Laura Vanska

Sunday at Longchamp was a day for firsts. A Classic victory for Rouhiya (Fr) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches was an important milestone in the partnership between trainer Francis Graffard and the Aga Khan's powerful racing and breeding operation. Then came a first Classic in his adopted home country for 34-year-old Mario Barrati when Metropolitan (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}) landed the Poulains, a year after the Italian trainer had won the German 2,000 Guineas with Angers (Fr) (Seabhac). But perhaps most notable of all, especially as...

Completing a treble of shocks on Sunday's ParisLongchamp card, Alain Jathiere and Christine Guilbert's Birthe (Ire) (Study Of Man {Ire}--Barakaat {Fr}, by Lope De Vega {Ire}) belied odds of 11-1 when upstaging her peers to take the G2 St Mark's Basilica Coolmore Prix Saint-Alary. Coming off a win in Toulouse's Listed Prix Caravelle last month, the Laura Vanska trainee who cost a mere €10,000 at the Goffs Autumn Yearling Sale was settled on the rail early by Aurelien Lemaitre tracking the leading duo. Sent up the cutaway to take over...

Haras du Bois, a breaking-in, pre-training, and spelling facility, has been acquired by Haras d'Etreham, the stud announced on Thursday. Located 30 minutes from Deauville in the direction of Caen, Haras du Bois has three barns with almost 40 stalls, three lunging rings, a horse-walker, a six-furlong all-weather track, a five-furlong straight sand track and 40 hectares of paddocks and fields surrounded by several forest tracks. Breaking and pre-training specialists Laura Vanska and Nicolas Leroch, will be responsible for Haras du Bois. Vanska, a 2015 Godolphin Flying Start graduate, holds...

An unnamed colt from the first crop of Mehmas (Ire) was the leading flat offering from Monday's Arqana Summer Sale, with lot 13 hammered down to Nicky Bertran de Balanda for €100,000. Mehmas currently leads the European first-season sires table by winners with nine and he registered his first stakes winner on the weekend when Method (Ire) took the Listed Rose Bowl S. This colt's dam is a half-sister to the dam of GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile winner Vale Of York (Ire). De Balanda said, "He's a lovely colt. His...