Share This: Breeders’ Cup World Championships is enjoyed by many countries.
With just 60 days to go before the 2018 Breeders’ Cup World Championships the entries for the contenders of each race are filing up fast. While the BC races take place in America and Canada, we have entries from all over the world. 85 Challenge Series races held in 12 countries help to define the field of each race. The 35th year of BC races will be hosted by Churchill Downs in Louisville, KY on November 2nd and 3rd. Several of the entries in the 14 BC races are contenders that were bred or live abroad. BC18 welcomes the world!
Saratoga is happy to tie in Runhappy with the Travers and H. Allen Jerkens Stakes!
Saturday at Saratoga serves up several stakes! The Midsummer Derby is only one of seven graded stakes on the day’s card of a lucky 13 races. Five of the stakes offer an automatic berth in the Breeders’ Cup! Three stakes will be covered by NBC. Who will win the Forego, the Sword Dancer or the Travers Stakes?
Share This: California Chrome’s saddlecloth from his 2016 Pacific Classic win!
The Breeders’ Cup Classic field is filling up fast! Who will earn the next berth? We will find out this coming Saturday following the great Pacific Classic Stakes. After the 2016 edition, when California Chrome won, the Pacific Classic will always be a favorite stakes race of mine. Does this stakes hold a special memory for you or will you have a new found interest after this 2018 running?
Share This: Affirmed, triple crown winner and U.S Racing Hall of Fame thoroughbred won many awards and his Hall of Fame plaque.
Fame does not come fast, not even for Thoroughbreds who sweep the triple crown at the young age of three. An induction into the Official National Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame is something one achieves many years into or even after their outstanding career in horse racing. Friday, finally finalized the fame of a few favorites.
This week brought the disappointing news that no one wanted but many had already suspected. Our 13th Triple Crown winner, Justify, retired from racing. Justify achieved more than I ever would have expected but his 111 day racing career ended sooner than I anticipated. There are several more races I would have enjoyed seeing him participate in but tragically that won’t happen now. This got me to thinking, what are our assumptions about a triple crown winner? Thus, I set out to examine the triple crown trends.
Share This: New Money Honey enters the track for the Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup at Keeneland.
Hello Friday! Another weekend is upon us and many racing fans will be enjoying the freshly open Summer racing at Del Mar and Saratoga. If you’re looking for a nice purse this Saturday, look no further than the Diana Stakes.
Share This: The July Sale; Selected Yearlings 2018 at Fasig-Tipton in Lexington, KY
Yearling sale season has begun! The 1 year-olds of the choicest stallions are now available at auction. Fasig-Tipton held its Selected Yearlings: The July Sale yesterday 7/10/18 in Lexington, KY. The results were positive and it should be quite a year for yearling sales.
Share This: American Pharoah stands at Coolmore America, Ashford Stud, in Versailles, KY.
The sweltering summer is swiftly sweeping by as we welcome July and all of the super racing and sales that this month has to offer. As our Triple Crown winning, 2 time Eclipse Winning, Breeders’ Cup Classic and Grand Slam winning, American Pharoah headed off yesterday I am looking forward to admiring what he has left behind for now, Pharoah’s phoals.
Keeping American Pharoah comfortable in his stall is very important at Ashford Stud.
American Pharoah retired from racing after his record breaking 2015 racing season. He stands at Coolmore America, Ashford Stud, in Versailles, KY during North America’s breeding season and then he ships to Coolmore Australia to breed during their season. American Pharoah went into quarantine for shipping to Australia the last day of June. His presence in KY will be missed but fortunately he leaves behind many from his 2 crops of foals.
American Pharoah gives some side eye to his fans from his stall at Ashford Stud.
American Pharoah’s foals are too young to race but they are fun to follow for their cuteness, the price that they bring at sales and the promise of future racing. His 2017 North American crop has earned an average of $445,500 at auction for 10 of 13 weanlings offered. In 2018 his North American offspring, 3 of 5 yearlings offered, have sold for an average of $540,000. AmericanPharoah has had two of his offspring sell for a million dollars each. No other sire had a million dollar weanling in 2017. In 2 North American crops, he has 173 foals, 14 weanlings and 159 yearlings. He covered 208 mares in North America in 2016 and 214 in 2017. His 2018 season just ended in June. His 2016 reported stud fee was listed at $200,000 and was last listed as private. People must be really holding on to those foals to race them themselves or watch as the value goes up. It is July and we are about to see some more of his foals at auction!
This stud is a handsome looker. AmericanPharoah poses for his fans at Ashford Stud.
On Tuesday, July 10th, 2018 at 10 A.M ET, Fasig-Tipton in Lexington, KY will hold their July Selected Yearlings Sale. I am in a lot of anticipation for this sale and I plan to follow up with pictures from the sale of these two AmericanPharoah fillies. Hip 131 is a filly born to Yong Musician consigned by a selected sales agent for Machmer Hall. Hip 205 was foaled by Distorted Point and will be sold by Bluewater Sales, LLC.
Look at that conformation! American Pharoah looks so healthy at Ashford Stud.
I will continue to cover more on American Pharoah’s phoals as they progress and go thru auctions and his phamily as it was fun to watch his full brother, St.Patrick’s Day, finish 3rd in his 3rd start on Thursday. I am hoping for some more summer racing from St. Patrick’s Day. This lightly raced 3 year old finished 2nd at Del Mar last Fall before breaking his maiden in his next start, a month later, at the same track. He made his 2018 debut at Curragh in the listed Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire Celebration Stakes last week. I’d love to see him ship back to America to romp in our races this summer.
Share This: Bound for Nowhere races regularly at Keeneland. He finished third in the Group 1 Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.
All good things must come to an end. The 5 days of racing at Royal Ascot concluded today. There were several contenders representing America and with a scattering of races that provide a berth into the Breeders’ Cup we will see many of these Thoroughbreds compete in champion races again. Now that the races are over, let’s see the results in the aftermath of the Ascot.
Chelsea Cloisters, pictured at Keeneland, was a contender in the Queen Mary Stakes.
Ascot Racecourse in Ascot, Berkshire, England opened for live racing in 1711. The racecourse was founded by Queen Anne of the British Royal Family. The Royals still attend and enter contenders annually. In the same year of the racecourse’s inauguration, Queen Anne also initiated Royal Ascot, the 5 day highlight of British racing’s calendar year. In 2018, the races were held Tuesday, June 18th thru Saturday 6/23. 18 Grouped (the British version of Graded) Stakes took place. 8 races were Group One. The purse was over 7.3 million pounds (more than 9.6 million in U.S dollars). The event is very ritzy, with the classiest of fashion. 4 races offered automatic berths into the 2018 Breeders’ Cup.
Lady Aurelia won the Giant’s Causeway at Keeneland, she raced at Royal Ascot for a third time.
Here is a listing of the 8 Group One stakes with the distance and the winner as well as another BC berth race:
The Queen Anne Stakes- 1 mile – Accidental Agent -berth into the BC Mile
The King’s Stand Stakes – 5 furlongs – Blue Point
The St. James’s Palace Stakes – 1 mile – Without Parole
The Prince of Wales’s Stakes -1 mile and 2 furlongs – Poet’s Word -berth into the BC Turf
The Norfolk Stakes (this is the only Group 2 on this list)-5 furlongs – Shang Shang Shang -berth into the BC Juvenile Turf Sprint
The Gold Cup -2 miles and 4 furlongs –Stradivarius
The Commonwealth Cup – 6 furlongs –Eqtidaar
The Coronation Stakes – 1 mile –Alpha Centauri
The Diamond Jubilee Stakes – 6 furlongs – Merchant Navy -berth into the BC Turf Sprint
Lady Aurelia at Keeneland this past Spring raced at Royal Ascot for a third time.
Congratulations to all of the Royal Ascot winners and for the talented American racehorses that were worthy to attend. Royal Ascot is on my bucket list. I would love to experience the glamor and royalty of this 5 day racing event. I hope you were pleased with the aftermath of the Ascot. Keep following for more information on this summer’s top races and all things Thoroughbred.
Share This: Justify comes into view as the clear leader of the Belmont Stakes!
I waited most of my life to witness a Triple Crown victory. Seattle Slew and Affirmed did it back to back when I was a toddler and the great Secretariat won shortly prior to my birth. I was raised on the stories but I did not know what it was like to see it with my own eyes. After following the career of champion California Chrome, I wasn’t sure if I would ever see a Triple Crown winner race. Then, in 2015, my dream came true. American Pharoah won after a 37 year drought. It was emotional and something I knew would always stick with me. I also thought it may never happen again in my lifetime. Then, to my surprise a great horse won the Kentucky Derby and once again there was hope for another Triple Crown winner, the hope was in Justify and he did not disappoint. Justify left me jumping for joy with his win in the Belmont Stakes, our lucky 13th Triple Crown winner!
