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We must admit, we thought that bringing North Light (IRE) (TrueNicks,SRO) to the U.S. to stand would probably be the death knell to his stud career. The son of Danehill won the Epsom Derby (gr. I) at 1½ miles, and was out of a mare who stayed 2½ miles. Not a horse to appeal to U.S. commercial breeders, or even many owner/breeders, and not quite ...

In an era when Mr. Prospector, Northern Dancer, and A.P. Indy (TrueNicks,SRO) are the dominant forces in U.S. racing, it comes as a pleasant surprise that currently the leading two-year-old colts on either coast are male-line descendents of Man o’ War through In Reality. On Monday, the much-vaunted Boys At Tosconova (TrueNicks A++), impressed ...

By winning the Del Mar Futurity (gr. I) last weekend, J P's Gusto established himself as the top West Coast-based juvenile and is the only 2-year-old with three graded stakes wins so far. With his pedigree (Successful Appeal--Call Her Magic, by Caller I. D.) more geared for sprinting or middle distances than classic distances, his prospects ...

I have said more than once on this blog that horse racing’s primary competition is other forms of gaming and wagering, not professional sports leagues or collegiate athletics.  But I couldn’t help but be amazed by a story in this week’s New York Times reporting that nearly all of the National Football League’s 31 stadiums were financed with ...

Blame, winner of the Whitney Handicap (gr. I) in his most recent stakes race, returned home to his barn at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., after traveling and spending the summer in Saratoga.Order this Photo.Blame has been under the care of Glenn Brookfield at Keeneland since he was two. “He thinks he owns the place,” said Brookfield, assistant ...

(Originally published in the September 11, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)   The message from Dennis Robinson at the Aug. 22 Jockey Club Round Table rang true for some and painfully hollow for others. The New Jersey Sports and Exposition ...

Not sure which is worse—those who believe horse racing’s sun rises when Saratoga opens and sets when it closes, or those who claim the meet and its product are deteriorating. … No one likes to see declines in handle and attendance, but we need to put things in perspective. This is a meet and a city that rely heavily on out-of-towners, and we all ...

The Thoroughbred industry's breeding calendar, including production of the Stallion Register, is based on a handful of key annual events. As I have worked this summer preparing for the 2011 Stallion Register, it's occurred to me several times that many of these events are related to the timing of the Breeders' Cup weekend. First is the ...

Alan Porter gives a 30-minute video introduction to the TrueNicks system. brightcove.createExperiences();

Above: TrueNicks ratings of the Sadler's Wells sire line with Seeking the Gold line mares. I’m sure Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr never expected his famous epigram plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose, which loosely translated amounts to “the more things change, the more they stay the same” to be applied to the development of Thoroughbred ...