The Owner Breeder

1 week ago | theownerbreeder.com | Nancy Sexton

A glance at the first-crop sires market suggests that the race for the 2025 title is done and dusted. At odds of 1/3, Starman is the overwhelming choice to fire in the most winners and become the latest leading freshman sire off the Tally-Ho Stud production line. Therein lies one of the pivotal factors in Paddy Power’s pricing.

3 weeks ago | theownerbreeder.com | Tom Peacock

The kind of mare that might make you a TBA Breeder of the Month contender tend to have either been developed over generations or shrewdly picked up at the sales. Julian Selby’s route to finding Thebelloftheball, dam of January’s winner Don’t Rightly Know through her victory in the Listed Charlie Nugent Memorial Mares’ Chase at Newbury, was a little different.

1 month ago | theownerbreeder.com | Nancy Sexton

Plans by the European Union (EU) to review its regulations for the transport of animals was borne out of well-meaning intentions. Around 1.8 billion animals are destined for slaughter each year in the EU, some of them transported in abominable conditions. The European Commission’s (EC) announcement of a new Farm To Fork strategy in 2020 was designed to tackle those issues head on and hopefully improve the wellbeing of such animals in the process.

1 month ago | theownerbreeder.com | Tom Peacock

Even with such a rich history of graduates from Little Lodge Farm over the years, Jackie Chugg admits there was something quite rare about the quality shown by The New Lion. At Newbury just after Christmas, Dan Skelton’s gelding took the Grade 1 Challow Hurdle without appearing to break sweat. It had been much the same case in each of his previous three starts, prompting JP McManus to make a private offer to buy him from owners Darren and Annaley Yates. The success has continued a fine partnership.

1 month ago | theownerbreeder.com | Nancy Sexton

The Aga Khan IV, one of the most influential owner-breeders in the world and the spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslim community, died on February 4 aged 88. His passing, which prompted a wave of tributes from leading racing figures across the globe, brought an end to an era that started in 1960 when, aged 23, the Aga Khan took control of his family’s bloodstock operation following the death of his father Prince Aly Khan.