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 As the year winds down, a few closing thoughts on gifts given this year that will continue to bring a smile to my face as long as I live. Feel free to share favorite memories, but please leave your HOY and HOD arguments at home. I want to hear races, from Maiden Claiming to Foreign Allowance races to Graded Stakes. ...

By Kingmambo from the family of Seeking the Gold, that would be enough for Rey de Cafe (TrueNicks,SRO) to be given a chance at stud. The fact that he was a very talented runner makes his prospects all the brighter. He won the Bourbon S. in the fall of his juvenile season at Keeneland and went on to win or place in five more blacktype races ...

The day before the 130th Preakness Stakes (gr. I), jockey Jeremy Rose said of Afleet Alex, ''This horse will run over broken glass if I ask him to.'' Several weeks earlier at Churchill Downs, Liz Scott, mother of Alexandra  ''Alex'' Scott, the 4-year-old girl who started the now-famous ''Alex's Lemonade Stand'' to raise money for cancer ...

We were interested to note the victory of Apapane in the Hanshin Juvenile Fillies (gr. I), the most important contest for two-year-old females in Japan. The race has been won in recent years by such stars as Buena Vista and Vodka, and Apapane was scoring for the third straight time in four starts.Apapane (TrueNicks rated A++) is by Kingmambo ...

Stormin Fever (TrueNicks,SRO) ranks #4 on the California Sire list with over $2.5 million in progeny earnings. The son of Storm Cat, out of the Seattle Slew mare Pennant Fever (making him a full brother to multiple grade I winner Raging Fever) is the sire of a pair of grade I winners. Among his 2009 graded winners are Whirlie Bertie, winner of the ...

It was all gloom doom when the Churchill Downs fall meet ended in late November, and Kentucky racing moved north to Turfway Park. Winter racing can be unpleasant at times in Northern Kentucky, and the current state of the Kentucky racing industry only makes it worse. So how bad is it? That depends on your outlook. On opening day, a Sunday, ...

Castleon-Lyons is no stranger to importing successful European stallions to the U. S., having brought over French stallion star Anabaa for the 2008 breeding season. Now the Kentucky stallion station is offering the Danzig son Modigliani (TrueNicks,SRO) to North American breeders. He began his stud career at Greentree Stud in Ireland and is well on ...

This was to be the year. You could feel it. Divine forces were guiding Smarty Jones up the sacred slopes of Mt. Olympus. Only a quarter mile away, the pantheon was in sight. Every step to this point had been perfectly orchestrated, and Smarty's ascent to immortality seemed written in the stars. The vast majority of the record 120,139 in ...

Derrick asks: I ran my Shadeed mare, Sweet Shadeed, through Truenicks and came up with an A++ rating with a 23.32 Variant. Yet I ran the same match through another nicking service and came up with an F rating. Why such a huge disparity? Alan's response: Thank you for your question. We are always happy to compare the TrueNicks ...

On Dec. 6, Steve Asmussen surpassed his own record for wins in a season by a North American trainer with his 623rd victory (he now has 632 as of Dec. 14). It is the second year in a row that Asmussen topped 600 wins and the fifth time in the last six years that he will have led the nation in wins. He also has more than $21 million in earnings ...