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For those of you who wait all year to enjoy the Keeneland breeding stock catalog, it's online now. I'm spending a few minutes searching for my list of favorite mares... we'll be talking about this sale a lot in the next few weeks.  Any first impressions after seeing the catalog?

A multiple stakes winner on the Northwest circuit, Nationhood (TrueNicks,SRO) took the 2008 editions of the Budweiser Emerald Handicap. and the Seattle Handicap. Overall, the colt won eight times from 22 career starts. He's a son of former leading first crop sire Cherokee Run, already sire of the solid stallions Kafwain (The Pamplemousse, etc.) ...

Strut the Stage (TrueNicks,SRO) was one of the most consistent grass runners of the first half of this decade, winning seven stakes (six graded) and placing in six  others from 2001-2005. The son of Theatrical comes from a typically strong Sam-Son female line. He's out of the stakes-winning Red Ransom mare Ruby Ransom, who's the dam of ...

Whatever the state of the national and world economies at large, it appears that the Thoroughbred breeding industry is still quite a distance from seeing any light at the end of our sport's tunnel of recession. We experienced a rare and significant drop in the number of mares bred in 2009, and it's hardly a secret that prospects for the 2010 ...

Over the next two weekends, 41 graded stakes will be run. Many of them will have Breeders' Cup implications. All of them present us with an opportunity to make money. Let's get to work. On Saturday, Belmont takes center stage with five grade I's on Jockey Club Gold Cup day. Let's take a brief look at each of them and try to put together a winning ...

After two posts and 232 comments by our readers, it is now time for you to vote on the stallion that you would like to see Rachel Alexandra mated to in her first season at stud. We must say that there were some outstanding suggestions made by our TrueNicks community and we are thrilled that you have taken the time to come up with the suggestions ...

By Alex Waldrop, President and CEO of the NTRA   Last week I told you I would be speaking to marketers from across the country at the NTRA's Marketing Summit in Las Vegas.  I asked for your ideas and you responded -- man, did you ever respond!  I received almost 50 substantive, insightful, passionate responses. ...

Jukebox Jury, a group winner at two and three, notched his first win at the highest level when capturing the Preis Von Europe (gr. I). Out of Mare Aux Fees, he is one of two stakes winners from only four foals by Montjeu out of mares by Kenmare (and rated A++ by TrueNicks), a pattern that gives inbreeding to Zeddaan, the grandsire of Kenmare, and ...

In a post three weeks ago, I asked Are Names an Advantage at Yearling Sales? and indicated that I was surprised by the apparent advantage of named hips at the Keeneland September sale in recent years.  I promised to take a closer look -- comparing named versus unnamed foals by book rather than across the whole sale to eliminate any skew that ...

Second season sire Toccet had an interesting stakes double over the weekend, winning both the British Columbia Derby (gr. III) with Winning Machine, and the British Columbia Oaks with La Rocca. He now has four stakes winners from his first crop, and a stakes winning two-year-old from his second crop. Winning Machine, out of a mare by Carson City, ...