Italian horseracing

It doesn't take too deep a dive into the pedigree of Northern Dancer to understand the Italian influence in so many racehorses in training these days. Italy's significance in the annals of racing and breeding history reaches beyond Nearco of course, but in recent years there has been a very real fear that the country is losing its place in the Thoroughbred world order.  Indeed, its black-type races have been gradually downgraded. The Derby Italiano and Oaks d'Italia lost Group 1 status in 2009 and 2007 respectively, and Italy lost...

With racing in Britain and Ireland continuing behind closed doors, fellow European nations on the continental mainland are now enduring a temporary shutdown of the racing programme in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. On Monday, France and Germany became the latest countries to call a halt to racing in the short term, following similar moves by Italy and Spain. France's President Emmanuel Macron imposed a 15-day lock down on Monday evening, while earlier that afternoon France Galop issued a statement announcing that there would be no racing in France...