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Returns, Defections and Journeys

While I was very excited to see Rags to Riches (right, in a great photo by Fran) back on the worktab (and in a bullet, no less), I noted that Lava Man had re-appeared as well. I suspect that his best days are behind him, but if he’s really up for another shot at the […]

A Peculiar Fountain of Youth

The big question from this past weekend is what to make of the Fountain of Youth results — do they really tell us anything at this point? Nick Zito’s Cool Coal Man won, but the timing of the race had to be adjusted after an outrider apparently tripped the teletimer, leading to what seemed like […]

Turn Around, Bright Eyes (2008)

The Eclipse Awards presented (in the words of Radiohead) no surprises; Curlin was duly crowned Horse of the Year and Three-Year-Old Colt – ESPN notes that only last year, he had yet to make his first start. Chief owner Jess Jackson continued to send out positive signals about Curlin’s continued career on the track, but […]

How They Rank

The World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings were recently released; Curlin is the highest-rated US-based horse, coming in tied for second with Authorized, Dylan Thomas and Invasor (despite his retirement early in the season). Street Sense, English Channel, Any Given Saturday and Lawyer Ron also make the top ten. Rags to Riches comes in at 13th overall, […]

Happy New Year

2008 is here at last, and while it remains a slow news week, let’s finally get to our 2007 recap. First, we’ll revisit the biggest news stories in racing in something approaching chronological order:

Barbaro’s death: for those of us working at Penn Vet at the time, it was probably less of a shock […]

Walkovers for Curlin?

Gary West has a will-he-or-won’t-he article on Jess Jackson and his possible future goals for Curlin now that Padua has offloaded their share in him (although clearly the whole ownership piece is going to keep the courtrooms of Kentucky in business for a long time to come). If Curlin does remain in training next year […]

Weekend Metapost

It was quite a weekend of racing; things are shaping up nicely for the Breeders’ Cup. First, the West Coast:

Tiago performed well in his first outing against older horses in the Goodwood Handicap (Lava Man was scratched in favor of a race next weekend), although he was certainly tested by Awesome Gem — nevertheless, […]

Updates

Apologies for the lack of updates, it’s been a busy few days. Without further ado, a quick rundown:

Rags to Riches: I hope we do see her next year; I doubt we will. One has to wonder whether she is truly delicate (as her half-brother, Jazil, seemed to be) or if she is simply under […]

It’s Not Easy Being Green

Even if he never wins a race, at least The Green Monkey has, in a sense, accomplished something — word is that the long-running feud between Coolmore/Ballydoyle and Darley/Godolphin has ended. It seems that the Godolphin folks noticed that refusing to buy horses sired by Coolmore stallions was not a great move from a racing […]

Rehearsals for Retirement

Well, what can you say about the Pacific Classic except ‘Polytrack?’ I had predicted a slow winning time of something in the 2:05 neighborhood, but the actual finishing time being closer to 2:07 seemed ludicrously snail-like. I’m all for good synthetic surfaces, but all the results on the day made trainer John Shirreffs look like […]