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Kentucky Derby 137 has come and gone, and before we move on to the Preakness let's take a few moments to dissect the race. I have several observations, but let's start out with the winner. Congratulations to Team Valor, Graham Motion, John Velazquez, and the people that correctly sniffed out Animal Kingdom as the winner. He was a horse that I ...

(By Avalyn Hunter)  Much has already been made of Animal Kingdom's pedigree, which is by far the most Euro-oriented of any recent Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winner.  True, his sire, Leroidesanimaux, is Brazilian-bred, but like many Brazilian pedigrees, his has a strong Anglo-French flavor.  He is by Candy Stripes, a son of French ...

There is no question that racing came out a winner last weekend. Kentucky Derby attendance and handle gains, I believe, are testament to the exceptional power and allure of America’s favorite horse race.  The Derby’s unusual combination of history and tradition, national TV exposure, expansive media coverage and direct engagement through ...

 (Originally published in the May 14, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)      Ken Ramsey is an industry Breeder and Owner. By any measure Ken Ramsey had had an outstanding Keeneland spring meet. He and his wife, Sarah ...

(Originally published in the May 14, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)   Hollywood screenwriters could not have scripted a better story for racing partnerships than what unfolded on Oaks and Derby days at Churchill Downs. Stables ...

Graham Motion stood outside Barn 22 the morning of the $2,171,800  May 7 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) and admitted he had no idea what to expect from Team Valor International’s Animal Kingdom, who was about to make his first career start on dirt. Motion was well aware that no horse had ever won the Derby making his dirt ...

This year’s Kentucky Oaks and Kentucky Derby week was definitely memorable to me—from the heartbreaking phone call I made to John Greathouse about his ill-fated filly Devil May Care, to the quiet beauty of the descending twilight on Oaks night, to the thrilling Derby finish of Animal Kingdom and the realization I had scored the biggest triumph of ...

Saturday’s Kentucky Derby (gr. I, video below) was, we suspect, a history-making one on more than one count. We have a strong suspicion that the winner, Animal Kingdom, is the first horse to capture the Run for the Roses on his dirt debut, and we’d also nominate him as candidate for the title of “Derby Winner With the Most International ...

By Jennifer Wirth, of The Saturday Post When I was a twenty-year-old college student, I paid a visit home to my mother one weekend.  It wasn’t your typical visit home from college.The reason I had come home that weekend was because my mother had just undergone one of her many chemotherapy treatments in her fight to survive breast ...