Allmankind

This week at Cheltenham, Tim Gredley will be taking time out from one type of horse to turn his attention to another. The owner, breeder and leading showjumper has recently returned from Abu Dhabi, where he was second in the Grand Prix, but sport horses will take a backseat temporarily as we he focuses on the Thoroughbreds. "We've had a lot going on with the showjumpers so it's nice to come back and see the racehorses - that's what I love the most really," says Gredley, who, along with his...

Thanks to advances in obstetrics, our own species is blessed to no longer confront quite so frequently the awful paradox that routinely confronted our ancestors: the death of a mother, as the cost of new life. And, of course, even a Thoroughbred as precious and cherished as Kind (Ire) (Danehill) is ultimately always livestock, prone to the kind of mishaps that tend to school the stockman in understatement whether facing triumph or disaster. But the consolation that we can seek, on their behalf, is the same: legacy. Undoubtedly there will...

The second instalment of Emma Berry's winter series on the crossover between the Flat and National Hunt scenes Ballylinch Stud may be best known as a high-class Flat operation but it has regularly stood a stallion with great appeal to the National Hunt market, most notably the five-time champion jumps sire King's Theatre (Ire). Following his death in 2011, King's Theatre was succeeded in his role by another son of Sadler's Wells, Beat Hollow (GB), winner of the Grand Prix de Paris and Arlington Million among four top-flight wins during...