Browse by Tags
While he is now considered an "elder statesman" of the Coolmore Australia stallion roster, there can be no doubt that Encosta de Lago (AUS) ( TrueNicks , SRO ) is one of the premier stallions standing in Australia this year. The son of Fairy King has amassed a sensational record at stud with 6.3% stakes winners to foals and 7.6% stakes winners to runners (up...
Read More...
The weekend past saw the 56th running of the world's richest 2-year-old race, the AAMI Golden Slipper (Aus-I), run over 1200m (6 furlongs) at Rosehill in Sydney with the victor being the undefeated Gai Waterhouse-trained Pierro (Gai had touted Pierro strongly leading up to the race as seen in this pre-race video ). Traditionally the race that decides the champion...
Read More...
As our TrueNicks tour continues, Byron and I traveled north out of the Waikato region to Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. Here we visited Russell Warwick at Westbury Stud and Shannon Taylor at Haunui. The Westbury stallions have now joined TrueNicks for the first time, and Haunui – a longtime TrueNicks supporter – announced Showcasing , their exciting...
Read More...
The weekend of March 12-13 was a good one for some emerging sires in Australia and New Zealand. Magic Albert comes from a branch of the Nearco sire line that has been a purely Australian one for several generations. He is a son of Champion 3-Year-Old and successful sire Zeditave, who is turn is by The Judge, by Showdown (Champion English 2-Year-Old, and twice...
Read More...
On the international scene, the performance of last week was that put up by Black Caviar in the Lightning Stakes (gr. I, video below). The Australian filly was officially rated the best sprinter in the world for 2010, and confirmed that she will be hard to dislodge from her perch, while maintaining her unbeaten record and defying a ten week layoff to tally by...
Read More...
It might seem hard to believe, but only a handful of years ago, Sadler's Wells' legacy as far as the extension of his male-line appeared to be in severe doubt. That is no longer the case, and we were treated to a number of reminders of over the weekend. Sadler's Wells' son, High Chaparral has been rather in the shadow of his stud companions Galileo and Montjeu...
Read More...
Sadler's Wells, whose sons and grandsons have a virtual shut-out in the upcoming Epsom Derby (Eng-I), ran wild last week, particularly in concert with his old ally Mill Reef. In Australia, his number one son Galileo (IRE) was represented by Saint Minerva (AUS), winner of The Prop House Grand Prix Stakes (Aus-III). Rated A++ , Saint Minerva follows grade I winner...
Read More...
If Sir Thomas More was the man for all seasons then Giant's Causeway ( TrueNicks , SRO ) is the sire for all-weather. Although he's also had plenty of top-class runners on dirt or turf, there is no mistaking that his offspring are just killers on synthetic surfaces, be it California's more turf-like version, or the deeper Turfway Park going that Hold Me Back...
Read More...