Bearstone Stud

Aesterius, new to Bearstone Stud for 2026, has had his first mares scanned in foal.  Among them is the Showcasing mare Ladiapur, a half-sister to the stakes performer Rockymountainway and out of the dual stakes-performing sprinter The Wagon Wheel. Further mares booked to visit the classy sprinter by Mehmas include Epping Rose (Kodiac), dam of Group 3-winning sprinter Washington Heights, and Showdanse (Showcasing), dam of the 2025 Stakes winner and Group 2-placed two-year-old Argentine Tango.  A fast and precocious juvenile, Aesterius captured the Group 2 Flying Childers Stakes and also...

It feels like just yesterday that the bloodstock world was lauding the record-breaking achievement of Mehmas in 2024, the year that he sired no fewer than 70 individual two-year-old winners in Europe, smashing the previous record tally of 61 which belonged to his neighbour at Tally-Ho Stud, Kodiac. Time waits for no one in this game, however, and so it is that we now head into the 2026 breeding season with three of those 70 having already found themselves a place at stud. They include Ballyhane's new recruit Magnum Force,...

Bearstone Stud's new stallion Aesterius will head the 2026 roster at £6,500 with competitive breeding rights also available. Meanwhile, Dream Ahead has had his fee reduced to £5,500 and Washington DC remains at £3,500. All fees are on October 1st Special Life Foal terms.  Terry Holdcroft, Bearstone Stud's owner, said, "We feel our stallions offer exceptional value and are particularly excited to add a new sire to our roster.  Aesterius has settled in well to Bearstone Stud, and as a son of Mehmas and winner of the G2 Flying Childers...

Following some pretty roasting foal trade at Goffs last week, action returns to Park Paddocks for the Tattersalls December Sale, which, after a Monday yearling session, features four days of weanlings. Four years ago at Tattersalls, Deborah O'Brien brought a neat and strong Tasleet yearling colt to the market through Bearstone Stud, where the breeder boards her mares, and sold him for 12,000gns. The result, after a further appearance at the Goffs UK Breeze-up Sale, was Bradsell, winner of the G1 Flying Five, G1 Nunthorpe, G1 King's Stand and G2...

The G2 Flying Childers Stakes winner Aesterius will become the latest son of Mehmas to join the stallion ranks and has been retired to Bearstone Stud for the 2026 breeding season. He will stand at a fee of £6,500. Bred by Sean Maguire and owned by Wathnan Racing, Aesterius also won the G3 Prix d'Arenberg at Longchamp and Sandown's Listed Dragon Stakes, as well as finishing runner-up in the G3 Molecomb Stakes during a busy juvenile campaign in 2024. A £380,000 breeze-up purchase by Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock, he...

Barraston Racing's 5-year-old handicap regular American Affair (Washington DC) had not set foot in black-type territory until last month and stepped forward to claim GI King Charles III Stakes glory for Scotland after another ding-dong cliffhanger. The race is a "Win and You're In" for the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar in November. The 11-1 chance finished a close-up fifth behind Mgheera (Zoustar) in Haydock's G2 Temple Stakes and the Jim Goldie trainee's task was made easier when that rival was scratched at the start after losing...

There's a growing sense of anticipation at Bearstone Stud with less than 11 weeks to go until the start of the British Flat season on turf, with the first foal out of the farm's most notable graduate, Glass Slippers (GB), having recently turned two. The Dubawi (Ire) colt in question will be the third generation of this family to have been bred and raced by Terry and Margaret Holdcroft, who founded the business back in 1979. They bought the colt's great grandam, the winning Fairy King mare Ocean Grove (Ire),...

Bearstone Stud has kept the fees for its three stallions at the same price as in 2024, with Dream Ahead at £6,500, Belardo (Ire) at £5,500 and Washington DC (Ire) at £3,500.  "We feel our stallions offer exceptional value in a challenging market, none more so than Belardo, who is the highest-ranked sire standing in Europe under £15,000 by the number of European winners in 2024," said Bearstone Stud owner Terry Holdcroft.  "Further afield US Grade I winner Gold Phoenix added more US black-type to his form, and Fiach McHugh...

The reputation of Yorkshire as the cradle of the Thoroughbred was reinforced through some of the key results of the Irish Champions Festival last weekend. Economics (GB) (Night Of Thunder {Ire}) provided a reminder of the importance of his birthplace, the Reed family's Copgrove Hall Stud, where his broodmare sire, the Arc winner Peintre Celebre, had grazed as a youngster. His dam, the dual Group 2 winner La Pomme d'Amour (GB), a third-generation Guy Reed homebred, resides there still.  Just a little farther south from Copgrove lives Deborah O'Brien, the...

Victorious Racing's 2023 G1 King's Stand Stakes hero and 'TDN Rising Star' Bradsell (GB) (Tasleet {GB}--Russian Punch {GB}, by Archipenko), on an enforced sabbatical for 329 days after registering that career high, added to his comeback win in this month's Listed Prix du Cercle with a dominant performance in Friday's G1 Coolmore Wootton Bassett Nunthorpe Stakes at York. The 3-1 second favourite was swiftly into stride on the far wing and chased the trailblazing Ponntos (Ire) (Power {GB}) in second through the initial stages of this straight five-furlong dash. Easing...

Three-time Group 1-winning sprinter Glass Slippers (GB) (Dream Ahead) produced her first foal, a colt by Darley's Dubawi (Ire), owner-breeder Bearstone Stud announced via Twitter on Tuesday. "We are pleased to announce our new arrival, a classy-looking colt by Dubawi out of our triple Group 1-winning mare Glass Slippers," the stud tweeted. The daughter of the winning Night Gypsy (GB) (Mind Games {GB}) excelled over minimum trips and won the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye, and G1 Flying Five S., in addition to her GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint score.

Dream Ahead anchors the 2023 Bearstone Stud roster and will stand for an unchanged fee of £7,500. He is the sire of 32 stakes winners (13 group) and four Group 1 winners worldwide led by GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint heroine Glass Slippers (GB). Joining the son of Diktat, as announced on Thursday, is Belardo (Ire) at £6,500. Washington DC (Ire) will command £3,000, down from £3,500 in 2022. Mattmu (GB)'s fee has been reduced an identical amount, and he is priced at £2,000.