ENGLISH TEXTS
Champion First-Season Sire battle; a reminder of who sits at the top of the early juvenile producing stallion table and more recently, has produced future Group winners such as Arizona Blaze and Bucanero Fuerte. Excitement was high ahead of this year’ s renewal, with no fewer than four freshman sires represented in a seven-runner field- Space Blues, Supremacy, Ubettabelieveit and Lucky Vega – all searching for a flying start in their campaign for leading first-season sire. The old guard were represented by high-class juvenile and speed producer Mehmas, the stalwart Invincible Army and the surprise package Kodi Bear, who has been upgrading mares with an enviable consistency. It was Darley’ s Space Blues who reigned supreme in a fast five-furlong sprint to gain an early mark on the freshman scoresheet, with trainer Adrian Murray recording his third straight success in the race with Power Blue. The first foal out of two-time winner Visions, who was placed in the Premio Elena e Sergio Cumani( Gr. 3), Power Blue had been sold as a foal for 30,000 euros before being bought for 44,000 euros at Goffs Premier Yearling Sale. An auspicious start for Kildangan Stud-based Space Blues, winner of the Prix Maurice de Gheest and the Prix de la Foret then translated his French form internationally when taking the
Breeders’ Cup Mile. The son of Dubawi stood for 17,500 euros in his opening season and will have more expensive juveniles heading to the track over the course of the next six months. More French form is represented amongst the freshman sire ranks by Coolmore’ s St Mark’ s Basilica, the Poule d’ Essai des Poulains and Prix du Jockey Club hero, quick enough to win a Dewhurst Stakes( Gr. 1) as a juvenile. A first-season fee of 40,000 euros was considered a reasonable opening mark for the son of Siyouni, who attracted a quality and varied book of mares including the dam of Epsom Derby( Gr. 1) winner Anthony Von Dyke and known producers of top-class sprinters. It is easy to anticipate that the Champion First-Season Sire title will be heading back to Ireland, whatever happens over the course of the next six months. From a purely numerical perspective, Irish-based stallions Starman( Tally-Ho Stud) and Supremacy( Yeomanstown Stud) could boast up to 400 runners between them whilst Space Blues( Kildangan Stud) and St Mark’ s Basilica( Coolmore) are expected to provide a high level of quality. In comparison, the British-based A’ Ali( Newsells Park Stud) and Lope Y Fernandez( The National Stud) had relatively small books and are likely to field less than 100 individual juveniles each for 2025. The domination of the Irish then, is apparently not limited to Cheltenham.
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GLOBAL ECONOMY
IGOR DE MAACKS CHRONICLE
WAR AND PEACE
In this historical novel, whose title is actually inspired by a work of the French anarchist Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Leo Tolstoy recounts a century of clashes between major empires, particularly the Napoleonic campaigns and the invasion of Russia in 1812, which claimed the lives of many soldiers, as well as their horses. In 2025, these two words- war and peace- resonate even more powerfully, as since 2022, peace has, for the first time, been openly discussed between Russia, Ukraine … and the United States. Improved international relations among major nuclear powers would certainly be good news, especially as no side can now realistically claim total victory; without strategy or tactics, every belligerent heads toward ruin. As Sun Tzu wrote in The Art
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