Winter Watch

The Albert Einstein bubble might have been burst somewhat at the Curragh on Saturday, but for so many other horses the Classic dream remains very much alive, with less than five weeks to go now until the 2,000 Guineas at Newmarket provides the answer to the first of the many questions that have kept us guessing all winter. Even now, the guessing doesn't stop. Two years ago, few people would have had Notable Speech pinned as their Guineas winner at this early stage of the campaign, the all-weather upstart tasked...

With the Brocklesby entries just a matter of hours away from being published, the time has nearly come for us to close the book on Winter Watch for another year. The final instalment to come next week will attempt to wrap up the best of the action that we've witnessed on the all-weather over the past four months or so, highlighting the 10 three-year-olds who have left the most lasting impression and appear ready to run in a Classic trial near you this spring. Before then, however, there's time to...

Alongside the Godolphin duo of Nation's Hope (Ghaiyyath) and Palladas (Lope De Vega), The Last Dance (Iffraaj) recently made an impressive debut at Chantilly to become the third European-trained three-year-old to be named a 'TDN Rising Star, presented by Hagyard' since our Winter Watch run began back in November. It looked a strong race in which The Last Dance debuted on March 3, facing eight other newcomers over 9.5f of the Chantilly all-weather. They included the Wertheimer homebred Maine (Night Of Thunder), a sibling to two winners of the G1...

Following a busy weekend of racing in the Middle East between Doha and Riyadh, Emma Berry will be bringing her popular Seven Days column back from its winter hibernation for a one-off edition this week, providing a helpful summary for those lucky few whose Valentine's Day obligations took them away from the racing on Saturday in favour of a cinema trip to see Wuthering Heights. Really, only me? Anyway, you can rest assured that Margot Robbie hasn't prevented your Winter Watch columnist from keeping an eagle eye on the all-weather...

Winter Watch returns from a brief hiatus to recap some of the key action that you might have missed during what always feels like the longest month of the year. In truth, if there was ever a good time for this column to take a break, then January was probably it, with several of the biggest trainers in the sport having essentially shut up shop during the first few weeks of the new year. John and Thady Gosden, for example, followed a hugely successful December (10 winners from 24 runners)...

It's that time of year where everybody who's anybody in racing is being asked for their 2026 predictions. Already, I've seen four different staying chasers nominated as the likeliest winner of the Cheltenham Gold Cup - Galopin Des Champs is a decent bet to regain his crown at 6/1, if you're asking - while Flat racing fans can be found staring deep into their crystal balls, trying to pinpoint the five Classic winners of 2026. On Friday, it was exactly four months until the 2,000 Guineas kicks off the proper...

No fewer than 44 all-weather fixtures (up to and including racing on Tuesday, December 16) have been held in Britain and Ireland since the most recent edition of Winter Watch was penned on November 20, with the end-of-year sales swing dictating that the recent focus for us bloodstock journalists has been less Newcastle and Dundalk, more Newmarket and Deauville. But now, with the sights and sounds of Arqana quickly becoming a distant memory, it's time to get back to what will be our bread and butter until Flat racing returns...

Winter Watch will have its time between now and the return of the Flat for real next March, but first let us bask in a snapshot of summer, celebrating our diamonds in the rough who graduated from all-weather unknowns to titans of the turf in the space of 12 months. Last winter's action might not have given us another Classic winner, à la Notable Speech, but once again the flourishing all-weather programme lived up to its reputation as a breeding ground for black-type performers of the future. At the very top...

The return of Seven Days earlier this week allows us to close the book on the stopgap that was Winter Watch. Before you know it the first Classics of the season will be upon us, leaving the cold, dark months that spanned 13 editions of this column since it first came into being in November as nothing but a distant memory. Albeit not too distant, I hope. After all, the whole reason why we embarked on this journey in the first place was with those very Classics in mind, informed...

Another 'TDN Rising Star' was born across the Channel on Tuesday, as We'll Defend (Fr) followed in the footsteps of Mandanaba (Fr) (Ghaiyyath {Ire}) and Tito Mo Cen (Ire) (Uncle Mo) by producing a sparkling debut display on the Chantilly polytrack. All told, We'll Defend is the sixth now-three-year-old to have earned 'TDN Rising Star' status in Europe since Winter Watch came into being in November, with Falakeyah (GB) (New Bay {GB}), Bowmark (GB) (Kingman {GB}) and Opera Ballo (Ire) (Ghaiyyath {Ire}) also having impressed in Britain in that time....

"An eagle-eyed former Timeform employee, Adam guarantees that if the next Notable Speech is out there, about to make his debut on the all-weather this winter before marching on to Classic glory, then he will spot him. No pressure, then." Those were the words of TDN colleague Emma Berry when she penned her final Seven Days column of 2024, teeing up what was to come in the column introduced in its stead for the winter. Now, in this 12th edition of Winter Watch, we've reached the stage where it's time...

For the second week in a row we start in France and on the polytrack at Chantilly, the scene of not one but two sizzling debut performances on Friday's card. The two newcomers blitzed their rivals by a cumulative margin of 11 lengths, with the four-length victory of Audubon Park (Fr) quickly being put in the shade by that of Tito Mo Cen (Ire) when he won the boys' equivalent race by nearly twice as far. The time clocked by the latter was also around 1.4 seconds faster as he...