Aga Khan

Kick-starting a new weekly Q&A series in TDN Europe, former champion trainer John Oxx, whose spellbinding career will forever be remembered through his masterful handling of Sea The Stars (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), Sinndar (Ire) (Grand Lodge) and Ridgewood Pearl (GB) (Indian Ridge {Ire}), sat down with Brian Sheerin to talk all things racing and breeding. The dual Derby-winning trainer speaks about Epsom, how delighted he is that Sea The Stars has a top-notch miler in Baaeed and his life in retirement.   Brian Sheerin: There are few weeks in...

Leading breeze-up consignor Johnny Hassett has labelled the collection of horses on offer at the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale as the best bunch he has ever seen in one place at a given time and put forward colts by Siyouni (Fr) (lot 149) and Expert Eye (GB) (lot 43) from his eight-strong Bloodstock Connection draft as the most likely to make the biggest impression on buyers. Malavath (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), runner-up to Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and Rockemperor (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor...

Parislongchamp's Prix de la Michodiere for unraced fillies was the last race on the card on Thursday and it could be that the mile contest staged in gloom unearthed a future luminary as The Aga Khan's Dolia (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) earned TDN Rising Star status. Awkwardly away from the stalls, the second foal out of the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic heroine Dolniya (Fr) (Azamour {Ire}) was keen early tracking the tepid tempo set by the Niarchos Family's La Fiamma (War Front). Green throughout, the imposing bay was able to...

8.25 ParisLongchamp, Debutantes, €27,000, 3yo, f, 8fT DOLIA (FR) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) is the second foal out of The Aga Khan's G1 Dubai Sheema Classic heroine Dolniya (Fr) (Azamour {Ire}) from the celebrated family of Daylami (Ire) and Dalakhani (Ire). Alain de Royer-Dupre also has charge of the February-foaled bay, whose opponents include the Niarchos Family's La Fiamma (War Front), a Pascal Bary trainee who is the first foal out of the GIII Modesty H. winner Faufiler (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and therefore a granddaughter of the illustrious Six Perfections (Fr)...

The breeding stock sales caravan rolls on to France this weekend for the Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale, and while the pandemic will inevitably lead to fewer making the pilgrimage to Deauville, a typically strong and diverse catalogue-buoyed by another good year on the world's racecourses for the sale's graduates-means that global enthusiasm is unlikely to be dampened at the four-day sale that runs Dec. 5 through 8. "Given the circumstances it's a relief to be able to organize the sale," said Ludovic Cornuel, head of bloodstock at Arqana. "This...