Paul Shanahan

A good many years ago now, aged about 20, I was lucky enough to live with the late John Hills in Davy Cormack's Ardagh House Hotel in Killenaule during his time in Edward O'Grady's. I can vividly remember the visits of his father Barry which invariably involved dinner in Bryan Murphy's in Adare with a host of other larger than life characters like Pat Hogan, Greville Starkey, Brian Taylor and Frank Barry. It was a privilege for me as a young man to spend time in Barry's company, always great...

Wesley Ward admitted he was looking for an easy spot for  White Sands (Into Mischief) to make her first racetrack appearance, but when the half-sister to sprint champion Jackie's Warrior (Maclean's Music) romped by 9 1/2 lengths in her debut at Belterra Park in May, the trainer immediately circled the Prairie Gold Juvenile Stakes on his calendar. The filly duly delivered again in that 5 1/2-furlong event, defeating the boys in a 13 3/4-length demolition at Prairie Meadows last Saturday. "We had a long time with her," Ward said of...

James Harron is one of the most respected operators of his craft internationally. Based in Australia, the native of Northern Ireland credits Gai Waterhouse, agent George Smith and Winx (Aus)'s breeder John Camilleri of Fairway Thoroughbreds as being some of the key influences in his career.    Foxwedge (Aus) is the horse who got the ball rolling for Harron Down Under. He sourced the high-class sprinter-turned-stallion as a yearling and, from there, refined the art of making stallions on a commercial level through colt partnerships.    It's a little under...

Etoile, a beaten favorite in her two prior North American starts after being transferred to Chad Brown, came through with a victory in Sunday's GI E.P. Taylor S. at Woodbine, giving red-hot Siyouni (Fr) another top-level success in the same Peter Brant colors as that stallion's G1 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe hero Sottsass (Fr). Two-for-two to open her account for Jean-Claude Rouget last winter at Cagnes-sur-Mer, the bay was a neck runner-up in Longchamp's G3 Prix Vanteaux before annexing the G3 Prix Cleopatre at Saint-Cloud. A close fourth in...