We are delighted to present an interview with David Redvers. David runs Tweenhills Farm and is the manager of Qatar Racing..
Can you tell us a little about Tweenhills?
Tweenhills is our old family farm in Gloucestershire. I was brought up here as a child and my grandmother ran a famous herd of Jersey cows and was one of the leading breeders of show ponies.
What is your role with Qatar Racing and Tweenhills?
Since its inception in 2010 I have been managing Qatar Racing and Sh Fahad and his brother’s breeding interests. Tweenhills is my farm and separate to Qatar but I manage it and keep the majority of the Qatar breeding stock here. We also board mares and youngstock for other clients as well as ourselves.
Roaring Lion had a fantastic season, was it a tough decision to send him to stud or was there a chance he could have raced for another season?
When it became obvious that he didn’t stay 12f and that he was the best around it made sense to retire him as he had nothing left to prove. If he had remained in training for another year he would have had to run in exactly the same races again and he was too valuable an asset for the breeding industry to risk.
Charm Spirit has been a successful Sire with his first crop of 2yo’s… Would you expect his offspring to improve for age?
He improved over a stone to win a hattrick of Gr1s at three. It has been a pleasant surprise to see him produce 28 two year old winners to date as he wasn’t that precocious himself. You’d have to say he has made a blinding start!
Lightning Spear had a fantastic career, was it an easier decision to retire him to stud than Roaring Lion?
I wanted to retire him last year as I’ve always thought he would make an awesome stallion, but Sh Fahad was determined that he would win one this year. I was very happy to be proven wrong!
What will you be looking for in a broodmare when breeding with your stallions?
In the ideal world mares that have won stakes races or produced stakes winners but primarily a bit of speed. Our horses are proper sound tough racehorses that stood a great deal of racing and should all upgrade their mares.
When you buy young horses, is it always with one eye on their stallion credentials?
Not really initially as we were originally looking to buy horses to run and give Sh Fahad and his brothers some fun at the races. Now that we are breeding more to race we are getting very choosy about what we buy and I certainly wouldn’t buy a yearling unless I believed he had the right credentials to make a proper stallion if he had the form.
Likewise when I buy a yearling filly I am always looking at their pedigree and residual value as a broodmare.
Can you give our readers a horse or two to follow from Qatar racing for the future?
I absolutely love SPARKLE ROLL who is a high class beautifully bred daughter of Kingman with John Gosden. She looked different class when winning her maiden, is half-sister to Wings of Eagles and is big and scopey. She could be anything.
We would like to wish David and his family all the best for the future and a big thank you for taking the time to do this for us….
Interview by Rich Williams
Pictures via David Redvers( Twitter Profile) & File
arseonlineracing 