NYC OTB and NYRA and the tenuous situation for NY racing

(The following is an excerpt from an article I wrote for the current issue {#16} of North American Trainer magazine. The article was written in March and the segment reproduced here is as submitted to editor Frances J. Karon, a much better editor than I am. To subscribe or to order copies of NAT, click [...]

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The light switch goes on for pedigree researcher Roger Lyons

If you know or have read pedigree researcher and blogger Roger Lyons, you’ll already know how intelligent and painstakingly detailed he is. If you don’t know him, take my word for it: he’s one smart mudgafudga. I’ve known Roger for years, and his history in the business dates from the Stone Ages, from his work with pedigree guru Bill [...]

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Racing journo Paul Haigh hasn’t got hang of Twitter, yet!

Racing journalist Paul Haigh was writing about the international races in Hong Kong last month for the Hong Kong Jockey Club website but a few months before had experimented with Twitter perhaps in anticipation of Hong Kong’s tech-savvy populace and ample population; at any rate, his “experiment” with Twitter was not successful, although he is following [...]

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Shamardal, Dubawi giving the Maktoums Euro sire power

Dubawi was reviewed in this space (via a post by Victor Sheahan in his blog Montjeu.com) before he ascended to the top of the British/Irish sire tables by earnings (click here to read), and Shamardal’s exploits as the leading European first-crop sire of 2009 also have been documented here. But after this weekend, it’s safe to say that [...]

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Brilliant Singapore sprinter Rocket Man is defeated again

Green Birdie defeats Rocket Man in Sprint Click here to view the videos from Kranji for May 16. The Group 1 KrisFlyer International Sprint, won by Green Birdie,  is race 9, and the Group 1 Singapore International Airlines Cup, won by Lizard’s Desire, is race 10. Both Green Birdie and Lizard’s Desire are Danzig-line horses inbred on [...]

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Charts of all races from Preakness Stakes day at Pimlico

Click here to view charts of all races from Pimlico from May 15, 2010. The chart of the Preakness is included.

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Lookin at Lucky: Everything about the Preakness winner

A look at ‘Lucky’ (Sid Fernando) Smart Strike strikes gold with Danzig mares (Jack Werk) Pedigree profile: Lookin at Lucky (Roger Lyons) We shall overcome: Lookin at Lucky (Frank Mitchell)

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From the ZATT Preakness issue: Where are the MD-breds?

The following is an excerpt from an article in the Preakness issue of ZATT the magazine, which will be available online Friday at http://www.zattmag.com/: “Maryland in the 70’s had a vibrant breeding and racing industry populated by colorful small owners, breeders, and farms, many of them homebreeders who raced their produce at Pimlico and Laurel, as [...]

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Battle of eggheads aside, War Admiral + La Troienne = Nick

There’s an amusing battle of pedigree eggheads taking place over various blogs and forums about the constructs of pedigree and the relevance of inbreeding and linebreeding and the accumulation of certain ancestors…yadda…yadda…yadda. And as is so often the case when eggheads (can also be known as pedheads, but not always the case; some pedheads are not intellectuals!) battle, [...]

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Ahmed Ajtebi was recently spotted riding at Kincsem Park

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The Phippses took the path from La Troienne to Super Saver

There have been several informative and interesting articles on the pedigree of the Kentucky Derby winner Super Saver, notably Frank Mitchell’s piece in his new column at Paulick Report, Andrew Caulfield’s column in today’s TDN (free subscription to read; see sidebar ad to subscribe), and Roger Lyons’s blog post in Pedigree Matters. Each examines this pedigree, which traces [...]

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Kentucky Derby day charts of all races from Churchill Downs

Click here to view the charts of all races from Saturday, May 1, 2010, from Churchill Downs.

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Chilean champion filly Belle Watling wins another Group 1

Befitting her well-known literary name from the novel Gone With The Wind, which was later translated in a big way to the cinema, Chilean filly Belle Watling won the Group 1 Gran Premio Hipodromo Chile Bicentenario Movistar Saturday like the matinée idol she is in Chile, by 3 1/4 lengths from classic winner Cuan Linda. The race was contested over 2200m on dirt, and [...]

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Six Grade 1 dirt races highlight Palermo card in Argentina

  (The following post was written by Diego Mitagstein, editor of Turf Diario.) BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—It was the day of the Kentucky Derby in the US, but it was a big day of racing in Argentina, too, with six races at the highest level contested on the sand at Palermo in Buenos Aires. Ratifying his place as [...]

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