Darley

It is hard to believe this is the fifth year in a row I have traversed rural Ireland on the Irish Thoroughbred Marketing Irish Stallion Trail, and while it represents a unique chance for the general public who are interested in the bloodstock industry to get a glimpse of some household stallion names, for me personally it provides a lovely opportunity to see the new kids on the block who will be covering mares for the first time this spring. The majority of these are not long out of competition...

We are all familiar with the flash-in-the-pan stallions who blaze a trail with their first crop of runners only to sink with relatively little trace in ensuing seasons--a situation doubtless exacerbated by fleeting whims of a commercial market. For the sires whose debutants took to the track in 2019, the results achieved were important in regard to continuing or boosting their appeal to breeders booking mares for the 2020 season, but of even more importance is what happens now that their first crops are of the Classic age. When Dubawi...

In the second installment of TDN Europe's Value Sires Series, we take a look at the sire crop with its first foals due this season. While the first real clues will be laid out once the foals actually hit the ground, many of this intake had in-foal mares go through the ring at the latest round of breeding stock sales, thus providing a minimal amount of data to tear apart. Numbers of mares bred are taken from the Weatherbys Return of Mares published in November 2019. The covering sire returns...

In 2017, Darley added two multiple Grade I winners to its stallion roster at Jonabell Farm: Nyquist (Uncle Mo), the first unbeaten 2-year-old champion to win the GI Kentucky Derby since Seattle Slew, and Frosted (Tapit), the fastest-ever winner of the GI Met Mile. Both will have their first foals go through the ring at this fall's breeding stock sales. TDN International Editor Kelsey Riley caught up with Darley's Darren Fox to talk about the two sires. KR: What are you seeing, and hearing from others, about the first foals...