-
Available Subscriptions
The Rest of the World
72,766 topics in this forum
-
- Journalists
Up the Ante Gets His Way in Manilla
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 620 views
-
- Journalists
Lone Star to Host Retiring Racehorse Event
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 195 views
-
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 199 views
-
-
- Journalists
Synchrony Stands Out in Arlington Handicap
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 220 views
-
- Journalists
Mastercraftsman Popular at Arqana
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 185 views
-
- Journalists
‘Sienna’ Leads Iowa Oaks Field
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 214 views
-
- Journalists
Top-Level Talent Runs Deep in Suburban
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 184 views
-
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 180 views
-
-
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 207 views
-
-
- Journalists
‘Study’ Camp Maps Next Targets
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 190 views
-
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 195 views
-
-
- Journalists
Taking the High Road
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 217 views
-
- Journalists
‘Boom’ Equals Meteor’s Record
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 233 views
-
- Journalists
Insights: July 5
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 214 views
-
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 211 views
-
-
- Journalists
Classic Heroine Senga Passes Away
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 181 views
-
- Journalists
Curtain Coming Down on Carroll’s Labour of Love
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 193 views
-
- Journalists
American-Sired Offspring Dot JHRA Select Sales
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 183 views
-
- Journalists
Eqtidaar Aims for July Cup
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 193 views
-
- Journalists
Diversity & Inclusion Action Plan Published
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 191 views
-
- Journalists
Two Wildcards Added to Tatts July
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 183 views
-
- Journalists
Couton Rides Six Winners at Emerald Downs
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 221 views
-
- Journalists
A Chance To Change Lives
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 234 views
-
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 214 views
-
-
-
- Journalists
- 0 replies
- 177 views
-
Announcements
-
Posts
-
That's only the case because of industry nepotism and neglect, its never been a level playing field , you just have to look at Avondale. Those making the decisions will sell everything so long as they can keep going, racing is absolutely ruined in this country and will only be in a worse position once the theft of the land begins. No one cares about legacy. The new CEO is more of the same and probably as clueless as the last 4 or 5 we have had. A race day that stops the nation midweek in this country , speaks volumes for how his reign will be. -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
However staunchly I defend American blood to fellow Europeans, I'm always forced to concede that a cramped distance spectrum makes it harder to characterize a page, and therefore the balance sought from a mating. When Epicenter (Not This Time) embarked on the GI Kentucky Derby trail in 2022, he offered an exceptional guarantee of stamina through his third and fourth dams by copper-bottomed European staying brands Ela-Mana-Mou (Ire) and Busted (GB). That's the clarity gained from spreading elite opportunity from five to 20 furlongs. In contrast, American families are so saturated with the same kind of racing that we end up proposing seven and nine furlongs as wildly different challenges, even though a second turn tends to relieve aerobic pressure. That's not to endorse the standard European misapprehension that American blood is all one-dimensional speed. Tapping into dirt blood–and that ability to set off fast but then keep going–famously revitalized European stamina in the Northern Dancer era, and hopefully an Epsom winner for Justify will now accelerate a similar cycle. But that doesn't absolve the American breed of the bland profile annually uniting so many Derby contenders, especially now that more blatant speed has been shut out of the race by excluding sprints from the points schedule. Brian Lynch actually evoked the masters of the old school when laying the foundations for Owen Almighty's (Speightstown) sophomore campaign in a sprint, perhaps simply because the horse wasn't considered a natural Derby type. He has now added 50 points from the GIII Tampa Bay Derby (at that most stereotypical of American distances, a mile and 1/16th) to the 10 banked as runner-up (over the same distance) on his previous start; and the five earned last year when second in the one-mile GIII Iroquois Stakes. On the face of it, his late sire Speightstown might give Owen Almighty's pedigree the definition that tends to be blurred in such races. But while he sired plenty of fast horses, his own unequivocal prowess as a sprinter didn't prevent Speightstown from showing versatility in his splendid second career: half a dozen Grade I winners at 10 furlongs, for instance, divided between dirt and turf. That's rather reminiscent of his own sire Gone West, but it has meanwhile become increasingly clear how much Speightstown also owed to his dam Silken Cat (Storm Cat). Her subsequent foals included not just the ill-starred GII Blue Grass Stakes winner Irap (Tiznow) but also a couple of daughters who proved to be highly effective producers: Irap's sister gave us GI Preakness winner Early Voting (Gun Runner), while a daughter of Unbridled's Song produced Capezzano (Bernardini) to win a Group 1 in Dubai. Silken Cat traces to the matriarch Hildene, responsible for Hill Prince among others, as fifth dam. Moreover, she's out of a mare by a mare by Bold Ruler's son Chieftain, complementing not just her own sire but also the stallion who gave her Speightstown, in that both Storm Cat and Gone West were out of mares by Secretariat, another son of Bold Ruler. Both Gone West and Silken Cat, meanwhile, had granddams by sons of Tom Fool. What I like to call the sire “stairwell” behind Speightstown duly comprises the following names down his fourth generation: Native Dancer, Nashua, Bold Ruler, Tim Tam, Northern Dancer, Secretariat, Bold Ruler again, Buckpasser. Not hard then to see why Speightstown should have sired so many horses whose class was not confined to his own metier of sprinting. So what did he have to work with in Owen Almighty's dam Tempers Rising (Bayern)? Well, the family is pegged down by a quite significant producer in her third dam Dame Fritchie (Count of Honor). But the best horses closer up on Owen Almighty's page do tend to inhabit the same comfort zone that he must leave to contest the Derby. Though she only ever won a maiden, over the inevitable mile and 1/16th, Tempers Rising ran second in the GII Fair Grounds Oaks (same distance) and actually took her chance in the delayed GI Kentucky Oaks of 2020, when certainly not disgraced in midfield. That only feels like yesterday, for a mare now producing a Derby colt–and, sure enough, Owen Almighty (bred by Mark Stanley) is her first foal. Must have been some foal, too, to make $360,000 as a Keeneland November weanling, albeit seemingly a failed pinhook, not quite retrieving that sum at Saratoga the following summer. If Tempers Rising was the best performer out of Marchmont (Mountain Cat), that mare was given limited opportunity in terms of covers and did produce a dual stakes winner (sprint/mile) on synthetics by El Corredor. Marchmont had a couple of able siblings, notably Wolf Brigade (Wolf Power {SAF}) who won a graded stakes at River Downs over, you guessed it, a mile and 1/16th. But it's the next dam March On He Said (Stop the Music) who approaches the embers that must have been stoked up by Speightstown. For she's a daughter of the aforementioned Dame Fritchie, named (as was March On He Said) for John Greenleaf Whittier's Civil War poem. And that's a distinction she shares with a whole bunch of good producers, including the dams of Bates Motel and Optimistic Gal. Bottom line is that Owen Almighty has been dealing chiefly in speed, and has evidently been viewed in that light by the expert horseman who knows him best. If his pedigree, on paper, contains typically American ambivalence, nor does it offer any particularly compelling grounds for those informed instincts to prove misplaced. Praetor | Lauren King Happy Days Ahead For Praetor Having noted last week that both Journalism and Sovereignty shared their education at Bridlewood, we've now seen another exciting sophomore emerge off the same farm. Praetor (Into Mischief), who beat Sovereignty at Belmont last September and made a striking resumption at Gulfstream on Sunday, was co-bred by Bridlewood with Alter's Racing Stables, Inc. They sold him through Gainesway (who took a piece) for $700,000 at the 2023 Keeneland September Sale, topping up the $1 million banked for his sister (dual winner Charlottesapproval) at Saratoga the previous August. Such are the happy dividends of Happy Alter's work with Praetor's dam, triple graded stakes winner Curlin's Approval (Curlin). Alter bred not just Curlin's Approval (Bridlewood coming in for a stake during her track career) but also her dam and granddam: Withmom'sapproval (With Approval), who appeared no kind of racehorse in four starts at Calder; and Wonderful Mom (Rexson), who did win a few races at a modest level and was certainly hardy, starting 19 times in 1985 alone. The claiming mare who produced Wonderful Mom was eventually sold for $500, while I can't pretend Rexson means anything to me: he evidently owed his place at stud to his dam, a half-sister to Halo. Halo, incidentally, was sire of Jolie's Halo, trained by Alter to win two Grade I's in 1991 for Arthur Appleton, whose family formerly owned Bridlewood. Alter has maintained a close association with the farm, under the seamless management of George Isaacs. Earlier in the Gulfstream meet, Alter saddled the Bridlewood homebred Mo Harmony (Uncle Mo) to break her maiden, a valuable success for their program: her dam Leslie's Harmony (Curlin) is a $1.1-million daughter of blue hen Leslie's Lady (Tricky Creek). For a horse as exciting as Praetor to have a third dam by Rexson out of a $500 mare is quite startling. But his granddam Withmom'sapproval does have one other credit, besides Curlin's Approval, in the intriguingly named Apologynotaccepted (Fusaichi Pegasus). Later placed in two graded stakes, she started her career with a unique distinction, named a 'TDN Rising Star' on debut–at the age of five! Nyquist Doing What He Must If not quite as late a developer as Apologynotaccepted, Cavalieri has filled a small gap in the ever-burgeoning resume of her sire Nyquist–whose 2021 crop had been the only one yet to produce an elite scorer until she won the GI Beholder Mile last weekend. Cavalieri was conceived in Nyquist's final year standing at $40,000, his 2020 freshman title promptly earning a hike to $75,000. The mystery, appraising his overall rise, is that he then had to wait until December for his solitary graded stakes winner in 2021. His fee was duly throttled back for a couple of years (to $55,000) but four Grade I winners last year earned a giddy hike from $85,000 to $175,000 this spring. That not only confirms Nyquist as the premier heir of his lamented sire, but also puts him on the same peg as Not This Time, who started out in the same intake. Arguably Nyquist needs to respond by matching that rival's consistency through the black-type apex, but don't forget that he was denied a ninth Grade I winner only in tragic circumstances, as sire of New York Thunder, and it was good to see the forgotten Nysos put in a bullet work at Santa Anita last weekend. The two previous starters out of Cavalieri's dam Stiffed (Stephen Got Even) are GII Gulfstream Park Oaks winner Affirmative Lady (Arrogate) and a 10-race maiden named Nile River Queen. The latter was picked up for $9,000 by Townley Park Bloodstock at Fasig-Tipton in February 2023; fortunately she then stalled short of her reserve at Keeneland that November, at $75,000. Affirmative Lady was also an RNA at the same auction, albeit at a level commensurate with her track record at $885,000. With their half-sister meanwhile emerging as an unbeaten Grade I winner, that's quite a span of relief and regret. The post Breeding Digest: Owen Facing Uncharted Territoty appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Should Gowells Delight not run in Virginia, McPeek has another contender, Anonima. Her name means anonymous in Spanish, and should she win March 15, she will definitely be known. View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Nine of the Midwest's top sprinters, all stakes winners, will line up March 15 to compete for the winner's share of a $250,000 prize in the Whitmore Stakes (G3) at Oaklawn Park.View the full article -
By Wandering Eyes · Posted
Colonial Downs Racetrack will host the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance during the weekend of the Virginia Derby and Virginia Oaks, set for Saturday, March 15, 2025. A longtime supporter of accredited aftercare, Colonial Downs will honor Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance with a named race on Virginia Derby Day. Following the race, a presentation will take place in the winner's circle, where the connections will receive a Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance blanket and gift bag. Also on Saturday, Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance will present Best Turned-Out awards for the Virginia Derby and Oaks. The Best Turned-Out awards are generously sponsored by Virginia HBPA. “Virginia HBPA is pleased to continue sponsoring Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance's Best Turned Out Horse Awards during Virginia Derby weekend at Colonial Downs,” said Virginia HBPA Executive Director Glen Berman. “We are very proud to support Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance while also honoring the grooms whose care ensures that our horses look their best on race day.” A representative from Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance will also be present to host the winners of the “Off to the Races” VIP Experience online benefit auction. This VIP experience was donated by Colonial Downs. The winners will enjoy premium dining, paddock passes and winners circle access for the Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance race, and much more. “Colonial Downs is excited to once again host Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance during Virginia Derby weekend,” said Senior Director of Racing, Colonial Downs Frank Hopf. “We appreciate and love highlighting the important work Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance does in providing funding and support for their accredited aftercare organizations.” The post TAA On Site At Colonials Downs For VA Derby Weekend appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions. View the full article
-
-
Topics
-
