As John Berry rightly pointed out in his Weekly Wrap yesterday, it was great to see a magnificent edition of the King George dominated by four horses which were in their fourth season of racing. While the sport certainly benefits if its biggest stars stay around long enough to become household names, I also draw [...]

I doubt whether anyone really needs a reminder of the long-term impact being made by Urban Sea, the 1993 Arc winner who developed into one of the breed’s most accomplished broodmares. But if you do, take a look at the TDN’s Leading Sires List, by Group 1 stakes winners. Top of the list, with seven [...]

Thanks to the victories of Anthony Van Dyck in the Derby, Circus Maximus in the St James’s Palace S. and Sovereign in the Irish Derby, the great Galileo owed three of his first five Group 1s of 2019 to granddaughters of Danehill. This suggested that time is moving on from the days when the perennial [...]

Breeders operating on limited budgets can find encouragement from the pedigrees of both of the 3-year-olds which shone in last weekend’s GI Invitational turf races at Belmont. Both winners come from highly accomplished families, but both also have at least one distinctly weak link in their female line. For Henley’s Joy, the Kitten’s Joy colt [...]

In the story of Coolmore’s emergence as arguably the world’s most important stallion station, Kilsheelan Stud would barely merit a footnote. For a while this satellite stud was used to house a few of Coolmore’s National Hunt stallions, such as Executive Perk and Carlingford Castle, as well as some inexpensive speed sires, such as College [...]

It was Shamardal who took the honours as the top stallion at Royal Ascot, with his four successes, and while I have no desire to detract from the achievements of a stallion who has already been featured twice in this column this year following the successes of Blue Point (Ire) and Skardu (Ire), I would [...]

For a brief second or two, as Commes (Fr) narrowed the gap separating her from Channel (Ire), I thought the topic for today’s column was going to be Le Havre’s feat of siring his third Prix de Diane winner from his first six crops. However, with the gallant Channel keeping her luckless challenger at bay, [...]

If experience teaches us anything, it is that a hard-and-fast approach to Thoroughbred breeding is going to lead to missed opportunities. Two widespread prejudices (which are arguably more prevalent in Britain and Ireland) are a dislike of late foals and a reluctance to use veteran stallions. The wisdom of these biases has been tested by [...]

Three European classics in three days provided us with a reminder – not that any were needed – of the brilliance of three different facets of that equine gem – Galileo. The first of the three classics, the Investec Oaks, was won in courageous style by Anapurna (GB), a grand-daughter of Galileo by the mighty [...]

Judging by the betting for this year’s race, Galileo’s impact on the Derby, both directly and indirectly, looks set to grow and grow, and the same could be said of New Approach, who became the first of Galileo’s three winners of the Epsom classic. In addition to following in his father’s footsteps when he scored [...]

The great Frankel had a very good time with his third-crop 3-year-olds last week, with no fewer than six of them winning or placing at black-type level. Three of them won, with Obligate coming home 3 1/2 lengths clear in the Prix des Lilas, Mehdaayih 4 1/2 lengths clear in the Cheshire Oaks and Anapurna [...]

Oh dear! When it comes to writing a column, I find it much easier if I admire the subject horse’s performance, but that’s not going to be the case today. As far as I could see, Country House was beaten fair and square by Maximum Security–who crossed the line nearly two lengths clear–in Saturday’s GI [...]