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 [...]

With his Castlebridge Consignment offering 86 horses over the course of the next three days, it may not come as a major surprise to hear that Bill Dwan labelled himself as busy on the eve of the Tattersalls July Sale.  Within that 86-strong draft, Castlebridge boasts the Cheveley Park Stud-owned Listed winner Chancellor (Kingman), one [...]

Gavin Cromwell has described the demand for National Hunt stock to be “stronger than ever” after the multiple Cheltenham Festival-winning handler rounded off a busy few weeks at the sales by spending €230,000 on classy juvenile hurdle prospect Le Citadin (City Light) at the Arqana Summer Sale.  Dual winner Le Citadin was one of the [...]

Owner-breeder Michael Foley, who has nurtured the pedigree of Rockingham hero Genesis for 40 years now, shares what success in the valuable handicap means Blazing a trail in Sunday's Rockingham at the Curragh, the Mick Mulvany-trained Genesis (Prince Of Lir) provided Michael Foley, one of the last remaining Corinthian owner-breeders left in Ireland, with by [...]

The second running of the Goffs Classic Breeze-Up Sale provided a heavy dollop of déjà vu with Mark McStay, who bought the best horse out of the inaugural running of the sale, matching last year's top-lot figure of €330,000 on a Lope De Vega colt consigned by Norman Williamson.  Top-notch prospect Extremely Zain (Hello Youmzain) [...]

Katie Walsh, consignor of Extremely Zain, the poster boy for the Classic Breeze-Up Sale, explains why she has the confidence to send more quality juveniles to Goffs The hunt is on at Goffs for the next Extremely Zain (Hello Youmzain), unbeaten in three starts and bound for Group 1 races after being sourced at the [...]