Coolmore

Even if most racing is delayed, we're all hoping it will get underway sometime this spring or early summer, if for no other reason than so we can all find out the answer to our annual favorite question. We surveyed some top judges on who their leading first-crop sire is, and to give us some under-the-radar picks as well. I want to disclose my opinion by saying that most of it is based on the two-year-olds I have seen this past week at the OBS sale. Most of my clients...

Zoffany (Ire) will shuttle from his base at Coolmore in Ireland to Haras Firmamento in Argentina later this year, Racing Post reports. The 12-year-old Zoffany has sired 32 stakes winners, including Group 1 winners Ventura Storm (Ire) and Albigna (Ire). The latter won last year's G1 Prix Marcel Boussac. Among the stallions Zoffany will stand alongside at Firmamento are Hit It A Bomb (War Front), who was also trained by Aidan O'Brien and who won the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. He is based at Spendthrift Farm in Kentucky.

No matter what he does, Lookin At Lucky (Smart Strike) seems condemned always to be the short guy in the back row of the team photo. In the private duel that defines his stud career, moreover, he has to endure Munnings (Speightstown) moving ever closer, year by year, to front and center. These two splendid sires, who started out together at Ashford in 2011, experienced rather typical fortunes last Saturday when dividing the big sophomore tests in New Orleans between them (along with those skilled gentlemen, Brad Cox and Florent...

Elite Racing Club's Marlinka (GB) (Marju {Ire}), the dam of champion and MG1SW Marsha (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), sustained an attack of colic and, although she underwent emergency surgery, she could not be saved, the club tweeted. Her Showcasing (GB) filly was also lost. Bred and raced by the Elite Racing Club, the 12-year-old was a daughter of the Barathea (Ire) mare Baralinka (Ire). A listed winner at two in France, the bay's first foal was the G3 Coral Charge Sprint S. victor Judicial (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}), and the outstanding sprinter...

Coolmore's Kew Gardens (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}), who snapped champion stayer Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire})'s winning streak in the G2 Long Distance Cup on British Champions Day at Ascot in October, will make his 2020 bow in the $1.5-million G2 Dubai Gold Cup. The Aidan O'Brien trainee, who won the 2018 G1 Grand Prix de Paris as well as the G1 St Leger during his 3-year-old year, was never off the board in four starts last term, running second three times-in the G3 Ormonde S. in May, the G1...

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA - Gary and Mary West and Susan Magnier, Michael Tabor and Derrick Smith's Maximum Security (New Year's Day) put the final exclamation point on a memorable day of racing at King Abdulaziz Racetrack in Riyadh Saturday, recording a gritty 3/4-length victory over Midnight Bisou (Midnight Lute) in the inaugural $20-million Saudi Cup. Last year's champion sophomore was forced to drift in and out down the lane as he attempted to overtake pacesetting Mucho Gusto (Mucho Macho Man) and finally took charge with 100 meters to run before...

Riyadh, SAUDI ARABIA--Maximum Security (New Year's Day) continues to put his controversial disqualification in last year's GI Kentucky Derby further and further in the rear-view mirror, striding home a powerful winner of the inaugural $20-million Saudi Cup Saturday night in Riyadh. Making his first start of the year, the 4-year-old was floated to the center of the track down the backstretch and was shuffled in traffic as he found ground to shadow the pacesetting Mucho Gusto (Mucho Macho Man). Mucho Gusto drifted out at the top of the lane, forcing...

Every year there is huge excitement as the new wave of first-season sires is announced. After those announcements come the visits to the various studs that house new recruits in eager attempts to see racehorses that caught the eye on the track and potentially mate up that mare that had been penciled in. Coolmore Stud in Fethard, Co. Tipperary, is always high on the list for breeders not only for the bloodlines it is home to, but also for a peek at the impressive facilities and the empire that has...

The ruthless nature of the American bloodstock market's trend toward unproven sires combined with an increased demand in developing nations for international stock has resulted in a worrying mass exodus of middle market stallions from Kentucky in recent years. WinStar Farm sold the regally bred Take Charge Indy to South Korea in 2016 six weeks before his first crop turned two, with his support particularly in the sales ring having waned, but thanks to a clause in the contract WinStar was able to buy him back and the son of...

LEXINGTON, KY--John G. Sikura is not afraid to think outside the box when it comes to his stallion roster at Hill 'n' Dale Farm in Kentucky, and indeed he is not prone to allowing such fickle factors as marketplace fashion to sway his belief in the long-term potential of an animal. These traits are apparent in his own pedigree-his father, the late great Canadian breeder and stallion master John Sikura Jr., had a tendency of shaking up the status quo during the Windfields Farm reign of the 1960s and 70s...

G1SW Sioux Nation (Scat Daddy) welcomed a colt out of Thiel (GB) (Teofilo {Ire}) on Jan. 26. Bred and owned by B & B Equine Ltd., the dark bay was foaled at Northmore Stud in Newmarket. His second dam is SW and G1 English 1000 Guineas third Vista Bella (GB) (Diktat {GB}). "He's an absolute smashing colt and resembles his sire a lot," said Northmore's Sue Elsdon. "If Sioux Nation continues to get foals like him, he'll be very good sire." A winner of the G1 Phoenix S. and G2...

A half-share in European highweight and 2019 G1 Juddmonte International S. hero Japan (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) has been purchased by Masaaki Matsushima, Racing Post reported on Wednesday. Also a winner of the G1 Juddmonte Grand Prix de Paris, third in the G1 Investec Derby and fourth in the G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, the Newsells Park Stud-bred was previously owned solely by a Coolmore partnership. Out of a SP daughter of fellow European highweight Saganeca (Sagace {Fr}), the 1.3-million Tattersalls October Book 1 yearling is a full-brother to...