Today's Edition

In a press release Monday, Santa Anita announced substantial purse increases due to "increased handle over the last year" for all overnight races at its upcoming winter meet, as compared to its recently-wrapped fall meet. While purse increases will be seen across the board, the biggest cash injections--as much as 11%--will be aimed towards claiming races, "which are the bread and butter of the racing program," said Elizabeth Morey, director of Racing and Northern California Operations for Thoroughbred Owners of California (TOC). In addition, the purse distribution in races run...

NEWMARKET, UK—It was the family that was always likely to dominate the December Sale and just four days after her weanling Galileo (Ire) filly led the foal sale at 1.7 million gns, Pearling (Storm Cat) trounced allcomers in the mares' division when selling for 2.4 million gns. The circumstances of the transaction were effectively a repeat performance of last week, with Imad Al Sagar buying out his partner Saleh Al Homaizi for the mare (lot 1918) who has given them their biggest success as breeders through her treble Group 1-winning...

Group 2 winner Doha Dream (Fr) (Shamardal-Crystal Reef {GB}, by King's Best), a homebred for Al Shaqab Racing and a French highweight at 14 furlongs and up at three, has been retired to Haras du Hoguenet for 2019. The Andre Fabre trainee will stand for €2,500. Successful in the G2 Prix Chaudenay at three, as well as in two listed races that year, the son of the placed Crystal Reef was runner-up in the G3 Prix de Reux and G2 Grand Prix de Deauville in 2017. Kept in training this...

Keeneland has cataloged 1,555 horses, headlined by champion Abel Tasman (Quality Road), for its 61st January Horses of All Ages Sale, to be held Jan. 7-10, it was announced Tuesday. The catalog includes 701 broodmares and broodmare prospects, 597 yearlings, 252 horses of racing age and five stallions. Supplementary entries are being accepted. Abel Tasman is cataloged as a broodmare prospect and will sell Monday, Jan. 7, as Hip 288. The daughter of top stallion Quality Road is a six-time Grade I winner in a career that saw her bank nearly $2.8...

NEWMARKET, UK—As an opening show, the first day of Tattersalls December Mares Sale boasted all the international elements that one has come to expect from this end-of-year extravaganza. A level of trade that bodes well for the next two days as the sale warms up saw figures down in comparison to last year's first session, which received an enormous boost with the 1.7 million gns sale of Group 1 winner Intricately (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}), but with the same high clearance rate of 85%. That was achieved through the sale...

Three Chimneys Farm is set to welcome a pair of new faces to its stallion roster in 2019 in Grade I winners Sharp Azteca (Freud) and Funtastic (More Than Ready). While Sharp Azteca's brilliant speed over middle distances stands in contrast to Funtastic's staying power over a grassy route of ground, both newcomers bring pedigree power and ample physical appeal to their respective resumes. The TDN sat down with Tom Hamm, who has been serving as the director of stallion seasons at Three Chimneys since July, to discuss his outlook...

The concept of a stallion covering his first mares as a 3-year-old is nothing new in the U.S., where the more notable examples include Raise a Native, Hail To Reason, Graustark, Saratoga Six and Malibu Moon. However, each of these went into premature retirement because of injury, unlike a spate of fast European horses who have been retired at the end of their juvenile careers despite having no soundness problems. An exception to this was the champion 1999 2-year-old Fasliyev, who fractured a pastern. He recovered to sire a first...

The Bell family of Mill Ridge Farm may be All-American to its core-current proprietor Headley Bell is a grandson of one of the founders of Keeneland, after all-but their influence on European racing at the highest level has been undeniably profound. They bred the 1968 Guineas and Derby winner Sir Ivor, and formerly stood influential sires Gone West and Diesis. Mill Ridge hasn't historically stood many stallions, so when the Bell family puts its faith in one, it's worth taking notice. Mill Ridge's latest recruit, Oscar Performance (Kitten's Joy) follows...

Grade I racing on the East Coast has now settled into hibernation mode for the rest of the year, and after this coming Saturday's pair of Grade I events for juveniles at Los Alamitos, the entire continent won't see a Grade I contest until opening day at Santa Anita Dec. 26. But the quartet of graded stakes action at Aqueduct Dec. 1, plus the GI Hollywood Derby at Del Mar, injected a touch of late-season intrigue that will whet the appetite for how the pecking order might shape up in...

Uni (GB) (More Than Ready) captured the GI Matriarch S. with a hard-charging late rally at Del Mar Sunday, remaining unbeaten in 2018 and giving trainer Chad Brown his third Grade I victory of the weekend. The chestnut filly was taken in hand soon after breaking from her outside post and was angled to the rail heading into the first turn with one horse beaten as Fahan Mura (English Channel) set the pace. The pacesetter was clearly in front through a half-mile in :46.29, while Uni had fallen well back...

Last year proved a memorable one for blockbuster sales of mares at the major breeding stock sales on both sides of the Atlantic. Marsha (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) set the standard in Europe with a 6-million gns pricetag-the highest ever for a horse purchased out of the Tattersalls ring-and her buyer, MV Magnier, had also shelled out a combined $14 million for Tepin (Bernstein) and Stellar Wind (Curlin) in Kentucky just a month earlier. With the latest renewal of the Tattersalls December Mare Sale upon us, we look back on the...

When Chris Dwyer saddled the final runner of his career last Thursday it was not exactly accompanied by hysteria or emotional outpouring. That would hardly have been his style anyway, even if he was never the most fashionable of trainers or jockeys and was bowing out with an unplaced 10-1 chance in a low-key handicap early in the evening at Chelmsford. Yet, when he assembles the net worth of more than half a century's labour and the contribution made for some of the sport's giants, there really is quite a...