Twilight Son

NEWMARKET, UK -- It has become the tradition for the Tattersalls February Sale to be preceded by the TBA Flat Stallion Parade and this year's event contained the added incentive of a potential free entry to next year's December Foal Sale. Breeders who booked a nomination to one of the 10 stallions on the day have been automatically entered into a free draw to win one of five places at the 2025 sale for the resulting offspring.  With nine of the 10 stallions stabled in the Left Yard at Park...

Pinatubo (Ire) hardened his reputation as one of the most exciting young stallions in Europe at the Doncaster Premier Yearling Sale when a colt by the freshman sire led the day two trade when selling to Godolphin at £180,000. With Anthony Stroud and the rest of the regular Godolphin buying team nipping away from Goffs early to make it to Germany for the BBAG Sale at the weekend, Jono Mills was left in charge of securing the Pinatubo colt from Longview Stud.  Mills said, "He was bought on behalf of...

NEWMARKET, UK--Trueshan (Fr) (Planteur {Ire}) may have been overturned in Wednesday's G3 Sagaro S. at Ascot, but the five-time group-winning stayer remains a great advertisement of the diversity of horses on offer across the range of breeze-up sales in Europe. We've seen plenty of those dubbed as 'Royal Ascot two-year-olds' over the last week or so, and as the British leg of the breeze-up action comes to a close at Tattersalls on Thursday, the focus generally adjusts slightly to more of a later-maturing specimen. It was at the Guineas Sale...

Last year, Robbie Mills of RMM Bloodstock brought one horse to the Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-up Sale and scored a dream pinhooking result. A year on and that same filly, now known as Naomi Lapaglia (GB) (Awtaad {Ire}), is an intended starter in the QIPCO 1,000 Guineas after winning her sole run at two. The dream continues. But before Mills can look forward to next Sunday on the Rowley Mile, he first has another four breezers to put through their paces for the Guineas Sale on Thursday. The quartet is shaping...

It is perhaps at this level of the market that bookings have not yet been finalised for this year's matings. While a number of those named here have since moved up in fee bracket on the back of success with runners and subsequent market response, there is still plenty of value to be found in the hope that stallions coming through could be similarly upwardly mobile. The aim of this exercise has been to show the average profit for stallions at each of four different levels of the market according...

As the 2022 breeding season approaches, we bring our Value Sires series to a close by shining the spotlight on 10 sires with their first crops four and older that appear poised to deliver breeders value. Though it seems at times as if the chasm between the elite proven sires and the unproven pretenders is ever-widening, driven by the often ruthless nature of the auction marketplace, there is still value to be found among the lesser-priced proven sires. We have opted to make the cutoff fee for this exercise £/€20,000,...

Scott Heider has privately purchased listed-winning 3-year-old filly Twilight Spinner (GB) (Twilight Son {GB}), who has joined trainer Joseph O'Brien. A £30,000 Goffs UK Premier Yearling Sale purchase by Jason Kelly, Twilight Spinner was third at first asking at Pontefract in April for Hambleton Racing and trainer David O'Meara before breaking her maiden at Ripon. She won the six furlong Listed Cecil Frail S. at Haydock by 6 1/2 lengths on May 21. "Kevin Blake picked her out for Scott and she looks like she's a progressive filly," said O'Brien,...

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. Today's Observations features a recent breeze-up sale topper. 3.10 Naas, Cond, €37,500, 2yo, 5fT CADAMOSTO (IRE) (No Nay Never) has been a non-runner on four occasions either side of his impressive winning debut from the re-opposing Silver Surfer (GB) (Caravaggio) over this trip at Dundalk last month, so it...

DONCASTER, UK--Look, we all know to refrain from any bold pronouncements in such an uncertain world. But the same market that was last year first to be broadsided by the pandemic has now made consecutive statements: first one of cautious optimism and now, remarkably, one of record-breaking confidence. For if we left Newmarket last week reminding ourselves that a single swallow does not a summer make, then flight after flight seemed to fill the air at the Goffs UK Breeze-Up Sale. Whatever the ups and downs that inevitably still await,...

Sunday's card at Milan saw British-based sires Adaay (Ire) and Twilight Son (GB) strike with their first winners in the opening two races. 1st-Milan, €17,600, Mdn, 2yo, 1000mT, :59.20. DOCTOR STRANGE (GB) (c, 2, Adaay {Ire}--Mystic Jade {GB}, by Raven's Pass) was fast from the gates on debut but was soon overtaken by Davie's Spirit (GB) (Charm Spirit {Ire}) on his inside. Tracking that rival through the opening furlongs, Doctor Strange pulled his way to the lead with a quarter mile to run and drew off to win by a...

Royal Applause (GB), a stalwart of the Royal Studs who has been retired from covering duties since 2014, has enjoyed something of a renaissance in recent years largely thanks to his son Acclamation (GB) and grandson Dark Angel (Ire). Numerically, Gutaifan (Ire) led the first-season sires' list last season and he is one of at least eight sons of Dark Angel at stud in Europe. In 2020, two of those will have their first runners, but it is a son of Dark Angel's sire Acclamation who is tipped for the...