We didn’t know Just Kate for long. As a winner of four hurdles races and dam of the Listed-Hurdle winning mare, THE GOVANESS, along with two other Jump winners, she was one of the better broodmares in Telescope’s first book; and when, due to the illness of her owner, she came up in foal to Tele at the Goffs Doncaster January Sale in 2017 she seemed a reasonable prospect.
Obviously at the age of 18 she could not justify a big price, but the foal she was carrying ought to bring decent money and a couple of others would surely make her a good buy. She was clearly on the market at £2,000; I upped the bid to £5,000, the rival bidder countered but I bought her for £7,000.
It didn’t work out as well as I hoped. A few days before she was due to foal, in May 2017, Dorte and I went to see her at Shade Oak. She looked to be well but carrying a heavy load inside her. Dorte said it looked like she would have a big colt; I was less sure…
We were back at Doncaster for the Store Sales and NH Celebration Dinner when Emma Hockenhull called with the news that Kate had actually produced a smallish filly, but in doing so had suffered a broad ligament rupture and died. Shade Oak swiftly found a foster mother and the foal was successfully raised by her, later coming back to us for the next year.
During that time, she was dwarfed in both size and looks by her companion, another of Telescope’s first crop fillies (out of Unika La Reconce); but she was a determined little thing and we were not without hope for her future, despite her small stature and less than perfect front legs.
We sent the two fillies to Denis Leahy to be broken, then back to Michael Moore’s for grass, then back to Denis again. The reports on Unika’s filly were initially positive, those on Just Kate’s less so. Eventually Denis expressed the opinion that she was unlikely to become a good racehorse and we sent her back to Michael to assess if she could be sold on. The answer was that, in the Covid-influenced climate of 2020, it was unlikely; so I took the decision to ask Michael to find her a good home free of charge, perhaps as a broodmare based on her decent pedigree.
This was done. but somewhat to my surprise she turned up at Jamie Snowden’s a few months later with her new owners having leased her out to a syndicate. I didn’t like to tell Jamie her background since I didn’t wish to prejudice him against the filly.
There was no need to, as bit by bit it became apparent that she wasn’t showing much evidence of racing ability, although I still rather enjoyed dropping the odd thought into Denis’s head that he would look something of an eejit if ‘Just Like That’ proved rather better than he had forecast. However, she didn’t and Jamie drew stumps within a few months, returning her to her owners. I am sorry to say that Mr Leahy failed to express any disappointment at that turn of events.
So Just Kate’s stud record for Eskdale was: 1 foal, no runners, no sales, died after four months. She was still a good mare – just not for us!