Alcohol Free

"I was speechless," says David Bowe of being presented with this year's Wild Geese Award at the ITBA's National Breeding and Racing Awards on Sunday night.  The award recognises Irish men and women who have forged successful careers in the bloodstock industry worldwide, and its recipients to date have included those working in Australia and America. Bowe didn't fly too far afield, though he did serve a stint in the States early in his career. For more than a quarter of a century he has been based just across the...

Tattersalls chairman Edmond Mahony has admitted to being blown away by the strength of the market at Park Paddocks, not only at this week's December Mares Sale where the introduction of the Sceptre Sessions played a huge role in the sky-rocketing trade, but throughout the year. Mahony has described 2022 as the year where every expectation was exceeded and, speaking at the end of the December Mares Sale where over 80 million gns went through the Tattersalls tills, headlined by 5.4 million gns purchase Alcohol Free (Ire) (No Nay Never),...

Four-time Group 1 winner Alcohol Free (Ire) (No Nay Never), who topped the Tattersalls December Mares Sale on Tuesday evening when selling for 5,400,000gns to Yuesheng Zhang's Yulong Investments, will be trained in Australia by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott. Yulong's chief operating officer Sam Fairgray confirmed to TDNAusNZ on Wednesday that the 4-year-old, formerly trained by Andrew Balding and a Group 1 winner at two, three and four, will potentially be aimed towards the A$15-million The Everest. He said, "If everything fell into place she would definitely take her...

By Emma Berry and Brian Sheerin NEWMARKET, UK--Widely tipped for the top, Jeff Smith's Alcohol Free (Ire) (No Nay Never) duly shone brightest in a galaxy of stars on display at Park Paddocks, bringing the second-highest price ever recorded at a European auction when the hammer fell at 5.4 million gns. Yuesheng Zhang of Yulong Investments, acting through BBA Ireland's Michael Donohoe, has flexed some serious fiscal muscle at the breeding stock sales this season and that reached a new high at Tattersalls on Tuesday when Donohoe outlasted Coolmore's MV...

NEWMARKET, UK--There is no doubt that the mares' section of the Tattersalls December Sale will create much of the hoopla at Park Paddocks over the next fortnight. Blockbuster names such as Saffron Beach (Ire), Alcohol Free (Ire), Pearls Galore (GB), and La Petite Coco (Ire) and are set to come under the hammer, not to mention Desert Berry (GB), the dam of this year's G1 Derby winner Desert Crown (GB) back in foal to his sire Nathaniel (Ire). The Monday and particularly the Tuesday evening sessions of the mares' sale...

It's a rare Jeff Smith colour-bearer that has not been bred at his successful Hampshire nursery of Littleton Stud, but shopping around for new blood can pay dividends for breeders, and in the case of Alcohol Free (Ire), there have been handsome dividends indeed.  Four years ago, the weanling daughter of No Nay Never caught the eye of Littleton Stud manager David Bowe at the Goffs November Sale, where she was bought from her breeder Churchtown Stud for €40,000. By the time the four-time Group 1 winner exits from her...

Outstanding four-time Group 1 winner Alcohol Free (Ire) (No Nay Never--Plying, by Hard Spun) will be offered at the Tattersalls December Mares Sale which takes place from Nov. 28 to Dec. 1. Selected for the new Sceptre Session on Tuesday, Nov. 29, the Churchtown House Stud-bred promises to be amongst the highlights of the 2022 global bloodstock sales calendar. Owned by Jeff Smith, the €40,000 Goffs November Foal Sale graduate won the G1 Cheveley Park S. as a juvenile, the G1 Sussex S. and G1 Coronation S. at three before showing...

Four-time Group 1 winner Alcohol Free (Ire) has been ruled out of Saturday's G1 Betfair Sprint Cup at Haydock with a minor injury. A winner at the top level at two, three and four, the Andrew Balding-trained filly required stitches for a cut in an "awkward place" and looks likely to be sidelined for around ten days. "Unfortunately Alcohol Free has sustained what we hope is a minor injury, but it is significant enough to rule her out of the Sprint Cup," reported Balding. "She's got a cut which requires...

It was a weekend in which the Scat Daddy sire-line shone through, at Newmarket and in Deauville, with Group 1 victories for his grand-daughters Alcohol Free (Ire) (No Nay Never) and Tenebrism (Caravaggio). No Nay Never now has five crops of racing age and has twice supplied the winner of the July Cup: first Ten Sovereigns, who is now his stud-mate at Coolmore, and now Jeff Smith's Alcohol Free, whose transformation from miler to sprinter has added an interesting element to what is unfurling into an extraordinarily good season. The...

KILDARE, Ireland--Four days of foal trade certainly whetted the appetite for a quality auction of breeding stock at Goffs on Friday, and the widely anticipated sale of the Group 1 producer Plying (Hard Spun) (lot 1185) certainly didn't disappoint when the dam of Alcohol Free (Ire) (No Nay Never) sold to Michael Donohoe of BBA Ireland for €825,000. This was the most successful edition of this breeding stock session for a number of years with 13 lots making €250,000 or more; the corresponding number for the past two years was...

In life and in bloodstock, the confluence of a few small factors--decisions that may seem minute at the time--can quickly amalgamate into life-changing moments. Like, for instance, when Martin Cooney and Elaine Shaw opted to raise their hands at €21,000 during the 2018 Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale on an 8-year-old daughter of Hard Spun whose first two foals had not yet found the winner's enclosure; while, simultaneously, another bidder hesitated, and ultimately changed their mind too late. "Too late, sir," the auctioneer called, hammering Plying down to Jossestown Farm....

As the bloodstock auction industry rides a wave of resurgence into its final sector of the season, Goffs provides the curtain-raiser in its November Foal and Breeding Stock sales. The action begins next week with four days of foal sales from Nov. 15 to 18, which rolls right into two days of breeding stock on Nov. 19 and 20. The European marketplace provided some welcome upbeat surprises amid the overall tumult of the pre-vaccine pandemic in 2020, but this year has proven an extreme revelation everywhere, and nowhere moreso than...