'I'm touching the table top' - owner-breeder David Armstrong on the colt propelling him back into the big time

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On this occasion, Tom Peacock speaks to owner-breeder David Armstrong about recent Richmond Stakes winner Coppull – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday.

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Even as Coppull raced past the finishing line and into the teeth of a monsoon at Glorious Goodwood, David Armstrong felt as if he was figuratively emerging from the gloom.

Group 1 targets now await Armstrong's homebred two-year-old, who represents a team so regularly seen in the biggest sprints through the likes of Prix de l'Abbaye winner Mabs Cross, Maurice de Gheest hero Garswood and by Coppull's own damsire Mayson, who claimed the July Cup in 2012.

"What happened was in 2023, from April to the day of the Temple Stakes meeting in May we'd lost our four best horses," Armstrong explains.

"So for most of 23 and then 24 you're clawing your way back and by 25, we've got daylight at the end of the tunnel. If you've sold them and drawn money, you've got a return and you can't complain but when the horses are finished from racing, you've still got them."

Three of those to have been affected were progeny of their homebred Mayson, who stood at Cheveley Park Stud for many years in a partnership.

"Ainsdale was rated 104 and had an immediate career-finishing injury, then Blackrod was the same then we lost Bickerstaffe, a progressive full brother to [Coppull's dam] Springwood Drive.

"Sandbeck [by Ardad] was due to run in the Temple Stakes and, [wife] Emma and I went as it's our local track, we went upstairs to sit down.

Ainsdale (left) had been another big hope for David Armstrong in 2023Credit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

"Emma's phone rings and it's James [Bethell, father of trainer Ed], I said there's a problem. She handed it over, she'd had a kick on her hock, she's never run since and is a broodmare.

"For a small owner-breeder, it didn't take the heart out of our enthusiasm but it took the heart out of our team, it was like the click of a button and the four best horses were gone."

Armstrong bought Ocean Boulevard, a Danehill Dancer mare from a blue-chip Meon Valley Stud family, for 20,000gns at the Tattersalls July Sale ten years ago when she was carrying Springwood Drive, later a dual winner with Tim Easterby.

He explains: "Emma went down to the sale with my daughter Sophie, I'd looked at the pedigree and told them to look at her. She was in foal to Mayson, I'd checked it all out and I liked the mating so that's why we bought her. She was from a tremendous farm, one of the best there is in the country.

"I also wanted some Danehill blood and I'm mad on Danzig, if you look at my pedigrees, they're 4x4, 4x5 3x4 [inbred to Danzig], and it worked for me.

"Springwood Drive was a good racehorse. She fractured her pelvis, we brought her home and gave her plenty of rest over the winter but she went back in training with Tim and was just never the same. We pulled up stumps but we thought she was Listed class, to be honest."

Emma And David Armstrong with trainer Michael and Carol Dods after winning Godolphin Outstanding Sprinter Mabs Cross at the 2018 ROA AwardsCredit: Dan Abraham (racingpost.com/photos)

Such tribulations are why Armstrong, who has a major quarrying business and has been immersed in racing and breeding from his Highfield Farm near Chorley for the last 20 years or so, is reluctant to get too carried away with Coppull just yet.

The Bated Breath colt won tidily on his debut at Leicester and was then a sterling third in the Coventry Stakes. The Richmond Stakes is a stallion-making race with the likes of Mehmas, Shalaa, Supremacy and Vandeek on its recent roll of honour and he could yet rank alongside them.

"I'm touching the table top", Armstrong says. "I suppose going back to those earlier horses, Ainsdale was only a Pattern run off being a cheap stallion and the others were progressive. It's how it goes but, yes, we're absolutely over the moon that we've got a good horse. 

"He's got an entry in the Gimcrack, there's a penalty to be incurred there. Clive likes the Prix Morny and the Middle Park is definitely a chance at the back-end.

"We've one or two choices but all I want from trainers is honesty, good or bad news, and I get 100 per cent with Clive. I don't pressurise trainers – you've got trust the trainer in a trusted partnership – and when a two-year-old is ready to run, it's ready to run, and if he needs an interval in between racing, he has that."

Armstrong says he gets huge satisfaction out of breeding and, with his annus horribilis still fresh in the memory, probably appreciated the success of Coppull even more.

Only one "very sore point" lingers. Mayson had one three-figure crop but most of his others were far smaller and he has been trying his luck at Oak Lodge Stud in Ireland for the last couple of seasons.

July Cup winner Mayson is Coppull's broodmare sireCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Armstrong does wonder if he has incorrectly been pigeon-holed as a mud-lover from the July Cup, which could have put some breeders off.

"He's been massively under-appreciated," he says. "I did the deal with Cheveley Park and I'm not complaining there, I don't cry over spilt milk, but I think if he'd been in Ireland he'd have been champion sprint sire for years and a proper broodmare sire by now as he's at the age that they're coming through.

"Richard Fahey will tell you to this day the ground at Newmarket wasn't heavy, it was good to soft. And in his previous performances in the Abernant and Palace House it hadn't been raining then.

"I think if he'd had a lot more mares he'd have been a top, top broodmare sire. With his granddad being Pivotal, his dad being Invincible Spirit, he had broodmare sire written all over him. And up to now he's doing well for what few he's had."

At least, with Springwood Drive and some siblings, Armstrong can help Mayson's cause himself.

He says: "There's plenty there to promote that line of strength. We'll see what we can produce."

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Good Morning Bloodstock is our unmissable email newsletter. Leading bloodstock journalist Martin Stevens provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday.