Our partnership, and the experiences we have each enjoyed throughout our respective careers in the racing and breeding industries, mean Valentine Bloodstock is equipped with the extensive knowledge needed to unlock the potential of your thoroughbred investments.
Lizzie’s is a life spent devoted to the thoroughbred and equine world. A childhood riding ponies and competing in showjumping and eventing led to teenage years picking up valuable work experience with Henrietta Knight and Alan King. From there, jobs with other star trainers including Willie Mullins, Joseph O’Brien and Neil King followed.
All the while, Lizzie played a key role in the careers of a number of outstanding horses at her family’s yard. She was there from the start in the careers of her two Cheltenham Festival winners, Siruh Du Lac and Coo Star Sivola, as well as her two-time Grade 1 winner Tea For Two. Lizzie played a major role in the development of a number of other top names such as Aubusson, Reve De Sivola & Agrapart also.
Ed, meanwhile, took a different path. While not born into the racing world like his wife, being raised in Cheltenham brings with it exposure to the best that National Hunt has to offer and it was at Prestbury Park where a love of the horse began.
This led to jobs at Tweenhills and Watership Down Studs, where Ed underwent crash courses in horsemanship delivered by some of the very best in the business, including Terry Doherty, a Godolphin Stud & Stable Staff Employee of the Year award winner. He was taught how to do things properly when it came to the early stages of the lives of valuable thoroughbreds, principles he would go on to apply and develop during spells with Oakgrove Stud and then at the Williams’ Culverhill as Pupil Assistant, with leading Flat trainer Archie Watson as Head Lad and latterly at Pond House with the Pipe team.
This exposure to trainers at the very top of their games, combined with experience gained at world-class breeding operations, has equipped us to work as a team to ensure that Valentine Bloodstock is the ideal partner for those looking to source, develop or breed high-class horses.
When it comes to pre-training and breaking, we believe there is no substitute for time and that investing it intelligently in the early stages of a horse’s career delivers benefits throughout its life, on and off the track. We will never seek to put the bottom line first by getting as many horses as possible through our system; instead we will devote our attention to ensuring the horses we have with us receive outstanding preparation and leave us with the physical and mental attributes needed to succeed.
Those seeking to acquire youngstock or breeding stock at sales, put together their mating plans, or explore other opportunities within the bloodstock world, will find a similar meticulous and methodical approach to sourcing the very best available.
Lizzie’s experience of riding a number of the best horses in training, coupled with Ed’s many hours spent working with some of Europe’s most valuable breeding stock, means we know good horses when we see them and understand how best to nurture and unlock their talent.
Our outlook at Valentine Bloodstock is never about a horse’s first race, or its last race. Rather, it is to ensure that a horse is confident, capable, content and ready for whatever it may encounter throughout its career, ensuring the owner gets maximum value out of their purchase.