We make them but they take them: are more of our best horses being sold abroad?
Senior writer Lee Mottershead examines claims that Britain has become a nursery
It is a lament now delivered louder and more frequently. British Flat racing, we are repeatedly told, is becoming a nursery ground for rival racing nations.
Horses who might otherwise have lit up our racecourses are sold instead to Hong Kong, Australia, the US and elsewhere. We make them, they take them. Yet is there any substance to those claims?
Atomic Force was plucked away almost as soon as he became a star. After being prepared by Kevin Ryan to win a Chantilly Group 3 by five lengths, the juvenile was sold by Hambleton Racing to Hong Kong-based owner Siu Pak Kwan. He landed the Prix Robert Papin in his new silks on July 18 and was then off to his new life in the Far East. The next time you see him running will be at Sha Tin in 2022.
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