How budget breeding ripped up the rule book at a Royal Ascot dominated by the bloodstock underdogs

Nowhere applies the blowtorch quite like Royal Ascot. Only a select few are able to stand the heat, and there is no mistaking that racing’s major powers have been in prolific form over the past five days.

Coolmore had five winners, Godolphin four, while emerging force Wathnan Racing added another five successes to its rapidly growing roll of honour.

These operations have left nothing to chance, with their results a direct consequence of significant investment in bloodstock, infrastructure and personnel. It was ever thus in the sport of kings, though, right?

Well, not quite. Racing and breeding has long been a broad church, and while the sport’s heavyweights certainly made their presence felt, action this week also served up several timely reminders that a good horse can come from anywhere.

Twenty-nine different stallions supplied the 35 winners during this year’s meeting, including a few who had previously been completely unheralded. Thirty-one different breeders were also on the mark, some of whom are operating with relatively modest means.

Sure, money helps, but it doesn’t guarantee success. Just as a good horse can come from anywhere, they can cost anything, too.

The tone was set early on day one when Docklands prevailed in a nip and tuck finish to the Queen Anne Stakes. He was bred by Mickley Stud by home sire Massaat – who stands for just £3,500 – and from a mare bought for only 9,000gns. He was picked up by current connections through Blandford Bloodstock at a cost of £16,000, a figure that has looked better value with each passing day.

And Docklands was not the only Group 1 winner by a stallion who stands at a chicken feed fee.

Washington DC, another £3,500 option based at Bearstone Stud just up the road from Massaat, came up with King Charles III Stakes scorer American Affair. Who knew that Shropshire was such a seat of stallion power?

Gary Carroll celebrates Group 1 number 1

Coolmore sire Australia sired his second Group 1 winner this month when Cercene won the Coronation StakesCredit: Patrick McCann

Coolmore’s Australia dropped a big hint that a fee of €10,000 seriously underestimates his capability by siring Derby hero Lambourn. He added an exclamation mark to the point when Cercene outbattled the blue-blooded Zarigana in the Coronation Stakes.

One or two of these outcomes could easily be chalked down as an aberration, a fluke, a glitch in the bloodstock matrix. But the rags-to-riches results just kept on coming.

Last year’s crop of first-season sires has continued to confound, but the Commonwealth Cup may just have crystallised things for agents, breeders and industry commentators alike.

Ballyhane Stud’s Sands Of Mali became the first of the cohort to supply a European Group 1 winner courtesy of Time For Sandals, who was conceived at a fee of just €6,500. Her dam’s otherwise ordinary enough production record is not the first indicator that points to Sands Of Mali being a precious upgrader of stock.

We could soon be saying the same about Tally-Ho Stud’s first-season sire Starman, who has spent the last two years priced at €10,000. He supplied impressive Albany Stakes victress Venetian Sun, one of nine winners in his first crop.

Awtaad did his bit to pay tribute to his trainer Kevin Prendergast, who died on Friday aged 92. He sired two winners in Ascending, who annexed the Ascot Stakes, and Ethical Diamond, who scored by clear water in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes. The Derrinstown Stud resident was priced at €7,500 this year.

Awtaad’s winners were both trained by names more closely associated with the jumps, namely Henry de Bromhead and Willie Mullins. Similar comments apply to Golden Horn and Postponed, who have largely been deemed surplus to requirements by Flat breeders. However, that did not stop the pair coming up with winners at the biggest meeting on turf.

It has been quite a few months for Overbury Stud resident Golden Horn, as his son Trawlerman gave him a Gold Cup to go with the Champion Hurdle won by Golden Ace back in March. Flat breeders prepared to apply a bit of patience could surely do worse than his £10,000 fee.

Although Postponed (£6,000) is now standing in a National Hunt capacity at Yorton Farm, King Edward VII Stakes scorer Amiloc showed he too can come up with a classy Flat runner when mated appropriately. A nod also to Phoenix Of Spain (€10,000), Saxon Warrior (€15,000), Twilight Son (€5,000) and Ulysses (£8,000), who supplied Haatem (Wolferton Stakes), Garden Of Eden (Ribblesdale Stakes), Get It (Wokingham Stakes) and Humidity (Chesham Stakes) respectively.

Time For Sandals: caused an upset in the Commonwealth Cup

Commonwealth Cup winner Time For Sandals was bought for €35,000Credit: Edward Whitaker

The theme continued on the buying front as well, as Windsor Castle winner Havana Hurricane was bought by Highflyer Bloodstock and Eve Johnson Houghton for just 9,000gns, while Time For Sandals cost Harry Eustace and David Appleton a thoroughly reasonable €35,000.

The latter purchase came from the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale, which is typically considered a solid source of winners rather than a blue-chip affair. Nonetheless, the Fairyhouse auction produced not one, not two but three Group 1 winners this week, with Time For Sandals joined by Cercene and Docklands.

It should be noted that some winners cost significantly more, including the €530,000 Field Of Gold, the 500,000gns Noble Champion and the 450,000gns Gstaad. High-end stallions also supplied their share of successes too, with a special mention to Coolmore’s No Nay Never, who led the sire standings with four winners.

But plenty would have expected the likes of Frankel, Kingman and Wootton Bassett to hit the mark this week. The same cannot be said for Massaat, Postponed and Washington DC.

Of course, this is not a new phenomenon, and as such it is debatable how much this week’s events will move the dial, at least directly. Will breeders suddenly flock to those previously unheralded stallions in their droves? Past form makes it seem unlikely. In some instances, that is probably fair enough.

Rightly or wrongly, racing and breeding are fashion-based industries, and a few results at Royal Ascot probably won’t alter what is effectively the human condition.

But this week serves as an important reminder that form and function count for so much more when it comes to matters of the turf.

Given that racing and breeding are inherently unpredictable, and all the better for it, it is often hard to reconcile the disconnect between the commercial market – both sales and stallions – and the reality of the racecourse. Never more so than this week, when the polarisation so often witnessed in those arenas was notable by its absence only.

Here’s hoping these results provide food for thought for breeders and buyers alike; or who knows, perhaps even a little inspiration. They prove that it can be done, and that you don’t need to be a billionaire to succeed on the biggest stage of all.

After all, the only rule in this game is that there are no rules.