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(Originally published in the October 6, 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 Not only does Penny Chenery know how to work a room, but she can also fill a room. Racing’s First Lady for four decades now was in ...

Arguably, the most significant stallion in racing the last two days has to be Green Desert (Danzig—Foreign Courier, by Sir Ivor). Now pensioned, the 29-year-old Nunnery Stud resident sired his 99th worldwide stakes winner on Sept. 19, when his 3-year-old daughter Semayyel won the John Musker Fillies Stakes at Yarmouth. But that was then and this ...

Within the space of 18 days, German breeders have lost two important stallions. Following closely behind the death of Monsun at Gestut Schlenderhan, Gestut Fahrhof’s stallion Tiger Hill (Danehill—The Filly, by Appianni II) has died in circumstances eerily similar to those surrounding the death of his own sire, Danehill. Both died as a result of ...

Welcome back to everyone who took last week off. You missed the worst million-dollar race I have ever seen (the Pennsylvania Derby), and one of the best races with a four-horse field that I can remember (Questing vs. My Miss Aurelia in the Cotillion). The stakes schedule is exploding with 10 Grade 1 races at ...

You can spin the profitability results for the Keeneland September yearling sale two ways. You can say, ''Wow, commercial breeders are making more money, so that's a good thing.'' Or you can say, ''Damn, it may be getting better, but how can a lot of these people hack it financially?'' The Blood-Horse analyzes the results of yearling auctions ...

Optimism surely would have been more muted had consignors at Keeneland known going into the world's largest yearling sale that the top buyer from last year would spend only 10% of what he did in 2011 and the second-leading buyer would buy nothing at all. Combined, Sheikh Mohammed’s bloodstock agent John Ferguson and health care magnate Benjamin ...

In recent months, I’ve been posting a number of photos to accompany my blog, and they seem to be well received. I came across several photos of great horses that are special to me because of their personal nature and thought I would share them. My daughter grew up with these horses and expressed her feelings in a guest blog that I posted ...

In light of the recent Woodbine Mile (Can-IT), won in brilliant fashion by Wise Dan Sept. 16, I was reminded of another past Mile winner, Rahy's Attorney. I'm happy to report that the Canadian fan favorite, who was retired in August 2011 after sustaining a minor leg injury in that year's Sword Dancer (gr. IT), is back to work. According to ...

Before we get into handicapping this weekend's races, I'd like to get your opinion on something. Do you care about takeout? Just to review, in the parimutuel betting system, the racetrack takes a flat amount off of every dollar bet. That ''takeout'' money primarily goes to the racetrack and to fund purses. It is the house fee, ...