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(By Avalyn Hunter) If hope springs eternal in the breast of the small breeder and owner, it's because of horses like Lord Avie. The recently deceased champion cost just $37,000 as a 2-year-old in 1980--the same year for which he was named U.S. champion juvenile male--in part because of a relatively modest pedigree. His sire, the Sir Gaylord horse ...

By Vic Zast At midnight on the last day of the year, as the moon lays a blanket of light on the pastures and the wind stirs the needles on the pines that line their edges, nothing seems different than the night before or the day after. Yet, the horses will celebrate a birthday.  The January 1 birthday is a custom, used by the registry to ...

''We didn't know how good she was going to be,'' said Potesta's co-owner, Joe Scardino. Here, the 3-year-old filly sets a track record in the Torrey Pines Stakes at Del Mar (Benoit Photo)Lexington, Ky. – Her name means “power,” and in four starts the seal-bay filly they call Potesta exuded just that. After a runner-up finish in her March 22 ...

2011 Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe (Fr-I) winner Danedream has been retired and will be bred to Frankel in 2013. Danedream was forced to miss the 2012 Arc when her Cologne, Germany, training base was put under quarantine for swamp fever Oct. 1. The filly remains confined to the facility pending future tests. Owner Teruya Yoshida, whose family also ...

Beyond the Blinkers Guest Blog By Mary Cage It was simply supposed to be a new experience, something fun that would expose me to another part of the sport of horse racing, the part of the industry that I did not realize at the time would be where I would find my greatest passion. My trip to the under-tack show for the 2010 Fasig-Tipton ...

This will be the first of six (monthly) editions of my top 20 contenders for the 2013 Kentucky Derby. Future lists will be ordered/numbered. It's too early to split hairs. These horses need to do a lot of developing between now and May 4, 2013. Bold Dance (c by Pulpit--Quiet Dance, by Quiet American) This half-brother to Horse of the Year ...

Journalist Kate Hunter continues her visit with mares in Japan. Like any big breeding operation, the Yoshida brothers are looking for mares who have performed at the highest level and impressively so. Turf has always been the most important surface in Japan, but they know, better than most, that a dirt horse can rule the turf. Case and point: ...

(Originally published in the December 22, 2012 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 It’s getting harder and harder these days to see the future in the crystal ball. With tax hikes looming—but who knows how much ...

By J. Keeler Johnson “Keelerman”  Ask any racing fan to name the best horses of the early 1930s and you are likely to hear names like Equipoise, Twenty Grand, Gallant Fox, Discovery, Cavalcade, Top Flight, and Sun Beau. That is to be expected. All were considered champions in their respective divisions; all are in the Hall of ...

December 6 brought the news that Pulpit, a leading commercial sire for almost a decade and a half, had died in his paddock. The 18-year-old stallion was bred by Claiborne Farm, raced in the Claiborne colors, and stood his entire stud career at the Paris, Ky., nursery. A member of the first crop of A.P. Indy, Pulpit was in several ways a ...