Breeder Fergus Anstock gains belated reward for keeping Faith

Rebranding does not always gain immediate recognition by the public, as those who struggle to remember wherever it is Stoke and Hull City play these days would attest.

Visitors to Tattersalls this week might spot a new vendor in Book 1 by the name of Clearwater Stud, better known by a former incarnation which claimed a notable victory at Longchamp on Saturday.

Into Faith, who took advantage of a smart bit of placing by David Menuisier in Saturday’s Arqana October sales event, was bred by The Kathryn Stud, the small-scale Bedfordshire breeding venture of Fergus Anstock.

"It’s a new stud but the same place and the same stock," Anstock explained. "It wasn’t our intention at all but we did have a bit of trouble at Doncaster because people were wondering who we are.

"It’s a new venture with all the old mares in it, and it’s run by my son Farran, which is also confusing because his name begins with an F too!"

Into Faith is a son of the Machiavellian mare Have Faith, who won a maiden for Barry Hills in the colours of the late Maktoum Al Maktoum but is of far more significance as a half-sister to the Nassau Stakes winner Favourable Terms.

Anstock recalled: "I bought her from Darley a few years ago, she was carrying a Selkirk filly and we sold her for 180,000gns. It was good business, which we knew it would be.

"Apart from anything else she’s a very good-looking mare and throws very good-looking stock. She’s thrown some quite good horses, there was a Dubawi filly called Faithful One that David Lanigan had trained, but none have been particularly quick."

It seems that Into Faith has bucked the trend, in more ways than one. Bought privately for €32,000, the juvenile was beaten only four lengths by John Gosden’s hot prospect Palace Pier at Sandown in late August and broke his duck in encouraging fashion at the third attempt at Longchamp, scooping a first prize of more than £120,000.

"The one I couldn’t sell was this one," Anstock said ruefully. "He was a lovely colt as a yearling but the French weren’t buying anything then, and we had to sell him by private sale for next to nothing. There was nothing wrong with him at all. Intello, for some reason, just wasn’t fashionable and we didn’t want to keep him."

Into Faith was consigned by Coulonces last year and Anstock will follow the same path with his mare’s next offering.

Into Faith (second-right) was not beaten far by Palace Pier before his French successCredit: Mark Cranham

"We had her in England for five or six years, then sent her to France," he said. "We might as well stay there and see what happens. She’s still there now, and we’ve got an Anodin filly to sell in a couple of weeks. She’s also thrown a beautiful Wings Of Eagles colt that’s a lovely foal.

"We’d more or less given up on her producing any decent black type, so she’d gone lower on her pecking order, then she went and did that!"

Clearwater goes to market on Thursday and, given the sire of the colt being offered as lot 488, their name should attract plenty of attention from those scoring the catalogues.

The stud, set up only a few years ago on a former dairy farm by the former Hong Kong-based lawyer and his wife Kathryn, has gained favour at the event with a few six-figure trades before, such as by selling French Group 3 winner Shahah for 320,000gns

"We’ve got a Kingman in Book 1, and then a few in the later books and in France," said Anstock. "The Kingman colt is exceptional. He’s out of a French Montjeu mare called Parle Moi (a winner for Pascal Bary from a strong Italian family). I think this is by far the best she’s produced so far."

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