Polos, carrots and a Lowther winner's sister: Flintstone Stud opens its doors to show a different side to racehorse week

At many of the venues that are open during National Racehorse Week, visitors will be homing in on a famous resident or an animal with some sort of personal significance that they particularly want to meet.

The lead attraction at Flintstone Stud might easily become another one of those in the future but, at the moment, she is little more than a detail in a sales catalogue to all but the handful of people who know her.

Marked on the box of a sweet-looking bay filly by Havana Grey are two notices; first that she's selling at Tattersalls Book 2 as lot 794. The second asks 'please do not touch or feed me'.

It's mostly a precaution. Around 50 members of the public have been rewarded with a break in the rain on a largely grey afternoon to visit Dave Weston's stud just outside Marlborough.

There are seasoned enthusiasts among the arrivals, who are mostly from the Hampshire-Berkshire-Wiltshire triangle, but there are a few who have never been to a stable or had much contact with horses.

This filly, Dot to her friends, is now one of the most important members of the farm as her older sister Alice, better known as Royal Fixation, won last week's Lowther Stakes at York. She and two neighbours are in only their second week of yearling prep and still learning the ropes. Dot is a little shy but also now extremely valuable; this is no time for accidents to happen.

One of the features of Flintstone's two-hour open afternoon is a parade of their yearlings. First up is a typically feminine Lope De Vega filly out of Dubawi mare Dazzling Beauty, who is out of Prix Royal Oak winner Be Fabulous, in as lot 100 at Book 1.

"It doesn't mean they're the 100th best!" explains Weston's partner, El Tanner.

Flintstone Stud was a hive of activity during National Racehorse WeekCredit: The TBA

She's followed by lot 200 for the same blue riband event, a Wootton Bassett half-sister to Dubai Turf winner Facteur Cheval. A punchy 410,000gns pinhook, her burgeoning physique has done nothing to dissuade confidence in the team gaining a decent return. Dot, followed by two homebred jumping prospects including a lanky Stradivarius, then pose for the visitors with an accompanying critique from visiting vet Chris Welsh.

Then a few questions come from the punters. How does Weston decide the reserves at the sales and how does Dot compare to Alice in terms of size - "Alice was a bit bigger but only half a hand . . . they've lots of similarities". Finally, a few guesses about what the filly might be worth. "We've got the cash machine around the corner" Weston laughs.

Flintstone is set on what was an old dairy farm, which Weston and Tanner have developed since 2004 into a neat facility for a small band of mares. Their son Ben is an integral part of a varied business which includes training the odd jumper and point-to-pointer. 

"We've been doing this for 20 years now, but you do it with the level of horse you're at," Weston says during a quiet moment.

"We had a mare who bred a couple of Listed winners and that kind of got us going in the early days.

"I had a tech business which I sold and we decided we'd spend some more money and upgrade, get some mares and try to get ourselves closer to that top grade."

Weston, who has had success as a breeder in Australia and Canada, has made his biggest impact in Britain so far with the purchase of Royal Fixation's dam, Fixette, a Group-placed Kodiac mare sourced for €180,000 from the 2021 Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale.

"I bought her at Arqana and another mare, Frame Of Mind, who is still in France, for the same price on the same day," he recalls.

Royal Fixation lands Group 2 success in the Lowther StakesCredit: Edward Whitaker

"Matt Houldsworth, who was our agent out there, had thought we wouldn't get either of them for that price and shouldn't bother ourselves, but I said, 'You never know with auctions'. 

"Fixette was carrying a third No Nay Never, she'd had two and was back in foal. After we bought her, The Fixer won a Listed race in France, and we produced the No Nay Never and took her to the sales as a foal.

"She didn't make her reserve, she was actually a bit on the small side, but what we've learned is her stock really don't grow until now and onwards. They're small but they suddenly blossom from midsummer, and we ended up selling her for 320,000gns as a yearling."

Royal Fixation herself had a small setback on the eve of the foal sales so waited for Tattersalls Book 1. From the first crop of Palace Pier, she made 180,000gns to Opulence Thoroughbreds and has an almost perfect record for Ed Walker, making a winning debut in mid-June at Thirsk before finishing just a neck behind subsequent Prix Morny winner Venetian Sun in the Duchess of Cambridge Stakes.

Were she to go on to land the Cheveley Park Stakes, then her half-sister would have the ultimate Group 1 update before October.

"We had to miss a year after she had this Havana Grey, but now she's back in foal to Palace Pier," reveals Weston.

"Ed Walker is responsible for it. I asked him if there was any reason not to do it. He said she led the string, she was so straightforward, then a month in, he said, 'This is the real deal'. She'd picked it up that quickly and he had a lot of confidence. So we went to Palace Pier again."

There have already been substantial offers for Fixette, while they might keep her next foal if she is carrying a filly.

Irrespective of those developments, Weston wants his band of mares at home to remain select, so the stock can benefit from the personal touch. While Flintstone Stud is a family affair with a handful of staff, the operation's investments are wide-ranging.

Royal Fixation's half-sister gets used to the attention during National Racehorse WeekCredit: The TBA

He often consigns through Aughamore Stud and boards two mares with Castlebridge supremo Bill Dwan. Teofilo mare Assurance has a promising Kingman filly, Pretty Diva, racing in Japan, while American Kestrel, a half-sister to Rockcliffe Stud's Flying Childers winner Trillium, raced for the family and has visited several illustrious stallions.

Weston also keeps a few mares in Australia in a partnership with Ben Cooper of Merricks Station, one of which, Calaverite, had a major update when her son Golden Mile won the Caulfield Guineas. There are exciting yearlings to be sold at Inglis and Magic Millions once Tattersalls is over.

"We want to basically have four Fixettes here, that's what we're trying to do," he says. "One of the Irish mares will come here next year and we'll see how it goes."

With big draws such as Nicky Henderson, Alan King, Eve Johnston Houghton and Juddmonte's Estcourt Estate open in the area during the week, it feels quite a reassuring measure of public appetite that even a lesser-known entity such as Flintstone could be fully booked for this annual celebration of the racehorse.

While there are polos and carrots to give to the horses, it offers something even more unusual too; the chance to pat a model Chaldean foal bound for the sales and his cheeky Golden Horn playmate. Small children come out of their shells with the animals and one man has even made a return visit from last year as Royal Fixation has become his favourite horse. 

"It's actually been a great experience for the yearlings before they go to the sales," Tanner says as the guests troop off to their cars.

"Hopefully a few more of the studs will be part of it in the future. We do a bit of everything here and I think it shows people something a bit different."

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