Holy Roman Emperor

We're not quite halfway through the Flat season but Royal Ascot feels like a pivotal point. It's not just the fact that it coincides with the summer solstice (even though summer has really only just arrived in these parts) but it includes the first properly meaningful two-year-old contests along with a set of races for the Classic generation which start to underline the really serious prospects. While the yearling sales may tell one story of the popularity of stallions, one only needs to peruse the stakes race results on a...

Having started with the new stallions for 2024, we are continuing the series with those in the lower price tier beneath the fee of 10,000, whether in euros or sterling. For the benefit of this piece we are treating them as one and the same, despite the current exchange rate of £1 = €1.16. This is the territory inhabited by many small breeders, and in plenty of cases the margins between operating at a profit and a loss are very tight indeed.  I am reminded here of a particularly interesting...

A decade on from selling Designs On Rome (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) to Hong Kong, where he became a Group 1-winning machine and recorded over €5 million in prize-money in that jurisdiction, Pat Flynn is predicting his latest Far East export Starspangledwaves (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) to be destined for a similarly bright future. Flynn has been training for over 40 years and is perhaps best known for sending out Supreme Novices' Hurdle winners Montelado (GB) and French Ballerina (Ire) in the nineties.  The 66-year-old revealed that the sale of...

What did you get up to during the lockdown? Did you finally build that patio that you promised you'd complete years ago? Maybe you took up exercising? Or did you go searching for a broodmare after one of her sons put up an eye-catching performance on the track only to find her pulling carts in Belgium and, after initially being told that she's not for sale, did you finally strike a deal for the price of a small second-hand car? Thought not. Kevin Blake, the popular ITV racing pundit and...

Two legends of Irish racing will join forces for the first time this season after Jim Bolger revealed that he has a 2-year-old filly by Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) in training with Kevin Prendergast. Bolger gave €31,000 for the recently named Roman Moon (Ire) after Prendergast recommended the filly at the Goffs Orby Sale last September and she is set to break new ground by becoming his first runner with the Friarstown operator. Roman Moon will carry the white and purple colours of Bolger's wife Jackie, once carried to major...

The first Classics of the year are in the book: four in total, in Britain and Italy. Charlie Appleby sends out major winners with such metronomic regularity that it is easy to forget that there was a time when the Godolphin blue silks were a scarcity in Classic fields.  Having gone so close in last year's 2000 Guineas with Master Of The Seas (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), who was narrowly denied by the Jim Bolger-trained Poetic Flare (Ire) (Dawn Approach {Ire}), Appleby left nothing to chance this year when aiming both...

As breeding sheds prepare to swing open their doors in the coming weeks, we bring you the final installment of our 2021 Value Sires series. Gone are the days of dissecting sales averages and speculating on the comments of the judges; these elder statesmen have proven their mettle on the racecourse, and a few of them are even available at their lowest ever fees. While value exists in all price brackets and for all budgets, we have chosen to limit the scope of this analysis to stallions standing in Europe...

Classic winner Romanised (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}-Romantic Venture {Ire}, by Indian Ridge {Ire}) has been retired from racing and will enter stud in 2021 at Haras de Bouquetot in Normandy, France, for a fee of €7,000. Campaigned by Robert Ng and trained by Ken Condon, Romanised won at first asking in April of his 2-year-old campaign and was second to eventual G1 Derby winner Masar (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) in the G3 Solario S. that fall. He sprang a 25-1 upset when beating US Navy Flag (War Front) in...

On the back of the eagerly anticipated stallion fee announcements in Europe, Gary King spoke with a number of leading industry figures about value. Today we hear from Jacqueline Norris of Jockey Hall Stud. GK: Who have you identified as a first-year stallion at an appealing opening fee? JN: I think Earthlight (Ire) looks to be well priced at €20,000, as a dual Group 1-winning son of the great Shamardal. I am really looking forward to seeing him and am hoping to send him a nice mare. I think Shamardal...

Back in 2006, when the first two flashed past the winning post in the G1 Dewhurst S., they also earned themselves first and second places on the European Two-Year-Old Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings. Galileo's unbeaten son Teofilo topped the table by 1lb from Danehill's dual Group 1-winning son Holy Roman Emperor, who had also been beaten into second place by Teofilo in the G1 National S. Holy Roman Emperor, for his part, had won four of his remaining five starts, notably taking the G1 Phoenix S. and the G1 Prix Jean-Luc...

In the space of a fortnight, Shadai Stallion Station lost its two flagship stallions, Deep Impact (Jpn) on July 30, and King Kamehameha (Jpn) on Aug.10. The pair won back-to-back runnings of the Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) in 2004 and 2005. A year older than Deep Impact at 18, King Kamehameha had been pensioned earlier this year and his legacy at stud was outlined by Kelsey Riley in Saturday's TDN. Losing two such heavyweights in the same year is doubtless a blow to Shadai but in Japan's stallion table for...

The Frankie Dettori show, which diverted to Killarney midweek, moves on to The Curragh on Saturday with 'TDN Rising Star' Star Catcher (GB) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) the key actress in the G1 Kerrygold Irish Oaks. Untried in Classic company unlike some of her contemporaries, Anthony Oppenheimer's homebred proved her quality with a defeat of the G1 Epsom Oaks third Fleeting (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) in a strong renewal of the G2 Ribblesdale S. at Royal Ascot June 20. Staying on powerfully at the end of her first try at a...