Back in the day, the USSR bred and raced some rock stars

During the early 1960s, If you’d uttered the phrase “I gotta piss like a Russian racehorse at the Kentucky Derby with a glue truck behind it” within earshot of the Russian contingent that frequented the Washington DC International, KGB might have had your privates in a vice. Back then, in the quaint days of the [...]

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Polish racehorses, Kazakhstan Derby, and the Danzig line

Here’s the video of the Kazakhstan Derby from Aug. 20. The winner, Debet, was bred in Poland, a country in the US racing news lately because of a Polish stakes winner (the US-bred Santina Dond) that won a stakes race at Arlington for her Russian connections on the Arlington Million undercard. Before her, by the [...]

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Kentucky racehorses, Russian President’s Cup, and Kadyrov

Mr. Hal Dane is a reader of this blog, a follower of Russian racing, and a frequent and contentious commentator here. In the two posts below this, Hal has made several comments about Russian racing, and I thought I’d take the opportunity here to use them as an excuse to show a video of the [...]

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Russian racehorses, the Kentucky Derby, and a glue truck

The Russian combination of Gennadi Dorochenko and owner Vladimir Kazakov, who recently won a stakes race on the Arlington Million undercard, may eventually change the perception of Russian racehorses as more than low-level performers, but for now they are strictly second-class citizens on the international stage. Sunday’s Russian Derby at the Moscow Hippodrome, won by a [...]

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Johar colt wins Russian Derby; a Lemon Drop Kid wins Oaks

A Russian-bred colt from US-based Johar’s third crop won the 2400-meter Russian Derby (a dirt race) at the Central Moscow Hippodrome Sunday, Aug. 21. Owned and bred by the Donskoi Stud, one of the leading breeding farms in Russia, the Johar colt defeated a Canadian-bred Singspiel and a US-bred More Than Ready. Named Arjuna, the [...]

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Union Rags: Video, sales results for sire, and Today column

Union Rags won the Grade 2 Three Chimneys Saratoga Special Stakes Monday, dueling from the start, ridden with purpose on the turn, and busily handled throughout the lane by jockey Javier Castellano. The Dixie Union colt was making only his second start and unexpectedly veered out in the stretch, too, before Castellano straightened him and [...]

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Polish form, Equineline, Electra Deelites, and the G3 Derby

After the ex-Polish filly Santina Dond won the Hatoof Stakes on the Arlington Million undercard Saturday, I examined her only two Polish starts at age two in 2010 and found that she was two for two and she’d won the most prestigious stakes race for two-year-old colts OR fillies, the Nagroda Dakoty at Sluzewiec. However, [...]

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Video: Goldikova defeated in Prix Jacques Le Marois today

Returning to the races two weeks after winning the Group 1 Prix Rothschild against fillies at the same track, Goldikova was defeated in Deauville’s Group 1 Prix du Haras De Fresnay-Le-Buffard Jacques Le Marois today by Immortal Verse, a three-year-old Pivotal filly that won the Group 1 Coronation Stakes over good to soft ground last [...]

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El Prado filly boosts Polish form for Russian connections

Arlington’s signature international card today reinforced the dominance of European form with three European classic winners accounting for the three  Grade 1 races on offer, each on turf—Arlington Million (2010 Irish Derby winner Cape Blanco), Beverly D (2009 French Oaks winner Stacelita), and Secretariat Stakes (2011 Irish Derby winner Treasure Beach)—but even the fourth stakes [...]

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Successful Appeal colt won the Kabardino-Balkaria Derby

The run of successes by US-bred yearlings in Russia and her republics is now translating to the next stage: broodmares exported there (or to Russian owners in Europe) in foal to US sires are producing locally bred winners. More to the point, US bloodstock appears to be dominating the bloodlines imported from Europe, mostly because [...]

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Jet Master update: West Nile virus has stopped the champ

Five-time South African champion sire Jet Master will not breed any mares during the upcoming Southern Hemisphere breeding season because he’s being treated for West Nile virus. The first news about the sire’s problems came to light at the African Betting Clan website and was noted here. There are updates to the story on the [...]

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Freddie Head’s latest star has qualifications for BC Mile

Yesterday at Deauville in the Group 1 Prix Maurice de Gheest-Goldikova at 1300 meters, trainer Freddie Head unveiled his latest star, the three-year-old filly Moonlight Cloud. She’s owned and was bred by American George Strawbridge Jr. and may well join Goldikova in the BC Mile. Mr. Strawbridge has raced three Breeders’ Cup winners—Informed Decision, Forever [...]

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Galileo gets his first Group 1 winner as a broodmare sire

In a year that has seen his name all over the entries and results of European classics, Coolmore’s Galileo continues to find ways to exert his influence on the breed in the same all-conquering style that marked the careers of his sire, Sadler’s Wells, and grandsire Northern Dancer. Today a new first for Galileo, as [...]

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Ocala Stud’s High Cotton is showing some early promise

Last summer at the Fasig-Tipton July yearling sale in Kentucky, my friend Frances J. Karon of Four Star Sales spoke highly and frequently enough on Twitter about a yearling in Four Star’s consignment that had a Northern Dancer-type look and command presence that it piqued my interest, because the colt was by a Florida stallion [...]

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Check out news, stakes database at ThoroughbredInternet

One of the best foreign racing sites on the net is ThoroughbredInternet.com, which is updated frequently with world news headlines and has one of the best stakes-result databases out there. Additionally, each week John Berry’s stallion profile headlines the front page. A Newmarket trainer, Berry’s moonlighting columns are insightful and read religiously by pedigree aficionados [...]

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