Bloodstock Briefing: Farewell Short Rations.
ARCTIC OWL'S victory in the Group 3 Jockey Club Cup at Newmarket 11 days ago had a poignant edge, for his dam Short Rations was put down earlier in the week at the age of 23.Short Rations had a long and varied stud career for her owner John Greetham, who said: "We mated her with Vettori this year, but she didn't get in foal, and then she lost condition. She's been a very good servant."
Arctic Owl himself, however, was not too profitable for Greetham, who sold the son of Most Welcome at the 1995 October Sales.
He said: "I put a 10,000gns reserve on him, and James Fanshawe bought him for that. He wasn't absolutely correct, a bit backward, and he was right at the end of the sale, at the end of the day. I had no idea he'd turn out as good as he has."
Greetham bought Short Rations for pounds 8,000 in Italy, where she won at two, having already bought her dam Short Commons.
But the latter produced just one foal for him-Middle Park third Wattlefield-though she had earlier foaled triple Group 3 winner He Loves Me.
Short Commons produced 12 winners from 13 foals of racing age. The latest was Chocolate Box, a full-brother to Arctic Owl who won his maiden early this month, and there is just a Belmez yearling colt to come.
Her first celebrity was Marooned, a Group 1 winner in Australia produced by chance.
"One of the terms Paul Mellon put on Mill Reef [at the National Stud] was that there would be a ballot of some nominations, and I was lucky," Greetham recalls.
Sometime later came two Bustino fillies. One, Patience Camp, was Listed- placed. The other, Much Too Risky, won at two but has done far better at stud for Greetham, producing Listed winner Seductress and the superbly named multiple Pattern winner Whitewater Affair (by Machiavellian).
Seductress was retained and has already produced useful Swiss Law (also by Machiavellian) but is a shy breeder, while Much Too Risky is back in foal to Machiavellian.
Whitewater Affair, however, is not among the six-strong Greetham broodmare collection based at his stud south of Norwich.
"I had a good offer from Fusao Sekiguchi and took it," he says. "I'd already arranged a mating with Singspiel, and he took that over and paid for it, and she's in foal."
Besides Whitewater Affair and Seductress, Greetham also has the Sir Michael Stoute-trained two-year-old Little Rock (Warning-Much Too Risky), who won on his debut at Leicester yesterday.
What are the chances he has already reserved the names Monica or Lewinsky for future fillies?
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| Title Annotation: | Sports |
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| Author: | Hickman, Janet |
| Publication: | The Racing Post (London, England) |
| Date: | Oct 14, 1998 |
| Words: | 442 |
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