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00:00One of the most exciting times for any young stallion stud career is the arrival of his
00:12first crop of foals, and one horse who has this connection singing his praises is Lope
00:16Fernandez who stands in the national stud but is owned by a group of shrewd industry
00:21players who are throwing their weight behind him.
00:24The team behind the impressive son of Lope de Vega tell us about the support he has received
00:28and indeed the support that his progeny will have further down the line.
00:34The year prior to Lope Fernandez being available I was noticing post Brexit being announced
00:40that all these top race horses were going to stand in primarily Ireland because a lot
00:46of the breeders are based in Ireland and it was concerning to me so I spoke to a lot of
00:52UK breeders and I said come on we need to get ourselves organised here so when the right
00:57horse comes on the market we can do something about it.
01:01We really weren't planning on buying a new stallion last year, we were having a busy
01:06year at Whitsbury and we wanted to give Sergey Pakofiev another year in the limelight but
01:11when I went and saw Lope Fernandez I just thought this is a horse we need to get involved
01:16with.
01:18I got talking with the national stud and Nick Bradley and thought you know can we put a
01:23group together, bring three studs together with Coolmore to buy Lope Fernandez and stand
01:29him here.
01:30Once we'd agreed the split of the partnership we stood in here and it couldn't have gone
01:36any better.
01:37I think it's a principle of we're stronger together so to incorporate really prominent
01:42breeders such as Whitsbury and Manor who have had the most unbelievable year alongside Nick
01:47Bradley as well coming together to really support a stallion deserves its chance at
01:52stud here in the UK.
01:54One of his best qualities is the way he walks, he's such an athletic horse, he stands well
01:58over 16 hands, he's got that deep dark colour to him which breeders love and physically
02:05he's just a very imposing horse.
02:07As the only son of Lufthavaga standing here in Great Britain it offers breeders here the
02:12opportunity to access some of the best sire lines in the world, Lufthavaga has done amazing
02:16things over the last number of years and now is without a doubt a sire is a sire so to
02:21offer breeders here that opportunity is something we're really looking forward to doing.
02:25His first book was he was incredibly well supported, his study covered 135 mares, his
02:30fertility is exceptional so a large majority of them were in full and then going into this
02:36season he's been again supported by some of the best breeders around who recognise that
02:41as a son of Lufthavaga standing here in Great Britain offers him the chance to breed a really
02:46good racehorse.
02:48So we've had four foals born so far, the guys, the foaling team are actually lyrical
02:54about three of them, the best one or certainly one that stands out to my eye at the moment
02:59would be one out of a mare called Spain Blues, she produced Spain Berg who won the Rockfell
03:05Stakes here to Culp and he's got a great shoulder, he's got a great hip, you can't judge their
03:12action yet but I'd be amazed if he didn't have a great action to go with it.
03:16I think we've got 25 on the list to send him this season and we'll be buying his foals
03:21as well in the ring like we usually try and support so really he's under the Whitsbury
03:26banner, he's just standing with the National stand and getting all the benefit from being
03:31right in the heart of Newmarket.
03:33This year we'll be sending double figure mares to him, I'm actually at the sale just going
03:36to buy some here for him and then down the line I'll be looking when the foal sales happen
03:42obviously we'll be selling foals at that sale but I'll be very busy because I'll be trying
03:45to buy the best Lope Fernandez filly foals to be part of the racing organisation and
03:51then when the yearling sales come round same thing again I'll be out there trying to buy
03:55the best filly foals.
03:57This is the beauty of the syndicate, I think we all bring something to the table, we're
04:02supporting him heavily with Whitsbury mares, the National stand are doing a great job marketing
04:07the horse and locationally it couldn't be better, we've belonged to right in the middle
04:11of the mare population so we thank the National stand for that, Nick is sending a lot of his
04:17mares as well but where Nick will really come into his own with the stallion partnership
04:22is he buys a lot of yearlings for a very successful syndicate so I've never been involved in a
04:28stallion that's not just had the supply side of the mares helping him but actually the
04:33demand side buying the yearlings as well which is fairly unique for a commercially priced
04:37horse.