Cracksman (GB)

An unusually quiet Sunday on the European circuit allows a pause before the meeting that should only ever be referred to as Glorious Goodwood, and also some reflection on a truly special result at Ascot on Saturday afternoon. William Muir, a baby-faced veteran of the training ranks who now shares his licence with Chris Grassick, assessed the greatest win of his 30-year training career as "a big, big moment", and he deserves to enjoy that moment for days and weeks to come.  By now, the story of Pyledriver (GB) (Harbour...

Jaber Abdullah's Dance In The Grass (GB) (Cracksman {GB}--Dance The Dream {GB}, by Sir Percy {GB}) became the fifth winner for her freshman sire (by Frankel {GB}) when snagging her June 10 debut, going seven furlongs at Sandown in her only prior start, and registered a first stakes win for the Dalham Hall Stud resident in Thursday's Listed European Bloodstock News EBF Star S. over the same course and distance. The eventual winner was squeezed for room during the initial exchanges and raced off the pace towards the rear through...

With Britain en fete in the midst of the Platinum Jubilee festivities, the Oaks and Derby fell slap-bang in the middle of a four-day bank holiday and, despite the absence of Her Majesty the Queen at Epsom, the meeting still offered much cause for celebration. Sir Michael Stoute is never one to blow his own horn, though he is often heard humming on Newmarket Heath while watching his horses work. And as one of British racing's senior trainers, on the royal roster to boot, he was a most fitting winning...

It hasn't been a bad week for William Haggas. The Somerville Lodge stable cat has recently gone AWOL for fear that he might be entered up at Catterick and would have to live up to the extraordinarily rich vein of form currently being exhibited by the larger quadrupeds whose fetlocks he rubs up against during evening stables. Over the last fortnight 41 horses have been sent out by the trainer and 17 of them have returned home with a trophy to add to the cabinet. Most impressively, 10 of those...

2nd-San Siro, €13,200, Debutante, 2yo, f, 1400mT, 1:22.40. ALOA (GB), (f, 2, Cracksman {GB}--Amber Silk {Ire}, by Lawman {Fr}), sent off at just over 7-5 favouritism, raced in third a few lengths off the pacesetter. Establishing a good rhythm on the turn, the blaze-faced chestnut tipped out inside the final 600 metres and drew into contention with a quarter-mile remaining. Kept to her task, she subdued Kinkawa (GB) (Camacho {GB}) by the furlong-pole and stayed on to win by a 2 1/4 lengths to become the first winner for her...

The catalogues for the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up and Horses-in-Training Sale were released on Wednesday. There are currently 206 2-year-olds and 120 horses-in-training ready to go under the hammer on Apr. 28. Beginning at 9 a.m. local time on Apr. 26, the breezes will take place over Newmarket's Rowley Mile Racecourse. They will be shown live on the Tattersalls website and on the Tattersalls Facebook page. Graduates of the sale won group races in Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. in 2021, led by top-level winners Trueshan (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}) and...

In this week's installment of Value Sires, we arrive at the young pretenders on the cusp of a moment of reckoning. We dissected their credentials when they retired to stud, analysed the early returns of their first foals and watched in earnest how the market perceived their yearlings. Now, the true test is upon them; in a few short months, they will begin to reshuffle their ranks by the only measure that really matters: progeny racetrack performance. The most fascinating aspect of this sire crop as a whole thus far...

Dubawi (Ire) (Dubai Millennium {GB}) will stand for an unchanged fee of £250,000 at Dalham Hall Stud and anchors the 2022 roster for Darley Europe. His fee is the most expensive in Europe. He enjoyed a notable success at the two-day Breeders' Cup World Championships, with three winners in a single year, the first sire to reach that mark in the 37-year history of the Breeders' Cup. The GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf went to Modern Games (Ire), Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Mile was won by new Kildangan Stud resident...

In the third installation of our Value Sires series, we will dig into the sire crop with its first foals born in 2020, and therefore with its first yearlings this year. After some two years in waiting since most of these retired to stud, the judges got the chance at the recently concluded foal sales to lay eyes on the first progeny of most of them, and though it is still incredibly early days, their opinions, corroborated through their actions in the ring, will have an impact on the perception...

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. Saturday's Insights features Hopefully Darling (GB), a sister to MG1SW Cracksman (GB). 11.50 Newmarket, Nov, £8,000, 2yo, f, 7fT Anthony Oppenheimer's hitherto unraced HOPEFULLY DARLING (GB) (Frankel {GB}) is a Hascombe & Valiant homebred full-sister to MG1SW sire Cracksman (GB) and represents the John Gosden-Rab Havlin axis responsible for...

Exactly five years ago, Golden Horn (GB) led home his stable-mate Jack Hobbs (GB) for a John Gosden-trained one-two in the G2 Dante S. at York, foreshadowing the result of the Derby a little over three weeks later. Golden Horn's Classic victory ignited a glorious season for his owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer, whose colt by Cape Cross (Ire) represented generations of his family's Hascombe And Valiant Studs' breeding. Golden Horn went on to claim victory in the Coral-Eclipse S., Irish Champion S. and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe before narrowly losing...

'Dreams come a long way,' posted James Frank on Twitter this week after the Hascombe and Valiant Studs worker was named Employee of the Year at the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards in London. Frank has literally come a long way, from his native Zimbabwe to Newmarket, where he has been based for the best part of the last two decades. For the last seven years he has been employed by Anthony Oppenheimer, and the 42-year-old timed his run to perfection when he started his stint working with the...