Sharing with you my fascinating discoveries about Thoroughbred racing, sales, fashion, food, beverage, tips and more.
The cream of the crop have been crowned! The 2017 edition of the Eclipse Awards was held tonight, 1/25/18. There was a most deserving horse selected in all equine categories. Read on to learn how your favorite athlete’s performance on the track led to the most prestigious award in North American Thoroughbred racing.
Continue reading “Equine Eclipse Awards”
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As November wrapped there was a special meeting in the Horse Capital of the World. A select group, belonging to the Thoroughbred Owners and Breeders Association met in Lexington, KY. These members are on the American Graded Stakes Committee. They were tasked with the annual selection process of grading stakes races in the United States. After a delicate 2 day process that looked at over 800 stakes races the committee determined 455 worthy stakes for 2018. Did your favorite track and races meet their standards?
Continue reading “When the Stakes are High”
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What a week it has been. Since my last post I have attended Thoroughbred sales at both Fasig-Tipton and Keeneland and live racing at Churchill Downs. I have witnessed the sale of champions like Tepin, Stellar Wind, Catch A Glimpse and Songbird, seen the weanling foals of sires like American Pharoah and Medaglia d’ Oro and enjoyed racing at the home of the Kentucky Derby. A common thread at the auctions and the track are the impressive and primarily female offspring of the late Scat Daddy.
Continue reading “Scat Daddy Divas”
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Good morning, racing fans! The action never stops. Last weekend was a wrap for the Triple Crown series. Congratulations to Tapwrit for winning the Belmont Stakes. Now, we can turn our attention towards the collecting of contenders for the next Breeders’ Cup World Championships as the Challenge Series is underway.
Continue reading “Churchill’s Champions”
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At long last, there was a nice break in the Bluegrass winter that allowed me to get out and enjoy some of the top stallions that the Horse Capital of the World has to offer. I thoroughly enjoyed my visit to Darley at Jonabell Farm in Lexington, KY.
Continue reading “Dazzled by Darley”
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The results are in! Last night, the 2016 Eclipse Award winners were announced. Congratulations to the connections of all the 46th annual award winners.
The Eclipse Awards were originated in 1971. These awards are given to the most elite of North American Racing in 17 horse and human categories as well as media and people worthy of lifetime achievement recognition. The name Eclipse was derived in honor of the great sire Eclipse. Eclipse was foaled during a solar eclipse in 1764. He was sired by Marske and his dam was Spilletta. Eclipse did not race until he was 5 years-old. He was undefeated. He won 18 races consecutively and then retired because he had no one to race with. 8 of his 18 wins were walkovers. He simply had no competition entered in his races because no one dared to try to match him. Therefore, he retired to stud in 1771. He was an amazing stallion. His offspring, of up to 400 winners, have gone on to make him part of the pedigree in most Thoroughbred horses. Secretariat and Phar Lap got their oversized heart from the Eclipse line.
On January, 21, 2017 the 2016 Eclipse Awards winners were announced beginning at 8 P.M. EST at Sport of Kings Theater, part of Gulfstream Park in Hallandale Beach, Florida. Tickets to attend were $425 or it could be watched via TVG2 or multiple streaming services. Last night’s awards were presented to the best horses, jockeys, trainers, owners, breeders, racing media, handicapper and 2 awards of Merit. The panel of judges was appointed by the Daily Racing Form, the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters and the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA). The awards were organized by the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and presented by the Breeders’ Cup, the Daily Racing Form and the Stronach Group.
Prior to last evening’s presentation the recipients were announced in the following categories:
Last night we discovered those honored with the remaining awards:
Thank you for all the award recipients for their contributions to the Thoroughbred industry. Also, thank you for the money they raised last night at the live auction during the ceremony. Over $80 thousand dollars were collected for Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance. I am proud of all the fine people and horses that make my favorite sport better.
Thank you for continuing to read and share my webpage. My next post will get us up to speed on the upcoming Pegasus World Cup.
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Photo: a picture from a print from the Keeneland Jockey Collector Series featuring Mike Smith. The series, released in 2005 and 2006, includes Pat Day, Jerry Baily, Edgar Prado, Robby Albarado and Craig Perret as well. I have all of the prints except the Albarado, darn!
Thoroughbred U is wholeheartedly dedicated to Sport of Kings. I have such a personal passion for the horses that I have a tendency to make the Thoroughbreds the focus. On the day when we remember Zenyatta’s retirement from racing I think it is an important moment to pay due respect to the jockey.
First a bit on Zenyatta, because I simply must. Zenyatta is a Kentucky bred mare born in 2004 to Street Cry and Vertigineux. Zenyatta won 4 Eclipse Awards and 19 of her 20 starts. She is a mare that won both the Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic and was 1st and 2nd in the BC Classic itself. On November 17, 2010 she retired to the life of a broodmare at Lane’s End Farm in Kentucky. Mike Smith was her jockey for 16 of her outstanding wins. Without further delay, let’s focus on a man behind the mare.
Michael Earl Smith was born in Roswell, New Mexico on 8/10/1965. His father was a jockey. Mike E. Smith took to the sport at a very young age and obtained his license to ride by the time he was only 15 years old. It didn’t take long until Smith was on the move, earning leading jockey titles nationally and additionally finding success overseas.
By 1992, Smith was a Breeders’ Cup winner. He won the BC Mile riding Lure in 1992 and 1993. Two BC wins are enough to impress me. After all, the BC is designed to be the World Champion event for Thoroughbred racing. Smith wasn’t stopping. He holds the record for BC wins now with 25 victories. He has won the BC Classic an outstanding 4 times, including this year’s ride on Arrogate. His BC Classic winners also include, Drosselmeyer, Zenyatta and Skip Away. Smith did so well at the BC this year, he received his third Bill Shoemaker Award, given to the jockey with the most BC points. Scoring provides 10 points to win, 5 to place, 3 to show and 1 point for fourth place. This year, Smith won the BC Dirt Mile with Tamarkuz, the BC Filly and Mare Sprint with Finest City and the BC Classic with Arrogate. Smith was 2nd in the BC Distaff with Songbird, in the BC Juvenile Filles with Coasted and the BC Sprint with Masochistic. He picked up his last 3 points, with a third place finish, in the BC Juvenile Fillies with American Girl.
Smith has won every leg of the Triple Crown. He has won internationally 4 times and there is talk he may be slated to head to Europe with Arrogate in 2017. Smith obtained his 5000th win in 2012, while on Eclipse Award 2011 Champion Sprinter, Amazombie. He is very selective of who he rides for now. He now has 5,360 wins in 32,674 starts. At 51 years old he is going strong.
Photo: From my visit to and story about Old Friends in September of 2015. BC Sprint winner, Amazombie, in the mask and Rapid Redux, who had 22 consecutive wins, thus more than Zenyatta.
Smith obtained his own Eclipse Awards for Outstanding Jockey in 1993 and 1994. 1994 also brought him an ESPY Award for Best Jockey. He holds several other honors and awards and in 2003 he was inducted into the National Museum and Hall of Fame.
Big Money Mike is his nickname due to his success in earnings. Mike E. Smith is entered in several races at Del Mar on 11/18 and 19. Will you bet him to be your money maker? I’ll be keeping my eye on him. He sure caught me by surprise with the romp over California Chrome in the BC Classic. Check back soon for more Thoroughbred related information!
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The party is in Pennsylvania this weekend! As we inch ever closer to the 2016 Breeders’ Cup, much of the talent has gone north for the biggest day in racing that Pennsylvania has ever created. Parx Racing will host 12 races on Saturday, 9/24/16, including 3 stakes, the Gallant Bob Stakes, the Cotillion Stakes and the Pennsylvania Derby! A fan and friend attended Parx this time last year and shared her photos above.
Parx Racing and Casino is located in Bensalem, PA. The track originated in 1974 and it was called Keystone Racetrack until 1984. At that time, the name changed to Philadelphia Park until 2010 and then the name was changed again to Parx, as it is today. The combination of the stakes races, that take place at Parx this Saturday, will make PA Derby Day, the biggest purse day ever for this track. I met To Honor and Serve this past June. He won the PA Derby in 2011 and he holds the record finish time at 1:47:1. He is now a stallion at Gainesway Farm in Lexington, KY.
Gates open at Parx at 10 A.M. EST with the 1st race posting at 12:25 P.M.. Race 9 is the 1st stakes race of the day. It is the 25th running of the Grade 3, Gallant Bob Stakes, with a post time of 4:14 P.M. The Gallant Bob was inaugurated in 1979. It is a 6 furlong dirt race with a purse of $300,000. 12 horses are entered, listed by post:
Race 10 posts next, at 4:55 P.M. This is the 50th running of the Grade 1, Cotillion Stakes. The Cotillion was 1st ran in 1969. The 1 and 1/16th mile (8.5 furlongs) dirt race is for 3 year old fillies. It carries a purse of $1 million dollars. I’m a Chatterbox won in 2015. 6 fillies are entered. Keeneland’s September Yearling Sales Graduate, Carina Mia will race. Her banner as is the former winner’s, are shown in the photo above. The full field is listed by post position:
Songbird is the favorite. She is undefeated in 10 starts, 9 of which were graded stakes wins. She earned the 2015 Eclipse Award for Champion 2 Year Old Filly. That same year Songbird won the 14 Hands Winery BC Juvenile Fillies race.
Finally, race 11, posting at 5:45 P.M., is the 40th running of the Grade 2 Pennsylvania Derby! Inaugurated in 1979, this year’s PA Derby has it’s largest purse ever at $1.25 million dollars. The race is 1 and 1/8th miles (9 furlongs) on dirt for horses age 3. Frosted won in 2015. 12 horses are entered with the favorites being more Keeneland September Yearling Sales Grads, Exaggerator and Nyquist. The two have raced against one another 6 times prior. Kentucky Derby winner, Nyquist, won the 1st 4 times. Preakness winner, Exaggerator, has won the last 2 in the ongoing duel. The entire field by post is as follows:
There are still a few days left in the Keeneland sale where I have had the privilege of attending on several sessions. The sale ends Sunday, September 25th. I hope that the pictures I captured of the 2016 yearlings will be the Thoroughbreds that go on to race in favorite prep races for the BC like those happening at Parx this weekend. I will keep posting on the events I can make it to, like the sale, and I would appreciate some feedback from those who can make it to races I won’t be at this time, like the PA Derby Day. KY bred horses have won the PA Derby more than horses from any other state. I’m attending something pretty huge on Monday. Any guesses? I’ll let you know after I make the trip!
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Tepin can run but she can’t hide. Well, actually she is very good at that as well. I have seen Tepin before but I was really hoping to see her up closer while she was in town for the Jenny Wiley 1 week ago today, on 4/16/16. Alas, better luck next time. I still got some nice paddock and track photos and she was amazing again as she broke a track record and won by 5 lengths.
Search my site and it is easy to see my interest in Tepin’s star power. I have written about her before. I first took notice of Tepin on 10/3/15 when I watched her win the Grade 1, First Lady Stakes at Keeneland race track in Lexington, KY. That was actually her 14th career start. It was her 2nd race and win at Keeneland, where she broke her maiden as early as 10/6/13. I didn’t have to wait long to see her again. She triumphed in the Breeders’ Cup Mile on 10/31/15, also held at Keeneland.
Tepin has quite the fan following now and she has earned it. This year she has won 3 Graded stakes as a 5 year old and is tied with Songbird for the top rank in the American Graded Stakes Standings. Tepin has had 18 career starts including 10 wins, 3 place finishes and 1 time with a show. She is an Eclipse Winner and she is on a winning steak, 5 races deep. In 2016 she won the Grade 3 Lambholm South Endeavour Stakes at Tampa Bay, the Grade 2 Hillsborough Stakes, also at Tampa Bay and now the Grade 1 Coolmore Jenny Wiley Stakes at Keeneland. She set a record in the Hillsborough and then again in the Jenny Wiley. Her earnings stand at $2,895,873.
Tepin has Julien Leparoux for her jockey. She is owned by Robert E. Masterson and trained by Mark Casse and his son/assistant Norman Casse. She is the offspring of sire Bernstein and dam Life Happened.
Now what will Tepin do next? She is nominated for the 29th running of the Grade 1, $500,000, Woodford Reserve Turf Classic! Kentucky Derby Day just got a little more fantastic if Tepin runs in the Woodford at Churchill Downs on Derby Day, Saturday, 5/7/16. Fingers crossed she will enter the field of 14 to hit the 1 and 1/18 miles of turf. Wise Dan won the Woodford twice in 2013 and 2014. After that she may head to Great Britain to take on the 1 mile Queen Anne Stakes on opening day of the Royal Ascot meeting on Tuesday 6/16/16.
Watching Tepin win is a joy I could never get tired of. She makes is look so fun and easy. I hope when she is done being a turf star that she will live her life here in Kentucky, where she was bred. Perhaps, then I can meet her on a farm tour and maybe she will breed some other fast fillies! Below, I included the song that came to mind when titling today’s story. Phil Collins and a cute dog too! Thank you for reading. Look for my story next week, please. Keeneland has right under a week to go and I’m going back to bring you more stories and pictures.
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Congratulations are in order again as American Pharoah sweeps in one award after another. My last post was on the morning of January 16th. That evening we had the Eclipse Award Ceremony and today we received news of the Longines Awards. American Pharoah won at each event.
The 45th annual Eclipse Awards were held at Gulfstream Park in Florida this past weekend. Winners were chosen in 17 horse and human categories. The finalist were announced on January 6th. All the nominees can be seen in my prior story.
Here are the winners:
As you can see, American Pharoah and his connections won Horse of the Year, 3 year Old Male, Trainer, Owner and Breeder. Pretty impressive but there is more…
American Pharoah has long been acknowledged as a national champion but today he was recognized internationally! On 1/19/16 American Pharoah was named Longines World’s Best Racehorse 2015 at the Claridge’s Hotel in London, England.
Longines is a Swiss watchmaking company. They have historically been associated with sporting events including world equestrian sports. They made their 1st chronograph (a stopwatch) engraved with a mounted jockey in 1878. 3 years later, those chronographs were in use at tracks everywhere to time performance measures. Longines is the official partner and watch of the International Federation of Horse Racing Authorities (IFHA).
The IHFA had it’s earliest beginning in 1961 when horse racing authorities from the United States, Ireland, Great Britain and France came together to form standards to select the best horses. They held the 1st annual International Conference in Paris, France in 1967 with representation of world wide racing authorities. By 1977 the International Classifications were published. In the 1990s North and South America, South Africa, the Middle East, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand came together with racing officials and handicappers to develop the World Thoroughbred Racehorse Rankings, which in 2012 became the World’s Best Racehorse Rankings. The best horse that is 3 years old and up from participating countries, where it was raced or trained, is selected annually. The season runs from 1/1 thru 12/31. The top Grade/Group 1 international races are rated. These ratings are not the same ratings used in many other horse ranking systems. American Pharoah won with an 134 rating. He is followed by Golden Horn (130), Shared Belief (126), Treve (126), Able Friend (125) and Solow (125). Best race and best jockey are selected as well. The Longines World’s Best Horse Race 2015 is the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe in France followed by the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Further race categories are chosen by surface and distance. The top jockey is Lanfranco Dettori of Great Britain followed by our Victor Espinoza and 5th for Javier Castellano, which is quite different from the Eclipse Award results. To enjoy some of the excitement, see the great new YouTube below.
Congrats again to American Pharoah, Victor Espinoza, Bob Baffert and Zayat Stables for all the amazing races and accolades. American Pharoah is not racing anymore but he has an exciting new career as a stallion. I am looking forward to his progeny. I love seeing everyone’s #APandMe photos on Twitter and Facebook. Please, keep sharing and hopefully I will go meet the champ soon!
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