Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
What a change in the perception and accomplishments of California Chrome from a year ago, huh? Second in the Dubai World Cup, he was then taken from the popular trainer that had developed him and sent to Newmarket to prepare for … well, you know the strange and unflattering story that ended with Chrome’s return …
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Horse Racing Bloggers
Shake Down Baby gallant in Sanibel Island S.
Horse Racing Partnerships | 8 years ago
Making her first start for Cheyenne, Shake Down Baby overcame a very rough stretch run to earn a second-place finish in the $75,000 Sanibel Island S. Saturday at Gulfstream Park...
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Speed of Kantharos trickles to X Y Jet
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
It’s going to take an exceptionally fast old horse to defeat the 4-year-old gray gelding X Y Jet in the G1 Dubai Golden Shaheen, a 1200-meter dirt race with a $2 million purse that’s attracted nine others with a combined average age of almost 7 years. X Y Jet has been brilliant in his last …
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Shake Down Baby tries Gulfstream turf in Sanibel Island H.
Horse Racing Partnerships | 8 years ago
Shake Down Baby will make her first start in the Cheyenne Stables silks in Saturday’s $75,000 Sanibel Island H. at Gulfstream Park...
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Three Tapits at Meydan
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
The champion sire and most expensive horse in North America will be represented by an eclectic trio on Dubai World Cup day, and it’s possible by next week that all the chatter will be about Tapit again because one, two, or all three could win. Frosted is Tapit’s main chance, and he’s the most straightforward …
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The graying of America
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Just a few Tapits from the last year or so, some accomplished, others on the way up. Of course all the good ones are not all gray, but run against them and you’ll get gray quickly. TAPIT @Gainesway, Sires the 2016 Rebel S.-G2 winner, Cupid, by Tapit shown with Neil Drysdale, trainer of A.P.Indy pic.twitter.com/ug48aj9ljo — …
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Tapit, Uncle Mo continue to rock ‘n’ roll
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
With apologies to Led Zeppelin, the song remains the same for Uncle Mo and Tapit each weekend, it seems. Both stallions are represented by the two leading contenders for the Kentucky Derby, Nyquist for Uncle Mo and Mohaymen for Tapit, and the two undefeated 3-year-olds are scheduled to meet on a crash course before the …
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First stakes victory for Clothes Fall Off
Horse Racing Partnerships | 8 years ago
Clothes Fall Off proved too tough for the competition in the $125,000 Correction S. at Aqueduct on Saturday...
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Written Tycoon, sire of Slipper winner Capitalist
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
A prolific winner-getter and noticeably bubbling just beneath the G1 surface for a while, Written Tycoon popped like a bottle of champagne today when his son Capitalist won the G1 Golden Slipper at Rosehill Gardens — one of the most famous 2-year-old races in the world and the most important race in Australia for making …
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$125,000 Correction S. next up for Clothes Fall Off
Horse Racing Partnerships | 8 years ago
Clothes Fall Off will make her next start in Aqueduct’s $125,000 Correction S. on Saturday...
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Kinsley Kisses super-sharp in Tampa score
Horse Racing Partnerships | 8 years ago
Cheyenne Stables rising star Kinsley Kisses turned in another extraordinary performance Sunday at Tampa Bay Downs, rolling to a seven-length allowance victory...
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Madefromlucky nears $1 million earnings mark
Horse Racing Partnerships | 8 years ago
Madefromlucky turned in a valiant effort in Sunday’s $125,000 Stymie S. at Aqueduct...
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Madefromlucky highweight in Sunday’s Stymie H.
Horse Racing Partnerships | 8 years ago
Cheyenne Stables and Mac Nichol’s Madefromlucky was assigned a top weight of 123 pounds for Sunday’s $125,000 Stymie S. at Aqueduct...
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Market Rally and the UAE Derby
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
The March 26 G2 UAE Derby at 1900 meters on dirt is a $2 million race and a lucrative target in its own right, but it has the added allure of conferring 100 qualifying Kentucky Derby points to the winner, too. That’s why trainer Doug O’Neill’s California invader Frank Conversation is headed to Dubai. The …
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War Front’s Jack Milton
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Pope McLean’s Crestwood near Lexington is the latest Kentucky farm to stand a son of Claiborne’s War Front — one of the most sought-after stallions in the world. Jack Milton, a G1 winner who joined the Crestwood roster for 2016, is the least expensive of his sire’s five sons in the state at $6,500 live …
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Desert God wins Indian Turf Invitation Cup
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
By Major Srinivas Nargolkar (Retd.) (Ed. note: link to video of race below. Grades of races listed for informational purposes only. All Indian graded races qualify as Listed black type internationally.) The G1 Kingfisher Ultra Indian Derby winner Desert God (Burden of Proof – Running Flame) added the G1 Indian Turf Invitation Cup to his tally …
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Big Saturday for Darley stallions
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Darley had a weekend to remember with top stallions Medaglia d’Oro, Teofilo, Dubawi, Shamardal, Hard Spun, and Bernardini represented by notable Graded winners around the world on Saturday, March 5. Songbird remains unbeaten in the Grade III $100,000 Santa Ysabel Stakes! #SantaAnitaPark pic.twitter.com/2dZY43oYNi — Santa Anita Park (@santaanitapark) March 5, 2016 At Santa Anita yesterday, Medaglia …
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Sire Watch Pedigree Focus: First-crop sires, Street Boss
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
The Wednesday, March 2, edition of At the Races with Steve Byk featuring ‘Sire Watch Pedigree Focus.’ Topics include first-crop sires at Fasig-Tipton and Street Boss and Street Cry, among other things. Click here to listen.
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Mystical Star foals Pioneerof the Nile colt
Horse Racing Partnerships | 8 years ago
Graded stakes winner Mystical Star produced her first foal, a bay colt by last year’s leading Third Crop sire Pioneerof the Nile, on March 4...
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Treasure Beach reminiscent of Florida sire Sword Dance
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
At first blush, British-bred Treasure Beach, who stands for $10,000 at Pleasant Acres in Morriston, Florida, seems out of place in the state. He’s by Galileo out of Honorine, by Mark of Esteem, and is a product of the great Sadler’s Wells/Darshaan cross noted for turf stamina. He ran true to his pedigree, winning, among …
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Juvenile sales can be a barometer for sire success
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Recent juvenile sales have unearthed some of the best first-crop runners of new sires and can be an indicator for high placement on the year-end Freshman Sire list and also a barometer for future sire success. Last year, Nyquist sold for $400,000 at the Fasig-Tipton February sale and led the charge for Uncle Mo, who …
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New sires at Fasig-Tipton
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Below is a listing of new sires represented by 2-year-olds at the Fasig-Tipton Florida sale. Click on the sire for his page at the farm. Click on the works for the pedigrees of the individual horses. The fastest time recorded was :10 flat, shared by 10 horses. Algorithms (by Bernardini at Claiborne): 10.1, 10.3 Astrology …
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Street Boss, sire of undefeated Cathryn Sophia
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Street Boss was one of four G1 winners from the celebrated first crop of Street Cry, Darley’s flagship stallion who died in Australia in September of 2014 at the age of 16 and is the sire of more than 100 stakes winners. The star of that crop was Zenyatta, but it also included the Kentucky …
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Karakontie, from Japan to USA via Europe
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
The number of new foreign-bred and/or primarily foreign-raced stallions standing in Kentucky keeps increasing incrementally each year, it seems. At the moment the only two active leading sires bred or raced abroad on the Top 40 General Sire list of 2015 are Lane’s End’s Candy Ride, bred in Argentina; and Ashford’s Giant’s Causeway, raced in Europe. Darley’s …
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Super Saver’s Competitive Edge is speed
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Competitive Edge is the “other” new sire for 2016 at Coolmore’s Ashford Stud in Kentucky after the poster boy and racing icon American Pharoah, but when he comes out of the stallion barn to pose for visitors, he’s got the swag of a rugged matinee idol instead of the look of a supporting actor. At $12,500 …
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Hampton Court, fourth Aussie-bred reverse shuttler
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
B. Wayne Hughes’s Spendthrift Farm is traveling the road first paved by John Phillips’s Darby Dan with All American and later traversed by Darley’s Lonhro and Denman; Spendthrift is reverse shuttling Australian-bred Hampton Court from the farm’s Australian facility to Kentucky this year. (Technically, Darley’s Animal Kingdom is a reverse shuttler from Australia, too, but, …
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Radio: ‘Sire Watch Pedigree Focus’
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
“At the Races with Steve Byk,” Byk’s daily racing radio show on Sirius satellite radio Monday through Friday from 9AM to 12 each morning, has a new sponsor for the pedigree segment where I’m a guest each Wednesday beginning the second hour at 10AM. Download the App and join @sidfernando on ATR for 'Sire Watch …
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Dixie Union’s emergence as a sire of broodmares
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Three highly regarded 3-year-old colts share Dixie Union as a broodmare sire, and when something like that happens it’s usually a sign that a broodmare sire is on his way up. This is a nice position in which to be if you happen to own a daughter of Dixie Union, too. Mohaymen, the pro-tem leader …
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Candy Ride and sons
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
The recent success of Argentine-bred Candy Ride’s Gun Runner in the G2 Risen Star Stakes from the Uncle Mo runners Forevamo and Mo Tom is a snapshot of unconventional triumph. Both Candy Ride and Uncle Mo represent odd branches of significant stallions, and their success may in part be attributable to the outcross opportunities they …
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Who are the Derby contenders plucked from 2-year-old sales?
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
The Derby preps starts to heat up concurrently with the 2-year-olds-in-training sales, and trainers, like college coaches, are on the recruiting trail for next year’s prospects while preparing this year’s athletes. It all starts in Florida (Fasig-Tipton’s sale pictured above; photo by Frances J. Karon) in late February/early March, first at Fasig-Tipton’s “The Florida Sale,” …
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Airoforce: turf future if dirt doesn’t pan out
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Airoforce, who makes his season debut in the G2 $400,000 Veterans Ford Risen Star Stakes at Fair Grounds Saturday as the 5-2 morning-line favorite, faces 12 others, including four sons of Uncle Mo and Rachel Alexandra’s half-brother Dolphus, but if he doesn’t win or take to the track like he did the dirt at Churchill …
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AP wire: Suddenbreakingnews
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Two of the last three Derby winners, California Chrome (Lucky Pulpit, by Pulpit, by A.P. Indy) and Orb (Malibu Moon, by A.P. Indy), are by A.P. Indy-line stallions, and this year’s crop of contenders includes several others, including Mohaymen (Tapit, by Pulpit), Greenpointcrusader (Bernardini, by A.P. Indy), Shagaf (Bernardini), Economic Model (Flatter, by A.P. Indy), …
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Can Nyquist stay?
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Shortly after undefeated juvenile champion Nyquist (Breeders’ Cup Photo, above, winning the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile) had scorched the seven furlongs of the G2 San Vicente at Santa Anita in 1:20.71 on Monday, questions and comments — all legitimate, given his pedigree — surfaced on Twitter about his ability to get the Derby distance. Really, really …
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New Chilean stallion standing in Kentucky
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Ro Parra’s Millennium Farms in Lexington has an unusual stallion entering the ranks in 2016. He’s Chilean-bred and-raced Hakassan, initially a Green Hills Farm acquisition for racing. Hakassan came to the US after having last raced in Chile in December of 2012 and was held in high esteem as a winner of five of seven …
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Clothes Fall Off runs a big one in Barbara Fritchie H. (G2)
Horse Racing Partnerships | 8 years ago
It took a lifetime best race by Pangburn to deny victory to stablemate Clothes Fall Off in the $300,000 Barbara Fritchie S. (G2) Saturday at Laurel Park...
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Songbird’s Campbell history
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Fox Hill Farms’ champion Songbird (Breeders’ Cup Photo, above) made an impressive 3-year-old debut on Feb. 6 in the G2 Las Virgenes at Santa Anita — if you don’t believe the speed figures — by winning off by six and a half lengths in 1:36.84 to remain undefeated in five starts. Now, this is the …
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Congrats has another stakes filly in Polar River
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
The conversation and observation above on Twitter on Jan. 17 was a result of the way Congrats had started off the year near the top of the General Sire List (alongside his brother Flatter and in the mix with Tapit and Candy Ride). His top runner this year is the 3-year-old filly Forever Darling, who …
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Clothes Fall Off shoots for G2 success in Saturday’s Barbara Fritchie H.
Horse Racing Partnerships | 8 years ago
Cheyenne Stables and partners’ Clothes Fall Off will try to give her owners an early Valentine’s Day present on Saturday when she faces a field of six other fillies and mares in the $300,000 Barbara Fritchie H. (G2)...
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Mor Spirit and Baffert
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Before he was on the Triple Crown trail for Bob Baffert, Mor Spirit was a ‘lovely looking 2-year-old’ from the consignment of Ciaran Dunne’s Wavertree, as announcer Terence Collier notes in the video above when bidding stalls at $575,000. Mor Spirit had worked an eighth in 10 1/5, but his physical maturity, athleticism, and sheer attractiveness …
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Bayern as a prospect
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Bayern, who will start his career at stud at Hill ‘n’ Dale Farm in a few days, is a Breeders’ Cup Classic winner (in 1:59.88), a Haskell winner (in 1:47.82 by seven-plus lengths), a G2 Pennsylvania Derby winner (in 1:46.96 by five-plus lengths), and a G2 Woody Stephens winner (in 1:20.75 by seven-plus lengths) over …
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Indian Derby to Desert God
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
By Major Srinivas Nargolkar (Retd.) (Ed. note: link to video of race below. Grades of races listed for informational purposes only. All Indian graded races qualify as Listed black type internationally.) Desert God (Burden of Proof – Running Flame) beat the filly Myrtlewood (Multidimensional – Adamile) by half a length to win the Kingfisher Ultra Indian Derby, Gr.1 …
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Bernardinis with classic aspirations
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Preakness winner Bernardini (A.P. Indy – Cara Rafaela, by Quiet American) has 13 Triple Crown nominees this year, third behind only Uncle Mo (19) and Tapit (16). Standing at Darley for $100,000 in 2016, the same as his entry fee in 2007, the stallion has been on an extended roll since last summer after a …
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Trappe Shot next up for Tapit
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Tapit has started off 2016 where he left off at the end of 2015, and his headliners this week are Frosted, a very impressive winner in Dubai yesterday, and Mohaymen, the pro-tem leader of the 3-year-old division. Top sons will mean stallion sons, and Tapit will have every opportunity to establish his credentials as a …
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Madefromlucky draws the rail for Grade 1 Donn H.
Horse Racing Partnerships | 8 years ago
Saturday’s $500,000 Donn Handicap (G1) at Gulfstream Park, the feature race of the meet for older males, drew a tough field of eight...
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Wests’ 3-year-old prospects profiled
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
On Monday, the TDN ran a piece on four promising 3-year-olds owned by Gary and Mary West, each trained by Wayne Catalano and headed by “TDN Rising Star” Malibu Sunset, a 10 1/2-length maiden special winner at Fair Grounds Sunday. You can read the article here. This is the time of year when hope springs eternal …
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Mohaymen and Smokey Image
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Mohaymen, a $2.2 million yearling owned by the Shadwell Farm of Sheikh Hamdan al Maktoum, and Smokey Image, a California homebred for Betty Irvin’s Irvin Racing Stable, made auspicious season debuts Saturday as they begin the demanding task of securing a berth in the Kentucky Derby the first Saturday in May. Both colts are undefeated …
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Cathryn Sophia’s long ties to Manfuso
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
The exciting Maryland-bred Street Boss filly Cathryn Sophia won the G2 Forward Gal today by five lengths and remains undefeated in three starts for owner Cash Is King LLC. However, it’s her breeder, Maryland-based Robert T. Manfuso, who is the focus here. Manfuso is associated with five generations of this pedigree. It all began with …
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Seattle Slew inbreeding part of Mohaymen and Conquest Big E
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
The two sons of Tapit (pictured, photo courtesy of Frances J. Karon), Mohaymen and Conquest Big E, who clash Saturday in the G2 Holy Bull Stakes at Gulfstream at 1 1/16 miles, have pedigrees that contain inbreeding to Seattle Slew, and so do the following Graded stakes winners by Tapit, all at a mile or above: G1 …
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Kingmambo and Arch
Horse Racing Bloggers | Sid Fernando | 8 years ago
Kingmambo and Arch, both influential sires, died recently, and I had occasion to speak about them Wednesday on the Steve Byk show. You can listen to it below, at the end of the post. Also included here is the link to the post I wrote about Kingmambo on Sept. 29, 2010, the day after he …
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