As a way to give you further insight into life on a stud, and what you can expect to see during our National Stud Tours we’re excited to be running our Follow A Foal feature again this year.
The aim of this ongoing series of blogs is to take you on a journey through the day to day life on the Stud for a newly born foal, alongside the work that goes into producing the next generation of performers on the racecourse. It’s a process that involves a great deal of planning, time, energy and commitment to get a horse to negotiate the world from conception, to the formative first year of it;s life, preparation for the foal or yearling sales, plus the big day and then waiting to see the end result when a horse makes its debut at the racecourse. There’s an element of luck needed at times as well.
Now on to this year’s Mare and the impending birth of this year’s Foal.
The pictures above demonstrate a healthy, heavily pregnant mare who at 10 months into her gestation period is just about ready to foal down and it is expected that Imperialistic will be ready in the coming weeks with an arrival date earmarked for the end of March. Everyone waits in anticipation and for the signs that she is ready for it all to happen.
A five time winner herself, IMPERIALISTIC covered from six furlongs up to a mile during her time under the watchful eye of trainer Karl Burke. A winner in just her second start as a two-year-old, Imperialistic, would eventually earn herself some coveted black type in the Listed Pipalong Stakes at Pontefract.
She is the dam of four winners from seven foals of racing age and one of her best performing progeny was Electralane who prevailed in the German 1,000 Guineas (Gr 2) and she is also the grand dam of Queen of Bermuda who won a Group 3 at Ayr, a listed race at Deauville and was fourth in the Breeders Cup Juvenile Sprint at Churchhill Downs towards the end of last year.
A tryst with Time Test, the smashing son of Dubawi who calls the National Stud home, has resulted in this year’s expected foal and the plan is for the daughter of Imperial Ballet to have another date in the covering shed with the same stallion again this year.
This blog series will follow the final stages of Imperialistic’s pregnancy, the early weeks of the new foal’s life and more so stay tuned. We’ll also be sharing some interesting content on our social media channels so make sure you’re following us. We’re on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Just click on each platform to go through to our pages and feel free to give us a follow, likes and shares.
Our Tours of The National Stud are a great opportunity to see the inner workings on the only commercial property of its kind open to the public in the UK. It’s an exciting chance to see the work on the Stud on a daily basis, visit the impressive band of Stallions residing here and spend some time with the mares and foals.
Tours run on the following days and times:
Wednesday, Thursday Friday at 11am
To secure your places on a National Stud Tour, click here to book.
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