Camelot

DEAUVILLE, France--The Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe trophy, a pared-down replica of Paris's mighty monument, was in residence at the Arqana restaurant, where diners were treated to a complimentary glass of champagne courtesy of the owners of Ace Impact (Fr), Serge Stempniak and Kamel Chehboub. Some of us had work to do, however, and a solid opening day of Arqana's October Yearling Sale had more than a little fizz about it here and there.  Frankel (GB) may rule at Tattersalls, but in Deauville we are in the court of France's...

Craon's June 16-winning filly Morgana is by supremely established sire Camelot, as she should be. Morgana (also known as Morgan Le Fay) is quite a presence in the legends of the Knights of the Round Table: sorcerer, enchantress, half-sister and rival to King Arthur, apprentice and maybe lover of Merlin, deadly enemy of Queen Guinevere while secretly in love with, of course, none other than Lancelot. Camelot was no convent finishing school: the court had more intrigues and betrayals than the palace of a late Roman emperor. The name of...

On December 3, 1995, the G1 Royal Bond Novice Hurdle was won by the Aidan O'Brien-trained Thats My Man (Ire). It is unconfirmed, but those may well have been the words uttered by John Magnier when he decided to appoint O'Brien to uphold the good reputation of his surname at Ballydoyle. This he has done with aplomb. From that December day at Fairyhouse until Sunday at the Curragh, A P O'Brien has been the name printed alongside 400 Group or Grade 1 winners. From his roots in National Hunt, he...

Ireland's Flat action may have already started and France's has been rumbling on for several days, but for many the real beginning to the season on the level is Doncaster's Lincoln H. on a Saturday which wrests the attention from the national hunt in no uncertain terms. Whether there is a horse of the calibre of Addeybb (Ire) (Pivotal {GB}) lurking in the prestigious mile handicap remains to be seen, but there is a strong vibe surrounding another member of the William Haggas tribe in 'TDN Rising Star' Al Mubhir...

The Prix de Diane is the main aim for Thursday's impressive Saint-Cloud winner Pensee Du Jour (Ire), according to Anthony Stroud, who manages the interests of the Camelot (GB) filly's owners, Ballymore Thoroughbreds.  Carrying the silks of owner-breeder Diane Wildenstein, Pensee Du Jour made all of the running to win the Rose De Mai S. by seven lengths, with Stroud explaining the significance of the victory shortly afterwards.  He said of the 'TDN Rising Star', "Funnily enough, they [the Wildenstein family] started out in racing back in 1923 so this...

Continuing our series on the profitability of stallions, this week we are looking at those who stood between £20,000 and £49,999 in 2020. Three of the top four in this table have subsequently graduated to the higher-fee bracket outlined in Part I of this series last Thursday.  As previously stated, we will be examining sires in four key price brackets according to their yearling sales returns of 2022 set against their fees at the time of covering. The average profit has been determined by the stallion's fee plus a figure...

Having provided the winners of this year's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Prix de Diane, Prix Jacques le Marois, Grand Prix de Paris and Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud, Frankel (GB), unsurprisingly, has been named the champion sire of France in 2022. He ceded his position as champion in Britain and Ireland to Dubawi (Ire), whom he finished in front of when it comes to overall European earnings. Of the winners of the above named Group 1 races--Alpinista (GB), Nashwa (GB), Inspiral (GB) and Onesto (Ire)--all bar Alpinista remain in training...

Waterville (Ire), the main attraction on day one of the Autumn horses-in-training sale at Tattersalls, did not disappoint by topping the session at 410,000gns to join Chris Waller in Australia.  Guy Mulcaster, who also bought the 84-rated Postwick (GB) (Postponed {Ire}) from Barton Sales for 130,000gns to join Waller, secured Coolmore's Irish Cesarewitch winner.  Described by his trainer Aidan O'Brien at the beginning of the season as a lively each-way contender for the Derby, Waterville [lot 275] never made it to Epsom but went some way to justifying that high...

After a brief hiatus during Royal Ascot, TDN Europe's weekly Q&A series is back with Real Madrid and Spanish football star Alvaro Odriozola telling Brian Sheerin all about his endeavours in racing so far, his friendship with Joseph O'Brien and his ambitions to own a "horse of a lifetime."  At just 25 years of age, Odriozola has already enjoyed a hugely successful career as a footballer and revealed how he adopts a similar mindset to racehorse ownership and breeding by saying "you have to dream big in order to get...

From bringing its largest draft of 26 foals to the Tattersalls December Sale in 2020, Mickley Stud's consignment for this week has almost doubled in size again to 50 weanlings.  It may be time-consuming for prospective buyers to work their way through this batch of youngsters down in the Solario Yard but it could also prove worthwhile. In 2015, Mickley's Richard Kent and his co-breeder, the late Lady Caroline Lonsdale, brought a Havana Gold (Ire) foal to sell who went on to become the Group 1-winning sprinter and young Whitsbury...

The curtain came down on the five-day Arqana October Yearling Sale on Friday with a low-key session of 99 yearlings that was headed by J.K. Thoroughbreds's filly by Zelzal (Ire) (lot 705), who was bought by Mandore Agency and John Hammond for €41,000. The top-priced colt of the day was a first-crop son of Cloth Of Stars (Ire) (lot 723), and the name on the ticket was once again John Hammond at €30,000. Friday's trade saw 84.9% of the yearlings offered change hands to add €940,500 to the sale's aggregate....

KILDARE, Ireland--A hugely impressive Group 2 winner with Classic pretensions is just the kind of update every breeder dreams of within days of a major yearling sale, and that is exactly what Luxembourg (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) delivered in the Beresford S. at the Curragh on Saturday on only his second start. He had himself been sold by breeder Ben Sangster for 150,000gns but his brother, offered as lot 366 through the Castlebridge Consignment, caused the same buyer MV Magnier to dig deeper into his pockets for the colt to become...