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(Originally published in the November 3, 2012 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 Thoroughbred racing has certainly taken its lumps over the years for not embracing television in the early years. Who knows ...

It was quite an arduous journey, but the Bill Mott- and Chad Brown-trained horses, along with Point of Entry, finally arrived at Santa Anita at 9:15 Monday morning following an 11-hour trip.With the New York airports nearly shut down, the horses boarded a van at 10:30 at Belmont Park and headed upstate to Stewart Air Force Base in Newburgh, N.Y., ...

It was a tale of two coasts Sunday morning. On the west coast, an invigorating chill in the air; a bright blue, cloudless sky; the San Gabriel mountains so clear and sharp it was as if you could reach out and touch them; hundreds of people gathered at Clocker’s Corner as dozens upon dozens of horses decked out in Breeders’ Cup saddle towels ...

Animal Kingdom at Keeneland Oct. 26 (C. Novak) ARCADIA, CA -- If his trainer were another—less conservative, less reserved—you’d be inclined to doubt the legitimacy of Animal Kingdom’s upcoming bid at the Nov. 3 Breeders’ Cup Mile (gr. IT) at Santa Anita Park. You might wonder how the 2011 Kentucky Derby winner could possibly return to the ...

He’s not brilliant and he doesn’t have much speed, but if you are looking for a monster, and I mean monster, longshot to play around with in the Breeders’ Cup Classic, you might want to consider Brilliant Speed, whose form bears a striking resemblance to the form of 2002 Classic winner Volponi, who romped by 6 ½ lengths at odds of 43-1.Looking at ...

Four-time group I-winning filly Mosheen, who fractured a hind leg in the Oct. 20 Yellowglen Tristarc Stakes (Aus-II), has been retired and is scheduled to be bred to leading Japanese sire Deep Impact in 2013. Katsumi Yoshida, who stands Deep Impact at his family's Shadai Stallion Station, purchased a 50% share in the Fastnet Rock (TrueNicks) filly ...

(Originally published in the October 27, 2012 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 Recently completed at Keeneland is what has become one of Thoroughbred racing’s most important annual events—the Welfare and ...

Barbara Banke of Stonestreet Stables and Kentucky-based bloodstockconsultant John Moynihan tried to buy Darwin (by Big Brown) at the Fasig-TiptonFlorida select sale of 2-year-olds in training earlier this year. But Demi O'Byrnewon the bidding battle, getting the handsome colt for the sale-topping price of$1.3 million. Darwin made his career debut ...

On a week when much will be written about the great Frankel (Galileo–Kind, by Danehill) as he retires to Juddmonte Farms to serve his first season at stud in 2013, this writer had pause to reflect on the outstanding performance of his broodmare sire, Danehill, who has thus far proved himself a phenomenon as a sire and broodmare sire in two ...