BloodHorse.com

Rachel Alexandra fan day finally arrived! Fans like me had signed up on Facebook in February to visit the Horse of the Year during one of four sessions planned for March 25, 2011. Rachel Alexandra, owned by Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke, now resides on their Stonestreet Farm near Lexington, Ky. The Stonestreet staff was organized, friendly and ...

Considering we’re some way up the road to the Triple Crown, a surprising proportion of this weekend’s graded stakes activity was for older mares. Among that group, none were more impressive than Hilda’s Passion, who led throughout the Inside Information Stakes (gr. II, video below) at Gulfstream Park, to score by 5¼ lengths, while setting a new ...

There are three Kentucky Derby preps on the calendar this weekend, as well as the Dubai World Cup. Plenty of good betting opportunities all around, so let's get right into it. Louisiana Derby What was rumored to be a short field only about a week before entries turned into a full field of 13. Mucho Macho Man is the 9-5 morning-line choice after ...

The latest stallion to join the powerful line-up at Haunui Farm in New Zealand is the record-breaking group II-winning juvenile Showcasing (GB) (TrueNicks). Bred by Juddmonte, Showcasing was one of the fastest 2-year-olds of his crop. An impressive maiden winner on his second outing, Showcasing followed up by capturing the historic Gimcrack ...

The weekend of March 12-13 was a good one for some emerging sires in Australia and New Zealand. Magic Albert comes from a branch of the Nearco sire line that has been a purely Australian one for several generations. He is a son of Champion 3-Year-Old and successful sire Zeditave, who is turn is by The Judge, by Showdown (Champion English ...

Dear Beyond the Blinkers readers, As you know, Triple Crown and Kentucky Oaks season is upon us, and from April 1-May 6, I will be switching the focus of this blog to the Kentucky Oaks. Like last year, I will be covering this race for the magazine, and through Beyond the Blinkers, I will be updating you with fun features, and behind-the-scenes ...

Who will win the 2011 Louisiana Derby? Who will complete the exacta? The tri? Is it all Mucho Macho Man? Will Machen or Elite Alex make some noise? Is it time for a new horse to enter the Triple Crown picture? Now is your chance to see how your picks stack up against the rest of the BloodHorse.com community. Need more information about the ...

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By Scot T. Gillies A few changes at the top make the 2010 leading trainers lists an interesting study. Eric Mitchell's cover story introduces MarketWatch's exclusive--and exhaustive--statistical charts of the nation's top 200 trainers and subcharts identifying leaders by category. Racing fans know Bold Irish as ancestress of Ruffian, but ...

TrueNicks co-creator Byron Rogers and myself are on a three-week tour of New Zealand and Australia. Since Byron so proudly coined “Tapp’s Travels,” I’ll be nice and keep the title for this blog. Our first stop was Saturday’s New Zealand Oaks (gr. I) at Trentham Racecourse in the southern part of New Zealand’s north island. The winner was Midnight ...