Caturra

Coolmore's dual Group 1-winning juvenile Blackbeard is the 6/5 favourite with Fitzdares to be crowned Britain and Ireland's leading first-season sire by number of winners in 2026, ahead of Shadwell's Minzaal at 7/4. Fitzdares launched its market on Tuesday, four days out from the Brocklesby Stakes at Doncaster, the first two-year-old race of the year in Britain. Whilst both Blackbeard and Minzaal are without a representative among the 22 entries published on Monday, it's likely to be just a matter of time before their two-year-olds start to appear in large...

As updates go, being a half-sister to the Cartier Horse of the Year is not a bad one, especially when the mare in question is carrying to Calandagan's sire, Gleneagles. Caliyza has plenty more in her favour to boot. She's a dual winner by the late Le Havre and, only five, she is in foal for the first time. Offered as lot 1452 by Overbury Stud on Monday during the first of two Sceptre Sessions, the Aga Khan Studs-bred mare is returning to Tattersalls just 12 months after being bought...

Golden Horn, the sire of this year's dual Group 1-winning stayer Trawlerman and Champion Hurdle heroine Golden Ace, will stand for the unchanged fee of £10,000 at Overbury Stud in 2026. "Golden Horn has had an impressive year under both codes. To sire winners of the Champion Hurdle, Triumph Hurdle and the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot within a few months is simply exceptional, and his 15% stakes horses to runners ratio on the Flat is outstanding," said the stallion's owner, Jayne McGivern. "Golden Horn has every right to command...

Havana Grey, the sire of the most expensive lot at the Tattersalls Somerville Yearling Sale in both 2023 and 2024, will be represented by 10 yearlings when the Whitsbury Manor Stud stallion tries to repeat those sale-topping exploits at this year's Somerville, which takes place at Park Paddocks on Tuesday, September 2. A total of 272 yearlings have been catalogued, with lot 145 featuring among the sons and daughters of Havana Grey. Offered by Bearstone Stud, the filly is a full-sister to the G3 Prix Eclipse and Weatherbys Super Sprint...

The newly-published catalogue for the Goffs Premier Yearling Sale features entries from many of Europe's leading sires, as well as first-season sensation Starman, who is responsible for 17 of the 409 "athletic, precocious Doncaster yearlings" set to go under the hammer on Wednesday, August 27 and Thursday, August 28. Last year Starman was responsible for two of the top five lots, including the subsequent G3 Fillies Sprint Stakes heroine Lady Iman, one of 16 individual winners for her leading first-season sire in 2025. The notable yearlings by Starman featuring in...

There are doubtless decisions still to be made and deals to be struck for this year's matings with many breeders taking to the roads since the start of this new year for both the official stallion trails and informal stud visits. For this last part in our series on value sires for 2025 it is worth restating that value is very much subjective and depends on a number of different factors, including whether the buyer of the nomination is breeding to race or to sell.  This final chapter, for stallions...

Ardad (Ire) will remain at a fee of £12,500 for the fourth consecutive season at Overbury Stud. The 10-year-old son of Kodiac (GB), whose first-crop son and treble Group 1 Perfect Power (Ire) is now on the Darley roster, has 153 two-year-olds to represent him in 2025. "They're by far his biggest and best-bred bunch so far, conceived on the back of that sensational start," said Simon Sweeting of Overbury Stud. 'Trainers and agents seem to really like them - they are such good-walking, good tempered horses - and Ardad had...

NEWMARKET, UK -- It has become the tradition for the Tattersalls February Sale to be preceded by the TBA Flat Stallion Parade and this year's event contained the added incentive of a potential free entry to next year's December Foal Sale. Breeders who booked a nomination to one of the 10 stallions on the day have been automatically entered into a free draw to win one of five places at the 2025 sale for the resulting offspring.  With nine of the 10 stallions stabled in the Left Yard at Park...

Having started with the new stallions for 2024, we are continuing the series with those in the lower price tier beneath the fee of 10,000, whether in euros or sterling. For the benefit of this piece we are treating them as one and the same, despite the current exchange rate of £1 = €1.16. This is the territory inhabited by many small breeders, and in plenty of cases the margins between operating at a profit and a loss are very tight indeed.  I am reminded here of a particularly interesting...

Overbury Stud has released the fees for its Flat roster, with Ardad (Ire) remaining at £12,500 in 2024 while the fee for Golden Horn (GB) has been increased to £10,000 (from £8,000) on the back of a season in which he was represented by the G2 Queen's Vase winner Gregory (GB) and G2 British Champions Long Distance Cup winner Trawlerman (GB). Golden Horn, who covered 173 mares this spring, stood his first season at Overbury Stud in 2023, having moved from Dalham Hall Stud after his purchase by Jayne McGivern....

The winds of change have blown through Overbury Stud in the last year. Gone is the stalwart of the British National Hunt ranks, Kaya Tara (GB), who died in retirement in December at the age of 28. Last summer the Gloucestershire farm had welcomed the horse that many will hope could be his replacement, Golden Horn (GB), bought from Anthony Oppenheimer by Jayne McGivern as his burgeoning National Hunt statistics caught many an eye. Then, at the other end of the spectrum, in came Caturra (Ire) last autumn, the first...

For this final part of the series, we are looking at stallions who have retired to stud since 2021 and will thus have either first foals or yearlings at the sales this year or are about to cover their first book of mares. There is plenty to digest from three years' intake and of course prices can often drop after a stallion's first year at stud, so there could be some value to be found for breeders willing to roll the dice on a stallion about to embark on his...