Hollymount set to produce latest dividend for Buchanan family business

The link between the Buchanan family and Hollymount, who looks set to be one of the major attractions at Tuesday’s online Doncaster January Sale, is closer than exists even with the more hands-on owner-breeders.

Peter Buchanan, the retired National Hunt jockey, rode the filly's dam Zaffarella on many occasions, partnering her to victory on her penultimate start at Uttoxeter in 2010.

He has been doing the groundwork on many of the mare’s progeny, including Hollymount, who cantered to victory on her bumper debut at Carlisle last month in the colours of the Northern Irishman’s sister, Jane, who is a bloodstock agent and racing manager for Graham Motion’s leading American stable.

And the pair’s father, Alan, also has a part in the story.

"It started off when Dad bought two horses out of a field, Zaffarella and her brother, Prosecco," Peter Buchanan explains. "It was from a horsey guy in Northern Ireland who’d maybe be more into half-breds and things like that. Dad liked the look of the mare and he took the gelding as well."

"He continues: "She started off with Paul Keane, who trained where Neil Mulholland is now. Jane and Paul were on the BHA graduate scheme together and we sent her to him when he was starting out.

"She was second in a bumper and then Paul’s horses got very sick, she ran again in another bumper and was very disappointing. Paul ended up giving his yard some time off, she came back okay and ran in the Listed bumper at Sandown, just looking as if she needed the race.

"Later I was working for Lucinda Russell, we decided to send her up there and she went and won a few races. We leased her to a syndicate, she was a good fun horse for them, and at the same time Prosecco, who was a year younger and was a great horse for another syndicate, ran on until he was 13, was always in the money and would win one every year."

After retiring Zaffarella and taking her back to the family farm, it has been a steady stream of success from her very first foal.

"She was by Zaffaran and we’d still have been friendly with Alfie Buller, who owned Scarvagh House Stud and stood him," Buchanan says.

"He was winding up but he still had Exit To Nowhere, and along came Ravenhill Road, who has been a good horse for Sue Smith.

Peter Buchanan had a successful career in the saddleCredit: Grossick Racing Photography

"The next foal was Windsor Avenue, again by a local stallion, Hugh Suffern's Winged Love. There’s a big day in him as well; he won his two bumpers, two hurdles, was second in a Grade 2 round Kelso over hurdles, won two novice chases and was second to Imperial Aura this season. He’ll win one of those Saturday races too."

Then came the real game-changer, Malone Road. A commanding winner of a point-to-point at Loughanmore for Stuart Crawford, he subsequently sold for £325,000 to Cheveley Park Stud at the Goffs UK Aintree Sale and has looked the smartest of prospects in what has been a stop-start career to date.

"We would have been friendly with the Crawfords growing up, pony club and eventing," Buchanan says. "Jane was eventing the same time as Stuart, and I’d be the same age as his brother Steven, who was a jockey. Dad sent them the horses to point-to-point, they all won, so then what do you do? You sell them.

"I’d just hung up my boots and come home and Malone Road was the first one coming along then. We got him broken in early and he just came to hand as a three-year-old.

"He showed everything at home, there’s a lot of Kalanisi in him, he had a lot more pace. He was very impressive the day he won his point-to-point and was an easy sell - everyone wanted him."

The Buchanans and Crawfords took a slightly different approach with Hollymount and sent her to race straight under rules. As a daughter of the very du jour Jet Away, with her siblings showing such ability, it is easy to see her commanding another considerable sum through Goffs UK.

Buchanan stifles the sort of familiar snigger reserved for mickey-taking between siblings as he adopts a comedic Transatlantic drawl.

"I remember Jane had been at the yearling sales in America and the first time she was home and saw the filly, she said, 'Jeez Dad, that mare wouldn’t look out of place at Keeneland!'

"But she was a beautiful yearling, it must be the Cape Cross in her, she wouldn’t have been out of place.

"I’d a fair bit done with her here and rode her last bit of work before she ran. Stuart was keen to run but the jockey in me was just wondering whether she needed one more to sharpen her up. Whatever she did at Carlisle, I think there’s a tonne of improvement in her because that was her first real away day."

To sell, or not to sell, did naturally present a little internal conflict, but Zaffarella has maintained her fecundity and is still in fine health aged 20.

"Hollymount’s the first filly out of the family and we’d have loved to have kept her but it’s just the way things are," Buchanan says. "We have another few fillies at home, and if people like her as much as we do she can go off to a new home. We can’t collect them.

"The next one is a Califet filly, she’s broken and cantering away, ready to go to Stuart to run in a point-to-point and/or a bumper at the end of the spring, depending on what happens.

Hollymount's half-brother Malone Road has looked very excitingCredit: Patrick McCann

"She’s very athletic and light on her feet so, touch wood, she seems nice. Then we have a Court Cave gelding, just turned three now, he was a cracking foal, and a Soldier Of Fortune yearling filly, she’s a cracker too. It’s been fantastic, we all can't believe how lucky we’ve been with the mare."

Buchanan retired from the weighing room aged 38 in 2016 as a popular figure with more than a decade’s continued service for Lucinda Russell. He rode almost 400 winners including four incarnations of Haydock’s Grand National Trial.

It is fair to say that his life now retains its variety as he has joined the family firm, Warnocks, a school uniform and menswear shop in Belfast.

"With school uniform being very seasonal it’s very busy in summer, back to school July and August, but a bit quieter through the rest of the year and I can do a couple of horses in the morning before I go into work," he says.

"It’s a change from being a jockey, but at least I still have the horses at home, I can dabble and keep the interest in it.

"It’s nice to do a bit of taking them away, bits of cross-country schooling, trotting round the fields. They’re learning plenty without rushing them, and I think that stands to them well whenever they go on to an end-user."

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