And why not?

ONE OF Robert F Kennedy’s most famous quotations was adapted from George Bernard Shaw: “Some people see things as they are and say why? I dream things that never were and say, why not?”

For Richard Kent of Mickley Stud, standing affordable stallions contains an element of dreaming of things that are not and asking why not? Getting people to support his vision is not easy even when the four stallions who reside at the Shropshire farm are doing their bit to prove that Kent’s vision gets results.

A year on from the homebred Queen Anne Stakes (G1) success of Docklands by Massaat at Royal Ascot, Mickley’s second-season sire Ubettabelieveit is also providing the evidence that asking, “why not?” will get you answers.

On the final day in May, his two-year-old son Tokaido won the Listed Prix La Fleche and then in July the Group 3 Prix du Bois for owners Anoj Don and Daniel McAuliffe. Trained by Amy Murphy, another who is ploughing her own furrow by moving to France to train, the gelding was bred by Kent in partnership with Miranda Johnson and sold by Mickley to Matt Coleman for £58,000 at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale last August.

That price was the second-highest given for a yearling from the second crop of the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes winner who had 42 yearlings come under the hammer in 2025. Of that cohort, 30 sold for an average of £18,493 off a covering fee of £5,000.

Tokaido’s spring performances – second on debut in March at Saint-Cloud over 4f220yds, victory at Chantilly in April over 5f and a course and distance success in the Listed Prix La Fleche on Jockey-Club day and then the Group 3 success at Deauville – have led Murphy to declare that she thinks he could be the best she has trained so far. 

Targets mentioned for the gelding this year include the Prix Robert Papin (G2), the Goffs Harry Half Million and an ambitious Breeders’ Cup target at the end of the year to emulate his sire’s stateside trip in 2020 when he was third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1).

“Ubettabelieveit now has three black-type performers [the Listed Spring Cup winner Hilitany and Iriseach, who was second in the Grade 3 Cecil B DeMille at Del Mar] and that’s fantastic.”

Despite the stallion siring 13 two-year-old winners from 40 runners last year, Kent reduced Ubettabelieveit’s fee to £4,000 for this season. 

Tokaido has a couple of things in common with Havana Grey; like the leading stallion he has Dark Angel as his broodmare sire and he was born and raised at Mickley, who bred him in partnership with the late Lady Caroline Lonsdale. Havana Grey began his career at the less expensive end of the market, but it is what breeders do next that concerns Kent.

“You do get stallions such as Havana Grey, who start off low, but when they get to a certain price, it’s then time to get back in and try to find the next one at an affordable fee before he also becomes famous.

“If you have used them yourself when they are £4,000 or £5,000, when they get to £25,000 or £30,000, you can’t afford them. Breeders should not be afraid to go back and cover a mare with a value stallion and not be afraid to back their judgment when that horse goes to the sales.”

True to his word Kent has backed his judgment, and that of Tony and Roger O’Callaghan, with Ubettabelieveit who won three of his six starts at two, including the Doncaster Group 2, which is something of a stallion-making race, and the Listed National Stakes before that smart third placing in the US.

“They encouraged me and they are fantastic people to keep the whole industry going. They are like the patron saints of the sprinting industry now; they give a lot of people advice and encouragement, anybody that wants good advice they are always willing to give it, if someone is willing to listen.”

Now eight, and the sire of 24 winners from 69 runners, Ubettabelieveit is one of four stakes winners bred by Derek and Gay Veitch out of Ladylishandra, a winner at two. She is by Mujadil, a Cornwallis Stakes (G2) winner and Flying Childers runner-up, who was sired by Storm Bird out of a mare by the immortal Secretariat. That blend of America’s best with an influential European family was one of the factors that impressed Kent so much.

 “He has a great temperament, the most marvellous temperament, and that is key,” he says. “Also the cross of a very good European bloodline with an American bloodline with speed is brilliant. Normally when you get a lot of speed, you get a lot of temperament but you don’t seem to get that with him. 

“His stock appear to be easy horses to train with a excellent constitutions.”

The absence of Sadler’s Wells blood in Ubettabelieveit’s pedigree is another source of appeal.

“He is also a horse who works with a cross-section of mares and that is a big help. Tricky Tel is out of a Galileo mare and he has won three races, two GBB ones last season.”

Bred in partnership by Mickley, Tricky Tel is the third-highest earner by Ubettabelieveit, while Irisheach has Dandy Man as his broodmare sire. 

Hilitany and Tokaido’s dams are by stallions from the Royal Applause line – the patriarch himself and his grandson Dark Angel.

And there is colour, or rather the lack of ginger genes, which still holds true for many people.

Kent adds: “He is a true siring bay so for people who don’t like chestnuts that is an advantage, too!”

However, there is one point that Kent returns to throughout the conversation about Ubettabelieveit and that is temperament.

“Nigel [Tinkler] wouldn’t be known for lots of two-year-old winners, but he got this horse to win multiple times at two so that stood out. 

“The cheaper horse has to have a rock-solid temperament and to be able to be handled by everyone.

That trainability and amiability are traits that Ubettabelieveit has transmitted to his offspring with Tokaido a prime example of that relaxed attitude to life.

“They are real trainers’ horses,” Kent remarks. “Amy says that every morning you go into him you think someone has doped him the night before he’s so laid back. That’s a fantastic sign of a horse and he puts on weight virtually overnight.”

Tokaido has been castrated, but behaviour considerations were not the motivating force behind the procedure, Kent insists.

“He was only gelded because the owners had so many colts they decided to have the colts gelded early in the season, but he didn’t need gelding for temperament reasons or anything. 

“Sadly, it restricts the Group 1 races he can run in, but the aim is to take him to the Breeders’ Cup in November, which is very exciting.”

Unfortunately, the emergence of Tokaido hasn’t led to a horde of breeders beating down Kent’s Shropshire doors. With the honourable exception of one canny Yorkshireman.

Kent informs: “Mick Easterby – he’s 94 and the shrewdest man in England. He booked in a lot of mares to Ubettabelieveit in the last few weeks of the season. 

The reality of the situation intrudes at times; standing stallions away from the neon lights of seven-figure sales and six-figure averages, requires a strength of character and firmness of belief, but even Kent is not immune to doubts.

“You can get disillusioned and disheartened standing stallions, and I was getting that way. You work hard with them, you cover your mares for three years, and if they don’t click and aren’t getting the black-type horses then you have a lot of stock that you have to keep because you’re not going to get them into sales,” he says.

Kent, who has more than 70 yearlings on his farm this year, elaborates on the difficulties this poses.

“One time you had more people about who were trying to breed a racehorse, but now when people think about breeding, a lot of the time they are trying to breed something that will be fashionable at the sales. That restricts a lot because it is select and the pool of horses who make premium prices is very small.

“Then you have the next problem – trying to get these horses into sales. A lot of the time, everyone is thinking about headline prices and the horses who are going to make big money, get the big spending buyers involved. However, for the average racehorse owner in England, a £25,000 spend on a horse is a lot of money.