Sally Ann Grassick

When Sunway (Fr) (Galiway {GB}) wrapped up his two-year-old season with a win in the G1 Criterium International at Saint-Cloud, it was both a confirmation that his sire's early success was no fluke, and that his breeder has an uncanny knack at stallion-making. In 2007, Guy Pariente took a gamble on a horse no one else wanted to stand at stud and built an entire farm around him. Within a few years, Kendargent was one of the most popular stallions in France. So when he came up with another unheralded...

Featuring panelists Kevin Blake, Stuart Boman, Ado McGuinness, Jason Morris, and John Oxx and hosted by Sally Ann Grassick, the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders' Association Flat Seminar will be held on Friday, June 30. Set for the Curragh Racecourse, the seminar will begin at 2:30 p.m. To register, please email [email protected]. The event is free to attend for ITBA, AIRO, and IRTA members, please quote your membership number or organisation when registering. For non-members who wish to attend there is a €15 entrance fee which includes raceday admission.

Amid the frenzied trade of the Tuesday evening session at last month's Tattersalls December Mares Sale, there were plenty of plaudits being passed around, and rightly so, for the sellers and the purchasers of the session's most sought-after mares. Partaking in a lower-profile-but equally deserved--celebration was the Grassick family of Newtown Stud, which had bred two of the top five lots at the sale: the Group 1-placed 2-year-old filly Flotus (Ire) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) (lot 1798), sold to Katsumi Yoshida for 1-million gns, and the listed-winning and group-placed Shades Of Blue...