Wootton bassett

There can be no bad time for a sale company to produce a Group 1 winner but, star graduate Believing (Ire) (Mehmas {Ire}) bagging a much-deserved breakthrough success at the highest level in the Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan last week provided Tattersalls with something extra to shout about on the eve of the much-anticipated Craven Breeze-Up Sale.  The George Boughey-trained speedster became the fifth Group 1 scorer to emerge from the Craven in the past three years alone, joining genuine top-notchers like 1,000 Guineas winner Cachet (Ire) (Aclaim {Ire}),...

It's going to get a little confusing this year with all these painters coming to the fore. Even more confusingly, Henri Matisse (Ire) and Camille Pissarro (Ire) are both by Wootton Bassett (GB) out of mares by Pivotal (GB), and, unsuprisingly, they are no ordinary mares.  Immortal Verse (Ire), the dual Group 1 winner bought for 4.7 million gns as a five-year-old, had already produced the Group 1 and Group 2 winners Tenebrism (Caravaggio) and Statuette (Justify) before Henri Matisse came along and, from a hard-working and high-scoring juvenile campaign...

The breeding game's loss could be the racetrack's gain after Amo Racing revealed on Tuesday that Group 1-winning sprinter Bucanero Fuerte (GB) has made a return to training with Adrian Murray following an unsuccessful stint at stud. Big things had been expected from Bucanero Fuerte at Tally-Ho Stud, where he had been advertised at an opening fee of €12,500. However, after failing to get a single mare in foal, he is back in full training and connections are quietly hopeful that the hugely-talented son of Wootton Bassett (GB) can make...

The catalogue for the Arqana Breeze-Up Sale, which takes place between 8 and 10 May, has been released and features the progeny of world-class stallions Justify, Wootton Bassett (GB), Lope De Vega (Ire), Sea The Stars (Ire), Dubawi (Ire) and more. A total of 192 two-year-olds feature in the sale that was headed last year by recent UAE 2,000 Guineas hero Ruling Court (Justify), who was sold by Norman Williamson's Oak Tree Farm to Godolphin for €2.3 million. There are seven horses by Justify in this year's sale that features...

Colin and Melba Bryce's Laundry Cottage Stud is home to 15 broodmares and, though the Hertfordshire operation could certainly be described as boutique, its paddocks have witnessed the formative years of two of the most talked-about horses of recent times. Wootton Bassett (GB) was born there in 2008 and the Group 1-winning juvenile-turned-supersire now commands a stud fee of €300,000. A decade later came Via Sistina (Ire), a 5,000-guinea yearling who became a multi-millionaire on the track and was the top-rated mare in the world last year. While Melba, who...

It's time to revisit our annual series to assess the sires of 2025 with the aim of working out where the value lies. We'll reissue the usual caveat that value means different things to different people. For the benefit of this series, we are using the euro as our currency for bracketing, and will deal with stallions in the following four tiers: €50,000 and up €20,000 to €49,999 €10,000 to €19,999 Under €10,000. Only one of the new additions to the European stallion ranks for 2025 makes it into the...

River Tiber (Ire) becomes the latest son of Wootton Bassett (GB) to join the stallion ranks and will stand in France at Haras de la Huderie in the Pays d'Auge having been bought by a collection of French breeders. His fee in his first year at stud will be €5,500. The group consists of Sebastien Desmontils, David Salabi, Guillaume and Camille Vitse, and Jean-Pierre and Guillaume Garcon, all of whom have had successful associations with the offspring of Wootton Bassett in the past in some shape or form.  "River Tiber's...

There can have been no ignoring the explosive entrance of the Emir of Qatar's Wathnan Racing to the European racing scene in particular over the last 18 months. The 2023 Royal Ascot winners Courage Mon Ami (GB) (Frankel {GB}) and Gregory (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}) gave advance warning as to what was to unfold in the ensuing period, with their victories respectively in the G1 Gold Cup and G2 Queen's Vase coming on their first starts in the Wathnan silks after being bought privately from their owner-breeders, Anthony Oppenheimer and...

Weatherbys has published its Bloodstock Sales Review Part 1 for 2024 which shows that dual champion sire Frankel (GB) has achieved the highest average price of any stallion at the yearling sales in Europe so far this year. With 31 yearlings sold, his average price was 711,398gns (€859,013) from a 2022 covering fee of £200,000. Frankel is now the joint-most expensive stallion in the world, with Dubawi (Ire), at £350,000. His most expensive yearling was the filly out of the Group 2 winner Aljazzi (GB) (Shamardal), sold by Newsells Park...

DEL MAR, USA -- "If we get the horses we can deliver," said Ger Lyons after proving his point emphatically in the opening Breeders' Cup race on Future Stars Friday. "We have to up our game every day to take on Aidan. It's just fantastically competitive at home." That second point was also proved, again and again, in the hours to follow as Lake Victoria (Ire) (Frankel {GB}) remained unbeaten in her taking of the Juvenile Fillies Turf and Henri Matisse (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) gave Aidan O'Brien a record-equalling...

The outside draw was no problem for Henri Matisse (Ire) (Wootton Bassett {GB}) who came flying late to award trainer Aidan O'Brien another win in the GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf. The only O'Brien runner in the race, the son of Wootton Bassett likely would have been a shorter price if not for his last-out fifth as the beaten favorite in the G1 Prix JeanLuc Lagardere at Longchamp, a race in which he wore blinkers for the first time over soft turf. Otherwise sporting a nearly unblemished record including a...

Book 2 of the October Yearling Sale, which begins its three-day run this Monday, marks a welcome return to the consigning ranks of Daylesford Stud. Daylesford is a name synonymous with quality and it is not just the organic farmshop and luxury goods brand to which that label can be applied. The stud's owner, Lady Bamford, has long been a breeder of top-tier horses, her maroon colours having been carried to glory by two homebred Oaks winners since 2009 - Sariska (GB) (Pivotal {GB}) and Soul Sister (GB) (Frankel {GB})....