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.
It had been since 2009, when their July sale was a two-day yearling event, that Fasig-Tipton grossed over $20-million at the yearling sales season opener. There were a lot of smiling faces around the Fasig pavilion Monday night; they sold just 163 yearlings, which was 14% fewer than in 2012, but the gross of $14,635,000...
The sale in Japan looks good–and why shouldn’t it, considering the mares the Yoshida family have been scooping up to breed to Deep Impact and King Kamehameha the last five years? The 2-year-old market was up $27 million (17%) from last year, and is within $3 million of 2008 totals, so the auguries are all...
A picnic at Royal Ascot is the equivalent of tailgating at an American football game, with a few significant differences–it’s a lot less casual, considering people coming and going from Ascot picnics are heading for the Royal Enclosure, so the prevailing dress is top hat and tails, and so on (to read Liesl King’s story...
Here’s why people call it the best week of racing in the world: over five days, six races a day, 30 races– seven Group 1 races, seven Group 2s, four Group 3s (18 group races), four listed (22 black-type races); seven rich handicaps (average purse €100,000), and one ‘random’ 2 3/4-mile conditions race. The general...
It is the best week of racing anywhere in the world. There are a lot of great horse racing events–weekends and carnivals–but nothing quite rivals the racing at Royal Ascot. This year, so far, the weather has been great, the ground quite fast (and not yet soft, at least, and not really likely to be),...
Two-time Horse of the Year and Lane’s End sire Curlin (Smart Strike) had his first graded stakes winner last Saturday, and the good news for him is it was a Classic winner, as Palace Malice hung on to win the GI Belmont S., with the GI Preakness winner Oxbow…
Just two weeks ago, Galileo had not sired a Northern Hemisphere Group 1 winner in 2013. Then, ten days ago, Magician won the G1 Irish 2000 Guineas, and Galileo ranked 45th on the TDN General Sire List.
Though he ranks no higher than 84th on the 2013 TDN General Sire List by progeny earnings (click here– 2013 YTD General Sire List–All), the leading German sire Monsun, who died last year at the age of 22, is tied with Dubawi as the leading sire of 2013…
When I first saw the time of Saturday’s Preakness S. –1:57:2/5, the slowest in 51 years (Carry Back, 1961) after Gary Stevens lulled them to sleep with a 1:13:1/5 first six furlongs, I thought the Beyer speed figure was sure to come back in the nineties. But when I looked at…
Things are just getting more and more interesting for Spendthrift’s Malibu Moon, who is surely now A.P. Indy’s best active proven son, even ahead of Bernardini (whose oldest are, after all, just five). In his first nine crops, Malibu Moon, now number two onthe North American 2013 General Sire list and closing, had 17 Grade...
Let’s begin with Orb, only the fourth Grade I/Grade II-winning colt in 10 crops by the amazing Malibu Moon. You bet he’s amazing–he started out at the Pons Brothers’ Country Life Farm in Maryland for a $3,000…