Europe

Henry Longfellow sired his first reported foal, a bay filly out of Aurora Borealis (Montjeu), at Noralla Stud Farm. The dam is a daughter of listed winner Elaflaak (Gulch). "She's a very attractive filly, full of quality and very correct--a great advert for her sire," said Tina Dargan. A Group 1-winning juvenile, Henry Longfellow is bred on the same cross as 2025 Champion Sire Night Of Thunder, as he is by Dubawi out of a Galileo mare, in this case Minding, a seven-time Group 1-winner and champion. He stands for...

With a rating of 130, the Aga Khan Studs homebred Calandagan has been crowned Longines World's Best Racehorse for 2025, ahead of five horses from four different countries who all tied for second on a rating of 128. At a ceremony to mark the Longines Racing Awards at the Savoy Hotel in London on Tuesday, it was confirmed that the performance of Calandagan when winning October's G1 Champion Stakes at Ascot was the best produced by any racehorse on the planet last year. The son of Gleneagles - who also...

Aidan O'Brien has outlined his early-season Classic plans and revealed that he will consider running Gstaad (Starspangledbanner) and Puerto Rico (Wootton Bassett)in the Qipco 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket this spring. The Ballydoyle handler has saddled a record 10 winners of the Rowley Mile Classic and possesses another strong hand ahead of this year's renewal, with Gstaad and Puerto Rico joined towards the head of the ante-post betting by stablemate Albert Einstein, (Wootton Bassett) who missed the second half of his two-year-old campaign through injury. Gstaad and Puerto Rico did get...

January's flat action at Cagnes-Sur-Mer continued apace on Tuesday, when the debutante Eostre (St Mark's Basilica) produced an eyecatching display in the mile conditions event. Always travelling easily for Antonio Orani tracking the leading trio, the 13-2 shot opened up passing the 300-metre marker to record an impressive 4 1/2-length success from the experienced Zaura (Goken). "She is one of our fillies that we like," trainer Jerome Reynier said. "She had been working well in the morning and confirmed it in the afternoon. This bodes well for the future, because...

Dewhurst Stakes winner Gewan has been crowned European Champion Juvenile for 2025 with a rating of 121. Trained by Andrew Balding, the son of Night Of Thunder was recruited from the Arqana May Breeze-Up Sale for €80,000 having been purchased originally from Book 2 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale. He followed up a debut win at Newbury in July with an impressive defeat of Italy (Wootton Bassett) (112) in the G3 Tattersalls Acomb Stakes at York. His defeat of Gstaad (Starspangledbanner) at Newmarket to end the season followed a...

A 1/50th share in Zarak (lot 1) topped Monday's Arqana Online January Sale when bought by Ghislain Bozo of Meridian International for €505,000. Of the 13 lots offered, eight sold for a total of €866,500, with the full results available to view on the Arqana Online website. The sire of 11% stakes winners/runners, Zarak is notably the sire of last year's Poule d'Essai des Poulains winner Metropolitan, along with fellow Group 1 scorers Haya Zark and Zagrey. A son of Dubawi and the unbeaten Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe heroine...

Anyone who hit the Irish Stallion Trail over the last weekend would have noticed the plethora of sons of Wootton Bassett to have joined the throng this year. Five to be precise, standing at five different studs, with two of those, the French Classic winners Camille Pissarro and Henri Matisse, based at Coolmore's main farm near Fethard and at Castlehyde Stud in Fermoy. Their illustrious sire joined the Coolmore roster in 2021, having stood his first nine years in France at Haras d'Etreham, rising from a €6,000 debutant to €40,000....

Brian Toomey's promising career as a National Hunt jockey was cruelly cut short in July 2013 when the County Limerick native suffered a life-threatening head injury in a fall at Perth. Remarkably, he briefly returned to race-riding in the summer of 2015, before stepping back the following year to dedicate himself to his next big goal of becoming a trainer. That dream came to fruition in November 2023 when Toomey saddled his first runner at Lingfield, with the horse in question, Wake Up Harry, going on to become his trainer's...

Matt Rogan has been appointed non-executive director of Racecourse Media Group (RMG), the global media rights organisation for 37 British racecourse shareholders. Rogan is the co-founder of Two Circles, an agency which specialises in sports marketing and analytics. Having later served as CEO and then executive chair in over a decade at Two Circles, he now spends much of his time focused on Board advisory work, including roles with production company Whisper, sports equipment brand Built for Athletes and performance data specialists Twenty First Group. He also sits on the...

Following a record-breaking season for the team at Cropthorne Stud in 2025, Tony Carroll now has his sights set on doing it all over again in 2026. And whilst the Worcestershire trainer concedes that it won't be easy to surpass last year's impressive haul, he is understandably buoyed by a phenomenal start to January which brought 14 winners in as many days. "We had a really good December [with 16 winners] and we've been able to continue that momentum," Carroll told the TDN on Sunday. "Things can change very quickly...

The team at Tally-Ho Stud has welcomed the arrival of two foals from the first crop of the G1 Champion Stakes winner King Of Steel, including a half-sister to the multiple Group 3 winner and G1 Prix Maurice de Gheest runner-up Spycatcher (Vadamos). The filly is joined on the ground by a colt out of the Bernardini mare Hairpin, a half-sister to the G1 Dewhurst Stakes scorer Intense Focus. Hairpin has already produced four winners, including the Listed Martin Molony Stakes hero Dadoozdart (Dawn Approach). Hairpin's latest foal is described...

Yulong's champion racemare Via Sistina has been retired from racing and is set to return to the UK in the coming weeks in preparation for a visit to Dubawi. Bred by Laundry Cottage Stud, Via Sistina was initially trained by Joe Tuite after being bought by Stephen and Becky Hillen for just 5,000gns at the 2019 Tattersalls December Yearling Sale. When Tuite retired from the training ranks in August 2022, having saddled Via Sistina to win two of her first six starts, she was transferred to the care of George...