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This weekend sees the running of the Forego Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga Race Course, a race named in honor of the great racehorse Forego, a three-time Horse of the Year. We thought about writing a pedigree post about his family, but in sifting through the library here at The Blood-Horse offices, we came across something a little more ...

This week we have a guest post from Michelle Kinane (@MichelleKinane) on the wonderful Jacobs family stallion Silvano. Michelle is a young pedigree enthusiast based in Ireland and has her own blog which can be found here. Photo: Maine Chance FarmsSilvano (Lomitas—Spirit of Eagles, by Beau's Eagle) Owned and bred by Dr. Andreas Jacobs' ...

While he is now considered an ''elder statesman'' of the Coolmore Australia stallion roster, there can be no doubt that Encosta de Lago (AUS) (TrueNicks,SRO) is one of the premier stallions standing in Australia this year. The son of Fairy King has amassed a sensational record at stud with 6.3% stakes winners to foals and 7.6% stakes winners to ...

The wins of Orb in the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) and Princess of Sylmar in the Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) further solidified the pensioned Lane's End stallion A.P. Indy as the premier sire line source of classic speed in the North American Thoroughbred. Indeed, with Normandy Invasion (by Tapit (TrueNicks,SRO)), Dreaming of Julia, and Revolutionary (out of ...

On a week when much will be written about the great Frankel (Galileo–Kind, by Danehill) as he retires to Juddmonte Farms to serve his first season at stud in 2013, this writer had pause to reflect on the outstanding performance of his broodmare sire, Danehill, who has thus far proved himself a phenomenon as a sire and broodmare sire in two ...

It would be reasonable to suggest that while time may prove Coolmore stallion Galileo superior to his breed-shaping sire Sadler's Wells, with the exception of siring a group I winner over 4000m (which Sadler's Wells did in the form of the brilliant Yeats), right now Galileo is every bit as good a classic sire as his father. Like many elite ...

Pedigree historians have long been suspicious about the exact parentage of the 1880 Epsom Derby winner. The record books will tell you that the winner was Bend Or, a son of Doncaster out of the Thormanby mare Rouge Rose, bred and owned by the 1st Duke of Westminster. However, not long after the 1880 running of the Derby, the owners of the ...

The weekend past saw the 56th running of the world's richest 2-year-old race, the AAMI Golden Slipper (Aus-I), run over 1200m (6 furlongs) at Rosehill in Sydney with the victor being the undefeated Gai Waterhouse-trained Pierro (Gai had touted Pierro strongly leading up to the race as seen in this pre-race video). Traditionally the race that ...

More Than Ready Photo: Vinery Hindsight is always 20/20, but when the Vinery Stud stallion More Than Ready (TrueNicks,SRO) shuttled to Australia, he looked to be a ‘lock’ to suit mares by then-leading sire Danehill. Invariably within breeding populations, the next great sire establishes himself with the daughters of a previously great ...

There are few topics in the world of pedigree theory—and for that matter in the Thoroughbred community as a whole—that are more emotive than the subject of inbreeding. On one hand, inbreeding, and what is perceived as a consequential decline in genetic variety, is blamed for all manner of ills including a supposed decline in soundness. On the ...