Goffs Orby

Five months after the passing of owner Howard Liang, California Spangle (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) recaptured some of his best form to post a front-running upset in Sunday's G1 Queen's Silver Jubilee Cup at Sha Tin Racecourse. In going one better in the 1400-metre contest than last year, the 6-year-old punched his ticket to Dubai for the G1 Al Quoz Sprint over a straight 1200-metre trip Mar. 30. Having bested Golden Sixty (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro) in the 2022 G1 Longines Hong Kong Mile, the €150,000 Goffs Orby acquisition won the G2...

Aidan O'Brien has set his sights on winning the Goffs Million at the Curragh for the first time on Saturday and says that Cherry Blossom (Ire), who has Group 1 targets later this season, could be just the answer in the lucrative contest. Bred by Barronstown Stud, the daughter of No Nay Never was a €360,000 buy at the Goffs Orby 12 months ago by MV Magnier. Cherry Blossom broke her maiden at the second time of asking over six furlongs at the Curragh before running second to Relief Rally...

His 22 career victories is an all-time record in Hong Kong racing history. His HK$116 million (£12.2 million/US$14.7 million) in career earnings makes him not only the richest racehorse to look through a bridle in the Special Administrative Region, but also one of the richest Thoroughbreds, ever. Stanley Chan's Golden Sixty (Aus) (Medaglia d'Oro) can make even more history this Sunday when he starts a long odds-on proposition in the G1 Longines Hong Kong Mile, a victory in which will tie Good Ba Ba (Lear Fan) with three straight wins...

Even in a market like this one, weirdly insulated from economic and geopolitical chaos, trading Thoroughbreds will always remain a precarious business. Speculators never hesitate, then, to pounce whenever the odds appear skewed temporarily in their favor. Sure enough, with the dollar squeezing other currencies dry, around one in eight of the yearlings sold at the Goffs Orby Sale this week is said to be heading to the U.S.; and they'll have plenty of company out of Tattersalls next week. To one who constantly berates breeders both sides of the...

5.15 Killarney, Mdn, €15,000, 2yo, 8f 20yT HIAWATHA (IRE) (Camelot {GB}), Ballydoyle's chosen one as he debuts in the opener to this beautiful venue's week-long July Festival, is a rare commodity as a full-brother to the stable's G1 Futurity Trophy and G2 Beresford S. hero Luxembourg (Ire) who made a successful racecourse bow at this meeting 12 months ago and has been a notable absentee from the top action since sustaining an injury after his 2000 Guineas third. The top-priced colt at last year's Goffs Orby at €1.2million, the March-foaled...

Some enterprises of great pitch and moment take years to come to fruition. Some take just a few weeks. The latter scenario is true of the new partnership between bloodstock agent Justin Casse and trainer Joseph O'Brien. When Magnolia Racing Syndicate spent €562,000 at the recent Goffs Orby Sale, the group was built on relationships years in the making, but sprouted quickly from an idea into action. "I started kicking the idea of a transatlantic syndicate around three or four months ago," said Casse. "The fine-tuning part of who would...

The betting suggested that there would be a Godolphin one-two in Saturday's G3 Jersey S. and that projection was right with Creative Force (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) and James Doyle upstaging Naval Crown (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) and William Buick to win the battle of the 5-1 joint-favourites. Always travelling strongly restrained towards the rear of the group racing up the middle, the chestnut who captured the Listed Carnarvon S. over six furlongs at Newbury May 15 moved through to take control of that pack with 1 1/2 furlongs remaining. Drifting left...

When Napa Spirit (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}) won Friday's first race at Keeneland, bloodstock agent Ben McElroy was more relieved than ecstatic. Some six months earlier, he purchased Napa Spirit at the Goffs Orby Yearling sale in Ireland with a set goal in mind. He was looking for a unique type of horse, one that could win in the U.S. and Europe, would be fast and precocious, like the grass and be a good fit for the Royal Ascot meet. Friday's win was the latest sign that he had more...

DONCASTER, UK—The weather brightened for the final session of the Goffs Orby Sale but it has to be said that the vibe did not. True, the clearance rate remained at a respectable level, with those vendors who decided to sell continuing to be realistic in their reserves. But there was a high number of withdrawals across the two days, with an extra bunch coming on Thursday morning as Wednesday's results were digested. This, together with a dearth of international participation compared to normal, and minimal activity from the regular major...

The Morrin family's Pier House Stud has been doing business at Goffs for decades and the Curragh-based farm's current custodian Brendan Morrin is continuing the family tradition by sending a strong draft of seven yearlings, a mixture of homebreds and pinhooks, to the Goffs Orby Sale on Sept. 30 and Oct. 1. Buyers can be spurred on by the fact the farm is a proven producer of quality, high-class racehorses such as Group 1 winner Capla Temptress (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and multiple stakes winner Shamwari Lodge (Ire) (Hawk...

There may have been relative silence at The Curragh in July when the Ger Lyons-trained Even So (Ire) (Camelot {GB}) won the G1 Juddmonte Irish Oaks, but in the Boland household at Piercetown Stud in Meath the decibels were likely to have hit the high notes. Eight months previously the stud's owner Ronnie Boland and his son Aaron had bought a Footstepsinthesand (GB) half-sister to Even So as a foal at Goffs November for €22,000 and the now yearling filly will return to the sales ring with a massive update...

Many in this game associate the name Marlhill House with the successful Thoroughbred breeding and consigning operation based near Cashel, County Tipperary. In reality, though, its history of sporting success was established well before current owners, Eddie and Eimear Irwin, purchased it to become a stud in 1997. Given the moniker in recent times of the 'Home of Three Champions', Marlhill House raised and grazed Ireland's only Wimbledon Ladies' Singles winner Lena Rice, who lifted the title in 1890. The baton of athletic achievement was then passed onto another resident...