Adam Houghton

Welcome to Winter Watch, the new column with the unenviable task of trying to fill the void that now exists after Emma Berry penned her final Seven Days column of 2024, not to return until we hand the baton over again next spring.

It was perhaps fitting last week that the inaugural edition of Winter Watch going to print should coincide with the arrival of snow across many parts of Britain, albeit we now find ourselves with one less meeting to report on after the cold snap brought terminal consequences for a certain all-weather track in Nottinghamshire.

Nottingham is the place to be right now. A real hive of activity when it comes to music, arts and culture which is why tonight of all nights the city is buzzing wherever the mood takes you. Whether it’s at The Carousel for the launch of new independent publication The Sprawl which features some of Nottingham’s finest acts from the worlds of music and poetry or over yonder to Saltbox, where an equally vibrant Rock Against Racism event boasts an eclectic and diverse mix of musical treats from all genres and backgrounds. Indeed, it makes a refreshing change to be so spoiled for choice.

The sale-topper at the opening session of the Tattersalls December Mares Sale heads to Australia with Vin Cox excited about the prospects of Caught U Looking (Ire) (Harzand {Ire}).

The second day of the Tattersalls December Mare Sale was the highest-grossing day in European auction history with 200 broodmares and racing fillies sold for over 55 million gns (AU$114 million), led by Amo Racing's purchase of G1 Irish Oaks winner You Got To Me (GB) (Nathaniel {Ire}) for 4.8 million gns (AU$9.9 million).

“Look away Mick Appleby, but there has arguably been no finer exponent of the new and improved all-weather programme in the last decade than the Gosden stable, home to a handful of Classic/Group 1 winners who learned the ropes at the likes of Kempton and Newcastle in the depths of winter.”

And breathe . If you listen carefully enough, you can almost hear the collective exhale from all of those invested in the bloodstock industry and its transfer market, as we near the conclusion of another dizzying year on the merry-go-round that is the European sales calendar.

And breathe. If you listen carefully enough, you can almost hear the collective exhale from all of those invested in the bloodstock industry and its transfer market, as we near the conclusion of another dizzying year on the merry-go-round that is the European sales calendar. The relentless nature of it can have a bewildering effect

When City Of Troy ( Justify ) and his entourage descended on Southwell for a racecourse gallop on that feel-good afternoon back in September, it was commented on that the number of racing fans there to see him–thought to be 700-plus–was larger than would usually turn up for a typical day of racing there. The Nottinghamshire track traditionally staged low-grade fare which offered no real prospect of seeing a horse with talent even remotely comparable to that of the Derby winner.

Like any vibrant metropolis, Haras d'Etreham is somewhere that embraces the diversity of its inhabitants. At one time the roster featured everything from a dual Group 1-winning sprinter in Hello Youmzain (Fr), now one of the most expensive Flat stallions in France, to the leading National Hunt sire Saint des Saints (Fr), who in October this year was pensioned from stud duties.