Golden Horn

  David Menuisier is not a man to concentrate on the past. The stable has been in the news over the fact that Phillipa Cooper of Normandie Stud decided to move stable star Lionel (GB) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) to John and Thady Gosden after his poor performance in the G1 Irish Derby.    However, while Menuisier has had his say on the high-profile split in this week's Q&A, he explained that he has closed the chapter on the situation and is keen to move on.    There are few...

Golden Horn (GB), the brilliant G1 Derby winner and European Horse of the Year in 2015, will take up stallion duties at Overbury Stud after being sold to new investors Dash Grange Stud from Darley and Anthony Oppenheimer. The move will see Golden Horn, who has already sired 13 individual winners over jumps in Britain and Ireland, marketed as a dual-purpose stallion. Golden Horn is best remembered for storming to Derby glory under Frankie Dettori in 2015. He won handsomely from subsequent Irish Derby hero Jack Hobbs (GB), who he...

One day after racing resumed in Britain on June 1, Mehmas (Ire) notched his first winner in the country less than an hour after he had recorded his first ever winner, in Italy. From thereon, the Tally-Ho Stud resident was pulling double all season, opening up an easy lead over his fellow European freshmen and bossing his way to a new first-season sire record which, with 56 winners, was 17 clear of that previously held by Iffraaj (GB). It is, frankly, a staggering tally, with 101 of his 121 named...

During the Nov. 24 sale of breeding rights and stallion shares on Arqana Online, a breeding right in champion first-season sire elect Mehmas (Ire) (Acclamation {GB}) (lot 2) brought €195,000 from Haras du Mont-dit-Mont. Already the sire of 48 winners, 10 black-type performers and four black-type winners led by G1 Middle Park S. hero Supremacy (Ire), the young stallion will command €25,000 at Tally-Ho Stud in 2021. A breeding right to four-time Group 1 winner Golden Horn (GB) (Cape Cross {Ire}) (lot 3), whose oldest foals are three, went for...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Today's Observations features the latest debutante for excellent producer Magnificient Style. 1.10 Nottingham, Mdn, £6,300, 2yo, f, 8f 75yT John Gosden is somewhat familiar with the progeny of storied matriarch Magnificient Style (Silver Hawk), having moulded six off the production line, and the Clarehaven conditioner is set to unleash...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Today's Insights features the return of an exciting John Gosden-trained 3-year-old. 3.25 Navan, Mdn, €15,500, 2yo, f, 8fT MADONNA (IRE) (Galileo {Ire}) is a full-sister to the G1 Moyglare Stud S. winner Maybe (Ire) and the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac runner-up Promise To Be True (Ire), with the former...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Today's Observations features the latest 2-year-old out of a Grade I-winning sale topper. 1.00 Newmarket, Novice, £6,400, 2yo, 8fT MEGALLAN (GB) (Kingman {GB}) is the second foal out of the Listed Lord Weinstock Memorial S. winner Eastern Belle (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}), a half-sister to Golden Horn (GB) who...

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Today's Observations features the debut of a half-sister to Group 1 winner Ribchester. 12.40 Ascot, Debutantes, £6,000, 2yo, 7fT MEGALLAN (GB) (Kingman {GB}) is the second foal out of the Listed Lord Weinstock Memorial S. winner Eastern Belle (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) who was placed three times at graded-stakes...

The saddest news of the week is the death of Mick Curran, whose face anyone who follows the sport will know because if you have seen any photographs of Golden Horn or Kingman in a winner's enclosure, you'll have seen Mick's smiling face there by the horse's side. Mick's fate is a salutary reminder that one never knows what is around the corner: it now seems a lifetime ago that he was looking after and riding the best horses in John Gosden's stable, and seemingly loving every minute of his life,...

Exactly five years ago, Golden Horn (GB) led home his stable-mate Jack Hobbs (GB) for a John Gosden-trained one-two in the G2 Dante S. at York, foreshadowing the result of the Derby a little over three weeks later. Golden Horn's Classic victory ignited a glorious season for his owner-breeder Anthony Oppenheimer, whose colt by Cape Cross (Ire) represented generations of his family's Hascombe And Valiant Studs' breeding. Golden Horn went on to claim victory in the Coral-Eclipse S., Irish Champion S. and Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe before narrowly losing...

One of the last longstanding British-based breeding operations, Anthony Oppenheimer's Hascombe and Valiant Studs, is very much enjoying an upswing since the momentous 2015 campaign of Golden Horn (GB). As John Gosden's dynamo performed heroics in the G1 Investec Derby, G1 Eclipse S., G1 Irish Champion S. and G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, he brought the red, black and white silks back to the fore. Shortly after, it was the turn of Cracksman (GB), a descendant of the late Sir Philip's 1982 1000 Guineas heroine On the House (Fr)...

'Dreams come a long way,' posted James Frank on Twitter this week after the Hascombe and Valiant Studs worker was named Employee of the Year at the Godolphin Stud and Stable Staff Awards in London. Frank has literally come a long way, from his native Zimbabwe to Newmarket, where he has been based for the best part of the last two decades. For the last seven years he has been employed by Anthony Oppenheimer, and the 42-year-old timed his run to perfection when he started his stint working with the...