Mayson

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...

Mayson (GB) has been sold to his part-owner and breeder David Armstrong and will leave Cheveley Park Stud after completing 11 breeding seasons.  The 15-year-old son of Invincible Spirit (Ire) is out of the Pivotal (GB) mare Mayleaf (GB) and won five of his 18 starts for Richard Fahey, including the G1 July Cup and G3 Palace House S., as well as being beaten just a neck when second in the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye. At stud, he has been represented by the G1 King's Stand S. and July Cup...

It never bodes well when a trainer starts an interview with the words, "I don't really like doing interviews." This, from Richard Fahey, was far less intimidating, however, than when TDN went to interview David Elsworth some years ago to be greeted by him marching across the yard and stating, "I'm in a murderous mood." I Having mercifully escaped from Egerton House Stables unscathed to live to annoy many more trainers, our recent mission to Malton was a comparative cakewalk.  For a start, it would be impossible for either interviewer...

First job in the Thoroughbred industry? Working for Tom Goff and Luke Lillingston doing the yearling sales in the USA and UK.   Biggest influence on your career? Hugo Palmer. Working for six seasons from when he had 30 horses to training Classic winners.   Favourite racehorse of all time, and why? It has to be Cachet, beyond my wildest dreams to train a Classic winner in my third season for Highclere.   Who will be champion first-season sire in 2023? He might not have the most winners but I...

Rohaan (Ire) (Mayson {GB}) will head to Hong Kong after he finished a creditable fourth behind Kinross (GB) (Kingman {GB}) in the G1 British Champions Sprint, his trainer David Evans has revealed. A kinder draw may have resulted in an even better performance from the Ascot specialist on Saturday, according to Evans, who is now concentrating on an international campaign with his stable star. He said, "It was a bit awkward really. We didn't really know which side they were going to go and we didn't have the pace to...

The ascent of Frankel (GB) to the head of the stallion ranks in Britain and Ireland was documented in some details in Monday's TDN, and it has lent a touch of poignancy coming in the year in which his great sire Galileo (Ire) left us. In the extraordinarily long reigns of both Sadler's Wells and his son Galileo we have become accustomed to having a superstar stallion in our midst, and Frankel will do well if he is to come anywhere close to the 14 sires' championships of Sadler's Wells...

Oxted (GB) (Mayson {GB}) will prepare for a domestic campaign, including a defense of the G1 July Cup, after finishing seventh while trying dirt for the first time in the Riyadh Dirt Sprint last Saturday. "It all happened a bit quick for him," said trainer Roger Teal of Saturday's race. "He just never got to travel. Everything happened a million miles an hour and he was just taken out of his comfort zone a bit. The draw didn't help. It forced us to go a bit more forward than we...

A sea of blue dominated winner's enclosures in Britain and France this week, largely owing to the successful season currently being enjoyed by Sheikh Mohammed's Godolphin operation and Sheikh Hamdan's Shadwell team. The brothers occupy the top two slots in the owners' table in Britain, and Godolphin is also currently the leading owner in France. While Sheikh Mohammed has a significant number of horses in Chantilly with Andre Fabre, who oversaw the successful return of France's champion 2-year-old of last year, Earthlight (Ire) (Shamardal), in the Listed Prix Kistena, it...