Every year the freshman stallions face a desperate battle against time in their bid to make an impact before the yearling sales circuit gets fully under way in October. There are rich rewards for any which achieve that target, as was amply demonstrated last week. The quick-maturing No Nay Never, who was represented by his [...]

Pivotal, the grand old man of British breeding at the age of 25, has been surprising me–and many others–virtually from the moment this top-class five-furlong performer began his stallion career at Cheveley Park Stud back in 1997. Although Pivotal spent his third, fourth and fifth seasons at a fee of only £5,000, we have since [...]

The story goes that when the great Frankel arrived at Banstead Manor Stud towards the end of 2012, one of the stud's other top stallions, the champion 2-year-old and sprinter Oasis Dream, was so affronted by the media attention lavished on the newcomer that he sulked for a couple of days. So how must Uncle [...]

Bearing in mind that the roll of honour for the G1 Prix du Moulin de Longchamp features that great mare Miesque in 1987 and her first foal Kingmambo in 1993, we shouldn't be too surprised that the 2018 edition fell to Recoletos, a grandson of Kingmambo's brother Miesque's Son. There are aspects of the family [...]

As a lover of quality two-year-old racing, the action at around 3:30 last Saturday was something of a treat for me, with two wide-margin maiden race winners and 'TDN Rising Stars' proving similarly impressive when they stepped up to Group 3 company. Firstly, the Round Tower S. at The Curragh was taken in very dominant [...]

Although Storm Cat's superstar son Giant's Causeway spent only one season in Ireland, when he launched his stallion career at Coolmore at a fee of IR100,000gns, his efforts that year have left a substantial and hopefully long-lasting legacy in Europe. His impact was seen in three of last week's 2-year-old group winners. The link to [...]

I'm not sure exactly what a stallion needs to achieve to merit the title “sire of sires,” but surely the two-time champion sire Smart Strike already qualifies. We've seen his son Curlin do so well that his fee has risen to $150,000, with the escalation being fuelled by the Grade I successes of Exaggerator, Palace [...]

For any owner of a middle-distance mare, there is considerable temptation–especially in today's speed-obsessed industry–to try to inject some pace by sending her to a sprinter. The widespread hope is that this type of mating will produce a happy blend of the sire's speed and the mare's stamina, with the resultant foal shining at around [...]

How many times after a big race have we been reminded by a disappointed trainer that “horses are not machines”? The same applies to stallions. No matter how successful a stallion has been, we must accept that there is no guarantee that each of his crops will produce a similar quota of top performers. Even [...]

All good things must come to an end, it's said, and there can be no question that Dansili's stallion career, which ended earlier this year, was good. In fact it was very, very good, as can be seen from his current total of 130 black-type winners, which represents 9% of his output of 1,460 foals [...]

As the Oaks winner Forever Together led the seven runners into the final furlong at the Curragh three days ago, it looked as though Galileo was about to land his third Irish Oaks victory in the space of seven years. Although the filly kept on most gamely, she couldn't resist the late thrust by Sea [...]

At last week's unmissable stallion parade at Dalham Hall Stud, mention was made of the comparative youth of the Darley stallion team, with the stallions on show featuring such as Brazen Beau, Buratino, Charming Thought, Golden Horn, Night of Thunder, Postponed, Profitable, Ribchester, Slade Power, Territories and The Last Lion. However, youth was not integral [...]