Sarah Fanning has spent more than 25 years viewing the bloodstock business from almost every angle but doubtless there will be a better vista on the yearling sale beat than the well-respected consignor working alongside her recently retired husband Joe, who partnered almost 3,000 winners throughout his career in the saddle. Unlike Joe, whose 36-year [...]

Medallion Racing will be bidding for an immediate return on their Celeron (Mohaather) investment when the Michael O'Callaghan-trained colt lines out as one of the leading fancies for the G1 Keeneland Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh on Sunday.  That recent buy-in represents a change in modus operandi for Medallion, the American-based syndicate that has become [...]

Trainer Brendan Duke speaks openly about coming out the right side of a two-year drought with “high-class” prospect Sword Of State Brendan Duke has something he'd like to tell the viewers. Or in this case, the readers.  “Anyone looking down their nose at Sword Of State (State Of Rest),” he warns about his recent Gowran [...]

Golden Slipper winner Lady Of Camelot (Written Tycoon) will be offered via private sale on Friday, bringing to market one of the most sought-after profiles on the Australian bloodstock landscape.  The Group 1-winning juvenile, from a rapidly developing family that boasts international appeal, has attracted strong interest from buyers across Europe, America, Japan, and Australia, [...]

Bond Thoroughbreds has strengthened its relationship with Paddy Twomey by purchasing the trainer's recent G3 Al Shira'aa Racing Meadow Court Stakes winner Moody (Night Of Thunder), who is already being penciled in for a date with the Tally-Ho Stud-based Maranoa Charlie upon the completion of her racing career.  Along with Maranoa Charlie, who won the [...]

However good people think Joseph O'Brien is at training racehorses, they need to go ahead and double if not treble it. He's scarily brilliant, says American-based owner Wells Watson, whose colours were carried by Irish Oaks heroine Johanna Walsh (Sea The Stars) at the Curragh a little over a week ago.  Johanna Walsh is the [...]

Owner David Kelly does not profess to have all the answers. However, the results the chartered accountant has been enjoying on the racetrack in recent years suggest that he is asking all of the right questions. Or at least that he is looking in the right places in his pursuit of big-race riches. In an [...]

Japan is out for revenge. Two decades on from the defeat of Heart's Cry to Hurricane Run and Electrocutionist in the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, Masquerade Ball (Duramente) will bid to go a couple of places better and deliver a memorable triumph for Japan in one of Europe's great middle-distance [...]

HOKKAIDO, Japan – A different world. That is how it has felt at times in the build-up and during the JRHA Select Sale. The otherworldliness of this place can only be summed up by the fact that, when glancing up at the bid board to see a horse making ¥20 million [$123,000] or ¥30 million [...]

HOKKAIDO, Japan – Domestic buyers put the chips down on Equinox as the first yearlings to hit the market by one the best racehorses of the modern era saw the Shadai Stallion Station rookie responsible for the most expensive horse sold on the opening day of the JRHA Select Sale at ¥420 million [$2,591,499].  The [...]

Shadai Farm's trusted barn manager Reijiro Azuma says that he is yet to see a son or daughter of Equinox who does not look like an athlete. Then there is Teruya Yoshida, the mastermind behind the entire Shadai operation, who says he expects Equinox to be bettered only by Kitasan Black on all metrics at [...]

Much of the attention at this year's JRHA Select Sale will be on the first yearlings by Equinox, a milestone moment that is sure to shape the market at the top end. However, there is also notable depth to the catalogue through a group of high-class European mares now based in Japan, many of whom [...]