Owner : Denholm Park Racing
Pedigree
Indian RidgeDefinite Article
Summer Fashion
Night Comes In (IRE)
2012 bay/brown gelding
Desse Zenny
Couture Daisy
Couture d'Argent
The family
Much like the sire of this gelding, the dam Couture Daisy ran 5
times on the flat in Ireland, exclusively at The Curragh, although
with singular lack of success. The switch to hurdles brought about
improvement though, where she won a hurdle and was placed twice.
Couture Daisy is a half sister to the unraced Couture Rose, who
is the dam of several winners, the best of whom is the Grand
Steeplechase de Paris winner Remember Rose, a winner of 4 Grade 1
chases in France. Grand dam Couture d'Argent (a winner on the
level in France) has bred 4 individual winners in total, and is a
half sister to 6 winners in France.
So, a family packed full of winners, and most recently Couture
Daisy has tasted success as a broodmare with Tullyesker Hill (by
Shantou) a winner of a bumper and 3 hurdles for David Pipe. Year
older to our gelding, full sister Boomtown Knat finished runner up on debut in a
Point-to-Point in January '17.
In 2016, Couture Daisy produced a filly foal, and another filly in
2017 both by Shantou and then was
covered again by Shantou that same year.
About the sire
Definite Article (bay horse, born 1992) won in each of 3 consecutive seasons he raced, and was unbeaten as a 2 yr old. He was trained by the Irish maestro Dermot Weld at The Curragh. He won 5 races, including the National Stakes at 2, and Tattersalls Gold Cup at 4 with probably his career best being when short-headed by Winged Love in the Irish Derby. He did like his home track (The Curragh) which stages these races!
He was retired to stud in 1997, and stood at Morristown Latin Stud until retiring in 2012. His first crop included a horse better than himself in Vinnie Roe (also a successful jumps sire), a multiple winner on the Flat including 4 Irish St. Legers. Throughout, Definite Article has produced a host of class flat runners and his stock generally improve with age.
Over the jumps, Definite Article has had equal success with his progeny, the best of whom are Graded winners such as The Real Article, Black Jack Blues, the progressive Definitely Red and Grade 1 winning hurdler Pingshou.
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You travel across the Irish Sea to an NH Store sale with over 800
catalogued horses, and end up bidding against you next door
neighbour for what turned out to be the 3rd top lot on the day.....
The 3rd day of the Tattersalls (IRE) August '15 NH Store sale, for
unraced and largely unbroken, 3 and 4 year olds had seen our
hand-picked team (!) from Dodlands Steading set about the paddocks,
catalogues in hand seeking that special horse, at the right price of
course. Donald and Callum in tandem, pretend bloodstock agent Al off
in his own world as usual, and Pinky & Mouse strategically placed
in the bar, just in case a parade of horses was diverted that way.
Callum viewed the
Definite Article lot
that he had enthused
about over breakfast, and he made a quick call to Kieron Edgar
(based at Pipe's) to receive encouraging words about the half
brother (Tullyesker Hill). The fine athletic, slightly
unfurnished, gelding certainly caught the eye with a flowing walk,
and although the 'reserve' was quite a sum (well, for us anyway),
confidence was high that a bid there or thereabouts would secure.
There were only 2 serious parties involved in the bidding, and we
succeeded with probably our last bid in a duel with (then) Bonchester Bridge based trainer George Bewley
and his leading owner Ian Gray (of martingrayracing). Nice men, just wish we'd compared notes
beforehand.
So, what has happened in the intervening period? In Autumn 2015 Night
Comes In was expertly educated by Tim Reed and spent several weeks
of the first half of that season learning the ropes of morning exercise, and what was
expected of him on the 'Up the Middle' gallop. He wasn't the
quickest learner during this spell, but after a couple of months
off during the worst of the winter weather in which he matured and
strengthened, 'Arthur' duly returned to morning exercise. And it was
during this second phase that the gelding started to show signs of
ability that his pedigree/physique hinted at.
Night Comes In made his bumper debut, finishing a close up 6th,
at Ayr in February '17, but it was his hurdle debut at Perth in April
a couple of months later
that sent our pulses racing. He may have only finished 5th (jumped
well), but the quality of the race has been well proven since with 5
or 6 significant performances by runners since. He shouldn't be too
long to come to hand, and will aim at staying novices' hurdles.
This exciting prospect has been leased to Denholm Park Racing for
the 2017-18 season.
| Season | win | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | other | |
| 2016-17 | NH Flat | 1 | ||||
| 2016-17 | Hurdles | 1 | ||||
| 2017-18 | Hurdles | 3 | ||||
| 2018-19 | Hurdles | 1 | ||||
