Europe

Tom and Noreen Quinlan's Athnid Stud has welcomed the first reported foal by the multiple Group 1-placed sprinter Shouldvebeenaring. The colt is out of the unraced Equiano mare Irish Madam, who is the dam of three winners from as many runners to date, including recent Dundalk scorer How'sthebai (Bated Breath). Irish Madam herself is a full-sister to the G1 Sprint Cup runner-up Strath Burn. The Irish National Stud's director of sales Gary Swift described the new arrival as "an excellent colt for Shoulvebeenaring [with] good bone, great depth at his...

After an announcement that starting letters would be harmonised across sales companies in 2026, a change in position by one of those sales companies has resulted in a revision to the Tattersalls Group's starting letters for this year. All Tattersalls sales in Newmarket will are catalogued alphabetically, either by lot name or dam name and will remain on F, apart from the Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale which will revert to its unique starting letter of K. Tattersalls Ireland will revert to starting letter P for Flat sales at Fairyhouse and...

If you bump into Edmond Mahony over the next few days at Park Paddocks and congratulate him on his ITBA Wild Geese Award, the chances are that it will be greeted with mild embarrassment and an assertion that there are other more deserving recipients out there. Mahony is famously averse to fuss. He has, equally famously, guided the good ship Tattersalls to extraordinary growth, even through some choppy waters, in his long-running tenure as chairman. There was the not insignificant matter of a global pandemic which somehow the bloodstock sector...

When you spend 3,200gns at the horses-in training sales on a 42-rated handicapper, the barometer of expectation cannot be set very high. Win a little race somewhere? Great. Win a couple? You're a genius. Win seven in a row and bid for a modern day record-equaling eighth success on the trot? You must be having a laugh.  Well, the ownership group of Barry And The Chuckles are the only ones laughing here. It was through bloodstock agent Dan Astbury that the syndicate picked up Aisling Oscar for that paltry sum...

The Everest winner Think About It, who also won the G1 Kingsford-Smith Cup and G1 Stradbroke Handicap when sweeping all before him in 2023, has died at the age of seven due to complications arising from colic surgery. The son of So You Think had been spending his retirement in the care of his regular rider, Sam Clipperton, having survived a pulmonary haemorrhage following his fall in the 2024 Sydney Stakes at Randwick. "A high-energy horse, Think About It applied himself 110% to everything he did, without a great deal...

The three-time Group 1 winner Nashwa (Frankel) has delivered her first foal, a Dubawi colt, at Blue Diamond Stud. Imad Alsagar's homebred Nashwa retired at the end of the 2024 season as the winner of five of her 18 career starts for John and Thady Gosden. Most notably, she won the Prix de Diane and Nassau Stakes as a three-year-old, before returning the following year to add the Falmouth Stakes to her top-level tally. "We are delighted with Nashwa's first foal, a good strong colt with an attractive head and...

The Lambourn Open Day, a fixture in the racing calendar for more than three decades, returns in 2026, celebrating Lambourn's role at the heart of the sport whilst raising vital funds for charity. On the morning of Good Friday, April 3, over 20 of Lambourn's Flat and National Hunt trainers will open their doors to the public, offering a rare chance to step inside some of the country's most famous yards. Leading names such as Nicky Henderson, Archie Watson, Clive Cox, Ed Walker, Jamie Osborne, Jamie Snowden and Richard Hughes...

A yearling colt by G1 Irish Derby hero Santiago topped the one-day Tattersalls Ireland Winter Flat and National Hunt Stale at Fairyhouse on Tuesday. Sold as lot 72 from Monroe Stables, the bay son of Regal Empress (Presenting) brought €42,000 from Gerry Aherne bidding on behalf of his family's Prospect Stables. A half-brother to Grade 2 hurdle winner Kazansky (Milan) who was runner-up in a Grade 1 on Monday, the colt is also a half-brother to the multiple graded-placed hurdler Knockanard Lady (Fame and Glory). His dam is a half-...

Grace Muir, founder and CEO of HEROS Charity, received her MBE from Her Royal Highness, The Princess Royal at St James's Palace on Thursday, January 29. Muir was recognised in the King's Birthday Honours List and appointed an MBE in June last year, having devoted her life to retraining and rehoming former racehorses and providing educational opportunities for young people. HEROS first achieved official charity status in 2006, before Muir - with support from The Racing Foundation - founded HEROS Education in 2015. HEROS Education aims to provide a safe,...

Martin Hassett, who worked with Coolmore for 36 years before concentrating on training, sent out Moonverrin to win at the Dublin Racing Festival National Hunt racing returned to its roots on Sunday when small-time trainer Martin Hassett hit the headlines with 20-1 shot Moonverrin battling to victory in the Grade 2 Mares Bumper at the Dublin Racing Festival. This was a success that Hassett, who overcame a near-death experience before walking away from full-time employment at Coolmore Stud in a bid to concentrate entirely on training, had worked all of...

Were you part of the INS Class of 1976 or 2001? In June, the Irish National Stud is hosting a get-together for all individuals who embarked on the Thoroughbred Breeding Management course in either of those years. If interested in attending the reunion, all relevant parties should get in touch at achannon@irishnationalstud.ie or +353 45 521251. Back in 1976, the following trainees from Ireland were John Armstrong, Gertrude Brereton, William De Burgh, Mark Dixon, Noal Kennedy, Miceal Magill, Marion Mitchell, Elizabeth O'Neill, Amanda Power Smith and Simon Treacy. France was...

Andrew Balding has issued a positive bulletin on Jonquil (Lope De Vega) as the Juddmonte homebred prepares to line up in the inaugural $1-million Abu Dhabi Gold Cup, powered by ADNOC. Scheduled to take place at the Abu Dhabi Turf Club Racecourse on Saturday, the 1,600-metre contest has attracted entries from Europe, Japan and the GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council), with few more talented than the four-year-old Jonquil. The son of Lope De Vega showed high-class form in 2025 when winning the G2 Celebration Mile at Goodwood and G3 Greenham Stakes...