Owner : D. W. Whillans
Pedigree
KaldounSpadoun
Tolga
Unnamed
2012 bay gelding
Beneficial
Blue Dragon
Aunt Emeralds
The family
Blue Dragon is a daughter of the great Beneficial and this
gelding by Spadoun ('Spud') is her first foal. In 2016 she has
been covered by Leading Light.
She was unraced but
she is a half sister to Bobble Emerald (b 2008) who has won 4
hurdles, and placed several times and also been placed in a couple of bumpers. He is in training with Martin Keighley.
Blue Dragon is also a sibling of the winning pointer Devils Arcade.
The 3rd dam, Iram bred some fair jumpers but the best of those were Gallant Tipp (winner of a chase) and Princeful who won 7 races in all including the Stayers Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival and Ascot's Long Walk Hurdle.
Further back in the family, the 4th dam, Georgiana, bred 8 winners including useful flat performer and top class hurdler Old Dundalk, a winner of Kempton's Rendlesham Hurdle.
About the sire
Group 1 winner on the Flat, winning hurdler sounds just about the ideal
racehorse to us! Spadoun (bay horse, born 1996) was trained by
Carlos Laffon-Parias at Chantilly in France and won the 10f Criterium de Saint-Cloud
(on heavy ground) as a 2 yr old. A Listed winner at 3, he then ran
twice over hurdles at 4, winning the second of these at Auteuil.
Well suited by testing conditions.
Spadoun was retired to stud in 2001, and stood in France for many years before locating to Ireland for one solitary season in 2011. he is a half-brother to Satwa Queen, a top class racemare and 5-time Stakes winner. Spadoun has bred a few winners on the level, but given his racing C.V., it's no surprise to find that he has been more successful as a jump sire.
His best stock are still of racing age, and number Grade 2 winners Noble Emperor (Tony Martin), Araldur (Alan King) and Pibrac among them.
If you've just read the summary above of both the sire and the family, you wouldn't have to be a rocket scientist to fathom out that 'Spud' is bred to appreciate a distance of ground. And when you see him in the flesh (see photos above), that view will only be confirmed.
'Spud' is a plain, old-fashioned gelding built like the proverbial brick out-house. And when we purchased him at the Tattersalls Ireland August sales of 2015, the vendors admitted that they had not done much work with him, save a bit of lunging and walking for 4 weeks beforehand. Our main man for education, Tim Reed sure enough soon reported back that he was a backward type who would take a bit of educating. In all, we reckon that 'Spud' spent the best part of 2 months down at Tim's yard near Hexham.
So, with winter setting in upon his return to Dodlands in late Autumn 2015, we didn't have that much time to work on his galloping. However, we did introduce 'Spud' to the routines of morning exercise in Spring of '16 returning to the yard after summer grass a couple of months later.
Well, we didn't look for him to be a sharp, 2 mile bumpers horse but the
team started working with him on a daily basis as we toned his
muscles, and developed his fitness. He was actually showing some
positive signs last year (September '16) but in October after a scan, we
found that 'Spud' had a stress factor of his near foreleg. Still,
we thought, he's young enough with time on his side to recover and aim for the
2017-18 season.
So, we stood him in his box in the stable for 6 months, frustrating
for us but equally so for this exuberant gelding but he's been
running around in a nearby field for the summer months of 2017 (with
'Sid', our Ask gelding) and is in such good heart that he was one of
the first of the winter horses welcomed back into the yard at the
beginning of August.
Clearly, soft ground is a must for this lad, and we'd be looking to see if he can be ready for a race in February / March 2018.
| Season | win | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | other | |
| 2017-18 | NH Flat | |||||
