Keyboard Gangster : 2011 bay gelding
Owner :
The Buyers Club
The family
There's can be no doubt that it was the conformation of Keyboard
Gangster
that attracted us as bidders at the August 2014 Tattersalls
(Ireland) National Hunt store sale.
The family does not have a pedigree that would leap out at anyone in
the sales catalogue, without any black-type performers in the
first 3 generations of the bottom half.
That's not to say there are not winners there though. The Old Vic
mare Vic O'Tully was unraced and she has had 7 foals as a broodmare
but only our gelding has set foot Under Rules thus far.
However, grand dam Miss O'Tully has produced winning
hurdler/point-to-pointer Carroll's O'Tully and winning pointer
Perdel.
3rd dam, The Bay O'Tully, has also bred a winner under rules and a
winning pointer.
And in August 2018 Chase Me Charlie, a 3yr old full brother to Keyboard Gangster was sold to
Irish Point-to-Point kingpins Monbeg for €11k, and made his Point
debut in May 2019.
About the sire
Gamut (bay horse, born 1999) raced in each of 5 seasons from 2 to 6
when trained by Sir Michael Stoute in the early 2000s. He won 6
races, and was ridden by Keiron Fallon in each of those victories.
And he showed himself as a top class racehorse, with all those wins
coming at around 12f, including the Group 1 Grand prix de
Saint-Cloud as a 5yr old.
At stud, Gamut was initially marketed as a dual purpose sire while standing at Sunnyhill Stud in Ireland
before moving on to Rosshill Farm stud (Co. Galway) in 2014, where his progeny have been almost totally NH
focused (Stud fee €3-4k).
Road to Riches is from Gamut's first crop and is a top class chaser (a
dual Grade 1 winner), as Gamut has built a
reputation as a sire of strong gallopers. From his 3rd crop, Joshua
Lane finished 3rd in the 2014 Festival Bumper, and more recently his
sons Road to Respect (also a dual Grade 1 winning chaser) and Any Drama have kept the flag flying.
Form Summary
If pressed, and quite frankly this is one of those occasions where
you wouldn't have to press Donald too hard, we'd admit that our
favourite National Hunt Store Sale in the calendar is the
Tattersalls (Ireland) August event. Situated just across the
road from Fairyhouse racecourse, just on the outskirts of the small
town of Ratoath, the sales ring is a short journey from Dublin
Airport and not that far from the lovely city of Dublin itself. We
find the nearby town of Swords a great place to stay with a
selection of good quality hotels and first class restaurants just
the job at the end of a day at the sales. Of course for the younger
members of our sales team, there is an astonishing mid-week
nightlife, but what goes on.....
At the August 2014 Sale, we were
delighted to
secure this gelding as one of our two Gamut purchases
(
Paper Roses was the other).
Keyboard Gangster had a full season of training in 2014-15,
finishing
off with a racecourse gallop at Kelso in May '15 before the then
4-yr-old was turned away to mature. That gallop confirmed our
initial thoughts that he was a wee bit special, travelling
throughout hard on the bit. (
Paper Roses and
Baby Ticker were two of the others
in that gallop).
However,
Keyboard Gangster was involved in collision with a car in October '15
and required a few months of rest, so it was Spring of 2016 before he
returned to training. He made
his debut run (as a 5 yr old) at Perth in June that year, showing up well for a long
way before racing as if something was amiss, and was again turned
out to grass to strengthen.
The gelding had an
interrupted campaign in 2016-17 with various minor issues and made a belated
reappearance in a bumper at Ayr in April '17, where he put in a good
performance in 6th albeit hanging abruptly left when challenging
just over 2f out.
He's a gentle giant at home, but his wayward tendencies on the
racecourse did surface a couple of times again in season 2017-18. However,
there was no doubting the high class shown in his two hurdle
victories in that season. Firstly in a novice hurdle at Ayr, then a couple of runs
later winning a £40k added Class 2 handicap at Kelso off a mark of
OR130.
Onto 2018-19.
After a fine opening run at Haydock - unplaced, but form of a level
of previous season's best - he didn't appear to stay 2½ miles next time and had an interrupted
preparation for his final race of the season at Newcastle in April.
That's racing........
A workmanlike gelding, Keyboard Gangster looks the type to
improve when sent chasing, very much on the agenda this season.
Season |
win |
2nd |
3rd |
4th |
other |
2016-17 |
NH Flat |
|
|
|
|
2 |
2017-18 |
hurdles |
2 |
|
1 |
1 |
|
2018-19 |
hurdles |
|
|
|
1 |
2 |
2019-20 |
hurdles |
|
|
|
|
3 |
Current Season Form
Previous Season Form