Shizunai Stallion Station

Following an interview with Guy Harwood to mark the 40th anniversary of Dancing Brave's Classic season, we examine the horse's stud career in Britain and Japan  By Emma Berry "Neither of us thought we'd ever get another horse like him," says Grant Pritchard-Gordon, former racing manager to Prince Khalid Abdullah in the early days of Juddmonte and, crucially, through the 1986 tour de force of Dancing Brave.  "Then I remember when Frankel won his Guineas, I was in the box with Prince Khalid and I said to him, 'I never...

Since 1955, Japanese breeders have received unwavering support from the Japan Bloodhorse Breeders' Association (JBBA). To outside eyes, the evolution of Japanese racing as a global force tends to go hand-in-hand with the Yoshida family's cultivation of Sunday Silence and latterly his son Deep Impact under their Shadai umbrella. Yet that would be doing a disservice to the number of other operations who have put in the effort and investment over the decades to improve the breed. Chief among them is the JBBA, whose primary stallion base is situated in...

Fabrice Chappet trainee Safia (Sottsass), a debut scorer at ParisLongchamp in October, opened this year with a TDN Rising Star performance at Saint-Cloud in March and bounced back off a fifth in a hot renewal of April's G3 Prix de la Grotte to secure a career high in Sunday's Listed Prix Melisande at ParisLongchamp. Employing waiting tactics in fifth until turning for home, she careered forward to seize control with 300 metres remaining and was ridden out in the closing stages to defeat Ilda Rosa (Lope De Vega) and La...

Tuesday's Prix Chapeau Rouge at Saint-Cloud played host to the frontrunning TDN Rising Star performance of Andre Fabre trainee Alcantor (New Bay) back in 2023 and this year's renewal witnessed another pillar-to-post Rising Star display by a Fabre nominee, Segall (Sottsass), who put his rivals to the sword in the seven-furlong contest. He follows Ultrafragola and Safia in becoming his sire's third Rising Star. Former Coolmore resident Sottsass now stands at Shizunai Stallion Station in Japan. The 13-5 favourite was swiftly into stride from the inside stall and seized an...

Forty Niner (Mr. Prospector--File, by Tom Rolfe), a four-time Grade I winner and champion of his generation in 1987 before becoming a sire of considerable importance, passed away Monday, May 18, in Japan due to the infirmities of old age. He had just celebrated his 35th birthday May 11. Owned and bred by Claiborne Farm and trained by Woody Stephens, Forty Niner won the 1987 GI Futurity S. and GI Champagne S. to clinch a divisional championship. A leading sophomore of 1988, Forty Niner missed by a neck to Winning...

The ruthless nature of the American bloodstock market's trend toward unproven sires combined with an increased demand in developing nations for international stock has resulted in a worrying mass exodus of middle market stallions from Kentucky in recent years. WinStar Farm sold the regally bred Take Charge Indy to South Korea in 2016 six weeks before his first crop turned two, with his support particularly in the sales ring having waned, but thanks to a clause in the contract WinStar was able to buy him back and the son of...