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Continuing on the Secret Circle theme from today's Blood-Horse Pedigree Weekly Newsletter, there is certainly no question about the speed and courage possessed by this 2012 Kentucky Derby (gr. I) hopeful. Secret Circle's potential distance capacity – a weekend win in the 8½ furlong Rebel Stakes (gr. II) not withstanding – remains something of a ...

(By Avalyn Hunter) I was talking last week to a new coworker, a nurse practitioner who was once a groom in Kentucky. She loved Thoroughbreds then and still does. But she wants nothing to do with American racing. ''A lot of it's the drugs,'' she said. ''They give the stuff to all of them and they don't care whether the horse really needs it or ...

Press the Play button below to listen to the full interview. This edition of BloodHorse.com’s popular Talkin’ Horses live podcast featured Michael Hernon and Brian Graves, from the Lexington-based Gainesway Farm. The podcast was recorded at 2 p.m., on Tuesday, March 20. Owned by the Beck family, Gainesway Farm’s stallion roster includes ...

A few years ago when I started doing this blog I used to put out a Kentucky Derby top 10 list every few weeks beginning in February. Then I realized what a fruitless task it was and I stopped. We all have enough difficulty picking a winner on the first Saturday in May, so to say a horse is ranked seventh on Feb. 22 or fifth on March ...

More Than Ready Photo: Vinery Hindsight is always 20/20, but when the Vinery Stud stallion More Than Ready (TrueNicks,SRO) shuttled to Australia, he looked to be a ‘lock’ to suit mares by then-leading sire Danehill. Invariably within breeding populations, the next great sire establishes himself with the daughters of a previously great ...

(Originally published in the March 24, 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 The U.S. racing industry should watch closely what’s happening with slot machines and racetracks in Ontario because the trend ...

(Originally published in the March 24, 2012 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)   For a bloodstock agent, Peter Bradley sure seems to own his share of stakes winners. The latest in the impressive parade is Dayatthespa, a City Zip filly who took the ...

[brightcove videoid=''1518901939001''] 1 Creative Cause Mike Harrington Giant's Causeway—Dream of Summer, by Siberian Summer Yes, Union Rags is the sexy No. 1 pick and the most logical, but this guy right now is more battle-tested with two tough races, including an excellent sharpener sprinting, and has a bit more upside when it comes ...

We all know how quickly things can change on the Derby trail, nobody better than Todd Pletcher. Only a couple short months ago he was loaded with five or six top Derby prospects, many of them with some of the best pedigrees he's had in years. But even during those promising times, Pletcher knew not to get overly excited with Derby fever; he's been ...

(By Avalyn Hunter) Regardless of temperatures across the country, it's been a hot 2012 so far for recently pensioned A.P. Indy and his sire line. So far, 14 graded classic preps have been run (effectively 15, since the grade III Southwest Stakes was run in two divisions), and six have fallen to A.P. Indy grandsons or great-grandsons: Holy Bull ...