Ballydoyle

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Tuesday's Observations features the first foal of MGSP Butterflies (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). 4.40 Tipperary, Mdn, €5,500, 2yo, f, 5fT YET (War Front) is the first foal out of what could prove to be an important broodmare for Coolmore in the dual Group 3-placed Butterflies (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), herself a...

While he had to work to land odds of 1-2 in Saturday's G3 Holden Plant Rentals Alleged S. at The Curragh, Coolmore and Masaaki Matsushima's Broome (Ire) (Australia {GB}) managed to collect and maintain his perfect sequence in 2021. Authoritative when taking the Listed Devoy S. over this 10-furlong trip on contrasting soft ground at Naas Mar. 28, the 2019 G3 Ballysax S. and G3 Derrinstown Stud Derby Trial S. winner who was also a close fourth in that year's G1 Epsom Derby is back on an even keel this...

Winless in three outings since registering a career high in last term's G3 Gladness S. at The Curragh, Gay Smith's Lancaster House (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) went postward as the 9-4 favourite for this year's TRI Equestrian-sponsored renewal and became the first back-to-back winner of the seven-furlong event with an impressive 2 1/2-length victory from Current Option (Ire) (Camelot {GB}). The 5-year-old bay followed up last year's triumph with a second over course and distance in the G2 Minstrel S., but was off the radar and failed to beat a single...

Last year's champion 3-year-old filly and dual Classic winner Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is among the entries for Saturday's G3 Alleged S. at The Curragh, but trainer Aidan O'Brien has indicated that the chestnut is likely to wait for the G2 Mooresbridge S. at the same venue on May 3. Love's stablemate Broome (Ire) (Australia {GB}), a multiple Group 3-winning 5-year-old, is likely to deputize in the Alleged. "Broome is likely to run in the Alleged at The Curragh on Saturday," O'Brien said. "He's already had a run, and Love...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Today's Observations features a daughter of one of Coolmore's top producers. 2.30 Curragh, Mdn, €12,000, 3yo/up, f/m, 7fT JOAN OF ARC (IRE) (Galileo {Ire}) is one of the standout characters on The Curragh's 2021 turf season opener, being Ballydoyle's full-sister to the Classic-winning Gleneagles (Ire) and Marvellous (Ire) and...

This time twenty years ago, Galileo (Ire) was a once-raced winning maiden gradually being honed to full fitness on the Ballydoyle gallops ahead of his Classic season. That debut outing at Leopardstown on Oct. 28, 2000, had started with the young son of Sadler's Wells and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine Urban Sea as evens favourite and ended, after a mile on heavy ground, with him 14 lengths clear of the Aga Khan's Taraza (Ire).  We've all seen 2-year-olds burn brightly in their maidens only to fizzle out...

It has been 12 months since Ballydoyle's Magic Wand (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was just beaten to the wire by Japan's Win Bright (Jpn) (Stay Gold {Jpn}) in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Cup, but that outfit's globetrotting Magical (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) will try to turn the tables as the marquee name among 15 foreign raiders for the Longines Hong Kong International Races at Sha Tin Racecourse Sunday, Dec. 13. No fewer than 17 international Group 1 winners are set to compete. "The Longines Hong Kong International Races is firmly established...

NEWMARKET, UK--It's a conundrum of the training profession: do you serve your client better by exhausting every last ounce of a horse's potential, or by preserving a degree of residual value when the time has come to cash out and restock? You see exemplary operators at both ends of that spectrum, but only rarely does anyone manage to reconcile both obligations as expertly as William Haggas did with his principal draft on the second day of the Autumn Horses-in-Training Sale at Tattersalls. Of 17 Somerville Lodge horses into the ring,...

A fortnight after Harvey's Lil Goil provided American Pharoah with a first top-level triumph as a sire in the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, there was another landmark in his remarkable story as Van Gogh supplied him with a first in that grade in Europe in Saturday's Criterium International at Saint-Cloud. Highly tried by Aidan O'Brien this term, the son of the G1 Epsom Oaks heroine Imagine (Ire) (Sadler's Wells) had been second in Leopardstown's G3 Tyros S. and G2 Champions Juvenile S. and in the Oct. 10 G3 Autumn...

Coolmore's Bolshoi Ballet (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who hit the board going one mile in his Oct. 3 debut at Newmarket last time, was sharply into stride and led from the outset of Friday's Irish Stallion Farms EBF (C&G) Maiden at Leopardstown. Holding sway throughout the one-mile test, the even-money favourite was shaken up when threatened in early straight and powered clear under continued urging inside the final furlong to prevail by an impressive four lengths from O'Reilly (Fr) (Frankel {GB}), adding 'TDN Rising Star' status into the bargain. "I fancied...

Saturday's G1 Darley Dewhurst S. proved the latest in a line of O'Brien family benefits, with Aidan stamping his authority with a one-two courtesy of St Mark's Basilica (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}) and Wembley (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) and Joseph's Thunder Moon (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) rounding out the placings. Behind that pair when third in The Curragh's G1 Goffs Vincent O'Brien National S. over this seven-furlong trip Sept. 13, St Mark's Basilica was under cover early with Frankie Dettori playing a waiting game with the pace strong up ahead. Threaded through a...

This year's G1 Investec Derby winner Serpentine (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was supplemented to Sunday's G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Wednesday at a cost of €72,000. He was the lone supplementary entry to the €3-million race. In his first start since running away with the blue riband at 25-1, Serpentine finished fourth in the G1 Grand Prix de Paris over the Arc course and distance at ParisLongchamp on Sept. 13 behind stablemate and fellow Arc contender Mogul (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}). They are part of a five-horse challenge for the...