Whitsbury Manor Stud

Havana Grey (GB), one of the most exciting young stallions in Europe, has had his fee made private as he prepares to stand his seventh season at Whitsbury Manor Stud in 2025. The sire of the dual Group 1-winning juvenile Vandeek (GB) and this year's G2 Duchess Of Cambridge Stakes winner Arabian Dusk (GB), Havana Grey stood at a fee of £55,000 when covering 139 mares this season--down from 164 in 2023--and his book for the upcoming breeding season will be restricted to mares considered to be a suitable height....

Middleham Park Racing's Shouldvebeenaring (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}) will take up a stallion career at the Irish National Stud next year, Middleham Park Racing's Tom Palin confirmed on Tuesday. Entered in the G2 Challenge Stakes at Newmarket on Friday, the colt is eyeing the G1 QIPCO Champions Sprint Stakes as a likely finale. The French Group 3 winner was second in the 2023 G1 Sprint Cup Stakes and third in the G1 Prix de la Foret last year. He's also placed third in both the G2 City Of York Stakes...

   In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the victory of Miriam's Fire in New York.   Showcasing Filly On Fire In Debut Pura Vida Investments' Miriam's Fire (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) clawed out a neck victory in her racetrack bow at Belmont at the Big A (video). Trained by Mike Maker, she was bred by Charlotte Greenway. A frequent visitor to the sales ring, the bay was a 30,000gns foal buy at Tattersalls in...

NEWMARKET, England--For the second consecutive year Havana Grey (GB) and Whitsbury Manor Stud were responsible for the highest-priced yearling at the Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale as a filly by the in-demand stallion went the way of Alex Elliott, acting on behalf of Amo Racing, for 140,000gns during Tuesday's session at Park Paddocks. Lot 419 was the headline buy on a productive day for Elliott, who signed for the top three lots from the session in some shape or form. Lot 376, a Sergei Prokofiev colt offered by Chasemore Farm, is...

Shaikh Duaij Al Khalifa's Arabian Dusk (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}--Lady Macduff {Ire}, by Iffraaj {GB}), who hit the board in last month's Listed Empress Stakes, entered Friday's G2 Duchess of Cambridge Stakes at Newmarket with maiden status intact and made the breakthrough with a gritty performance in the six-furlong heat. The 525,000gns Craven Breeze-Up acquisition was sharply into stride from the stands' side stall and raced in a prominent third through halfway. Bustled along to launch her challenge passing the quarter-mile pole, the 12-1 chance gained an edge entering the...

British bloodstock industry stalwarts Chris Richardson and Paul and Sara Thorman featured among the headline winners at the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association Flat Breeders' Awards for the 2023 season, held at Chippenham Park on the evening of Wednesday, July 10. With recipients revealed only at the event, Cheveley Park Stud managing director Chris Richardson received the Dominion Bronze Award, which recognises outstanding contribution and long-term commitment from someone in the industry, while Paul and Sara Thorman, who have run Trickledown Stud since 1990, received the Andrew Devonshire Bronze Award, which acknowledges...

Hamburg avoided a clash with Sunday's knockout phase of soccer's European Championships and its early-bird programme featured the €55,000 G3 Sparkasse Holstein Cup (Hamburger Stuten Meile) as the opening day highlight of the venue's G1 Deutsches Derby festival. This year's renewal of the one-mile staging post played host to a match-up of Classic distaffers, with last term's G1 Preis der Diana (German Oaks) third Sea The Lady (Fr) (Sea The Moon {Ger}) eyeballing this year's G2 German 1000 Guineas third Three Havanas (Ger) (Havana Grey {GB}--Three Ducks {GB}, by Diktat...

If you are a racing tragic, and I'd like to think that most TDN readers fall into this celebrated bracket, it is impossible to have a day off at the moment. Trials, Classics, they come thick and fast in these heady weeks of spring. We've waited winterlong, starved of any meaningful action, and now it's hard not to feel a little queasy at the veritable feast of racing which is set before us, course after course after course. There's barely even room for the Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding Maiden Hurdle. ...

Scuderia Sagam's Folgaria (Ire) (Due Diligence--Full Moon Fever {Ire}, by Azamour {Ire}) went undefeated through a five-race juvenile campaign for Stefano Botti last year and, now under the stewardship of that trainer's brother Marco, retained her perfect record with a hard-fought triumph in Saturday's G3 Dubai Duty Free S. (Fred Darling S.) at Newbury. The February-foaled bay backed up a debut win at Milan's San Siro in May with a brace of Listed contests at Rome's Capanelle and back in Milan. She went on sabbatical after collecting July's G3 Premio...

I love Paris in the springtime, sang Ella Fitzgerald, and I'm pretty sure it was a thinly-veiled reference to her secret passion for heavy ground three-year-old maidens at Saint-Cloud. What Classic clues may we glean there? Well, maybe none. But I liked the look of Narkez (Fr), who gave his rivals a six-length walloping in the Prix Comrade last Tuesday, picking up where he left off after winning at Clairefontaine last October. Bred by Nurlan Bizakov under his Sumbe banner, the colt represents that magic Siyouni (Fr)-Galileo (Ire) cross, though...

Monday's curtain-raising Curragh card saw Whitsbury Manor Stud's first-season sire Sergei Prokofiev register his opening salvo as his son Arizona Blaze (GB) captured the five-furlong Castle Star And Alkumait At Capital Stud Irish EBF Maiden. Representing AMO Racing Limited and Giselle De Aguiar and the Adrian Murray stable, the £82,000 Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale graduate was always on the sharp end under David Egan. Asserting from Rowdy Yeats (Ire) (Make Believe {GB}) inside the final furlong, the 5-4 favourite eked out a professional 1 1/4-length success. "David [Egan] said...

Kelly Thomas enjoyed a banner year with Vandeek (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}), who she bred at her Maywood Stud, going unbeaten in a spellbinding two-year-old campaign that featured Group 1 wins in the Prix Morny and Middle Park S.  In this week's Q&A, Thomas revealed how some people in the industry have shared with her that she has become an inspiration for smaller breeders. She also lifted the lid on her own hopes and dreams for Vandeek this season and explained her philosophy to breeding.  You have had lots to...