Jump to content
NOTICE TO BOAY'ers: Major Update Coming ×
Bit Of A Yarn

Hong Kong News


5,796 topics in this forum

      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 333 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 308 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 277 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 614 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 317 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 304 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 568 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 590 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 649 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 330 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 296 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 331 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 602 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 611 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 401 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 669 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 613 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 576 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 603 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 589 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 600 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 638 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 351 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 633 views
      • Journalists
    • 0 replies
    • 651 views


  • Posts

    • Camille Pissarro's breeder James Cloney has opened up on the emotion surrounding his most famous graduate's success in Sunday's French Derby and joked that he was pushing even harder than jockey Ryan Moore from his County Kilkenny farm.  Camille Pissarro hails from Cloney's 'blue hen' Entreat, with the Pivotal mare having already produced Group 1 scorer Golden Horde along with further black-type performers Line Of Departure and Exhort. The feat is made all the more remarkable for the fact that Entreat was sourced for just 14,000gns and Cloney is convinced that her Classic-winning son has the makings of becoming a pretty important stallion prospect at Coolmore Stud upon the completion of his racing career.  He said, “He's a bit unique. As a potential stallion for the future, doesn't he tick all of the boxes? He cost over a million pounds as a yearling, he won his maiden in April before going on and winning a Group 1 as a two-year-old. And now he's a Classic winner. I don't think you can get any better than that. And we know he has the looks, too – he's a big, strong horse. It's very exciting.” Famously a Book 1 show-stopper at the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale in 2023 when selling to MV Magnier and White Birch Farm for 1.25 million gns, Camille Pissarro has gone from strength-to-strength for Aidan O'Brien. His French Derby success came off the back of a solid third-placed effort in the French Guineas, with Cloney convinced that 10 furlongs is the optimum trip for the colt.  “There was a bit of jumping and dancing watching the race on Sunday,” he joked. “I think I might have been pushing him as hard as Ryan Moore was pushing him until he crossed the line! It's unbelievable. We were hopeful he'd do it but, when you look down through the racecard, you realise how competitive the race was. The [French] Guineas form came to the fore and I think in the final moments of that race we really saw the class that Aidan O'Brien had been seeing from him at home at Ballydoyle.  “He was able to turn a switch and put the race to bed with ease. You'd have to think that there is even more to come from him as the season rolls on. I think you'd have to say that 10 furlongs could be his optimum. He stays well but he also has a sprinter's finish. He is a big-framed horse, so he is really only strengthening and maturing now.” Along with Camille Pissarro and Golden Horde, Cloney and his father-in-law Michael Nolan are responsible for fellow Group 1 winner Dream Of Dreams. Despite working with only a handful of mares, a steady flow of top-notchers has been produced by this Kilkenny stud, which is being rewarded for being plucky rather than lucky.  “It's absolutely unbelievable,” Cloney continued. “It's something else to have been able to create this from nothing, I suppose. This farm has produced three Group 1 winners now which is unheard of really. We are fortunate to have produced some very nice stock and hopefully there will be many more good horses, too. It was a dream to be able to put together a farm, then a stud farm and now we are starting to gather some quality mares and be able to go to the stallions we want to. It's remarkable.” He added, “I use a phrase here myself, in that you've got to put yourself into a clickable position. You need to be in a position where something can go right for yourself. That's the amazing thing about this horse business, compared to every other farming enterprise, you achieve amazing results like this by simply putting yourself in a clickable position. Now, it can dramatically go the other way, but you need to be able to give yourself the opportunity. It's a brilliant industry to be involved in.” And, looking ahead to the future, there could be even more to get excited about, with Entreat understood to have a belter of a Justify colt at foot.  Cloney concluded, “We have a lovely colt foal by Justify out of the mare. An absolute cracker. There have been a good few calls from all around the world about him. It's an interesting proposition. The mare has just thrown pure class once again. He's a tall, scopey foal and is an exciting prospect. We're open to everything with him. All possibilities are open.” The post ‘I Was Pushing As Hard As Ryan Moore’ – Camille Pissarro’s Breeder On Emotional Success  appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
    • Nine years after Almanzor dropped a massive hint that Wootton Bassett might just be a decent sire by winning the Prix du Jockey Club comes the next wave for the stallion whose fee has gone from as low as €4,000 to this year's high of €300,000.  As has been well documented, Wootton Bassett's current crop of three-year-olds are the result of his first season standing at Coolmore in Ireland after one of the biggest transfer deals of recent years saw him leave Haras d'Etreham, where he had made his name the hard way, as they say. His European champion three-year-old colt Almanzor was among his first crop which numbered just 23. Wooded, Audarya, Unquestionable, Al Riffa, and King Of Steel were among those to follow: sprinters through to middle-distance horses, two-year-olds and up. And now we have a cohort which includes the artistically-themed Henri Matisse and Camille Pissarro, who between them have smuggled the trophies for the Poule d'Essai des Poulains and Prix du Jockey Club out of France and back to Ballydoyle. Could the Oaks yet be added to the 17-year-old stallion's roll of honour by Whirl? Wootton Bassett should have the outsider Tennessee Stud lining up for him in Saturday's Derby, too, while Baden-Baden's G3 Derby Trial was won by the French raider Juwelier, putting him in contention for the G1 Deutsches Derby on July 6. To continue the theme, Almanzor sired the winner of Monday's G2 Derby Italiano, Molveno. The female side of any pedigree is just as important, however, and often more so. With Camille Pissarro's victory on Sunday came the second Classic success in eight days for the family of the Northfields mare Imagining. Best known as the dam of Serena's Song, whose extraordinary racing career featured 10 starts at two, followed by 13 at three and 15 in her final season of racing as a four-year-old. It is almost impossible to imagine a horse trained in America racing that frequently these days, and her race record, which includes 11 Grade I victories, was only the start of her longevity. The daughter of Rahy was also an outstanding producer and she lives on in retirement at the age of 33 at Denali Stud. Serena's Song's trainer D Wayne Lukas is similarly tireless at age 89. But we digress. Plenty of other horses have stamped their names in bold black type across this page in the intervening years, most recently and prominently Field Of Gold in the Irish 2,000 Guineas, and now Camille Pissarro. The former has Imagining as his fourth dam and descends from Serena's Sister, the full-sibling to Serena's Song whose daughter Princess Serena was bought by the Donworths of Roundhill Stud in 2005. Camille Pissarro's female lineage is through Imagining's daughter River Saint (Irish River), a Cheveley Park Stud yearling purchase, also at Keeneland, in 1997.  For any smaller breeder in the business, perusing the drafts of the major studs at any breeding stock sale is always worthwhile as purchases can usually be made safe in the knowledge that other members of the family may still be within the broodmare band and helping your new mare, or that there could be further updates to come closer to home. For James Cloney of Clara Stud, it must still be scarcely believable that he was able to buy River Saint's daughter Entreat (Pivotal) from Cheveley Park Stud at the 2016 Tattersalls July Sale for 14,000gns, carrying a foal by Lethal Force. That colt foal became G1 Commonwealth Cup winner Golden Horde, and he was followed by the Listed Cathedral Stakes winner Line Of Departure (Mehmas). Exhort (Dutch Art), too, has further enhanced Entreat's production record with a Listed win in the Cheveley Park Stud livery, but Camille Pissarro, who had already delivered one reward in the form of a 1,250,000gns payday at the yearling sales, is now a very large cherry on top. Family Favourites Cheveley Park Stud has in turn benefited from its purchase from that influential triumvirate of James Hanly, Trevor Stewart and Anthony Stroud, the breeders of the G3 Lester Piggott Fillies' Stakes winner Estrange. The four-year-old daughter of Night Of Thunder, bought as a yearling for 425,000gns, has raced only four times but looks potentially top class for David O'Meara, who had the conviction and forethought to make an entry for Estrange in the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.  Her dam Alienate (Oasis Dream) was bought by the aforementioned trio from Juddmonte as an unraced three-year-old for 100,000gns. She is not only a half-sister to the St Leger winner Logician (Frankel) but also to Suffused (Champs Elysees), a treble Grade III winner for Bill Mott. Making it a particularly successful weekend for this family, Suffused's daughter Sunly, who, like Estrange, is by Night Of Thunder, streaked to success in the G3 Prix de Royaumont at Chantilly on Sunday to remain unbeaten for Juddmonte and Francis Graffard.   Big days ahead of Estrange | Racingfotos   Alienate and Suffused are daughters of Scuffle, a Daylami half-sister to the stallions Bated Breath and Cityscape, and whose eight runners are all winners, including five to have garnered black type. One of those who did not, however, was Alienate's 84-rated full-sister Sleep Walk, whose son Nightwalker (Frankel) is one of two planned runners for Juddmonte in the Derby on Saturday along with the supplemented New Ground (New Bay). The game of family favourites could extend yet further in the case of Ruling Court and The Lion In Winter, who are also still firmly in the Derby picture and both emanate from the family of the Hascombe & Valiant Studs matriarch Inchmurrin (Lomond).  Winner of the G2 Child Stakes (which has subsequently been upgraded and returned to its original name of the Falmouth Stakes) for Sir Philip Oppenheimer, Inchmurrin, most famously the dam of Inchinor, is the third dam of The Lion In Winter. Having visited Galileo in his first season at stud, Inchmurrin produced the minor winner Inchmahome, who in turn produced The Lion In Winter's dam, the Group 3-placed What A Home (Lope De Vega).  In Ruling Court's pedigree, Inchmurrin is a generation farther back. This year's 2,000 Guineas winner is a son of the High Chaparral mare Inchargeofme, whose Listed-winning granddam Incheni was the result of Inchmurrin's visit to Nashwan in 2000.  Walker's Wonderful Week  Ed Walker will be hoping that his red-hot May turns into flaming June, as the trainer has been mining a rich seam of form of late, with a near-30 per cent strike-rate over the last fortnight. He saddled eight stakes winners throughout May, with three of those coming on Saturday after Almaqam had won the Brigadier Gerard Stakes on Thursday evening. It may pay to have a little each-way on his Oaks runner Qilin Queen. The likeable Ten Bob Tony stuck his flashy head down just in time to beat Kinross in the G3 John of Gaunt Stakes at Haydock not long after Balmoral Lady had burst through on the rail to take the Listed Achilles Stakes. The latter was the second stakes winner in as many weeks for Invincible Army after James's Delight won the previous weekend's G2 Greenlands Stakes. Meanwhile Ten Bob Tony was one of three group winners over the weekend for Night Of Thunder, whose daughter Desert Flower bids for her second Classic victory in Friday's Oaks.  Over at York, Walker's third black-type win of the afternoon came in the G3 Bronte Cup with Scenic, who held off last year's winner Term Of Endearment in another head-bobbing finish.    Ed Walker and Scenic | Racingfotos   A daughter of Lope De Vega, who has a similarly good week with three group winners and the runner-up in the Prix du Jockey Club, Scenic is a lovely broodmare prospect for her owner David Ward. Her dam Galyah (Frankel) was unraced but is a half-sister Walker's Derby fifth English King (Camelot) and to Prudenzia (Dansili), the dam of Group 1 winners Chicquita and Magic Wand. This is also the family of Parachutiste, who ran for Qatar Racing in Sunday's Prix du Jockey Club. It would be hard to find a nicer person in this sport to chat to than Ward, and it is therefore extra pleasing to see his homebred July Cup winner Starman make such a positive early start with his first runners. The son of Dutch Art is leading the way in the freshman sires' table with Group 3 winner Lady Iman and the Group 3-placed Green Sense among his six winners to date.  There was also a breakthrough result last week for Yeomanstown Stud's Supremacy when his daughter Anthelia claimed the third win of her fledgling career in the Listed National Stakes at Sandown. The filly's trainer Rod Millman picked her up from the Yeomanstown Stud draft at the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale for £6,000 and she looks very well bought indeed. Having made her debut in the colours of the trainer's wife Louise, Anthelia is now raced by her in partnership with Middleham Park Racing.  Whichever way you look, you find Tally-Ho Stud somewhere behind the season's leading first-season sires. The stud is home to Starman, and also to Mehmas and Kodiac, the sires respectively of Supremacy, Ubettabelieveit and Nando Parrado. The last named, who stands at the Irish National Stud, has also made an encouraging start and, like Starman, now has six winners to his credit from 18 runners.  A Cross That Works It is staggering to think that it is almost 20 years since Rising Cross chased home Alexandrova to be second in the Oaks. Boy, she was tough. She was also tiny, and was out racing as a two-year-old in the April of her debut season, running 11 times that year for three wins. Back she came for a busy campaign at three, with Rising Cross making four starts before the Oaks, including dead-heating to win the Lupe Stakes at Goodwood. Thereafter she was eighth in the Oaks d'Italia, third in the Irish Oaks and won the G2 Park Hill Stakes in her 11 three-year-old outings before returning for another 10 starts at four. Eventually Rising Cross ended up as part of Katsumi Yoshida's empire at Northern Farm alongside her contemporary Donna Blini. The pair had met before when second and fifth in the Hilary Needler Trophy, and from Beverley their paths crossed again in Hokkaido, where they have each made a named for themselves as broodmares.  Donna Blini is famously the dam of former Japanese Horse of the Year Gentildonna, among others, and now Rising Cross has her own Classic winner in Sunday's Tokyo Yushun (Japanese Derby) winner Croix Du Nord. The dark brown colt, who was also runner-up in the Satsuki Sho (2,000 Guineas), shares his sire Kitasan Black with the great Equinox, who could manage only second in the Japanese Derby to Do Deuce. It is also worth reflecting that Rising Cross was clearly highly effective at 1m4f and won at 1m6f, while Kitasan Black, himself a Japan Cup winner, also scored at the highest level over 2m in the Tenno Sho (Spring) and won the Japanese St Leger. He would probably have been consigned to a National Hunt stud here, but instead is one of the most prized stallions in Japan, commanding the co-highest fee, with his son Equinox, on the Shadai roster in 2025.  Rising Cross's sire Cape Cross must surely take come credit, too. His impressive record as a broodmare sire includes not just the latest Japanese Derby winner but two winners at Epsom – Australia and Masar – as well as the Irish Derby winner Santiago (not to mention the fact that he is also the sire of Derby winners Sea The Stars and Golden Horn, and grandsire of another, Harzand, as well as Oaks winner Taghrooda). Furthermore, the Group 1 winners Tarnawa, Tahiyra, Lucky Vega, Laurens, Emaraaty Ana, Thundering Nights, and Serious Attitude are all out of Cape Cross mares. The latter also ended up in Japan where her son Stiffelio (Stay Gold) was beaten a nose in the G1 Tenno Sho.   The post Seven Days: It’s a Family Affair in the Classics appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
    • Coolmore's superstar St Mark's Basilica was the latest first-season sire off the mark on Monday when his son Rogue Supremacy scored on debut at Wetherby. Well-touted before the opening 5 1/2-furlong maiden, the David O'Meara-trained £160,000 Goffs UK Breeze Up graduate established an early lead and never looked back. Showing enthusiasm throughout for Danny Tudhope, the 8-13 favourite hit the line with 2 1/4 lengths to spare over A'Ali's Vlad.   The post Rogue Supremacy Gives St Mark’s Basilica His First Winner appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
    • Yes,  Jess,  I fear you might be right.   I just hope that the boy from Foxton hasn't completely forgotten his origin.
    • Firenze Fire, a grade 1 winner in the United States now standing in Japan, sired his first winner, Porta Romana May 27 at Mombetsu Racecourse in Hokkaido.  View the full article
  • Topics

×
×
  • Create New...