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The first truly warm day in Lexington could not emerge at a better time. My annual trip to watch the undertack show at Keeneland has arrived! The undertack showcases the upcoming 2-Year-Olds in Training that will be on sale, the horses run a variety of distances, 1/8, 3/8 or 1/4 usually. The standard/average time for an 1/8 seemed to be 10.2 this ...

Special Rate (TrueNicks,SRO) is a stakes-winning son of emerging sire of sires Pulpit (Tapit, Sky Mesa, etc.). He’s out of a Viviana, a stakes winner by Nureyev and the dam of Sightseek and Tates Creek, both multiple grade I winners for Juddmonte Farm. Viviana is a granddaughter of Champion and New York Filly Triple Crown winner Chris Evert, who’s ...

The beautifully-bred Battle Plan has taken a while to show that he has talent to match his pedigree. The five-year-old only ran twice before this year, having been sidelined after breaking his maiden in the January of his three-year-old season. Returning from that extended break, he kicked off the year with a pair of allowance wins at Gulfstream ...

The TrueNicks Auction Guide pages are now available for the upcoming Two-Year-Old in Training sales at Keeneland and OBS. The Keeneland April sale will be conducted on Monday, April 5 while the OBS Spring auction runs from April 19-22. Both sales produced juvenile champions last year with Champion 2yo Colt Lookin' at Lucky emerging from the '09 ...

Ramblings on recent developments in horse racing: One could argue that, after the latest General Assembly session in Kentucky, the legislature isn’t really serious about helping the horse racing and breeding industry. So with no legislative action, that leaves Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, who could, with help from the Kentucky Horse Racing ...

(Originally published in the April 3, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)    The Jockey Club issued a release last week that contained one single number, but it is an important number. Breakdowns are an unfortunate—and, frankly, ...

One nick that has a 100% strike-rate is that of Yankee Victor with mares by Woodman, which has produced stakes winner Timely Reflection, and Kinsale King (TrueNicks A++), who took the Golden Shaheen (gr. I) in Dubai. The granddam, Flaming Leaves is a stakes winner and graded placed, and is a three-part-sister to Champion Two-Year-Old Colt Roving ...

  As the bloodstock adviser to wine mogul Jess Jackson, Kentucky bloodstock agent John Moynihan played a major role in the purchase of the sale-topping, $2.3 million Distorted Humor colt (now named Brock) at the Fasig-Tipton Florida select juvenile auction earlier this year. But, Moynihan said, he has gotten just as many questions and heard ...

A huge weekend is coming up that will decide just where the Southern California horses are. I’m letting horses like Caracortado, Alphie’s Bet, and Sidney’s Candy sort themselves out against Lookin At Lucky Saturday to see just which ones are leading Derby contenders. Another California horse who still can make a name for himself on dirt is Dave in ...

Brazil is the country that gave us football legend Pele and is no stranger to domination in that sport. They are, however, less often at the top of the racing world, but Saturday at Medyan, Brazilian breeding prevailed in the shape of Gloria de Campeao. The much-traveled seven-year-old – runner-up last year to Well Armed – led virtually throughout ...