'A real boost to British breeders' - Subjectivist to join Skeltons' Alne Park Stud roster for 2024

Gold Cup and Prix Royal-Oak winner Subjectivist is to stand at the Skeltons’ Alne Park Stud in Warwickshire in 2024.

Alne Park Stud director Grace Skelton, wife of leading jumps trainer Dan, said: “The addition of Subjectivist to our stallion roster is a huge leap forward for Alne Park Stud. To stand a stallion of this calibre is an immense honour.

“We firmly believe that keeping this exceptional stallion in the UK is a real boost to British breeders and we hope that he will see plenty of support in his debut season.”

That will be at a fee of £4,000.

The son of Teofilo – also sire of Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup hero Without A Fight – was bred by Mascalls Stud out of the Danehill Dancer mare Reckoning, and he is a half-brother to former stablemate Sir Ron Priestley, the dual Group 2 winner who stood this year at Haras du Saz for €2,500.

Subjectivist was bought for 62,000gns by Mark Johnston from New England Stud at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in 2018.

He proved a typically shrewd purchase by the Middleham yard, amassing nearly £900,000 in prize-money in the silks of Dr Jim Walker in winning six of his 20 races and placing second or third a further eight times. 

It would have been more but for spending the best part of two years on the sidelines after winning the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot in 2021 by a whopping five lengths from Princess Zoe.

A juvenile winner at Chelmsford, he moved through the grades the following year, winning at Listed level at Hamilton, the Group 3 March Stakes at Goodwood and then the Royal-Oak at Longchamp.

At four he continued to carry all before him, winning the Group 2 Dubai Gold Cup by more than five lengths, before his career highlight at the royal meeting.

A tendon injury meant he was unable to return until this February, and after a comeback in Saudi Arabia he ran two good races to be third, in the same two contests as in 2021, the Dubai Gold Cup and Gold Cup. 

Johnston, whose son Charlie is now the licence holder, said: “I always say that, when placing horses, the opposition trumps all other factors. But, very rarely, you come across a horse where the opposition isn't a factor at all. Subjectivist was such a horse.

“In 2021, I truly believed that there wasn't a horse in the world that could beat him at two miles or more, in any ground.”

He added: “There is less and less need for British National Hunt breeders to travel to Ireland, and, with the incentives on offer in the UK, perhaps the Irish breeders will be thinking of coming over here.”

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