Where have you gone, Barbara Budinszki? asks Overdose

It’s not easy conducting an international investigation, in Hungary and Germany, lying in bed on a Sunday afternoon with a laptop perched on my chest in Park Slope, Brooklyn, cup of coffee nearby, but here’s what I’ve come up with: Barbara Budinszky is missing!  She’s not as famous as The Who’s Baba O’Riley, but Where’s [...]

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Video: Overdose loses in Germany today; win streak ends

Overdose lost the Group 2 Goldene Peitsche at Iffezheim Racecourse in the German resort city of Baden-Baden today, ending his undefeated status after 15 starts. A national icon in Hungary, the 5-year-old son of Starborough, attempting an international comeback after battling foot problems for two years, had won the same race in 2008. A winner twice this year in Hungary [...]

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Uncle Mo’s Saratoga debut today adds more to 2yo division

How about the debut of Uncle Mo today at Saratoga? Click here for the chart of the race, and here for the pedigree. The colt, a $220,000 Keeneland September yearling from the Four Star Sales consignment, is expected to start next in the Grade 1 Champagne Stakes. With Kantharos and Boys at Toscanova in the picture, too, [...]

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Boys at Tosconova stock rises after Trickmeister win Friday

There was significant chatter on Twitter yesterday after Trickmeister, an undefeated son of Proud Citizen, won the nine-furlong Pleasant Colony Stakes at Saratoga Friday by almost 12 lengths. Here’s the race: Thoroughbred Times writer Jeff Lowe was particularly impressed when he tweeted this: “Had to revisit Dutrow’s comments about Boys at Tosconova after what Trickmeister did today. Scary“ Both [...]

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Sariska’s refusal has some family history, as it turns out

Read with interest one of my favorite blogs the other day, John Sparkman’s “The pedigree Curmudgeon,” specifically his post on Sariska’s refusal to leave the starting stalls Aug. 19 in the Group 1 Yorkshire Oaks. Read the post here. John speculates on whether pedigree could be a factor for the behavior, and wrote: When a [...]

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Overdose in Baden-Baden for G2 Goldene Peitsche Sunday

Hungarian sprinter and national icon Overdose, unbeaten in 14 starts including two in 2010 but only thrice-raced in two years, has returned to the scene of his breakthrough international performance of 2008, Iffezheim Racecourse in the German resort city of Baden-Baden. It was here in 2008 that Overdose won his first Listed race outside the European backwater [...]

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New photos of Tesio’s Dormello Stud, home of Nearco, etc.

Federico Tesio at Dormello. The great Italian horseman Federico Tesio bred the unbeaten Nearco, one of the most influential stallions in history, and Ribot, one of the greatest of European racehorses. They, with a dizzying number of other champions, were raised at his Dormello Stud in Northern Italy, situated on the banks of Lake Maggiore. An architect of buildings and [...]

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Richard Hannon runners all flying the Sure-Wins in wins

The ubiquitous Richard Hannon stakes winners this year, led by the superb milers Canford Cliffs, Dick Turpin, and Paco Boy, have been as noticeable for their exploits as for the Sure -Win bridles they’ve sported. Kentucky Derby winners Seattle Slew and Monarchos wore the Sure-Win, as did Jolypha and several other top-class horses, but Hannon appears to run the entire [...]

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Video: Rip Van Winkle wins the Juddmonte International

Rounding into the top form that saw him compete with Sea the Stars last year over the same trip of 10 furlongs, Rip Van Winkle was produced late today to win the Group 1 Juddmonte International at York from Juddmonte’s pair of Twice Over and Byword. The latter had defeated Twice Over by a half-length in the [...]

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Ramzan Kadyrov’s Giant’s Causeway wins Russian Derby

Ramzan Kadyrov, the president of Chechnya, had privately purchased from the Coolmore group the recent Group 3 Queen’s Vase winner at Ascot, Galileo’s Mikhail Glinka, for Sunday’s Russian Group 1 Russian Derby at the Central Moscow Hippodrome, but his Keeneland auction grad with ties to Coolmore actually won the race while Mikhail Glinka finished 6th. US-bred North [...]

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Video: Overdose wins at Kincsem Park today, is 14 for 14

Overdose is in the red cap, white shadow roll, on the stands side. He leads throughout. See post a few below this for the details of the Hungarian 1000-meter race. I taped this from the live broadcast and trimmed the original telecast from Loverseny.

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Video: Goldikova is defeated in Jacques le Marois today

Goldikova was defeated today in the Prix Jacques le Marois at Deauville over heavy ground by the resurgent 2000 Guineas winner Makfi (shadow roll). Rival Paco Boy, who made a very late move when second to Goldikova by a neck in the Group 1 Queen Anne Stakes at Ascot, was a tad premature today; Richard Hughes on the Richard Hannon-trained Paco [...]

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A day at the races seeing familiar faces at Monmouth Park

A gorgeous Saturday at the end of a painfully torturous work week saw me hop in the Subaru alone and zip one hour and 15 minutes from Brooklyn to Monmouth Park, a dowager of a track, for some relaxation. No sleeves and collar, no clubhouse, I heard an attendant tell a 30-something exiting a black Range Rover [...]

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Overdose comeback continues Sunday in Hungarian race

Trying to build on his July 18 comeback race at Bratislava in Slovakia a month ago, Overdose, the Hungarian sprint sensation who is undefeated in 13 career starts and co-owned by five Hungarian corporations, races in front of a partisan crowd Sunday in a Listed Hungarian 1000-meter race designed to ready him for a German Group sprint a [...]

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Ramzan Kadyrov’s Mikhail Glinka in Russian Derby Sunday

Controversial Moscow-backed Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov has the ex-A.P. O’Brien-trained Mikhail Glinka entered in the Russian Group 1 Russian Derby in Moscow Sunday, with Jimmy Fortune scheduled to ride.  Mr. Kadyrov is an international racehorse owner whose silks have flown at tracks from Canada to Australia. His main operation is anchored by South African trainer Herman Brown [...]

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