Belardo

Bearstone Stud has kept the fees for its three stallions at the same price as in 2024, with Dream Ahead at £6,500, Belardo (Ire) at £5,500 and Washington DC (Ire) at £3,500.  "We feel our stallions offer exceptional value in a challenging market, none more so than Belardo, who is the highest-ranked sire standing in Europe under £15,000 by the number of European winners in 2024," said Bearstone Stud owner Terry Holdcroft.  "Further afield US Grade I winner Gold Phoenix added more US black-type to his form, and Fiach McHugh...

Just a quarter hour after Idea Generation (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) lulled the GII Flower Bowl Stakes field to sleep at Saratoga, Dicey Mo Chara (GB) (Adaay {Ire}) tried the same tactics on the other coast in the GII Del Mar Handicap, but didn't have the same head of steam afforded the Saratoga winner and found a late dogfight instead. Favored Gold Phoenix (Ire) (g, 6, Belardo {Ire}--Magnifica, by Mizzen Mast) "loves to fight," according to rider Kyle Frey, and kicked it into high gear late to run down the pacesetter,...

In becoming the latest Grade I-winning import for trainer Phil D'Amato at Santa Anita on Sunday, Gold Phoenix (Ire) (Belardo {Ire}) advertised the quality Ireland has to offer the international buyers, according to the horse's breeder Jim Ryan of Milltown Stud.  Gold Phoenix stormed to Frank E. Kilroe Mile S. glory for D'Amato, who has done similarly-well with Irish-breds Rhea Moon (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) and Going Global (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) in recent times. It was the gelding's debut victory at Dundalk for Kieran Cotter in 2021 that caught the attention...

Fergus Cousins, the retired vet who bred GII San Clemente S. winner Bellabel (Ire) (Belardo {Ire}), described that Del Mar triumph as his best moment in racing. Bellabel, formally trained by Jessica Harrington in Ireland, won the Grade II contest on debut for Philip D'Amato, sparking hopes that bigger and better things could be coming in the sales ring for her breeder. Cousins has four broodmares at his base in Dunshaughlin in County Meath. He bought Fashion Line (Ire) (Cape Cross {Ire}), the dam of Bellabel, for €32,000 at the...

A breeding right to young National Stud stallion Time Test (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), who was last year's leading European first-season sire by black-type winners with four, topped the Goffs Online Sale of Stallion Breeding Rights when fetching a bid of £100,000 from Dash Grange Stud. A breeding right to last year's champion European first-season sire Cotai Glory (GB) was purchased by Paul Harley Bloodstock for €40,000, while Joseph Burke purchased a breeding right to Profitable (Ire) for €35,000. Burke, who brokered the deal for Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners to purchase Profitable's...

As he prepares his runners for the upcoming flat season, Jim Bolger is also keeping a watchful eye on his breeding stock. The master trainer may be juggling the education of his runners with the oversight of his broodmares and youngstock, but Bolger has proven mighty adept at this kind of multi-tasking in the past: as has been well-documented, Bolger breeds many of his own runners, often going back two or three generations on both the top and bottom of the pedigree. His 2021 G1 2000 Guineas and G1 St...

As the 2022 breeding season approaches, we bring our Value Sires series to a close by shining the spotlight on 10 sires with their first crops four and older that appear poised to deliver breeders value. Though it seems at times as if the chasm between the elite proven sires and the unproven pretenders is ever-widening, driven by the often ruthless nature of the auction marketplace, there is still value to be found among the lesser-priced proven sires. We have opted to make the cutoff fee for this exercise £/€20,000,...

The conclusion of the two-day Goffs Sportsman's Sale on Friday marked the end of a strong four days of trade at Goffs's Kildare Paddocks, with both the Orby and Sportsman's Sales rebounding from difficult 2020 renewals--when forced to move to Doncaster--and posting significant gains. A shade over €3-million was added to the coffers on Friday when 150 of the 162 yearlings offered sold, bringing the two-day aggregate to €6,967,300. The cumulative average jumped 41% to €20,674, while the cumulative median rose 45% to €16,000. Last year at Doncaster, 67.7% of...

The latest installment of our values sires series brings us to the second-crop sires of 2021. While there was a runaway leader, this group gave us plenty to unpack. A handful of rising star sires were crowned, and a few remain on the bubble with plenty to entice us with this year as their first crops prepare for their crucial 3-year-old campaigns. The race for champion first-season sire honours was not much of a competition at all last year, with Mehmas (Ire) jumping out of the gate with a pair...

One day after racing resumed in Britain on June 1, Mehmas (Ire) notched his first winner in the country less than an hour after he had recorded his first ever winner, in Italy. From thereon, the Tally-Ho Stud resident was pulling double all season, opening up an easy lead over his fellow European freshmen and bossing his way to a new first-season sire record which, with 56 winners, was 17 clear of that previously held by Iffraaj (GB). It is, frankly, a staggering tally, with 101 of his 121 named...

It has been both a good week and a bad week for women in British racing. Hollie Doyle has already featured in this column on several occasions this season but when her achievements make the evening news bulletin on BBC Radio 4, then it's worth revisiting the subject of this fast-rising jockey. When lockdown started, and racecourses in Europe were shuttered for at least two months, it was Doyle's partner Tom Marquand who grabbed the headlines with his Group 1-winning rides in Australia. Marquand is still 10 wins ahead of...

First Love, now Peaceful. In another alarming week in world events, we could all use a little of both, but they are of course the two latest Classic winners for their peerless sire Galileo (Ire). When winning the Moyglare Stud S. last September, Love (Ire), now also the 1000 Guineas winner, sparked a Group 1 double on Irish Champions Weekend which was completed by the Irish St Leger winner Search For A Song (Ire). By November, Galileo had drawn level with Danehill's record on 84 individual Group 1 winners thanks...