Excitement is growing at Bearstone Stud with less than 11 weeks left until the start of the British Flat turf season and the first foal from the farm's most notable graduate, Glass Slipper (GB), recently turned two.
The Dubawi (Ire) colt in question will be the third generation of this family, bred and raced by Terry and Margaret Holdcroft, who founded the company back in 1979. They bought the colt's great-grandmother, the winning Fairy King mare Ocean Grove (Ire), for around 20,000gns at Tattersalls in December 1996. Ocean Grove produced seven winners including Listed scorer and G3 Ballyogan Stakes runner-up Eastern Romance ( GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), while it was her very first foal, Night Gypsy (GB), a winning daughter of the former Bearstone stallion Mind Games (GB), who gave them Glass Slippers.
According to stud manager Mark Pennell, words cannot describe what Glass Slipper has given everyone involved at the Shropshire farm since then. Trained by Kevin Ryan, she won seven of her 21 career starts, notably three victories at the highest level in the 2019 Prix de l'Abbaye and the Flying Five Stakes and Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint the following year. She added two more Group 1 placings to her record in 2021 before returning home to Bearstone as the winner of around £1 million in total prize money, at the end of a high-profile sprinting career that has proved a success for those closest to her. it still feels like yesterday.
“She was a great standard-bearer for the stud during Covid and kept everyone’s head held high,” Pennell recalls. “You start breeding a mare like that and think, 'God, it's going to be three years before we have one on the racetrack.' And the next thing that happens is everything happens so quickly.”
Certainly the debut appearance of Glass Slipper's first foal should only be a few months away, especially since the Dubawi colt is said to be a true two-year-old type. He was bought back by his breeders for 380,000gns in the first book of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale and has since been trained by Kevin Ryan, who so expertly guided the dam's career.
“We are very content with him,” says Pennell. “Kevin is pretty confident he’ll be two years antique. He's definitely built that way – he's miniature and maybe a little miniature, but he's strengthened and grown since he came back from the sale. Kevin said he was now more than statuesque enough and content with his performance. It’s early for him to tell us anything, but he’s done everything we’ve asked of him.”
Glass Slipper also continues to do everything asked of her, making life easier for the team at Bearstone and offering much more to look forward to in the years to come.
“She is such an easy-going mare, an absolute dream,” adds Pennell. “She has a Frankel stallion now, a very nice yearling. We are very content with it and it will go on sale next October. She is currently pregnant with Havana Gray and has signed up for the trip to Blue Point this year – these are electrifying times.”
The European Championship strike at @keenelandracing – Glass Slipper wins the @BreedersCup Turf Sprint for @kevinryanracing and @tomeaveswigan! #BC20 pic.twitter.com/LGmgy27lBw
– At The Races (@AtTheRaces) November 7, 2020
This next chapter in Glass Slipper's life is far from the only source of excitement for their connections in these early days of 2025. It's also a substantial year for her father, five-time Group 1 winner Dream Ahead, who The Bearstone stallion is in line for the 2022 breeding season after stints at Ballylinch Stud in Ireland and Haras de Grandcamp in France.
Dream Ahead is the sire of four individual Group 1 winners including Al Wukair (Ire), Donjuan Triumphant (Ire) and Dream Of Dreams (Ire) as well as Glass Slipper on this list. Dream Ahead reportedly covered over 100 mares in his first season at Bearstone and left Pennell is excited to see what the first British-bred youngsters can do when they take to the racetrack in 2025.
He continues: “In a way it’s almost like having a modern father for the first season. He disappeared to France and had many lasting mares sent there. If you look at all of his best horses, they all came from sprinting mares. We really supported him with all of our top sprint mares and we had some really nice yearlings. We retained about half a dozen of the nicest players we were able to train with players like Tim Easterby and Kevin Ryan.
“We had a very nice filly that we sold at Doncaster and she made £60,000. The fillies actually sold better than the stallions. For what reason I don't know because he had three Group 1 colts and one filly. Overall we were very content and I think it has a very commercial price [£6,500]–I think anyone who uses it this year will be doing themselves a favor.”
While Dream Ahead wasn't done much good last year, with only 29 mares heading his way, Pennell remains hopeful that the emergence of an outstanding teenage stallion this year could give the stallion a boost again.
“I think people are just a bit skeptical about going abroad and coming back,” he adds. “I don’t know if people are waiting to see what happens [with his first crop of British-bred runners]but he is a great outcross for many mares in this country and we have had some good breeders come back to him. She is the mother of Dream Of Dreams and has been so twice.
“We’ll see how he feels. I definitely think our sprint mares will suit him and I would be surprised if he doesn’t get some good horses from this year.”
Dream Ahead is one of three stallions in the Bearstone squad alongside G1 Dewhurst Stakes and G1 Lockinge Stakes winner Belardo (Irish) and G3 Phoenix Sprint Stakes hero Washington DC (Irish). Offered in 2025 at fees of £5,500 and £3,500 respectively, this pair offers reasonable value for money for growers operating at the lower end of the market in hard times.
“Belardo had a 50% winning rate over runners in 2024 and was the leading winning sire in Europe at under £15,000,” says Pennell. “He’s had 36 stakes winners and performers, so he hasn’t done anything wrong at all. Last year was also a serene year for him [when covering 19 mares] and we were honestly disappointed. I think they generally do average mileage and improve with three steps. So we expect another good season as he had a good number of runners last year.
“Washington DC has [the G3 Abernant Stakes winner] Washington Heights and Kevin is pretty sure he'll score a substantial win. He did exceptionally well from very diminutive mare books. He was a bit disappointing in his first and second seasons, but he seems to be hanging in there and holding his own. He always finds a few winners and his best yearling last year was 60,000gns, which is pretty good for a nomination fee of £3,500.”
He continues: “A lot of people have paid 10 or 15 grand for these studs and they're just not getting their money back.” That mid to low end market is absolutely down at the moment and I think people are a little more cautious with theirs this year expenses are. It's hard and we struggled a bit last year [at the sales]– it was difficult for everyone.”
A highlight of the last year for the team at Bearstone was watching the success on the racecourse of Bradsell (GB), a stallion bred and raised at the stud. His mother, Deborah O'Brien's Russian Punch (GB) (Archipenko), is one of around 30 boarders at Bearstone, where around 60 Holdcroft mares also live.
“He was great considering he also came back from a grave injury and still won two Group 1s,” says Pennell about the modern addition to the national stud. “We have actually acquired breeding rights from him and will also support him. We visited him and he didn't look like a horse that had just come out of training. He already looked like a stallion – he's a really solid man and a great looking horse. Hopefully he will produce them the same way.”
Where the next Glass Slipper or Bradsell will come from is anyone's guess, but Pennell is content to nominate a two-year-old in training with Richard Fahey as a horse who could give the ever-enthusiastic Holdcrofts something to shout about in 2025.
He added: “Terry is on the farm every day. He's also still busy with his day job, so he's still full of energy and it's amazing for his age how he just keeps going and achieves so much. Margaret enjoys seeing the foals, moving around and looking at everything. They track everything, absolutely everywhere. Margaret never misses an entry and keeps track of all our winners.
“I think we bred 67 winners from stud last year and we are around that 65-70 mark every year. We breed many winners and many of them come from our own sires that we represent. This year we have a particularly pretty Dream Ahead colt, Richard. This is a half brother of Washington Heights. He is a very, very pretty horse and we value him very much.”
