BloodHorse.com

Back in February 2006, I purchased a barren Broad Brush mare at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky mixed sale. I did some research, tried to select a good match for her, and sent in a mare nomination form. The next month, I brought her to Ashford Stud for a date with Honour and Glory (on SRO). They danced, my mare came back to the farm and gestated ...

I've got to say, the Northern Dancer line never really excited me as broodmare sires.  Sure, there were loads of successes along the way, but you'd expect that just based on opportunity: a lot of well-bred mares had a lot of well-bred daughters by Northern Dancer and his sons, and just by sheer numbers they're likely to have their fair share ...

A recent poll asked The Five-Cross Files readers ''Are you a horse owner?''  It turns out that 2 out of 3 readers own at least one horse, and apparently several of you guys own a bunch of ‘em.  Of those non-owners, half of you have had horses previously. Not surprisingly -- this is a breeding/pedigree-oriented blog, after all -- the ...

This poll has ended.  The question was:  What are the effects of racing 2-year-olds?

Breeding and raising Thoroughbreds requires such a large financial outlay that the industry has focused on ways to earn a quick return on investment - resulting in March 2-year-old races at some tracks, and bullet works at spring sales for the juveniles, many of which haven't yet reached their actual second birthday. Well, why stop there?  ...

Over the last 50 years, racing has trended towards ''speed'' to the detriment of ''stamina.''  The obvious casualty of the speed bias is non-sprint race distances. And over the past half-century, we've seen more and more tracks re-defining their signature races by cutting the distance asked of the runners. More insidiously, everyday races -- ...

Last week, I talked about a few of my favorite pedigrees in the Keeneland April sale of 2-year-olds in training. For anyone interested in that sale (or just fascinated by sire lists and anything data-related), The Blood-Horse is offering a free download of the Data Digest for this sale.  In addition to top sires and broodmare sires, top ...

When a highly-inbred horse does well on the track and is bred to outcrosses, watch out, world! I responded to a comment in an earlier post that a mare with considerable inbreeding often yields superior runners when she's outcrossed, but will generally fare poorly at the track herself.  When a filly with close-up pedigree ...

For much of the U.S., the cost and availability of hay has been worrisome since mid-2007. Here in Kentucky, the situation was caused by a hot, dry summer's drought that parched the land and kept hay from growing. (Read more on TheHorse.com:  rising hay prices, hay prices affect horse rescue, hay shortage inspires alternative ...

Honour Devil (ARG) (pedigree) has made Nad al Sheba his stomping ground. After a ~ 6-furlong maiden victory in his homeland of Argentina as a southern hemisphere 2-year-old, the son of Honour and Glory (on SRO) was sent to the United Arab Emirates to race under new trainer Michael de Kock. The results have been nothing short of ...