Owner : The Brave Lads Partnership
The family
When 31,000gns was forked out on St. Edith at Newmarket's
December foal sale in 2000, a little more than a return of £680
courtesy of a 4th of 4 in a Pontefract maiden was no doubt
envisaged.
Trained in the main by John Quinn in the North, St Edith was at best
modest on the track herself. However, she is a half-sister to 3 fair
Flat winners, and her dam Carnelly was a winner and Listed-placed in
Ireland.
As a broodmare, St. Edith has proved more successful, and now has
5
individual winners to her credit. Best on the Flat to date has been
the Italian-based, Listed placed 3-time winner Furia Ceca while in
the UK,
That's Dangerous was dual winner for Roger Charlton as a 2-yr-old, and
Its All A Game is a
5-time winner. In 2016, the 3 yr old Kemsing won 4 races for Julia Fieldon.
More recently, St Edith's chestnut colt by Dragon Pulse achieved
£35k at the Aug '17 Yearling Sales. She was covered by Alhebayeb in
2016.
Of course, Hartforth has now won 5
times over hurdles, and is by far the top UK earner (of more than
£30,000) from the immediate family!
About the sire
Top class as a racehorse when trained by Barry Hills,
Haafhd (chestnut horse b 2001) won a couple of races at 2, including a listed 7f
event at Newbury. But he stepped up markedly on that form during
his second (and last) season winning the 2000 Guineas and
Newmarket's 10f Champion Stakes to end his career on a high.
At stud - his first crop saw the racecourse in 2006 - Haafhd has sired
over 125 individual winners worldwide, with an impressive
winners/runners strike rate of over 50% . The best of his progeny on
the flat have been Group 1 winner Junoob, Group 2 winners Silver
Grecian & Noble Protector while Melody of Love & Swordhalf
both won Group 3 events.
Now a dual purpose stallion, he is the sire of high class
NH performers
Countrywide Flame and Carlito Brigante.
A fine dual purpose stallion, now standing at Batsford Stud in Gloucestershire from 2017.
First glance at the profile of Hartforth before he joined our
yard, would not mark the gelding out as the normal type
of addition to the Dodland's string.
Bought as a yearling for 21,000guineas by James Bethell, Hartforth
raced 24 times for the Middleham based handler from 2 to 5 years without winning.
However, he did show plenty of indications of ability in being placed twice on
the Flat and four times over hurdles.
And yet, he did reach a rating of 101 over hurdles during the
2011-12 season and that is when Callum rode the gelding in a Class 2
event at Sedgefield. At the time, Callum was struck by his excellent
jumping and filed away the knowledge in his memory banks.
So when we heard that the gelding was for sale, we took a chance on
the then 5-yr-old with a view to mixing his racing on the Flat and
over Hurdles. In stepped a bunch of local owners to form The Brave
Lads Partnership.
Well, what a season 2013-14 proved to be for Hartforth. Winning on
his hurdling debut for us at Hexham, Hartforth showed progressive
form in his next 6 starts, particularly when the going was soft. He
won 2 further races, and arguably his best performance came at Ayr
at their National meeting when 3rd in a Class 3 event.
Season 14-15 proved a bit tougher but Hartforth did come good, making all to win at Ayr in March
over 3m 2f in testing conditions.
Hartforth started season 2015-16 on a mark of OR120, and things
proved quite tough especially as the handicapper relented to drop
him only 2lb. So. after a fine 3rd place at Carlisle over 2m 4f in
November, his form dipped off.
But the gelding bounced back to form on his first outing in season
2016-17, winning an Ayr handicap hurdle (OR115) at odds of 50-1, to
the delight of his loyal band of owners. He didn't trouble the judge
on three further outings but he's back in training for this
season. we'll see how the old fella goes (he's raced nearly 50
times in a career which started at 2) but he'll stick to soft ground
and staying trips in handicap hurdles.
| Season | win | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | other | |
| 2011-13 | All weather | 2 | ||||
| 2011-13 | flat | 1 | 1 | 8 | ||
| 2011-13 | hurdles | 1 | 3 | 10 | ||
| 2013 | Flat | 2 | ||||
| 2013-14 | hurdles | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | |
| 2014-15 | hurdles | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 2015-16 | hurdles | 2 | 3 | |||
| 2016-17 | hurdles | 1 | 3 | |||
| 2017-18 | hurdles | 2 | ||||
