Cheltenham Festival

Capital Stud boss Ger O'Neill has revealed that Authorized (Ire) will stand for a similar fee to dominant National Hunt stallion Walk In The Park (Ire) and outlined his hopes that the new recruit to the County Kilkenny operation will help raise the relatively new outfit's profile amongst Irish breeders.  O'Neill's perseverance paid off in securing the 20-year-old Derby winner and sire of Tiger Roll (Ire), one of the most famous jumps horses of the modern era, from the Jockey Club of Turkey for what he described as "a frightening"...

Colm Murphy has been dealt a hammer blow with the news that his Cheltenham Festival-winning mare Impervious will miss the first half of the season at least due to injury.  A gallant winner of the Grade 2 Mrs Paddy Power Mares´ Chase at Cheltenham last season, Impervious was a general 10-1 chance to win the 2024 Ryanair Chase.  However, the JP McManus-owned daughter of Shantou has been sent back to Martinstown Stud after injuring a joint in preparation of the new season and Murphy explained that he is holding out...

Hurricane Fly (Ire), Un De Sceaux (Fr), Vautour (Fr) and Faugheen (Ire). You name them, Harold Kirk has bought them. But did the leading bloodstock agent snap up the next jumps star to join Ireland's dominant champion National Hunt handler Willie Mullins? Ethical Diamond (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}) was the only reason that Kirk travelled to the Tattersalls July Sale this week and he wasn't leaving without a horse he spoke of as being a future Melbourne Cup prospect.  That is the esteem the leading judge held Michael O'Meara's recent Limerick...

A total of 416 stores have been chosen for the Tattersalls Ireland 2023 Derby Sale, set to take place June 28-29 at Fairyhouse, the sales company announced on Tuesday. All horses catalogued for the Derby Sale are eligible for the 2024 €100,000 Tattersalls Ireland George Mernagh Memorial Sales Bumper. The Derby Sale achieved more winners at the Dublin Racing Festival, Cheltenham Festival and Aintree Festival than any other store sale again this year and has claimed 12 Grade 1s in 2023. "Exceptional doesn't come close to what we have on...

CHELTENHAM, UK--It always pays to take note of past Festival form, as exemplified by the winners of Wednesday's two big races, Envoi Allen (Fr) (Muhtathir {Fr}) and Sire Du Berlais (Fr) (Poliglote {GB}). They had respectively made four and five previous appearances at Cheltenham in March, with Envoi Allen having won the G1 Weatherbys Champion Bumper and G1 Ballymore Novices' Hurdle prior to his emotional return to the winner's circle after the G1 Ryanair Chase, completing the full set of top-level Festival wins in three different spheres. The 11-year-old Sire...

It's been a memorable few months for trainer-turned-jockey-agent Kiaran McLaughlin. He's been nominated to the Hall of Fame for the first time and, as the agent for Luis Saez, has his client lined up with many of the top horses in the sport, including top candidates for the GI Kentucky Derby in Tapit Trice (Tapit) and Instant Coffee (Bolt d'Oro). With plenty to talk about, McLaughlin joined this week's TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland. McLaughlin was this week's Green Group Guest of the Week. McLaughlin was asked his...

CHELTENHAM, UK--One champion crowned as another exits. But there was no quiet shuffling off, stage left, for Honeysuckle (GB) (Sulamani {Ire}), who was roared home, roared in, and roared out of the Cheltenham winner's circle that provides no better setting for equine coronations.  Just forty minutes earlier the new king of the hurdling division, Constitution Hill (GB), had delivered exactly the performance expected of him but one which can never be guaranteed in the hurly-burly of championship races at the Festival. Plenty of commentators are already suggesting that the son...

Venturing fearlessly into jumps territory this week, this correspondent would never be so bold as to offer tips or predictions for the Cheltenham Festival. There is only one safe bet to be had, and that is that Keeneland's indefatigable European representative Ed Prosser will be up with the larks to cook the finest Full English for his housemates, and at some stage over the next four days will serenade us with his inimitable version of Rhinestone Cowboy. The Prosser baritone is certainly much easier on the ears than the newly...

Five years ago this week, Katie Walsh took Relegate (Ire) from going nowhere to the Cheltenham Festival winner's enclosure when galvanising the mare to come from last to first to take the Champion Bumper in pulsating fashion.  Little did we know at the time, but that Cheltenham success was to be Walsh's last, as she bowed out on a winner at her beloved Punchestown Festival the following month. A lot has changed in those five years since. Along with her husband Ross O'Sullivan, a prominent trainer in his own right...

   Jamie Codd is an amateur jockey in name only. One of the finest National Hunt riders that Ireland has ever produced, Codd can count 10 Cheltenham Festival winners to his name, and has strong claims of adding to his tally next week.    But it's not just about the action on the track with Codd. In his role with Tattersalls Ireland, Codd will put in many hours behind the scenes to ensure the smooth running of the Cheltenham Sale, of which Gold Cup livewire Bravemansgame and Brown Advisory Novice...

No shortage of hard work and bundles of perseverance lie behind Johnny Collins's achievement in turning his Brown Island Stables into one of the finest nurseries of equine talent there is. It is all the more remarkable in that he achieved this with no racing background and just his own eye and pocket to get the whole thing off the ground. Competitive and ambitious, the 46-year-old counts several million euros worth of stock at his County Cork base, which is the culmination of over 15 years producing top-class horses over...

The previously announced new whip regulations will go into force on Monday, but the way penalties are calculated has been "marginally adjusted" according to the British Horseracing Authority (BHA). Following feedback from jockeys, there were further amendments to the rules, and the bedding in period for jumps racing was extended by a week. Under the new regulations, use of the whip in the forehand position will be allowed, with the BHA having reversed a previous decision to ban it after riders' objections. However, use of the whip has been reduced...