“he’s pretty much what thoroughbred excellence is all about; flawless pedigree, top-class form and a brilliant action, he’s a wonderful racehorse.”
Jim McGrath, SKY RACING
...I can’t help but think he was right when he said that City of Troy was the best he has ever trained.
...For me there was something about the way City of Troy hit the line in the Dewhurst, the Derby and the Juddmonte that told me he was massively superior to those he raced against, and that with the right set of circumstances he could easily have put up a
performance in line with how his trainer described him.
…the way he would change his legs, and seemingly be going strong as he hit the line was unusual in any top race.
...the way he was treated, raced, talked about and the tasks he was set, strongly suggested to me his connections really did think he was the second coming and that he was different from all the rest.
RACING POST WEEKENDER, 6/11/24
Champion 2YO & Champion 3YO elect by JUSTIFY
Stud Fee: £20,000 Oct 1st SLF
NEW CENTURY
1st Summer Stakes Gr.1
1st Stonehenge Stakes Listed
The highest-rated 2yo by a first season sire in Europe
WIMBLEDON HAWKEYE
1st Royal Lodge Stakes Gr.2
3rd Futurity Trophy Stakes Gr.1
The highest-priced colt ever sold at the Tattersalls October Book 2 Yearling Sale
KAMEKO x POTENT EMBRACE
1,000,000gns to Godolphin
Three exciting new Group 1 winners BIG EVS
Winner of the Group 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint over 5f
A son of Champion First Crop Sire BLUE POINT
THE HIGHEST RATED EUROPEAN 3YO OVER 5 FURLONGS IN 2024
Fee: €17,500
BUCANERO FUERTE
2yo Gr.1 winner by WOOTTON BASSETT
Winner of Gr.1 Phoenix Stakes, by 4 lengths, beating Porta Fortuna (Gr.1 x4), Unquestionable (Gr.1)
2nd Highest Rated 2yo of 2023 (120 – 1lb behind CITY OF TROY)
Fee: €12,500
KING OF STEEL
Gr.1 Champion 3yo by WOOTTON BASSETT
Winner of the Gr.1 Champion Stakes, beating 3 Gr.1 winners including Via Sistina
The Highest Rated son of WOOTTON BASSETT at stud in Europe
Fee: €20,000
COTAI GLORY
Group 1 Producing Sire
Sire of 6 Group Winners
Sire of 31 Black-Type Horses, including 15 in 2024 From only 4 crops
2024 Yearlings have made 280,000gns • €150,000, etc.
Fee: €15,000
MEHMAS
Record Breaking Sire of 2yos in Europe in 2024
Sire of 7 Group 1 winners, including 3 in 2024
Sire of 23 Group winners, including 9 in 2024
2024 Yearlings have made up to 1,000,000gns
Fee: €70,000
GOOD GUESS
Group 1 winning son of KODIAC
Winner of the Gr.1 Prix Jean Prat beating 4 Gr.1 winners including CHALDEAN
420,000gns yearling at Tattersalls Book 1
FIRST CROP FOALS 2025
Fee: €12,500
PERSIAN FORCE
Group 2 winner & triple Group 1-placed at 2
By record breaking sire MEHMAS
Winner of Gr.2 July Stakes; 2nd Gr.1 Phoenix Stakes and Gr.1 Prix Morny; 3rd Gr.1 Middle Park Stakes
FIRST CROP YEARLINGS 2025
Fee: €8,000
Sire of over 100 Stakes winners
In 2024 sire of Gr.1 2yo winner BABOUCHE, 3 2yo Group winners
6 Group winners
26 Black-Type horses
Successful Broodmare Sire
Fee: €25,000
KODIAC STARMAN
Champion European Sprinter
Winner of Gr.1 July Cup and Gr.2 Duke of York Stakes.
125
First Crop Yearlings have made 260,000gns • 240,000gns 240,000gns • £220,000, etc.
Fee: €10,000
BOUTTEMONT
DUAL STAKES WINNING SON OF ACCLAMATION
His first son to retire to stud in Ireland since Mehmas in 2017
Bears a striking resemblance to his sire both in physical and temperament terms
KODI BEAR
SIRE OF 19 INDIVIDUAL STAKES PERFORMERS
incl. 2024 Gr.2 Winning Juvenile LEOVANNI and Gr.3 Winning Juvenile COWARDOFTHECOUNTY - all from nomination fees of less than €10,000
REPRESENTED BY 148 JUVENILES in 2025
STATE OF REST
FOUR TIME GR.1 WINNER AND €3,400,000
TOP RATED OLDER HORSE IN IRELAND & FRANCE IN 2022 (9.5-10.5F.)
Strongly supported by leading breeders in his first two seasons in both hemispheres
GROUP 1-WINNING 2YO
1st Futurity Trophy Stakes-Gr.1, 1m, Doncaster, by 3½ lengths
1st Champions Juvenile Stakes-Gr.2, 1m, Leopardstown
1st Maiden, 7f, Naas, earning a TDN Rising Star
FOUR-TIME GROUP 1 WINNER AS A 3YO
1st Derby-Gr.1, 1m4f, Epsom, defeating King Of Steel
1st Prince Of Wales’s Stakes-Gr.1, 1m2f, Royal Ascot
FASTEST
SECTIONAL SPOTLIGHT
…there remains only one true Derby –the one at Epsom, with others mere imitations – and that is the place to start this week’s column, especially as something remarkable happened in the race... Auguste Rodin ran faster late on than any winner in the modern era, and that is quite something.
Simon Rowlands, Attheraces.com
SUNDAY SILENCE
DEEP IMPACT
KIZUNA
CONTRAIL
Dual Classic & BC Classic winner 13-time Champion Sire in Japan
Japanese Triple Crown winner 11-time Champion Sire in Japan
Japanese Derby winner
Japanese Triple Crown winner
STUDY OF MAN French Derby winner
The Leading Sire in Japan in 2024
First yearlings in 2024 sold for up to ¥250m (€1.5m)
First crop 3YOs include the top-class KALPANA
Deep Impact is a chapter, albeit a major one, in the story of Sunday Silence to whom Auguste Rodin bears a striking physical resemblance. Nancy Sexton, thoroughbredracing.com, 7/6/23
viz
1st Dam RHODODENDRON
Triple Gr.1 winner at 2 and 3 years viz Fillies’ Mile ( 1m), Prix de l‘Opera and Lockinge Stakes ( 1m)
2nd Dam HALFWAY TO HEAVEN Triple Gr.1 winner at 3 years
3rd Dam CASSANDRA GO Brilliantly fast sprinter winning King’s Stand Stakes (5f ), Temple Stakes (5f ) etc.
22 It’s Leo
Our man celebrates the achievements of Jessie Harrington and pays tribute to the late Con Power and Ronnie O’Neill
30 A repeating habit
Rebel’s Romance, Starlust and Moira all won or placed in previous Breeders’ Cup races, and all finished in front at this year’s meeting
34 Winning when it matters
In the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Sierra Leone, from the third crop of Gun Runner, avenged previous defeats by old rival Fierceness
41 Queen Victoria
The talented daughter of Frankel took her unbeaten record to five with success in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies
48 Troy Story
Timeform’s Horse Of The Year award goes to City Of Troy, Lake Victoria is the champion juvenile filly and Godolphin’s Shadow Of Light is the top juvenile colt
52 Ones to watch
The team at Trackside gives us a selection of well-bred two-year-old to keep an eye on next season
56 Weatherbys Stallion Scene
Patrick Chedeville on the Petit Tellierbased sires Muhaarar and The Grey Gatsby, the Return Of Mares shows that Frankel saw the highest number of Group-winning mares in 2024, while stud mate Chaldean covered more black-type mares than any other first-season sire this spring
64 Looking forwards
Jamie McGlynn talks with Tweenhills’ David Redvers about Kameko, sire of Grade 1 winner New Century
72 New horizons
Tattersalls’ long-term marketing director Jimmy George is moving down the road to the International Racing Bureau, writes James Thomas
64
78 No passing Hobby
Brightwalton Stud has ambitious plans and its Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye winner Makarova will be playing a pivotal role
86 Flying Fanshawe
Marcus Townend chats with James Fanshawe, who by his own admission is now a “senior trainer’”, but who has enjoyed one of his best-ever seasons in 2024
86 Juddmonte past, present, future
Ciaran Doran examines the extraordinary success of Juddmonte sires, and how pedigrees developed generations ago still have an influence on today, and will do so in future
181 The joy of six
Into Mischief continues to dominate US racing with a sixth sires’ title and record-breaking progeny earnings
192 Stallion Fees 2025
A comprehensive list of fees by stud of the leading British and Irish farms
194 Photo finish
Good fortune and bad luck in international racing – a unique Middle East-African double for Frankel, while things did not work out for City Of Troy in the US
86
Tattersalls by Terence Gilbert
110 Leading global stallions 2024
STALLION FACT PACK 2024: page 109 114
For the first time Into Mischief tops the table of leading global sires and Dubawi claims top-spot as leading European-based sire on global earnings
114 It is all about the three-year-olds
Jocelyn de Moubray sees that over the last five years
Frankel, Dubawi, Kingman, Lope De Vega, Zarak, Camelot are leading the way for the Classic generation
114 Juvenile title to the wire
It has been a head-to-head all season between Mehmas and Wootton Bassett for champion juvenile sire honours, writes Amy Bennett
133 Leading first and second-season sires’ table
Statistics from Weatherbys
133 Stakes-winning sires
Weatherbys’ list of stakes-winning sires alongside their progeny and broodmare sires
146 Weatherbys’ covering statistics
The most popular stallions of 2024 with detail of the quality of their books
156 Playing the markets
Kia Joorabchian’s spend at Tattersalls reveals how narrow the European buying bench is, writes Jocelyn de Moubray
weatherbys jocelyn de moubray accounts annie jones itaccounts@btinternet.com
KING’S STAND The first 3yo colt to win in 15 years
In a faster time than Battaash Gr.1
CHAMPIONS TO THE FORE
BRADSELL
Sprint sensation
£10,000 (LIVE FOAL)
LOPE Y FERNANDEZ
Champion 3yo sprinter
£7,500
RAJASINGHE
Exceptional value
£3,000
STRADIVARIUS
A race record unmatched
£10,000 (LIVE FOAL)
Order of MERIT
Leo Powell recognises Jessie Harrington as a richly deserved winner at this year’s Cartier Awards, and pays tribute to the late horsemen Captain Con Power and Ronnie O’Neill of Whytemount Stud
AS I sit to pen this month’s column, I am being swamped with news of stallions retiring to stud in Britain and Ireland. The timing is not accidental, coming in the days and weeks leading up to the breeding stock sales at Tattersalls Ireland, Goffs, Newmarket, finally, Arqana in Deauville.
The bloodstock news pages are full of this news, alongside the announcement of fees for 2025, and there are some eye-catching numbers among them.
In fairness, these simply reflect the successes being enjoyed by the stallions in question. I am, like you, looking forward to delving into the pages of this issue, focusing as it does on sales and stallion reviews and news.
For once, and I am sure to my editor Sally’s delight [Thank the Lord!], I am not writing from a hospital ward, or even about my own endeavours and travels (more of that next time!). Instead, I am writing about three people whose names are instantly recognisable in Ireland, but whose influence extends beyond those shores.
Some two decades ago now, I was written to by Harry Herbert, and asked if I would join the jury for the Cartier Awards. This is the group that decides on the recipient of the annual Award of Merit, presented in association with the Daily Telegraph. I cannot begin to explain my delight and honour at being asked.
My first jury lunch was in a private room at Cartier on Bond Street, and I was almost overwhelmed by the hospitality. I will admit that, as the sole Irish-based member of the jury, I was quite nervous, and quite honestly in awe of some of my fellow members.
My nervousness probably told in my voice and social awkwardness.
The bloodstock news pages are full of this news, alongside the announcement of fees for 2025
My initial apprehension on entering the room that first day was compounded when I checked the place settings, only to find myself sitting beside one of the greatest names ever to have anything to do with the sport of racing, Sir Peter O’Sullevan.
I was dumbstruck, but not for long as he was the most wonderful lunch partner, and this was the start of a lovely friendship that endued until his death about a decade later.
Incredibly, and thankfully, I am still a member
Harrington’s Group 1 Futurity winner, Hotazhell (pink, left), a son of Blue Point
of the jury, and I remember Peter every time I go to another lunch in London to select the latest recipient of the award. I am further reminded of his generosity and warmth when I am invited to the lunch that continues to be staged in his honour, the most recent of which was held during the week of the most recent Tattersalls December Foal Sale. The 28th winner of Sir Peter’s award was the irrepressible and hugely funny John Francome.
A week earlier, the name of this year’s Cartier and Daily Telegraph Award Of Merit winner was revealed, and I am delighted that it was Jessica Harrington, my nominee this year. Each jury member puts forward someone for consideration, and then a vote is taken.
In my 20 years or so on the jury, I believe she is about the fourth or fifth nominee of mine to win. In the immediate aftermath of her selection for the accolade,
In 2018, at the age of just 71 and some three decades after she starting training, Harrington took the Flat racing world by storm
Harrington confirmed again why she was a worthy choice when saddling Hotazhell to win the Group 1 Futurity Stakes at Doncaster.
If you think that I held Sir Peter O’Sullevan in high regard, well here is someone that I equally admire.
Harrington took out a training licence in 1987, but had to wait four years for her first winner Lady Olein in a juvenile hurdle at Leopardstown. The Earl of Dunraven’s homebred was ridden that day by Peter Scudamore.
In 2018, at the age of just 71 and some three decades after she starting training, Harrington took the Flat racing world by storm when Alpha Centauri won four Group 1 races – the Irish 1,000 Guineas, Royal Ascot’s Coronation Stakes, the Falmouth Stakes and the Prix Jacques Le Marois.
While you might think that a pinnacle had been
Jessica Harrington: hugely deserved winner of the Cartier / Daily Telegraph Award of Merit for her outstanding achievements as a racehorse trainer
reached in her hugely successful career, it would only seem to have spurred the trainer on to want more.
In 2019 she produced two of the best juvenile fillies in Europe, the Group 1 winners Millisle and Albigna, as well as having in her stables the following year’s Group 1 winner Alpine Star.
That year, 2020, also saw her turn out the Group 1-winning juvenile colt Lucky Vega, in 2021 she saddled Discoveries to win the Group 1 Moyglare Stud Stakes and No Speak Alexander to capture the Group 1 Matron Stakes, while in 2022 she won the Group 1 Irish Oaks with Magical Lagoon.
A winner at the elite level on the Flat may not have come her way last year, but it has been business as usual again in 2024.
This flurry of Group 1 Flat successes have come a decade and more after she had a breakthrough at the highest level in that code with Pathfork in the Group 1 National Stakes at The Curragh. That victory was I am sure especially sweet, as three years earlier she saddled Curtain Call to win the Beresford Stakes, only to see him sent to be trained in Newmarket. After all, Jessie was “only” a National Hunt trainer.
That misnomer was, of course, down to the fact that she had trained more than 20 individual horses who have won Grade 1 races under NH rules, including the
Oh, and almost by the way, Harrington has trained 11 Cheltenham Festival winners, the most ever by a female, though I have to say that she has little truck with a fuss being made of her gender
brilliant champion chaser Moscow Flyer (13 Grade 1 wins), the Champion Hurdle winner Jezki, who won seven other Grade 1s, and the Gold Cup winner Sizing John.
This is all from a lady whose first Grade 1 NH success was gained with a filly called Dance Beat, bought as a yearling for £1,400 by her late husband Johnny.
Oh, and almost by the way, Harrington has trained 11 Cheltenham Festival winners, the most ever by a female, though I have to say that she has little truck with a fuss being made of her gender when anyone is contextualising her remarkable achievements.
A three-day event rider of renown, Harrington represented Ireland at European, World and Olympic level.
She continues today to have a pivotal role in the sport as president of Eventing Ireland for more than a decade, and was a trainer of the Irish team at the London Olympics in 2012. For some years she also chaired one of our leading equine rescue charities.
Now working alongside her two daughters and son-in-law, she oversees one of the largest training yards in Ireland, and there are few trainers of any sex who can lay claim to have had such success in both codes.
Two years ago, Kirsten Rausing became the first woman in her own right to be honoured with the Award
Con Power on Rockbarton: Power rode in the Aga Khan’s Cup-winning team three times in the 1970s at the Royal Dublin Show Photo courtesy of the RDA
of Merit at the Cartier extravaganza, though the late Queen Elizabeth was given a special Award of Merit in 2000, Patricia and David Thompson were recognised as a couple, and the Head family was honoured as an entity. Jessica Harrington joins this select cohort.
There is one more reason why Harrington deserves to be recognised. In recent years she fought the biggest battle of her life, cancer, and did so with grace.
She has no ego, has always gone about her business in the most professional way, and is a credit to her profession.
She is immensely popular, great fun and wellrespected, and for a lifetime of success, I am particularly pleased that my fellow jurors joined with me and selected her this year.
The great and sadly late Con Power
Skelton, Gredley, Smith. These are just a few of the names that readers will be familiar with in racing circles, but that members of the equestrian world, especially showjumping, will also know only too well.
In Ireland, we have a great crossover between the various disciplines, and, most recently the Wachman family, grandchildren of John and Sue Magnier, have made an impact on the showjumping stage.
Ireland’s love of showjumping, and success at the sport, is understandable. For centuries, and before the growth of the major cities into large urban sprawls, Ireland’s reputation as a green economy was known globally with the majority of the population living in rural parts of the country, and having a strong connection with the land.
Today, a green economy has a different meaning.
Horses were part of most farms, and many children born to the land would have learned about the care of horses, whether they were working animals, or in some cases ponies for enjoyment.
Learning to ride would have been part of childhood, and many riders, whether in showjumping or racing, would have started out this way. In more recent times, pony racing has kick-started the careers of many jockeys.
Today, Ireland can lay claim to having many of the top showjumpers in the world and, at the time of writing, one-quarter of the top 20 ranked riders in the world are Irish – Conor Swail, Daniel Coyle, Shane Sweetnam, Cian O’Connor and Darragh Kenny.
If I called each of these stars and asked them who was the greatest Irish showjumper of all time, I am pretty certain that they would each have one name among their top five – Captain Con Power.
A horseman of extraordinary style, Power died in early November at the age of just 71, having been in poor health for some time. While Power scaled the heights in
While Power scaled the heights in sport, the County Wexford native never lost the common touch, and his appearance at places such as the Dublin Horse Show would see him revered by the public, and he was never left alone
sport, the County Wexford native never lost the common touch, and his appearance at places such as the Dublin Horse Show would see him revered by the public, and he was never left alone.
People wanted to speak with him – and he loved talking himself! A storyteller he could entertain for hours with tales but, behind that public façade, he was father to two outstanding riders, and a great teacher and mentor.
His son Robert won the Grand National on Silver Birch and the Cheltenham Gold Cup on Sizing John, while his daughter Elizabeth, Esib to many, has made her name in eventing, but also enjoyed five-star success as a showjumper. Their mum, Mags, came from a famous Wexford equestrian family being Margaret Latta before she married.
Few achievements in showjumping could ever match that of Ireland winning the Aga Khan Trophy at the Dublin Horse Show, the equivalent now of a Nations Cup, three years in a row in the 1970s, and Power was a member of that famous team.
What made him stand out even from his illustrious fellow members, Paul Darragh, Eddie Macken and James Kernan, was that Power rode a different horse each year.
It was truly a golden era, and the four team members were duly accorded superstar status, one that continues to this day.
It was poignant that Macken and Kernan were among the pallbearers at Power’s funeral. While that legendary team is remembered with huge affection, and most would consider what they did to be a career highlight, not so for Power.
Rockbarton, his mount for the third leg of his Aga Khan treble in 1979, gave him his sporting moment that same year in Aachen.
Power won five classes, was the show’s leading rider, and he later said: “Of all the events in my showjumping career, that week in Aachen 1979 was number one.
Rockbarton won the first day out of 82 competitors in the speed class, two days later he won the Puissance, the day after that he won the Nations Cup, and then was fourth in the Grand Prix. Wasn’t that some horse?
“To win a speed class, Puissance and Nations Cup…in Aachen, one of the greatest shows in the world.”
For many years, Power worked for me when I was NH manager at Goffs, part of the inspection team. This was at a time when the company was trying to build the business, and when the concept of the Land Rover Sale, today the Arkle Sale, was conceived.
Power was always welcome in the yards of breeders – the only problem was that he turned each visit into a social occasion!
Trainers often called on him when they had a horse who was not fluent over hurdles or fences, and his skill
Lucky Vega: trained by Harrington
at teaching horses, as well as riders, was second to none.
He was responsible for the early career of Bertram Allen, and he had the Magnier boys under his wing, too, when they were competing as teenagers.
The turnout for Power’s funeral was a clear indication of the huge affection people had for him, and he is best summed up by a comment that David Broome made to James Kernan on learning of Power’s death.
Kernan said: “David Broome phoned me last night and he described Con as a great horseman, great athlete and a proper gentleman.”
The loss of another great horseman
Continuing on a sad note, one of Ireland’s best-known and best-loved stallion masters died in mid-October, Ronnie O’Neill of Whytemount Stud.
A quietly spoken man, he built his business on being friendly, accommodating, and providing NH breeders with well-bred, quality stallions at affordable prices.
O’Neill was once honoured by the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association for his achievements, and I recall describing him on the night as “one of the many great, unsung heroes of our industry”.
His story was so inspiring, and the success of Whytemount is very much a family one, as Ronnie’s wife Linda and children have all played a role.
I commented after the news of his death that “Ronnie never forgot his roots, the small breeder, or his manners. Whenever I penned anything that resembled even a small compliment to one of his stallions, following success for one of their progeny, I could be sure of an email to say thanks.”
O’Neill had his finger on the pulse.
Sadly, he was unable to attend the Connolly’s Red Mills / The Irish Field Breeder of the Year dinner in July this year for yet another award.
The many tributes on social media show how popular he was, from small breeders who were grateful for the kindness shown to them by all the team at Whytemount Stud, to other stallion owners, Flat and NH, who were in awe of what he had achieved.
O’Neill and his family did not have big-money backers; they invested their own money, often in horses no others would stand, and duly reaped the rewards.
Success came about through hard work, and boy did he work hard, and being client focused.
“Ronnie never forgot his roots, the small breeder, or his manners. Whenever I penned anything that resembled even a small compliment to one of his stallions, I could be sure of an email to say thanks
A count on the one word used most by people describing him was that he was a gentleman.
O’Neill’s life with horses spanned many generations, though his death came at the age of just 74.
He started out as an aspiring jockey with Phonsie O’Brien and Paddy Mullins. He progressed from being in the saddle to training, most often with horses that he bred, and sometimes they were also ridden by a family member.
He was always at pains to emphasise that all of his success was down to a team effort, though you could replace the word “team” with “family”.
An unraced half-brother to Shahrastani, Shahanndeh was the first thoroughbred sire at Whytemount, and following his early demise, Stowaway, a son of Slip Anchor, was bought.
Slow to be appreciated by breeders, Stowaway was used extensively and with great success by O’Neill, and the stallion went on to be the busiest sire in Europe one year, and be crowned a champion jumps sire.
The current stallion roster at Whytemount has expanded considerably, and what a tribute to him it would be should it contain another champion.
The roster includes the very popular Affinisea, and the highly-rated Mojo Star.
A horseman to his fingertips, O’Neill’s eye for quality was second to none. Many will miss his warm welcome and smile.
Whytemount Stud’s late Ronnie O’Neill honoured by the ITBA
Photo courtesy of the ITBA
€100,000
£120,000
SERGEANT
£100,000
£60,000
Gimcrack
Mehmas’s
Owen Burrows, Trainer
“We have two very good foals, I’m impressed by them. The colt foal out of Mango Diva is by far the best foal she’s had. He’s a smashing colt!”
“He is a fine, big, strong colt with good bone, we are absolutely delighted with him! We have two quality foals by him now and we sent another mare his way this year.”
First foals receive rave reviews!
“I’m very happy with her, she’s a very strong first foal with great bone; correct and very sharp looking. She’s the spitting image of her sire.”
“Our filly out of Group winning Sparkling Beam is a stunner! She oozes quality and class. Probably the best we’ve foaled down at Stonehall Paddocks thus far.”
Don’t miss his first crop at the foal sales...
Eddie O’Leary on the colt out of Mango Diva
David Cox on the filly out of Loquace
Jimmy Murphy on the colt out of Rugged Up
Micheål Orlandi on the filly out of Sparkling Beam
A repeating habit
Rebel’s Romance, Starlust and Moira had all previously won or placed in Breeders’ Cup races, this year they all came home in first place, writes Alan Porter
THE WINNER of the 2022 Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1), Rebel’s Romance didn’t hit his best level of form until the autumn last year, effectively ruling him out of a repeat attempt in the race in 2023, but he returned this season in much better shape.
He won the H.H. The Amir Trophy (G3) at Doha, the Dubai Sheema Classic (G1), the Standard Chartered HK Champions & Chater Cup (G1), took third in the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes (G1), and then prepped for Del Mar with another top level victory, this time in Germany in the Preis von Europa (G1).
This win brought his total of black-type victories to 12, of which seven are Group or Grade 1. He joins Conduit and High Chaparral as the third horse to capture two runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1), and he is first to achieve the feat in non-consecutive years.
Rebel’s Romance is one of an astonishing total of 290 stakes winners sired by the remarkable Dubawi, who turns 23 in 2025. Of those 189 are Group or graded winners with 59 at the highest level.
This year he’s been represented by a mere 32 stakes winners, 20 Group or Graded, Rebel’s Romance joined by Notable Speech, successful in the 2,000 Guineas (G1) and Sussex Stakes (G1), Ezeliya, heroine of the Oaks (G1), and Master Of The Seas, who took the Maker’s Mark Mile in the US.
Dubawi has also emerged as a sire of sires, with Zarak, Night Of Thunder, New Bay and Too Darn Hot, and he’s already broodmare sire of 82 stakes winners, 43 Group or graded, including the Classic winners
Adayar, Homeless Songs and Zardozi (in Australia).
Rebel’s Romance is a half-brother to the Frankel horse Measured Time, winner of the Manhatan Stakes (G1) and Jebel Hatta Stakes (G1). They are out of the stakesplaced Street Cry mare Minidress, a sister to Volcanic Sky, a graded stakes winner in Dubai.
His second dam Short Skirt won the Musidora Stakes (G3) and St. Simon Stakes (G3) and ran second in the Yorkshire Oaks (G1), and third in the Epsom Oaks (G1).
Short Skirt is a half-sister to Whitewater Affair (by Minidress’s grandsire, Machiavellian), a Group winner in England and France, and twice Group 1 placed.
Whitewater Affair is dam of three Japanese stakes winners, including Victoire Pisa, the champion three-year-old and champion older horse in Japan, also successful in the Dubai World Cup (G1), and the Yasuda Kinen (G1) scorer Asakusa Den’en.
Short Skirt is also a half-sister to Rich Affair, a stakes-placed sister to Whitewater Affair, and herself grand-dam of the Japanese champion two-year-old filly Robe Tissage, a three-quarters sister to the Group winner Little Rock, and a half-sister to stakes winner Seductress (by Short Skirt’s grandsire, Known Fact), the dam of Machiavellian black-type scorer Swiss Law. Rebel Romance’s third dam Much Too Risky is a half-sister to a pair of Group and Grade 1 winners in Arctic Owl, who won the Irish St. Leger, and Marooned, successful in the Sydney Cup (G1).
Although it’s Mr. Prospector over Mr. Prospector, the Dubawi line cross with
Street Cry line mares has been successful with 16 stakes winners, including three other Group and Grade 1 winners Broadsiding, Albahr and Shamal Wind.
Rebel’s Romance’s pedigree also features a double of the notable mare Slightly Dangerous, who appears as dam of Dubawi’s broodmare sire Deploy, and Deploy’s half-brother Warning, the grandsire of Rebel Romance’s second dam.
Much more from Moira
It proved third time lucky for Moira in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1), the Canadian champion having finished fifth in 2022 and third in 2022.
After moving from mid-pack to the lead at stretch, she had enough left to score by a half-length over Cinderella’s Dream.
The five-year-old mare has been a blacktype winner every year since her two-yearold season, and although she defeated males in the premier Canadian Classic, the Queen’s Plate, she’d never won previously won a Grade 1 event.
She has earned honours as 2022’s Canadian champion three-year-old filly and Horse of the Year, and was sold for $3,000,000 at the 2023 Fasig-Tipton November Sale – and she realised $4,300,000 on a return trip there two days after this Breeders’ Cup triumph.
She is a daughter of the veteran sire Ghostzapper, a Horse of the Year who ended his career with a Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) triumph, as did his sire, the Deputy Minister horse, Awesome Again.
One of the best North American runners of the current century, Ghostzapper has been
a solid if not spectacular sire, with 104 stakes winners from 15 crops of three-year-olds and up, 58 graded, 16 Grade 1, including the champion sprint fillies and mares Goodnight Olive and Judy The Beauty, as well as several Canadian champions.
Moira is a half-sister to the stakeswinning Jungle Cry. Her dam Devine Aida, a daughter of Unbridled’s Song, won the Herecomesthebride Stakes and Ginger Brew Stakes and was graded stakes-placed. Devine Aida also has a yearling filly by Constitution and is in-foal to the champion two-year-old Forte.
Devine Aida’s dam Passion won the La Habra Stakes (G3) and Alywow Stakes, and also earned places in the Beaumont Stakes (G2) and Adirondack Stakes (G2).
The Dubawi line cross with Street Cry line mares has been successful with 16 stakes winners, including three other top level winners
Passion is a half-sister to the Grade 2-winning and Grade 1-placed Kumari Continent, herself the grand-dam of the stakes winner Smiling Shirlee.
The second dam of Devine Aida is
Rajmata, a sister to the stakes-winning and graded stakes-placed Binalong, and halfsister to stakes winner Songlines.
Begum, the dam of Rajmata, Binalong and Songlines is ancestress of a total of 33 stakes winners, including the Eclipse Award-winning champion Caledonia Road, and the Grade 1 winners Hymn Book and Data Link, and Grade 2 winners Roshani, Gustavus Weston, Celestial City, Lord Miles and Crimson Advocate.
Ready made winner
In his two starts heading into the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) More Than Looks had been denied a first Grade 1 win by Carl Spackler, who defeated him in both the Fourstardave
Rebel Romance: the son of Dubawi has joined High Chaparral and Conduit as dual winners of the Breeders’ Cup Turf, the first in non-consecutive years
the breeders’ cup: Turf
Handicap (G1) and Turf Mile Stakes (G1).
This time, however, Carl Spackler faded out of the picture after turning for home, while More Than Looks unveiled a storming charge from last to score by three-quarters of a length from the US three-year-old Johannes, with the European-trained favorite Notable Speech in third.
More Than Looks is the latest Grade 1 winner for the late More Than Ready.
A son of the Halo horse Southern Halo – several times leading sire in Argentina –More Than Ready has run up some astonishing numbers.
A three-time leading sire of two-year-olds, twice in the US and once in Australia, More Than Ready is sire of 226 stakes winners, 106 graded, and 27 Grade 1, among them the champion US Sprinter Roy H, Rushing Fall, Uni, Catholic Boy, Verrazano, Room Service, Buster’s Ready, More Joyous,
Say The Word, Daredevil, Sebring, More Joyous, Samaready and Prized Icon.
Ladies’ Privilege, the dam of More Than Looks, was a minor stakes winner at Parx (formerly Philadelphia Park), and is a half-sister to the smart grass runner Takeover Target, three times a graded winner on the lawn.
The second dam Vanquished, a winning daughter of Empire Maker, is a half-sister to Critical Eye, whose quintet of graded successes included the Hempstead Handicap (G1) and Gazelle Handicap (G1) and
subsequently second dam of four black-type winners.
A Star is born Billed as “the fastest horse in the world” following his world-record breaking performance in the Jaipur Stakes (G1) in June, and winner since of the $1,000,000 Turf Stakes (G2), odds-on favourite Cogburn was a little slowly away in the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint but was soon at the head of affairs.
After despatching Bradsell with opening fractions of 21.59s and 43.72s, he kicked away into a two-and-a-half lengths lead.
In turned out, however, that the move off such a fast early pace was premature, and close home Cogburn’s stride began to shorten.
At the wire it proved to be a case of “last
shall be first” as the British-trained threeyear-old Starlust came from the tail of the field to score by a nose, with British-bred Motorius second [see page 60], a head to the good of the filly Ag Bullet.
Starlust, a son of Zoustar, was also third in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint (G1) and had previously taken the Sirenia Stakes (G3). This year, he’d won the City Walls Stakes, and run third to Bradsell in the Nunthorpe Stakes (G1), beaten just a length.
Starlust is from a branch of the Northern Dancer line which comes down via Sadlers’ Wells’ brother Fairy King, through Encosta De Lago, Northern Meteor and Zoustar.
A sprint specialist, Zoustar won six of nine starts, including the ATC Golden Rose Stakes (G1) and VRC Ascot Vale Stakes (G1).
From his first seven southern-hemisphere crops, Zoustar has 51 stakes winners, 37 graded, and seven Group and Grade 1, and
the champion three-year-old filly Sunlight.
So far he has had three northernhemisphere crops, and the first two have produced seven stakes winners, including, in addition to Starlust, the Cheveley Park Stakes (G1) victress and European champion two-year-old filly Lezoo.
Beyond Desire, the dam of Starlust, was a smart sprinter in her own right, winning the Prix de Saint-Georges (G3), the Cecil Frail Sakes and the Landsown Stakes.
She is also dam of Queen Of Desire, who followed in her mother’s footsteps with a Landsdown Stakes success.
Granddam Compradore won four times and is half-sister to Mazuna, who captured the Princess Royal Stakes (G3) and appears as dam of Beautiful Romance, a Group and graded winner in England, Australia and Dubai. She is out of Keswa, a Group-placed half-sister to Mastercraftsman.
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Starlust
Winning when it matters
Sierra Leone avenged previous defeats by old rival Fierceness to take the Breeders’ Cup Classic
Despite winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic, Sierra Leone is unlikely to be an Eclipse Award-winning colt, that honour is probably going to Fierceness
FOR MUCH OF HIS CAREER, at least on the biggest of days, Sierra Leone has been a “nearly” horse. A winner and a close second in the Remsen Stakes (G2) in his only two starts at two, he started this year in promising fashion
with wins in the Risen Star Stakes (G2) and Blue Grass Stakes (G1).
He was then second beaten a nose in the Kentucky Derby (G1), third in the Belmont Stakes (G1), second beaten a length in the Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) and third in the Travers Stakes (G1).
In most of those races, and despite various changes of equipment, Sierra Leone failed to keep a straight course.
The big difference in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) was that there was a ferocious pace at the head of affairs. The Japanese horse Derma Sotogate blazed through an
opening half mile in 44.96s, only half a second slower than the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1).
More crucially that pace was closely attended by the favoured American runner Fierceness, while Sierra Leone – always an off-the-pace runner and here back in tenth, a full two seconds slower than Fierceness.
Fierceness fought back with remarkable determination when caught, but in the end his early efforts took their toll and he lost out by a length. The Japanese runner Forever Young, a nose behind Sierra Leone in the Kentucky Derby (G1), came through for third here, too.
Sierra Leone is from the third crop of Gun Runner, a son of Candy Ride, who earned Horse of the Year honours at four winning a Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) on his final start that year.
Retired to Three Chimneys Farm after taking the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) in his sole outing at five, Gun Runner kicked off with an exceptional first-crop that provided 18 individual stakes winners, 12 graded, and six Grade 1.
The total from his first three crops is currently at 33 stakes winners, 24 graded, among them, in addition to Sierra Leone, the champion two-year-old filly Echo Zulu, the Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Early Voting, and other Grade 1 scorers Taiba, Gunite, Society, Cyberknife, Vahva, Gun Pilot and Locked.
Sierra Leone realised $2,300,000 as a Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Yearling and, as one might anticipate from that price, the distaff side of his pedigree is no less impressive than the sire’s.
He is the second foal of Heavenly Love, who earned Grade 1 honours in style, taking the Alcibiades Stakes (G1) by over 5l.
By Malibu Moon out of the Deputy Minister mare Darling My Darling, Heavenly Love was very closely related to the Santa Ynez Stakes (G2) scorer Forever Darling, who was by Congrats (like Malibu Moon, a son of A.P. Indy out of a Mr. Prospector mare), out of the same mare.
Darling My Darling was a talented runner – a daughter of Deputy Minister, she won the Raven Run Stakes and Doubledogdare Stakes, and took second in the Frizette Stakes (G1) and Matron Stakes (G1).
Sierra Leone’s third dam Roamin Rachel earned the distinction of being the only northern-hemisphere Grade 1 winner by her sire, the Mr. Prospector horse Mining, with a victory in the Ballerina Stakes (G1), one the three graded triumphs in her career.
She produced another really good performer in the Sunday Silence son Zenno Rob Roy, a Horse of the Year, a champion in Japan and winner of the Japan Cup (G1).
Another Roamin Rachel offspring was Stray Cat, the dam of four stakes winners, three graded in Japan.
Sierra Leone is bred on a very effective nick – he’s is one of four graded stakes winners from just nine starters for the sire out of mares by Malibu Moon, the others including the Grade 1 winner Locked.
Despite Sierra Leone’s victory, it’s likely that Fierceness – last year’s champion twoyear-old colt – will end up as the champion three-year-old colt, too, having defeated Sierra Leone when capturing the Jim Dandy
Stakes (G3) and Travers Stakes (G1), and having won the Florida Derby (G1) earlier in the year.
Thorpedo sinks the opposition
There are no doubts at all as to the identity of the champion three-year-old filly –Thorpedo Anna controlled the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) from start to finish to register her eighth victory in ten starts.
Her other wins include the Fantasy Stakes (G2), the Kentucky Oaks (G1), the Acorn Stakes (G1), the Coaching Club American Oaks (G1) and the Cotillion Stakes (G1).
Her only defeats are a second in the Golden Rod Stakes (G2) on her black-type debut at two, and a strong finishing second to Fierceness beaten just a head in the Travers Stakes (G1) with Sierra Leone back in third.
Thorpedo Anna is named after a pair of swimmers. One was Australian superstar,
This year’s star filly Thorpedo Anna: her Distaff victory was her fifth Grade 1 success in ten starts
the breeders’ cup: Dirt
Ian Thorpe, nicknamed “Thorpedo”, and the other owner’s granddaughter, Anna Thorp, a competitive swimmer at the Sacred Heart Academy, Louisiville.
The champion elect is from the fifth and final crop of Fast Anna, who died from the complications of laminitis in February 2021.
A son of Medaglia D’Oro out of the champion two-year-old filly Dreaming of Anna, Fast Anna was a sprinter rather than a Classicist.
Successful in three of nine starts, Fast Anna never won a black-type event, but he did come within a neck of defeating The Big Beast for the King’s Bishop Stakes (G1) on Dirt.
Retired to Three Chimneys Farm, Fast Anna has been represented by 14 stakes winners from five crops, but Thorpedo Anna is his only graded scorer.
Thorpedo Anna’s dam Sataves was unraced as she was born seven weeks premature and had crushed hocks. Her dam Pacific Sky, a daughter of Stormy Atlantic, was also unraced, but she is half-sister to Balmont, winner of the Middle Park Stakes (G1) and Gimcrack Stakes (G2), and to the one-time Kentucky Derby (G1) favourite, Eskendereya (who like Pacific Sky is by a son of Storm Cat), successful in the Wood Memorial Stakes (G1) and Fountain Of Youth Stakes (G2).
Overall, Thorpedo Anna has seven crosses of Northern Dancer and one of Halo, giving her nine total crosses of her tail-female ancestor Almahmoud.
Serrano migrated to the US with victory The Argentine-bred Full Serrano, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile (G1), had made 14 starts in his native country, but had looked no better than useful there winning five races, including a black-type event at 1m3f on the Turf, and missing by a nose in the Gran Botafogo, over the same distance and surface.
Imported to the US, he took an allowance over a mile on Dirt at Del Mar on his August 3 debut.
He followed up with a career-high when missing by just a half length after cutting out the pace in the Pacific Classic (G1) back at 1m2f. A temperature ruled him out of a prep
for the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), which is why he dropped back in distance to the Mile.
Full Serrano was always close at hand and, after stalking the early pace, he took over at the head of the stretch, and from there was never seriously threatened.
Full Serrano is by Full Mast, a Mizzen Mast son who won the Prix JeanLuc Lagardere (G1) for owner-breeder Juddmonte Farms.
Standing in Argentina, Full Mast has sired 11 stakes winners, six graded, also including the champion two-year-old filly Tan Gritona, and other Grade 1 winners Full Keis and Guistino.
He is out of the unraced Jump Start mare Serra Do Mar, a sister to the champion Argentine two-year-old filly Seresta, subsequently dam of Harper, a graded stakes winner in Japan, and runner-up in the Yushin Himba (G1), and of stakes winner Valle De Al Luna.
Full Serano’s grand-dam Serata was a half-sister to the Brazilan graded winner Lamparina, the dam of Brazilian Oaks (G1) scorer Brilhantissima, and ancestress of numerous high-class South American performers, including a Horse of the Year in
Uruguay, a champion three-year-old filly in Brazil and the Grade 1 winner Vespaciano.
Chaser makes it the track for the Sprint win In a less-than-vintage renewal of the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), Straight No Chaser prevailed by a half length.
Although he’s a five-year-old who has been in training for three seasons, Straight No Chaser has only made 10 starts and has never run more than four times in a year.
Successful six times, he broke through in black-type company last May with a win in the Maryland Sprint Stakes (G3).
He was then away from the races for a little over a year, finishing fourth in a Grade 3 event in New York on his return this year.
His only other outing saw him prep for the Sprint with a triumph in the Santa Anita Sprint Championship (G2).
Straight No Chaser is by the deceased Speightster. A son of Speightstown from the immediately family of Smart Strike, Speightster won the first three of his four starts, including the Dwyer Stakes (G2).
He’s been a little disappointing with 13 stakes winners in his first four crops and, of these, only Straight No Chaser and the Chilukki Stakes (G3) winner Hot And Sultry, have scored in graded stakes, Staight No Chaser is his sole Grade 1 winner.
Straight No Chaser’s third dam Desireux, a daughter of Fappiano, appears as third dam of the multiple graded stakes-winning sprinter Something Extra, and granddam of Ncoloe H, whose successes included the Distaff Handicap (G2). She is dam of Gun Song, winner of this year’s Black-Eyed Susan Stakes (G2), and runner up in the Cotillion Stakes (G1) and Mother Goose Stakes (G1).
Desireux was a half-sister to Housebuster, who was unplaced in his only try in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), but was voted champion sprinter of 1990 and 1991.
Their dam Big Dreams won 21 races, four in black-type events and is ancestress of 27 stakes winners, including other Grade 1 winners Bright Future, successful in last year’s Jockey Club Gold Cup (G1), the 2023 Hopeful Stakes (G1) scorer Nutella Fella, and Victor the Winner, who took the Centenary Sprint Cup (G1) in Hong Kong.
Straight No Chaser: has only run 11 times
Our stallions and prices for 2025.
At Dalham Hall Stud, UK
At Kildangan Stud, Ireland
Belardo GR.1 SIRE BY LOPE DE VEGA
EUROPEAN CHAMPION 2YO Won Gr.1 Dewhurst & Gr.1 Lockinge The highest-ranked sire standing under £15k in Europe by number of winners in 2024 (European Sires by no. of winners from 1/1/24 to 16/10/24 in Europe, Marray Thoroughbred Services) 57% winners/runners worldwide
Won Gr.1 Frank E Kilroe Mile Stakes
Won Gr.2 Del Mar Handicap (3 times)
Won Gr.2 Charles Whittingham Stakes (2024)
Won Gr.2 Eddie Read Stakes
Queen Victoria
By Frankel and a daughter of dual Group 1 winner Quiet Reflection, Lake Victoria took her unbeaten record to five from five with success in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies
THERE WAS no doubting the status of Lake Victoria as Europe’s leading two-year-old filly – after her maiden success she picked up consecutive wins in the Sweet Solera Stakes (G3), the Moyglare Stud Stakes (G1) and the Cheveley Park Stakes (G1), in which she
dropped down to a distance to 7f for the first time in her career.
Following her victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1), we can hail her as the top juvenile filly in the northern hemisphere.
Lake Victoria is another credit for the nonpareil Frankel, who is proving to be very
near as impressive a stallion as he was a racehorse.
From his first nine crops, he has so far been represented by 152 stakes winners, 102 Group or graded and 35 of them Group or Grade 1, among them Alpinista, Inspiral, Cracksman, Hurricane Lane, Nashwa, Chaldean, Mostahdaf, Westover,
Lake Victoria: the filly has been a superstar this season and is yet another brilliant performer by the outstanding Frankel
the breeders’ cup: juveniles
Mozu Ascot, Adayar and Soul Stirring.
Like Henri Matisse, Lake Victoria is out of an expensively-purchased, high-profile mare bought by the Coolmore group –Showcasing’s daughter Quiet Reflection.
The leading three-year-old filly in the sprint category on the World Thoroughbred Rankings, Quiet Reflection won six Group events, including the Commonwealth Cup (G1) and Haydock Sprint Cup (G1).
She was bought for 2,100,000gns as a broodmare prospect at the 2017 Tattersalls December Mares Sale.
Lake Victoria is her fourth foal, fourth starter, and third winner, the best of those preceding Lake Victoria being the Group-placed Galileo horse Bluegrass.
Quiet Reflection’s dam, the two-year-old winner My Delirium (Haafhd), is out of the Hillary Needler Trophy winner Clare Hills, a
Henri Matisse’s victory put the cap on one of the most remarkable seasons that we have seen for a sire with his two-year-olds
daughter of Orpen, who is a close relative to Frankel’s broodmare sire Danehill.
The family goes back to Lake Victoria’s sixth dam Annie Aaron. She was a half-sister to Alysheba, a champion at three when he took the Kentucky Derby (G1) and the Preakness Stakes (G1), and Horse of the Year and champion older horse at four.
Henri Matisse: another juvenile talent by Wootton Bassett
From a pedigree standpoint, the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) was a repeat of 2023 with an Aidan O’Brien-trained son of Wootton Bassett gaining the day.
Last year, it was Unquestionable and this year it was Henri Matisse who came from last to catch the US-trained long-shot Iron Man Cal by a neck.
The victory of Henri Matisse put the cap on one of the most remarkable seasons that we have seen for a sire with his two-year-olds.
This year he has been represented by 39 individual juvenile winners, and 13 have captured black-type events, 10 of them Group or graded with Camille Pissarro, Tennesse Stud and Twain joining Henri Matisse as Group or Grade 1 winners.
The son of Iffraaj (by Zafonic, from the
Henri Matisse: like Lake Victoria, he is out of one Coolmore’s expensively purchased, talented broodmares, the dual Group 1 winner Immortal Verse (Pivotal)
Gone West branch of Mr. Prospector), Wootton Bassett was undefeated in five starts at two, including winning the Prix Jean Luc Lagardère (G1), but he failed to hit the board at three and was retired to stud fairly cheaply in France.
Largely scorned by local breeders, he had only 23 foals in his first crop and 18 in his second.
From that first crop, however, came the European champion Almanzor, winner of the Champion Stakes (G1), the Irish Champion Stakes (G1) and the Prix du Jockey-Club (G1).
The high-class winners continued to come, and, for the 2021 breeding season, Wootton Bassett moved to Coolmore, so the current two-year-olds are from his first Irish crop. Overall, he now has 56 stakes winners, 38 Group or graded, including other Group and Grade 1 winners King Of Steel, Audarya, Al Riffa, Bucanero Fuerte, Wooded, Zellie, Incarville and Unquestionable.
Immortal Verse, the dam of Henri Matisse, was purchased for a then-record 4,700,000gns at the 2013 Tattersalls December Sales carrying her first foal, a colt by Dansili, and she’s certainly proved worth the money.
She was a joint top-rated three-year-old filly in the medium distance category on the World Racehorse Rankings having won the Prix Jacques Le Marois (G1), the Coronation Stakes (G1) and the Prix de Sandringham (G2).
Her first six foals have all started, and five have won. In addition to Henri Matisse they include the champion three-year-old filly Tenebrism, successful in both the Prix Jean Prat ( G1) and Cheveley Park Stakes (G1) and Statuette, who took the Airlie Stud Stakes (G2).
A half-sister to the dam of the stakeswinning and Group 1-placed Roseman, Immortal Verse is out of the black-type winning Sadler’s Wells mare Side Of Paradise, herself a sister to the stakes winner Flowerdrum and to Moon Flower, the dam of Fantastic Love.
Mill Princess, the dam of Side Of Paradise, was also dam of Last Tycoon, victorious in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1), the King’s Stand Stakes (G2) and the William Hill Sprint Championship (G1), as well as the Group winners Astronef and The Perfect Life.
Overall, Mill Princess is ancestress of 48 stakes winners, names that also include Valentine Waltz and Tie Black (both successful in Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (G1), Hermosa, winner of the 1,000 Guineas (G1)), and further Group and Grade 1 winners Sense Of Style, The United Stakes, Hydrangea and Fonteyn.
Into Mischief: up for a sixth sires’ title
The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) went to Citizen Bull, who went wire-to-wire to score by a length and a half from his previously unbeaten stablemate Gaming, who is from the first crop of the champion two-year-old Game Winner.
This was the third win in four starts for Citizen Bull (Into Mischief), who followed a
debut victory with third to Gaming in the Del Mar Futurity (G1), and a decisive win in the American Pharoah Stakes (G1).
Citizen Bull’s success marks another chapter in the story of the remarkable sire Into Mischief.
First represented by a Breeders’ Cup scorer back in 2013, when his first crop son Goldencents took the Dirt Mile (G1), a victory he would repeat the following year, Into Mischief has been leading sire for each of the last five years.
As of writing, he heads the 2024 US sires’ table, so it is a fair assumption that he is about to lift his sixth title.
That would place him third by all-time premierships won (first recorded in 1830) behind Bold Ruler, who secured eight titles between 1963 and 1973, and the mighty Lexington, who topped the table 15 times from 1861 to 1878.
For good measure, Into Mischief is the leading sire of US two-year-olds and, should he retain that position, it will be his sixth such title, equal with Bold Ruler, and one behind the all-time record of his male-line ancestor Storm Cat.
Citizen Bull’s dam No Joke is a daughter of Distorted Humor, and Into Mischief has struck-up an extremely rewarding relationship with mares by that horse –the cross producing 11 stakes winners from 62 starters (18 per cent stakes winners to starters), including other Grade 1 winners Life Is Good and Practical Joke.
No Joke is a half-sister to Moonshine Memories, who took the Chandelier Stakes (G1) and Debutante Stakes (G1) at two, to stakes winner Indian Evening, and to the dam of Souper Hoity Toity, who was a three-time a graded winner in Canada.
Her dam Unenchantedevening, a daughter of Unbridled’s Song, is a half-sister to Favorite Trick, winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) in 1997, the champion twoyear-old of his generation and Horse of the Year.
Another half-sister to Unenchantedevening, the stakes-placed Crafty And Evil, appears as third dam of Tiz The Law, winner of the Belmont Stakes (G1), the Travers Stakes (G1), the Florida Derby (G1) and the Champagne Stakes (G1), and a leading freshman sire this year.
Citizen Bull: by the remarkable sire Into Mischief
the breeders’ cup: juveniles
Nyquist and Bernardini blending well Immersive went into the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) with a record of three-for-three, including daylight wins in the Spinaway Stakes (G1) and Alcibiades Stakes (G1), and she duly made it four-forfour drawing off to score by over 4l.
Immersive is from the fifth crop of Nyquist, a son of Uncle Mo.
A champion two-year-old and winner of the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1), the following year Nyquist became only the second Juvenile winner to go on and land the Kentucky Derby (G1).
The leading freshman sire of his generation, Nyquist’s first crop was headlined by another Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Filly (G1) heroine, Vequist.
He’s now sire of 26 stakes winners, 15 graded, including the Grade 1 winners Randomized, Johannes, Slow Down Andy, Gretzky The Great, and another 2024 two-year-old filly Tenma.
Immersive is out of the allowancewinning Gap Year, a daughter of Bernardini, the champion three-year-old of his crop, a successful sire, and now a very good broodmare sire.
Gap Year’s dam is another spectacular female Dubai Escapade, winner of six of her last seven starts, victories that included the Ballerina Breeders’ Cup Stakes (G1), which she took by over 8l, the Madison Stakes (G2) and Vagrancy Handicap (G2).
Dubai Escapade is a half-sister to yet another immensely talented distaffer in Madcap Escapade.
A winner of seven of nine starts, all but one of which came in stakes company, Madcap Escapade took the Ashland Stakes (G1) defeating the great mare Ashado, the Forward Gal Stakes (G2), the Shirley Jones Handicap (G2), the Princess Rooney Handicap (G2), the Madison Stakes (G3) and also finished third in the Kentucky Oaks (G1).
Madcap Escape is dam of Mi Sueno, who broke her maiden with a six and a half length victory in the Sorrento Stakes (G3) and, on her only subsequent start, defeated the champion Blind Luck to take the Del Mar Debutante Stakes (G1).
Immersive is one of five graded stakes winners from only 18 starters by Nyquist of
of Bernardini mares, the others including her fellow Grade 1 scorer Gretzky The Great, and Nysos, who looked like a Classic prospect this spring, but who was sidelined by injury.
Magnum Force another star for Mehmas
In a typically close finish to the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint (G1), European runners went one-two with Magnum Force prevailing by a half length over Arizona Blaze.
This was a first black-type win for Magnum Force, who has also taken second in the Roses Stakes and Flying Childers Stakes (G2).
He is the seventh two-year-old stakes winner for his sire Mehmas this year, the son of Acclamation putting in some extraordinay numbers with this year’s juveniles.
The crop numbers 248, and it has produced 151 starters, 60 individual winners, and nine stakes winners, six Group or graded, including the fellow Group 1 winners Vertical Blue and Scarthy Champ.
Mehmas burst on the scene with his first-crop juveniles which numbered a
then-record 56 individual winners.
Bred on the same Acclamation/ Machiavellian cross as another noted speed sire Dark Angel, he now has 38 stakes winners, 23 Group or graded, including other top level winners Going Global, Minzaal, Supremacy and Chez Pierre.
Magnum Force is out of the two-yearold-winning Fastnet Rock mare Tropical Rock. She is a daughter of Tropical Treat (Bahamian Bounty), successful in the Land O’ Burns Stakes and a Group 3 second.
The family is a little light immediately below that, but the third dam, Notjustaprettyface, a daughter of Red Ransom, was third in the Land O’ Burns Stakes and the Choisir Stakes, and is three-quarters sister to the Red Ransom horse, Sri Pekan, winner of the Richmond Stakes (G2), the Champagne Stakes (G2) and the Coventry Stakes (G3).
There have been six stakes winners, three of them Group class, bred on the cross of Mehmas with Danehill line mares, in addition to Magnum Force, the trio also include the Group 1 winner Minzaal.
Force’s Turf Sprint victory has capped an amazing year for Tally-Ho Stud’s Mehmas
Magnum
Conception publicitaire : Agence G
Photographies : Z. Lupa, Scoopdyga & Marc Ruehl
SECOND LEADING FRENCH SIRE
12/11/24 - *Standing in France, worldwide earnings Eric Puerari: +33 6 07 34 38 24 - ericpuerari@wanadoo.fr Jean-Daniel Manceau: +33 6 30 30 81 27 - jdmanceau.capucines@gmail.com
now boasting 47 Stakes horses to his record including: One of the most consistent stallions,
Be Your Best 1st Long Island Stakes Gr.3 Aqueduct
Trevaunance 2nd Preis von Europa Gr.1, Cologne
Marhaba Ya Sanafi 1st Poule d’Essai des Poulains Gr.1
3rd Prix du Jockey Club Gr.1
Armira 1st Kolner Sprint Trophy Gr.3, Cologne
Annaf
1st Saudi National Bank 1351 Turf Sprint Gr.2, Riyadh
Race of the Year (determined by average Timeform master rating of first three finishers)
Winner: Juddmonte International (126)
Runners-up: King George (125), Gold Cup (124), Eclipse (124)
Troy Story
The son of Justify and this year’s Derby winner gains Timeform Horse of the Year accolades
CITY OF TROY came up short in his bid to become the first horse trained in Britain or Ireland to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic on Dirt, but his achievements on Turf in 2024 saw him voted Horse of the Year by Timeform’s staff, beating his Aidan O’Brientrained stablemate Kyprios, who dominated the staying division.
Charyn (Dark Angel) was third after a fantastic season in Europe that saw him win five times at a mile for Roger Varian, including three times in Group 1 company.
City Of Troy was the champion juvenile of 2023 and developed into Timeform’s highest-rated horse in Europe through his three-year-old season.
He earned a career-best figure of 130p for his length defeat of Calandagan (Gleneagles) in a strong edition of the Juddmonte International, a race that more than lived up to its name with runners from France and Japan.
City Of Troy was hailed by Aidan O’Brien as the best he’s ever trained but, while he was a top-class performer who also won the Derby and the Eclipse, the ratings don’t quite back up the trainer’s conviction.
Galileo, O’Brien’s first Derby winner in 2001 and the sire of City Of Troy’s dam, ended his three-year-old campaign with a Timeform rating of 134 based on his defeat of Fantastic Light in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
City Of Troy was hailed by Aidan O’Brien as the best he’s ever trained but.... the ratings don’t quite back up the trainer’s conviction
Furthermore, Australia, another of O’Brien’s record ten Derby winners, also ended his three-year-old season with a higher rating than City Of Troy achieving a figure of 132 for his victory in the Juddmonte International in 2014.
The highest-rated horse O’Brien has trained remains Hawk Wing, whose 10l victory in the 2003 Group 1 Lockinge Stakes earned him a rating of 136, but, still, he comes up short when compared to the highest-rated horse in Timeform’s experience Frankel, who was expertly nurtured by Sir Henry Cecil, and achieved a rated 147.
Photo by Debbie Burt
City Of Troy also picked up the title of champion middle-distance performer which, like all the awards with the exception of Horse of the Year, was determined by Timeform rating among horses in Europe.
He edged out Calandagan (129), while the King George winner Goliath (Adlerflug) and Tattersalls Gold Cup winner White Birch (Ulysses) were rated 128.
The champion sprint category – focusing on the top performers at 5f or 6f – was headed by Bradsell (Tasleet) whose victories in the Nunthorpe and Flying Five Stakes saw him earn a Timeform rating of 124 and establish himself as the best around at the minimum trip.
Over 6f the Group 1s were shared around with Mill Stream (Gleneagles) and Kind Of Blue (Blue Point) earning a rating of 122 through victories in the July Cup and Champions Sprint Stakes respectively.
The Australian sprinter Asfoora (Flying Artie), campaigned in Britain this summer, was also rated 122 for her win in the King Charles III Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot.
Charyn had failed to win during his threeyear-old campaign but he showed marked improvement at four and earned a career-best Timeform rating of 127 for his 2l win in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes (G1) at Ascot.
That was enough for him to edge out the three-year-olds Rosallion (Blue Point), rated 126, and Notable Speech (Dubawi), rated 125, to the champion miler crown.
Timeform’s leading older horses 2024
City Of Troy in his piece of work at Southwell: the son of Justify has been voted Timeform’s Horse of the Year for his achievements on Turf this summer
Bluestocking (Camelot), like Charyn, had endured a frustrating and winless three-yearold campaign but she blossomed at four, also winning three times at the top level.
The highlight was her swansong success in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1), which earned her a Timeform rating of 123 and saw her crowned champion female.
Others who showed very smart form and rated 122 were the Arc runner-up Aventure (Sea The Stars), the Prix de la Forêt winner Ramatuelle (Justify) and the Sun Chariot Stakes winner Tamfana (Soldier Hollow).
A career-threatening injury meant that Kyprios (125) made it to the track only twice in 2023, and he had to settle for second on both occasions, but he had a clear run of things this time around and pieced together a perfect campaign to re-establish himself as the champion stayer.
He perhaps didn’t show quite the same level of form as in 2022, but all his battling qualities were on display and he brushed
aside his rivals to win seven times, including four Group 1s.
With eight Group 1 wins to his name he is now O’Brien’s most prolific winner at the highest level.
Shadow Of Light’s
Timeform rating of 120 is the lowest awarded to a champion juvenile colt by Timeform since the turn of the century
Timeform’s champion juvenile colt was Shadow Of Light (Lope De Vega), who achieved a rare feat by winning the Middle Park Stakes (G1) and the Dewhurst Stakes (G1) becoming only the second horse to do so since Diesis back in 1982.
However, Shadow Of Light’s Timeform rating of 120 is the lowest awarded to a champion juvenile colt by Timeform since the turn of the century.
Perhaps the best prospect among the twoyear-old colts is The Lion In Winter (Sea The Stars), who was so impressive in the Listed Acomb Stakes at York but missed out on
Timeform’s leading three-year-olds 2024
Rating Name Sire
Dam Dam sire
130p CITY OF TROY Justify Together Forever Galileo
129 CALANDAGAN Gleneagles Calayana Sinndar
126 NOTABLE SPEECH Dubawi Swift Rose Invincible Spirit
126 ROSALLION Blue Point Rosaline New Approach
125 ECONOMICS Night Of Thunder La Pomme D’Amour Peintre Celebre
124p LEAD ARTIST Dubawi Ogligate Frankel
122 HENRY LONGFELLOW Dubawi Minding Galileo
122 KIND OF BLUE Blue Point Blues Sister Compton Place
122 LOS ANGELES Camelot Frequential Dansili
122 RAMATUELLE (f) Justify Raven’s Lady Raven’s Pass
122 TAMFANA (f) Soldier Hollow Tres Magnifique Zoffany
121 BIG EVS Blue Point Hana Lina Oasis Dream
121 DIEGO VELAZQUEZ Frankel Sweepstake Acclamation
121 PORTA FORTUNA (f) Caravaggio Too Precious Holy Roman Emperor
120p JAN BRUEGHEL Galileo Devoted To You Danehill Dancer
120 FALLEN ANGEL (f) Too Darn Hot Agnes Stewart Lawman
The ‘p’ attached to his rating of 119 shows he is considered likely to improve.
There was a strong crop of fillies, though, with Lake Victoria (Frankel) finishing the campaign with a Timeform rating of 119p, the highest earned by a two-year-old female since Lady Aurelia (127) in 2016.
This year’s champion juvenile filly was unbeaten in five starts and registered Group 1 wins at 6f, 7f and a mile.
Desert Flower (Night of Thunder) was
Champion juvenile colt Shadow Of Light (left)
in four starts and her five-and-ahalf-length win in the Fillies’ Mile earned her a Timeform rating of 117p, the highest in the race since Minding won in 2015. A clash between Lake Victoria and Desert Flower in the 1,000 Guineas will be a race to savour.
ONES to watch
Spotted by the Trackside team this summer and autumn here is a selection of well-bred two-year-olds, names to keep an eye on as exciting prospects for 2025
ALOBAYYAH
Ghaiyyath-Aquatinta (Samum)
T: William Haggas
O: Rabbah Bloodstock Limited
B: Sheikh Mana Bin Mohammed Al Maktoum
A late-season Yarmouth-winning debutante can never be dismissed and Alobayyah immediately entered the notebook following an emphatic success in a mile fillies’ novice run at the track in late October.
Bought for 110,000gns in the Tattersalls October Book 2 Yearling Sale 2023, the filly is a similar stamp to her first-season sire Ghaiyyath and boasts a strong black-type German pedigree.
Whilst the Kildangan Stud-based stallion has only achieved five individual winners in the UK and Ireland to date, these include the Group 2-placed Stanhope Gardens and the exciting Gethin, who earned the highest Timeform rating of the season so far for a debut juvenile when scoring at Nottingham.
It could be a landmark year at stud for Darley’s Ghaiyyath in 2025, with the first crop expected to progress as three-year-olds and Alobayyah is poised to be part of it.
ANGELO BUONARROTI
Justify-Curlylocks (Galileo)
T: Ralph Beckett
O: Amo Racing
B: Orpendale/ Chelston/Wynatt
Angelo Buonarroti entered the “stand out” list from the moment he entered the Royal Ascot pre-parade ring for the Group 2 Coventry Stakes.
It was clear to see why connections were happy to throw the colt in deep waters on his debut – the Justify colt displayed a professionalism well beyond his years.
Angelo Buonarroti, who was a €1 million purchase from the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale, fills the eye with his scope and quality, and exploits on the track have matched his looks.
He finished a respectable ninth in the Coventry Stakes (G2) before victory in the Convivial Maiden Stakes at York. The striking chestnut then found the undulations of Newmarket’s dip a little challenging when staying on for third in the Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes.
He looks a tailor-made middle-distance
performer for next year. Take the Derby ante-post odds, you heard it here first!
DEVIL’S ADVOCATE
Too Darn Hot-Precious Ramotswe (Nathaniel)
T: John & Thady Gosden
O: Godolphin
B: Hascombe & Valiant Stud
The importance of the All-Weather for a Classic campaign was brought to the fore this season with Godolphin’s Notable Speech recording three victories at Kempton before taking the 2000 Guineas on his Turf debut.
With that in mind, it was interesting to see Devil’s Advocate record a seven-and-ahalf length victory at Chelmsford over 1m2f in mid-October on his second career outing.
A well-balanced son of Too Darn Hot, Godolphin purchased the colt for 350,000gns as a yearling and he boasts a stamina-laden page being out of Group 3 Bronte Stakes winner Precious Ramotswe.
It would be a tough ask for Devil’s Advocate to match the exploits of the fellow Godolphin-owned Classic winner, but the
combination of speed and stamina within his pedigree and obvious potential makes him an interesting proposition for next season.
HUMAM
Kodiac-Her Honour (Shamardal)
T: Andrew Balding
O: Al Shaqab Racing & Partner
B: Peter & Hugh McCutcheon
Autumn’s Two-Year-Old Day at Newmarket tends to throw up an exciting prospect and this year’s fixture was no exception, with multiple winners across the card earning quotes for next year’s Classics.
Humam, third in the 7f novice contest, caught the eye and our Trackside Paddock Notes comment reads “Powerful colt, deepchested and will come forward”.
A half-brother to the Charlie Fellowestrained Group-winning sprinter Vadream (Brazen Beau), the colt took a keen hold in the early stages and stayed on well to finish third behind Treble Tee, subsequently touted as a possible 2000 Guineas horse.
Humam demonstrated a relaxed and professional attitude, but any future pre-race antics would not be a major concern – Vadream was well-known for her exuberant gymnastic displays in the preliminaries.
NIGHTWALKER
Frankel-Sleep Walk (Oasis Dream)
T: Sir Michael Stoute (John and Thady Gosden)
O: Juddmonte
B: Juddmonte Farms Ltd
With trainer Sir Michael Stoute now
retired it was little surprise to see the fellow Newmarket training combination of John and Thady Gosden announced as 2025’s prospective handler of the Juddmonte Farms bred and owned filly Nightwalker.
Out of an Oasis Dream half-sister to the St Leger winner Logician (handled by the same yard), the grey progressed considerably in physical appearance from his win at Yarmouth to placing third in the Group 2 Autumn Stakes at Newmarket on Dewhurst day.
He remains a “work in progress” –with a green attitude in the paddock and conformation that suggest further improvement is likely – but there is little doubt that a Group success would be well-within his capabilities as a threeyear-old
Angelo Buonarroti: the son of Justify was a second top-priced lot at this spring’s Arqana Breeze-Up Sale, and he could just be money well spent
trackside horses to follow
RADIO STAR
Starspangledbanner-Vives Les Rouges (Acclamation)
T: Ollie Sangster
O: Nbr 6, Carr, Gill & Partners
B: Liam Phelan
First noted in the Trackside Paddock Notes at Glorious Goodwood, “Will have some growing to do but stands out as a compact, sprinting type. Excellent attitude for a filly having her first run”, Ollie Sangster’s Radio Star presented like a filly who could pick up an end-of-season nursery before a successful three-year-old campaign.
The daughter of Starspangledbanner is a half-sister to useful sprinter Rohaan (Mayson) – who only found winning form in the December of his juvenile campaign before taking multiple Group races at three. While she might not reach the heights of her esteemed half-sibling, there is definitely more to come from Ollie Sangster’s filly and she might stay in training over the winter.
SMOKEN
Too Darn Hot-Miss Marjurie Marju)
T: Ralph Beckett
O: Andrew Rosen, Marc Chan & Mrs S Rogers
B: Highview Bloodstock Ltd/A Swinburn
The maiden at Nottingham held during mid-October has an excellent record for
producing a future Group performer, with both St Leger victor Eldar Eldarov and Champion Stakes hero King Of Steel making successful debuts in the contest.
Trainer Ralph Beckett also boasts an impressive strike-rate at the course and so it was perhaps notable that he chose to send his Too Darn Hot filly Smoken for the EBF mixed sex maiden, rather than targeting the fillies’ equivalent on the same card.
Out of a half-sister to the multiple Group 1 winner Soviet Song, Smoken hails from the family of Marsha and demonstrated her liking for a softer surface when following up in the mile Listed Montrose Fillies’ Stakes at Newmarket in early November.
Her page makes it difficult to identify future targets, but the filly clearly operates on slower ground, which could be a key asset next season.
TROIA
Kingman-Umniyah (Shamardal)
T: Ed Walker
O: Fittocks Stud and Andrew Bengough
B: Fittocks Stud and Andrew Bengough
Desert Flower may have taken the headlines on Fillies’ Mile day at Newmarket (give us
a four-page spread on her, she’s a team favourite), but there was plenty to see on the supporting card.
The Ed Walker-trained Troia had previously caught the eye on debut when taking a 6f Newbury maiden in comfortable fashion.
Subsequently declared a non-runner on soft ground for two later assignments, the daughter of Kingman was unfancied in the market for the 6f Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes on good-to-soft, but she out-ran expectations powering through the line to steal fourth behind Merrily.
A big-bodied filly, who looks like she’ll develop physically over the winter, it would be no surprise to see Troia turn up and perform commendably in one of the Guineas trials on faster spring ground.
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Smoken: won a well-regarded maiden at Nottingham, the filly beating the boys over a mile
Ollie Sangster trains the exciting Radio Star
ACE IMPACT
ACE IMPACT
France’s most popular new stallion: 183 mares covered in his first season
AN EXCEPTIONAL ATHLETE
Global appeal with mares from leading breeders in France, England, Ireland, Germany, Japan, USA…
COVER story
The Weatherbys Return of Mares reveals the ups and downs in the covering sheds
THIS SPRING 13 stallions covered over 200 mares, seven of whom come under the Flat banner, and all of whom are based in Ireland.
This was a drop from the 20 and 19 stallions, who reached such figures in 2023 and 2022.
Coolmore led the way with Order Of St George’s 311, Calyx at 273 and Santiago at 251. Tally-Ho Stud’s Good Guess at 250 was the stallion standing outside of Fethard to see the highest number of mares.
The busiest stallion in the UK in 2024 was Frankel, who was visited by 192 mares.
In terms of quality, 19 stallions in Britain and Ireland covered 50 or more black-type mares in 2024 and just two of those reached triple figures with Frankel heading the list on 145 (down from 153 in 2023) and Wootton Bassett adding 18
more to his 2023 total of 100.
Too Darn Hot, on the strength of his exciting 2023 results on the racecourse, comfortably had the biggest percentage increase of black-type mares in 2024 which rose 88 per cent from 44 covered last year to 83 in 2024.
Not only did Frankel and Wootton Bassett cover the most amount of black-type mares, but they also filled the same position on number of Group-winning mares – the former saw 88 and Wootton Bassett covered 53.
Dubawi, for so long prominent at the head of covering statistics, saw his number of black-type mares dip beneath 100 and he was down number-wise from 104 in 2023 to 83 this spring.
Amongst the big movers was
the Irish National Stud’s young sire Phoenix Of Spain whose book more than doubled both in terms of the number of mares covered year-on-year from 90 in 2023 to 217 in 2024, while the quality improved with the number of black-type mares also increasing from 15 last year to 32 this spring.
Young sires popular
Of the first-season sires of 2024, Chaldean saw 173 mares and the Juddmonte sire is top of the list by the number of black-type mares covered (63), the only first-season sire to see over 50 in that category. He also saw 16 Group-winning mares.
Shane Horan, nominations
manager at Juddmonte reports:
“There was an excess of 320 applications for Chaldean with the final book consisting of 173 mares made up many notable performers, producers, and very well related mares.
“In fact, by the close of the season, his book featured an impressive 99 black-type performers and producers.
“In addition to that, there were 15 daughters of Group 1 winners and another 38 sisters to Group 1 winners.”
Numerically, Tally-Ho’s Good Guess was streets ahead of all new sires with a bumper total of 250 mares covered.
Shaquille, the July Cup winner of 2023, is the first debut 2024 stallion away from the large
established farms of Coolmore, Darley and Tally-Ho to have seen a three-figure book, the Dullingham Stud-based sire was visited by over 150 mares.
Stud manager Ollie Fowlston said: “We were delighted with Shaquille’s first book of mares. He covered 158 mares and got 90 per cent in foal, which is exceptional.
“His first book included the dams of Dramatised, 20 stakeswinning mares including the Norfolk Stakes-winning Shang Shang Shang, 57 dams of black-type horses and 117 sisters to stakes winners.
“We are excited about seeing his first crop and are confident breeders will not be disappointed.”
It is fair to say that Whitsbury Manor Stud has done well in establishing stallions over the last few years and Dragon Symbol, who was first past the post in the Commonwealth Cup but was disqualified but still collected four Group 1 placings, stood his first season for the Hampshire farm in 2024.
He has been given every chance of following in the footsteps of Havana Grey and
Sergei Prokofiev covering 140 mares in his first season.
Joe Callan, the farm’s head of bloodstock and sales, said: “We were delighted with Dragon Symbol’s first book of mares – he covered an exciting full book which included 25 stakes-winning or producing mares such as Killermont Street, the dam of Cold Case, Harryana To, the dam of Diligent Harry and Harry Three, and Favourite Girl, who is the dam of Adaay In Devon.”
The Weatherbys Return of Mares 2024 shows a decrease across-the-board of the number of registered foals, broodmares and stallions compared to published figures of 2023.
The live foals totalled 12,578 (13,438 in 2023), and of these, 4,074 are registered in Britain (4,356 in 2023) and 8,504 (9,082 in 2023) in Ireland.
This is a decrease of 860 foals compared to an increase of 163 foals from 2022 to 2023.
The number of stallions decreased by 10 in Britain from 113 to 103 and in Ireland by 19, from 184 to 165 in 2024.
Too Darn Hot: the greatest increase this year of black-type mares covered compared with 2023
Sire BT mares 2024 BT mares 2023 Group-wnrs 2024
An international view
Muhaarar is heading into his second season standing at Petit Tellier in Normandy, the son of Oasis Dream has had some big-money results around the world this year
THE TWO-DAY BREEDERS’
CUP meeting saw eight European-based sires with winners or placed horses, including the late Shamardal and shuttle stallion Zoustar, whose Starlust, the winner of the Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, was bred on the sire’s 2020 sojourn to Tweenhills Stud in Gloucestershire
Second to the Ralph Beckett-trained filly in that 5f race was the six-year-old gelding Motorious, now with trainer Philip D’Amato having originally been trained in Newmarket by Stuart Williams. He was bred in Britain by Kirtlington Stud and Mary Taylor out of their excellent mare Squash and is by Muhaarar.
Like his son, the 12-year-old former Shadwell stallion is no longer resident in Britain, and after an initial hop across the English Channel to France for a two-season stint at Haras des Faunes in the south-west, the son of Oasis Dream is now resident at Petit Tellier and has one covering season under his belt at the Normandy-based farm.
It was a great thrill to watch the Breeders’ Cup and those sorts of performances can quickly change the profile of a stallion
The four-time Group 1 sprint winner is under the watchful eye of stud manager Patrick Chedeville and stands alongside The Grey Gatsby (Mastercraftsman) and Recoletos (Whipper).
“Muhaarar is a delight to have around and is a professional in the covering shed,” says Chedeville.
The stallion covered 110 mares last spring, and has 69 foals on the ground from his last season at Faunes.
“I have five mares in-foal to him, and many other clients gave him some support,” adds Chedeville. “We were delighted with the support he got.”
The stallion’s big money earner on the track this year was the Saudi Turf Sprint winner Annaf, who picked up £900,000 in that race alone, while at the same meeting the Ian Williams-trained Enemy collected nearly £400,000 in the Red Sea Handicap (G3) beaten just a head by Tower Of London, the second year in succession the horse has finished runner-up in the race.
In Europe, the five-year-old gelding Israr, the 2023 winner of the Princess of Wales’s Stakes (G2), was the easy winner of the Listed Wolferton Stakes at Royal Ascot, while the Jessica Harrington-trained Trevaunance, also a five-year-old and a Group 2 winner in 2022, took fourth place in the Group 1 1m4f Preis Von Europa for owner Moyglare Stud, having finished second in the race in 2023.
On the same card in Cologne, the four-year-old filly Armira won the Group 3 Kolner Sprint Trophy over 7f for trainer Peter Schiergen and owner-breeder Gestut Brummerhof.
As can be seen many of the sire’s best runners improve with age and longevity and the European racing scene might be a more suitable environment for the sire away from Britain with its strong focus on juvenile performances.
“It was a great thrill to watch the Breeders’ Cup and those sorts of performances can quickly change the profile of a stallion,” says Chedeville.
“I think it will suit him being here in Normandy and closer to perhaps some of the better mares in France.
“He is a still a young stallion and so we are very hopeful of the future for him.”
Muharaar’s fee for 2025 is €14,000, unchanged from 2024.
Of Muhaarar’s stud mate The Grey Gatsby, Chedville updates: “His fee is unchanged,
too. He covered around 70 mares last year down a little on the 115 he saw in 2023.
“I think he is a great value stallion and, like his own sire Mastercraftsman, he seems to be a good producer of fillies.
“He has Atomic Blonde in the US, she was also a good filly in Germany with Henk Grewe and is and is now running well with Christophe Clement, and Mylady who has won a Grade 3 in the US with Chad Brown.
“He is getting some quality jumping winners now, too, and again fillies are leading the way – Isis D’Inor has won two Listed hurdles at Auteuil this autumn, and By Exeter has been placed in a four-year-old Listed hurdle.
“Of course, we would like a good colt to come long, but The Grey Gatsby is doing very well so far.”
Petit Tellier, which is near Sévigny in the Argentan region of Normandy, will, as usual, be open on the 2025 Route D’Etalons, January 17-18, and everyone is welcome.
The Grey Gatsby: the 13-year-old stallion has stood all of his career at Petit Tellier and, like his own sire Mastercraftsman, is a good producer of fillies
STALLION SCENE
Top spots under threat
Wootton Bassett’s fee drawing ever closer to Dubawi and Frankel
DESPITE SOME
HUGE returns at the Tattersalls
October Sale resulting from the
unexpected surge in trade at the top which filtered into the middle market, there is still a lot of uncertainty surrounding the yearling market; the early-season sales certainly saw trade curtailed at the top, while the lower levels struggled all year – correspondingly the
stallion farms have resisted the temptation to increase fees on a whole-scale basis.
For the past two years there have been eight British and Irish stallions standing at six-figure fees, for 2025 there will now be nine with Darley’s Blue Point thrusting himself into this elite group on the strength of his Classic-winning son Rosallion and Kind Of Blue’s Group 1 Champion Sprint success.
The top two of recent years, Dubawi and Frankel, remain
unchanged and both will stand at £350,000 again next year. However, that could soon change.
Should Wootton Bassett build upon the exploits of his first Irish-bred crop, which contained the record-breaking four individual Group 1-winning two-year-olds, then their position at the top could well be under threat as Coolmore’s son of Iffraaj earned himself a €100,000 increase to €300,000 for 2025.
Wootton Bassett: after the amazing progress made this year could he take himself to the top next season?
Amo Racing will be hoping the sire has at least one Group 1-winning two-year-old of 2025, especially the son of Park Bloom, who cost the owner 4,300,000gns at Tattersalls and the highest-priced yearling colt sold at public auction in Europe.
Next highest-priced horse is Sea The Stars, who himself has a 25 per cent increase to €250,000 for next season with exciting unbeaten two-year-old The Lion In Winter looking a true Classic prospect for next year.
Other group winners in 2024 include Sea The Fire, Sweet William, Ottoman Fleet, Al Aasy, Bellum Justum, Hanalia and Legend Of Time.
BALLYLINCH’S
Lope De Vega had yet again had another outstanding year with a clutch of Group 1 performers, namely the Prix du Jockey-Club winner Look De Vega, the Caulfield Cup winner Duke De Sessa, the dual Grade 1 victor Carl Spackler, Godolphin’s crack two-year-old Shadow Of Light, successful in both the Dewhurst and Middle Park Stakes (G1), the Churchill Downs’ Turf Classic hero Naval Power, and the Aga Khan’s Pouliches scorer Rouhiya. His fee will rise from €125,000 to €175,000.
Juddmonte’s Kingman holds steady at £125,000 and he had a successful year with notable winners Sparkling Plenty (Prix de Diane (G1)), the Prix de l’Opera winner on Arc weekend Friendly Soul, and Roger Varian’s 1,000 Guineas queen Elmalka the headlines.
He’s joined on a €125,000
fee (reduced from €150,000) by Coolmore’s No Nay Never whose chesnut colt out of Lady Aquitaine Lake Forest picked up the not inconsiderable sum of £2,807,486.63 when winning Rosehill’s Golden Eagle Stakes and Prix Morny (G1) two-yearold winner Whistlejacket.
Darley’s Night Of Thunder has an increase of €50,000 to €150,000. His notable horses in 2024 include Economics, who improved all season to Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes glory, and Godolphin’s unbeaten Desert Flower.
Study Of Man has had the biggest percentage increase on his fee of 2024 – Lanwades Stud’s son of Deep Impact going from £12,500 to £25,000, a 100 per cent increase.
Kirsten Rausing said: “Study Of Man was already showing great promise with his first-crop two-year-old’s in 2023, which numbered nine individual winners, including the Group 2 Beresford Stakes winner Deepone.
“His progress has strongly continued, he now has five stakes winners from his first crop, including the Group 2 winner Birthe and the exciting Juddmonte homebred Group 1 winner Kalpana, already favourite for the 2025 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe.
“His second crop, two-yearolds of 2024, include the 2025 Classic hopes Almeric and Alla Stella amongst nine individual winners so far.
“He is now the leading second-crop sire of the northernhemisphere by percentage of Group horses to runners.
“He is now, of course, attracting larger books of higher quality mares, and we
look forward to his future with confidence and excitement.”
New sires
Some farms wait a lifetime to stand a Derby winner yet Coolmore is retiring two at the same time – City Of Troy (€75,000) and last year’s Epsom Derby winner Auguste Rodin (€30,000) head the list of new sires for 2025.
They’ll be joined at Fethard by Dubawi’s Henry Longfellow (€15,000), unbeaten at two including the National Stakes (G1) and, although without a win at three, he only ran in Group 1 company placing three times.
Unusually, Darley is not
adding to its roster but other notable new sires for 2025 include the Tally-Ho trio of King Of Steel (€20,000), Big Evs (€17,500) and Bucanero Fuerte (€12,500).
The Irish National Stud will be hoping Shouldvebeenaring (Havana Grey, €6,000) could fill some of the void left by the recently retired Invincible Spirit.
The National Stud (Bradsell £10,000), Cheveley Park Stud (Vandeek, £15,000) and Yeomanstown (Mill Stream, €12,500) all introduce crack sprinters and Newsells Park Stud will be standing unbeaten two-year-old and Greenham winner Isaac Shelby (Night Of Thunder) at £7,000.
Study Of Man: has had the largest fee increase for 2025 in percentage terms
Below: David Redvers
TO GET THE CHANCE to stand a Group 1 Futurity Trophywinning two-year-old and the fastest 2,000 Guineas (G1) winner in history, bought by your team as a yearling, would be a satisfying result in itself for most stallion farms, but for Tweenhills, retiring Kameko, a son of Kitten’s Joy, to stud duties for the 2021 breeding season always was going to mean that bit more.
And now that Kameko has gone on to sire a Group 1 winner and a Group 1 performer in his first crop, it can be termed a good start and certainly one that mattered.
As the curtain comes down on the European Flat Turf season for 2024, Kameko has sired 12 individual winners from 44 runners.
That group is headed by Qatar Racing’s homebred colt New Century, who landed the Summer Stakes (G1) at Woodbine for Andrew Balding, and was beaten just 2l into fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1) at Del Mar.
Trained by Andrew Balding, who also handled Kameko for the entirety his career,
Looking forwards
With a Group 1 winner, a Group 1 third, four juveniles rated over 100, the future looks bright for Tweenhills’ young sire Kameko, writes Jamie McGlynn
Kameko: his fee for 2025 has been set at £20,000, just £5,000 up on his price for 2024
The four of his horses who are rated over 100 are out of later-maturing mares, which gives us great optimism that the best is yet to come
it would be no surprise to see him aimed at the first Classic of the season next year.
Another member of that initial crop is Wimbledon Hawkeye, whose victory in the Royal Lodge Stakes (G2) and third-place finish in the Futurity Trophy (G1) have earned him a rating of 114, which is the highest official rating given to any juvenile by a first-crop stallion in Britain this year.
The Gredley family homebred, who became his sire’s first winner when winning
“It was great to see New Century do it in the Qatar Racing colours. He’s been so consistent all year and has taken his racing and travelling really well.
“He’s got a great attitude and obviously for his sire to have a top-flight winner in his first crop is of huge importance.
“Wimbledon Hawkeye has been so progressive, too. He’s another who thrived on racing and, despite not being in love with the ground at Doncaster, he still ran on to
another big step forward next season.”
The 100-rated Rajeko, who won on his racecourse debut in June and has since finished fourth behind subsequent Prix Morny (G1) hero Whistlejacket in the July Stakes (G2), is out of the 93-rated Archipenko mare Rajar, while Hawksbill, officially rated 95 after his fourth-place finish in the Listed Ascendant Stakes, is out of the Frankel mare Like, who shed her maiden tag in December of her three-year-old career.
“The four of his horses that are rated over 100 are out of later-maturing mares, which gives us great optimism that the best is yet to come,” adds Redvers.
“Kameko was the same. He was so laid back and didn’t set the world alight in his early work. However, when the penny dropped, he never looked back and was most progressive. You’d be hopeful that, come the spring, Kameko could have a couple of genuine Classic contenders and some
When assessing the season for Kameko, Redvers adds: “Young sires have to be able to produce winners in numbers, but they also have to be able to come up with a couple of good ones for people to really step up and really take note of them. Thankfully, Kameko has, and we have had some very good breeders come to us on the back of those performances to purchase nominations for 2025. You’d hope that the best is yet to come.”
In 2019, Tweenhills sadly lost Roaring Lion, the four-time Group 1-winning son of the Hill ‘N Dale Farms and Ramsey Farm resident Kitten’s Joy, after covering just one book at the
Kameko, both on the track and now in the covering shed, is doing his bit to try and fill that void, and has further justified Tweenhills’ faith in Ken and Sarah Ramsey’s
the
Wimbeldon Hawkeye winning
Group 2 Royal Lodge Stakes, he went on to finish a good third in the Group 1 Futurity Stakes
“We always felt that when we were sourcing yearlings in the US that there was an angle in buying Turf-bred horses or those who were by sires that had done well on the Turf in the early books at Keeneland – a lot of the action was geared towards the bigger horses who would run on the Dirt,” confirms Redvers.
“We had identified Kitten’s Joy as a sire who had done very well with his early crops and, in fairness, he was almost exclusively supported by the Ramseys.
“They really believed in the horse and supported him accordingly, so he was somewhat of an underdog to achieve the things that he did.
“We had tried to buy subsequent Eclipse Stakes (G1) and Sheema Classic (G1) winner Hawkbill as a yearling, but we didn’t have the firepower of John Ferguson, who bought him for $350,000 for Godolphin.
“We obviously bought Roaring Lion two years later and he took us on a wonderful journey.
“In the Group 1 Irish Champion Stakes, he showed the class and toughness that the sire line produces time and time again. He really had to put his neck out and battle all the way to the line, a trait that is so typical in progeny of Kitten’s Joy.”
Fwere busy hunting the sales ground at Keeneland when they landed on Kameko, who cost just $90,000.
“Hannah Wall, Peter Molony and I all thought that he was the best by the sire in the sale and were keen to get him,” recalls Redvers.
You’d be hopeful that come next spring, Kameko could have a couple of genuine Classic contenders and some improving three-year-olds
“He was bred by an historic farm in Calumet and had that European mix in his pedigree, so we were gobsmacked that we got him for that price. It’s easy to say now, but he genuinely was a standout for us.”
While his sire was crowned champion Turf sire seven times in the US, Kameko also has that mix of top-class European form in his immediate pedigree that Redvers alludes to.
He is out of Sweeter Still (Rock Of Gibraltar), who was bred by Ann-Marie O’Brien and trained by husband Aidan to finish fourth in the Listed Flame Of Tara Stakes on her racecourse debut before being sold to the US where she landed the Senorita Stakes (G3) for Jeff Mullins.
Sweeter Still is a half-sister to the South African sire Kingsbarns (Galileo), who also won the Futurity Trophy (G1), and
New Century won the Summer Stakes (G1) and finished a running-on fourth in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf
stallion kameko
The pedigree has received a further update this year through Catchingsnowflakes, a Galileo half-sister to Kameko, whose first foal The Waco Kid (Mehmas) won the Somerville Tattersall Stakes (G3) for trainer Hugo Palmer.
Neatly coinciding with the action on the track by Kameko’s offspring, the progeny from Kameko’s second crop was in high demand in the yearling sales this autumn, with the undoubted highlight being the Tweenhills-consigned full-brother to New Century, who was purchased by Godolphin for 1,000,000gns, a new record price for a colt at Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale.
“It was bittersweet in a way,” continues Redvers. “Obviously, we are delighted to sell a million-guinea yearling from Kameko’s second crop, but I was sad to see him go at the same time.
“I know it is always said at times like these, but he really was the stand-out of the sale and made everyone’s list.
Lots of people at the sale were all commenting on how much the colt looked like his father
“Lots of people at the sale were all commenting on how much the colt looked like his father and he’s a full-brother to a Group 1 winner.
“We expected him to make 500,000gns – I felt he definitely warranted that – but to sell him for 1,000,000gns was great.
“We’re so grateful to the Godolphin team for purchasing him. It gives the sire a big
chance to see him go to Charlie Appleby, too.
“Charlie had actually joked at the sale that he ‘didn’t want to be chasing him next year,’ so the fact that the team went and bought him was one way of making sure that didn’t happen!”
The Tweenhills team will go into the winter with optimism for the future as, whether his progeny run in the colours of Godolphin, Qatar Racing, or anyone else for that matter, Kameko looks to have a bright future.
He will stand next season for £20,000, which is up on last year’s fee of £15,000, but is still below the £25,000 at which he retired to stud in 2021.
He covered 93 mares last year and, given the exploits of his progeny both on the track and in the sales ring, it is highly likely that number will rise.
If breeders were to support him in the same way that the Ramsey’s supported his own sire, there is no evidence so far to suggest that history won’t repeat itself.
New Century’s full-brother sold for an October Book 2 record-breaking price of 1,000,000gns, the bids in this shot all coming from the left of the ring
Gr.1 Prix du Jockey Club
Gr.1 Dubai Sheema Classic
Gr.1 International Stakes
Gr.1 Saudi Cup (dirt)
Gr.1 Prix Jacques le Marois
Gr.1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes
CHAMPION MILER.
UNPARALLELED RECORD . UNCONTESTED LEADER .
“You might not witness it again in a lifetime.” UP YOUR GAME.
DARK ANGEL x FUTOON (KODIAC)
New horizons
Tattersalls’ long-term marketing director Jimmy George is looking forward to new challenges as he moves from a role he has held for 23 years, writes James Thomas
THE DECEMBER MARES SALE
will signal the end of an era at Tattersalls with the company’s long-serving marketing director Jimmy George moving on to pastures new.
George has become something of the public face of the world-renowned auction house, taking on regular media duties as well as his behind-the-scenes marketing responsibilities. It has been quite the journey, particularly considering he came into the industry from a standing start.
After studying history and politics at Exeter University – “a profoundly useless degree” – George had his first spell with Tattersalls in 1986.
When asked what his roles and responsibilities included in that time, he laughs and says, “Anything I was told! I was very much the lowest of the low, and quite rightly as I’m not sure I’d have employed me.
“I was fortunate I was leaving university in 1986 rather than ‘85 or ‘87 because it coincided with a time when they actually needed somebody in the bloodstock room.
“If it had been a year earlier or a year later, there wouldn’t have been a job there.”
The move proved a formative experience for the “unbelievably gormless 22-year-old” George.
“I didn’t grow up in a racing background, but I just loved the sport,” he continues. “I applied for a job at Tattersalls on leaving Exeter, largely based on the fact that I wanted to get involved in the racing and bloodstock industry but didn’t have any practical experience.
“Because Tattersalls was on the more clerical side of things it was one of the only
spots where I felt I could go and start at the bottom and learn as much as I possibly could.”
He evidently learned plenty along the way. A brief spell at Pacemaker magazine followed, including as editor in 1993, before he returned to Tattersalls as marketing manager in 1994. He has served on the board as marketing director since 2001.
In that time George has overseen a period of almost exponential growth at Tattersalls.
In 2001 the company turned over 124,855,150gns, a figure that has exceeded 300 million guineas in all bar the Covid year since 2016. In 2022, spending hit a record 413,198,735gns.
This growth reflects the significant expansion of the sales calendar, with an increase in the number of auctions meaning an increase in the volume of horses brought to market.
“When I started in 1986, there wasn’t a sale here at Tattersalls in Newmarket from the end of the December Sale until the July Sale the following year,” he says. “Now, that didn’t mean that everyone downed tools on January 1, but it was definitely a gentler sales scene in those days. We’re literally offering double the number of horses than we were in the mid to late 80s.
“In the boardroom we get the catalogue for every single sale sent off to be bound in leather as a record of each sale. I looked the other day and in 1986 there were eight leather bound volumes, which encompassed that year’s sales. The last three or four years will probably be made up of 16 such volumes, and that doesn’t account for Cheltenham, the online sales, and Tattersalls Ireland, which have become significant and
important parts of what we do.
“Tatts Ireland was already very much an integral part of the firm way back when, but everything has just expanded and multiplied massively in the period I’ve been involved.”
It is not just Tattersalls that has witnessed this boom in trade.
The increasing commercialisation – and internationalisation – of the bloodstock industry has made for a more competitive marketplace, a development that has been keenly felt in auction house marketing departments around the world.
“The focus is much sharper nowadays and the competition is much greater,” George says of the bloodstock landscape.
“Competition is good for everyone, but we’re very conscious that it’s a competitive scene out there. There are lots of other highly regarded sales companies throughout Europe and the rest of the world, and we’re competing with all of them for our share of the market.
“Sourcing the horses is absolutely vital and key to the success of Tattersalls, but
Jimmy George: admits that he is not sure that he would have employed himself when he was a 22-year-old – he says left Exeter University with a “profoundly useless degree”
Photos courtesy of Tattersalls
equally you have to be hungry when it comes to going out and finding the buyers from every corner of the world, as well as that domestic support.”
While Tattersalls has long since occupied a market-leading position, particularly so far as Europe is concerned, George stresses that he nor the team have ever taken that as a given.
“I don’t think there’s a person at Tattersalls that takes that status, perceived or otherwise, for granted,” he says. “And the day you do is a very dangerous one. This is a company with a history of more than 250 years and the company is a custodian of that history and legacy.
“It’s vital that the company continues to try and preserve Tattersalls as the preeminent sales company in Europe, to live up to that history and to take it forward.”
ANOTHER CHANGE has been the advent of social media, with the various platforms now a key battleground for the competing sales companies. Although George may not be an entirely active participant on this front, he is no less competitive about Tattersalls’ performance in this sphere.
“I think I’m regarded as something of a figure of fun when it comes to social media!” he laughs. “But I like to think I recognise its importance and significance, and the fact that I’m not really a regular user is neither here nor there. The great thing is, we have a team around us who is fully versed in the realms of social media because it’s a vital business tool, as everyone knows.
“Some people might think that as the oldest firm of its type in the world Tattersalls might not be the most progressive.
“But it’s a source of pride, and I think it’s a great reflection on Tattersalls, that we’ve got more followers on the various social media platforms than any other sales company, except Keeneland, which has a racetrack as well and attracts a different demographic of followers.
“That reflects the importance we place on it, and the fact we’re constantly looking at ways to develop that as something to complement and enhance what we do.”
Professionally, George cites the sale of the Caerleon colt foal out of Doff The Derby for a record-breaking 2.5 million guineas in 1997 as a most memorable moment; it was a wide-margin world record for a foal and is still an unchallenged European record to this day.
Personally, George’s best day was the sale of a pinhooked daughter of Diktat – bought as foal in 2005 for 26,000gns, she was sold a year later for 340,000gns, despite being the first lot in on the last day of Book 1 (Lot 494).
By that evening, unbeknown to George, partner Patrick Cooper of BBA Ireland had spent 60,000gns of the profit on a Sadler’s Wells yearling colt.
He went on to be called Curtain Call, won the Beresford Stakes (G2) the following year and the Mooresbridge Stakes (G3) as a four-year-old. He also ran in the Derby (as below, and, above, George being interviewed before the Classic by Clare Balding) and five further Group 1 races finishing a best-placed fourth in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud.
Marsha: George cites watching the daughter
The fact that this funny outpost in Suffolk becomes the focal point of a global business for significant parts of every year is wonderful
George highlights the variety within his role, from international travel to harnessing technological innovations, as being central to keeping the job so rewarding for so long.
“No two days are the same and it is very varied,” he says. “Once the sales season hits full flow, sometimes it’s hard to come up for air. This autumn period from the beginning of September to the beginning of October, we’re cramming an enormous amount in.
“There is no quiet time of year and at every point there are defined roles and defined aims, a lot of which involve overseas travel and regular contact with clients domestically and overseas. There’s a huge amount of ground covered by the marketing team, which involves maintaining and increasing that buying base.
“We’ll visit pretty well every continent in the world every year and 20 to 30 different countries.”
George may describe himself as an “incurable optimist” but, when asked for his proudest achievement in his time at Tattersalls, he says he is not prone to indulging in self reflection. He does, however, highlight the various connections he has made – with both colleagues and clients – as being particularly important.
“I’m just proud to have worked here for as long as I have,” he says. “It’s a great company and it always will be. It’s admired throughout the world, and admired for all the right reasons. There have been so many fantastic people who have worked here over the years, not least Edmond Mahony, who’s been the chairman for as long as I’ve been back here. He’s led the firm with extraordinary vision. I’m just proud to have been a small part of it.”
He adds, “One of the things that makes working at Tattersalls so wonderful is that everyone professionally involved in the
sport of horseracing and the world of breeding thoroughbreds, certainly within Europe, will at some point or another beat a path to our door.
“To see so many different people coming to Tattersalls on such a regular basis has always been a huge pleasure. The fact that this funny outpost in Suffolk becomes the focal point of a global business for significant parts of every year is wonderful. It’s a tribute not just to Tattersalls but to the wider British and European thoroughbred breeding industry.”
Although George turns 61 at the end of the year, he is not quite ready to reach for the pipe and slippers. Instead he will take up the role of managing director at the International Racing Bureau.
THE MOVE
of a leap in physical terms –“the office I’m moving to is only about 75 yards down the hill” – and the scope of his new role means there will be plenty of opportunities for crossover with his former employer.
“I’m not completely losing my association with Tattersalls and I’ll continue to do my best to play a part for the company in the overseas market,” he says.
“I’m very fortunate to be able to leave a company I still absolutely love working for to move
on to another company that I have a long association with, and which I’m equally looking forward to doing my best for in a slightly different role.
“I was very fortunate to get a job at Tattersalls when I was an unbelievably gormless 22-year-old, and somebody else is still prepared to take a chance on me now I’m in my early 60s – that can’t be bad!”
Associate director and marketing manager Jason Singh is to head up the marketing team.
“Jason will step readily into the role,” says George. “I’ve worked with him for 20-plus years now and he’s already a very well-established and well-known figure in the bloodstock and wider racing world. It’s his time.”
Jason Singh: will head up the marketing team on George’s departure
It is probably self-evident that a role in marketing would not suit a natural born cynic, and George says he has always possessed a positive disposition. This, perhaps at least in part, explains his enduring success in his role with Tattersalls.
“I quite often preface my conversations with Edmond by saying, ‘I know I’m a pathetic optimist but…’,” he says.
“Sadly being a pathetic optimist can sometimes lead to bitter disappointment, but equally sometimes that pathetic optimism can be realised.”
Georges’s time in the industry has plainly not dimmed his enthusiasm for the sport. Although he acknowledges that racing could, on occasion, supply its audience with better messaging, he highlights the enduring appeal of meetings such as the Breeders’ Cup, the Melbourne
I’ve always been someone that prefers to accentuate the positive rather than the negative
Cup and Royal Ascot as a clear sign that the global racing industry is doing so much right.
“There’s an awful lot going for this sport and for the thoroughbred breeding industry in Britain, Ireland and throughout Europe and further afield,” he says.
“Society is changing and the sport and the business needs to change to reflect that, and reflect our place in the world. But I think
everyone is acutely aware of that, and we can all only do our best to make our sport as relevant as we possibly can and as enjoyable as we possibly can.
“Now, that’s easier said than done, but I’ve always been someone who prefers to accentuate the positive rather than the negative, and there are times when I don’t think we’re very good at that collectively in horseracing.
“It’s important that we recognise the issues and the challenges and the things that could be improved, but equally there are an awful lot of great things achieved by some very capable, hard-working and dedicated people in this industry.
“Those are stories that need to be told and need to be emphasised, not just in Britain but throughout the world.”
The December Mares Sale is set to be George’s last hurrah, and he will be taking in the sale both as marketing director for the final time and as a vendor.
He is a part-owner of Village Voice along with BBA Ireland’s Patrick Cooper and the journalist Bill Oppenheim.
Although George says he won’t be topping his final sale with the company, the four-year-old daughter of Zarak has surely enhanced her value beyond the 38,000gns she cost at the 2022 Guineas Sale having won the Group 3 Prix de Flore as well as Listed races at Navan and Saint-Cloud.
“We’ve been very fortunate over the years and owned some wonderful horses in partnership,” he says.
“Village Voice is coming to Sceptre Session as part of my swansong. She’s a lovely filly and I’m very fond of her.”
For all George’s trademark optimism, he concedes his final auction as Tattersalls’ marketing director will be an unusual experience.
“It will be strange,” he says. “This job has been two-thirds of my life. But to leave something when you’re still deriving pleasure from it is probably a luxury in itself, as is having another challenge to take on to replace that.
“We all have our time though and I’ll be 61 at the end of this year, so it wasn’t a matter of if, it was a matter of when I would go. I’ve got a lot of reminiscences to take with me and a lot of fond memories.”
George part-owns the G1 fourth-placed filly Village Voice, who sells in the Sceptre Session (Lot 1743)
AL HAKEEM
by
SIYOUNI & JADHABA (GALILEO)
AMONG THE TOP THREE HIGHEST-RATED SONS OF SIYOUNI, ONLY SURPASSED BY ST MARK’S BASILICA AND PADDINGTON.
STALLIONS
Also standing at Haras de Bouquetot
Her
Not a passing Hobby
The Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye winner Makarova will be playing a pivotal role in the future of Brightwalton Stud
Photos courtesy of Brightwalton Stud and M3 Media
day of days: Makarova (inset) moving forward to win the Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye
FOR AN OWNER-BREEDER
there is not a better view in life than looking out of your kitchen window to see your homebred Group 1-winning filly of that year contentedly standing fetlock-deep in grass, snugly wrapped up in her waterproof ear-high rug in the company of her equine friends and in fine condition ready to move to the next stage of her career.
Jeffrey and Phoebe Hobby are one such lucky couple, their homebred Acclamation
five-year-old filly Makarova, the winner of this year’s Group 1 Prix de l’Abbaye.
She arrived back at their Brightwalton Stud from trainer Ed Walker’s yard at the end of October, the filly having had some autumn down time at Walker’s Lambourn stables after her winning exploits at ParisLongchamp.
The best paddock on the farm was, as befits a Group 1 queen, kept vacant and readied like a luxury penthouse suite for a VIP’s arrival.
“The yard had a bit of a goodbye
gathering, which was lovely,” says Hobby, who has no regrets that possible top level options on British Champions Day at Ascot or at Del Mar were declined.
He explains:“We had set out to do what we wanted to do, win that Group 1.
“She was fast – the time in Ireland in the Flying Five was the fastest in ten years and the Abbaye was quick, too – so the 6f at Ascot was too far for her really, and she did not show her best on fast ground so the US trip was out, as well.”
Looking back now on the autumn’s
achievement the Hobbys quite rightly struggle to hide their pride in the homebred.
For many looking back at the filly’s career, now that it is concluded, it might be a surprise that she achieved such heights given that she started her career off a lowly BHA handicap mark of 68.
But for the couple the Group 1 win was perhaps really not such an unexpected event – she has always been the apple of her breeder’s eye right from her early days on the Berkshire farm.
“I loved her as a yearling and all the sales companies wanted to take her,” recalls Hobby. “At that point her younger sister Nina Ballarina, who was a bit potty and very unlike this filly, was about to run in the Cheveley Park Stud Stakes, so the companies were keen to have her half-sister.
“I told them the Acclamation filly was going nowhere near a sale – that was a particularly surprising thing for me to say as we did sell most of our stock at that point.”
When training days beckoned the filly was
In France it was lovely that after the race we were in the car park drinking champagne I could wander over to the yard and go and see her
sent to near-at-hand Walker but, when she went through her growing “teenage” stage, few saw her hidden talents. Hobby, possibly wearing those special rose-tinted glasses that only breeders reach for, kept the faith, but admits he was disappointed that everyone else was disappointed.
“No one really liked her, but she was not a two-year-old type at all, a real gangly
teenager at that point and she only ran once at two,” he recalls. “But then as a three-yearold she just kept getting better and better.
“We carried on messing around in handicaps that summer, but at the end of the season there was the Listed Boadicea Stakes at Newmarket and I was keen she ran – both Ed and Matt Coleman thought I was mad!
“I have still got their What’s App messages saying as such saved on my phone!” he laughs, adding: “I had been there for all of her previous wins, and she always came back without ever really blowing – I always find it really useful to stand by the horses after their races and get a feeling for how they are, watching on TV you don’t get that insight at all.
“There was far more in the tank than anyone had realised; she was a lazy thing and I think always just did what she needed to do – fillies can be a bit like that, they are not fools, they work it out a bit.
“Anyway she ran at Newmarket, and she won her race her side, but Azure Blue on the other side just pipped her.
Phoebe and Jeffrey Hobby with their star homebred Acclamation filly at Ed Walker’s Lambourn yard
In France after the Group 1: Walker and Hobby enjoying their time with the filly in the stable yard, recognising their job well done
“That performance sort of changed the trajectory of where were going with her, and for the next season we set out with a completely different mind set with black-type firmly on the agenda.”
The purchase of her dam, the Cheveley Park Stud-bred Vesnina, came courtesy of agent Matt Coleman at the Tattersalls July Sale in 2015 when the daughter of Sea The Stars was just a three-year-old.
Hobby recalls: “Matt put her up to me –I like pedigrees that have a bit of depth to them and she is from the family of Russian Rhythm and that is a proper family.
“Although not much had been happening up top in the pedigree, sometimes you find that it comes back. Vesnina’s dam Safina was the best daughter of Russian Rhythm and she had been Listed placed, while Vesnina had been fourth in the Listed Dick Poole at Salisbury and had achieved a rating of 90 as a two-year-old – I thought that was quite impressive.
“She is tiny, she was a first foal out of a first foal, she is nothing to look at but she has some length.”
Vesnina’s breeding programme began, the mare sent to Ireland for a first covering.
“That first foal Nina Ballarina is by Lope De Vega. She is a nice sort and had some talent and is on the farm now.
“We sold the second by Shalaa and then kept Makarova, who has been a little rock star. The next foal Vicario, also by Lope De Vega, is with Ed and she is truly beautiful but perhaps not as quick as Makarova.
“We have a Cracksman yearling filly who is going to Ed’s and she had a Night Of Thunder filly foal this year – unbelievably Vesnina has only produced fillies so far!
“She is now in-foal to Havana Grey.”
HOBBY ENJOYS a hands-on approach with the horses and admits that he has spent more time in Walker’s yard in the mornings than maybe in the office.
“My car thinks its morning commute is to Lambourn,” he laughs alluding to his working life which is as owner of the successful commercial property business Dunmoore.
Owner-breeders are more patient, but when we need to be brave we are braver, and we take any disappointments better
The down-with-the-horses approach also means that he really enjoys the access that owners are allowed in France when they can go into the stables and the weighing room.
“I just love it, and in France it was lovely that, after the race, when we were in the car park drinking champagne I could wander over to the yard and go and see her,” he says. “It is such a shame that in Britain owners are kept so removed from the horses, and are treated really just as a pay packet.
“I know some owners have hardly ever met their horses before the races, but for owner-breeders it is a bit different because you have raised them and been with them; it is pretty much your journey, too.”
As H0bby outlines horses produced wearing an owner-breeder’s hat require a different strategic approach, right from covering plans through to training decisions.
“I think if you breed and race your horses it is slightly different than just sending them to the sales,” he counters. “You do look at your breeding plans differently as you want to use stallions who will breed you a racehorse – if we get a filly we will keep her and race her.
“I think we are different with trainers, too, we have a different engagement. We are not trying to get into handicaps, win one and be kept happy. We are a bit more patient and are prepared to say that if a horse is not ready then we don’t run, but, equally, then when the horse is ready we want to get on, not be messing around in handicaps, step up, be brave and look for black-type.
“Owner-breeders are more patient, but when we need to be brave we are braver, and we do take any disappointments better.”
He adds: “I think that is why maybe
Back home: after her autumn exertions, Makarova is taking life easy before starting out as a Mum
breeders do slightly better than other owners – they can be more patient at the start but are then prepared to crack on and can roll the dice a bit.
“For us, it was really worth investing in Makarova and see how far she could go –if it did work out, as it has, then we have won five times over through her sisters and her mum.”
Unsurprisingly, through the late autumn many stallion farms have been in touch with Hobby offering the services of their equine suitors, many friends and advisors have also had their input.
It is fair to say that it is a dynamic time for Brightwalton Stud, the opportunity that a Group 1 winner can bring to a pedigree can be life-changing, especially when her own dam, still on the farm and not old, is particularly adept at producing fillies.
The threads of that top level pedigree update and choices regarding subsequent covering plans can be far reaching. It is not an over-estimation to say that Brightwalton Stud could be on the cusp of a “moment” and plans need to be considered carefully.
“I have got to think about it, this step up, because it is not just her, it is her sister
Brightwalton Stud: originally a dairy farm, attracted Hobby because it grew good grass, but admits he did not have a grand strategic plan on purchase
and her mother the whole lot,” agrees the breeder. “The whole farm is doing better, we sold the Lope De Vega out of Isabella for 750,ooogns this autumn which is our best price so far, and we have got a few higher grade mares on the farm now.
“But, unfortunately, a few of the best mares are not in-foal, so we will have bit of a hole coming in our foal crop.”
Explaining the impact this will have on covering plans, Hobby says, “Although we have had a great year on the track with prize-money won and in the sale ring, in terms of paying for lots of future stud fees we are not necessarily going to have the sales revenue next autumn to balance that.
“We do have some nice foals on the ground, and, hopefully, will be nice yearlings but who knows if they will really fly?
“We have also made a capital investment into the farm so that has to be factored as well, too – you can’t keep pouring money in.”
ORIGINALLY PART of a dairy farm found on the outskirts of Brightwalton village, which is some 15 minutes drive from Newbury, the property was purchased by the couple in 2001 as a bare site. After various planning delays, the stud became a reality in 2009.
“I grew up on the Downs and I had moved to the village after we sold Hillwood Stud,” recalls Hobby. “It has good ground and it grows good grass, and the opportunity to purchase came along. I would like to say it was a big strategic purchase, but we just thought we will give that a go – I think in life sometimes you just have to take things as you find them.”
The stud started off in with a few “rag bag” boarders and a few cheap mares and some pinhooks, a few of which are still bought by Hobby as he finds it a good way to sharpen the eye, but, over the last few years, he and Phoebe have concentrated on buying quality mares and developing families, which in itself presents a challenge.
“It has got harder to buy mares, so it makes sense to keep the fillies and put them in training, although the prize-money is so shxxt and British-based owner-breeders are
At the end of the year, we do a whole financial analysis, it is rigorously costed so we make sure it does not run away with itself
shafted unless they get to the very top.
“We hope that we can make enough money at the yearling sales – the plan being that one or two sell well enough to pay the nominations, run the farm and provide enough to pay for a couple of training fees.”
While Hobby would probably admit that he does enjoy the romance of breeding racehorses, he is also an astute businessman and does bring a rational approach to the stud farm enterprise.
“At the end of the year, we do a financial analysis, it is rigorously costed so we make sure the stud does not run away with itself.
“We know then what a mare has cost us and whether she might be worth that financial input. I think you have to be a bit brutal and be prepared to make decisions that a mare may have to go.
“Obviously we do take a rational approach, too; if she is producing good athletic, running stock then she will get a bit more time, but if she is producing horrible yearlings then she has to be moved on.
“I like good-looking, athletic mares and,
of course, we do get horrors, but generally they produce good-walking, athletic stock. I have got to like the progeny the mare is producing.”
Brightwalton Stud has recently grown with the additional purchase of a further neighbouring 100 acres, Hobby casually mentioning that the new land brings the farm to a comparable size to Meon Valley.
That almost throw-away line leaves the impression that is where ambitions lie – with a private broodmare band of high quality, Group-class, self-generating families.
Hobby manages the farm alongside the day job, previously he and Phoebe both rode seriously and were heavily involved in the mastership of the Berks and Bucks Draghounds.
“I suppose I have always worn two hats, I used to do a lot with the hunt, I was pretty obsessed, it came before everything. When we had our eldest, we were told she could come home on a Sunday and I said it was inconvenient because I would be hunting! This has taken over now.
“I suppose if this was not working and we were not moving forwards, I would be trying to discover why not and trying to make sure that I could do something about it – after all people do succeed at this, so if you are not then you have to work out why.”
He adds: “A couple of years ago we had a dreadful stint, lost mares and foals; I think people in this industry are hugely resilient, everyone know what goes into making the good days.
“And that is what is so great about this industry, everyone realises what it takes.”
Aside from the commercial reality of running a farm, Hobby genuinely enjoys the bloodstock industry, its people, its craic, its dynamics. He makes the most of his involvement, enjoys his hands-on approach, making decisions and the research required to achieve the right solution, alongside getting to the races, the yards and the sales.
And, of course, all plans are made under the watchful eye of Phoebe, who just makes sure that her husband does not get a run of it.
We rightly leave the last words to the breeder, who has enjoyed a fantastic year on the track and in the sale ring – he sums it all up rather neatly: “This is just a really fun industry to be part of, it is fantastic.”
Perfect Power FOALS YOU MUST
Last to first winner of four stallion-making speed tests and the Champion sprinter of his generation. The natural heir to the number one sire line for Royal Ascot two-year-olds.
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NAVAL CROWN
Lookalike son of Dubawi who won the G1 Platinum Jubilee beating Highfield Princess, Alcohol Free and Minzaal in the most competitive sprint of the season.
FLYING Fanshawe
Marcus Townend chats with trainer James Fanshawe who has just enjoyed one of his best years in the business
Newmarket trainer
had his best-ever season numerically and in prize-money terms, he won the 24th Group 1 race of his career this year and is enjoying working alongside his son Tom.
Fanshawe Snr is seen here in the winner’s enclosure at Ascot after Kind Of Blue’s Group 1 success on British Champions Day
TRAINER JAMES FANSHAWE is never going to shout about his successes from the rooftops, it is not in his nature.
But, while others adroitly play the PR game, that can mean the achievements of his Newmarket stable run the risk of slipping below the radar.
Arguably that was still even the case during a 2024 Flat season, which saw his stable spend its fair share of time in the spotlight, and plenty will have clocked the headline-grabbers.
Fanshawe had the Betfred Derby runnerup and Irish Derby (G1) third Ambiente Friendly in his Pegasus Stables and ended the season on a massive high when Kind Of Blue, who had been a narrow runner-up in the Group 1 Haydock Sprint Cup, secured a top-level prize with a head victory from Swingalong in the British Champions Sprint Stakes at Ascot.
But fewer may have realised that battling victory, one of 54 in Fanshawe’s season, was some sumptuous icing on a great all-round campaign.
In 35 years’ training, Fanshawe has only bettered that winning total once, when he had 58 wins in 2002. A domestic prizemoney tally of just over £1.5 million is also easily his best ever with over half of the
This year we have had a better quality of horse and a couple of really good ones. Hopefully, we can build on that
70 horses he ran winning at least one race.
The numbers seem to have even taken Fanshawe a little by surprise.
‘‘I hadn’t really realised what a good season it had been either,’’ the understated trainer says in the kitchen of his yard on Newmarket’s Snailwell Road, alongside remains of a chocolate cake which survived the party to celebrate Kind Of Blue’s success.
‘‘When you are doing well, you start looking at stats. When you are doing badly you pass over that page!
‘‘We have run more horses than we have ever run before and they have been consistent. As well as Ambiente Friendly and Kind Of Blue, others have won good prize-money.
‘‘We had 50 winners last year so numerically that was good but we won
Kind Of Blue (Blue Point) wins the Group 1 British Champions Sprint in Wathnan’s colours
James Fanshawe has
nowhere near as much prize-money.
‘‘This year we have a had a better quality of horse and a couple of really good ones. Hopefully, we can build on that.’’
What unfolded over the summer could not confidently have been predicted when the season kicked off.
Ambiente Friendly had looked to have had his limitations exposed when third in the Group 3 Autumn Stakes at Newmarket in the October of his juvenile career, while a series of niggling issues had prevented Kind Of Blue from even running as a two-year-old.
He had shown glimmers of ability, although not quite enough to get the heart beating faster for a feet-on-the-floor merchant like Fanshawe, despite being from a family he knew very well.
Owned and bred by Jan and Peter Hopper and Mike and Michelle Morris, the son of Blue Point hails from the same family as Deacon Blues and The Tin Man, both previous winners of the British Champions
He was always going to be a sprinter with his pedigree,but I still let him do the long work to keep him switched off
Day sprint for Fanshawe.
The trainer recalled: ‘‘It wasn’t until he started going up Warren Hill in the spring that we started to think we might have something.
‘‘He was always going to be a sprinter with his pedigree, but I still let him do the long work to keep him switched off rather than put him under pressure.
‘‘He loved that, and when we did quicken,
he really came on for it. That is when we thought could he be something special.
‘‘He won his first two races [at Kempton and Doncaster] when I didn’t really have him tuned up.
“He won them okay, but because of what we had seen it at home we were hoping there was a bit more to come.
‘‘That is why he ran then in the Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot. I would have liked to have gone for something smaller, but he was in and going well. It was either that or going for a novice with a big penalty so we rolled the dice.
‘‘He finished fourth [to Inisherin] and we were pleased rather than being delighted.
‘‘It was all a step too soon for him. He got quite upset in the preliminaries. He had gone from Kempton and Doncaster and suddenly he was at Royal Ascot.
‘‘It got to him a bit, but he came back from it and got better as the season went on.’’
Given the family tree that was always
On the breeding journey of a lifetime
KIND OF BLUE’s win at Ascot was his first under Wathnan ownership, the colt having previously been owned by breeders Mike and Michelle Morris alongside Peter and Jan Hopper.
With much invested over the years by the breeders into the pedigree, as Jan relates selling to the Qatari-based operation was not immediately a done deal.
“The decision-making process was a difficult one, but once we made the decision, we were very clear that it was the right one,” she says. “We are small breeders, we just try and keep the whole thing going, and there just comes a point where it just makes sense.
“Wathnan was lovely to deal with and, in the end, it turned out to be quite a straightforward process decision for us.
“We’re absolutely thrilled that Kind of Blue has gone on to win a Group 1. We were at Ascot to watch him and we were just hugely proud of him and the Pegasus Stables team.
“It’s great that he stays in training with
James and we are very hopeful that he’s going to carry on and do even more when he’s a four-year-old, we are really excited about the future.”
She adds: “The family is one that has improved with age, and he has done far more at an earlier age than many of his relations.
“We are so very happy that he’s continued to do well, but, to an extent, we didn’t doubt that he would be a good horse.”
Kind Of Blue is out of the unraced Compton Place mare Blues Sister, who was bred by Hopper and Elizabeth Grundy and is an own-sister to the champion older sprinter and previous winner of the British Champion Sprint Stakes winner Deacon Blues, and a half-sister to The Tin Man (Equiano), a three-time Group 1 winner and jointchampion sprinter in France.
Kind Of Blue is very much following in the family’s speedy footsteps.
Hopper says: “He was placed every time he ran this year and he just progressed
with every run – from his fourth in the Commonwealth Cup on just his third run to the win at Ascot, and looking back at the form now, it just looks like a natural progression.
“He has every right to be in the top races once again next year.”
THAT EARLY DEBUT at Group 1 level at Royal Ascot might have led many owner-breeders to question the sanity of their trainer, but Fanshawe has been training the family since he started out in the 1990s and the team was more than happy to trust his judgement.
“James is so very careful in placing his horses to progress,” admires Hopper, “so for him to suggest a run at Royal Ascot suggests that he realised that he’d got a good horse and it gave us the confidence to do that.”
The colt’s dam Blues Sister is just an 11-year-old. After her first foal died early, she has two further living offspring – Bluebird,
likely to be the case and fuels the hopes Fanshawe understandably harbours for Kind Of Blue in 2025.
At the end of his three-year-old career, his older relation and three-time Group 1 winner The Tin Man had only run once –an unplaced effort at Doncaster – before being gelded. Deacon Blues was also gelded before his form moved to a new higher level as a four-year-old.
Fanshawe said: ‘‘None of the family have come good until they were older and the were all gelded at the end of their three-yearold careers. I don’t think Kind Of Blue is going to be gelded now, though!
‘‘His two uncles, being geldings, probably didn’t take the same amount of work as him but they are very similar.
‘‘I am very much looking forward to next year with him. He was tricky at Royal Ascot but I think that is because he was thrown in at the deep end. He is a big, powerful colt and his behaviour has got better.
‘‘He was very well behaved on Champions Day. A lot of the best horses develop a character, enjoy the attention and thrive on it.’’
Richard Brown had always kept an eye on Kind Of Blue after Royal Ascot and after Haydock he had a big eye on him!
Making the Ascot success even sweeter, the victory came on Kind Of Blue’s first run since he was bought by Wathnan Racing, the increasingly influential operation of Qatari ruler Sheikh Tamin Bin Hamad Al Thani and managed by bloodstock agent Richard Brown.
‘‘Richard Brown had always kept an eye on Kind Of Blue after Royal Ascot and after Haydock he had a big eye on him!’’
Fanshawe said.
‘‘The most important thing is having the horse in the yard no matter who owns it, but it is great Wathnan has come in and you never know what is around the corner.’’
Kind Of Blue was Fanshawe’s first Group 1 winner since Audarya added the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf at Keeneland in 2020 to her top-level victory in Deauville’s Prix Jean Romanet 10 weeks earlier,
But, since the turn of the century, he had consistently been able to produce a flagship horse.
His outstanding performer in terms of winning haul was Soviet Song, whose five top level wins included the 2004
who is a five-year-old mare by Acclamation, was bought by the Irish farm Hawes Stud in February 2023 with her Kodi Bear filly first foal due to be offered at the Tattersalls December Sale (Lot 643), and Blue Anthem, a 2022 colt by Starspangledbanner, who has run three times for trainer George Boughey.
Blue Sister failed to conceive for two years, but is carrying to Pinatubo.
“She is safely in-foal to him,” confirms Hopper. “We chose him because, like Blue Point, he is a son of Shamardal and when we were making that decision Kind Of Blue had started to show us that he had some ability.
“She is still a young mare and, of course, at some point now we would love to get a filly who we would keep.”
And now that Blues Sister is dam of a Group 1 winner the options for future covering plans open up markedly. The team is sensibly taking their time with the decision for 2025, but, unsurprisingly, Blue Point is currently on the short list as a possible returning suitor.
The success that the couples have enjoyed with this prolific and fast family is
certainly not taken for granted and Hopper appreciates that the pedigree and its luminaries have taken them to places that few are able to tread.
“As small owner-breeders, we know how lucky we are to have been involved in a wonderful family like this,” she admits.
“It is amazing when you think of who you’re competing with – it’s difficult to put into words how exciting it is to be able to compete against the very best horses, bred by some very big operations, it has been fabulous.”
She certainly credits Fanshawe for much success, his ability at working so well with the requirements of owner-breeders, understanding the horses and the pedigrees that he has nurtured so well for so long.
Amazingly, he and the Hoppers are closing in on 100 wins between them – when the century is hit, surely another reason to party?!
Kind Of Blue in his owner-breeder’s colours
But the roll of honour also includes Arctic Owl, who provided Fanshawe with his one Classic success in the 2000 Irish St Leger, Frizzante, who landed the 2004 July Cup, Society Rock, who won the Golden Jubilee Stakes in 2001 and Haydock Sprint Cup in 2012, and Speedy Boarding, the 2006 Prix Jean Romanet and Prix de l’Opera winner.
The first of his 26 Group or Grade 1 victories was in the 1991 Eclipse Stakes with Environment Friend, like Ambiente Friendly owned by Bill Gredley.
Fanshawe also has trained two Champion Hurdle winners – Royal Gait (1991) and Hors Le Loi III (2002).
Ambiente Friendly, the Lingfield Derby Trial winner, represented a re-union between trainer and owner that would have had a fairytale ending if a certain City Of
I was very lucky that my owner-breeders stuck with me, they were the people supplying the horses
Troy hadn’t got in the way.
Fanshawe said: ‘’Some people have questioned whether Ambiente Friendly was unlucky at Epsom. He came there travelling well and then the loose horse got in the way a bit.
‘‘But you only have to look at the last half furlong and see what City of Troy did, he really wins well.
‘‘Ambiente Friendly ran a cracking race in the Derby but then had a very hard race when third in the Irish Derby. He didn’t relax and didn’t quite stay that last furlong. It was a real grind and it possibly took the edge of him.
“Hopefully, he will have a really good break now, and be a nice horse for next year.’’
With Ambiente Friendly and Kind Of Blue scheduled to be back in 2025, there is an excited optimism in the Fanshawe camp that the momentum can be maintained, but his career has not always been plain sailing.
In 2008, the trainer’s numbers dropped to just 40 horses – he has capacity for 70 at Pegasus – and Fanshawe had to re-group
Ambiente Friendly (yellow) finished a good second in the Epsom Derby, despite the loose horse, and the son of Gleneagles stays in training for 2025
after realising his operation had lost its focus.
He said: ‘‘In 2006, I rented another yard after Soviet Song and Frizzante because our numbers increased by a third. We needed more space and we maybe over-expanded a bit.
‘’It didn’t work for me and I didn’t delegate well enough. You need a certain number of horses to make it pay, but because I like getting involved I ended up trying to do everything. It doesn’t work.
‘‘I was very lucky that my owner-breeders stuck with me. They were the people supplying the horses. The nucleus of them were supportive such as the Hoppers and Cheveley Park.
‘‘Now all the horse are here at Pegasus and in 2013 we built the Falmouth yard so had
the extra boxes on site. I could have built a barn with twice as many boxes for half the money, but this place has got a good feel to it.’’
The naming of the Falmouth yard is a nod to the original name of the stable when it was first built in 1882 by the renowned 13-time champion jockey Fred Archer, after whom the stable’s own syndicates are named.
The stable was run down when Fanshawe and his wife Jacko first moved in but Fanshawe’s enthusiasm for the history of racing, and Newmarket in particular, has made it a passion alongside training to making sure it has been was restored with respect for its past.
Fanshawe was riding out for his uncle, the two-time champion jumps trainer David Nicholson, as a 13-year-old schoolboy, and subsequently worked for Josh Gifford when the Sussex trainer was preparing the fragile Aldaniti for his memorable 1981 Grand National victory with jockey Bob Champion.
But he is most associated with 10-time champion Flat trainer Sir Michael Stoute, who he worked for from 1982 to 1989.
Given that Stoute has now retired, it was appropriate that two of his former employees should have a winner on British Champions day – Owen Burrows being the other with Anmaat in the Champion Stakes (G1).
The 63-year-old Fanshawe conceded that he is now among the ranks of Newmarket’s senior trainers, but the added incentive to keep his historic stable on the racing map is 27-year-old son Tom working alongside him after a stint with Donald McCain and two years working in Australian racing.
Fanshawe said: ‘‘This season we have run more horses than we have ever run. Tom has been quite an influence on that. He has worked in racing since he left school.
Fanshawe worked for seven years with the now-retired Sir Michael Stoute (right) and realises he is perhaps one of the “senior” Newmarket trainers, but he is enjoying working alongside son Tom
‘‘He came back from Australia and is very ambitious. He is young, hungry and quite independent minded and he is pushing me.
‘’Quite rightly, the young will always get support. That is right and I benefited from it. But to have Tom involved shows we are keeping it young. He has fresh ideas that we have put into place that have proved effective.
‘‘A yard like this takes a lot of running and you are as good as your last winner but we have had a good year so Pegasus is being talked about again.’’
With horses like Kind Of Blue around, that conversation should continue next season.
DUBAWI LEGEND
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GR.1 2YO BY
DUBAWI
A higher rated 2yo than... ...his contemporaries: Modern Games, Zarak, Naval Crown, New Bay, Night Of Thunder, Space Blues, Ghaiyyath, etc.
KING OF CHANGE
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QUEEN ELIZABETH II
STAKES
GR.1 WINNING MILER
First 2yo winners include:
Stakes winner Lady With The Lamp, Lady Roxby, Transcending, Vozpornoche, etc. Realising £280,000, 180,000gns, 120,000gns, 80,000gns, etc.
SPACE TRAVELLER
#RoyalAscotWinner
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CONSISTENT HIGH-CLASS GR.1 MILER
Won/placed in 10 Stakes races
Won Gr.2 Boomerang Stakes & Gr.3 Jersey Stakes, 2nd in three Gr.1 races, etc.
250 mares in his first two books
FAR ABOVE
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GROUP WINNER UNDEFEATED OVER 5F/6F
First 2yo winners include:
Stakes winner Nigrum Regina, Stakes placed
Kabir & Twafeeg, Stratusnine, Far From Dandy, Spirit Of Farhh, Rock N Roll Rocket, etc.
Aesop’s Fables Dubawi Legend Far Above King Of Change Space Traveller Galileo Chrome
NO NAY NEVER GR.1 SPRINTER BY
2yo Gr.2 winner
1st Gr.2 Futurity Stakes, Curragh, 7f, by 2¼l
1st Maiden, Navan, 5½f, by 2¼l on debut
3yo Gr.1 sprinter
3rd Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Santa Anita, 5f, to Nobals by a nk & ½l
3rd Gr.1 Prix de l’Abbaye, ParisLongchamp, 5f, to Highfield Princess by 1l & a shd
4yo Stakes winner
1st L Sole Power Sprint Stakes, Naas, 5f
Beating 18 Gr.1 horses during his career.
Micheál Orlandi, Compas Stallions
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He is typical of his sire, a big, strong, powerful horse with a good mind. He has loads of scope and could get very classy horses.
Aidan O’Brien
JUDDMONTE sires past, present and future
This summer’s Group 3 winner Wendla encapsulates the past and the present: she is out of
Ciaran Doran examines how the Juddmonte pedigrees developed generations ago have influenced results this year and will do in future
ONE OF HORSERACING’S
GREAT ALLURES is its indelible association with tradition. Equine culture and tradition manifest themselves in various ways; for example, one could point to the history of the Derby and its role in identifying future sires as per Federico Tesio’s most memorable quote.
Equally, one could highlight the pomp and circumstance of Royal Ascot as something somewhat anachronistic and yet something which not only endures but thrives in modern-day society.
Some traditions cannot endure indefinitely, however, prior to 2024, Juddmonte had never stood a stallion at Banstead Manor which had not been homebred.
That was before 2022 Dewhurst and 2023 2,000 Guineas winner Chaldean (Frankel), who had been purchased by the farm at the Tattersalls December Foal Sales, entered the fray last winter.
The farm made use of this with the clever tagline in his promotion: “I wasn’t born at Juddmonte, but I got there as fast as I could”.
The fact that Juddmonte could adopt such a practice and yet still remain a huge player in both the racing and breeding games showcases just how successful their cultivation of female families has been.
Over time, families have been carefully curated in such a way that only mares hailing from a line of consistent producers remain within the Juddmonte ranks; modern-day families at Juddmonte did not emerge by accident but rather as a result of decadeslong design.
Juddmonte’s racehorses of today, who might well become the stallions of tomorrow, are for the most part the end-product of years and years of refined Juddmonte breeding
The horses who have raced in the famous green, white, and pink silks of Prince Khalid Abdullah are testament to the success of Juddmonte’s breeding nous.
For instance, the triumphs of Kingman (Invincible Spirit) as both a racehorse and sire are somewhat less surprising when one accounts for the fact that his Group 1-winning dam Zenda (Zamindar) was a half-sister to another top-class Juddmonte stalwart in Oasis Dream (Green Desert).
What’s more, Oasis Dream was himself out of a half-sister to Wemyss Bight (Dancing Brave), the 1993 Irish Oaks winner and also the dam of Beat Hollow (Sadler’s Wells), with sires such as New Bay (Dubawi), Court Cave (Sadler’s Wells), Martaline (Linamix), and Coastal Path (Halling) also part of the extended family.
Similarly, the exploits of Dansili (Danehill) as a sire make perfect sense when you consider that his dam Hasili (Kahyasi) was one of the defining broodmares of the last half-century producing multiple champions in the shape of Champs Elysees (Danehill), Banks Hill (Danehill), Intercontinental
Intercontinental, a daughter of Hasili
ALOYSIUS
Class
Sold at Arqana
2nd
G3
DAYLIGHT
(Danehill), Cacique (Danehill), and Heat Haze (Green Desert).
Hasili was not the only Juddmonte broodmare to produce multiple future stallions though – sending Zaizafon (The Minstrel) to Gone West (Mr Prospector) yielded a Dewhurst and 2,000 Guineas winner in Zafonic and the sire of Zarkava in Zamindar.
In a way, Juddmonte’s culture of only standing homebreds at Banstead Manor (before Chaldean, that is) serves to form a “holy trinity” between their past, their present, and their future.
The Juddmonte stallions of today can by and large be traced back to Juddmonte horses from bygone days and, in a similar way, Juddmonte’s racehorses of today who might well become the stallions of tomorrow are for the most part the end-product of years and years of refined Juddmonte breeding.
Gold shines
When we watched horses such as the Juddmonte-purchased Field Of Gold (Kingman) and homebred Bluestocking (Camelot) in 2024, we are also at the same time watching Juddmonte’s past and Juddmonte’s future.
All the three timelines merge into one – we are able to witness what Juddmonte were, are, and will be all in the one go.
And there might not be a better representation of Juddmonte’s past, present, and future uniting than this year’s Ger Lyons-trained Group 3 winner Wendla (Ulysses).
Wendla’s dam, the aforementioned Intercontinental, won the 2005 Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf from Ouija Board (Cape Cross) and with Hasili as a second dam Wendla’s black-type success ensures that the familial legacy of great Juddmonte sires such as Dansili still lives on.
Admittedly, confining the greatness of Dansili’s family to just Hasili’s offspring would do an immeasurable disservice to both Hasili and her equine antecedents.
Hasili also happens to be the second dam of Romantica (Galileo), and the fourth dam of Belbek (Showcasing).
Moreover, Hasili’s dam Kerali (High
Fields Of Gold, bred by Roundhill Stud and by Juddmonte’s homebred sire Kingman, winning the Solario Stakes (G3)
Line) was the second dam of both Leroidesanimaux (Candy Stripes) and Promising Lead (Danehill) and the third dam of Onesto (Frankel) and Quadrilateral (Frankel). Hasili’s second dam Sookera (Roberto) won the 1977 Cheveley Park; and her relatives also include Benbaun (Stravinsky) and So Factual (Known Fact)
Of course, it would be remiss not to note that Wendla was not the only Group-winning descendant of Hasili in 2024.
Lead Artist, a son of Dubawi (Dubai Millennium) and Obligate (Frankel), who is a daughter of Responsible, an Oasis Dream half-sibling to Dansili, won the Bonhams Thoroughbred Stakes (G3) at Glorious Goodwood.
That said, Dansili was not the only elite Juddmonte sire to hail from an iconic Juddmonte family.
Kingman and Oasis Dream have both represented the green, white, and pink with distinction on the track and their exploits in the sheds are not to be sniffed at either.
The modern-day legacy of their family extends beyond just them though – the
Group-placed Macduff (Sea The Stars) was out of the Bated Breath (Dansili) half-sister to Kingman.
Brothers in arms
Juddmonte’s most famous son Frankel has also been represented by equine relatives on the track this year – for instance, the Group 3 Jersey Stakes runner-up Kikkuli is a Kingman half-brother to Frankel (Galileo), while another half-sibling to Frankel in Joyeuse (Oasis Dream) is the dam of Jouncy (Wootton Bassett), who finished second in the Sirenia Stakes (G3), and the second dam of the maiden winner Jonquil (Lope De Vega).
The half-siblings Bated Breath and Cityscape (Selkirk) raced in the Juddmonte silks, with the former being a Banstead Manor resident ever since 2013.
As for their relations racing now – their dam Tantina (Distant View) is the second dam of the Gordon Richards Stakes (G3) winner Okeechobee (Time Test) and it is a line of the family that has achieved success
The quality and depth of Zamindar and Zafonic’s pedigree can also be highlighted by the successes of other strands of the family such as Midday’s
at the highest level for Juddmonte in recent years, with Okeechobee’s dam Scuffle (Daylami) also being the dam of St Leger winner, Logician (Frankel).
A little bit further back Cityscape and Bated Breath’s second dam Didina (Nashwan) was also the fourth dam of Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner, Unquestionable (Wootton Bassett).
Unquestionable might not have raced in the Juddmonte silks but Nightwalker
Babouche (Kodiac): this year’s winner of the Group 1 Phoenix Stakes is related to Zamindar and Zafonic via her fourth dam Zaizafon
(Frankel), third placed in the Group 3 Autumn Stakes, and the Dick Poole Stakes (L) winner Tabiti (Kingman) have –Nightwalker’s second dam is Scuffle whilst Didina is the second dam of Tabiti.
Lest we forget, this particular Juddmonte family is just one branch of one of racing’s greatest family trees – other Juddmonte relations include Xaar (Zafonic), Siskin (First Defence), Idiomatic (Curlin), and Whitebeam (Caravaggio), whilst El Gran Senor (Northern Dancer), Try My Best (Northern Dancer), Prosperous Voyage (Zoffany), Blush With Pride (Blushing Groom), Jazil (Seeking The Gold), Rags To Riches (AP Indy), Arcangelo (Arrogate), Spinning World (Nureyev), Peeping Dawn (Danehill), Domedriver (Indian Ridge), Almond Eye (Lord Kanaloa), and Albigna (Zoffany) are some of the stand-out members of an astonishing extended family.
Bated Breath and Cityscape aren’t even the most famous pair of brothers to represent Juddmonte, that honour really falls to the full-brothers Zafonic and Zamindar, who both stood at Banstead Manor.
As far as remaining in the pedigrees of
top-class horses in the years to come, their legacy looks likely to remain intact, mainly through Wootton Bassett, who is a paternal grandson of Zafonic, and Zarak, who is a maternal grandson of Zamindar in (Dubawi).
Their impact is still felt in the Juddmonte ranks to this day though and no horse better showcases this than this year’s Phoenix Stakes (G1) winner Babouche (Kodiac).
A full-sister to Zarinsk, Babouche is a relation to Zamindar and Zafonic via Zaizafon who is her fourth dam; Zaizafon was also the third dam of another Group 1-winning Juddmonte graduate in Announce (Selkirk).
The quality and depth of Zamindar and Zafonic’s family can also be highlighted by the successes of other strands of the family such as Midday’s.
Pedigree-wise, Midday (Oasis Dream) is connected to Zafonic and Zamindar via her third dam Mofida (Right Tack), who was also the dam of Zaizafon.
Today Midday’s contributions to racing manifests itself in the form of her daughter
Indelible (Shamardal) although her side of the family is also represented through Swelter (Kingman) who is out of the Pivotal half-sister to Midday.
In addition, Indelible’s third dam Modena (Roberto) was the dam of the Group 1 Eclipse winner and champion Elmaamul (Diesis) and the Oaks heroine Reams Of Verse (Nureyev) and the family also extends to the likes of the King’s Stand Stakes (G1) winner Prohibit (Oasis Dream) and Regal Parade (Pivotal), winner of the Prix Maurice de Gheest.
Juddmonte’s stand-out families don’t end there though – the second dam of Twice Over (Observatory), Quandary (Blushing Groom) was also the second dam of Passage Of Time (Dansili) and therefore the third dam of Time Test (Dubawi).
This September’s Group 3 winner Time Lock (Frankel) can trace her origin to this particular family – her dam Time Chaser (Dubawi) was a daughter of Passage Of Time.
Aside from both shedding their maiden tags at Sandown this year, the Juddmonte-
Time Lock (Frankel): is a grand-daughter of Juddmonte’s Group 1 winner Passage Of Time (Dansili)
owned and bred pair of Siyola (Siyouni) and Cosmic Year (Kingman) also happen to descend from the exact same family with Quandary being the third dam of Siyola, while Cosmic Year is a half-brother to Time Test.
Neither Twice Over or Time Test ever stood at Banstead Manor and while other sires may have started off their stallion life there, staying on the farm indefinitely is by no means guaranteed as Dancing Brave’s stallion career trajectory proves
One of the all-time great racehorses, Dancing Brave’s performances in the sheds did not quite match up to his achievements on the track although his exile to Japan ironically coincided with his son Commander In Chief winning the 1993 Derby for Juddmonte.
An occasional outside family
But there are still traces of Dancing Brave’s family around.
Brave Mission (Frankel) displayed a taking turn of foot to win a Kempton maiden in September. To have such tactical speed is less of a surprise once you realise that his fourth dam Navajo Princess was also the dam of Dancing Brave and 1992 Prix de Diane winner Jolypha (Lyphard).
Some Juddmonte horses may not be related to sires at Banstead Manor but still come from deep Juddmonte families.
Bluestocking’s dam Emulous (Dansili) was a Matron Stakes (G1) winner in the Juddmonte silks, Emulous’s dam Aspiring Diva (Distant View) is also the third dam of a US-based Juddmonte sire in Mandaloun (Into Mischief).
Going back further, Bluestocking is related to other Juddmonte graduates such as Camacho (Danehill), Showcasing (Oasis Dream) and the 1993 Cheveley Park Stakes winner Prophecy (Warning).
The likes of the Moyglare Stakes (G1) fourth-placed Red Letter (Frankel) and Task Force (Frankel), third in this year’s Joel Stakes (G3), are distant relations of Expert Eye (Acclamation) via their fourth dam Nijinsky Star (Nijinsky).
We shouldn’t forget either that Task Force’s dam is another Juddmonte champion – the 1,000 Guineas victor Special Duty (Hennessy).
Additionally, this year’s Legacy Stakes (L) runner-up Revoke (Blue Point) is a close cousin of Famous Name (Dansili), while the British Champions Fillies and Mares Stakes (G1) winner Kalpana (Study Of Man) comes from the same family as Zambezi Sun (Dansili) and Byword (Peintre Celebre).
Not all Juddmonte horses come from out-and-out Juddmonte families though
Not all Juddmonte horses come from outand-out Juddmonte families though.
The Beresford Stales (G2) runnerup Windlord (Dubawi) is a grandson of the Wertheimers’s star mare Goldikova (Anabaa), while the Listed winner and Group 3 placed Skellet (Kingman) is from the family of Sholokhov (Sadler’s Wells), Affinisea (Sea The Stars), Soldier Of Fortune (Galileo), Subjectivist (Teofilo), and Marhaba Ya Sanafi (Muhaarar).
The Solario winner Field Of Gold is another Juddmonte horse to come from somewhat of an untraditional background with his stand-out relations including
Serena’s Song (Rahy), Zabeel Prince (Lope De Vega), and Rizeena (Iffraaj).
On the whole, however, these horses mark the exception to the rule rather than the rule itself, which is that, by and large, Juddmonte horses and sires are the result of decades of masterfully managed breeding.
Juddmonte has made maintaining successful families look easy but au contraire, such a task is anything but; only the breeding operations of the Aga Khan can come close to rivalling Juddmonte in terms of the ability to carefully safeguard families from one generation to the next.
And given Juddmonte’s rich tradition, we can safely say that watching Juddmonte horses strut their stuff on the course gives us a glimpse into Juddmonte sires from the past, present, and future.
So on that note, who’s to say this year’s Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1) winner and the now-retired Bluestocking won’t be the next Hasili?
Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe winner Bluestocking: could she become the next Hasili for Juddmonte?
MAGNA GRECIA
Invincible Spirit x Cabaret
A Group One Futurity winner at 2 and a Classic 2,000 Guineas-winning 3yo and the only son of Invincible Spirit to do so Half-brother to European Champion 2yo and World Champion 3yo St Mark’s Basilica
Out of Cabaret, a Group winning 2yo over 7f by Galileo
£5,500 1st Oct SLF
thought
A Group One Middle Park Stakes winner at 2yo
Highest-rated Son of Oasis Dream to stand in the UK
Produced Group 3 winner
Amy C and Group Placed and Listed winner
Charterhouse
A Group One son of Kingman
Out of Go Lovely Rose, a full sister to Champion Immortal
THE HOME OF
(GB) 2015 by Acclamation - Exemplify (Dansili)
SIRE OF 41 2YO WINNERS OVER 2 SEASONS
THE G1 BREEDERS’ CUP MILE (turf) WINNER WITH 2YO BRILLIANCE
Sire of JUNIPER BERRIES, SNELLEN, ENTRANCEMENT, WITNESS
STAND, Coverdale, Nesthorn, Expert Witness, Houstonn, Beautifulnavigator, Violet Gibson, Isabel Alexandra, Rock Hunter, Naina, Pearl Eye, Royal Charter, etc.
February Sale
January 30 - 31
Horses/Fillies in Training, Broodmares & Yearlings
FOR the first time the outstanding US sire Into Mischief tops this table, the son of Harlan’s Holiday some $7 million ahead of the Japanese sire Kizuna, that nation usually supplies the leading global stallion.
Zoustar has made a leap up the table, courtesy essentially of his Breeders’ Cup winner Starlust and Zougotcha’s multiple Group 1 wins and performances in Australia.
The young sires Gun Runner and Justify have both enjoyed strong years, the latter in differing jurisdictions, while elder statesman Dubawi, who proves he certainly can’t be written off yet, heads up just three sires on this table who stand in Britain.
Leading 2024 global sires by earnings (Listed by overall international earnings through to November 5, 2024). Leader in each category in bold)
Starlust by Zoustar wins at Del Mar
Dubawi
Jocelyn de Moubray puts results for the older European stallions under his microscope
It is all about the
three-year-olds
THE ACCOMPANYING TABLES give several different ways of looking at the recent record of European stallions, not including those who had their first two-year-old runners in 2024.
The results with three-year-olds are examined in detail because, even if the Classic programme may no longer be quite as imperative as it once was, races for threeyear-olds alone are still around 20 per cent of all European Pattern races and include many of those which give the most prestige, value and prize-money.
The crop records are of interest as they show how each stallion’s record has changed over time, and how they have been altered by different opportunities as stud fees are increased or decreased.
When looking at these tables it is important to bear in mind that the figures for
The crop-by-crop figures show very clearly why people want to buy the progeny of first-season sires as, more often than not, a stallion’s first crop is his best
the most recent crops are far from definitive as plenty of horses acquire their first blacktype at four or older.
This mass of statistics will mean different things to different observers, but before
picking out some of the aspects which struck me, there are a few general points which seem to be relevant.
The starting price of the most successful stallions shows that the market is often wrong in its assessment of new stallions.
The best sires include some like Frankel, who was an expensive sire from the beginning, but plenty of others such as Siyouni, Havana Grey, Lope De Vega or Zarak started out at an average or belowaverage fee, and a few like the Haras de Colleville’s pair of Kendargent and Galiway stood for more or less nothing.
The crop-by-crop figures show very clearly why people want to buy the progeny of first-season sires as, more often than not, a stallion’s first crop is his best.
And when this doesn’t happen it is usually fatal for the horse’s future career as few, if any, stallions will be able to recover from a disappointing start; the market turns the page
Photo courtesy of Darley
Leading European sires of 3yos: 2019-2021 crops (results
by percentage of black-type performers to foals )
quickly and moves on to the next novelty.
A final point is that, for all of the interest in statistics for two-year-old sires, the fact remains that successful two-year-olds are a tiny minority of the progeny of every stallion, even those with the reputation of being twoyear-old sires.
Somewhere between 20-30 per cent of the progeny of the best stallions will be placed in black-type races, but for two-year-olds even the best sires in this niche produce only 10 per cent stakes horses to foals as two-yearolds.
The older generation
Dubawi and Frankel are regularly at the top of the table for three-year-old sires, and in the latest edition they have very nearly identical results.
They are different types of sires and produce very different physical individuals, too.
Dubawi already has several sons well established as successful stallions, as Frankel’s progeny stay and are only rarely precocious, it is making it more difficult for his sons and some of his best started their stud career outside Europe.
This duo will not be together at the top for much longer – Dubawi turns 23 in January and he is already covering many fewer mares.
Lope De Vega and Kingman are also well established as numbers three and four in this table.
Neither has yet to match the outstanding success of their first crop, but both have come close to doing so and have returned better results since their covering fees went up to six figures.
Both sires had two Classic winners from their 2021 crop of three-year-olds.
Coolmore’s Camelot is close behind these two, despite the fact that all of his threeyear-olds to date were conceived at a fee of €40,000 or less. Camelot’s three-year-olds in 2021 included the Classic winner Los Angeles as well as the Classic performers Deira Mile and Dancing Gemini.
Kendargent’s three-year-olds included Trafalgar Square, the gelding sold for more than a million euros at the Arqana Arc Sale and, since his book was significantly reduced
Initially, Coolmore’s Gleneagles stood at double the fee of Darley’s Night Of Thunder but the situation has been reversed and yet for the last three years their records are more or less the same
in size, he has been a consistent sire of Group and stakes horses.
For the first five years of a stallion’s career it is interesting to compare the records of those who went to stud at the same time.
All stallions good enough to secure a longterm place at stud tend to go through similar cycles – from a good start to a quiet period when their third and fourth crops are racing, and then coming back when their sixth crop reaches the racecourse.
The class of 2016: next year will be a crucial year for Galiway
For those who retired to stud in 2016 the sixth crop, which will determine their long-term future as stallions, will
be three-year-olds of 2025.
Initially, Coolmore’s Gleneagles stood at double the fee of Darley’s Night Of Thunder but the situation has been reversed, and yet for the last three years their records are more or less the same.
Night Of Thunder will have to produce a Classic winner and more Group 1 winners to justify the difference in their covering fees now.
Gleneagles’ 2021 three-year-olds included the high-class gelding Calandagan, as well as the Deutsches Derby winner Palladium.
Next year will be crucial for the two other sires from this generation – Make Believe and Galiway.
Ballylinch’s Make Believe produced the champion Mishriff in his first crop, but
Make Believe: produced Mishriff in his first crop, and the Ballylinch sire has had a good year in 2024
Leading European sires of 3yos: 2019-2021crops by progeny average-winning distance (results by percentage
) By JdM
then struggled with numbers and had some quiet seasons before coming back into the spotlight in 2024 with his three-year-olds, which included Royal Supremacy, Sajir and Making Dreams, while his two-year-olds were headed by the unbeaten Group winners Lazio and Klaynn.
Galiway, who started off as a cheap stallion, had similar problems although his three-year-olds include the Group 1 performer Sunway.
The son of Galileo’s two-year-olds, the first since his fee went up, appear to be more backward than those from his earlier crops and so 2025 will determine his future.
The class of 2017: New Bay and Mehmas
New Bay and Mehmas both started out relatively cheaply and saw their fee rise quickly as they both made impressive starts. Tally-Ho’s Mehmas has so far been mainly a sire of two-year-olds, his 2024 juvenile crop certainly made a mark with more than 150 runners and 18 stakes horses.
Next year will show whether he is more than a two-year-old sire and if any of these are able to go on to feature in the best races at around a mile.
The average winning distance for Mehmas’ three-year-olds is 7.01 furlongs which just takes him into the intermediate category.
To have produced six Group1 performers in his first three crops off a fee of €12,000 is a rare achievement
New Bay’s is 8.8 furlongs and so it is impressive that his first crop of two-yearolds since his early success attracted support and includes 27 two-year-old winners.
The class of 2018: Zarak well to the fore
The Aga Khan’s Zarak is the clear leader among the sires of 2018 and his consistently excellent results put him among the most promising stallions in Europe.
For Zarak to have produced six Group 1 performers in his first three crops off a fee of €12,000 is a rare achievement.
By Dubawi out of the great champion Zarkava, he attracted mares from all breeders who appreciate pedigrees, but it turned out many of those are based in Germany.
His progeny are on the whole middledistance horses and act equally well on all types of ground, even if for the time being he has less success on All-Weather tracks this is something likely to change if he has more runners in Britain.
The class of 2019: Harry Angel and Saxon Warrior at the right fees now
For three-year-olds rather than two-yearolds the class of 2019 is still close together, the two-year-old successes of the progeny of Havana Grey and Sioux Nation from low initial fees has seen their covering fees rise dramatically.
In the circumstances Coolmore’s Saxon Warrior and Darley’s Harry Angel look good value at their new fees – both have consistent results from their first two crops of three-year-olds.
The class of 2020: early days
For the sires of 2020 it is too soon to make any more of a judgement than that Lanwades’ Study Of Man, Darley’s Blue Point and Too Darn Hot have made excellent starts, with Study Of Man in particular returning outstanding figures from his small first crop of only 55 foals. For this trio and the other sires from the group we shall learn a great deal more during 2025.
Zarak: has had six Group 1winners in his first three crops from a low fee
Study Of Man: the first crop by the son of Deep Impact is doing very well
Distance table compares like with like The table showing average winning distance of the three-year-olds. is interesting in order to compare like with like –there are not the same Pattern race opportunities for sprinters as there are for any of the other categories. For the three-year-old sprinters there is surprisingly little between the four leaders
– Blue Point, Showcasing, Havana Grey and Harry Angel.
Kingman is the clear leader of the intermediates, even if this position is likely to be challenged in the future by Night Of Thunder, Wootton Bassett,who is now covering huge books at big fees, as well as Dubawi’s sons New Bay and Too Darn Hot.
Zarak is the obvious successor to his sire Dubawi among the middle-distance sires, unless Lope de Vega’s results continue to improve.
Frankel is likely to dominate Europe’s stamina sires for the remainder of his career, -even if both Camelot and Study Of Man will have more opportunities in the future.
Leading European sires by black-type performers percentage to named foals by foal crop (ordered by the percentage of the
Leading European sires 2024 (by prize-money earned to November 11, 2024)
Courtesy of Weatherbys
Leading European sires 2024 (by prize-money earned to November 11, 2024)
DE VEGA.
NEW BAY.
2YO WINNERS IN 2024 28
only bettered by MEHMAS, WOOTTON BASSETT & KODIAC
(to 07/11/24)
HOPEWELL ROCK
UNBEATEN 2YO
Won 1m Maiden, Leicester
Won 1m Novice, Bath 100p
BAY CITY ROLLER
UNBEATEN 2YO
Won Gr.2 Champagne Stakes 109p
3YO STAKES WINNERS IN EUROPE 5
ANNO DOMINI
525,000gns Breeze-Up, Won 7f £40,000 EBF Novice, Sandown Won 6½f Novice, Newbury on debut 106p
that’s more than WOOTTON BASSETT, NO NAY NEVER, TOO DARN HOT & ZARAK and they were bred off his lowest ever fee. (to 12/11/24)
PERSICA
Won L Doonside Cup Stakes
3rd Gr.3 Winter Hill Stakes 118
ALCANTOR
Won Gr.3 Prix Perth by 4 lengths
Won Gr.3 Prix Thomas Bryon
2nd Gr.1 Criterium International
3rd Gr.1 Poule d’Essai des Poulains 119+
DEVIL’S POINT
Won Gr.2 German 2,000 Guineas
2nd Gr.1 Futurity Trophy 108
Juvenile title to the wire
It has been a head-to-head between Mehmas and Wootton Bassett all season for two-year-old sires’ championship honours, writes Amy Bennett
PERHAPS we have been spoilt in recent years when it comes to first-season sires, but the freshman class of 2024 was subdued throughout the year in comparison to some of their older peers, with a report card that can be deemed solid rather than sensational.
That said, the table of leading sires of twoyear-olds in Europe this year has seen plenty of intrigue, with Mehmas and Wootton Bassett fighting it out between them for much of the season.
Topping the table
Mehmas is no stranger to breaking records – his first crop included 56 individual winners, headed by the Middle Park Stakes (G1) winner and sire Supremacy in 2020, smashing that of his studmate Kodiac.
Fast forward four years and the Tally-Ho Stud resident has enjoyed yet another stellar season and has already beaten the record for the number of individual two-year-old winners in a season, with 62 on the board in Europe by the middle of November.
His current juvenile crop was conceived off the back of his record-breaking start to his second career when he received no fewer
than 292 mares in 2021 at an advertised fee of €25,000.
Of those, 170 were winners themselves, of which 28 had struck in black-type company.
The son of Acclamation has seen his fee skyrocket from an initial mark of €12,500 to a high of €70,000 in 2025.
Mehmas did not race beyond two himself, when his record Group 2 successes in the July and Richmond Stakes, as well as placed spots on two occasions in Group 1 company. However, while he might have ticked all the boxes as a source of speed and precocity, the fact that his progeny also train on so well stamped him as a valuable commodity at all levels of the market.
To the end of October, he is sire of 22 Group winners in all, with a tally of 71 stakes performers on the Flat.
This year has seen him take his Group 1 tally to seven, courtesy of Vertical Blue in the Prix Marcel Boussac and Scorthy Champ in the National Stakes. He also bagged a first US Grade 1 winner with the victory by the Ger Lyons-trained Magnum Force in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint.
Mehmas is also sire of six other Group/ Graded winners in 2024, including the star sprinting filly Believing, who has now been Group 1-placed on so many occasions it
is hard to remember that she has not yet moved out of the bridesmaid position in that company.
Unsurprisingly, the young sire has also been a hit in the sale ring again this year, in Britain, Ireland and France.
During the red-hot trade at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale his yearling average was at 343,125gns for 16 lots sold – a fine return on their conception stud fee of €50,000. In total this season, Mehmas’s yearlings have averaged €145,037 in the sales ring, the first time his average has risen to six figures.
They were headed by a half-brother to the multiple Group 1 winner and sire Perfect Power (Ardad) out of Sagely (Frozen Power) bred by Tally-Ho Stud from the further family of the great producer Saganeca. The colt will carry the Godolpin blue, having been snapped up by the team for 1,000,000gns.
Anthony Stroud also led the bidding on the colt out of the mare Halla Na Saoire, the dam of the Irish 2,000 Guineas winner Mac Swiney, buying the Jim Bolger-bred colt from Boherguy Stud for 800,000gns.
The breadth of buyers who added a Mehmas to their haul during Book 1 is also noteworthy, with the likes of the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Amo Racing, WinStar Farm
and David Ingordo all on his scoresheet.
Mehmas’s closet rival in the juvenile sire table this year has been Wootton Bassett.
A Group 1 winner at two, the son of Iffraaj entered stud at Haras d’Etreham for €6,000 in 2012 – a mark that fell to just €4,000 in 2014 and 2015.
Contrast that fee with his 2024 mark of €200,000, that has been increased to €300,000 for 2025, and it is easy to see
that the sire’s rise up the rankings has been meteoric.
This season was also something of a weighted year for Wootton Bassett as it saw the debut of his first Irish-conceived crop, following their sire’s high-profile transfer to Coolmore in the summer of 2020.
The sire covered 244 mares in 2021 at fee of €100,000, a book that included 128 black-type mares, of which 90 had scored in
black-type company, including such stars as Alexandrova, Immortal Verse, Mabs Cross, Peeping Fawn and The Fugue.
It should come as no surprise that a stallion who did so well with average mares at the start of his career would shine when his consorts were upgraded.
Camille Pissarro, a half-brother to the Group 1 winner and sire Golden Horde (Lethal Force) became his sire’s juvenile
It was a top level autumn for Mehmas: his daughter Vertical Blue won the Prix Marcel Boussac (above) and his son Magnum Force won at Del Mar
flagbearer when triumphing in the Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere (G1) on Arc day.
Even better was to come in late October, when Tennessee Stud triumphed in the Criterium de Saint-Cloud (G1), followed a little over an hour later by Twain, who scored in the Criterium International (G1).
That pair followed hard on the heels of Whirl, who landed the Staffordstown Stud Stakes (G3) five days earlier, to give their sire a tally of ten Group-winning juveniles for the season – a record in Europe.
At the beginning of November, like Magnum Force, Henri Mattisse also gave his sire a first Breeders’ Cup winner with his victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1). Wootton Bassett now the sire of 13 top level winners
And it is not just on the racecourse where Wootton Bassett’s progeny are shining.
His son out of Park Bloom (Galileo), from the Burns’ family’s mighty Park Express family, set a new European record for a yearling colt at auction when Amo Racing
went to 4,300,000gns, while William Haggas signed for a filly out My Titania at 1,700,000gns.
In total, the sire returned a Book 1 average of 600,000gns and a rock-solid median price of 350,000gns.
In a crowded stallion market that has often felt saturated with the blood of Galileo and sons in recent years, it is good to see two stallions dominating the juvenile proceedings who both offer an outcross.
As a son of Acclamation out of a Machiavellian mare, we must go back to the fifth generation to find Northern Dancer in Mehmas’s pedigree, while Wootton Bassett, by Iffraaj out of a daughter of Primo Dominie, features Northern Dancer no closer than the fourth generation.
While both sires are somewhat inevitably priced out of the reach of many smaller breeders, the trickledown effect that we will see as their sons enter the stallion market can only be boon to those searching for an outcross.
Outstanding results
The two busiest sires in 2021 in Europe were Mehmas (292) and Wootton Bassett (244), so it fits in nicely that the third busiest, Kodiac (239) should follow that pair in terms of the number of individual winners.
To the end of October, Kodiac had put 37 individual winners on the board, and also amassed enough prize-money to sit fourth in the two-year-old sires’ table by that metric as well. His flagbearer this season has been the Phoenix Stakes (G1) heroine Babouche.
Wootton Bassett and Mehmas are the only two sires to have broken through the £2m barrier with their juvenile earnings this year, but Kodiac is one of a quartet to have earned over £1m.
To the end of October, he is only slightly behind No Nay Never, whose stellar son Whistlejacket landed the Prix Morny (G1) and the July Stakes (G1) and was runner-up in both the Middle Park and the Phoenix.
He looks to hold a strong hand for the forthcoming Classic season with his
Camille Pissarro: the Lagardère hero was one of the four Group and Grade 1 juvenile winners for sire Wootton Bassett this autumn
daughters as well, with Bubbling bagging the Rockfel Stakes (G2) and Merrily taking the Oh So Sharp (G3), while Truly Enchanting scooped the Airlie Stud Stakes (G2) in June.
Lope De Vega enjoyed an outstanding season with six individual Group 1 winners, including the Prix du Jockey Club victor Look De Vega and the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches heroine Rouhiya.
Flying the flag for his current juvenile crop is Shadow Of Light, who scored a notable autumn Group 1 double in the Middle Park and Dewhurst Stakes, having also been runner-up in the Gimcrack Stakes (G2).
Godolphin’s homebred is a three-parts brother to the leading juvenile and successful first-crop sire Earthlight (Shamardal)
Shadow Of Light was the only two-time
No Nay Never: has produced the most black-type juveniles from the crops born in 2020-2022 (see table below)
Leading European sires of 2yos: 2020-2022 crops (results by percentage of black-type performers to foals ) By JdM
Group 1-winning juvenile colt in Europe in 2024, and was his sire’s sole juvenile Group winner this season (among a tally of 28 stakes winners in 2024), although the Ballylinch Stud resident was also represented by Madero, who won a Listed contest over 1600m in France in September.
The other sire to earn over £1m with his juveniles in Europe is Frankel, whose leading juveniles are headed by the unbeaten Lake Victoria.
A winner on debut in June, the filly quickly progressed through the ranks, winning the Sweet Solera (G3) second time out before scoring a Group 1 double in the Moyglare Stud Stakes and the Cheveley Park Stakes.
She again proved her talent in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) with a dominant display at Del Mar. Soundly beaten behind Lake Victoria in the Moyglare was Bedtime Story, who put the seal on four unbeaten runs, including success by over 9l in the Chesham Stakes, by triumphing in Debutante Stakes (G2) in August.
Her paternal half-sister Exactly was runner-up in that contest and went on to earn her own black-type success in the Killavullan Stakes (G3), having been Group 1-placed on both her previous starts.
Too Darn Hot and Dark Angel: numbers up
When viewed by number of individual winners in Europe, Too Darn Hot and Dark Angel dead-heated on 28 winners to the end of October.
Considering the outstanding season he has enjoyed overall, it is surprising to note that Dark Angel, and his profile as a juvenile sire, was not represented by a juvenile black-type winner in 2024, with Gray Chance’s Listed-placing in Italy his only juvenile stakes placing.
By contrast, Too Darn Hot signed off his season with the success of Hotazhell in the Futurity Trophy (G1), while Simmering flew the flag for her sire’s juvenile daughters when landing the Prix du Calvados (G2) and taking second in the Moyglare.
First-season sires
To the end of October, Darley’s Pinatubo led the way numerically among the class of 2024 with 19 individual first-crop winners. As we went to press he picked up a Listed winner in France, but earlier in the season had been represented by the Group-placed duo Wolf Of Badenoch and Cavallo Bay (the latter in the US), as well as the Listed-placed pair Basalt and Qilin Queen.
Mohaather and Sergei Prokofiev tied on 18 individual winners each to October 31, with Hello Youmzain and Sands Of Mali just behind with 17 each, and Earthlight on 16.
By prize-money, Whitsbury Manor Stud’s Sergei Prokofiev fared best of all, banking over £615,000 with his Marble Hill Stakes (G3) winner Arizona Blaze donating the most to the coffers, courtesy of a trio of thirds in Group company, including the Phoenix Stakes.
Mohaather was responsible for the most stakes winners among his peers with the Molecomb Stakes (G3) winner Big Mojo his standardbearer, while Haras d’Etreham’s Hello Youmzain was represented by the most Group winners, with the Prix Eclipse (G3) winner Electrolyte and Misunderstood, successful in the Prix des Chenes (G3).
The Tweenhills resident Kameko was the only first-crop sire to produce a top-level scorer this year, with New Century landing the Summer Stakes (G1) at the highest level in Canada.
Arizona Blaze: the Marble Hill (G3) winner was a strong second in the US for sire Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev: got the numbers on the board
STUDY OF MAN
Fee: £25,000 (1st October SLF)
Juddmonte homebred 3yo KALPANA wins the Gr.1 British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes at Ascot.
Sire of a Group 1 winner from his first crop in 2024
Some great statistics from only 2 crops to race...
BIRTHE
Gr.2 winner at 2 5 Black-Type winners 11 Black-Type Horses
Gr.1 and Gr.3 winner at 3
Leading Second Crop Northern Hemisphere Sire in 2024
9.72% Group Horses to Runners
Gr.2 and Listed winner at 3
Leading Second Crop European Sire in 2024
13.89% Black-Type Horses to Runners
Ahead of Audible (USA), Yoshida (JPN), Too Darn Hot, Blue Point, Calyx, Ten Sovereigns, etc.
Also sire of 9 2yo winners in 2024 including REVOIR, ALMERIC, MANY MEN & Group placed ALLA STELLA
Yearling colts sold in 2024 made 260,000gns, 220,000gns, 210,000gns, etc and at Tattersalls Book 2 averaged £143,193 (€171,832)
The independent option TM
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,Leading European second-season
Acclamation
The master list
SIRES OF STAKES WINNERS IN EUROPE AND UAE IN 2024
Horses are listed under their sire with the respective broodmare sire in brackets
Includes Group (1,2,3) and Listed (L) wins in Europe (all nations) and UAE up to and including November 5, 2024
Makarova (Sea The Stars) 1 3
She’s Quality (Exceed And Excel) L
Adaay
Adaay In Devon (Refuse To Bend) L L
Adlerflug
Goliath (Shamardal) 1 2 3
Lordano (Dubawi) 2 2
Mythico (Monsun) L
Narmada (Areion) L
Narrativo (Lando) 2
Niagaro (Dubai Destination) L
Waldadler (Halling) L
Advertise
Al Shabab Storm (Australia) 3 L
Cool Hoof Luke (Dutch Art) 2
Secret Satire (Lawman) 3
Affaire Solitaire
Caos Calmo (Indian Ridge) L
Al Wukair
Princess Badee (Motivator) 3
Almanzor
Almara (Big Shuffle) 3
Gezora (Silver Hawk) 3
Amaron
Montanus (Soldier Hollow) L
Schutzenzauber (American Post) L Ultima (Lomitas) 3 L
American Pharoah
Dreamy (Galileo) 3
Anodin
Goya Senora (My Risk) L
(Kingsalsa) 3
Appel Au Maitre
Good Fortune (Academy Award) 3
Ardad Candy (Denounce) L Areion
Ayada (Shamardal) L
(Rock of Gibraltar) 1 3
(Monsun) 3
(Diktat) L
Arizona
Right And True (Quality Road) L
Australia
Countess of Tyrone (Pivotal) L Galashiels (Duke of Marmalade) L
Lambourn (Scat Daddy) L
Point Lonsdale (Acclamation) 3
Port Fairy (Fastnet Rock) 2
Shamida (Azamour) 3 Awtaad
Qareem (Teofilo) 3 L
(Halling) 1 3
Barocci
Falkor (Whipper)
Spirited (Invincible Spirit)
(Lando)
(Dunkerque) 3
Ribaltagaia (Bernardini) L
(Sea The Stars) L Blue Point
(Compton Place)
Bay (Galileo)
(Sea The Stars)
Tazara (War Front) L Tiego The First (Siyouni)
(Arch) 3
(Big Shuffle) 3 Bungle Inthejungle
(Intello)
(Anabaa)
Ambassador (Oasis Dream)
Gift (Exceed And Excel)
(Le Havre)
(Danehill Dancer)
(Winker Watson)
Light
Guapisima (Makfi)
(Lawman)
(Royal Applause) L Clodovil
Certain Lad (Galileo) 3 L
Cloth of Stars Dallas Star (Sadler’s Wells) 3
Killer Collect (Nobiz Like Shobiz) L Complexity
Black Forza (Harlan’s Holiday) 2
Cotai Glory
Democracy Dilemma (Bushranger) L
Excellent Truth (Teofilo) L My Eternal Love (King’s Best) L Powerful Glory (Kodiac) 2 Rebel Diamond (Teofilo) L
Counterattack
Maigret (Dabirsim) 3
Cracksman Diamond Crown (Monsun) L
of Thieves (Oasis Dream) L
(Elnadim)
Novus (Montjeu) L Watch My Tracer (Dark Angel) L Dark Angel
(Oasis Dream) 2 Charyn (Kodiac)
Darlinghurst (Dandy Man)
Flora of Bermuda (Cadeaux Genereux) 3 Got To Love A Grey (Layman)
Max (One Cool Cat) 2 Khaadem (Footstepsinthesand) 1
Me King (Rock of Gibraltar) 3 Mount Athos (Iffraaj)
Doctor Dino
1
Rose Jaipur (Kaldounevees) L
Dream Ahead L’Equilibriste (Sea The Stars) L
Dubawi
Al Nayyir (Manduro) L
Amneris (Konigstiger) L Ancient Truth (Australia) 2
Ancient Wisdom (Dalakhani) 3
Arabian Crown (Dubai Destination) 3
Babakool (Galileo) L
Delacroix (Bernstein) 3
Dilawar (Azamour) L L
Diya (Maxios) L
Elizabeth Jane (Medicean) L Ezeliya (Teofilo) 1 3
Hamavi (Anabaa) L L
Hidden Law (Galileo) 3
Lead Artist (Frankel) 3 3
Military Law (Desert Prince) 2
Mosaique (Monsun) 3 L
Nakheel (Galileo) 2
Noble Dynasty (Galileo) 3
Notable Speech (Invincible Spirit) 1 1
Ottery (Monsun) L
Portland (Galileo) L Pretty Crystal (Orpen) 3
Rebel’s Romance (Street Cry) 1 1
Siskany (Dansili) 3 L
Warren Point (Dubai Destination) 3 Wingspan (Galileo) L
Yaroogh (Invincible Spirit) L Due Diligence
Harry (Compton Place) L L
(Azamour) 3
(Pivotal) L
Dual Group 1 winner Rosallion is by Blue Point out of the New Approach mare Rosaline. He was one of nine stakes winners for the sire in 2024
Frankel
Al Mubhir (Iffraaj) L
Bedtime Story (Dark Angel) 2 3 L
Candala (Dalakhani) 3
Delius (Daylami) 3
Diego Velazquez (Acclamation) 2 3
English Rose (Dubawi) 2
Exactly (Kyllachy) 3
Lake Victoria (Showcasing) 1 1 3
Left Sea (Dubawi) L
Luther (Cityscape) L
Magical Hope (Dubawi) L
Measured Time (Street Cry) 1
Meydaan (Dubawi) L
Military Order (Dubawi) 3
Mistral Star (Shirocco) L
Outbox (Street Cry) 2
Penalty (Big Shuffle) 2 3
The Euphrates (Montjeu) L
Time Lock (Dubawi) 3
Verbier (Authorized) L
Free Eagle
Atlanta City (Big Shuffle) L
Birdman (Acclamation) L
Bolthole (Acclamation) L
Lips Freedom (Big Shuffle) L
French Fifteen Legend (Monsun) 3
Frosted
Frost At Dawn (War Front) 3
Galileo
Chief Little Rock (Fastnet Rock) 3
Content (Dark Angel) 1
Dawn Rising (Danehill Dancer) 3
Grateful (Bernstein) 1 3
Grosvenor Square (Cape Cross) 3
Illinois (Danehill) 2 2
Jan Brueghel (Danehill Dancer) 1 3 3
Klondike (Pivotal) 3 L
Kyprios (Danehill) 1 1 1 1 2 3 L
Lily Hart (Danehill Dancer) L
Prague (Holy Roman Emperor) 2
Subsequent (Danehill Dancer) L Tower of London (Anabaa) 2 2
Galileo Gold
Bulnes (Slade Power) L
Goldana (Pivotal) L
Galiway
Jasna’s Secret (Orpen) L
Vauban (Hurricane Run) 2
Gleneagles
Ambiente Friendly (Fastnet Rock) L
Brilliant (Hard Spun) 3
Calandagan (Sinndar) 2 3 3
Elamaz (Maria’s Mon) L
(Konigstiger) 3 Mill Stream (Hellvelyn) 1 2
One Look (Holy Roman Emperor) L Palladium (Anabaa) 1 Royal Scotsman (Pivotal) 3
Goken
Englemere (Desert Style) L
La Samana (Anabaa) L
Golden Horn
Divina Grace (Nayef) L
Higher Leaves (Declaration of War) L
Guiliani
Atoso (Barathea) 3
Harry Angel A Lilac Rolla (Red Ransom) 3
Esquire (Oasis Dream) 3
Fair Angellica (Lawman) L
Marine Wave (Kheleyf) L
Vicious Harry (Encosta de Lago) L
Harzand
Caught U Looking (Mastercraftsman) L
Shamarkand (Pivotal) L
Havana Grey
Arabian Dusk (Iffraaj) 2
Beenham (Choisir) 3
Cuban Tiger (Kitten’s Joy) L
Elite Status (Swiss Spirit) 3 L
Havana Ball (Charm Spirit) L
Jasour (Bahamian Bounty) 3
Rumstar (Sakhee’s Secret) L
Shouldvebeenaring (Equiano) 3
Soldier’s Heart (Swiss Spirit) L
Star of Lady M (Street Cry) L
Three Havanas (Diktat) 3
Heart’s Cry Continuous (Galileo) 3
Hello Youmzain
Electrolyte (Royal Applause) 3
Misunderstood (Observatory) 3
Holy Roman Emperor Geography (Montjeu) 3
Great Generation (Dutch Art) 3 3
Rashabar (Camelot) 2
Sora Lina (Choisir) L
Hunter’s Light
Kaneshya (Cape Cross) L
Iffraaj
Audience (Oasis Dream) 1 2
My Prospero (Sea The Stars) 3
Nibras Passion (Clodovil) L
Point Lynas (Dansili) L
Inns of Court
Anshoda (Unfuwain) 3
Ziggy’s Dream (Oratorio) L
Intello Bright Picture (Excellent Art)
Homo Deus (Fastnet Rock)
Intellect (Iffraaj)
Junko (Dynaformer)
Maniatic (Dubawi) L
Into Mischief
Laurel River (Empire Maker) 1 3
Invincible Army
James’s Delight (Pivotal) L
Naana’s Diamond (Pivotal) L
Invincible Spirit
Bolster (King’s Best) L
Enfranchise (Mr Greeley) L
Shartash (Dubawi) L
Spiritual (Galileo) L
Whispering Dream (Shamardal) L
Iquitos
Mr Hollywood (Hurricane Run) L
James Garfield
Nonna Vanda (Silver Frost) L Johnny Red Kerr Calle Almazora (First Defence) L Justify
Century (Street Cry)
Karakontie
Arabella (Street Sense)
Kendargent
(Rock of Gibraltar)
(Motivator)
Square (Siyouni)
Seven Questions (Makfi) 3
Star of Mystery (Shamardal) 2
Symbol of Strength (Shamardal) 3
Lawman
Adelaise (Iffraaj) L
Le Havre
Beechwood (Sea The Stars) L
Empress of Beauty (Motivator) L
Quisisana (Sea The Stars) L
Ramadan (Dalakhani) 2 3 3 L
Le Vie Infinite
Lancieri (Shaweel) L
Lope de Vega
Admiral de Vega (Dansili) L Almaqam (Cape Cross) L
Ami de Vega (Soldier of Fortune) L
Curvature (Galileo) L
Halfday (Frankel) 3
Hooking (Dubawi) L L
Hypothetical (Whipper) 3
King of Conquest (Teofilo) L L
La Isla Mujeres (Authorized) L
Lady Boba (Teofilo) 3
Look de Vega (High Chaparral) 1
Madero (Galileo) L
Max Vega (Dalakhani) 3
Nina’s Lob (Peintre Celebre) L
Poet Master (Kodiac) 2
Quantanamera (Duke of Marmalade) 2
Rouhiya (Raven’s Pass) 1
Royal Rhyme (Kingmambo) 3
San Donato (Acclamation) 2
Scenic (Frankel) L
Shadow of Light (New Approach) 1 1
Vagalame (Galileo) L
Lord of England
Wintertraum (Sternkoenig) L Zunder (Areion) L
Make Believe
Fast Spirit (Invincible Spirit) L Hope And Believe (Azamour) L
Klaynn (Rip Van Winkle) 2 L
Lazio (Hernando) 2 L
Making Dreams (Oasis Dream) 3
Sajir (Invincible Spirit) 3
Manduro
Iresine (Oasis Dream) 2 L
Markaz
Lord Massusus (Haafhd) L
Massaat
Queues Likely (Green Desert) 3
Mastercraftsman
Angel Guidance (High Chaparral) L L
Coltrane (Montjeu) 3
Giavellotto (Galileo) 2 2
Noir (Shirocco) L
Wilko (Soldier Hollow) 3
Mayson
Francisco’s Piece (Sakhee’s Secret) L
Mehmas
Aesterius (Hallowed Crown) 2 3 L
Believing (Kodiac) 2 L
Clarendon House (Exceed And Excel) L
Colour Up (Elusive Quality) L
La Bellota (Iffraaj) L
Make You Smile (Invincible Spirit) 3
Miss Lamai (Iffraaj) L
Power Under Me (Arakan) L
Scorthy Champ (New Approach) 1
Skylight Brochard (Red Clubs) L Star of Mehmas (Sea The Stars) L
The Waco Kid (Galileo) 3
Vertical Blue (Sea The Stars) 1
Mendelssohn Mendelssohn Bay (Curlin) 3 Without Words (Boundary) 3
Mohaather
Big Mojo (No Nay Never) 3
Merveilleux Lapin (Curlin) L
Yah Mo Be There (Night of Thunder) L
Motivator
Hamish (Sakhee) 3 L
Mount Nelson
Une Perle (Invincible Spirit) 3
Muhaarar
Armira (Areion) 3
Burdett Road (Galileo) L
Israr (Sea The Stars) L
Marhaba Ya Sanafi (Galileo) 3 L
Pusjkin (Sadler’s Wells) L
Sound Angela (Invincible Spirit) L
Sparks Fly (Tagula) L L
War of Dance (Galileo) L
Nathaniel Harbour Wind (Pivotal) L Kammuri Diamond (Hawk Wing) L
Understated (Makfi) L You Got To Me (Medicean) 1 L
National Defense
Dark Defence (Dark Angel) L
New Approach
Bold Act (Dubawi) 2 Isle of Jura (Street Cry) 2 L
New Bay
Alcantor (Medicean) 3
Bay City Roller (Teofilo) 2
Devil’s Point (Pivotal) 2
Newlook (Hurricane Run) L
Persica (Lope de Vega) L
Night of Thunder
Al Musmak (Kitten’s Joy) L
Bright Thunder (Iffraaj) L
Choisya (Singspiel) L
Desert Flower (Hard Spun) 1 2
Economics (Peintre Celebre) 1 2 2
Electric Storm (Bated Breath) L
Fairy Godmother (Siyouni) 3 3
Mystery Night (Raven’s Pass) L
Nighteyes (Fast Company) L Not Afraid (Iffraaj) L Ombudsman (Dansili) 3 L Romantic Style (Dream Ahead) 3 Royal Dress (Dynaformer) 3 L Start of Day (Pulpit) L Thunder Roll (Pivotal) L Tuscan Hills (Sea The Stars) L
No Nay Never Aesop’s Fables (Shinko Forest) L
Qudra (Holy Roman Emperor) L
Fountain (Frankel) L
Cry (Dragon Pulse) 3
(Dashing Blade) 2
Orbit (Danehill
Ribchester
Facteur Cheval (Shamardal) 1
Rio de La Plata
Fort Payne (Meshaheer) 3
Roaring Lion
Middle Earth (Galileo) 3
Queen of The Pride (Duke of Marmalade) 2 3
Running Lion (Dansili) 2
Sands of Mali
Ain’t Nobody (Showcasing) L
Ellaria Sand (Exceed And Excel) L
Saxon Warrior
Borna (King’s Best) 2
Quetame (Duke of Marmalade) L
Rage of Bamby (Sakhee’s Secret) L
Sea The Moon
Assistent (Kallisto) 3 L
Fantastic Moon (Jukebox Jury) 1 2
Sea of Roses (Marchand de Sable) L
Sea The Boss (Casamento) 3
(Montjeu)
Sea The Stars
Al Aasy (Shamardal) 3
Andromede (Authorized) 3 Aventure (Singspiel)
Bellum Justum (Oasis Dream)
Caviar Heights (Acclamation) L
Daramethos (Dansili) L
Doha (Motivator) L
Hanalia (Danehill Dancer) 2 L
Legend of Time (Danehill Dancer) L
Map of Stars (Dubawi) L
Mountain Song (Medaglia d’Oro) L Ottoman Fleet (Motivator) 3 Queimados (Dansili) L River of Stars (Adlerflug) L
(Whipper)
Instant Fragile (Anabaa) L Quest The Moon (Rock of Gibraltar) 3 3
(Lope de Vega)
Seahenge Chic Colombine (Halling) L
Sergei Prokofiev Arizona Blaze (Equiano) 3 Enchanting Empress (Society Rock) L
Shamardal Cinderella’s Dream (Dubawi) L Diamond Rain (Danehill Dancer) L Inisherin (Teofilo) 1 2
Vote (Fastnet Rock)
(Dalakhani)
Valley (Elusive Quality)
Showcasing
Havoc (Kitten’s Joy)
Sox (Harbour Watch)
Siyouni’s 2024 three-time Group 1-winning five-year-old mare Msqe de Sevigne, who is out of a mare by Sevres Rose
in Group 1s
Tamarkuz
Two Rivers Over (Cowboy Cal) 2
Tamayuz
Jancis (Ruler of The World) 3
Tasleet
American Sonja (Kodiac) 3
Bradsell (Archipenko) 1 1 L
Ten Sovereigns
Candid Smile (Areion) L L
Usdi Atohi (Zoffany) L
Teofilo
Alessio (Adlerflug) 2 L
Crystal Black (Ishiguru) 3
Naval Power (Dubawi) 2
Sunchart (Dubai Destination) L
Territories
Grey’s Monument (Teofilo) L
Lazzat (Australia) 1 3 3 L
Territorywar (Sunday Break) L
The Grey Gatsby Ashana (One Cool Cat) L
Partnun (Jukebox Jury) L Sacaya (Doyen) L
The Gurkha Best of Lips (Silver Frost) 3 3 3
Time Test
Betty Clover (Kendargent) L
Okeechobee (Daylami) 3
Too Darn Hot
Boiling Point (Shamardal) L
Darnation (Galileo) 2
Fallen Angel (Lawman) 1
Hot Darling (Helmet) L Hotazhell (Danehill Dancer) 1 2 3
Lava Stream (Mastercraftsman) L
Simmering (Fastnet Rock) 2 3
Smoken (Marju)
Metropolitan: after winning the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1), the son of Zarak finished placed twice
SUBJECTIVIST (GB)
Teofilo x Reckoning
Bay | 2017 | 16.1HH
As a racehorse, Subjectivist was Champion older stayer in Europe in 2021 following impressive wins in; the Gr.1 Ascot Gold Cup, 2021 Gr.2 Dubai Gold Cup, 2020 Gr.1 Prix Royal Oak, 2020 Gr.3 Goodwood March Stakes and 2020 Listed Glasgow Stakes.
2025 Stud Fee: £4,000
MIDNIGHTS LEGACY (GB)
Midnight Legend x Giving
Bay | 2017 | 16.1HH
Winner of races under both codes, including two wins at Epsom on Derby Day. The future looks promosing for the only breeding son of the late, great Midnight Legend. With his first foals seen in 2024 to be scopey, balanced and typical NH types.
2025 Stud Fee: £3,000
DINK (FR)
Poliglote x Napeta
Bay | 2004 | 16.1HH
A ten-time winner himself, Dink won the Spanish 2000 Guineas and placed third in the Spanish Derby. Sire of multiple graded winner, Nube Negra, we are immensely privileged to stand the only breeding son of champion sire, Poliglote.
2025 Stud Fee: £3,000
Alne Park Stud, Park Lane, Great Alne, Warwickshire, B49 6HS. 07464 633938
info@alneparkstud.com www.alneparkstud.com
OCOVANGO (GB)
Monsun x Crystal Maze
Brown | 2010 | 16.1HH
Stud Fee 2025: £4,500
PROGENY
PINKERTON
Gr.3 Galway Plate Winner
LANGER DAN
Dual Cheltenham Festival Coral Cup Winner
CHAMP KIELY
Gr.1 Lawlor’s of Naas Novice Hurdle Winner
Sire of 40 induvidual winners under rules in 2023/24 Season, with a further 25 Irish Point-to-Point winners.
Stallion covering stats 2024
The covering sire table includes sires who have covered 20+ mares in England or Ireland in 2024. Jump and dual-purpose sires are included and the figures will include their NH mares. From Weatherbys
Leading sire Dark Angel: he covered 134 mares this spring, including 44 black-type performers
Only Gr.1 July Cup Winner by Sire of Sires INVINCIBLE SPIRIT
PROVEN SIRE OF TOP CLASS SPRINTERS
Yearlings Averaged €29,000 in 2024
Fee: €4,250 1st Oct SLF
CHAMPION SPRINTER, GROUP WINNER AT 2 AND 3 Sound Bloodlines of KODIAC and GIANT’S CAUSEWAY
Family of Champion Miler BENBATL, Gr.1 1,000 Guineas Winner EMALKA, etc. Fee: €8,000 1st Oct SLF
covering statistics
Phoenix Of Spain: the Irish National Stud’s sire saw 217 mares this spring up from 90 in 2023
covering statistics
Bassett (GB)
Yeats (IRE)
Mehmas
Stallions who saw most mares 2024
Stallion Mares
Order of St George (IRE) 311
Calyx (GB) 273
Santiago (IRE) 251
Good Guess (GB) 250
Affinisea (IRE) 246
Sioux Nation (USA) 246
Mehmas (IRE) 244
Hurricane Lane (IRE) 236
Triple Threat (FR) 225
Poet’s Word (IRE) 223
Wootton Bassett (GB) 223
Phoenix Of Spain (IRE) 217
Jeu St Eloi (FR) 209
Walk In The Park (IRE) 198
Dee Ex Bee (GB) 194
Jukebox Jury (IRE) 194
Churchill (IRE) 192
Frankel (GB) 192
Crystal Ocean (GB) 186
Blue Bresil (FR) 183
Stallions who saw most winning race mares 2024
Stallion Mares
Frankel (GB) 178
Wootton Bassett (GB) 162
Sioux Nation (USA) 153
Mehmas (IRE) 152
Lope de Vega (IRE) 138
Calyx (GB) 133
Sea The Stars (IRE) 132
Churchill (IRE) 131 No Nay Never (USA) 128
Blue Point (IRE) 127
Too Darn Hot (GB) 125
Chaldean (GB) 121
New Bay (GB) 118
Good Guess (GB) 117
Kingman (GB) 116
Havana Grey (GB) 114
Camelot (GB) 113
Pinatubo (IRE) 111
Native Trail (GB) 110
Phoenix of Spain (IRE) 107
Stallions who saw most Group race winners 2024
Stallion Mares
Frankel (GB) 88
Wootton Bassett (GB) 53
Dubawi (IRE) 46
Kingman (GB) 39
Too Darn Hot (GB) 33
Baaeed (GB) 33
Lope de Vega (IRE) 32
Sea The Stars (IRE) 27
No Nay Never (USA) 27
Blue Point (IRE) 22
Night of Thunder (IRE) 21
New Bay (GB) 18
Chaldean (GB) 16
Paddington (GB) 15
Churchill (IRE) 14
Havana Grey (GB) 14
Camelot (GB) 13
Modern Games (IRE) 13
Sioux Nation (USA) 11
St Mark’s Basilica (FR) 11
• Sire of 5 GROUP 1 WINNERS
• Sire of 21 GROUP/STAKE S horses in 2024 including Gr.1 and Gr.2 winner FANTASTIC MOON Gr.1 and Gr.3 winner ASSISTENT
• Champion Sire in Germany in 2023 and 2024
• In 2023 sire of the Gr.1 German Derby winner and the Gr.1 German Oaks winner
winner in 2024 SEA THE BOSS Gr.3 winner in 2024
SHANDANA dual winner in France & Gr.3 placed
TRAD JAZZ debut winner at Kempton
DIGNAM at Tipperary
SUCCESS BEGINS
THE BREEDERS’ CUP WITH
THE BREEDERS’ CUP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
OCTOBER 31 & NOVEMBER 1, 2025
Created by racing visionaries in the 80’s, this year-end event has established itself as thoroughbred racing’s greatest achievement. The Breeders’ Cup World Championships brings the best of the best to compete on racing’s biggest stage. Held each fall and hosted by the premier racetracks in North America, this two-day extravaganza crowns Champions in every division and is truly a race fan’s dream come true.
The 2025 Breeders’ Cup World Championships will be hosted by Del Mar in Del Mar, CA. The world’s best will compete in 14 Championship races on October 31 & November 1 for $34 million in purses and awards.
Participants in the Breeders’ Cup World Championships are treated to an amazing weekend filled with world class hospitality, entertainment, and equally incredible racing. To find out how you can participate on racing’s greatest days, please call Dora Delgado, Chief Racing Officer, +1 859-514-9422 or e-mail: dora@breederscup.com.
Pre-entry deadline for all Championship races – Noon, Monday, Oct. 20, 2025.
All international shippers receive $40,000 in travel awards.
THE BREEDERS’ CUP CHALLENGE WIN & YOU’RE IN PROGRAM
This Win and You’re In global stakes program features graded and group stakes in 12 countries. All North American starters stabled outside of California will receive a travel award of $10,000 upon starting in any Breeders’ Cup World Championship race, international starters will receive a $40,000 allowance. Every winner of all Win & You’re In Challenge Races receives free entry fees and an automatic selection to the Championships.
You can’t win if you’re not in! For the complete Challenge schedule, please visit members.breederscup. com.
THE BREEDERS’ CUP INTERNATIONAL STALLION PROGRAM
All stallions around the world are now eligible to participate directly in the Breeders’ Cup program. Stallions standing in the Northern Hemisphere outside of North America contribute 50% of their stud fee and the resulting foals are all automatically eligible to the racing programs of the Breeders’ Cup without any further nomination payments due. These automatically nominated foals are eligible for the Breeders’ Cup Challenge program as well as the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.
Kia Joorabchian’s big spend at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale had a dramatic effect on the yearling trade. It revealed just how narrow the industry is in Europe, and how the impact of one buyer can influence whole market dynamics, writes
Jocelyn de Moubray
Playing the markets
FEW IF ANY OF THE professionals who headed to Newmarket for the Tattersalls October Book 1 Yearling Sale were expecting a boom.
The previous year’s October Book 1 sale had been a difficult one for vendors with turnover falling by 25 per cent and the average price by 18 per cent and with a top lot making only two million guineas.
As is more often the case October 1 set the tone for a full sales cycle and, over the next year, turnover at the major yearling sales in England, Ireland, France and Germany, was in real terms, either flat or down somewhere by around 5-10 per cent.
The market was generally described as selective, which means, of course, that demand was inadequate for the horses on offer and those with money to spend could buy the lots they had selected without having to go beyond their expectations.
But, from the moment the first lots went through the ring at this year’s October Book 1, it was evident something had changed.
Amo Racing, a partnership headed by Kia Joorabchian, had come to the sale determined to compete for the best lots on offer. Over the three days this desire showed no signs of diminishing and on its own, as well as with other partners, Amo purchased a total of 25 lots for 23 million guineas.
Twenty three million guineas represents a significant boost even for Book 1, which has a turnover more than double any other European sale, it is the equivalent of some 23 per cent of the total aggregate of 2023.
If you add 23 per cent to the demand results will inevitably
2022
Photo courtesy of Tattersalls
rise by more – some of the other buyers will have to bid higher than they would otherwise have done to secure the horses they want, while some of those unable to purchase the top lots will shift their interest to others instead.
At the end of the three days the aggregate had increased by 34 per cent to 128 million guineas, with Amo and partners accounting for 18 per cent of that total.
Godolphin fell into the category of those prepared to spend more to acquire its selections and its spending went from 20 horses purchased for an outlay of 12 million guineas in 2023 to 18 horses bought for 22 million guineas this year, a rise of 83 per cent.
Joorabchian and Amo Racing has had horses in training in Britain and Ireland for around ten years now.
Over the last five years Amo has won about 200 races in total in Britain and Ireland and its best winners have included July Stakes winner and Tally-Ho Stud stallion Persian Force, as well as the Derby runners-up Mojo Star and King Of Steel, also now a stallion at Tally-Ho.
It has bought expensive
horses before, and this year purchased the Group-placed two-year-old Angelo Buonarroti for a million euros at Arqana in May (see horses to follow, page 52) as well as a Kingman colt out of Laurens for £650,000 at the Goffs Royal Ascot Sale.
In the US, Amo bought two-year-olds in training at Ocala at the beginning of the year and then among others four yearlings for more than $900,000 at Fasig Tipton Saratoga and Keeneland September.
However, Amo was not active at either Arqana in August or at the Goffs Orby Sale so there was no reason for any outsider to be able to predict a 23 million guineas splash at October and then the further 1.4 million outlay at the October Book 2 Sale.
Something similar had, of course, happened at the 2022 Tattersalls October Sale when the new buyer was Richard Knight who spent 10.5 million guineas on 16 yearlings, which was about 10 per cent of the 2021 aggregate.
As a result of Knight and others the aggregate rose by 34 per cent in real terms from 2021 to 2023, only to fall again
....the market has been characterised by uncertainty and swings from one year to the next, posing difficult dilemmas for commercial breeders
Tattersalls Deauville Goffs Orby BBAG September
Godolphin’s spend at the major European yearling sales in 2024 topped $40 million, with only Amo Racing in the same realm with its spend of $36 million, while MV Magnier’s outlay fell to $14 million from the $21 spent in 2023
in real terms, by 34 per cent the following year.
Comparisons of all European sales over the covid period are complicated by the fact that this was a period with strong inflation, which was stronger in Britain than in the Euro zone.
To give an idea of how the market has shifted during the period 2019 to 2024 the aggregate and average price at the Tattersalls October Book 1 and 2, Goffs Orby Part 1 and the Arqana August and October sales have been put into 2024 guineas or euros.
Tattersalls and Goffs have maintained a similar format during this period, while Arqana’s October sale has been expended so only the first three days have been included in the calculations in order to keep the number of yearlings offered roughly the same.
The result is that at the Goffs Orby Sale both the aggregate and the average price have fallen by seven per cent in real terms.
At Tattersalls October 1 and 2 combined the aggregate has risen by four per cent and the average price by nine per cent, (the numbers in October 1 have been reduced and overall Tattersalls sold 40 fewer horses at the two combined in 2024 compared with 2019).
At the combined Arqana sales the aggregate has risen by eight per cent and the average by 12 per cent (for 23 fewer horses sold).
The period from 2019 to 2024 has in real terms seen either a small gain or a small loss depending upon which of the three major sales companies you look at.
Even for Arqana growth of eight per cent over a five-year period can hardly be called a boom market, particularly as over the same period fees for the
top stallions have increased by around 25 per cent in real terms in England and Ireland.
The boom market came before covid – between 2010 and 2018 the Tattersalls October Book 1 sale grew in turnover by 120 per cent in real terms, growth over 13 per cent a year over a nine-year period.
Since then the European yearling market has recovered the business it lost during the covid year of 2020, but the market has been characterized by uncertainty and swings from one year to the next, posing difficult dilemmas for commercial breeders who have to decide now what to invest in stallion nominations to sell at the 2027 yearling sales.
AT THE TIME OF writing, few of the major stallion farms have announced their fees for 2025, but it is hard to see how, if you look over a five-year period rather than just the headlines which came out of the October 1 sale, that further significant across the board rises are justified.
In any event stallion farms seem to focus more on volume than price to grow their business these days.
In 2019, Kodiac was the sire with the most yearlings on offer with 124 and, overall, 12 stallions had 75 yearlings or more catalogued.
Fast forward five years to 2024 and Starman had the most yearlings offered with 140, while a total of 18 sires had 75 or more yearlings offered, a total of 1,748 yearlings between them.
Everybody involved will hope that the 2025 October 1
Book 1 Sale is not a repeat of 2023 with the previous year’s gains immediately reversed, but it must be a possibility as the European yearling market remains, as it has been almost for as long as any of those still active have been involved, dominated by a few groups.
At this year’s Keeneland September Sale the leading buyer Donato Lanni, agent for the SF, Starlight, Madaket partnership, spent some $11 million, less than three per cent of the total, and all the ten leading buyers were based in the US.
It was not very long ago that the Maktoum family and the Coolmore partnership
How the 2027 yearling sales play out depends more than anything else on decisions taken in private by a small number of individuals
dominated American sales, too, as recently as 2010 the Maktoum family spent 10 per cent of the total at Keeneland September, enough to change the sale if for one reason or another they didn’t buy the following year.
This time has passed and the demand for the best commercial yearlings in the US is both strong and competitive with 20 or 30 different groups purchasing million dollar yearlings at September this year.
How the 2027 yearling sales play out depends more than anything else on decisions taken in private by a small number of individuals.
The examples of Knight in
2022 and Amo in 2023 show how one buyer can change the market for everyone, and this is as true for negative effects as positive ones.
Turnover at Arqana August fell by eight per cent from 2023 to 2024, a renewal marked by Godolphin’s smallest participation this century, Sheikh Mohammed’s organisation purchasing only one yearling for €400,000.
In 2023, Godolphin had spent €5.4 million at the August Sale and in three of the previous five years it had spent between €5 and €6 million euros in August, or about 10 per cent of the total.
Frankel’s daughter of Aljazzi became the second highest-priced yearling ever sold in public auction in Europe when fetching 4,400,000gns
Record-breaking results at the Horses in Training sales
FIT, PROVEN AND HEALTHY racehorses are worth a lot of money. They always have been to some extent but, over the last four years, there has been particularly strong demand at the Tattersalls and Arqana horses in Training sales for horses able to race on in Australia and the Middle East, while there are still a handful of buyers competing at the top end for jumping prospects.
The significant rise has come at the top of the market and so it is no surprise to see Arqana’s Arc Sale, a small select auction held on the eve of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in Paris, see the largest increase in turnover in real terms with this year’s €10.4 million up by 43 per cent from 2019.
The Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale is of a different nature with more than a 1,000 horses offered every year. Turnover has risen by 13 per cent in real terms since 2019, but, over the last four years the market has been consistently produced between 34 and 40 million guineas in real terms.
The rise in the average price of the top lots at the two sales combined over the last years demonstrates the strength of international demand.
In 2022, a total of 24 horses were sold for the equivalent of $350,000 or more and they averaged $530,000. This year there were 25 in this range and they averaged $690,000, a rise of 30 per cent.
It is rare for a Group 1-performing three-year-colt to go to a public auction and Delius, a son of Frankel offered in training from the Jean Claude Rouget yard, was the top lot at the two sales combined going to an Australian partnership involving Go Racing and Gai Waterhouse.
The four other million dollar lots were all sold at the Arqana Arc Sale and, surprisingly, included two geldings – the Aga Khan’s fouryear-old Frankel gelding Zarir and the three-year-old Kendargent gelding Trafalgar Square, who are heading to Australia and the Middle East. The other two were the high-class three-year-old miler Ramadan, also going to Australia, and the DeutschesDerby winner
Delius: sold for a record-breaking 1,300,000gns at the Tattersalls Autumn HIT Sale, its rare for colt of his class to be sold at away from private sales
Photo: courtesy of Tattersalls
horses in training sales
horses-in-training sold
Palladium, who was bought for Lady Bamford and going into training with jumps trainer Nicky Henderson.
The 25 leading lots included both sprinters and stayers, two-yearolds and older horses, however, stamina is certainly not a negative at these sales.
Delius, Zarir and Palladium are 1m4f horses, while Trafalgar Square, Hutchence, Go Daddy and others among the top priced sold have been running over further.
The 25 include four by Frankel and two by Kingman but also several by little known or unfashionable sires.
So, to return to the beginning, proven horses with a good veterinary dossier are worth a lot of money and, if they are by Frankel, they will sell at a premium but if they are by a sire few have heard of they are worth plenty all the same.
Four years of strong international horses in training sales might make breeders and yearling buyers reconsider their priorities, but nothing is likely to change as long as the ratio of training costs to possible prize-money remains as it is today. .
Ramadan: won the Prix Daniel Wildenstein (G2) and was sold that evening at the Arqana Arc Sale for a top price of €1,500,000
at Tattersalls Autumn HIT Sale and the Arqana Arc Sale 2024
Photo: courtesy of Arqana
BLUESTOCKING
of Pretty Polly Stakes,
YOU GOT TO ME winner of Irish Oaks, Gr. 1
“She ran in every month from May to October this year, and to do that at a mile and a half is tremendously hard on them. She took it all in her stride and finished the season better than any of us believed was possible
For that extra bit of backup and support when training your Champions, Saracen are here to help.
BLUESTOCKING winner of 2024 Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, Gr. 1
Ralph Beckett after the Arc heroine’s retirement
STARLUST winner of 2024 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, Gr. 1
The four yearlings sold by Farhh this year achieved an average price of 129,500gns
Stallion yearling averages 2024
Stallions with two or more lots sold, listed alphabetically and showing aggregate, average and colt and fillies’ figures from sales in Europe. Vendor buy-backs included. In guineas, compiled by Weatherbys. NH stallions included.
Photo courtesy of Darley
“Where your future champion awaits”
THURSDAY - 23 JANUARY 2025 | HOLLYWOODBETS KENILWORTH
www.caperacingsales.co.za | For sale related queries, please contact Vicky Minott - vicky@caperacing.co.za
stallion yearling statistics
Fee €6,000 (1st Oct terms)
NEW FOR 2025
Fee €12,500 (1st Oct terms) FIRST RUNNERS
Fee €6,000 (1st Oct terms) FIRST RUNNERS
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stallion yearling statistics
stallion yearling statistics
Starman’s first yearlings averaged 36,570gns for 165 sold. The top price was given for this colt sold at Tattersalls October Book 1 by Tally-Ho Stud to Amo Racing /Al Shaqab for 260,000gns
stallion yearling statistics
2024 Return Of Mares
Inthejungle ex Guana (Dark Angel)
A pedigree full of Speed and Precocity
The joy of Six
Another year, an even better result... Into Mischief continues his dominance in the US sire ranks, wins his sixth consecutive title and breaks the earnings record, writes Melissa Bauer-Herzog
IF LOOKING AT THE LEADING SIRES’ TABLE in North America after the Breeders’ Cup many would be forgiven if they feel like they’re in the film Groundhog Day with Into Mischief leading the field for the sixth consecutive year.
Every year it is hard to believe Spendthrift’s stallion can top what he has done the year previously, but that’s exactly what he’s doing in 2024. Not only does he lead every category, but he is also the first stallion in history to break the $30 million in progeny earnings in a year.
As of November 8, his runners have won $32,432,583 in prize-money, shattering his own previous record of $28,106,000 set in 2022.
Those earnings were helped along by his son Laurel River winning the Dubai World Cup (G1) in March taking home $7.2 million.
However, 233 winners and 54 stakes horses overall definitely played a part as well and he is over $12 million ahead of the second-placed Gun Runner.
Into Mischief sits just two titles behind Bold Ruler who topped the general sires’ title eight times last century.
Into Mischief was blanked in the Breeders’ Cup in 2023, but that wasn’t the case in 2024 thanks to Citizen Bull.
Likely this year’s Eclipse champion two-year-old male, Citizen Bull backed up his American Pharoah Stakes (G1) victory with an easy win in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1).
While securing the most general sires’ titles is firmly in his sights, Into Mischief is also approaching a major milestone.
He is just some $15,015,437 behind Tapit when it comes to the all-time progeny earnings’ record.
Laurel River: the son of Into Mischief winning the Dubai Word Cup, the first major winner for the stallion outside of North America
Tapit is still active at stud with eight stakes winners of his own in 2024, so it is possible that Into Mischief could be held off another year, but he is on-course to blitz Tapit out of the way in 2025.
Gun is running Gun Runner sits second by earnings to Into Mischief, but leads all North American stallions by percentage of Grade 1 performers with 2.9 per cent of his runners placing at the level this year.
Gun Runner has risen quickly to be one of the best sires in North America with just four crops of racing age and is shooting at a 6.83 per cent Grade 1 performers-to-runners overall.
The stallion is also at 3.11 per cent Grade 1 winners-to-runners cumulatively, though he’s striking at 1.66 per cent in 2024 with four Grade 1 winners – tying for the highest amount of Grade 1 winners he’s had in his four seasons.
Not surprisingly, Gun Runner leads virtually every category among North American fourth-crop sires in 2024.
The only lead he is missing is number of
2024 winners with Practical Joke’s 140 (as of November 8), which is 19 better than Gun Runner’s 121.
Justify in fourth but top on stakes percentage
Justify sits fourth by earnings in 2024, but the stallion leads all sires by percentage of stakes performers and graded stakes performers.
He has had 15 North American-bred stakes winners this year, and is striking at 17.45 per cent stakes performers and 10.64 per cent graded stakes performers from 235 runners.
Not surprisingly, his European superstar and new Coolmore recruit City Of Troy leads the way among his earners with $2,647,262 won in his five starts this year, but he’s far from the only successful Justify runner.
Justify has registered three Grade 1 victors in 2024 and, in a rare feat for a US-based stallion, none of those were in North America.
Just like 2023, Opera Singer and City Of Troy both gave their sire Group 1 wins and Opera Singer went on to win the Nassau Stakes (G1) in August.
His daughter Ramatuelle gave him a third Group 1 winner in 2024 when she won the Prix de la Foret (G1) in October.
France’s highest-rated juvenile last year, she was also the second highest-priced horse at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale when brought for $5.1 million by MV Magnier.
It was reported after the sale that both Ramatuelle and Opera Singer will visit Coolmore’s superstar sire Wootton Bassett.
Good Magic and Justify tie Grade 1 winners for third-crop sires
Justify also leads third-crop sires in every stakes category, though he is tied at the top by Grade 1 winners and graded stakes winners alongside Good Magic at five each.
For the second year in succession, Good Magic sired a Classic winner – his victory this year came via Dornoch’s success in the Belmont Stakes (G1).
That three-year-old, who joins the Spendthrift Farm roster in 2025, is a full-brother to Good Magic’s Kentucky Derby (G1) winner Mage, both out of Puca.
Good Magic is also the sire of this year’s Pacific Classic (G1) winner Mixto and Arkansas Derby (G1) winner Muth.
The stallion was also represented at the Grade 1 level in the juvenile ranks by his daughter Snowyte, who finished second in the Frizette Stakes (G1).
In all, Good Magic has five Grade 1 performers in 2024 with only three of his eight graded stakes performers not placing at the level.
Omaha Beach a solid second-crop sire
While he isn’t close to hitting Into Mischief levels yet, Spendthrift Farm’s Omaha Beach is making an impression of his own on the track.
The second-crop sire is another who leads all categories on his respective sires’ list with 10 stakes winners in 2024.
The stallion’s stakes winners are led by Natalma Stakes (G1) winner And One More Time, who gave her sire his first Grade 1 winner.
Out of a Blame mare, she’s bred on a cross that looks like it may be fruitful for her sire. From four runners out of Blame mares,
Good Magic: matches fellow third-crop sire Justify with five graded stakes winners in 2024
Omaha Beach has sired three winners with And One More Time joined by E J Won The Cup as stakes winners bred on the cross. E J Won The Cup is also a Grade 1-placed runner.
Into Mischief’s influence spreads far and wide and it is felt on the second-crop sires
list with his son Audible sitting right behind his stud mate in multiple categories.
The stallion has also drawn even with Omaha Beach by number of graded stakes winners and graded stakes performers to tie for the lead in both categories.
Just like every second-crop sire other
than Omaha Beach, Audible is still waiting on his first Grade 1 winner, though he does have one Grade 1-placed runner – one of only three second-crop sires with such an accolade.
Standing at WinStar Farm, Audible is the only non-Spendthrift stallion inside the top
Omaha Beach: is making quite an impression bagging 10 stakes winners in 2024 headed up by his first Grade 1 winner And One More Time
five by earnings among second-crop sires.
Spendthrift Farm’s Vino Rosso is also tied for the lead by number of graded stakes performers, while Mitole leads by winners in 2024. Maximum Mischief is the only stallion who doesn’t lead a category on the list, though he is tied for second by stakes winners with eight and sits third by stakes performers with 18.
Vekoma heads the freshman sires’ title Spendthrift also has a strong hold on the freshman sires’ title thanks to Vekoma, who leads all freshmen by stakes performers and winners.
That Grade 1-winning son of Candy Ride has seen four of his runners win stakes and 11 earn black-type with 32 runners finding the winner’s circle.
Authentic, the stud’s Horse of the Year, has been slow to get off the mark with just one stakes winner, but the Into Mischief son is bringing in winners with 17 to his name.
That puts him two ahead of another stablemate in Thousand Words, who has 15 winners led by two stakes winners and four stakes performers.
Coolmore’s stallion Tiz The Law hit the ground running and that’s revealed in his numbers. The sire of 18 winners, the stallion had a Breeders’ Cup runner in Scythian, who had won the Miss Grillo Stakes (G2) to earn her spot in the race.
Off to a fast start, Tiz The Law has sired a generation-leading five stakes winners with four graded stakes horses and two graded stakes winners to lead each category with a $50,000 lead on the freshman sires’ title.
Just some $50,000 behind him is none other than the red-hot McKinzie. One of the most talked-about horses when this generation entered stud, he was popular at the sales before his runners hit the track and it’s now easy to see why.
He’s the only freshman sire with two Grade 1 winners and has four Grade 1 performers in total to lead four different categories on the sires’ list.
While son Chancer McPatrick didn’t fire in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) after winning two Grade 1s, Quickick represented her sire well in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1).
Already Grade 1-placed in the Alcibiades (G1) in October, she was third at the Breeders’ Cup to give her sire a placer in his first crop. Not surprisingly, McKinzie has seen a big jump in his stud fee from $30,000 to $75,000 for 2025.
The next batch
There are a handful of new stallions already announced as joining the ranks at farms across Kentucky and the most accomplished may be National Treasure, who is heading to Spendthrift.
Set to be standing for $40,000 in 2025, National Treasure was the winner of last year’s Preakness Stakes (G1) before registering two Grade 1s in 2024 to make a solid case for Eclipse honors.
He is joined on the Spendthrift roster by
the aforementioned Dornoch, who is also scheduled to stand for $40,000.
Just down the road, this year’s Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Seize The Grey will be standing for $30,000 at Gainesway.
The second son of the late Arrogate to enter stud in Kentucky, Seize The Grey also won the Pennsylvania Derby (G1) in his penultimate start.
The only other son of Arrogate in Kentucky is last year’s Belmont Stakes (G1) winner Arcangelo.
Only one Classic winner from the last two seasons remains in training with Mystik Dan set to race in 2025. While he is the only Triple Crown race winner we’ll see racing in 2025, he is joined by Classic-placed runners Sierra Leone, Forever Young, Catching Freedom, and Mindframe to make for an interesting older horse division next season
National Treasure (7), winner of last January’s valuable Pegasus World Cup, is joining the Spendthrift roster. He is a four-year-old by Quality Road and starts at a fee of $40,000
Dream Ahead
65 Stakes winners/performers
Inc. Gr.1 winning sprinters GLASS SLIPPERS, DREAM OF DREAMS, DONJUAN TRIUMPHANT, and Gr.1 miler AL WUKAIR.
Promising broodmare sire
Already the broodmare sire of Gr.1 horses –Poptronic, Lightsaber, Texas, and many more. A great outcross.
Ranked alongside No Nay Never, Kodiac & Dark Angel for sires of Gr.1 winning sprinters since 2019 The leading sire of sprinters by earnings standing at under £25k (5f/6f from 2017 to 2024, Marray Thoroughbred Services)
BE A PART OF IT Breeding in Britain
So far in 2024, 28 horses bred at 16 studs in Britain have won Group/Grade 1 flat races across seven countries.*
NEW SIX-PART SERIES
showcasing Britain’s world-leading thoroughbred breeding operations underpinned by a thriving stallion market.
To watch the series and discover how GBRI and The TBA can guide you on your journey to breeding in Britain, scan the QR code or head to greatbritishracinginternational.com
*correct as of 14th November 2024
UBETTABELIEVEIT MASSAAT
Fee: £4,500 1st Oct S.L.F
FIRST 2YOs 2025
By KODIAC - World Record Holder for 2-y-o winners
Now well regarded as a leading Sire of Sires
UBETTABELIEVEIT
winner of three races and £116,503 all over 5f incl.: EBF Novice Stakes Doncaster, LR National S. Sandown, Gr.2 Flying Childers S. Doncaster. Also 3rd Gr.2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, all at 2
First crop yearlings sold for 70,000gns, 62,000gns, £66,000, 60,000gns, etc.
Fee: £3,000 1st Oct S.L.F
Brother to Gr.1 Commonwealth Cup winner EQTIDAAR
Gr.1 placed at 2, 3 and 4, Gr.2 winner over 7f
Black type horses include DOCKLANDS (Royal Ascot winner, Gr.1 placed in 2024 to Charyn), QUEUES LIKELY (Gr.3 winner, Gr.2 placed) COCO JAMBOO (Gr.3 winner), MASCAPONE and MAS RAPIDO (both Stakes placed), etc.
2YO winners incl. QUEUE DOS, HOT TO DOT, PIRANHA RAMA (2 wins), etc.
KODIAC – LADY LISHANDRA (MUJADIL)
TEOFILO - MADANY (ACCLAMATION)
Leading US sires 2024: (by prize-money earned by northern-hemisphere runners to November 3, 2024) ($)
Leading US Turf sires 2024: (by prize-money earned by northern-hemisphere runners to November 3, 2024) ($)
Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale
Monday, Jan. 13 – Wednesday, Jan. 15
€10,000 bonus for Irishbreds
Over 350 ind. winning owners
Over €5m awarded to date
Over €21m in sales generated
Over 200 races per year Fortifying Irish breeding & sales
“Superb incentive.”
Alex Elliott, Agent
“Virtuous circle of investment.”
Jack Cantillon, Syndicates.Racing
stallion fee tables
Fees for major British & Irish Flat stallions 2024-2025
photo finish: mixed fortunes international racing
Good fortune for Frankel with a unique international Africa/Middle-East double header.
On November 16 in Morocco at Casablanca racecourse (top right) Shining Dawn won one of the newest races on the international circuit, the Grand Prix De La Sorec Defi Du Galop, part of the Casablanca International meeting. The race is run on a deep sand track and worth over £100,000 to the winner.
Shining Dawn is a nine-year-old son of Frankel, is trained by owner Fannane Samir, and was bred by the Saudi breeder Mitaab Abdullah.
The day before Spirit Dancer (right, below), also by the leading Juddmonte sire, won the Turf-run Bahrain International Trophy for the second year in succession for the ownership group of Done Ferguson Mason and trainer Richard Fahy.
The seven-year-old gelding, bred by Sir Alex Ferguson and Niall McLoughlin, could well be heading East to take up an entry at the big Hong Kong meeting in December.
Not such good fortune for City Of Troy in Del Mar. The son of Justify (below) just got sand kicked in his face in the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Classic.
It was a race in which the four-time Group 1 winner never featured after a slower-than-ideal exit from the stalls behind the experienced, Dirt-bred US horses, and then he never got to grips with Dirt surface in the Breeders’ Cup Classic.
