Vagrancy (who carried the same name as a legendary American mare born in 1939 – as Michael Caine might have said: ‘Not a lot of people know that’) was one of the Flat-bred mares that we bought with the idea of a Dual-Purpose breeding career. She was originally offered at the Tattersalls Ireland November Sale of 2002, which we attended, but other mares at that Sale seemed better prospects.
However, we were outbid on Hati Roy (who subsequently produced only one unsuccessful runner); looked at but couldn’t afford Wicked Crack (later the dam of Cue Card); and didn’t like Franciscaine (who became Value At Risk’s dam). So we went home without a mare and Vagrancy couldn’t find a buyer; so both she and I were back for the next Sale in February.
Here there was less quality available and her pedigree stood out rather more. Although only a winner of five small races in France, Vagrancy was a Juddmonte-bred by the great racehorse Dancing Brave out of the Park Hill S winner Trampship, herself closely related to another good mare in High And Low. Since I was travelling alone and was relatively new to the assessment of broodmares, I felt in need of a ‘conformation adviser’ and acquired the services of a stud owner I knew, Mr X (name withheld, since he is such an affable chap these days), who would be paid a fee for his advice.
Together we looked at several mares and homed in on Royal Nora (half-sister to the Gold Cup winner Imperial Call) as first choice, with Vagrancy as second. There was a problem in that Vagrancy came up for sale first; but Mr X also liked her, and it was agreed that he would try to buy her and sell her to me for the same sum plus his fee if I were unable to get Royal Nora later on.
Vagrancy was knocked down to Mr X for €10,000 but Royal Nora proved too expensive, at €40,000. I therefore paid for Vagrancy and gave my advisor €500 as his fee and another €500 for transport. At the time he mentioned that he ‘could have made a profit on that mare’, to which I pointed out that (a) he already had, and (b) it wasn’t his mare to make a profit on anyway, since the agreement had been for her to be mine if I couldn’t obtain Royal Nora.
A few days later we picked Vagrancy up from the transporter and I was somewhat surprised when he asked for payment. There then followed a telephone debate with the afore-mentioned Mr X in which he insisted that he should keep the full €1,000 for himself because he ‘could have made a profit on that mare.’ Hell hath no lack of logic like a horse dealer scorned of profit.
I paid the transporter’s bill and promptly knocked the same sum off keep fees for another of our mares that was then boarding at Mr X’s stud. I remember that, at the time of this disagreement, Mr X made a final proclamation: “You’ll have no luck with that mare.” This was either wishful thinking that came true or he is some kind of witch doctor, because we didn’t.
Vagrancy’s first foal was produced when she was boarding with Marie Steele for a visit to Kayf Tara. He was born with such contracted tendons that he could hardly walk. However, Nature and oxytetracyclin (a muscle relaxant) worked their miracles and he grew into a perfectly normal young horse, although rather backward. We sold him as a 4YO at Goffs for only €7.800 (selling 4YOs was the custom in those days), but within two weeks he was returned as a wind-sucker (a vice he had never previously shown).
He was then reoffered at DBS August Sales at Doncaster and brought 11,000 gns, which I regarded as a satisfactory outcome after the previous trauma. Named ‘Wandering Minstrel’ he ran promisingly to be seventh to Mad Max in his first bumper at Newbury, but the best he achieved in 10 races thereafter was third in another bumper and second in a Selling Hurdle. He died of colic aged six.
Then the real bad luck kicked in. Vagrancy was barren to Kayf Tara, Where Or When and Bertolini / Kayf Tara in successive years, before Shade Oak and its vet did their magic and she got in foal to Alflora. A good-looking filly was born, but she never knew her mother because Vagrancy died of a broad ligament rupture within hours of the birth. The filly was weaned with the aid of a foster mother but later suffered an injury that caused a swelling around the fetlock on her near fore, so she couldn’t be sent to auction.
She was broken and Plan B was to sell her as a riding horse, but that went south when the day before the prospective sale she decided to rear with my step-daughter, Sian, on board, meaning that she was too dangerous to sell for the intended purpose.
She was then sent to Guillaume Macaire to race in France (with hindsight my strategy at the time seems to have been a tad incoherent), bearing the elegant soubriquet of ‘Reine De La Rue’ (‘Queen of the Road’, as in the song ‘King of the Road’, for a foal out of Vagrancy – right?). However, every time he tried to get her race-fit she ‘tied up’ severely. The god who avenges angry horse-traders was clearly working overtime. I got the message and decided to accept M. Macaire’s advice on what had to be done.
As a racehorse Vagrancy had stamina rather than speed, although she didn’t look like a typical stayer, being short and blocky with a low-set neck. Her head was long and rather plain, like her sire’s, but she had a lovely dark brown colour and a good temperament. Perhaps she lacked the breeding qualities that her pedigree promised; perhaps she was mated to the wrong stallions; or perhaps she was simply the victim of a terrible curse issued by the deeply disappointed man ‘who could have made a profit on that mare.’