Bright Picture

Saturday's Belmont Stakes is the last of nine top-level events on the weekend and the final of the six highly anticipated Grade I contests scheduled for a bumper card at Saratoga, short, medium and long on both the turf and the main track. A top-quality field of seven is set to face the starter in the GI Hill 'n' Dale Metropolitan Handicap, for which 'TDN Rising Star' presented by Nysos (Nyquist) is the 9-5 morning-line favorite and 126-pound topweight in the 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI Breeders'...

In this corner of the bloodstock world we like to keep our glass half-full, if not topped up to the brim. With that in mind, it is sometimes preferable to look back, rather than forwards. A dive into history via the pages of the Bloodstock Breeders' Review is always entertaining, if not a regular reminder that the more things change the more they stay the same. Take, for example, Lord Rosebery's speech as TBA president in 1947 when he said, "I was perturbed at the Yearling Sales at Doncaster when...

Friday, Bahrain Turf Club, Kingdom of Bahrain, post time: 19:40, BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL TROPHY-G2, $1,000,000, 3yo/up, 2000mT Field: Bright Picture (Fr) (Intello {Ger}), Calif (Ger) (Areion {Ger}), Galen (GB) (Gleneagles {Ire}), Lion's Pride (GB) (Roaring Lion), Military Order (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), Persica (Ire) (New Bay {GB}), Royal Champion (Ire) (Shamardal), Pride Of Arras (Ire) (New Bay {GB}). TDN Analysis: With the withdrawal of Group 1 winner Tornado Alert (Too Darn Hot), Godolphin only has the G3 Winter Derby scorer Military Order set to start for Charlie Appleby in this lucrative contest. However,...

Friday, Bahrain Turf Club, Kingdom of Bahrain, post time: 19:40, BAHRAIN INTERNATIONAL TROPHY-G2, $1,000,000, 3yo/up, 2000mT Field: Bright Picture (Fr) (Intello {Ger}), Calif (Ger) (Areion {Ger}), Galen (GB) (Gleneagles {Ire}), Lion's Pride (GB) (Roaring Lion), Military Order (Ire) (Frankel {GB}), Persica (Ire) (New Bay {GB}), Royal Champion (Ire) (Shamardal), Pride Of Arras (Ire) (New Bay {GB}). TDN Analysis: With the withdrawal of Group 1 winner Tornado Alert (Too Darn Hot), Godolphin only has the G3 Winter Derby scorer Military Order set to start for Charlie Appleby in this lucrative contest. However,...

We've been waiting so long for the proper Flat to start that it seems almost criminal to veer straight off to the other side of the world, but there was plenty of interest for breeders from this side at Rosehill in Sydney on Saturday morning.  One person who managed to stay awake past 2am to watch the highly impressive last-to-first romp of Post Impressionist (Ire) (Teofilo {Ire}) in the G3 N E Manion Cup was his breeder Henrietta Egan, who is based at Corduff Stud with her husband David.  Now...