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With Rachel Alexandra being retired earlier this week, I thought it would be timely to catch up with her previous trainer Hal Wiggins, who was one of the major reasons she accomplished as much as he did. Wiggins, who retired from training shortly after Rachel was moved to Steve Asmussen, now lives in Texas. He is semi-retired, but works as an ...

The October 2 edition of The Blood-Horse magazine is a special report. ''Unwanted Horses: How the Industry is Dealing With Life After Racing'' has features on second careers for runners after their last race; equine slaughter; Thoroughbred adoption; and the racing industry's current and future attempts to find solutions for retired ...

Photo by Tony Leonard This week it was announced that Kingmambo (TrueNicks,SRO) has been pensioned from stud duty. To date, the 20-year-old son of Mr. Prospector and dual Breeders' Cup Mile (gr. I) winner Miesque has sired 86 stakes winners, including 23 group or grade I winners on the flat. Kingmambo stood his entire career at Lane's ...

We already knew it, but with Rachel Alexandra's retirement it was announced again that the 2009 Horse of the Year will be bred to 2007-08 HOY Curlin (TrueNicks,SRO) in 2011. As Jess Jackson said, ''We are eager to introduce Rachel to Curlin. Imagine what possibilities those two super horses might produce.'' Interestingly, both horses are winners ...

This year's Perfect Trip Award will recognize a Breeders' Cup Challenge race winner from this season's North American races that best exemplifies a ''Perfect Trip''. The winner will be selected from a panel of racing experts and will have the opportunity to experience his or her own ''Perfect Trip'' through Sentient Jet, with ...

I guess it was too much to hope for to have Rachel Alexandra retire in a normal manner. Nothing about her retirement makes any sense, with only another rhetoric-filled and oddly timed press release from Jess Jackson to go by.It looks, at least on the surface, as if Rachel started the year running when she shouldn’t have and ended the year not ...

Fasig-Tipton has cataloged 645 yearlings for its 2010 Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearling sale to be held October 5-6 in Timonium, Maryland. Visit TrueNicks.com/Auctions to get TrueNicks reports for all hips in the Midlantic sale, or for any past or upcoming sale. Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Eastern Fall Yearlings: Session 1: Tuesday, October 5 - ...

Between the Keeneland September yearling sale, feature deadlines, and moving offices, it’s been a hectic couple of weeks for me, and I apologize for not posting sooner. Well, the World Equestrian Games at the Kentucky Horse Park are upon us here in Lexington…my aunt and her friend are here for the duration of the dressage events and are ...

(Originally published in the October 2, 2010 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 buy-back rate at the recently concluded Keene-land September yearling sale became the sale’s most significant statistic ...

My initial reaction upon hearing the news that Rachel Alexandra had been retired was not one of surprise. I think most of us that have followed her bizarre campaign were half expecting her not to make it to the Breeders' Cup anyway. No, my initial instinct was not surprise. It was disappointment--disappointment of no longer being ...