Best of Times for Newspaperofrecord breeder Allan Belshaw

Allan Belshaw knows a little about longevity in industry. Times Of Wigan, the precision engineering firm he built up himself, celebrated its 50th anniversary last year and his involvement in racing began less than a decade later.

While the man himself still goes into the office virtually full-time, his breeding keeps apace, with last year’s scintillating Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf winner Newspaperofrecord the latest to come off what must be considered among the most remarkable of start-up ventures.

Belshaw is unequivocally a son of the North-West who still lives in the Lancashire town where it all started. And his interest in the sport began about as close to home as is geographically possible.

"I just liked racing, I went to the local racecourse, Haydock Park, and it just went from there really," he explains matter-of-factly. "I went into business, we did okay in the business, and we all know that horse racing needs money.

"I fancied buying a horse, which I did, with Pat Rohan. I raced a filly, I think she finished up in Barbados. That was 1977, a long time ago now."

It was an inquiring mind which put Belshaw together with another iconoclastic figure in trainer Bill O’Gorman, which is where the Newspaperofrecord story fully takes shape.

"When we had a runner Pat used to say he was always worried about a Newmarket horse, so I thought 'why should I have a horse up here if we’re always frightened of a Newmarket horse', so I might go down to Newmarket and join them. I met Bill O’ Gorman, and he started training for me 1980. I think I was with him for 18 years and then he retired."

Times Legacy (centre) is one of numerous horses to have carried Allan Belshaw's silksCredit: Mark Cranham

They gained prominence through the exploits of Timeless Times, who managed a feat which seems more plausible in the 18th or 19th centuries than the modern era in winning a joint-record 16 races as a two-year-old.

"We went to Keeneland in ’89," Belshaw explains. "Bill was buying and we spotted this little colt, Bill paid $15,000 for him and offered him to me.

"I think he bought a filly for $35,000 and I fancied a filly because I was thinking at that stage of going into breeding. Anyway overnight, you lose sleep thinking about these things, and I decided I couldn’t afford the 35, but I thought the little colt would be alright at 15, and we all know what happened to him."

The breeding stage began in equally inauspicious circumstances at another American sale when they picked up a daughter of the little-known Dodge.

"We went to Ocala in 1995 and bought a filly called Simply Times," Belshaw says. "We’d played one or two games before with breeding but that was the start of it.

"We raced her at Newmarket first-time-out at the Craven meeting in a two-year-old race. She collapsed about 100 yards from the winning post, she wasn’t going to win but Emma O’ Gorman rode her, she just fell down. Everyone feared the worst, the curtains were round, but after 10 minutes she just got up.

"I ran her once after at Southwell but the spark had gone. The following year I sent her down to So Factual and I got a filly, Forever Times. I bred a few more like Welsh Emperor, Brave Prospector and Majestic Times, all stakes horses. And Forever Times was the dam of Sunday Times, and she’s the dam of Newspaperofrecord."

Allan Belshaw (left): enjoys following his homebreds on the track

Although many of the brigade have carried Belshaw’s black and gold stripes, he has been happy to allow others to move outside his domain such as Question Times, the dam of last year’s Irish Derby winner Latrobe and this year's leading Investec Oaks candidate Pink Dogwood, who made a winning reappearance in the Salsabil Stakes on Sunday.

Newspaperofrecord herself was transferred to the US by Klaravich Stables for 200,000gns as a yearling at Tattersalls while Belshaw also accepted an unusual in-training offer from Juddmonte for Classical Times when it appeared that her half-sister was out of the ordinary.

The owner has a philosophical view and even went to watch Newspaperofrecord destroy her rivals at Churchill Downs last November.

"In fact in many ways it’s a cheap way of following them, because somebody else is paying all the bills!" he says. "I've sold horses on; you see Newspaperofrecord and wish you hadn’t but we’ve had other horses which have been okay. At the end of the day with the prize money and so on, commercially it’s what’s viable and what’s not viable.

"I know it was the Irish Derby but it was wonderful watching Latrobe win, then his sister Pink Dogwood is coming along, and she might be okay. It’s a good way of having horses."

Perhaps most surprising of all is that they have developed from a compact band of broodmares. He essentially has just Sunday Times and another useful producer, Al Janadeirya, boarding at Goldford Stud.

"Obviously, as we all know, when you breed your stock will soon build up," he observes wryly.

Raising horses, as Belshaw explains, also provides a different satisfaction.

Irish Derby hero Latrobe is another to have a link to the Belshaw storyCredit: Patrick McCann

"As an owner, you’re not quite as close. You go to the races, you nod to the trainer, the horse runs the race, you nod to the trainer, then you go home.

"If you get into the breeding you meet people, you’re hands on with the breeding and making decisions. You can go home and have a look at your mare and your foal. Sunday Times you could say dropped on my toes, she didn’t perform on the racecourse for obvious reasons, but it has brought me closer to the races."

Although Belshaw is now into his 79th year, his ethic to graft at Times Of Wigan remains intact.

"Work’s easy, it’s the hassle that’s not so good!" he says. "My son Peter is fully involved. I go in nearly every day but I don’t take the hassle any more, Peter does! I don’t fire as I used to do, he more or less runs it."

Should Newspaperofrecord impress again on her seasonal reappearance early next month, Belshaw’s thoroughbred engineering legacy will also be in safe hands.

Still in the game

Although Allan Belshaw parted with Newspaperofrecord he decided to retain her Gleneagles two-year-old half-sister despite what one can safely assume would have been telephone-number offers.

"She will go to John Gosden," he explained. "I’ve reserved a name, Daily Times. I’ve not had one of those yet."

When asked whether there might be any similarities between the pair, Belshaw pauses before responding with more clarity than the predictable question deserves.

"I don’t know. When you’ve a filly whose the best filly in the world and you ask me to compare them… you’d never follow that, would you, and you’d never attempt to follow it. You just hope she gets on the racecourse. Because of the situation, a half-sister to a champion, she could be alright but you don’t know these things.

"John Gosden always takes his time. So, is she going to run this year? I don’t know, leave it to him. He’s a patient man and we have to be patient."

He adds: "I’ve also got a four-year-old, Excellent Times, with Tim Easterby. They seem to like her. She’s from a different side to Newspaperofrecord but breaking the pedigree down, she’s in the family somewhere. The dam, Al Janadeirya, has also got a yearling by Gleneagles."

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