Darley

Just a three-mile jaunt from Brendan Walsh's barn at Keeneland, the conditioner's first Grade I winner Maxfield (Street Sense - Velvety, by Bernardini) is settling into his new home at the stud barn of Darley's Jonabell Farm. Three weeks ago, the Godolphin homebred ended his career on a high note with a final victory in the GI Clark S. at Churchill Downs. Walsh, who had hopped  on a plane shortly after the win to visit his Florida division, had not seen Maxfield since that night. So when he dropped in...

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...

Hard to put a price on a stallion like this. Apart from anything else, he is the parting legacy of Danzig--conceived when the great patriarch was 26--and his maternal line brings a daughter of the wartime foal My Babu (Fr) as close up as third dam. True to that venerable seeding, his stock has emulated both the class and constitution that sustained his own speed--carrying commitment on the racetrack. Though his career was compressed into barely a year, he didn't just "dance every dance," but turned the pages for the...

For any breeder of Thoroughbreds, the opportunity to watch one's carefully cultivated lines thrive across generations must be one of the greatest rewards that can be derived. The team at Darley can take pride, then, in fact that it has three Group 1-winning stallions by its own sires with their first crops to sell at the upcoming foals sales. Masar (Ire) will be remembered as a true game-changer for Godolphin on the racecourse. By emulating his sire New Approach (Ire) in winning the G1 Derby, Masar became the first blue...

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...

Essential Quality (Tapit--Delightful Quality, by Elusive Quality), last year's champion 2-year-old and winner of this year's GI Belmont S. and GI Runhappy Travers S., will begin his stud career next year at a fee of $75,000, Darley in America announced Sunday. Essential Quality concluded his racing career with a third-place effort in Saturday's GI Longines Breeders' Cup Classic. "His body of work is just tremendous: an Eclipse champion at two, a Classic winner at three, a son of Tapit with a fantastic female family," said Darley Sales Manager Darren Fox....

Cheveley Park Stud's hitherto unraced Audience (GB) (Iffraaj {GB}) went off as a 15-2 chance for the first division of Friday's 888sport British EBF Novice S. at Newmarket, a contest won in 2019 by last term's G2 Derby Italiano hero Tuscan Gaze (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), and came home by daylight to earn 'TDN Rising Star' status with an impressive debut display. He recovered from a slightly awkward getaway to stalk the pace out wide through halfway. Powering to the front on the bridle approaching the quarter-mile marker, Audience was shaken...

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...

Tom Dascombe trainee Flaming Rib (Ire) (Ribchester {Ire}) became the first winner for his freshman sire (by Iffraaj {GB}) when registering a one-length win in Saturday's Listed Virgin Bet Doncaster S. at Doncaster's Town Moor venue. Flaming Rib bagged a trio of nursery handicaps--at Thirsk, York and Chester--in his three most recent outings and continued on an upward trajectory with a first black-type triumph in this straight dash. The 13-8 second choice was sharply into stride and claimed an immediate lead. Holding sway throughout, he was not for catching once...

Palace Pier (GB) (Kingman {GB}--Beach Frolic {GB}, by Nayef), the top-rated miler of 2020 and winner of five Group 1 races for Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Al Maktoum, has been retired from racing and will stand at Darley's Dalham Hall Stud for 2022. His stud fee will be announced at a later date. Bred by Highclere Stud and the Duke of Roxburghe's Floors Farming, Palace Pier was bought as a yearling by his trainer John Gosden for 600,000gns and won both his starts in maiden and novice company at two....

Victor Ludorum (GB) (Shamardal-Antiquities {GB}, by Kaldounevees {Fr}), an unbeaten Group 1-winning 2-year-old who trained on to be a Classic winner at three for Godolphin, has been retired from racing and will stand at Haras du Logis in Normandy next year. A fee will be announced at a later date. Sam Bullard, Darley's director of stallions, said, "Victor Ludorum was a great credit to the Godolphin team--a homebred Classic winner who was exceptional at two. We're delighted to be standing him in France, scene of all his races. He hails...

Kheleyf (Green Desert--Society Lady, by Mr. Prospector) has died at Haras des Faunes. He was 20. The news was first reported by the Jour de Galop. Bred by Darley and a great grandson of bluehen Fanfreluche (Northern Dancer), Kheleyf made his first four starts for the David Loder yard, with a second in the G3 Norfolk S. and a conditions win his best performances. Transferred to Saeed bin Suroor for his 3-year-old year, he won the G3 Jersey S. first out at three and was also third in the G2...