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(Originally published in the June 23, 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 - @EJMitchellKy on Twitter Churchill Downs shook up the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) trail last week by tossing out its requirement to ...

A couple of recent observations drew our attention to E Dubai (TrueNicks,SRO), who we've noted before as a very good value-for-money sire. One was the upset victory last weekend of the progressive 3-year-old filly My Gi Gi in the Honeymoon Handicap (gr. II). The other was a look at the leading Beyer speed figures, where we noticed that in among ...

An all-graded stakes Pick 4 highlight's an excellent Saturday night card at Churchill Downs this week. Here's what I noted on my first pass through the PPs. The Pick 4 begins at 7:57 ET with the Matt Winn Stakes (G3), for three-year-olds going 1 1/16 miles on dirt. I could see myself going deep in this five-horse field on my main ticket (four of ...

As has been the custom the last few years, I spent Preakness day as guest of Thoroughbred owner Lee Einsidler in the International Pavilion in the infield, just a stone’s throw from the finish line and the Preakness winner’s circle.I mention this only because of an odd piece of memorabilia I took home with me – a cloth napkin from our table. The ...

Better than a bucket, The Soaker, a new product that automatically fills, soaks, and drains hay.  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE - June 14, 2010  - Granite Bay, CAMade in the U.S.A., ''The Soaker'', created by Jennifer Azevedo, is a nonelectric automatic hay and feed soaker that has standardized hay soaking. It is a timed, portable, ...

A few weeks ago, when looking at the emerging French second year sire Turtle Bowl, we noted that he conformed to something of a recent trend in France, the appearance of a number of good sires with relatively unfashionable pedigrees, other examples that come to mind including Linamix (by Mendez), Muhtathir (by Elmaamul), and Chichicastenango (by ...

(Originally published in the June 16, 2012 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.) by Lenny ShulmanParticipants in the Thoroughbred industry often speak of the highest highs and the lowest lows that they experience during the course of their years in the ...

(Originally published in the June 16, 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 - @EJMitchellKy on Twitter A remarkable array of circumstances threatened to derail this year’s Belmont Stakes (gr. I), yet Thoroughbred racing prevailed, ...

Racing didn't get a Triple Crown winner, but it got a compelling race in the Belmont Stakes. Union Rags was a deserving winner. He showed class and stamina rallying up the rail to beat Paynter by a neck. Union Rags was America's best two-year-old in 2011, and there is still an outside, remote shot he could be our best three-year-old in 2012. ...