With 71 winners at home and overseas, 2025 was another successful year at Saxon Gate. Three Group wins courtesy of Duty First, Tadej and Spartan Arrow and four Listed victories were the highlights.
Duty First’s Group 3 win in the Classic trial traditionally known as the Fred Darling Stakes at Newbury in April set the tone before Victorious Racing’s filly went on to finish fourth in the Irish 1,000 Guineas and second in a Group 3 in Germany in September.
The Jinky Farms-owned Tadej flew the flag in the juvenile division by taking the Group 3 Prix de Cabourg at Deauville in August before the lightning-fast Spartan Arrow overcame a wide draw to win the Group 3 Mercury Stakes on the All-Weather at Dundalk in Ireland in October.
Hambleton Racing’s Spartan Arrow made his Listed breakthrough in the Prix Hampton at Chantilly in June after another one of our super sprinters Kylian landed a Listed prize at Baden-Baden in Germany earlier that month for international rider Adrie de Vries and owner Sheikh Hamed Dalmook Al Maktoum.
June also saw Salem Rashid Bin Ghadayer’s three-year-old Eternal Elixir win over a mile in Listed grade at the San Siro in Italy under stable jockey Hollie Doyle, who also partnered Duty First, Tadej and Spartan Arrow to their stakes successes.
Luke Morris, who was again an integral part of our team, added a Listed prize to our tally in Germany in October, guiding Wathnan Racing’s Shartash to a 7f win at Dusseldorf.
More than 60 domestic winners were headed by El Jefe’s Sioux Nation filly Sioux Perfect who became our top prize money earner in the UK by taking the £100,000 Tattersalls Somerville Auction Stakes at Newmarket in August.
The year ended on a high for our new apprentice Harry Vigors, who won a Lingfield Park handicap on Me Tarzan on only his second ride in public. Bought for 27,000 gns out of James Fanshawe’s yard at the October sales, the gelding was given a confident ride by Harry to score in a photo-finish.
On the same card, Blue Nguru initiated a double under Luke by getting off the mark in a five-furlong novice stakes for Sheikh Juma Dalmook Al Maktoum. The daughter of Blue Point won by a hard-fought neck.
But it was Hollie who rode our last winner of the year and her first since returning from a winter spell in Hong Kong when she dominated a seven-furlong nursery on Victorious Forever’s Dagger Strike, who was making his handicap debut at Newcastle on 29th December following a gelding operation.
By Simon Mapletoft
