Behind the scenes as the breeding season begins at the National Stud

Spring is threatening to break through as a pale morning light hangs over the National Stud early on Friday. A couple of the more inquisitive weanlings peer over the fence at stud director Tim Lane when he arrives on site shortly after 7am.

As is the norm at this time of year, his first port of call is the foaling unit to check up on the stud's latest arrival, a filly by Toronado who arrived at around 1am that morning. It was a straightforward delivery, albeit one that cut short stud manager James Berney's Valentine's Day evening.

With a little encouragement from Lane the chestnut filly bounces to her feet and swiftly turns to examine the stud director. It's soon clear that the foal and her mother are both hale and hearty, and Lane can continue on his morning rounds.

With a 23-strong intake of students learning the ropes of the breeding industry on the stud's diploma course, there are plenty of 'good morning's to be shared.

A mare and foal soak up the sun at the National StudCredit: Dominic James

Lane is continually imparting knowledge to the next generation of stud staff - repositioning wheelbarrows during mucking out, advising how to handle excitable young foals and, on this morning at least, turning mobile library, as he dispenses literature on Northern Dancer.

Friday marks the traditional, if no longer strictly adhered to, start of the breeding season, meaning it is the time of year that the stud's five-strong roster of stallions start to earn their oats.

At around 7.45am a horsebox bearing the distinctive yellow and black livery of Newsells Park Stud arrives outside the stallion barn, and off steps Noah's Ark, an 18-year-old daughter of Charnwood Forest who has been booked in for a tryst with Time Test.

The mare, a significant producer whose progeny record already includes the Listed-winning Temps Au Temps and the Group 3-placed After, has her microchip and paperwork - including vaccination records, of course - checked before being equipped with padded boots and protective bib, aimed at keeping herself, her partner and those facilitating the whole affair safe.

After the teaser stallion has done his thing and exited stage left, a sliding door opens and, with a chorus of whinnying, Time Test enters the covering shed with head stallion man Paddy Meehan by his side.

The covering season may only technically be hours old, but Time Test and the team around him are quickly back in the swing of things, and a little over 60 businesslike seconds later, the whole affair is over and the stallion is back in his box and looking pretty pleased with his morning's work.

There can't be many quicker ways to spend £8,500, the price at which Time Test has been advertised for his second season on covering duty.

Time Test: one of five stallions on the National Stud rosterCredit: the National Stud

Noah's Ark goes the other way and boards the Newsells Park horsebox and heads back to Hertfordshire. The whole covering process is carefully and clinically managed, but as both parties go their separate ways it is - at least for those that don't see the act itself on a regular basis - hard not to think of the endless possibilities that could arise from such a fleeting encounter.

The bloodstock industry may major in dashing dreams, but for now they are very much alive for connections of Time Test and Noah's Ark.

With the season still in its early stages, not all of the stallions on the roster are busy each and every day at present, but Lane and the team are well aware that this period is something of the calm before the storm.

"There's three more yards that could fill up and that might mean 80 more horses on the farm," says Lane. "At this stage it's just about getting back into the routine and getting everything in order, as it'll only get busier and busier."

In the days before her visit to Time Test, the visiting Noah's Ark will have been carefully examined to ensure she was in heat, and shortly before 9am Huw Neal, consultant clinician at Newmarket Equine Hospital, arrives to check up on the cycles of the National Stud's resident mares.

As a bona fide expert in the field of equine fertility and reproduction, Neal is among the most in demand veterinarians in Newmarket, so the National Stud's team of students presenting the mares can't afford to have him standing around idle.

One after another, mares are placed in the stocks to be examined by Neal, and by the time he has gone through a number of elbow-length vet-grade gloves and a bottle of lubrication gel, the verdict is that two of the mares are showing all the requisite signs that a covering is due.

After a quick phone call to Dalham Hall, it is confirmed that the pair have been booked in for covers from Dubawi and his Dalham Hall studmate Cracksman.

As a graduate of the operation's flagship course, Berney, who has recently been promoted to stud manager, is a fine advert for the skills that can be picked up at the National Stud, and the opportunities that exist for those willing to learn.

Even though he may be on his own personal upward trajectory, Berney is quick to highlight how important the lack of egos is on the stud.

"No one thinks they're too important to get their hands dirty," he says.

Those sentiments are echoed by Lane, who adds: "You're only as good the people you work with and Brian O'Rourke [former managing director] assembled a great team here.

Paddy Meehan: head stallion man at the National StudCredit: Edward Whitaker

"Our place is quite unique, not only with training the students, but the whole stud is spread out over a lot of space as well. It wouldn't run without people like James, Paddy or Joe [Callan, nominations and marketing manager]."

The cycle of foaling, covering and husbandry will be repeated at the National Stud and on farms across Europe for the next few months.

It is the same cycle on which the industry survives, and the talent and hard work that brings it all to fruition should not be underestimated, as these efforts are crucial to making the future champions possible.

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