A real chip off the old block (From York Press)

A real chip off the old block

10:22am Friday 20th January 2012 in Turf Talk By Steve Carroll, Sports reporter

SHOULD Tharawal Lady prove to be a chip off the old block, you won’t be able to wipe the grin off Sean Quinn’s face.

At 20, the son of Norton trainer John has to be one of the youngest managers of a syndicate in Britain – and he is hoping the newly-established Highfield Racing has unearthed a juvenile filly that is going to bring immediate rewards.

Quinn junior spotted her at the Doncaster Premier Sales last September and quickly snapped up the yearling. He is a man who likes to think he knows his form and pedigree.

Tharawal Lady is a three-quarter sister to the Yorkshire sprinting legend Knot In Wood. Trained by Richard Fahey, he won 11 times – including the Sky Bet Dash at York and the Group 3 Chipchase Stakes – in a career that brought nearly £291,000 in prize money.

Quinn has looked at the bloodlines and he has done the maths.

“I think she could be the yard’s first two-year-old runner,” he said of the filly. “That’s probably the reason why I chose her as the syndicate horse. The last thing I wanted was a big backward horse that wasn’t going to get to the track until September or October.

“Then you get members on the phone and you keep telling them they have to wait. The pedigree with Knot In Wood was the thing that really drew me to her in the sales. She’s got the same dam as Knot In Wood. She’s by Moss Vale and he was by Shinko Forest – and that’s the same for Knot In Wood.

“This is the first time the sire’s blood has gone back into the dam since Knot In Wood. We will run her over five furlongs (to start with). She looks like a real sprinter. If a horse has a nice pedigree, people can associate her with, and relate to, Knot In Wood.

“People who love Yorkshire racing love Knot In Wood. They know he kept turning up in the big sprints. She’s a nice filly too.”

But don’t expect to see her blast out of the stalls in the Brocklesby, the first big two-year-old race of the season at Doncaster’s Lincoln meeting, which kicks off the Flat season. The plan is to find a race a little lower down the scale.

“Dad doesn’t like to target the Brocklesby,” Quinn added. “If you win it, you are penalised for the next six months. We’ll be looking for a low-key maiden, somewhere around us, where as many people can go as possible.”

If Tharawal Lady doesn’t immediately bring flickers of recognition, then the new club’s other horse will. Zomerlust, a winner of ten races in his illustrious career, will be the standard bearer – the old horse that gets the colours seen out on the track.

Quinn confirmed: “Zomerlust is also in the club but the shares in him are gone. His owners didn’t want him any more and they gave him to dad. We will run him in claimers and sellers and he will win loads of them. He’s ten now so we don’t think anyone will be claiming him.”

Having been around horses all his life, and with his father the steady hand on the tiller at the historic Highfield Stables in Norton, Quinn, who assists his dad while also working two days a week for William Hill Radio, might be expected to wait for the day in the future where he takes over the licence.

So why start a racing club, particularly during a recession when leisure cash is the first thing to be cut?

“In times like these, there are very few people who are able to stump up the cash to buy a full horse,” he explained. “We’re still trying to remain as competitive as possible. You see yards whose numbers are decreasing and trainers losing horses. We are keen to avoid that.

“There’s a big incentive to keep numbers up and stay competitive in the game. It’s always been something that interested me. I personally think it would be great to bring more people into racing. I hope to be involved in the sport for many years to come and it’s important for me, and my generation, to keep that interest high.

“People have to feel they are getting value for money. You can’t says ‘Well person ‘x’ only owns a 30th. They put little in so they’ll get little back.’ Whether you own a string of ten horses or a hair on a horse’s tail, you have to feel involved in the whole enterprise.

“That’s really, really important to me.”

Back in the yard, there is a lot to get excited about over the coming weeks. Recession Proof has an entry in the World Hurdle at Cheltenham in March, Quinn senior also has a couple of live hopes in the Triumph Hurdle during the Festival, and there is the prospect of Red Duke running in the world’s richest night of racing in the United Arab Emirates.

“You never like to tempt fate but dad and I were saying a couple of weeks ago that, for the first time since Blythe Knight, Kings Quay and Leslingtaylor, we have got a good mix of jumpers and we are looking forward to some of the Flat horses,” said Quinn.

“We’ve got four or five possibles for Cheltenham and then we have two weeks to plan Red Duke’s appearance on World Cup night at Meydan in Dubai. We hope he is going to run in the UAE Derby and we’ll be out there for that.”

For more information on Quinn’s new racing club, log on to www.highfieldracing.com or email him at sean@highfieldracing.com