Tattinger Moment
Mary Neale enjoyed her 100th winner with Topaz, below she recounts her time with Highclere so far.
Friends introduced me to Highclere at the 2008 Yearling Parade and who could not resist those beautiful horses. I started with a two horse syndicate of Syrian and Dominant, both of whom did well and the latter was sold to Hong Kong. That was followed up by Telescope in 2013 who won five races including the Hardwicke Stakes at Ascot in 2014 and was 2nd in the King George; Cachet winning the 1000 Guineas in 2022 and Believing who won six races before being sold for £3M! Currently I am excited by Chapter who has found his feet and won his last two races and two year old Topaz who has just won for first time and fingers crossed will continue to thrive and add to my tally of 67 flat winners. None of this would have been possible without the help, advice and support of others including Roger Varian who taught me how to judge what ground conditions would suit a horse on a morning on Warren Hill judging every horse that came up; the late Sir Henry Cecil who took me through his string on my monthly visits to Newmarket and of course the Highclere Team.
Mary Neale with Felony
In 2015 I dipped a toe into National Hunt racing, again with Highclere and Meet the Legend with Dan Skelton. Sadly after two wins he made an error at Kempton and lost his life. But the bug had bitten and he was followed by Whatduhavtoget again with Dan who won four races and was placed seven times. Posh Trish, Style de Garde, Beau Balko and Aviemore continued to give me lots of fun and Carlenrig and Sporting Gerard carry on the fun now and add to the 35 existing NH Winners. Paul Nicholls has been the giver of much advice over the years and I have enjoyed many a morning at Ditcheat.
Mary and William Haggas on Warren Hill
It is always difficult to select a favourite but for me it would be Posh Trish. She won five races out of 12 runs over three years before sustaining an injury and going to Brian O'Rourke's yard to recover. I went to see her as often as possible and one day Brian said she had started kicking the stable door. He realised that only did that when she heard my car turn into the road down to the yard. She would be very upset if I stopped to talk to another horse on my way to her and start kicking again. She has been a great brood mare, having been bought back by her breeder in Ireland and I hope to see her again one day.
Mary and Posh Trish
Highclere Thoroughbred Racing have been a fantastic partner in all this. They keep us all well informed on what is happening with our horses, arrange regular stable visits which are great for getting to know your horse and seem to come up with tickets for the races. Boxes at Newbury and some other big meetings are a major plus as are the other visits to studs etc. A visit to the Taittinger vineyard in Kent was a definite winner!