Profitable start for Dick Turpin

Group 1 shuttler Dick Turpin has helped the English National Stud record year-on-year increases in turnover and operating profit.

Dick Turpin (Ire) was the first stallion bought by the English National Stud after Ben Sangster took over as chairman in January 2012.  He covered 100 mares first-up at the Newmarket stud while further revenue was generated by the sale of the his southern-hemisphere breeding rights to Mungrup Stud in Western Australia.

Figures published as part of the English Jockey Club annual review show that turnover increased to 2.60 million pounds last year and operating profit rose to 700,000 pounds.

“The lovely thing is that Dick Turpin’s first foals are cracking lookers,” Jockey Club spokesman Nicholas Wrigley said.  “There is always that hiatus – you buy a stallion and at each stage you’ve got to be comfortable and we are pleased with what he’s produced.

“Obviously it will be a couple of years before they hit the racecourse but at this moment we can dream.”

Dick Turpin is the first stallion purchased by the English National Stud since Pastoral Pursuits in 2004.  He is currently covering a second northern book before returning to Mungrup in August.

Trainer Richard Hannon prepared Dick Turpin to a four-length victory in the G1 Prix Jean Prat at Chantilly and he has another Group 1 winner on the horizon named Trumpet Major.

Dick Turpin and Trumpet Major have plenty in common.  They both emerged from Hannon’s Wiltshire stables for owner John Manley and they are both by Nureyev stallion Arakan.

Trumpet Major captured the G2 Sandown Mile on Friday in his final lead-up to the G1 Lockinge Stakes at Newbury on May 18.  He had won the G2 Champagne Stakes at Doncaster in 2011 and the G3 Craven Stakes at Newmarket last year.

On Thursday, Mungrup Stud owner Gray Williamson announced Dick Turpin’s fee will remain at $8,800 (inc gst) in 2013.

– Karl Patterson