Mehmas

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...

The European breeze-up sector prides itself as a source of quality, a notion that held particular weight in 2021 as graduates Native Trail (Fr) (Oasis Dream {GB}) and Perfect Power (Ire) (Ardad {Ire}) signed off their juvenile campaigns with victories in the G1 Dewhurst S. and G1 Middle Park S. Added to that, various graduates are currently more than holding their own at stud. This isn't a new development--older representatives such as Society Rock (Ire) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}) and Paco Boy (Ire) (Desert Style {Ire}) each sired Group 1...

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...

KILDARE, Ireland--The fourth and final day of the Goffs Foal Sale saw prices return to a more affordable level for the average working man or woman, and while there were no dizzying highs there was a decent level of trade for those present. With an extra day of foals compared to last year, Thursday was always going to test the resilience of the market and not surprisingly the clearance rate dropped a couple of points from the day before to 79% while the session topper, a Mehmas (Ire) colt, fetched...

John Hayes went to the Goffs November Foal Sale of 2007 on a mission. Though he had grown up on a dairy farm with working horses and had himself dabbled in breeding horses for showing and eventing, this time it was a filly foal he was after, his first Thoroughbred and one he eventually hoped to breed from. Hayes landed on a daughter of Indian Ridge (GB) out of the G1 Oaks d'Italia winner Nydrion (Critique). That €25,000 investment has paid back dividends, with two of Sophie Germain's first three...

Last year's G1 Middle Park S. winner Supremacy (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}-Triggers Broom {Ire}, by Arcano {Ire}) will enter stud at Yeomanstown Stud next year. A fee will be announced at a later date. England's highest-rated 2-year-old of 2020, Supremacy also won the G2 Richmond S. for owner Jason Goddard and trainer Clive Cox. With a rating of 118, he is the highest-rated son of Mehmas and hails from the prolific family of Group 1 winner Xtension (Ire) and champion sprinter Harry Angel (Ire). "Supremacy is just pure class," said Cox....

DONCASTER, UK--The desire of John Dance to develop Manor House Stud into a major force was well on show during the first day of the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale in Doncaster yesterday as the owner came out on top at £120,000 for the session-topper (lot 109), a well-related son of Dark Angel (Ire). While the day's ceiling was a far cry from the record high of £440,000 achieved in 2019 by the Kingman (GB) colt Admiral Nelson (GB), no one could dispute the vibrancy of a trade that wound...

There are banners along the High Street of my home town of Newmarket saying 'Welcome back to racing'. Though we've been fortunate in England to have been able to allow crowds gradually to return to racecourses earlier than some other countries, it has only really been in the last few weeks that it has felt like the proper pre-pandemic experience. And where better to have the people back in force than at York, widely regarded by many to be the best racecourse in the country? Any amount of time spent...