Starman

It may have come three days later than expected, but Dubai Honour (Ire) claimed his third Australian Group 1, and fourth of his career, in Tuesday's rescheduled Tancred Stakes at Rosehill. The seven-year-old has been a model of consistency for his owner Mohamed Obaida and trainer William Haggas. He's not only won nine times, but he has also been placed nine times, in top-class contests from Ascot to Sha Tin, accruing prize-money in excess of £4.5m. Dubai Honour's sire Pride Of Dubai (Aus), winner of the G1 Blue Diamond Stakes...

In the pantheon of propaganda, Tally-Ho Stud would hardly get a look in compared to its competitors, so when Tony O'Callaghan says "the vibes are good" about Lady Iman (Ire) (Starman {GB}) ahead of her debut in the two-year-old maiden at Dundalk on Friday, it can be taken as a major positive.  Lady Iman is a significant runner for O'Callaghan given she is the first representation of Tally-Ho Stud's first-season sire Starman in Ireland this year. She boasts a pretty smart pedigree, too, being a half-sister to West Acre (Ire),...

It's too soon, isn't it, to be thinking about this year's first-season sires? Well, not according to bookmaker Paddy Power, which has already released a market on this year's championship for Britain and Ireland, installing Starman (GB) as odds-on favourite to take the crown. There are a number of good reasons to imagine that this might be the case. For a start, the Group 1-winning sprinter stands at Tally-Ho Stud, which enjoys loyal support from many commercial breeders as well as backing their own stallions to the hilt. In recent...

When Michelangelo sculpted David, you'd imagine he took the time to stand back, blow the dust off of his brow and marvel at his masterpiece, wouldn't you? Like David, Tally-Ho Stud has taken years of hard chiseling but you must be living in Lalaland if you think Tony O'Callaghan is a man for slowing down and taking in all that has been achieved.  If there's one thing O'Callaghan hates more than arrogance it's idleness. With 200 mares on the farm, considerably more yearlings and foals coming through the system, a...

It is the most wonderful time of the year. No, I'm not talking about Christmas, but the upcoming foal sales.  What is it that we all love about this time of year? Surely much of the attraction about the foal sales revolves around seeing the progeny of first-season sires and predicting who is here to stay and who will be banished to the memory banks in the years to come.  The best part of the whole thing is you get to put your money where your mouth is and there...

It is not exactly a state secret that the team at Tally-Ho Stud, to use that old phrase, prefer their horses to do the talking. This could be misconstrued as a lack of friendliness but if you talk to other members of the bloodstock community about Tony and Anne O'Callaghan and their sons Roger and Henry, you will almost certainly hear variations of the phrase "lovely people". Indeed, within the family kitchen at the stone farmhouse just a short stretch up from the stallion yard a warm welcome is issued...

Covering numbers are more an indication of fashion than of success but, this being, as we so often hear, "a numbers game", it is worth having a closer look at the Flat stallions in Britain and Ireland who have been gifted books into three figures this year. We will also be looking in more depth at the French covering numbers in the coming days. According to the statistics recently published by Weatherbys in the annual Return of Mares, there were 62 stallions who covered 100 or more mares in 2022,...

The makers of the popular BBC programme Country File could easily film a riveting episode just within the 700 acres of Nottinghamshire countryside that is Whatton Manor Stud. The farm is home to Longhorn cattle and rare breeds such as Wensleydale sheep and Suffolk Punch horses. But its main business is of course the breeding and rearing of thoroughbreds, something the Player family has done increasingly well in the 40 years since Peter Player inherited the farm from his aunt. An inheritance of a plot of such rich land deep...

Starman (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}--Northern Star {Ire}, by Montjeu {Ire}), who was favourite for Saturday's G1 QIPCO British Champions Sprint S., has been retired from racing after suffering a minor injury. He will stand next season at Tally-Ho Stud in Ireland. "It's a huge shame as we were really looking forward to Saturday and confirming him to be the champion that he is," said Starman's trainer Ed Walker. "I've always thought he was the best around and he's certainly the best I've ever trained." Bred and raced by David Ward,...

One horse overshadowed all other news items of the past week as the bloodstock world came to terms with the death of Galileo (Ire) at the age of 23.  Fulsome tributes have been paid to him from across the globe with the overwhelming feeling being that we will never see his like again. It is worth bearing in mind, however, that many of us felt the same when his own extraordinary sire Sadler's Wells died 10 years ago. That colossus of the breeding world appeared in the third or fourth...

Rising star sprinter Starman (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) is on course for the July 10 G1 July Cup, with trainer Ed Walker saying he expects ground conditions to be in the 4-year-old's favour. The David Ward homebred was forced to miss last weekend's G1 Diamond Jubilee S. after significant rain fell at Royal Ascot; that course is the scene of Starman's lone defeat, where he beat two home in last year's G1 British Champions Sprint S. over the soft ground. The lightly raced 4-year-old was the first-up winner of the...

If you asked a trainer to design the perfect owner, he or she may well come up with something very close to David Ward. His horses would likely agree, too. Ward had two runners as York's Dante meeting and they both returned to Ed Walker's stable victorious. The 4-year-old homebred Starman (GB) (Dutch Art {GB}) won the G2 Duke of York Clipper Logistics S. on the opening day, followed 48 hours later by the listed success of Primo Bacio (Ire) (Awtaad {Ire}). Both now head to Royal Ascot with Group...