Cape Cross

Golden boy of the week has to be Starspangledbanner (though Wayne Lordan and Karl Burke both deserve consideration for that title). To have had both Cartier champion two-year-olds last year was a big enough feather in his cap but for both Gstaad and Precise to progress into Classic winners in the space of 24 hours at the Curragh cements their sire's position among the elite. A more in-depth look at the Starspangledbanner story to date in TDN back in December put forward the suggestion that the best days were still...

We have become accustomed to the prevalence of Urban Sea in today's pedigrees, chiefly through her high-flying sons Galileo and Sea The Stars. But another mare whose name pops up on the page of Sea The Stars as well as that of the recently deceased Wootton Bassett is Park Appeal, whose influence should not be underestimated. The daughter of Ahonoora features in the second and third generations respectively of those two stallions, who commanded the highest fees in Ireland in 2025 at €250,000 and €300,000. In the case of Sea...

Nine years after Almanzor dropped a massive hint that Wootton Bassett might just be a decent sire by winning the Prix du Jockey Club comes the next wave for the stallion whose fee has gone from as low as €4,000 to this year's high of €300,000.  As has been well documented, Wootton Bassett's current crop of three-year-olds are the result of his first season standing at Coolmore in Ireland after one of the biggest transfer deals of recent years saw him leave Haras d'Etreham, where he had made his name...

Golden Horn (GB), the brilliant G1 Derby winner and European Horse of the Year in 2015, will take up stallion duties at Overbury Stud after being sold to new investors Dash Grange Stud from Darley and Anthony Oppenheimer. The move will see Golden Horn, who has already sired 13 individual winners over jumps in Britain and Ireland, marketed as a dual-purpose stallion. Golden Horn is best remembered for storming to Derby glory under Frankie Dettori in 2015. He won handsomely from subsequent Irish Derby hero Jack Hobbs (GB), who he...

It has been quite a week for the old boys. Continuing a fine season, Way To Paris (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) finally notched a deserved Group 1 victory for himself and his trainer Andrea Marcialis in the Grand Prix de Saint-Cloud. At seven, he is a year younger than the sprinting duo of Limato (Ire) (Tagula {Ire}) and Judicial (Ire) (Iffraaj {GB}) who respectively recorded their 14th and 15th victories in Group 3 contests at Newmarket and Newcastle on Saturday. Then of course there's the redoubtable Caspian Prince (Ire), who...