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By Chief Stipe · Posted
This information has been available for years in other jurisdictions and there is no sign that wagering has dropped off because of it. I know a number of individuals who download the data and process it themselves. I also know that the top trainers have software programmes that analyse race videos for individual horse performance. The days of stopwatches are disappearing. Do you seriously think that bookies analyse every single horse in every single race to set their opening markets? They biggest edge they have is the real time market information. How do you assess value if you don't review race performance? You're kidding? You'd rely on a quote from a Trainer? The better option would be up to date videos with sectionals of jumpouts and trials like they do in Australia - particularly Victoria. Trackwork watching is only useful if sectional times are provided not that I've ever seen a reliable correlation between that and raceday performance. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Sponsored by Pedigrees 360 Into Mischief and a Bernardini mare: on the face of it, “the Sovereign remedy” for a sophomore round Churchill Downs in 2025. It produced the GI Kentucky Derby winner, and has now given us a filly moving rapidly through the ranks in Shred the Gnar, winner of the GIII Chilukki Stakes after a six-month layoff. If anything, however, it feels overdue for the dominant stallion of our times to come up with one or two stars from daughters of such an outstanding broodmare sire. Interestingly, the combination had previously clicked best with the ill-fated Owendale, winner of three graded stakes in 2019. And Shred the Gnar just happens to be his full sister. Those of us who distrust anything as conveniently formulaic as “nicks” must be as flexible as we expect others to be. We must acknowledge, for instance, that Into Mischief does seem to have something going with Distorted Humor mares. But his profile with Bernardini reminds us that horses deal more often in exceptions than rules, and permit few short cuts in observation or imagination. One of few “rules” to which I would personally never make an “exception” is that the first filter for a potential cover is always the physical match. But however far that consideration may have animated the exemplary breeders of Owendale and Shred the Gnar, and indeed Sovereignty, our brief here is to consider bloodlines. And Into Mischief has certainly stoked up some interesting genetic embers in this particular Bernardini mare. Aspen Light's family reached America with Sunstep, imported from Britain in the 1920s to become a Claiborne foundation mare, albeit her dynasty's principal distinction concerned a colt making the reverse journey: Never Say Die, foaled at Jonabell before a historic success in the 1954 Epsom Derby. Sunstep's daughter by Omar Khayyam (GB) (who conversely made history as first imported winner of the Kentucky Derby) had meanwhile found her way into the Brookmeade Stable then being pioneered by Isabel Dodge Sloan. The automobile heiress seeded the line impeccably, having this mare covered by Sir Gallahad (Fr); her daughter, by War Admiral; and her granddaughter, by Mahmoud (Fr). The result of this last mating, Indian Nurse, eventually became granddam of dual GI Beldame S. winner Love Sign and European Classic winner Melodist, and additionally unites their pedigrees with those of Star of Cozzene and Matty G., among others. But in the meantime Indian Nurse was among 38 Brookmeade broodmares sold to John W. Galbreath, following her breeder's death, and had again changed hands by the time she had the 17th of her 18 named foals in 1976. Brilliant Touch (Gleaming) showed nothing in her only start but was subsequently given a chance by various breeders, crucially including Keswick Farm, not far from her dam's native pastures in Virginia. It was evidently to support the launch of a Keswick-bred stallion, Northern Fashion, that Peggy Augustus briefly enlisted Brilliant Touch for her broodmare band. And it would turn out that Brilliant Touch's contribution to his debut book, a filly named Sequins, would prove much the most significant legacy of this otherwise forgotten son of Northern Dancer (whose dam Natalma, incidentally, had been co-bred by Augustus' mother Elizabeth). For Sequins had three daughters that have since required attention. Her first foal, of all things named Im Out First (Allen's Prospect), won four black-type prizes; and her daughters include the stakes-winning dam of dual Grade I winner Mor Spirit (Eskendereya), plus the mother of Speed King (Volatile), winner of the GIII Southwest Stakes earlier this year. The final foal out of Sequins, with equal aptness, and rather more poetry, named Evening Star (Malibu Moon), flares still more luminously from the page. For this is the dam of champion Stellar Wind (Curlin)–co-bred by Keswick Stables and Stonestreet; cheapest yearling in the Saratoga sale, at $40,000; but eventually sold to Coolmore for $6 million with six Grade Is. (That investment has not yet paid off, but Stellar Wind's juvenile son by Into Mischief came within a length of breaking his maiden in a Grade I last month, when third in the American Pharoah Stakes.) In between, Sequins had a filly by Roy named Zenith. Though she had won a stakes, and had barely started her second career, Zenith couldn't raise more than $30,000 at the 2006 Keeneland January Sale–exactly the sum that had sufficed for her yearling by Aptitude in the same ring the previous September. Within months, however, that colt had won the GI Breeders' Futurity as Great Hunter. His dam, meanwhile dignified with a cover by Bernardini, duly returned to Keeneland for the November Sale the following year to be cashed out to Stonestreet for $750,000. Stonestreet welcomed Zenith's Bernardini filly the following March, naming her Aspen Light, but she never made the track and had bred only minor winners when culled to Korea for just $25,000 at the 2017 Keeneland November Sale. Once again, however, timing was everything. At the preceding September Sale, her son by the emerging Into Mischief had been sold for $200,000. He turned out to be Owendale, and Aspen Light's Korean purchasers alertly returned her to Kentucky, had her covered by Quality Road, and sold her back at Keeneland for $360,000 to Eaton Sales, agent. The colt she was carrying that day, registered as co-bred by two of the shrewdest brands around, brought $550,000 as a yearling, and then Camas Park Stud and Lynch Bages sent Aspen Light back to Owendale's sire. Into Mischief cost rather more by this stage, but the resulting filly achieved an ample yield when sold to Boardshorts Stables, again through Eaton Sales, for $610,000. And this, of course, is Shred the Gnar. If you want to reduce her talent to Into Mischief over Bernardini, good luck. But a lot of extremely patient, thoughtful breeders have contributed to her page over the past century. Some have been luckier with their timing than others, but that just confirms how this is a long game with few easy answers. Fionn Sweetens Candy's Vintage Year If you took a similarly archaeological approach to one of the year's top sprinters, you would eventually reach the same foundation mare, Sunstep. But the Grade I breakthrough of Ag Bullet has proved of more immediate significance for her sire Twirling Candy–another of whose flourishing daughters, Fionn, last weekend resumed her progress in the GIII Jockey Club Oaks. As ever, Fionn also owes much to her family. It has been wonderfully seeded, for one thing: first five dams by Giant's Causeway, Unbridled's Song, Dehere, Mr. Prospector and Nijinsky. The second and third and fifth of those, moreover, won graded stakes, while the granddam is additionally half-sister to Beau Liam, who's now recycling his speed so effectively at stud. Fionn | Susie Raisher But we really must celebrate a remarkable year for Twirling Candy, with his three elite scorers Ag Bullet, Kilwin and Fionn herself (won the GI Belmont Oaks in the summer) elevating him to fourth in the general sires' table. He has earned only a mild increment to $75,000 for 2026, from $60,000, and you'll pay at least three times as much to reach the superheroes above him in the table. That doubtless reflects his strong orientation to chlorophyll this year, standing behind only Not This Time in turf earnings. But just as we keep rebuking the top European programs for failing to try that horse, Twirling Candy similarly awaits meaningful opportunity over the water. Besides, the last time I checked, the Test Stakes won by Kilwin was, as usual, run on dirt. Among Twirling Candy's numerous other stars on the main track, by the way, note that Pinehurst was bred on the same cross as Fionn. A Grade I-winning juvenile and a turf stayer: another highly “flexible” nick, then! All That Glisters… The fact that the single older resident at Old Friends was Silver Charm would seem to confirm the resilience of the gang whose deeds were evoked by the loss last week, aged 31, of Touch Gold. Others plying their trade around the same time included Skip Away, Swain (Ire), Awesome Again, Real Quiet and Victory Gallop, names that will warm many a heart. Yet almost all proved disappointing stallions, with Ghostzapper earning exemption only for Awesome Again among that lot. Perhaps the most influential horse of that time turned out to be Arch, a relatively peripheral talent, albeit he beat Touch Gold in the GIII Fayette Stakes. Arch is guaranteed an enduring legacy as sire of Blame and damsire of Uncle Mo. Given that he was by Deputy Minister, it's unsurprising that Touch Gold will have made his principal mark through one of his daughters, Party Silks, the dam of Upstart. Already an excellent stallion, Upstart's upgrading mares will soon be cycling through. (Touch Gold, by the way, was key to the ingenious naming of this son of Flatter). But given that Touch Gold came up with two Grade I winners in his very first crop, an overall record of 29 stakes scorers from 16 crops must be counted disappointing. Touch Gold's paddock at Old Friends adjoined that of Silver Charm and, if they could read newspapers, one wonders what memories they might have shared over the fence. Most obviously, the day Touch Gold cost Silver Charm a Triple Crown–but they might also ask why they and their peers, having manifested constitution as well as class, have generally proved so meek in their second careers. The post Breeding Digest: Shred Sheds Light on Role of Mares appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Chief Stipe · Posted
Harness has that info and the system used at Ellerslie has the distance run by each horse. -
By Chief Stipe · Posted
Really? Well each to their own. So how do you assess individual performance? Surely not reading the Stewards notes!!! -
By Chief Stipe · Posted
Yes I agree. Provides a lot of information when reviewing a race. For example I saved the replay of the Canterbury Breeders Stakes and watched a few times. The winner wasn't actually 3 or 4 wide without cover the entrie trip like it looked and as the presenters and commentator observed. The horse actually got cover 1 out and relaxed over some softish sections for 400m or 500m of the first part of the bend. She steadily increased the pace from 500m out (observing the sectionals on screen) which put those behind her in time trouble. Then put in an elite sectional for the last 200m that gave nothing a chance. Observing the sectional times while watching specific horses position gives a better assessment of their performance than post race reviewing the sectionals alone.
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