Romeo David and Fabulous Nicola still producing

Seventeen years on from having his first Swindon Produce stakes finalist with Fabulous Millie British breeder David Firmager went into this year’s competition holding a strong hand headed by litter brothers and Cat I winners Romeo Crusade and Romeo Cypher, plus another comrade in Romeo Crossfire.

Fabulous Azurra with her first litter born earlier this month

Throw in Romeo Jackson and you can see the strength that the Leicestershire based breeder has in a competition with a long and distinguished tradition.
Having won the Produce Stakes three times: Romeo Expert (2009) Romeo Metro (2011) and Fabulous Expert (2015) plus a string of finalists, Dave considers it a ‘lucky competition’ for the kennel and one that he likes to support with multiple entries.
Ironically, it was one of his beaten finalists, Romeo Recruit, who went on to make the biggest impact in the breeding paddocks.

Romeo Recruit finished second in the 2012 Swindon final went on to win the Nottingham Produce Stakes. Overall, he reached ten major finals and eventually went to Stud with Sean and Micheal Dunphy at the Droopys Kennels.

Although Firmager would be the first to admit that Romeo Recruit himself didn’t sire one quite as good as himself – albeit Tenpin might have got there but for injury – Dave takes particular satisfaction in his emergence as a sire of some wonderful broods.

And there were few better than his own brood Fabulous Artist, the mum of his brilliant dam littermates Romeo Magico and Fabulous Azurra.

Trained by Patrick Janssens, the blue Azurra won two British Bred Derbys, and a third Category One final in the Empress Stakes. The Cat 2 wins included two British Bred Oaks, and success in the Shelbourne Winter Festival.

Other Recruit daughters include Antigua Romero’s sister Kilara Jessie (dam of Quarteira), Droopys Alice (dam of Juvenile Classic winner Slick Sentinel and Irish Sprint Cup winner/Dundalk 400 yard record holder Broadstrand Syd).

Another of his daughters, Bull Run Byte won an English Oaks and has since thrown the likes of Rioja Bungle and Singalong Stacey.
Meanwhile Azurra’s brother, Romeo Magico is at stud with Graham and Nicky Holland,
just outside Golden in Tipperary.

The Holland and Firmager families have become good friends over time with Graham and Nicky making the Melton Mowbray base for their UK raids.

“They are building an elite team of stud dogs which currently includes three Derby winners and one of Droopys Sydney’s fastest sons in the shape of Swords Rex. They are also the nicest people to work with” Dave adds.
When asked what pups he has coming through Dave is particularly sweet on a litter of four dogs and a bitch by Romeo Magico out of Fabulous Mila
Then there are pups by, Dorotas Wildcat, Ballymac Bolger, Ballymac Cashout, Romeo Recruit  and three top Aussie sires: Shima Shine, Aston Rupee and Hooked on Scotch.
The most recent arrivals are ‘two of each’ by Australian Superstar Aston Rupee out of Fabulous Azzura.

 

Owner/breeder DAVE FIRMAGER and his wife Nicola Photo: © Steve Nash

Anybody who has studied ‘Firmager’ bloodlines, will have noticed a wide diversity of sources.

He initially brought into Pat Dalton’s brilliant Maythorn Pride bloodlines through Fast March who turned out to be an exceptional brood.

She was the grand dam of all three Produce winners. Romeo Expert and Romeo Metro were out of Fabulous March (Spiral Nikita-Fast March). Fabulous Expert was a daughter of Fabulous Quest (Premier County-Fast March).

It was a highly fruitful line for the Firmagers but was in danger of disappearing when Dave had a brief spell away from breeding and dispersed his brood bitches, including Fabulous Artist (a great grand daughter of Fast March) who was brought by Frank Wright.

Dave said: “Artist was taken back after injury but upon collection from one of the nicest men I’ve meet the (now deceased) Frank Wright asked if I’d be interested in Buckos Lass, a Group 1 winning daughter of Kinloch Brae, as it happens I was and she’s bred me some nice racers.”

Nice indeed, ‘Romeos’ Hotshot, Mission, De Niro and Kingpin to name but three.

As for Fabulous Artist, she only produced the one litter, the one that featured a Derby winner and his brilliant litter sister.

On another occasion, Dave was keen to buy some Fernando Bale semen discovered it had all been sold. Determined to secure the line, he bought a bitch from Liam Dowling’s Ballymac dam line.

That was Drive On Betsy who in turn produced a dog who almost captured a second English Derby, Romeo Command.

Dave Firmager is not one to broadcast his views on breeding – or anything. But when pushed, he does reveal some of his inner thoughts:

On feeding – “Feeding puppies is like feeding your kids, give them the best and watch them grow! You’ll only get it out if you put it which is also the case for the dam.”
On bloodlines: “I am breeding with several proven dam lines. You must diversify or you breed yourself into a corner”
On brood bitches: “There are two types of bitches; those who perform well on a track and those that breed well in the barn.

“However, there is of course a third type of bitch, the elite ones that are superior in both departments. These are the ultimate and from a breeding perspective add unreasonable justification to the ‘only breed from the best performed bitches’ thought process”

 

Dave and wife Nicola expect to breed “roughly six to eight litters per year, depending on when they come into season” which would suggest that this won’t be their last skirmish in a Produce Stakes

Their 2023 crop includes a couple of Magico litters out of Fabulous Bella and Fabulous Mila, the dam of the fastest sprinter at Shelbourne Park this year (18.41), Romeo Taylor (by Newinn Taylor).

Mila also has a (Feb ’13) Fernando Bale litter which includes one dog in particular “that Graham Holland thinks a lot of”.

There are also some Ballymac Bolger/Fabulous Lynx, Dorotas Wildcat/Fabulous Spirit, Magical Bale/Fabulous Skylar and Magical Bale/Fabulous Demand pups to come through.

They continue to produce top class offspring on both sides of the Irish Sea having within the last month won the Kasco Stakes with Romeo Control (Romeo Recruit-Fabulous Verona).

Dave said: “It is a lot of fun and we enjoy it. Sometimes people will say, ‘do you enjoy taking on the Irish?’ I don’t actually like the expression. It sounds a bit too combative.

“But I do like to compete with the Irish. Absolutely. I love it.”

On the subject of British bred Magical Bale litters – the sire of Romeo Magico and Fabulous Azurra – few will attract more interest than the Queen Beyonce litter who are currently qualifying at Central Park.

The Tuesday trial sheet shows ‘King’ brothers Richie, Pavarotti and Jackson clocking 17.13, 17.12 and 16.74 respectively.

It was only their second time in traps and they found (calculated) 40, 19 and 59 spots respectively on their first trials.

By means of comparison, the kennel’s five-time Category One finalist Queen Dusty recorded the fastest time of the day, 16.61.

All of which makes the 17.05 solo of their sister Queen Cilla even more noteworthy.

“That was her first time in the boxes”, said Rab McNair, “she’s going to be something special.”

Continuing on the subject of British/Hutton breeding, Signet Ace has made a fabulous start to his stud career with 20 month old Jaykay Desire clocking 28.78 (-10) on debut at Kilkenny. Desire is from Ace’s first Irish litter.