Wandering Eyes

Curvature looking sharp as comeback nears View the full article

Santa Anita Park announced March 5 that highly respected trackman Dennis Moore has been retained as a consultant and will be on-site this afternoon as a precautionary measure with regard to the condition of the one mile main track. View the full article

Sol Kumin’s Madaket Stables has purchased a minority interest in 3-year-old colts Comedian (Into Mischief) and Tikhvin Flew (Street Sense). They will both run under the ownership of Bloom Racing Stable and Madaket Stables, carrying the Bloom Racing Stable silks. Tikhvin Flew is scheduled to run in Saturday’s GIII Gotham S. at Aqueduct, while Comedian broke his maiden last out going a mile Feb. 18 at Oaklawn. Both colts are trained by Steve Asmussen. Madaket and Bloom had previously partnered on MGISW Midnight Bloom (Midnight Lute). “Sol and I have been very lucky together in the past and we are extremely excited about where both of these talented colts will take us,” said Bloom Racing Stables Managing Partner Jeffrey Bloom. View the full article

Santa Anita Park announced March 5 that highly respected Trackman Dennis Moore has been retained as a consultant and will be on-site this afternoon as an precautionary measure with regard to the condition of the one mile main track. View the full article

Observations on the European Racing Scene turns the spotlight on the best European races of the day, highlighting well-pedigreed horses early in their careers, horses of note returning to action and young runners that achieved notable results in the sales ring. Today’s Observations features the return of an Aidan O’Brien group winner. 6.45 Dundalk, Cond, €26,000, 4yo/up, f/m, 7f (AWT) I CAN FLY (GB) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}) steps out five days after her intended seasonal debut in Friday’s abandoned Dundalk meeting. Last year’s G2 Boomerang S. winner and G1 Queen Elizabeth II S. runner-up faces the same three rivals that she was due to then as she looks for a direct entry into the £150,000 Ladbrokes Fillies and Mares’ Championship over this distance and surface at Lingfield on the £1-million All-Weather Championships Finals Day Apr. 19. 7.00 Kempton, Cond, £70,000, 3yo, 8f (AWT) SPANISH MISSION (Noble Mission {GB}) runs in the colours of Team Valor, who owns the colt in partnership with Earle Mack with David Simcock saddling the impressive Chelmsford novice scorer in this “Road To The Kentucky Derby” Conditions S. won last year by Gronkowski (Lonhro {Aus}). Out of a half to the GI Shoemaker Mile hero Talco (Fr) (Pivotal {GB}), he meets Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s G2 UAE Derby hopeful Jahbath (GB) (Mukhadram {GB}), a William Haggas-trained three-times all-weather winner. View the full article

Allison De Luca will be the Colonial Downs racing secretary for the upcoming 15-date summer meet. After six years of closure, the Virginia track will reopen under new ownership in 2019, staging an Aug. 8-Sept. 7 season. De Luca has worked as the Tampa Bay Downs racing secretary since 2006. Prior to that she was the assistant acing secretary at Churchill Downs from 1996 to 2006. She has also served as the Keeneland Race Course stakes coordinator and has worked as an official for the Breeders’ Cup. When De Luca was hired in 1987 for a five-year stint as the racing secretary at now-defunct Sportsman’s Park in Illinois, she was reported to be the first woman in the country to be named racing secretary at a commercial track. A graduate of the Race Track Industry Program at the University of Arizona, De Luca has been involved in the horse racing industry in official capacities at racing jurisdictions in Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey and Pennsylvania since 1978. “I am looking forward to being part of Virginia racing at Colonial Downs and the efforts to bring competitive horse racing back to the commonwealth,” De Luca said in a Colonial press release. “This will be an exciting endeavor as we attract preeminent races to New Kent, including the Virginia Derby, the pinnacle of Virginia horse racing.” Purse levels and a stakes schedule are pending, but Colonial has already targeted Aug. 31 as the return date for the Virginia Derby, which was previously a Grade II stakes. Colonial’s 600-unit historic horse racing operation, which will fuel purses, is on schedule to go live at the refurbished venue in mid-April. The 1,000-stall stable area opens July 25. View the full article

Lets Light the Way was euthanized after a severe injury she sustained during training on the Santa Anita Park main track March 5. View the full article

As we are all being encouraged to recycle as much as possible nowadays, perhaps you will forgive me for re-using a promotional piece I was asked to write for Lane’s End Farm in late-2014, after Frankel’s younger brother Noble Mission had been added to the stud’s illustrious stallion team. “When Will Farish announced that Noble Mission has been recruited to join the stallion roster at Lane’s End,” I wrote, “he made the point that ‘many of the world’s best stallions are in Europe and we feel the need to revert to the days of importing top-class European horses to stand in America. We’re confident he can add to the long list of influential stallions like Nasrullah, Roberto, Nureyev, Lyphard, Kingmambo, etc., to become a successful stallion here.’ I added that Lane’s End’s owner could also have mentioned numerous other top-notch European turf performers which made a sizeable contribution to American bloodstock, such as Giant’s Causeway, El Prado, Storm Bird, Blushing Groom, Riverman, Alleged and Caro. Noble Mission has already started to repay Farish for his boldness, with Farish’s homebred colt Code of Honor defeating sons of Tapit and Candy Ride to land the GII Fountain of Youth S. The owner’s satisfaction must be made all the greater by the fact that Code of Honor’s dam Reunited is a homebred daughter of the former Lane’s End resident Dixie Union, himself a son of another Lane’s End stalwart in Dixieland Band. Code of Honor’s future looks all the more rosy in view of the fact that his Fountain of Youth success was gained nearly three months before his actual third birthday, which is on May 23, 19 days after the Kentucky Derby. Trainer Shug McGaughey nominated the GI Florida Derby as his preferred target on the road to Churchill Downs. It is worth pointing out that only seven colts have managed to complete the Fountain of Youth-Florida Derby double since 1990, but they include the champion two-year-old Fly So Free, the Kentucky Derby and Belmont S. winner Thunder Gulch, those excellent stallions Scat Daddy and Quality Road and the Kentucky Derby winner Orb. In other words, Code of Honor’s future will look very bright if he manages to land the Florida Derby. Another Fountain of Youth winner was Union Rags, the Dixie Union colt who landed the Belmont S. after finishing third in the Florida Derby. I find it interesting that McGaughey felt it necessary with Code of Honor “to get into him,” training him “a little harder and more frequent.” Noble Mission, of course, is a son of the great Galileo. When Chris McGrath interviewed Aidan O’Brien about the stallion who has been the source of so much of the Irishman’s success, he was told that “Galileos never question anything they are asked” and they are usually sound enough to cope with a tough campaign. Noble Mission fitted this description. After a single juvenile start, he raced a further 20 times over the next three seasons, with 15 of his races being Group events. However, his career wasn’t as straightforward or predictable as that might suggest. As a youngster he was considered to be more forward and precocious than his year-older brother but, whereas Frankel proved himself a champion at two, Noble Mission was held up by sore shins. And, whereas Frankel was campaigned at up to a mile as a three-year-old, Noble Mission was initially considered a Derby candidate, even though he ran out an easy winner of a maiden race over a mile on his reappearance at three. Noble Mission was never to tackle a distance shorter than a mile and a quarter during the rest of his career and for a while he had his connections scratching their heads in puzzlement. When tried over a mile and a quarter he often gave the impression that he needed further, but when upped to a mile and a half he sometimes looked as though he didn’t quite stay. His comparatively disappointing four-year-old season coincided with the terminal illness of his trainer, Sir Henry Cecil., and Noble Mission was often steadied at the start in the hope that he would relax better. His new handler, Lady Cecil, eventually came to the conclusion that he would be better suited by more positive tactics and the five-year-old Noble Mission was transformed. Ridden in front, he won five of his last six starts, his only setback coming when he was forced wide from a high draw on a trip to Germany. His victories included G1 successes in Ireland, France and England and he followed in Frankel’s footsteps in winning the Qipco Champion S. on what proved to be his final appearance. His courage was very apparent at Ascot, when he held on most gamely to defeat Al Kazeem after a prolonged battle. Timeform summarised Noble Mission’s performance on its website as “one of the gamest displays of recent years, a 140 performance if guts were quantifiable.” The time was also very fast, given the conditions, and Noble Mission and Al Kazeem recorded the two fastest Timeform timefigures of 2014. The sectional times for the race didn’t escape the notice of Lady Cecil, who reported to Juddmonte that Noble Mission’s sectional times at Ascot bore favorable comparison to the Queen Elizabeth II S., run over a mile on the same card. “I think the prospect of running him over a mile in G1 company would be very exciting,” she suggested. “So much of his improvement has been down to the style of running and I believe these assertive tactics would prove equally effective over the shorter distances. He has such a high cruising speed – not dissimilar to Frankel – that he could draw the sting from other milers.” This suggestion was never tried, as Noble Mission was sold to Lane’s End, to start his career at a fee of $25,000. In addition to Code of Honor’s exploits on dirt, several other members of Noble Mission’s first crop, such as Creationist, Spanish Mission, Humanitarian and Buffalo River, have displayed plenty of potential on Britain’s all-weather tracks, while others have won on turf, both in the U.S. and Europe. He will probably need an injection of dirt ability from his mares if he is to sire more main-track performers such as Code of Honor. This colt’s dam Reunited raced exclusively on dirt and his second dam Tivli gained six of her seven wins on dirt. Both mares were stakes winners over sprint distances, and Reunited was good enough to win five of her eight starts as a three-year-old, including the GIII Thoroughbred Club of America S. over six furlongs. This raises the question of whether a mile and a quarter will ultimately suit Code of Honor. I will be surprised if it doesn’t, as Noble Mission’s G1 wins were gained at up to a mile and a half and the colt’s broodmare sire, the versatile Dixie Union, stayed at least a mile and an eighth, as he showed in defeating Captain Steve, Milwaukee Brew and More Than Ready in the GI Haskell Invitational H. Dixie Union had to be euthanized at the comparatively young age of 13, because of a deteriorating neurological problem. His comparatively early demise looks even more unfortune now that his sons and daughters are doing well at stud. Two of his sons have sired GI winners, with Union Rags making such a bright start at Lane’s End that his fee has risen from $35,000 to $60,000. Code of Honor will be bidding to become the sixth GI winner produced by a daughter of Dixie Union, following the two-year-old Breeders’ Cup winners New Year’s Day and Caledonia Road, the high-class filly Salty, the Met Mile winner Mor Spirit and the Del Mar Futurity winner Klimt. Three of these are by Lane’s End’s Quality Road, Incidentally, anyone who tries to assess Noble Mission later this year will need to remember that he was sidelined by colic for part of his second season, so he has only 39 two-year-olds. However, he has around 80 live foals in his third crop, so has enough ammunition in his bid to justify Lane’s End’s belief that he can become “the next great European import.” View the full article

When Motion Emotion (Take Charge Indy) drew away to an effortless 6 3/4-length allowance victory Feb. 17 at Oaklawn Park (video), owner Mark DeDomenico had plenty of interest in his promising filly, but the bay sophomore will still be carrying DeDomenico’s colors when she heads postward in Saturday’s GIII Honeybee S. “There were quite a few people over to visit her looking for private purchases,” trainer Tom Van Berg said Tuesday. “Dr. Mark had a deal in place and then at the last moment, I think he watched the replay again, and decided he wanted to keep her. So we changed course and we’re staying with her. We are going to point for the Honeybee this coming Saturday. Hopefully she’ll repay that decision.” Motion Emotion, a $55,000 Keeneland September Yearling purchase, began her career with DeDomenico’s west coast trainer Mike Puhich. Facing the boys, she finished fourth going 5 1/2 furlongs at Emerald Downs Sept. 9. “Mike is a firm believer that a race equals two or three works,” Van Berg said. “And he didn’t really have her tightened down. He told us he was going to give her a start so we’d get two or three works into her and give her experience. She ran a decent race, but it wasn’t lights out and it was against the boys, so it kind of worked out to plan.” Motion Emotion joined Van Berg’s barn at Churchill Downs and made her second start over a sloppy strip in Louisville Nov. 1 where things decidedly did not go to plan. “About four strides out of the gate, her back end went totally out from beneath her and she slipped,” Van Berg recalled of that ninth-place effort. “The starter at Churchill told me, ‘Tom, it was so violent and so quick, I can’t believe she didn’t go down. I thought she might have broke her down because her legs went out from under her at such an awkward angle.’ And then she gathered herself up and the jock, for whatever reason, he went five or six wide around the turn to go head to head with the leader. She made this massive sweeping move and I thought, ‘I’m going to move by 10 by the way she’s moving.’ And then she got tired. The winner drew off to win by six. If the jock had just sat, we could have run a good second. We weren’t going to beat the winner with the start we had.” Motion Emotion began her 2019 campaign with a front-running maiden score going six furlongs at Oaklawn Jan. 25. She stretched out to 1 1/16 miles last time out and glided home a never-in-doubt winner. “I wasn’t surprised that she was as good as she was stretching out, but I didn’t know to what extent she would show that form,” Van Berg said of the Feb. 17 victory. “She had acted a lot like that in the morning where you’d see her do things so easily and so effortlessly and she covered a lot of ground. And she did it with such class and a mind set that showed she was enjoying what she was doing out there all the time. She is just a really neat filly to be around; she has a great mind on her.” Both of Motion Emotion’s victories to date have been recorded in front-running fashion. Van Berg decided to test his charge’s ability to rate with a four-furlong drill in :50.00 (60/102) at Oaklawn last Saturday. “It wasn’t the work we were looking for,” Van Berg admitted. “I wanted to set her in behind another pretty nice horse that we had. I didn’t want him to exert too much and take too much out of her, but I wanted to see how she would respond if she had to be behind horses. So he settled in behind and the lead horse kind of did the right fractions and Jon [Court] just kind of eased her up there, never pushed her up a ton and she never really got head to head, but she did it really easily and she came out like it was just a gallop. So hopefully we got enough out of it. She’s definitely fit, so hopefully we don’t need anymore. She came out of it great and she showed she could relax behind horses and can rate if she needs to.” While there is a forecast for rain in Hot Springs Saturday, Van Berg said he isn’t too worried about an off track. “She’s trained great on the off track and she’s worked good on the off track,” Van Berg said. “I think that [Churchill race] was just an isolated incident. Hopefully it was and, if it rains Saturday, we’ll be ok. We’ve nominated her to a couple different places just to keep our options open, but that’s where we are pointing to now. We’ll see what the track looks like on Saturday.” The first future wager pool for the GI Kentucky Oaks opens Friday and Motion Emotion is listed at 50-1 on the morning line. “I’d put money on her,” Van Berg said with a laugh. “I have faith in her. She’s a nice little filly. I don’t think at this point we’re a Bellafina or one of those top ones, but I think we’re right in the next tier. If she takes another step forward, there is no telling how good she can be. She has the mind for it and she has the body for it. Everything she has done, it seems like she is that type of filly. Time will tell. Hopefully she’ll be able to keep on going towards the Oaks. That would be nice. It’s a long time between now and then. A lot of things could happen.” View the full article

“Proven Strategies” is a new regular series in the TDN, presented by Keeneland. It is written by Len Green of The Green Group and DJ Stables, who won the 2018 GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies with Jaywalk (Cross Traffic). Does Your Horse Business Income Qualify for the Special 20% Deduction? When Congress announced a tax cut for C Corporations under the 2017 Tax Act, other business owners such as sole proprietors, shareholders of S Corporations, members of Limited Liability Companies (LLCs) and partners in partnerships all demanded tax relief as well. Congress listened and enacted the new and complicated Qualified Business Income (QBI) deduction, also known as the IRC §199A deduction. Great news: If you are eligible, you can claim the new deduction on your 2018 tax return. Who is Eligible for the Special 20% Deduction? Individuals, including Schedule C sole proprietors, as well as trusts and estates with qualified business income are eligible for the deduction. S Corporations, LLCs and partnerships are flow through entities so they report each shareholder’s, member’s or partner’s share of QBI components on Schedule K-1 in order for the individual shareholders, members and partners to be eligible to claim the deduction. What is QBI? General Rule: QBI is the net amount of qualified items of income, gain, deduction and loss from any effectively connected U.S. trade or business. Portfolio items, such as capital gains and losses, certain dividends and interest do not constitute QBI, nor do W-2 wages or guaranteed payments from partnerships. Exceptions to General Rule Congress then decided to exclude certain Specified Service Businesses activities. Specified Service Businesses Special rules apply to a trade or business involving the performance of services in the fields of health, law, accounting, actuarial science, performing arts, consulting, athletics, financial services, investing and investment management, trading, dealing in certain assets or any trade or business where the principal asset is the reputation or skill of one or more of its employees. Since veterinarians fall under the Specified Service Businesses rule, the 20% QBI deduction is available in full when taxable income is below the $315,000/$157,500 thresholds (with a $100,000/$50,000 phase-out above those amounts). Assuming you did qualify, here is how to calculate the deduction. How Does the QBI Deduction Work? IRC §199A allows business owners to deduct up to 20% of business income, subject to these limitations: a. The deduction cannot exceed 20% of a taxpayer’s taxable income exclusive of capital gains. b. Income from Specified Service Businesses qualifies only if the owner’s taxable income is less than $315,000 for a married couple or $157,500 for all other taxpayers (then subject to a phase-out over the next $100,000/$50,000). c. For Non-Specified Service Businesses, if an owner’s taxable income exceeds the $315,000/$157,000 thresholds, then the QBI deduction is the lesser of 20% of QBI or the greater of (i) 50% of W-2 wages paid or (ii) 25% of W-2 wages plus 2.5% of the original cost of owned property. Now the Good News Under the Specified Service Businesses rule, the reputation or skill of an owner or employee could “taint” the business. However, since the Tax Law was issued, favorable IRS regulations have been issued limiting this language only to an individual who endorses a product, licenses its image or receives appearance fees. As a result, we feel these individuals are now eligible to qualify for the 20% exclusion: – Horse Trainers – Pinhookers – Farm Owners – Jockeys – Farmers Here are a few examples to further assist you in the calculations if you now qualify: a. Just as a picture is worth a thousand words, examples can illustrate the rules of the new QBI deduction. As an example, suppose a married farm owner has $100,000 of qualified business income in 2018, along with the $50,000 of long-term capital gains and $25,000 of deductions, so that taxable income is $125,000. The QBI deduction is limited to the lesser of $25,000 (20% of $125,000) or $15,000 (20% of $75,000, the excess of taxable income of $125,000 over capital gains of $50,000). b. In another example, suppose a high-income member of a horse-related LLC has pass-through business income of $600,000. The LLC pays no W-2 wages, yet the taxpayer’s share of the unadjusted basis of depreciable assets is $8 million. The taxpayer is eligible for a QBI deduction of $120,000, which is less than $200,000 (2.5% of $8 million). c. In the right set of circumstances, generally when the taxpayer’s taxable income is above the $315,000/$157,000 thresholds, aggregation of businesses may be beneficial, as the combining of W-2 wages and/or the inclusion of the unadjusted basis of assets from another business may serve to boost the QBI deduction calculation. Certain ownership and similarity of characteristics need to be satisfied in order to make the aggregation election. d. When a taxpayer owns several businesses or receives many K-1s from pass-through entities, one or more with positive QBI and one or more with negative QBI, the income and losses need to be integrated, such that the losses will serve to reduce the income, and, as a result, reduce the corresponding QBI deduction. Further, in the event such netting gives rise to an overall negative QBI, there will be no QBI deduction for the current year and the net negative QBI will carry forward to the next year’s QBI calculation. Summary As you can observe, these new QBI rules are far from tax simplification. We are available to guide you through the QBI maze and help you determine your eligibility and amount of deduction. This deduction is available for the 2018 tax year. Please take advantage of our one-hour free consultation for readers of this column. View the full article

It’s always among the key questions on everyone’s mind as 2-year-olds begin racing when Keeneland opens in April and the first-year sires have their first chance to show off their progeny. In this ongoing series, we have sought the opinion of several top judges as to who will be on top of the podium when 2019 is in the books. Nick de Meric, de Meric Thoroughbred Sales COMPETIVE EDGE “I have to qualify any insights I give you by first saying any opinions are going to be based on horses we have in our care and the young sires whose progeny we have in our care. That may not cover the whole spectrum. And with some of the freshmen sires, I might only have one, so it’s hard to make many predictions off such a small supply. There’s also a precocity component to your question. You get a list of horses that people love right now and that doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll be around three, four years from now running in the (GI) Breeders’ Cup Classic. “But to cut to the chase and answer your question, I’m going to go out on a limb and say Competitive Edge. I really like the filly I have by him a lot. She looks precocious and she’s tough. She’s actually a bit of a witch. But she’s just a great moving, competitive filly and the harder we lean on her the better she likes it. She outworking horses that cost a lot more than she did. I’m really liking her at the moment. Everything she’s doing, she’s going in the right direction. “I love my Constitution filly and I have a Commissioner colt that I like. I have two Bayern colts that look very solid. But when it comes to precocity and early speed and horses that should have an affinity for 2-year-old racing I’m going to go with Competitive Edge. I’ve also heard other people mention the Competitive Edges that they have on their places and how much they like them. That means they are attracting quite a bit of attention and that underscores the confidence I have in this one filly I have been talking about.” View the full article

The entries for the first two British Classics of the season have been unveiled, with 75 colts engaged in the QIPCO 2000 Guineas on May 4 and 58 fillies in the QIPCO 1000 Guineas a day later. The list is headed by the champion 2-year-old of 2018, Lord Lloyd-Webber’s Too Darn Hot (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), while among a potentially strong overseas challenge is the Andre Fabre-trained Persian King (Ire), who is being aimed at the only race to have eluded his talented sire Kingman (GB) during an eight-race career. The young Juddmonte sire finished second to Night Of Thunder (Ire) in 2014 before going on to win the Irish 2000 Guineas, St James’s Palace S., Sussex S. and Prix Jacques le Marois. “Persian King has done well and has had a quiet winter. He had his first canter on the grass this morning and there is no rush with him,” said Fabre. “I am a great fan of Newmarket Racecourse and it helps that Persian King got some experience of the Rowley Mile when he won the [G3] Autumn Stakes there. It was a strong piece of form and he won despite still being green.” He continued, “But getting practice for the QIPCO 2000 Guineas was not the sole purpose for running him in the Autumn Stakes – it was a good race for him on nice ground – and there is still a chance we could decide to run him in the Poule d’Essai des Poulains instead. “I would very much like for him to have a prep race before his Classic and that could be in the Prix Djebel but good ground is important for him so if we were to get heavy rain he may have to skip the trials. He won’t be coming to England for his prep race as the timing of the British trials is too close to the Classics.” Another international trainer who is a regular visitor to Britain, though more commonly seen at Royal Ascot, is Wesley Ward, who has The Mackem Bullet (Ire) entered for the 1000 Guineas. Formerly trained in Britain by Brian Ellison, the daughter of the late Society Rock (Ire) is another with good form at the track having been beaten only a neck by fellow Guineas entrant Fairyland (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) in the G1 Cheveley Park S. “Bringing over a horse for the Guineas is something that I have always wanted to do and in The Mackem Bullet I think I might have found the right filly. It really helps that she already has plenty of European experience – it would be much more difficult with one who had raced exclusively in America,” said Ward. “The plan is for The Mackem Bullet to run in the [GII] Appalachian Stakes [ at Keeneland on April 7] and after that I will have to consult with her owner, Mr Yoshida, and his American agent, John McCormack, before we decide if we should take a big chance and send her over or keep her here in America.” He added, “She is very, very happy at the moment, she has no issues and seems to be over any of her previous nervous antics. She is a big filly with a nice mind who is eating the bottom out of her feed tub.” European champion 2-year-old filly Pretty Pollyanna (GB) (Oasis Dream {GB}) is also among the entries along with fellow Group 1 winners Iridessa (Ire) (Ruler Of The World {Ire}) and Skitter Scatter (Scat Daddy). View the full article

After closing the MATCH Series in September 2018 in style, Laurel Park this year will host the first round of stakes in the series April 20. View the full article

Tattersalls has released the catalogue for its Craven Breeze Up Sale on Apr. 16 and 17, with 147 juveniles set to breeze on the Rowley Mile on Apr. 15 before being offered at Park Paddocks. This year’s graduates will be looking to follow in the footsteps of the 43 stakes winning graduates of the Craven sale since 2016, which includes last year’s GI Natalma S. winner La Pelosa (Ire) (Dandy Man {Ire}). Nineteen juveniles are out of stakes-winning mares, including an Oasis Dream (GB) filly out of E.P. Taylor S. winner Lahaleeb (Ire) (Redback {GB}) (lot 112) and a War Front colt out of Moyglare Stud S. winner Quarter Moon (Ire) (Sadler’s Wells) (lot 139), and therefore a half-brother to G1 Pretty Polly S. winner Diamondsandrubies (Ire) (Fastnet Rock {Aus}). There are 23 siblings to stakes winners catalogued, including a Dark Angel (Ire) half-brother to G1 Dewhurst S. winner Intense Focus (Giant’s Causeway) (lot 62), a Kodiac (GB) half-brother to Trip To Paris (GB) (Champs Elysees {GB}) (lot 107), a Night Of Thunder (Ire) half-sister to dual Grade I winner Wigmore Hall (Ire) (High Chaparral {Ire}) (lot 116) and an Invincible Spirit (Ire) half-brother to the G1 Grand Prix de Paris winner Erupt (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) (lot 122). Buyers will also have a chance to get their hands on first-crop progeny of sires like Gleneagles (Ire), Golden Horn (Ire), Gutaifan (Ire), Hot Streak (Ire), Make Believe (GB), Muhaarar (GB), Night of Thunder (Ire) and Outstrip (GB). Triple Crown winner American Pharoah is among the American-based first-season sires represented. An entry fee of £1,000 will also make all horses from the Craven sale eligible for the new £15,000 Craven Breeze Up Bonus. Participating owners will receive the bonus if their 2019 Craven Breeze Up purchase wins a class two, three or four 2-year-old maiden or novice race in Britain or an open 2-year-old maiden in Ireland. It is expected there will be more than 300 qualifying races. “The Craven Breeze Up Sale consistently produces top-class racehorses and GI Natalma S. winner La Pelosa was one of nine group/listed performers to have already come from last year’s sale along with group winner Queen Of Bermuda,” said Tattersalls Chairman Edmond Mahony. “The £15,000 Craven Breeze Up Bonus is an exciting new incentive for buyers and there are six lots who are already qualified for the £25,000 October Book 1 Bonus, which would result in a massive £40,000 in additional prizemoney for a horse winning a qualifying race. The quality catalogue of 147 lots has a strong representation of 2-year-olds by many of the world’s most sought-after sires and the sale looks certain to attract the usual international mix of buyers to Tattersalls.” View the full article

After closing the MATCH Series in September 2018 in style, Laurel Park this year will host the first round of stakes in the series on April 20. View the full article

On Aug. 11, 2017, Venezuelan native Alexis Delgado saddled his first winner in North America when the then 2-year-old Surprising Twist crossed the wire 1 1/2 lengths ahead of her competition in a maiden claiming race at Gulfstream Park. View the full article

If you’re still in any way doubting just how global the Thoroughbred business really is, take a look at Hubie de Burgh’s calendar thus far in 2019. After a week on the Gold Coast of Australia buying yearlings for local syndicators Darby Racing, the Irish-based agent jetted over to New Zealand for the Karaka yearling sales buying for Sheikh Hamdan and Darby Racing, and then on to Sydney for Inglis’s Classic yearling sale. In between, there were stock inspections in the Hunter Valley. A week after returning home to Ireland with sales receipts for 19 yearlings, and with the internal clocks barely having had time to reset, de Burgh had bounced over to England to check in on some clients. That’s where I at last connected with him by phone, over a crackling connection as he raced between stud farms in the back country. “You have to have a global mindset to financially survive,” de Burgh reasoned. “I personally spent five months of last year away from my office and already six weeks of this year in Australia. The result of this meant that between Will Johnson and myself, my company de Burgh Equine brokered deals in 13 different countries around the world in 2018. It is very noticeable that in the last 10 years there have been a number of breeders and bloodstock entities investing and trading in all the major markets in the northern and southern hemispheres at the same time.” If de Burgh was at all worn out from his travels, it didn’t show through the enthusiasm in his voice. It wouldn’t have hurt either that overnight Time To Reign (Aus) (Time For War {Aus}), a colt he had purchased as a yearling with Darby Racing, had won the G2 Silver Slipper S. in Australia, stamping himself a leading contender for the G1 Golden Slipper on Mar. 23. De Burgh was reflecting on Time To Reign’s money-making potential, both in the purses he’d now be aiming for and the way his stud fee had likely shot into the stratosphere in a matter of minutes. “The Silver Slipper was a $250,000 race, and we’re going for a $3.5-million race in a month, the Golden Slipper,” de Burgh said of the half-brother to Darby Racing’s 2017 Slipper winner She Will Reign (Aus) (Manhattan Rain {Aus}). De Burgh said the Australian Thoroughbred business is as healthy as ever, and made no bones about the fact that he thinks it’s the country’s outstanding prizemoney structure that fuels it all. “When you’re racing in Sydney or Melbourne, a standard race on a Saturday is A$125,000 minimum,” he said. “But even if they don’t quite make it in the city and you move them out to the country, they’re still racing for A$30,000 out there. You can put your hand on your heart in Australia and look a guy in the eye and say, ‘give me some money to go in on a horse because you have a chance of getting it back again.'” Genuine love of the sport runs deep Down Under, but it is likely these prizemoney levels are what fuel so many every day Aussies to take a small share of a racehorse. Syndicators in Australia are capped at spending $500,000 including costs on any one horse, and that in turn has made spending in the middle market quite competitive. “Darby Racing has to work under the syndication rules, so they’re only allowed to buy horses up to a certain value, and that includes all the costs,” de Burgh said. “So that’s why we’re cut off at about A$400,000. But even if we [could spend more], it was very hard to compete against the likes of China Horse Club, Henry Field, the Maktoums, James Harron and some of these consortiums with American investment at the top level. We’re more comfortable when we’re trying to buy colts in the $200,000 to $350,000 bracket.” De Burgh described syndication as “the lifeblood of Australia.” “It’s really interesting because I’ve now worked with Darby Racing for three years, so I’ve seen it from the grassroots and how many people follow them on Facebook and social media, and where they get their client base from,” he said. “What’s really interesting is that I went out last year for their open day and they had 600 people there just to see the horses. Parts of a lot of those horses were sold on that day, but the fact that up to 600 people turned up was quite incredible. And it wasn’t held in Sydney, it was held an hour outside of Sydney.” Darby Racing’s profile was no doubt boosted by its rags to riches Golden Slipper winner She Will Reign, but de Burgh stressed the importance of the network the company has built up on social media. “Darby Racing buys a horse in the sales ring, and the moment it’s bought, within 30 seconds of signing the buyers’ contract, they have that out on their website,” the agent said. “You will watch people hitting it, seeing what they’ve just bought. Registration of interest is shown within a minute of them actually buying the horse. That’s because they’ve built such a big social network structure, and anyone doing that has to start from scratch. They’re working with their trainers and the trainers will often take a percentage of the horse as well. Everyone is working together in Australia. They get good credit from the sales companies. You get to the racetrack and the racing clubs are giving you tickets. Everyone is working together to get the product into the fast lane.” While the top races in Europe are generally decided by a handful of superpowers, the prizes are generally spread much further in Australia. “In Australia, you can watch a group race with 10 runners and they’re probably owned by 10 different people, and seven of those are syndicators,” de Burgh said. “A lot of the good horses in the last three or four years have been owned by syndicates. The charm of Australian racing is that a guy can walk in and put A$2,000 in and own 1% of a horse. For example, we bought She Will Reign for $20,000 as a yearling. Those people who invested in her put in A$2,500 each. She won over A$3-million in prizemoney and then we sold her to Japan for considerable millions. Those guys’ original A$20,000 purchased picked them up millions between the prizemoney and what she was sold for.” De Burgh explained that the monopoly of owners in Britain is exacerbated by the fact that many promising young horses are purchased privately and change silks early in their careers. Smaller owners in Britain are much more motivated to trade their horses on because they’re less likely to recoup their costs through purses. In Australia, de Burgh noted, it’s much harder to seal private deals; small owners would rather hang on to their horses, enjoy the ride and scoop up some big prizemoney pots. “In Europe you can have a smaller owner with a horse that suddenly wins his maiden or a listed-race really impressively,” de Burgh said. “He’s either sold to Hong Kong or to one of the big entities, because the prizemoney is so bad. So they trade on. A lot of the time in Australia, when there are 20 guys in a horse, they hang on to it, because if someone is offering A$1,000,000 and you divide that by 20, that’s A$50,000. That probably doesn’t change anyone’s lifestyle, and they haven’t had to put much money into it and they’re getting a lot of fun from it. So a lot of the time they don’t sell them down there–they keep racing. We’re seeing that in trying to buy horses in Australia to go to Hong Kong. We’re ringing them to offer them what we think the horse is worth, and we’re finding out they’ve been offered double that. At home, the smaller guy’s horse will pretty much always sell.” One place in Europe that it isn’t easy to find a bargain is at the top of the public sales markets, where competition for the best stock is becoming more and more fierce. De Burgh said this trend is becoming especially pronounced as breeders begin to offer fewer and fewer of their top mares and fillies for sale. “The problem is no one wants to sell their nice young mares anymore, and so the market is getting full of these 10-year-old mares that have already been exposed,” he said. “If we have an order to go and buy a really big mare, we can’t get one, because they’re all in the hands of keepers and everyone is after the same horses. It’s been like that for 20 years, but now it’s getting more noticeable. Even some of the people we used to buy off, when you could walk in and buy a couple nice fillies, even they’re keeping them now because they can’t replace them either. There is no supply because it’s so limited.” Another trend that is becoming more pronounced in Europe is the rising fashionability of speed sires. It allows for an interesting juxtaposition with Australia, which has hinged its reputation on sprinters for years. De Burgh reflected that there is nothing wrong with Europeans producing sprinters, but doing so at the expense of preserving the continent’s middle-distance and staying lines is dangerous because whereas those types of horses are routinely sold to race on in Australia, America and Hong Kong, there is little overseas market for precocious European sprinters. “A lot of the owners that are coming in now want a quick return on investment,” de Burgh said. “So everybody is trying to breed a sharp horse that will come out the first couple months and race at Royal Ascot if it’s good enough. The problem then is that a lot of these horses that are five-furlong sprinters, where do you sell them on to afterwards? America has their own sprinters, they don’t need them. Australia are world-class with their sprinters. So what do you do with them? The Middle Eastern countries aren’t looking for five-furlong horses. We’re breeding a horse that is a quick-fix solution in the early part of its career, where in Australia you look at the horses and they look fast, they look like Usain Bolts, they look like speed, speed, speed–but there are a lot of races for them. No one in Australia wants back-end 2-year-olds, but their quick-fix solution to that is they just go to Europe and buy a 10-furlong horse as a 3- or 4-year-old. “On the other hand, when Australians give the Derby horse a chance, they do get rewarded, like with Dundeel for example. He’s absolutely flying at the moment. So if some guys in Australia would take a chance and start to stand some of these horses, and they started winning a lot of races, I’m sure people would come back and buy them. We go to New Zealand to buy Savabeels; they’re later maturing, but they’re very, very good mile to 10-furlong horses. When we were in New Zealand this year we bought a Savabeel for Darby and one for Sheikh Hamdan.” De Burgh said that as long as Europeans continue to breed top-class milers, they will have the product that overseas buyers are looking for. He praised the entities that are keeping these branches alive. “Australia wants the stayers and America will take the mile to 10-furlong horses, so we’ve got to stay strong in Europe breeding these kinds of horses, because we’re such an export market, and we’re the first place everyone comes to buy horses. This is going to become even more noticeable as the U.S., one of the biggest and most important markets in the world, seems to be laying on more and more turf races. “Thank goodness for John Magnier and the Maktoums, Prince Khalid and others, because they will put horses to stud that are 10-furlong horses. Someone has to do it,” he said. “You look at Europe now and you have a lot of really good milers. You do have the likes of Kodiac and Dark Angel who are really popular because they’ll be out early winning a lot of the good 2-year-old races, but you also have some really good milers coming through. As long as people are breeding to get a mile, it’s not just going to be cheap speed. Cheap speed is the problem. You have in Europe horses like Lope de Vega, who I think is a very good stallion; you’re not using him to get mile and a half horses, you’re using him to get mile to 10-furlong horses. It comes back to again, thank goodness for people like the Maktoums, Prince Khalid Abdullah, Coolmore; they’re actually keeping these horses in Europe. If they were selling overseas all the time we wouldn’t be world leaders at breeding turf horses.” De Burgh pointed out a few sires he likes at the moment that he considers value for their fee. “Exceed and Excel is just a proper, Group 1-producing stallion and he’s now turning into a very good broodmare sire. I’d love to have fillies and colts by him,” he said. “Zoffany started off so well, and then he got a much higher grade of mare and the produce of those are just coming onto the track now. There’s every reason to think he could bounce back and get a whole bunch of group winners and the next thing he’s back up on top again. He had seven stakes-winning 2-year-olds last year. Fashion is a very fickle thing in our business, and I’ve seen stallions go in and out of favour three times in a year. “Cracksman, I just think was a very good racehorse, and he’s standing at a fraction of the price of his father [£25,000],” he added. “He’s a nice horse who trained on and at that sort of money I think he’s worth taking a chance with.” In America, de Burgh is high on Kantharos, who made a fast start in Florida before moving to Hill ‘n’ Dale in 2017. His first Kentucky-bred progeny are yearlings this year. “Kantharos, he got a lot of winners early on and then came up to stand at one of the best stallion-producing farms in America, Hill ‘n’ Dale,” de Burgh said. “He’s getting a much better quality mare, and I think he’ll never be that price [$15,000] again.” In a business where intercontinental ties are rapidly increasing, it is important, de Burgh advocates, to operate with a global mindset not only for the good of one’s business, but for the greater good of the industry. View the full article

Whether its International racing or Uk and Irish action you are after we cover it all and have Daily Horse Racing offers available for you to get involved in. Check out today’s Horse Racing Offers below. UK Horse Racing Offer – Money Back All Losers if the Favourite Wins! On one race every day we […] The post Daily Horse Racing Offers – Tuesday 5th March appeared first on RaceBets Blog EN. View the full article

If you ask any jockey, trainer or owner which race they most want to win? Most will say the Grand National or the Gold Cup. In truth, it’s probably easier to claim racing’s blue riband event rather than Grand National, considering the unique demands of Aintree. Native River took this twelve months ago and is […] The post Cheltenham Gold Cup 2019 Preview appeared first on RaceBets Blog EN. View the full article

We can almost hear it. The thundering of hooves and that famous Cheltenham Roar. The countdown is on to the biggest National Hunt Festival in Ireland and Britain and racing fans and punters are eagerly anticipating the 2019 Cheltenham Festival to descend upon the county of Gloucestershire. The Stayers Hurdle is a Grade 1, run […] The post Cheltenham Stayers Hurdle 2019 Preview appeared first on RaceBets Blog EN. View the full article

Ruby Walsh Ruby has won 10 of the past 12 jockey championships at Prestbury Park and although the Willie Mullins team doesn’t look as strong this season, Ruby is still favourite to win the top jockey award. As everyone knows trying to predict which races Willie will aim his horses at, is like trying to […] The post Cheltenham Top Jockeys appeared first on RaceBets Blog EN. View the full article

Star trainer Frankie Lor Fu-chuen will mentor Hong Kong’s newest apprentice Alfred Chan Ka-hei.The Jockey Club licensing committee made the announcement on Tuesday afternoon, confirming he will be eligible to ride in races from Sunday, March 31.There was a selection process and all trainers were invited to submit an expression of interest in having Chan allocated to their stable and Lor, who has taken all before him since getting his licence at the start of the 2017-18 season, won out.The… View the full article

Frankie Lor Fu-chuen is daring to dream ahead of his shot at history as he attempts to become just the second man to win all three legs of the prestigious four-year-old Classic Series.The second-season phenomenon gave his three Hong Kong Derby hopes a final Sha Tin trial on Tuesday morning ahead of next week’s HK$18 million feature event.Dark Dream, Furore and Mission Tycoon all trialled strongly for Lor, with the trio finishing in a bunched leading pack over the 1,000m grass trial.“I think… View the full article

Perennial “disappointment” Helene Charisma has found his mark and is close to winning, trainer John Moore believes. The expensive European Group One winner is yet to salute in his 27-start Hong Kong career, managing to finish second just once after reaching a peak rating of 103 in 2017. Now rated 74, the six-year-old has fallen a long way, but there may be light at the end of the tunnel after enjoying a stint at the Jockey Club’s Conghua training facility in mainland China. “It was a great… View the full article

Injured jockey Tye Angland remains in discussions with the Jockey Club, among other stakeholders, as he looks to secure his financial future after his horror fall at Sha Tin last year.The Australian seriously damaged his spinal cord after being dislodged from Go Beauty Go on November 25 and is now a quadriplegic.The Australian Jockeys’ Association released a statement on behalf of Angland and his wife Erin on Tuesday, providing an update on their situation.“As you are aware, Tye suffered a… View the full article