Royal Ascot

"We bought the bar with a credit card," recalls Ken Donworth. "Forty thousand bucks, credit card debt at 20 percent. And we paid it off in three or four months." He shakes his head. "That was 1998. I don't think I'd do it now. So we did take risks, no doubt. But we didn't get caught on any of those slippery slopes." On the contrary. In a college town like Lexington, Donworth and his partners soon figured that policing their customers' age was more trouble than it was worth. So...

Ramatuelle (Justify--Raven's Lady {GB}, by Raven's Pass), a 'TDN Rising Star' and recent winner of the G1 Prix de la Foret Stakes at ParisLongchamp, headlines the latest group of supplemental entries to Fasig-Tipton's November Sale which will take place on Monday, Nov. 4 beginning at 2 p.m. ET in Lexington, Kentucky, the auction company said in a release early Friday morning. The 3-year-old daughter of the Triple Crown winner and top sire will be offered as hip 310, and is consigned as a racing/broodmare prospect by Bedouin Bloodstock, agent. Winner...

The inaugural Keeneland Championship Sale--part glitzy party, part horse auction--will be held in the Del Mar paddock Oct. 30, offering invitation-only attendees, as well as off-site bidders, the chance to become owners of horses running in the Breeders' Cup at the oceanside oval just days later. The catalogue for the auction was released Thursday, revealing full or fractional interests available in four Breeders' Cup contenders, as well as a stallion share in a fifth championship starter. The 12 offerings in the auction also include a half-sister to a Breeders' Cup...

Blood, sweat and tears. That is what it took Michael Halford to turn Copper Beech Stables from a green field site into one of the most renowned racing yards in Ireland. One from which Group 1 and Royal Ascot winners were sent out and where the trainer managed the careers of over 100 steeds in his pomp.  Halford has trained more than 1,000 winners in his 41-year career, almost 500 of which were managed from Copper Beech during 16 full seasons there, but dwindling numbers during Covid and the separation...

If you really do reap what you sow, then Gavin Cromwell is set for a bumper harvest. A cool €1 million has been injected into the trainer's County Meath stable in the past year alone and the green shoots have already been sighted with the runners who were readied on the trainer's new five-furlong hill gallop burning up the track of late. Important winners they were, too. Diego Ventura (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) has been snapped up by Wathnan Racing after scoring on debut at Naas while Gowran Park winner An...

Royal Ascot winner Rashabar (Ire) (Holy Roman Emperor {Ire}) is set for a step up in trip on his next start as connections of Brian Meehan's colt have identified the G1 National Stakes at the Curragh as a likely target for the shock 80-1 winner of the Coventry Stakes.  Rashabar came close to providing Meehan with a third success in the Prix Morny when narrowly failing to reel in Aidan O'Brien's Whistlejacket at Deauville earlier this month. "There's a fair few options, but we will be sticking in Group 1...

Royal Ascot-winning sprinter Asfoora (Aus) (Flying Artie {Aus}) has run her last race in Britain this year and will return home to Australia, her trainer Henry Dwyer confirmed on Monday. Asfoora became the latest sprinter from the southern hemisphere to strike at Royal Ascot when claiming the King Charles III Stakes and went on to finish a narrow second in a titanic battle with Big Evs at Goodwood, before bowing out in the Nunthorpe Stakes. She was an honourable fourth on the Knavesmire as Archie Watson's Bradsell blitzed his way...

Australia's darling racemare Black Caviar (Aus) (Bel Esprit {Aus}), who carved out a reputation as being one of the world's best sprinters following an unbeaten 25-race career, has died one day shy of her 18th birthday following laminitis disease.  The winner of 15 Group 1 races was humanely euthanised at the Scone Equine Hospital on Saturday morning after giving birth to a foal. "You don't think it affects you, but you are being stupid not to think it doesn't," her trainer Peter Moody told reporters at Caulfield, as reported by...

Mark Casse has had plenty of good horses in his career. His favorite is not all that surprising. He has had an audience with one of the most iconic people the world has ever seen. He is one of a select few to have been elected into Racing Hall of Fames in the U.S. and Canada. What does he do when he has a little down time? What's the deal with Tom Cruise? Read more in this week's Saratoga Conversation to find out. TDN: Correct me if I am wrong,...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y.--With his romp through mud in the opener at Saratoga Race Course Saturday, Reach for the Rose (Audible) hit the target that owner-breeder Ken Ramsey and trainer Saffie Joseph were aiming at. The 5 1/2-length victory in a $100,000 maiden special for 2-year-olds that had been taken off the turf gave colt his first career win and earnings of $55,000. Far more important for Ramsey and Joseph, the win in the one-mile race against three foes is a stepping stone to the $1 million Kentucky Downs Juvenile Sept....

ASCOT, UK -- Far from the madding crowd of the royal meeting, the exploits of those five heady days were still being celebrated at Ascot on Friday. And rightly so, for this was the day of the annual Royal Ascot winning breeders' lunch, a lovely touch from the racecourse to recognise those who make this great sport happen.  There's no one-upmanship here. Every breeder will tell you how much they need the owners - most of them are also owners themselves - and all the various participants in racing matter,...

Gabaldon (Gone Astray), a runner-up finisher in last month's Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot, will race for a new partnership after Qatar Racing privately acquired a 50 percent stake in the colt following Wednesday's Inglis Digital USA July Sale, the online auction company said in a Thursday release. Qatar Racing purchased 50 percent of the colt for $150,000, valuing him at $300,000, while original owner Soldi Stable will retain a 50 percent stake. Bloodstock agent Fergus Galvin brokered the deal on behalf of Qatar Racing. "Gabaldon's performance at Ascot...