Measured Time

For the fourth consecutive year, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum's Godolphin topped the list of leading individual breeders in North America in 2024, with earnings of $23,205,149. Runners listed as bred by the operation made 1,161 starts for a record of 226 wins, 169 runner-up efforts and 186 thirds. No fewer than 10 Grade I races in North America in 2024 were taken by Godolphin-breds, led by Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), who won his second Breeders' Cup Turf in three years and is a finalist for the Male...

The decision to base an American satellite at Saratoga has proved largely full of fruit for Godolphin, with victories here, there and everywhere. The punting public thought the outfit's success on these shores would continue in Saturday's GI Resorts World Casino Sword Dancer Stakes, as Measured Time (GB) (Frankel {GB}), winner of the GI Resorts World Casino Manhattan Stakes during the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, was favored at 85 cents on the dollar, while Silver Knott (GB) (Lope de Vega {Ire}) was the 13-10 second choice off back-to-back graded wins...

When 'TDN Rising Star' Thorpedo Anna (Fast Anna) enters the gate for Saturday's $1.25-million GI Travers Stakes at Saratoga, it'll be more than a sporting gesture on the part of the ownership group and trainer Ken McPeek. The conditioner is rolling the dice against a field that includes three other Grade I winners--an oft-brilliant, but sometimes unpredictable reigning Eclipse Award champion, a Classic winner over the course and distance and a seven-figure yearling whose full potential has yet to be realized. Sure, Thorpedo Anna could have faced her peers in...

Outside the racing world it was impossible not to be moved over the last week by the commemorative ceremonies marking the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Plenty of people in the bloodstock business will be familiar with the lovely countryside around Deauville, best known to us as home to France's Thoroughbred breeding heartland. The serenity of rural Normandy makes it hard to comprehend the appalling ravages of war that were played out there on the beaches and in the bocage all those decades ago.  I would urge anyone who is a...

A half-dozen years ago, Charlie Appleby mapped out a plan to send that year's G1 Dubai Sheema Classic winner Hawkbill (Kitten's Joy) to Hong Kong in an attempt to become the first overseas winner of the G1 Standard Chartered Champions and Chater Cup. Those plans were ultimately scuppered, owing perhaps in some part to a down-the-field finish by a then-unexposed Blue Point (Ire) (Shamardal) in the G1 Chairman's Sprint Prize the month prior. In the form of Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}), Appleby surmised that he had the 'right horse'...

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. Wednesday's Insights features a half-brother to GISW Rebel's Romance. 6.30 Kempton, Mdn, £7,000, 3yo/up, 8f (AWT) MEASURED TIME (GB) (Frankel {GB}) is a significant newcomer from the Charlie Appleby stable as a half-brother to last year's GI Breeders' Cup Turf hero Rebel's Romance (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}). From the family...