Zarak

Plans for G1 Prix de Diane runner-up La Parisienne (Fr) (Zarak {Ire}) to race in America are on hold with connections opening the door to a tilt at the G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe after their star filly went down fighting behind Nashwa (GB) (Frankel {GB}) at Chantilly on Sunday.  It had been suggested that La Parisienne would be trained in America at some point in her career but part-owner Peter Bradley revealed on Monday that the filly will remain in the care of the father and son team...

Just when you thought a fully-charged Royal Ascot couldn't be topped, along came Hollie Doyle.  The royal meeting was sadly missing The Queen for all five days this year but, France's republican tendencies aside, there are few in the racing world who would deny that Doyle is now the queen of Chantilly after reaching yet another milestone to become the first woman to ride a Group 1 Classic winner in Europe. Her great triumph came aboard Nashwa (GB) (Frankel {GB}) for Imad Al Sagar, who was achieving an important landmark...

What an excellent weekend of European Classics, which featured a sprinkling of some intriguing "what ifs" to flavor what's to come in the months ahead. On Friday, Aidan O'Brien won his 41st British Classic--yes, you read correctly--when Tuesday (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}--Lillie Langtry {Ire}, by Danehill Dancer {Ire}) short-headed the unlucky John Gosden-trained Emily Upjohn (GB) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) after an exhilarating face-off in the waning stages of the G1 Cazoo Oaks at Epsom. It was a familiar affair in more ways than one. The fillies are by champion half-brothers,...

With Britain en fete in the midst of the Platinum Jubilee festivities, the Oaks and Derby fell slap-bang in the middle of a four-day bank holiday and, despite the absence of Her Majesty the Queen at Epsom, the meeting still offered much cause for celebration. Sir Michael Stoute is never one to blow his own horn, though he is often heard humming on Newmarket Heath while watching his horses work. And as one of British racing's senior trainers, on the royal roster to boot, he was a most fitting winning...

Ellie Whitaker and Tegan Clark clearly remember the empty silence that followed an email blast out to the industry upon the launch of WC Equine. "We had a list of trainers' emails," recalls Clark. "And we put together an email saying we're here, this is what we're doing, along with background of what we've done before, and emailed 93 of them." Whitaker takes up the story. "We got three responses, all saying good luck! It's about selling a product at the end of the day and we didn't have a...

It wouldn't be Craven week without a brisk wind blasting across Newmarket Heath, but for those of you considering spending afternoons paddock-side perusing the physical merits of some of this year's Classic contenders, the encouraging news is that the temperature is rising in East Anglia this week, along with the quality of action on the turf. France and Ireland are ahead of Britain on the Classic trials front, and there is plenty to reflect upon in that regard, but a brief look ahead to the Newmarket and Newbury trials this...

It is a question that has long fixated the bloodstock industry: which stallion can be caught as he rises to the top? As we know, those good stallions can be hard to find. Opportunity is naturally a key element to early success, but a stallion still needs to make the most of the chances afforded to him and for every one that lives up to expectations, there will be also be plenty who flop. As often said, horses are a great leveller and with that in mind, there is also...

Promising filly La Parisienne (Fr) (Zarak {Fr}) will be taking some new owners along for the ride during her 3-year-old campaign, with the Kentucky-based Peter Bradley having purchased 70% of the Yann and Carlos Lerner-trained filly on behalf of a racing partnership. The news was first reported by Jour De Galop. The remainder of the filly, who won her lone start at Deauville on Dec. 10 by five lengths, is owned by Marc Leonetti, JML Racing and Meridian International. "La Parisienne broke her maiden exceptionally well, so we think she...

Following positive starts to the sales year in Britain and Ireland, this week the midwinter auction action switches to France for the two-day Arqana February Sale, which starts on Tuesday in Deauville. Trade begins with a session of 85 horses in training, both Flat and Jumps, and then progresses to yearlings and 2-year-olds, followed by breeding stock.  A rare opportunity in this part of the world to buy a daughter of Deep Impact (Jpn)'s promising young son Kizuna (Jpn) is presented by lot 164, from the draft of Wertheimer et...

In this penultimate edition of the Value Sires Series, we look at stallions that had their first runners last year, and will therefore have their first 3-year-olds in 2022. With the numbers for 2021 tallied, this group actually appears to be a deep one, with plenty of them having done enough to go into their second years with a legitimate shot to still make it as a sire. While the last two cohorts produced runaway leaders in Mehmas (Ire) and Night Of Thunder (Ire), this year the riches were much...

It was extremely unlikely that any first-season sire this year would even get close to the record-breaking 56 winners for Mehmas (Ire) in 2020. That feat was made all the more remarkable by the fact that the start of the Flat season was delayed for several months by the pandemic-induced shutdown of racing. Leaving this huge tally aside, in any other year 35 first-crop winners at a strike-rate of 40% would be more than respectable, and it is this number, and £788,531 in progeny earnings in 2021, that sees Mehmas's...

When Aga Khan homebred Zarak (Fr) retired to stud at Haras de Bonneval in 2018, he boasted exemplary credentials: by the sire-making Dubawi (Ire), Zarak was a Group 1 winner out of the Aga Khan's great champion mare Zarkava (Ire) (Zamindar). Zarak did his best running at four when he won the G1 Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud over 2400 metres for trainer Alain de Royer Dupre, and therefore his first 2-year-olds in 2021 could have been somewhat forgiven should they have required time. They, however, most certainly did not. Zarak...