Ghost lighting up October pedigrees

PEDIGREE UPDATES are craved by breeders at all points in a horse’s career – it never hurts to see a new winner or good placed performance on the page particularly if it is close-up in the first or second dam. If that new performance can boast black-type, then all the better.

An update, if of enough significance and if the timing is just spot on, can certainly change the course of a sale for the better.

Foals are pinhooked and fillies bought in the hope that an update will be forthcoming. And for a broodmare family it can raise the possibility of a total change in breeding direction as the pedigree improves. The benefits of buying from established and large broodmare bands have long been realised, but purchasing a commercial broodmare from a pedigree boasting plenty of females can have many potential upsides.

As is often mentioned in sale-purchase quotes the hope is that the relatives will do some of the heavy lifting in the pedigree. The tendrils of some form improvements can spread far, and in this year’s Tattersalls October Book 1 and Book 2, the new Group 2 second placing for the continually progressive Waldgeist filly Light The Ghost, beaten just a length in early September’s T. von Zastrow Stutenpreis (Badener Stutenpreis), was a first result for her at that level stepping up on her victory in the Group 3 1m2f Prix de Flore last autumn.

Her form has resulted in updates for four lots in the Tattersalls October Book 1 Sale and one in Book 2. The update has come since the catalogue was published further adding to a page that has also gained a new Listed winner this year under the first dam, and alongside a promising Wootton Bassett juvenile running for Aidan O’Brien named Haven. “It was a bit of a messy race,” said Light The Ghost’s owner Crispin De Moubray after the German Group 2.

“We hoped it would rain and it didn’t, so the ground was just good, which is not ideal for her.” Potential buyers of the filly’s relations have some hope that the page will improve again before the year is out, and it might be left to the last possible point in this year’s European stakes race calendar.

“She is in the Arc, but, as we did not win the Group 2 in Germany, that is probably off the agenda now,” reasons De Moubray, whose day job is as a bloodstock agent.

“We are now speaking in September and it is still not raining in Paris! We might leave her in the race just in case there is a downpour and some of the fancied horses for one reason or another don’t run.

"But, in reality, the likelihood of her running in the Arc is only about five per cent.

“There is a Listed race in October at Saint-Cloud and she loves going left-handed and we will likely run there, and then what will probably be her last start for me will be in Germany in the Group 1 Grosser Preis von Bayern in November.”

De Moubray believes that securing a Group 1 jewel is a realistic goal. “She is rated 110, but I think she is a 116 or 117 filly, and she enjoys the softer ground,” says the owner.

“She’s got a particularly long stride and particularly low stride frequency and my brother Jocelyn and I do believe that good staying horses are horses who can relax into a slow rhythm and then accelerate.”

The filly is entered in the Arqana December Sale, although the owner has mixed emotions regarding a future sale.

“I did say to my wife that if we win a Group 1, and if we wouldn’t really be risking losing value, I’d be very tempted to keep her — when am I going to have another filly like her? ”

“It sounds very blasé now to say, but it has been such fun having a Group horse, but I never realised quite how much fun it is!

"I have worked a long time with clients with good horses, but when you have a horse in your own colours, well, it just changes everything.

“You listen to George Waud, who owns Maltese Cross, and he just says that the horse has given him so much joy. That’s what it’s about, it’s not about how much they’re worth. I do think we get really obsessed about how much horses were bought for and how much they might be sold for. ”

“It is all about joy, and that essence of having a good racehorse hasn’t been lost.”

He adds: “I don’t own anything really — I’ve never owned a house; I don’t even own a car, I get around on a bicycle! I own some horses, and that’s it. ”

“So, it’s not like I’m talking from a position of someone who’s very well off and who doesn’t need to worry about money.”

The ownership story

Light The Ghost is trained by Josephine Soudan, who is based in Chantilly with a yard of 23 horses, and the small set-up has added to the delight that De Moubray has experienced throughout his ownership journey.

“That joy has been particularly enhanced when you know you’ve got a stable of eight employees who are getting so much out of the filly’s achievements — I’ve had a lot out of this game and it is so great to be able to give some of it back.

“And helping someone who you believe in, who’s young, and with such dedicated staff at the yard, it gives me enormous joy when I go to visit as you know everyone will be happy.

“I can say hello to everyone by name. I can go through every horse in the yard and be part of it. I feel like I’m helping a group of people who I believe in to succeed, or try to succeed.”

Light The Ghost, bred by Gestüt Ammerland, was bought privately by De Moubray. She is out of Light The Stars, a winner at two in Germany and second in the Henkel Stutenpreis (L), third in the Prix de Psyche (G3) and fourth in the German 1,000 Guineas (G2).

She has bred three winners from six runners, of whom Light The Ghost is her best so far.

De Moubray picks up the tale of his ownership. “I really think it is something of a special story,” he says. “I had worked with Dietrich Von Boetticher, owner of Ammerland, for more than 25 years, but it was decided to wind up the operation, 180 horses were dispersed over the course of three or four years.

“There were just two left, two juveniles who were backward. The farm asked what to do so I said, ‘Give me a ” “Crispin price” and I’ll buy them both!’ “And so the farm sold me Light The Ghost in September as a two-year-old, and in November a filly called Sevenna’s Bay, who is a New Bay sister to Sevenna’s Knight and from a wonderful black-type staying family. ”

“I couldn’t keep all of both, so I sold 47 per cent of the latter. She’s just won her maiden, so we’ll keep her as a broodmare because she’s wonderfully bred.”

He adds, with a smile: “What is lovely is that although both were born in Germany, they both came to France when they were two months old with their mares who had travelled to be covered. I met both of them when they were two little Ammerland foals together on a French stud farm!”

Light The Stars’ dam Lady Vettori was a Group 3 winner and placed third in the Prix Marcel Boussac (G1), bought by De Moubray for Ammerland.

Her significant highlight is as dam of the Prix du Jockey Club (G1), Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1) winner and influential stallion Lope De Vega, and Lady Frankel, who was a Group 3 winner and third in the Prix de l’Opera (G1).

“Dietrich had just sold Hurricane Run for a fortune and he said, ‘If there’s anything you think I have to buy, you can always call me, right?’

“I called him just twice in 25 years – once was for Lady Vettori, and the other was for the mother of Waldgeist. We paid €500,000 for Lady Vettori and it was absolute lunacy then — she had gone to the sales as dam of three foals!

“But she was in-foal to Motivator, which helped then, and I told Dietrich that he had to buy her.

“I suggested the mating to Shamardal — it is a very odd inbreeding to Machiavellian, on the top side it’s through Shamardal’s dam Helsinki, and it’s on the bottom side through Lady Vettori’s sire Vettori. I don’t really like inbreeding, but if I am going to do it, that’s how I want to do it.

“Dietrich asked if I was sure and he also said that it sounded a bit loopy, but that’s how Lope De Vega was born.”

This insight to the family was certainly instrumental in persuading De Moubray to take up the opportunity to invest some of the hard-earned into the young Light The Ghost.

“I always loved her as a youngster and believed then that she was the best foal out of the mare. I just thought that if Dietrich’s given me the opportunity to buy a filly from the family of Lope De Vega, I’d be absolutely bonkers not to buy her, particularly as she was an unraced two-year-old by Waldgeist.

“I do think that it was meant to be,” he acknowledges, admitting to being rather emotional about the whole story.

When asked if Light The Ghost is typical of the family, he says, “She’s got the toughness and the speed and everything of Lope De Vega, and she certainly has a lot of personality!

“She needed to be trained by someone such as Josephine, who trains every single horse individually, and is in a small yard.

“It’s just worked in really well. She has some wonderfully experienced staff who have been with her throughout, and the same guy has ridden Ghost the whole way through — and I have even bought a lead horse for her!”

But emotional or not, for De Moubray when investing his own or his client’s money into a filly, knowing her pedigree in detail is part of his rationale for any purchase. “I had that relationship with the family, and I think that is so key when you’re investing into fillies — buy a horse who you understand or one you’re involved in. And once you get into a family, and if you think it’s a good family, get as many members as you can, and try to support it.

“When you have a pedigree that people suddenly wake up to, suddenly everything in the family gets well looked after and ends up in the hands of good people.

“If you looked at this page in 2005, it was very different. Now everyone would now say it’s a great family, but things have to start somewhere.”

Sadly, for De Moubray, despite his desire to ignore commercialism and appreciate the experience of owning a good horse, once Light The Ghost finishes racing she is unlikely to remain in his ownership producing little Ghosts for him and his family to enjoy; De Moubray is a realist regarding her value as a future producer.

“I’m afraid I am not rich enough to keep her!” he rues. “If I had a client who would like to buy 80 per cent, I might keep 20 per cent, but I think that is unlikely to happen.

“I will mention it to a few people that if she goes to the market.”

Pedigree updates and page improvements

The filly’s form improvement created updates for four entries in the Tattersalls October Book 1 Sale and one entry in Book 2. And for those who have invested in the family, as we close in on the Newmarket sale, they can feel some satisfaction that the pedigree they have become involved with is in such an upwardly mobile position.

Two years ago, Light The Stars did not have any black-type progeny under her own name or her daughters’ names.

Now there are two as, in addition to Light The Ghost with her Group 3-winning black-type and Group 2 placing in Germany, Light The Stars’ granddaughter Miss Lizzy (Oasis Dream), a first foal out of Lady Loulou, is a winner and has black-type having finished third in the Dragon Stakes (L) for trainer Charlie Fellowes and owner-breeder Ahmed Abu Khadra.

Further, Light The Stars’ two-year-old daughter by Wootton Bassett called Haven, who was bought by MV Magnier at last year’s October Book 1 Sale for 550,000gns, has run twice.

She finished second on her second start at Cork, having been drawn on the disadvantaged side of the track. She looks to be a more than capable and looks sure to win, with hopes of black-type form in the future.

The Blue Point half-sister (Lot 82), a Blue Point filly out of Light The Stars and a half-sister to Light The Ghost and Haven, will be consigned by Paddy and Helena Burns’ Loughtown Stud, who now own Light The Stars, while the Kingman half-brother to Miss Lizzy (Lot 75), a Kingman colt out of Lady Loulou, is to be sold for his breeder by Tom Blain’s Barton Stud.

Lot 75

The Kingman colt was bred by Ahmed Abu Khadra, who bought Lady Loulou at the Arqana September Select Sale in 2020 for €340,000 through Charles Gordon-Watson Bloodstock.

Blain says of the colt: “With the active pedigree, this colt has turned into a really interesting horse. He’s big and strong with a great walk, loads of bone and just a really nice horse; trainer Charlie Fellows came to see him the other week and was very impressed.

“It is exciting having such an impressive individual to go to the sale with such an interesting pedigree that is also so current with Miss Lizzy having done so well and everything else that is going on — happy days!

“For Lady Loulou to have got a black-type horse with her first runner and then a really nice good-looking horse as a second foal is great, I am a big believer in Dark Angel as a broodmare sire.

“It bodes really well for her future and that of the pedigree; it was a brave decision to cover Lady Loulou with Kingman, but hopefully it has worked out. She also had a Kingman colt foal this year and is in-foal to Baaeed.”

He adds of the importance of active pedigrees: “There are a lot of pretty old dead pedigrees around, and so to have something so current and relevant is great.

“It is important when buying fillies to try and buy from pedigrees that are happening and evolving — particularly with these good-looking families as then you always have a chance.

“We’re in a tough world where it is difficult to sell, and you need good-looking horses to bring buyers, and pedigrees, like everything, need to stay relevant.”

Lot 82

Light The Stars was bought by BBA Ireland at the Arqana December Sale 2022 for €160,000, having produced one winner in Britain, a 2017-born Dark Angel filly called Light Angel, who does not feature now on an edited catalogue page.

Light The Ghost was then newly a weaned foal and at Ammerland. The mare was purchased on behalf of Loughtown Stud, and Haven is the first foal bred by the Irish farm.

“Obviously pedigree-wise, it is a great Ammerland pedigree, and half-sisters to horses such as Lope De Vega and by Sea The Stars – well, they very rarely come on the market,” explains Loughtown’s Paddy Burns of the decision to buy the daughter of Sea The Stars.

“She hadn’t produced anything as good as herself or her brother at that point so we were taking a chance.”

He adds: “She was a year early on the Ammerland dispersal, but I knew that was coming along.

“But, you could buy 50 mares such as her and you might never get an update come up afterwards, so we are lucky. Though, when you buy from those deep pedigrees, things can happen.”

When the mare was offered for sale in France, the consignors also had photos of the baby Light The Ghost to show Burns; a neat sales move showing just what a smart foal the mare had produced.

Haven, by the late Wootton Bassett, was the first foal bred out of the mare by Loughtown and as Burns says, “using Wootton Bassett was obvious.” This year’s yearling filly is by Blue Point, a son of Shamardal and so closely related to Lope De Vega.

“I had it in my mind when I bought the mare with that Lope De Vega connection that whatever son of Shamardal put his head above the parapet, that’s where it’s going to go. ”

“When Blue Point had kicked on with his first crop, that’s when we decided it’s going to be him.” Aside from all that is going on in the female family, the timing has been perfect for Burns as Blue Point has been enjoying a brilliant season headlined by three new Group 1 winners, Blue Bolt, Samangan and Folsom Blues.

Of the yearling, Burns says, “She is very like her mother, probably with a bit more substance.”

The mare has a Havana Grey filly foal and is in-foal to Frankel – that resulting foal will be closely related to Lady Frankel, third in the Group 1 Prix de l’Opéra.

Lot 24

The first from the quartet of family members through the Book 1 ring will be

Lot 24, a Galiway filly and the first foal out of Gentle (No Nay Never), a half-sister to Light The Ghost. Bred by Ammerland, Gentle was bought in a private sale at the Arqana August Sale 2021 for €180,000. Owned in training by Qatar Racing, Gentle achieved two fourth places in the UK before shipping stateside where she won a Del Mar maiden.

The Galiway filly is due to be sold by Tweenhills and David Redvers said: “Gentle herself was the most stunning yearling. She was big and scopey, and she had an inordinate amount of ability, but was a bit quirky. When she won in Del Mar, she did it well and and she has now retired here.

“This is her first foal — we sent Galiway three very nice mares in 2024 and he has produced us three very smart fillies.”

Redvers explains the decision behind the Galiway coverings. “We were looking for a cost-effective, yet proven stallion; there is a significant shortage of stallions in the £10,000-£20,000 range and with that level of proven ability as a sire.

“We thought we’d give him a try, and we sent him three good young mares and it has worked out well — the first one we have offered was sold at Arqana [Lot 136] for €117,000.”

Of the sales prospect out of Gentle, he says: “As this filly has always been one of the standout physicals in her group, we decided to take the Book 1 option with her because she’s such an impressive type.

“She is handling her prep brilliantly and is a real class act. She’s a big, strong girl and is a really nice mix of Galiway, No Nay Never and Sea The Stars.

“To be honest she’s like an oil painting, and it is hard to imagine a better-looking filly. She has an outlook and an athleticism that will make her look in the right place in Book 1.”

He adds: “The mare’s got a colt by Kameko and he’s a very smart foal, and she is back in-foal to the stallion. She’s produced only two foals so far, they’ve both been exceptional, and she’s got the makings of a very smart broodmare.”

Lot 79

Stratford Place Stud is set to offer an Ace Impact colt out of the two-time-winning Hurricane Run mare Lavande Violet, a half-sister to Light The Stars ( (Lot 79).

Breeder Chris Wright owns the farm and so we come full circle as his bloodstock advisor is De Moubray, who made sure he used the “keep to families you know” buying philosophy and investment mantra for the benefit of his client.

Lavande Violet was bought by Wright at the Tattersalls December Sale 2018 from Ammerland and Newsells Park Stud for 90,000gns.

So far in her breeding career, she has produced six winners from seven runners, the best being The Last Waltz, a French Listed-placed daughter of Golden Horn.

“Lavande Violet is a beautiful mare by Hurricane Run, and when Ammerland decided to disperse its bloodstock, I mentioned to Chris that there was a mare I knew all about and he should consider her,” says De Moubray.

“The first bred entirely by Chris is The Last Waltz who was Listed placed and is now in Newsells’ ownership bought as a four-year-old at the Arqana December Sales in 2024 for €200,000.

“This foal by Ace Impact is the best she has produced so far — I think this is the year to get into one by the sire.”

Lot 738

In Book 2 is the most distant relative to Light The Ghost — the racing updates only popping up under the Sea The Stars colt’s third dam. Set to be consigned by The Castlebridge Consignment, the colt is out of the Shamardal mare Nectar De Rose. She is out of the French Group 3 winner Bal De La Rose, a daughter of Lady Vettori.

Nectar De Rose is a half-sister to the German Group 1 winner Danceteria. The colt was bred by Sunderland Holdings, Nectar De Rose bought from Haras d’Etreham by Mandore International for €200,000 at the Arqana August Sale 2012, having been bred by Berend Van Dalfsen, who had also bred her dam.