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[image url=''http://cdn.bloodhorse.com/images/content/gknapp_large.jpg'']Dr. Gary Knapp[/image] In 1973, Dr. Gary Knapp was inspired by the great Secretariat to buy a Kentucky farm and get involved in the Thoroughbred business. Thirty-five years later, the Minnesota native is the breeder of Big Brown. A 64-year-old entrepreneur, Knapp formerly ...

The holiday weekend was a remarkable one for Coolmore associates, who swept all three group I events at the Irish Guineas meet. In the Irish One Thousand Guineas (Ire-I), the Pivotal filly Halfway to Heaven chose a good spot to capture her first stakes event. Halfway to Heaven is one of six stakes winners from the current 3-year-old crop sired by ...

Anyone who breeds to a first-year stallion must be considered a high-stakes gambler. Entering sires are an unknown quantity. They might be the next A.P. Indy (on SRO) or Unusual Heat (pedigree) -- but more likely, they're going to be on the other end of the spectrum and will never amount to anything great.  So why do breeders send ...

  So you are going to try to beat Big Brown huh? Me too. Short of hitting the superfecta or Pick 4, there is no way to make any significant money in this race if Big Brown wins. With that in mind, here is one longshot to consider in the Belmont: Anak Nakal. Anak Nakal? I know, he hasn't been better than fifth in four races this year and on ...

“History consists of a series of accumulated imaginative inventions.” - VoltaireAs a Thoroughbred owner, I stand on the shoulders of giants. Horse racing’s tradition and history are like no other. However, in the past 30 years, we’ve been surpassed by the major sports leagues. Being a traditionalist, I don’t blame the caretakers for this lapse. ...

At the 1999 Jockey Club Round Table, participants heard an interesting presentation from IBM Global Services manager Mark Elliott, who discussed areas in which his company believed it could partner with the fledgling National Thoroughbred Racing Association. Foremost among them was the creation of a “broadband national network,” with Elliott ...

[image url=''http://cdn.bloodhorse.com/images/content/shaskin_large.jpg'']Steve Haskin[/image] Blood-Horse senior correspondent Steve Haskin returns to Talkin' Horses for a special Belmont Stakes (gr. I) preview. Now that Big Brown has won the first two jewels of the Triple Crown and moved on to New York, Haskin will be spending plenty of time ...

Champion 2-year-old Macho Uno (TrueNicks, SRO) is off to a bright start with a first crop - now 3-year-olds - which has already produced Wicked Style, who took the Arlington-Washington Futurity (gr. III) and Keeneland Lane's End Breeders' Futurity (gr. I); undefeated Withers Stakes (gr. III) winner Harlem Rocker; Macho Again, winner of the ...

  Before I wrote my May 21 post - A Plea to Iavarone: Let Him Run - I put a call into Mike Iavarone, hoping to get the owner's thoughts on whether or not Big Brown would race after the Belmont. I did not expect a call back, being that Iavarone is in the midst of the craziest time of his life, and is probably overwhelmed with interview ...

  On May 21, Rick Dutrow Jr. told Blood-Horse reporter Karen Johnson that ''the plan is the Belmont, Travers and Breeders' Cup'' for Big Brown. If that really is the plan, horse racing just got a tremendous boost. And I think IEAH Stables' Mike Iavarone deserves a ton of credit for making it happen. With all the talk about horse racing's ...