Starman

A total of nine wildcards, including group winner Half Sovereign (Ten Sovereigns), have been added to Arqana's Vente d'Elevage catalogue. They will be offered on the first evening of the sale on Saturday, December 6. Offered as lot 195 from Consign, Ltd., the G3 Prix Miesque winner is from the same family as dual Group 1 winner Jack Hobbs, as well as group scorers Pollenator (Motivator), Stellaria (Kizuna), and Golden Pond (Don't Forget Me). Arcadia Elevage consigns G3 Prix de Flore second Ginalyah (Chachnak) (lot 205). Rated 106, she is...

For the third time in four years, Sioux Nation was the busiest Flat stallion at stud in Britain and Ireland in 2025, according to the Return of Mares, which has been published by Weatherbys. The son of Scat Daddy, who stands at Coolmore's Castlehyde Stud in County Cork, was usurped last year by his ill-fated stud-mate, Calyx, but he returned to the top of the charts during the latest breeding season, having covered 282 mares. The busiest stallion of any description was Whytemount Stud's Affinisea on 314, ahead of Boardsmill...

The catalogue for the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale, featuring 401 mares and fillies, is now online. The dams of Group 1 standouts Precise (Starspangledbanner), Porta Fortuna (Caravaggio), Romantic Warrior (Acclamation), Excellent Truth (Cotail Glory) and Lush Lips (Ten Sovereigns) were all sold at the Goffs November Breeding Stock Sale in the past. In 2025, the sale will be held on November 21-22 immediately following the four-day Goffs November Foal Sale. Some of the 2025 catalogue highlights include: Ceistiu (Vocalised) (lot 1183), the dam of the highly regarded G3 Gordon...

TATTERSALLS, ENGLAND - After spending close to 14 million gns at Book 1 of the Tattersalls October Yearling Sale, Amo Racing picked up from where it left off at Park Paddocks on Monday, spending 525,000gns on a Starman filly, which led the opening session of Book 2 and prompted Kevin Philippart De Foy to share his excitement about the prospects of training next year's batch of two-year-olds. Philippart De Foy, who took over at Freemason Lodge this year, has been a key cog in Kia Joorabchian's travelling posse at all...

The catalogue for the Goffs November Foal Sale, which has 998 lots, was released on Friday. Recent past graduates include the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas/G1 St James's Palace Stakes hero Field Of Gold (Kingman), G1 Phoenix Stakes winner Power Blue (Space Blues) and G1 Prix du Cadran winner Caballo De Mar (Phoenix Of Spain). Some of the choicest lots on offer include: lot 553, a son of Gleneagles who is a half-brother to G2 Gimcrack Stakes hero Lifeplan (Kodi Bear); a State Of Rest half-brother (lot 565) to G2 Prix...

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE - Baaeed got off to an electrifying start at the first European yearling sale of the season at Arqana when a filly [lot 68] consigned by Henri Bozo's powerful Ecurie des Monceaux draft sold to Al Shira'aa Racing for €800,000. That result kick-started a busy 10 minutes or so for Bozo, and Monceaux was also responsible for the joint sale-topping Lope De Vega colt [72], who went the way of Godolphin for the same figure on day one of the August Yearling Sale. Trained by William Haggas on...

Circle the wagons and sally forth as one, for Deauville is in view, which means only one thing: it'll soon be Christmas. There is, however, a circuitous route to be navigated before we reconvene under the Normandy lights in December. And right now, surely even the older members of the travelling show can lift an enthusiastic heart, along with the odd glass or two, as the summer holidays merge happily with the beginning of the European yearling sales at Arqana and some damn good sport across the road at the...

When it comes to the 2025 crop of first-season sires in Europe, there's one stallion who is now operating in truly rarefied air, fittingly so for a horse going by the name of Starman. With 16 individual winners on the board in Europe, the son of Dutch Art is currently six clear of Nando Parrado and eight clear of A'Ali, with Palace Pier, Space Blues and Supremacy then locked in a three-way tie for fourth with seven winners apiece. Lucky Vega has six, while Ubettabelieveit and Victor Ludorum each have...

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...

ASCOT, UK -- It was a day when so many of those engaged at Royal Ascot were thinking also of a great man gone away in Ireland. Kevin Prendergast would undoubtedly have revelled in the splendid results for some of his fellow Irish trainers on Ascot Heath as they in turn paid tribute to him. And there was even a winner for his old friend Awtaad, the last of the trainer's Classic winners, whose son Ethical Diamond triumphed in the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes after another, Ascending, had won Tuesday's...

The Grade 2-placed mare Paggane caught the eye of Charles Shanahan and topped the Tattersalls Online June Sale for 100,000gns on Thursday. Consigned by Willie Mullins's Closutton Stables as lot 87, the daughter of Muhaarar sports wins under both codes. Second in the Listed Paddy Power EBF Novice Hurdle at Cork, her greatest claim to fame is a second in the G2 Dawn Run Novice Chase. She is a half-sister to the listed winner Pennymoor by Frankel, and to the Classic-placed California Dreamer (Mehmas). Shanahan said of the mare who...

Nine years after Almanzor dropped a massive hint that Wootton Bassett might just be a decent sire by winning the Prix du Jockey Club comes the next wave for the stallion whose fee has gone from as low as €4,000 to this year's high of €300,000.  As has been well documented, Wootton Bassett's current crop of three-year-olds are the result of his first season standing at Coolmore in Ireland after one of the biggest transfer deals of recent years saw him leave Haras d'Etreham, where he had made his name...