Jump to content
NOTICE TO BOAY'ers: Major Update Complete without any downtime ×
Bit Of A Yarn

The Rest of the World


76,483 topics in this forum

      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 172 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 195 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 159 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 165 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 225 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 143 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 156 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 165 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 158 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 142 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 159 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 220 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 164 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 164 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 196 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 148 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 147 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 152 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 174 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 148 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 159 views
    • Journalists

    Saturday Sires: Medaglia d’Oro

      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 218 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 152 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 153 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 179 views


  • Posts

    • John Allen stated in 2020 that 56% turnover comes from 1.5% of the TABs elite punters? Is this still the case?    Also, there are some intelligent types on BOAY…..do we have any early turnover figures for TAB in July… vrs 2024? Thanks
    • From the outside looking in, Jaron Kohari had an idyllic childhood growing up in Belfry, Kentucky. Raised by his mother and step-father, alongside two half-brothers, Kohari found his place in the world of sports as he played basketball, baseball and football. Though he maintained good grades, participated in plenty of extracurricular activities and even won two state championships at Belfry High School, Kohari was plagued with an underlying darkness in the form of manic-depressive bipolar disorder. Always looking to quell the constant turmoil in his mind, he found the solution in the form of alcohol, a discovery that eventually led him to more addictive substances. “I drank in high school, but it was more of a social thing. It's what everyone in a small town does after winning a game, but I regretted my nights a lot. I probably had alcoholic tendencies from a young age. I drank more than the other people, I blacked out and embarrassed myself a lot,” reflected Kohari. “I didn't realize at the time that I was already different than the rest of them.” After a few semesters at Eastern Kentucky University, Kohari returned home where he took up a job working underground in the coal mines. “When I was underground, the thing to do was work all week and party all weekend. I was young, living at home with my parents, I had no responsibilities and I made a lot of money [working in the coal mines]. So, I would drink. Then if I had a drug test, I would make up some excuse why I couldn't take it because I was using cocaine, taking pills, and doing other things. That's when I got introduced,” said Kohari. “It was really drinking at first. I was an alcoholic before I was a drug addict.” Jaron Kohari | Kelcey Loges/Taylor Made Farm Between the ages of 19 to 29, he moved around a bit before eventually ending up in Lexington. It was during this time that he was dealing with the repercussions of an unhealthy marriage while bouncing around between psych wards, treatment and detox centers as he struggled with a severe drug addiction. “I would have jobs but I couldn't be productive because I wasn't a dependable employee. This whole time my drug use was getting worse. I went from pills to heroin, because the pills became non-existent, then eventually went to fentanyl and around that time went to meth, because the two were mixed together,” said Kohari. “By the age of 19 or 20 it had already become unmanageable. After that, I just bounced around trying to maintain it.” He finally hit rock bottom following the unexpected passing of his mother. It was a time where the addiction had taken over completely, creating a great divide between Kohari and the people closest to him. “It spiraled me out for a little while. I'm married and have two kids, and they didn't want me around. My stepdad here in Lexington didn't want me. So, I was just up here running around high. Eventually, I got arrested and I was handcuffed to a bed at the hospital. My face was all scabbed over, I looked awful. I remember leaving the hospital and as soon as I got out, I got high one more time. Then I called my lawyer and he told me about Stable Recovery,” said Kohari. “I was so broken. I had nowhere to go, so I decided to give it a chance. “I feel like my mother loved me almost to death, she bailed me out of everything. I think my mother dying actually gave me a chance to live again. I know that sounds awful, but I don't think I could have gotten sober with her because she always picked me up when I was down.” When he arrived, Kohari didn't know what he was looking for. Sobriety was the obvious answer, yes. But he'd been through a variety of treatment programs prior to this one. It had come down to his search for something more: a reason to live. “When I got here, I was so broken that no matter what they told me to do, I was going to do it. I had nothing going for me,” said Kohari. “I thrive off of having a schedule, a routine, hard work. It was difficult at first, going from not doing much labor in a while to coming in here and being busy 24/7. But I got in here with a group of guys, most of them are staff here now so they're doing really well, and I stuck with them. The brotherhood is huge here. Even though I had brothers of my own, I felt like I never fit in. So, that is something that is very important to me, having people around me that are like me, that I can count on.” Jaron Kohari | Kelcey Loges/Taylor Made Farm Though working with and around the horses wasn't the initial draw of Stable Recovery, it was something that evolved from a task into a privilege for Kohari. For someone who had struggled so long with the war in his mind, the gentle and quiet reassurance the horses provided was a comfort Kohari welcomed. “When I started in the barn, I was actually scared of the horses, but I felt the growth in myself. It felt good to be able to get in there and overcome some of my fears. When I look at a horse, they tell me how I'm feeling that day. They're like a mirror reflection of my feelings,” said Kohari. “The horses play a huge role in this. I don't even have to touch a horse to feel it, just being in the barn is healing. “I've been to multiple treatment centers. When you leave, you've just sat around and you haven't accomplished anything. Yes, you've got some time under your belt, but you leave and the same problems you've had are still there. When you get to Stable Recovery, you're working the whole time. You're building a career, you're bettering yourself. You actually accomplish things and you build confidence here. [Stable Recovery] offers people a productive life, giving them careers they can pursue, and I didn't get that anywhere else.” After graduating from Stable Recovery in October of 2023, Kohari worked at WinStar Farm up until this April, when he returned to Taylor Made Farm to take on the role of program coordinator for the School of Horsemanship. Along the way, he's been slowly gluing the broken pieces back together as he rebuilds the relationships with his stepfather, wife and two kids. “It's nice that I get to come home and be dependable. I can give [my kids] the things they ask for, and not just material things, but I'm there for support. I can be the father that my mother wanted me to be,” said Kohari. “When I got here, I only spoke to my wife and kids three times the first year because I knew I had to separate myself and buckle down. I had to take a small amount of time in my life to have the big picture and I'm really reaping the benefits of that now.” Though Kohari is soft spoken, the story he shares is profound, and one experienced by many that have made their way to Stable Recovery and come out on the other side of it sober, healed, and reinspired. “I wish my mother could have seen it. That one's hard. But there's also a lot of guys in this program that have lost family members, mothers and fathers, so it's beneficial to have each other. When I first came here, I can remember sitting there and not even thinking it was possible to be in this position, but now I am. It's surreal.” –Stable Recovery is a recovery housing program in Lexington, Kentucky that offers men in the early stages of recovery access to 12-step meetings, life skills training and-through the Taylor Made School of Horsemanship-the opportunity to develop a trade in the equine field. To learn more about Stable Recovery, click here. The post The Road Back: Kohari Living Proof That The Path Less Traveled Can Also Bring You Home appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
    • The early part of last week was spent covering the JRHA Select Sale in Japan, a trip that is always illuminating, to an auction that remains extraordinary. Number one of the list of most surprising things from the five days spent in Hokkaido was Teruya Yoshida picking up his guitar to serenade guests with a rendition of John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads. An excellent choice of song, well performed. The Shadai Farm principal should be encouraged to form a Travelling Wilburys-style bloodstock supergroup. Bluegrass enthusiast and songwriter Arthur Hancock can surely be persuaded to pen a few original tunes for the band. John Messara could join on bass guitar, with Kirsten Rausing on keyboards. John Magnier prefers to stay out of the limelight so we'll have him towards the rear of the stage on drums, while Henri Bozo has the coiffed air of a lead singer about him. Angus Gold, Hubie de Burgh and Con Marnane look like they've had a few wild rock star nights out in their time and would make the perfect trio of backing singers, and we could call up Bob Dylan fan John Gosden to be our tambourine man. Johnny Cash's Tennessee Stud is odds-on to be played for an encore. Back to reality, if you can call the eye-watering trade in Hokkaido reality. In fact, Yoshida himself, in a closing address to the media after the yearling and foal sale, referred to it as “unreal”. Plenty of people felt that way after Book 1 at Tattersalls last year, and if the solid increases in turnover at the JRHA Select Sale are in any way emulated as the elite yearling sales get underway in Europe there will be smiles all round. Yearling prep is already underway across many farms, and as ever there have been tweaks to the sales calendar. In Newmarket, the Tattersalls Somerville Sale is back to its original format of one day, while Book 4 of the October Yearling Sale has been replaced by a return of the Autumn Yearling Sale, which takes place on the final day (October 31) of the mammoth Horses-in-Training Sale. Trade will undoubtedly become trickier as the less prestigious sales come around but 'twas ever thus, and that is the sort of reality that must be conveyed to politicians who will have some sway when it comes to matters of the gambling duty harmonisation and Levy reform. No matter how the headlines may suggest otherwise, all is not rosy in the bloodstock gardens of Britain and Ireland, and even France, so often held up as a shining example within Europe, has been hit by cuts to prize-money this year. It is undoubtedly becoming tougher for breeders, some of whom are giving up completely, while others restrict the number of mares they have in operation. The only one upside to the shrinking foal crop could be that eventually it might become easier to get your yearling into a sale, but in that regard we must be careful what we wish for. For those of you in Britain with MPs who are not the very much on-side Nick Timothy (West Suffolk) or Dan Carden (Liverpool Walton), there is still time, up to this autumn's Budget, to register your concerns regarding the serious threat to British racing and breeding from the proposed harmonisation of gambling duty, which would bring betting on racing in line with other types of online games and casinos, which are taxed at a higher rate. The Racing and Bloodstock All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) has now submitted its reports to parliament, with the consultation period for these proposals scheduled to close on July 21. But it is still worth getting in touch with your local MP. Racing TV has set up an online template which allows you to do this easily. It can be found here and only takes a few minutes to fill in.  A Bonanza for the Budget Breeders An oft-heard lament is that stallion nomination fees are too high but it's been a rather good year for the underdogs. Dual Derby winner Lambourn is the poster boy so far, though admittedly his sire Australia was advertised at €25,000 in the year he was conceived. But he was down to his career low of €10,000 in 2025, which puts him firmly in bargain territory, with Coronation Stakes heroine Cercene serving a reminder that Australia is not just capable of producing middle-distance types. Here's hoping that Lambourn can strike a blow for the three-year-old division should he stand his ground for Saturday's King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.  The Queen Anne Stakes winner Docklands is by Massaat, whose fee is currently £3,500, as is that for Washington DC, the sire of King Charles III Stakes winner American Affair. Time For Sandals, winner of the Commonwealth Cup, is by Sands Of Mali, a €5,000 stallion between 2022-24 whose fee was listed as private this year, though it is unlikely to have been much higher than that advertised for his previous seasons. And in a great Royal Ascot for the value stallions, Lazzat, by Territories, took the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Stakes. He was last seen at Dalham Hall Stud at £10,000 but stood this season at Poonawalla Stud Farms in India.   Mickey Stud sire Massaat and Finn Kent | Racingfotos   We could add to this list Golden Horn, sire of the Gold Cup winner Trawlerman, though he of course started out at £60,000. He is now, however, settled at the £10,000 mark at Overbury Stud, and a busy boy he has been since his relocation. Then there's the July Cup winner No Half Measures, whose sire Cable Bay last stood at £8,000 in Britain before also being exported to India, where he resides at Mebajeona Stud Farm.  The Prix Jean Prat winner Woodshauna is by Wooded, whose fee dropped to €7,000 this year, while Deutsches Derby hero Hochkonig is a son of the under-the-radar Polish Vulcano, whose fee at Gestut Idee has been as low as €800 but was €2,000 in 2025. So that's 11 Group 1 races this season to have fallen to the offspring of stallions who could very much be considered to be in the value bracket, that is indeed if they have not left Europe for far-flung places. These are results worth remembering when the stampede begins for next year's matings, and indeed sooner, when deciding on yearling purchases. It often pays to buy the animal standing in front of you rather than the one on the page. Next on the List? Could we yet be adding to this list above the names of Nahraan and his sire Make Believe, whose fee was down to a low of €8,000 this year? The colt's owner-breeder Prince Faisal, who also raced Make Believe and his best son Mishriff with great success, looks to have another smart one on his hands in the unbeaten winner of Friday's British Stallions Studs EBF Glasgow Stakes. Trained by John and Thady Gosden, Nahraan followed Kalpana, Postponed, Subjectivist, and Defoe onto the list of winners of the Hamilton listed contest, and that quartet all went on to Group 1 glory. We've only seen him out three times but he has done nothing to disappoint so far, and he hails from the family of another of Make Believe's good runners, Sajir, who is a half-brother to Nahraan's dam First Kingdom (Frankel). There is also every reason to believe that we have not yet seen the best of the highly promising Weatherbys Super Sprint winner Anthelia, who is the standout performer to date for her first-crop sire Supremacy. For a start, her trainer Rod Millman has already proved himself more than capable of keeping his sprinters sweet well into their advanced years by racing standards. His decision to avoid Royal Ascot with one eye on such races as the Cheveley Park Stakes later in the season could yet be further rewarded. In a way, Saturday's major results represented the David and Goliath of sales graduates. In Britain, the Super Sprint was the focus of a quieter Saturday and Anthelia had been bought for just £6,000 at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale. Over in Ireland, the Goffs Orby Sale topper of 2023, the €1.85m Minnie Hauk (Frankel), became the 16th filly to complete the Oaks/Irish Oaks double. The latter is keeping the flag flying both for Frankel and for the Classic generation of fillies. Aidan O'Brien reported on Saturday that we may not see the Irish 1,000 Guineas winner Lake Victoria in action again this season – which surely suggests we may have seen the last of the champion two-year-old filly on the track. Godolphin's 1,000 Guineas winner Desert Flower (Night Of Thunder) was subsequently third at Epsom but she currently has no entries. While O'Brien's powerful team at Ballydoyle continues to dominate many of the major races on either side of the Irish Sea, two of the trainer's leading juveniles have also suffered setbacks to their training schedules. The dual winner Albert Einstein (Wootton Bassett) was sidelined after winning the G3 Marble Hill Stakes in May, and he too may not run again this year, while the G2 Norfolk Stakes winner Charles Darwin (No Nay Never) has also been ruled out of lining up for the G1 Nunthorpe Stakes with an unspecified problem having arisen since Royal Ascot.  Trotting Hot to a Hundred Five-year-old mare Rage Of Bamby (Saxon Warrior) left some pretty smart individuals trailing in her wake when winning the G3 Hackwood Stakes on Saturday at odds of 33/1. She duly became the 100th winner for the Hot To Trot Syndicate run by Sam Hoskins and Luke Lillingston, which specialises in leasing fillies from their breeders and has enjoyed success with the likes of G2 Queen Mary Stakes winner Heartache.  Rage Of Bamby's trainer Eve Johnson Houghton enjoyed her best season statistically last year and she is well on her way to exceeding that in 2025 with three stakes winners already in the books. Zavateri (Without Parole) had landed the G2 July Stakes just nine days before Rage Of Bamby's victory, while Havana Hurricane (Havana Gold), who was just touched off in the Super Sprint by Anthelia, won the Windsor Castle Stakes at Royal Ascot.  Another Egan to Note On Friday, 20-year-old apprentice Alexandra Egan notched her first win in Britain on her first ride when steering the Jane Chapple-Hyam-trained First Officer to victory at Newmarket. This came almost exactly a year after she rode her first winner in Ireland for Eddie and Patrick Harty, to whom she is apprenticed. It was a good week for the Egan family of jockeys as her brother David won the G2 Sapphire Stakes aboard Arizona Blaze (Sergei Prokofiev) for Amo Racing, having been aboard Grace Harris's winner Nakaaha the previous day at Newbury. Their father John Egan had brought home another winner for Harris earlier in the week when Oasis Sunrise struck at Bath. Riding and training runs in the family on both sides as David and Alexandra's mother is Sandra Hughes, a former trainer herself, and the sister of July Cup-winning jockey and trainer Richard, and daughter of Dessie Hughes.   The post Seven Days: Supergroups and Underdogs  appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
    • The seven-year-old Bumpy Evans (lot 49) topped Monday's Goffs Summer Sale at Doncaster when going the way of Richard Lee Racing for £60,000. Consigned by trainer Tim Vaughan, the son of Ocovango came into the sale as the winner of three of his four starts over fences, having added to that tally on Saturday with a 28-length victory at Cartmel. Other highlights included Stuart Crawford's seven-year-old Bleu d'Enfer (lot 43), who opened his account over fences on his most recent start at Carlisle. He was bought by Jimmy Fyffe for £55,000, while a two-year-old gelding by Golden Horn (lot 146) topped the Niall Farrell Dispersal. Offered by Mill House Stud, he sold to Dan Astbury and Joey Logan for £48,000. Goffs UK managing director Tim Kent said, “As we have seen in other sales across the sector, trade was strong for those who supplied what the market wanted, and as we saw at May's Spring HIT/PTP Sale, trade for the horses-in-training was strong, as evidenced by prices of £60,000 for the promising chaser Bumpy Evans, £55,000 for Bleu d'Enfer and £41,000 for Irish pointer Pigeon Forge. The Niall Farrell Dispersal also offered some quality horses, with youngstock by the likes of Nathaniel and Golden Horn selling for up to £48,000.” He added, “The store section of the sale was unfortunately much tougher and certainly reflected the challenges this sector of the market has been facing over the last 18 months. Overall, we are happy with the results achieved and we now turn our attention to the Premier Yearling Sale which will be held here at Doncaster on Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 August from 10am.” The post Improving Chaser Bumpy Evans Stars at Goffs Summer Sale appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
    • Atlantic Six Racing's Book'em Danno (Bucchero) has emerged from his career-best effort in a Grade I-quality renewal of the GII A. G. Vanderbilt Stakes on July 19 in good order, and connections are currently mulling over their options as they chart a course for the back end of the gelding's 4-year-old season. In posting a lofty 111 Beyer Speed Figure, the New Jersey-bred was taking his career record to 9-3-1 from 15 starts and his $220,000 paycheck over the weekend lifted his earnings to $1,580,425 “You always hope these horses get better as they get older and he's bigger, stronger and faster, if that's possible,” said Atlantic Six Racing's Jay Briscione, who missed the Vanderbilt owing to his son's wedding. “He's just a professional. I was at the barn the morning after and saw Paco Lopez and he said he just goes about his business, puts his game face on and does his job.” Having won the GI Woody Stephens Stakes at the Spa last summer and the GIII True North Stakes during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival last month, the next logical spot for Book'em Danno comes in Saratoga's GI Forego Stakes on Aug. 23, a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile. It is the Sprint on championship weekend that the Atlantic Six partners are eyeing up as a possible target beyond the Forego. “We've always taken the 'one-race-at-a-time' approach, so we'll see how he comes out of [the Vanderbilt] and how he responds and then we'll look at our options,” Briscione said. “Obviously he seems to love it at Saratoga just as much as people do. We've always said he was a smart horse, so he's showing that. He loves it up there, we love it up there, so if it works out, that's probably where we'll be heading. “The Forego would be the logical target and though the Breeders' Cup is a long way off, if we're fortunate enough to be healthy and in the same sort of form he's been in, it would certainly be an honor for us to be considered and participate in that kind of event.” Briscione also mentioned the GIII Vosburgh Stakes at Aqueduct on Sept. 27 as a possible alternative. That seven-furlong contest is a Breeders' Cup Challenge race for the Sprint. For now, Briscione, Atlantic Six and trainer Derek Ryan are continuing to enjoy every minute of the journey with Book'em Danno. “I keep pinching myself that we've been blessed with these opportunities with this horse, it's just been so special,” Briscione said.   WATCH: Book'em Danno sails home in the Vanderbilt The post BC Sprint Berth Would Be An ‘Honor’ For ‘Bigger, Stronger, Faster’ Book’em Danno appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
  • Topics

×
×
  • Create New...