El Kabeir

Already a listed winner after taking Milan's Premio Giuseppe de Montel on June 30, El Kabeir colt Don Chicco (GB) bounced back from a second versus heavy 2-5 favourite Some Respect (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}) in the Oct. 3 Listed Premio Vittorio Riva with a 1 1/4-length victory in the Premio Gran Criterium in Rome on Sunday. Second in a local debutante heat over 1000 metres on May 1, the bay graduated by three lengths switched to the all-weather here just eight days later and was making his fifth start in...

Don Chicco, a debut second going five furlongs in Rome on May 1, graduated by three lengths when upped a furlong and switched to the all-weather at the same course just eight days later, and earned a first black-type rosette here while giving his first-season sire El Kabeir (Scat Daddy) a first stakes winner. Racing two lengths off the pace and on the outside without cover through the opening furlongs, Don Chicco moved to the fence rounding the turn. Switched to the middle of the course once again upon straightening,...

ASCOT, UK--There's nothing quite like Royal Ascot to inject some interest into the first-season sires' championship and, with three days down and two to go, there will be several stallion masters with an extra spring in their step following the results of this week's juvenile contests. As Roger O'Callaghan of Tally-Ho Stud said on Thursday afternoon, "Royal Ascot is very important. This week can make the horses." And the O'Callaghan family has reason to be doubly pleased with the way the races have fallen so far this week. Their own...

1ST-CAPANNELLE, €13,200, Mdn., 5-9, 2yo, 1200m (AWT), 1:13.50. DON CHICCO (GB) (128, c, 2, El Kabeir-Otrooha (Ire), by Oasis Dream {GB}), a distant second locally going 1000 metres over soft ground when unveiled on May 1, was tabbed the even-money pick in this quick return. Trying the all-weather surface for the first time, the bay battled with a rival for the advantage from the bell and sat a neck second on the far turn. He re-bid for the lead in upper stretch and forged clear to win by three lengths...

The wait is very nearly over for the young pretenders we will examine in this fourth installation of our multi-part Value Sires series: stallions with their first runners in 2021. While the full verdicts must be delayed until these are given a fair shake with their first full seasons with 2- and 3-year-olds, the reality is that the first juvenile races in the coming months will be akin to a perpetual Christmas morning in the bloodstock world, with each of us eager to unwrap the packages we have been examining...

Goffs staged the first of two sessions of its live online Autumn Yearling Sale on Tuesday. With the first-day catalogue of 296 scratched down to 167, 99 were sold (59%) for an aggregate of €662,400, compared to €1,134,400 last year when 192 were sold on the day from 254 offered. The average of €6,691 was up 13%, while the median climbed 11% to €4,200. Boherguy Stud's New Approach (Ire) colt out of Neophilia (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) (lot 192) had originally been slated for the Goffs Sportsman's Sale, but connections opted...

Dark Angel (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) leads the 2021 Yeomanstown Stud roster at €60,000, as the County Kildare-based stud released their fees for next season. All fees have been reduced by 25% due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The grey has enjoyed a great season, and sits eighth on the TDN European General Sires List, with Group 1 winners Battaash (Ire) and Raging Bull (Ire) on top of younger horses of the quality of G1 Prix Morny third Rhythm Master (Ire), SW Fantasy Lady (Ire) and G3 Somerville Tattersalls S. runner-up...

NEWMARKET, UK-Every cloud has a silver lining, even one as black and pervasive as this accursed pandemic. And the transfer of the Tattersalls Ascot Yearling Sale from its eponymous base to the headquarters of its parent brand, as part of an emergency revamping of the yearling sales calendar, worked so well on Monday that conceivably it might prove tempting to make the relocation permanent. On the other hand, prospectors will go anywhere for the right animal. Mouse O'Ryan put it well. "You can sell a good horse at a crossroads,"...

Judge Kimberly Bunnell has dismissed the New York-based lending firm MGG's attempt to place a lien on the stud fees and progeny of Solomini, to claim nine breeding rights to American Pharoah and the broodmare American Cleopatra, according to Gregory Parsons of States & Harbison, who represented the owners of Solomini in MGG's suit. The ruling was issued June 10 in Fayette, Kentucky Circuit Court. Solomini stands at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, where he has bred 127 mares in his initial season at stud. In January, MGG filed a $23...

After filing a civil complaint against numerous individuals and entities that had purchased horses or other assets from Ahmed Zayat, MGG Investments has given up the portion of its complaint that aims to collect money from Thomas Clark Bloodstock. Clark's attorney Tom Miller received a notice Tuesday from lawyers representing MGG notifying him that the complaint against Clark had been voluntarily dismissed. Last week, MGG amended its civil complaint against Zayat to include several breeding farms and individuals, including Coolmore Stud, Hill 'n' Dale and LNJ Foxwoods. MGG has sued...