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By Alexa RavitWith Ashado about to be inducted into the Hall of Fame this week, I felt it was appropriate to post this as a guest blog, as it depicts the love of a horse beautifully by a young fan, Alexa Ravit.Whenever I'm asked who my favorite racehorses of all time are, four names come to mind. The first two to roll off my tongue are Funny Cide ...

South African known as ''Bling'' makes British riding debut in Ascot's annual international jockey challenge Aug. 9. After bursting on to the scene a few years ago, S'manga Khumalo, nicknamed ''Bling'' on account of his peroxide blond hair, has won a plethora of group I races in South Africa, notably the 2013 Durban July on Heavy ...

Distribution of talent, by its very nature, tends not to be egalitarian. Competitive sport is an arena where that fact is particularly revealed, and students of the history of any such activity will be well aware of ''Golden Years'' or ''Golden Eras'' when several stars simultaneously made their presence known. A look at stallion crops over the ...

The Grade 1 Clement L. Hirsch Stakesby TimeformUS Analyst Justin FinchSaratoga / August 2 / Race 8 / 5:30 PDT: Get started on FREE TimeformUS PPs for the Clement Hirsch The Grade 1, $300,000 Clement Hirsch has seven fillies and mares entered to run a mile and 1/16 on Polytrack. However, at time of writing, trainer John Sadler is sounding as ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Are you ready for a terrific day of racing? On August 2nd, racing fans will be treated to so many top-notch races across the country that watching—let alone handicapping!—each one might be a bit of a challenge. All told, four grade I races are on schedule, including the historic Whitney Handicap at ...

Welcome to the first edition of my blog Keeping Pace. I’ll largely be focused on the Breeders’ Cup Challenge series through the fall. If you guessed that the first three Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In,” qualifiers to this year’s Breeders’ Cup Classic (gr. I) would be Moonshine Mullin, Majestic Harbor, and Bayern--and found someone to ...

By any measure owner Kaleem Shah is having a remarkable year. The native of Bellary, India, has had nine stakes winners this year, seven of which have been in graded stakes including two grade Is. The weekend of July 26-27 provided the best example of the kind of hot streak Shah is riding. On July 26 at Del Mar, Shah’s Fed Biz won the grade II San ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') On Tuesday afternoon (or morning, if you live in the United States!), Goodwood racecourse in England will begin its prestigious, five-day meet known as ''Glorious Goodwood.'' There will be lots of spectacular racing over the course of the five days, but it's the second day of the meet (July ...

  Earlier in the year our own Ian Tapp visited South Africa (read about his travels here) and just in time for the start of the Southern Hemisphere breeding season, 47 stallions associated with the Cape Breeders Club in South Africa have joined TrueNicks. Obviously there isn't room to do justice to all of them here, but we can note the ...