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.
Not including Arqana’s August v. 2 sale yesterday, through their Book 1 August yearling sale which ended Monday, plus another solid edition of the NY-bred sale last weekend makes it a good time to take a snapshot of the sales season so far: Fasig-Tipton July, Saratoga, and NY-bred sales, plus Arqana August Book 1. It’s...
Fasig-Tipton took a risk this year by cataloguing 26% more yearlings between their Fasig July and Saratoga yearling sales, since the usual pattern when catalogues are increased so much is for the not-sold percentage to rise, the gross to stay about the same, and the average to drop. But it was all smiles at Saratoga Tuesday...
Three North American or European second-crop sires (first foals 2012, or F2012) have sired Classic winners in their first crops of 3-year-olds this year. That’s presuming you agree that the GI Kentucky Oaks, won by the Majesticperfection filly Lovely Maria, should be classified as a Classic, which really it should be. The other two Classic...
Through racing of July 5, when we ran the Midyear APEX data, a North American racehorse needed to have earned just over $40,000 thus far in 2015 to qualify as a Midyear ‘C Runner’, and just over $83,000 to qualify as a Midyear ‘A Runner’; you can see the amounts (converted to US$) for the...
Last week we took a look at the Top 50 North American and European sires by APEX A Runner Index (click here), using new Midyear 2015 data, meaning from 1/1/2009 through 7/5/2015. A particular note about this, if you will refer to the table on page five of last Wednesday’s paper, is that the earnings...
At the end of 2014, Coolmore’s Galileo had finally ascended to the top of the list of North American and European sires by A Runner Index, with a 4.09 rating (8.18% of his 1,822 year-starters 2008-2014), just slightly ahead of Claiborne’s War Front (4.02). Now, halfway through 2015, War Front (3.98) has edged ahead of...
Having covered the new sires with their first yearlings selling at Fasig July extensively, it is appropriate for us to acknowledge that there are other sires represented–quite a few of them, and quite important ones, too. There’s one Tapit filly catalogued from Gainesway, and one War Front colt bred by Southern Equine and consigned by...
One week from tomorrow Fasig-Tipton kicks off the 2015 North American yearling market with the Kentucky July yearling sale, in which 40 years ago this year, Seattle Slew sold as a yearling for $17,500 to Karen and Mickey Taylor, and it’s been producing good horses ever since. This year 332 yearlings are catalogued–a 25% increase...
The world’s greatest week of racing, Royal Ascot, lived up to its billing last week. British-based operations Godolphin, Shadwell, and Juddmonte’s Prince Khalid Abdullah each won two races. Moyglare, the Aga Khan, the Wertheimers, and Al Shaqab all got on the scoreboard. American-based trainer Wesley Ward hit the target twice, taking his Royal Ascot total...
There haven’t been too many shock results the first two days at Royal Ascot; in fact, the favorites have won three of the four Group 1 races run thus far. The meet opened on Tuesday with the G1 Queen Anne S., for 4-year-olds and up on the straight mile. It was a one-two for France...
When Coolmore did the deal to buy the breeding rights to American Pharoah in January, before the Eclipse Awards, they were just hoping they were buying their fifth champion 2-year-old colt in six years to stand at their Kentucky arm, Ashford Stud. They couldn’t have bought the sixth anyway; that was the gelding Shared Belief,...
When Coolmore did the deal to buy the breeding rights to American Pharoah in January, before the Eclipse Awards, they were just hoping they were buying their fifth champion 2-year-old colt in six years to stand at their Kentucky arm, Ashford Stud. They couldn’t have bought the sixth anyway; that was the gelding Shared Belief,...