‘Fruity’ truly was the nicest horse in the world: placid, friendly and entirely satisfied with a life of eating as much food as she could and nurturing the foals she loved so much (and forgot so quickly as soon as they were weaned).
I first met Fruity at Bill Bromley’s Wood Farm Stud in Shropshire prior to the DBS November Sale of 2003. Bill had a good consignment of mares for the sale and it was far from apparent which was the pick. At the sale itself Fruity failed to reach her reserve and I was tempted to buy her, only to choose instead the similarly well-bred Just Jenny. However, Jenny turned out to be a chronic weaver, who was promptly returned to her consignor; and we then went to choose from the unsold mares at Wood Farm. My real preference was the Black-Type winner Soupinette, but she was suffering from a bad sinus infection; so Fruity it was, for a sum of £15,000. Soupinette’s subsequent broodmare career did not suggest that rejecting her was an error.
Full of Fruit was bred to be a good racehorse, being half-sister to three Black-Type winners; and when we bought her another of her sisters had bred the promising Listed winner Liberthine. Later, Liberthine proved herself a good chaser in England and her brother, Long Run, became a top-class one, winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup and two King George VI Chases amongst a career total of six Grade 1 wins. However, Fruity’s own interests never extended to running very fast and her best result from five races was a fifth place in a steeplechase at Pau, before pulling up in a claimer at Auteuil, to gain total career earnings of €1,239.
Fruity’s first five foals were all fillies:
- Classic Apple, by Classic Cliche, who was unraced and became a broodmare;
- Cornucopia, by Alflora, with the same physique as her mother, also an unraced broodmare;
- Heath Heaven, also by Alflora, a far more handsome individual than Cornucopia, though unable to place higher than fifth in three Point-to-Points, and yet another broodmare (in which capacity she bred the Cheltenham Festival-winning hurdler Pileon);
- La Cerisaie, a strong but very small daughter of Old Vic of which more below;
- A Long Way, another not to see a racecourse, this time by Gamut, and yet another broodmare.
By far the best sire Fruity visited in her early career was Old Vic; and his daughter, La Cerisaie, was the only one of these foals to show decent racing ability. Too small to sell and with her mother by now in need of credibility as a broodmare, we sent her to race in France, where she won a hurdle and a chase and was placed in another hurdle before developing heat in a tendon. Although small, she showed great exuberance in her races and no little determination.
As a broodmare, La Cerisaie produced two petite daughters by Midnight Legend, one unnamed after being sold for £2,000, and the other a dual winner named Lostnfound who we sold as a foal and bought back as a 3YO (‘Midnight at the Lost ‘n’ Found’– geddit?). These were followed by a handsome son of Fame and Glory (bred by Michael Moore after we passed on La Cerisaie to him), who brought €52,000 as a foal but showed only moderate ability (two third places in 15 races) as a racehorse.
Fruity’s run of fillies ended with a Kayf Tara colt, later named Drift Wood, who sold for €40,000 as a foal in 2010. This was more than the other four from that crop (2010) made in total. They included Sizing John, Lifeboat Mona and Midnight Target. Drift Wood’s only racing effort brought third in a Point-to-Point.
There then followed That’s A Wrap, a striking colt by Scorpion with a prominent white blaze, sold for €38,000 as a foal. He went on to win four hurdles in Ireland and at one time achieve a rating of 138. However, the hopes I had when leading his mother and him as a foal, that he would surely become a Cheltenham winner one day, sadly went unfulfilled.
The next year, 2012, Fruity produced a pretty chestnut filly by Black Sam Bellamy, who was sold privately via Michael Moore to his client Julie Thomas, who was then unknown to me but became a good friend. Named Naranja, she won three races including a valuable Class 2 handicap hurdle at Ayr, as well as being placed in a Listed NH Flat race.
When I spilt up with Sandra, Fruity remained with her, living into old age despite suffering from very slack pasterns that caused serious hind suspensory problems, making for difficult pregnancies. None of the four foals subsequent to Naranja won. Of Fruity’s daughters at stud, only Heath Heaven and La Cerisaie have so far produced winners, and both failed to outlive their mother. I still hope that either Naranja or Lostnfound, bred by Sandra and me but now in other hands (Julie Thomas and Stuart Murray respectively), will one day produce horses whose wins bring back fond memories of their laid-back, happy ancestress.
