Bill Oppenheim
A Kansas native who has worked in racing journalism since 1974, Bill Oppenheim 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. From 2000-2017, he wrote a weekly column for TDN, as well as reported from the major sales.
Nine Weeks In
March 6, 2015
It's still winter. All the good racing is in warmer climes, and even there we're nearly a month away from climactic weekends including the GI Florida Derby, GI Santa Anita Derby, and the G1 Dubai World Cup; in fact, big preps for those weekends are on tap with the GII San Felipe S. this weekend [...]
[ Read More ]
Bill Oppenheim: Under The Radar
March 2, 2015
At the end of 2014, four of the top 10 sires on the TDN North American General Sire List for last year were the four sires with first foals 2006 that have been so prominent since they first had runners in 2008: Gainesway's Tapit; WinStar's Speightstown; Darley's Medaglia d'Oro; and Lane's End's Candy Ride. Among [...]
[ Read More ]
The Youngest Guns
February 25, 2015
What a weekend it was for first-crop sires. They ran 1-2-3 in the GII Davona Dale for 3-year-old fillies: Ekati's Phaeton (Tale of Ekati) scored her second graded win by hanging on grimly from Birdatthewire (Summer Bird), with Eskenformoney (Eskendereya) a close third. First-crop sires also dominated the filly ranks in New Orleans, with I'm [...]
[ Read More ]
Further Speculation
February 18, 2015
Last week I inveigled TDN International Editor Kelsey Riley into offering her Acolumnist's choice' picks for success among four crops of unproven North American stallions with first foals 2013-2016, which we presented as well as my own. This week–special treat– we have expanded our scope even further by asking TDN's other columnist, Andrew Caulfield, to [...]
[ Read More ]
Now to Speculate
February 11, 2015
In the spirit of Sherack vs. DiDonato, I enlisted TDN International Editor Kelsey Riley to join me in looking over what we know so far–from their race records and any market performance–for the nearly 275 North American and European sires we=re keeping track of in four >sire crops=: F2013 (1st foals 2013, 2-year-olds of 2015); [...]
[ Read More ]
Bill Oppenheim: 'Pioneer' Top Third-Crop Sire
February 6, 2015
The Triple Crown is on the line, and American Pharoah has one huge stat in his favor: he has beaten, it looks like, every horse set to line up against him; plus, the long-range forecast says it could rain on Saturday. Of course, he still has to be moving forward after his first two Triple [...]
[ Read More ]
Under the Radar
February 4, 2015
At the end of 2014, four of the top 10 sires on the TDN North American General Sire List for last year were the four sires with first foals 2006 that have been so prominent since they first had runners in 2008: Gainesway's Tapit; WinStar's Speightstown;Darley's Medaglia d'Oro; and Lane's End's Candy Ride. Among them, [...]
[ Read More ]
Who Ran Second?
January 27, 2015
His 10 crops of racing age thus far have averaged 138 foals, which definitely confers a certain numerical advantage, nonetheless the dominance of Coolmore's World Number One, Galileo, is impressive in its quantity as well as its quality. Last year Galileo sired 25 Graded/Group winners (GSW) and 50 Graded/Group Stakes Horses (GSH), so no surprise [...]
[ Read More ]
Galileo Tops By 2014 ABC Runners
January 22, 2015
Bill Oppenheim-January 22, Galileo Tops By 2014 ABC Runners GALILEO TOPS BY 2014 ABC RUNNERS When you see that Coolmore's top sire, Galileo, had 66 black-type horses (BTH) last year, of which 50 were graded/group stakes horses (GSH) (click here), it's not surprising he's also the leading 2014 North American or European sire of APEX [...]
[ Read More ]
APEX Earning Thresholds 2008-2014
January 22, 2015
When you see that Coolmore=s top sire, Galileo, had 66 black-type horses (BTH) last year, of which 50 were graded/group stakes horses (GSH), it's not surprising he's also the leading 2014 North American or European sire of APEX ABC Runners. To review, a horse becomes an ABC Runner (meaning A Runner, or B Runner, or [...]
[ Read More ]
Three More Top 50's
January 15, 2015
Last week we looked at the top 50 sires with 200+ year-starters ('runners') 2008-2014 by the signature APEX A Runner Index (click here). This week we'd like to look at three more Top 50's, as well as sires with first foals 2010 (4-year-olds of 2014) and 2011 (3-year-olds of 2014). As we mentioned last week, [...]
[ Read More ]
Three More Top 50's
January 13, 2015
Last week we looked at the top 50 sires with 200+ year-starters ('runners') 2008-2014 by the signature APEX A Runner Index. This week we'd like to look at three more Top 50's, as well as sires with first foals 2010 (4-year-olds of 2014) and 2011 (3-year-olds of 2014). As we mentioned last week, when you [...]
[ Read More ]