First-year target not such a big ask after Aintree Grade 2

A hot prospect from both the track and the sales ring could have been just what Stuart Ross was looking for as he navigates his first season as a stallion master.

Lookaway, bought for £170,000 by Neil King on behalf of owner Peter Beadles at last December’s Goffs Yorton Sale, became his sire Ask’s biggest winner to date when maintaining his unbeaten record in the Grade 2 bumper at Aintree’s Grand National meeting.

Last October it was announced that a sale had been agreed to transfer the sire from Dunraven Stud to Ross’s Willow Wood Stud in Cheshire.

"Lookaway looks very, very special, then he had another winner a day later," said Ross. "He’s winning bumpers, he’s winning handicap chases, Irish point-to-points. I couldn’t be happier. With bookings he’ll get up to 26 [covered] this year. Thirty would be my goal and I think that’s achievable."

Ross, who learned his trade in the point-to-pointing sphere and is midway through his mainstay foaling mares, had harboured a desire to stand a stallion for a few years before Ask came along.

"I love having him on the place because he’s a nice character and he’s good to deal with," he said. "Starting up a stud with a stallion, you need a horse like him. Even if I got a more trendy, fashionable horse, there are so many long-established studs and people have loyalty to them.

"To wrestle a few customers here and there is hard, but to have a Grade 2 bumper winner means you might just get one, one could lead to two and so on and so forth."

Now an evergreen 19, Ask was a fine campaigner for Sir Michael Stoute and owner Patrick Fahey, finishing fourth in the St Leger and progressing with age to take the Coronation Cup and Prix Royal-Oak at six.

He was to spend eight seasons at The Beeches and has a handful of reasonable earners, such as Fergal O’Brien’s Graded-placed Ask Dillon and Ask Susan, a consistent mare from the Willie Mullins yard, to show for himself.

With Coolmore not exactly short of middle-distance horses and stayers to fill its National Hunt units, the handsome bay spent three years with David Brace in Wales before the arrival of Leading Light.

Ross, who has priced Ask at £2,000, seems to be reaping the benefit from the substantial and well-bred crops now coming through from the tail-end of his tenure in Ireland.

"What I like about him is he’s had a handful of winners on the Flat, he’s had bumper, hurdle and chase winners, they all seem to improve with age, and handle from two miles to extreme marathon trips," he explained.

"He’s a son of Sadler’s Wells who has winners, so I couldn’t really go wrong, and I thank my lucky stars that since I’ve had him he’s really had an upturn in form."

Lookaway, Ask's most expensive progeny through the ring, went up exponentially in value from a modest €6,200 store price, having been trained to take a maiden point-to-point at Kildorrery by Sean Doyle.

Ross has, understandably, been keeping his eyes peeled for other stock going through the ring.

"Trainers who’ve got one always go to the sales and buy another," he said.

"Neil King has Lookaway, then at the recent Ascot sales he went and bought another. Donald McCain had one called Hart Of Steel, I bought Ask, and within a week he had bought another called Sweet Auburn, who won a mares’ bumper. A week after that he went to Cheltenham and bought [dual winner] Forpaddytheplumber, then he sent me two mares.

"Fergal O’Brien has loads of them too. It seems a little bit that when you have one, you think, 'These are trainable', they’re quite easy going horses, and you get a few more."

If only a quartet more mare owners follow that logic, it will be mission accomplished.

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