The dream is still alive as Midnights Legacy proves a natural in pre-training

Some smart performers are housed in the stables of Ben Case and Alex Hales on the sprawling Edgcote Estate near Banbury, but one of the most talked about horses on the grounds this winter has been a two-year-old still learning the ropes in the pre-training and breaking yard of Jamie Goss.

The minor celebrity in question is Midnights Legacy, who readers might remember was the last colt bred by David and Kathleen Holmes from their late rags-to-riches jumps sire Midnight Legend and has been left entire, earmarked for a stallion role if he shows the requisite talent on the track for future trainer Alan King.

We reported on the ambitious plan when Midnights Legacy was a six-month-old foal in November 2017, since when an eerily similar path has been taken by the Camelot colt Sir Erec. He was transferred from finishing third in Group 2 company on the Flat for Aidan O'Brien to winning a Grade 1 hurdle for son Joseph, and is now the subject of speculation over whether he might one day become a stallion.

Clearly, where the Holmes' lead, Coolmore follow.

Sir Erec has shown it can be done, now Midnights Legacy needs to do it himself. It is a daunting task, and one that the Holmes' accept is a roll of the dice rather than a realistic turn of events.

Nevertheless, the horse carrying the weight of those hopes and the bemused interest of the bloodstock industry looks every inch the incipient athlete as I join the owners on a visit to their homebred at Goss's stables.

The Holmes' are seeing Midnights Legacy for the first time since dropping him off in December. “Look how he's grown,” Kathleen gasps upon seeing him in his box.

“He's a well conformed bugger isn't he?” adds David in approval and, indeed, the horse has developed into an impressive specimen, with deep girth, a rich bay coat and a handsome, intelligent head.

David Holmes (right) and wife Kathleen with Midnights Legacy

The horse is also showing none of the traits that might have come with him still being in possession of his reproductive organs; no bristling or nipping as he receives a shower of pats and rubs. “D'you know, I think I could sit on him myself,” says David.

His even temperament is typical of his sire's stock, who are generally willing and straightforward souls, but he also pays high tribute to the skilled handling of Goss, whose mother Yvonne is a dual winner of the Golden Button Challenge, most recently last year aboard Untilla Legend, a son of – who else? – Midnight Legend.

Next it is out for a spin on the Edgcote estate's deluxe new all-weather circular gallop with his year-older sister Midnights Gift, who is spoken of in hushed tones as a good one. In unseasonably warm winter sunshine Midnights Legacy sets about his task with considerable enthusiasm, keeping pace with his more physically advanced sibling.

“He lengthens beautifully,” reports Goss after doing the steering. “In fact he's inclined to just try a bit too hard at this stage, I'm having to look after him.”

There is a sense of surrealism as Midnights Legacy's sinewy frame glistens with sweat after his exercise in 20-degree heat in February, less than a year after he appeared on these pages as a gawky adolescent and only 15 months since he was pictured as a fluffy foal.

“I can't believe it,” says Kathleen. “He's surpassing all our expectations.”

That's saying something, as the Holmes' are used to beating the odds by now.

Midnight Legend arrived at their Pitchall Stud in Warwickshire for a bargain sum, the rest of the thoroughbred world having spurned him, and he became renowned as a remarkable upgrader of stock before siring the Cheltenham Gold Cup hero Sizing John.

He died in 2016, leaving bigger and better crops in the pipeline, but the Holmes' still have another underappreciated stallion in Passing Glance, based at Batsford Stud and responsible for a Flat Group 1 winner, Side Glance, alongside talented jumpers such as Attaglance, Fountains Windfall and Midnights Legacy's Listed hurdle-winning half-sister Giving Glances.

Plans now call for Midnights Legacy to return to Pitchall Stud for two months' holiday, before returning to Goss for the finishing touches such as stalls training to be applied. He will then head to King's Barbury Castle Stables and, all being well, make his debut in a maiden or novice stakes in the autumn, when such contests are held over a mile or further with more regularity.

After what could be a fruitful spell on the Flat – not infeasible judging by his present wellbeing and development – he will be given a juvenile hurdling campaign.

The dream of making a stallion out of one of Midnight Legend's last colt foals is, for the moment, very much alive.

Look back at the march of Midnights Legacy...

The audacious plan to make a stallion out of a Midnight Legend foal

All systems go as stallion project Midnights Legacy turns one