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The title of this post is a bit misleading.  The great racemare Flawlessly won nine grade I contests and $2,572,536 during her multiple-championship career -- but her produce record is too short to judge, with only two Storm Cat fillies produced. Of them, the 1996 Flawlessness was a maiden winner who died at age 4, reportedly because of ...

My high school's motto was mens sana in corpore sano: (strive for) a healthy mind in a healthy body. That's exactly the goal that horse owners should have for their charges.  I'm an advocate of pasture board for most horses because it's the closest thing we can offer to their natural environment.  Pasturemates offer social interaction, ...

A while back, I wrote about the rarity of seeing daughters of Personal Ensign available for public sale. A recent ad caught my attention because it offers a son of the great mare. The 4-year-old Baronial (pedigree) is by Kingmambo (SRO), making him similarly-bred to the five graded-winning and -placing half-siblings who are also from the Mr. ...

I'll start off by saying that today's topic is entirely out of my element.  For this discussion to be useful, I'm counting on you, the reader, to share your knowledge. While I've studied Thoroughbred pedigrees my whole life, it's always been with racing in mind.  But there's more to the Thoroughbred breed than racing on a flat ...

A mare that earns $1 million in a season is one thing -- one that can come back the next year and repeat the feat is an entirely different league of greatness.  The back-to-back Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I) victress Bayakoa (ARG) accomplished that and more during her six-year campaign that banked more than $2.8 million during which she ...

When discussing a Thoroughbred racehorse, it's customary to rattle off a list of its biggest victories. In the case of Serena's Song, that list would fill up my word count for the entire article.  Suffice it to say, few fillies have ever recorded double-digit grade I victories or come close to her on-track earnings of nearly $3.3 ...

Many breeders hope for a specific outcome -- either filly or colt, depending on the situation -- when they choose a match-up for their mares.  Commercial breeders who send royally-bred mares to high-end stallions generally wish for colts. No wonder: the boys average about 20 to 25% more (with medians about 50% higher) at the ...

I thought it would be fun to look at two mares and have everyone vote for the ''better broodmare.''  To keep it fair, I selected two mares recently offered for sale at about the same price and both located in Kentucky.  I guess I was inspired by Alan Porter's recent comments about Runaway Groom -- both of these mares have connections to ...

Over the Memorial weekend, I flew from Lexington up to Pennsylvania to pick up my truck and trailer and -- more importantly -- two of my mares. Back in mid-April I'd made the reverse trip:  I drove up to Ohio and dropped off one mare to be bred and continued on up to Pennsylvania to leave the second mare to be covered by another ...

Jockey Mike Smith opts off Mine That Bird in the Belmont Stakes (gr. I), adding a few more twists to the bizarre road that the son of Birdstone (SRO) has traveled in his Triple Crown odyssey. The part of the linked article that piqued my interest the most was that Mine That Bird trainer Chip Woolley ''indicated that he won't wait to see ...