Michael Gaffney

With the Epsom Classics now in the rearview mirror, the countdown to Royal Ascot will soon be uppermost in everybody's thoughts, most definitely if your name is Michael or Anne Gaffney, the breeders of the hugely exciting Senorita Bonita. Already the Starspangledbanner filly has made headlines once this year when stealing the show at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-up Sale. Consigned on behalf of the Gaffneys by Mark Flannery of Egmont Stud, she fetched fully 350,000gns more than the next top lot when knocked down to Anthony Stroud for 900,000gns, following...

It would be perfectly natural to feel some regret for having sold a mare in the same year that she foaled a subsequent treble Group 1 winner. But you will hear nothing of the sort from Michael Gaffney of Churchtown House Stud, breeder of Alcohol Free (Ire) (No Nay Never). "We are absolutely thrilled with what she has done. We are very proud of her and very pleased for her owner Jeff Smith," says Gaffney. "It's a huge thing for us to have bred a filly like her--we are not...