for her small band of broodmares and now has a strong grasp of pedigrees, which she discusses with both Stanley and the Cumanis.

"Peter and I both said we thought she should go there, so it was a very quick decision," she says.

"I think [Breeders’ Cup winner] Big Evs is also a Blue Point out of an Oasis Dream mare; hopefully lightning can strike at least twice. 

"I love it when the stallion book comes out. I was checking every day as to what they were going to cost, it’s been interesting to see what new ones there are and where they’re standing, but, to a certain extent, when you’ve got two really lovely mares who have done well like them, then there’s less of a choice unless you’re really brave or you own stallions and support them. 

"From my point-of-view, I need to do things that are hopefully commercial, sensible and a bit no-brainer."

Final decisions are still to be made about the third, slightly different type of Flat mare. Illuzzi was a maiden but is a Kodiac half-sister to Lusail, the Gimcrack winner and Group 1-placed stallion at Haras de Bouquetot.

"Her first two-year-old by Advertise didn’t sell so I’ve kept her, she’s gone to Eve Johnson Houghton, so I’ve a homebred in training this year," says Banks.

"She’s got a very nice Zoustar colt, just turned a yearling, she’s in foal to Masar and we’re figuring out where she goes next. I’ve also got two National Hunt mares.

"The White Mouse [a four-time winner by Stowaway for Lucy Wadham] has a Nathaniel filly yearling and Code Name Lise [an Ascot bumper winner by Fame And Glory] has a Golden Horn filly yearling. They’re both in foal to the same stallions in the opposite direction – slight swinging – and we’re just finalising what they’re doing as well."

New names for 2024

The retirement of Jarvis, who trained many of the horses in Banks’ purple, green and orange silks, sees a few members of her racing string moving to new yards.

Three-year-old Glam Squad has gone to Charlie Fellowes, while Hakuna Babe, now four and a back-end Windsor winner, is heading to Ed Walker. Despite being adamant she would take a pull on spending, Banks sheepishly declares that persuasive trainers have talked her into having an interest in other two-year-olds, including a Mehmas filly with George Scott and a Mohaather filly of Johnson Houghton's.

Of Hakuna Babe, she says: "She was a question mark about keeping but I’m really fond of her – not a good reason to keep a horse – and when I bought her I was obsessed with having a Roaring Lion.

Markakol was a first winner for his dam Mrs Gallagher at Newcastle last yearCredit: GROSSICK RACING

"There aren’t many of them around, she’s rated in the high 70s but might improve. I get why people move on but I also think horses sometimes need a bit of time. It’s an opportunity to give her a change of scene from Newmarket to Lambourn, and I’m excited to see what she does."

If there’s a filly that might put Banks’ name back in lights on the track in 2024, then the chances are it will be Mysterious Love. A Kodiac filly who has been one of David Menuisier's frequent visitors to France, she has further gained a win at Nottingham and a close fifth in the Group 3 Valiant Stakes at Ascot in July.

"She’s a reasonably big girl, maybe been a bit unlucky and we thought maybe she needed softer ground than she does, as she ran really well in a Group race at Ascot," says Banks. 

"I think she still has the ability to get some black type; when you’re rated 90 and above, you’re getting into the top echelons of horses these days."

Once again, the infectiously enthusiastic Banks can’t stop herself dreaming.

"She’d be the one I’ve got my eye on as potentially an addition to the broodmare band," she says. "Although I can’t keep adding without occasionally subtracting!"

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