Ten Sovereigns

Monday's email bulletin from the The New York Times told us that Britain is largely apathetic about Saturday's coronation. I guess they'd know, being on the other side of the Atlantic and all, but the bunting had already been strung through various Cambridgeshire and Suffolk villages by Sunday. In the leafy shires at least, the monarchists still hold sway. On Friday at Newmarket, the King Charles II Stakes will be run in honour of the 'Merry Monarch' whose patronage made the Suffolk town famous around the world as an important...

Royal Ascot is calling for American owner Leonard Green and his son Jonathan after Do It With Style (Ire) (Ten Sovereigns {Ire}), named after the family's first Grade I winner from over 30 years ago, marked herself down as a top-notch prospect on debut for Donnacha O'Brien at the Curragh on Monday. This is becoming a familiar success story for the Green family in Ireland who, frustrated with competing with the big guns in the sales ring back home in the States, decided to come up with a plan to...

The market has reacted to the blistering start Blue Point (Ire) has had with his two-year-olds with the Kildangan-based stallion trimmed into 5-6 favouritism for first-season sire honours with Fitzdares.  Blue Point is operating at a 50 per cent strike-rate, with four winners on the board already in Britain and Ireland, as well as another in France. He has also enjoyed notable success with his offspring in the sales ring at the domestic breeze-up sales.  The in-demand youngster leads Ten Sovereigns (Ire), whose only runner in Britain and Ireland was...

It's early-February and already the Flat enthusiasts are getting excited about what stallion will end the season as champion first-season sire. A futile exercise, one would have thought? Not a bit of it. Even the greatest handlers of young stock, Malcolm Bastard, Alan McCabe, Joseph O'Brien, Conor Hoban and Dick Brabazon, men who know better than most the folly that comes with predicting 2-year-old talent, are keen to have their say on which up-and-coming stallion can make the biggest splash this season.  O'Brien is sticking loyal to Ten Sovereigns (Ire)...

Blue Point (Ire) has been installed as the 2-1 favourite to be crowned leading first-season Flat sire in Britain and Ireland by Paddy Power. Ballyhane Stud's Soldier's Call (GB) has been inserted at 5-2 next best in the betting while Coolmore's Ten Sovereigns (Ire) has been quoted at odds of 3-1. Tally-Ho Stud, responsible for two of the past three champion first-season sires Mehmas (Ire) and Cotai Glory (GB), are represented by 4-1 chance Inns Of Court (Ire). It's 10-1 the field. Blue Point stands at Kildangan Stud for €35,000...

A large part of the fun that comes with following racing and the bloodstock game is predicting the future. Who will win the Derby? Who might top the Orby Sale? What freshman sires are here to stay and which ones will drift into the abyss? Well, we've looked deep into the TDN Europe crystal ball for 2023 to see if we can come up with the answers to the burning questions for the year ahead. Enjoy! January If you think he had a good Christmas, wait until you see how...

TDN: First job in the Thoroughbred industry? Believe it or not, the one I'm in! I have worked for Tattersalls now for 22 years, having answered an advert for a marketing executive in the Racing Post back in 2000. I had previously run a very amateur racing website called Ausracing, but since it brought me no income, it could hardly be called a job. TDN: Biggest influence on your career? Always a hard one, but perhaps it was the friend who took me to Sandown racecourse in Melbourne's Eastern suburbs...

The insatiable demand for foals was evident in the figures recorded at Goffs last week with turnover rising 16% to €29,561,000 and the average climbing 16% to €40,110. At the top end of the market, Kingman (GB) dominated with three foals by the Juddmonte-based stallion selling for a combined €1,540,000 and one of Europe's leading pinhookers Philipp Stauffenberg signing for the €550,000 top lot by the sire.  Tally-Ho Stud may be best known for being sellers but they pipped Stauffenberg for the biggest spenders title by signing for 19 foals...

NEWMARKET, UK -- "Trickledown" felt rather too contentious, given what was meanwhile happening to its proponents out there in the real world. In this environment, after all, the original label of "horse-and-sparrow economics" would always have conveyed the theory rather more intelligibly. Some alternative word was required on Friday, then, to describe how a rampant market at the front end of the Tattersalls October Sale was filtering somewhat more quietly into the base of the pyramid. In the end, the second half of Book 3--in which momentum reliably ebbs relative...

More records were broken at the Goffs Sportsman's Sale on Thursday as David Ryan went to €300,000, the highest price ever paid for a yearling at this sale, to secure a Ten Sovereigns (Ire) filly (lot 713) on behalf of Rabbah Bloodstock from Abbeville Stud. Trade sky-rocketed at the Orby Sale on Tuesday and Wednesday and the opening session of the two-day Sportsman's Sale at Goffs was much the same. Of the 245 yearlings offered, 217 found new homes, representing a clearance rate of 89%. However, what was most impressive...

The first major yearling sale of the autumn in Britain or Ireland, the Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale provided entertainment from the beginning to the end, but most importantly, boasted impressive figures. Brian Sheerin was in attendance and discusses the major talking points from the sale. Figures on the up The team at Goffs UK could hardly have wished for a better start to the Premier Yearling Sale. The day one figures were off the charts. Of the 218 lots offered on Tuesday, 199 were sold, representing a clearance rate...

'Industry heavyweights' seems to have been the buzz phrase of the last few weeks, and we have a few of those in our long-running 12-to-follow competition organised by my husband every Flat and National Hunt season. Those competing this summer include several leading Irish stud masters, bloodstock agents, trainers, breeders, sales company executives, and the head of the Tote. And they are all currently trailing in the wake of an 11-year-old boy who was shrewd enough to include Little Big Bear in his list. What a selection that was. Mind...