Ireland

The Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale holds the unique distinction of being the only yearling sale to take place in Ireland in 2020, and the catalogue for the 2020 edition is now online. Slated for Kildare Paddocks on Nov. 4-5, the sale will offer 461 yearlings, with 61 lots originally from the Goffs Sportsman's Sale that did not travel to the UK. Past graduates include group winners Laws of Indices (Ire) (Power {GB}) and Elysium (Ire) (Belardo {Ire}). Many established sires are represented, among them Acclamation (GB), Australia (GB), Dandy Man...

Tattersalls Cheltenham will not be hosting the rest of its 2020 sales fixtures at Cheltenham Racecourse due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Instead, the Cheltenham November Sale will take place at Fairyhouse in Ireland on Nov. 12. Park Paddocks will host the Cheltenham December Sale on Dec. 3 and there will be an alternative Cheltenham December Sale back at Fairyhouse on Dec. 17. The Oct. 23 Tattersalls Cheltenham October Sale has been cancelled. "Whilst we naturally look forward to returning to Cheltenham Racecourse as soon as restrictions allow, this solution...

The 2020-2022 Godolphin Flying Start trainees began their two-year course at Kildangan Stud in Ireland on Aug. 17, Godolphin Flying Start announced on Thursday. Due to COVID-19, the first two weeks of the course were remote while trainees quarantined for two weeks. Since beginning their course, the trainees have completed ICT and communications training and started their Equine Anatomy and Physiology module at University College Dublin online. Also during the Irish portion of their course, they will take a short course at the Racing Academy and Centre of Education before...

Goffs has announced that its forthcoming Land Rover Sale of National Hunt store horses will take place in Ireland as planned despite a failed bid to have certain overseas buyers made exempt from the country's 14-day quarantine requirement for visitors. Tattersalls Ireland's Derby and May Store Sales will also go ahead as planned at Fairyhouse on Aug. 18 and 19 and Aug. 20, respectively. The sale is set to take place next week on Aug. 12 and 13 and only incoming visitors from 'Green List' countries' will not have had...

Trainers Aidan and Donnacha O'Brien have been fined €2,500 each and prohibited from attending race meetings in Ireland for two weeks for failing to enter The Curragh through the health screening area at a meeting last month. The pair were found to have breached coronavirus health screening protocols at the County Kildare course on June 12, which was G1 Irish 2000 Guineas day during the week racing resumed in Ireland. The matter was heard by the referrals panel of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board on Monday. A tweet from the...

The last week of June remains the most likely date for the combined Goffs UK/Arqana combined breeze-up sale. After the Irish Government's lockdown roadmap was released on Friday and with the UK's position to become clearer on Thursday, all European breeze-up sales will be discussed with Tattersalls. The three sales companies are working to harmonise the breeze-up sales calendar and are preparing for more than one outcome as provisional plans pertaining to the resumption of racing in the UK, Ireland are under discussion, with France to begin on May 11....

The resurfacing of the track at Dundalk, Ireland's only all-weather track, is proceeding nicely, reported the venue's chief executive Jim Martin. "We said that we would have it done by June 15 and are well on target for that so we can race on July 12," he said. "The month period before starting racing here again will give everyone the chance to have a look and to have trial runs with horses galloping on it. "This is the time of the year to get work done on all-weather tracks. It's...

A new protocol for safe mare movement during the breeding season was announced by the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association on Sunday. Despite Irish racing being halted on Mar. 24 due to the COVID-19 outbreak and Ireland beginning its own lockdown, breeding practices are allowed to continue. The ITBA statement is as follows: When transporting your mare to stud/boarding farm breeders should make sure they have one official form of picture identification with them and if an employee, have a letter from your employer indicating that you are an essential employee....

At 8 p.m. Saturday evening, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced stricter social distancing measures due to the coronavirus, and that all places non-essential to French living including restaurants, cafes, cinemas and clubs, will be closed beginning at midnight on Saturday, Jour de Galop reported. At this time, French racecourses, which are currently racing without spectators for the foreseeable future, will remain open. France Galop's President Edouard de Rothschild and Managing Director Olivier Delloye both confirmed late Saturday evening to the JDG that racing will continue in "closed camera" mode,...

Champion Too Darn Hot (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), G1 Investec Derby hero Masar (Ire) (New Approach {Ire}) and MG1SW Blue Point (Ire) (Shamardal) have all had their first mares scanned in foal, Darley announced on Wednesday. A winner of the G1 Dewhurst S., Too Darn Hot stands alongside French G1SP Masar at Darley's Dalham Hall Stud near Newmarket, while 2019 Cartier Champion Sprinter Blue Point, who won four Group 1 races and two at Royal Ascot last term, is at Darley's Irish base, Kildangan Stud. They command fees of £50,000, £15,000...

Tuesday sees Goffs kick off its 2020 sales year with the two-day February Sale consisting of yearlings, 2-year-olds, older horses, horses-in-training, breeding stock and even a stallion prospect in the 2017 G1 Goffs Vincent O'Brien National S. winner Verbal Dexterity (Ire) (Vocalised). The 5-year-old will be offered late in the day on Wednesday through his owner/breeder/trainer Jim Bolger's Glebe House Stables as lot 545. This is the second year in a row the February Sale has been compressed into two days having been a three-day event in both 2017 and...

John Dance's MG1SW Laurens (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), a six-time Group 1 winner, will visit the court of Invincible Spirit (Ire) (Green Dancer) in 2020, Salcey Forest Stud announced via Twitter Tuesday morning. The Karl Burke trainee, who captured the G1 Fillies' Mile at two, the G1 Prix Saint-Alary, G1 Prix de Diane, G1 Matron S. and G1 Sun Chariot S. at three and the 2019 G1 Prix Rothschild, was originally due to be covered by Coolmore Stud's No Nay Never (Scat Daddy). "Off she goes... our queen," tweeted the Warwickshire-based...