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New York-based sire Western Expression was represented by his first stakes winner when his daughter, I Lost My Choo, took the Virginia Oaks (gr. III) at Colonial Downs. Rated A++ by TrueNicks, I Lost My Choo has a very unusual pedigree pattern. Firstly, she is inbred to Majestic Prince, and in both instances combined with Buckpasser (Western ...

[image url=''http://cdn.bloodhorse.com/images/content/jharper_large.jpg'']Joe Harper[/image] Joe Harper took over the management of the Del Mar Thoroughbred Club in 1978. During this period Harper has overseen Del Mar's emergence as one of the nation's top racetracks for daily average handle and attendance. He was also instrumental in overseeing ...

Give Sonny Taylor a minute to say something, and an afternoon will pass by before he comes up for air.  Yesterday, the 71-year-old African-American placing judge, who is a friend to just about everyone, came down from the track’s upper echelons to mingle with the minions on the Turf Terrace. Among the luncheon munchers, Taylor told endless ...

I don’t know how I feel anymore. I hate to become too wrapped up in all this Curlin vs. Big Brown banter and then have it all become moot when they go their separate ways. If it turns out to be nothing but idle chatter, then what good did it do other than provide us with amusement or indignation, depending on how you reacted to it?There was Rick ...

The 4-year-old Kingmambo colt Archipenko (pedigree) makes a great case for those breeders who believe an older mare can still produce a quality foal. Bound, a 1984 daughter of Nijinski II and the incomparable mare Special, was a fine runner -- a stakes winner and multiple graded stakes-placed earner of over $300,000 -- and undeniably earned her ...

People often complain that journalists only want to write about negative things. But in this post, the focus is on the positive, in particular what was good about the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga select yearling auction. 1. The sale confirmed that even with a sagging American economy there is still demand for quality horses, something the that also ...

We've frequently mentioned, in this and other columns, varieties of what we call ''Parallel Patterns.'' There are variations, but a general description would be where a sire and a mare or broodmare sire are bred on a similar cross (we also have inversion of this, which we've christened ''Reverse Parallel Patterns''). A couple of recent ...

Saratoga was still stirring from Michael Vincent Magnier’s $2 million winning bid on a Storm Cat colt at the yearling sales when Amtrak’s Adirondack arrived on Wednesday morning an hour and a half late from New York. Trains departing Penn Station are usually on time.  The trains coming down from Rutland, Vermont or Montreal, Quebec heading ...

We had yet another example of the imporatance of considering opportunity when creating nick ratings with the August 1 victory of Luck Money in the Majestic Light Stakes at Saratoga. Irish-bred Luck Money was scoring his first stakes victory, although he'd been third to superstar Henrythenavigator in the Coventry Stakes (gr. II) and captured the ...

Last week, we debated whether temperament has anything to do with class or talent.  I put forward that there seems to be an industry bias towards fiery spirits, and quick forgiveness for certain wild behavior, with the idea that it indicates racing aptitude. A poll that accompanied this discussion asked for reader input.  More than half ...