As in the case of J’y Vole, I first became aware of Down Ace because she was from the family of Full of Fruit – in fact I even followed her dam, Full of Birds, when she raced as a 3yo and 4yo in France. However, her daughter, by the Derby winner Generous, was a better racehorse and won over all disciplines of Jump racing: Point-to-Point, NH Flat, hurdles and fences. Her best win was the Listed Mares Novices Hurdle at Taunton.
In November 2018 she came up for sale at Fairyhouse. She was not my top pick, but Mere Devie, who was, went for too much money, as did others that might have met my requirements. This left Down Ace, a good looking but medium-sized chestnut near the end of the sale, in foal to Beat Hollow, a stallion that to me lacked the size to be an ideal mating. Even worse, the reserve was set at €35,000, which was my maximum valuation – and the owner was in Portugal and said to be uncontactable. This may even have been true, since he died not long afterwards.
Accordingly, I could not employ my normal strategy in such circumstances, of waiting to see the mare led out unsold at the reserve and then offering less than that. When the mare reached €34,000, I raised a single finger to signify my one-and-only bid – and the mare was mine. The filly she was carrying brought £9,000 from trainer Ruth Jefferson as a foal, but her real breeding career for me began with visits to Telescope, with whom she produced two colts and a filly.
Michael Moore purchased seven-eighths of the first of these privately and then gave most of the horse away, as a generous gesture to his staff, having paid an appropriately generous (to him) price to me.
Michael’s head girl, Nuala, nicknamed the horse ‘Barbados’ in the expectation that a suitably good price would pay for a holiday to that destination. I suggested that ‘Blackpool’ might be a more apt choice. However, Nuala was rather nearer the mark when he brought €42,000 as a 3YO store. Now actually named ‘Ace Ambition’, he is currently in training in Ireland aimed at 4YO Point-to-Points.
Another to grow into money, though not for me, was Down Ace’s 2021 colt who brought only €5,500 as a foal but went on to fetch €40,000 as a 3YO. At this stage our decisions on selling or keeping Down Ace foals were not looking too clever!
Down Ace’s first filly for us was another Telescope, a strong filly of good size that we decided to keep as one of our future horses in training, given the improving quality of Down Ace’s pedigree (as described below). She is currently in Ireland on the regime of two months pre-training / two months rest that we intend to use to prepare horses for racing in France.
The next season we switched Down Ace to Jack Hobbs. This time the outcome was a chestnut colt who finally pushed the mare’s sales proceeds beyond the sum we had originally paid for her by realising a price of €34,000 as a foal – more than had the first three put together.
Hopefully this run will continue, for Down Ace is a quality mare with a good temperament who was a successful NH racemare. Furthermore, her pedigree improved after her purchase, with three siblings that were unraced at the time we bought her, Do Your Job, Highland Charge and Hunter’s Yarn, each becoming Black-Type Winners subsequently. In addition, two of her earlier foals (Brandy McQueen and Minella Diamond) have won five races between them.
Having failed to get in foal in 2023 (clearly she thought she deserved a break after producing the big Jack Hobbs colt), she was sent to Ireland for her 2024 mating, to the outstanding NH sire Walk In The Park, reflecting both Michael Moore’s and my belief in her! She foaled a bay colt, who disappointed us both (me rather more than Merry Michael, who had been full of foreboding all day) when bringing only €20,000 as a foal at Tattersalls Ireland, being slightly small for his age and a little long in pasterns. He was bought by a parish priest, who will hopefully have an inside track when it comes to persuading the Almighty to develop him in both respects when he is sold as a 3yo.
For full details of Down Ace’s breeding career to date for Eskdale Thoroughbreds, click on Broodmares‘.