Carisbrooke Stud evolution continues with Doncaster yearling sale debut

A new name has appeared among the list of vendors at the upcoming Goffs UK Premier Sale, with Yvonne Jacques' Carisbrooke Stud all set for its Doncaster debut.

The three-strong consignment represents the latest step in what has been a rapid development for the boutique operation, which is based at Chilton Foliat just outside Hungerford and was purchased from Lady Whent when the land was still known as Raffin Stud in 2016.

Although Carisbrooke is a relatively new name on the sales scene, Jacques' colours will be familiar to many, having been carried by classy talents such as Grandeur, Klassique and Stylistique.

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"Yvonne Jacques bought the stud four years ago and it's been completely renovated and updated," says stud director Martin Grassick. "We've a band of 30 mares here, 25 of our own and five permanent boarders, and we had 22 foals arrive this year, so we've got very busy very quickly.

Yvonne Jacques' Klassique wins the Group 3 Pinnacle Stakes at HaydockCredit: Grossick Racing

"Yvonne has a really nice bunch of mares with plenty of black type performers in there so it's an exciting time. We've got a lot of young mares too and they're all going to proper stallions, horses like Blue Point, Starspangledbanner, Invincible Spirit, and Siyouni, and hopefully come the foal sales we might have a Kingman and a Frankel to offer so we're very lucky.

"It's enjoyable getting up in the morning and getting out and seeing the stock. Yvonne absolutely loves it too, she's out there every morning walking the dogs and she comes to most of the foalings as well."

While Jacques' racing colours are not an uncommon sight on the racecourse, Grassick explains the plan is to run Carisbrooke on a commercial basis, a modus operandi that has already borne fruit with a host of six-figure foals and yearlings sold at various Tattersalls auctions in recent years.

Yvonne Jacques (pink jacket) with her former colour bearer GrandeurCredit: Cranham Photo

"Yvonne wants to run it as a business and be as successful as we can," he says. "We're lucky that we're not pressured into selling, so if we have a nice young mare whose first foal is a filly, Yvonne is happy to put them into training herself, although the idea is to run it commercially as much as we can.

"We've a good team of staff here so hopefully with the mares we have and the land we're on, which does the horses a lot of good, we can keep progressing."

On the stud's Premier Sale trio, Grassick says: "The batch we've picked for Doncaster are early, sharp types so they'll definitely suit the Premier Sale. We thought about going there last year and then didn't but when you're a new stud you just have to keep testing the water and given we've got a few nice early types this year we felt Doncaster was the place to go."

Carisbrooke Stud's well-related Camacho filly is lot 104 at the Goffs UK Premier SaleCredit: Goffs UK/Carisbrooke Stud

Kicking things off is the Camacho filly out of Electrify (lot 104), an Invincible Spirit half-sister to dual Australian Group 3 winner Mugatoo who has bred one winner from one runner so far. The page has been enhanced further by the rapidly improving Listed scorer Declaring Love, who is out of another sibling of Electrify.

"Physically she's a nice, sharp type and obviously Camacho does well with his fillies," says Grassick. "The mare's first foal [Electrifying] was sharp, she went into training in France and won as a two-year-old then won a conditions race as a three-year-old.

"The mare also has a nice Expert Eye colt on the ground and she's in foal to Farhh. Under the second dam you've got Mugatoo, who's won £1.8 million and is still in training in Australia, and Declaring Love, who was third in a Group 3 at York in July, so there's still more to come on that page."

Carisbrooke Stud offers the sole lot by Lope De Vega in the Goffs UK Premier SaleCredit: Goffs UK/Carisbrooke Stud

Next up is the Lope De Vega colt out of Improve (169), the sole offering by the sire among the Premier Sale's 400 lots. The youngster is another with an improving page as his dam is a winning sibling to three stakes performers, namely Group 1 heroine Persuasive, Listed winner Tisbutadream and this year's Jersey Stakes scorer Creative Force.

"This colt is very strong and gets on with his job," says Grassick. "He's been an absolute gentleman to do anything with and I wish all colts were like him as he's taken to the task really well. I can see the breeze-up boys really liking him.

"He's the first foal out of the mare and she's got a lot happening on her page being a sibling to Persuasive and Creative Force. The mare has a Frankel filly at foot who's an absolute cracker and she's back in foal to Sea The Moon."

Lot 345: the Expert Eye filly out of Sommesnil strikes a poseCredit: Goffs UK/Carisbrooke Stud

Rounding out the three-strong offering is a filly from the debut crop of Expert Eye (345) whose Listed-placed dam Sommesnil hails from the family of Pas De Reponse and Green Tune.

"She's another sharp type of filly. Although she's plain, there's no markings on her, she's striking and has always been a very pretty filly. She's also 100 per cent GBB registered, so that's a big additive. We've had a couple of Expert Eyes and it must be exciting for Juddmonte as I think they're really nice horses."

Reflecting on the opening exchanges of the European yearling sales season, Grassick says: "Nice horses are still making good money. The buyers always seem to be around at the top end and it might just be the bottom end where there's a bit more of a struggle but I still think there's a lot of people out there who want to have horses.

"But it's exciting for us because it's the start of the sales year again and we're really looking forward to going to Doncaster for the first time."