For some, a horse auction is an excellent place for buyer and seller to meet and arrive at fair market value for an animal. To others, a horse auction is the place where good money was spent on a horse which couldn’t, or didn’t, perform up to expectations. For still…
Very few of the racegoers who watched a horse called Gay Future walking around the parade ring before the 4.20 race at Cartmel racecourse exactly 40 years ago today, on August bank holiday Monday 1974, would have fancied his chances. Read the full story here
“After a horse like Slew, there was nothing,” Polston said. “I didn’t want to be around horses anymore, because I knew it wouldn’t be the same. Everybody expected everything I touched to be another Seattle Slew.” Read the full story here Seattle Slew – Full Documentary
I am not really one that revels in comparing great racehorses between one another. My feeling is that once they are in the top 5% of the population, they are good, and the difference between them is so nuanced that comparison ruins its relevancy. For example, I’d counter any comparison…
“The blight must stop”, declared Fairfax’s Sunday Age editorial’s opening line on cheating, drugs and corruption in sport. Whilst a true and accurate reflection of a restless and increasingly angry community comprising a diverse sports loving fan base desperate for a circuit breaker to be effective, this opening line, and…
The middle and lower tiers of the industry are being wiped out, and small-field races dominated by the same faces don’t create interest or appeal as a betting medium. Point-to-point fields have also reduced alarmingly. As we have documented in detail here before, the numbers for horses in training, licence-holders,…
If the definition of an inbred horse is one that has at least one duplicated ancestor between the parents within four generations, then an outcrossed one has no closely duplicated ancestors at all. The majority of the breed is outcrossed, which should relieve the fear that the Thoroughbred is overrun…
Northern Dancer (May 27, 1961 – November 16, 1990) was a Canadian-bred Thoroughbred racehorse that won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes and became the most successful sire of the 20th century. As a competitor, Blood-Horse magazine ranks him as one of the top 100 U.S. Thoroughbred champions of the…
The news on Monday that David Bowie had passed away had the twitterverse explode. After all, this was Bowie, the most innovative musician ever, who refused to stand still. Describing the artist as “iconic” wouldn’t do him justice. Perhaps, there are no words to describe someone who went from being…
A team of researchers in China and Australia generated statistics that suggest a mother’s influence may actually be more important than a father’s influence when it comes to racing ability. Is this study a fluke of statistical analysis or is there solid science behind it? In the paper “Potential role…