John Cullinan

Outside the racing world it was impossible not to be moved over the last week by the commemorative ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Plenty of people in the bloodstock business will be familiar with the lovely countryside around Deauville, best known to us as home to France's Thoroughbred breeding heartland. The serenity of rural Normandy makes it hard to comprehend the appalling ravages of war that were played out there on the beaches and in the bocage all those decades ago.  I would urge anyone who is a...

NEWMARKET, UK--"If we don't believe in our stallions, who will?" So said breeder and consignor Ed Harper after topping the second day of foal trade at Tattersalls, though in the case of lot 793, the sire in question, this season's leading freshman Havana Grey (GB), has already garnered the support of plenty of breeders and buyers. But to justify the day's top price tag of 250,000gns at this stage of his young life, the colt had to have plenty more going for him, and his half-brother Dragon Symbol (GB) (Cable...

It is unlikely that Arqana will want to make South Yorkshire the permanent home for its breeze-up sale, but swapping Deauville for Doncaster worked perfectly well last year and, with ongoing tricky travel conditions, the return to the Goffs UK complex in 2021 was perhaps inevitable. Owing to the relative lateness of last year's sale--which was held several weeks  after Royal Ascot on July 1--and the change of location, only 77 juveniles stood their ground, but the returns were good for those vendors who held their nerve. Having been staged...

Breeze-up consignor Roger Marley works in partnership with John Cullinan through their Church Farm & Horse Park Stud banner. The duo has been responsible for pinhooking and breezing such talented juveniles as G2 Flying Childers S winner Ubettabelieveit (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) and Mehmas (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), the record-breaking champion first-season sire of 2020. Currently preparing a team of around 40 juveniles from his Yorkshire base, Marley gave us his thoughts on some of this year's freshman sires and reflected on Mehmas's progression from a 62,000gns Tattersalls Book 2 yearling to...

LEXINGTON, KY-With the breeze-up sales having been thrown into turmoil in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic this spring, Yorkshire trainer Nigel Tinkler found himself with an important decision in his hands. Breeze-up consignors Roger Marley and John Cullinan, like others in the sector, had begun offering some of their pinhooks privately in an effort to soften the financial blows of the global economic crisis, and Tinkler was offered his choice of colts by Kodiac (GB) and Dandy Man (Ire) for his clients Martin and Lisa Webb. "We had the...

In an ordinary year, the breeze-up consignors, just like any trainer targeting a race, would have a sale date in mind for each horse under their care and work backwards from that date in tailoring the horses' preparation. This year, of course, is anything but ordinary. Along with sweeping date changes to the breeze-up sales calendar, auctions have either been relocated or, in the case of the Osarus Breeze-up, will be held solely online. Goffs UK and Arqana have taken the sensible approach of moving sales that were due to...

The breeze-ups can't seem to catch a break. Europe's 2-year-old sales suffered a nosedive in fortunes in 2018-a combination of polarization and oversubscription causing figures to plummet-but the market bounced back in 2019 in buoyant fashion. The breeze-up pinhookers, already surely some of the thickest-skinned players in the game, soldiered on, stocking up their barns at the yearling sales to take another shot in 2020, when the renaissance of the 2-year-old sales would surely continue. And then, along came a pandemic. "There is a lot of concern out there given...