A new era at Old Mill

A new era at Old Mill

Old Mill Stud, purchased by Ibrahim Araci and daughter Pinar in 2019, has its first yearlings bound for Tattersalls this autumn. Aisling Crowe chats with bloodstock and racing manager Rob Speers

Photography by Debbie Burt

ROB SPEERS IS ENJOYING yearling prep this summer and autumn. The purchase and development of Old Mill Stud by employer Ibrahim Araci means Speers can become hands on with the horses once more, as he overseas and takes an active part in the preparation of the farm’s first yearlings to sell under the new banner. “It’s a very different process now,” says Speers, who began his career with the Coolmore yearlings before becoming assistant manager at Highclere and now bloodstock and racing manager to the Aracis.

“Until the mares moved into Old Mill last November the yearlings were prepped and sold by the farms where they boarded, so this is the first year Mr Araci is selling as his own brand.

“Yearling prep was something I always did and enjoyed and I pride myself on producing a good team of young people here as well as the yearlings.”

Working with the youngstock affords Speers valuable insights into the characters and temperaments of the horses, discovering traits that run through the families but also giving a glimpse into how the embryonic racehorses will adapt in the next stage of their careers.

“You learn to understand the horses and how important attitude is and the mental toughness. I’m lunging a lot of yearlings and I’m really enjoying the process; it gives you a clear idea of what their futures are and you can be honest with buyers at the sales. You also need to understand character and family traits to be able to choose stallions that suit.”

Old Mill Stud, found four miles outside of Newmarket and previously owned by David Shekells, the breeder of Royal Applause, has nine yearlings catalogued at Tattersalls October Yearling Sale across Books 1 and 2, but the breeding operation.

The first draft in their own name contains a yearling who will garner attention from the moment she steps off the lorry at Park Paddocks.

In Lot 510 of the Book 1 catalogue the farm has a filly who would adorn any leading sale the world over, such is the strength of her pedigree, as a Galileo half-sister to this month’s Group 1 Sprint Cup winner Dream Of Dreams, and her page is also matched by her physical attributes.

Owner and breeder, Ibrahim Araci

Galileo ex Vasilia parading at Old Mill Stud

“She is a lovely filly and I couldn’t fault her temperament, she moves like a panther and is so athletic, she just has a swagger to her,” admires Speer. “It is a very fast page, all about speed, as a half-sister to a Sprint Cup winner out of a half-sister to a pair of Group 1-winning sprinters.”

Her dam Vasilia has produced three black-type performers and is the granddam of another, while her half-sisters are none other than Jwala and Airwave, who is the second dam of the Group 1 winners Churchill and Clemmie, both by Galileo.

“We know Galileo on speed works, we know Galileo and Dansili works, the cross works on paper and it looks like it works in reality,” outlines Speer. “Her attitude is fantastic, the way she eats up, how she wants to get on with everything; she just wants to work and she floats across the ground. She moves like a special horse and I look forward to following her career.”

The only filly amongst the quartet offered by Old Mill in Book 1, with five more yearlings catalogued in Book 2, she is by no means an outlier as Speers and Araci have carefully developed and nurtured a broodmare band of exceptional quality.

“All three colts are out of mares whom we bought as either foals or yearlings and raced, but they were all bought with their pedigrees in mind for future broodmare careers. It’s amazing how time flies – we are already selling or racing their offspring!”

Allied to this is their selection of stallions for their mares, matching pedigree and performance with the aim of producing stars.

The Kingman colts in Book 1 are a striking example of the farm’s aims with Speers saying: “These colts have good enough pedigrees to be stallions.”

Lot 437 is out of the Sea The Stars mare She’s Mine from a prolific Jim Bolger family, the mare a three-parts sister to a Galileo-sired quintet of Group performers that include the Group 3 winner and 1,000 Guineas second Cuis Chaire, Scintillula, who was also a Group 3 winner and second in the Group 1 Moyglare Stakes, and Gile Na Greine. She was placed in both the Group 1 Coronation Stakes and 1,000 Guineas.

THE GROUP 1 National Stakes winner Verbal Dexterity and the Group 1-placed Luminata and Tobann are also under the third dam.

“His three-year-old full-brother Imrahor has been placed on both his starts for us and is due to run back soon, and we think he is a black-type horse.”

The first yearling to sell under the Old Mill Stud brand is Lot 56, a Kingman colt and a close relation to Incinerator by Oasis Dream, a winner twice at two last year.

He is also closely related to the Listedwinning sprinter Pretend, an Invincible Spirit half-brother to dam Bella Nostalgia. There is plenty of speed in the family, too, as his second dam Fafinta is a daughter of Indian Ridge, and a half-sister to the Group 1 winner Falbrav.

“Bella Nostalgia was a stakes filly for us (third in the Listed Distaff Stakes at Sandown) as a three-year-old and she comes from a lovely family. Her Oasis Dream colt Incinerator was pretty decent at two and, for a Kingman, this colt has wonderful bone.

Guineas winner Virginia Waters, sells as Lot 209 in Book 1 and it is a black-typeladen pedigree typical of the Old Mill draft.

Warren Rose, this year’s debut winner owned and bred by Araci, was named in tribute to Sir Henry Cecil in whose care the most beautiful flowers of summer bloomed for generations, and her Bated Breath three-parts sister is an eye-catching lot in the Old Mill Book 2 consignment (Lot 678).

“Her dam Chigun was a Group 3 winner that Sir Henry trained for us and she was a really high-class filly, his final Group winner and Mr Araci and Pinar reserved that name very shortly after Chigun retired and they waited to find the right filly out of Chigun to give that name to,” he explains.

“This three-year-old by Dansili always looked to be potentially very smart and after her impressive debut Warren Rose looks like she has a big future ahead of her.”

Speers’ immediate future includes many more hours in the lunging ring, but the future for Old Mill Stud appears as bright and a beautiful as that of Warren Rose.

Above, Butterscotch (Galileo) enjoying late summer, and, below, her filly foal by Justify. The mare was purchased at the 2019 Tattersalls December Mare Sale for 700,000gns carrying her first pregnancy