He called it a “once-in-a-lifetime” experience, smiling in the Paris sunshine, spry and dapper in his bow tie and blazer. And then he added: “I mean, I'm 90 years old, so I don't know how much more lifetime there is!” That helped the interview go fairly viral. But there was much else besides: the sheer [...]

Nope. Just can't figure it out. Why on earth, at the end of another grueling sales cycle, would so many Americans scrape together the last of their resources, in energy and funds, and get on a plane for one final auction in France? Setting aside, that is, the langoustines and truffles; the calvados and cider; [...]

“I think this filly's cheating on me.” Well, if that was the opinion of a Hall of Fame trainer, who could argue? Least of all a woman, in the male-dominated Bluegrass of the mid-1970s. But Headley Bell remembers that when Frank Whiteley Jr. sent Nicosia (Gallant Romeo) home to Mill Ridge, his late mother Alice [...]

Pomona Fairgrounds, 1956. Abandoning his hopes of becoming an attorney, Gary Biszantz was going home to try to turn round his father's automobile dealership in Los Angeles. He broke his journey at a horse sale, having loved Thoroughbreds since being taken racing as a kid, when he would stand on a chair and marvel at [...]

Sponsored by Pedigrees 360 Into Mischief and a Bernardini mare: on the face of it, “the Sovereign remedy” for a sophomore round Churchill Downs in 2025. It produced the GI Kentucky Derby winner, and has now given us a filly moving rapidly through the ranks in Shred the Gnar, winner of the GIII Chilukki Stakes [...]

The horses, of course, remain just as reticent about discussing their health as 150 years ago. But their beauty and courage are also unchanged, which has always kept veterinarians willing to persevere in a one-sided consultation. Until recently, anyway. People do change, however-and the fact is that an increasingly urbanized society is no longer producing [...]

Those American prospectors sufficiently resourceful–in every sense of that word–to mine some genetic gold at the European breeding stock sales generally fall into two camps. For some, an expanding and ever more lucrative grass (and synthetic) schedule in North America will offset the commercial distrust of turf bloodlines in their homeland. But others may also [...]

Sponsored by Pedigrees360. Sorry to do this yet again, but the very fact that the exercise can be repeated every November shows that we're not looking at anything freakish; in other words, that there are valid lessons to learn. Because with daughters of Old Fashioned, Mitole, Big Brown, Ten Sovereigns (Ire) and Outwork among the [...]

The Irish diaspora in the Bluegrass has lost one of its foundation stones with the death last Sunday of Roger (“Roddy”) O'Byrne, who presided for many years at McCarthy's Bar in downtown Lexington. O'Byrne, together with co-proprietor Peter Kiely, made their bar an institution not just for local horsemen but for the international bloodstock community. [...]

It is called the Breeders' Cup for a reason. Yes, the commercial sector revolves to a neurotic degree around stallions, which is why the stakes are so high for the colts at Del Mar this weekend. But breeding those horses in the first place was at least as much about the mares, meaning that many [...]

Did you hear the one about the wrestler who opted for three foals and a submission? Understandably, Jeff Kerber feels a little conflicted about the “submission.” In his youth, as Iowa's first high school wrestler unbeaten through four years of varsity competition, everything came down to what he could do with his bare hands. In [...]

With so many horses congesting the dressing rooms before the Breeders' Cup, the stage felt undeniably empty last weekend. Few, even so, will have been too intrigued by a French-bred Grade III winner over 12 furlongs of grass. After all, Venencia (Fr) (Recoletos {Fr}) was bred from a mare meanwhile sold for just €17,000. Yet [...]