Good Morning Bloodstock is an exclusive daily email sent by the Racing Post bloodstock team and published here as a free sample. On this occasion, Martin Stevens talks to the Westons about their record-breaking colt who sold at last week's Tattersalls Craven Sale – subscribers can get more great insight every Monday to Friday. All you need do is click on the link above, sign up and then read at your leisure each weekday morning from 7am. Attention, breeze-up consignors: next time you replenish your stock, take a close look at what industry stalwarts Max and Shelley Weston have on offer. A few years ago, when they worked at Childwickbury Stud, they selected a second-crop son of Havana Grey at the foal sales as a pinhook venture by the farm. He was sold as a yearling for 42,000gns to Roderic Kavanagh’s Glending Stables, which resold him for the joint-top price of 625,000gns to Stroud Coleman Bloodstock at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale in 2023. That colt was Vandeek, who won the Richmond Stakes, Prix Morny and Middle Park Stakes for Simon and Ed Crisford and KHK Racing, and is now standing his first season as a stallion at Cheveley Park Stud. The Westons repeated the trick with a fourth-crop son of Havana Grey at the Craven Breeze-Up Sale last week, but with a homebred who produced an even more spectacular result in the ring. The colt they bred out of the useful Showcasing mare Show Stealer and sold to Garry Brandt’s Harlequin Direct as a foal for 55,000gns made a record-breaking 1,750,000gns when resold by Malcolm Bastard to Amo Racing on Wednesday. The breeders could be forgiven for feeling a little resentful that other parties have made huge profits from horses they reared, but they are serenely magnanimous about their clients’ good fortune. It helps that they own the dam of last week’s sale-topper and plenty of his relatives. “We just feel privileged to have bred the colt, and beyond proud of him,” says Max Weston, who works full-time with Shelley at Denford Stud and keeps a handful of mares on rented land elsewhere. “It’s a big deal for us, as small hobby breeders going up against the big guns in this industry, and working around the clock with the horses. “We were lucky in that we had a break in foaling so we were able to shoot up to Newmarket and watch the sale. In fact, in one of the photos of the colt going around the ring that was used in a lot of the press, you’ll see us sitting in the seats with Dermot Farrington. Shelley is looking at me in total disbelief. “It gives us a lot of hope that the colt is going to go on and show a good deal of talent on the track for his new owners, which in turn will enhance the record of his dam and siblings. We’re absolutely delighted.” Weston – who cut his teeth at Overbury Stud and worked at Kirtlington Stud (where he met Shelley), Highclere Stud and Staffordstown before Childwickbury Stud and then Denford Stud – says that the Havana Grey colt out of Show Stealer was always a standout. “He was very popular at the foal sale at Tattersalls,” he reports. “Stuart Hall, who used to be stud groom at Overbury, showed him for us and his iPhone tracked that he’d walked ten miles doing showings in one day. The colt took it all in his stride, though. He never turned a hair; he was very professional. “We were actually lucky enough to have him come back to us after the sale, as Harlequin Direct kindly left him with us to rear him. Malcolm Bastard then took him to prepare him for the breeze-up sales. “Malcolm needs no introduction from me, everyone in the industry knows he’s a master of his craft, but he really did do a fantastic job with him. The colt clearly thrived on his work there, and Malcolm got him to the sale in absolutely A1 condition, looking a picture and just ticking over nicely for the breeze.” Malcolm Bastard sold the 1,750,000gns Havana Grey colt at Tattersalls Credit: Tattersalls/Laura Green There has been a fair bit of chat about the lack of black type on the colt’s page considering the seven-figure sum paid for him. It's impossible to deny that his pedigree is a little light, as there is only one stakes performer under his first three dams – and that’s Listed third Mantoba, back in the third generation. But it has probably been missed by many that his dam Show Stealer, also bred by Weston, was a really likeable racemare and regularly achieved the sorts of ratings required to earn black type. She scored in nine of her 40 starts for Rae Guest, including Class 2 handicaps at Newmarket (where she beat a certain Marsha into second), Windsor and Kempton. She also finished third, beaten half a length and a neck, behind subsequent dual Group 1 hero Oxted in the Portland Handicap at Doncaster. “Show Stealer was breezed by Paddy Twomey and he always rated her highly,” says Weston. “She liked to hear her hooves rattle, and needed good-to-firm to show her best, so it was no surprise that she won a few times at Bath, which is always so dry. Some of her collateral form suggested she was very talented indeed. “Rae Guest did a fabulous job with her. She won on her first two starts at two and ended up competing at a pretty high level for five consecutive seasons, which is no mean feat. She has the cleanest limbs, so all in all it was a real privilege to get her back at the end of her racing career. Show Stealer has a yearling filly by Sergei Prokofiev who is heading to the sales in the autumn – “she’s gorgeous, just with a little more size and scope than the Havana Grey colt, as you’d expect,” says Weston – and she is due to foal to Dragon Symbol this season. With Show Stealer being by Whitsbury Manor Stud stalwart Showcasing, and all her progeny being by Showcasing’s studmates, it doesn’t take Einstein to work out that the Westons have a good working relationship with the operation. “We’re long-standing clients now,” acknowledges Weston. “They’re very helpful to smaller breeders like us: they’ve supported us, and we’ve supported them. They always have time for you, and are willing to negotiate and make deals when they can. “Even if your mare has no black type or hasn’t produced a black-type horse, or she just doesn’t have the most glamorous pedigree, they treat you as if you could be the breeder of the next Group 1 winner – as any of us might be, I suppose. “That high level of customer service has been rewarded with a loyal client base. It helps that they have an excellent roster of stallions, of course.” Needless to say, Weston is a fully paid-up member of the Havana Grey fan club after uncovering Vandeek and breeding last week’s Craven sale-topper. In fact, he was enrolled long before many of the rest of us got our badges. “I’ve always loved Havana Grey,” he says. “I liked the fact that he had high-class form at two and three, and so I used him and supported him from day one. “In fact, Shelley and I bought Vandeek before he had his first runners. We were down in Highflyer at Park Paddocks and he walked past us and caught our eye. He was just really athletic, with a lot of presence and that little bit of X factor. We followed him through the ring and were lucky enough to get him. “We never expected Havana Grey to be quite this good, though. He’s turned out to be a freak of a sire. If I was having a stab at how it’s happened I’d say it’s the combination of the class of Galileo on the top half of his pedigree and the speed and toughness of Dark Angel on the bottom half. But who knows really?” Havana Grey stands at Whitsbury Manor Stud Credit: Whitsbury Manor Stud Show Stealer’s family has gone from rags to riches in just a few generations. While her son is worth 1,750,000gns, according to a few fiercely acquisitive bidders at Tattersalls last week, her dam Winifred Jo was bought for buttons. “When I was working at Kirtlington Stud we had a lovely Noverre yearling colt out of Coming Home, a daughter of Vettori and the Listed winner Bonne Etoile, to prep for the sales that year,” says Weston. “We really rated him, so I looked around to see if there were any mares related to him available to be bought, and I managed to find Winifred Jo, his half-sister by Bahamian Bounty, and bought her privately, out of the field, for £500. “The Noverre colt turned out to be Mantoba, who managed to get a little bit of black type, and then Winifred Jo started producing big, good-looking foals who sold well, so it was a good purchase all in all. “Winifred Jo produced lots of winners for us, six in total, before she died relatively young of Cushing’s disease and laminitis. Show Stealer was the best, but her half-brother Sir Maxi won twice at two and eight times in total, too.” The Westons really will be in clover if the Havana Grey colt out of Show Stealer lives up to his price-tag, as they also own Performance Poet, a placed daughter of Poet’s Voice and Winifred Jo. She has a two-year-old filly by Sergei Prokofiev who has been named Bosh Soldier and placed in training with George Boughey, and a yearling filly by Lope Y Fernandez who will head to the sales. Breeze-up consignors and pinhookers have been warned. Refer a friend! If you have a friend who would like to receive Good Morning Bloodstock please send the following link where they can sign up. What do you think? Share your thoughts with other Good Morning Bloodstock readers by emailing gmb@racingpost.com Don’t miss ANZ Bloodstock News for the latest bloodstock news from Australia, New Zealand and beyond. Must-read story “He's a horse we're going to enjoy this season, but the Derby is the main aim,” says James Owen as he lays out plans for the classy Wimbledon Hawkeye . Pedigree pick Modern Style is sure to be popular on debut in the ten-furlong novice stakes at Kempton today (2.20 ), being a well bred son of Frankel who cost 900,000gns as a yearling and hailing from the powerful Charlie Appleby stable, but his also unraced rival Spanish Train is another blueblood who could get the better of him. Trained by Paul and Oliver Cole, he is by Lope De Vega and out of the Group 3-winning Dalakhani mare Golden Valentine, making him a half-brother to Futurity Trophy hero Ancient Wisdom and Listed-placed Intricacy. The dam is a full-sister to Prix du Lys winner Goldwaki and half-sister to six black-type performers, including Santa Anita Grade 3 winner and Grade 1 runner-up Luck. Further back it is the family of the great Goldikova. Spanish Train was rather less expensive than Modern Style, but was hardly cheap and cheerful. He cost €170,000 from the Arqana October Yearling Sale and now represents Valmont and Ballylinch Stud. Good Morning Bloodstock is our unmissable email newsletter. Leading bloodstock journalist Martin Stevens provides his take and insight on the biggest stories every morning from Monday to Friday