Sadler's Wells

John Magnier's Irish-based Coolmore is dominating Britain. That's not hyperbole, either. How's this for an illustration? The Irish entity, which generally campaigns its runners under the various partnership colors of Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor, and Derrick Smith, has won an astonishing 25 of the past 49 British Classics over the last decade (see the accompanying charts of the five races), with the G1 St. Leger at Doncaster yet to be contested. And it's possible that the partners could win that race, perhaps with Love (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who followed up...

Last weekend was an extraordinary one for the great Galileo (Ire). A world-best 85th Group 1 winner with Peaceful (Ire) in the G1 Irish 1000 Guineas went along nicely with the top-level victories by his son Teofilo (Ire)'s unbeaten G1 Prix Saint Alary heroine Tawkeel (Ire), plus that of Sottsass (Fr)-out of Galileo mare Starlet's Sister (Ire)--in the G1 Prix Ganay. When the Danehill gelding Zipping became his sire's 84th Group 1 winner in the Australian Cup at Flemington on March 13, 2010, it seemed an unsurpassable record at the...

And still the arrow holds its course: that perfect blaze, tapered down from the fletching between his eyes until opening into the neatly pointed tip above his nostrils. His whole life has seemed to obey the inexorable momentum implied in that warpaint. Ever onwards, ever upwards. Sure enough, with perhaps the most telling of all his records secured outright by his daughter Peaceful (Ire) in the G1 Tattersalls Irish 1,000 Guineas on Saturday, Galileo (Ire) maintains his unwavering trajectory even into the evening of his career. With another spring of...

Irish highweight and MG1SW Ballingarry (Ire) (Sadler's Wells--Flamenco Wave, by Desert Wine) has passed away at Haras du Grand Chesnaie, Jour de Galop reported. The son of G1 Moyglare Stud S. heroine Flamenco Wave was 21. Bred by Orpendale, the April 1999 foal won the G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud for Aidan O'Brien and Coolmore, before adding a win in the GI Canadian International S. in 2002. That year he was named Irish highweighted 3-year-old colt for 14 furlongs and above, as he took the G2 Prix Noailles, and was second...

As the start of the flat season dawns, all eyes will be on Night Of Thunder (Ire). Can the champion first season sire maintain the dizzying momentum with which he rolled through 2019? Will the Guineas winner's first-crop train on as 3-year-olds, and will his second crop pick up the baton? Reflecting back on Night Of Thunder's performance last year-which placed him among the best first-season sires in recent memory-a glaring trend is apparent among his progeny: all four of his pattern-race winners, and six of his nine stakes winners,...

Inbreeding to successful sires can become unavoidable at times when there is a strong run on a very successful stallion and his sons. Just look at what has happened in Australia with Danehill. And Sadler's Wells presents a similar challenge in Europe. There is no evidence that commercial buyers pay much attention to whether a prospective purchase is closely inbred. As long as they tick all the other boxes, it hard to imagine them walking away on account of a foal or yearling carrying duplicate lines of a preeminent sire...