They were certainly getting excited after Galopin Des Champs came back to form with a 23-length romp in the Savills Chase at Leopardstown on Thursday, writes Tony Stafford. They reasoned that in beating market rival Gerri Colombe by that margin, he was reasserting his place at the head of the steeplechasing tree. He probably was. […]
I’m quite good at guessing the time as I look out of my window early in the morning, writes Tony Stafford. Yesterday, I surmised 7.24 a.m. – yes, I allowed myself a Christmas lie-in – but it was 7.26. I’d obviously miscalculated that the days were getting longer again (hurrah). The clocks will soon be […]
I got a parcel in the post the other day, preceded by an explanation as to why my friend Peter Ashmore would want to send me “The Boss”, written in the year 2000 by John Budden and subtitled the Life and Times of Horseracing Legend Gordon W Richards, writes Tony Stafford. Peter knows I speak […]
It’s only about ten weeks ago that I went through the lengthy career of Not So Sleepy, writes Tony Stafford. Of course, any time in competition for a racehorse that began with a win as a juvenile nine years before is unusual. Even more remarkable was Saturday’s romp to victory in the Grade 1 Betfair […]
I remember many years ago, walking out of my office in Fleet Street to be greeted by a healthy, or rather unhealthy, fall of snow, writes Tony Stafford. It was just before Christmas and that winter racing was decimated. Some years we escape snow until well into the New Year and the jumps season appears […]
I don’t know if you ever saw the famous Ed Byrne picture of Pendil jumping a fence, Fred Winter’s great chaser being revealed at the top of his flawless arc, writes Tony Stafford. It was a thing of rare beauty. Pendil won two King George’s and was pipped on the line in the Gold Cup […]
Last week, as I detailed the overwhelming power of the big yards in the UK and Ireland, on the flat and it seemed even more so over jumps, I should have conceded that there is always room for a talented upstart to pick up a piece of the pie, writes Tony Stafford. He or she […]
You might not have noticed, but the British flat turf season ended with a whimper, as they say, on Saturday – on the Tapeta surface at Newcastle rather than on the swamp that was Doncaster, writes Tony Stafford. The end-of-season highlight, the November Handicap, sponsored by whoever they can drum up these days, was a […]
So Auguste Rodin, Aidan O’Brien and Ryan Moore did it, writes Tony Stafford. At the forefront of the Irish stable and its Coolmore ownership team’s £2.7 million return from their trip to Santa Anita, the dual Derby winner emerged as a true champion, not least because of the courage of his trainer. When the son […]
Back in the spring, the racing world, both in Europe and the United States, was in a state of panic, writes Tony Stafford. The cause? The belief that horses raised and trained in Japan were becoming impossible to beat when they travel over to Dubai or indeed the United States for the Breeders’ Cup in […]
They were all at Ascot on Saturday for Frankie Day part two, 27 years after the seven out of seven, writes Tony Stafford. But in many ways his double there, including the Champion Stakes on King of Steel, was even more compelling, after his cumulative intervening effect on the sport of horse racing. It’s a […]
There was a space next to me for Aidan O’Brien to slide into as we had a late lunch on Saturday, delayed by the excitements we’d just seen on the track, writes Tony Stafford. To my observation that I’d written that City Of Troy was the best two-year-old I’d ever seen, performance-wise, after the Superlative […]
Last week’s Tattersalls October Yearling Sale Book 1 in Newmarket highlighted the extravagant cost of owning a high-class racehorse, writes Tony Stafford. Top price was two million guineas – yes, Tatts are still in the Dark Ages financially speaking – which actually pales in comparison with some double digit million-dollar sales in Keeneland, Lexington, Kentucky […]
I know I should be dedicating much of today’s article to celebrating France’s successful conclusion to their horseracing Holy Grail – finding an unbeaten three-year-old colt who can win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, preferably as the favourite for Europe’s greatest race, writes Tony Stafford. As I watched on a nice big screen at […]
They raced for a lot of money in Ireland yesterday, the Friends of Curragh Irish Cesarewitch carrying a £292k first prize, for which 30 horses turned up, writes Tony Stafford. You would have won a lot of money, too, if you had found the Joseph O’Brien-trained winner, the potential heir to the Ballydoyle job one […]
