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Several Blood-Horse projects have kept me on the go recently, including photo shoots with mares Silverbulletday and Vertigineux and a handicapping webinar called How to Bet: A Beginner’s Guide for Thoroughbred Racing. If you are new to betting or just need a refresher check this out. Busy times as we approach the Triple Crown. Similar to ...

Like last year, I decided to do a post on some of the Kentucky Oaks contenders and their name meanings, so you can get to know these fillies a little bit better. After reading these meanings, just for fun, tell me which filly out of this group you would bet on solely based on the name factor. Then tell me who you’re really rooting for. :) I ...

Complimentary TrueNicks Enhanced reports are available for the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) contenders listed below. Click on the horse's name or letter grade to view the report. No.ContenderGraded EarningsSire 1Uncle Mo$1,360,000Indian CharlieA++ 2Dialed In$840,000MineshaftB 3Archarcharch$780,000ArchA 4Comma to the Top$671,000Bwana ...

The select portion of the 2-year-old selling season ended April 11 at Keeneland. Here's a look at the good and the bad:   THE GOOD 1. Fasig-Tipton's move to Palm Meadows. Nearly everybody was happy with the Florida select auction's new home, agreeing that the barn area and track were superior to the facilities at the sale's former site ...

The Blue Grass Stakes (gr. I) was once a great race that attracted many of the leading Derby contenders. Since the switch to Polytrack it no longer is regarded as a top Derby prep, attracting mostly grass and synthetic horses. It did get eventual Derby winner Street Sense, who pretty much used the race merely to set him up for the big one, and he ...

This weekend it was the Roberto line's turn to dominate the Derby trials. The $1,000,000 Arkansas Derby (gr. I) went to Archarcharch who held off the on-rushing Nehro by a neck. Archarcharch is by Arch (TrueNicks,SRO) (by Kris S.) out of the Woodman mare Woodman’s Dancer. His second dam, Pattern Step, a daughter of Nureyev, won the Hollywood Oaks ...

PRESS RELEASEFor Immediate ReleaseANDIS LAUNCHES EXCELT 5-SPEED WITH T-84 BLADE FOR HORSESGroom Sensitive Areas at Lower Speeds, Body Coats at Higher SpeedsSturtevant, WI (March 9, 2011) - Andis Company has introduced the EXCELT 5-Speed clipper for horses, a powerful new detachable blade clipper equipped with the T-84 blade and a maintenance free ...

Australia is home to a branch of the Nearco line not found elsewhere in the world, that of Showdown. By Nearco’s son Infatuation—a top-class racehorse (he won the Dewhurst Stakes and Royal Lodge Stakes at 2, and the Greenham Stakes and Sandown Classic Trial at 3) but disappointing sire—Showdown was a brilliant juvenile taking the Middle Park ...

 (Originally published in the April 23, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)   “Don’t give up on a mare with a great pedigree,” was one piece of advice offered recently by former breeder Madeleine Paulson Pickens. The philosophy sure applies ...

 (Originally published in the April 23, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)  By Evan Hammonds   Based on the results of this season’s prep races, it doesn’t look good for Derby 137. Is this year’s crop of 3-year-olds—seemingly ...