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(Originally published in the March 16, 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 Disputes over Thoroughbred racing dates are as endemic to South Florida as the sabal palm.Ugly clashes among the three ...

[brightcove videoid=''2219323501001''] 1 Itsmyluckyday Eddie Plesa Jr. Lawyer Ron—Viva la Slew, by Doneraile Court Debated long and hard whether to stay with him on top, and with so many lightly raced horses dominating the Derby lists, I decided to stay old school and go with the more experienced, battle-tested horse, who also worked old ...

Photo: Daehling RanchPeppered Cat Not many people outside Northern California have heard of the stallion Peppered Cat, but with current earnings per starter of $36,400 compared to a 2013 stud fee of $2,000, the 13-year-old son of Tabasco Cat is starting to get some attention. Granted, he's had just 16 starters, but that group includes 10 ...

In 2008, when the economy took a turn for the worse, Dale Simanton of the Newell, S.D.-based Horse Creek Thoroughbreds brainstormed creative solutions to stay afloat in the industry. ''One day I was watching the races at Turfway Park on TVG and I saw this gorgeous little grey gelding...he was a 35-1 shot and I thought if he ran as bad as he was ...

Since January, we have seen pretty much the same names on the Derby Dozen and other rankings, but it is important to note that we see that every year, and very often the Derby winner is not on those early lists. Who, at this time, had heard of or paid any attention to Animal Kingdom, Big Brown, Mine That Bird, Funny Cide, War Emblem, Grindstone or ...

If undefeated Purple Egg fails to run well in the Tampa Bay Derby (G2) on Saturday, it won't be because of an injury or a lack of fitness, says trainer Jane Cibelli.Scratched from the Gulfstream Park Derby on January 1 and the Pasco Stakes on January 12, Purple Egg will be making his first start in more than three months. Maybe it's partly ...

(Originally published in the March 9, 2013 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.) By Evan Hammonds - @BH_EHammonds on Twitter Thoroughbred racing fans had a busy weekend with lots of options from which to choose: the Gotham Stakes (gr. III) at Aqueduct ...

1 Itsmyluckyday Eddie Plesa Jr. Lawyer Ron—Viva la Slew, by Doneraile Court Let’s face it, no one has really stamped himself as a bona fide Derby favorite. What prompted the switch this week was the impressive Swale score by Clearly Now, who had been trounced by 13 1/2 lengths by Itsmyluckyday in the Holy Bull. On a lesser scale were the ...

15.33%. That's the coefficient of relatedness between Frankel and Chrysanthemum, the first mare scanned in foal to the champion racehorse during his first season at stud. As a point of comparison, first cousins are 12.5% related and half siblings are 25% related. Chrysanthemum, owned by the Coolmore team of Tabor, Magnier, and Smith, won a pair ...