From medieval monarchs to a cinematic legend: foals the future as Apedroc Stud steps out of its past

Apedroc Stud's status as one of the younger names to be consigning at this week's Tattersalls December Foal Sale is entirely at odds with a history far more expansive and fascinating than most of the grandees.

The estate on the edge of the Ashdown Forest in East Sussex, developed as a thoroughbred centre by husband-and-wife Neil Goldie-Scot and Clare Salmon over the last decade, sure has tales to tell.

"Apedroc means 'on the big rock' in Anglo-Saxon," says Salmon. "Our house is 1,000 years old, it's in the Domesday Book, and it was once owned by Queen Edith, who was Edward the Confessor's wife and King Harold's sister. Legend has it that some of his knights sheltered here just before the Battle of Hastings."

Briefly fast-forwarding to the present day, Salmon explains that the place came with paddocks, woodland and stables which they have brought up to scratch.

Always enthusiastic about riding, the couple both played polo and have competed in the arduous Mongol Derby. Salmon has also featured in the Magnolia Cup at Glorious Goodwood, with all of those experiences easing their path into racing.

"We had horses in training with Gary Moore, who taught me to race-ride, and if they had horses they thought weren't going to make it on the track and were small he'd give them to me or sell for a modest price," she says.

Apedroc Stud is in the Ashdown Forest in East SussexCredit: Apedroc Stud

"We started retraining them to be polo ponies, then one day we thought, 'Why don't we try breeding?' We were incredibly naive but very enthusiastic."

There was a learning process with cheaper mares, then, with the help of agent Ted Voute, they introduced a little more quality. At this foal sale two years ago, Goldie-Scot and Salmon would achieve their knockout moment when a Zarak filly out of their unraced Fastnet Rock mare Lady Osborne was knocked down to Amanda Skiffington for 160,000gns.

"She was the first mare we bought all by ourselves at Arqana," recalls Salmon. "She was at the time in foal to Zarak, just before he became epic. The foal was lovely, she sold for what I believe is still the highest price paid for a Zarak filly foal, so we got lucky."

It was an experience which lingers long in her memory.

"It was amazing," she says. "She had more than 200 viewings and ten or 11 vettings, so we'd gone from being at the sales when nobody comes to see your horses to all of a sudden everybody. All of racing royalty came to see that foal.

"The last vet who came said, 'You do realise this foal is going to go for a lot of money?' We heard him but didn't really believe him until we got into the ring."

Class of 2025

Apedroc is bringing three foals to Newmarket this week, all by first-season sires. The one with the potential to create most interest could be Lady Osborne's filly by Ace Impact (lot 713).

"We really liked the look of Ace Impact because he's quite fine and Lady Osborne is a very big mare, an absolute chunk," says Salmon.

"She's got Convergent, who has been second in the German Derby, and [Caulfield Cup winner] Duke De Sessa, who has won just over £2 million in prize-money, and [Listed Vinnie Roe Stakes winner] Floresta on her page, so it's a very active family and we felt we could take the risk on a first-season sire.

"The Zarak is now called Sunscreen and is in France with Fabrice Chappet. She hasn't run because she had a small setback and was big. She was always going to be a slow developer, but she seems now to be coming along nicely.

"This one is a similar sort of size but she's finer than the Zarak, she's quite pretty and forward-looking, so we're really excited about her."

There is also a Chaldean colt out of three-time-winning sprinter Maid Of Spirit (405).

The exploits of Duke De Sessa have helped Apedroc Stud's fortunesCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

The vendor continues: "It's another very nice family and her first foal is in training in the USA. She was bought by Lawrence Goichman. She was placed on her third start recently, so we can expect a bit more from her.

"We sold a nice Starspangledbanner colt out of her at Goffs Orby this year. Sometimes you get a feeling from them when you breed them, and I think this one really can run fast. He's a nice little colt with some personality.

"The other one is a Shaquille filly out of Lyra's Light [694], who is from the family of Belardo. The Shaquilles all seem to look very alike, they're quite tall, look just like their dad, and she's as tall and tough. Nothing fazes her and she's going to be a forward-going young lady."

There is certainly a quirky side to this couple, who once kept a flock of ostrich-like rhea birds on their grounds and whose commotion Salmon reckons prepared their horses for anything. They have been replaced by Hebridean sheep, whose numerous horns make them look like envoys of the devil.

Each are, however, both serious high-achievers from the corporate world. Goldie-Scot was an investment banker, while Salmon headed marketing for the likes of ITV and Royal London, later serving as CEO of the British Equestrian Federation.

A chequered past

At Apedroc, which employs a stud manager and groom, the broodmares are expected to be paying guests. Its owners have thrown themselves into the hands-on work too, sitting up for foaling in the deep winter.

"Anyone who'd have known me knew I lived on a commercial rollercoaster for most of my professional career, and nothing has changed from that point of view!" Salmon says while following the trade for foals at Goffs.

"The market has been really quite odd this year, quite polarised, so we don't know what to expect, but there's nothing like that moment when you see a foal take its first steps, watch it do things for the first time.

"It's an extraordinarily satisfying thing when it's working, and heartbreaking when it doesn't. You have to take the good with the bad."

The future of Apedroc lies in the paddocks, with the investment and drive of its owners and the development of a small band of high-class mares. When, though, Salmon mentions their home's "more recent chequered past", it is impossible for a journalist to resist asking for more detail.

Clare Salmon with her Ace Impact filly out of Lady Osborne earlier this year

"It was owned by Sir Michael Balcon from 1939 until the 70s; he founded Ealing Studios and gave Alfred Hitchcock his first job," says Salmon.

"His grandson was Daniel Day-Lewis, who spent a lot of his childhood here. Strangely enough, when he was working with the film director Paul Thomas Anderson on Phantom Thread, he told him to come to look at the house as he said this was his reference point for how he wanted it to feel."

Believe it or not, there's even more.

"After Michael Balcon, there was [sound engineer and musician] Alan Parsons of the Alan Parsons Project," continues Salmon. "There's a building outside, it's accommodation now, but it was then a recording studio. It's where, legend has it, Pink Floyd recorded parts of The Dark Side of the Moon."

Apedroc Stud's role in the lives of a medieval Queen of England, a seminal album and one of the big screen's most venerated actors does leave its current residents with a lot to live up to.

"We're just hoping one day on the wall we'll have a picture of something that's won a nice Group race," laughs Salmon. "Then they can bury us, and it, in the garden after we're gone."

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