Telescope back in focus with first major sales success

As it is the Irish consignors and point-to-point trainers who are the kingmakers of National Hunt stallions, Peter Hockenhull of Shade Oak Stud in Shropshire had to hatch a plan to ensure that Telescope was in position to be judged.

With the regally-bred Hardwicke Stakes winner starting to have runners from his first crop that recently turned four, he also had his biggest result in the ring so far when Pay The Pilot was the third highest-priced lot to sell at last week's Tattersalls Cheltenham March Sale, moving for £130,000 to Kim Bailey through Aiden Murphy.

Second for Sean Doyle in a point-to-point bumper at Punchestown, Pay The Pilot had originally been sold by Hockenhull's Shade Oak as a foal in the November National Hunt Sale at Fairyhouse. He is out of an unraced Alflora daughter of the mighty Lady Rebecca.

"I sold him out there deliberately so that he would go through this system," Hockenhull explains.

"I take an attitude that, particularly with my younger mares, it’s a good way to promote them in that I know they have every opportunity to succeed in Ireland, and this was plan A - well, plan A would have been that he'd won and made even more, but it’s as good as I could have ever hoped for.

"Now he's going to a brilliant trainer and I’m sure that that in itself has given him the best opportunity to succeed.

Peter Hockenhull (left) is waiting to see how Telescope's progeny perform on the trackCredit: Sarah Farnsworth / Goffs UK

"It gets Telescope noticed. My mares are here to support my stallions, to help launch them and further their career, and I’m a firm believer that a stallion’s future is mapped out by the quality and number of mares they have in the first three or four years.

"I’m very aware of the fact that with Ireland producing many more horses that the fashion very much lies in Ireland, it’s important for me to market my horses through there."

Telescope has received books of more than 190, with Hockenhull frank in his hopes that the reliable son of Galileo can emulate predecessors Alflora and Gunner B in becoming another multiple national champion for Shade Oak, alongside his exciting other recruit Dartmouth.

"It’s extremely early days, we’re yet to get the first one [winner] on the board and it’s an anxious time, but it will happen, in terms of the quality and the depth of the number of mares Telescope has had - I haven’t had that sort of foundation for any previous stallion I’ve ever had," he says.

"I see what are coming through, he’s had over 150, maybe 170 elite mares, I know that a fair number are held within Shade Oaks, Bryan Mayoh is a part-owner and has promoted him through his own mares.

"If you’re going to buy a stallion then you have only one chance at it, it’s make or break in the first three or four years. I feel confident in what we’ve laid down; certainly, I’ve never managed to achieve that with any other sire. How that compares with the Irish…we’re still about 100 short per year in terms of numbers, but we’ve done the best we can."

Other factors, such as some British breeders being concerned at moving their mares overseas owing to Brexit complications, have also kept Telescope's name to the forefront of considerations.

"When you have a stallion going to stud, he attracts on his own potential, but it’s also mapped by external events, of which he’s been extremely fortunate," says Hockenhull.

"There's the competition he has - he was the highest-rated that went to stud that year as a fresh sire, and within the stud itself; Black Sam Bellamy sadly died and that allowed him more opportunities.

"Kayf Tara has stopped covering, so we’re now in a situation that within Britain there's a lack of proven sires, and therefore the opportunity to maintain his presence has opened up in what would otherwise have been a 'let's sit on the fence and see what he does' time.

"We’re still rolling along, taking appreciable books of mares at a time when you’d normally see the books reduce. And a nice sale result just pushes the job on again, so he’s been a lucky boy."

Telescope is in a good position to reach the top among National Hunt siresCredit: Joanna Prestwich

Pay The Pilot was able to appear thanks to the arranging of some races as compensation to Irish point trainers, with the sport only recently receiving a green light to return. His Black Sam Bellamy half-sister Beckys Angel also reappeared in a similar event, while a Dartmouth-sired two-year-old is with Will Kinsey.

It is a time when Hockenhull is anxiously scanning entries.

"Some will return by hopefully the premier sales and re-marketed by their consignors, but that in turn means I have an Irish contingent selling a Telescope offspring, which means they’re actively promoting him," he says.

"The nature of them being resold is again a plus, they’ll endeavour to do the best they possibly can to get a good result, and that in turn promotes the stallion."

Dartmouth, who landed the Hardwicke two years after Telescope and followed him into Shade Oak at the same interval, has had his early foals sell respectably and is part of a strong roster which also includes Scorpion and Recharge.

"I'm desperately trying to find that next one, it’s extremely difficult," says Hockenhull. "I’m 60 and certainly my ambitions are very much around trying to get a leading British sire, that’s why we took on Telescope and Dartmouth. Any new sire coming in would have to fill that criteria."

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