Henrietta Egan spent five years as a valued member of the Darley nominations team, during which time she happened to arrange one of the most momentous coverings by a Darley stallion in the long, storied history of the operation.
It was the winter of 2005 when she took a phone call from the late John Clarke telling her that his client Mrs Tsui had been so taken with the preceding year’s superstar three-year-old filly Ouija Board that she would like to send her Arc winner Urban Sea to Ouija Board’s young sire Cape Cross.
“It was February by then and Cape Cross was so popular that his book had closed back in December,” says Egan. “I phoned management and told them and they said, without any hesitation, organise the contract and get it done!”
Thus, Egan played a small but important role in the breeding of exceptional World Champion Sea The Stars. “It was just a privilege to help facilitate it,” she says.
Egan left Darley in 2007, after assisting many other breeders in choosing the right sire for their mares, and set up her own agency. She married David Egan, of Corduff Stud, in 2015 and received from her new husband a wedding present in the shape of a mare whose mating she had planned.
Island Remede was bred by Ian Quy, who Egan did work for, and was trained by Ed Dunlop when she rode out for him. She’d won a Newmarket handicap and ran second in the G3 St Simon Stakes and Listed Further Flight, before being bought by the Egans for 43,000gns and moved to David’s old pal Henry de Bromhead.
“We had grand plans to win the Mares’ Hurdle at Cheltenham with her,” recalls Egan. “But she didn’t like jumping very much so we put a line through that idea.
“When it came to her retirement, I phoned Gerry Duffy at Kildangan Stud and asked if he’d do a foal share to Teofilo. He kindly agreed, so we got the contract signed and she went in-foal on the second cover. The result was the most beautiful colt who we sold at Book 2 for an enormous amount of money, 260,000gns, which was split equally with Darley. He went off to William Haggas for Sheikh Hamdan. Sadly, Sheikh Hamdan died in the following March and so he went back to the sales.
“William bought him, he was renamed Post Impressionist, and he became a high-class handicapper and then went to Australia and won a G3 at Rosehill on Golden Slipper day this year. That horse has taken me on the coolest journey!
“When I was with Darley, Sam Bullard sent us all to Australia to see the two new farms and meet the team there,” says Egan. “It was just the most amazing trip, and the icing on the cake was being flown to Melbourne, where we saw Makybe Diva win her last Melbourne Cup.
“Hopefully, that might not be my last trip to Flemington! If Post Impressionist ever runs in the Melbourne Cup, I’ll leap on a plane and cheer him on!” Island Remede’s second and third foals, Whity and Cabrera, are both winners, too, and the mare has a filly foal by Cracksman who will likely be retained to race by Egan in order to preserve this special family.
It’s almost Darley’s own Cinderella story: the nominations executive who helped other breeders make their dreams come true, now picking the best sires at Dalham Hall and Kildangan studs for her own Group winner-producing mare.
