Blue Point

Arqana's August Sale bursts from the stalls next Friday which means it will be Christmas before we know it. It also means that over the three days which follow the spotlight will be shone on some of the finest yearlings from France and beyond as the European yearling season gets underway in its customary fashion of part-holiday/part-serious business in Deauville. In the days building up to the sale, we will be profiling some of the largest drafts at Arqana, beginning with Anna Sundstrom's Coulonces, which has 20 set to go...

Irish 2,000 Guineas and St James's Palace Stakes winner Rosallion (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) "is not finished" for the season, according to trainer Richard Hannon, despite conflicting reports appearing elsewhere in the media. Rosallion was a last minute withdrawal from the Sussex Stakes at Goodwood last week and Hannon admitted to being unsure whether the horse would be seen on a racecourse again this season when asked about the colt's next target. Next month's Prix Du Moulin at ParisLongchamp was mooted as a suitable option for Rosallion's comeback, but that...

We're not quite halfway through the Flat season but Royal Ascot feels like a pivotal point. It's not just the fact that it coincides with the summer solstice (even though summer has really only just arrived in these parts) but it includes the first properly meaningful two-year-old contests along with a set of races for the Classic generation which start to underline the really serious prospects. While the yearling sales may tell one story of the popularity of stallions, one only needs to peruse the stakes race results on a...

It was a day that had everything. From Rosallion landing the St James's Palace S. to yet another Australian sprinter showing the Euros how it's done, day one of the royal meeting did not disappoint. Here are some of the talking points.   Faux Pas For The French Anyone who backed the French raiders Big Rock (Fr) (Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}) and Facteur Cheval (Ire) (Ribchester {Ire}) in the Queen Anne knew pretty early that they were not going to get off to a winning start at the royal meeting....

They say that good things come in threes. The team at Dalham Hall Stud could be forgiven for bending that old adage a little to say that good things come from Reem Three.  This time 12 months ago one of the breeding stories of Royal Ascot week came in the very first race when Sheikh Mohammed Obaid Al Maktoum's homebred Triple Time (GB) (Frankel {GB}) won the Queen Anne S. to become not just the second Group 1 winner for his dam, Reem Three (GB) (Mark Of Esteem {Ire}), but...

If you are a racing tragic, and I'd like to think that most TDN readers fall into this celebrated bracket, it is impossible to have a day off at the moment. Trials, Classics, they come thick and fast in these heady weeks of spring. We've waited winterlong, starved of any meaningful action, and now it's hard not to feel a little queasy at the veritable feast of racing which is set before us, course after course after course. There's barely even room for the Cartmel Sticky Toffee Pudding Maiden Hurdle. ...

Star Bloodstock, the consignment that unearthed talents like Malavath (Ire), A'Ali (Ire) and more, is set to wind down its breeze-up operation and concentrate entirely on producing future top-notchers on the racetrack instead.  The shift in focus has reaped immediate rewards with the aptly-named Make Haste (GB) (Blue Point {Ire}), a leading Royal Ascot contender after posting a stunning debut success at Naas for trainer and breeze-up consignor Diego Dias, being snapped up by Gainesway and LNJ Foxwoods.  Bought by Byron Rogers, Star Bloodstock and Dias at the Tattersalls Book...

The search for the next Vandeek (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}) just became a whole lot tougher. That's not to say that separating potential Group 1 winners apart from the near-200 horses who breeze up the Rowley Mile is an easy task to start with.  However, the howling wind, vertical hailstorm and torrential rain added a whole new dimension to the breeze at this year's Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale.  They tell us year after year that the times don't matter. That they only serve as just another piece of the jigsaw...

Richard Hannon has said there is not one horse that he would swap Rosallion (Ire) (Blue Point {Ire}) for and reported the Group 1 winner to be firmly on course for the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket on May 4.  Previously described as "right up there with the best we've ever had" by his handler, Rosallion is a general 8-1 chance for Classic glory at Newmarket.  His big day in the sun last year came when storming to G1 Prix Jean-Luc Lagardere glory and confidence is clearly high in the camp...

The entries for the first two Classics of the season have been released, with 49 horses entered in each of the Qipco 2,000 Guineas and Qipco 1,000 Guineas. The colts will line up at Newmarket on Saturday, May 4 when it is likely that much of the attention will focus on the unbeaten City Of Troy (Justify), who at this stage is the ante-post favourite for the 2,000 Guineas. Trained by Aidan O'Brien, he has left Ireland for two of his three starts to win the G2 Superlative S. at...

Respected point-to-point handler and ex-jumps jockey Charlie Poste says that he is "absolutely loving" his first endeavours into the breeze-up business and looks forward to consigning his first draft at the upcoming Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up and Goffs UK Doncaster Breeze-Up sales.  Poste trained over 100 winners between the flags in Britain, including talented chaser Third Time Lucki, but explained how the broad international market for breeze-up horses compared to the parochial feel to the point-to-point game made it a no-brainer to try his hand at the former.  The early indications...

Out from the cloudy backdrop on a morning borrowed from winter comes a sight so good that it serves to remind that spring has in fact sprung and the Flat season is not as far away as it seems.  There is Group 1 winner Bucanero Fuerte (GB) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) leading Derby entrants Mr Hampstead (Galileo {Ire}) and Padesha (Fr) (Wootton Bassett {GB}). And who's that lobbing along in behind? Potential Dubai World Cup runner Elegant Man (Arrogate) and Qipco Champion S. hero King Of Steel (Wootton Bassett {GB}) add...