Stable Musings With James Fanshawe

by Chris McGrath

Blessed with a breadth of interest by no means common in his profession, James Fanshawe did not need to be in Paris on the night of the recent massacre to have the frivolous obsessions of the Turf placed in due perspective. As it was, he was at least able to make his own contribution, however trivial, to a communal determination that the show must go on. Though the listed race he had targeted at Saint-Cloud was postponed, and Gale Force (GB) (Shirocco {Ger}) duly returned to Newmarket, he sent the filly straight back over the Channel to win the rescheduled race just six days later. In the process he extended a superb run of form through the closing weeks of the domestic campaign.

“At the end of August, we were still only on 21 winners,” said Fanshawe. “In the next two months, we had 27. We hadn't turned anything up earlier in the season; we did all the usual bloods and scopes, and they all came back fine. But I just hadn't been happy with the way they looked. When they look well, you can train them with more confidence. And that was the difference in the autumn. They still look well, even now, those that are still on the go.”

It is one of Fanshawe's defining virtues as a trainer, of course, that he refrains from rushing a horse at a fragile stage of its development. He understands that more haste, in many horses, really does mean less speed; that pushing them too hard, when deficient in health or maturity, might prevent the kind of fulfilment they collectively achieved this autumn.

Fanshawe is grateful that owner-breeders, in particular, recognize the value of this patience–and has duly excelled in 2015, once again, with such home-breds as Ribbons (GB) (Manduro {Ger}) and Gale Force (sold at Tattersalls Tuesday for 270,000gns) herself.

“The owner-breeders are worth their weight in gold,” he stressed. “A lot of them are being squeezed out in these commercial times, so it's great when you can still train horses from families you know so well. Orders at the yearling sales probably left us just a fraction shorter, numerically, but I did feel we bought some nice horses–and there's still time to catch up, though, at the breeze-ups.”

It is not as though Fanshawe has ever been limited in the type of horse he can train. Indeed, one of his Fred Archer syndicates– named for the tragic genius of Victorian racing, said to haunt Pegasus Stables–saw an 80,000-guinea yearling, The Tin Man (GB) (Equiano {Fr}), accelerate in just six starts from a debut in May to fourth of 20 behind Muhaarar (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) in the G1 QIPCO British Champions Sprint in October.

At the same time, the first of the two horses nominated by Fanshawe for this TDN series–collating prospects for 2016–certainly bears a familiar trademark.

“Star Storm (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) is a home-bred grandson of Sayyedati (GB) (Shadeed),” he explained. “He always showed me glimpses of ability, as a lovely-looking horse with lots of scope. But he took forever to get it together. When he did, he went from a maiden on 3 September to completing a hat-trick in the Cumberland Lodge S. on 3 October. He stays in training at four and, with that scope and physique and pedigree in his favor, you would hope that he could keep progressing–especially as we now know a bit more about him.”

Among those just starting out, Fanshawe counts Replenish (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}) among those to have laid solid foundations.

“He's a horse I've always liked, who came from Con Marnane at the breeze-ups,” he said. “He ran in three maidens, finishing second twice, before winning a nursery over seven furlongs at Kempton in October. He only scraped home in the end, but I think it was quite a competitive race and I hope he's the type who will keep progressing at a mile plus next year.”

The final task set to contributors to this series is to identify a horse from another yard, other than Air Force Blue (War Front), to monitor for the Classics. Though no less comfortable with the challenge than the rest, Fanshawe could not help but admire two Group 1 winners this autumn; Minding (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in the Dubai Fillies' Mile at Newmarket, and Marcel (Ire) (Lawman {Fr}) in the Racing Post Trophy at Doncaster.

“Obviously the filly has a lovely pedigree, but I also thought she looked tough–the sort that will get on and do it in the spring,” he said. “And I just have a feeling that Marcel, in the hands of a trainer who's bloody good with these Classic horses, will go on and prove that Doncaster was no fluke.”