BloodHorse.com

Venturing out one night during the winter Keeneland auctions, I met a friend and co worker of Lane's End Oaktree division, while she was working. I was invited to hang out and saw my visit as an opportunity to learn about the breeding process for Thoroughbred horses. Now I get the basics of breeding, as sex isn't really too hard to understand, but ...

Over the weekend, I took a short road trip to look at a potential mate for one of my broodmares.  This is the first time that I'm contemplating a ''breed to race'' mating instead of a commercial match, and considerations certainly differ between the two end goals.  I've tended to support less-mainstream sire lines when breeding for the ...

The success of the Unbridled/Storm Cat - and particularly the Unbridled's Song/Storm Cat - cross is one that has been well documented. Now there may well be an emerging nick between Unbridled-line stallions and another branch of the Northern Dancer line. This cross stepped into the limelight this weekend, when the Honeybee Stakes (gr. III) was ...

Open house in elementary school always meant one important thing to me: I received a chance to show off my work from art class, and work from all those other classes we had to take, to my parents. There was just something special in showing your parents your accomplishments, and then have them respond with positive comments. Though Lane's End Farm ...

Topping the charts is hip #308, a colt from the second crop of Zavata (TrueNicks, SRO), out of the Pine Bluff mare Fair Miss, a half sister to Irish stakes winner Steaming Home, from the family of Corporate Report. Bred on the Phone Trick/Pine Bluff cross that has also produced stakes winners Who's Happy and Call Me Wild, this colt is also ...

Well, well, well. So apparently this year's Kentucky Derby is not going to be as easy as we all thought it was. Perhaps, the Affirmed/Alydar-type duel between War Pass and Pyro may not come to fruition after all. Maybe, just maybe, there are more than two horses to choose from this year. I, for one, was delighted at the results of last ...

It has been a little over two months, ten weeks to be precise, since we launched TrueNicks into the marketplace and the response has been nothing short of overwhelming. With a large roster of stallions subscribed to the complimentary subscription service that allows users to generate their own ratings via either this Web site or ...

A young horse making a bright beginning from among the less expensive ranks is A.P. Indy’s son Jump Start, who is currently advertised at a fee of $10,000. With Littlemiss Allison’s win in the Sam Houston Oaks (her fourth black type win), following on from the success of Sir Whimsey in the Gulfstream Park Handicap (gr. II) the previous weekend, ...

Ryan Mahan is the MC Hammer of the North American Thoroughbred marketplace. He heads the auction crews for Keeneland,  Barretts, the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co., the Ontario division of the Canadian Thoroughbred Horse Society, and the New York Breeders' Sales Co. Here's what he had to say during a short visit with ''Hammer Time:'' How do ...