It was around this time of the season that William Muir first unveiled Pyledriver (Harbour Watch) to win a seven-furlong novice event at Salisbury. By the time he ended his career four years later, Pyledriver had won two Group 1s and amassed prize-money in excess of £2 million, so when the trainer says of this week's seven-furlong Salisbury maiden winner Breacher that “He's the best I've ever had”, it's worth paying attention. There are similarities, too, in the connections behind both horses in that Pyledriver raced for his breeders Roger Devlin and brothers Guy and Huw Leach after being bought back at the foal sales for 10,000gns. Breacher's owner-breeder Rob Haim opted to keep the son of Cracksman after finding it difficult to secure a yearling sales slot for him.“I'm a glass three-quarters empty person and Willie is a glass three-quarters, well, maybe more than three-quarters full,” says Haim of Muir's enthusiasm for the two-year-old colt he co-trains with Chris Grassick.“But essentially, he has been right from the beginning. He went down to the stud where I keep the mare, with Caroline Green and Jared Bernstein at Balsdon. He looked at him when he was a yearling and said that he was unbelievably beautiful. But because he's a Cracksman, and because the mare hasn't really produced anything, he didn't get in a sale, and I'm not blaming anyone for that. “Caroline said, 'Rob, you've got to keep this one,' and Willie said, 'Rob, this is a really amazing physical specimen.' Anyway, we kept him, and I'm glad the sales companies turned me down.”Haim also bred and raced Breacher's dam, the dual winner Callendula (Halling), having bought her dam Oatey (Master Willie) from the Barnett family as his first broodmare purchase. The mare was a half-sister to a smart pair in the Lingfield Derby Trial winner Munwar and Curragh Cup winner Hateel, both by Kalaglow, but it was another half-brother which had piqued Haim's interest.“I had a racehorse called Alpen Wolf. He was my favourite racehorse – born in 1995 and he only died this year. Willie Muir trained him and he'd been running around in his paddocks. He ran 93 times, won 11 races for 77,000 quid,” he says.“He was a bit of a quirky bugger. I've had shares in lots of horses, but this one was my favourite. Oatey was his half-sister and when I saw she was in at the sales I thought, 'Well, you know what, I wouldn't mind a stab at breeding as opposed to just racing.' She was in foal to Dr Fong at the time and that colt ended up being called Alternative and won the Spanish Guineas. “Then we got into Invincible Spirit before he took off and [the resultant filly] was called Spiritual Art. We sold her at Donny [St Leger Yearling Sale] for 130,000gns – I think she was a top-lot at Donny.”Callendula was one of the few kept by Haim, again on the advice of Caroline Green, and she went into training with Clive Cox, winning over a mile and a half at Bath and Brighton before being retained for breeding purposes“She did me proud on the racecourse and then I started breeding from her, but this is the first really big success,” Haim says. Breacher and Lewis Edmunds win at Salisbury | Racingfotos Breacher can't have failed to have gone into plenty of notebooks after his debut performance at Salisbury on Tuesday, in which he beat an odds-on Juddmonte homebred Squadron, by Cracksman's sire Frankel. The colt appears to have a bright future ahead of him but Haim is also well aware that the colt may now be the subject of offers from would-be buyers. “The first comment from the jockey was, 'Please don't sell this,'” he says. “I've had shares of winners since, but I think the last time my colours were in the winner's enclosure was on his mother.“Willie says that [Breacher] is very strong mentally and physically. And I sit there and wonder, when you look at the breeding, how does it happen, something like that? I guess anyone would say that's the beauty of breeding and racing, that you just don't know.”Having been born in the Middle East, London-based Haim first came to England to attend an American school. “I came here at the age of 14 and then stayed, and I'm retired now,” he says. “I've always loved racing and used to follow racing even back when I was in the Middle East, from the age of 10, but at that stage, I didn't know the difference between National Hunt or the Flat.“Then the first horse I ever owned, in partnership, was the best horse I've probably had. His name was Wild Honour. This was in Willie Muir's first year and we bought him for four grand at the breeze-ups. As a two-year-old, he ran about 20 times, he won five, and he was placed second six times. He never stopped running, and that's why I think the devil plays his part in this whole game, because I thought, 'God, this is really easy', and I have found out that it isn't.”Haim says that he has dabbled with sprint lines for Callendula, initially sending her to Starspangledbanner, but settled on Cracksman, who he used three times while he was still at Darley, having loved him as a racehorse. Cracksman joined the roster at Yorton Farm Stud for the 2026 season.“The pedigree is a real mix,” he says. “Alpen Wolf was an out-and-out sprinter. Okay, he was by Wolfhound, he was a sprinter. Oatey was by Master Willie, who ran in the St Leger, and she turned out to be a sprinter.“We sold Callendula's first foal by Starspangledbanner and she was trained by Richard Hannon, called Cirrus. The first time she ran, she finished second at Newmarket. And I thought, 'Woah, this is really good.' Then they ran her in the Queen Mary on the soft, and the whole family hated the soft, so she was right out the back.“Then I thought I would go the full distance, so I went to Cracksman. I loved the horse. He started well – he had the highest-rated horses in his first crop [Ace Impact].“I can't go to Frankel or the really top-notch ones but Cracksman was in a range I could just about justify for myself and I saw him at the Darley parade and loved him. I've got a full brother, a yearling who is a good-looking specimen. We might see what happens with Breacher and maybe go to the December Yearling Sale with him.”Haim owns a number of mares in partnership with his longstanding friend Jared Bernstein but Callendula remains a solo production. He says, “I just did it because of the family. I love the family. I loved Alpen Wolf.”Sometimes love is all you need. 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