Snowfall

EPSOM, UK—It was an Oaks that delivered everything. An emphatic winner, bred in the purple, racing in the purple, representing a trio of the sport's most powerful owners for whom Epsom's famous winner's circle is almost a home from home.  It was also a record-breaking winning margin by a filly who reminded us just what a loss Deep Impact (Jpn) was, not just to Japan but to breeders worldwide, when he died at the age of 17 in 2019. Next month, a handful of his final small crop of yearlings...

George Boughey, one of the rising stars of the Newmarket training ranks, is set to be represented by a first Classic runner after listed Pretty Polly S. winner Mystery Angel (Ire) (Kodi Bear {Ire}) was supplemented for Friday's G1 Cazoo Oaks at a cost of £22,500. Owned by the Nick Bradley Racing syndicate, which has already had a Classic place-getter this season in Fev Rover (Ire) (Gutaifan {Ire}), Mystery Angel was last seen running fourth to Snowfall (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) in the G3 Tattersalls Musidora S. at York. The...

In February, the inevitable announcement came that Pivotal (GB) was to be pensioned at Cheveley Park Stud at the age of 28. David and Patricia Thompson's homebred son of Polar Falcon has been one of the great British breeding stories of the last few decades and the sturdy chestnut has been a great friend to small and major breeders alike through his magnificent stud innings.  As he continues his retirement, so does his legacy gain momentum. A few months before Pivotal was retired, his son Siyouni (Fr) had been crowned...

The British Horseracing Authority has officially amended the result of the G1 Fillies' Mile, where Aidan O'Brien's fillies Snowfall (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) and Mother Earth (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) had been saddled incorrectly, wearing each other's saddle cloths and riders. It appeared that Snowfall had finished third and Mother Earth eighth, but it was actually the reverse. An investigation remains ongoing in relation to the incorrect saddling of the horses. Grounds for disqualification in the BHA's rules of racing do not include horses starting from the wrong stalls or carrying...

If we can view Europe's largest training centre of Newmarket as a microcosm of the wider racing world, then events in the last week give a pretty concerning snapshot of the future of the sport. On the positive front, there was a first winner for the town's newest trainer, Terry Kent, who, at 53, is also one of the longest-serving members of its workforce, having previously been a jockey and worked for trainers Michael Jarvis, Julie Cecil, Saeed Bin Suroor and Roger Varian. Another recent recruit to the training ranks,...