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Cambridge victory for Island-hopping Harrison
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Toorak for Second Slip
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By Wandering Eyes · Posted
With the entirety of the American two-year-old sales calendar now concentrated in Ocala and Maryland, the Arqana Breeze Up Sale has become an increasingly popular stop for Americans on the spring sales calendar. This year, falling on May 10, it lands between the OBS April sale (April 15-18) and Fasig-Tipton Midlantic (May 19-20), giving buyers ample time to travel back and forth. The catalogue was released last Thursday, and offers the usual blend of European and American sire power. “It's a concentrated quality of stallions, many of whom are selected by Irish pinhookers, who are very good judges,” said Hubert Guy of the sale's appeal. “The horses are very well-prepared.” In this year's catalogue, fully one-quarter of the two-year-olds are by American sires, most of which have been pinhooked from American fall sales. In addition to the usual lineup of European superstar sires like Dubawi (Ire), Wootton Bassett (GB), Too Darn Hot (GB) and exciting newcomes like Hello Youmzain (Fr), there are 46 juveniles by American-based sires. That includes seven by Justify, three by Practical Joke, and two each by Blame, Knicks Go, Maxfield, Medaglia d'Oro, Mitole, Munnings, and Tapit. American-based sires represented by one offering apiece include American Pharoah, Bolt d'Oro, City of Light, Connect, Constitution, Daredevil, Essental Quality, Good Magic, Gun Runner, Kitten's Joy, Maclean's Music, Maximum Security, McKinzie, More Than Ready, Not This Time, Omaha Beach, Street Boss, Street Sense, Vino Rosso, War Front, and War of Will, who sold at this sale in 2018 and went on to win the 2019 GI Preakness Stakes and the 2020 GI Maker's Mark Mile. Arqana's CEO Freddy Powell said he felt this year's sale includes a particularly strong crop of juveniles, with some quality pinhooks from America, the numbers of which continue to grow. “The impression during the inspections was that it was going to be a very good vintage,” said Powell. “The individuals we saw in Ireland, England and France were very pleasing. It seems that on the figures, that impression is confirmed. In 2025, for example, we have 43 yearlings purchased at the yearling sales in the U.S. for an average of $106,000, when the numbers were 41 for $89,000 for 2024, and 29 for $81,000 for 2023. We are blessed to have such a collection of horsemen selecting and buying those yearlings to present on the Deauville turf.” Unlike in America, while no official times are provided, you're welcome to time the breezes on your own. Several buyers said that felt that the horses' preparation on a more forgiving surface over the winter and spring leads to longer-term soundness than horses prepared in America. “There are plenty of opportunities for horses that were bought by very good judges, taken over there and which have been trained and prepared for sale on a more forgiving surface that we find here in America,” said Kip Elser. Justin Casse, who purchased War of Will at the sale in 2018, agreed. “They tend to have a nice, good surface and ground to breeze on that time of year and it's ample amount of time for horses to get ready as far as the situation chronologically in the breeze-up calendar.” Tampa Bay Derby winner Owen Almighty's half-brother by Constitution (pictured here as a yearling) sells as lot 174 | Taylor Made Sales Powell said that theory about the ground goes on to be proven on the track. “The great bunch of breeze-up two-year-old graduates every year prove their skills, and the longevity on the racecourse of most prove that their system of training on a healthy surface to gradually take them to a sale where there is no official clock is working well and suits most horses.” Elser has had success at the sale in the past, and said he goes with an open mind. “We look at everything,” he said, noting that the 193 entered make that possible. “It's a small sale and there are nice horses there. It has been a productive sale for me.” Elser said that he also appreciated the fact that the sale allowed for a more intellectual approach than relying on the stopwatch alone. “The conditions aren't always the same. The ground and weather aren't always as absolutely consistent like they are here, so there aren't as many absolutes. The conditions and surfaces vary enough that there's a little bit of a puzzle to put together.” But Americans don't just come to buy American pedigrees. “We have a some beautiful pedigrees coming from the U.S.,” said Powell, “but also some European stock by sires who tend to do well in the U.S., like Blue Point (Ire), Dubawi, Lope de Vega (Ire), Night Of Thunder (Ire), Siyouni (Fr), Wootton Bassett. There are some very well-bred fillies with proper international pedigrees.” Of note by American sires: * Lot 174 is a Constitution half-brother to GIII Tampa Bay Derby winner Owen Almighty (Speightstown), purchased for $185,000 at Keeneland September by Blandford Bloodstock. * Lot 12 is a Vino Rosso half-brother to Instagrand (Into Mischief) who RNAd at Keeneland September and sells here for M.C. Thoroughbreds. * Lot 49 is an American Pharoah filly whose dam is a full-sister to Group 1 winners Roly Poly and US Navy Flag, and a half to U.S. graded stakes winner Cover Song (Fastnet Rock {Aus}). * Lot 55 is a Tapit colt whose dam is a full-sister to Mastercraftsman. * Lot 185 is a Mitole filly who is a half-sister to G2 Norfolk winner and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint runner-up Valiant Force, who sold at the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale for $525,000. Lot 185 (shown here as a yearling) is a Mitole half-sister to Breeders' Cup Juvenile Sprint runner-up Valiant Force | courtesy St. George Sales In recent years, in addition to War of Will, sales graduates coming back to America have included the GI and multiple graded stakes-winning Rock Emperor (Ire), who sold for €12,000 and went on to win $1.2 million in America; Romagna Mia, a €29,000 purchase who won the GIII Dowager Stakes and was GI-placed in the Beverly D; and the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies second Malavath (Ire), who won the GII Criterium de Maisons-Laffitte in France, after being purchased for €139,200 in 2021, when Covid forced the sale to be held in Doncaster. But as Powell pointed out, the appeal of the sale is the blend of European and American offerings. “There's no doubt that the American end user is really being forced to consider grass horses more than they ever have,” said West Point Thoroughbreds CEO Terry Finley, who said that “without a doubt” the stable would be represented at the sale. “In the past, I have had Christophe Clement, David Ingordo, and Kip Elser on the ground for me over there,” he said. “One, it brings a new angle to partners, and look, we're a game of results and it's pretty easy to see the kind of results people have had going to that sale and I'm sure it's going to accelerate. People who are serious and want to really compete at the highest levels over here are going to have to stand up and take notice this year, if they haven't already.” Many American agents also come representing U.S. and international buyers for markets around the world. Casse said he would be back this year shopping for clients around the globe, including America, because of the quality of the individuals represented. “I know it's a focal point for the European breeze-up consignors as far as quality goes in terms of what they bring there,” he said. “It has also been very prosperous for me as a buyer and as a seller.” Casse says he doesn't go over there with a focus on any particular type of individual. “I go over there with a very open mind,” he said. “It has been a lifetime of learning. I never thought War of Will would end up a dirt horse. I'm buying for trainers in France, Ireland, England, and America. I would consider a horse out of that sale for any of the above and as we have learned, the two-year-old sales are about performance and physical, and pedigree is just a part of the formula for deciding how much the horse is going to cost.” Elser also will be representing an international buying bench. “I like to be in a position to look for a varied group of prospects for a variety of clients,” he said. “I go to the Craven Sale in Newmarket while most people are busy here at OBS March. It's good to be off the beaten path. I'm a little more familiar with the process because I sold at the Craven sale a few years ago.” There are also those intangibles, Casse said. “Arqana is one of the gold standards for hospitality for agents attending from abroad. For a long time, they have looked after us very well, and when you go there, you can find an Ascot two-year-old, or you can find an American Triple Crown horse. If you look hard enough, there's something for everyone.” The post Arqana May’s American Appeal: A Concentrated Quality of Sire Power appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
Yes. Tough horse. The Wanganui Guineas was a G1 back then. He won it with David Peake, his regular rider at the time, in the irons. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Ballyhane Stud's new stallion Sakheer (Ire) has passed the first test of his stud career with a number of mares now tested in foal to him. “Sakheer has already covered over a quarter of his book and his fertility looks very good to date,” said Ballyhane's Joe Foley. “He's had great support from breeders with some smashing mares booked to him. As an example, the first two mares to scan in foal to him were Doors to Manual, the dam of Group 2 winner Safety Check, and the French stakes-placed La Pergola, while the last mare he covered today was Ruby Girl, dam of the very smart current stakes performer Kaadi.” A son of Zoffany (Ire), Sakheer won the G2 Mill Reef Stakes for KHK Racing. He is standing his first season in County Carlow alongside Sands Of Mali (Fr), who made a promising start with his first runners in 2024, which included the Windsor Castle Stakes winner Ain't Nobody (Ire) and fellow Listed winner Ellaria Sand (GB). Foley added of Sands Of Mali, “He's extremely popular and will cover a very strong book of mares in 2025. The trainers of his top two-year-olds from last year are excited by their progress and we're already hearing about promising two-year-olds from his second crop.” The post First Mares In Foal to Sakheer appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
We're off. Well, sort of. In a manner reminiscent of the sputtering start to the Flat turf season, Seven Days returns this week but is immediately taking a short break before promising to be back in time for the Lincoln and the Brocklesby. So, for those of you still in a post-Cheltenham/St Patrick's Day slump, here's a little look back on the week that was. We'll mention Cheltenham only briefly here to reiterate the point that we may well see the 100/1 Triumph Hurdle winner Poniros (GB) back in action on the Flat this summer. Considering that his sire Golden Horn (GB) was responsible for a third of the field in last year's Gold Cup at Royal Ascot, he has every right to be considered a decent staying prospect on the level and one potentially to follow in the footsteps of a number of other Willie Mullins-trained horses in aiming for the Melbourne Cup in November. Just after Mullins had finished dominating Cheltenham (again), one of those former inmates, Vauban (Fr) (Galiway {Fr}), himself the winner of the Triumph Hurdle back in 2022, made a successful start to his new life in Australia. That treble Grade 1 winner over hurdles had already won Group 2 and 3 races on the Flat at York and Naas, and he can now add Sydney to his burgeoning CV, having won Saturday's G3 Sky High Stakes on his first start for Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott at Rosehill. He has an entry for the G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes on April 12 during Sydney's Championships. We'd like to make a plea to Jeremy Scott to bring his hoards of singing supporters up from Dartmoor, along with Ian Gosden's star mare Golden Ace (GB), and follow the examples of Mullins and Nicky Henderson by having a jolly day out at Ascot and aiming for one of the staying options at the Royal meeting. After all, this vintage of Golden Horn winners are generally out of smart Flat mares: Golden Ace's dam, Deuce Again (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), won the Listed Further Flight Stakes for a different Gosden. Her breeder Meon Valley Stud has plenty of form in providing top-class Flat runners, not least the dual Gold Cup winner Kayf Tara (GB). A Champion Hurdle and a Royal Ascot victory in the same year? Now wouldn't that be nice. Wathnan Preparing the Big Guns Talking of the Gold Cup, there has been some positive news from Wathnan Racing advisor Richard Brown regarding the 2023 winner Courage Mon Ami (GB) (Frankel {GB}), who has recently returned to training with John and Thady Gosden. “All of us owe a lot to Courage Mon Ami for what he did so early in our story,” he said. “He hasn't had a major issue, he's had a huge number of niggles, so we pulled stumps early last year and gave him a very long winter of just trotting and going on the treadmill with Lou Collinson. He's been back with the Gosdens for about three weeks in a trotting programme and I believe he's just about to start cantering again. The only plan for him at the moment is just to get him back to the racecourse. Obviously there's one eye on a Gold Cup but whether we could get back in time – he would need a prep run and for everything to go smoothly before Ascot. “But he's a lovely, lovely horse and we all owe him a huge debt of gratitude.” Courage Mon Ami is back in training | Racingfotos The Wathnan Racing team will doubtless be hoping that the result of the first group race of the European turf season augurs well for the year ahead. Wathnan's two runners, Map Of Stars (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and last year's Prix du Jockey Club runner-up First Look (Ire) (Lope de Vega {Ire}), finished first and second in the G3 Prix Exbury. The winner is still lightly raced but clearly highly talented. Now four, Map Of Stars is a son of Bateel (Ire) – Dubawi popping up as broodmare sire in this sphere as well as of the Champion Hurdler – who was similarly progressive, first for David Simcock and later for Francis Graffard, for whose stable she won the G1 Prix Vermeille, G2 Prix de Pomone and G3 Pinnacle Stakes. Wathnan purchased Map Of Stars from his breeder, Sheikh Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nayhan of Al Asayl Bloodstock last summer and, though he has raced just five times in total, he has won four of those races, including two Listed contests. He looks an exciting prospect for the top middle-distance races this summer. They have plenty of others to look forward to as well, not least one of the stars of British Champions Day, the James Fanshawe-trained Kind Of Blue (GB) (Blue Point {Ire}), who could be seen next at York in May. “Kind Of Blue is one of our big hopes for the year,” Brown said. “He's trained by a master of bringing that type of horse along. He's in great nick and has wintered very well. The plan at the moment is to start in the Duke of York [Stakes].” A busy spring for Wathnan Racing could also include the return of Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Fallen Angel (GB) (Too Darn Hot {GB}) in the G1 Lockinge Stakes. “She had a good break at Newsells Park and had some time out in the paddock. She's been back with Karl for a couple of months now and is moving well,” Brown reported. Haatem (Ire) (Phoenix Of Spain {Ire}), who was beaten only a head by stable-mate Rosallion (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) in the Irish 2,000 Guineas before giving Wathnan another Royal Ascot winner in the G3 Jersey Stakes, has not been seen in public since being scratched at the start of the G1 Prix Jacques le Marois, but he too is on the comeback trail. “He's great,” Brown said. “He had a niggle after the Jacques le Marois and we've given him a very long rehab, just giving him time as there was no point rushing him back. He's now back with Richard Hannon and the plan will probably be to start off in the Sandown Mile.” A Head Start on the French Classics As ever, France has a headstart on its neighbouring nations in getting its turf action up and running and we've now been treated to several weeks of enticing hints regarding the forthcoming Classics. The biggest hint so far is that we should be paying close attention to runners from Victoria Head's stable this season. We spoke to Head last spring as she was continuing to assemble a steadily growing stable which at the time numbered 25. Eleven months later, her team has doubled in size and now includes 12 horses listed for Leopoldo Fernandez Pujals's Yeguada Centurion, which parted ways with her elder brother Christopher Head last year after enjoying notable success with the likes of homebreds Big Rock (Ire) and Blue Rose Cen (Ire). Victoria Head, left, with Darius Cen | Scoop Dyga Yeguada Centurion also bred Christopher's stable star of last season, Ramatuelle (Justify), who had been sold as a yearling, and her half-brother Tito Mo Cen (Ire) (Uncle Mo) now looks a genuine Classic prospect for Victoria after winning both his starts this year, including the Listed Prix Maurice Caillault on March 9. A week later, the 29-year-old trainer was back in the winner's enclosure with another Yeguada Centurion homebred, Darius Cen (Fr), who became the first black-type winner for Persian King (Ire) in Sunday's Listed Prix Omnium II on his seasonal debut. The colt had ended last season with an 11-length win on heavy ground at Clairefontaine on only his second start and is one of five that Head has entered for the Poule d'Essai des Poulains, all for the same owner. She also has two fillies in the Pouliches reckoning at the moment, one for Yeguada Centurion and another for Gestut Schlenderhan, for whom she has eight horses in training. We can expect to hear plenty more about this latest member of the great French training dynasty as the year progresses. Juveniles Power Into Action For those of you champing at the bit for two-year-old action, you only have to wait until the first race at Marseille on Wednesday in which Goken (Fr) may double his tally of juvenile winners for the year after the taking victory of Minotor (Fr) at Lyon Parilly on Sunday. It's an act of folly to get too carried away by such youngsters at this fledgling stage of their careers but Sunday's Curragh maiden does boast spectacularly good recent form. Its four previous winners all subsequently earned black type, with Bucanero Fuerte (GB) scaling the heights to a Group 1 victory and both Ocean Quest (Ire) and Arizona Blaze (Ire) having won Group 3s. The latter, who ended last season by finishing second in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, returned triumphant at Dundalk on Friday and has a 2,000 Guineas entry. What then will become of this year's winner Power Blue (Ire)? If nothing else, he will always hold the accolade of being the first winner for his young Darley sire Space Blues (Ire), who didn't make his own winning debut until the November of his juvenile season before progressing to the highest level at four and five. Power Blue certainly looked professional and well made, and it's not hard to imagine seeing him in stakes class in the first half of the season. In becoming the third consecutive winner of this race for the Adrian Murray stable, which has plenty of assistance from gifted horseman Robson Aguiar, he was also the first winner for the Aguiar-run LNA Racing Syndicate. Davis's Double Delight Congratulations are due to Sean Davis, who has trained his first and second winner on the same day in two different countries. The first came at Dundalk on Friday when Porsche Lad (Ire) got off the mark on his handicap debut for owner David Fowler in the hands of Rory Cleary. Some two hours later Venetian (Ire), also owned by Fowler, struck at Wolverhampton, with the cherry on top being that his trainer was also in the saddle for this victory. Davis was runner-up to Cieren Fallon in the British apprentices' championship of 2019 with 56 winners but returned home to Ireland as the pandemic set in and his riding opportunities became more scarce after riding out his claim. As well as training and riding, he is also involved in the breeze-up sector and consigns under the banner of GS Bloodstock in partnership with his weighing-room colleague Gary Halpin. The duo offers a filly from the first crop of Starman (GB) at the forthcoming Craven Sale at Tattersalls. The post Seven Days: Flying Start for Wathnan Racing appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
Thanks for that Freda. I just thought that no maiden opportunities between 13 March and 3 April seemed like quite a long break. I suppose trainers work around it, and as you say they can travel to Dunedin.
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