Time Test

by Chris McGrath NEWMARKET, UK -- The world certainly looks a different place from when these babies slithered into the straw. A less frightening one, thankfully, to many breeders, who have been relieved by a remarkable strength and depth in all levels of the market after the global economy absorbed the shock of Covid. So while the Tattersalls December Foal Sale opened in the customary low register, business on Wednesday unequivocally maintained the buoyant morale established in other sectors. Indeed, the clearance rate of 84% was a session record, and...

Breeding rights to British-based first-season sires Ardad (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) and Time Test (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) will be offered via Tattersalls' online platform on Nov. 5. The bidding will open at 10am for two hours. Ardad, the sire of 21 individual winners from a first crop that includes the dual Group 1 winner Perfect Power (Ire) and Group 3 winner Eve Lodge (GB), covered 150 mares at Overbury Stud this season.  Time Test, who stands at the National Stud, has also made a promising start to his stud career and...

NEWMARKET, UK--The trickledown effect can perhaps be viewed as more of a flood this past fortnight at Tattersalls with unusually strong trade for each book of yearlings helping its successor to similarly eye-catching gains.  And so it was with Book 3, which just about equalled last year's figures in one single day following a bullish session on Thursday. Trade dropped another notch during the graded second session but its own returns were still way in advance of the corresponding day last year and helped to create record figures for Book...

NEWMARKET, UK--On both sides of the Atlantic, the yearling sector in 2021 has shown an especially heartening vigour in the middle market--and you can't get much closer to its centre of gravity, on this side of the water, than Book 2 of the October Yearling Sale at Tattersalls. Despite losing the stimulus of Shadwell, which last year corralled 36 lots from this auction for 5,327,000gns, Wednesday's third and final session rounded off a quite astonishing performance overall. Never mind its giddy elevation on last year's sale, which had itself rallied...

We head towards a weekend featuring the final British Classic of 2021, the Arc Trials and Irish Champions Weekend with the last week having offered plenty of food for thought across Europe. Torquator Tasso (Ger) paid a posthumous tribute to his champion sire Adlerflug (Ger) by adding victory in the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden to his 2020 win in the G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin. Second in last year's Deutsches Derby to another son of Adlerflug, the recently retired In Swoop (Ire), the 4-year-old beat this year's Derby winner...

Agent Matt Coleman of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock has had plenty of success buying decent 2-year-olds from the breeze-up sales, such as G1 QIPCO British Champions Sprint S. winner Sands Of Mali (Fr) (Panis) and G2 Norfolk S. winner Prince Of Lir (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}). He gave us his view on what we might expect from the first runners for this year's freshman sires. Coleman said, "I guess Churchill (Ire) is the headline act of the first-season sires and I have heard some good words on his stock from Ireland. He...

The wait is very nearly over for the young pretenders we will examine in this fourth installation of our multi-part Value Sires series: stallions with their first runners in 2021. While the full verdicts must be delayed until these are given a fair shake with their first full seasons with 2- and 3-year-olds, the reality is that the first juvenile races in the coming months will be akin to a perpetual Christmas morning in the bloodstock world, with each of us eager to unwrap the packages we have been examining...

Three-time Group 1-winning sprinter Advertise (GB) leads the 2021 stallion roster at the National Stud, where he will once again stand for £25,000. The son of Showcasing, who won the G1 Phoenix S. at two and the G1 Commonwealth Cup and G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest at three, was supported by 67 black-type producers or performers in his first book last year, including the dams of Group 1 winners Aclaim (Ire), Dick Whittington (Ire) and Maarek (GB). The aforementioned Aclaim, the winner of the G1 Prix de la Foret and...

NEWMARKET, UK--So here we are, at the furlong pole, and somehow still hard on the bridle. With just Book 4 to go, the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale continues to confound the gloom generated this year as the bloodstock industry--along with the wider economy--reeled under the nightmarish burden of a pandemic. On Friday, even the weaker second session of Book 3 sailed serenely clear of the riptide. Turnover of 2,274,500gns soared past the equivalent day last year, up a giddy 27% from 1,796,400gns. That yielded an average of 10,245gns, up from...

Time Test (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) is ready for Wednesday's G1 Juddmonte International S. at York. The winner of Ascot's G3 Tercentenary S. will face the likes of multiple Group 1 winners Gleneagles (Ire) (Galielo {Ire}) and Golden Horn (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}), however Roger Charlton believes his charge will run a good race. "Time Test is very well," Charlton said. "I believe that he has the potential to be a very smart colt and his Tercentenary S. win was not only visually very impressive, it was backed up by a...