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(Originally published in the September 21, 2013 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.) By Eric Mitchell - @BH_EMitchell on Twitter The Keeneland September yearling sale is an important market barometer, not only for yearlings but for the commercial ...

(This is an expanded version of a condensed piece in the September 21, 2013 issue of The Blood-Horse) Gibson Carothers is a longtime horseplayer who grew up at the Fair Grounds in New Orleans. He worked as Creative Director of Y&R Advertising in Los Angeles and BBDO in Minneapolis, owned racehorses in Southern California, served on the Board ...

By Ian Tapp What does a brisk market look like?—probably something like the 2013 Keeneland September sale. The charts below plot prices of sold yearlings (up to $1 million) by hip number for the 2009-13 Keeneland September sales. Just a quick visual comparison of 2009 vs. the first half of 2013 suggests that the yearling market has rebounded ...

I never thought I would ever say this about any horse or any race, but the feeling here is Wise Dan is unbeatable at a mile on the grass, and probably unbeatable up to 1 1/8 miles.Every horse, no matter how great, can be beaten, whether it be due to an off day, a fluke pace, too much of a weight concession, or a surface not to his or her liking. ...

In the past few years, the number of stallions who are subscribed to TrueNicks has nearly doubled—in 2010 there were 425 mostly U.S.-based stallions; today there are 820 stallions representing some of the top stud farms internationally. A major growth catalyst was the TrueNicks Enhanced Report, a two-page report that includes detailed statistics ...

By Nicole Sauer Buying yearlings by young stallions is always a high-risk investment. Young stallions are largely unproven as sires, which means that the market is less accurate in its valuation of their progeny. In this small study, we tracked yearling averages and earnings per starter for four stallions—A.P. Indy, Awesome Again, Pulpit, and ...

This scene from The Simpsons came to mind when considering whether to single Wise Dan in the $200,000 guaranteed Pick 4 on Sunday at Woodbine, or go against him in the Ricoh Woodbine Mile. Seeing the reigning Horse of the Year win his ninth consecutive race would ''please the gentleman'' as the shopkeep says in the video above, but he ...

The roster of TrueNicks stallions includes some outstanding performers from around the globe, and the latest of these is Brazilian superstar Plenty of Kicks (BRZ) (TrueNicks), who retires to Haras San Francesco for the 2013 breeding season. Plenty of Kicks finished second over seven furlongs on his debut but was to go undefeated in seven ...

Sunday, Woodbine, Race 10, Scheduled Post Time 5:38pm ET The G1 Woodbine Mile, Turf, 1 Mile, Three-and-upBy Douglas SalvatoreEven though the Woodbine Mile might be the least attractive betting race on Sunday's entire card, it will be the focus for us because of the celebrity of Wise Dan. In plain English, Wise Dan should dominate this group. In ...

For the full magazine version of this story, check out the Sept. 21 issue of The Blood-Horse. They called him the ''Panamaniac,'' an erratic runner who propped, wheeled, and zig-zagged his way across the strip down at Hipódromo Presidente Remón. In one start, Private Zone ducked to the inside and his jockey lost the irons for a nerve-wracking 200 ...