Auguste Rodin

Anyone who hit the Irish Stallion Trail over the last weekend would have noticed the plethora of sons of Wootton Bassett to have joined the throng this year. Five to be precise, standing at five different studs, with two of those, the French Classic winners Camille Pissarro and Henri Matisse, based at Coolmore's main farm near Fethard and at Castlehyde Stud in Fermoy. Their illustrious sire joined the Coolmore roster in 2021, having stood his first nine years in France at Haras d'Etreham, rising from a €6,000 debutant to €40,000....

First foals by Epsom Derby winners Auguste Rodin and City Of Troy arrived in Europe on Monday, Coolmore announced. Group 1-winning juvenile Auguste Rodin's first foal was a bay filly out of the Millenium Stud-owned Only In Dreams (Le Havre). She arrived at Haras de Pierrepont and was described as "a quality filly". The son of Deep Impact stands for €27,500. Also a Group 1 winner at two, City Of Troy welcomed a colt later that same day. Out of listed-winning two-year-old Ritournelle (Camelot), the bay colt was born at...

We're sliding down the scale slightly for this second part of our look at the sires standing across Europe to those with an advertised fee of £15,000 to £50,000 (approximately €17,000 to €57,000). And how can we not start with the champion sire of 2024, Dark Angel? At €45,000, his fee is the lowest it has been for a decade, and of course the years are marching on, but if there is one thing we have learnt about Dark Angel in his 18 seasons at Yeomanstown Stud it is that...

No Nay Never heads the Coolmore roster for the 2026 breeding season at €100,000, while the G1 Coral-Eclipse and G1 Irish Champion Stakes winner Delacroix, a son of Dubawi and the outstanding racemare Tepin, has been introduced at €40,000. Only the late Wootton Bassett has sired more individual Group-winning juveniles in Europe this year than No Nay Never, whose standout two-year-olds have included the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes heroine True Love and the G2 Norfolk Stakes winner Charles Darwin. The G1 City Of York Stakes scorer Never So Brave has...

For the third time in four years, Sioux Nation was the busiest Flat stallion at stud in Britain and Ireland in 2025, according to the Return of Mares, which has been published by Weatherbys. The son of Scat Daddy, who stands at Coolmore's Castlehyde Stud in County Cork, was usurped last year by his ill-fated stud-mate, Calyx, but he returned to the top of the charts during the latest breeding season, having covered 282 mares. The busiest stallion of any description was Whytemount Stud's Affinisea on 314, ahead of Boardsmill...

A number of fees for the most exciting sires in Australia and New Zealand have been announced with Windsor Park Stud, which has enjoyed a long and successful relationship with Coolmore Stud, saying that dual Derby winner Auguste Rodin (Ire) will be well-supported by Southern Hemisphere breeders.  Auguste Rodin heads the stallion roster at NZ$30,000 while fellow Coolmore shuttler Paddington (Fr) will stand at NZ$35,000, the same fee he was introduced at in 2024 at Windsor Park.  Rodney Schick, stud master at Windsor Park, commented on Auguste Rodin, "World class...

Auguste Rodin (Ire) will be joining his fellow Coolmore stallion and Derby winner City Of Troy in shuttling to the Southern Hemisphere this coming season but he will head instead to New Zealand's Windsor Park Stud. The son of Deep Impact (Jpn) will stand for NZ$30,000 (approximately €16,000). The stud's eight-strong stallion line-up also includes Paddington (GB) and Circus Maximus (Ire), and it has previously been home to the Coolmore shuttlers Montjeu (Ire) and High Chaparral (Ire). Windsor Park Stud principal Rodney Schick said, "We are privileged to welcome a...

Fifty years ago this spring John Magnier moved into Coolmore Stud ahead of the now infamous and audacious annual raids on the Kentucky yearling market. At the Keeneland July Select Sale of 1975, Magnier, along with the esteemed trainer Vincent O'Brien and key ally Robert Sangster, started their recruitment drive of what O'Brien described as "baby stallions".  In his biography, O'Brien stated, "We would try and turn the tide: we would organise a syndicate to buy yearlings which I would train, and from which we could make our own stallions."...

For this second instalment of our value sires series we are looking at stallions standing in the €20,000 to €49,999 fee range.  Another year has gone by in which Nathaniel (Ire) has provided us with one of the stars of the season. This time it was the Irish Oaks winner You Got To Me (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}), who later played a starring role of a different kind when topping the Tattersalls December Mares Sale at 4.8 million gns. She'll be in the Amo Racing silks next year and surely already...

Three top-class European invaders made the trip across to contest Sunday's G1 Japan Cup, trying to put a dent in the locals, who have more or less owned the 2400-metre feature since the turn of the century. But each was done in--to varying degrees--by a race that was run at a walking pace for the opening mile, and favoured Do Deuce (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) ensured that the trophy would remain in Japan for another year. The 5-year-old took off from the back of the field approaching the home straight...

Three of Europe's top 2400-metre gallopers face an 11-strong local challenge in Sunday's G1 Japan Cup, looking to snap an 18-year run of success for Japanese-based horses. While it has become next to impossible for the raiders to walk away with the Tokyo spoils, that was not always the case. In the first 17 renewals, horses from overseas prevailed on no fewer than a dozen occasions, including theretofore unprecedented consecutive winners for Sir Michael Stoute with Singspiel (Ire) and Pilsudski (Ire) in 1996 and 1997, respectively. But since that time,...

Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}) took to the grass at Tokyo racecourse on Wednesday ahead of the last race of his career in the Japan Cup on Sunday. His trainer Aidan O'Brien has also arrived in Japan to oversee the final stages of his preparation. "He did a lovely seven furlongs on the grass this morning, just to show him the track, and he looked comfortable," said O'Brien. "He's a horse that has speed and class, has long strides and a big action and is great at the mile-and-a-half...