Today's Edition

At this time of the year, plenty of column space is typically devoted to analyzing the performance of the first-crop sires of the season passed. Indeed, this year's freshmen have provided plenty of reason to be hopeful for the future, as detailed by John Boyce in his latest column depicting the potential of No Nay Never and Kingman (GB) to evolve into super sires. As the year wraps up, however, it is also worth checking in on the progress of the second-season sires, and note who has built on the...

Manfred and Penny Conrad are having a hard time believing that in less than 10 years since entering the Thoroughbred world, they have produced a Breeders' Cup winner, a horse that raced in the GI Kentucky Derby and Queen's Plate in the same year, and have sold two broodmares at auction collectively for more than $1 million. The Canadian-based husband and wife, who collectively run as Conrad Farms, have proven that you can do some amazing things with a modest operation. The couple won the Nov. 3 GI Breeders' Cup...

Things will doubtless get better—and just as well. Certainly the opening day of the December Foal Sale at Tattersalls did not unfold in a fashion likely to gladden many hearts. The ageing year was in a grasping mood, meanly rationing the daylight in quality and quantity alike; and entry into the brightly lit ring could not relieve many weanlings of a melancholy air, as the auctioneer implored bidders to stir from their apathy. If that felt poignant, given the charming and vulnerable aspect of animals only now entering their first...

Arnold Hyde, the acting chief executive of South Africa's National Horseracing Authority, certainly has his opinions on whether or not whipping horses is cruel. He also realizes his viewpoint isn't what matters. What does is the public's viewpoint on a thorny issue with which racing throughout the world is struggling. Hyde's fear is that, especially among younger South Africans, the whipping issue is something that could cause irreparable harm to the industry. So he decided to do something about it. On Nov. 3, while the U.S. racing audience was focused...

There were two seemingly opposing views to take about the champion's forthcoming stud career when Frankel (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) brought down the curtain on his sublime racing career by sauntering home in the G1 QIPCO Champion S. on Oct. 20, 2012. He was taking his record to 14 from 14, leaving the tens of thousands of misty-eyed worshippers who had made the pilgrimage to Ascot to bid their hero farewell convinced that they would never see such a paragon again. On the one hand the rhetorical question: 'How could a...

They called her Constellation because of the sprinkling of silver Birdcatcher spots in her coat. But while she had shone as brightly as any, during the giddy opening phase of the LNJ Foxwoods adventure, her $3.15 million sale to Don Alberto Corp. at Fasig-Tipton earlier this month was only a point of reference in a much bigger picture. For just as a constellation only exists as a function of the human imagination, so does the navigation of an enterprise as ambitious as LNJ depend on the kind of eye that...

Abel Tasman (Quality Road--Vargas Girl, by Deputy Minister), last year's Eclipse champion 3-year-old filly, will be offered as a broodmare prospect at the upcoming Keeneland January Horses of All Ages Sale through the Taylor Made Sales Agency consignment. The filly will sell as hip 288 during the auction's opening session Jan. 7. "What can I say? Abel Tasman is a rare collector's item," said Mark Taylor, Taylor Made's Vice President of Marketing and Public Sales Operations. "She is a future first ballot Hall of Fame inductee. We are privileged to...

Paul and Sara Thorman of Trickledown Stud have offered one of the largest consignments at the Tattersalls December Foal Sale for a number of years. The Hampshire-based couple are known for selling quality, as well as quantity, for a broad range of clients, with Trickledown sales graduates including Cockney Rebel, Compton Place and George Washington. Trickledown has the biggest foal consignment of this year's catalogue at 51 weanlings. A daunting prospect for some, but a typical December for the Thormans. When asked the key to success when selling big numbers,...

At any major sale in the U.S., it is just about a sure bet that Taylor Made Sales Agency will not only make up a significant portion of the catalogue with its sizable consignments, but also in turn be among the leading consignors. Next week, the agency that sold Roaring Lion (Kitten's Joy) for $160,000 two years ago will tread new waters when presenting its first European draft at the Tattersalls December Mare Sale. It is a bit of a different look for Taylor Made; the six-horse consignment makes up...

Jimmy Takter dabbled one time with a Thoroughbred he helped break named It's Like This (Ascot Knight), he'll watch the GI Kentucky Derby and he'll tell you how much he admires Wayne Lukas. But this is not a Thoroughbred horse racing story. Actually, it's not even a story about harness racing, the sport Takter has dominated almost since the day the trainer arrived from Sweden in 1982. It's about horsemanship, excellence, an unmatched competitive drive, about someone who realized there is more to life than racing and a decision that...

After the retirement of the sensational Frankel at the end of 2012, there was a possibility that the stars of 2013 would seem rather pedestrian in comparison. Fortunately, nature abhors a vacuum and the void was filled by several genuinely outstanding performers on the international stage. While none of them came close to matching Frankel's unequalled Timeform rating of 147, several scored highly on the Timeform scale. Treve, who handed out a five-length defeat to the Japanese champion Orfevre in the Arc, earned a figure of 134, as did American...

Frank Mirahmadi has been named the new announcer at Santa Anita, effective with the track's opening day Dec. 26. Mirahmadi, who has been announcing at tracks across the country for the last 22 years, was the track announcer at Monmouth Park for the last four seasons and is currently calling the races at Aqueduct. He has also called the races at Hialeah Park, Oaklawn Park, Golden Gate Fields and Louisiana Downs, as well as serving brief stints at Santa Anita in 2014 and 2016. "We're very excited to be able...