Duncan Davidson

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A small snippet from The Times:

WE hear Persimmon founder Duncan Davidson has been forced to put more than 8,000 acres - almost a third of his Northumberland estate, Lilburn - up for sale in the hope of raising £30m. It’s no surprise that Davidson needs the cash as he has lost millions on his stake in the crumbling housebuilder. He may also have to part with some of his 15 racehorses and is even rumoured to be scaling back the lavish plans for his daughter Rose’s wedding in September. Some guests have apparently found themselves “disinvited”.

With Rose Davidson intending to set up as a trainer next year could this have any effect on her plans? I'm somewhat surprised he only has 15 horses in training too, I thought he had a fair few more.
 
He has several entered up in the Doncaster Sales - I counted at least eleven and I've only worked my way through around two thirds of the catalogue.
 
I thought 15 was conservative but I don't think they have as many as upwards of 50, even counting the unraced ones. Having a quick look it appears that they have around a dozen on the flat and around 25 over jumps, in training.
 
Only one of his horses I would like to get my hands on and thats Modicum for jumping.

On the flat he has a horse with Fanshawe called Secret Dancer, (shit thought it was a filly)
 
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I wonder when some of the irish property boys will start scaling back their racing interests and more importantly, their sponsorship!
 
Think his best chaser is the one with Jessie Harrington - Oscar Honey? - well probably now with Rose. He is the one that I would like to have.
 
Sheikh said:
I think much of their interest went to big Cities abroad before the sh1t hit the fan. They won't feel it.
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So why did Liam Caroll have to fire sell his stake in Aer Lingus. At least Sean Quinn could afford his €500m loss on Anglo shares. But there are a lot of people in a lot of trouble in Ireland. How can Barretts and Permisson nearly go to the wall, Minerva get taken over for a song and HBOS only raise 10% of its placement, yet Irish developers and banks seem to be immune. it is slightly off topic but it is only a matter of time i think before one or two of the big irish developers get in serious trouble and the banks will then feel it.

Irish racing is very exposed to property. Property developers like Ellier, ballymore etc etc sponsor a lot. And the banks sponsor a fair bit too. Funding for Irish racing from the government will begin to dry up and this, along with reduced spnsorship is going to prove very tough in ireland. Never again will we see a property developer beat JP for Fota Island's half sister.....for 350k!!
 
Focusing on the developers, I was aware that many of them where investing abroad during the rosie period. I'm not sure about other big business men but I would say most will/have consolidate/d their interests now. The people who sponsor races have made their money. I'm sure they won't be as flaithiulach as they where but that will mean the likes of you and me won't have to spend silly money for horses. :)
 
I'm not as convinced as you Sheikh. I think a lot of people are very exposed. The Irish thing over the last ten years has been to personally borrow to the gills and invest (high net work guys in the UK tend to invest equity only and shy away from personally borrowing large amounts). With falling values in UK, Spain etc a lot of people will be in the game for longer than they thought and if they cannot finance the shortfalls in interest payments etc they could be in trouble. Just look at Barretts and how quickly it can all go wrong if you are overexposed. And what is the first thing Davidson is doing.....shedding his discretionary spending and getting rid of any assets he doesnt need, like his horses. There are plenty of stories doing the rounds re the irish developers. You must remember, if 80% of your assets are in mature markets like Ireland, UK, Spain etc and 20% are in emerging markets such as CEE, then the 20% really need to have worked well for you over the last five years and you can't have borrowed against it.
 
I commented a few weeks back when Persimmon were laying of hundreds of staff in Yorkshire whether it would affect the Davidsons racing interests, it would be a bit insensitive after all if he carried on spending millions on horseflesh while making people redunant. I wonder how poor rose will manage without daddy's cash
 
These things happen in cycles,we've all been there before.What I think is different is the rampant fuel costs down to the demand.This is not going to go away with the emerging economies increasing demand for raw materials.I was at the recent Derby sale in Ireland and the figures were a wake up call.Returns for people who have kept stores were poor with a large percentage losing money on their original investment AND they had the expense and worry of keeping them for 2 years.Batten down the hatches we are in for a rough ride for the forseeable future.
 
We all need to get back on that horse and keep borrowing like fcuk, bigger cars, bigger houses, don't mind those bleedin greenies :D

Cantoris said:
I'm not as convinced as you Sheikh. I think a lot of people are very exposed. The Irish thing over the last ten years has been to personally borrow to the gills and invest (high net work guys in the UK tend to invest equity only and shy away from personally borrowing large amounts). With falling values in UK, Spain etc a lot of people will be in the game for longer than they thought and if they cannot finance the shortfalls in interest payments etc they could be in trouble. Just look at Barretts and how quickly it can all go wrong if you are overexposed. And what is the first thing Davidson is doing.....shedding his discretionary spending and getting rid of any assets he doesnt need, like his horses. There are plenty of stories doing the rounds re the irish developers. You must remember, if 80% of your assets are in mature markets like Ireland, UK, Spain etc and 20% are in emerging markets such as CEE, then the 20% really need to have worked well for you over the last five years and you can't have borrowed against it.
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I am not a doom and gloom merchant but there aren't too many positives out there that I can see.Has anyone got some good news?
 
I just finished laying my brick patio, all the bricks where irregular shapes so getting it even was fun.I also had to move a load of mass concrete before laying it, took me months... what a relief.....good news indeed :cool:

SARA H said:
I am not a doom and gloom merchant but there aren't too many positives out there that I can see.Has anyone got some good news?
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This is rather sad for Nicky Richards. With David Stevenson having massively reduced his string a couple of years ago (condemning Len Lungo to the "also rans" in the process) and now this, Richard's will struggle for numbers I imagine.

I guess the rule for trainers here is don't put all your eggs in one basket - Noel Meade and Willie Mullins are shining examples of trainers who have a good spread of owners so can cope with a loss or two.

Davidson has had 10 individual flat runners this term, and 25 individual NH runnners in Eng/Ire in 2007/8 - a total of 35 so still a large string in anyone's book.

20% of Nicky Richards' runs in 2007/8 came from this source.
 
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