Gleneagles

Royal Lytham (Fr) (Gleneagles {Ire}-Gotlandia {Fr}, by Anabaa), winner of the 2019 G2 July S., will enter stud at Clongiffen Stud in 2021 under the Irish Emerald Stud banner for a fee of €4,000. A €180,000 Arqana August yearling purchase by MV Magnier, Royal Lytham finished third behind Siskin (First Defence) in the G1 Phoenix S. following his July score. Royal Lytham is the highest-rated progeny of Gleneagles and is from the first crop of the dual Guineas winner. He is out of the Group 3-placed Gotlandia.

One day after racing resumed in Britain on June 1, Mehmas (Ire) notched his first winner in the country less than an hour after he had recorded his first ever winner, in Italy. From thereon, the Tally-Ho Stud resident was pulling double all season, opening up an easy lead over his fellow European freshmen and bossing his way to a new first-season sire record which, with 56 winners, was 17 clear of that previously held by Iffraaj (GB). It is, frankly, a staggering tally, with 101 of his 121 named...

Unsurprisingly given her record in 2019 with her 2-year-old fillies, Jessie Harrington was at the forefront at Navan on Wednesday as the 10-1 shot Silence Please (Ire) (Gleneagles {Ire}) edged out One Voice (Ire) (Poet's Voice {GB}) for a one-two in the 10-furlong Listed Irish Stallion Farms EBF Salsabil S. Held up with one behind early, Gary Barber and Team Valor International's Silence Please who went two-for-two when defying topweight in a seven-furlong nursery at Cork in September responded to Tom Madden's urgings to reel in One Voice in the...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Today's Observations features a Wertheimer-bred sibling to a Group 1 winner. 11.25 La Teste de Buch, Mdn, €13,000, unraced 3yo, 10 1/2fT Alain and Gerard Wertheimer's homebred STAMINA (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) is out of G2 Prix de Sandringham third Stormina (Gulch) and thus a half-sister to G1 Prix...

When all was said and done in the first-season sires' race in Europe in 2019, it was undoubtedly the year of Night of Thunder (Ire). Darley's G1 2000 Guineas and G1 Lockinge S. winner was out in front on his own not only in terms of quantity-he sired the winners of the most races (44), stakes winners (seven), stakes horses (11) and group winners (three) and had the highest earnings (£879,457/€1,034,567) of any sire in his intake-but also quality. As detailed by John Boyce at the tail-end of the season,...

We are all familiar with the flash-in-the-pan stallions who blaze a trail with their first crop of runners only to sink with relatively little trace in ensuing seasons--a situation doubtless exacerbated by fleeting whims of a commercial market. For the sires whose debutants took to the track in 2019, the results achieved were important in regard to continuing or boosting their appeal to breeders booking mares for the 2020 season, but of even more importance is what happens now that their first crops are of the Classic age. When Dubawi...