Linda’s a Five Star bargain shopper

Sometimes the Sport of Kings is aptly titled, with huge sums banded around and little more to guide the big spenders than promise and pedigree.

But Norton handler Stubbs, in tandem with husband Bill, has made a livelihood of getting big prizes from small purchases.

All-weather speedster Five Star Junior, who kicked off 2009 for Highfield-based Stubbs with a quick-fire double, is just one example.

Notching up victories at Kempton and Lingfield, the three-year-old is expected to line up for the hat-trick at Wolverhampton on Sunday.

Stubbs said: “It has been a good start to the year. He cost $140,000 at the breeze-up sales in America.

“Simon Callaghan (Newmarket trainer) sent him to the horses in training sale and we got him from there. We paid £8,000 for him. He had something about him.”

Bill, who bought him at the sales, added: “I just liked him. He looked like he had a bit of scope. He looked fed-up. He was in a barn and he couldn’t get his head out. He had no character when he came.

“The transformation in him has been unreal. If he wins another one or two, he wants to be sold to America. That was the idea when buying him.”

Five Star Junior isn’t the only short price success story in Stubbs’ yard – a small stables with 12 in the boxes.

They buy them in, improve them, hope to win a couple of races, and then sell when their value is at its highest.

It’s how the smaller yards survive, but Stubbs is hoping there’s a three-year-old in the ranks who can land some Group races this season.

If Five Star Junior was cheap, Saxford was the kind of bargain you would normally expect to find on a high street pound shop.

Bought for a measly 2,500gns, the gelding won more than £59,000 during 2008. His three wins included the Listed Rose Bowl Stakes at Newbury and he was also placed in the Group 2 Gimcrack Stakes, the Group 2 Richmond Stakes at Goodwood and when second in the Group 3 Prix Eclipse at Chantilly.

“Again, I liked him,” Bill added. “I buy the yearlings and I buy what I like. I never look at the pedigree.

“Too many people go on pedigree and it doesn’t work. On the 2,500 guineas, this is what you have to do. We can’t afford to go out and spend fortunes on horses. I just buy individuals.”

Linda added: “Kristin (daughter) rode Saxford all the time and said he would be a Listed horse. We have to look at Group and Listed races this year.

“His first aim is for either the Free Handicap at Newmarket or the Greenham at Newbury in April. He has really strengthened up over the winter. He looks like he has trained on.

“But there’s not many three-year-old only races for him. He’s going to have to take on the older horses as well.

“He would have won the Gimcrack if it had been at York. We were gutted. Everything was right and the horses that beat him, subsequently at Newbury, weren’t even entered for the York race.

“We had planned that race for so long. He would have won as well on that ground.”

The promise of youth fills the air at Beverley House. Two and three-year-olds form the majority of Stubbs’ string and it is the expectation of what they might achieve on the track which fills everyone with enthusiasm.

“We have got some nice two-year-olds,” Bill added. “Hopefully we’ve bought one that could be worth a lot of money this year.

“We’ve bought one by Kyllachy – we haven’t sold yet – and his half-brother made £150,000 as a yearling. I have only given £10,000 for this one. He could be anything.

“His dam was sixth in the Guineas, won the Lowther, was second in the Queen Mary and the Cherry Hinton. Everything is there really.”

And another youngster they are keen to draw attention to is a chestnut gelding by Compton Place.

“He’s sharp and is a speedy sort,” Bill says. He looks it.

His sire fathered Cowthorpe trainer Robin Bastiman’s Group 1 hero Borderlescott, while he’s out of Bella Cantata.

So even as they anticipate Saxford’s journey, the Stubbs are already looking ahead to their next big bargain.

For more information, log onto www.lindastubbsracing.com