As One Champ Bows Out Another Ascends The Road To Glory

The immortal sire of sires & grand daddy of them all, Sadler's Wells (top pic) has been retired from stud duties at Coolmore at the grand age of 27. He's perfectly fit & healthy & has many happy years of retirement left in him but his fertility was on the wane; a problem all males succumb too at some point in their lives. Still, he leaves behind two of my fave sons of his in Galileo & Montjeu so his legacy will continue in spectacular fashion.

And as he bows out, Denman's (bottom pic) star continues to rise for he has been voted Horse of the Year by the BHA. While I am pleased at this, I am less happy at his rating of 182. Sure its fabulous but when you consider he went through the season unbeaten, carried top weight in the Hennessy, beat a high class field overseas in Ireland's Lexus chase, beat Kauto Star in decisive fashion the hard way IE out in front the best part of the race in the blue riband event of the decade; you'd expect him to be rated much closer to Kauto than that who by the way was defeated twice this year.

Still next year when my beloved Tank beats Kauto for the second time, no one - not even the suits at Timeform - can rate Denman 5lbs lower than Kauto. Bring it on. Ciao for now

TJ