Today's Edition

Canadian Horse of the Year Champs Elysees (GB) (Danehill--Hasili {Ire}, by Kahyasi {Ire}) died recently of a heart attack at Coolmore's Castlehyde Stud in Ireland, the Racing Post reported on Wednesday. The Juddmonte homebred was 15. Trained initially by Andre Fabre in France, the eventual three-time Grade I winner won the G3 Prix d'Hedouville at Longchamp in 2007, and was runner-up that same year in the G1 Gran Premio del Jockey Club in Italy from 11 European appearances. Transferred to Bobby Frankel Stateside, the son of Juddmonte's blue hen Hasili...

Whenever horses--or those stabled around them--are transported from one location to another, it presents an opportunity for the transport and proliferation of disease-causing agents. For Thoroughbreds, travel is often a regular occurrence, whether it be for competition, training, sale or breeding. Add to that the fact that many of the horses with whom they are transported, stabled or otherwise come in contact, have equally active travel schedules and it is easy to see how quickly a pathogen can potentially spread from a single horse to a group, barn or entire...

No less than the perfumes that funded its foundation, and just like every other stud farm, Haras de Montaigu is sustained by subtle but constant adjustment to a formula. Each year of production, a little bit more of this, a little bit less of that; seeing what works, what doesn't work, without compromising on the hallmarks of your brand. Because with Thoroughbreds and perfume alike, there is no such thing as the perfect balance. And while tastes will always be changing, you can't merely respond to some fleeting commercial vogue....

The first thing to say is that covering sire averages, in an industry that can seldom resist manipulating "statistics" into "damned lies", are a transparently spurious guide to a stallion's prospects of coming up with better stock than might be implied by his fee. At every stage, when trying to establish a reputation, young sires are partly at the mercy of the mares who contribute 50 percent of their foals' genes. But that applies most obviously of all when it is the mare herself who is being sold, with a...

That's it. Finito. No more morning workouts beneath the cool lozenge of the waning moon. No more afternoons being led back to the winner's circle beneath the sun and the blazing glory. Memories of those days? Echoes, now, around the trophy cabinet. Career robes dusted off, packed away. The ol' brain, conditioned to fraction-of-a-second, life-and-death maneuvers mid-race, must be put to use anew. "I'll never even sit on a pleasure horse again," admitted Gary Stevens, about an injury--a fractured vertebrae in the neck digging against his spinal cord--that yanked the...

TDN: Favourite racing moment of the year? DC: It would have to be Skitter Scatter (Scat Daddy)'s win in the G1 Moyglare S. I loved the enthusiasm of the filly, the trainer, and especially the owners. In an era of mega owners, it renewed my faith in the sport of racing and the possibility that if we try and try again it could be our turn. TDN: A horse that really stood out for you in 2018? DC: I was very impressed with Calyx (GB) (Kingman {GB}) in the G2...

The Darley stallion roster is ever growing and with five new stallions retiring across Europe, TDN's Alayna Cullen spoke with a few members of the nominations team about the new boys on the block. TDN: How important is it to have new sires retiring each year? Sam Bullard: We run a stallion operation with the aim being to get the best stallions of tomorrow. You can't get the best stallions of tomorrow if you don't have new horses coming in. The market moves very fast nowadays, and people are moving...

Centennial Farms' Mihos (Cairo Prince), tabbed a 'TDN Rising Star' after his maiden-breaking score at Aqueduct Nov. 24, recorded his first work at Palm Meadows Training Center Monday, going four furlongs in :50.00 (17/22). The bay colt could be in line for a first stakes assignment in the one-mile Mucho Macho Man S. Jan. 5 at Gulfstream Park. "He worked well," trainer Jimmy Jerkens said Monday afternoon. "He worked with a stablemate of his, Illudere (Ghostzapper), a decent 3-year-old. The track looked like it was a little on the slow...

Welcome to the first in our series sifting the value among Kentucky sires for 2019. It's worth noting straightaway that we'll take a separate a look at the regional market, once we have assessed the Bluegrass stallions. We'll go through these according to the stage they have reached in their careers: moving on next, for instance, to those with first foals due in the new year, and winding up with those supported by an established population of runners. In each case, we'll finish up by awarding a few medals for...

As a sideline to my role with TDN, I dabble in breeding the odd slow horse and do a fairly moderate job of being a trainer's wife. Our stable is one of the smallest yards in the largest training centre in Britain. I love living in Newmarket. It revolves around Thoroughbreds, from the training of them on the Heath in the heart of town to the breeding of the next batch of superstars and also-rans on the stud farms in surrounding villages. Racehorses have been trained here for almost 400...

When it comes to Japanese racing, Deep Impact has long appeared to be here, there and everywhere. In recent months the perennial champion sire has been responsible for eight of the 17 contestants in the G1 Shuka Sho, for six of the 18 runners in the G1 Mile Championship and for five of the 12 high-class contenders for the G1 Tenno Sho. It therefore seems a little surprising that the Japanese superstar had only one representative in last Sunday's G1 Asahi Hai Futurity S. and only two in the previous...

There are about a half dozen ways one can look at the steady but inexorable marches to the top of the Thoroughbred breeding world by Medaglia d'Oro and Kitten's Joy, but if you don't start with their daddy, you would have missed the point. That would be El Prado (Ire), an accomplished but generally overlooked winner of the G1 National S. in his native country whose pedigree, racing record (he was co-champion at two in Ireland with St. Jovite), and conformation captivated Frank Stronach so much that he purchased the...