Christopher Thornton

by TAMURE out of MISS PETRONELLA by PETOSKI

It is a long story of fate and conicidence to tell you how this mare DANZATRICE arrived in our yard. A good few years ago I received a telephone call from Trevor Grice and his wife Yvonne who had the odd horse in training with me at the time. They told me that they had been to Doncaster Sales the day before and had bought a filly foal for 1000gns, would I be interested in training her when the time came for her to come in to training (silly question). On his own admission Trevor - who is a solicitor - would not be the worlds expert on horses, and I did not really know what to expect. Three years later this filly arrived in the yard, she was named NEW DAWN, she ran four times, winning once and finishing second twice. She proved a very good buy. Trevor decided to take her home as a winning filly and breed from her. He then decided to try and repeat the performance and went off to Doncaster and bought another filly foal for 1000gns. This one was named LUCINDI and actually ran as a two year old on the flat but was better as a three year old, although she did not manage to win she always ran really well and did finish second in a 10 grand race at Ayr. She was really genuine and improving all the time, and I was really looking forward to training her as a four year old. Suddenly out of the blue they announced that they were taking her to another trainer - that was the last we heard of her, she never ran again, aparently she died of some mystery virus (what a shame - she was a lovely filly)

In the meantime I was at DONCASTER SALES and noticed that there was a FULL BROTHER to LUCINDI in the sale. I loved that filly and liked the look of her full brother - so I bought him for 1400gns. Last of the big spenders. He was named LETS ROLL, we formed a syndicate and LETS ROLL proved to be a real bargain, he went on to win 6 races and was placed 28 times winning £107,000 in prize money, he was a real racehorse and a pleasure to have around. During his time in the yard I made a point of seeking out any more TAMURE horses that may be available. I contacted Geoffrey Gregson who had TAMURE as a stallion on his stud. and he said he had quite a number of yearlings on the stud by him, 'come down and have a look'. So we did, and we purchased a full sister to both LUCINDI and LETS ROLL, which was a yearling at the time, this was DANZATRICE.

TAMURE is a very good stallion - he was a very good racehorse, only beaten a neck in THE DERBY, he has an outstanding pedigree, being by SADLERS WELLS out of a very strong black type family. If he were to go into a sale ring today with the pedigree he has now as a yearling he would make well over a million. Unfortunately he has not been supported with the best of mares, but has done remarkably well from the limited opportunities he has had.

DANZATRICE arrived in my yard as a yearling. She ran as a two year old - running with promise. As a trainer I believe very strongly that you should start your horses in the lowest grade races you can get them in, and gradually let them work their way up the ladder if they prove good enough. Everyone would love to have winners and runners at the big tracks such as YORK or NEWMARKET, but to start them off on those tracks seems a bit ludicrous to me. DANZATRICE ran in three low grade races as a two year old and we looked forward with great anticipation to her three year old career. The year set out well with a good run in a handicap at Newcastle - she then ran badly at Chester (we must have been mad to run there). Then she seemed to get a problem. Out of the blue she started to hang very badly to the left in her work. We never really found out what was causing it - but at the time we thought she may have a small fracture in her pelvis. This dragged on for ages and she hardly ran as a three year old. This may have been a blessing in disguise.

The following season she did not start out too well, we even ran her in a selling race at RIPON - where she got her first place finishing third. Consequently she had come down to a very low rating of 43. She ran in a very moderate amateur riders handicap at Musselburgh (got left 10 lengths at the start) but made very strong progress to just get up and win. From that day she has not looked back, she has progressed every season and has now won seven races and been placed 26 times winning 45,000 in prize money. She has progressed to running at the better courses and has won prize money at YORK and NEWMARKET.

DANZATRICE has suffered a leg injury and it has been decided to retire her from racing. She is visiting GROUP winning stallion DESIDERATUM - lets hope she gets in foal

If it has not been for TREVOR GRICE buying those two foals I would NEVER have had LETS ROLL or DANZATRICE, I have a lot to thank him for. You need a lot of luck in this business.

If anyone reading this would like to come and see the horses at anytime, please just get in touch

Tel 01969-623350

Mob 07976-648965

e.mail christopher.thornton@talk21.com