Massaat

Group 1 winner Docklands (Massaat) will not take up an engagement in the G1 Dubai Turf and instead point toward a 2026 debut at Doncaster, according to trainer Harry Eustace. The 2025 Queen Anne Stakes hero has taken his show on the road internationally for owners OTI Racing and the Doncaster Mile is under consideration. "He's very well," said Eustace of the bay, who will avoid the Middle East as the Iranian conflict continues and point for a long-term start in Hong Kong next month. "We wouldn't want to find...

This raft of stallions at the lowest range of the price scale is every bit as important as those at the top. For a start, if we look at Royal Ascot alone in 2025, we find the names Massaat and Washington DC alongside those of two of the week's Group 1 winners. Then there was Rajasinghe, whose offspring made their presence felt in two of the season's most prestigious sprint handicaps. Breeders with mares rated 70 or above could have used Rajasinghe for free this year, such was the desire...

Harry Eustace's eyes light up as soon as the Tattersalls Ireland September Yearling Sale is mentioned. And why wouldn't they? It was at that sale where the 37-year-old's Group 1 winners Docklands (Massaat) and Time For Sandals (Sands Of Mali) were sourced and the Newmarket-based handler openly admits to having 'kept powder dry' for the action at Fairyhouse next week.  "We've had a lot of luck out of Fairyhouse, particularly with the filly [Time For Sandals]," he explained. "It's a sale that I have always worked hard at because it...

The early part of last week was spent covering the JRHA Select Sale in Japan, a trip that is always illuminating, to an auction that remains extraordinary. Number one of the list of most surprising things from the five days spent in Hokkaido was Teruya Yoshida picking up his guitar to serenade guests with a rendition of John Denver's Take Me Home, Country Roads. An excellent choice of song, well performed. The Shadai Farm principal should be encouraged to form a Travelling Wilburys-style bloodstock supergroup. Bluegrass enthusiast and songwriter Arthur...

It has been a strangely discombobulating week in some respects. It started in Westminster last Monday with the All-Party Parliamentary Group issuing its stark warning of the triple threat to the industry posed by potential betting duty harmonisation, affordability checks and an overdue Levy reform. This came on the back of an industry update in Newmarket the previous week at which the TBA chairman Philip Newton warned of a potential catastrophic collapse in the supply chain of young Thoroughbreds in Britain. Then, stepping through the golden gates of Royal Ascot,...

ASCOT, UK -- There may be cause for concern when it comes to the tumbling number of foals bred in Britain but, with Ascot festooned with the Union Jack, the first three races represented a terrific result for the United Kingdom, falling to horses bred in England, Wales and Scotland.  In front of the King and Queen, first Docklands then Gstaad and American Affair testified to the strength of Thoroughbreds produced in the country, with British-based Irishmen Richard Kent and John McGrandles being the breeders behind the first two Group...

From bringing its largest draft of 26 foals to the Tattersalls December Sale in 2020, Mickley Stud's consignment for this week has almost doubled in size again to 50 weanlings.  It may be time-consuming for prospective buyers to work their way through this batch of youngsters down in the Solario Yard but it could also prove worthwhile. In 2015, Mickley's Richard Kent and his co-breeder, the late Lady Caroline Lonsdale, brought a Havana Gold (Ire) foal to sell who went on to become the Group 1-winning sprinter and young Whitsbury...