Lightning Spear (GB)

The name of brilliant 2yo Dundalk winner (and later G2-second) Capulet (Justify) gets one thinking, with the obvious connection to the famous tale of Romeo and Juliet. It also makes perfect sense that the dam is called Wedding Vow (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}): Shakespeare's play is very much about the tragic conflict between two different matrimonial projects--the arranged marriage of Juliet with older man Count Paris versus the young girl's unlikely and passionate love for her "only hate" Romeo Montague. The play could very well be re-titled "Two Weddings and Five...

Zoustar (Aus), the sire of the Cartier 2-Year-Old Filly and G1 Cheveley Park S. heroine Lezoo (GB), will stand for £30,000 at Tweenhills Stud in 2023. One of the leading sires in Australia, the reverse shuttler stood for £25,000 in 2022. He leads a four-strong roster for Qatar Racing that also includes G1 2000 Guineas hero Kameko at £15,000, down from £20,000 this year. His first foals will be yearlings in 2023. Havana Gold (Ire) has been trimmed to £10,000 from £12,500. His five 2022 stakes winners are led by...

Tweenhills Farm and Stud's Lightning Spear (GB) (by Pivotal {GB}) became the latest first-season sire to get off the mark in 2022 when the Eve Johnson Houghton-trained Greased Lightning (GB) scored on debut at Chepstow. Sent to post as a 6-1 shot, Anthony Pye-Jeary and David Ian's chestnut quickly recovered from a tardy start to occupy the perfect stalking position on the rail in the card's seven-furlong maiden. Having to go around the front trio inside the last two furlongs, he gained the advantage 50 yards from the line en...

The catalogues for the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up and Horses-in-Training Sale were released on Wednesday. There are currently 206 2-year-olds and 120 horses-in-training ready to go under the hammer on Apr. 28. Beginning at 9 a.m. local time on Apr. 26, the breezes will take place over Newmarket's Rowley Mile Racecourse. They will be shown live on the Tattersalls website and on the Tattersalls Facebook page. Graduates of the sale won group races in Britain, France, Germany and the U.S. in 2021, led by top-level winners Trueshan (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}) and...

Stallion and foal parades for breeders were held at Tweenhills Farm and Stud on Monday. All four stallions-Zoustar (Aus), Lightning Spear (GB), Havana Gold (Ire), and Kameko-were on display, while the latter's first foals put on show. Tweenhills will also open its gates to breeders prior to racing during the Cheltenham Festival from Mar. 14-18. A stallion parade will take place daily beginning at 9 a.m., which will be followed by a procession of foals by G1 2000 Guineas hero Kameko. If interested in attending, please reach out to Alice...

Fees for the quartet of stallions at Tweenhills Farm and Stud were released by Qatar Racing on Tuesday. Reverse-shuttle stallion Zoustar (Aus) (Northern Meteor {Aus}) leads the roster at £25,000. A champion first- , second-, and third-season sire in the land of his birth where he commands a fee of A$154,000, the bay's first Northern Hemisphere yearlings were well received in 2021. They averaged £76,305 and 16 yearlings made £100,000 or over in Europe. G1 QIPCO 2000 Guineas hero Kameko (Kitten's Joy), who won the fastest guineas in history in...

In the third installation of our Value Sires series, we will dig into the sire crop with its first foals born in 2020, and therefore with its first yearlings this year. After some two years in waiting since most of these retired to stud, the judges got the chance at the recently concluded foal sales to lay eyes on the first progeny of most of them, and though it is still incredibly early days, their opinions, corroborated through their actions in the ring, will have an impact on the perception...

An online virtual stallion parade of the Tweenhills 2021 roster is now available to view (click here), as breeders are currently unable to observe the Qatar Racing stallions in person due to COVID-19 restrictions. The parade, featuring stallions Kameko (Kitten's Joy, £25,000), Havana Gold (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}, £7,500), and Lightning Spear (GB) (Pivotal {GB}, £5,000), is hosted by ITV Racing presenter Francesca Cumani. There is also a segment on Zoustar (Aus) (Northern Meteor {Aus}, £25,000), but he has not returned from Australia yet to cover his third book of Northern...

Kameko (Kitten's Joy-Sweeter Still {Ire}, by Rock Of Gibraltar {Ire}), who won this year's G1 2000 Guineas in race record time, will stand for £25,000 at Tweenhills Stud next year. In addition to the Guineas, Kameko won the G1 Vertem Futurity Trophy at two and the G2 Joel S. on Sept. 25 against elders. He was fourth this summer in the G1 Epsom Derby, G1 Sussex S. and G1 Juddmonte International. "It was hugely exciting to have Kameko arrive at Tweenhills last night and after a gruelling 40-hour journey from...

"It's one of those cruel things where you don't know whether to laugh or cry." There is a noticeable conflict of emotions, too, in David Redvers's voice as he talks about some of the first foals on the ground by Tweenhills's late Cartier Horse of the Year Roaring Lion (Kitten's Joy). They are as good as could be hoped for, but they will be all there will be. "If the horse was still alive, we'd be making some deafening clamour over the quality of the foals he has produced," Redvers...

In the second installment of TDN Europe's Value Sires Series, we take a look at the sire crop with its first foals due this season. While the first real clues will be laid out once the foals actually hit the ground, many of this intake had in-foal mares go through the ring at the latest round of breeding stock sales, thus providing a minimal amount of data to tear apart. Numbers of mares bred are taken from the Weatherbys Return of Mares published in November 2019. The covering sire returns...