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Stories of the Year, 2008 Edition

Performance of the Year: Zarkava Simply the best. Imagine what she could have accomplished at 4 – oh well.

The Reigning Champ: Curlin An easy Dubai World Cup win, a turf experiment, a broken earnings record – it was great to see him running at four.

Most Underrated Horse Out There: Einstein Einstein has been […]

Odds and Ends

Controversial Aussie jockey Chris Munce officially made his comeback, riding two winners, but the Hong Kong Jockey Club is still aiming to keep him grounded (even in Australia) until next September, as per their ban. Dan Liebman argues in The Blood-Horse that he should not have been allowed to ride (and I agree). However, if […]

Returns and Farewells

I spent most of the holiday weekend traveling up and down the Eastern seaboard, and as a result only got the news about Saturday’s somber day at Aqueduct after the fact. I’d seen the Cigar Mile results in brief and saw a few ‘what a shame’ comments, but initially thought the shame was the difficult […]

I Love a Parade

As the year winds down and the countdown to Curlin’s retirement deals in ever-smaller numbers, your chances to see him in racehorse condition are very limited. You do have the option to see him this weekend if you can make it to Churchill Downs, however – Curlin will be paraded between the fifth and sixth […]

Summing Up Curlin

As has been widely discussed, Curlin is set to retire at the end of this year. A final start seems increasingly unlikely and would not really add much to his resume or bank balance; going out on a win would simply add an appropriate coda to his story.

In many ways, Curlin’s career has […]

Get Your Vote On

Hey, American readers – are missing out on that voting feeling now that the presidential election is over? Well, never fear, horse racing has come to the rescue. It seems that you, too, can vote for your favorite European race horses for the Cartier Awards. As with any absentee ballot, it’s difficult to predict whether […]

I Go Away For A Few Days…

…and everyone retires. It was nice knowing you, Raven’s Pass. It’s a shame poor Sheik Mohammed didn’t have the deep pockets to keep him in training, but jockey Jimmy Fortune was able to give the horse a diplomatic send-off to Kildangan Stud:

“I still don’t think we had seen the best of him but (in […]

Breeders’ Cup: What’s Next?

With the 2008 Breeders’ Cup in the books, the focus shifts almost immediately to next year. Who will be retired? Who is coming back? What are they aiming for? We know the answers for a number of the winners (and contenders) already, but the list is far from complete. In no real particular order, here’s […]

Just The Surface?

Much has been written about the effect the synthetic surface had on the Breeders’ Cup (and I believe there are many legitimate arguments to be made in favor and against them in that regard), but I wonder what role the other ‘new’ element played this year — no steroids. While it’s certainly relevant to examine […]

Breeders’ Cup Saturday

Saturday’s Breeders’ Cup races should be an interesting mix of star power and unknown quantities. Anything could happen in the Marathon, the two-year-old races might produce any number of unusual results and the surface will be new to defending champion Curlin and foreign entrants alike, so the Classic is no foregone conclusion. In fact, it […]