Europe

Leading commentator Jerry Hannon, widely regarded as the voice of Irish racing, is next in the hot seat.  The Kerry native took over from Des Scahill in his role as the leading racecourse commentator in Ireland in 2018 and his voice has been associated with some of the best and most memorable races in the country in recent years.  What is your defining memory of 2025?  It's always special commentating at my local racecourse in Listowel and, for Eoin McCarthy to end the week as the leading trainer there, that...

Bloodstock agent Jason Kelly reflects on a memorable year highlighted by Group 1 scorer Maranoa Charlie There will be people who won't want 2025 to end. Bloodstock agent Jason Kelly is one of those people. The highlight among a slew of big-race successes was that of Maranoa Charlie (Wootton Bassett), an inspired mid-summer buy who delivered a breakthrough Group 1 victory for Bond Thoroughbreds in the Prix de la Foret before being snapped up by Tally-Ho Stud, where he will stand for an opening fee of €20,000 next year. There...

Sunday, Nakayama, Japan, post time: 15:40, ARIMA KINEN (THE GRAND PRIX)-G1, ¥960,040,000, 3yo/up, 2500mT Field: Excite Bio (Jpn) (Rey De Oro {Jpn}), Shin Emperor (Fr) (Siyouni {Fr}), Justin Palace (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), Museum Mile (Jpn) (Leontes {Jpn}), Regaleira (Jpn) (Suave Richard {Jpn}), Meisho Tabaru (Jpn) (Gold Ship {Jpn}), Sunrise Zipangu (Jpn) (Kizuna {Jpn}), Chevalier Rose (Jpn) (Deep Impact {Jpn}), Danon Decile (Jpn) (Epiphaneia {Jpn}), Cosmo Kuranda (Jpn) (Al Ain {Jpn}), Mystery Way (Jpn) (Just A Way {Jpn}), Meiner Emperor (Jpn) (Gold Ship {Jpn}), Admire Terra (Jpn) (Rey De Oro...

Billed as Japan's richest race, the ¥960,040,000 (€5.2m) G1 Arima Kinen sees a slew of Group 1 winners vying for its ¥500,000,000 (€2.7m) first-place prize. Leading the way in the advance markets and by total votes delivered by the voting public is four-year-old mare Regaleira. The three-time Group 1 winner by Suave Richard will carry the silks of Sunday Racing. Christophe Lemaire will ride the daughter of Roca (Harbinger), who claimed the 2023 Hopeful Stakes--won today by Lovcen--the 2024 Arima Kinen, and last month's Queen Elizabeth II Cup. Assistant trainer...

Galileo and Dubawi, two titans of the sport whose fates have been so entwined for the past two decades that the marrying of their superior bloodlines to one day give us a champion sire was perhaps as inevitable as it is satisfying for us bloodstock nuts. On 12 occasions, in 2008 and then every year between 2010 and 2020, Galileo topped the end-of-year sires' table in Britain and Ireland. On four of those occasions Dubawi filled the runner-up spot, before the Darley stalwart finally enjoyed his day in the sun...

Forest Racing's Lovcen maintained his unbeaten record with a three-quarter length win in the 2000-metre G1 Hopeful Stakes at Nakayama on Saturday. The son of World Premiere is the first horse to win the Hopeful in his second start since the race was promoted to Group 1 status in 2017. Sent off at 18-1, the dark bay was part of the early pace discussion but soon dropped back to midfield entering the first turn. The first 1000 metres was covered in 1:01.30 by T O Al Ain (Al Ain), with...

He chose stud work over a modelling contract and now Harry Dutfield, the canny pinhooker, breeder and owner of Saint Ann Stud in Garboldisham, faces the TDN question master. TDN: How did you become involved in bloodstock in the first place? HD: I was introduced to the sport when I was very young by my parents, who had shares in various horses. They would occasionally take my twin brother and me racing and my interest started from there. I hated the itchy trousers, matching suit jackets and strangulating ties they made...

Alessandro Marconi is perhaps best known for sourcing French 2,000 Guineas winner Metropolitan for just €78,000, but did you know that the Italian-born bloodstock agent can drink olive oil as if it were water? We bet you didn't. Marconi is next in the hot seat, where he reveals all of that and more. Enjoy. You are best known as the man who bought Metropolitan for €78,000 but what's the biggest mistake you've made in this business? Selling Facteur Cheval after he won his maiden. I think another mistake has been...

The UK Government proposals to tax inherited farmland thresholds have been increased from £1 million to £2.5 million, the BBC reported on Tuesday. Concerned farmers have pushed back on the initial proposal since it was announced over a year ago. Originally, UK ministers indicated they would begin imposing a 20% tax on inherited agricultural assets worth more than £1 million. Formerly, there had been 100% tax relief in place since the 1980s. Environment secretary Emma Reynolds said, "We have listened closely to farmers across the country and we are making...

This raft of stallions at the lowest range of the price scale is every bit as important as those at the top. For a start, if we look at Royal Ascot alone in 2025, we find the names Massaat and Washington DC alongside those of two of the week's Group 1 winners. Then there was Rajasinghe, whose offspring made their presence felt in two of the season's most prestigious sprint handicaps. Breeders with mares rated 70 or above could have used Rajasinghe for free this year, such was the desire...

During the Second World War, in the early years of what has grown into a world-renowned breeding operation, the Aga Khan III leased Barton Stud, not far outside Newmarket, where his resident stallions included Dastur and Umidwar. It is a link that echoes in Barton's new recruit, Scorthy Champ, whose arrival sees a return to the stallion business for the farm owned for exactly a century by the Broughton family and run by Tom Blain. Skip back four generations in Scorthy Champ's female line and you will find the name...

Each Christmas, Kempton hosts the most important day of jump racing in the British calendar outside the Cheltenham and Aintree Festivals. It's a racecourse synonymous with the great names of this sport - Kauto Star, Desert Orchid, Wayward Lad, One Man. Yet Friday's compelling edition of the King George VI Chase crouches under extinction's peak - and we've learned it's been huddled in that brace position for the past seven years due to the wilful actions of its owners, the Jockey Club. Most people thought any immediate threat to Kempton,...