Father and daughter team Robin Tate and Fiona Needham went shopping at Tattersalls Ascot on Tuesday, and returned to Yorkshire with a new recruit.
An unbroken three-year-old filly (pictured above), she is half the age but the same colour as Sine Nomine, the grey mare who recorded four straight wins for the stable last season. Sine Nomine – Latin for ‘without a name’ – concluded her campaign with a promising first attempt on a hunters’ chase when third to Latenightfumble and Go Go Geronimo in the 12-runner intermediate contest at Cheltenham’s evening meeting.
“We like our grey mares,” said Needham, slightly tongue in cheek after the filly had been knocked down to her father for £3,800, which is £1,400 more than Sine Nomine cost at Doncaster three years ago. “She is a new project and looks like she should run as a four-year-old, although we never rush a young horse.
“She is pretty and athletic, and my father said ‘she looks a bit lively’. Then he added ‘But I don’t break them in any more – you do!’”
A daughter of Shade Oak Stud stallion Telescope, whose oldest crop are now five-year-olds and who sired a flurry of point-to-point winners in Ireland during the spring, the filly is out of a Fair Mix mare who has yet to produce a winner, but whose family contains such jumping stars as Inglis Drever, River Ceiriog and Young Hustler.
**Fiona Needham, who has been entrusted with breaking in the new filly. Photo Carl Evans
Needham, an independent member of the Point-to-Point Authority Board, said of Sine Nomine: “She’s all good at the moment, and out in a field. I should think she will start next season in a point-to-point and then go hunter chasing.”
The Warwickshire team of Fran and Charlie Poste were at Ascot, but in the guise of vendors. They offered the five-year-old point-to-pointers Bellamy Express and Mooloolah, who had each run twice and finished runner-up on their latest start. Bellamy Express was sold outside the ring for £10,000 to Liam Flavin, while Mooloolah made £4,000 to a bid from Kif Thomson, a master of the Ashford Valley Hunt. Thomson said his wife Becky will event the new purchase, although he did not rule out the prospect of some hunting, too.