Lezoo

As the darkness draws in on the Monday and Tuesday afternoons of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale, it is a signal for the those around Park Paddocks to head ring-wards for the bloodstock world's version of captivating theatre. Who present, shoulder to shoulder in the packed auditorium over recent years, can forget moments such as the sale of Marsha (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) for 6 million gns? Even her trainer Sir Mark Prescott, always ready with a witticism, was for once lost for words in the drama of it all.  A...

It's the time of year which most trainers must dread as they juggle spending time in their yards and at the races with attending yearling sales here, there and everywhere. One who will doubtless be patrolling the sales grounds of Doncaster and Baden-Baden this week with an extra pep in his step is Ralph Beckett. Marc Chan, one of Beckett's principal owners, had four runners in the past week and all four won. Even more remarkably, three of those victories came in stakes contests on the same day at three...

LEXINGTON, KY -- Though introducing no fissure of light into the bruised grey sky hanging over Keeneland, daybreak on Wednesday nonetheless spread an array of crimson and saffron, dazzling as any sunrise, into the trees peering over the rituals of training track and shed row. And for those supervising one horse in particular, it felt especially apt that a final, lingering blaze of autumn glory should be preserved against the fading of the year. For if he could win the GI FanDuel Breeders' Cup Mile here on Saturday, Kinross (GB)...

NEWMARKET, UK--There has been no respite for the hardy consignors and their staff since last week's heady renewal of Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. No sooner had the hammer fallen on lot 549 than the next batch of yearlings came prancing onto the sales ground, ready for three days of inspections ahead of Book 2, which begins its three-day run from 10am on Monday. This is the week that really requires stamina from all participants: three new books to complete the October sale by Saturday, with the...

NEWMARKET, UK-It is going to require a Herculean effort to plunder the best of what is on offer at Tattersalls, according to leading bloodstock agent Alex Elliott who, on the eve of the eagerly-anticipated Book 1 session, described the stock on offer as being "the cream of the crop".  With Sheikh Mohommad, Sheikha Hissa Hamdan Al Maktoum, Aidan O'Brien, John Gosden, Yoshito Tahagi, Chad Brown and a host of American and foreign buyers in attendance at Newmarket on Monday, Elliott is expecting more mayhem in the sales ring this week. ...

With the leaves on the turn and rugs back on the horses after the hottest summer in many a year, it may feel as though we are coming to the end of the season but by juvenile Group 1 contests in Europe we are really only halfway through. So far, No Nay Never's sons Little Big Bear (Ire) and Blackbeard (Ire) (No Nay Never), both trained by Aidan O'Brien, have claimed three between them - the Phoenix S., Prix Morny and Middle Park S., while the Joseph O'Brien-trained Al Riffa...

Newmarket's three-day Cambridgeshire meeting's titular event, the annual nine-furlong cavalry charge boasting a purse of £200,000, is overshadowed by two Group 1 championships on a bumper Saturday of juvenile action at Headquarters and beyond. First of the elite-level heats is the six-furlong G1 Juddmonte Cheveley Park S., with ante-post markets pointing to an effective match between Coolmore and Westerberg's Meditate (Ire) (No Nay Never) and Rockcliffe Stud's homebred Trillium (GB) (No Nay Never). In reality, it is an open edition which also features G2 Lowther S. victrix Swingalong (GB) (Showcasing...

An unusually quiet Sunday on the European circuit allows a pause before the meeting that should only ever be referred to as Glorious Goodwood, and also some reflection on a truly special result at Ascot on Saturday afternoon. William Muir, a baby-faced veteran of the training ranks who now shares his licence with Chris Grassick, assessed the greatest win of his 30-year training career as "a big, big moment", and he deserves to enjoy that moment for days and weeks to come.  By now, the story of Pyledriver (GB) (Harbour...

Such a high-profile split, whether temporary or not, between Frankie Dettori and the John and Thady Gosden stable, has naturally dominated the headlines of the last week. Whatever one's thoughts of the events during and post-Royal Ascot, there was no mistaking the affection in which Dettori is held among racegoers as he was cheered back into the winner's enclosure on his sole ride in Britain since the Saturday of the royal meeting. He has nothing booked for this week either, but intriguingly Dettori has been snapped up by Charlie Appleby...