Author
Andrew Caulfield writes a weekly column for the Thoroughbred Daily News on pedigree analysis, a fascination which crystallised during the 12 years he spent as one of the principal writers at Timeform, where he was responsible for researching the pedigrees of all the two-year-olds. A former editor of The Thoroughbred Breeder, Pacemaker and The European Racehorse, he was also The Sporting Life's bloodstock correspondent for 12 years, He also wrote a weekly racing column for Japan's Gallop magazine for 20 years. More recently his principal role has been as a bloodstock consultant, primarily for Juddmonte Farms. During his 20-year association with Juddmonte, the farm’s star performers have included Frankel and Kingman, winners between them of three Cartier Horse of the Year awards. There have also been two winners of the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, three of the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Turf, as well as winners of the 2,000 Guineas, 1,000 Guineas, Derby, St Leger, Belmont Stakes and several French and Irish classics.
While not quite as dramatic as some of the chariot-racing scenes in Ben Hur, there was plenty happening from the entrance to the stretch in the GII Rebel S. With more than one of the principals at fault, the stewards reached the sensible decision to allow the result to stand. We are likely to learn...
However, there were 50 points available to the winner of last Saturday’s GII Tampa Bay Derby and another 50 to the same day’s GII San Felipe S. The Tampa Bay Derby fell to Tapit’s gelded son Ring Weekend, whereas the comparatively little-known Lucky Pulpit got into the act when his highly progressive son California Chrome...
Back in 2005, trainer Nick Zito was pretty determined to record his first victory in the Florida Derby, having previously missed the target with two colts–Strike The Gold and Go For Gin–which were to win the Kentucky Derby. This time he was double handed, with the Fountain of Youth winner High Fly and the promising...
Together with virtually everyone brave enough to own a racehorse, Claiborne Farm and Adele Dilschneider have sometimes had to ponder that unwelcome question–“what might have been?”
Last week was a pretty good time for Giants Causeway in the role of sire of sires–and not just because three of them featured in Bill Oppenheims “The Price Is Right” column in the TDN of Feb. 5.
What a difference a year makes! At the start of 2013, only one stallion son of Unbridled’s Song had succeeded in hitting the Grade I target. This was Even the Score, who had scored bull’s-eyes with Take the Points in 2009 and then with the high-class Dullahan in 2011 and 2012.
Over the last 10 years, the GII Holy Bull S. has fallen to future winners of the GI Florida Derby, the GI Wood Memorial S. and even the GI Kentucky Derby, plus runners-up in the Kentucky Derby and the GI Preakness. Cairo Prince’s romp in the latest edition must therefore bode very well for his...
The loss of any race in the stewards’ room is hard to take. But losing a race of the importance (and value) of the GI Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies must be heart-breaking, all the more so when the demoted winner–the front-running She’s a Tiger–had shown such determination to repel Ria Antonia.
In a comparatively quiet week, with no Grade Is, a handful of stallions still managed to draw attention to themselves.
If you’ll excuse another trip down memory lane, I came across North America’s Live Foal report for 1988 while giving my office a New Year’s tidy-up. In his analysis, Ed Bowen thought it necessary to mention that 266 of the 8,665 stallions had covered 50 or more mares during 1987.
The topic of inbreeding to Storm Bird could have been used over the Christmas period in one of those awful good news/bad news jokes. There was certainly nothing to laugh about concerning the bad news part, which concerned the death in Japan of that popular colt Summer Bird, at the age of only seven.
It was hard not to get a bit nostalgic when Hollywood Park staged its final edition of the CashCall Futurity. Originally staged in 1981 as the Hollywood Futurity, the race quickly built an impressive roll of honor. Among its most notable winners during its years on dirt were several who went on to success in...