Great expectations

The Dawson family of Nunstainton Stud is looking forward to the future with four progressive NH stallions on the roster for 2023.

We chat with Chris Dawson about the quartet of sires, headed by Kingston Hill and Falco

IT IS NOT a great time of year to try and fix an interview with a busy stud farmer, point-to-point trainer and sheep farmer… there is quite a lot going on in the spring months and March really is the apex of activity.

However, Chris Dawson of Nunstainton Stud, despite having been up the whole of the preceding night foaling down six mares and finding time in between to oversee the night’s activity in a nearby lambing shed, graciously gave some time to chat, the stud owner managing to force his eyes open and also talk eloquently and openly about the development of the family’s stud and stallion farm in the north-east of the UK.

“We usually do the foaling in shifts but last night the shifts seemed to roll in to one!” laughs Dawson. “We had six foals by six different stallions, four mares for outside clients, one of which boards here.”

The development of the operation into an enterprise standing four progressive NH sires headed by the Group 1-winning pair of Kingston Hill and Falco, who is also a dual Grade 1-winning producer, as well as housing a mixed broodmare band of around 30 of its own and around 50 in total, has come around, in farming terms, rather organically – Chris Dawson Snr, who had a few broodmares on the farm, decided to cut out the middle man and stand a stallion to cover his mares himself.

“We had half a dozen mares and generally used local stallions,” recalls Dawson Jnr.

“I would look back at them now and call them ‘hobby horses’, they did not really have pedigrees and were mares Mum and Dad bred out of and sold the progeny as four-year-olds, or they might keep them to point-to-point them.

“One year mares were sent to Ireland and a lot of them came back not in-foal. Dad was fuming. He decided then he would try and find his own stallion, so he rang a few people and we ended up with a horse called Dapper by Hernando. He had been in training with Henry Cecil, had then been used as a teaser in the US and somehow made his way back to the UK. We had him for a season to see how we got on, and then bought him a year later.

“We covered our own mares, maybe four or five, then a few local mares as some friends asked if they could use him too, he got up to books of 10 or 12.

“When you have a stallion, people ring and ask if you would like a mare and we were probably a bit naïve at this stage and took anything that had won at whatever level.”

At that point no one in the farming and rural family had worked on a stud farm; Dapper really was their “schoolmaster” stallion, showing the Dawson family the ropes of stud farming.

Dawson was then a teenager and it was his father’s solid farming experience and knowledge of stock, alongside an obliging stallion, that got the mares successfully in-foal.

“We were proper old school about it, we did not use any veterinary intervention other than at the final scan,” recalls Dawson. “When the mares were in season we covered them every other day and Dapper teased all them himself.

“Dad would sit on the back of the quad bike with the stallion on chifney and he would trot down our lane to the mares.

“We’d feed them, Dad would lead him out to the field and Dapper would then tell us which ones were in season – we’d lead the mare back to the farm to be covered. He was a legend of a stallion.”

The son of Hernando still has runners and the 130-rated Dr Kananga enjoyed an outing in this year’s Kim Muir Chase in which he finished in a respectable mid-division position.

Dawson, who likes to focus on the stats, says: “In one year Dapper had nine runners and seven winners in British point-to-points – if that had happened in Ireland it would have been very different for his book sizes.

“His stats are nearly 60 per cent winners to runners, and the book was certainly not the quality of mares that we have now.

Kingston Hill

“He could have produced us plenty of decent horses with the better mares now on the farm.”

Such initial ad hoc covering methods could be employed on a farm with just 20-odd mares and with one stallion on the roster, but the farm started to change its focus from standing one stallion almost for a bit of fun to a bespoke stallion operation involved as part of the larger farm enterprise.

A relationship with Eoin Banville’s Wexford-based Arctic Tack Stud developed and Nunstainton first stood Banville’s stallion Great Palm (Manila) in 2009 to 2012 and then Trans Island (Selkirk) in 2013.

“Trans Island probably took the stud to the next level,” recalls Dawson. “His best jumper so far has been I Like To Move It, who was bred by my brother John and his wife Alice. He won the Grade 2 Kingwell Hurdle in the autumn and ran in this year’s Champion Hurdle, he also won the Grade 2 Supreme Hurdle Trial in 2021.

“Fosters Island with Micky Hammond has won six races, Nells Son with Nicky Richards ran in the Coral Cup, Chinwag with Neil Mulholland has also won six races.

“Trans Island only saw books of around 30 and has produced some hardy mares we had here, sadly, we lost him with colic just as he was getting going with a few good horses.”

THE FARM NOW has the four stallions on its roster and all have strong chances of developing into commercially important sires for the farm. The headline act is Kingston Hill, who has relocated from Coolmore’s Castlehyde Stud to the County Durham farm, “Le Stallion Man” Richard Venn helping to transfer the horse over the Irish Sea.

Dawson says: “Richard Venn rang to say that Kingston Hill might be available –Coolmore did not want to sell but were keen to lease him out for a couple of seasons.

“He had covered big books for many years, but the numbers had dropped from 130-150 to around 30 and he perhaps needed a change.

“So we had the opportunity to bring a Coolmore stallion to the north east. Kingston Hill was an unbeaten two-year-old, a Group 1 winner as a two-year-old, a Classic winner at three, ran second in the Derby and was placed in an Arc – a fantastic, hardy and tough racehorse.

“Although we are growing now, I like to call ourselves a ‘little stud in the north-east’ and so to him come to us was massive.

“I have to say that Joe Hernon at Castlehyde was really good to deal with.”

The timing has been good for Nunstainton with the stallion’s bigger books and some NH horses hitting the track.

“Kingston Hill covered 55 with us last year and I would say we will be well able to get to that this year given his recent exploits,” outlined Dawson.

“The Paul Nicholls-trained seven-time winner and the Saturday Ascot hurdle winner Irish Hill has been a good flagbearer, No Looking Back won the Grade 2 before Christmas and finished second in the Grade 3 at the beginning of March, while Butcher Hollow won his point-to-point, and sold for £200,000 at the Cheltenham February Sale.

“He has also had three four-year-old point-to-point winners, and his bumper stats are looking good. He has had a number of winners in the north of England, which has worked in our favour – the local breeders and the trainers are at the races seeing the Kingston Hills do well, and they know he is only just down the road and easy to get to.

“We have also had a lot of support from the Scottish boarder-based breeders.

“Kingston Hill is a great signing, and he keeps banging in winners and the facebook page keeps updating with a winner or two – we have been able to keep the publicity rolling on, which is important, and we have got new clients through him.

“I really wanted to beat the number of mares he saw in his last season at Castlehyde, and we did that and hopefully will do it again.”

Kingston Hill is not the only stallion on a progressive curve having relocated to County Durham – Falco, a son of Pivotal, who had stood for ten years in France followed by some years at Elusive Bloodstock and Hundred Acre Farm is embarking on his first covering season with the Dawsons and is another stallion for whom the stars are aligning.

“It was just in a passing conversation with James [Gray] when I had asked if he wanted to relocate the stallion as he had used all his mares on him and it might have been

Two sons of Kingston Hill, who have been successful in the sale ring and on the racecourse. Above: Butchers Block, a four-year-old Tallow point-to-point winner, was sold at the Tattersalls Cheltenham February Sale to Hamish Macauley Bloodstock and Bryan Cooper for £200,000. Below: Irish Hill at the Paul Nicholls Ditcheat yard. The five-time winner won a February Saturday Ascot handicap hurdle off a career high of 128

The five-time winner won a February Saturday Ascot handicap hurdle off a career high of 128 time for the sire to be moved elsewhere,” recalls Dawson. “The stallion has had a really good spring – two days after he arrived Tahmuras won the Grade 1 Tolworth Hurdle in January, and then Hudson De Grugy won a graded chase at Sandown at the beginning of March for Gary Moore.

“Hitman ran a great race at Cheltenham this year for Nicholls when third in Ryanair Chase having previously been placed in Grade 1 chases, including the Grade 2 Denman Chase at Newbury in February.

Hitman: winning at Haydock in November. The son of Falco went on to run a fine race at The Festival and finish third in the Ryanair Chase (G1)

“Falco was in France for a long time so I track a lot of runners in Europe. I have been amazed by his stats, and he has even got 50 per cent winners to runners on the Flat.”

Dawson, a hard-working no-nonsense farmer, admits that adding Dragon Dancer to the roster was a decision driven a little by emotion, however sentiment has not taken over so much that the addition, another sire who has moved to the UK from France, did not also make sense commercially.

He joined the farm in 2018 and his first British-bred four-year-olds are hitting the track this year.

“Dragon Dancer is out of Alakananda, a full-sister to Dapper, so it was a little bit of emotion involved to bring the stallion to Nunstainton, but he is from the great Kirsten Rausing family of Alpinista – her dam and Dragon Dancer’s dam are three-parts sisters so he also had a great pedigree,” says Dawson.

“We were a little cautious in his first year – we did not push a lot of mares to him as we wanted to make sure we liked what we were getting. Touch Of A Dragon is fro mthat first crop – he was bred here, is one of his first to debut in a British NH bumper and has been third in two such races for trainer Micky Hammond.”

The final stallion of the four is Cannock Chase. He is on his second stint at the County Durham farm having made his career debut in 2017 at Nunstainton when standing on behalf of then owner Worsall Grange.

The road has not been smooth since for the son of Lemon Drop Kid, and he is now back at the farm having been purchased outright by the Dawsons.

“Cannock Chase is a lovely horse, we stood him a year and covered 55 mares in that first book,” explains Dawson. “He is not big, but is a lengthy scopey and racy looking horse, powerful and strong and from a great family.

“We only had him that year and he went back to Worsall Grange which was keen to send him Flat mares.

“When the Worsall came to an end in 2019 we tried to buy him under sealed bids, but were not successful.

“He went to Vauterhill Stud, but he only saw small books there. When myself and Wendy, my wife, were on holiday in Devon I happened to call in to Vauterhill on the off chance to see Cannock Chase, and on chatting we found out that he could be bought. We spoke to the owner David Maxwell and got a deal done.

“He covered only 14 mares last year, but we found that owner-trainers were really wanting to use him – people such as Chris Grant and Harriet Graham, who were wanting to breed racehorses, supported him.

“People were coming around to look at the stallions and they would notice him and say ‘Bloody hell he is an athlete, he should get racehorses!’.

“He was a good himself and is bred really well – he was a Grade 1 winner and a Royal Ascot winner, his full-sister was a

Royal Ascot winner, his half-sister was a three-time Group 1 winner and a Royal Ascot winner, and under the third dam is the US champion juvenile Action This Day. He has a really good family, and being by Lemon Drop Kid he is also a good outcross.”

The stallion’s early NH results are beginning to show some results.

“This year he has had four point-to-point runners, two have won and two have been placed, and he has also had a winner on the track. He has 13 runners, and nine of the 13 have won or placed.

“He is quite exciting, but it is going to be a process. That first book are now fiveyear-olds, but a lot of those were out of very average Flat mares. He got sent a lot of rubbish... he got the numbers, but they were bad numbers.

“But he is getting a lot of support now from people who already have his stock in their yards – trainer Chris Grant has three and Chase A Fortune won for him at Catterick this spring, and he says he would have a yard full of his progeny.

“The five-year-old Cannock Park won a point-to-point at Alnwick in February and has already gone on to finish a good second in a bumper at Carlisle.

“On the back of those results we have taken bookings, and a few breeders with mares in-foal to Kingston Hill are sending the mares to Cannock Chase having seen him when they have visited the stud. He needs to produce a top-class horse, but with the right support he could really get going.”

Dawson adds: “I want to try and get Cannock Chase as many mares as we can, and I especially want winning mares – I have upmost confidence in him as a sire.”

A former amateur and point-to-point jockey, Dawson, whose five-minute-long hopes of a return to the pointing field this season to stand-in for injured brother John, a leading point-to-point rider, were quickly quashed by his mother, somehow manages to find time in his busy week to play a spot of local rugby.

It is a weekly release from the year-round commitments of managing a stud farm, broodmare band, stallion operation, point-to-point yard and farm, and is a way for him to keep his own competitive fires burning bright.

Our early evening conversation has more than evidenced what a busy multi-faceted enterprise is in operation at Nunstainton.

As we come to the end of our chat there is a knock in the window from Dawson’s mother Rachel to signal that another broodmare is heading to the Nunstainton maternity unit and that her son’s birthing services are required.

It shows just how strongly the Dawson family is bonded to work together with a goal of producing top class young racehorses.

“Mum and Dad are just rocks, they are warriors,” smiles Dawson, one of four siblings who are all involved in some way on the farm and its various enterprises.

“We could not manage without them. Mum does nights with me, Dad really is the gofer now – he does all the fetching and carrying jobs, all the jobs no one else wants to do!”

Team work, as they say, makes the dream work, and the dreams are certainly big at Nunstainton.

A change of business focus at Nunstainton

“When we first started we bred a few and Dad would buy a few foals and we would sell them as stores or keep them to try and win a point-to-point and then sell them, he was ahead of his time trying to do that in the UK.

“We produced the Becher Chase winner West End Rocker – Dad bought him as a foal and I won a point-to-point on him – we had a horse called Steely Edition, who was rated 153 with Philip Hobbs.

“Recently, we have not had to run them – if I have one that I quite like and people ring me looking for a horse I just tell them to come and ride the horse on our circular gallop. It works really well and is something you can’t do at a sale. We sold four or five over the last couple of years like that.

“Now the stud has grown our business model has changed from producing the pointers to a business in which we ideally sell as foals, possibly as stores if we need to hold on to them a little longer for pedigree or conformation reasons.

“Any left we will put into the point-to-point yard or will be sold if people come to ride them. This seems to suit, but the ones we keep now to point are the lesser end of the horses we produce.

“And we train a lot of fillies now – if a filly wins a point-to-point and looks capable of winning on the track, there is a market now as trainers can buy knowing the filly might win a fillies’ bonus.

“We sold a mare called Ruby Island to trainer Mark Walford, she has won £35,000 in bonuses and I sold her for £5,000!

“It has been amazing for the owners and, because of her, they have come back and bought another one off me.

“It is important now to get a filly into training, even the ones you think are a bit too small or have some faults, and now I am more proactive finding them a trainer and putting them into training.

“If a filly is in the scheme and a trainer takes her, if it works out great, the pedigree gets an upgrade, I will win some bonuses as will the trainer. If she does not show much, then they can be sold into another sphere.

“If you have a mare who can win one, then often they can win more than one. For instance, Ruby Island has won £35,000, and she has only been a neck and a head from winning £75,000!”