Europe

Bolshoi Ballet has departed the Coolmore National Hunt stallion ranks and will stand at Blackrath Stud for the 2026 breeding season. Trained by Aidan O'Brien for the Coolmore partners, Bolshoi Ballet was sent off a short-priced favourite for the 2021 Derby after emulating his sire, Galileo, with back-to-back wins at Leopardstown in the G3 Ballysax Stakes and G3 Derby Trial Stakes. Below form when finishing seventh at Epsom, he bounced back on his next start to win the GI Belmont Derby Invitational Stakes. He also won the GI Sword Dancer...

The 2026 Mark O'Hanlon Memorial Racing and Breeding Quiz is set to take place on Friday, January 16 and is returning to its regular haunt of the Lord Bagenal Hotel in Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow. It coincides with the ITM Irish Stalion Trail, which is running on the Friday and Saturday with more than 30 farms across Ireland opening their doors to visitors. Always fiercely, if not fairly, contested, the quiz was won last year by the team of Bobby and Mouse O'Ryan, Ryan McElligott and Gerald Connolly, who regularly feature...

Mayson, who won the G1 July Cup and finished second in the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye in an 18-race career for Richard Fahey, will return to North Yorkshire for the next phase of his stallion career at Norton Grove Stud. He will stand for a fee of £3,500 in 2026. The sire of another July Cup hero in Oxted, in addition to the multiple Group-winning sprinter Rohaan, Mayson initially retired to Cheveley Park Stud for the 2013 breeding season. He remained in Newmarket until 2024 when he relocated to Oak...

International superstar Forever Young has been named the Japanese Horse of the Year after the selection committee for the 2025 Japan Racing Association (JRA) Awards met on Tuesday. The son of Real Steel is the first dirt horse to be honoured with the Horse of the Year award. Racing in the silks of Susumu Fujita, he was also honoured as the Japanese Best Older Male and Japanese Best Dirt Horse. During 2025, Forever Young prevailed in an epic showdown with Hong Kong Horse of the Year Romantic Warrior (Acclamation) in the...

World Pool turnover on overseas races in 2025 totalled HK$9.3 billion (around €1 billion), representing a 20% increase on the 2024 figure of HK$7.8 billion (€855 million). In total, the Hong Kong Jockey Club-powered pools were active across 57 racedays staged outside of Hong Kong. Most notably, those racedays included the Randwick card on October 18 which saw Ka Ying Rising extend his winning sequence in The Everest. Total turnover on The Everest reached a new record for a single race of HK$83 million (€9.1 million), smashing the previous high...

Young pinhooker and manager of Stanley Lodge Stud Nick Cope reflects on one of the best sales results of 2025, Ethical Diamond's Breeders' Cup triumph and more What is it about this great game of ours that it can turn the hardiest of fellas into mush? In Nick Cope's defence, profiting the price of a small house in one fell swoop would bring a tear to the most seasoned pinhooker's eye, not least this young whipper-snapper making his way in the game.  The part-time pinhooker and full-time manager of William...

King Of Change will stand at a fee of £8,500 (October 1, SLF) at Tweenhills for his first covering season in Britain.  It was announced on Friday that the son of Farhh had been bought by Tweenhills' managing director David Redvers with a number of partners. King Of Change, the winner of the G1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes and runner-up in the 2,000 Guineas, has stood for five seasons in Ireland, first at Derrinstown and most recently at Starfield Stud. "We couldn't be more delighted to see King Of Change...

Having recently returned from Australia where he was supporting the England men's cricket team in its ill-fated quest to regain the Ashes, Ben Shoare is now preparing to embark on his first full season at Ace Stud, having been appointed to the role of nominations manager in November last year. The next man in our Hot Seat is a relative latecomer to racing but has quickly developed an obsession with sales catalogues, while his own brief cricketing career saw him take the notable scalp of a former England batsman. How...

The road sign at the turn-off from Ousden towards Wickhambrook reads 'This is a quiet lane'. Drive a mile or so down that lane and it becomes considerably less quiet as one arrives at Genesis Green Stud. There, the unmistakably booming voice of Michael Swinburn greets visitors, who will be arriving in increasing numbers over the next few months, and he is unmistakably excited about the reason behind this. "Come and see him," Swinburn says with gusto of the stud's newest arrival, the Group 2 winner Royal Scotsman, who is...

Toshi Onikubo is a respected journalist and analyst who can be spotted at the majority of the big race meetings across the globe. The Japanese native is a graduate of the Godolphin Flying Start and is perhaps best known currently for his role with netkeiba.com. He is next up in the Hot Seat. You were all over the world in 2025. Was there been a particular highlight for you and why? The Shergar Cup at Ascot was definitely a highlight. It was great to see a young Japanese rider, Ryusei...

It's that time of year where everybody who's anybody in racing is being asked for their 2026 predictions. Already, I've seen four different staying chasers nominated as the likeliest winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup - Galopin Des Champs is a decent bet to regain his crown at 6/1, if you're asking - while Flat racing fans can be found staring deep into their crystal balls, trying to pinpoint the five Classic winners of 2026. On Friday, it was exactly four months until the 2,000 Guineas kicks off the proper...

Walk In The Park tops the 2026 15-strong Coolmore National Hunt roster, which also features newcomers Los Angeles and Kyprios. The 24-year-old son of Montjeu will stand for a private fee and currently leads the jumps' list. G1 Criterium de Saint-Cloud hero Los Angeles is a winner of the 2024 G1 Irish Derby and the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup last year. His fee is €7,500. One of the top stayers for the past several years, Kyprios won 17 of his 21 starts, among them a 20-length romp in the G1...