Norris Bloodstock

We’ve enjoyed some good results on the track this week thanks to one of last season’s yearling sales graduates and also one of our homebreds. On Saturday, two-year-old Shalaa (pictured below, red cap) made his second start at Newmarket for John Gosden and was the impressive winner of the six-furlong EBF Maiden under Frankie Dettori. Bred by Aisling Kinane and Mark Gittins, the son of Invincible Spirit was offered for sale as a foal at Tattersalls, where William and I bought h

We've had mixed fortunes with our mares this year. With neither Villabella or Nut having had a foal last year I was looking forward to seeing what this spring would bring but early in the year we found Villabella had absorbed her foal, which was extremely disappointing after sending her all the way to Germany to be covered by Dabirsim. Worse was to come, however, for poor Nut. She delivered a good strong colt by Rajsaman who seemed perfect in every way bar the fact that he ha

William and I have always loved buying horses in France and we enjoyed another successful trip to the Arqana February Sale earlier this week. As I’ve mentioned in the past, we were both very keen on Dabirsim when he retired to stud, and our early good impression of him on the track at Deauville was confirmed when William, Emma and I made our infamous road trip to Germany to see him last March at Gestüt Karlshof. It was therefore disappointing to have had two mares cover

It doesn’t seem long since we were in Deauville for the Arqana December Sale and we’ll soon be back on the sales beat. I’ll be off to Newmarket next week to see the stallion parade and attend the Tattersalls February Sale before William and I both head back to France for Arqana’s February Sale. Both catalogues contain a number of weanlings or ‘short’ yearlings, so anyone who is still interested in pinhooking for the autumn yearling sales – or indeed looking to find a filly ou

It’s hard to believe that we’ve come full circle and it’s time to start assessing this year’s foal crop. I’m heading off to Goffs next week where I bought a lovely filly by Dream Ahead last year who was subsequently bought at the recent Tattersalls October Sale by David Elsworth. Obviously I’m interested to see the six Frankel foals in the catalogue – who wouldn’t be? – but there are some other really interesting first-crop sires with foals this year, including the likes of S

Before I write anything else, I must first thank Jenny and her wonderful team of Rachael, Andrea, Katy, Mel, and Anne for the excellent work they did in preparing and presenting the Clairemont Stud draft for Books 1 and 2 of the October Yearling Sale at Tattersalls. After all the long months of sales prep, the last few days at the sales showing the horses before they head to the sales ring are really important. Our team worked really hard through long days and I think enhance

As ever, the sales season is a busy time of the year. I had an enjoyable day with Richard Kent at Mickley Stud this week, viewing the farm’s mares and young stock and also seeing their new stallion, Yorgunnebelucky, for the first time. It was good to see the stud’s stalwart Multiplex, too. Jenny and I are selling a strong filly by him out of our mare Nut in Book 3 of the Tattersalls October Sale (Lot 1613), whose full-sister Captain Caroline won last year. As you can see from

It’s been fantastic to see the yearling sales season start with such a bang in Deauville and we were delighted to sell our Zamindar colt well on the opening night of Arqana’s August Sale. He travelled across well, behaved beautifully through the viewing days and was eventually bought for €200,000 by Bertand Le Metayer on behalf of Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Al Thani. I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’ve always thought the colt was something special so we’ll look forward

We’re counting down the days now until we load our beautiful Zamindar colt onto the lorry for France. He’ll be the first of our yearlings to sell this year when he goes under the hammer as Lot 27 on the opening night of Arqana’a August Sale. I always really look forward to the French yearling sales – William and I have had plenty of luck buying in France – but there’ll be a bit of extra pressure this year with this colt becoming our first horse to be consigned in Deauville

Welcome to the first posting on what I hope will become an occasional rather than regular blog. We’ve just returned from a busy week in Newmarket, much of which was spent at the Tattersalls July Sale looking for a broodmare prospect for myself and a racing prospect for John and Emma Berry. I was really pleased to be able to buy Clutter (pictured above), an unraced three-year-old from the Juddmonte draft to join my mares Nut and Villabella here at Clairemont Stud. I'm very muc