Mehmas

Shadwell will announce details relating to Baaeed (GB)'s stud career later this week, according to the owner-breeder's racing manager Angus Gold, who also revealed that Group 1-winning sprinter Minzaal (Ire) will be joining their roster ahead of the next year's breeding season. However, Baaeed's brother Hukum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}), whose career hung in the balance after he suffered an injury when winning the G1 Coronation Cup at Epsom, returned to training with Owen Burrows on Monday and is expected to make a return to the track in 2023....

NEWMARKET, UK-It is going to require a Herculean effort to plunder the best of what is on offer at Tattersalls, according to leading bloodstock agent Alex Elliott who, on the eve of the eagerly-anticipated Book 1 session, described the stock on offer as being "the cream of the crop".  With Sheikh Mohommad, Sheikha Hissa Hamdan Al Maktoum, Aidan O'Brien, John Gosden, Yoshito Tahagi, Chad Brown and a host of American and foreign buyers in attendance at Newmarket on Monday, Elliott is expecting more mayhem in the sales ring this week. ...

Minzaal (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}), the brilliant G1 Sprint Cup winner at Haydock last Saturday, has been forced into retirement after sustaining a slab fracture en route to recording that career highlight. The news comes as a bitter blow to his trainer Owen Burrows, who earlier this season also had to retire his breakthrough Group 1 winner Hukum (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}). Like Hukum, Minzaal is owned by Shadwell, whose racing manager Angus Gold confirmed the news on Wednesday morning. He said, "I'm afraid it's not very good news. I'm...

NEWMARKET, UK--There are plenty of troubling stories out in the big wide world at the moment, but buyers at the yearling sales so far this season appear not to be concerned or affected by a cost-of-living-crisis, with the Tattersalls Somerville Sale the latest to benefit from a boom in demand for young stock. The Somerville is only in its second year but it has already been pegged as an important fixture in the run of yearling sales and the 2022 renewal posted huge gains in all sectors. Four six-figure lots...

The first major yearling sale of the autumn in Britain or Ireland, the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale provided entertainment from the beginning to the end, but most importantly, boasted impressive figures. Brian Sheerin was in attendance and discusses the major talking points from the sale. Figures on the up The team at Goffs UK could hardly have wished for a better start to the Premier Yearling Sale. The day one figures were off the charts. Of the 218 lots offered on Tuesday, 199 were sold, representing a clearance rate...

In winning her maiden by almost ten lengths on debut at Keeneland, Queen Mary favourite Love Reigns (Ire) (US Navy Flag) tore to shreds what many people thought possible for an unraced 2-year-old filly in the month of April. There would have been more competition had Real Madrid taken to the field against a bunch of schoolboys such was the authority of the display. Love Reigns burst into the lead from stall one, powered home to win unchallenged, and the clock backed up what filled the eye. Not even Golden...

Two legends of Irish racing will join forces for the first time this season after Jim Bolger revealed that he has a 2-year-old filly by Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) in training with Kevin Prendergast. Bolger gave €31,000 for the recently named Roman Moon (Ire) after Prendergast recommended the filly at the Goffs Orby Sale last September and she is set to break new ground by becoming his first runner with the Friarstown operator. Roman Moon will carry the white and purple colours of Bolger's wife Jackie, once carried to major...

A few weeks ago the bookmaker Fitzdares made Dubawi (Ire) favourite to be champion sire this year for the first time, and perhaps no horse deserves it more than Darley's utterly dependable 20-year-old. However, the race to the top will not be easy, particularly judging by the apparent strength in depth of the challenge of Frankel's offspring for this year's major races. Though the reigning champion, as well as the Gosden stable and owner-breeders Cheveley Park Stud, were dealt a blow by the withdrawal of Inspiral (GB) from Sunday's QIPCO...

Tattersalls has released a catalogue of 163 juveniles for its Craven Breeze Up Sale, which takes place on Apr. 12 and 13 with the breeze happening on the Rowley Mile on Apr. 11. This year's graduates will have big shoes to fill, as last year's sale produced not only the champion 2-year-old and unbeaten G1 Dewhurst S. and G1 National S. winner Native Trail (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}), but also Group 2 winners Asymmetric (Ire) (Showcasing {GB}) and Go Bears Go (Ire) (Kodi Bear {Ire}). Among the Group 1 siblings...

Benoit Jeffroy's Haras de Castillon, a burgeoning force on the French racing and bloodstock scenes, burst into international prominence in December when it consigned the Group 1-winning Grand Glory (Ire) (Olympic Glory {Ire}) at the Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale, where she sold for €2.5-million. The quickly growing Castillon has only been in existence under its current guise since 2015, but the Jeffroy family has a history of breeding quality racehorses from their SCEA des Prairies, with just one recent example being Zelda (Fr) (Zelzal {Fr}), a listed winner last...

Following positive starts to the sales year in Britain and Ireland, this week the midwinter auction action switches to France for the two-day Arqana February Sale, which starts on Tuesday in Deauville. Trade begins with a session of 85 horses in training, both Flat and Jumps, and then progresses to yearlings and 2-year-olds, followed by breeding stock.  A rare opportunity in this part of the world to buy a daughter of Deep Impact (Jpn)'s promising young son Kizuna (Jpn) is presented by lot 164, from the draft of Wertheimer et...

As he prepares his runners for the upcoming flat season, Jim Bolger is also keeping a watchful eye on his breeding stock. The master trainer may be juggling the education of his runners with the oversight of his broodmares and youngstock, but Bolger has proven mighty adept at this kind of multi-tasking in the past: as has been well-documented, Bolger breeds many of his own runners, often going back two or three generations on both the top and bottom of the pedigree. His 2021 G1 2000 Guineas and G1 St...