Domino Darling

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 Insights features the return of an exciting John Gosden-trained 3-year-old. 3.25 Navan, Mdn, €15,500, 2yo, f, 8fT MADONNA (IRE) (Galileo {Ire}) is a full-sister to the G1 Moyglare Stud S. winner Maybe (Ire) and the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac runner-up Promise To Be True (Ire), with the former...

Victor Ludorum. With such a name should we ever have doubted him? Fifteen years after his late sire Shamardal blazed to glory in the Poule d'Essai des Poulains for the first half of his own Classic double, Victor Ludorum (Ire) set up a double of a different kind at Deauville on Monday, passing the Godolphin baton to his fellow colour-bearer and last year's champion juvenile Pinatubo (Ire) to attempt to complete a posthumous Classic double for Shamardal within a week. Should the much lauded Pinatubo resurface in the manner which...

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...

One of the last longstanding British-based breeding operations, Anthony Oppenheimer's Hascombe and Valiant Studs, is very much enjoying an upswing since the momentous 2015 campaign of Golden Horn (GB). As John Gosden's dynamo performed heroics in the G1 Investec Derby, G1 Eclipse S., G1 Irish Champion S. and G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, he brought the red, black and white silks back to the fore. Shortly after, it was the turn of Cracksman (GB), a descendant of the late Sir Philip's 1982 1000 Guineas heroine On the House (Fr)...