Tom Goff

Tom Goff of Blandford Bloodstock has an intriguing dinner party guest list and is up next for our questionnaire.  Proudest moment of 2023? Pride is best avoided in the racing game! Having said that, watching Emily Upjohn (GB) run a very close second to Paddington (GB) in the G1 Eclipse Stakes was a great event to be just a small part of. The filly, who we bought as a yearling for 60,000gns, had already won the G1 Coronation Cup brilliantly on her previous start. She was giving Paddington 7lbs and...

Aga Khan Studs' sire Zarak (Fr) continued to prove popular at the sales, as Tom Goff's Blandford Bloodstock shelled out 350,000gns on behalf of Chasemore Farm for a 1/50th share (lot 63) in the rising sire star to top the Tattersalls Online January Sale on Thursday. The son of Arc heroine Zarkava (Ire) (Zamindar) has gone from strength to strength with his progeny in the past few years. Among his many stakes winners are group winners Purplepay (Fr), Sirjan (Ger), Baiykara (Fr), Lavello (Ire), and Lizaid (Ger), while La Parisienne...

First job in the Thoroughbred industry? Working for Tom Goff and Luke Lillingston doing the yearling sales in the USA and UK.   Biggest influence on your career? Hugo Palmer. Working for six seasons from when he had 30 horses to training Classic winners.   Favourite racehorse of all time, and why? It has to be Cachet, beyond my wildest dreams to train a Classic winner in my third season for Highclere.   Who will be champion first-season sire in 2023? He might not have the most winners but I...

NEWMARKET, UK--The legacy of Sheikh Hamdan still casts a long shadow over the bloodstock world, and the influence of his bloodlines was once more evident at Tattersalls on Wednesday when Rihaam (Ire), a 9-year-old daughter of Dansili (GB) in foal to Dark Angel (Ire), led the first day of the July Sale at a new record price of 540,000gns. With a buying bunch greatly enhanced by the returned freedom of international travel, several records were set at Park Paddocks, which saw the two top prices ever at a July Sale...

NEWMARKET, UK—We know that these breeze-up consignors have nerves of steel: otherwise they simply couldn't do the job. As such, the bloodstock industry could not have appointed a better echelon to test the stormy waters of the last couple of years, when they were first to be broadsided by the pandemic and then tried to put things back on an even keel last year. The opening session of the opening sale of the European circuit, then, gave them a chance to put their world back on its axis—even as they...

In this TDN series we ask a group of experts for their predictions for the 2020 flat season in Europe. Today we hear from Tom Goff. TDN: Who do you think will be the leading first-season sire this year? TG: Very tough question this year. Personally, I felt the classiest crop of yearlings were those by Territories (Ire). I'm not totally convinced they'll be that early but they were very nice. I also liked the stock by Kodi Bear (Ire) and Mehmas (Ire). TDN: Have you bought any by Territories?...