Darley

It's early-February and already the Flat enthusiasts are getting excited about what stallion will end the season as champion first-season sire. A futile exercise, one would have thought? Not a bit of it. Even the greatest handlers of young stock, Malcolm Bastard, Alan McCabe, Joseph O'Brien, Conor Hoban and Dick Brabazon, men who know better than most the folly that comes with predicting 2-year-old talent, are keen to have their say on which up-and-coming stallion can make the biggest splash this season.  O'Brien is sticking loyal to Ten Sovereigns (Ire)...

6th-Gulfstream, $70,000, Msw, 2-5, 3yo, f, 1m 70y (AWT) (off turf), 1:39.36, ft, 4 lengths. LADY BETH (f, 3, Hard Spun--Boreale {SP-Can, MSP-USA, $135,779}, by Makfi {GB}), 3-1 for her debut in this rained-off contest, kept pressure on the pace, sitting just off post-time favorite Typey (Accelerate) as the opening fractions went off in :24.46 and :47.90. Kept wide off the rail throughout, she tracked the leader around the far turn before moving on even terms past the quarter pole. Given her head under a hand ride, Lady Beth drew...

Sponsored by Alex Nichols Agency 6th-GP, $84k, Msw, 3yo, f, 1mT, 2:37p.m. ET Richard Schermerhorn's $390,000 OBSAPR purchase LADY BETH (Hard Spun) will be unveiled on what looks like a very active Sunday of racing across the country. Drawn toward the middle in this Gulfstream maiden, she is the first registered foal for her dam, the Werthemier et Frere-bred and West Point-campaigned Boreale (Makfi {GB}); four times stakes-placed in her career in America as well as a multiple winner in France. This is the female family of MGSW Interactif (Broken...

Dual Group 1 winner Victor Ludorum (GB) was represented by his first reported foal, a colt, on Thursday, Jan. 12. Out of Ever Sun Shine (Fr) (Le Havre {Ire}), the colt was described by breeder Guilaume Vitse as "a strong colt, of good size and muscular like his father. He is a good-looking colt and I am very, very happy with him." The Kildangan Stud resident stands for €15,000 in 2023.

Bidding opens for the Jockey and Jeans Stallion Season Sale, benefitting the Permanently Disabled Jockeys Fund, on Tuesday Jan. 10 at 9 am ET and ends Thursday, Jan. 12 at 9 pm ET with a preview beginning Jan. 9. The sale features over 70 stallions from Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New York, California, Texas and Oklahoma and has raised over $500,000 for the PDJF to date. "Big farm or small, we thank them all," said Jockeys and Jeans President Barry Pearl. "There are many other valuable seasons and one for every pocketbook....

New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. (NYTB) will conduct its annual Stallion Season Auction from Friday, Jan. 27 to Tuesday, Jan. 31 on www.Wanamakers.com. The auction raises funds that allow the NYTB to carry on its two-fold mission of promoting New York breeding and racing and protecting the welfare of industry stakeholders. Attracting donated seasons from farms in the Empire State and Kentucky, the auction has included McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, Sequel New York, Irish Hill & Dutchess Views Stallions, Rockridge Stud, Darley, WinStar Farm, Darby Dan Farm, and Gainesway Farm....

Speaker's Corner (Street Sense - Tyburn Brook, by Bernardini) and Mystic Guide (Ghostzapper - Music Note, by A.P. Indy), both Grade I-winning homebreds for Godolphin, have joined the Darley America stallion roster for 2023. The newcomers hail from impressive Godolphin families. Speaker's Corner, who will command an initial stud fee of $20,000, is out of a daughter of GI Breeders' Cup Distaff victress Round Pond (Awesome Again), while Mystic Guide, a 'TDN Rising Star' who will stand for $15,000, is a son of five-time Grade I winner Music Note. "We...

The Ohio Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners will offer over 75 stallion seasons during its 2022 auction which will be hosted by Starquine.com. Preview days will be held Dec. 5-6 and the auction opens Dec. 7 and continues through  8 p.m. Dec. 8. Darby Dan Farm will offer seasons to its entire roster of stallions, as will Indiana Stallion Station. Also participating in the auction are farms such as Gainesway, Lane's End, Claiborne, WinStar, Calumet, Walmac, Airdrie, Darley, and Ashford. Regional sires from from Raimonde Farms, RC Cline, and additional Ohio...

By Brian Sheerin and Emma Berry   After a hectic few months perusing this year's foal and yearling crops, we asked the buyers to share their thoughts on the young stallions with first foals and yearlings.  Dermot Farrington, agent: "If you look at the list of people who have bought yearlings and foals by Advertise, it's a long time since a young stallion has attracted the who's who of the bloodstock world, and that's exactly what he has done. Whether it be yearlings to breeze, yearlings to race or foals...

Philipp Stauffenberg broke new ground at the November Foal Sale at Goffs on Wednesday by signing for a Kingman (GB) half-brother to Skitter Scatter (Scat Daddy) for a sales-topping €550,000 on a day where the Juddmonte-based stallion shined brightest. The Airlie Stud-consigned colt is not just a half-brother to that 2018 champion 2-year-old filly in Ireland but also the promising Charlie Appleby-trained Victory Dance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and the €550,000 it took to buy him represented a new record for Stauffenberg. The fact that lot 727 boasted a stallion's pedigree...

Sons of Dubawi (Ire) shot the lights out at Goffs on Tuesday as a colt by first-season sire Ghaiyyath (Ire) topped the November Foal Sale at €185,000 followed by a Night Of Thunder (Ire) colt who made €180,000. Ghaiyyath himself was sold at this sale in 2015 for €1,100,000 before proving himself a world-class performer on the track for Godolphin and the Kildangan Stud-based sire has enjoyed a good start at Goffs this week. The Ridge Manor Stud-drafted colt was sold to Pier House Stud, whose Brendan Morrin revealed that...

Dual Group 1 winner Belardo (Ire) will move to Bearstone Stud in Shropshire for the 2023 breeding season. A former Darley stallion, he will stand for £6,500 next year. The son of Lope De Vega (Ire) already has eight stakes winners worldwide with six of them successful at group level. Isabella Giles (Ire) won the G2 Rockfel S. and G3 Prestige S., while both Bellabel (Ire) and Gold Phoenix (Ire) won graded races at Del Mar in California. The former was also second in the GI Del Mar Oaks and...