Havana Grey

An awful lot of people have been getting hot under the collar this week, and not just because a heatwave is currently sweeping Europe, leading to the cancellation of five race meetings in England and some rejigging of times and locations on the continent. The BHA's whip report was published last Tuesday sparking a predictably wide range of views being aired on both sides of the debate. While some believe that by enforcing changes racing is pandering to those who don't understand the sport and need educating as to horse...

Just when you thought a fully-charged Royal Ascot couldn't be topped, along came Hollie Doyle.  The royal meeting was sadly missing The Queen for all five days this year but, France's republican tendencies aside, there are few in the racing world who would deny that Doyle is now the queen of Chantilly after reaching yet another milestone to become the first woman to ride a Group 1 Classic winner in Europe. Her great triumph came aboard Nashwa (GB) (Frankel {GB}) for Imad Al Sagar, who was achieving an important landmark...

It hasn't been a bad week for William Haggas. The Somerville Lodge stable cat has recently gone AWOL for fear that he might be entered up at Catterick and would have to live up to the extraordinarily rich vein of form currently being exhibited by the larger quadrupeds whose fetlocks he rubs up against during evening stables. Over the last fortnight 41 horses have been sent out by the trainer and 17 of them have returned home with a trophy to add to the cabinet. Most impressively, 10 of those...

No first-season sire has made an impact with his runners on the track quite like Havana Grey (GB) (Havana Gold {Ire}) has and, for all that Ed Harper of Whitsbury Manor Stud is petrified to tempt fate, he agreed that the early signs are hugely positive for their up-and-coming stallion. Havana Grey was a brilliant 2-year-old himself, winning the G3 Molecomb S. before finishing runner-up in the G1 Prix Morny and G2 Flying Childers S., but it wasn't until the end of his 3-year-old campaign until he recorded his greatest...

Even at this early stage of the season, we can be forgiven for mentally fast-forwarding to the first weekend of June at Epsom. It is after all the best weekend of the year, featuring the best race of the year.  There are plans afoot in Newmarket - plans being mooted by the Jockey Club, no less - to dig up one of the best turf gallops on the Heath to install a new all-weather racecourse and training facility. At a time when there's concern as to having enough horses to...

From bringing its largest draft of 26 foals to the Tattersalls December Sale in 2020, Mickley Stud's consignment for this week has almost doubled in size again to 50 weanlings.  It may be time-consuming for prospective buyers to work their way through this batch of youngsters down in the Solario Yard but it could also prove worthwhile. In 2015, Mickley's Richard Kent and his co-breeder, the late Lady Caroline Lonsdale, brought a Havana Gold (Ire) foal to sell who went on to become the Group 1-winning sprinter and young Whitsbury...

Showcasing (GB), the sire of three Group 1 winners with five sons at stud, will remain at £45,000 at Whitsbury Manor Stud for the 2022 season. Announcing the fees for his five stallions, stud director Ed Harper said, "Following last year's downward adjustment of our fees due to Covid we have decided to keep our fees similar to last year. We are delighted that so many of our clients have had great success at the sales and feel it's important to maintain value commercial stallion options for breeders." He added,...

By Chris McGrath NEWMARKET, UK--Well, maybe these guys just don't have radios or newspapers. Maybe they haven't heard about the challenges at least affecting the domestic environment: chronic deficiencies in prizemoney, new volatility in the economic landscape. Or perhaps the international investors who might be relatively immune to such concerns have forced even the local market to new highs by putting such a squeeze into Books 1 and 2. Who knows? Just conceivably, this show of faith in our industry could yet prove the foundation for a sustainable bull run....

DONCASTER, UK--The desire of John Dance to develop Manor House Stud into a major force was well on show during the first day of the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale in Doncaster yesterday as the owner came out on top at £120,000 for the session-topper (lot 109), a well-related son of Dark Angel (Ire). While the day's ceiling was a far cry from the record high of £440,000 achieved in 2019 by the Kingman (GB) colt Admiral Nelson (GB), no one could dispute the vibrancy of a trade that wound...

NEWMARKET, UK-They say that necessity is the mother of invention. The very fact that Tattersalls is contriving to stage the December Sale, while adapting to the strictures of lockdown, attests to that axiom. And so, too, did the fact that the highest bid of the second session was made online--by someone who was actually on site, and could have dived into the ring in an emergency. That resourceful gentleman proved to be Gerard Lowry of Oneliner Stables, who emerged from the cloak of cyber anonymity after the hammer came down...

Whitsbury Manor Stud announced the stud fees for its five stallions in 2021. Heading the roster is Showcasing (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}--Arabesque {GB}, by Zafonic), who will stand for a reduced fee of ₤45,000, Oct. 1 SLF. "Our industry finds itself in uncertain times and it is vital that we act accordingly," said Ed Harper, Director of Whitsbury Manor Stud. "We have therefore listened to our clients and chosen to drop the fees of our three highest priced stallions to offer the best possible value to breeders and keep the...

When starting off a new stallion, an important part of inspiring confidence in outside breeders is for the horse's home farm to be giving him plenty of support. This is routinely the case at Whitsbury Manor Stud, where the pedigrees of their stakes-winning offspring are liberally spiced with names from its own roster on both sides. Take, for example, the two group winners from the first crop of Due Diligence last season. Both Good Vibes (GB) and Streamline (GB) were bred at Whitsbury Manor from daughters of the farm's late...