Author
A Kansas native who has worked in racing journalism since 1974, he is the co-founder of the newsletter Racing Update, and served as the paper's editor until 1993, when he moved to Scotland. Oppenheim developed a reputation as an independent observer of the sales scene in the early 1980's, and he and the staff of Racing Update originated a number of methods of stallion and sales analysis which have been adopted throughout the industry. For the past 10 years he has written a weekly column for TDN, as well as reporting from the major sales. He also works as a consultant, primarily for pedigree analysis, in a private capacity.
Though there are still a few logistical issues to tweak, there was pretty much universal agreement among buyers, consignors, and sales company officials that Keeneland’s new four-day Week 1 format has been a real winner. It’s been over 20 years since the September Sale started to become so strong that the July sale was under...
No doubt some logistic tweaking on the part of consignors and buyers will take place, but in this observer’s view, the new four-day Book 1/Week 1 format is a big winner. If you don’t want to buy in North America, fine, in spite of the continuing performanceof North American-breds punching above their weight in Europe;...
Liesl King has been filling you in with maximum efficiency and her usual flair for fashion about the sales, races, and other social activities last weekend in Baden-Baden, which is gaining a reputation in racing circles as ‘the Deauville of Germany.’ Certainly the sale, the latest edition of which was last Friday, just gets better...
Speaking of revamping sales, which we have been (see WST p8) in the context of Arqana’s new Av.2 Deauville sale a week ago Tuesday, this year we see another new, revised format for the Keeneland September Sale. Last year, you’ll recall, there was a one-dayBook 1 with just 132 yearlings catalogued, of which just 75...
‘Saturday’ horses. That’s what the commercial market is all about. Horses that can run at the big tracks, on the big days, in the big races. There are various ways of tallying sires’ performances in this respect; our way, as you know, is earnings-based. The top 8% of earners in each jurisdiction we cover, each...
Saturday’ horses. That’s what the commercial market is all about. Horses that can run at the big tracks, on the big days, in the big races. There are various ways of tallying sires’ performances in this respect; our way, as you know, is earnings-based. The top 8% of earners in each jurisdiction we cover, each...
Because of the way the APEX ratings are calculated– top 2% earners as of July 22, when the threshold in North America was $83,650, whereas at the end of 2012 the A Runner threshold was $121,200–it is possible that some horses which show as A Runners now may end up as B or even C...
The year when sires have their first 4-year-olds racing (they are referred to as ‘third-crop’ sires, meaning their third crop of 2-year-olds has reached racing age) is a critical one: with more horses racing, we have a chance to see whether the sires who made such a fast start look like they’re progressing, or look...
Though Japan’s Deep Impact boasts a 4.40 A Runner Index, with just his first 5-year-olds racing, we’ve decided to try a different treatment of the 918 sires assigned midyear 2013 APEX ratings. Though we’ve been able to include Japanese sires in the APEX ratings for about the last 15 years, their racing pretty much falls...
The win by Chicquita (Montjeu) in last Saturday’s G1 Irish Oaks marked the last of the European Classics bar the G1 English St. Leger, over about 14 furlongs, at…