The Coolmore team has been floating the idea for a few years now that Galileo (Ire) might be an even better sire than their 14-time British and Irish champion sire, Sadler's Wells. It's hard to know precisely how to assess this, since during his reign Sadler's Wells averaged around 100 foals per crop, significantly higher [...]

Next Monday, July 10, kicks off the Northern Hemisphere summer sale season. The first yearling sale will actually get underway at the Northern Horse Park in Hokkaido, Japan, where 247 yearlings, including 24 by Deep Impact (Jpn) and nine by King Kamehameha (Jpn), are catalogued for Monday, followed by 281 foals scheduled for Tuesday. Meanwhile, [...]

About Royal Ascot, you don't use the phrase “at the end of the day”; rather you have to say “at the end of the week”. It is the sustained level of top-level racing, 30 races over five days, which sets Royal Ascot apart as the world number one horseracing experience; well, I suppose I should [...]

After the first race at Royal Ascot Thursday, the five-furlong G2 Norfolk S. for 2-year-olds, Coolmore Ashford's late great Scat Daddy had already chalked up three winners in the first 13 races–one a day, so far. Two were for 3-year-old fillies for trainer Wesley Ward: Lady Aurelia, whose second 5-furlong Royal Ascot win came in [...]

New York racing is finally on the way back. When Martin Panza moved from defunct Hollywood Park to NYRA in 2014, one of his ambitions was to create 'event' cards and days, and, as Bill Finley wrote in Sunday's TDN (click here), even those of us who weren't there could see it was a great [...]

In the world of what we designate “second-crop” sires (meaning their second crop has reached racing age as 2-year-olds, and their first crop are 3-year-olds), there is nothing more important than Classic form. It's not just the prestige and enhanced future value in the breeding shed, it's the money, too, because invariably the second-crop sire [...]

According to the TDN Sales Statistics tables (click here), five North American sires have averaged over $340,000 at the 2-year-old in training sales this year. The top two are the same two sires which topped the $600,000 mark in 2016 yearling average: Claiborne's War Front, who had two 2-year-old colts average $512,500, and Gainesway's three-time [...]

WinStar's Bodemeister is the sire of Always Dreaming, winner of the GI Kentucky Derby, which was worth almost $2.4 million, and is now the leading North American second-crop sire, both by 2017 progeny earnings (click here), and by cumulative progeny earnings for North American second-crop sires (click here). One Triple Crown race, one win by [...]

American Anthem's win in last Saturday's GIII Lazaro Barrera S. at seven furlongs, having cut back from two-turn GI Kentucky Derby preps, marked an important milestone for WinStar's newly minted Leading Second-Crop Sire, Bodemeister, in that he became his sire's second graded stakes winner (GSW) (click here). Bodemeister has always scored high among this group [...]

The first thing we have to say about last Saturday's GI Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands is that GI Xpressbet Florida Derby winner Always Dreaming, from the first crop by WinStar's Bodemeister, was the worthy winner. Johnny Velazquez had him in the perfect stalking position all the way around, went to the lead by [...]

So now we've arrived: this weekend sees the first four North American and European Classics of the season: the GI Kentucky Oaks on Friday, followed by the G1 English 2000 Guineas Saturday morning US time, the GI Kentucky Derby Saturday afternoon, and the G1 English 1000 Guineas on Sunday at Newmarket. The Kentucky Oaks is [...]

Three European second-crop sires–Juddmonte's Frankel (Galileo); Darley's Sepoy (Elusive Quality); and Coolmore's Excelebration (Exceed And Excel)–saw important black-type performances last weekend. Following Andrew Caulfield's illuminating discussion of Sepoy and another Darley sire, Helmet (also by Exceed and Excel), let's drill down a little bit and look at these sires in the context of the whole [...]