Goliath

Gouache (Ger), the dam of the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth QIPCO Stakes winner Goliath (Ger), is to be sold at the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale. A Listed-winning daughter of Shamardal, Gouache is a half-sister to the G2 Gerling-Preis winner Guardini (Fr) (Dalakhani {Ire}), and she will be offered in foal to Baaeed (GB). The 12-year-old mare will be consigned by Millennium Stud. Bred by the Ullmann family of Gestut Schlenderhan, the mare passed through a sale ring only last December when sold at Arqana for €200,000...

You wait ages for one gelding capable of spicing up the Arc field to appear - then two come along at once. Expediency is the obvious backdrop to France Galop's move to reconsider the ban on geldings in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, but the debate nevertheless goes to the heart of what sport is meant to be: the best against the best.  It's more nuanced and interesting than a straight in-house polemic about Group 1 race conditions. You'd have a hard job selling that one to the general...

American owner-breeder John Stewart of Resolute Racing has completed a deal to buy a majority share in the G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes winner Goliath (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}). The four-year-old gelding, who is trained in Chantilly by Francis-Henri Graffard, was bred by Gestut Schlenderhan and races in the colours of Schlenderhan's Baron Philip von Ullmann. The owner's father, Georg, raced the 2005 GI Breeders' Cup Turf winner Shirocco (Ger) (Monsun {Ger}) among a host of top-class horses, and this year's Breeders' Cup will be among the options...

It's not easy to write a column while watching the Olympics, especially as Britain attempts to out-battle France for eventing gold at the Palace of Versailles, but here goes. It was France which had the upper hand at Ascot on Saturday or, correctly speaking, Francis-Henri Graffard, whose return from Chantilly to the Berkshire track with the rampaging Goliath (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}) should have been eye-popping enough to ensure that his runners are never again sent off at such generous odds in Britain. We can now savour the prospect of once...

ASCOT, UK -- By now, the breeding world is wise to the fact that we only realised almost all too late that Adlerflug was a stallion who should have been treated with the utmost respect. The team at Gestut Schlenderhan knew, but then they bred Adlerflug, who died in 2021 just months after he had been crowned Germany's champion sire for the first time and not long after Schlenderhan had celebrated its 150th anniversary.  Adlerflug has been kind to Francis-Henri Graffard, who trained his son In Swoop, also for the...

Francis-Henri Graffard may have had to contend with the disappointment of retiring his Classic-winning filly Rouhiya (Fr), but he still has much to look forward to in the coming weeks, not least another trip to Ascot with Goliath (Ger) (Adlerflug {Ger}) for Saturday's G1 King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Owned by his breeder Baron Philip von Ullmann of Gestut Schlenderhan, the four-year-old was last seen running second to Isle Of Jura (Ire) in the G2 Hardwicke Stakes. Following his win in the G3 Prix d'Hedouville in early May,...