BloodHorse.com

(By Avalyn Hunter) Calder Race Course is hundreds of miles from the glamour and glitz of Churchill Downs in May. There are no fancy hats, no celebrities, no swarms of journalists and photographers. Nor are the horses at work glamorous new stars looking for classic glory; they range from untried juveniles to tough old veterans trying to find out ...

(By Avalyn Hunter)Calling a horse a ''breed-to-race sire'' might be damning him with faint praise in the commercial market. But for the small owner-breeder looking for a reliable source of winners, there is no higher praise. In the vocabulary of the latter, a breed-to-race sire represents value for the money invested in a stud fee, promising ...

Competition for MarketWatch Broodmare of the Year is always fierce, and 2012’s contest is no exception. Contenders include the dam of a dual classic winner; the mare that foaled 2012’s Horse of the Year; several producers of last year’s Eclipse champions; the dams of a few multi-millionaires; and even multiple grade I producers. Easter Bunnette ...

(By Avalyn Hunter) In the wake of recent events, it seems as if horse racing is missing a major marketing opportunity. Take Ive Struck a Nerve. While he is off the trail to the spring classics, the former $1,700 weanling is now a grade II winner with more than $300,000 in the bank. And while the price Paul Braverman paid for an interest in the ...

A few surprises might greet you when you read through MarketWatch's 2013 renewal of Freshman Sires to Watch. In this year's preview of first-crop sires of 2-year-olds, Alan Porter offers a strong argument for Pioneerof the Nile and Zensational; Avalyn Hunter likes Colonel John (and finds a few more reasons to support Pioneerof the Nile); and the ...

(By Avalyn Hunter) Unbridled's Song has been one of the more polarizing horses of recent years. A horse whose racing career flashed remarkable ability yet never quite delivered on the promise of greatness, his stud career has followed something of the same pattern. He has been a good sire of stakes winners and sales horses, yet has often been ...

(By Avalyn Hunter) Stallions just don't have much better days than Tapit did Feb. 2, when three of his progeny rolled home in graded stakes at three different tracks and over two different surfaces. First, Tapicat sailed home in the Florida Oaks (gr. IIIT) at Tampa Bay Downs, stamping herself as a filly with a future on the grass. Then ...

(By Avalyn Hunter) If hope springs eternal in the breast of the small breeder and owner, it's because of horses like Lord Avie. The recently deceased champion cost just $37,000 as a 2-year-old in 1980--the same year for which he was named U.S. champion juvenile male--in part because of a relatively modest pedigree. His sire, the Sir Gaylord horse ...

(By Avalyn Hunter) Claiborne's famed stallion cemetery now has one more tenant. If Pulpit was not the equal of the likes of Nijinsky II, Danzig, and Mr. Prospector as a sire, he nonetheless had an honorable record. Through his son Tapit (currently fourth on the general sire list), he has also succeeded in securing the future of the Seattle ...

(By Avalyn Hunter) 2012 has been a year of changes for historic Calumet Farm. Sold to the Calumet Investment Group Trust and officially leased to billionaire businessman Brad Kelley, the farm now is revamping its breeding operations. Stallions Ice Box and Cactus Ridge, who both stood at Calumet in 2012 while the farm was still owned by ...