Sakheer

Grade I winner Magnum Force has his first four mares scanned in foal at Ballyhane Stud. Standing for €7,500 in 2026, the son of Mehmas won the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf Sprint. Stakes winner Asidious Alexander (Windsor Knot), Sunday Smart (Dandy Man), Gold Vision (Havana Gold), a sister to stakes winner Aqlaam Vision (Aqlaam), and Odessa On My Mind (Saxon Warrior), a half-sister to stakes scorer Most Beautiful (Canford Cliffs), have all tested in foal to the young stallion. "He's had a busy start and has settled into the...

There are two types of people in life: those who are bowed by adversity and those who stare it in the face and dare it to try to bring them down.  For more than a year Joe Foley has been involved in an ongoing court battle with Steve Parkin. Prior to that the pair had a long and successful run on the track with Parkin's Clipper Logistics operation, which Foley managed. Recent highlights include the homebred Classic winner Fallen Angel, who is now in the ownership of Wathnan Racing. Whatever...

This raft of stallions at the lowest range of the price scale is every bit as important as those at the top. For a start, if we look at Royal Ascot alone in 2025, we find the names Massaat and Washington DC alongside those of two of the week's Group 1 winners. Then there was Rajasinghe, whose offspring made their presence felt in two of the season's most prestigious sprint handicaps. Breeders with mares rated 70 or above could have used Rajasinghe for free this year, such was the desire...

Ballyhane Stud's new stallion Sakheer (Ire) has passed the first test of his stud career with a number of mares now tested in foal to him. "Sakheer has already covered over a quarter of his book and his fertility looks very good to date," said Ballyhane's Joe Foley. "He's had great support from breeders with some smashing mares booked to him. As an example, the first two mares to scan in foal to him were Doors to Manual, the dam of Group 2 winner Safety Check, and the French stakes-placed...

There are doubtless decisions still to be made and deals to be struck for this year's matings with many breeders taking to the roads since the start of this new year for both the official stallion trails and informal stud visits. For this last part in our series on value sires for 2025 it is worth restating that value is very much subjective and depends on a number of different factors, including whether the buyer of the nomination is breeding to race or to sell.  This final chapter, for stallions...

It's probably now just about safe for the TDN team to leave our desks briefly without fear of another stallion fee announcement dropping into the inbox. So, now that the numbers are in, here is a little further investigation as to who's going where and for how much. There were cautionary notes among last year's stallion fee announcements, just as there have been again this time around, which is no surprise given that the foal crop in Britain and Ireland has dropped again, this time by six per cent, to...

Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}), the new stallion at Ballyhane Stud for 2025, will stand at a fee of €6,500 on Live Foal terms. He will cover a maximum of 140 mares. The G2 Mill Reef Stakes winner, who raced for KHK Racing, arrived at the farm in Leighlinbridge recently.  "Everyone on the farm loves him, he has a super temperament," said Ballyhane's Joe Foley. "He's been here a few weeks now and he has settled in well. We can't wait to show him to breeders. "We've had a fantastic reaction...

Group 2-winning juvenile and TDN Rising Star Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) has been acquired by Ballyhane Stud and will take up stallion duties at the County Carlow outfit in 2025. Sakheer topped the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale in 2022 when bought by Oliver St Lawrence on behalf of KHK Racing for €550,000. He won his maiden second time up at Haydock before running out an impressive winner of the Mill Reef Stakes just 16 days later where he had Charyn (Ire) and Shouldvebeenaring (GB) behind him. Sakheer won two of his...

Sakheer (Ire) was found to have genuine excuses for disappointing in last Friday's Commonwealth Cup after trainer Roger Varian reported that the colt emerged from Royal Ascot with "front limb lameness". The Zoffany (Ire) colt won two of his three juvenile starts last season, including the Group 2 Mill Reef S. at Newbury, and after failing to see out the mile in the 2,000 Guineas, was sent off as short as 17-2 for the Commonwealth Cup. However, Sakheer trailed home last of the 13 runners reverting in trip, and Varian...

They're off and running at Newmarket, though not all of the runners have been in official races. The first day of the Craven meeting, a date anticipated with longing by those racing folk who dwell by that wind-blasted Heath, was ushered in by a Classic winner on the Rowley Mile.  While we have more than a fortnight to wait for the first Classic victor of 2023 to reveal himself, the 2021 Irish Derby winner Hurricane Lane (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) strode out with purpose under William Buick on the easy turf...

It has been another banner week for the breeze-up sector, not to mention the burgeoning Bahraini participation in European racing.  Following Classic victories for Cachet (Ire), Native Trail (GB) and Eldar Eldarov (GB), more graduates of the two-year-old sales scene lifted one of last weekend's major races in Britain, the G2 Mill Reef Stakes, and also the G3 Stockholm Cup.  Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) was imperious in the Mill Reef, and was the standout in a magnificent seven winners on Saturday for Roger Varian, which also included landing a Group...

Breeze-up king Willie Browne, who sold G1 1000 Guineas heroine Speciosa (Ire), G1 Ascot Gold Cup winner Trip To Paris (Ire) and many more top-notchers, is allowing himself to believe that recent graduate Sakheer (Ire) (Zoffany {Ire}) could be the real deal after he coasted to an effortless victory at Haydock on Thursday. The 76-year-old bought Sakheer for $65,000 at the Keeneland September Yearling Sales in 2021 before producing the colt to top the Arqana Breeze-up Sale in May of this year. Sakheer was bought by Oliver St Lawrence for...