Back to where it all started for Cheltenham winner Zara Hope

A change of strategy by David 'DJ' Jeffreys and his principal owner Mark Smith has had a fortuitous outcome for Zara Hope, who provided the perfect launchpad for the trainer’s career by winning at Cheltenham in 2019.

The four-time-winning Stowaway mare, whose racing career was ended by an injury in the Grade 2 Hampton Novices’ Chase at Warwick in early 2020, is from the close family of Savills Chase winner Road To Riches and has returned to her original Irish breeders, Richard and Marie Hennessy.

"Mark decided he wanted to get into breeding and ended up with a broodmare band of six or seven but recently we’ve decided we’re going to concentrate on the racing more and leave the breeding to more professional people, as that’s what they do," Jeffreys explains.

"It just coincided that a week after we decided we’d move the mares on, Marie Hennessy contacted us to say that Zara Hope’s dam had died. She loved the family and wanted to continue it on. They think Yeats is the real deal and were desperate to get part of the family back and to send them to Yeats."

Jeffreys says the news was of particular excitement for Smith, a horse-loving businessman who encouraged him to start training in 2019 after spells assisting Rose and Tony Dobbin, Charlie Mann and Charlie Longsdon. Zara Hope was among a few of Smith's runners who joined the formative yard.

"For her to go home – for him it was almost like I’d trained him a Gold Cup winner, he was so happy," the trainer said.

"She was our first Cheltenham runner and first winner and it’s good that a horse who had been bred for the job, came to England and did the job has gone home.

"When a horse is running for you and you’re a trainer or an owner, you often don’t realise the person who bred it is watching the race, the person who had it as a store is watching the race, there are so many in the process. I’ve seen it from all angles, the results are so much more important than just for the trainer and the owner."

Jeffreys, who is from a Northumberland farming family but is based with his wife near Evesham in Worcestershire, has Zara Hope’s first foal, a yearling colt by Passing Glance, in a field among a few of Smith’s other stock, while she has subsequently delivered a Frammassone filly.

David 'DJ' Jeffreys and Kielan Woods celebrate Zara Hope's landmark winner for the stableCredit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

Alongside sale purchases, there will be some of Jeffreys’ own youngsters to join the system too.

"I’m still chasing the dream," he says. "My grandfather bred a couple of horses, one of them being Sebastian, who finished second in the [1978] National to Lucius, and we’re all still raising a toast to Sebastian in 2022.

"I started out supporting local stallions in the north, then I moved down here and there was Overbury on one side, Batsford on the other, so I went out and bought some mares and got going. Whether they’re any good, I don’t know yet because the eldest crop has just turned five."

Like Smith, Jeffreys has scaled his breeding ambitions back to focus on a training career that has been building quietly through the likes of Imperial Cup runner-up Lively Citizen. His small summer jumping team has been excelling too, with wins from Cardboard Gangster and Reams Of Love in the last few days.

"We should have between 30 and 40 for next year," he says. "We had a tough time this year since January, when the horses got sick. It was the first time I’d been a trainer with sick horses. It’s a helpless situation to be in because there’s nothing you can do, and it makes you realise how good the guys like Nicky Henderson and Paul Nicholls are. You have to go through it to learn.

"We’ve sort of grown organically and had a lot of luck at Cheltenham for example, which is the one place where you’d like to have it."

Read more

Yulong break rivals' hearts at €1.2m for Siyouni's German Guineas winner Txope

Saudi Cup-winning owner steps up French project with Medaglia D'Oro sale-topper

Mendelssohn off the mark as Shaqra'a Sultan wins on debut in Saudi Arabia