Royal Charter and Frankie Dettori help Apple Tree Stud branch out into America

Among Frankie Dettori’s eyecatching six-in-a-row at Santa Anita last weekend was a filly with a British connection as Royal Charter made the perfect opening in the United States for Gloucestershire-based Apple Tree Stud.

The four-year-old daughter of Expert Eye sailed two lengths clear on her debut for Leonard Powell in a mile optional allowance claimer, the final leg of the expatriate rider's domination of the card.

Bred by Tim and Gill Bostwick, Royal Charter was bought by Apple Tree Stud and bloodstock adviser Federico Barberini for €240,000 at the 2022 Arqana breeze-up.

She is out of an unraced half-sister to Cheveley Park Stud’s Queen’s Trust, whom Dettori had steered to victory down the same stretch of Californian grass as she beat the brilliant Lady Eli in the 2016 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf.

Royal Charter had won not long after her purchase, on her debut for William Haggas at Newmarket, and also scored on the July course last summer in a light campaign.

Robert Thornton, the former top jump jockey who manages Apple Tree Stud for owner Paul Dunkley, said: "We were very pleased and she looked impressive in a competitive field.

"She’s the first Apple Tree runner in America and it was on the advice of William Haggas; she likes that quick ground and there are probably more opportunities out there for a filly to get black type. 

"Leonard came into our radar through Federico. She’s been there since December – we had to get the owners’ registration and so on. She just took a little time to acclimatise but it was well worth the wait."

There is a lengthy list of European turf runners who have thrived across the Atlantic and Royal Charter’s pedigree includes one of the more notable recent examples, the Tattersalls purchase and Hollywood Derby winner Domestic Spending.

"She’s a very good-looking filly, we were just a little bit in no man’s land with her in the UK," said Thornton.

"She was quite tricky to place and then we got to last August and we were going to run out of ground with her. We waited for the October sales to come along, plenty of horses go from here out to America so we could pop her on a plane with some of the others.

Robert Thornton is optimistic that Royal Charter can make up into a black type performer for Apple Tree StudCredit: Laura Green

"I had a discussion with Leonard after the race. We’re going to go for another allowance race like that one and then it’ll be black type all the way through the summer."

Thornton hopes that Royal Charter can be a future star graduate of another project he has been involved in developing. Equishox, a rubber-coated horseshoe with a tread, has been introduced to reduce impact on an animal and improve general safety. 

They have been worn by Never Better, a recent Apple Tree winner at Kempton who was third at Southwell on Friday, and are gradually being approved by racing jurisdictions around the world.

"She trained in them," Thornton said of Royal Charter, before adding, tongue-in-cheek: "The vast improvement that came from her last Saturday was totally down to her training in Equishox shoes."

Apple Tree Stud, close to Stow-on-the-Wold, was established ten years ago and breeds from a select band of mares as well as buying and selling horses such as the Lingfield Oaks Trial winner Sherbert Lemon.

"We’ve had four foals on the ground and there are two more to come, but we’re covering nine for next season, so that’s exciting," said Thornton.

"I’m very happy with them. We’ve had a nice Mohaather colt, a nice big Ghaiyyath colt and two very neat fillies, one by Too Darn Hot and one by Stradivarius."

Useful homebred Heavenly Breath has returned to the Apple Tree Stud foldCredit: Edward Whitaker

Absolute Blast, a fine traveller for Archie Watson who was third in the Group 1 Premio Lydia Tesio in Italy, is in foal to Oasis Dream, while a New Bay is due from Astonishing, the most successful member of the team from the paddocks so far.

A Listed-winning Galileo mare bought from the Rothschild family for 360,000gns at the 2015 Tattersalls December Mares Sale, she has three black-type performers from as many runners, including the Gallinule and Beresford Stakes-placed Gold Maze. 

Heavenly Breath, a daughter of Dark Angel who was retained and trained by Watson to chase home Blue Rose Cen in the Prix d'Aumale as a two-year-old, has joined her mother at the operation.

Thornton said: "Heavenly Breath was also stakes-placed last year and she’s now in foal to Sea The Stars for next season. Astonishing is in foal to New Bay and she’s going to Baaeed. There’s also a very nice Too Darn Hot two-year-old filly out of her with Roger Varian."

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