'Within ten minutes we were being offered more' – Insole’s 100,000gns coup stands tall in Lennox Stakes

While now looking mellow as far as upsets come at Glorious Goodwood this week, Witness Stand’s 25-1 win in the Lennox Stakes on Tuesday certainly vindicated one of co-trainer Jamie Insole’s boldest buys.

The four-year-old son of Expert Eye was a 100,000gns coup for Insole and bloodstock agent Matt Houldsworth at last October’s Tattersalls Autumn Horses-in-Training Sale when he was a 115-rated Group-placed winner of the Listed Dubai Duty Free Cup. 

Formerly trained by Tom Clover, the gelding, out of an Oasis Dream full-sister to 2011 Group 1 King’s Stand Stakes winner Prohibit, is the fourth biggest purchase for Insole, who says he slipped through the cracks.

“We saw a lot of potential; he was on a lot of the Australians’ radars but he didn’t quite pass the vet for Australia so he went under the radar,” said the Worcestershire-based trainer, who trains in partnership with Dr Richard Newland.

“I think everyone, myself included, originally thought he was going to make too much. Tom Blain from Barton Stud called the night before to give us the heads up that he wasn’t going to make the prices we thought. He got him vetted and it was fine on our end. 

“We bought him on spec for 100,000gns and within about ten minutes we were already being offered more from others that had missed him.”

Witness Stand (Hollie Doyle) beats Lake Forest in the Lennox StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker (racingpost.com/photos)

Insole joined Newland in 2023 and the dual-purpose yard has been enjoying plenty of success with his HIT purchases, though Witness Stand’s two and three quarter-length romp in Group 2 company provided them with an all-important first stakes winner on the Flat. 

Insole said: “Massive for the stable. To win a race for older horses as well—two-year-old races are amazing but for it to be in the Lennox, such a prestigious race, it’s brilliant. 

“We’ve done well with a few of the horses-in-training purchases. Last year most of our runners were HIT purchases because 80 per cent of the two-year-olds couldn’t run or were just having one or two to get going, so we needed those older horses to provide us with winners, which they did. 

“Great Blasket’s probably one of the highlights—he only cost 19,000gns [at Tatts Autumn in 2023] and he’s now won seven times. He just won again at Sandown [on Wednesday]. He’s done extremely well. 

“We’ll keep buying these horses in training but our whole focus is trying to buy yearlings and trying to produce some really nice horses. But we’ve shown we can improve these HIT purchases, and we’ll probably continue to do that as well.”

After kicking off for his new stable with a couple of underwhelming stakes-level runs at Riyadh and Doncaster earlier in the year, Witness Stand bounced back to run second in a Listed event at Chester this month and Insole was quietly confident of a good run in the Lennox.

“I hoped he’d run in the first four, I thought the Chester run was great and they obviously broke the track record that day,” he said. “He enjoys the track here [at Goodwood] and a little bit of ease in the ground sort of played to his strengths. 

“I was confident, I thought he was a big price, but it was a very competitive race and he probably deserved to be. But it was a great performance—he didn’t just win, he absolutely blew them out the water, which was even better. I don’t know what he’ll be rated now but I heard he could go up to 118/119, so it’s really exciting.”

The stable is set to aim for back-to-back Group 2 wins, with the Hungerford Stakes at Newbury next month the likely next target before potential Group 1 expeditions abroad.

Insole said: “He’ll carry a penalty but he won at Newbury last year, that course and distance form, and I’m thinking it may be slightly weaker as well with everyone going to York.

“We’re thinking the Forêt on Arc day would be his big goal. It depends how far we go but we could even look at the Hong Kong Mile in December—a really valuable race and he’s a gelding so we’ll definitely be chasing some prize-money."

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