Starspangledbanner

With the Epsom Classics now in the rearview mirror, the countdown to Royal Ascot will soon be uppermost in everybody's thoughts, most definitely if your name is Michael or Anne Gaffney, the breeders of the hugely exciting Senorita Bonita. Already the Starspangledbanner filly has made headlines once this year when stealing the show at the Tattersalls Craven Breeze-up Sale. Consigned on behalf of the Gaffneys by Mark Flannery of Egmont Stud, she fetched fully 350,000gns more than the next top lot when knocked down to Anthony Stroud for 900,000gns, following...

3.18 Nottingham, Mdn, 2yo, f, 5f 8yT SENORITA BONITA (IRE) (Starspangledbanner {Aus}) topped the Tattersalls Craven Breeze Up Sale at 900,000gns and debuts for Victorious Forever and Simon and Ed Crisford in the maiden won in the last three years by Zelaina, Leovanni and Beautiful Diamond. Jaber Abdullah's Queen Of Christmas (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) also makes her debut, with the Karl Burke-trained €305,000 Arqana Deauville October purchase a half-sister to the Listed-winning dam of last year's Prix du Moulin de Longchamp hero Sahlan (Wootton Bassett).   5.40 Curragh, Mdn, 2yo,...

Golden boy of the week has to be Starspangledbanner (though Wayne Lordan and Karl Burke both deserve consideration for that title). To have had both Cartier champion two-year-olds last year was a big enough feather in his cap but for both Gstaad and Precise to progress into Classic winners in the space of 24 hours at the Curragh cements their sire's position among the elite. A more in-depth look at the Starspangledbanner story to date in TDN back in December put forward the suggestion that the best days were still...

   In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the victory of Sandtrap at Aqueduct. Lope De Vega Fillies Capture Aqueduct Affairs Named a TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard in her Salisbury debut for Ralph Beckett in September of 2024, Sandtrap (Lope De Vega) made her American bow a winning one at Aqueduct on April 18 (video). Trained by Chad Brown, the daughter of Zindaya (More Than Ready) races for Bridlewood Farm. Bred by...

3.05 Navan, Listed, 4yo/up, 14fT SCANDINAVIA (Justify) is the day's big news as he returns for Ballydoyle in a race used for several of their leading stayers such as Kyprios, Order Of St George and Yeats. Last year's St Leger and Goodwood Cup hero meets the Leger fifth Carmers (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}), Fiona Carmichael's Queen's Vase winner who remains unexposed over these staying trips.   1.55 Navan, Mdn, 2yo, 5f 180yT WEST OF EDEN (IRE) (No Nay Never) is the chosen representative from Ballydoyle in a maiden that has...

With one big puff of the cheeks, Mark Flannery experienced a feeling that most consignors could scarcely imagine at Tattersalls on Wednesday when his Starspangledbanner filly was knocked down to Anthony Stroud for a cool 900,000gns at one of the trickiest Craven Breeze-Up Sales in recent times.  But at around 8pm at Park Paddocks, talk shifted from the war in the Middle East, the uncertain global political landscape or even worse, what the rest of the breeze-up season might look like in Europe. That was thanks to Flannery. For the...

   In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the victory of Heading (Starspangledbanner) at Keeneland. Starspangledbanner Colt Triumphs At Keeneland Gainesway homebred Heading trotted up a 4 1/2-length winner on Keeneland's opening day (video). The Starspangledbanner colt is trained by Graham Motion and was making his fourth start, second in America. The first foal out of South African champion three-year-old filly and older mare Celtic Sea (Captain Al), the former Andrew Balding-trained colt is...

Galileo and Dubawi, two titans of the sport whose fates have been so entwined for the past two decades that the marrying of their superior bloodlines to one day give us a champion sire was perhaps as inevitable as it is satisfying for us bloodstock nuts. On 12 occasions, in 2008 and then every year between 2010 and 2020, Galileo topped the end-of-year sires' table in Britain and Ireland. On four of those occasions Dubawi filled the runner-up spot, before the Darley stalwart finally enjoyed his day in the sun...

The cliche is that it only takes 40 years to become an overnight success.  Obviously it can never take that long for a horse but Starspangledbanner could be forgiven for thinking something along those lines as he ends 2025 with his status at an all-time high. There were several notable aspects to this year's Cartier Awards, most notably the happy situation that all bar one of the winners will still be in training in 2026. Another stand-out feature was that both the Champion Two-Year-Old Colt (Gstaad) and the Champion Two-Year-Old...

For this first of four parts of our annual Value Sires series in Europe, we will be dealing with the elite tier of stallions standing for a fee in excess of £50,000, which is approximately €57,000. The names in this bracket don't change that much, except for when a grandee retires or a young upstart bounces his way in. In 2025, we lost an increasingly prolific member of this cohort when Wootton Bassett died in Australia from pneumonia at the age of 17. The consequences of his passing will doubtless...

No Nay Never heads the Coolmore roster for the 2026 breeding season at €100,000, while the G1 Coral-Eclipse and G1 Irish Champion Stakes winner Delacroix, a son of Dubawi and the outstanding racemare Tepin, has been introduced at €40,000. Only the late Wootton Bassett has sired more individual Group-winning juveniles in Europe this year than No Nay Never, whose standout two-year-olds have included the G1 Cheveley Park Stakes heroine True Love and the G2 Norfolk Stakes winner Charles Darwin. The G1 City Of York Stakes scorer Never So Brave has...

In this series, the TDN takes a look at notable successes of European-based sires in North America. This week's column is highlighted by the Breeders' Cup meeting. Ethical Diamond Hands Mullins The Turf Training maestro Willie Mullins landed the biggest Flat victory of his career with Ethical Diamond (Awtaad) in the GI Breeders' Cup Turf on Saturday (video). A winner of a brace of valuable handicaps across the pond, the five-year-old gelding has also run seven of his lifetime starts over hurdles. Bred by W. Kennedy, Ethical Diamond is owned...