Isaac Shelby leading the way for Elaine Chivers and Park Wood Stud

If every horse Park Wood Stud brings to the sales turns out to be like Isaac Shelby, Ruth Pitman's operation will really be on to something.

The chartered surveyor took on what was Dominic Burke's Whitley Stud near Tetbury in Gloucestershire and has been involved in both the National Hunt and Flat games.

Isaac Shelby, bred by Elaine Chivers, was her first expedition in consigning a Flat yearling when taking the Night Of Thunder colt to last year's Goffs UK Premier Sale.

He sold for £92,000 to Sam Sangster and on Tuesday made his racecourse debut for Brian Meehan and Manton Thoroughbreds at Newbury in the repurposed Sangster silks.

The chestnut, out of Kentucky Belle, came tidily clear in the manner of a horse who could be bound for Royal Ascot. It is a smart imported American family with the unraced Heliostatic mare seeming to have influenced the name of Isaac Shelby, a celebrated governor of Kentucky.

She is a daughter of a half-sister to US Grade 2 turf scorer Ramazutti, with Graded winners such as Pocket Zipper and Jungle Blade deeper on the page.

"We hadn’t offered any yearlings before at the sales and we bred him on behalf of a lovely client of ours, Elaine Chivers," said Pitman.

"She has had mares with us for about four years and Kentucky Belle was one of the first that she bought and brought here. She came from Tattersalls for not very much money, 4,500gns, and went to Night Of Thunder before he reached his stellar heights, so Elaine didn’t pay a huge covering fee.

"The colt matured quite late but developed really well over the course of the summer. He looked a picture by the time he reached the sales and exceeded all our expectations. He sold for £92,000, so big celebrations all round."

Pitman and, one imagines, Chivers are now looking keenly towards the future.

"He did look fantastic at Newbury and Brian Meehan said he was very pleased. I think he’s aiming at a stakes race next," she said. "We’re thrilled to bits, and so is the owner.

Ruth Pitman has been encouraged by developments at her Park Wood Stud

"We’ve got a colt we’ll be consigning later this year by Al Kazeem, another chestnut, and hopefully this will do him the power of good. She didn’t have a foal this year but she was covered by Whitsbury Manor’s Sergei Prokofiev."

Pitman has a mixed band of National Hunt and Flat residents and provides holiday residence for some of Emma Lavelle’s string. Silverscape, a dual winner for owner-breeder Jennifer Dorey and trainer Roger Teal, is a recent star to have emerged.

"We started from nothing very much six years ago, so we’re very pleased with how it’s going and we’re enormously grateful to Elaine and the other fantastic clients that have supported us," she said.

"Elaine has eight mares with us now including a lovely black-type National Hunt mare called Ziggy Rose, who has had the most beautiful No Risk At All foal this year. She has principally Flat racemares and some old favourites but she’s wanting to be a bit more commercial, which is great for us.

"Matthew Darling, our stud groom, has more than demonstrated that he knows how to prep horses and we’re trying to up our game with consigning.

"We took a Soldier Of Fortune that I pinhooked as a foal from Ireland to the Spring Store Sale and he sold for £50,000, which we were thrilled with, and we’ve got a really nice Blue Bresil for a pinhooking syndicate that we’re thinking about recommending taking to the new two-year-old National Hunt sale at Doncaster in August."

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