The late Dr Edmund Bateman was a visionary, who very much applied his tremendous business success into his approach towards horse racing. After racing Group 1 winning sprinter Foxwedge with his wife Belinda, he was very keen to ensure that his stallion got every chance in the Northern Hemisphere, where he stood three seasons at Whitsbury Manor Stud.
Edmund and Belinda travelled over to England in 2013 on a trip to view Foxwedge at Whitsbury Manor, taking in a visit to Royal Ascot. While in England we had many discussions about how to go about supporting Foxwedge in the Northern Hemisphere in the most effective way, and a plan was hatched to purchase some Foxwedge foals at the sales and send them out of the harsh European winter to continue their growth and development in the warm Florida climate. Wesley Ward was identified as an obvious choice to train the horses given his exceptional record at Royal Ascot – he had sent No Nay Never to run out a hugely impressive winner of the Group 2 Norfolk Stakes in the year of our visit.
As part of this mission Hubie de Burgh put in the hard yards, travelling the length of Ireland and England inspecting all of the Foxwedge foals, and three foals at the Tattersalls Foal Sale were identified as good candidates for the project. The first of those through the ring was lot 294, a colt out of Celestial Empire, and he was secured for 40,000 guineas. Comparing Foxwedge’s sales averages that year is an interesting insight into the opportunities that the increasingly international nature of the thoroughbred industry can offer. His first-crop weanlings in Australia averaged very close to $150,000, while in Europe this figure was the equivalent of $46,000.
The three colts were then sent straight to Wesley’s farm in Florida to grow and develop in the sunshine state. The hope that one of them may be able to add to Wesley’s fantastic record with juveniles at Royal Ascot became a much firmer possibility overnight as the colt out of Celestial Empire, now named Star Empire, made a spectacular debut in a $100,000 five furlong maiden at Belmont Park.
Sent off a well-fancied 8/5 shot after some impressive morning workouts, Star Empire duelled in the lead with Fuhrlong at a quick pace (22.23 seconds for the opening quarter mile), before sauntering clear in the straight to win eased down by six and a half lengths. He looks a colt with a very bright future, and with all things going to plan will head over to England later this month on the Royal Ascot trail, with the Group 2 Coventry Stakes firmly on the radar. Belinda Bateman is also a shareholder in star colt Vancouver who is targeting the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes, so fingers are crossed for hopefully a special week at the Royal racecourse.
Congratulations to Belinda Bateman for such an impressive win, and big thanks for an amazing job to the whole team.