BloodHorse.com

The news cycle in the Thoroughbred business moves like an opening quarter-mile in :21 and change this time of year. In the past two weeks we’ve been inundated with announcements from nearly all of the stallion operations with new deals for the incoming class of 2021 as well as the fees for the coming season—most of them having been reduced due to ...

Not everyone likes to be first out of the box. Being first sometimes has its advantages while introducing a new product line or setting pricing, but being in front can also leave a business out in the cold. Back in the formative days of the commercial bloodstock world, “Cousin” Leslie Combs II, master of Spendthrift Farm, wanted to be out front. ...

There are few mountains left for trainer Todd Pletcher to scale. While the veteran horseman is not yet in the Hall of Fame—he’s sure to be a first-ballot entrant when he becomes eligible in 2021—he ranks first among trainers all-time with more than $395 million in earnings. He’s won two Kentucky Derbys (G1): Super Saver (2010) and Always Dreaming ...

Racing has continued amid a pandemic, and for that we have a great many thanks. In Maryland, hopeful horsemen declared last week: “Hey, they’re running the Preakness Saturday…it’s like we’re alive in the double.” The Maryland Jockey Club did present the Preakness Stakes (G1) in front of a very select, very socially distanced live audience at ...

Commerce is key to any industry, and thankfully the folks at Fasig-Tipton and the Keeneland Association did a yeoman’s job in just being able to conduct yearling sales amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Thoroughbred breeders and consignors have to be most grateful for all of the hard work behind bringing in more than $300 million through the auction ...

While indicators at the end of the second session of Book 3 at the Keeneland September yearling sale seemed to indicate a “more stable” environment according to our Ron Mitchell, others suggested that the leading buyer of Book 3 was “RNA.” Nobody has ever said the sale game is easy…especially during a pandemic. Through six sessions some $208 ...

While the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky Selected Yearlings Showcase raked in more than $61.2 million over two days, we’ll defer commenting on the yearling sales until we get more than two books in. Even then, the expert commentary will come from Bill Oppenheim’s “In My Opinion.” Until then, here are some side comments, like the old-school sports ...

Kentucky Derby weekend in Louisville had it all. It was exciting yet bizarre, colorful yet weird, and tense yet quiet…often at the same time. But it makes sense in a year when Hunter S. Thompson’s once “Decadent and Depraved” Kentucky Derby was “disinfectant and delayed” due to a global pandemic and run in a city with raw nerves following more ...

Events since early March 2020—both health-related and society-related—are reshaping America, and the planet for that matter, at a pace unimaginable a year ago. The pandemic is widening the chasm between the maskers and the non-maskers, the employed and the impoverished, the haves and the have-nots. Flashpoint events in Minneapolis, Minn., ...

The front-page news of the week is the decision of Churchill Downs to nix patrons at the Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve (G1). Churchill officials—with a calculated best guess—took their best shot back in March in moving the Run for the Roses from May 2 to Sept. 5. However, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pour cold water over large ...