BloodHorse.com

If you're not completely familiar with the basic premise of sire-line nicking, here it is in a nutshell:  Specific affinities of stallions of one male line for mares from other sire lines -- called nicks -- have made a profound impact on the development of the Thoroughbred. Today's powerful data-processing computers have now made it ...

In posts past, we've looked at pedigrees of all types of horses:  mares for sale, new and established sires, and a few Thoroughbred race horses that I've identified as having interesting breeding.  A frequent commenter thought it would be fun to ''analyze'' the horses owned by other blog contributors.  I like the idea and would ...

Last week it was announced that Churchill Downs and Great Britain's Kempton Park created a new 3-year-old race that will provide the winner a berth in the 2009 Kentucky Derby. The race, named the Kentucky Derby Challenge Stakes, not only guarantees the winner a spot in the starting gate next May, but will earn the connections a $100,000 bonus if ...

Financier Warren Buffett once said there is only one certainty about the stock market: It will fluctuate.In fact, all markets vacillate, and the business trends of buying and selling Thoroughbreds are certainly among them. The difference is the stock market tends to react quickly to news while the Thoroughbred market, by its sheer nature, often ...

  If you haven't said bye, bye, bye to your money during the recent financial turmoil sweeping the nation and spreading around the world, then November should be a good time to buy, buy, buy broodmares.   There will be a huge quantity of horses on the market during the November breeding stock sales in Kentucky, and there also ...

Thoroughbred racing has always been confined to its own small world, safe and protected from the tumultuous events that surround it. There have been individual stars that have transcended the sport and reached out to touch mainstream America. But never before had the Sport of Kings been woven into the often tattered fabric of history. That is, ...

The headlines on BloodHorse.com have told the same story every night for the past two weeks:  with a few exceptions at the top of the market, it's a bad time to be selling yearlings. I've been crunching numbers from the Keeneland September yearling sale every evening these past couple of weeks -- I review data for the daily Auctions ...

The newly retired Circular Quay (TrueNicks,SRO) is the latest stallion to join the burgeoning TrueNicks roster. The 5-year-old son of Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winner Thunder Gulch had classic aspirations of his own after an impressive victory in the 2007 Louisiana Derby (gr. II). The previous season he was a contender for an Eclipse Award with ...

TrueNicks proudly announces that Regal Heir Farm's Freefourinternet (TrueNicks,SRO) is the latest stallion to enroll in the TrueNicks program. The durable son of Classic winner Tabasco Cat eclipsed the $1 million mark in career earnings in his long and distinguished racing career. He was a stakes winner in Europe as a 3-year-old and earned blac ...

Several of you have asked about the status of Georgie Boy, who has become a big fan favorite, especially out West. I was able to contact his owner, George Schwary Sept. 19 to get the latest. The story is below. By the way, Schwary, 75, is one of the most likeable guys you would ever want to talk to. He is sincere, humble and just a genuinely nice ...