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00:00One of the highlights of the calendar year is the Tattersalls December mare sales, and
00:07this year that sales company has introduced the Scepter Sessions, which is an elite group
00:12of fillies and broodmares to be offered at auction. One of the lots heading that way
00:16is Alcohol Free, the four-time Group One winning daughter of Nonae Never. We paid her a visit
00:21at Park House Stables where she's been trained by Andrew Balding.
00:26Alcohol Free was bought as a foal by David Bow relatively cheaply, and at Jeff Smith's
00:35annual yearling parade at Littleton, we're showing all the stock. You don't know quite
00:39what you're going to get, but you get an opportunity to have a whisper in David's ear and say,
00:44look, I really like the Nonae Never filly, and thankfully I did.
00:49Alcohol Free has always been the most athletic-looking filly, and right from day one, and it was
00:54obvious when she was a yearling, she had a great depth of girth and fantastic shoulder
00:59on her and just had a wonderful walk, as well as having that very attractive head and eye.
01:07She was just, to me, she was a standout of the fillies we saw there. All of those put
01:12together and she was just a fabulously athletic-looking, and still is, two-year-old, but she kept those
01:20looks and that athleticism all the way through her career.
01:25For Alcohol Free to have won group ones at two, three, and four is unusual, but to have
01:31won four majorly significant group ones, and not just obviously the Cheveley Park and the
01:36Coronation Stakes for fillies only, but add to that a Sussex Stakes and a July Cup, that's
01:42a rare group of races, and I don't think there's any horse who's achieved the four of those.
01:48For Alcohol Free to have done it all on her own is a huge achievement and a great testament
01:54to her ability and versatility in terms of being able to win a July Cup over six and
02:01a Sussex Stakes against all the horses at the time over a mile, it's an extraordinary
02:08achievement.
02:09I mean, Geoff Smith has been a huge supporter of Kings Clear and for the whole racing industry
02:15for a long time now, and I'd been training for Geoff probably for almost 20 years and
02:20hadn't had a group one winner for him, so when she won the Cheveley Park, it was a huge
02:25relief, not that I've ever felt any pressure from Geoff, but it was a great sense of satisfaction
02:31that we'd won a group one for Geoff, and then obviously after that first group one, the
02:35next all build to a profile of having the privilege of training a great filly, and that's
02:43what added to it, I mean, the Sussex Stakes and the July Cup are two of the top races
02:49to win in Britain, so for the same horse to do both of them was very special.
02:56I think what makes Alcohol Free a particularly attractive broodmare proposition is the fact
03:03that she's obviously been incredibly sound throughout her training career, her race record
03:10shows that.
03:11She's just the most beautifully athletic horse with that sort of deep girth and wonderful
03:16shoulder to her and a great walker, and she's got real presence.
03:20I mean, she's got real star quality in her personality as well as her racing record,
03:27so with all those things combined, I think you couldn't wish for a more exciting prospect
03:33as a broodmare.
03:35Alcohol Free means a huge amount to all of us, anyone who's been connected with her in
03:38her three seasons in training at Park House, I mean, she's been the flag bearer for those
03:45three seasons and she's been just a pleasure to have anything to do with, I mean, she's
03:51just a brilliant workhorse.
03:53I mean, seeing her work in the morning was demoralizing for whoever had to work with
03:59her, but it was always so rewarding to watch really good horses work well, and she very
04:07rarely put in a bad piece of work.
04:09She was always showing her natural ability in her work and doing it so easily, so we'll
04:17miss that and we're going to have a job to replace her.