BloodHorse.com

The racing world has spent the better part of the first half of 2017 focused on the breeding and foaling season on the farms and the 3-year-olds on the tracks. As the smoke clears from the Fourth of July fireworks and the industry rolls into the summer and fall, the yearling sales market vies for attention. We provide plenty of reference material ...

Watching Saturday’s Mother Goose Stakes, now relegated to grade 2 status and run at the nondescript distance of 1 1/16 miles, it got me thinking of how prestigious this race used to be when it was grade 1 and run at 1 1/8 miles and the middle leg of the NYRA Filly Triple Crown, which was the recognized Filly Triple Crown for many years. The ...

Leave it to the British to supply North America with its most compelling racing over the last week. One would think there would be enough graded stakes run in late June to satiate the racing public, but on June 24 there were but four graded races, including a pair in Southern California that gave us a four-horse field in the Affirmed Stakes (G3) ...

When Royal Ascot ended its five-day meet Saturday, there was a sense of sadness, as if something beautiful, yet comforting, was taken away after filling four and a half hours each morning with a kaleidoscope of images and colors and unbridled emotion. It was like saying goodbye to an old friend, even though the friendship lasted less than a ...

For a variety of reasons Arthur Hancock III has long been one of our favorite people in the industry. Through 70-plus  years he has maintained a sharp eye for horses and a sly wit and ready laugh; he has the heart of an artist (and is, in fact, a talented songwriter and musician); and he believes there is more to the universe than meets the ...

Yes, I have written about the genius of John Nerud on numerous occasions, and through his vast knowledge of pedigrees and the physical horse, he has created his own niche in the annals of Thoroughbred breeding. But as each month passes by, that niche becomes larger and larger and has now reached staggering proportions. One person referred to ...

It couldn’t have ended any other way. There simply was too much magic at work. And everyone who was at Santa Anita on Nov. 2, 2013 could feel that magic. The fairy tale journey of Mucho Macho Man and trainer Kathy Ritvo began five years ago, and after watching the towering 5-year-old son of Macho Uno – Ponche de Leona, by Ponche win the $4.6 ...

The oldest living Preakness and Belmont Stakes winner has died at the ripe old age of 29. For Hansel, it was quite an interesting journey that saw him retired to stud in Kentucky, being sent to New York State, then to Japan, and finally being purchased by his original owner, Joe Allbritton, to return to his Lazy Lane Farm in Virginia, where he ...

Tapit—North America’s leading sire three years running—didn’t get a chance to run in the Belmont Stakes (G1), but his presence in the American classic race certainly has been felt the last few years. The son of Pulpit—who also didn’t start in the Belmont—has sired the winner of the 12-furlong classic three out of the last four years, and in 2015 ...

Well, you can’t say the 2017 Triple Crown trail didn’t provide enough twists and turns, highs and lows, and performances that defy explanation. The only horse able to put together anything even resembling a winning streak was Kentucky Derby – Florida Derby winner Always Dreaming, as we saw a rash of unexplained flops from top-class horses all ...