Golden Horn

We're off. Well, sort of. In a manner reminiscent of the sputtering start to the Flat turf season, Seven Days returns this week but is immediately taking a short break before promising to be back in time for the Lincoln and the Brocklesby. So, for those of you still in a post-Cheltenham/St Patrick's Day slump, here's a little look back on the week that was. We'll mention Cheltenham only briefly here to reiterate the point that we may well see the 100/1 Triumph Hurdle winner Poniros (GB) back in action...

CHELTENHAM, UK -- It is a rare thing for a trainer almost to apologise for winning a race, particularly the biggest race of his career, but observers of Jeremy Scott over the years would perhaps have expected nothing less. A man of exemplary manners, he would struggle to take pleasure in triumph in the face of other people's disasters, and there was drama and dismay aplenty in the G1 Unibet Champion Hurdle, won by Scott with the plucky little mare Golden Ace (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}). "It probably wasn't the...

On the morning of Sunday, June 7, 2015, a small gathering at John Gosden's Clarehaven Stables celebrated the previous day's Derby one-two of stable-mates Golden Horn (GB) and Jack Hobbs (GB). The two colts posed either side of their trainer, with their regular riders, the late Michael Curran and Taffy Williams, proudly at their sides. Golden Horn would end the season as Horse of the Year, thanks to his subsequent triumphs in the Eclipse, Irish Champion Stakes and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Only the fillies Arabian Queen (GB) and...

For this third part in our series on value sires in Europe, we are approaching the level where the word value perhaps becomes more meaningful in that we are dealing with stallions in the €10,000 to €19,999 fee bracket.  In this mid range, some sires are passing through, either on their way up as popularity and commercial demand soars, or dropping in fee during the sometimes notoriously difficult years in a stallion's career. Notably that often comes in the third and fourth seasons at stud when they are no longer...

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...

EPSOM, UK -- The names Morston (GB) and Lammtarra were being bandied about as Voyage (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}) stepped onto the track at Epsom on Tuesday morning. In 1974 and 1995 respectively, that pair came to the Derby on the back of one run, but what they lacked in experience they made up for in brilliance.  Voyage's trainer Richard Hannon has had two previous runners in the Derby, the 2021 runner-up Mojo Star (Ire) (Sea The Stars {Ire}) and Humphrey Bogart (Ire) (Tagula {Ire}), who finished fifth five years earlier. ...

A person whose job it is to promote horse racing was, rather disappointingly, being sniffy about the Craven meeting on social media last week. I understand that some people don't like racing at the Rowley Mile and, yes, last Tuesday in particular was a little challenging on the weather front. But if you're a Flat racing person, and particularly one who is being paid to tell other people that they should come racing, then you really should appreciate all that is wonderful about these weeks of Classic trials across Europe....

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....

Trainer Ralph Beckett has revealed that Group 3-winning filly Haskoy (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}--Natavia {GB}, by Nathaniel {Ire}) has been retired due to a tendon injury. Haskoy, fourth in the St Leger last year, having gone past the post in second, made a winning return at Newbury when landing the G3 Al Rayyan S. She had been just 8-1 for the Gold Cup at Ascot. Beckett said of the Juddmonte-owned filly on Twitter, "Haskoy has strained a tendon, consequently she is being retired to the paddocks." Haskoy is the first...

"I'm on a mission to make GB great in its own right." A statement from Britain's new prime minister, perhaps? No. Forget Westminster, and cast your mind instead to the rolling Cotswold hills that frame the area around Cheltenham. Those words are uttered not far up the road from the home of National Hunt racing, at Overbury Stud, by the new owner of the stud's newest stallion. Jayne McGivern is unashamedly proud of her recent purchase of Golden Horn (GB), the horse who lit up the 2015 Flat season, graduating...

Few, if any, trainers have been in more consistent form this season than William Haggas, who now finds himself atop the table in Britain, with a strike-rate of 27% for the season. His earnings of £4,611,340 at the time of writing place him narrowly ahead of reigning champion Charlie Appleby. Top of the Somerville Lodge list of horses, and the earner of roughly a third of the yard's prize-money this year, is of course arguably the best horse in the world, Baaeed (GB), around whom continues to swirl uncertainty as...

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...