Guineas

Is there anything like a pedigree update to get a consignor's blood pumping in the build-up to a big sale? A little winner here, a black-type update there, it can't hurt when it comes to advertising your wares.  Well, if it's happening pedigrees that buyers want, it won't take long to scope out lot 53 in the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale. A brother to leading 2,000 Guineas contender Night Raider (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}), the colt will be offered under the hammer by the father-and-son team of Mick and Stephen...

Day one done and dusted and it's hard to imagine that there will be a more impressive Group 1 winner than Paddington (GB) (Siyouni {Fr}) at Royal Ascot this week.  The manner in which he swept aside the Guineas hero Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}) in the St James's Palace S. was something to behold. So, too, has been the progression the colt has put in this season.  Paddington reappeared to win the prestigious Madrid Handicap at Naas off just 97 and shares something in common with fellow Aidan O'Brien-trained Group...

A month on from recording a breakthrough Group 1 success, Joe Doyle, the rider who will forever be associated with multiple stakes-winner Make A Challenge (Ire) (Invincible Spirit {Ire}), is back on familiar shores. However, Doyle has no plans on resuming his riding career in Britain or Ireland, where the 27-year-old has enjoyed successful spells respectively. No, Doyle is merely keeping his eye in before returning for New Zealand, where he has a 1,000 Guineas prospect to look forward to next season, by riding at the breeze-ups. It's not surprising...

Aidan O'Brien has nominated Auguste Rodin (Ire) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), the ante-post favourite for the 2000 Guineas and the Derby, as being the horse who is most capable of emulating Nijinsky by winning the Triple Crown this season.  If successful, Auguste Rodin would bridge a 53-year gap, and complete a long-held ambition for the master of Ballydoyle, who came agonisingly close to achieving the feat with Camelot (GB) in 2013. Auguste Rodin is understood to have come out of an exercise gallop at the Curragh racecourse on Saturday in good...

Chaldean (GB) (Frankel {GB}), one of the most exciting horses in Britain, is likely to have a prep run for the 2000 Guineas in the Greenham S. at Newbury next month, his trainer Andrew Balding has revealed.  A general 8-1 chance for Guineas glory, Juddmonte's Chaldean will be bidding to chart the same path to victory as his sire Frankel, who took the Greenham before turning in one of the most memorable performances of all time in the Newmarket Classic.  Balding is no stranger to Guineas success himself. In 2020,...

Former world champion 3-year-old Rock of Gibraltar (Ire) (Danehill--Offshore Boom {GB}, by Be My Guest) has died from heart failure at Castlehyde Stud in Ireland at the age of 23. The son of Danehill was bred by the late Joe Crowley with his daughter Annemarie and son-in-law Aidan O'Brien. He was sent into training with the latter at Ballydoyle as a juvenile in 2001, later racing for the partnership of Sir Alex Ferguson and Susan Magnier. Rock Of Gibraltar's sensational racing career, which saw him land seven consecutive Group 1...

Two legends of Irish racing will join forces for the first time this season after Jim Bolger revealed that he has a 2-year-old filly by Holy Roman Emperor (Ire) in training with Kevin Prendergast. Bolger gave €31,000 for the recently named Roman Moon (Ire) after Prendergast recommended the filly at the Goffs Orby Sale last September and she is set to break new ground by becoming his first runner with the Friarstown operator. Roman Moon will carry the white and purple colours of Bolger's wife Jackie, once carried to major...

Shadwell homebred Albasheer (Ire) (Shamardal), a debut winner last July for trainer Owen Burrows before finishing second in the G2 Champagne S., could miss a Guineas bid this spring after meeting with a setback. "Unfortunately he's had a little bit of a niggle," said Burrows. "We're just in the process of investigating exactly what is bothering him. There are no immediate plans for him at the moment. "He certainly won't be making a Guineas trial, and I'd say it would be highly unlikely, depending on what we find, that he'd...

Ryan Moore, twice a winner of the G1 Investec Derby aboard Workforce (GB) (King's Best) in 2010 and Ruler of the World (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) in 2013, said he hopes the blue riband, delayed this year because of coronavirus complications, can remain at its historic home at Epsom Downs. The Jockey Club Racecourses announced earlier this month that its Guineas and Derby Festivals would be postponed indefinitely, and last weekend the British Horseracing Authority revealed that the Guineas' could take place in early June and the Derby and Oaks late...

Plans are currently on hold for dual G1 Dubai World Cup winner Thunder Snow (Ire) (Helmet {Aus}) after he was scratched from the GI Whitney H. on the day of the race as he spiked a temperature. He returned to Saeed bin Suroor's stable in Newmarket on Tuesday--and while the Breeders' Cup is still on the agenda, where he runs before then is up in the air. "He got back from Saratoga today," said Bin Suroor. "The horse ran a temperature, which was why we had to scratch him from...

Back in 2006, when the first two flashed past the winning post in the G1 Dewhurst S., they also earned themselves first and second places on the European Two-Year-Old Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings. Galileo's unbeaten son Teofilo topped the table by 1lb from Danehill's dual Group 1-winning son Holy Roman Emperor, who had also been beaten into second place by Teofilo in the G1 National S. Holy Roman Emperor, for his part, had won four of his remaining five starts, notably taking the G1 Phoenix S. and the G1 Prix Jean-Luc...

The Richard Hannon-trained juveniles Threat (Ire) (Footstepsinthesand {GB}) and Mystery Power (Ire) (No Nay Never) were both overturned at Goodwood last week, but the trainer said he is confident both colts will bounce back. Cheveley Park Stud's 'TDN Rising Star' Threat, who had finished second in the G2 Coventry S., was beaten 3/4 of a length in second in the G2 Richmond S. at Goodwood after a less than ideal trip. "I was disappointed he didn't win at Goodwood as I think the world of the horse, but they did...