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Just when Catherine Parke thought life couldn’t get any better, it did. During the third session of the Keeneland September yearling auction, the owner of 225-acre Valkyre Stud near Georgetown, Ky., sold a Bernardini filly for $1.2 million to Benjamin Leon Jr.’s Besilu Stables. Hours later, while savoring the big accomplishment, Parke and ...

 (Originally published in the September 24, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)  By Eric Mitchell - @EJMitchellKy on Twitter Competitive people get involved with Thoroughbreds. Owners time after time describe a shared nervousness leading up ...

Castellano, 33, is a native of Venezuela who began his career in his native country in 1996. He relocated to the U.S. in 1997 and began riding in Southern Florida until moving his tack to New York in 2001.was also the regular rider of Horse of the Year Ghostzapper and Bernardini, the sire of Stay Thirsty. In addition to riding Stay Thirsty ...

This year's Perfect Trip Award will recognize a Breeders' Cup Challenge race winner from this season's North American races that best exemplifies a ''Perfect Trip''. The winner will be selected from a panel of racing experts and will have the opportunity to experience his or her own ''Perfect Trip'' through Sentient Jet, with ...

Last weekend marked the start of the NFL season, and while most football fans were focusing on the NFL for the first time this season, others were already well aware of rookies like Cam Newton and Randall Cobb—in part because they had closely followed the NFL Draft back in April.  Thoroughbred racing has a “draft” as well.  ...

Three-year-olds from all over the country compete in the Super Derby (gr. II) at Louisiana Downs. Will Bob Baffert take another one, or will a local favorite prevail? How will the rest finish? Need more information about the Super Derby? Read the race preview, or watch That Handicapping ...

(Originally published in the September 10, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)  By Lenny ShulmanAs thousands of visitors from around the continent and the world descend on Kentucky for Keeneland’s September yearling sale and October race meeting and ...

Rustin and Juliana Kretz are a little young at 32 and 27, respectively, to have a bucket list. But because they started on the list early with a trip to the 2010 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), they now own about 25 horses. It took only a year for them to experience their first stakes victory when John Johny Jak took the Harry F. ...

The long summer polo season, which began July 8, headed into the final two days with The Celebrate Saratoga Cup in direct competition with the racecourse.  A 2:30 pm late post time caused the 5:30 pm polo match to begin as the horses entered the track for the seventh race, a 5-1/2 furlong $42,000 sprint on the turf for New York ...

This is one time logic should be thrown out the proverbial window. Yes, it makes more sense for Uncle Mo to point for the Kelso mile and Breeders’ Cup Dirt Mile. But if he does go that route, then all one can say is, big deal.Be honest now, can you name off the top of your head the four previous winners of the Dirt Mile? How about three or even ...