Seven Days: Supergroups and Underdogs

[Wandering Eyes]

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Tattersalls Somerville Sale is back to its original format of one day, while Book 4 of the October Yearling Sale has been replaced by a return of the Autumn Yearling Sale, which takes place on the final day (October 31) of the mammoth Horses-in-Training Sale.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