Today's Edition

Mathieu Legars and Marta Kubicka have joined the Arqana team in the areas of bloodstock and marketing, respectively, the sales company announced on Tuesday. Legars, who will aid with inspection and selection of horses for the sales, advice to buyers and prospecting in France and abroad, will begin on Feb. 1. Kubicka is replacing Alix Choppin, who is moving into a business development role with the company, and will join Arqana as the marketing and communications director. She will start on Feb. 15. Legars returns to the country of his...

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 North American and Australia/New Zealand. Our firm has spent a half dozen years traveling Down Under to attend yearling and 2-year-old sales where we offer our biomechanical, cardio and BreezeFigs services. Occasionally we'd find time...

Comparing turf racing in the U.S. to the European variety isn't always straightforward. Whereas Europeans horses occasionally have to plough through very soft ground in Britain, Ireland, France, Germany and Italy, their American counterparts rarely tackle such conditions, with racecourses opting to switch races to their dirt tracks when the going becomes deep. When graded stakes are switched from turf to dirt, they are automatically moved down a grade, but there is an option for the original grading to be restored if the form is considered worthy. Consequently, the GIII...

Microchipping is quickly becoming the global industry standard for equine identification, especially those being used for competition purposes. The FEI (the International Equestrian Federation--the international governing body of equestrian sports) began integrating microchips into the registration and identification process of horses competing internationally in 2013, and countries such as Australia, Germany, France, Great Britain, Ireland and New Zealand have been using microchips in Thoroughbreds for years. This past year the U. S. Equestrian Federation and U. S. Hunter Jumper Association began requiring horses be microchipped in order to compete in...

For breeders, hope springs eternal, and at Coolmore spring appears to be springing early. Less than halfway into January the snowdrops are already nodding their optimistic heads while the daffodil bulbs appear to be eager to join in. Meanwhile in the deluxe stables there are new blooms of a different kind to be found, as top-class gallopers of recent years are now the budding stallions of tomorrow. Before we address the recent intake at the most famous of Ireland's stud farms, due praise must be given to Coolmore's hardiest of...

He wasn't just any horse. In 2010, he finished midfield in the GI Kentucky Derby. To those who have taken American Lion in hand now, however, that's the whole point: no horse is just any horse. Because they believe every retired Thoroughbred needs treating like a champion. Each one is bred on the same premise: in the hope that they, too, can become graded stakes winners and maybe even go to stud, as did this son of Tiznow at Darby Dan seven years ago. But it's not as though a...

In the fifth installment of our value sires series, we look at the second and third-crop sires of 2019-at last, horses with runners on the board that we can draw concrete evidence from. This exercise still involves some speculation in the case of the second-season sires who have just one season behind them, but nonetheless we'll examine their racetrack results, look at who is punching above their weight and also pick out a few who could jump up and surprise us this year.   SECOND-CROP SIRES OF 2019 We know...

When the 115th United States Congress ended Jan. 3, the federal bill that would have established an authority to create and implement a national uniform medication program for the sport expired along with the legislative session. The Horseracing Integrity Act of 2017 never advanced past the Congressional subcommittee level. But at least that was a step further than the similar Thoroughbred Horseracing Integrity Act of 2015 ever made it. In the end--like 21,806 other pieces of legislation that were introduced but never came up for a vote in the last...

Long-time Thoroughbred owner/breeder Lady Rothschild died in a London hospital on Sunday, a spokeswoman for her family said. The owner of MG1SW Nathaniel (Ire) (Galileo {Ire}) was 83. Lady Rothschild, born Serena Mary Dunn on Apr. 28, 1935, "fought a recent illness most valiantly," the spokeswoman added. Lady Rothschild, who was known to shy away from the public eye, was married to investment banker Lord Jacob Rothschild and ran Waddesdon Stud in Buckinghamshire. The granddaughter of Canadian financier Sir James Dunn, Lady Rothschild leaves four children and eight grandchildren. The...

"Proven Strategies" is a new regular series in the TDN, presented by Keeneland. It is written by Len Green of The Green Group and DJ Stables, who won the 2018 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies with Jaywalk (Cross Traffic). by Len Green, John Wollenberg & Agnieszka Kagan It is not uncommon for pinhookers or trainers to employ seasonal workers at sales or around the racetrack. Some of these employees may be considered as independent contractors. The perception that employers are attempting to circumvent paying payroll taxes by classifying workers as...

MGISW McKinzie (Street Sense) is unlikely to head to Gulfstream for the Jan. 26 GI Pegasus World Cup. Trainer Bob Baffert told the TDN Saturday that it is "very doubtful" that his horse will go in the $9 million race. Owners Karl Watson, Mike Pegram and Paul Weitman had not paid the $500,000 fee necessary to earn a berth in the race, but one was available as Gulfstream management is listing only 11 starters for a race that can include as many as 12. McKinzie ran 12th in the GI...

The Irish Stallion Trail is firmly established now in the early New Year calendar and, blessed with freakishly kind weather for January, it was a pleasure to once again take to the roads and remind myself of the quality of stallion standing in Ireland and the magnificent hotels they live in. They say there is more than one way to skin a cat, though I hope I will never find out; similarly there are many different routes one can take on the trail with 28 different farms, dispersed the length...