BloodHorse.com

Cold and wet weather combined with a rather hard-keeping breed of horses means that Thoroughbred caregivers must be especially conscientious about the health of their equine charges during the winter months. In other words, winter is a rough time of year to be a Thoroughbred owner. It becomes an even more crucial -- and difficult -- ...

If you haven't read the news, Brass Hat is back in training for a 2009 campaign.  While the grade I-winning son of Prized has never been an iron horse, he has at least been fairly consistent -- and it's always great to have old-timers return to the track.  Horse racing needs more longevity from its stars. Brass Hat was a late foal in ...

Fifty or 70 years ago, it made sense for Thoroughbred horse racing to be somewhat insular. Transatlantic flight for horses was inconvenient and costly. While European and American bloodlines influenced each other, they were distinctly separate entities. The culture of racing in England and France was quite a bit different than what ...

Five months after we started discussing the mare Surgeglobal (in a previous Five-Cross Files post and again in a follow-up post), the mare will compete in a Turfway Park contest today.  This start marks Surgeglobal's return to racing after a 27-month hiatus. Surgeglobal is entered in race 3 on the Dec. 29 Turfway card, a 5 1/2-furlong ...

As 2008 draws to a close, we can start to assess the Thoroughbred sire crop that entered stud in 2003.  At this point, those stallions have had their all-important first and second crops complete their 3-year-old season. I compared the year-to-date 2008 Third-Crop Sires list against the 2007 Second-Crop Sires list (BloodHorse.com lets ...

It's that time of year again.  Even when the Thoroughbred breeding market is facing tough times, it's exciting to take a look at the newest stallions on the block. Here are two helpful links: Stallion Register Online list of horses entering stud in 2009.  From Andronikos (GB) to Zanjero, meet all 100+ new sires in the ...

Last month while I was proofreading the ''grey pages'' at the back of the Stallion Register -- the charts that trace stallions back to the male-line progenitors of the Thoroughbred breed  -- it hit me that the sire line of Damascus, and in fact the larger Teddy sire line, is in danger.  I thought it would be useful to ...

If you're subscribed to the TrueNicks RSS feed, you saw a slew of new posts arrive yesterday afternoon.  We wanted to introduce you to the new farms and new stallions offering complimentary reports on the TrueNicks Web site.  If you're researchng potential matings for 2009, this service is invaluable and will help you to narrow the wide ...

  ''We have a crisis in Thoroughbred racing.''  When Scott Palmer VMD says that, it's worth paying attention.  Palmer is a past president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) and head of the AAEP Racing Task Force. Kim Brown, editor-in-chief of The Horse:  Your Guide to Equine Health ...

We occasionally discuss ''rare'' sire lines in this space, and later this week we're going to take a look at the remaining Teddy line.  While I'm more of a ''female family'' advocate in most breeding considerations, I also appreciate the Y-chromosome diversity that still exists within the Thoroughbred breed.  By request, here's ...