It's probably fair to call it a first-world problem, but one dilemma which extremely successful owner/breeders can find themselves facing is what strategy to adopt when a top-class broodmare produces several prospective stallions, because it is asking a lot for them all to fulfil their potential if they are standing alongside (and essentially in competition [...]

We all like the idea of 'stallion-making races', even if such a concept is clearly nonsense. We rarely, if ever, hear of 'broodmare-making races.' If we did, it seems safe to assume that the 1990 G1 Prix de Diane would often be mentioned. With Rafha (GB) beating Moon Cactus (GB), that race produced not merely [...]

There were two seemingly opposing views to take about the champion's forthcoming stud career when Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) brought down the curtain on his sublime racing career by sauntering home in the G1 QIPCO Champion S. on Oct. 20, 2012. He was taking his record to 14 from 14, leaving the tens of thousands [...]

The unveiling of the Cartier Award winners for 2018 has highlighted the dominance of John Gosden, who has ended the 2018 season as Champion Trainer of Great Britain for the third time. It is not merely that Gosden has trained the Cartier Horse of the Year for the fourth time in the last five years, [...]

I miss the Breeders' Cup Marathon. The race, first run in 2008, only lasted for six years before its relegation to the under-card as the Marathon S., the reason for its demotion being that the fields which it was attracting were not up the standard expected of the Breeders' Cup. Why it did not attract [...]

The Neapolitan nobleman Cavaliere Odorado Ginistrelli, who saddled his home-bred filly Signorinetta (GB) (Chaleureux {GB}) to land the Derby/Oaks double in 1908, will always hold a special place in Newmarket's racing history. Another Italian horseman, however, has subsequently earned himself an even more distinguished position in the town's pantheon. Having announced on Monday his decision [...]

The introduction in 2015 of the G1 Commonwealth Cup at Royal Ascot, a championship sprint for three-year-olds, came about because of a misconception, namely that three-year-old sprinters cannot be competitive against their elders and that consequently the three-year-olds should have their own race rather than have to take on the older generations at weight-for-age. This, [...]

A criticism often levelled at the racing and bloodstock games is that 'it's not what you know, it's who you know.' There is a fair degree of truth in this assertion, but once in a while someone defies the odds by coming seemingly out of nowhere to reach the top of the tree. In Great [...]

All eyes will be on Deauville this weekend. The G1 Darley Prix Morny will be the feature of a terrific afternoon of racing on Sunday; while Arqana's August Sale, which is held over three days from Saturday, raises the curtain on Europe's season of high-class yearling auctions. Arqana graduates have been enjoying yet another successful [...]

Australia can appear to be the envy of the racehorse-owning world, with New South Wales and Victoria often seemingly competing against each other to see which can be the more owner-friendly state.  Few, if any, figures can take more credit for this happy state of affairs than Nick Columb, the former long-term President of Victoria's [...]

When Wesley Ward stunned British race-goers in 2009 with his ground-breaking transatlantic raid which yielded a Royal Ascot double with the 2-year-olds Strike The Tiger (Tiger Ride) and Jealous Again (Trippi), he made it perfectly clear to a European audience that he was a master in identifying and preparing brilliantly precocious 2-year-olds. Such horses are [...]

A notable chapter in a golden age of British racing has come to a close with the passing of former champion trainer John Dunlop, OBE, a gentleman of absolute integrity and immense kindness whose career spanned both sides of the divide during which the game changed from the localised sport which it was in the [...]