ITB_December2025

DECEMBER 2025

INSIDE

STALLION REVIEW 2025

Edmond Mahony on plans at Tattersalls | The National Stud’s roster and new sire Diego Velazquez

Walker Hancock of Claiborne and Headley Bell of Mill Ridge Farm talk US Turf sires | Ace Stud and Shaquille

Rubbing House by Jane Braithwaite

Lead by example Bated Breath

DANSILI - TANTINA (DISTANT VIEW)

fee: £5,000

Chaldean

FRANKEL - SUELITA (DUTCH ART)

fee: £20,000

Frankel

GALILEO - KIND (DANEHILL)

fee: £350,000

Kingman

INVINCIBLE SPIRIT - ZENDA (ZAMINDAR)

fee: £125,000

Lead Artist

DUBAWI - OBLIGATE (FRANKEL)

fee: £12,500

Oasis Dream

GREEN DESERT - HOPE (DANCING BRAVE)

fee: £15,000 Contact Ed Sackville, Shane Horan or Tom Parry +44 (0)1638 731115 | nominations@juddmonte.co.uk www.juddmonte.com

Lead Artist

From Juddmonte’s most iconic family

The Group 1-winning miler by Dubawi, from the stallion-making family of Hasili

Won the Group 1 Lockinge Stakes (in the second fastest time in history) defeating Guineas winners Rosallion, Notable Speech and Fallen Angel

LEADING BRITISH-BASED FIRST SEASON SIRE

Lope Y Fernandez

£6,000 1st October SLF

BREED FOR THE BIG DAY

Rajasinghe

£3,000 1st October SLF

7-TIME GROUP 1 WINNER

£10,000 Live Foal

Joe Bradley 07706 262046 | joe.bradley@nationalstud.co.uk

Jamie Jackson 07794 459108 | jamie.jackson@nationalstud.co.uk

Ed Preece 07772 159927 | edward.preece@nationalstud.co.uk

The Leading European second-season sire

FIVE WAYS

By global earnings and Group winners-runners

NEW CENTURY

1st 2025 Sirenia Stakes, Gr.3

1st 2024 Summer Stakes, Gr.1

1st 2024 Stonehenge Stakes, Listed

3rd 2025 American Turf Stakes, Gr.1

*of sires with >50 runners as of 24/09/2025

2000 Guineas winner

1st 2024 Royal Lodge Stakes, Gr.2

1st 2025 Nashville Derby, Gr.3

3rd 2024 Futurity Trophy Stakes, Gr.1

1st 2025 Prix des Lilas, Listed

One of the best 2YOs of his generation (from 6f to 1m)

1st Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf-Gr.1, 1m, Del Mar (PICTURED)

1st Futurity Stakes-Gr.2, 7f, Curragh (defying a penalty)

1st Railway Stakes-Gr.2, 6f, Curragh

1st Maiden, 6f, Curragh

2nd National Stakes-Gr.1, 7f, Curragh

raced wide around the home bend, but he was good enough to overcome that, finishing strongly to win cosily

RACING POST on the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf

Track record-breaking Guineas winner

1st Poule d’Essai des Poulains-Gr.1, 1m, ParisLongchamp (PICTURED) Previous winners include Shamardal, Lope de Vega and St Mark’s Basilica.

1st 2000 Guineas Trial-Gr.3, 7f., Leopardstown

2nd St James’s Palace Stakes-Gr.1, 1m, Royal Ascot

New for 2026 Fee: €20,000

Group 1 Breeders’ Cup winner at 2

Highest rated European 3yo over 5 furlongs in 2024

FIRST CROP FOALS IN 2026

Fee: €15,000

KING OF STEEL

The Highest Rated son of Wootton Bassett at stud in Europe

Gr.1 Champion Stakes winner

FIRST CROP FOALS IN 2026

Fee: €15,000

GOOD GUESS

Group 1 winning son of Sire of Sires KODIAC 420,000gns yearling

FIRST CROP YEARLINGS IN 2026

Fee: €12,500

The source of Black-Type 2yos

His Group winners in 2025 include BABOUCHE, PIPSY, LAO TZU, etc. 2025 Yearlings made up to 625,000gns

Fee: €20,000

+353 (0) 4493-48450

www.tallyhostud.com @HoStud

MARANOA CHARLIE

Group 1 winner by Wootton Bassett

Winner of Gr.1 Prix de la Foret, 2025

A Gr.3 winner at 2 and winner of two further Group races at 3

Fee: €20,000

PERSIAN FORCE

Group 2 winning and Triple

Group 1 placed son of MEHMAS

First Crop Yearlings in 2025 made 200,000gns, 135,000gns, etc.

Fee: €10,000

Leading Sire in Europe in 2025

Sire of 9 Gr.1 winners, including BELIEVING and WISE APPROACH in 2025

Fee: €70,000

Champion First Crop Sire 2025

Over 30 individual 2yo winners, 4 Group winners & 11 Black Type horses from his first crop in 2025

Fee: €40,000 STARMAN

KODI BEAR

BOUTTEMONT

DUAL STAKES WINNING SON OF ACCLAMATION

His first son to retire to stud in Ireland since Mehmas in 2017

Excellent first crop of foals- strong, correct and fluent-moving individuals bearing a striking resemblance to their sire and grandsire

KODI BEAR

CONTINUING TO UPGRADE HIS MARES

100% of Stakes Winners are the only Black Type Winners out of their Dams (to 3/11/2025)

Sire of 24 Individual Stakes Performers including Gr.2 Winning Juveniles LIFEPLAN, LEOVANNI & GO BEARS GO

STATE OF REST

FOUR TIME GR.1 WINNER AND €3,400,000

Top Rated Older Horse in Ireland and France in 2022 (9.5-10.5f.)

First crop yearlings made a strong impression at the sales with prices including 300,000 gns, 155,000 gns, €155,000, €150,000, €140,000, €130,000, €115,000, etc.

UNQUESTIONABLE

GR.1 BREEDERS’ CUP WINNING 2-Y-O, CLASSIC PERFORMER AT 3

Out of a Sea The Stars mare from the stallion-making BEST IN SHOW family responsible for champion sire REDOUTE’S CHOICE

By Champion sire WOOTTON BASSETT, a powerful influence for class and precocity

21 Stallion fees 2026

Too Darn Hot joins the elite stallions standing at six-figure fees, Starman enjoys a 400 per cent increase and 43 stallions will be standing at lower fees than in 2025

22 The Lloyd Report

Jamie believes it’s entirely possible to breed commercially at all levels in the US, in stark contrast to the UK

30 Diamond glitters

Willie Mullins topped a banner year with the barely believable success of former jumps horse Ethical Diamond in the Breeders’ Cup Turf; Alan Porter provides a full bloodstock review

28 Forever Young in Del Mar

Japan travelled and conquered the US in the Breeders’ Cup Classic

37 No mistake

Ted Noffey is bang on to be the Eclipse Award juvenile winner after his success at Del Mar

46 Ones to watch

The team at Trackside with a selection of well-bred horses who caught their eye and their text messaging service in 2025

52 Role modelling

Edmond Mahony talks to Leo Powell about almost everything other than the ‘R’ word and tells Leo that, despite handing over the day-to-day management of Tattersalls to Matt Prior, he’ll still stay active as chairman and will be working in a “helicopter role”

56 The first lady on the board

Leo also talks with the firm’s finance director Caroline Scott, a lady who quietly became the first woman on the Tattersalls board in its near 260-year history

62 100.... not out!

New Zealand Bloodstock’s Karaka Sale marks its centenary in January –we hear of past successes and what to look forward to at the upcoming sale

Diego Velazquez

68 National treasures

Jocelyn de Moubray chats with Sam Sangster, who bought subsequent Group 1 winner Diego Velazquez, now resident at The National Stud. We also talk with CEO Anna Kerr, who gives us the latest on all five of the stud’s stallions

78 Holding a winning hand

Exciting times for the newly created Ace Stud with Shaquille’s frst foals hitting the market, Classic plans to be made for Gewan, and big-money purchases made in the US

86 US Turf star stallions

James Thomas talks to Claiborne’s Walker Hancock and Headley Bell of Mill Ridge about their successful Turf sires, both are positive about the growing influence of US Turf racing

194 Photo finish

Racing Come Dancing: sequins and sparkles in aid of Racing Welfare

Rubbing House by Jane Braithwaite

STALLION FACT PACK 2025: page 95

96 Global stallions

Into Mischief could end up the global table topper, depending on Japanese results through December

98 Older stallions

Jocelyn de Moubray puts the older sires under the microscope and sees that there is some consistency in stallion performance

116 Leading European sires

The top sires in Europe by prize-money in 2025, courtesy of Weatherbys

122 Sergei repeats the feat

Amy Bennett sees Sergei Prokofiev head of his generation again

128 Star shone

Starman dominates the first-season championship and Amy Bennett reports on a number of other sires who performed with credit

135 There’s value out there

Ciaran Doran with a special report on where the value lies in the under £/€35,000 stallion bracket

142 Stakes-winning sires 2025

Weatherbys list of European and UAE stakes-winning sires, alongside their progeny and their broodmare sires

154 Covering statistics 2025

Weatherbys covering statistics reveal the most popular stallions of 2025, and the quality of their books

the team

editor sally duckett

publisher declan rickatson

photography debbie burt design thoroughbred publishing

advertising declan rickatson

00 44 (0)7767 310381 declan.rickatson@btinternet.com

subscriptions tracey glaysher itsubs@btinternet.com

the photographers equine creative media courtesy of stud farms tattersalls goffs laura green alisha meeder breeders’ cup debbie burt weatherbys the printers micropress press

Night Of Thunder

164 Dependant on the few

Jocelyn de Moubray reports on a resilient yearling sales season, which saw the top tier reliant on a handful of buyers, and the most vibrant trade in the middle market

174 European stallion sales statistics

Yearling averages, medians and aggregates by sire

187 Mischief maker

Another year, the same result – Jill Williams sees Into Mischief continue his dominance of US racing

193 US stallion tables

Leading sires, first-season and two-year-old sires

193 Stallion Fees in Britain and Ireland, 2025

A comprehensive list of fees by stud of the leading GB and Irish farms

the writers

jocelyn de moubray james thomas alan porter amy bennett trackside leo powell ciaran doran jill williams the stats weatherbys

plestor house, farnham road, liss, hampshire, gu33 6jq tel: 00 44 (0) 1428 724063

info@internationalthoroughbred.net www.internationalthoroughbred.net

jocelyn de moubray accounts annie jones itaccounts@btinternet.com

www.internationalthoroughbred.co.uk

STUDY OF MAN

SON AND GRANDSON OF RACING LEGENDS

Proven Success – a unique outcross opportunity for European breeders

Sire of 15 individual Stakes performers including dual Gr.1 winner

KALPANA – winner of the Group 1 British Champions Fillies & Mares Stakes in 2024 & 2025 Group 2 winners DEEPONE and BIRTHE and 2025 Group 3 winner SONS AND LOVERS 2025 dual Listed winners ALLONSY and ALMERIC 2025 Listed winners DEEPONE, FLEUR DE CHINE, FRANCOPHONE and SUITE FRANCAISE 2025 2yo winners in GB, FR, GER, JPN including Stakes-placed KIKKO BELLO in Japan

The Leading European 3rd crop sire in 2025 by % Worldwide Black-Type Winners to Runners*

&

STUDY OF MAN – Worldwide yearling sales average in 2025 (to 17th October) is £71,150 – €81,600 – over 5 times his 2023 nomination fee

*10 or more runners - to 12th November.

KALPANA winning the Gr.1 British Champions Fillies

Mares Stakes SONS AND LOVERS winning the Gr.3 Ballyroan Stakes

KALPANA

Too Darn Hot: has a new fee of £100,000 for 2026

Nine stallions at six-figures for 2026

Too Darn Hot stepping up to select group for a first time

NINE BRITISH AND IRISHBASED stallions stood at six-figure fees in 2025, and that number remains the same for 2026.

Missing from the list is the sadly-deceased Wootton Bassett, but Darley’s Too Darn Hot breaks into that elite group for the first time, his fee raised to £100,000 from £90,000 this year.

Fees for the top two of recent years, Dubawi and Frankel, remain unchanged and both will stand at £350,000 next year.

Next best is Sea The Stars, who has had a 20 per cent increase to €300,000, and he’s followed at €200,000 by the Irish-based pair of Lope De Vega (up 14 per

cent from €175,000) and 2025 champion sire Night Of Thunder. His fee has risen 33 per cent from the €150,000 he stood at in 2025.

Juddmonte’s Kingman holds steady at £125,000.

Coolmore’s No Nay Never heads up its roster and is the County Tipperary farm’s most expensive stallion at €100,000.

The Darley-duo of Blue Point (unchanged) and the aforementioned Too Darn Hot are both available to breeders at £100,000.

The major theme, however, is that a huge group of 43 stallions standing in Britian and Ireland have had their prices reduced for next year, and it is just a select 15 who have had their fees increased for next spring

Tally-Ho is no stranger

to a champion first-season sire and Starman, the farm’s runaway divisional leader, has the biggest percentage increase of all from €10,000 to €40,000 (+400 per cent), while long-standing Coolmore sire Australia, at stud since 2015, on the back of a top 2025 headlined by his Epsom Derby winner Lambourn, has a new higher fee of €15,000.

Fourteen new sires join major UK and Irish studs next year and, in terms of price, are headed by Darley’s Rosalion at £40,000, while Coolmore get to stand their own son of Dubawi in Delacroix at €40,000.

Sons of Wootton Bassett were always going to be coveted after his loss, and four will take up stud duties next spring.

The Lloyd Report

A view Stateside

Jamie Lloyd runs through the major US stallion news and argues that, unlike breeding racehorses in the UK, American breeders can be commercially successful at all levels in the US

THIS WINTER, like every other, colts across the northern hemisphere will retire from racing and head to the covering shed, connections hoping to further leave their mark on the breed.

In the US, traditionally the cream of the crop retires in great style to one of Kentucky’s many storied farms to begin

new lives, but many other states have productive breeding programmes.

Outside of Kentucky; Florida, California and New York are the three most significant producers, although the latter pair have not fared well in recent years.

Nearly all states offer a restricted race programme for homebreds, allowing breeders to run for inflated purses to encourage people to breed in the state.

The multi-jurisdictional and well-suppported nature of the US stallion market allows people to breed commercially at every level, up and down the price spectrum.

This is, in part, due to the racing programme that ultimately caters for these horses. There is no shortage of races across the US for horses at every level –the more cheaply bred horses can run in lower quality races for decent prize-money, and in some cases they pay their way or even make money.

It is in stark contrast to the British industry that seems to be becoming increasingly polarised, with the higher end of the market continuing to thrive, while the lower end seems to be facing more and more challenges.

In the past British breeders could breed at a lower or intermediate level and aim to be commercial, but, broadly speaking, this seems to be almost impossible now.

New US sires

Next year’s US new sires will be headed up by two colts who know each other all too well, having raced against and defeated each other on the track.

Sierra Leone retires to Ashford Stud with the highest fee of all the rookies at $75,000.

The son of Gun Runner won the Breeders’ Cup Classic in 2024 and was a $2,300,000 yearling, a purchase price dwarfed by earnings of over $8,000,000.

Sierra Leone: has retired to Ashford Stud with a fee of $75,000, the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner is the most expensive new sire in the US for 2026

His rival Fierceness posted Grade 1 victories as a two-year-old, three and four-year-old.

He retires alongside Sierra Leone at Ashford at a fee of $50,000.

Also heading to stud with a $50,000 fee is Mindframe, the four-year-old son of Constitution. He defeated Sierra Leone in the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs this year and earned himself a home at Claibourne Farm.

Ashford Stud once again plays home to another freshman sire with Citizen Bull and breeders wishing to breed to 2024’s champion two-year-old son of Into Mischief will be paying $35,000.

Another son of Gun Runner is taking up residence at Gainsway Farm.

Locked, a graded stakes winner from two to four, is set to stand for $35,000.

He beat the older horses in the Cigar Mile at three and destroyed the field in the Santa Anita Handicap this year.

The final pricey addition to next year’s stallion register is Into Mischief’s threeyear-old son Patch Adams, and the dual Grade 1 winner will head to Winstar Farm for a fee of $30,000.

Ownership changes

As the class of 2025 is set to take up their new duties, it’s interesting to look at how they arrived at their new homes.

Each year as the Triple Crown contenders begin to assemble, the US’s biggest players start to explore every opportunity to buy into that year’s potential superstar, and they invest huge amounts hoping speculating will pay off.

Fierceness, for example, campaigned under the sole ownership of Repole Stables up to and including the Kentucky Derby.

But, when he reappeared nearly three months later to win the Jim Dandy at Saratoga, he was then owned in partnership with Coolmore.

This ownership reshuffle seems to be

The multi-jurisdictional and well-supported nature of the US stallion market allows people to breed commercially at every level, up and down the price spectrum “

more commonplace in the US, largely because of the depth of the owners’ pool at the top, unlike in the UK where the top races are generally won by just a handful of owners.

The greater number of independent owners who are able to compete at the highest level in the US provides more opportunities each year for farms to partner up.

Elite fees announced

As this was written, almost all stud fees were announced for 2026, and the US

is represented at the top by Gun Runner, Into Mischief and Not This Time, all commanding the nation’s highest fee of $250,000.

Kentucky stalwart Curlin follows them up at $225,000 after another fantastic year on the track.

The Triple Crown winner Justify stands for $200,000 having sired three Classic winners in the UK from a limited number of runners, while the 25-year-old Tapit is the next most pricey option for breeders at $185,000. His progeny have earned a staggering $220 million, and include this year’s Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner Scylla.

One name most notably missing from this year’s list of retirees is the Preakness Grade 1 winner Journalism.

The Santa Anita Derby winner was runner-up in both the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1) and was the only horse to compete in all three legs of the Triple Crown.

He rebounded from his defeat at Saratoga to win the Haskel Stakes (G1), before rounding out his three-year-old campaign with a second in the Pacific Classic at Del Mar and finally a fourth in the Breeders’ Cup Classic at the same track.

The Classic-winning son of Curlin was campaigned by Eclipse Thoroughbreds in partnership with Bridlewood Farm, Don Alberto Stable, Bob LaPenta and Elayne Stables until March when a group of Coolmore affiliates bought into the colt.

When Ashford Stud recently announced fees for 2026 his name was not listed, and it was announced by Eclipse founder Aron Wellman that the colt will be freshened up at Bridlewood Farm, Florida before returning to trainer Mike McCarthy in California for his four-year-old season.

Wellman noted: “He is a horse bred, built and designed to get better with age”.

With the significant retirements of Fierceness and Sierra Leone, the Classic -winning Journalism looks set to take centre stage in 2026.

Journalism stays in training for 2026

Diamond glitters

The son of Awtaad goes from hurdle winner to Flat handicap hero to Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf star, writes Alan Porter

ETHICAL DIAMOND kicked off his 2025 by winning a 2m maiden hurdle at Punchestown, for which he earned €7,080. He has ended it by coming from almost last to first to run down Rebel’s Romance, who was bidding for his third straight win in the contest, to take the Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) by a length and a quarter in a new course record, and picking up $2,600,000 in prize-money.

After his Punchestown victory, Ethical Diamond ran fourth in the County Hurdle at Cheltenham, then was a somewhat disappointing seventh in the Scottish Champion Hurdle.

Returned to the Flat, his only previous win on the level was a 1m4f maiden at Limerick, the five-year-old gelding won the Duke of Edinburgh Handicap at Royal Ascot by 2l. His only other outing prior to the Breeders’ Cup saw him run out a decisive winner of the Ebor Handicap.

Ethical Diamond is by the Irish 2,000 Guineas (G1) winner Awtaad, a son of Cape Cross.

He has been represented by six crops, including current two-year-olds. They have yielded 15 stakes winners, all from his first three crops, seven Group or graded, including the other Group or Grade 1 winners Anisette and Anmaat.

Ethical Diamond’s dam Pearl Diamond is a winning daughter of Areion, champion sprinter in Germany, and four-time leading sire.

Pearl Diamond is a three-quarters sister to the champion German miler Precious Boy, and to the Group-placed Prema (grand-dam of Crystal Cliffs, a stakes winner in the US, and successful in the Nassau Stakes (G2) in Canada), who are both by Aerion’s sire Big Shuffle out of Pearl Diamond’s dam, Pretty Su.

The family goes back to the Prix de Royallieu (G3) scorer Don’t Sulk, dam of three stakes winners, including Gracioso, who took the Prix Lupin (G1), and US graded stakes winner Caesour.

A sister to Jim French, winner of the

Santa Anita Derby (G1), and runner-up in the Kentucky Derby (G1) and Belmont Stakes (G1), Don’t Sulk is out of the stakes winner Dinner Partner.

She is the ancestress of 159 stakes winners, 15 Group or Grade 1, including the Middle Park Stakes (G1) winner and successful sire Formidable; Ajdal, winner of the Dewhurst Stakes (G1), the July Cup (G1) and the William Hill Sprint Championship (G1), and Arazi, a champion two-year-old colt in Europe and the US and remembered for his breathtaking victory in the 1991 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile.

There is also Noverre, successful in the Sussex Stakes (G1), and sire of the top French stallion Le Havre, and Kamunyak, winner in 2025 of the Yushun Himba-Japanese Oaks (G1).

Graffard breaks his Breeders’ Cup duck In the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1), the François-Henri Graffardtrained three-year-old Gezora wore down the top US grass filly She Feels Pretty to score by half-a-length, with the European runner Diamond Rain three-quarters of a length further back.

It was a first Breeders’ Cup score for Graffard, who has had an immense season in 2025.

Gezora won the Prix des Reservoirs (G3) at two, and this year she had taken the Prix Saint-Alary (G2) and the Prix de Diane (G1).

Second behind the year-older Aventure in the Prix Vermeille (G1), Gezora, like her Vermeille conqueror, was never able to get involved in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe (G1), finishing down the field

Gezora is by Wootton Bassett’s son Almanzor, the European champion three-year-old of his crop, and the top-rated horse of any age in Europe, after a season that saw him win the Prix de Guiche (G3), the Prix Guillaume d’Ornano (G2), Prix du Jockey-Club (G1), the Champion Stakes (G1) and the Irish Champion Stakes (G1).

Gezora was foaled when her dam Germance was 19-years-old, is her dam’s 11th foal, and her first stakes winner

He hasn’t, however, been anywhere near as good a sire as Wootton Bassett, and his first four European crops have produced only 12 stakes winners, his only previous winner at the highest level being Circle Of Fire, who took the ATC Sydney Cup (G1) in Australia.

Although he began his stud career in France, Almanzor also shuttled to Cambridge Stud in New Zealand, and he’s now a permanent resident of the famed Waikato nursery.

He was leading sire of two-yearolds and leading freshman sire in New Zealand for 2021-2022, and he has 13 stakes winners, eight graded from his first three southern hemisphere crops, including the VRC Victoria Derby (G1) winner Manzoice.

Gezora, who was foaled when her dam Germance was 19-years-old, is her dam’s 11th foal and her first stakes winner. Her only previous foal to earn black-type in any form was Garance, a 2014 daughter of Teofilo, who finished second in a pair of French Listed races, the Prix Casimir Delamarre and Prix La Sorellina.

That said Germance certainly began her stud career with all the credentials to become a significant producer.

She came close to preceding her daughter as a Prix de Diane heroine, missing by just over a length in the 2006 edition, her sole defeat in her first six starts, outings that saw her win the Prix Saint-Alary (G1), the Prix de la Nonette (G3) and the Prix Penelope (G3). A daughter of the good sire Silver Hawk, Germance is out of the Caerleon mare Gaily Tiara, a 6f winner in Japan, who also produced the two-time French Listed scorer Gaily Game.

Gaily Tiara’s half-sister Aiglonne –

another by Silver Hawk and so threequarters-sister to Germance – wasn’t as good a runner as her close relative, although she did take the Prix Fille de l’Air (G3).

She was a more successful broodmare as dam of the Prix d’Ispahan (G1) and Prix Hocquart (G2) scorer Mekhtaal, Democrate, winner of the Prix Hocquart (G2), the Prix Thomas Bryon (G3) victor Normandy Bridge, and Aigue Marine, who took the Long Island Handicap (G3) and Robert G. Dick Memorial (G3), and herself was dam of the French Listed winner Fenelon.

Majestic Role, the dam of Gaily Tiara and Aiglonne, was an untypically precocious daughter of Theatrical,

Salamandre (G1) at two.

She is half-sister to four other black-type scorers, including Fair Of The Furze, winner of the Tattersalls Gold Cup (G2), dam of three stakes winners, including the Italian Derby (G1) winner White Muzzle, and granddam of the Dubai World Cup winner Almutawakel).

The sixth dam of Gezora is Lea Lark, a Broodmare of the Year and dam of the champion two-year-old filly Leallah.

She is ancestress of more than 50 Group and Grade 1 winners, including the European champion juvenile and Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) winner St. Nicholas Abbey, the champion US two-year-old filly Echo Zulu, Lacovia, who took the Prix de Diane in 1986, and the major international sire, Miswaki.

The cross that Gezora represents, that of Iffraaj and sons and grandsons over mares by Roberto and sons and grandsons, has had limited opportunities, but has produced four

Notable Speech, a son of Dubawi, gets his deserved Breeders’ Cup Mile success

Notable gets Mile win

Notable Speech, a consistent feature in top mile events for the last two years, finished a close third as favourite in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1).

The public’s choice again in 2025, this time Notable Speech delivered, quickening well to score from home defender Formidable Man, with The Lion In Winter third.

The race was his fourth triumph at the highest level following wins in the Woodbine Mile (G1), the Sussex Stakes (G1) and the 2,000 Guineas (G1).

Notable Speech follows Modern Games, Master Of The Seas and Space Blues as the fourth Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1) winner to represent his sire, the remarkable Dubawi.

The 23-year-old son of Dubai Millennium has also been represented by Breeders’ Cup Turf (G1) scorers Rebel’s Romance and Yibir, and Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf (G1) heroine Wuheida among a total of more than 50 Group and Grade 1 winners.

Notable Speech is out of the Invincible Spirit mare Swift Rose. A winner at two, and third in the UAE Oaks (G3), Swift Rose is half-sister to the Dubawi gelding Desert Wisdom, a Group 3 winner won took the Fred Darling Stakes (G3) in England and the Natalma Stakes (G1) in Canada.

The granddam, Tulips, a Listed winner in France is a granddaughter of Cherokee Rose, a Dancing Brave daughter whose successes included the Prix Maurice de Gheest (G1) and Haydock Sprint Cup (G1).

Dam of the Group winner Bowman, Cherokee Rose is also ancestress of the St. Leger (G1) and Hong Kong Vase (G1) winner Mastery, the Eclipse Stakes (G1) scorer Mukhadram, and other Group 1 winners Kirklees and Linebacker.

One of five stakes winners for Dubawi out of Invincible Spirit mares, Notable Speech is also inbred 3x4 to Seeking The Gold through the male line and through the third dam, and Dancing Brave also appears 4x5.

Shisospicy set herself up for sale

The Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint (G1) saw a scintillating performance from the three-year-old filly Shisospicy, who rocketed through fractions of 21.75secs and 43.86secs to hit the line 2l clear of last year’s third, the mare Ag Bullet, with the European Khaadem in third.

Shisospicy failed to fire on a trip to Royal Ascot for the Group 1 Commonwealth Stakes, but in the US she has now won five straight races, including the Limestone Stakes, the Mamzelle Staeks (G3) and the Music City Stakes (G2).

Two days after her stellar display at Del Mar, Shisospicy sold for $5,200,000 at the Fasig-Tipton November Sale. Shisospicy is from the second crop

of the champon sprinter Mitole (by the Giant’s Causeway horse, Eskendereya).

The leading freshman sire of 2023, Mitole has already sired 15 stakes winners, including other graded scorers Halina’s Forte, Booth, Stormcast, V V’s Dream and Tirupati.

Shisospicy is out of Mischief Galore, an allowance-winning daughter of Into Mischief.

The dam of Mischief Galore, Maren’s Melody, is a daughter of Unbridled’s Song out of the Monmouth Oaks (G3), Bourbonette Oaks (G3) and Monmouth Beach Stakes winner Maren’s Meadow.

She is a half-sister to the multiple stakes winner Golden Path, the dam of graded stakes winner Mukhtar, and to stakes winner Chamul.

The Turf Sprint winner Shisospicy was bought by Morplay Racing for $5,200,000 at Fasig November

Forever Young in Del Mar Japan conquers America with

THE JAPANESE STAR, FOREVER YOUNG, made two trips to the US last year and impressed on both occasions. He went into the Kentucky Derby (G1) undefeated in five lifetime starts, three in Japan as a two-year-old and in the Saudi Derby (G3) and UAE Derby (G2) from his first two starts at three. He might well have made it six straight in the Kentucky Derby (G1) rather than going down by a pair of

smart Classic victory for Forever Young

noses to Mystik Dan and Sierra Leone, if not for bumping with the runner-up.

Successful in the Ohi Japan Dirt Classic on his return to his homeland, Forever Young stayed on well to take third in last year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) and ended that campaign defeating older horses in the Tokyo Daishoten (G1).

This year, he ran down the Hong Kong superstar Romantic Warrior in the dying strides of the Saudi Cup (G1), and may have been feeling that effort when third to the US-trained Hit Show and Mixto in

the Dubai World Cup (G1) .

Given a break, Forever Young made only one start before this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) when he took the Funabashi Nippon TV Hai on October 1.

Oddly enough, the Del Mar victory for the Japanese star meant that the chief beneficiary among the North Americans may have been the absent Sovereignty. The dominant three-year-old would have started favourite for the Classic, but was sidelined by a fever that developed after he shipped to California

from New York. He now looks likely to take Horse of the Year honours that might have gone elsewhere had a hometrained horse won the Classic.

Forever Young is by Real Steel, whose most notable achievement was to win the Dubai Turf (G1) in 2016.

Real Steel, who is by Sunday Silence’s leading stallion son Deep Impact, has sired only seven stakes winners in his first three northern hemisphere crops and Forever Young is his only Grade 1 winner, but he does have five other graded winners.

The Classic winner is out of the American-raced Forever Darling, successful in Santa Ynez Stakes (G2).

Forever Darling was by Congrats, a son of A.P. Indy out of a Mr. Prospector mare, and when her dam Darling My Darling was mated to the similarly-bred Malibu Moon, the result was Forever

Darling’s close relative, Heavenly Love. She won the Alcibiades Stakes (G1) at two and, by remarkable coincidence, is dam of none other than Sierra Leone, making the great rivals in effect “cousins.”

Darling My Darling, a daughter of Deputy Minister was also a talented runner in her own right winning the Raven Run Stakes and Doubledogdare Stakes, and taking seconds in the Frizette Stakes (G1) and Matron Stakes (G1).

Forever Young’s third dam Roamin Rachel earned the distinction of being the only northern hemisphere Grade 1 winner by her sire, the Mr. Prospector horse Mining, with a victory in the Ballerina Stakes (G1), one of three graded triumphs in her career. She produced another really good performer in Zenno Rob Roy, a Horse of

the Year and champion older horse in Japan, and winner of the Japan Cup (G1). He was by Sunday Silence and therefore from the same sire and dam line as Forever Young.

Juddmonte’s Scylla from the family of Monroe bought by the farm 45 years ago In the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1), Scylla, a Juddmonte five-year-old homebred, made effective use of the speedfavouring track going to the head of affairs, hitting the stretch 3l clear, a margin that grew to over 5l by the wire. Nitrogen in second confirmed her position as top three-year-old filly. This was the first Grade 1 triumph for Scylla, and her first win of 2025, although she’d taken second in the Ballerina Stakes (G1) and third in the Spinster Stakes (G1).

The Yoshito Yahagi-trained Forever Young is the only top-level winner for his Shadai Farm-based sire Real Steel (Deep Impact), winner of the Dubai Turf

February Sale

February 5 - 6

Horses/Fillies in Training,

Broodmares & Yearlings

Craven Breeze Up Sale

April 13 - 15

Guineas Breeze Up & Horses in Training Sale

April 29 - 30

Two Year Olds & Horses in Training

July Sale

July 7 - 10

Horses/Fillies in Training, Broodmares, etc.

Somerville Yearling Sale

September 2

Featuring the £200,000 Tattersalls

Somerville Auction Stakes

& £200,000 Tattersalls October Auction Stakes

October Yearling Sale

Book 1 October 6 - 8

Europe’s Premier Yearling Sale

Featuring the £25,000 Tattersalls

October Book 1 Bonus

Book 2 October 12 - 14

Book 3 October 15 - 16

Featuring the £200,000 Tattersalls

Somerville Auction Stakes

& £200,000 Tattersalls October

Auction Stakes

Autumn Horses in Training Sale

October 26 - 30

The World’s Largest Horses in Training Sale

Autumn Yearling Sale

October 30

Featuring the £200,000 Tattersalls

Somerville Auction Stakes & £200,000 Tattersalls October

Auction Stakes

December Sale

Yearlings November 23

Foals November 24 - 28

Breeding Stock

November 30 - December 3

Broodmares, Fillies/Horses in Training, etc.

Featuring the Sceptre Sessions

All dates subject to alteration

T:

Scylla is by veteran stallion Tapit, the leading sire of 2014, 2015 and 2016, and is a sister to two other notable Tapit offspring in Tacitus, winner of the Wood Memorial Stakes (G2), the Suburban Stakes (G2) and the Tampa Bay Derby (G2), runner-up in the Belmont Stakes (G1) and the Travers Stakes (G1), third in the Kentucky Derby (G1), and to Batten Down, successful in the Ohio Derby (G3).

The dam of Scylla, Close Hatches, a daughter of First Defence, was a better runner – a champion older mare in the US, she won five Grade 1 races events.

Close Hatches’ sister Lockdown produced a real star in Idiomatic, a champion older mare in the US in 2023 and 2024, and successful in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1).

The second dam Rising Tornado, a daughter of Storm Cat, is a half-sister to Bird Flown, who is dam of another notable progeny of First Defence – the

Irish 2,000 Guineas (G1) captor, Siskin.

The third dam Silver Star is a sister to European champion two-year-old Xaar, and from the Monroe branch of the Best In Show family.

This branch of the family has been in Juddmonte’s hands since Monroe was acquired from Robert Sangster at the end of her racing career, the better part of 45 years ago.

Bentornato gets reward in the Sprint

Last year, as a 28-1 longshot, Bentornato nearly caused an upset in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), leading into the stretch before going down by just half-a-length to that year’s champion sprinter, Straight No Chaser.

Bentornato has started just once since when winning the Louisville Thoroughbred Society Stakes, and just six weeks after that victory Bentornato

and Straight No Chaser hooked-up in the Breeders’ Cup for a second year, rocketing through blistering early fractions in the Sprint (G1).

This year it went the way of Bentornato, who was sent off favourite.

Bentornato is from the third crop of Valiant Minister, who won a 6f Santa Anita maiden special weight in a fast time, but subsequently suffered a career-ending injury and was retired to stud in Florida. He’s sired three stakes winners in three crops, and Bentornato is his only graded stakes winner.

Bentornato is out of Her Special Way, a winning daughter of Put It Back (by the Relaunch horse, Honour And Glory) and is one of two stakes winners and four black-type horses by Candy Ride sons out of mares by Put It Back.

It’s also worth noting that his mitochondrial family is I2a2, the same haplogroup as Valiant Minister, his sire,

Candy Ride, his grandsire Ride the Rails, and great-grandsire, Cryptoclearance.

Splendora adds to Audible’s CV

The Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint (G1) saw the late scratches of two potential major contenders, Sweet Azteca and Tamara, and the depleted field was dominated by Splendora, who took command in the stretch.

Splendora has improved considerably in the second half of the year and she came into the Breeders’ Cup off wins in an Allowance (Optional Claiming) event at Del Mar, and victory in the Tranquility Lake Stakes – her first black-type score – over a mile at the same venue.

Splendora is by Audible, a son of Into Mischief, who won a trio of black-type events, including the Florida Derby (G1), and ran third to Justify and Good Magic in the 2018 Kentucky Derby (G1).

Audible has been represented by three North American crops, and has seven stakes winners – all from his first crop – with My Mane Squeeze and Life’s An Audible joining Splendora as graded stakes winners.

Splendora is one of two named foals and two winners out of her dam Miss Freeze. By the Giant’s Causeway stallion Frost Giant, Miss Freeze’s only victory came in the Lynbrook Stakes –restricted to New York-bred fillies –as a two-year-old.

The pedigree page is rather light, although the fourth dam is by Seattle Slew out of the Acorn Stakes (G1) third Triple Strike (Secretariat), and is halfsister to the Jersey Shore Stakes (G3) scorer Swing And Miss.

The sixth dam Seeker’s Gold (Mr. Prospector) was a granddaughter of the Kentucky Oaks heroine Native Street, the ancestress of 140 stakes winners, 18 Group or Grade 1, including Auguste Rodin, Stravinsky, Halfway to Heaven, Photo Call, Rhododendron, Magical, Victoria Road and White Birch.

Nysos scores by a head in the Mile

Last year’s champion two-year-old and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) victor Citizen Bull set a scorching pace in the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1).

It proved sufficient to burn off all but his stable-companion Nysos, who was just half-a-length in arrears as the duo turned for home. After a ferocious scrap through the stretch Citizen Bull lost to Nysos by a head.

Nysos’s career to date has rather marked him as fast, but somewhat fragile.

He was a major Classic hopeful but was sidelined from the Triple Crown events by injury. He wasn’t seen again until the Churchill Downs Stakes (G1) on this year’s Kentucky Derby (G1)

undercard when he very nearly defied the long layoff, closing to miss by a neck and head behind the top-class duo of Mindframe and Banishing.

Since then he’d annexed the Triple Bend Stakes (G3) and the San Diego Handicap (G2). He was initially pointed at the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1), but after he was forced to miss a work in the lead-up, it was decided to target the shorter race.

Nysos is by Uncle Mo’s son Nyquist, only the second horse to take the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1) at two and the Kentucky Derby (G1) at three.

Nyquist is now firmly established among the stallion elite and he’s already sire of 33 stakes winners, including the Eclipse Award-winning champions Vequist and Immersive, and the Grade 1 winners Johannes, Slow Down Andy, Tenma, Cavalieri, Gretzky The Great, Velocity, Argos and Randomized.

Zetta Z, the dam of Nysos, did not run, but is by Bernardini, a champion three-year-old, successful sire, and now an outstanding broodmare sire.

She sold for $2,000,000 in-foal to Cyberknife at the 2024 Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Winter Mixed Sale.

Zetta Z’s dam Seresa’s Spirit, a daughter of Rahy, was unraced, but she is half-sister to Etched, who won the Nashua Stakes (G3) over a mile at two, and the 1m1f Meadowlands Cup (G2) and Monmouth Cup (G2) as an older horse, to the English juvenile Group winner Emotionless, and the Sham Stakes (G3) victor Out Of Bounds.

The third dam is Unbridled Elaine, who took the Pocahontas Stakes at two, but whose finest hour came with a victory over her elders in the Breeders’ Cup Distaff (G1) at three.

Nysos is one of five graded stakes winners, the others including the Grade 1 winners Immersive and Gretzky The Great. Nysos is one of 28 starters out of mares by Bernardini, producing a noteworthy 18 per cent graded stakes winners to starters.

Splendora from a leading European family

Shaquille

Your mare, your move delivers

Emphatic winner of the Gr.1 Commonwealth Cup & Gr.1 July Cup

Cartier Champion Sprinter & Longines World’s Best 3YO Sprinter in 2023

Fee: £10,000 January 1st, SLF

NEW CHAMPIONS FROM THE

SHAMARDAL LINE

ROSAL L ION

The Champion miler

The fastest Royal Ascot winning splits since sectional timing began.

£40,000 Oct 1, SLF. Dalham Hall Stud, UK

The Champion sprinter

Even quicker over Royal Ascot’s 6f than Blue Point.

£12,500 Oct 1, SLF. Dalham Hall Stud, UK

INISHERIN SHADOW OF LIGHT

The Champion two-year-old

Rare hero of both of Britain’s best juvenile races.

€17,500 Oct 1, SLF Kildangan Stud, Ireland

Aesterius

2YO SPRINTER BY MEHMAS

High-class 2yo sprinter

Won Gr.2 Flying Childers Stakes, Doncaster, 5f, beating Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup

Juvenile Turf Sprint winner Magnum Force & Gr.1 Haydock

Sprint Cup winner Big Mojo, just 12 days after his Gr.3 victory

“…showing bags of speed as usual, as well as a very willing attitude…” Timeform

Won Gr.3 Prix d’Arenberg, Longchamp, 5f

Won L Dragon Stakes, Sandown, 5f, quickening clear to win by 1¼l

Won Novice Stakes, Bath, 5f, readily on debut by 2¾l in May

2nd Gr.3 Molecomb Stakes, Goodwood, 5f, to Big Mojo

Bearstone Stud

“Aesterius is a gorgeous looking colt with brilliant speed and a willing attitude.

With his proven class, temperament and sire Mehmas’s record for producing top juveniles, he looks every inch an exciting young stallion prospect.” Richard Brown, on behalf of Wathnan Racing

“Aesterius was a very talented, precocious and straightforward two-year-old.”

Archie Watson, trainer

No mistakes

The Into Mischief colt Ted Noffey marked himself out for champion US two-year-old honours with victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile

THE BREEDERS’ CUP

JUVENILE (G1) was headlined by an East v West clash between two undefeated colts, the favourite Ted Noffey, who jouneyed from New York to face Brant, whose only two starts had resulted in a maiden special weight win and a victory in the Del Mar Futurity (G1).

For most of the race the duo were the only factors in the race, Brant setting a measured pace from his rival. When Ted Noffey finally cruised up alongside turning for home, it appeared he might draw right away, but with Ted Noffey idling in front, and Brant fighting back stubbornly, the issue remained in doubt until the home defender cracked inside the last furlong.

It was then left to Ted Noffey to hold off the late charge of Mr. A. P. – who deprived the courageous Brant of second place – to score by a length, before galloping out in a manner suggesting that longer distances are not going to be an issue at three.

With a record of four from four, also including victories in the Hopeful Stakes (G1) and the Breeders’ Futurity (G1), Ted Noffey is now assured of this year’s Eclipse Award as champion twoyear-old colt.

He is yet another credit for his sire Into Mischief.

The stallion was first represented

by a Breeders’ Cup scorer in 2013 when his first crop son Goldencents took the Dirt Mile (G1), a victory he repeated the following year, Into Mischief has been leading sire for each of the last six years.

At time of writing he heads the 2025 table by around $7,000,000, so it is a fair assumption that he is about to lift his seventh title. That would place him third by all-time premierships, which were first recorded in 1830, behind only Bold Ruler, who secured eight titles between 1963 and 1973, and the mighty Lexington, who topped the table 15 times from 1861 to 1878.

He also has six titles as leading sire of two-year-olds equal with Bold Ruler, and one behind the all-time record of his male-line ancestor Storm Cat.

Into Mischief has been represented by 183 stakes winners, and 27 of those have been Grade 1 winners. They include this year’s Kentucky

Ted Noffey: yet another star for leading US sire Into Mischief

breeders’

Derby (G1) victor Sovereignty – sidelined from the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) by a fever which developed after shipping to California – who is likely champion three-year-old colt and a candidate for Horse of the Year; other Kentucky Derby (G1) winners Authentic, also a Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) winner and Horse of the Year, and Mandaloun,

a dual Grade 1-winning three-year-old. There is also Citizen Bull; the champion three-year-old filly Pretty Mischievous, the champion female sprinter Gamine, the champion twoyear-old filly Covfefe and the champion two-year-old filly Wonder Wheel.

Named, with tongue firmly-incheek for a magazine misspelling of

the long-standing manager Ned Toffey of Spendthrift Farm (which both owns Ted Noffey and stands Into Mischief) Ted Noffey was a $650,000 Keeneland September Yearling.

A daughter of the Unbridled’s Song stallion Old Fashioned, Ted Noffey’s dam Streak Of Luck was a talented performer in her own right, capturing

Gstaad adds to Starspangledbanner’s laurels

IN

THE

BREEDER’S CUP JUVENILE

TURF (G1), the Irish invader Gstaad was only seventh at halfway, but had closed on the head of affairs at the head of the stretch.

From there he showed the best turn of foot to score a shade comfortably by three-quarters of a length from home defender Stark Contrast.

Gstaad is by the Danehill line stallion Starspangledbanner (Choisir). Foaled in Australia, where he won the MRC Oakleigh Plate (G1), Starspangledbanner added the Golden Jubilee Stakes (G1) and the July Cup (G1) en route to a title as European champion sprinter.

Retired to Coolmore, Starspangledbanner initially proved sub-fertile with 33 foals from his first Irish crop and 30 from his first shuttle season in Australia.

After attracting just 22 mares in his second Irish season, Starspangledbanner was returned to training, but proved unable to win in six starts.

At that point, gelding him to see if that would improve

form was suggested, but, instead, Coolmore agreed to let Anthony Mithen take Starspangledbanner back to Rosemont, to see if a change of scenery might improve his fertility.

Starspangledbanner did then manage to get 24 mares in-foal, not enough to return him to commercial viability.

But what did bring Starspangledbanner back into the limelight was the performance of that first small northern hemisphere crop, which produced no less than eight stakes winners, including The Wow Signal, who took the Prix Morny (G1) and Coventry Stakes (G2) at Royal Ascot, Home of the Brave, successful in six black-type races, three of which were Group races, Anthem Alexander, who won the Queen Mary Stakes (G2) at Royal Ascot and the Lacken Stakes (G3), and the Sceptre Stakes (G3) scorer Spangled.

With The Wow Signal and Anthem Alexander making an impact at two, Coolmore expressed renewed interest in the stallion returning to Ireland for the 2015 season, but a bout of colic put paid to that plan.

the Lady Canterbury Stakes, and taking second in the Buena Vista Stakes (G2) and third in the Autumn Miss Stakes (G3).

A half-sister to the dam of stakes winner Moment’s Pleasure, Streak Of Luck is out of Lindsay Jean, winner of five stakes events, including the Brown Bess Handicap (G3).

Her dam Colony Bay is a half-sister to the stakes winners and is out of Oceana, a full-sister to European champion Storm Bird, the sire of Storm Cat, and to Northernette, the champion at two and three, and ancestress of 21 stakes winners, including the Grade 1 winners Scoot, Didmo, La Vie En Rose and Napa Valley.

Oceana is also three-quarters sister to Ocean’s Answer, ancestress of 45 stakes winners, including the champions Green Tune and Pas de Reponse, and the Grade 1 winners Dr. Zic and Gun Pilot.

Ted Noffey is one of seven stakes winners by Into Mischief out of mares by Unbridled’s Song and his sons, the others including the Grade 1 winner

The son of Choisir did make the trip the following year, when he had 16 mares in-foal to northern hemisphere time, and another 46 in-foal to southern hemisphere time.

Since, quite remarkably, Starspangledbanner’s fertility has continued to improve and his 2023 juvenile crop contains 128 foals, the largest ever for the 19-year-old stallion.

Starspangledbanner is now sire of 58 stakes winners, 39 Group or graded and, in addition to those above, they also include the Cheveley Park Stakes (G1) heroine Millisle, the international Group 1 traveller State Of Rest, the Hong Kong Mile (G1) and Hong Kong Sprint winner California Spangle, and Aristia, who took the Prix Jean Romanet (G1).

There is also Rhea Moon, successful in the American Oaks (G1), Beauty Eternal, winner of the Hong Kong Champions Mile (G1), Puchkine, winner of the Prix Jean Prat (G1) and this year’s Fillies’ Mile (G1) and Moyglare Stud Stakes (G1) heroine Precise.

Gstaad is half-brother to another juvenile standout

Vandeek, who took the Prix Morny (G1), the Middle Park Stakes (G1) and the Richmond Stakes (G2).

The dam Mosa Mine is by another Danehill-line shuttler Exceed And Excel and is out of Baldemosa, a half-sister to Balbonella, winner of the Prix Robert-Papin (G1) at two in France, and also a graded winner in the US.

Balbonella was a top producer and is dam of the champion Anabaa (whose daughter Goldikova took three straight runnings of the Breeders’ Cup Mile (G1)), the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1) winner Always Loyal, herself granddam of the champion Japanese juvenile filly Shonan Adela, the Group winner Key Of Luck, and the French Listed winner Country Belle, dam of the Group winner Country Reel.

Gstaad is a cross of a Danehill-line stallion back over a Danehill-line mare, and this has produced eight Starspangledbanner stakes winners, five Group class, including Soprano, who is out of mare by a son of Gstaad’s broodmare sire, Exceed And Excel.

Gstaad on his way to Grade 1 success, his dam Mosa Mine has now produced two top level winners

GO BEARS GO

SOUND BLOODLINES OF KODIAC AND GIANTS CAUSEWAY

Covered over 100 mares in his first book in 2025 Supported

Gun Runner could be one to vie with Not This Time to take over Into Mischief’s mantle as the long-time champion turns 21 next year

Gina Romantica, and the unbeaten juvenile graded stakes winner Maximus Mischief, who also stands at Spendthrift, and who is making a promising start to his stud career.

It’s also interesting to note that Into Mischief’s grandsire Harlan is by a grandson of Storm Bird out of a Halo mare, and that Ted Noffey’s granddam, Landsay Jean, is by a son of Halo out of a daughter of Oceana, a sister to Storm Bird.

Super win for Corredora

In the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) the first and second were also forwardly-placed throughout the running, Super Corredora going wire-to-wire to hold the challenge

of the favourite, Explora.

This was a first attempt at black-type for Super Corredora, who had won a Santa Anita maiden over a mile by eight-and-a-quarter lengths earlier this month, after finishing fifth and then second in a pair of sprints.

Super Corredora is from the fourth crop of Gun Runner, a son of Candy Ride, who earned Horse of the Year honours at four winning a Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) on his final start that year.

Retired to Three Chimneys Farm after taking the Pegasus World Cup Invitational (G1) in his sole outing at five, Gun Runner led off with an exceptional first crop that provided 18 individual stakes winners, 12 graded, and six Grade 1.

The total from his first crops

is currently stands at 47 stakes winners, 31 graded and among them the champion two-year-old filly Echo Zulu, the Preakness Stakes (G1) winner Early Voting, and other Grade 1 scorers Locked, Taiba, Gunite, Society, Cyberknife, Vahva, Gun Pilot and Brant.

Gun Runner could be one to vie with Not This Time to take over Into Mischief’s mantle as the long-time champion turns 21 next year.

Super Corredora is the second foal out of Super Simple, a two-year-oldwinning daughter of Super Saver.

The family already has a proven affinity for Gun Runner – Super Simple is half-sister to Optionality, a stakeswinning daughter of Gun Runner and to the graded-placed son of Gun Runner, Counterspy.

In addition, her stakes-winning half-sister Simple Surprise is dam of the Gun Runner duo Gunite, a two-time Grade 1 winner, who took second in the Breeders’ Cup Sprint (G1), and current two-year-old Spice Runner, successful in the Iroquois Stakes (G3).

Simplify, the second dam of Super Corredora, is by Pulpit, a stallion who has done well under Gun Runner, principally through the medium of his outstanding sire son Tapit.

Simplify captured four black-type events and was also graded stakes placed. She is a half-sister to the five-time stakes winner Classify, and three-quarters sister to the Tapit daughter Omnitap, dam of the graded stakes-winning sprinter Air Strike and stakes winner Home Brew.

Super Corredora’s third dam Classic Olympio was a fast and precocious performer on the West Coast, while her fifth dam Lilac Hill took the Cotillion Handicap (G1) when it was run at Liberty Bell (now Parx), and was half-sister to Gran Premio di Milano (G1) scorer Rouge Sang, three-quarters sister to Del Mar Derby winner and sire Speak John. She was also closely related to Stage Door Johnny, the champion three-year-old colt of 1968.

Super Corredora duels on the home turn, goes clear to pick up her first black-type in style

breeders’ cup juvenile review

Cy Fair did it This Time In the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Sprint (G1), Cy Fair stalked a rapid initial pace before asserting late to score by three-quarters of a length over Irish challenger Brussels.

This was the third victory in four starts for Cy Fair, who took a Saratoga maiden special weight on her debut and came into this race off a win in the Algonquin Stakes at Woodbine.

Cy Fair is one of six juvenile stakes winners of 2025 by Not This Time, a son of Giant’s Causeway, who ran just four times, all at two, winning the Iroquois Stakes and missing by just a neck to Classic Empire in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1).

This is the fifth crop of Not This Time, and four of those five crops were sired at an advertised fee of $15,000, with the fifth conceived at $12,500.

He has already been represented by 61 stakes winners, 31 graded, including the champion three-year-old colt Epicenter, the champion Turf horse Up To The Mark, and the Grade 1 winners Cogburn, Just One Time, Princess Noor, Sibelius, Sacred Wish, Troubleshooting and Rhetorical.

He holds what appears to be an uncatchable lead on the 2025 two-yearold sires’ table, and is second on the leading sires’ table.

Remarqued, the dam of Cy Fair, is a winning half-sister to Crimson Advocate, who took the Duke of Cambridge Stakes (G2) and Queen Mary Stakes (G2) at Royal Ascot.

Second dam Citizen Advocate was a three-time stakes winner and runner-up in a graded stakes event, and is half-sister to Come A Callin, dam of the champion two-year-old filly and Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies (G1) winner Caledonia Road, and of the three-time graded winner Officiating, who was by Blame, a son of

Cy Fair’s broodmare sire Arch.

The third dam Twilight Service is a half-sister to the stakes-winning Known Fact duo Vespers and Database, the dams of the Donn Handicap (G1) victor Hymn Book (another by Arch), and of Maker’s 46 Mile Stakes (G1) scorer Data Link.

Cy Fair follows stakes winner Howling Time as the second black-type scorer from only four starters by Not This Time out of Arch mares.

Balantina takes the Fillies’ Turf to Ireland

The Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) went to Balantina, trained in Ireland by Donnacha O’Brien.

She had shown useful form in Ireland without winning a black-type race – she had won her maiden, finished second in the Prix Six Perfections (G3) and third in the Albany Stakes (G3).

Here she closed from off the pace to score by a length-and-three-quarters from the Juddmonte runner Pacific Mission.

Balantina is from the third Irish crop sired by Ten Sovereigns, who is now a resident of Turkey having

been transferred for the 2025 covering season.

A son of No Nay Never, Ten Sovereigns won the Middle Park Stakes (G1) at two and the July Cup (G1) at three, and he’s sired 11 stakes winners from three northern hemisphere crops.

His offspring seem suited by the US as he’s also been represented by Zulu Kingdom, who has won four graded stakes, including this year’s American Turf Stakes (G1), and the recent Queen Elizabeth II Invitational Challenge Stakes (G1) heroine Lush Lips.

Out of the Montjeu mare Balankiyla, Balantina is a half-sister to Zarak’s daughter Baiykara, successful in the Prix de Royaumont (G3).

Balankiyla was a winner over 1m4f in France, and is a half-sister to Bayir, a Group winner in France, who also took the Secretariat Stakes (G1) in the US.

The second dam Balankiya is a half-sister to the King Edward VII Stakes (G2) winner Balakheri.

The fifth dam Beaune was a black-type winner who took second in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (G1), and was dam of the Prix du Jockey-Club (G1) victor Bering.

Balantina wins for Medallion Racing, Parkland Thoroughbreds Et Al. Bred by Camas Park Stud, the Ten Sovereigns filly was purchased as a yearling at the Arqana August Sale for €100,000 by Avenue / Parkland / Bawnmore

MARHABA YA SANAFI

Muhaarar & Danega (Galileo)

€ 6,000 LF

New in 2026 TRIBALIST

Farhh & Fair Daughter (Nathaniel)

€ 6,000 LF

New in 2026

THUNDER MOON

Zoffany & Small Sacrifice (Sadler’s Wells)

€ 5,000 LF

1st 2-year-olds

TEXAS

Wootton Bassett & Texalova (Dream Ahead)

€ 3,800 LF

1st 2-year-olds

ROMANISED

Holy Roman Emperor & Romantic Venture (Indian Ridge)

€ 5,000 LF

At stud in 2021

MAGIC DREAM

Saint Des Saints & Magic Poline (Trempolino)

€ 3,500 LF

1st 3-year-olds

Horses to follow

Here are the Trackside team’s Horses To Follow for next season, a batch of horses who have really caught their eye in parade rings this summer, have made the team’s pre-race text messaging service and who look progressive types for next season

PIERRE BONNARD

2yo, colt

Camelot-Sultanina (New Approach)

Owner: Mrs John Magnier/Michael Tabor/Derrick Smith/ Westerberg

It was a win that sparked Derby dreams and Pierre Bonnard falls into that over-used, but truly meant category of “whatever he does as a two-year-old is a bonus”

Trainer: Aidan O’Brien

Breeder: Rathasker Stud

As the autumn nights draw in, it’s time to start dreaming of next year’s Classics and Pierre Bonnard heads the list for potential Epsom glory in 2026.

The Derby is a race in which Aidan O’Brien has found a magic formula, he has won five of the last seven renewals, and he has a live candidate in the imposing Pierre Bonnard.

The son of Camelot was easily one of the biggest colts sighted on the racecourse in 2025 and he was unassuming in the paddock, sometimes seemingly unsure about how to use his large frame.

His size was a small concern ahead of the Group 3 Zetland Stakes in that the undulating Newmarket Rowley Mile track might prove too tricky; even smaller and more athletic horses can truggle to remain balanced in the Dip at this point in their careers.

Yet Pierre Bonnard’s performance gave no indication that an unconventional track would be a problem, he travelled smoothly through the final three furlongs for a commanding victory. It was a win that sparked Derby dreams and Pierre Bonnard falls into that over-used, but truly meant, category of “whatever he does as a two-year-old is a bonus”.

Those dreams gained more substance later in October, and on the more conventional track at Saint-Cloud, he went on to claim the Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud in style.

He looks as though he could be a star for breeder Rathasker Stud in 2026 - the Burns family farm having bought his dam Sultanina at the Tattersalls December Sale 2022 from the Normandie Stud dispersal for just 78,000gns.

MAYBE NOT

3yo, filly

Pinatubo-Considered Opinion (Redoute’s Choice)

Owner: The Eclipse Partnership

Trainer: Ralph Beckett

Breeder: Car Colston Hall Stud

The chance to win black-type is the dream for

all filly owners and a clever campaign at four-years-old can prove fruitful in improving the quality of a page.

Maybe Not was unable to win as a juvenile, but she ran in all the right company finishing fifth behind Elwateen on debut and fourth in a Leicester novice race, won by Cheveley Park Stud’s Formal.

This season she has gone on to become a three-time winner in handicap company from 7f to a mile.

The daughter of Pinatubo is visually impressive: a big-framed mare with a lovely demeanour and an exceptional walk to match.

If races were won on appearance, Maybe Not would be in the top echelons and she presents like a filly, if she stays in training, who could go onto bigger and better things as a four-year-old.

A placing, or even a win, in minor black-type company looks well within her remit if finding further progression over the winter.

LYNEHAM

2yo, colt

Wootton Bassett-The Tooth Fairy (Galileo)

Owner: Al Shaqab Racing & Amo Racing

Trainer: Ralph Beckett

Breeder: Westerberg

Amo Racing has been hitting all the headlines with big-money spends at the yearling sales as Kia Joorabchian continues his search for a vital top-class horse.

The operation has enjoyed success at Group 1 level with the likes of King Of Steel and Arizona Blaze, but is looking for Classic victory or a horse who can sweep all before him.

Owned in conjunction with Al Shaqab Racing, Lyneham, a son of Wootton Bassett, was purchased for 425,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 1 in 2024 and boasts an eye-catching pedigree – his dam The Tooth Fairy is a full-sister to champion racemare Found.

Lyneham opened his account with a commendable second at Doncaster beaten a head in the mile maiden during the St Leger meeting – he appeared to find little in the final stages but a closer inspection yielded dividends.

The bit had travelled through the colt’s mouth going someway to explaining his reluctance to battle and a switch to a fullcheek on his next start proved helpful, and

horses to follow

he recorded a length victory in a maiden on Newmarket’s Rowley Mile.

He’s bred to be good and early indications are positive. This is a colt who should be capable of mixing with the best over middle-distances next year and we’ll be looking forward to seeing him in the spring Classic trials.

ESNA

2yo, filly

Starman-Dubai (Galileo)

Owner: Martin Hughes and Partners

Trainer: Brian Meehan

Breeder: Canice Farrell

Freshman sire Starman has been an interesting

Second on debut at Sandown, Esna fitted the typical Meehan profile for a filly –big, and scopey who arrived at the racecourse well-schooled and well-managed

Fitted with a bit with full side after problems on debut, Lyneham won his maiden at Newmarket

stallion to follow this year, his progeny have come in all sorts of shapes and sizes.

One consistent factor, though, is that his offspring have been winning and we’ve seen some lovely prospects for next year – The Prettiest Star, Orion’s Belt and Into The Sky all come to mind.

Esna, trained by Brian Meehan, fits into the same category, although she may have flown under the radar compared to others. Second on debut at Sandown, Esna fitted the typical Meehan profile for a filly – big and scopey who arrived at the racecourse well-schooled and well-managed.

She proved capable of winning on her second start over the same course and distance and then justified connections’ faith in her when she was thrown in at the deep end in the Group 1 Prix Marcel Boussac.

Despite finding the preliminaries at ParisLongchamp a considerable step up from her experiences at the considerably quieter Sandown Park, she finished two-and-a-quarter lengths fourth behind Diamond Necklace.

Related to a variety of winners over different distances, the filly’s future is hard to judge, but as a half-sister to the Listed 1m4f winner Alakhana, producer of the Group 2 winner Jayarebe, Esna could be one for middledistances next season – an ideal advertisement for the versatility of sire Starman.

CLASSIC CUVEE

Deep-girthed and big-chested, Constitution River is a typical product of the late Wootton Bassett and could be one of a cohort of important colts for Ballydoyle next season

2yo, filly

Siyouni-Yummy Mummy (Montjeu)

Owner: Newsells Park Stud - Bloodstock 25

Trainer: Roger Varian

Breeder: Newsells Park Stud

The Tattersalls £40,000 EBF Newsomers Maiden Stakes at Newmarket’s July Course in early August proved to be a race worth watching with winner Zanthos going on to win the Group 2 Rockfel Stakes at the Rowley Mile.

The second-placed Classic Cuvee, a half-sister to Legatissimo, enjoyed a solid start to her career, having been introduced into the pre-parade ring while the more experienced horses in the first race were still in the ring, and showing a good attitude.

A winner on her second start at Doncaster, Classic Cuvee then caught the eye before

the Group 3 Oh So Sharp Stakes but was disappointing in the stakes race, hanging right in the closing stages to finish 16l adrift of the winner Calendar Girl with trainer Roger Varian unable to provide an explanation for the filly’s performance.

It was a disappointing end to the season for the daughter of Lope De Vega, but all signs prior indicate that she’ll be a filly to follow during her three-year-old campaign.

Legatissimo demonstrated a similar profile –useful, but not unbeatable as a juvenile – before achieving victories in the 1,000 Guineas (G1), the Nassau Stakes (G1) and the Matron Stakes (G1) as a three-year-old.

CONSTITUTION RIVER

2yo, colt

Wootton Bassett-Chuppy (Le Havre)

Owner: M Tabor & D Smith & Mrs J Magnier & Westerberg

Trainer: Aidan O’Brien

Breeder: S A R L Lg Bloodstock

The 7f colts and gelding maiden stakes during the July Festival has yielded some useful winners over the years, with the dual Group 1 winning Field Of Gold taking the 2024 renewal.

Distant Storm proved a worthy victor of the 2025 race – and the Night Of Thunder colt has already gone on to record success in the Group 3 Tattersalls Stakes before a third in the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes, but it was the narrow second Constitution River who really took the eye.

Deep-girthed and big-chested, Constitution River is a typical product of the late Wootton Bassett and could be one of a cohort of important colts for Ballydoyle next season. He built on the Newmarket second with a maiden win at Galway, before stepping up in class to secure a valuable Group 2 victory in the Futurity Stakes at The Curragh winning by 2l.

It appears the colt may have met with a small setback as he failed to feature in any entries towards the close of the season, but O’Brien must looking forward to running this horse next spring.

As always the stable has a strong contingent of three-year-olds to go to war with in 2026 and Constitution River may be one of the least exposed.

Constitution River is by Wootton Bassett and out of a Le Havre mare and won the Group 2 Futurity Stakes

WOOTTON BASSETT’s first seven-figure yearling at Tattersalls October when realising 1,250,000gns!

Camille Pissarro is a half-brother to Commonwealth Cup-Gr.1 and Richmond Stakes-Gr.2 winner Golden Horde

Earned TDN Rising Star status when impressing first time out over 6 furlongs in late April

CAMILLE PISSARRO

WOOTTON BASSETT

Went on to win the ‘sire-making’ Prix du Jockey Club-Gr.1 like SHAMARDAL, LOPE DE VEGA, NEW BAY, ST MARK’S BASILICA etc. On his previous start he was a fast-finishing third in the French 2,000 Guineas-Gr.1 from a wide draw (15 of 16)

Fee: €30,000

JROLE modelling

On January 1, chairman Edmond Mahony hands over the day-to-day running of Tattersalls to new managing director Matt Prior

Mahony sat down with Leo Powell to talk about a wide range of subjects –the “R” word was definitely not mentioned

Tattersalls

EAN-BAPTISTE ALPHONSE

KARR in 1849 wrote the famous words, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”.

The words came to mind when I sat to talk with Edmond Mahony ahead of the Tattersalls December Sale. Chairman of that company for 32 years, Mahony caused a late rewrite of my list of questions with an email circulated two hours ahead of our chat. It answered the one burning query I had of the Irishman – is Edmond Mahony retiring?

The press release from Tattersalls, Europe’s biggest equine auction house which predates the opening quote by 83 years, revealed that it would continue to have a chairman, Mahony continuing in the role, and is creating a new position of managing director, with Matt Prior appointed. It also announced three new board appointments, Tammy O’Brien, Harvey Bell and Jason Singh.

The new structure will be in place January 1.

For most of the year, speculation has been rife about possible changes at Tattersalls, with Mahony reaching the age of 65 in September. Finally, the question has been answered. He explained.

“Well, it has been coming for a while to be honest. We’ve had a rather oldfashioned approach to the management structure in the past. The roles of chairman and chief executive were rolled into one for the times that were in it.

“Historically, Tattersalls was a partnership, and then in the mid-1970s it was changed to a private limited Photography courtesy of

I am still there in a sort of custodian role, looking after the business with a helicopter viewpoint

company. They elected a chairman, who was the de facto chief executive.

“With the size of the company and the way it has grown over the last 20 years, the board rightly felt that we needed a division between the chairman and the chief executive roles. I think they are right, it does need a younger person to run it on a day-to-day basis.

“I am still there in a sort of custodian role, looking after the business with a helicopter viewpoint.”

At an early part of both my own and Mahony’s careers, we worked as colleagues in Ballsbridge Sales, the forerunner to Tattersalls Ireland.

He added: “I think this sort of comes back to when you and I started. We were lucky enough to work with people such as Willie O’Rourke and Peter Nugent, and they put a lot of faith in us when we were very young – Willie let me up on the rostrum in Ballsbridge when I was 20 years of age.

“We were really lucky in that regard,

also been innovative, as Mahony points out.

“Our partnership with Inglis brought a lot of benefits, and one of them was that they pioneered online selling. We saw the value of that at first hand, when others probably didn’t have that opportunity. We were lucky in that respect.

“I have had a lot of opportunities that came my way. We bought the Cheltenham business at the right time, and the Goresbridge business.

“They were things we did that worked out. In business you don’t always get Plan A to work, but sometimes Plan B does.

“Regarding the online business model, it actually took the Australians quite a while to get to the point of selling sixfigure lots on a regular basis. We are still in the foothills here, but I do see it as the future in a way.

“There are big advantages in terms of cost, cutting the risk of disease, and things like selling shares. We have invested a lot, especially in personnel, and we see it very much as the future.”

Company management

Indeed, having bought in

Brexit, the pandemic and others are typical of emerging and constant threats to the business. How does Mahony deal with these?

“Sitting at my desk, a lot of what you do on a day-to-day business is crisis management. It is the nature of the business, and there is always a tripwire that comes along. In the case of Brexit, we’ve been lucky. The intransigent stance of each side has been modified over a period of time, and the impact initially was really shocking.

“With the pandemic, it was a question of keeping the business going. We were caught in the slipstream of a catastrophe

Mahony will no longer be on the rostrum, and will be selling for Tattersalls for the last time at the Tatterslls Ireland Sapphire Sale

In possibly what might be a more “relaxed” future role, Mahony is looking forward to having the time for a bit more hunting, he has been joint-master of the Louth Foxhounds for 27 years

which was incredibly badly handled by governments all over the world.

“Closing down economies was not the answer, as has been proven by all the inquiries that have been going on.

“We were fortunate in that Matt Hancock was our local member of parliament and Minister for Health.

“A lot of bad things were said about Hancock at the time, but he was very helpful in keeping the wheels turning in the racing industry. Without him I think we would have been in a lot more trouble.”

Not every country can claim to have a supportive government, and Mahony is very clear in his view of the current state of Britain. He doesn’t pull any punches.

“I think the current government is the worst I have experienced in terms of its attitude to business generally.

Michael O’Leary [Ryanair chief and a large racehorse owner and breeder] has highlighted this over the last couple of months as well.

“It’s not just me griping. They have nobody on the front bench who’s ever been in business.

“They run the country by ideology

rather than for the good of everyone.

“We’ve got a very tough road ahead on the betting tax because, even if racing is excused, which seems possible, I think the impact on bookmakers will affect both the media rights and the Levy turnover. I think we are in for a difficult time with that.”

Does Mahony understand that the view of many is that racing and breeding is all about rich players, with horses making lots of money?

“Whenever I get the opportunity to talk to politicians of that persuasion, I always say that on the face of it, that may appear to be the case. This country is very lucky to have Newmarket, which happens to be situated in East Anglia. It could equally well be on The Curragh or in Chantilly.

“I don’t think the sales are necessarily a litmus test of British racing, rather it’s indicative of international racing. We are heavily reliant on overseas participation, particularly from the Gulf.”

Market view

While he still has to face into one of the biggest sales of the year – last year the December Sale had a turnover of some 135 million guineas – Mahony offered his take on the markets in 2025.

“I think any sales executive would look back on this year and say we would have settled for these numbers at the start of the sales season. There was a lot of fear and trepidation going into it, and I do think there is going to be an adjustment.

“We’ve got a diminishing number of owners at the top of it, and we are lucky to have the ones we do have. They are actually holding the thing together. The problem at the moment, particularly in Britain, is that there is so much negativity about not only racing, but about the economy in general.

“There is an attack on wealth, on disposable income, and inheritance tax issues. There is a constant undermining

of people’s confidence in wanting to own a resource. Until we get to the other side of the next general election, I think the best we are going to have is stagnation.

“There is a lot of negativity that’s based on reality. We had Conservative governments who maybe weren’t particularly helpful to racing, but it was not actually destructive, which is what

people are concerned about now. It is a turning circle, and nothing lasts forever.

“I don’t think we have the same number of ‘hobby breeders’ in England as in Ireland – people whose grandfather had a mare, their father had a mare and now they have one, too.

“It has passed from one generation to another. Hobby breeding is a slightly unsung part of the great success of the

Irish breeding industry.

“You are dealing with a rural economy in Ireland that fosters this way of life, and that you simply do not get here in England.”

When the new regime at Tattersalls comes into play in the New Year, what is going to change for Mahony. He laughs heartily.

“That’s a question I have asked

The first lady

on the board

PEOPLE WORKING ON THE BLOODSTOCK SIDE of Tattersalls are, as a general rule, the better-known members of the company, given that they interface more regularly with their clients. However, the board of Tattersalls also includes people whose names may not be so familiar, but whose roles are integral to the smooth running of business.

One such name is that of Caroline Scott, in whose safe hands lies the responsibility of ensuring that all the financial wheels are well oiled. She has the distinction of becoming the first female member of the Tattersalls board in its near 260-year history, a proud achievement that was largely overlooked when she was appointed last year. Now she is joined by Tammy O’Brien.

A somewhat shy and reserved person, Scott’s first surprise was the revelation that her early life, which involved show ponies before going to university, also coincided with going off to the USA where she was a cowgirl for a little time.

She is a doctor in equine physiology and a chartered accountant, and is less than a year from celebrating 20 years working with the Newmarket firm.

If you subscribe to the view that all accountants are boring, think again. Scott has a lovely sense of humour, and quite a dollop of derring-do. She modestly glosses over the fact that she is a very successful owner and breeder, often combining both roles, and her colours are carried by horses trained by her partner, Will Stone.

On the first day of November, the couple won at Newmarket with Dashing Dick, a 10,000gns breeze-up purchase at Tattersalls [where else?] who is a hugely popular gelding,

having now run 58 times. This was his fifth win, and he has more often finished in the first four than out of it. Scott’s homebred two-year-old Big Harry, placed on his first two outings, opened his account a week later when running out a near four-length winner of a six-furlong Doncaster maiden, and is a horse to keep an eye on in 2026.

The quietly-spoken Scott not only is an owner and breeder,

Tattersalls’ finance director Caroline Scott Photo: John Hoy

myself, too! I imagine I will still spend a couple of days a week on Tattersalls work, but I have other interests as you know. I am still doing a bit of riding, a bit of hunting, a bit of messing around with horses. I have a small farm I like to do things with, and two grandchildren.

“Between all those things, I will probably be kept very busy!

“I have just done my 27th season

with the Louth Foxhounds [he is jointmaster] – it seems to be something of a life sentence!

“And, hopefully, I have got a Dublin Horse Show prospect!”

Tattersalls women

Last year Caroline Scott became the first female director in Tattersalls’ long

The only time I ever thought ‘Gosh, I am making history’ was approaching that door into the boardroom for my first board meeting

but she enjoyed success in the saddle while Arab racing, and, almost as an aside, she mentions that she won the 2009 Newmarket Town Plate, which has been staged since 1666.

The race starts ar the National Stud and is a true test of fitness and determination for both equine and human participants as it does not finish until as you cross the line on the July Course, a privilege normally reserved only for professionals.

“It was amazing. It was at my favourite course, there were lots of people I knew who came to watch, and it was on a horse, Artist’s Return, trained by Will and owned by his mum. It was a lovely day, most memorable, and the bonus was we got loads of Newmarket sausages as well!”

All of this day-to-day involvement with horses, and experiencing the sport from so many sides, is a plus when it comes to Scott’s work role.

“It gives me an empathy and understanding about where people are in relation to the business. We put out headlines about how marvellous the top end is, but it is the middle to bottom that is struggling, and these people need some more thought. It is important to understand the struggles they face, and support them through this tricky time.”

Scott is the highest-ranking female executive in Tattersalls, and the company has seen a growth in women advancing within the business. That strategy is down to one person according to Scott. “Full credit to Edmond. It was his faith in

history, and Mahony is keen to talk about the growing role played by women in the sales company.

“I think I get great satisfaction from the fact that we’ve now got two women on the board, in the eighties and nineties that would have been unthinkable really. I think it is great credit to them [Caroline Scott and Tammy O’Brien].

me that I could do the job. I don’t see myself as a woman in the job, rather as a person.

“The only time I ever thought ‘Gosh, I am making history’ was approaching that door into the boardroom for my first board meeting. That was the only time.

“When I came into this role [head of finance], I did not have immense self-confidence. Through the support of the board, and especially of Edmond who mentored me, they have given me confidence and encouraged me. As a woman, perhaps I have may have different negotiation skills, I don’t know. The reception I got from clients whom I thought would be tricky was great, and I have built good relationships.

“I have only been in this role two years, so it is still a big learning experience.

“That’s all credit to Edmond, who has an incredible sense of humour and is just a joy to work with, along with the rest of the board and the entire company. It will evolve further and I am sure there are exciting times ahead.

“I know it sounds corny, but it is one big family. There are different elements to it, but I would like to think that the staff feel looked after.

“ Tattersalls has great loyalty to its staff, and that pays dividends in that will do anything for the company.

“I would do anything for the company.”

What are the changes that Scott has witnessed in her near two-decade time at Tattersalls, and what of the future?

“The obvious ones are things like online sales, the physical growth in size of the company.

“One of the things that doesn’t change is that people are here for a long time. While one cannot tell the future, I hope that I would be here to retirement. We must be doing something right!

“I love tradition and don’t particularly like change, but the beauty of challenges is that they come with modernising.

“That said, I have a deep admiration for the firm’s history, and the Tattersalls brand remains steadfast and I quite like that.”

“Both have given fantastic service to the company and fully deserve a place on the board. I believe that they are going to bring the company forward in the future.

“We have also some good executives – Shirley [Anderson-Jolag] is probably the most high-profile because of being on the rostrum, and she is running Tattersalls Cheltenham as well.

“Katherine Sheridan is running the online sales and doing a fantastic job. Chloe Pitts in marketing – all of them and more are making huge strides within the company.”

One newly-discovered side to Mahony

has been his appearances in hilarious social media posts. He blushes at the mention, laughing as he explains his move into a space with which he is not familiar.

“I am not a social media man at all –I don’t ever look at it or have anything to do with it, which is probably one of the reasons I should step down as CEO!

“I do get comments about these videos more than probably anything else, not only from young people but from those of our generation.

“People always say that I’m quite serious and austere, but to do this job the thing you need more than anything

is a sense of humour. I do see the benefits of social media, but personally it is not something I am particularly interested in.”

Rostrum ending

Many will be shocked and saddened to learn that Mahony’s time on the rostrum is also coming to an end after the Sapphire Sale at Tattersalls Ireland in December. One of the most consummate purveyors of the art of auctioneering, he will be sorely missed.

There is never enough time to cover everything you want in an hour-long interview, and at a crossing of our paths at Fairyhouse, Mahony was fretful that he should have talked about more areas.

I could not let him go without a query; does he have a highlight of his more than four decades working within the sector? His answer surprised and delighted me, as it was something that I too was closely involved with.

He said: “Looking back, you think of things that influenced you when you were young.”

Addressing me directly, he went on.

“I don’t know if you remember that time when we were in Anglesea House [the sales company’s office] and were with Willie O’Rourke, all racking our brains as to how on earth we could get the September Yearling Sale off the ground. We were brought into his office, and he had a large board and chalk.

“We were told to come up with ideas, and were offering the usual pathetic ideas that you come up with when you’re in your early twenties. Then Willie suddenly said, ‘what about free flights for everyone from England?’

“I thought, god almighty, that’s the most unbelievable idea. It was one of those lightbulb moments, such a simple idea. That’s how people should think, and we need more lightbulb moments.”

Mahony is a firm believer in “lightbulb moments”, that they can be the way to take a business forward

ELITE STATUS

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At Dalham Hall Stud, UK

It’s 100!

The NZB Karaka Sale will be marking its centenary this January

KARAKA 2026, set to take place at NZB’s Karaka Sales Centre from January 25-29, will mark the 100th National Yearling Sale in New Zealand.

A century of thoroughbred excellence has shaped the National Yearling Sale, with changes seen over the years including currency switching from guineas to New Zealand dollars, location moving from Trentham to Karaka and the business transferring from Wrightsons to NZB.

It is the beating heart of trade within the New Zealand breeding and racing industry where the breeders meet the buyers, where years of careful planning and preparation meet astute judgement and ambition. It is where winning begins.

From this centenary of sales ring action have emerged many legends of the racetrack, among them the titans Phar Lap, Rising Fast, Tulloch, Dulcify, Octagonal and So You Think.

In the countdown to Karaka 2026, NZB

100th NATIONAL YEARLING SALE SCHEDULE (KARAKA

TAB Karaka Millions Raceday Saturday, January 24, Ellerslie

Book 1 Sale: January 25-26

Book 2 Sale: January 27

Karaka Summer Sale: January 29

will be celebrating the horses, people and moments that have graced the sale ring over the past century, while also looking towards the future to continue the legacy of the National Yearling Sales Series as the preeminent thoroughbred sales event of New Zealand.

For 60 years, NZB’s International Bloodstock Manager John Cameron has been a key part of the team as the National Yearling Sale has evolved.

“It was around 1966, when I first attended the National Yearling Sale

The first National Yearling Sale took place at Trentham

2026)

advertorial Karaka 2026

at Trentham,” he recalls. “Michael Floyd was at the helm of the Wright, Stephensons and Co. bloodstock division. My job was on the rostrum, clerking the sale alongside auctioneers Peter Kelly, Bill Patterson and Dave Clarkson.

“The National Yearling Sale is the flagbearer. It’s a time when New Zealand breeders present the very best yearlings to the market for international and domestic buyers.

“The impact and recognition that our NZ-bred horses have had not only on Australian racing, but also jurisdictions like Hong Kong, since I’ve first attended the yearling sales is tremendous.

“Graduates have, and continue to, compete at the highest level on the international stage.

“Our breeders and vendors of today are carrying forward the tradition of breeding and presenting top-class horses and are continuing the future success of the National Yearling Sale.”

CAMERON adds: “I look forward to Karaka 2026 this January to celebrate the milestone, 100 years is of great significance, there are a lot of memories and people past and present.”

As recently announced, a new sales format will be launched at Karaka 2026, ensuring that the quality of the 100th National Yearling Sales catalogue is in line with the momentous occasion.

Book 1 will be conducted across two full days, composed of 567 horses.

Book 2 will immediately follow with 280 yearlings offered the next day.

A third session has also been reintroduced with the Karaka Summer Sale taking place on the Thursday, cataloguing 160 yearlings.

NZB’s renowned Karaka Sale has produced a prolific number of modern day and all-time champion racehorses,highlighted by another incredible season on the track in which

A

I look forward to Karaka 2026 this January to celebrate the milestone, 100 years is of great significance, there are a lot of memories and people past and present

21 per cent of Group 1 races in Australia were claimed by New Zealand-breds, despite making up just 7.7 per cent of the racing population.

These results, paired with the highoctane TAB Karaka Millions Raceday,

world-famous Kiwi hospitality and the popular DoubleTree by Hilton Karaka hotel, will again combine for an unforgettable Karaka experience.

All yearlings purchased are eligible for the Karaka Millions Series featuring the $1m TAB Karaka Millions 2YO (1200m), followed by the $1.5m TAB Karaka Millions 3YO (1600m) as well as the NZB Mega Maiden Bonus Series with $1m in bonuses up for grabs across 40 maiden races each season.

The catalogues for Karaka 2026 will be in mailboxes and online from 18 November 2025.

To follow along on all of the news, blogs, videos and more, visit 100years. nzb.co.nz.

Enthusiasts can also get involved in the Facebook community group to share memories of the sale, or follow NZB’s social media platforms for more.

For more information and to view the catalogues, visit www.nzb.co.nz.

regular leading consignor at the Karaka Sale is top New Zealand-based stud farm Waikato Stud, and the farm’s owner Mark Chittick is leading this yearling

A great physical 480,000gns yearling

FIRST FOALS 2026

“We thought he was our Coventry horse when we started working him, long before he ran. You need your best horse to win the Coventry.”

Aidan O’Brien, trainer

1st Coventry Stakes, Royal Ascot Same as Mill Reef, Verglas, Royal Applause…

A race that makes stallions

Already supported by many French and Irish breeders.

134 mares covered in his first season

62% of his book are daughters or sisters of Black Type horses

21% are Black Type or Black Type producers

A true 2yo family

Supported by Fee 2026: €5,500

Standing at Haras de la Huderie, 14950 Glanville, France, T: 33 6 81 59 97 94

WOOTTON BASSETT – TRANSCENDENCE (ARCANO)

AN OUTSTANDING 2YO

Winner of his first three starts incl Gr.2 Coventry Stakes, Royal Ascot 3rd Gr.1 Prix Morny and 3rd Gr.1 Middle Park Stakes

CLASSIC PLACED AT 3

3rd Gr.1 Irish 2,000 Guineas

Diego Velazquez: the summer’s Group 1 winner moved to The National Stud in the autumn, has reportedly settled in well alongside the four other stallions based at the farm

Stallion photography by Debbie Burt

National treasures

Jocelyn de Moubray chats with Sam Sangster about new National Stud stallion Diego Velazquez, while CEO Anna Kerr gives

us the latest on Stradivarius, Bradsell, Lope Y

Fernandez

and Rajasinghe

THE PRIX JACQUES

LE MAROIS, run over Deauville’s straight mile in August, is often an important and thrilling race.

It has been won by future top stallions, such as Dubawi and Kingman, or if you go further back, by Dubai Millennium, Kalamoun, Luthier and Lyphard, as well as top racemares including the dual winners Miesque and Inspiral.

The race has seen close finishes, and a few wide-margin winners like the Guy Harwood-trained Lear Fan who won by 4l in the 1980s.

It has been won by horses trained in Japan, Germany, as well as horses from England, Ireland and, of course, France.

For connections, winning the Jacques Le Marois has always meant a great deal, however, few of the winners of the race since its first running in the 1920s will have been quite as emotional as Sam Sangster, the owner of this year’s winner Diego Velazquez.

The four-year-old son of Frankel was bought by Sangster and his

partners just a month earlier.

Trained by Aidan O’Brien and ridden by Christophe Soumillon carrying the green with blue sleeves, and green with spotted white cap. They are colours his father Robert Sangster had made famous and which had been worn by champions such as Sadler’s Wells, Alleged, Caerleon, El Gran Seno, and in total by the winners of more than 100 Group 1 races all over the world.

The previous Group 1 winner in these colours was Playful Act, who won the Fillies’ Mile at Ascot in 2004, the year of Robert Sangster’s death when his youngest son Sam was only 16.

“Winning the Marois,” Sangster confirms, “was very emotional, winning a Group 1 in those colours is something I shall never forget.”

The Diego Velazquez story had begun only a few weeks earlier.

“I am,” he explains, “on the board of the National Stud and we had been having conversations about a number of possible stallions.

“I have an excellent relationship

with the team at Coolmore and so arranged in July to go to Ballydoyle and look at a few horses.”

The board had been chatting as to how to continue to access quality stallions to stand at the National Stud; Sangster believed the answer was syndication and getting involved with a horse who was still racing.

“Diego Velazquez was initially bought as a racehorse alone; I believed buying a racehorse would open doors for us to attract new investors.

“If you buy a racehorse there is a considerable upside, it had to be the right horse but, once I had seen Diego, I was sure he was the one.

“I rang MV Magnier, told him we wanted to buy the horse, we put together a proposal, and, in the end, it was very straightforward.”

At the time Diego Velazquez was the

winner of four of his nine starts.

Bought by Coolmore as a yearling for 2,400,000gns from Denis Brosnan’s Croom House Stud, he is a Frankel half-brother to the Group 1 winner Broome and the Group 2 winner and Group 1-placed Point Lonsdale.

His dam the Acclamation mare Sweepstake won the Listed National Stakes over 6f in May as a two-year-old and was later Group-placed in Britain and the US.

Brosnan had purchased Sweepstake at Keeneland in November 2011, no doubt because she is from the same female family as Zoffany, a colt he bred and sold to Coolmore. He went on to become a Group 1 winner at two and came as close as any horse ever did to beating Frankel when a fast-finishing second in the St James’s Palace Stakes (G1) at Royal Ascot.

Diego Velazquez was a high-class two-year-old too, he won his first two starts, including the Group 2 Champions Juvenile Stakes at Leopardstown in September.

At that point Diego Velazquez looked to be one of the leaders among the O’Brien-trained colts of his generation, but he was beaten on his next four starts.

Only sixth of seven on heavy ground in the Futurity at Doncaster he made an encouraging seasonal reappearance at three to be a fast-finishing fourth in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains (G1) at ParisLongchamp, beaten only a length by the good horses Metropolitan, Dancing Gemini, and Alcantor.

The conclusion was that he was a colt who needed to go further, an erroneous one as it turned out as he was well beaten and unplaced on his next two

Diego Velazquez wins the Group 1 Prix Jacques Le Marois in August, the horse purchased privately after Sangster had seen him at Ballydoyle in July. He is upsides the second-placed and subsequent Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Mile winner Notable Speech

Photo by Alisha Meeder

If you buy a racehorse there is a considerable upside, it had to be the right horse but, once I had seen Diego, I was sure he was the one

starts in the Jockey-Club and the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot.

Diego Velazquez returned to 1m1f to win a Group 3 in July at Leopardstown by 7l and then a Group 2 over a mile at the same track in September.

After a down-the-field run at Royal Ascot he returned to run in the Group 2 The Minstrel Stakes at The Curragh in July, still carrying, for the final time, the colours of the Coolmore partnership. He held on for a narrow but decisive win.

THE PLAN was to run in the Jacques Le Marois, hoping there was not too much rain – by then it was clear that the horse was at his best over a mile on good or firm ground.

“I am by nature an incredibly positive person and am happy to take the responsibility for the horse,” says Sangster. “It was nevertheless encouraging that Aidan was so positive going into the race. He told me he had never had the colt in a better place.”

The O’Brien judgment proved correct. After following his stable companion The Lion In Winter’s lead, it was Diego Velazquez, who took over in front and was able to hold on by a head the late challenge of Godolphin’s Notable Speech.

The win ensured that Diego Velazquez was going to be an attractive stallion – a major Group 1 winner in a stallionmaking race – and the Sangster colours were once again in the Group 1 winners’ enclosure.

Diego Velazquez ran once more when fifth in the Grade 1 Coolmore Turf Mile at Keeneland in October.

“Frankie [Dettori] told us that the horse didn’t enjoy the turns and the US way of racing, so we decided to stop there rather than going on to the Breeders’ Cup Mile at Del Mar,” Sangster explains.

“This decision has given the horse the time to let down and relax before we show him to breeders at the National Stud during the December Sale.

“I can’t wait to do so as he looks magnificent and has already put on 40kg!”

Diego Velazquez will start his stud career at a fee of £17,500 at the National Stud and will then go on to cover at Adam Sangster’s Swettenham Stud in Australia for the southern hemisphere season.

“We bought the horse outright,”

Sangster adds, “and Adam will stand the horse for us in the southern hemisphere.

“In the northern hemisphere a large proportion of his first book will come from the shareholders’ mares. They will be breeding to him in order to race his progeny themselves and to offer some to the market.

“I am very confident – there is a great team at the National Stud headed up by Anna Kerr and Joe Bradley, and, as breeders will see in December, he is just a most attractive horse.”

Sangster is new to the stallion business, however, since he returned to Britain from Australia around 15 years ago his main activity has been bringing people into the business to invest in horses to be trained at Manton by Brian Meehan.

“I have been working with Brian since 2010 and since 2015 we have bought all of the yearlings together,” he explains.

“We have had about 15 stakes horses in the period, the best being the Group 1 performers Issac Shelby and Rashabar, while the overall average purchase price is only 45,000gns.

“I set up and manage the Manton Thoroughbred Syndicate, which buys around ten horses every year and during the season I am up at Manton two days a week.”

Among the stables hopes for 2026 is the Zarak filly Zaravina, who was second in the valuable Arqana newcomers’ race in Deauville in August.

“We have given her the time to recover as those races can be tough, but we shall be surprised if she is not at least a stakes filly at three.”

Sangster is also a breeder in his own right and in partnership keeping mares in France, at the National Stud and in Ireland

“We love,” he laughs, “those breeders’ premiums!”

For the immediate future Sangster’s focus will be on Diego Velazquez and ensuring the horse is given the chance at stud he so firmly believes he deserves.

Sam Sangster at Deauville

Photo by Alisha Meeder

Main picture and inset: Lope Y Fernandez, the son of Lope De Vega has had 18 first-crop winners in 2025

Below Left: Anna Kerr is delighted with how 2025 has gone for the National Stud stallions, but is looking for more in 2026

CEO, Anna Kerr on The National Stud stallion roster

“DIEGO VELAZQUEZ has settled in really well, and, as a Group 1-winning son of Frankel, we are delighted to have him on the National Stud roster, he offers a super option for breeders with performance and pedigree matched by a stunning physical.

“We have had a great year with our current residents and are satisfied with the progress over the last 12 months – though there is always more to do!

“Of course, Stradivarius’ first yearlings were offered, and have been really well received by the marketplace – two sold for six-figure sums with a top price of €140,000 given at the BBAG September Sale, and they achieved a strong average of over 70,000gns at Tattersalls October Book 1 and 2, which is a great return on his £10,000 fee.

“As a bunch they are of a type and were athletic and scopey, looking as though they will be runners as two-year-olds.

“They were bought by some top judges and ‘Strad’ will have juveniles in training next year with such brilliant trainers as John and Thady Gosden, William Haggas, and Joseph O’Brien.

“His fee will remain at £10,000, serious value for a seven-time Group 1 winner producing this quality of stock.

“Bradsell has let down well following his first year at stud, and we are looking forward to showing him to breeders again during December sales – they won’t be disappointed. He has an incredible temperament; we were delighted how well he took to his new job last spring, and he covered a good book of 130 mares. He is an exciting prospect, offers breeders a fast, outcross option and his fee remains at £10,000.

“The 10-year-old Rajasinghe, a real stud favourite, really had a top summer on the track backing up his impressive and consistent winner-to-runner strike-rate of 59 per cent with three big sprint handicap wins – Two Tribes took the International at Ascot before collecting Goodwood’s Stewards’ Cup in style, and Run Boy Run was the impressive winner of the Ayr Gold Cup. Rajasinghe really was the British-based sprint sire of 2025.

“There is much for breeders to look forward to with him as the quality of his runners just keeps improving, he covered his biggest book last year, again was wellsupported by his owner Phil Cunningham, and we think he is good

has sired 18 individual winners with his first two-year-olds and we are happy with where he has landed.

“He is now joint-third in the European first crop sires’ table and has sired two stakes performers in this first cropIsle of Fernandez, who took third in the influential juvenile fillies’ race the Firth Of Clyde Stakes (G3), and Spanish Waltz, who was Listed-placed in the Doncaster Stakes.

“His horses are full of scope and look like three-year-olds in the making so we can’t wait to see what next year will bring.

Ray Mon Dough was an impressive winner on debut for Ollie Cole, and will be aimed at the Classic trials.

His fee for 2026 will be £6,000.”

the national stud

Left and below: the seven-time Group 1 winner Stradivarius, his first yearlings were really well received by the market this autumn

Near right top: Lope Y Fernandez

Far right top: Rajasinghe who has had the best summer on the track, who covered his biggest book so far last spring and was featured in our September Weatherbys Stallion Scene

Right, base: Bradsell, the dual Group 1-winning sprinter has had one season at stud, covered a book of 130 and the farm is delighted with how well he has now let down for his second career

The World’s Leading Sire by Stakes Horses in 2025

Over 65 Stakes Horses include Gr.1 winners

ARAPAHO, CARL SPACKLER & CONSENT

THE WORLD’S LEADING SIRE OF BLACKTYPE HORSES

2026 FEE: €200,000

FIRST 2YOS IN 2026 will be trained by over 20 Gr.1 winning trainers including Andrew Balding, Ralph Beckett, Karl Burke, Clive Cox, William Haggas, Paddy Twomey & Ed Walker

Impressive winner of the like his sire and grandsire before him

An Exceptional first book of 195 mares included 45% Blacktype Performers or producers & 93% Blacktype under their first dam

Dual Group 1 sire in 2025 with ROYAL SUPREMACY and SAJIR Ireland's Best Value Stallion in 2025 with 5% SW/Rnrs –The Highest of any stallion standing for less than €75,000

Source:

05/11/25

6 Group 3yos in 2025 including 7 length Gr.1 winner BAY CITY ROLLER –that's more than Sea The Stars, Blue Point, Mehmas, Siyouni & Havana Grey 10/11/25

Source:

Photography by Mel Media

Shaquille at Ace Stud: the Group 1 July Cup winner had a book of 121 last spring, including 16 black-type mares and 11 Group race winners

Holding a winning hand

Exciting times ahead for the newly created Ace Stud with Shaquille’s first foals hitting the market, a Classic campaign to plan for Dewhurst winner Gewan and big money broodmare purchases made in the US.

We chat to bloodstock and racing manager Paul Curran

MUCH HAS HAPPENED in 2025 – the last 12 months have seen significant developments in the commercial and everyday use of AI, Donald Trump was inaugurated for a second time and the whole world has since faced economic turmoil as US tariffs have been added, taken away, added and endlessly fiddled with, England won the Women’s Rugby World Cup, Aidan O’Brien an eighth UK trainers’ championship and 26th Irish title, the fallible Oisin Murphy his fourth

jockeys’ title and, once again, there were record-breaking bloodstock sales at Keeneland, Fairyhouse, Goffs, Tattersalls and Arqana.

A new stud farm near Newmarket was also announced after Dullingham Park Stud, under the ownership of Steve Parkin of Clipper Logistics, was sold.

Parkin had upgraded and renovated the farm to such a degree that his work had created gasps from the visiting bloodstock community, fully grown trees shipped in and planted merely for landscaping purposes, and he had looked to be in the stallion business

for the long game.

But, as quickly as he had arrived, Parkin has signed out of much of his extensive breeding interests, and the farm was “quietly” put on the market; the future of the property becoming the subject of much gossip, the rumours selecting a new buyer in each retelling of the story.

The chat heated up further in July when three Tattersalls buyers’ dockets were signed by Paul Curran, who bid on and purchased three-year-old fillies at the July Sale, the most expensive costing 375,000gns, called Regal Agenda, by

Pinatubo and directly related to Dubawi.

Curran signed as Ace Stud, and those who spend time looking at sale returns started to ask, ‘What is this Ace Stud?’.

The questions were answered at the beginning of August, a press release sent out to publicly confirm that Dullingham Park Stud had been sold and was no more, the property was re-named and rebranded as Ace Stud, standing Yulong stallions.

“In the end the deal was done quickly and we were there,” says Curran, who has worked for Yulong for four years. He has recently taken on the new role as bloodstock and racing manager for Ace Stud, a natural progression with the Yulong stallions standing at the farm.

“When we moved in there was a team in place and that has been great – they all know the farm and the stallions, it was almost a turn-key purchase.

“The name Ace Stud came from the owner Harris Li’s family, the more we thought of it the more we liked it; it certainly has a brand connection we can work with.”

Curran adds: “It is a beautiful property, every time I go down the driveway I look around and can’t quite believe it.

“The last owner did a superb job of bringing the farm up to scratch, we will keep on improving the property, but lots is right already.”

Since the purchasing announcement was made the pace of change has continued relentlessly. There are six stallion boxes on the farm, and they were occupied on purchase by the Group 1 July Cup winner Shaquille, whose first foals were born this year, and Soldier’s Call, whose first crop were four-year-olds in 2025.

Subsquently the latter has been sold – the son of Showcasing, who had stood two seasons at the Newmarket property, has moved to stand in Shropshire at Richard Kent’s Mickley Stud.

So, although the goal for Ace Stud is to fill those stallion boxes, the farm

is already down by one, and Curran explains the reason for the sale.

“We were obviously thrilled to acquire Soldier’s Call when we did with the farm, and I’m still a big believer in him, he’s very good horse to get you a good number of winners,”said Curran.

“But we decided this autumn it’s probably time for us to part ways. He’s gone to a very good farm with Richard, and I’m sure he’s going to have a good

time there – Richard is good at getting mares into horses and we think he will suit local breeders in that part of the country.”

Shaquille, however, has his hooves firmly in planted in the Newmarket paddocks at Ace Stud, and all at the farm are looking forward to the future with him.

The son of Charm Spirit was due to have 50 first-crop foals offered at the

Shaquille: the grandson of Invincible Spirit is to stand at a fee of £10,000 for his third season

Tattersalls December Foal Sale, and by now you will know how they have fared in the ring.

When we spoke to Curran in the autumn with those sales still on the horizon, he was very hopeful as to how the foals would be received by the market; and overall delighted that the stallion was a ready-made acquisition with the farm.

“Shaquille is exactly what you need for a commercial farm – as a July Cup winner he is what he is meant to be, he was fast, he is good-looking and is just what the market is looking for,” he says.

“He has been producing good stock, they are like him, they look fast too, and have a good hip, and we will be supporting them in the market, we don’t own or have bred any by him.”

THE STALLION’S BOOK SIZE and quality of mares covered through the spring of 2025 could have suffered due to the uncertainty of the farm’s future. Breeders covering mares in the spring of year two rightly could have been concerned as to the onward prospects of the stallion with the uncertainity surrounding the farm in the early months of the year.

However, as Curran says, the arrival of Shaquille’s first crop of foals really helped to bolster his prospects, and he ended up with a healthy book of 121.

“We have had lots of repeat business from breeders who had used Shaquille in his first year, as well as breeders who sent mares to him from Ireland – those two factors are really positive for his prospects,” he says. “We were delighted with his book and we are looking forward to a full year marketing him.

“We will be active in the market for mares to send to him and we want to give him all the support we can, we think he is exactly what the British stallion roster is needing.”

Shaquille’s fee has been reduced by

the team for his third year at stud from £15,000 to £10,000 and Curran explains the thinking.

“We want to give breeders a chance, so, not only have we reduced the price, we have also changed the fee structure to January 1 terms, which we think will be beneficial to breeders, too,” he says.

“His first yearlings sell next year, we want to get as many quality mares into him as we can, and lowering the fee

gives more opportunties to breeders all around, we are being as fair as we can.”

With empty stallion boxes on the farm there is an obvious desire by the team to see more stallion heads over those doors, but no new names have been announced for the 2026 Ace Stud stallion roster.

“We have been looking, but it is a tough game and we want the right one,” he explains.

“We’re on an upward curve of

A growing broodmare band: Canungra (Galileo) with a Siyouni filly foal

Photo: Alisha Meeder

... joint with Chaldean, Gewan is the highest-rated two-year-old outside of City Of Troy over the last five or six years, which is a huge indictment of the horse

expansion in the company, and we want to be able to bring in quality.

“We were happy to keep our powder dry, and we will see what happens next year for 2027.”

There are no plans to bring Yulong stallion Lucky Vega, who is standing in Ireland at the Irish National Stud, to British shores.

Curran says, “He will stay where he is, the Irish National Stud has done a fantastic job with him and given him every chance.

“He has had a good autumn and is in joint-second on the first-season sires’ list by winners with 18 and he had two stakes winners on the last weekend on the Flat championship.

“Lucky Vega is at a stage where

he needs to kick on for next year –we think a lot of his horses are types who will be very good three-year-olds, and we are going to roll in behind him again.”

All being well there will be a grey head over one of those doors in the next couple of seasons, that of Gewan, winner of this year’s Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes for Mr Zhang.

Although the colt’s success in the 7f end-of-season juvenile championship was something of a 25-1 surprise – he had disappointed on his previous start in September when he beat only one home in the Champagne Stakes (G2) – there had been strong belief in the Yulong camp before Newmarket that they were not tilting at Group 1 windmills

with the son of Night Of Thunder.

“We were disappointed at Doncaster, but the ground was not at all suitable for him,” explains Curran. “It has been recorded as good for the race, but the rain that came that day meant that it was not at all, later in the day it was formally changed to soft.

“The race itself was run in driving rain, and he just got wheel spinning, the race did not go to plan at all.”

GEWAN, who was bred by Overbury and Dukes Stud out of a Listed-placed mare whose dam is a half-sister to the Group 1 Prix SaintAlary Stakes winner Coquerelle, was purchased this spring in training from Al Rabban Racing.

The colt had won on debut at Newbury in July over 7f, and then found the step-up to Group 3 level no problem when winning York’s Acomb Stakes by a length and a quarter from the Aidan O’Brien-trained Italy.

“We had gone to York to watch First Legion run in the nursery at the end of the card so we only got to the racecourse as they were coming back in from the Acomb,” recalls Curran.

“We saw Andrew Balding coming in with the horse with a big smile on his face and saw he was clearly delighted.

“We watched the race and were massively impressed, I immediately touched base with Billy Jackson-Stops and we moved quickly to purchase.

“Physically, Gewan is a striking horse – big, strong, just one of those horses who catches your eye from the minute you see him. We took a first look at him after he won the Acomb Stakes and he is just a brute of a horse.

“Obviously being by Night Of Thunder is very attractive, and we felt that he is a horse who would improve with time.

“He was a bit more backward than many of the two-year-olds we had seen and yet he was still able to win the

The Ace Stud team at the races after Gewan’s Group 1 win (left to right): Claudia Metaireau (racing secretary), Lilly Sahla (European marketing manager), James Doyle (jockey), Marie Perrault (groom), Harris Li (business operations), Andrew Balding (trainer), Paul Curran (bloodstock and racing manager), Ben Hyde (stud manager), Niall Kennedy (stallion manager) Photo: Steve Cargill

Group 3 – god knows what he could be next year!”

After that subsequent post-purchase Group 2 loss at Doncaster, the first start in the new set of colours, it could be argued that moving straight to the Group 1 end-of-season juvenile championship race took a bit of imagination, but the team was getting confident vibes from Balding and the trainer was keen to ensure that the summer setback did not lead to backwards moves with the colt.

“When we spoke to Andrew at the beginning of the Dewhurst week, he said how well the horse was, that we should stick with the plan and draw a line through Doncaster, we decided that we had nothing to lose,” says Curran.

“To be fair to Andrew he held his view all through the week in the run-up to the race; he has done a great job.”

On reflecting on the achievement, Curran says, “Gewan has been Timeform rated 118, the same mark as given to subsquent 2,000 Guineas winner Chaldean, and the pair, outside of City Of Troy, are the highest-rated

Physically, Gewan is a striking horse, big, strong, just one of those horses who catches your eye from the minute you see him

two-year-olds over the last five or six years, which is a huge indictment of the horse.

“Three of the last five Dewhurst winners have gone on to win European Guineas races, and, when we looked at our mark, it is huge recognition of what Gewan has achieved; it was then it really started to hit us what had happened.

“The figures speak for themselves,

it was phenomenal and a special achievement. I am just delighted for everyone involved – from Longways who breezed him, to the former owners, and obviously Mr Zhang that he has got such a big result, he so deserves this.

“It is really special – we have some real gunpowder for next year, and Gewan will be a fabulous stallion to have here in future.”

Looking ahead to next year, as to be expected, plans for Gewan are revolving around the first Saturday in May.

“Yes, all eyes are on the 2,000 Guineas!” laughs Curran.

“We have not got to the nitty gritty of how to get there, we are still digesting what has happened this year. We might get a prep run into him, we will see how he is travelling then.”

The form has certainly been boasted since with Gstaad’s victory in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf, which must give Curran every confidence and high levels of anticipation for next season

“We did not entertain any thoughts of going to the Breeders’ Cup with him,” he explains.“He had a tough year and

Gewan winning the Group 1 Dewhurst Stakes from subsequent Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf winner Gstaad and Godolphin’s Distant Storm

Photo: Steven Cargill

we want to give him the best chance for 2026.”

Aside from racecourse action, and the realisation that stud farm development is very much something for the long term, Ace Stud is making a good job of getting things off to a fast start.

“We know that stud farms take decades to be made, but this has been a great start,” smiles Curran.

A former agricultural farm of 300 acres is being developed at Brinkley to become a state-of-the-art stud farm to house what will become a substantial broodmare band, the farm recently planted down to grass and with planning permission for stud buildings.

But the stallion operation is already spanning the globe with the southern hemisphere division set up in 2013, and

the Tattersalls December Sale in 2023, and, at the time of writing (this may well increase again before we publish!) the daughter of Fastnet Rock has won 12 Group 1 races with earnings of £9.8 million.

THE DESIRE FOR ACE STUD

to be active at the top of the global bloodstock industry and to push forward into America is clearly evident, and stepped up another gear this autumn.

Through Ace’s Raging Torrent banner (named after the three-time top levelwinning colt owned by Zhang and Craig Dado) $6,500,000 was spent at Fasig-Tipton with a $5 million outlay

“He has retired to Lane’s End, and we went out to the US with the intention to buy some quality mares and we are delighted that we bought a mare as brilliant as Puca and, hopefully, that will bode well for Raging Torrent.

“We bought some nice mares for Carl Spackler, too, and we are really pleased with what we came away with, and it is exciting.

“America is another string to the bow, it such an influential sector in the industry and it is great to be driving that along for the future.”

The ambitions for the farm seemingly has no bounds.

“Owner Harris Li is very driven and passionate about Ace Stud,” says Curran. “He is delighted to be working together with Yulong to support their stallions in the northern hemisphere.

“It was such a shame that Mr Zhang was not at Newmarket for the Dewhurst, because he would have been so proud to witness Gewan’s win in person. He follows the racing as much as he can from outside of the UK.”

Of the upcoming sales, Curran says, “We are really looking forward to the European breeding stock sales and seeing how our stallions are represented with their progeny. It’s an exciting time for everyone involved.”

Curran concludes: “Yulong has put a lot towards this industry, so the ongoing ambition for stallions to stand in the northern hemisphere is great to be a part of and we hope it continues to be a successful venture.

“This is only the beginning for Ace Stud and the entire team appreciates the opportunity to stand stallions on behalf of Yulong to further establish Ace Stud as a thriving new breeding operation.”

Sistina after winning her second Cox Plate and 11th Group 1. She has already picked up her 12th Group 1 –at the beginning of November, she won the TAB Champions Stakes

Via

AL HAKEEM

SIYOUNI & JADHABA (GALILEO)

Turf stars

Leading US stallion farms Claiborne and Mill Ridge are always keen to stand stallions who get performers who run on the “lawn” – both have established Turf sires on their rosters, as well as recent new additions

Walker Hancock from Claiborne and Headley Bell of Mill Ridge chat with James Thomas

Johannes: the winner of the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile has been retired to Claiborne Farm at a fee of $10,000

ACULTURAL

SHIFT

APPEARS TO BE UNDERWAY IN THE US.

While top-class Dirt contests such as the Kentucky Derby and the Breeders’ Cup Classic still, and in all likelihood always will, loom large over the sport, Turf racing is undoubtedly growing in significance.

And, in plenty of instances, the grass really is greener, as a broadening portfolio of races now offer colossal purses.

Nowhere was this more obvious than at Kentucky Downs this year when the European-style Turf-only track hosted its most lucrative meeting ever. The seven-day extravaganza saw prize-money of $41.7 million up for grabs, with substantial bonuses on offer for Kentucky-bred winners.

The highlight was the $3.5m Nashville Derby Invitational. Only one three-year-old only race in the country has a higher purse; the $5m Kentucky Derby.

The home team ultimately came away from the centrepiece event empty handed after trainr James Owen shipped Wimbledon Hawkeye from Newmarket and legged up Frankie Dettori.

The British-bred son of Kameko prevailed by a head.

While American owners and trainers might not have kept the Nashville Derby silverware on home soil, they could still have been encouraged that the winner was sired by a son of their own Kitten’s Joy, a dual champion sire in the US and a six-time leading Turf stallion to boot.

“I think people are starting to become more accustomed to having a Turf horse because there’s so many horses running on that surface now and the purses are so big,” says Walker Hancock, president of Claiborne Farm.

“When they go to buy horses, people are still primarily seeking out Dirt runners, but I think we’ve come to a point in time where everyone is at least

happy to have a Turf horse. In the past, it was almost a dreadful thing to have a bunch of Turf horses. Now we just have to get them to where they actually want to breed one, too. And that’s been a challenge thus far.”

Look no further than Oscar Performance for a Turf specialist Ramsey Farm’s Kitten’s Joy and English Channel, who stood at Calumet Farm, were champion US Turf sires on multiple occasions, and the search has been on for a stallion to fill the void left by their passing.

Taylor Made Farm’s young gun Not This Time heads this year’s Turf sires’ list by progeny earnings, but has proved equally adept at throwing Dirt runners as well. Instead, those on the lookout for a specialist Turf stallion need look no further than Oscar Performance.

The son of Kitten’s Joy retired to Mill Ridge Farm in 2019 after winning four

Grade 1s, namely the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf at two, the Belmont Derby and Secretariat Stakes at three, and the Woodbine Mile at four.

He has emerged as a shining light among the US Turf ranks, siring 31 stakes performers with his first four

Blame: sire of this year’s Preis von Europa winner Sibayan – he and Justify are the only US stallions to sire European Group 1 winners on Turf this season

Walker Hancock, president of Claiborne Farm

Photo: Z courtesy of Fasig-Tipton

crops of racing age. These include the Grade 1 winners Trikari (Belmont Derby) and World Beater (Saratoga Derby), who have helped their sire’s fee rise from a third year low of $12,500 to $60,000 for 2026.

Oscar Performance’s highest-priced yearling at this year’s Keeneland September Sale rang the bell at $500,000. The youngster, who was signed for by Belladonna Racing, West Point Thoroughbreds and Woodford Racing, was bred off a fee of just $20,000.

“We’ve never been shy about standing a horse who we believe in,” says Mill Ridge’s managing partner Headley Bell. “We believed in Oscar Performance and we suggested to the Amermans [Jerry and John, ownerbreeders of Oscar Performance] that they keep half the horse and we’d try to syndicate the other half.

“We were fortunate that we found some foundation breeders to do that, including two Eclipse Award winners in John Gunther and George Strawbridge.

“But, truly, it’s all about the horse being able to do it because he’s really been able to move his mares up, and that’s the best signal that you can have.

“We pushed that boulder up the hill and now Oscar Performance is on the other side, and that’s a beautiful thing.”

Changing the viewpoint

The success of a horse such as Oscar Performance has the potential to influence the US commercial market’s “herd mentality” when it comes to the appeal of domestic Turf breeding.

“It feels like the commercial side, the first-year sires, these things are so emphatic today,” says Bell. “It just takes somebody to lead, or to give people an example to follow, that can sway opinion.

“Those that are willing to step out, they’ve been rewarded in that process by a horse such as Oscar Performance.

“Shares have gone from $75,000

We pushed that boulder up the hill and now Oscar Performance is on the other side, and that’s a beautiful thing

to $700,000, his fee has gone from $20,000 to $60,000, and he’s full at that.”

Moreover, Mill Ridge doubled down on their Turf position by adding Casa Creed to the roster in 2025. The son of Jimmy Creed won nine races over seven seasons in training. He also ran in four consecutive renewals of the Grade 1 Fourstardave Stakes, winning back-to-back editions in 2022 and 2023. He also doubled up in the Grade 1 Jaipur Stakes in 2021 and 2022.

“He showed up every time he ran and was never x-rayed in seven years,” says Bell. “That’s what you’re looking for.

I think the reaction has been fair.

“We had 65 mares the first year, that’s a little less than you’d like, but I believe we’ll have 60 in the second year too.

“I think this trend of awareness about Turf racing will be such that people will say, ‘Hey, for that kind of money, with those kinds of credentials, and with that kind of opportunity, it makes sense.’”

Bell’s sentiments about overcoming the challenge of convincing the commercial market are echoed by Hancock.

“These pinhookers, yearling buyers, the folks working the two-year-old

Oscar Performance: his Saratoga Derby Invitational winner World Beater is out of a mare by Blame

Oscar Performance

Blame

sales, you can’t tell people to buy these Turf horses, it has to naturally occur,” he says. “I think we’d like the change to be a little faster than it has been, but it does seem like it’s slowly catching on.

“It’s just a matter of time before one of the tracks implements the Turf course as their main course, as opposed to the Dirt. And if so many of these racetracks weren’t also training centres, I think you’d already see that shift because it’s

more competitive racing on the Turf”

Hancock is among the stallion masters who have put their money where their mouth is when it comes to Turf breeding, as Johannes has been added to the Claiborne roster for 2026.

The son of Nyquist won nine races on Turf, including six in Graded company.

His career highlight came when winning the Grade 1 Shoemaker Mile, while he also ran a close second in the 2024 Breeders’ Cup Mile.

“We’re pleased with the reception he’s had,” says Hancock. “I think having a Dirt page, being by a Dirt horse in Nyquist, people are a lot more willing to breed to those types than say, a Turf horse that’s by Dubawi.

“We had Demarchelier, by a European stallion and from a European pedigree, and we kind of struggled with him.

“Whereas Johannes is by Nyquist and out of a Congrats mare, so it’s a Dirt, American-oriented family.”

Finding the commercial price point Johannes’ fee has been set at $10,000, a price point that Hancock says

reflects the commercial challenges of introducing Turf stallions to the US.

“Buying Turf horses to stand as stallions in the States is still difficult because the commercial market can be hesitant to breed to them,” he says.

“They’d rather breed to a fast Dirt horse as opposed to a multiple Grade 1-winning stallion on Turf. It’s a little unfair, but that’s the market climate.

“We’re hoping Johannes is going to be popular. If he’d been running on Dirt, he’d be standing for $25,000. As it is, he’s standing for $10,000 because he’s a Turf horse. If we could get 150 mares to him we’d be thrilled.”

Results from Europe this year served a timely reminder that, with the right mare, even out-and-out Dirt runners are more than capable of siring horses that perform on grass.

Ashford Stud’s Justify, the US Triple Crown-winning son of Scat Daddy, came up with the 2,000 Guineas winner Ruling Court, while Coolmore’s homebred Scandinavia landed the Goodwood Cup and St Leger.

Justify has, of course, also sired a

The four-time Grade 1 winner Casa Creed (left) won both the Jaipur Stakes and the Fourstardave Handicap twice and is set to stand his second year at Mill Ridge at a fee of $8,500

Derby winner in City Of Troy.

Claiborne resident Blame also sired this year’s Preis von Europa winner, the Aga Khan homebred Sibayan. Although Blame famously defeated Zenyatta in the 2010 Breeders’ Cup Classic, he has long proved capable of siring high-class runners on both surfaces. The same is true, if not more so, for his Claiborne barn mate War Front.

But while breeders may pay lip service to the notion of versatility, Hancock says that a Dirt horse being represented by Turf runners can be more of a hindrance than a help.

“Once you get labelled as a Turf horse, you lose a lot of your potential for what you can stand for,” he says.

“We saw it with War Front; he started out as a Dirt horse, he himself was a Dirt horse and that’s where his first successful runners were. Coolmore and a lot of international breeders got involved and had tremendous success in Europe, but then all of a sudden he was labelled a ‘Turf’ sire.

“Once you’re labelled as that, you lose your commerciality at the top level of this market. That’s just the reality. Coolmore were great partners in the horse for a long time and they helped elevate him to an international super sire.

“But, now that he’s older, Tapit and Curlin, they’re still doing well and so is War Front, but he’s kind of just known as this Turf horse now, whereas they’re still primarily Dirt.”

Breeders should get “ahead of the curve” Both Bell and Hancock suggest that, with the rise of American Turf racing showing no signs of slowing, breeders would be well advised to get ahead of the curve.

“We believe we’re making the industry better,” says Bell. “When you consider all the opportunities with Turf and All-Weather, we’re excited.

“We think it’s an edge, to be honest.

We believe we’re making the industry better, when you consider all the opportunities with Turf and All-Weather, we’re excited

Convincing everybody else of it is one thing, but Oscar Performance helps.

“In our promotion this year we’re really going to emphasise to people just how much opportunity there is, and let them ignore it if they so choose. We think those that are smarter than most will see the light.

“Timing wise, if you’re breeding now for three or so years down the road, you can believe that Turf and All-Weather are going to have a greater emphasis by then.”

Should that come to pass, there would seem an opportunity for greater cross pollination between America and Europe, with its proliferation of Turfcentric bloodlines.

However, given the commercial realities at play, neither Bell nor

Hancock can foresee Kentucky farms going “back to the future” and recruiting European Classic winners as stallion prospects.

“My grandfather was very instrumental in doing that, and had a lot of success, but that was when you had shareholders and you bred 40 mares to your horses and that was it,” says Hancock, grandson of the legendary Arthur ‘Bull’ Hancock.

“You didn’t go to the September Yearling Sales hoping to sell your offspring for a million dollars, you raced your horse hoping that you’d win the Kentucky Derby.

“We’re going to have to see a horse like Johannes really take off, and if he’s a dominant sire, then he’ll open a door for some other Turf

Headley Bell and Price Bell of Mill Ridge: believe US breeders can get an edge by using a Turf sire

Photo: Z, courtesy of Fasig-Tipton

horses to become stallions.”

While independent farms may no longer be in a position to purchase stallion prospects from the other side of the Atlantic, global bloodstock giants such as Coolmore and Godolphin are perfectly placed to bring European-bred and raced horses to stand in the US.

“I’ve been around long enough to have seen the trend,” says Bell. “My mother bred Sir Ivor, who really opened up the awareness of John Magnier, who recognised that the trend was getting ready to cycle back.

“You had the Northern Dancer

influence and his impact in Europe, and then all of a sudden US-breds were winning the Derby.

“The difference is from the days of Blushing Groom and Lyphard, you didn’t have the farms, the Coolmores and Godolphins, that are already set up in Europe as well as Kentucky.

“If people become more aware of the opportunities on the Turf, it seems logical that those entities in those situations would lean towards that.

“They’re very professional in what they do and there’s obviously a reason why they haven’t done it yet.

“I do believe that a horse like Oscar Performance does chip away at it, though, and we’re going to continue chipping away at it.”

Instead, it seems the shift towards Turf will continue to be driven from within. The tide may not have turned yet, but a sea change may be on the way.

“Turf racing is going to continue to grow in popularity here,” says Hancock. “I just hope the commercial market will tag along soon. I think at some point the tide is going to turn, and, hopefully, we’ll be on the right end of it.”

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Leading global sires 2025

INTO MISCHIEF claimed honours as the leading global stallion by earnings last year – and he looks as though he is back to the top again, just depending on what happens in Japan at the end of the year after we have published.

Significantly, the Ballylinch Stud-based Lope De Vega is the year’s winning-most sire by black-type performers – a stat that reveals the versatility of his progeny to varying environments, while superstar veteran sire Dubawi keeps on punching and is the year’s leader by stakes winners.

Lope De Vega: with 60 global black-type performers

older European sires review

sires

older European sires review

Consistency

Jocelyn de Moubray casts his eye over the performances of the older stallions on the European roster assessing their three-year-old crops in detail

THIS COMPILATION OF STATISTICS is designed to give an overall view of stallions’ ability over a period of three seasons, in order to avoid the bias of immediacy.

In many cases it is clear where a

stallion is likely to be ranked once it has four-year-olds racing, but, because of the way the market tends to avoid stallions in their third and fourth covering seasons, it is not until a horse’s fifth or sixth crop reach the racecourse that any judgement can be definitive. Thereafter, stallions are remarkably

consistent, despite the fickle behaviour of those who use them, and, once a sire has reached its level, his progeny’s performance is usually consistent, until there is a moment for most, but not all, when age catches up with its results.

These figures are based upon the percentage of a stallion’s foals who are

This summer’s death of Wootton Bassett was a huge loss to the European bloodstock industry – he sired the most Group 1 winners this year, and his influence will be felt for some time due to the big books he covered since his move to stand in Ireland

older European sires review

stakes performers, winners, or Group 1 performers.

I have long argued that the Pattern system has become a poor guide to any evaluation of performance – when almost every pedigree in all sales catalogues is full of black-type the outcome is meaningless and, as long as there is no attempt to reduce the number of Pattern races, particularly with foal crops falling across most of Europe, the Pattern will continue to fail breeders, bloodstock buyers and the racing public.

However, the only alternative is to use ratings, but despite the fact that handicaps and weight-for-age have been an integral part of racing in Europe for 150 years or more, ratings are still not widely understood or accepted, and

so we are stuck with the far from perfect system of black-type races.

Of these the best guide is probably the percentage of Group 1 performers as, although there are more of these than there used to be, and not all Group 1 races are at the same level, even the “worst” of these races are still difficult to win and better than the vast majority of other races.

It is a sign of how consistent the best

stallions are that seven of this year’s top 12 sires by percentage of stakesperforming progeny have been among the leaders for each of the last four years.

Dubawi, Frankel, Lope De Vega, Kingman, Camelot, Siyouni and Sea The Stars have been elite stallions for years now.

Wootton Bassett rejoins the top having been there before in 2023 and

Top ten European stallions 2025, 3yos: by

Top ten European stallions 2024, 3yos: by percentage of black-type performers to foals

he is included as, even though he is no longer around, the huge books covered over the last three years are going to have a major influence over the coming years.

The son of Iffraaj was always an exceptional stallion, but it is rare indeed for horse to cover quite so many mares and for his percentages to improve.

Among these seven, Camelot is the exception as his fee has never reached

six-figures, and Coolmore remains by far his biggest supporter at the yearling sales.

The son of Montjeu does perhaps lack a high-profile champion, but may have one next year with his Group 1-winning son Pierre Bonnard.

New to the elite Night Of Thunder’s sixth and seventh

crops were three and two-year-olds this year and their success made him the new champion sire in Britain and Ireland, however, this compilation rewards consistent success over a threeyear period and, although it is more than likely that the son of Dubawi will continue to succeed at a high level, he was one of those sires whose results dipped while his second and third crops were racing.

The other newcomers are the younger sires Zarak, whose oldest progeny are six this year, Study Of Man and Too Darn Hot, who have four-year-olds in 2025.

Zarak’s first four crops, all from a €12,000 stud fee averaged 3.6 per cent Group 1 performers, which is exceptional for any sire, and his two-year-olds from a €25,000 fee already include the Group 1 performer Campacite and so his

top ten European stallions

older European sires review

continued success at a high level is more or less assured.

Stallion performances

Too Darn Hot enjoyed consistent support through his early years at stud and so is also likely to continue to succeed.

Study Of Man continued to attract 7080 mares a year in his third and fourth seasons but, with only 116 foals in his first two crops, he has less than half of the number of representatives of the others among the top 12.

The son of Deep Impact will not have a large crop of well-bred three-yearolds racing for him until 2029, but in the meantime he remains an exciting prospect.

Two of the older stallions who may have a late life revival over the next few years are Gleneagles and Nathaniel.

Gleneagles stood for as much as €60,000 when he retired to stud in 2016, but he fell so far out of fashion that this year the son of Galileo has fewer than 30 three-year-olds.

However, even if his best progeny

Leading sprint sires by average winning distance, 3yos: < 1400m by JdM

Study Of Man: moving up the grades

stay further than he did, he has covered plenty of mares again at lower fees since 2022 and has had two Group 1 winners this year in Calandagan and Royal Arrow.

Nathaniel, another son of Galileo, looked for a moment to be slipping towards the NH sphere, but his son Desert Crown was a brilliant winner of the Derby in 2022 and looked to be heading for greatness during the season which followed.

The resulting interest in his sire was reflected at this year’s yearling sales when Nathaniel recorded his highest average price ever.

Nathaniel is a sire of middle-distance horses, has had seven Group 1 winners

including four Classic winners. Another older sire who has often been neglected by the market is Make Believe, who stood in 2025 at only €8,000.

The son of Makfi produced a champion in Mishriff from his first crop and, if he then went through a quiet period as a result of lack of support, he has returned over the last two years with two new Group 1 winners in Sajir and Royal Supremacy, as well as other Classic performers such as Lazio and Klaynn.

His three-year-old Listed winner Fantasy World was among the top lots at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses In Training Sale, and yet for some reason his yearlings averaged was not so strong

Gleneagles: enjoying a revival

Dubawi, with some faster mares, and progeny has dropped down to the intermediate category this year to take the top spot from Kingman

at this year’s British and Irish sales. Mehmas and New Bay will join the older sire division next year and, if the former has probably found his (very good) level, the latter could still move up when his first large crop of well bred three-year-olds reach the track next year.

The son of Dubawi had excellent results from his small early crops, but has been through a quieter period since –next year will be defining for the JockeyClub winner.

Zarak is the clear leader among the sires who retired in 2018, and among the 2019 generation it is the remarkable Havana Grey who remains in the lead after five crops to race from low fees.

We shall see in 2026 whether the son

of Havana Gold is as effective with mares covered at a higher fee.

There are still several sires from the 2020 group who proved effective even if Study Of Man, Too Darn Hot and Blue Point are the clear leaders.

Waldgeist’s second crop proved to be markedly superior to his first, and includes the Group winners Furthur and Light The Ghost, while Phoenix Of Spain had his first Group 1 winner this year and now has five horses rated more than 110 from his first two crops.

It is difficult to judge a stallion until his first four-year-olds have raced, if there is probably not an outstanding sire among the class of 2021, there are as many as 12 who have shown promise. This picture should be clearer next year.

Distance makes the difference

It is interesting to break down the complete listing into distance divisions as it is immediately obvious there are not the same opportunities for different categories of horses.

None of the sprinting sires can match the success, by these metrics, of the best sires of intermediate, middle-distance or stamina sires.

It is striking that, even if they stand at very different stud fees today, there is only a marginal difference in the performance of the three-year-olds of the eight sires listed in this category.

Dubawi, with some faster mares, and progeny has dropped down to the intermediate category this year to take the top spot from Kingman, this pair are followed and could be passed over the coming years by Night Of Thunder and Wootton Bassett.

Frankel has also dropped down a category, thanks to milers such as Deigo Velazquez who is out of an Acclamation mare, to take the top spot from Lope De Vega, the most consistent of all current sires with 66 black-type performers in 2025 so far, 17 per cent of his runners, and Zarak.

Finally, at least the top six sires in the stamina category would be expensive and fashionable in a racing world in which everyone still aspired to winning the best races over 1m4f and further.

The two-year-old sires’ table follows the same principle with the last three seasons, or only two for those who retired to stud in 2021, combined.

No Nay Never and Havana Grey remain the leaders here in terms of two-year-old stakes performers to foals, but when it comes to two-year-old Group 1 performers the leaders are Wootton Bassett, Dubawi, Frankel and Night Of Thunder, also the leaders for three year olds.

Kameko and Without Parole have done well to produce Group 1-performing two-year-olds from two relatively small crops to race so far.

Waldgeist: Furthur and Light The Ghost flew the flag for his second crop of runners

older European sires review

Prominent active European sires 2011-2022 crops, all ages: by black-type

Wootton Bassett

© Agence

older European sires review

Prominent active European sires 2011-2022 crops, all ages: by Group 1

Siyouni

The Grey Gatsby

Wootton Bassett

older European sires review

Multiple Stakes winner by Havana Grey

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THE BREEDERS’ CUP INTERNATIONAL STALLION PROGRAM

All stallions around the world are now eligible to participate directly in the Breeders’ Cup program. Stallions standing in the Northern Hemisphere outside of North America contribute 50% of their stud fee and the resulting foals are all automatically eligible to the racing programs of the Breeders’ Cup without any further nomination payments due. These automatically nominated foals are eligible for the Breeders’ Cup Challenge program as well as the Breeders’ Cup World Championships.

European Sires 2025 (by

of Weatherbys

RETURN ON INVESTMENT

Lot: 15 B Colt

Frankel / Aljazzi

Consignor:

Newsells Park Stud

Price: 3,600,000 gns

Lot: 349 B Colt

Wootton Bassett /Qabala

Consignor:

Newsells Park Stud

Price: 2,200,000 gns

Lot: 498 B Filly

Frankel / Ville de Grace

Consignor:

Watership Down Stud / Lordship Stud

Price: 1,500,000 gns

Lot: 494 B Filly

Night of Thunder / Vesnina

Consignor: Barton Stud / Brightwalton Stud

Price: 1,100,000 gns

Lot: 364 B Colt

Night of Thunder / Qushchi

Consignor:

Newsells Park Stud

Price: 1,050,000 gns

Lot: 266 Bay C No Nay Never / Millisle

Consignor:

Watership Down Stud

Price: 1,700,000 gns

Sergei Prokofiev head of his division again

IN THE EUROPEAN TABLE of second season sires, as he did with his first crop last year, Sergei Prokofiev is once again at the top spot, with his progeny banking just over €1,900,000 in Europe.

His runners are led by Arizona Blaze, who, in a muddling sprint division, triumphed in the Flying Five Stakes (G1), having been beaten a neck into second in the Commonwealth Cup (G1).

Ghaiyyath: siring global winners

In second place in the European table by prize-money is Ghaiyyath, another to have sired a respectable number of winners and earners without ever really threatening to grab attention.

His first three-year-olds in the southern hemisphere are headed by the Victoria Derby victor Observer, a first Group 1 winner for his sire in either hemisphere.

In the northern hemisphere, top honours go to the Irish-bred The Padre, who landed the Del Mar Derby (G2) and My Highness, who triumphed in the Prix du Calvados (G2).

He also got the Group 3 winner Mandanaba, who finished third in the Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (G1), bred by Princess Zahra Aga Khan.

And let us not forget the admirable Opera Ballo, who was twice a Listed winner and also Group 2-placed, without ever looking likely to set the world alight, among a tally of nine black-type performers for the

The Whitsbury Manor Stud-based sire leading the field in the second season sires’ championship, writes Amy Bennett

Darley-based sire in the northern hemisphere in 2025.

Mohaather: Group 1 sprint sire

Shadwell’s Mohaather occupies third place in the table, with 39 winners and earnings of just over €1,400,000.

The son of Showcasing was another to sire his first Group 1 winner this season, again in the somewhat chaotic 2025 sprint division.

Having become his sire’s first stakes winner at two when winning

Sergei Prokofiev

With 44 individual winners this year and over €1,400,000 in earnings, Pinatubo probably deserves more plaudits than he has received

the Molecomb Stakes (G3), Big Mojo triumphed in the Sprint Cup (G1) at Haydock in September, having been beaten only a neck in the July Cup (G1) when leading home his group.

As with Sergei Prokofiev, Mohaather registered only one Group winner during the season, although his son Cape Orator, who is out of a Motivator mare, took the eye when finishing third in the Champagne Stakes (G2) at Doncaster and in the Criterium International (G1), having also bagged a valuable sales race at Longchamp along the way.

Zavateri: a stand-out for Without Parole Another sophomore to get off the mark this year with a first top-level winner was Without Parole, who finished 12th by prize money in the European table. Represented by 10 winners in Europe last year, the Newsells Park Stud resident put 16 on the board this year, with his biggest earner undoubtedly Zavateri.

Successful in the July Stakes and Vintage Stakes, both Group 2s, he went on to defeat a top-class yardstick in Gstaad by a head at The Curragh in the National Stakes (G1).

Good season for second-season sires at Haras d’Etreham

The Haras d’Etreham pair Hello Youmzain and Persian King also both acquitted themselves well without dazzling. Hello Youmzain’s progeny amassed just under €1,500,000 in earnings, headed by the Prix de Sandringham (G2) heroine Godspeed and two Listed winners.

Having stood at €22,500 in 2023 and

2024, his fee rose to €40,000 this year off the back of finishing 2024 asthe leading first-season sire in France last year, and his fee has been set for 2026 at €25,000.

His stud mate Persian King sired four black-type winners in 2025, headed by the Prix de Psyche (G3) winner Cankoura, who also finished third in the Prix de Diane (G1).

Royal Ascot success for Mali Sands Of Mali occupied fifth place in the list of leading European sires by prizemoney at the beginning of November, sandwiched between the Etreham pair.

Having been the leading Irishbased first-season sire last year, he was represented this year by his breakthrough Group 1 winner in Time For Sandals, successful in the Commonwealth Cup (G1) at Royal Ascot.

He also notched up two more blacktype winners in the Ballycorus Stakes (G3) winner Copacabana Sands and the Listed winner Ipanema Queen.

Pinatubo: sire of 11 black-type performers

Also in the top ten by European earnings is Pinatubo who, much like his Darley stud mate Ghaiyyath, is somewhat of a hard horse to get a handle on.

With 44 individual winners this year and over €1,400,000 in earnings, Pinatubo probably deserves more plaudits than he has received but, like Ghaiyyath, he still lacks that headline horse.

Having waited until November last year to register his first black-type winner, Pinatubo quietly amassed firepower this year, with 11 black-type performers and two black-type winners.

His daughter Qilin Queen won the Prix de Malleret (G2) in July, and he also sired a pair of Listed winners this year, with a further seven of his progeny all Group placed. It will not take much more for Pinatubo to make headlines next year, if only a few of those to hit the stakes race crossbar in 2025 can convert in 2026.

Wooded and Romanised

Another to get a first Group 1 winner on the board this year was Wooded, whose son Woodshauna is much the best of his progeny to date.

Having broken his duck in a Deauville conditions contest last November, the colt defeated subsequent Group 1 winner

Big Mojo wins the Haydock Sprint Cup (G1)

second-season sires review

Time For Sandals in the Prix Texanita (G3), before triumphing in the Prix Jean Prat (G1) and finishing third in the Prix Maurice de Gheest (G1).

The Haras de Bouquetot inmate came close to gaining a second Group 1-winning progeny with Jawwal, who was defeated only half-a-length in October’s Prix de l’Abbaye.

Wooded shared joint-tenth spot last year with Romanised in the table of leading European first-crop sires by number of winners, both siring 12, and the pair once gain have remarkably similar results.

Now based at Castillon Stallions with a

fee of €5,000, Romanised registered his first Group race success when Zia Agnese won the Prix Cleopatre (G3) in April.

He is also responsible for the Group 3-placed duo Curragh Camp and Dalyan, the latter a juvenile.

Kameko on the mark

Kameko was the only one of his peers to sire a Group 1-winning juvenile last year – New Century – and was also responsible for the likeable Wimbledon Hawkeye.

The latter added further lustre to his

record this year finishing runner-up in the Craven Stakes (G3), the Princess Of Wales’s Stakes (G2) and the Gordon Stakes (G3), and third in the Dante (G2), before landing a Grade 3 success in the US.

Such performances helped his sire to earnings of just over €900,000 and 11th-place in the leading European second-season sires’ table.

Kameko also welcomed a new Group winner in Five Ways, who won the Sirenia Stakes (G3), and the Listed winner American Gal, who was also narrowly beaten in Group 3 company.

2yo RAYIF winning the Gr.3 Prix Francois Boutin in 2025

EXCEPTIONAL VALUE

A hallmark of consistency & class

The choice of leading breeders:

Al Shiraa Farm, Brendon Hayes, Écurie des Monceaux, Édouard de Rothschild, Famille Dubois, Gestüt Schlenderhan, Haras des Capucines, Jean-Claude Seroul, Kildaragh Stud, Rabbah Bloodstock, Wertheimer et Frère...

Sales:

An average of €50,363 at the yearling sales with a top price of 160,000gns at Tattersalls and €80,000 at Arqana From his crops bred in the South-West of France.

His first Normandy-bred yearlings will sell in 2026.

Star shone

Starman has dominated this year’s first-season sires’ championship, but, as Amy Bennett reports, a number of other new sires posted good results on the track, too

THE RACE TO THE TOP in the first-season sires’ list has been cut and dried for much of the season with Starman comfortably in pole position from the early stages.

The son of Dutch Art, who stands at Tally-Ho Stud, had fired in 33 individual winners in Europe to the beginning of November.

No fewer than 31 of those registered their successes in Britain or Ireland, starting in late March when Lady Iman, who had been well touted as a decent sort beforehand, opened her sire’s account at the first time of asking.

And it is not just on strength of

numbers that Starman has excelled –his headliner is the Prix Morny (G1) heroine Venetian Sun, who also registered victories in the Albany Stakes (G3) and the Duchess of Cambridge (G2).

At Deauville she beat the subsequent impressive Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf victor Gstaad.

Starman was also responsible for the Prix Robert Papin (G2) winner and Group 1-placed Green Sense, the Group 3 winners Lady Iman and North Coast, and Listed winner Leading Dancer, as well four Group-placed runners.

So, was it a surprise that Starman was the dominant force of the season in the freshman class?

Leading first-season sire Starman at Tally-Ho Stud

By the season’s end, St Mark’s Basilica, a son of Siyouni, is sire of 17 individual winners in Europe, after a run of red-hot form

On one hand, he had demonstrated his own speed with victory in the Group 1 July Cup and failed only by a short head to double his top level tally in the Sprint Cup at Haydock, while he also benefits from standing at Tally-Ho, a nursery that knows the value of speed and precocity in forging reputations.

On the other hand, however, Starman was himself unraced at two, he did not debut until the July of his three-yearold season (albeit in the topsy-turvy Covid-ravaged season of 2020), had a relatively light career with only eight starts, and is out of a mare who won over 1m2f and is a daughter of Montjeu. None of those are negatives in any sense, and hopefully indicate that Starman’s progeny will also get better with age.

They simply highlight that there could still be more to come from this young sire and his progeny.

Starman began his stud innings at €17,500, a figure that dropped to €10,000 in the last season, but his 2026 fee of €40,000 reflects the red-hot start he has made.

On prize-money earnings, Starman was also streets ahead of his rivals, with his progeny banking just over £1,400,000 in Europe by the start of November.

Good season-end for St Mark’s That figure is almost double that of his nearest rival, St Mark’s Basilica, whose progeny earned just over £747,000.

The Coolmore resident’s progeny are led by the Prix Marcel Boussac (G1) heroine Diamond Necklace, who was unbeaten in three starts this year and is out of the leading mare Prudenzia, who is a daughter of Dansili, and the May

Hill Stakes (G2) winner Aylin, out of a Dark Angel mare, as well as the Listed winner Thesecretadversary and a trio of Group-placed performers.

During the early part of the season, St Mark’s Basilica looked to be a slow burner, with his first winner not arriving until June 2, in the form of Rogue Supremacy.

However, by season’s end, St Mark’s Basilica, a son of Siyouni, is sire of 19 individual winners in Europe, after a run of red-hot form.

As a champion juvenile who was unbeaten in four starts at three, including winning the two colts’ French Classics, St Mark’s Basilica was never likely to be responsible for the Brocklesby winner, but it is safe to assume that his progeny will be even better with age and possibly a bit of distance as well.

Irish National Stud duo

no back numbers

By number of individual winners, Starman and St Mark’s Basilica are separated in the table by the Irish National Stud residents Nando Parrado and Lucky Vega, who were both responsible for 18 individual winners to the beginning of November, and who were both featured as part of our Weatherbys Stallion Scene last month Nando Parrado is speedily bred and duly landed the Coventry Stakes (G2) on only his second start, having finished fifth on debut soon after racing resumed in Britain after the first Covid lockdown.

That remained his sole victory from 10 starts, but he was also Group 1-placed in both the Prix Morny and Prix Jean-Luc Lagardére, before failing to fire at three.

He has stood for €6,000 in each of his four seasons to date at the Irish

National, and his winners are led by the Listed Harry Rosebery Stakes winner Chairmanfourtimes.

While he lacks the racing credentials of his stud mate Lucky Vega, Nando Parrado was fastest out of the stalls among the duo, with Golden Breeze winning the first juvenile contest of the year in France at La Teste on March 22.

Lucky Vega, a Group 1-winning juvenile, can boast an advantage over his northern hemisphere rivals as he stood his first season at stud in the southern hemisphere before covering in Ireland.

His runners Down Under are headed by the Group 2 winner and the Group 1-placed Within The Law, while in the northern hemisphere, his progeny are led by the Listed winners Only Luck and Lam Yai. His first winner in Europe came in May in Italy.

Power Blue is Space Blues headliner

Space Blues shares joint honours with St Mark’s Basilica after recording 18 individual winners in Europe.

He also equalled that rival by siring a first-crop Group 1 winner – Power Blue, who is out of the Worthadd mare Visions and who triumphed in the Phoenix Stakes.

His progeny also includes the ultra-consistent Do Or Do Not, who was Group-placed at Royal Ascot, Newmarket’s July meeting, Glorious Goodwood and the Ebor Festival.

Quintet with double digit winners

Five other stallions have registered double-digit winners in their first crop, including the National Stud’s Lope Y Fernandez.

Winner of the Round Tower Stakes (G3) at two and a Listed winner at three, the son of Lope De Vega seems to have flown under the radar for much of his life.

With only two wins to his name, he was never in the top tier at Ballydoyle, but was still Classic-placed and Group

1-placed a further five times, in Britain, France and the US.

He entered stud at £8,500, dropping to £7,500 this year, and has been quietly firing in winners all season, beginning in early April, and ending with 16 individual successes in Europe by November.

The best of the bunch is the Group 3-placed Isle Of Fernandez, but the young sire has proved himself well worth a second look for breeders who want to get their mares off to a good start.

Mehmas did things the hard way in his own stud career, starting at €12,500 and working up to his current high of €70,000 by dint of sheer talent.

His Group 1 Middle Park Stakeswinning son Supremacy entered his own stud career at Yeomanstown Stud at the same €12,500 price tag, which was dropped to €8,000 this year.

With 15 individual winners on the board in Europe and earnings of over €450,000, plenty of breeders should be

beating a return path to his door next year.

His stakes performer is the Dick Poole Stakes (G3) winner Anthelia, who was also her sire’s first winner in early April. She followed up in late May with his first stakes success when landing Sandown’s Listed National Stakes, and then collecting the valuable Weatherbyssponsored Super Sprint on route to the Dick Poole at Salisbury.

Another to fire in a winner early this year was A’Ali, with the Newsells Park Stud resident also getting off the mark in April when Ali Shuffle opened her account at Redcar.

The filly went on to win the competitive Lily Agnes conditions contest at Chester and was also Group 3-placed in France.

Her sire was always likely to produce precocious speed having won the Norfolk Stakes, the Robert Papin and Flying Childers Stakes, all Group 2 races, and he went on to be a Group 2 winner at three as well.

The son of Society Rock ended the season with a tally of 13 individual winners.

In France, Victor Ludorum was perhaps a little surprising in getting off the mark so quickly, siring his first winner at the beginning of May when Viva La Skids win at Saint-Cloud.

Although successful in the Prix JeanLuc Lagardere (G1) himself at two, Victor Ludorum did not make his own debut until the September of his juvenile career, before going on to land the Poule d’Essai des Poulains and finish third in the Prix du Jockey-Club at three.

Responsible for 13 winners in all, including the Group 3-placed Commander’s Intent, he is France’s leading first-crop sire.

He has stood at €15,000 for all four of his seasons at stud, having moved to stand under the Darley banner at Haras d’Etreham this year.

The only other freshman sire to make it to double digits in Europe this year is Mickley Stud’s Ubettabelieveit, who got

Anthelia (near side): the daughter of Supremacy winning the 5f Weatherbys Super Sprint, she went on to gain Group 3 glory in the 6f Dick Poole Stakes

10 winners on the board.

The son of Kodiac was himself speedy and precocious, winning the Listed National Stakes (the race run two months later than usual, due to Covid) and landing the Flying Childers Stakes (G2) before finishing third in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf (G1).

He retired to stud as a source of cheap and cheerful speed, standing for £5,000, and is more than holding his own at that price point.

Quality winners for Palace Pier

Outside the top ten in terms of winners, honourable mention must go to Palace Pier, who is fourth in the table of first-season sires in Europe by progeny earnings with just under €600,000 banked.

He was responsible for eight individual winners in Europe, getting off the mark in late May with Morris Dancer at Haydock.

That colt led home a 1-2 for his sire

Leading First-Season Sires in Europe 2025 (by prize-money

when winning the Listed Stonehenge Stakes at Salisbury in August from A Bit Of Spirit.

That success was swiftly followed by Royal Fixation winning the Lowther Stakes (G2) and A Bit Of Spirit stepping up to win the Solario Stakes (G3).

Palace Pier was unbeaten in two starts as a juvenile, albeit in minor company, and developed into a top miler at three and four; as such, we can safely expect more from his progeny next year.

Stallion Pedigree

KING OF CHANGE

GR.1 WINNING MILER OF THE QUEEN ELIZABETH II STAKES

14% Black-Type winners to runners in 2025

Lady With The Lamp, Onemoredance, Miss Of Change & Shayem. The leading second crop sire.

King Of Change has been shining where it should matter most in his sophomore season this year. He has put four blacktype winners on the board - at a strike rate of 14%, which is currently matched only by Dubawi in Europe.

Martin Stevens, Racing Post GMB 27/10/25

DUBAWI LEGEND

# BecomePartOfTheLegend

Second highest rated 2yo of his generation

2nd Gr.1 Darley Dewhurst Stakes to European Champion 2yo Native Trail. Higher rated than his contemporaries: Night Of Thunder, Modern Games, Ghaiyyath, Naval Crown, Space Blues, Zarak, New Bay.

First yearlings sold for €50,000, £35,000, etc, to:

Sheila Lavery, Peter & Ross Doyle, Marco Botti, Tally Ho Stud, SackvilleDonald, Highflyer, BBA Ireland, Dave Loughnane, etc. .

GR.1 SPRINTER BY

2yo Gr.2 winner

1st Gr.2 Futurity Stakes, 7f

3yo Gr.1 sprinter

3rd Gr.1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint, 5f

3rd Gr.1 Prix de l’Abbaye, 5f

4yo Stakes winner

1st L Sole Power Sprint Stakes, 5f

First book of 110 mares

By the Champion sire of 2yos and a half-brother to Champion 3yo sprinter Washington DC.

SPACE TRAVELLER

# RoyalAscotWinner

Won/placed in 10 Group/ Stakes races 1st 1st 2nd 2nd 3rd

Gr.2 Boomerang Stakes, 1m

Gr.3 Jersey Stakes, 7f

Gr.1 Frank E. Kilroe Mile, 1m

Gr.1 Woodbine Mile, 1m

Gr.1 Pegasus World Cup, 1m1f

First yearlings sold for 240,000gns, £65,000, £60,000, £52,000, €50,000, etc, to:

Highflyer x3, Peter & Ross Doyle x3, Middleham Park Racing, Kevin Ryan, Karl & Kelly Burke/Nick Bradley Racing.

Value for money options for breeders

Ciaran Doran crunches the numbers from this summer’s racing results for those stallions who stood at €35,000 or less

AS 2025 HURTLES TOWARDS 2026, breeders will be preoccupied with more than just thoughts of Festive celebrations; the need to finalise mating plans and to make the necessary arrangements will ensure that no breeder is left sitting on idle hands come Christmas.

Of course, the decision as to which sire suits a mare best may be based on multiple possible factors. The debate as to whether breeding is more art or science is a long-running argument.

Establishing which data points to use is not the most straightforward of exercises; nevertheless, we shall focus on 2025 performance as the exploits of a stallion’s progeny this year will likely be what breeders most value in 2026.

In addition, we shall limit our study to those sires who stood for no more than €35,000 in 2025 (or its sterling equivalent); the upshot of this is our analysis will centre on determining just which sires are most likely to provide smaller breeders with the best chance of success.

Al Qareem: the admirable six-year-old son of Awtaad has picked up nearly £780,000 in prize-money, run 35 times, won 12 races and nine stakes races and has been Group 1 placed

value stallion review

Focusing solely on winners in 2025, we can see that it is Saxon Warrior, winner of the 2018 2,000 Guineas, who comes out best.

His fellow Coolmore 2,000 Guineas winner Churchill takes silver, with long-time Banstead Manor stalwart Oasis Dream in third.

Of course, one would naturally expect that those with the most runners will also be those with the most winners.

Next, let us see how the stallions compare when it comes to winners scaled by runners.

There’s change at the top, with Soldier’s Call claiming the Number 1 spot,

such an achievement seems particularly noteworthy given he stood for £6,000 in 2025.

Awtaad is another to massively outperform his current fee when it comes to winners scaled by runners in 2025, and his worth was proved yet again in this year’s Breeders’ Cup meeting courtesy of Ethical Diamond, while Invincible Army and City Light similarly post results which run well ahead of their cost.

Of course, breeders aspire to rear winners but they likely dream of greater glory; so what do the results look like when we focus on black-type winners in 2025?

Leading British and Irish-based stallion performance 2025, two-year-olds: stallions standing at or below £/€35,000 in 2025, by winners to runners

Oasis Dream: at £15,000 is great value

Producing black-type winners

It’s a Deep Impact double at the top, with Saxon Warrior, aided by the likes of the Mark and Stephanie Hanly-bred Ribblesale Stakes (G2) winner Garden Of Eden, accompanied by a fellow Classic winner in Study Of Man on eight blacktype winners in Europe this year.

Make Believe occupies third on seven black-type winners, while Golden Horn’s six European black-type winners places him in fourth.

We just mentioned the importance of scaling winners by runners; let’s next scale a stallion’s number of black-type winners by his number of runners.

Leading British and Irish-based stallion performance 2025, three-year-olds:

Royal Ascot Group 2 Ribblesdale Stakes winner Garden Of

Starman and Ardad share top spot again when it comes to two-year-old stakes winners in 2025 – both stallions siring five juvenile black-type winners each

King Of Change was the 2025 King of black-type winners per runner, with almost 14 per cent of his runners achieving some form of stakes success. He was helped along this season by the likes of the two-time Listed scorer Lady With The Lamp, bred by Billy and Paul McEnery.

King Of Change’s success is scarcely believable once one considers that he was covering mares off a fee of €5,000 earlier this year.

Study Of Man again performs well in second spot, while Starman, Golden Horn, and Phoenix Of Spain round out the top five.

Make Believe just misses out although his results are impressive once juxtaposed against his 2025 fee.

Admittedly, one could say that the above findings are all well and good but they do not make an attempt to account for mare quality and the differential in quality between the stallions’ books.

Quantifying mare quality can be done in various ways; in this piece, we will use the covering fee that relates to a given crop as a proxy for mare quality.

Who is the best three-year-old sire in these ranks?

First, let us focus on the three-year-olds of 2025 and which sires fared best.

Just as we found above for total winners, Saxon Warrior was the most successful sire in the sample when it came to producing winners from this year’s Classic crop.

Aided by the likes of the Ecurie De Cachene-bred Heron Stakes and Sir Henry Cecil Stakes winner Opera Ballo and Group 3 Prix Vanteaux scorer Mandanaba, Ghaiyyath makes his

way into second position, with Sergei Prokofiev taking bronze.

Next, let us scale the data by the number of runners each stallion has had from their 2022 crop.

A Coolmore sire claims top spot again, but this time it’s Sioux Nation – 21 of Sioux Nation’s progeny born in 2022 have gone on to become race winners.

His performance looks even better considering he was operating off a fee of €10,000 in 2021.

Mohaather, Kameko, Soldier’s Call, and City Light fill up the next four places, with the latter two posting impressive results off low fees.

Switching to black-type winners, it is Ghaiyyath who takes the top spot, but it is important to note here that these figures relate to all of a sire’s progeny born in a calendar year so that Ghaiyyath’s three black-type winners

in Australia are added to his four stakes winners in the northern hemisphere.

Make Believe is next on six stakes winners, while there is a five-way tie for third between Sands Of Mali, Persian King, Ten Sovereigns, Earthlight, and Australia.

Again though, it is King Of Change who reigns supreme when it comes to stakes winners per runner – his 2022 crop has yielded three stakes winners out of 33 runners.

Make Believe again performs admirably, with over eight per cent of runners (including the Allevamento Le Gi Srl Societa’ Agricola-bred Italian Oaks winner Klaynn) out of his 2022 crop achieving some form of black-type success.

Third, fourth, and fifth belong to Coolmore sires in Sioux Nation, Gleneagles, and Australia whose 2022 crops were conceived off fees of €10,000, €25,000, and €25,000 respectively.

Sands Of Mali does not quite make the top five here but, much like King Of Change and Make Believe, his results need marking up once one considers just how inexpensive he was in 2021.

And what about the juvenile sires?

So that’s how our affordable sires fared when it came to this year’s Classic crop. But what about the juveniles of this year?

As far as juvenile winners in 2025 go, Ardad and Starman are the two best performers; their two-year-olds this year were conceived off fees of £12,500 and €17,500 in 2022.

Ten Sovereigns also had a covering fee of €17,500 in 2022 and he was the next best sire of two-year-old winners in this sample; Balantina claiming the spoils in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies Turf (G1) must have been a source of Turkish delight given her sire relocated to Celikoglu Stud at the start of this year.

Ten Sovereigns manages to climb one spot to second when we switch to winners per runner, but it is Awtaad’s

Ghaiyyath: had seven black-type winners

juveniles who were the most successful, with five of his eight two-year-old runners this year breaking their maiden status.

Awtaad’s fee increased a little from €5,000 in 2022 to €7,500 in 2025 so he is still more than affordable as a sire.

Holy Roman Emperor and Massaat are another two relatively inexpensive sires and they fill out third and fourth, with Pinatubo coming home in fifth.

Starman and Ardad share top spot again though when it comes to twoyear-old stakes winners in 2025 – both stallions siring five juvenile black-type winners each.

A Coolmore duo in Ten Sovereigns and Saxon Warrior share third place while Lucky Vega and Advertise are tied in fifth. Advertise is perhaps the most striking inclusion here given he stood for €5,000 earlier this year.

And on two-year-old stakes winners? Finally, how do the sires fare when we look at two-year-old stakes winners this season on a per runner basis?

King Of Change came out best when we reviewed stakes winners on a per runner basis for both the 2025 European season and the 2022 crop and similarly, he maintains his grip on first spot for the same metric when it comes to the 2023 crop.

It is important to caveat that there is a small sample size at play here, with King Of Change having had three two-year-old runners as of the time of writing.

Advertise performed well in the last table and he performs similarly well here, with two out of his 20 juvenile runners achieving stakes success.

Sire of the John D Gunther & Ttr

Zavateri, Without Parole comes in third while Ten Sovereigns and Starman round out the top five.

There is no metric that is in and of itself a “smoking gun” so to speak; that said, some sires do fare well across multiple metrics.

King Of Change, Awtaad, Starman, Sioux Nation, and Make Believe are just some of the relatively inexpensive sires who have posted results that were better than one would have expected given their book quality.

Past evidence is by no means a guarantee of the future and the sample sizes in question are relatively small in some instances. But on the whole, there is value to be had and the breeders who have been the most attentive to the out-performance of bargain sires will likely be the same smaller breeders best

El Caballo Strong Start Strong

Breeders

stakes-winning sires

Stakes-winning sires

From Weatherbys 2025

Sires of stakes winners in Europe and UAE in 2025

Horses are listed under their sire with the respective broodmare sire in brackets. Includes Group (1,2,3) and Listed (L) wins in Europe and UAE to 20/10/2025

Abbas Yolcu Taurus (Hakeem) ..................................... L

Acclamation

Romantic Warrior (Street Cry) 1

Adlerflug

Dreamliner (Aussie Rules) 3 L

Goliath (Shamardal) 1 3

Keffaaf (Spinning World) L

Lordano (Dubawi) 2

No Further Comment (Monsun) L

Waldadler (Halling) .................................. L

Advertise

Calendar Girl (Medaglia d’Oro) 3

Loco Sugar (Mshawish) L

Almanzor

Gezora (Silver Hawk) 1 2

Molveno (Dubawi) 2

Zuckerhut (Samum) 2

Amaron

Namaron (Soldier Hollow) 3

Schutzenzauber (American Post) L L

Anodin

King Gold (Kingsalsa) ........................... 3 3

Approve

Tonbi (Unaccounted For) L L L

Ardad

Anaisa (Kingman) L

Ardisia (Tamayuz) L

Queen Martina (Galileo Gold) L

Tadej (Frankel) 3

Wor Faayth (Dark Angel) L

Areion

Shootout (Soldier Hollow) 3

Zerostress (Diktat) ................................... L

Army Mule

The Protecter (Macho Uno) L

Australia

Cercene (Acclamation) 1

Kiamba (Danehill Dancer) L

Lambourn (Scat Daddy) 1 1 3

Wemightakedlongway (No Nay Never) 3

Avery Island

Statue of Liberty (Country Reel) L Treasure Island (Lion Heart) L

Awtaad

Al Qareem (Teofilo) ......................... 3 3 L L

Naomi Lapaglia (Nayef) L

Thalara (Suave Dancer) L

Bated Breath

Coppull (Mayson) 2

First Instinct (Beat Hollow) 3 L

Surabad (Motivator) L

Belardo

Shaool (Lemon Drop Kid) L

Simply Minds (Peintre Celebre) .............. 3

Best Solution

Delgardo (Mount Nelson) ........................ L Birchwood Woodchuck (Dunkerque) 3 3

Blame

Sibayan (Sea The Stars) 1 2 2

Blue Point

Blue Bolt (Whipper) L

Deo Volente (Teofilo) L

Elmonjed (Oasis Dream) ......................... L

Love Words (Mastercraftsman) L

Miss Information (Sir Percy) L Pearl Fortune (Haafhd) L

Rayevka (Holy Roman Emperor)

(Grand Slam)

winning the Group 3

Trustyourinstinct (Danehill Dancer) 3 L

Yashin (Dansili) ........................................ 3

City Light

Relaxx (Sunday Break) L

Zabeel Light (Lomitas) 3

Cityscape

Miss Attitude (Exceed And Excel) L

Cloth of Stars

Birr Castle (Turtle Bowl) L

Bubble Gum (High Chaparral) L

Indalimos (Excellent Art) 3

Connect Lord Mountbatten (Latent Heat) L

Cooger Son of Cooger (Lion Heart) L

Cotai Glory

Powerful Glory (Kodiac) .......................... 1

Supreme Winner (Choisir) L

Zahir Zulema (Firebreak) L Cracksman

Shaha (Anabaa) L

Dabirsim

Horizon Dore (Enrique) ............................

Daiwa Major Double Major (Dansili)

Dandy Man

Cala Dei Mori (Exceed And Excel) L

Dariyan Flying Spice (Cape Cross) L Princess Child (Dawn Approach) 3

Sayidah Dariyan (Siyouni) 3

Angel Art Power (Keltos) 3 Grand Son of Dark (Lope

Pierre Bonnard:

Zetland Stakes at Newmarket, the son of Camelot went on to win this autumn’s Group 1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud

Alohi Alii (Orfevre)

Earthlight Town And Country (Dream Ahead)

Elarqam

Rhiyanna (Dubawi) 3

Epaulette

Upamecano (Yavuzstar) L L

Vera’s Secret (Marju) 3 3

Epiphaneia

Byzantine Dream (Jungle Pocket) 2

Danon Decile (Congrats) 1

Eqtidaar

Tropical Storm (Avonbridge) L

Exceed And Excel

Dubai Treasure (Dubawi) ........................

Jabaara (Dubawi) L

Patroclo (Kyllachy) ..................................

Expert Eye

Snellen (Sea The Moon)

Witness Stand (Oasis Dream)

(Nathaniel)

Fascinating Rock Convergent (Shamardal) 2

Fast Company

Chally Chute (Refuse To Bend)

Fastnet Rock

Goodie Two Shoes (Galileo) 3

Poker Face (Galileo) 2

Flameaway Dark Saffron (Military)

Flamingo Fantasy

Petit Marin (Ransom O’War) ...................

Flying Artie Asfoora (I Am Invincible)

Footstepsinthesand

(Sea The Stars)

Frankel Benvenuto Cellini (Lope de Vega)

(Barathea)

(Rahy)

Velazquez (Acclamation)

Cordobes (Sea The Stars)

(Pivotal) 3

Giselle (Lope de Vega) L

Hans Andersen (Arcano) L Hotheaded (Kingmambo) L Lake Victoria (Showcasing) 1

Latakia (American Post) 2

Magical Hope (Dubawi) 3

Military Order (Dubawi) L

Minnie Hauk (Dansili) 1

Raposa (Maxios) L

Red Letter (Dark Angel) 3

Sand Gazelle (Kingman) ..........................

Stormy Ocean (Oasis Dream)

Victoria Harbour (Kingmambo) .............. L

Frosted

Frost At Dawn (War Front) L Galileo

(Fastnet Rock)

(Danehill)

Brueghel (Danehill Dancer)

(Danehill)

Madam Celeste (Camacho)

Gold

Eleven (Kodiac)

Jasna’s Secret (Orpen)

(Multiplex)

General Quarters

General Briella (Fast Company)

Ghaiyyath Al Uqda (Champs Elysees) ......................

Mandanaba (Desert Style)

My Highness (Kheleyf)

Opera Ballo (Invincible Spirit)

Gleneagles

Arrow Eagle (Anabaa Blue)

Calandagan (Sinndar)

Galen (Pivotal)..........................................

One Look (Holy Roman Emperor) 3 3

Golden Horde

Rabbit’s Foot (Mastercraftsman) L

Golden Horn

Divina Grace (Nayef) 3

Karmology (Shamardal) 3

Lady Charlotte (Poet’s Voice) 3 L

Santorini Star (Teofilo) 2

Trawlerman (Monsun) 1 1 2 3

Una Matina (Gold Away) L

Gregorian

Hollywood Treasure (Dream Ahead) L

Gutaifan

Big Gossey (Danehill) L

Hakeem

Grande Flusso (Royal Abjar) ................... L

Halicarnassus Madras (Unaccounted For) 3

Harry Angel

Fair Angellica (Lawman) 3 L

Marshman (Galileo) L

Tiger Bay (Rip Van Winkle) L

Harzand

Cristal Clere (Bering) L

Havana Gold

Golden Call (Shamardal) L L

Havana Hurricane (Excelebration) L

Havana Grey

Black Caviar Gold (Outstrip) 3

Havana Anna (Danehill Dancer) ............. L

Holguin (Exceed And Excel) L

Rosy Affair (Sakhee’s Secret) .............. 3 L

Rumstar (Sakhee’s Secret)

Bling (Giant’s Causeway)

By leading sire HAVANA GREY.

PROVEN GR.1 SIRE OF SPEED

65+ Stakes winners/ performers

Including multiple Gr.1 winning sprinters

GLASS SLIPPERS & DREAM OF DREAMS

Dream Ahead Washington

GR.1 SPRINT SIRE

Sire of Royal Ascot Gr.1 King Charles III winner AMERICAN AFFAIR

Plus other tough sprinters including WASHINGTON HEIGHTS, VENTURE CAPITAL, SONDAD, etc.

Europe’s top sire of sprinters standing at under £25k

(5f/6f by earnings 2017 to 2025, Marray Thoroughbred Services)

A leading broodmare sire by Stakes winners/horses

For sires with seven crops or lessincluding Gr.1 horses POPTRONIC, LIGHTSABER, TEXAS, and eight new Stakes horses in Europe in 2025

A leading sire of 5f sprinters by earnings in GB & IRE in 2025

Ranked third behind MEHMAS and HAVANA GREY (Racing Post to 6/11/25)

£3FEE,500

Champion 3yo Sprinter won/placed in 15 Stakes races

Half-brother to Gr.1 sprinter AESOP’S FABLES

Five Ways (Mayson) 3

Kaneko

Brave Jumper (Luxor) L

El Gladiador (Johannesburg) L

Karakontie

Aurinko (Dansili) L L

Kendargent

Medusa Merger (Invincible Spirit) L L

Kessaar

Melfi (One Cool Cat) L

King David

Burgas (Yavuzstar) L L

King of Change

Lady With The Lamp (Elusive Quality) L L

Miss of Change (Frankel) ........................ L

Onemoredance (Poet’s Voice) L

Shayem (Exceed And Excel) .................... L

Kingman

Breckenbrough (Sea The Stars) L

Candleford (Norse Dancer) L

Cosmic Year (Dansili) L

Daydream Express (Henrythenavigator) L

Division (Sir Prancealot) L

Field of Gold (Shamardal) 1 1 3

Flaming Stone (Aussie Rules) L

Green Spirit (Danehill Dancer) 2 3

Kimi Rey (Frankel) L

Purview (Sea The Stars) L

Quddwah (King’s Best) 3 L

Queen of Hawaii (Galileo) 3

Regal Resolve (Dark Angel) L

Royal Chapel (Quality Road) L

Swelter (Pivotal) 3

Tabiti (First Defence) 3

Tajlina (Dubawi) ....................................... 3

Temptable (Lope de Vega) L

Troia (Shamardal) .................................... L

Victory Queen (Teofilo) L

Kitasan Black

Croix du Nord (Cape Cross) 3

Kizuna

Zuna (Rock of Gibraltar) L Kluger Klein (Makfi) ..........................................

Lucky Vega

Lam Yai (Invincible Spirit) ....................... L

Only Luck (Kitten’s Joy) L

Kodi Bear Bubuz (Kheleyf)

(Awtaad)

(Raven’s Pass)

Aphelios (Singspiel)

Babouche (Arch)

Lao Tzu (Dark Angel)

Le Havre

Havandi (Rock of Gibraltar)

Leffard (Montjeu)

Mozart (Divine Light)

Quisisana (Sea The Stars) 1

Un Instant (Shamardal) L

Lethal Force

Lethal Levi (Dutch Art)

Heart (Kaneko)

de Vega

de Vega (Dansili)

(Cape Cross)

de Vega (Soldier of Fortune)

(Sea The Stars)

Folly (Dubawi)

Cacofonix (Exceed And Excel)

(Galileo)

(Fastnet Rock)

Osario (Teofilo)

Look (Dansili)

Hooking (Dubawi)

(Fast Company)

Isla Mujeres (Authorized)

Breeze (Dalakhani) .................

Champion (Diktat)

Ozone (Sea The Stars)............................. L

Polyvega (Oasis Dream) L

Saidi El Fal (Siyouni) ................................ L

Scenic (Frankel) 3

Silver Knott (Nathaniel) 2 Words of Truth (Australia) 2

Lord of England

Wintertraum (Sternkoenig) L

Luxor

Al Tan (Strike The Gold) L L

Nymphadora Tonks (Unaccounted For) L

Special Man (Kaneko) L

Make Believe

Chelsea Believe (Dark Angel) L L

Elim (Danehill Dancer) L

Fantasy World (High Chaparral) L

Klaynn (Rip Van Winkle) 2 3

Nahraan (Frankel) L

Nart Atesi (Invincible Spirit) L

Sajir (Invincible Spirit) 1 3

Malibu Moon

Saayedd (Deputy Minister) L

Manduro

Iresine (Oasis Dream) .............................. L

The Good Man (Galileo) L

Marcavelly

Dapper Man (Unaccounted For)L L L L L L

Markaz

Lord Massusus (Haafhd) L Masar

Grecian Destiny (Rock of Gibraltar) L Massaat Docklands (Mark of Esteem) 1

Mastercraftsman

Coltrane (Montjeu) L Giavellotto (Galileo) 3

Padre Palou (Galileo) 3 L Royal Zabeel (More Than Ready) ........... L

(Soldier Hollow) L

New Bay

Alcantor (Medicean) ................................ 3

Carla Ridge (High Chaparral) L

Falakeyah (War Front) L

Persica (Lope de Vega) 3 3

Pride of Arras (Oasis Dream) 2 2

Shuwari (Sir Percy) L

Night of Thunder

Azaniya (Hurricane Run) L

Bow Echo (Invincible Spirit) 2 L

Bright Thunder (Iffraaj) L

Charlotte’s Web (Lope de Vega) L

Chicago Critic (Machiavellian) L

Choisya (Singspiel) 2 2

Cloud Cover (Street Cry) L

Desert Flower (Hard Spun) 1

Distant Storm (George Washington) 3

Electric Storm (Bated Breath) L

Estrange (Oasis Dream) 2 3

Gewan (Lethal Force) ........................... 1 3

Hankelow (Lawman) 3

Hope Queen (Invincible Spirit) ................ L

Kon Tiki (Mastercraftsman) L

More Thunder (Hat Trick) 2

Ombudsman (Dansili) 1 1

Rainbows Edge (Danehill Dancer) L

Romantic Style (Dream Ahead) L

Royal Dress (Dynaformer) L

Ryka (Golden Horn) L

Sunly (Champs Elysees) 3 L

Ten Bob Tony (Dark Angel) 3

Thunder Sea (Sea The Stars) L

Vertbois (Sinndar) L

Vespertilio (Dansili) L

Zahrann (Azamour) 3 L

Zeus Olympios (Siyouni) 2 3 No Nay Never

Catching The Moon (Uncle Mo) 3

Charles Darwin (Born To Sea) 2

Mission Central (Zoffany) .......................

Never So Brave (Oasis Dream)

Royal Commando (Acclamation)

True Love (Fastnet Rock)

Whistlejacket (Bering) .............................

Nyquist Crimson Advocate (Proud Citizen)

Oasis Dream

Together (Dansili)

(Dansili)

Oglum Melih Lavender (Talip Han)

Times

(Frankel)

Pier

Bit of Spirit (Dubawi)

Dancer (Dubawi)

Fixation (Kodiac)

Papa Clem

Brando (Always A Classic) ......................

Wictory Drop (Ocean Crest)

Pedro The Great Breizh Sky (Anabaa)

Persian King Best Secret (American Post)

Cankoura (Dalakhani)

Darius Cen (Pivotal)

Uthred (Sea The Stars)

Phoenix of Spain

Atsila (Holy Roman Emperor)

Caballo de Mar (Holy Roman Emperor)1

Cheshire Dancer (Xaar)

(Cape Cross)

of Spain (Invincible Spirit)

(Galileo)

Qilin Queen (Sea The Stars) .................

Polish Vulcano Hochkonig (Kallisto) 1

Postponed

Ambiente Amigo (Azamour)

Amiloc (Authorized)

Waardah (New Approach) 2 L

Prince Gibraltar

Aidan’s Phone (Canford Cliffs) ............... L

Profitable

Rogue Enforcer (Foxwedge) L

Protectionist

Kampfer (Soldier Hollow) L

Real Solution

Charabanc (English Channel) L L

Reliable Man

Alsterperle (Kallisto) 3

North Reliance (Desert King) L

Ribchester

Ashariba (Dansili) L

Rio de La Plata

Fort Payne (Meshaheer) .......................... 3

Roaring Lion

Lion’s Pride (Lemon Drop Kid) L

Running Lion (Dansili) L

Romanised

Zia Agnese (Le Havre) 3

Rulership

Soul Rush (Manhattan Cafe) 1

Sadler’s Joy

Tejon Melero (Mountain Cat) L Whizbang (Dr Fong) L

Sands of Mali

Copacabana Sands (Montjeu) 3

(Dutch Art)

(Bachelor Duke) 1

(Invincible Spirit) L

Zanthos (Pivotal) 2

Siyouni

Burhan (Dubawi) L

Detonate (Zoffany) L

Mont de Soleil (Dubawi) 3 L

Mount Kilimanjaro (Galileo) L

Nitoi (Dynaformer) L L

Noble Title (Aqlaam) ................................ L

Phantom Flight (Encosta de Lago) L

Roshvar (Sea The Stars) ......................... 3

Soreanga (Galileo) L

Zarigana (Frankel) ................................ 1 3

Soldier Hollow

Augustus (Lord of England) 2

Dumonet (Holy Roman Emperor) L

Egina (Le Havre) 2 L L

Matilda (Giant’s Causeway) 2

of Soldier (Anabaa)

(Areion)

Weltbeste (Sternkoenig) L

Soldier’s Call

Arugam Bay (Dandy Man) L

Kaadi (Fast Company) L

Sottsass

Safia (Le Havre) L

Winnyzja (Cape Cross) ............................ L

Space Blues

Power Blue (Worthadd) 1

Speightstown

(Zieten)

St Mark’s Basilica

Aylin (Dark Angel) 2 Diamond Necklace (Dansili) 1 L

Thesecretadversary (Gleneagles)

Impact)

(Galileo)

Allonsy (Sir Percy)

(Selkirk)

(Galileo)

Chine (Archipenko)....................

(Frankel)

(Galileo)

(Exceed And Excel)

Caballo De Mar winning the Prix du Cadran to become a first Group 1 winner for the Irish National Stud-based stallion and third-season sire Phoenix Of Spain

Naughty Peter (Acatenango) L

Tamayuz

Simca Mille (Pivotal) L

Ten Sovereigns

Bright Filly (Invincible Spirit) L L

Half Sovereign (Supplicant) 3

Tamouth (Shamardal) L L

Teofilo

First Conquest (Dubawi) 3

Liberty Lane (Cape Cross) L

Merchant (Vocalised) 3

Nations Pride (Oasis Dream) 2

Sunchart (Dubai Destination) L

Taany (Dubawi) 3 3 L

Territories

Lady Ilze (Intikhab) 2

Lazzat (Australia).................................. 1 L

The Grey Gatsby

Partnun (Jukebox Jury) L

Tizway

Beauty of Darkness (Mujtahid) L L L

Too Darn Hot

Alyanaabi (Kitten’s Joy) L

Emit (Kitten’s Joy) L

Fallen Angel (Lawman) 1 1 1

Fitzella (Exceed And Excel) 3

Glittering Legend (Champs Elysees) L

Tornado Alert (Kingmambo) 1

Torok

Dragon Flame (Thewayyouare) L

Grace of God (Mount Nelson) L L L

Hope Breeze (Kaneko) L

Riyakar (Win River Win) L L

Tor Gold (Banknote).............................. L L

Toronado

Bullace (Cockney Rebel) L

Touch The Wolf

Amazing Touch (Royal Abjar) L

Tulumar (Mountain Cat) L L

Tough Guy

Gok Berk (Bosporus) L

Superbella (Victory Gallop) L

Trappe Shot

Rebellious Boy (Mountain Cat)

Twilight Son

Beautiful Diamond (Lethal Force)

Twirling Candy

Twirling Ghost (Came Home)

U S Navy Flag

Graft (Paco Boy)

Ulysses

Humidity (Pivotal)

Uncle Mo

Tito Mo Cen (Raven’s Pass)

Vadamos

Spycatcher (Red Clubs)

Vekoma Golden Vekoma (Stevie Wonderboy)

Victoire Pisa Boon Nam (Okawango)

(Azaraks)

Handsome King (Win River Win)

(Dilum)

Gallop

(Lost Soldier)

de

(War Front) 3 Beautify (Dansili) 2 Bucanero Fuerte (Elusive City) 3

Camille Pissarro (Pivotal) 1

(Sea The Stars) 2

(Australia) 2

River (Le Havre) 2

(Motivator) L

Dorset (Galileo) 3

Green Impact (Galileo) L Hawk Mountain (Galileo) 1 2

Henri Matisse (Pivotal) 1 3

Juwelier (Galileo) 3

Maranoa Charlie (Galileo) 1 3

(Fastnet Rock)

Kick (Soldier Hollow)

(Duke of Marmalade)

(Sinndar)

(Dr Fong)

Causeway) 3

(Invincible Spirit)

Four (Lope de Vega)

The five-time Group 1 winner Fallen Angel, the daughter of Too Darn Hot

HIGH CLASS GR.1 SPRINTER

Grey 2018 Cable Bay x Arcamist FEE: £8,000 1st oct slf

SENSATIONAL YOUNG SIRE

Grey 2015 Havana Gold x Blanc de Chine

FEE: PRIVATE

*Only mares 16hh and under will be covered*

LEADING EUROPEAN 1 ST AND 2 ND CROP SIRE

Bay 2016 Scat Daddy x Orchard Beach FEE: £8,000 1st oct slf A LEADING EUROPEAN SIRE

Bay 2007 Oasis Dream x Arabesque FEE: £30,000 1st oct slf

OUTSTANDING SON OF HAVANA GREY

Bay 2021 Havana Grey x Dotted Swiss FEE: £8,000 1st oct slf

LEADING LIGHTS AND SHINING EXAMPLES

ARDAD

Britain's leading sire of two-year-olds, 2025.

£7,500 Oct 1, SLF

CATURRA

Exciting! First yearlings were so impressive.

£5,000 Oct 1, SLF

FRONTIERSMAN

The Dubawi sire power that trainers love.

£2,000 Oct 1, SLF

GOLDEN HORN

Proper elite G1 sire for both codes.

£10,000 Oct 1, SLF

JACK HOBBS

Up-and-coming force over jumps.

£4,000 Oct 1, SLF

SCHIAPARELLI

Gets brave and wonderful steeplechasers.

£2,000 Oct 1, SLF

Stallion covering stats

The covering sire table includes sires who have covered 20+ mares in England or Ireland in 2025

Jump and dual-purpose sires are included and the figures will include their NH mares. From Weatherbys

FROM BREEDING SHED TO WINNING POST, WE’VE GOT THE RIGHT TRACK RECORD

“Here at Ballyreddin Stud, all stock are fed Connolly’s RED MILLS feeds. Nutrition is so important throughout all stages of growth and can be the making or breaking of a horses’ development and future career. We use a combination of the Stud and Horse Care ranges when preparing our foals, yearlings and store horses for the sales and have been delighted with the results. I am confident they are receiving everything they need from the feed to support their development and achieve their full potential.”

John Dwan, Ballyreddin Stud

STALLION Nos of mares

Poet’s Word (IRE) 297

Affinisea (IRE) 270

Sioux Nation (USA) 268

Starman (GB) 265

Mehmas (IRE) 256

Luxembourg (IRE) 246

Maxios (GB) 246

Harzand (IRE) 224

Good Guess (GB) 209

Walk In The Park (IRE) 208

Hurricane Lane (IRE) 207

Order of St George (IRE) 204

Wootton Bassett (GB) 204

Auguste Rodin (IRE) 200

Look de Vega (FR) 193

Frankel (GB) 192

Ghaiyyath (IRE) 191

Gleneagles (IRE) 178

Frankel (GB) 182

Sioux Nation (USA) 167

Mehmas (IRE) 157

Wootton Bassett (GB) 142

Poet’s Word (IRE) 141

Too Darn Hot (GB) 141

Night of Thunder (IRE) 137

Walk In The Park (IRE) 127

Starman (GB) 126

Golden Horn (GB) 126

Blue Point (IRE) 124

Ghaiyyath (IRE) 123

Kingman (GB) 122

Auguste Rodin (IRE) 120

Baaeed (GB) 120

Look de Vega (FR) 119

Lope de Vega (IRE) 119

New Bay (GB) 118

Frankel (GB) 126

Too Darn Hot (GB) 80

Wootton Bassett (GB) 77

Night of Thunder (IRE) 71

Kingman (GB) 63

Blue Point (IRE) 57

City of Troy (USA) 55

Lope de Vega (IRE) 54

Sea The Stars (IRE) 50

Walk In The Park (IRE) 49

Dubawi (IRE) 47

Baaeed (GB) 46

New Bay (GB) 41

Camelot (GB) 40

Golden Horn (GB) 39

Study of Man (IRE) 37

No Nay Never (USA) 32

Look de Vega (FR) 31

LEFFARD

G1 Grand Prix de Paris

Sold as a yearling to

CONSTITUTION RIVER

G2 Futurity Stakes

Sold as a yearling to  Michael Vincent Magnier

GODSPEED

G2 Prix de Sandringham

Sold as a yearling to Carlos & Yann Lerner

Alain Jathière

Listed Prix Delahante

Owner & breeder: Jean-Claude Seroul

ZARAXIA

(GB) 2015 by Acclamation - Exemplify (Dansili)

54% WINNERS / RUNNERS

The BREEDERS CUP MILE (turf) winner with 2yo brilliance

Witness Stand (Top) Juniper Berries (Middle) Snellen (Bottom)

Dependent on the few

The top of the European yearling trade relies on just a handful of big-spending individuals, and this autumn’s most vibrant trade was seen at the Tattersalls Ireland September Sale and Goffs Orby Part 2

The highest-priced yearling sold in the world this year is this colt by Sea The Stars from Longview Stud, bought by Godolphin for 3,700,000gns

THE EUROPEAN YEARLING MARKET

remains, as it has been throughout the post-Covid years from 2021 onwards, unstable and, particularly at the top, dependent upon a handful of buyers.

There were, of course,

some spectacularly successful individual sales, a total of 40 yearlings were sold for the equivalent of more than $1 million, 27 at the Tattersalls October sales, 10 at Arqana in August and three at the Goffs Orby Sale.

The problem for those planning for the elite yearling sales of 2028 is how narrow

demand is at the top of the market.

Twenty nine of these 40 million-dollar yearlings were bought by either Godolphin, Amo Racing, the Coolmore partnership or Juddmonte. At the same time, in real terms, the market was in most cases down from the peaks of 2024 and, overall,

once inflation is taken into account, the average prices at Europe’s major yearling sales in England, Ireland and France were either marginally higher or lower than there were back in 2019.

Tattersalls October is still, as it has been for a long time, the most important of Europe’s sales, year after year

Photo: Tattersalls

Of the spending at all the major European auctions in 2025, Tattersalls October accounted for 89 per cent of Godolphin’s outlay and 70 per cent of Amo’s

it has accounted for between 56-62 per cent of the total market.

This is the sale which determines future stallion fees and where the major buyers play the most significant role.

At the Tattersalls October Book 1 Sale this year Godolphin and Amo Racing signed for nine per cent of the yearlings on offer accounting for 26 per cent of the aggregate.

At October Book 1 and 2 combined they bought five per cent of the horses for 20 per cent of the aggregate.

Of the spending at all the major European auctions in 2025, Tattersalls October accounted for 89 per cent of Godolphin’s outlay and

Kia Joorabchian: spent the equivalent of $42 million on yearlings this year

Photo: Tattersalls

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Photos: (Main) Daniel O’Neill

70 per cent of Amo’s.

Amo diversified its spend this year – in 2024 it was not active at either Arqana August or Goffs Orby –but for many years now Tattersalls October has been the focus of Godolphin’s buying of yearlings.

This is obviously a positive factor for Tattersalls and its vendors, and a matter of frustration no doubt for Goffs, particularly as so many of the yearlings sold in Newmarket come from Ireland, but there is a negative side as well.

At October Book 1 the proportion of yearlings reported as sold fell this year from 88 per cent to 85 per cent, while the average and median were both down by more than 15 per cent in real terms.

Among the major buyers from 2024, Al Shaqab and

Yulong were among those who were not active this year, while there was also a decline in US spending, too, with Klaravich Stables and Mike Repole among those who spent significantly less than they had the previous year.

The market was similar at Arqana’s August Sale where Godolphin and Amo accounted for 23 per cent of the aggregate.

A sale or a market dominated by a few groups is an unstable one

A sale or a market dominated by a few groups is an unstable one, if one or another is not active.

The sales companies adjust the format of their sales trying to react to changes in demand.

Following good years, the number on offer tends to expand while they are often cut after disappointing sales.

There was 20 per cent

Aggregate at Arqana in 2025 (million €)

at Arqana August in 2025€

Aggregate at Tattersalls October Book 2010-25 (million guineas)

Aggregate at Tatts Oct 1 in 2025 million gns

Aggregate at Tattersalls October Book 2010-25 (million guineas)

Aggregate

Arqana August top lot: filly by Night Of Thunder, out of Prudenzia, sold by Ecurie des Monceaux to Amo Racing for €3,000,000 (Lot 206)

Photo: Alisha Meeder

more horses offered at October Book 1 this year than in 2024, while Arqana sold only 216 yearlings in August, the smallest number of the century.

In the circumstances it is surprising that no European sale is willing to experiment with a select yearling sale or session.

Perhaps Arqana could look at returning to a two-part sale in August with a select session on two nights followed by a Part 2.

Tattersalls could change the format of its October sale into something more like Keeneland’s September Sale with a series of books or sessions selected to have diminishing average prices over eight days of selling.

The changes in the median prices achieved by Europe’s leading commercial stallions are more evidence of a market which has yet to find a new equilibrium.

In 2024, more or less all these commercial stallions saw a rise in the median price of their offspring, this year was different.

In many ways it was surprising that Night Of Thunder and Wootton Bassett’s median prices did not increase by more than 39 per cent and 16 per cent respectively given the success of the two sires on the racecourse this year, but then they were both already part of the elite in 2024.

The sires who recorded the biggest increase were those

Goffs Orby Sale Part 2 top lot by State Of Rest, sold for €150,000

Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale: 2017-2025(€)

The positive aspect of the 2025 yearling season was the surprising advances made in Ireland, England and France at a lower level of the market

such as Havana Grey, Zarak and New Bay whose fees had risen significantly between 2022 and 2023, and so their yearlings were out of higher quality mares.

Frankel, Dubawi, Kingman and Camelot remain among the best sires in Europe, nevertheless the median price of their yearlings was, like the overall market, slightly down from 2024.

The most positive aspect of the 2025 yearling season was the surprising advances made in Ireland, England and France at a lower level of the market.

In Ireland, the Tattersalls September Sale was a huge success with 420 yearlings, 93 per cent of those offered,

selling at an average price of €43,000, this strong demand continued at the Goffs Orby Part 2 where 300 horses were sold at an average price of €27,000.

Taking these two sales together, more than 700 yearlings sold for an aggregate and average which were up by more than 30 per cent in real terms from the previous year, and significantly higher than they had been in 2019 pre-Covid.

On the first day of the Tattersalls October Book 3, 246 yearlings were sold at an average price of 31,200gns, up by 14 per cent in real terms on 2024 and higher in real terms than that recorded in 2019.

Simon Mockridge of Juddmonte: the farm increased its spend at the yearling sales this year

Tattersalls

And at Arqana’s October Sale, after a difficult first day when a high proportion of those offered were not sold in the ring, the strongest part of the sale was the second session when 90 yearlings were sold for an average price of €54,500, up by 22 per cent from the previous year.

But, whatever the results of the yearling sales it is hard to imagine there will be major changes in the stallion market.

The stallion owners are not going to reduce

Photo:

However, the most positive aspect of the yearling sales season was the surprising demand for yearlings at around the €40,000-€60,000 mark, a level where profits for commercial breeders may not be spectacular but they can at least exist

fees or the number of mares covered by popular sires, if breeders are only too happy to pay to use them, regardless of the number of others who select the same sires.

The figures released for coverings in 2025 show that the most popular stallions are as in demand as they have ever been.

This presents difficult choices for those planning matings for 2026 with a view to selling in the best

yearling sales of 2028, and investing in high stud fees for a return at sales in three years’ time, when the market is so unstable, is a high risk business.

However, the most positive aspect of the yearling sales season was the surprising demand for yearlings at around the €40,000-€60,000 mark, a level where profits for commercial breeders may not be spectacular but they can at least exist.

The evidence from stallion

averages and median prices suggest that, at the end of the day, the quality of a yearling’s dam is as important as the name of its sire.

This is logical when as many as 22 different sires had 70 or more yearlings on offer at this year’s sales. It would seem that buyers have taken this change into account, and so perhaps it is time for the sales companies to do so too, as so often it seems selection is still done on the basis of the stallion alone.

Top: Michael Owen at the Fairyhouse September Sale. SackvilleDonald and Manor House Stables bought nine lots for a spend of €495,000

Below: John Stewart of Resolute Racing who made a first trip to the Goffs Orby Sale

Left: Tattersalls Ireland September Sale top lot is by Starspangledbanner and out of the Galileo mare Broderie Anglaise (Lot 369), bought by JS Bloodstock and George Scott for €200,000

Photo: Tattersalls Ireland

Photo: Tattersalls Ireland

Photo: Goffs

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Baaeed: Shadwell’s son of Sea The Stars was 2025’s leading first-crop sire by yearling average

Stallion yearling sale stats 2025

Stallions with three or more lots sold, listed alphabetically and showing aggregate, average and colt and fillies’ figures from sales in Europe. Vendor buy-backs included. In guineas, compiled by Weatherbys. NH stallions included.

European yearling sale statistics by stallion 2025 (three or more sold, in gns)

stallion yearling statistics

SHOWCASING - DIJARVO (ICEMAN)

Fee: POA

Multiple Group-winning sprinter and Gr.1 placed at 2

One of the fastest colts of his generation

Sire of 12 Stakes performers incl. Gr.3 winner DAWN CHARGER

Sire of Royal Ascot winner MICKLEY

2025 winners incl. LR winner KAADI and black-type horses WAR BRIDE, MUDDY MOOY, etc.

2025 yearlings sold for 52,000gns, £45,000, etc.

NEW FOR 2026

UBETTABELIEVEIT MASSAAT SOLDIER’S CALL

KODIAC – LADY LISHANDRA (MUJADIL)

Fee: £4,500 1st Oct S.L.F

By Sire of Sires KODIAC

Winner of three races and £116,503 all over 5f

incl.: LR National Stakes, Gr.2 Flying Childers Stakes, also 3rd Gr.2 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint, all at 2

Yearlings sold for 70,000gns, 62,000gns, £66,000, etc.

Exciting first crop sire 2025 with multiple winners incl. HILITANY, SAYIDAH HARD SPUN, TRICKY TEL , etc.

TEOFILO - MADANY (ACCLAMATION)

Fee: £3,000 1st Oct S.L.F

Brother to Gr.1 Commonwealth Cup winner EQTIDAAR

Gr.1 placed at 2, 3 and 4, Gr.2 winner over 7f

Black type horses include DOCKLANDS

Won Queen Anne Stakes Gr.1, Royal Ascot 2025 and earnings of over £1,000,000

Yearlings made up to 50,000gns in 2025

stallion yearling statistics

Filly by first-crop yearling sire State Of Rest topped the Goffs Orby Sale Part 2, selling for €150,000, bought by Mrs Alanood Althani bred by Nicky Hartery

Photo courtesy of Goffs

stallion yearling statistics

Torquator Tasso: his top-priced yearling colt sold for €160,000 at the BBAG September Yearling Sale, and is out of the Shamardal mare Djumay, a daughter of the Preis der Diana (G1) runner-up Djumama

Bungle Inthejungle ex Guana (Dark Angel)

A pedigree full of Speed and Precocity

Two Year Old Sprint Group Winner and Group 1 placed

Only son at stud of the sire of Group 1 winner Winter Power

£2,000 (1st Oct. SLF)

OFF TO A GREAT START AT STUD

Plenty of winners from a handful of runners including:

GETREADYTORUMBLE - LR placed and three-time winner in 2025

MANILA THRILLER - three-time winner • WALNUT – two wins, one place all three starts DISTANT RUMBLE – two wins in 2025 • AZUINTHEJUNGLE – three wins in 2025 And MEDINILLA, HINT OF HUMOUR , BANKSMAN – all dual winners

Domination

Spendthrift Farm had a monopoly on this year’s US sire championships, with leading sire, first-season sire, second and third-crop, writes Jill Williams

WITH THE BREEDERS’ CUP WORLD

CHAMPIONSHIPS in the books, the bulk of US racing is done and dusted for 2025.

Not all of it, of course, as California still has five Grade 1s yet to run before year’s end, while Kentucky and New York also have a number of graded races carded before 2025 draws to a close.

However, with the majority of 2025’s top racing (91 per cent of graded races) and certainly the lion’s share of the prize-money now accounted for, clear leaders in every category atop the sire charts have emerged.

Most striking is the incredible reign of Central Kentucky’s Spendthrift Farm, who currently stands not only America’s leading sire, but America’s leading first-crop, secondcrop, and third-crop sires as well.

Those are unmistakably some of the lists that resonate the most with American breeders and no farm in recent memory has led each one at the same time. What a remarkable feat.

Records leave it unclear if any other farm has ever equalled the accomplishment, but it’s doubtful.

It harkens back to the days of Claiborne Farm’s unmatched tenure from 1955 to 1969 when the nursery furnished America’s leading general sire consecutively during the Nasrullah,

Princequillo, Ambiorix, and Bold Ruler years.

Standing the leading established sire in any given year is a crowning achievement for any stallion station, but adding in dominance among the upand-coming sires in all three early crop divisions?

It’s a ridiculous statistic no stallion manager would dare dream is possible and yet here it is, in black and white. Spendthrift, who pioneered programmes in which breeders earn shares in young sires they support, is clearly doing something right.

If all that weren’t enough,

Yaupon: leading first-season sire with progeny earnings over $1 million ahead of his field

Photo: Spendthrift Farm

Spendthrift’s own achievements are equally prolific.

Spendthrift colour-bearer Ted Noffey (a spoonerism for the name of Spendthrift’s general manager) won the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile, is champion-elect two-year-old colt after remaining unbeaten in four career starts, and is the favourite for next year’s Grade 1 Kentucky Derby.

Homebreds on the track this year for the operation include the multiple Grade 1 winner Tommy Jo and horses they’ve bred but sold include Grade 1 Pegasus World Cup winner White Abarrio.

It is truly an embarrassment of riches.

“You could make the argument that we’re in the best of times at Spendthrift, which certainly has a long history that I greatly respect and don’t take lightly,” Spendthrift’s general manager Ned Toffey told the media in October.

“It is extremely humbling and gratifying, and it makes you proud of the work that is being done here by the entire team from the top down, starting with [owners] Eric and Tammy Gustavson.”

It will surprise no one that Spendthrift’s Into Mischief, North America’s six-time leading sire, is certain to secure a seventh title.

Even without including the near $5.7 million won by his leading 2025 money earner, the dual Classic winner Sovereignty, the farm’s kingpin would still have the advantage and remain on top.

At year’s end, Into Mischief will tie the seven consecutive titles earned by Claiborne’s Bold Ruler in the 1960s, a modern-day feat that surely is more challenging given bigger books and crops.

Bold Ruler added an eighth title in 1973, the same year his best racing son Secretariat took the US by storm and won the Triple Crown.

Into Mischief has had a bang-up year in 2025, even by his lofty standards.

Not only did he win his third Kentucky Derby as a sire, one of only five stallions in history to do so and the first since Bull Lea in the 1940s and 50s, but he also won his ninth career Breeders’ Cup race as a stallion when Ted Noffey crossed the line emphatically at Del Mar.

Only Dubawi, whose son Notable Speech won the Breeders’ Cup Turf Mile this year, equals that number.

With no signs of slowing down, Into Mischief led all US-based stallions with five Grade I winners in 2025 and with his best-bred books just now emerging, can Into Mischief’s dominance continue?

Were he to win an eighth title next year, he would tie not only Bold Ruler, but also the pre-Civil War sire Glencoe for the second-most accolades as

leads with an insurmountable 16 titles. Into Mischief will be 21 at the turn of the year and will again stand for $250,000.

While he’s irreplaceable, it must hearten Spendthrift to know the next generation is thriving at the farm.

Yaupon makes a fine start at stud Freshman stallion Yaupon entered stud at Spendthrift for $30,000 in 2022. He didn’t race at two and had light but successful campaigns at three and four that included a win in the 2021 Grade 1 Forego Stakes. His first runners in 2025 came out blazing.

Yaupon’s 25 two-year-old winners include seven black-type winners, which matches the most for a firstcrop stallion since his own sire, the late Uncle Mo, reached that number in 2015. While all seven of his stakes winners

Spendthrift also led the freshman sire tables in 2024 with breakout stallion Vekoma and that now-sophomore sire has gotten even better this year.

He, too, leads his category by blacktype winners with 14, but he also leads second-crop sires by graded winners with seven.

More than $4 million ahead of second-crop pursuer McKinzie, who is no slouch at Gainesway, Vekoma’s most recent top performers include the threeyear-old Grade 2 Thoroughbred Club of America Stakes heroine Praying and two-year-old Grade 2 Pilgrim Stakes winner Bottas.

Vekoma, who started out at Spendthrift for $20,000 in 2021, is slated at $100,000 for next year.

Omaha clear third-season sire star

That leads us to the top third-crop sire in Spendthrift’s Omaha Beach. He’s taken a slower rise up the lists as he was fourth on the first-crop

Into Mischief led all US-based stallions with five Grade I winners in 2025 and with his best-bred books just now emerging, can Into Mischief’s dominance continue?

table in 2023, but it turns out he was just warming up.

Omaha Beach is more than $3 million ahead of his closest pursuer, fellow Spendthrift sire Mitole, who has the addition of $2 million in earnings from Shisospicy, a filly who beat the boys in

leading third -season sire is $3 million clear of his rivals

the Grade 1 Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint.

It seems everywhere one turns there’s a quality Omaha Beach runner these days and he leads his crop by both 2025 stakes winners (11) and Grade 1 winners (two).

His top runners this year are the Grade 1 Goodwood Stakes winner Nevada Beach and the Grade 1 Derby City Distaff victress Kopion.

Expectations were always high for him; he kicked off his stallion career at $45,000 in 2020, but he’s firmly entrenched himself among all leading sires as he’s 11th on the general list and will stand for $75,000 in 2026.

Like Spendthrift’s torchbearer Into Mischief, he gets top runners both sprinting and routing, as well as on both Turf and Dirt.

Top of the rest

While Spendthrift stallions may have a stranglehold on a number of the sire tables, there are other Kentucky-based farms who have got to be pretty pleased with their own positions.

Taylor Made Stallions stands Not This Time, whose meteoric rise to the top has been the stuff of fairy tales. When he retired for a fee of $15,000 for the 2017 breeding season, no one could have envisioned he would lead all 2025 sires of two-year-olds, nor be such an imposing second behind Into Mischief on the general sires’ list.

In addition to leading the two-yearold list by progeny earnings, winners, and graded winners, Not This Time gets older runners too, and he has been equally adept in siring Turf or Dirt, although all three of his Grade 1 winners this year are on the grass.

But the hard numbers tell only part of the story. To sweeten his year, in front of the home crowd in October at Keeneland, about 15 miles from his stall, Not This Time sired a graded stakes trifecta on opening day and a graded stakes superfecta on closing day.

To put that history-making

Omaha Beach: Spendthrift’s

Photo: Spendthrift Farm

...only five stallions have sired a graded trifecta in North America in the last 25 years and Not This Time did it twice in the space of a month

achievement in perspective, only five stallions have sired a graded trifecta in North America in the last 25 years and Not This Time did it twice in a month.

He then closed out October by getting his first Breeders’ Cup winner when two-year-old filly Cy Fair beat the boys in the Juvenile Turf Sprint.

Just an 11-year-old, Not This Time also leads America’s Turf sires by all metrics.

His stud fee has been on a steady rise,

commensurate with results, and he will stand for $250,000 in the spring.

One cannot think of Into Mischief and Not This Time without including Gun Runner, third on the general sire tables behind the leading two.

A year older than Not This Time but with one fewer crop, he was busy earning a Horse of the Year title on the track at four, Gun Runner has churned out elite runners at a dizzying rate.

Despite sky-high expectations from

the minute his first two-year-olds hit the track in 2021, it’s safe to say he’s not just met those expectations, but far exceeded them.

His four Grade 1 winners in 2025 are just behind Into Mischief’s five and, like both Into Mischief and Not This Time, Gun Runner also had a Breeders’ Cup winner this year with Super Corredora, his third at the championships.

Like his two rivals, Gun Runner will also stand for $250,000 in 2026. Unlike his two rivals, Gun Runner dominated everyone at this year’s Keeneland September Yearling Sale, with the session topper for all four days of Books 1 and 2 belonging to the Three Chimneys sire.

No fewer than 12 of his yearlings sold for seven figures, including the $3,300,000 sale topper, and his 40 sold averaged $877,125, making him the leading sire of the sale.

Buyers are savvy and invested their confidence in Gun Runner more than any other stallion, with seven of the top 20 sellers during the massive sale all by the chestnut.

While currently third on the leading sires’ list by progeny earnings, Gun Runner leads all stallions by not only lifetime yearling average, but also by AEI and CI, or average earnings index and comparative index.

As time passes, a changing of the guard is inevitable at the top of the sire lists.

Into Mischief can’t keep going forever, while long-time mainstays such as Tapit and Curlin are even older than Into Mischief, yet scheduled to stand in 2026 for $185,000 and $225,000, respectively.

Between the early crop leaders at Spendthrift and elite understudies like Not This Time and Gun Runner poised to step in and assume Into Mischief’s mantle, it’s a comfort to know the sport has worthy successors to the sire rank’s upper echelons waiting in the wings.

Keeneland September top lot by Gun Runner (Hip 177), the stallion was leading sire at the sale

Photo: Keeneland

Leading North American sires 2025 (by prize-money earned to November 4, 2025)

Airdrie Stud’s Upstart (Flatter) and leading first-season sire Yupon (Uncle Mo) are real stand out sires of two-year-olds by black-type winners to runners in the above table – both sires are on double figures and the only sires able to make that claim. They are followed by Not This Time and Gun Runner –both sires also having also had lots of runners and three graded stakes winners apiece, the latter with two Grade 1 winners matching Into MIschief

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photo finish: racing come dancing

WITH BRITISH SATURDAY NIGHT TV dominated in the autumn by Strictly Come Dancing, racing decided to get in on the act too, and all in aid of a good cause.

Racing Welfare organised individual north and south “Racing Come Dancing” competitions providing two unforgettable nights of dance, entertainment, and generosity.

Kicking off at Newbury racecourse on November 2 (photos), the thrills and spills were followed up at York on November 8. The two evenings raised over £100,000

with amateur dancers from across racing swapping riding boots and breeches for sequins and spotlights.

At Newbury, sponsor Ladbrokes helped set the stage for a “fab-u-lous” night. Judged by Strictly Come Dancing professional Ola Jordan, Strictly 2009 winner and TV presenter Chris Hollins, and racehorse trainer Richard Phillips, the show delivered both sparkle and skill.

Darren Gough, former England cricket captain and Strictly Come Dancing champion himself, presented

the Inkerman Glitterball Trophy to the winners, bloodstock agent Tom and Sara Malone.

York’s northern edition saw Strictly Come Dancing star James Jordan, Derby-winning jockey Martin Dwyer, and international dance coach Sadie Wild on the judging panel. Amateur jockey Becky Smith and Hayley Clements, racing secretary for Micky Hammond Racing, were crowned champions.

Both events were supported by Tote, and RaceTech live streamed the action.

Top left: the Newbury dancers Right: the winners, Tom Malone and wife Sara Left: jockey Finley Marsh and Amy Hunt Far left: trainer Tim Vaughan and wife Abbi

I Frankel - Handassa (Dubawi)