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Courtesy of Becky Johnston The Racing Post reported today that plans were underway by Racing UK in connection with their consultants, to implant a ten-race championship series call the Sovereign Series.  Beginning in 2010, the races which will culminate in a £2 million prize payoff to be split between the top three point finishers at the end ...

What better way to relieve the pressure of racing in the 21st century than to go back and celebrate the 40th anniversary of one of the greatest races I have ever witnessed, a race the likes of which we will never see again.Although the Suburban Handicap was uncharacteristically run on June 28 this year, the real anniversary of the one-time second ...

At the tender age of 85, after nearly three decades in the business of owning and running horses, Harry Aleo finally felt the love of the racing gods.They delivered unto him the horse that would fulfill his wish to travel his beloved United States of America and run that horse in top stakes races, earning cheers of fans from coast to coast. Decked ...

Courtesy of Becky Johnston Disappointing news this week when Aidan O’Brien announced that last year’s spectacular winner of this race and the Irish Oaks, Magnier/Smith/Tabor owned Peeping Fawn, was not ready for her first race of the year.  The filly was produced from Better Than Honour’s half-sister Maryinsky.  Better Than Honour is ...

Picture Thoroughbred racing as a multiplex cinema, showing a wide variety of movies over the past several months. Unfortunately, many of them have been ill-timed and offensive to a number of people. Therefore, it is important during these precarious times for the sport to tread carefully when it comes to public perception.Any one of the films the ...

Trainer Jack Van Berg is a member of the National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame, as is his late father, Marion Van Berg.If there were a section of the Hall of Fame for breeders, Arthur B. Hancock III would be a member, as would his father, the late A.B. “Bull” Hancock Jr.These two men from prominent racing families have been outspoken critics ...

Courtesy of Becky JohnstonThe Human ConnectionTrainer is following closely in giant footsteps.Vincent O’Brien and Aidan O’Brien are of no relation, but you couldn’t tell it from their results.  The younger O’Brien won four Group 1 stakes last week at Royal Ascot, saving his greatest feat for Thursday when Yeats won his third consecutive Gold ...

 What a joy to watch the Royal Ascot meeting on TV last week, especially hearing the rousing ovation for the champion stayer Yeats after his record-equaling third straight Ascot Gold Cup (Eng-I) victory at 2 1/2 miles. In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, a stayer is a creature unknown to American racing fans that actually relishes ...

Courtesy of Becky Johnston The next to last day of the 2008 Royal Meet at Ascot Race Course came up windy and cloudy with the ground much harder than most European runners desire.  Rain would not fall until the fifth contest of the day.  Bookmakers empty their pockets  The first race was the Group 3 Albany Stakes for two year ...

 Seattle Slew was a heck of a racehorse. He started only three times at 2 and had just six races prior to winning the 1977 Kentucky Derby (gr. I). He went on to win the Preakness (gr. I) and Belmont (gr. I) Stakes and remains, 31 years later, the only unbeaten horse to win the Triple Crown.Big Brown tried…and failed.We can look back and ...