Sarah Sands

Bloodstock, Eventing, Innovation, Tech. Treo Eile - Retraining Ireland’s Racehorses

[Sarah Sands @bubblebs]

@CBloodstock Do they have less ulcer issues?

[Tom Ryan SFB @TomRyanKY]

Today marks the 65th birthday of Northern Dancer, the little Canadian colt who changed Thoroughbred racing forever. As a yearling in 1962, the tiny 14-hand colt had a $25,000 reserve and got no bidders. Owner E.P. Taylor kept him. He won the 1964 Kentucky Derby in 2 minutes flat while still technically not 3 years old (foaled May 27, 1961). His racing career spanned 19 starts (15 wins) spread across only 11 months before a bowed tendon ended it at age 3. In 1965 he became the first non-human ever inducted into Canada’s Sports Hall of Fame. His trainer actually wanted to geld him early on, he had massive Napoleonic attitude. Thankfully his Owner refused to cut that fire, Years later, a European syndicate offered $40 MILLION for the stallion. Because he was so compact (around 15.1 hands and under 1,000 lbs), they built him a custom ramp in the breeding shed. Stud fees later hit $1 million No Gurantee. The ultimate underdog story. Massive legacy that still runs through every top Thoroughbred today. #NorthernDancer

Hanging in my office is the hand painted on tin plaque that marked his win in the 1946 it once hung at @ChurchillDowns @KentuckyDerby

• Total named foals: 645 (produced over ~23 seasons at stud at Windfields Farm, Maryland)

• Runners/Starters: ~511 (roughly 80% of his foals actually raced)

• Winners: 411 (63.7% of named foals)

• Stakes Winners: 147 (22.8% of named foals) a world record for any US -based stallion at the time

• Champions: 23 (across North America, England & Ireland) that shows how dominant he was:

• Typical book size: limited to around 36 mares per year

• First crop (1968): immediate explosion — 16 winners from just 18 starters, including 10 stakes winners

• Leading Sire titles: North America (1971 & 1977), Great Britain & Ireland (1970, 1978, 1983, 1984)

• Million-dollar yearlings: 49 of his offspring sold for $1M+ at auction

• Sire of sires: Produced SEVEN sons that each went on to sire 100+ stakes winners (Nijinsky II, Sadler’s Wells, Danzig, Lyphard, Nureyev, Storm Bird, Vice Regent)

[Highflyer Bloodstock @agentbloodstock]

Will be a bitter sweet day tomorrow as we sell the the Million in Mind partnership horses for the very final time😢
Lot 679 Macshadow de Crai
Lot 680 Idaho Fire (close 3rd on 5 May)
Lot 681 Cushendall

[Sarah Sands @bubblebs]

We love this! First run of the year for Rising Empire! A lovely horse.
🙌👏🏻

[Chapel Stud @ChapelStud]

𝐁𝐓 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐜𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐨𝐫

Rising Empire (by Bangkok) bred by @spectraSimonD ran a big race in 4th @ 𝐈𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐆𝐧𝐬

@Goodwood_Races Galaxy Star (by Planteur) finished 4th in @BritishEBF 𝐋. Daisy Warwick Stks

📸Rising Empire

[Sarah Sands @bubblebs]

Keep up!

[Horse Racing Ireland @HRIRacing]

"There's so much going in the world that we can't control - but backing Irish horse racing is something we can control - this industry is worth billions."

Great to welcome Tánaiste Simon Harris to @punchestownrace along with at least one familar racing face!

[Sarah Sands @bubblebs]

Some wonderful brains… and wonderful days 🥹

[History of Horse Racing @horsevault]

1991 A Day At The Racing Post

[BallylinchStud @BallylinchStud]

🐰 It's feel-Good Friday for these LOOK DE VEGA foals!

[International Thoroughbred @InterThorough]

A blueprint with teeth

@mindmodeller is part of the Racing Innovation Group

The team has produced the report “Racing Needs Transformational Change not Incremental Tinkering”, a whole industry strategy that outlines a pathway for British racing ... but the sport needs to act now

https://t.co/c25IuluYw2

[Tom Ryan SFB @TomRyanKY]

🆘The Thoroughbred Renaissance has begun. $35,000 raised in under 24 hours for 20 TAKE2 Thoroughbred Hunter & Jumper Classics at the Kentucky Horse Park—with more coming at Warrenton, Upperville, and beyond—is just the first shot fired. This needle-moving money will drive demand for Thoroughbreds back into the ring as sporthorses—hunters, jumpers, eventers, barrel horses, and more—by uniting the racehorse and sporthorse worlds around real prize money, real opportunity, and lifelong aftercare.

But a true Renaissance needs a chorus: your voices, your networks, your social channels. Share every release far and wide, tell riders to get an OTTB now and help make “I ride a Thoroughbred” the most powerful sentence in the show barn again.

There is zero excuse for a U.S. show ring full of foreign-bred horses while our Thoroughbreds stand on the sidelines. The Thoroughbred Renaissance isn’t about feeling good; it’s about doing right by the horses that power our game—by incentivizing aftercare, putting up serious prize money, and building high-dollar Thoroughbred-only classes that grow their value in the sporthorse market and end the idea that you have to leave America to buy “quality.” @MachmerHall

https://t.co/vAIp4ri6u0

[Sarah Sands @bubblebs]

🥲sad news, a formidable horseman. 💜 @Hannah_BL @edward_whitaker

[Irish National Stud @IrishNatStud]

Rest in peace Daffer, you will be greatly missed by us all.

[Eventing Nation @eventingnation]

🇳🇿 New Zealand rider Clarke Johnstone became the inaugural winner of the Arena Racing Company (ARC) Racehorse to Eventer Challenge at Cornbury House Horse Trials, which carries a £45,000 first prize – unprecedented in the sport of eventing at this level.

https://t.co/BgX36ChjOo

[International Thoroughbred @InterThorough]

It was a tricky, and big, track #Cornbury Horse Trials for the Racehorse To Eventer Challenge, but the T'breds proved once again how clever they are and more than up to the challenge to battle for the £45,000 first prize

Will be featuring the class & the initiative in the November edition of International Thoroughbred magazine

#Cornbury | #CHHT | @DashStud | @arenaracingco |

[World Horse Racing @WHR]

Treo Eile, 𝙖𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙙𝙞𝙧𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 for any of Ireland's magnificent racehorses... 🔁🍀✨

@TreoEileRIR | @HRIRacing | #ICF

[Chapel Stud @ChapelStud]

BANGKOK’S FIRST WINNER 🏆

RISING EMPIRE was BANGKOK’s first foal, first runner, and now his first winner. There looks to be plenty to come from this talented 2yo colt.

Congratulations to Simon and Rhian on this landmark victory, breeders of RISING EMPIRE and owners of BANGKOK.

[Racing Post Bloodstock @rpbloodstock]

“He’s just such a beautiful looking horse and he deserves more mares than he's getting, but the ones he's got are looking more Flat than jumpers.”

Chapel Stud sire Bangkok off the mark at Windsor 👉 https://t.co/FeM5VBFfwL

[Sarah Sands @bubblebs]

What a BANGER! Bravo 👏 🌟

[Eva O’Neill @eva0neilll]

Hats off to Rising Empire 🎩

Our lovely Bangkok colt found @Tattersalls1766 with @grovewoodstud from @ChapelStud

Congratulations to connections @JSBLOODSTOCK @AndrewBalding2

[Norwich City FC @NorwichCityFC]

🏟✍️

[Coldplay @coldplay]

Thank you 2024 ✨
#MusicOfTheSpheresWorldTour #MoonMusic

[Sarah Sands @bubblebs]

Some jumping career ahead of him!

[Alice Fitzgerald @fitzgeraldalice]

Proud of Loaded (Kodiac ex Fikrah) jumping a superb clear round under Champion Jockey (and top-class showjumper) @oismurphy on his first appearance at the @TreoEileRIR Christmas Show, having only recently started jumping🤩

4 wins from 44 starts on the flat in GB, Ireland & Hong Kong, and now competing successfully in showing, dressage and jumping.

Huge thanks to everyone at Treo Eile for organising the day and everything else during the year, it’s great to see all these lovely thoroughbreds doing so well in their new careers. Big thanks also to Oisin for giving Loaded such a good ride, it was a thrill to watch 👏🏻

#racehorsetoridinghorse #offthetrack #SummitBloodstock #ottb

[Sarah Sands @bubblebs]

Super victory!!! 🏆👏

Davy rode OUR FATHER
Austin OSCAR ENCORE
Rachael MICHAEL’S PICK

Fair play to their retrainers - class jumping - congrats 🥳

[TREO EILE, Retraining Ireland's Racehorses @TreoEileRIR]

What a fantastic evening last night and great to crown @_Davy_Russel_ and the @LeopardstownRC team winners of the @HRIRacing Thoroughbred Classic. Davy was joined by Austin O’Connor, Finn Russell and Rachael O’Callaghan 🌟