Cotai Glory

In this penultimate edition of the Value Sires Series, we look at stallions that had their first runners last year, and will therefore have their first 3-year-olds in 2022. With the numbers for 2021 tallied, this group actually appears to be a deep one, with plenty of them having done enough to go into their second years with a legitimate shot to still make it as a sire. While the last two cohorts produced runaway leaders in Mehmas (Ire) and Night Of Thunder (Ire), this year the riches were much...

It was extremely unlikely that any first-season sire this year would even get close to the record-breaking 56 winners for Mehmas (Ire) in 2020. That feat was made all the more remarkable by the fact that the start of the Flat season was delayed for several months by the pandemic-induced shutdown of racing. Leaving this huge tally aside, in any other year 35 first-crop winners at a strike-rate of 40% would be more than respectable, and it is this number, and £788,531 in progeny earnings in 2021, that sees Mehmas's...

There was barely time for the dust to settle on a successful renewal of the Goffs Orby Yearling Sale before the firm continued on Thursday with the first of two days of its Sportsman's Yearling Sale, which likewise returned strong results. The Sportsman's Sale, like the Orby, was relocated last year to the Goffs UK headquarters in Doncaster with the pandemic making it all but impossible for visitors to travel to Ireland, and back at its rightful home in Kildare on Thursday the first session returned positive figures. Whereas in...

There are banners along the High Street of my home town of Newmarket saying 'Welcome back to racing'. Though we've been fortunate in England to have been able to allow crowds gradually to return to racecourses earlier than some other countries, it has only really been in the last few weeks that it has felt like the proper pre-pandemic experience. And where better to have the people back in force than at York, widely regarded by many to be the best racecourse in the country? Any amount of time spent...

Atomic Force (Ire) (Cotai Glory {GB}), winner of this season's G3 Prix du Bois and G2 Prix Robert Papin, has been exported to Hong Kong to continue his racing career. Trained by Kevin Ryan initially for Hambleton Racing, Atomic Force was gelded after finishing second at first asking, and broke his maiden at Hamilton on May 26. He was purchased privately by the Hong Kong-based Siu Pak Kwan after winning the Prix du Bois by five lengths, after which he added the Prix Robert Papin by 2 1/2 lengths. Bloodstock...

It has been quite the week for two young stallions from Tally-Ho Stud. We barely stopped hearing about Mehmas (Ire) last season during his record-breaking assault on the freshman sires' championship, and the big question is always how a stallion will follow up on that early promise. It can be a long way to fall after a reputation is so swiftly created, but in the case of the 7-year-old son of Acclamation (GB) it looks very much as if he is consolidating his position as a stallion to follow with...

ASCOT, UK--There's nothing quite like Royal Ascot to inject some interest into the first-season sires' championship and, with three days down and two to go, there will be several stallion masters with an extra spring in their step following the results of this week's juvenile contests. As Roger O'Callaghan of Tally-Ho Stud said on Thursday afternoon, "Royal Ascot is very important. This week can make the horses." And the O'Callaghan family has reason to be doubly pleased with the way the races have fallen so far this week. Their own...

It's that time of year: with just weeks to go to the start of the turf season, thoughts are turning to which of this year's freshman sires will be making a splash with their first runners. With 26 European first-crop stallions to consider, we have asked the views of those who have seen a good range of young stock at the sales. Today we get the thoughts of bloodstock agent Ed Sackville. "I better put my money where my mouth is, so my choice is Cotai Glory (GB), a track...

Breeze-up consignor Roger Marley works in partnership with John Cullinan through their Church Farm & Horse Park Stud banner. The duo has been responsible for pinhooking and breezing such talented juveniles as G2 Flying Childers S winner Ubettabelieveit (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) and Mehmas (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}), the record-breaking champion first-season sire of 2020. Currently preparing a team of around 40 juveniles from his Yorkshire base, Marley gave us his thoughts on some of this year's freshman sires and reflected on Mehmas's progression from a 62,000gns Tattersalls Book 2 yearling to...

The start of the Flat season may be more than two months away but there is already plenty of interest in the freshman sires of 2021, and Darley's Profitable (Ire) has been made 3/1 favourite by Fitzdares to take the championship. Ed Guiver, Head of Racing for Fitzdares, said, "We love pricing this market, which would be impossible to price were it not for the Weatherbys Stallion Book used alongside the Weatherbys Return of Mares. "It was hard to split the front four in the market but Profitable by the...

Record-breaking first-season sire Mehmas (Ire) will see a fee increase to €25,000 at Tally Ho Stud in 2021. The son of Acclamation (GB) stood for €7,500 this year. Mehmas is the clear leader of the European first-season sires standings by earnings and winners, the latter tally of 47 as of Nov. 20 representing a record for a first-season sire. Iffraaj (GB) previously held the record at 38. Mehmas's four stakes winners include the G1 Middle Park S. winner Supremacy (Ire) and G2 Gimcrack S. scorer Minzaal (Ire). The standardbearer of...

Daniel Creighton talks about Salcey Forest Stud's six-horse draft for this week's Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale, including a Cotai Glory (GB) half-sister to A'Ali (Ire) (Society Rock {Ire}). [audio mp3="https://www.thoroughbreddailynews.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Daniel-Creighton_podcast.mp3"][/audio]