Minzaal

4.10 Newmarket, Novice, 2yo, f, 5fT CROWNBREAKER (IRE) (Minzaal {Ire}) is a significant debutante for Amo Racing and Kevin Philippart De Foy, being a half-sister to the July Cup hero Mill Stream (Gleneagles) and the Richmond winner and Prix Morny-placed Asymmetric (Showcasing). A  550,000gns Tattersalls October Book 1 purchase, she meets Victorious Forever's fellow newcomer Efsixteen (GB) (Havana Grey {GB}), a George Scott-trained 350,000gns Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up buy.   3.10 Salisbury, Novice, 3yo, 6f 213yT DREAM VEGA (IRE) (Lope De Vega {Ire}) is engaged a week after her intended...

Royal Ascot is on the agenda for Eddie Linehan's Tattersalls Guineas Breeze-Up Sale-topping Minzaal colt, who went the way of Phil Cunningham and Tim Gredley for a cool 240,000gns on Thursday.  It was very much the late-late show at Tattersalls with that result coming deep into a patchy sale that brought a 75% clearance rate and a marked drop in all of the key figures.  Richard Spencer will have the thrill of training the colt, described by his consignor as a potential top-notcher.  Linehan, who is best known for selling...

Who runs Diamond Stables? That was the message floating around the WhatsApp groups on Tuesday after Rodrigo Goncalves, the man behind the relatively new breeze-up outfit, sent out a Persian Force colt [lot 59] to rock up the Doncaster straight on breeze day.  The term new is a loose one as this is far from the Brazilian native's first rodeo. Goncalves has been associated with some very good horses and become a familiar face on the sales circuit through his time spent working with Robson Aguiar. It's likely that nobody...

Kia Joorabchian has outlined shopping plans for this week's Goffs Breeze-Up Sale, where he says the focus will be on securing colts that Freemason Lodge-based trainer Kevin Philippart de Foy can point towards Royal Ascot.  The Amo Racing boss was a high-profile absentee from the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-Up Sale last week. Instead, he elected to make the trip to Ocala for the OBS breeze-up sale.  His no-show at Tattersalls, where he spent over £3 million on seven horses last year, was keenly felt by a market that returned to 2024...

Al Pacino's Inch By Inch speech in the film Any Given Sunday resonates strongly with jockey Killian Leonard, who has been making waves on the breeze-up circuit in recent years.  With the Miami Sharks down and appearing almost certainly out in the Super Bowl final, Al Pacino, who plays coach Tony D'Amato, tells his team that they can claw themselves back into the game, 'inch by inch, play by play'.  He goes on, "The margin for error is so small. I mean, one half step too late or too early,...

Coolmore's dual Group 1-winning juvenile Blackbeard is the 6/5 favourite with Fitzdares to be crowned Britain and Ireland's leading first-season sire by number of winners in 2026, ahead of Shadwell's Minzaal at 7/4. Fitzdares launched its market on Tuesday, four days out from the Brocklesby Stakes at Doncaster, the first two-year-old race of the year in Britain. Whilst both Blackbeard and Minzaal are without a representative among the 22 entries published on Monday, it's likely to be just a matter of time before their two-year-olds start to appear in large...

Minzaal has been chalked up at odds as short as 10-11 for first-season sires' championship honours by Paddy Power, whose trader James Ryan said it is the Derrinstown Stud-based stallion's 'title to lose'. Ryan, who priced up the market, also revealed that the firm is happy to lay second-favourite Blackbeard at odds of 6-4. Meanwhile, Baaeed has not gone unsupported at odds of 66-1.  According to Global Stallions, Minzaal has 115 two-year-olds to run for him this year while Blackbeard has the same number of juveniles. Tally-Ho Stud's representative Persian...

And on we go, to a sector of the market that will have great appeal to the shrewd and smaller breeders (you can certainly be both), with the next part of our Value Sires series devoted to those standing in the bracket of £7,500 to £14,999 (approximately €8,500 to €17,000).  There are always deals to be struck in the stallion market, and perhaps that is especially true within the lower price tiers, where your bartering power may also depend on your previous support of a particular stallion or stud, and...

Shadwell has announced the fees for its five-strong roster of stallions, with the six-time Group 1 winner Baaeed standing for the reduced sum of £55,000 in 2026 - when he will be represented by his first two-year-old runners. "The roster is headed by Baaeed, the highest-rated racehorse in Europe for over a decade and who stands as a fitting tribute to Shadwell's dedication to the Thoroughbred," read a statement from Shadwell. "Supported by many of the world's leading breeders, Baaeed has already covered three outstanding books of mares. His first...

TATTERSALLS, ENGLAND - The young pinhookers behind the 450,000gns Minzaal filly that lit up Book 2 will face an interesting proposition when they return to school on Tuesday given the teenagers each walked out of Tattersalls on Monday with more money than their teachers will earn in a year.  Fionn White (16) and brothers Jack (17) and Max Galway (13), whose father Richie is racing manager at Punchestown and son-in-law of Jessica Harrington, will do well to ignore sales catalogues for school books from this day on given the three...

The newly-published catalogue for the Goffs Premier Yearling Sale features entries from many of Europe's leading sires, as well as first-season sensation Starman, who is responsible for 17 of the 409 "athletic, precocious Doncaster yearlings" set to go under the hammer on Wednesday, August 27 and Thursday, August 28. Last year Starman was responsible for two of the top five lots, including the subsequent G3 Fillies Sprint Stakes heroine Lady Iman, one of 16 individual winners for her leading first-season sire in 2025. The notable yearlings by Starman featuring in...

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...