Niarchos Family

Multiple group winner Passenger is on the comeback trail and is reportedly thriving at new trainer George Scott's base ahead of a potential return at Royal Ascot next month. The Niarchos family-owned runner and former Sir Michael Stoute trainee underwent surgery in August and has been recovering since. "When Passenger arrived we were very much seeing which direction he took us in after his injuries, but he's been training beautifully and I'm very pleased with his trajectory at the moment," said Scott of the Flaxman Stables homebred. "You can easily...

You would want to go easy with that lot in the trailer. "Weekend had the box stall in the back by herself," Callan Strouss recalls. "She was the queen back there, and the boys were riding on the ground level." This was back in 1984 and, for Lane's End, a radical departure. Because when its longest-serving employee was first hired by William S. Farish III--longest, at any rate, since his old buddy Mike Cline retired as manager in 2020--there had been no sense that the farm might become what this...

Multiple Classic-winning trainer Pascal Bary has announced his retirement after 44 years in the French training ranks. The Chantilly trainer saddled the winner of the Prix du Jockey Club on six occasions, starting with Celtic Arms (Fr) in 1994 and most recently with Study Of Man (Ire) in 2018. Over the years, Bary, 71, has been associated with a stream of great equine names, most notably for the Niarchos family, for whom he won two further Jockey Clubs with the half-brothers Dream Well (Fr) and Sulamani (Ire), and the Prix...

Flaxman Stables homebred and multiple group winner Passenger (Ulysses {Ire}) is recovering well from surgery and has started his rehabilitation, according to Niarchos family racing manager Alan Cooper. A winner of three of his six starts, the G2 Huxley Stakes and G3 Winter Hill Stakes hero, who placed in the G2 Dante Stakes last year, sustained a condylar fracture when third to Alflaila (GB) (Dark Angel {Ire}) in the G2 York Stakes on July 27. The Sir Michael Stoute trainee has since undergone surgery to repair the injury. Cooper said,...

The Sir Michael Stoute-trained Passenger (Ulysses {Ire}) will miss the G1 Coral-Eclipse at Sandown on Saturday week as he continues his recovery from a setback which ruled him out of Royal Ascot. Sparingly raced as a three-year-old when his standout efforts included an unlucky-in-running third in the G2 Dante Stakes at York and a narrow victory in the G3 Winter Hill Stakes at Windsor, Passenger looked an improved model when returning from nearly nine months off with a smooth win in the G2 Huxley Stakes at Chester in May, beating...

Passenger (Ulysses {Ire}) will look to provide trainer Sir Michael Stoute with a fifth success in the G1 Prince Of Wales's Stakes at Royal Ascot next month following his triumphant return to action at Chester. Sparingly raced as a three-year-old when his standout performances included an unlucky-in-running third in the G2 Dante S. at York and a narrow victory in the G3 Winter Hill S. at Windsor, Passenger looked an improved model when returning from nearly nine months off with a smooth win in the G3 Huxley S. on the...

Classic-placed Piz Badile (Ire) (Ulysses {Ire}) has died after suffering a heart attack while cantering last Monday. Alan Cooper, the Niarchos family's racing manager, confirmed the news to TDN Europe on Thursday. The G3 Ballysax S. winner and G1 Irish Derby runner-up was five. "Very sadly he had a heart attack last Monday doing a regular canter under Gavin Ryan who landed safely on his feet," Cooper said. "No previous indications that this would be likely to happen. He was a lovely individual who everyone liked." A Flaxman Stables homebred, the...

Coolmore Stud spent €19m and equalled its own record set for the highest price paid at public auction in Ireland 10 years ago for Chicquita (Ire) (Montjeu {Ire}) by flexing its buying power to secure half-sisters Alpine Star (Ire) (Sea The Moon {Ger}) and Alpha Centauri (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) for €6m apiece from the Niarchos draft at the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale on Friday. Alpine Star, the brilliant G1 Coronation S. winner, and multiple Group 1 and Irish 1,000 Guineas heroine Alpha Centauri, carried the Niarchos family's colours with...

Hailing from the Norelands consignment, That Which Is Not (Elusive Quality--Shiva {Jpn}, by Hector Protector) became the third mare to clear the €3-million mark from the Niarchos family's bloodstock restructuring, with MV Magnier shelling out €3.3 million at Goffs late in the session. Lot 1260, in foal to Juddmonte's Frankel (GB), has already produced G3 Ballysax S. hero Piz Badile (Ire) (Ulysses {Ire}), who was runner-up in the G1 Irish Derby and third in the G1 Tattersalls Gold Cup. Her dam did win the Tattersalls Gold Cup, and this is...

One of the reasons that the Racing League has struggled to catch on is that the organisers have underestimated the attachment that regular racegoers and viewers have to certain sets of silks. We all have our favourites, often depending on when we were born and who the leading lights were at the time.  Some have now faded from everyday use, and for this fan the Ballymacoll Stud colours are much missed. Certain silks have such resonance that one almost doesn't need to have a race card handy to have an...

The "restructuring" of how the Niarchos family's breeding empire will operate means Classic winner Alpha Centauri and Group 1 scorer Alpine Star will go under the hammer at the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale. Albigna, Fiesolana, Tapestry and a raft of other top-class mares in foal to stallions such as Frankel, Dubawi, Wootton Bassett, No Nay Never and more will feature among the draft. The offering will number 44 mares all told and Alan Cooper, the operation's racing manager, was keen to stress that the draft was not a dispersal...

Antony Beck (Gainesway Farm), Alan Cooper (Niarchos Family/Flaxman Holdings Ltd.) and Bret Jones (Airdrie Stud) were each re-elected to serve a four-year term on the Breeders' Cup Board, the organization said in a release Wednesday afternoon. "We congratulate Antony, Alan and Bret upon their re-election to the Board," said Barbara Banke, Chairman of Breeders' Cup Limited. "We look forward to their continued advice and counsel to the Company in many important initiatives, including critical areas of equine safety and welfare and further enhancing the growth and international impact of the...