Shalaa

Mehmas (Ire), Shalaa (Ire) and The Gurkha (Ire) jointly head Fitzdares's market for champion first-season sire of 2020 at 5-1. Also featuring prominently are Territories (Ire) (6-1) and Pride of Dubai (Aus) (8-1) as well as Adaay (Ire), Awtaad (Ire) and Twilight Son (GB), all at 12-1. The odds are for win only, with the champion first-season sire to be determined by number of winners. "This year's market has an open look with co-favourites Mehmas and Shalaa having plenty of firepower to go on the track," said Glyn Warne, head...

For the stallions with first-crop 2-year-olds of 2020, the guessing game is effectively over. The market has offered up its opinions at the foal and yearling levels--for some, reputations have been enhanced even before their firstborns bore tack. For others, the market has nearly already decided their fate. Irrespective of what happened in the ring, however, a great many first-crop 2-year-olds are now in the hands of their trainers, and we have just mere months to wait before the most precocious of those begin to show their hands. In the...