Shareholder

How has your year gone? With the holidays approaching in earnest, it's not uncommon for American families to send a letter to loved ones sharing highlights from their year. If a stallion were to do that, Not This Time's letter might go something like this: Dear Friends and Family, It's been another great year! One son set the North American record on grass for 5 1/2 furlongs and has been billed as "the fastest horse in the world." Another couldn't be beaten at marathons on the dirt. Yet another was...

They pride themselves on their professionalism and were duly mortified when a yearling colt by Tapizar somehow ended up with a nail in a hoof. Worse still, shortly afterwards his full sister--sold at Keeneland the previous September for $100,000--made a winning debut at Horseshoe Indianapolis. The mare was coming good. So Brendan and Oliver Gallagher sent him in to Hagyard, to have the foot cleaned and disinfected. Back then, in 2017, they didn't know Michael Spirito as well as they do now ("a god of a surgeon"); but nor did...

Deauville's G1 Sumbe Prix Morny has proven a happy hunting ground for Royal Ascot winners in recent years and Wathnan Racing's G2 Norfolk Stakes winner Shareholder (Not This Time) is the latest to try a unique double on Sunday. The trouble for that unbeaten colt is that he faces a real threat not just from outside his own yard but also from within. Karl Burke saddles a live second contender in Mohamed Saeed Al Shahi's G3 Prix du Bois and G2 Prix Robert Papin winner Arabie (GB) (Dandy Man {GB}),...

Fasig-Tipton Digital has been hitting the mark with flash sales as of late. While the auction house is selective when it comes to picking out the right kind of horse to offer in these exclusive auctions, the two flash sales that they've conducted so far this year have been shining success stories for the sellers and for Fasig-Tipton. Mensa, the first 2-year-old winner for his freshman sire Complexity, set a record as the most expensive offering to sell on Fasig-Tipton Digital when he was purchased by John Stewart's Resolute Bloodstock...

The Cloudy Dancer (GB) Flash Sale on Fasig-Tipton's Digital platform ended Friday afternoon with a bang as a bidding war stopped the clock at 2:04 pm with the mare sold for $430,000 to David Hutson. On June 20 of this year, Cloudy Dancer (GB) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) 's second foal--Shareholder (Not This Time)--captured the G2 Norfolk Stakes for 2-year-olds at prestigious Royal Ascot to remain undefeated. His victory was the third fastest time in the last 40 years of the race's history. Cloudy Dancer's connections opted to offer her on...

Bidding is now open for the "Cloudy Dancer Flash Sale," a one-horse online auction on Fasig-Tipton Digital. Cloudy Dancer (GB) is the dam of Shareholder (Not This Time), the impressive winner of the G2 Norfolk Stakes at Royal Ascot this past Thursday for Wathnan Racing and trainer Karl Burke. Bidding on Cloudy Dancer (GB) will close this Friday, June 28, at 2 PM ET. A two-year-old colt by leading sire Not This Time, Shareholder is now undefeated in two career starts. He won his debut on June 8 at Beverley,...

It is the typically interesting opinion of John Sikura that "a stallion's genetic switch is either on or off." The quality and quantity of his books may affect his profile, but his potency (or otherwise) will be operative the day he covers his first mare. Sure enough, six Grade I winners to date for Not This Time all belong to his first two books, conceived at just $15,000. Whatever he might yet achieve with his upgraded mares, paying $135,000 last year and now $150,000, he did not need their help...

It had been a bit of a tough run for Skyfall Thoroughbreds' Geoffrey Von Honste, truth be told, and he was thinking that it was time to call it quits. Covid had been hard on business, there were a couple of bad breaks with the horses, and things just didn't seem to be working out for him in the Thoroughbred game. But they say that life is what happens when you're making other plans, and on Thursday, the thing that happened was that he became a Royal Ascot-winning breeder when...

Wathnan Racing's Shareholder (Not This Time--Cloudy Dancer {GB}, by Invincible Spirit {Ire}) had only announced himself a G2 Norfolk Stakes candidate 12 days ago when winning Beverley's Two Year Old Trophy Conditions Stakes and made light of the quick turnaround to capture the Royal Ascot prize. Held on to by James Doyle early among the group racing up the centre, the Karl Burke-trained 12-1 shot was in front passing the two-furlong pole and asserted to score by a length from Tropical Storm (GB) (Eqtidaar {Ire}), with a head back to...

If you believe that Kyprios (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) is the best stayer to emerge from Ballydoyle since Yeats (Ire), then it could be said that all those that lined up for last year's G1 Gold Cup in his absence were granted a stay of execution. Back to Royal Ascot on Thursday with his severe injury woes behind him, the latest sakura from the ever-flourishing branch of one of Moyglare's great trees is one of the week's major stories. Aidan O'Brien described ahead of last year's G1 Irish St Leger bid...

Crack stayer Kyprios (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) leads a 12-strong field for the 2 1/2-mile G1 Gold Cup, as next Thursday's Royal Ascot fields take shape. A winner of this event in 2022, the chestnut sustained an injury last term that forced him to make just two starts. However, he has put that hiccup behind him and has won the Listed Vintage Crop S. and the G3 Levmoss S. in succession. This race's entries read like a who's who of some of the best stayers in Europe, and, although Wathan Racing's...

Debuting in Saturday's Two Year Old Trophy at Beverley, Wathnan Racing's €460,000 Arqana May Breeze Up purchase Shareholder (Not This Time) made the perfect start to point to Royal Ascot's juvenile features. Slowly away under James Doyle, the Karl Burke-trained 6-4 favourite quickly recovered to track his four rivals racing a touch freely without cover. Delivered to take a narrow lead approaching the furlong pole, he belied inexperience to hold the previous winner Moving Force (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) and score by a short head. "He was a little tardily away...