Astern

So finally we come to a group of stallions that has at least offered some initial indication of their competence actually to produce a runner. Not that the market tends to enjoy this process! Its nervousness about sires at this stage of their career makes it easy to see why so much investment is instead concentrated in that period of grace when they haven't yet been exposed in such heartless fashion. Yes, the one or two that are prompt to seize their chance are instantly on their way: their second...

Darley America will have two major new additions to its stallion roster for 2022 as GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile and GI Belmont S. winner Essential Quality (Tapit--Delightful Quality, by Elusive Quality) and fellow Grade I winner Maxfield (Street Sense--Velvety, by Bernardini) are set to retire to Jonabell after their final starts. "To have both Essential Quality and Maxfield coming to Jonabell is as exciting as it gets. And to have accomplished what they did as homebreds in the colors of Godolphin makes it even that much more meaningful," said Darley...

Swilcan Stable and LC Racing's Mainstay (Astern {Aus}), the half-sister to last year's champion 2-year-old filly Vequist (Nyquist), MGISW, $1,237,500, came out running Friday to become her sire's first Northern Hemisphere winner as well as a 'TDN Rising Star'. Scratched from Thursday's Astoria S. at Belmont, the Butch Reid pupil was backed at 6-5 and made that price look like a bargain. Out-footed by Next Tuesday (Kantharos) from the gate, the bay quickly rushed up and cleared by several lengths from that foe. Next Tuesday tried to make a race...

Joe Trawitzki is a trainer's dream. As an owner, he takes the bad news with the good, he always puts the horse first and of course, he shows up at the barn with two dozen doughnuts in tow. But while Joe is eagerly anticipating the debut of his 2-year-old filly this year, he's not sure if he will have the opportunity to see her reach the starting gate. [Elite_video_player id="2" html5videos_hd="https://player.vimeo.com/external/551543400.sd.mp4?s=7dcd0b0f22836a9d40ef92966eb07b4c40909afe&profile_id=165" html5videos_videoThumbnails_jpg="" html5videos_title="Mayo Miracle" prerolls="https://player.vimeo.com/external/519962879.sd.mp4?s=9d576079a6a7a3ddcffa7f2eba1a769c2ca70def&profile_id=165"] On May 21, 2020, the Wisconsin native went to the hospital for what he thought...

Three years ago, Darley's Sales Manager Darren Fox boarded a plane for Australia to see if  Astern (Aus), their highly-rated son of Medaglia d'Oro, could be a good fit for the American roster. "Upon making the trip to Australia to make sure he would work physically, it took all of about three seconds of looking at Astern to say, 'Yes, this horse will work in America,'" Fox recalled. "He has a lot of attributes that we look for and he was, in any jurisdiction, a high-level, high-performing racehorse. So it...

We've taken a breather in this series during the January Sale, where I shared many conversations on themes raised in its first two parts--notably the market's addiction to unproven stallions. Time after time, it was the same story. A shrug of the shoulders, a helpless spreading of the hands: "Yes, we know it's nuts. But we have to make the game pay." Fair enough. It's a bit like the individual who asks why he or she should make a massively inconvenient personal sacrifice, with regard to the climate crisis, when...