Galiway

It was the French sires who dominated on day two of the Goffs Arkle Sale with Willie Mullins and Harold Kirk going to €250,000 to secure a Galiway (GB) gelding [King Rasko Grey (Fr)] from Treannahow Stables. That was followed by a Doctor Dino (Fr) gelding that was snapped up by Gordon Elliott for €185,000 from Altenbach Bloodstock and a Jeu St Eloi (Fr) gelding to Paul Nicholls and Tom Malone for €175,000.  Galiway, the sire of dual Group 1 winner Sealiway (Fr), has made huge strides as a National...

Guillaume Vitse is probably best known as the man who helped to launch the Cindarella-story careers of the top French stallions Kendargent (Fr) and Galiway (Ire) when he worked at Guy Pariente's Haras de Colleville. Now, Vitse looks to write his own fairytale story alongside his wife Camille with their new project, Normandie Breeding, and it appears they are well on their way to doing so. Normandie Breeding brought 16 horses to the Arqana Breeding Stock Sale from their operation in Beuvron-en-Auge about 30 minutes southeast of Deauville, after bringing...

DEAUVILLE, France--There were tears of delight from breeder Jose Delmotte and his friend and agent Marc-Antoine Berghgracht following the sale of Delmotte's Kingman (GB) filly (lot 62) for a session-leading €950,000 on Saturday evening at Arqana. From the Juddmonte family of young sire Calyx (GB), the filly's dam Needleleaf (GB) (Observatory {GB}) was bought as an unraced 2-year-old from the Juddmonte draft at Tattersalls December Sale by Berghgracht six years ago for 60,000gns. The sister to Group 1-winning sprinter African Rose (GB) has already hit the big time with her...

Guy Pariente is a happy man as we meet in his office, just 10 days ahead of the Arqana August Yearling Sale. He has just been delivered the golden horse statue that symbolises his first title as champion breeder in France, earned in 2020. The award came as a landmark achievement, yet by no means as a surprise to the 65-year-old.  "It's been ten years since I set myself the goal of topping the breeders' rankings. Everyone thought I was joking, but I wasn't. In 2019 I came third, so...

One day after racing resumed in Britain on June 1, Mehmas (Ire) notched his first winner in the country less than an hour after he had recorded his first ever winner, in Italy. From thereon, the Tally-Ho Stud resident was pulling double all season, opening up an easy lead over his fellow European freshmen and bossing his way to a new first-season sire record which, with 56 winners, was 17 clear of that previously held by Iffraaj (GB). It is, frankly, a staggering tally, with 101 of his 121 named...

Setting aside the disappointment that most of us won't actually be able to attend race meetings, June is promising to be a stellar month of action after a prolonged spell of inactivity. France has eased us back into the idea of being able to watch live European racing with a week of informative meetings, including a number of trials and juvenile contests, and Ireland was given a boost by government on Friday when it was confirmed that racing could begin again on June 8. In theory, British racing will start...