Frankel

There was barely time to draw breath at Park Paddocks before Watership Down Stud's Frankel (GB) colt out of Group 3 winner So Mi Dar (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) brought the hammer down with a new top price at Book 1 so far. At 2.8 million gns, lot 221 is the most expensive yearling sold anywhere in the world this year. It was Tuesday's leading buyer Godolphin that prevailed in the contest for the colt whose dam is a full-sister to Darley's first-season sire Too Darn Hot (GB), but agent Anthony...

A robust start to the second day's trade at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale soon featured a yearling to match the previous day's top price of 1.5 million gns when lot 201, Newsells Park Stud's filly by Frankel (GB) out of Shambolic (Ire), was sold to Coolmore. Interested parties included Juddmonte's Simon Mockridge and agent Richard Knight, but it was MV Magnier who made the final bid from outside the auditorium. A first foal, the filly was bred by Newsells Park Stud in partnership with Craig Bennett's...

By Emma Berry and Brian Sheerin KILDARE, Ireland--The victory of Blackbeard (Ire) in Saturday's G1 Juddmonte Middle Park S. was really just gilding the lily of his sensational juvenile season which has also given a tremendous boost to his yearling sister, who topped the opening day of the Goffs Orby Sale at €2.6 million. From a start to proceedings at Kildare Paddocks that could be described as relentlessly solid, the auditorium suddenly filled with people around lunchtime on Tuesday as the dark brown daughter of No Nay Never entered the...

1.25 Newmarket, Novice, £8,000, 2yo, f, 7fT ANANDA (GB) (Frankel {GB}) was a €525,000 Arqana Deauville August graduate who debuts for Lady Bamford and John and Thady Gosden. A half-sister to the G3 Prix Sigy winner Fas  (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) and the G3 Prix Bertrand de Tarragon scorer Silva (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}), the April-foaled bay hails from the family of the high-class sprinter Sole Power (GB) (Kyllachy {GB}).

Sir Mark Prescott will happily recount the story of the time he bashed his former pupil assistant William Haggas over the head with a frying pan for oversleeping. He will also reflect with pleasure on the great pride he felt when Haggas won the Derby in 1996 with Shaamit (Ire). When it comes to being a benevolent dictator, the Prescott pendulum has, by his own admission, swung more from dictatorship towards benevolence in recent years and, more than anyone involved in British racing, the master of Heath House cares deeply...

By Emma Berry, Brian Sheerin and Sue Finley DEAUVILLE, France--Monday may have felt like Sunday in Deauville as the French observed the holy day of the Assumption of St Mary, but business continued apace at Arqana, with strength in depth to the final session hitherto unseen at the August Sale and new record figures set in all sectors. Reworked this year so that the former select evening sessions held over the weekend with a supplementary session on Monday were all rolled into an alphabetical singular sale, the new format may...

Performance or pedigree? In an ideal world a breeder would choose both when buying a mare but, depending on budget, almost inevitably there has to be a compromise. In recent weeks in TDN we have heard from Mark Johnston about his selection process when buying yearlings, in which he is particularly keen on a decent rating for the dam. On the opposite side of the equation this week as vendor, Andreas Putsch is in agreement. "For us it is all about selection, of the matings, of culling, and trying to...

An awful lot of people have been getting hot under the collar this week, and not just because a heatwave is currently sweeping Europe, leading to the cancellation of five race meetings in England and some rejigging of times and locations on the continent. The BHA's whip report was published last Tuesday sparking a predictably wide range of views being aired on both sides of the debate. While some believe that by enforcing changes racing is pandering to those who don't understand the sport and need educating as to horse...

Adrian O'Brien, who under the banner of Hazelwood Bloodstock, raised and consigned GI Belmont Oaks winner McKulick (GB) (Frankel {GB}) on behalf of her breeder Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Maktoum, has opened up about what Saturday's top-level triumph means to everyone on his farm.  Hazelwood Bloodstock, which O'Brien set up alongside his wife Philippa in 2016, boards up to 30 mares with an emphasis on quality over quantity.  In Astrelle (Ire) (Makfi {GB}), the dam of McKulick and one of the first mares to walk through the gates at...

It doesn't seem to matter where you are in the world: bloodstock sales are booming. That was certainly the case for the opening day and sole session of yearlings at the JRHA Select Sale, which reached new highs after last year's record-breaking trade. At Y12,870,000,000 (£78.7m/€93m), the aggregate for the session improved by 10.6% from 2021 with a staggeringly high clearance rate of 95.3%, which was yet another record. Only 11 of the 233 yearlings offered returned unsold to their vendors, with the average price driven up 12.6% to an...

If this is seeing the future, then maybe it really will work. Among all these tiny, straggling groups negotiating the arid wastes of the dirt stakes program, we finally reach a true oasis in the GI Caesars Belmont Derby Inv. Here is a field that matches quality with quantity: a win for the owners, and a win for the bettors. It is also, lest we forget, staged on a benign surface. As such, it is also a win for a whole community that needs to present its way of life...

This season we appear to have been gifted an above average crop of 3-year-olds, along with some truly exciting older horses who have remained in training. It is as it should be, but things don't always work out that way.  France and England exchanged Group 1 races at the weekend: on Saturday it was a case of veni, vidi, vici for Vadeni (Fr) (Churchill {Ire}), who gave France a first victory in the race since 1960, when it was won by the Percy Carter-trained Javelot (Fr) (Fast Fox {Fr}). The...