Winter Watch

The return of Seven Days earlier this week allows us to close the book on the stopgap that was Winter Watch. Before you know it the first Classics of the season will be upon us, leaving the cold, dark months that spanned 13 editions of this column since it first came into being in November as nothing but a distant memory. Albeit not too distant, I hope. After all, the whole reason why we embarked on this journey in the first place was with those very Classics in mind, informed...

Another 'TDN Rising Star' was born across the Channel on Tuesday, as We'll Defend (Fr) followed in the footsteps of Mandanaba (Fr) (Ghaiyyath {Ire}) and Tito Mo Cen (Ire) (Uncle Mo) by producing a sparkling debut display on the Chantilly polytrack. All told, We'll Defend is the sixth now-three-year-old to have earned 'TDN Rising Star' status in Europe since Winter Watch came into being in November, with Falakeyah (GB) (New Bay {GB}), Bowmark (GB) (Kingman {GB}) and Opera Ballo (Ire) (Ghaiyyath {Ire}) also having impressed in Britain in that time....

"An eagle-eyed former Timeform employee, Adam guarantees that if the next Notable Speech is out there, about to make his debut on the all-weather this winter before marching on to Classic glory, then he will spot him. No pressure, then." Those were the words of TDN colleague Emma Berry when she penned her final Seven Days column of 2024, teeing up what was to come in the column introduced in its stead for the winter. Now, in this 12th edition of Winter Watch, we've reached the stage where it's time...

For the second week in a row we start in France and on the polytrack at Chantilly, the scene of not one but two sizzling debut performances on Friday's card. The two newcomers blitzed their rivals by a cumulative margin of 11 lengths, with the four-length victory of Audubon Park (Fr) quickly being put in the shade by that of Tito Mo Cen (Ire) when he won the boys' equivalent race by nearly twice as far. The time clocked by the latter was also around 1.4 seconds faster as he...

Following a couple of notable performances in the last seven days, the time has come for a long overdue trip to France and a dive into an all-weather scene which is just as vibrant nowadays as that on this side of the Channel. For every Notable Speech (GB) there's been an Ace Impact (Ire), who made a successful debut on the all-weather at Cagnes-Sur-Mer in January 2023, before retiring at the end of that year as the unbeaten winner of the Prix du Jockey Club and Prix de l'Arc de...

The WhatsApp group titled TDN Europe was abuzz on Wednesday evening of last week, after the Charlie Appleby-trained Opera Ballo (Ire) had announced himself as potentially something out of the ordinary with a jet-propelled performance in the first division of the one-mile maiden at Kempton. "Big day for Ghaiyyath!!" pinged the first message from Brian Sheerin, barely seconds after Opera Ballo had powered past the line in a different postcode to his eight rivals, becoming the second first-time-out winner for his Kildangan Stud-based sire in the space of a few...

Tragedy struck Charlie Appleby and the Godolphin team in Dubai last week when their Measured Time (GB) (Frankel {GB}) lost his life in his quest for a second consecutive triumph in the G1 Jebel Hatta. A seven-time winner all told, with his other wins including last year's GI Manhattan Stakes at Saratoga, he was a terrific servant to connections and another star name for whom it all began on the all-weather. In fact, it will be exactly two years ago on Saturday that he ran out an emphatic debut winner...

After two consecutive weekends on the road viewing stallions, everywhere from Tally-Ho Stud to Haras de Bonneval, I now find myself chasing my tail in an attempt to catch up with the key all-weather action I've missed since the last edition of Winter Watch went to print over a fortnight ago. It would be hopeless trying to do justice to every three-year-old who has won a maiden or novice in that time, nor has that ever been the brief for this column. The main idea has always been to focus...

The all-weather action in Britain has had the floor to itself since Friday of last week, with the exception of two races at Chepstow on Sunday, before that card joined the growing list of National Hunt abandonments as a result of the extreme weather conditions which have devastated parts of the country. Our thoughts are with all of those who have been worst affected, including the team at Whatton Manor Stud, who posted a video to their X feed which showed at least two paddocks on their farm in Nottinghamshire...

New year but the same old brief for Winter Watch, with the horses who officially turned three on January 1 set to continue under our supervision in the hope that the all-weather programme might yet throw up another Classic contender or two. Remember, Notable Speech (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) didn't make his racecourse debut until January 27 last year. We've seen plenty of interesting action since the last column before Christmas, and some interesting action we didn't see quite so much of because of the fog. All of it is going...

When City Of Troy (Justify) and his entourage descended on Southwell for a racecourse gallop on that feel-good afternoon back in September, it was commented on that the number of racing fans there to see him--thought to be 700-plus--was larger than would usually turn up for a typical day of racing there. The Nottinghamshire track traditionally staged low-grade fare which offered no real prospect of seeing a horse with talent even remotely comparable to that of the Derby winner. It was also commented on that the test provided by the...

"Look away Mick Appleby, but there has arguably been no finer exponent of the new and improved all-weather programme in the last decade than the Gosden stable, home to a handful of Classic/Group 1 winners who learned the ropes at the likes of Kempton and Newcastle in the depths of winter." That comment featured in our first installment of Winter Watch, followed by a promise to put that illustrious roll of honour under the spotlight at a later stage when it seemed appropriate. Now, following a week in which John...