Mehmas

In the age of stride length and cadence, stopwatches and sectionals, top speeds, biometrics and all of the other measurement tools out there to judge a racehorse on, one could be forgiven for thinking that all bases are covered at the breeze-up sales.  However, handler Willie Browne, bloodstock agent Ross Doyle and trainer Joseph O'Brien, three titans of the bloodstock industry, say they don't care if you utilise data until your eyes bleed--there will always be good horses that will escape through the net. That is good news for the...

You don't always get what you deserve in life. Just take a look at Believing (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) for example. George Boughey's razor-sharp sprinter had gone agonisingly close to breaking her duck at the highest level three times last season and those closest to her must have been thinking if her turn would ever come. Beaten but unbowed, Believing showed the world what she is capable of in the G1 Al Quoz Sprint, going some way in justifying Coolmore's 3 million gns investment at last year's Tattersalls December Mares Sale....

Find out what trainer says their charge has been "prepared to perfection" for the Irish Lincolnshire The Irish Flat season kicks off at the Curragh on Sunday and boy are we ready for it. The opening two-year-old maiden has been won by some top-notchers down through the years, including Bucanero Fuerte (GB) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), who went on to bag a breakthrough Group 1 success for the Amo Racing team.  There is no shortage of intriguing runners in this year's race, with first-season sires Space Blues (Ire), Lucky Vega (Ire),...

The catalogue for the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale, which takes place between 8 and 10 May, has been released and features the progeny of world-class stallions Justify, Wootton Bassett (GB), Lope De Vega (Ire), Sea The Stars (Ire), Dubawi (Ire) and more. A total of 192 two-year-olds feature in the sale that was headed last year by recent UAE 2,000 Guineas hero Ruling Court (Justify), who was sold by Norman Williamson's Oak Tree Farm to Godolphin for €2.3 million. There are seven horses by Justify in this year's sale that features...

Top bloodstock agent Mags O'Toole, Mickley Stud boss Richard Kent and Ana O'Brien were some of the key industry figures to give this year's Irish Stallion Trail the thumbs up.  For Kent, this weekend marked his first time attending the trail, and it could prove an expensive trip for the Cork native who is now based in Shropshire, after he pencilled in a host of the farm's best mares to visit some of the stallions he was most taken with.  He said, "We started off with Tally-Ho Stud on Friday...

Cast ratings aside: which horse stole your heart in 2024? And who went into the notebook for next season? Brian Sheerin has been a little greedy, but we will let him off as it's the season of indulgence, and he is putting forward four names worthy of merit. Horse(s) of the year: Porta Fortuna and Mehmas On the track, this year belonged to Porta Fortuna (Ire) (Caravaggio) but Mehmas (Ire) deserves a huge amount of credit for breaking Kodiac's long-standing record for the number of two-year-old winners sired in a...

It's time to revisit our annual series to assess the sires of 2025 with the aim of working out where the value lies. We'll reissue the usual caveat that value means different things to different people. For the benefit of this series, we are using the euro as our currency for bracketing, and will deal with stallions in the following four tiers: €50,000 and up €20,000 to €49,999 €10,000 to €19,999 Under €10,000. Only one of the new additions to the European stallion ranks for 2025 makes it into the...

There is no little poignancy in the timing of Acclamation (GB) making his permanent exit from the stage just as his most celebrated offspring, Dark Angel (Ire), stands on the cusp of being crowned champion sire in Britain and Ireland. As the mares sale got underway at Tattersalls last Monday, the news filtered through that Acclamation, who had been officially retired only a matter of weeks beforehand, had died at the age of 25. His passing, though at a good age and with his legacy already assured, will leave a...

NEWMARKET, UK -- Mehmas (Ire) has done little wrong since exploding onto the scene as the leading first-season sire of 2020 and, unlike some who have achieved that accolade, he has sustained that momentum through subsequent seasons. Only a few weeks ago, his daughter Naughty Eyes (Ire), who has been supplemented for next week's December Mares Sale as wildcard lot 1486D, became her sire's 62nd two-year-old winner of the season, enabling Mehmas to break the record set by his own stud-mate Kodiac (GB).  It has been another stellar year for...

When Vertical Blue (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) won the G1 Prix Marcel Boussac she led home a one-two for her trainer Francis Graffard as she pipped the Aga Khan Studs' Zarigana (GB) (Siyouni {Ire}) on the line.  The runner-up, who went into the race unbeaten, including a victory in the G3 Prix d'Aumale, had started odds-on favourite with Vertical Blue as one of the outsiders of the field, but the latter's success came as no surprise to Graffard, who had held her in high regard from the outset.  "She's a big...

Pa Doyle could not have said it any better than he did. It was at this sale 12 months ago that, when asked to sum up trade, the Galbertstown boss coined the phrase, "those pinhookers are as brave as lions." That sentence had as much relevance a year ago as it did on Tuesday when Paul McCartan, Michael Fitzpartick, Barry Mahon and Philip Stauffenberg--absolute titans of their profession--fought it out for some of the best foals on offer at Goffs.  It was McCartan, the master breeder and pinhooker who has...

In what must be the understatement of the year, Tally-Ho Stud boss Tony O'Callaghan has described himself as "quietly delighted" to see Mehmas (Ire) make history for the number of two-year-old winners recorded in a season when Naughty Eyes, who was bred by the County Westmeath operation, delivered winner number 62 for the stallion at Wolverhampton on Monday.  The previous record had been set by the daddy of Tally-Ho, Kodiac (GB), who O'Callaghan was keen to state is far from finished.  But what Mehmas has achieved in setting the record...