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    Ray Norton : Obituary

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    Change of roles for Hollis

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    The Box Seat – May 13

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    News Briefs : May 12, 2021

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    Addington Weekly – May 12

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  • Posts

    • That's racing.  Take @billy connolly 's approach invest in gold bullion but then take a small proportion of the profits and but a share in a horse.
    • Seems @JJ Flash , @Transparency and other doomsayers have it wrong...again!  ENTAIN share price increases over 22% year to date even in the light of AUSTRAC case. Major investment advisors recommend buy and have upped their previous share price target.  Deutsche Bank has upped their already bullish target by another 17%.
    • However poignant the cue, our collective reflections on the legacy of D. Wayne Lukas will discover much comfort not only in his vital embrace of every moment of a long, fulfilling life but also in the benedictions we can take forward with us. These range from the example he has set us all, in passionate advocacy of our sport, to the more specific conduits of horsemanship he opened in “coaching” Todd Pletcher and so many others. In measuring our gratitude, however, we additionally find ourselves contemplating a curiosity that invites precisely the kind of original thinking he trademarked. For we can at least ask ourselves the question whether the principal genetic bequest of horses trained by Lukas should ultimately be credited to broodmares. Considering the parade of outstanding colts through his hands, none quite reached true greatness at stud. But we will not be surprised, given the tremendous physical constitution that he often discovered in campaigning them so fearlessly, that the best of them tended to impart robustness. Arguably the most successful, in fact, belonged to his second tier of racetrack achievers: the likes of Carson City, Southern Halo (Arg) and Dynaformer. Among his most accomplished runners, Gulch and his son Thunder Gulch certainly had their moments; so did Proud Citizen, Capote and Mt. Livermore. In terms of a lasting impact on the breed, however, might we allow greater resonance to, for instance, Terlingua (Secretariat), Blush With Pride (Blushing Groom {Fr}) and Cara Rafaela (Quiet American)? Now obviously in his pomp Lukas was receiving exceptionally well-bred fillies, whose second careers can always be redeemed even by a single outstanding foal–hardly an indulgence afforded to stallions. All three of the fillies just mentioned, as elite performers, earned corresponding covers. And while their trainer plainly maximized their potential, he can hardly be credited for whatever they could transfer genetically. Terlingua was a $275,000 yearling from Secretariat's second crop, but after she had attested to the quality of her genes–both on the track and then in producing Storm Cat–her half-brother Royal Academy (Nijinsky) would repay even a $3.5 million punt as a yearling. Blush With Pride was also by a young stallion, first of four Grade I winners in Blushing Groom's debut crop, but her dam Best in Show (Traffic Judge) was developing her own dynasty sufficiently to make $650,000 as a yearling. But Cara Rafaela, actually another from her sire's first crop, cost no more than $70,000 and her son Bernardini has built his spectacular success as a broodmare sire from fairly limited family. But what all three had in common is that they stood up to the exacting Lukas regime: Terlingua, seven-for-17 across 20 months; Blush With Pride, six-for-16 across 13; Cara Rafaela, four-for-24 across 29. Now we all know that there are no rules with Thoroughbreds, and that some of the best racemares have proved extremely disappointing producers–to the extent that there's a whimsical theory that the likes of Winning Colors (Caro) or Spain (Thunder Gulch) were too masculine as athletes to excel as mothers! But in exploring a horse's attributes so thoroughly, certainly in a fashion that would unnerve most trainers today, perhaps Lukas did a couple of contrasting things. With colts, perhaps his genius and searching methods together reached parts that other trainers couldn't, while rival stallion prospects may not have reached the same ceilings elsewhere–only for their relative merits to be more truly reflected in their stud careers. With females, on the other hand, the proof of their toughness perhaps helped breeders in their decision-making. Who knows, it may well be that Storm Cat's breeders might have hesitated to use a stallion like Storm Bird, whose unfortunate sophomore career left a query over his constitution, if Lukas had not amplified the compensatory strengths of Terlingua–very possibly the source of the mental toughness we associate with Storm Cat's stock. So let's learn one more lesson from the Coach. Because in an era when trainers keep horses timidly shy of their limits, it has become much harder for breeders to know where to find the real seams of ore. Crimson Advocate | Ryan Thompson An Advocate For Dirt At Ascot Proud Citizen was certainly what the English might salute as a “yeoman” among the stallions from the Lukas barn: not a breed shaper, maybe, but a worthy, middle-ranking influence. In fact, it's almost as though his name flavored his reputation, as a stalwart, upright contributor to the breed. Certainly it feels edifying to find him behind a filly like Crimson Advocate (Nyquist), whose achievement at Royal Ascot last week had a greater significance than was locally granted. When she won at the meeting as a juvenile, she represented an American barn and her dash over five furlongs was duly perceived as “standard issue.” Returning last year, from a new base in Newmarket, she duly persisted at the same distance and made no impact. But this time round, she had been reinvented as a hold-up miler and cut them down stylishly in the G2 Duke of Cambridge Stakes. Only one other Nyquist foal has ever been trained in Britain. Her name is Habooba, and she started her career in Dubai before transferring to a small yard in Newmarket. Last month in a competitive handicap at York, she won for the fifth time since, and has now won one-fifth of her trainer's career prize money to date. As so often, then, a top-class American sire has been given virtually zero chance in this theater, while giving an ample hint as to what he might achieve if given the same kind of opportunity as when dirt-bred sires transformed the European scene a couple of generations ago. Nyquist obviously nailed the dirt grail in the GI BC Juvenile/GI Kentucky Derby double, much as his breeders would have dreamed in sending the daughter of a GII Adirondack Stakes winner to Uncle Mo. But he has actually had a Grade I winner on turf in California, in Johannes, and if he sought some extra chlorophyll for Crimson Advocate then it was available in the daughter of Proud Citizen who produced her. For Citizen Advocate achieved a rare distinction in winning consecutive black-type sprints as a juvenile on three different surfaces: turf, synthetic, dirt. Her half-sister by Dixie Union is the dam of no less a dirt performer than champion juvenile filly Caledonia Road (Quality Road). She also gave us Officiating (Blame), winner of three graded stakes on dirt (albeit also stakes-placed on turf), plus the dam of GII Wood Memorial winner Lord Miles (Curlin). But the next dam is an unraced daughter of the South African import Horse Chestnut (SAF), obviously a grass operator himself, and a Deputy Minister mare who showed a glimpse of ability in a light career. Her name was Sunset Service and, true to the distaff influence of her sire, she stands above several stakes performers and/or producers, notably as second dam of Grade I winners on both surfaces in Hymn Book (Arch) and Data Link (War Front) respectively. Fundamentally, however, the reason this filly is effective in this environment is simply because dirt speed tends to hold up, just about wherever it is given a chance. Complexity | Sarah Andrew Complexity Has Momentum The proudest achievement of Proud Citizen? Two GI Kentucky Oaks winners homebred by Brereton C. Jones, who stood him at Airdrie. That farm continues to do justice to the late Governor's legacy, and last weekend its clients filled the first two places in the GIII Ohio Derby. Mo Plex is by thriving second-crop stallion Complexity, whose seven stakes winners to date leave him behind only the dozen fielded by Vekoma. The leader of this pack is certainly making his volume count, with 83 winners from 125 starters compared to Complexity's 47 from 86. Of the intake's other key protagonists, McKinzie's 39 from 117 starters, four at stakes level, remain unexceptional percentages redeemed by his startling five Grade I performers; Tiz the Law has 41 from 80, six in black-type races. Saturday's runner-up Chunk of Gold (Preservationist) meanwhile resumed his progress after a midfield finish at Churchill. Not even Airdrie could get adequate traction for his sire, since exported, but this $2,500 yearling reminds everyone to persevere right to the end of their consignment when the yearling sales resumes next month. Remember that a $3,000 yearling from the first crop of Beau Liam made $250,000 at OBS last Wednesday after clocking :20 1/5. As for Mo Plex, he is turning out to be much more than the precocious dasher who rolled his first three last summer, including the GIII Sanford Stakes, before placing in the GI Champagne Stakes. With this two-turn debut opening up new horizons, his rise reflects well on a sire here working with only wisps of black type before you reach Mo Plex's third dam Anklet (Wild Again), who won the GIII Florida Oaks and was herself well-related. But we must also give a nod to his late damsire Uncle Mo, whose posthumous legacy had of course been further enhanced by Crimson Advocate as a daughter of his heir Nyquist. The post Breeding Digest: Lukas Showcased Toughness Of Great Broodmares appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
    • 4th-CD, $120,000, Msw, 2yo, f, 5f, 2:23 p.m. Flying Dutchmen's WHERE LUCK LIVES (Nyquist) gets a start for trainer Brian Lynch. A $725,000 Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Select yearling purchase, the dark bay is out of SW and GISP Holiday Soiree (Harlan's Holiday). The mare, who sold for $300,000 at Keeneland November in 2023, is already responsible for Grade I scorer Vahva (Gun Runner), who most recently won the GII Chicago Stakes at this venue last weekend in addition to GSP Signal From Noise (Arrogate). TJCIS PPs The post Wednesday’s Insights: Where Luck Lives, Half Sister to Vahva, Debuts at Churchill Wednesday appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
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