Our daughter was incredibly excited I was going to the
sales on Tuesday as she was thinking I was going to come back with a pony as
well as a racehorse (she is reading ‘The Racehorse who wouldn’t gallop’ by
Claire Balding!). Unfortunately for her
there were no ponies for sale but she was still so happy to see Golden Hour.
I
wasn’t expecting to buy anything but thought I would make the trip up to have a
look. Prior to the sale I had been
through the catalogue and had been to see one nice, un-raced horse but I just
wasn’t sure about it. There were a few others
that were worth a look, two of which were from Goldolphin’s draft. Godolphin are really good at letting buyers
know if there have been any previous issues/problems with their horses. The lady in charge of their horses told me
that they had sold 900 horses last year at various sales over the world - there
were some good ones in there who have gone on and done well. One of the horses I was interested in hadn’t
run for a good few months and there was a bit of a list of problems – the
biggest of which was a tendon injury which meant he would need a year off, plus
I didn’t really like his conformation, which may well not help the tendon issue
in the future. I then looked at Golden
Hour, a gorgeous un-raced 3yr old, who has lovely conformation, must be 16.2,
moves like a dream, lovely big ears, an honest head and is beautifully bred by
Medaglia d’Oro, an American sire who won over $3.6m in prize money aged from 2
– 5 and won and was placed in many of the worlds best flat races including the
Dubai World Cup and Breeders Cup Classic.
No less than eight of his progeny have won over $1m including Songbird
(over $4.5m), Rachel Alexandra (Horse of The Year) who was also the best 3yr
old filly since the 1970s and won over $3.5m.
Medaglia d’Oro has sired 17 Grade 1 winners so far.
Golden
Hour was in training with Andre Fabre in France and never ran as he was too
big and backward. We will give him time
and take his shoes off, turn him out in the paddock and plan to run him after
Christmas/Spring time. He is certainly
something to look forward to. His sire,
Medaglia d’Oro means gold medal in Italian and the Golden Hour is just after
sunrise or before sunset where there is a wonderful golden glow on the land –
something we have been noticing more since he arrived and now understand what
it means!
Below
is a picture of him in his paddock after his first night out, it is really good
news that he has quickly relaxed and is enjoying being out for the first time,
probably since he was a youngster in Kentucky.
Golden Hour relaxing in the paddock this morning after his first night out
At Ascot sales
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