Glass Slippers (GB)

"Has it really been that long?" queries Kevin Ryan after being informed of an anniversary looming on the horizon, that of it being two decades since Amadeus Wolf (GB) won the Middle Park Stakes at Newmarket. "I didn't think it was that long ago," he adds, rubbing his face in apparent disbelief, elbows perched on the kitchen counter of his Hambleton home. "Twenty years--that has soon gone by." That Middle Park in September 2005 was a significant milestone in Ryan's career, as it was the day he joined the ranks...

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),...

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 (Diktat {GB}), the sire of Breeder' Cup heroine Glass Slippers (GB), will move to Bearstone Stud in 2022. The sire of 32 black-type winners worldwide will command £7,500 (Oct. 1 SLF). A winner of five Group 1 races including the G1 July Cup and G1 Middle Park S., the 13-year-old first stood at Ballylinch Stud in Ireland in 2012 and later moved to Haras de Grandcamp in France in 2016. He also spent several seasons in Australia and has Group 2 winners Phobetor (Aus) and Shumookh (Aus) to...

Breeders' Cup winner Glass Slippers (GB) (Dream Ahead--Night Gypsy {GB}, by Mind Games {GB}) has been retired from racing following her eighth-place finish in Saturday's GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint. The Bearstone Stud homebred, who was trained by Kevin Ryan, won the G3 Prix du Petit Couvert followed by the G1 Prix de l'Abbaye at three. In 2020, she added the G1 Flying Five S. in Ireland, ran second in another edition of the l'Abbaye,  and maintained that form Stateside with a half-length win in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf...

Fast-becoming renowned for his lethal finishing kick, Gary Devlin's A Case of You (Ire) (Hot Streak {Ire}) had just missed out in the G1 Flying Five but the line was there in time for him in Sunday's G1 Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp Longines, a "Win and You're In" for the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Del Mar in November. Having only his second start at this five-furlong trip, the 3-year-old who was supplemented following his Curragh flourish on Irish Champions Weekend needed every centimetre of it to break...

It is racing's greatest dichotomy. Labelled by the official ParisLongchamp website as "la meilleure course au monde", the G1 Qatar Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe will have few who brook any argument with that claim. Yet it is the time of year within which it is framed that delivers the ultimate snag, with autumn's entry prompting an often drastic change in terrain and a late turnpike for the kings and queens of summer just past. Half of the previous 10 renewals of France's great monument have been run on testing...

Glass Slippers (GB) (Dream Ahead), the winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint at Keeneland last November, will head straight to Royal Ascot for her 2021 debut, the G2 Temple S. at Haydock having been ruled out. Both the G1 King's Stand S. and the G1 Diamond Jubilee S. are options for the 2020 G1 Derrinstown Stud Flying Five S. heroine. "We're skipping the Temple S.," trainer Kevin Ryan said. "We'll go straight to Ascot, or at least that's the plan. She's in both races and we'll decide a...

Multiple Group 1 winner Glass Slippers (GB) (Dream Ahead) will make her first start of 2021 in the G2 Casumo Temple S. at Haydock on May 22. A winner of the 2019 G1 Prix de l'Abbaye, the 5-year-old mare added the G1 Derrinstown Stud Flying Five S. at The Curragh last September and, second in the 2020 l'Abbaye, signed off with a win in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf Sprint for owner/breeder Bearstone Stud and trainer Kevin Ryan. "The plan is to start her off in the Temple S. prior...

In Moment of 2020, the staff of TDN Europe reflect on their favourite moments in racing for the year. The Breeders' Cup is always a meeting that I particularly enjoy; it is a time when my keen interests in both European and American racing come together. The Breeders' Cup always involves some incredible clashes of the continents, and it is the most international meeting when you consider participation and the gravity that both sides place on it. The 2020 Breeders' Cup at Keeneland included a remarkably strong European presence, with...

It was all about the fillies and mares in Sunday's G1 Derrinstown Stud Flying Five at The Curragh, with last year's G1 Prix de l'Abbaye de Longchamp heroine Glass Slippers (GB) (Dream Ahead) prevailing after a tussle with compatriot Keep Busy (Ire) (Night of Thunder {Ire}). Last seen finishing second to Battaash (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) in Goodwood's G2 King George S. July 31, the Bearstone Stud homebred was in touch against the far rail but under the pump at halfway. Rallying gamely to wear down Keep Busy in the...

Friday of the Qatar Goodwood Festival means Shadwell's Battaash (Ire) (Dark Angel {Ire}) once again and these cherished days of the history-makers fortunately seem to go on and on. Where Tuesday's legend Stradivarius (Ire) (Sea the Stars {Ire}) led with a fourth renewal of one of the meeting's prestige events over two miles, so Charlie Hills's fireball goes to post for the same tally in the G2 King George Qatar S. over the minimum five furlongs. As strong as ever last time when taking Royal Ascot's G1 King's Stand S.,...