'We're just delighted to be on the path we are now' - breeding venture blossoming for David Fitzgerald

From racecourse commentator and presenter to winning breeder. It would appear David Fitzgerald has the game cracked. 

Together with Northamptonshire trainer Alex Hales and John and Annie Fry, Fitzgerald bred Looking As You Are, a highly progressive Passing Glance mare who has won her last two starts, triumphs that each came with £20,000 Great British Bonuses on top of the race prize-money. 

On how he got into the breeding side, Fitzgerald says: "I go back with Alex a long way, around 18 years or so, and he knew I wanted to get a mare to start breeding from. 

"He had Maybell, who had won a race at Uttoxeter but had picked up a leg [injury]. She missed the following year and then was coming back into training, but it hadn't really healed enough; it wouldn't have been the right thing to do to keep going with her. 

"She was going to be retired and John and Annie Fry, who bred Maybell, weren't sure they were going to breed any more. That's when I suggested if I might breed from her. They loved the idea and wanted to keep in as well."

Hales bred his stable star Millers Bank outright, alongside the Passing Glance gelding's half-sister Bourbon Beauty. The former struck at Grade 1 level in the 2022 Manifesto Novices' Chase at Aintree, while his Great Pretender half-sister captured Grade 2 honours in Newbury's EBF BetVictor 'National Hunt' Novices' Mares' Hurdle final. 

A seven-month old Looking As You Are

Fitzgerald says of the Grade 1-winning trainer: "Some of Alex's best successes have come with horses he's bred himself, Millers Bank being one of course. I never thought he got enough credit for that, or for Bourbon Beauty. She wasn't quite in the same league as Millers Bank, but she still won the mares' final."

The breeding of Looking As You Are's dam Maybell came through the Frys, who bred Maybell with Hales and her dam Chilly Squaw. Fitzgerald was keen to pay tribute to their passion for all things horses. 

"John and Annie wanted to breed a horse and it all started in the early 90s," he explains. "John's son James worked for the International Racing Bureau and John asked him to source a mare; that mare was Phrase 'n Cold, who is the granddam of Maybell. 

"That was their first foray into breeding. Annie's still involved and her syndicate is the Gumbrills Racing Partnership; they're all friends of Annie's and are lovely people who care about the wellbeing of the horse and nothing else."

Looking As You Are's victories have come with a poignant footnote as John Fry passed away in 2021 when the horse was a two-year-old. Her progress since has given connections plenty to smile about.

Maybell with a three-month old Looking As You Are

Fitzgerald continues: "John sadly died but Annie is carrying on and I know with Looking As You Are doing as well as she's done, it's brought her so much joy. It's been emotional watching her develop and she's obviously fairly useful. It's been quite special."

Looking As You Are did not exactly catch the eye on the gallops during her younger days, but her talent was more evident as soon as she made her racing debut at Southwell last April. 

"She's surprised us a bit as she's not the biggest and her early work at home wasn't that exciting, but then something clicked not long before her debut about 11 months ago," says Fitzgerald.

"She ran at Southwell the day before the Grand National meeting at Aintree started, and she was probably a bit unlucky as Lilly Pinchin dropped her stick. However, who knows what path we'd have gone down if she'd won; we're just delighted to be on the path we are now."

Bigger targets could await depending on ground conditions, including a possible tilt at black-type company in April, but the five-year-old has already more than earned her keep as the winner of a couple of GBB hurdle races, at Ludlow last month and Plumpton this month. 

"Her main assets are that she handles soft ground very well and also her stamina," says Fitzgerald. "She'll get three miles standing on her head. 

"She could go to Carlisle next, although there's not much for her now and we don't want to run in any ordinary handicaps that aren't bonus races. The Great British Bonus is such a huge incentive to race a filly or mare; the bonuses we've won mean we don't have to keep slogging away. 

Looking As You Are (1): on her way to her second success at Plumpton this monthCredit: Mike Hewitt

"She's won us two in the space of a month, and that'll help keep her family going."

On the prospects of picking up some black type, Fitzgerald says: "If you could guarantee soft ground then she'd go to Cheltenham in April for the Listed mares' novice hurdle, but it would have to be soft. It rarely is at that meeting though. She didn't come down the hill at Plumpton that well, so you wouldn't want to do that on anything quick."

Maybell is the sole broodmare owned by the team but, with several of her younger offspring coming through, there could be plenty of chapters left in this story. 

Among them is a sister to Looking As You Are, with Passing Glance – the 25-year-old Batsford Stud resident who is standing for £3,000 this year and covered a book of 59 mares in 2023 – a sire Fitzgerald has plenty of time for. 

He says: "We've just got Maybell and I wouldn't imagine we'd have another, but she's had four foals so we've got lots to look forward to. Looking As You Are is the first one, we've also got a three-year-old filly by Falco, a two-year-old sister to Looking As You Are and a yearling filly by Frontiersman.

"I think we'll lease the three-year-old to stay in the yard, but we're playing it by ear and we've not got any firm plans to sell anything."

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