POSITIVE MOVES FOR BRITISH BREEDERS 

European Bloodstock News

By Alex Mair 

News that Mayson has returned to Britain to stand at Norton Grove Stud in Malton, in the same week that King Of Change was announced as a new recruit for Tweenhills in Gloucestershire, will be music to the ears of small breeders around the country. The arrival of two proven sires in a sensible price range promises to bolster an important part of the market. The recent sale of 2024 GB/Ire Champion First-Season Sire Sergei Prokofiev from Whitsbury Manor Stud back to Ballycroy Bloodstock in Canada underlined the challenges facing breeders seeking access to proven sires on a budget. His immediate predecessors as leading first-season sire, namely Blue Point, Havana Grey, Cotai Glory, Mehmas and Gutaifan, all either continued their ascent towards ‘premier sire’ status and are now out of reach for smaller outfits from a financial perspective or have since moved on to new pastures. Indeed, the fact that last year’s freshman champion, Tally-Ho Stud’s Starman, has quadrupled in price from €10,000 to €40,000 after a single crop highlights how quickly a stallion is judged, for better or worse, while the sale of impeccably-bred proven Gr.1 producer Ulysses to Italy reflects how difficult it is for lower to mid-range sires to maintain their buoyancy. With that in mind, the repatriation of his former Cheveley Park Stud colleague Mayson from Oak Lodge Stud in Ireland to Richard and Maggie Lingwood’s Norton Grove Stud is cause for optimism for British breeders. With the top-class sprinter Oxted leading his tally of 11 individual Stakes winners - among more than 30 black-type performers - the son of Invincible Spirit looks a cracking option for 2026 at just £3,500. A homebred by owner David Armstrong at Highfield Farm, Mayson spent his entire racing career in Malton with Richard Fahey and demonstrated high-class form over three seasons. A dual winner and Listed-placed during his juvenile season, he was Listed-placed a couple more times as a three-year-old before climbing to the top of the sprinting tree at four. He won the Listed (then) Abernant Stakes over 6f in April 2012 by three and a half lengths and doubled up with a battling win over 5f in the Gr.3 Palace House Stakes the following month. Having gained those two wins on the Rowley Mile, he switched to the July Course to produce his signature performance in the 6f Gr.1 July Cup, racing prominently and forging clear in testing conditions to win by five lengths from a field that included Gr.1 winners Society Rock (Rock Of Gibraltar), Ortensia (Testa Rossa) and Sepoy (Elusive Quality). He ran only once more, finishing an excellent second in the Gr.1 Prix de l’Abbaye at Longchamp. Installed at Cheveley Park Stud in time for the 2013 breeding campaign at a covering fee of £8,000, Mayson would go on to spend 11 seasons on their roster in Newmarket and would advertise his worth to breeders time and again. His maiden crop in 2016 was headed by Ed Dunlop’s classy sprinting two-year-old Global Applause, who won the Listed National Stakes at Sandown and was placed at Gr.2 level (he would also win a Listed contest for Robert Cowell later in his career). During the same season, Mayson’s former trainer Richard Fahey sent out Private Matter to win the Listed Prix Zeddaan in France in the Cheveley Park Stud silks, and the Andrew Balding trained Rosie Briar to win the Listed Doncaster Stakes. His second crop featured a trio of Listed winners sourced for 45,000gns or less, namely Dance Diva, Laugh A Minute and Raydiance, while his standout performer Oxted emerged from his third batch of foals. Gelded before his debut and just once-raced at two, the Roger Teal-trained Oxted made rapid strides through the ranks as a three-year-old, culminating in a win in the Portland Handicap at Doncaster. He proved even better at four in a truncated but brilliant campaign, emulating his sire by winning the Abernant Stakes (by then a Gr.3) and July Cup, and then overcame significant injuries to add the Gr.1 King’s Stand Stakes (now known as the King Charles III Stakes) to his CV at Royal Ascot as a five-year-old. Although Oxted has gained the lion’s share of the headlines for Mayson, there have been plenty of other high points in recent seasons despite his exit from Cheveley Park. The David Evans trained Rohaan was another reliable operator for the sire, winning the Gr.2 Sandy Lane Stakes and Gr.3 Pavilion Stakes in 2021 and the Gr.3 Bengough Stakes in 2022, as well as capturing back-to-back renewals of the Wokingham at Royal Ascot and taking third in the Gr.1 Sprint Cup at Haydock. Honey Girl was a classy sort for Joseph O’Brien when trained in Ireland, notably winning the Gr.3 EBF Athasi Stakes, while Oxted’s full-brother Chipstead and high-class Hong Kong runner Kurpany have also kept the sire’s name in lights. Although understandably best known as a sire of sprinters, Mayson has had more than half a dozen black-type runners from 7f to a mile, and he has also enjoyed success at middle-distance and staying trips, most notably with the Listed-placed French performer Pouvoir Royal. Local breeders could well be rewarded if taking advantage of his reappearance on the British scene.