Derby-winning owner is yet to pay up after autumn spending spree at the four major prestigious horse racing auctionsWe are scarcely a week into 2023 but Tattersalls, the venerable Newmarket bloodstock sales company, has already supplied a strong contender for the racing world’s Understatement of the Year, after it emerged over the weekend that 17 yearlings which were knocked down for an average of 650,000gns (£68.3k) at Tatts’ showpiece October sale last year have not – as yet – been paid for, and may need to be resold. “Obviously,” a spokesperson for the firm commented in a brief statement, “this is a regrettable situation”.It is, in all, just under £11m-worth of “regrettable” at Tattersalls alone, after an individual who was...
Half the field lining up for the Grade One at Sandown on Saturday are defending unbeaten records over timberIt would be greedy to hope for a winner to match the exceptional Constitution Hill, who was successful 12 months ago, when eight runners line up for the Grade One Tolworth Hurdle at Sandown on Saturday, but this year’s renewal makes much more appeal from the punters’ point of view, with half the field defending unbeaten records over timber.Henry de Bromhead’s Arctic Bresil – like Constitution Hill, a son of the stallion Blue Bresil – is a rare and intriguing runner from Ireland in this contest, having beaten 21 opponents with ease on his Rules debut at Cork last month, while Tahmuras,...
After a poor Betfair Chase, the eight-year-old is one of four former winners in the Grade One feature at LeopardstownThree of the last four winners of the Savills Chase are back for another crack at the Grade One feature of Leopardstown’s Christmas meeting on Wednesday, including A Plus Tard, last season’s hugely impressive Cheltenham Gold Cup winner, and Galvin, who touched him off by a short head in last year’s race.Neither horse arrives on the back of a win, and A Plus Tard’s supporters in particular will hope to see him bounce back from a desperately poor run behind Protektorat in November’s Betfair Chase. Continue reading...
Venetia Williams’ chaser can follow the route taken by greats such as Arkle and Burrough Hill Lad to Kempton’s big prizeIt was good enough for the likes of Arkle and Burrough Hill Lad, but a prep run in a handicap before the King George VI Chase has very much fallen out of favour in recent decades with just two horses having won the Boxing Day feature in the last 24 years on the back of an outing in handicap company.One of them, however, was Venetia Williams’s Teeton Mill, who took what was then the Hennessy Gold Cup at Newbury in November 1998 and followed up at Kempton a few weeks later, and the same trainer’s L’Homme Presse has an obvious...
The greatest jockey of all time debate is best left until he leaves the stage but the Italian must be part of the discussionThe best-laid plans, as racing people know only too well, can often go awry, but Frankie Dettori’s decision to set out an 11-month schedule for his farewell tour next year should mean that he will be appearing at a racecourse near you at least one more time before he finally hangs up his boots. It has been one of the greatest riding careers of them all, and we may never see another jockey with Dettori’s unique combination of gifts, both in and out of the saddle, which made him a household name.Many smaller tracks will be hoping...