For many with an equal passion for breeding as well as racing, even our favourite racehorses can lose a little of their lustre if their stud careers don't go according to expectations. And again our views of some of racing's great rivalries tend to take on a different hue after we have seen the stud [...]

There's a consensus in breeding circles that it's not always wise to mate a sprinter with a stayer. And there's some validity in this idea, opposites tending not to provide the best results. But sometimes speed just needs to be added or you can end up with a National Hunt prospect. There is little doubt [...]

Much is written about how sires add stamina or speed to the mares they are bred to. Anecdotal evidence is pervasive in the thoroughbred breeding industry. Many breeders will often base decisions on outcomes they themselves have observed. And who could blame them? But there is really good data available about the aptitude of sires' [...]

The great mares of the modern era not only produce multiple top-class racehorses; the very best of them will also prove adept at passing on their genes to future generations through their sire sons. Remarkably, there are three mares since pattern racing commenced that have produced five sons that have gone on to sire at [...]

He may be about to turn 20 in January, but the race to go down in history as the best stallion son of the great Galileo (Ire) is only hotting up and set to continue for many years to come. Numerically speaking, it is the Jim Bolger-trained pair of Teofilo (Ire) and New Approach (Ire)–both [...]

The European yearling sales season has all but come to a close. There have been about 4,800 yearlings sold since late August and vendors will have endured the highs and lows of selling in a very polarised market, with the top 10% of yearlings accounting for 54% of the revenue generated at all European sales. [...]

First run 33 years ago, the GI Breeders' Cup Classic has become the race that the American breeding industry has come to rely on as the most likely to produce a top-class sire. Its distance of 10 furlongs guarantees that its winners ought to be well placed to sire the winner of America's other top [...]

It's surely a remarkable feat to sire the first three home in a Group 1 race. But it's been happening relatively frequently in recent years to warrant a closer look: three times in 2016 and on three occasions again in 2017. The latest sire to join this exalted club is Dubawi, who sired the first [...]

One of the highlights of the 2016-17 season has been the emergence of Arrowfield stallion Snitzel (Aus) (Redoute's Choice {Aus}) as a major force. His record year with 32 juvenile winners including eight stakes winners was truly remarkable. It's not that we didn't know about Snitzel–this is his ninth season with runners–the fascinating thing with [...]

The 2017 renewal of the G1 Moyglare Stud S. marked another red-letter day for the Storm Cat mare You'resothrilling. The race's winner, Happily (Ire), was the mare's third Group 1 winner and her fifth Group 1 performer, following G1 Irish 1000 Guineas heroine Marvellous (Ire), dual Guineas winner Gleneagles (Ire), GI Belmont Oaks third Coolmore [...]

If the quantity of money spent at the yearling sales is the key motivator for continued investment by European commercial breeders, then they'd have to be very positive with the way the market has progressed over the past 10 years. As recent as seven years ago the average return on all horses offered as yearlings [...]

The search for future stars has just begun at the yearling sales in North America and is just about to get under way in Europe. Every buyer out there has their own plan of attack: how best to uncover as many good horses with the usually limited resources at their disposal. The great thing that [...]