Ardad

A fortnight of selling at Park Paddocks came to a close on Saturday with an abbreviated, single-session Book 4 bringing the curtain down on the 2021 edition of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. From 98 yearlings catalogued, 74 went through the ring, with the 46 sold adding 184,200gns to the coffers. Topping trade was Throckmorton Stud's Ardad (GB) filly (lot 2004) who was the choice of Con Marnane at 18,000gns. While Book 4 featured a much more modest level of trade than that seen over the past two weeks, it...

NEWMARKET, UK--The trickledown effect can perhaps be viewed as more of a flood this past fortnight at Tattersalls with unusually strong trade for each book of yearlings helping its successor to similarly eye-catching gains.  And so it was with Book 3, which just about equalled last year's figures in one single day following a bullish session on Thursday. Trade dropped another notch during the graded second session but its own returns were still way in advance of the corresponding day last year and helped to create record figures for Book...

NEWMARKET, UK--On both sides of the Atlantic, the yearling sector in 2021 has shown an especially heartening vigour in the middle market--and you can't get much closer to its centre of gravity, on this side of the water, than Book 2 of the October Yearling Sale at Tattersalls. Despite losing the stimulus of Shadwell, which last year corralled 36 lots from this auction for 5,327,000gns, Wednesday's third and final session rounded off a quite astonishing performance overall. Never mind its giddy elevation on last year's sale, which had itself rallied...

NEWMARKET, UK--Ah, the yearling sales. It's a long old season and sometimes the more elderly members of the press desk can get a little jaded by the halfway point, not to mention discombobulated. After all, we're at a Tattersalls Ireland sale in Newmarket, where instead of selling in guineas or euros, the horses are changing hands in sterling. But every now and then a feelgood story comes along to soften even the stoniest of hearts. Let's face it, the day started pretty well: the sun shone and the free ice-cream...

We head towards a weekend featuring the final British Classic of 2021, the Arc Trials and Irish Champions Weekend with the last week having offered plenty of food for thought across Europe. Torquator Tasso (Ger) paid a posthumous tribute to his champion sire Adlerflug (Ger) by adding victory in the G1 Grosser Preis von Baden to his 2020 win in the G1 Grosser Preis von Berlin. Second in last year's Deutsches Derby to another son of Adlerflug, the recently retired In Swoop (Ire), the 4-year-old beat this year's Derby winner...

There are banners along the High Street of my home town of Newmarket saying 'Welcome back to racing'. Though we've been fortunate in England to have been able to allow crowds gradually to return to racecourses earlier than some other countries, it has only really been in the last few weeks that it has felt like the proper pre-pandemic experience. And where better to have the people back in force than at York, widely regarded by many to be the best racecourse in the country? Any amount of time spent...

A breeding right to leading first-season sire Ardad (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) has been added to the Tattersalls Online June 29th Sale. The Overbury Stud-based Ardad leads all first-season sires with 12 winners, headed by the G2 Norfolk S. winner Perfect Power (Ire), who is set to tackle the G1 Prix Morny next. Ardad's Vintage Clarets (GB) was third in the G2 Coventry S. also at the Royal meeting. The breeding right agreement and deed of novation are available by contacting Tattersalls.

ASCOT, UK--There's nothing quite like Royal Ascot to inject some interest into the first-season sires' championship and, with three days down and two to go, there will be several stallion masters with an extra spring in their step following the results of this week's juvenile contests. As Roger O'Callaghan of Tally-Ho Stud said on Thursday afternoon, "Royal Ascot is very important. This week can make the horses." And the O'Callaghan family has reason to be doubly pleased with the way the races have fallen so far this week. Their own...

In February, the inevitable announcement came that Pivotal (GB) was to be pensioned at Cheveley Park Stud at the age of 28. David and Patricia Thompson's homebred son of Polar Falcon has been one of the great British breeding stories of the last few decades and the sturdy chestnut has been a great friend to small and major breeders alike through his magnificent stud innings.  As he continues his retirement, so does his legacy gain momentum. A few months before Pivotal was retired, his son Siyouni (Fr) had been crowned...

It's Craven week, followed by Greenham weekend, both coming on the back of some interesting Classic trials in Ireland and France. It is, as some people prefer to say in midwinter, the most wonderful time of the year.  There's no doubt, however, that the biggest racing story of the year has already happened. However much she wants to play down the gender card, Rachael Blackmore winning the Grand National aboard Minella Times (Ire) (Oscar {Ire}) was huge. In fact, Saturday was a big day on both sides for the world...

Continuing our assessment of the prospects of first-season sires with runners in 2021, bloodstock agent and breeder Liam Norris shares his view on this year's crop. He says, "Ardad (Ire) was such a good 2-year-old. We sent mares to him and from what I saw of his stock at the sales, they looked forward and racy types. I'd be disappointed if they don't pop out of the traps with huge precocity.  "I was always a huge fan of Highland Reel (Ire) as a racehorse. It's important not to forget that...

Agent Matt Coleman of Stroud Coleman Bloodstock has had plenty of success buying decent 2-year-olds from the breeze-up sales, such as G1 QIPCO British Champions Sprint S. winner Sands Of Mali (Fr) (Panis) and G2 Norfolk S. winner Prince Of Lir (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}). He gave us his view on what we might expect from the first runners for this year's freshman sires. Coleman said, "I guess Churchill (Ire) is the headline act of the first-season sires and I have heard some good words on his stock from Ireland. He...