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Proud Citizen Photo: Airdrie I well recall in the summer of 2002, taking what was then the short drive to Belmont Park, to take a look at Proud Citizen (TrueNicks,SRO) on behalf of a friend who was managing a prominent Kentucky stallion farm. At the time, Proud Citizen was recuperating from an injury suffered in the Belmont Stakes (gr. ...

For those who are inclined to accept Jung’s theory of synchronicity, racing throws out plenty of potential examples, with Sunday at Sunland Park being the latest candidate. The two classic trials, the $800,000 Sunland Derby (gr. III) and the Sunland Park Oaks – taken last year by subsequent Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) heroine Plum Pretty – both went to ...

Continuing on the Secret Circle theme from today's Blood-Horse Pedigree Weekly Newsletter, there is certainly no question about the speed and courage possessed by this 2012 Kentucky Derby (gr. I) hopeful. Secret Circle's potential distance capacity – a weekend win in the 8½ furlong Rebel Stakes (gr. II) not withstanding – remains something of a ...

We've always thought that—in retrospect—it would have been very interesting had Giant's Causeway (TrueNicks,SRO) been sent from Ireland to challenge for the 2000 renewal of the Kentucky Derby (gr. I). The son of Storm Cat certainly demonstrated that he was very well-suited to ten furlongs at Churchill Downs when only narrowly-defeated in a ...

While we are only in the first few weeks of the Northern Hemisphere breeding season, stallion masters in Australia are already at work on recruiting new stallions to their rosters for the 2012 breeding season, which begins in the Northern Hemisphere summer. The first of these to appear on TrueNicks is Smart Missile (TrueNicks), who will be ...

The OBS March 2-Year-Old in Training Sale offers the first chance to get a preview of juveniles by many of the year’s freshman sire crop. Two of the biggest names in that group, the classic-winning champions Big Brown (TrueNicks,SRO) and Curlin (TrueNicks,SRO) are both represented. Although he only started once at 2 – winning by 11 ¼ lengths on ...

Ron the Greek looked like a horse who could develop into a genuine classic prospect when closing late to take the 2010 renewal of the LeComte Stakes (gr. III) by 1½ lengths. At that point, the Florida-bred was a winner of three of his four starts, but rather surprisingly, it would take another 22 months and ten races before he revisted the ...

Union Rags, who remained winter favorite for the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) despite a narrow loss to Hansen (TrueNicks) in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I), made his keenly-awaited seasonal debut in the Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. II, video) at Gulfstream Park. The wait proved worthwhile, as Union Rags could hardly have been more impressive, ...

Recent discussion of the pedigree of the Australian supermare Black Caviar focused some attention on Tom Fool, whose son Silly Season is doubled in Black Caviar’s pedigree. Since he was a foal of 1949, Tom Fool will now, to many, mean little more than a name that is found in the more distant removes of modern pedigrees. But, if you want to know ...

It appears – to paraphrase the song about New York – that the Southwest Stakes (gr. III) has become the race “so good they ran it twice.” Since 2004, when Smarty Jones swept the series en route to victories in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) and Preakness Stakes (gr. I), the Oaklawn Park road to the Triple Crown – the Southwest Stakes (gr. III), Rebel ...