malcolm bastard
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www.internationalthoroughbred.net
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The majority of nice horses always show something in their work – they learn quickly and are mentally alert to get great value – perhaps a horse with a pedigree but moderate conformation, but those days are gone now. You can’t buy that sort at the right price now, they just make too much money.” It is a numbers’ game for all breeze-up guys, even for Bastard who, although avoiding the quantity aspect of selling by preferring to load with quality, explains that the successful sales always need to carry those that fail to put a transaction into the black. “It operates on fine margins,” admits Bastard, his calculating mind working out the bottom line, “and through the last few years costs have risen so much – the price of hay, straw and fuel – while we have also had a drop in prices at the sales.” Bastard did not make the purchasing trek to the states last autumn – it is a shopping trip he has taken in the past but feels that his US purchases have not been lucky for him.
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needed bigger premises,” he reports – and you can be sure that such moves through the bubbling economic years of the 1990s would have been financially beneficial for this shrewd entrepreneur. Bastard now has a place ideally suited for his needs. Atop the Lambourn downs, to the lee of the M4, the south-west facing Baydon Hill Grange overlooks the historic Marlbough downs, a racehorse-producing area steeped in history. There is little on the site now that resembles the “tumble down farm” that Bastard bought around nine years ago, having by his own admission built it up from “scratch”. The farm can now boast five-star accommodation for its thoroughbreds: a 6f grass gallop, a 5-6f woodchip gallop, a 2f round canter which is “ideal for getting the youngsters going”, a fine house for himself, his partner Fiona and his children Ted and Milly, as well as all the ancillary buildings and accommodation that a busy pre-training and breeze-up enterprise, which at the height of its season employs around 25 people, requires. “The pre-training business is an important aspect to here,” explains Bastard. “It is great to have a second string to our bow – it keeps all the staff employed all year and can help pay for the ‘downs’ that a breeze-up business invariably experiences.” Asked how many horses were broken in through this last winter, Bastard smiles and merely says “quite a few”, but when he adds that he is in the yard himself each morning for 4.45am (Jimmy Guest, whom Bastard has worked with for over 35 years, is responsible for all of the breaking) you can be sure that this is no exaggeration. And with such a well-run and established kingdom in place, despite the requirement that pin-hookers need to possess a touch of the gambler about them, Bastard is not going to punt the lot on the purchase of excessive numbers of yearlings for re-sale. “I buy around five or six yearlings each year. I always want to buy more but I am not going to chance any more at it and put this place at risk – it takes a lot of finance to fund breeze-up horses and it is a tricky operation. I don’t want to compromise what I have here,” he explains. “Obviously you are looking to buy a horse with some profit in him,” he says, adding: “Everyone is after the same horse – the nice, quality type. You follow them in and just hope you are the one to get him at the right price. “When I first started you used to be able
“I do enjoy going, and I will again, but for whatever reason I have not had much success, perhaps I have just not bought the right horses!” he rues. However, he does put a certain amount of store in sire power, rationalising that there has to be reason that a stallion is in vogue. “I like the same package as everyone – a nice horse by a fashionable sire and from a good dam line. A good sire will bring buyers to come and look at your horse, and the more people who come to look, the more likely you are to sell. Anyway, sires are usually fashionable for a reason and that is generally because they are successful.”
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wo years ago one Bastard did get, one that provided him with that sought-after resale profit whilst also going on to do the job on the racecourse, was a colt by Azamour.