Make Believe

Ballylinch Stud has released the fees for its five stallions, with its flagship sire Lope De Vega (Ire) receiving an increase in price to €175,000, up from €125,000, though he is set to cover a smaller number of mares in 2025. "Lope de Vega continues to prove himself as a global sire sensation," said Ballylinch Stud's managing director John O'Connor. "He has again proven his effectiveness at the very highest level with the most Group 1 winners, European Classic winners, and black-type horses of any stallion worldwide this season. His...

Do you want to feel old? It's over a decade since a baby-faced Connor King burst onto the scene in Ireland and landed Champion Flat Apprentice titles in 2013 and 2015.  King rode winners for some of the biggest names in the sport but his career on the Flat was cruelly cut short when he started to fill into his massive frame. In short, nature took its course.  After a spell riding under National Hunt rules, King is now concentrating fully on training winners rather than riding them, and sent...

A person whose job it is to promote horse racing was, rather disappointingly, being sniffy about the Craven meeting on social media last week. I understand that some people don't like racing at the Rowley Mile and, yes, last Tuesday in particular was a little challenging on the weather front. But if you're a Flat racing person, and particularly one who is being paid to tell other people that they should come racing, then you really should appreciate all that is wonderful about these weeks of Classic trials across Europe....

Lope De Vega (Ire), whose new top-level winners in 2023 include Program Trading (GB) and Arapaho (Fr), has had his fee held at €125,000 for the fourth year. Four of the Ballylinch Stud stallions will stand in 2024 at the same price as they were advertised this year, while the fee for Waldgeist (GB) has been reduced. Ballylinch Stud's managing director John O'Connor said, "The Ballylinch stallion roster had another flagship year in 2023, with our proven sires Lope de Vega, New Bay and Make Believe being responsible for some...

Less than a week on from that scintillating display in the G2 Flying Childers S. at Doncaster, the connections of Big Evs (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) were reinvesting at the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale on a Lope De Vega (Ire) filly for €190,000.  Fitting that it was a Blue Point half-sister, the Jessica Harrington-trained Bluedrum (Ire), who provided the page with a timely update when running out an ultra-impressive winner of a maiden at Naas last week.  She looks destined for black-type races and Conor Quirke, who purchased the...

On a crisp, bright morning at Ballylinch Stud last week, there was just cause for enthusiasm from managing director John O'Connor, and not just for the tea and cake on the table in front of us.  Not much more than a hop, skip and a jump from the office, via a path right past the headstone of The Tetrarch, the stallion yard is about to crank into top gear as the mares start rolling in for the season. There may only be four stallions, but there will be plenty of...

Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}), the world's joint highest-rated horse and the six-length winner of last month's G1 Juddmonte International, will bypass the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe on Oct. 3 and instead point in the G1 Champion S. at Ascot on Oct. 16, Racing Post reports. "After discussions with owner Prince Faisal it has been decided that Mishriff will have his next race in the Qipco Champion S. at Ascot," said trainer John Gosden. "We feel we should stick to a mile and a quarter with him rather...

Although his first crop is just four this year, Make Believe (GB) has made an impressive start at stud with his flagbearer, Mishriff (Ire), backing up his Classic-winning year with a recent win in the Saudi Cup. With the flat season due to start in a few weeks, racing pundits are already guessing at what possible route the winner of the world's richest race might take this year. For Make Believe, the breeding season has started in a strong vein and the team at Ballylinch Stud, where the sire stands,...

Saudi Cup winner Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}) will make his next appearance in the G1 Dubai Sheema Classic on Dubai World Cup night at Meydan on Mar. 27, Racing Post reports. After winning the world's richest race in his second try on the dirt, the 4-year-old Mishriff had been considered a leading candidate for the $12-million G1 Dubai World Cup, but he will instead return to the turf for the $6-million Sheema Classic and step up to a mile and a half for the first time. Mishriff won the...

The $20-million Saudi Cup had been billed as a showdown between the brilliant American Grade I winners Charlatan (Speightstown) and Knicks Go (Paynter), but when the dust settled on the world's richest horse race it was the John Gosden-trained, Prince Faisal homebred Mishriff (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}) who stole the show to a raucous reception in his owner/breeders homeland. Breaking smartly from gate 12 under 21-year-old jockey David Egan, the G1 Prix du Jockey Club winner Mishriff-who also ventured to Riyadh to finish second in the Saudi Derby on this...

One day after racing resumed in Britain on June 1, Mehmas (Ire) notched his first winner in the country less than an hour after he had recorded his first ever winner, in Italy. From thereon, the Tally-Ho Stud resident was pulling double all season, opening up an easy lead over his fellow European freshmen and bossing his way to a new first-season sire record which, with 56 winners, was 17 clear of that previously held by Iffraaj (GB). It is, frankly, a staggering tally, with 101 of his 121 named...

Dubawi (Ire) being a good stallion is not exactly a newsflash. The increasingly interesting element of his success, however, is his growing number of sons and grandsons making a mark at stud. Dubawi's own season has been headlined by the Group 1 winners Ghaiyyath (Ire), Lord North (Ire) and Space Blues (Ire), while G2 Superlative S. winner Master Of The Seas (Ire) looks to be one of the more exciting juveniles seen out in Europe so far. In this year's freshman sires' championship, Ballylinch Stud's son of Dubawi, New Bay...