Expert Eye (GB)

Leading breeze-up consignor Johnny Hassett has labelled the collection of horses on offer at the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale as the best bunch he has ever seen in one place at a given time and put forward colts by Siyouni (Fr) (lot 149) and Expert Eye (GB) (lot 43) from his eight-strong Bloodstock Connection draft as the most likely to make the biggest impression on buyers. Malavath (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), runner-up to Pizza Bianca (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf and Rockemperor (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor...

Banstead Manor Stud's first-crop sire Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB}) notched his first winner when the Ralph Beckett-trained debutant Sunny Orange (Ire) raced to an ultimately snug victory in Saturday's Madri Excepcional Maiden S. over five furlongs at Leicester. Juddmonte's 70,000gns Tattersalls December Foals acquisition went postward as the well-backed 2-1 second choice for the straight dash and was well away from an outer gate to track the leaders in fifth through the initial fractions. Making smooth headway from halfway, he was ridden to launch his challenge approaching the final...

   Thursday saw the final fields take shape for Saturday's flat turf season prologues at Doncaster and The Curragh and with them the sensation of new winds careening the established order. While the hardened tifosi look to the established pillar of the Town Moore fixture, the Lincoln Handicap, the breeding merchants will pivot towards the arrival of untested and unproven stock in the card's "Brocklesby" and in the Co. Kildare venue's opening maiden. These two juvenile medleys contain the first runners for some of Europe's most enticing first-season sires, with...

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...

NEWMARKET, UK--As the prices dipped from Friday's bumper session to a more modest level, so did Newmarket's weather, which settled into relentless icy rain for almost the entire concluding session of foals at Park Paddocks. Such gloomy exterior conditions could not dim the demand for bloodstock in the ring, however. We're not even into December yet, but Tattersalls can be satisfied with heartening levels of trade at the halfway house of its lengthy December Sale, with just four days of fillies and mares to come from Monday. On Friday, Genesis...

The five-strong Juddmonte roster, led by champion-sire elect Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}), was announced on Monday. The son of Kind (Ire) (Danehill) will stand for £200,000 SLF, an increase of £25,000, in 2022. The fasted stallion to reach 50 group winners in history, the bay is already the sire of 20 Group 1 winners. In 2021, eight of his progeny won Group 1 races, with G1 Cazoo Derby and G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth S. hero Adayar (Ire) joined by G1 Irish Derby, G1 Grand Prix de Paris...

The 2021 mating plans for the Juddmonte broodmare band were announced by the nursery on Monday. The list was approved by the late Prince Khalid Abdullah prior to his death last week. Juddmonte will stand five stallions in 2021 led by Frankel. The undefeated wunderkind and Group 1 sire Frankel became the fastest European stallion ever to reach 40 group winners and celebrated another Group 1 winner in 2020-Grenadier Guards (Jpn). An even two dozen Juddmonte mares are booked on his dance card, among them MG1SW Ventura (Chester House), the...

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. Wednesday's Insights features a half-brother to Breeders' Cup winner Expert Eye (GB) (Acclamation {GB}). 4.20 Kempton, Novice, £6,300, 2yo, 7f (AWT) DUTY OF CARE (GB) (Kingman {GB}) debuts for Khalid Abdullah and Sir Michael Stoute, who combined to capture the 2018 GI Breeders' Cup Mile with his half-brother Expert...

NEWMARKET, UK—The popularity of first-season sires is no new phenomenon but it is a feature of the market which apparently gains more and more traction, and three freshmen were responsible for four of the top ten lots as pinhookers wasted no time in assembling their prospective yearling drafts for next season. The first session traditionally represents a quieter start to the four-day auction, which builds towards the better pedigrees on Friday. With shorter sessions throughout the sale this year, there were 135 foals sold on Wednesday, compared to 168 on...

The five-strong Juddmonte 2021 stallion roster, led by Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire})-the youngest stallion to sire 40 group winners in history, was announced on Tuesday. The Juddmonte wunderkind is siring 11% group winners to runners and 15% black-type winners to runners, and he will stand for £175,000 in 2021. At the sales, his highest-priced filly brought 2 million gns, while he also had a colt knocked down for 1.1 million gns during the recent Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 1. Although his oldest foals are only four, Kingman (GB) (Invincible...

Juddmonte has released details of some of the foals already on the ground at Banstead Manor Stud this year, including a colt by Kingman out of the multiple Grade I winner Proviso (GB) (Dansili {GB}). The March-foaled colt is one of a number by his exciting young sire to have been welcomed by Juddmonte so far in 2020, along with a filly out of another Grade I winner, Ventura (Chester House {GB})), who is already the dam of G3 Prix de Lieurey winner Fount (GB) (Frankel {GB}). Listed winner Mirror...