It seems that whenever your correspondent comes up with a writer's block or a dearth of exciting news to dwell upon, his hand reaches out to the trusty bookshelf and invariably falls upon the spine of either one of Dr. Franco Varola's game-changing tomes, “Typology of the Racehorse,” or the sequel, “The Functional Development of [...]

Last year following the completion of the last 2-year-old sale of the season (OBS June), we looked at the potential success of the Freshmen Sires by creating a handicapping event, noting at the time that the Freshmen of 2018 were a very competitive bunch, i.e., many of them were capable of rising to the top [...]

Spoiler alert: This rumination is likely to raise a few eyebrows, if not hackles, because it might appear that we will be crossing over into a discipline not normally associated with our punditry, i.e., pedigree analysis. For those readers and colleagues who specialize in such studies, we have a simple caveat: Your correspondent has a [...]

It was just about this time 30 years ago that the breeding and racing world began to change in a way few saw coming and many others took a while to comprehend. That was when the first foals by Gone West and Storm Cat started to hit the ground, mostly in Kentucky. No disrespect to [...]

You know how you sometimes start out with a possible conclusion based on the research you are going to do–but have not yet started–but at the end of the process you're smacked upside the head because your original suspicion was wrong? Welcome to the world of biomechanical and pedigree analysis for the leading sires in [...]

There are about a half dozen ways one can look at the steady but inexorable marches to the top of the Thoroughbred breeding world by Medaglia d'Oro and Kitten's Joy, but if you don't start with their daddy, you would have missed the point. That would be El Prado (Ire), an accomplished but generally overlooked [...]

I saw Rick at Keeneland September where a mutual friend who did not know of our long-standing friendship asked me, “Do you know Rick Violette?” I looked at him and as I replied, “Oh, you mean do I know 'Rick-Get-That-Filly-Out-of-My-Barn Violette'?” He roared and everyone else looked at us not knowing that in the 1990s [...]

Even if you've done it before, the next time you are in Manhattan, schlepp yourself up to the Met (Metropolitan Museum of Art) and position yourself opposite the massive and visually cacophonic masterpiece, “The Horse Fair,” by Rosa Bonheur. After the usual “OMG!” reaction you will have in your throat, and heart, perhaps you will [...]

People who are unfamiliar with the equine biomechanical process (which started in the late 1940s in the Quarter Horse industry) often approach us and right off the bat ask: “Just what is it that you do?” The quick and simple answer sometimes gets the point across quickly, to wit: “We take numerous measurements of a [...]

The other day we rolled down various leading sires lists in search of a topic for this installment and immediately came to a halt. That's because we noticed that Eclipse champion Blame had suddenly snuck up a few of those lists to the point where he has to be considered a serious bet after what [...]

We know what you're thinking: Whatever in the world would possess someone to talk about stallion selection just before the breeding season officially ends? While some might accuse your correspondent of being somewhat possessed, in some ways, there is a logical reason for exploring this subject at this time: Everybody starts thinking about next year [...]

We have long appreciated the role serendipity can play in our lives and major events, so imagine our arched eyebrow reaction to a link that popped up during our research into this dispatch. Having settled on delving into the sire-line of GI Kentucky Derby and GI Preakness S. winner Justify (Scat Daddy), we took notice [...]