Back on the 1st of June 2009, as part of our study on the TrueNicks ratings and how they are calculated each year we ran the complete 2007 crops on a number of proven stallions - Giant's Causeway, Stormy Atlantic, Maria's Mon and Johannesburg, along with some then unproven sires with their first runners...

While Medaglia d'Oro's sale to Darley may have temporarily averted the spotlight towards the son of El Prado (IRE) ( TrueNicks , SRO ) , young Gainesway stallion Tapit ( TrueNicks , SRO ) continues to duke it out with him in the production of stakes winners. Malibu Beach became stakes winner number six...

As a prelude to the stallion study -- which is currently "under construction" as we determine the best way to track all the horses that we have rated by each sire throughout the world -- we thought that it was worthwhile going back and taking a look at the 2008 OBS March sale of 2-year-olds to examine...

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We had yet another example of the imporatance of considering opportunity when creating nick ratings with the August 1 victory of Luck Money in the Majestic Light Stakes at Saratoga. Irish-bred Luck Money was scoring his first stakes victory, although he'd been third to superstar Henrythenavigator in...

Some recent articles by propents of rival nicking systems have floated the idea that somehow programs that don't use a database of worldwide stakes winners, and don't consider true opportunity - in fact they admit they don't use opportunity at all - can be more accurate than the TrueNicks program that...

That under-appreciated Nijinsky II line stallion, Hernando (by Niniski), is having an excellent run with his current crop of three-year-olds, which include the English Oaks (gr. 1) victress Look Here ( A+ TrueNick Rating ); Casual Conquest ( A+ ), winner of Derrinstown Derby Trial (gr. II) and third...

Looking through some recent results, we noticed that another nicking program had rated Elite Squadron - who took the May 3 Churchill Downs Stakes (gr. II) - as an A++ nick. A cross check with TrueNicks revealed that Elite Squadron is rated D . Naturally, we wondered what could have caused such a discrepancy...

That remarkable California sire, Unusual Heat, was represented by another graded stakes winner when his daughter, Lightmyfirebaby, won the Las Cienegas Handicap (gr. III) last week, her first victory in a race at that level. Lightmyfirebaby is the fifth graded winner by Unusual Heat, following 2008 grade...

The mega-nick of A.P. Indy over Mr Prospector mares continues to shine with the Ashland Stakes (gr. I) winner Little Belle the most recent example. Once again, it proves that where you found gold once, if it is a rich vein you will find it again. With the same mating pattern found in last weekend's graded...