Funny how fortunes can turn on a pinhead; how a seemingly innocuous incident can change the course of history. So it was when budding breeders Nicholas and Jane Forman Hardy attended the Keeneland November Sale of 1995 with agent Alex Scrope.
“We scoured the grounds for three days,” recalls Nicholas, “and we found Wiener Wald, who had the sort of characteristics we wanted and was well bred. So well bred, in fact, that we thought we didn’t stand much chance of getting her.”
They duly entered the auditorium as Hip 951 went under the hammer. “We were bidding quickly, which you have to do as they rattle through them like a cattle market there, when suddenly everything went quiet. We were up against a group of Japanese bidders and they stopped to have a conference. Of course, the auctioneer didn’t wait and knocked her down to us. We were as surprised as anyone!” Wiener Wald, by Woodman out of a high-class Northern Dancer three-parts sister to G1 scorer and emerging sire Storm Cat, cost $210,000 and turned out to be the most fabulous matriarch for their Car Colston Hall Stud in Nottinghamshire.
“It was so lucky! If the bidding had got going again, we wouldn’t have ended up with her.”
Lucky indeed. Wiener Wald produced nine winners herself, including G1 Racing Post Trophy hero Crowded House, Listed winner On Reflection and Stakes performers Forest Crown, Riotous Applause and Wiener Valkyrie, now a precious broodmare daughter of late Kildangan Stud breed-shaper Shamardal.
Argent Du Bois, Wiener Wald’s first foal, bred seven winners for Car Colston Hall Stud including G1 winners Brando and Ticker Tape. Another of her offspring, the Listed-placed Sant Elena, became the dam of top-class two-year-old Reckless Abandon.
Forest Crown has produced five Black Type horses for the Forman Hardys, including the high-class Forest Of Dean and State Occasion, full-siblings by Darley mainstay Iffraaj, as well as this year’s Royal Ascot scorer English Oak by Iffraaj’s son Wootton Bassett.
Wiener Wald’s final female offspring, Fair Daughter, is now also emerging as a blue hen, thanks to the productive relationship she has forged with Dalham Hall Stud sire Farhh.
Tribalist struck at the highest level in the Prix du Moulin this year and has won a hatful of other Group races for Godolphin, while full-sister Fair Point has won a valuable Ascot handicap and finished second in the Listed Rosemary Stakes for the Forman Hardys’ Eclipse Partnership.
That is only scratching the surface of Wiener Wald’s achievements. It’s hard to keep count of the Stakes horses descended from her, but it’s not shy of 40.
“She really was the most reliable mare,” says Nicholas. “She never gave us any problems, she wasn’t temperamental at all and she was relatively easy to get in foal. Her stock generally stayed seven furlongs to a mile and a quarter, maybe just a mile and a half, which was just what we wanted. We weren’t particularly interested in five-or six-furlong sprinters.
“We have nine or 10 mares now, and they’re nearly all descended from Wiener Wald, who died this year at the grand old age of 32,” says Nicholas.
“It’s been a great journey. When you start out in this game you think it’s easy, everything will turn out great, but of course it doesn’t work out like that. So to have Wiener Wald’s bloodlines still getting G1 winners after all these years is wonderful.”
And to think that Car Colston Hall Stud and European racing only got to enjoy this exceptionally prolific family because the Forman Hardys’ rivals for her at Keeneland 30 years ago unwisely decided to have a conflab in the middle of a quick-fire Kentucky auction.
