A Royal Ascot dream for connections not well-versed in success

Royal Ascot is an expensive business, from the powerhouse owners and trainers sifting through their squads for suitable candidates to finding a sandwich and a glass of something orange and fizzy in the cheap seats. So to have secured a runner with half a chance in the Windsor Castle and the means to breed more for about as much as some might pay for a top hat, Steve Bradley and Hilary Fitzsimons can afford to be rather pleased with themselves.

Dylan De Vega, a winner last time for Richard Fahey, and again the mount of Tony Hamilton in the finale on Wednesday, is the first foal that Bradley has ever bred.

He met Fitzsimons, who has a small stud in Kent under the name Smarden Thoroughbreds, by chance on a visit to Jane Chapple-Hyam's stable, and although stressing immediately that "we’re not in any way emotionally attached", they decided to join forces.

"I’ve always had legs in horses with the likes of Pat Eddery and I’ve been with Richard for about 15 years, but I’ve always had an interest in the breeding side and always wanted to buy a mare and all the rest of it,"explains the avid collector of racing books.

"I said to Hilary, 'Why don’t we buy something in the February sales and start from there?' So we purchased a mare called Colorada - she was with a syndicate, four years of age and placed in a Newmarket maiden - but what I really liked about her was that the bloodlines were very good.

A young Dylan De Vega with his dam, Colorada

"She was by Lope De Vega out of a Sadler’s Wells mare. Without being funny, I’m not short of a few bob but generally you can’t buy into these bloodlines in the first and second generation, we’ve got to look a bit further. But she’s a gorgeous-looking mare, we were expecting to pay a bit more for her, but she was knocked down for 2,500gns. She walks well, no obvious faults, so we were thrilled to bits to take her home."

A cover by Dubawi would have been Bradley’s ideal option but, being dictated by price, he chose his son Poet’s Voice instead. After the finishing touches were provided at Ballincurrig House Stud in Ireland, Dylan De Vega was sent to Fahey’s stable last October.

"First time at Nottingham, as expected he was a bit green and should have won but a horse of Richard Hannon’s, Temple Of Heaven, battled back and beat him half a length," he says.

"He’s gone on to greater things and won a nice race at Newbury, beating a couple of Aidan O’Brien and Godolphin hotpots. Dylan won his next race at Beverley in a very good time, and I’ve been nagging Richard ever since, are we going to go to Ascot?"

Bradley, a Welshman whose lilt has not been altered by years living in Yorkshire, owns the majority of an insurance brokerage business. His only previous royal meeting runner, when Ascot was moved to his home-from-home in 2005, was also in the Windsor Castle but a considerably damp squib when Great Chieftain failed to behave in the stalls.

A mating with the late Poet's Voice proved a wise choice by the breedersCredit: Julian Herbert (Getty Images)

Nonetheless the pressure is on Dylan De Vega - named not only after Swansea’s bard but Bradley’s grandson - for the possibility of funding further dreams.

"We’ve still got the mare, and Poet’s Voice had died so went to Brazen Beau instead," he reveals. "She has a cracking-looking yearling colt and he’s entered for Tattersalls, maybe for Book 2 or 3.

"You can’t keep them all, but it depends how well Dylan does. If he can pay for the other one to go into training with some prize-money, that would be my hope. He’s got the same shoulder as Brazen Beau, the girth, he stands over a lot of ground, but it’s not about him, it’s about Dylan at the moment."

Such has been the fun that Bradley and Fitzsimons have had, they have subsequently combined for several more broodmares, one from Meon Valley’s Reprocolor line and another, multiple French winner Indian Lass, who was brought back from the Czech Republic.

More imminently, though, is the chance of going up against the likes of O'Brien, Wesley Ward and Saeed Bin Suroor with a horse who is vying with their runners at the head of the Windsor Castle betting.

"I’ve always been very passionate about breeding and bloodlines but sometimes I think too many people rush into racehorse syndicates, run a two-year-old fairly quickly and aren’t looking at the overall picture," he says.

"On a personal level for me and Hilary, it’s amazing, watching these little kids grow day by day. But to be in the paddock at Royal Ascot with international royalty, up against Coolmore... this doesn’t tend to happen to people like us."

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