Willie Browne

Wathnan Racing's Aesterius (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}--Jane Doe {Ire}, by Hallowed Crown {Aus}) followed up an impressive debut score at Bath in May with a fifth in Royal Ascot's G2 Norfolk Stakes last month and was too good for five rivals to register a career high in Friday's Listed Dragon Stakes at Sandown. The £380,000 Goffs Breeze-Up graduate broke smartly from the outside gate and stalked the pace in second through halfway. Looming large at the quarter-mile marker, the 6-4 pick seized control approaching the final furlong and kept on powerfully...

A €210,000 daughter of Too Darn Hot (GB) headlined what was a predictably tricky two-year-old section to the Summer Sale at Arqana as the curtain definitively came down on the 2024 breeze-up season.  It was Brendan Holland's Grove Stud who consigned the day one top lot, who was bought by bloodstock agent Arthur Hoyeau on behalf of MyRaceHorse.  "She's been bought for MyRaceHorse and will go to the United States," said Hoyeau. "She's a very interesting filly with lots of qualities and has the perfect profile to go to the...

The Gowran Park Breeze-Up Sale is set to make its return in 2025 with powerhouse consignors Willie Browne, Con Marnane and Roger O'Callaghan pledging to support what was formerly known as the Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale.  The Goresbridge Breeze-Up Sale was relocated to Fairyhouse and run by Tattersalls Ireland back in 2019. However, this year marks the first time that Tattersalls Ireland will run the sale away from the banner of Goresbridge.  After a four-year hiatus, Goresbridge Horse Sales returned to the point-to-point and horses-in-training market last month under the leadership...

Willie Browne's unbeaten Port Augusta (GB), who racked up wins over six and seven furlongs at Dundalk over the winter, has been sold for "proper money" to Hong Kong. The legendary breeze-up handler has described his recent upsurge of form on the track as "a breath of fresh air" and, while the 77-year-old admitted to being sorry he couldn't hold on to a horse as talented as Port Augusta, he revealed the son of Zoustar (Aus) fulfilled what he was bought to do by getting sold.  A 75,000gns Book 1...

Princess Vega (Ire) (Beat Hollow {GB}), a winning daughter of six-time Cheltenham festival scorer Quevega (Fr) (Robin Des Champs {Fr}), proved to be worth the wait at the Goffs February Sale when selling as one of the last lots through the ring [431G] on Thursday evening for €150,000 to agent Gerry Hogan on behalf of Swanbridge Bloodstock .  It was Liz Lucas's Swanbridge Bloodstock who signed for the Order Of St George (Ire) filly out of Princess Vega at the November National Hunt Sale at Goffs for €48,000 last year....

   Prominent breeze-up rider and handler Manoel Marques will have an extra pep in his step at the Craven Sale next week as Buyin Buyin (Ire) (Bungle Inthejungle {GB}), a horse he sourced for just €8,000 before riding him to victory in his wife Leidiana's colours on debut at Dundalk, looks set to be sold for a multitude of that initial outlay.    Marques has earned himself a reputation for being one of the leading riders on the breeze-up circuit, having partnered Trueshan (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}), California Spangle (Ire) (Starspangledbanner...

Amid much ado about the start of the turf season in Britain on Saturday, it is important not to overlook the day's second-most valuable race after the Lincoln. Chelmsford City's Woodford Reserve Cardinal Conditions S., worth a decent £100,000, is the last of seven races in the European Road to the Kentucky Derby.  Launched in 2019 by the enterprising team at the Essex track, which continues to punch well about its weight on the prize-money front, the Cardinal's three winners to date (there was no race in 2020 during the pandemic)...

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES -- A colt from the third crop of boom American stallion Gun Runner (lot 18) was hammered down to Stephen Hillen, agent for prominent owner Dr Jim Hay, for €543,210 to top Tuesday's second renewal of the Goffs Dubai Breeze-Up Sale, held in the parade ring at Meydan Racecourse. On behalf of the Scotsman, Hillen also acquired the second-dearest offering of the evening, a Justify half-brother to GISW Fog of War (War Front) (lot 2), for the equivalent of €518,519. Following the withdrawal of 10 horses,...

LEXINGTON, KY--You may have seen in the news last week how they've just realised that a Mondrian masterpiece has been hanging the wrong way round for 77 years. That's just a year longer than Willie Browne has been accumulating his own perspectives on life and, when he looks at the filly he has brought to the Breeders' Cup, he pretty much knows that same, upside-down feeling. Because his long quest for the secrets of equine potential--which has so often brought him to this same town, wearing a very different hat--has...

Stepping up a furlong having broken her maiden at the third attempt over six at Naas Sept. 15, Charles Fipke's homebred filly Spirit Gal (Fr) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) made all to annexe Friday's Listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF StarAppeal S. at Dundalk. Sent off the 4-1 joint-second favourite, the bay gave generously for Seamie Heffernan as she had last time and never let Ballydoyle's Cairo (Ire) (Quality Road) make a fight of it as she kept that 11-10 market-leader at bay to score by 2 1/4 lengths. "She is in...

Breeze-up king Willie Browne, who sold G1 1000 Guineas heroine Speciosa (Ire), G1 Ascot Gold Cup winner Trip To Paris (Ire) and many more top-notchers, is allowing himself to believe that recent graduate Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) could be the real deal after he coasted to an effortless victory at Haydock on Thursday. The 76-year-old bought Sakheer for $65,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sales in 2021 before producing the colt to top the Arqana Breeze-up Sale in May of this year. Sakheer was bought by Oliver St Lawrence for...

DONCASTER, UK--Look, we all know to refrain from any bold pronouncements in such an uncertain world. But the same market that was last year first to be broadsided by the pandemic has now made consecutive statements: first one of cautious optimism and now, remarkably, one of record-breaking confidence. For if we left Newmarket last week reminding ourselves that a single swallow does not a summer make, then flight after flight seemed to fill the air at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale. Whatever the ups and downs that inevitably still await,...