'Alfred Wallace looks a star in the making' – more evidence of Rockcliffe Stud making rapid headway in laying down roots

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On this occasion, Martin Stevens speaks to Sophie Woolf about the burgeoning Rockcliffe Stud – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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Bravo, Rockcliffe Stud for having developed its own distinctive female families, and enjoying plenty of homegrown success with them, only a little more than a decade and a half since buying its first broodmares. That really is no mean feat.

Alfred Wallace, the fluent winner of a seven-furlong two-year-old novice stakes at Thirsk on Sunday on his second start for Ed Walker, gave a stark illustration of the giant strides made by the Keswick family's operation in such a relatively short space of time.

The Dubawi colt, who carries Rockcliffe Stud’s familiar white silks with dark blue crossbelts and dark blue sleeves, which are a nod to the Keswicks’ Scottish origins, is the second offspring of the operation’s homebred Falmouth Stakes winner Snow Lantern, who in turn is by Frankel and out of its Moyglare Stud Stakes, 1,000 Guineas, Coronation Stakes and Sun Chariot Stakes heroine Sky Lantern.

“It’s extremely satisfying to see the line grow so quickly, and for it to be recognised as an unmistakably Rockcliffe Stud family now,” says Sophie Woolf, who manages the farm, which is situated in a scenic spot in the Cotswolds. “What makes it all the more exciting is that Alfred Wallace really does look like a star in the making.

“He was very impressive in beating a well-fancied blueblooded Frankel colt in Pikachu on Sunday, although we weren’t all that surprised by the performance as Ed has always held the colt in very high regard and, like a lot of Ed’s two-year-olds, he needed his first run at Ascot last month. 

“In fact, I know that Ed deliberately sent him to Ascot for his debut as he wanted to give him experience of that track as he expected to be taking him to the royal meeting, for either the Coventry Stakes or the Windsor Castle Stakes, which looks like a very interesting race under its new conditions. That’s how much Ed thinks of him.”

Alfred Wallace is Snow Lantern’s only winner at the moment but that likely won’t remain the case for long, as his year-older full-brother Besieged, who is trained by Harry Charlton for a partnership of Rockcliffe Stud and Al Shaqab Racing, has finished a close second on both his first two starts in competitive maidens at Kempton and Newbury in recent weeks.

“Besieged is a lovely colt too,” says Woolf. “He has a 97p Timeform rating, which is pretty extraordinary for a non-winner. Snow Lantern really is off to an excellent start as a broodmare.”

Alfred Wallace has obviously inherited a lot of ability from his dam and her ancestors but the straightforward nature of his success also pays tribute to his sire.

“He has a tremendous mind and will to win, which I believe is a real trait of Dubawi,” says Woolf. “He’s a very strong horse and more in the mould of a Creative Force than a Ghaiyyath. The other Dubawis from the family, like Besieged and Sky Lantern’s sons Gentile Bellini and Noonday Gun, were much bigger horses.

“Funnily enough, Sky Lantern and Snow Lantern each went to Dubawi twice, and so did a few of our other mares, and we’ve only ever got colts when, as an owner-breeder operation, all we really wanted was fillies by him. We’d loved to have bred from a Dubawi mare from the Sky Lantern family but that’s the way it goes, and we can’t grumble too much when Alfred Wallace looks so special.”

Woolf reports that Snow Lantern has no yearling but does have a Kingman colt foal at foot and has visited Siyouni this season.

Sky Lantern and Richard Hughes win the 2013 Coronation StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker

Sky Lantern, a daughter of Red Clubs who was bought by the Keswicks’ bloodstock adviser Ed Sackville at the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale for €75,000 and is in rude health at 16, has a yearling filly by Havana Grey and has been covered by Mehmas this season.

“The Havana Grey filly will be retained and put into training,” she adds. “She’s the only other daughter of Sky Lantern besides Snow Lantern so she’s a seriously important horse for the stud. Thankfully, she’s a really nice individual, both physically and mentally.

“We tried something a bit different by sending Sky Lantern to somewhat sharper sires like Havana Grey and Mehmas in recent years. She was an out-and-out miler and she does have a tendency to breed them quite big, so we wanted to put a bit of neatness into her foals.”

Sky Lantern’s line is not the only peculiarly Rockcliffe Stud family, either. Asaawir, a Listed-placed daughter of Royal Applause who became the farm’s true foundation mare when bought as a five-year-old by Sackville for 155,000gns at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale of 2008, has also put down deep roots.

Asaawir has produced seven winners, including Dick Poole Fillies’ Stakes runner-up Marsh Hawk and Queen Mary Stakes third Hairy Rocket, while Marsh Hawk is responsible for four scorers, three of them black-type: Molecomb and Flying Childers Stakes heroine Trillium, Group 3 runner-up American Kestrel and Listed second Mohawk King.

“We thought about retiring Asaawir a couple of seasons ago but she was in such good nick that we went one last time with her last year and she’s given us a beautiful Starman filly foal, which is just what we wanted,” says Woolf. 

“It was typical of her to do us a favour like that. She’s been very good to us over the years. In fact, it all started with her. The Sky Lantern family means a lot to us, for obvious reasons, but there’s a lot of sentimentality about Asaawir too. She’s enjoying a luxurious retirement here now, and is everyone’s favourite.”

Marsh Hawk, by Invincible Spirit, produced a rather special foal this year: a much hoped-for filly by none other than Kentucky-based US Triple Crown laureate Justify.

“Unbelievably nice,” is Woolf’s verdict on the youngster, delivered in hushed tones. “It was a fairly obvious mating as Justify is an internationally high-profile sire, which Marsh Hawk deserves, and Trillium was by No Nay Never, another son of Justify’s sire Scat Daddy. It’s the same cross, but with a different strain.

“The Justify filly out of Marsh Hawk is a good size and that was part of the appeal of the mating as Marsh Hawk is on the smaller side and Justify is, as everyone knows, pretty big.”

Marsh Hawk has been covered this season by Britain and Ireland’s reigning champion sire Night Of Thunder, replicating the cross on which 2,000 Guineas hero Bow Echo was bred.

Trillium beats The Platinum Queen in the Flying ChildersWhitakerCredit: Edward Whitaker

Trillium’s first produce is a “smashing” Siyouni yearling colt who is heading for the sales in the coming months. The six-year-old mare also has a Frankel colt foal at foot, and is back in foal to Frankel this season. Connections have their fingers crossed for a filly.

Another indisputable Rockcliffe Stud dynasty that has quickly taken shape is that descending from Pepita, a Sir Prancealot half-sister to Heron Stakes winner Redolent bought by Sackville for 120,000gns at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale of 2014.

Pepita was a Listed winner at Musselburgh in her pomp and is the dam of three winners including Lowther Stakes heroine Celandine, who put in an uncharacteristically poor effort in the Achilles Stakes on Saturday, and Rockingham Stakes scorer Division, who was last seen finishing second to Venetian Sun in the Sandy Lane Stakes.

Both Celandine and Division are by Kingman and so it comes as no surprise to hear that Pepita returned to the son of Invincible Spirit at Banstead Manor Stud this season.  

The mare, still only 12, has a Frankel foal at foot – “a filly, hooray!” exclaims Woolf – and a Starspangledbanner two-year-old filly named Sweet Pea and in training with Walker.

Midnight Moll, the winner of a Newmarket novice stakes on debut, is not a household name but she could become another Rockcliffe Stud matriarch in time, says Woolf. 

“We’re very excited about her,” she explains. “Ed [Sackville] bought her as a yearling in 2020 and at that point there were six black-type horses under her first two dams. Now there are 15, and they include Field Of Gold, who was a class apart last year, and Golden Story, who won the Cocked Hat Stakes last week. It’s a family that keeps producing the goods.

“Her first foal is a two-year-old Night Of Thunder filly called Sedum, who is in training with Ed [Walker], and she has a yearling colt by Too Darn Hot who is heading for Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale – he should stand out there on looks and pedigree – and a colt foal by Kingman who was good enough to merit her going back to Kingman this year.”

Rockcliffe Stud’s rapid headway in establishing key families could only have been achieved by Woolf and her team on the ground, along with Sackville managing the portfolio remotely for the Keswicks, putting utmost care and attention into every facet of sourcing stock, planning matings and rearing horses. Their diligence even extends to naming. 

“A lot of the homebred fillies are named after wild flowers, but we want to keep the Lantern theme going through the females in that family,” says Woolf. “With Alfred Wallace, Ben Keswick wanted to honour a famous naturalist of the 19th century.”

Alfred Wallace is an auspicious name. The man himself was – so Wikipedia tells me, I admit it – a counterpart of Charles Darwin and jointly published with his better-remembered fellow scientist the theory of evolution by natural selection.

The equine Charles Darwin struck in the Norfolk Stakes last season, of course. Now a colt named after his collaborator looks well capable of striking in a two-year-old race at Royal Ascot this year.

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