The narrowness of Dortmund (Big Brown)'s victory over Firing Line and Mr. Z at Los Alamitos surely jeopardizes any chance he might have had of landing the relevant Eclipse Award. [...]

Now I don't want to tempt fate, so I am busily touching wood while I type this one-handed, but–with luck–Giant's Causeway should be around for plenty more years. After all, this multiple champion sire will be no older than 18 next year, whereas his sire Storm Cat and broodmare sire Rahy were respectively 25 and [...]

Everything is meant to be bigger (and better) in the USA, whether it's the 24-oz. Prime Porterhouse at Malone's in Lexington or the 6ft 10in John Isner slamming down ace after ace against his hapless opponents on the tennis… [...]

On the latest Longines World's Best Racehorse Rankings, covering the period from Jan. 1 to Nov. 9, top place went to the Japanese star Just A Way. Not only that, but the 5-year-old topped the list by a margin of fully four pounds, even though his nearest pursuers included the Classic-winning European colts Australia, Kingman [...]

Saturday, Delta Downs DELTA DOWNS JACKPOT S.-GIII, $1,000,000, DED, 11-22, 2yo, 1 1/16m, 1:45 2/5, ft. 1–@OCHO OCHO OCHO, 119, c, 2, by Street Sense 1st Dam: Winner, by Horse Chestnut (SAf) 2nd Dam: Pennant Champion, by Mr. Prospector 3rd Dam: Personal Ensign, by Private Account ($50,000 yrl '13 KEESEP; $200,000 2yo >14 OBSAPR). O-DP [...]

Virtually every edition of the Breeders' Cup lingers long in the memory, but anyone who attended the 1988 meeting at Churchill Downs can count themselves especially fortunate. Among the male contestants were numerous luminaries whose names are still very familiar more than 25 years later, such as Alysheba, Seeking the Gold, Forty Niner, Easy Goer [...]

One common misconception in horse-racing is that speed equals precocity, but these two assets don't necessarily go hand in hand–as the GI Breeders' Cup Sprint's roll of honor sometimes reminds us. The latest winner, Work All Week, is a 5-year-old who gained his… [...]

Blinkered, parochial and close-minded may be adjectives most frequently applied to the American racing industry in recent years, but America certainly doesn't hold a monopoly when it comes to being hidebound in her attitudes. A couple of last week's worldwide Group 1 events illustrate how difficult it can be for a British stud to persuade [...]

There was a time when landing the title of leading freshman sire regularly punched the winner's ticket to the top of the stallion ranks. For example, in a 10-year period during the late 1970s and early '80s, the title went to Raja Baba, Roberto, Mr. Prospector, Seattle Slew, Alydar, Danzig and Fappiano. [...]

In the 13 years prior to Saturday's edition of the Racing Post Trophy, this Group 1 mile contest had been won by four future winners of the Derby, two of the St Leger, two of the Irish Derby, one of the 2,000 Guineas and one of the French 2,000 Guineas, with a Breeders' Cup Turf [...]

If Showtime's hammy television series AThe Borgias@ is to be believed (and I am not sure that it is), Cesare Borgia had more than a brotherly interest in his sister Lucrezia. Apparently it was Cesare who became the model for Machiavelli's famous treatise The Prince, which is said to be largely responsible for the word [...]

I'm ashamed to say that I have forgotten nearly all the Latin that I learned so painfully as a schoolboy. I still remember enough, though, to recognise the occasional Latin saying used in naming racehorses. Among this year's examples are a couple which appear likely to take very high rank among the year's 2-year-olds. In [...]