Chianti Classico the toast of Ben Halsall's project as next vintage heads to November Sale

Among Colin Bowe’s biggest advocates is owner Ben Halsall, who finds himself in the unexpected position of being behind three of the seven members of the Milestone Stables draft at Friday’s Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale.

Ireland’s 12-time champion point-to-point handler has started the new campaign with typical purpose, putting 16 on the board already. Halsall’s black and yellow colours were carried to success twice on October 27, with Jukebox Jury gelding Etna Bianco (27) making a winning debut at Tattersalls and Purple Owl (38) pinging around Tinahely on his seasonal comeback. 

They are joined by Sheer Raz (26), a Walk In The Park gelding out of a winning sibling to smart staying chasers Alfie Sherrin, Kimberlite Candy and Hawkes Point who was worn down close home by another sale entry, Sean Doyle's Island Bridge (23), on his first start at Peppards Castle.

Halsalls says: "They were horses that were bought as foals. I bought Etna Bianco privately from the breeder, Stephen Lanigan-O’Keeffe, and the others came from the Goffs foal sales.

"I use Kevin and Anna Ross as agents and they’re very influential on what I buy. It’s a group decision. I’m the man that pays the bills and decides which trainers they go to and that sort of thing, but if they don’t like them or aren’t 100 per cent certain, we won’t buy them.

"I have three with Colin and they’ve all done their job, so I’m looking forward to the three-year-olds I have at the farm that’ll go up to him in the next couple of weeks and hopefully running as four-year-olds in the spring."

Chianti Classico confirmed himself to be a chaser going places at Ascot earlier this monthCredit: Alan Crowhurst

Halsall has been operating a system from Boley Stud, on the county border between Laois and Kildare, for a few years, with the idea of bringing young National Hunt and sometimes Flat stock up towards a racing career with the likes of Bowe, Henry de Bromhead, Gavin Cromwell or Stuart Crawford, and ideally onwards to a quick sale.

It has been on a bit of a roll lately, spearheaded by Chianti Classico, a £100,000 buy for Aiden Murphy and Kim Bailey at a Tattersalls sale in 2021 who is now at the forefront of British chasers after following up his Ultima success in March with a game win in the recent Sodexo Gold Cup at Ascot.

"I get a real kick out of the horses I move on," says Halsall. "Chianti Classico winning at Cheltenham was a huge buzz. I know Kim quite well and Dad [Alan] had horses with him years ago.

"I pushed Kim to try to buy him, he did and he’s been an absolute superstar.

"Jurancon, who won at Chepstow for David Pipe the other day, was one of mine that won a four-year-old point-to-point in Portrush last year and he looks quite a useful horse. There’s also a nice filly of David's called Walkadina; she won at Uttoxeter very easily first time over hurdles."

He pays credit to Bowe in the progress of the first two.

Colin Bowe: provides eight of the entries in Friday's saleCredit: Laura Green

"Colin is funny, he doesn’t have to have a horse very long before he’ll tell you if it’s any good and I remember both with Chianti Classico and Jurancon, he told me within two days they were decent."

Halsall’s arrival in Ireland in 2016 was not exactly for the love of its vibrant point-to-point scene but because of, as he laughs, "the love of a woman".

He met his Irish wife in Hong Kong, where his family used to have a business, and they moved home to settle down.

"I worked for Richard Phillips many years ago in the yard and always had a keen interest in horseracing," he explains. "Once we’d moved back, it was a case of getting back into it."

Halsall held a handler’s licence last season, primarily to keep a couple of his father’s old stagers going, and was thrilled to give a first winner to one of his employees, Holly Dunne, on Plan Of Attack.

However, the business is undergoing a restructure. Halsall is in the process of selling the farm and plans to focus on the store market.

"It’s going to be a bit bittersweet," he says. "The way everything has gone with cost, it’s not easy and I decided I could take a lot of the risk out by buying when they’re a bit older.

"You can still buy them as stores for the same sort of price I’d be buying foals for now, when you take into account the keep for two or three years. There’s less time for things to go wrong.

"I’m still going to be buying three-year-olds to then twist to sell as four-year-olds. The business is going to continue, but Boley Stud isn’t."

So hopefully Halsall, who names all of his horses after wines for no particular reason other than it’s an interest of his and gives him a kind of brand recognition, will keep needing to think of ever more original viticultural references.

His latest three are no different.

"I’m having a good run at the moment and hopefully that’ll bode well," he says.

"These ones were all with Colin since sort of last Christmas and I was hoping they might run in the spring, but with the way the ground went, and I think Colin would accept himself his horses weren’t 100 per cent, we decided to back off and leave them. They came home to me for the summer.

"It’s a freak for me to have three in one sale, but two won and Sheer Raz was beaten only a neck and dead-heated for second, and the other horse that was second was beaten only a neck again the other day, so the form is really strong."

After withdrawals, the sale comprises just under 40 lots, consisting of form horses from British and Irish point-to-points, with the event starting at 4.45pm.

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