Allen Poindexter

It takes a pretty serious animal to earn $2 million in any racing jurisdiction, let alone accomplishing that feat in a place like Hong Kong. The urban environment is not for every horse--to that end, the Hong Kong Jockey Club operates their state-of-the-art satellite facility in Conghua [shung-pha] on the Chinese mainland--and it takes a special horse to thrive there. Chancheng Glory (Mor Spirit) has done just that over the course of the last 18 months or so. Bred in Iowa by Allen Poindexter, the 4-year-old gelding has won seven...

The previous time that he had neared rock bottom, it turned out that Allen Poindexter still had a ways to fall. Fell pretty hard, all the same: kept drinking all the way down from Missouri, in fact he bought a bottle of Dom Perignon after reaching Florida and drank it on a park bench outside the treatment center. Then he went into the bathroom, tripped, hit his head on a lavatory. He'll show you a scar over his eye. In fairness, he lasted the 30 days inside, and afterwards actually...

On Friday--the final day of the National HBPA Conference at Prairie Meadows--a panel entitled "Establishing No-Effect Thresholds and the Importance for the Industry" was led by practicing equine veterinarian and researcher Dr. Clara Fenger. She cited the Horseracing Integrity & Safety Authority's enabling legislation that HISA-covered horses "should compete only when they are free from the influence of medications ..." (her emphasis added). Fenger's point: Testing many substances to limit of detection--if the lab can find it, it's a violation, no matter how tiny the amount and whether it impacts...

1st-Oaklawn, $115,000, Msw, 2-11, 3yo/up, f/m, 1m, 1:39.82, sy, 3 lengths. MERASOL SUGAR (f, 3, Constitution--Chanel Number Mine, by Value Plus) put in a solid final work Feb. 3 (:48, 4f, 1/63) in preparation for her debut with Lasix here. As a 6-1 shot, the lone first timer in the field cruised to the lead heading into the first turn, and continued to set all the fractions up the backstretch and around the far turn. The homebred had plenty in reserve down the lane and she splashed home by three...

"Her dad should have shot me," says Tim Hamlin wryly. Needless to say, he had met Nancy at a horseshow. She had just started out on her veterinary studies. "And she quit school to come to a little town in northwest Iowa to help me," Hamlin recalls. "This was '84, we were kids, had no money. We lived in a single wide trailer house for seven years. Nancy would get up at 4 a.m. to make donuts, so we could buy horsefeed." Eventually they found a filly that emboldened a...

4th-Belmont, $90,000, Msw, 5-28, 3yo/up, f/m, 7f, 1:25.06, ft, neck. VIRTUAL REALITY (f, 3, Cloud Computing--Miss Malibu Style, by Malibu Moon) had been on the work tab religiously since the middle of February, and put it all together here at first asking, finishing best of the inexperienced runners in the field. Breaking inward at the jump, Manny Franco was able to correct her but wound up three wide before jostling with eventual third-place finisher Ms. Solveig (Bernardini) as that one steadily inched closer to the rail. The bumper cars came...

A filly by Tapwrit turned in the fastest furlong breeze of :9 4/5 during the under-tack show for the Texas 2-Year-Olds in Training Sale at Lone Star Park Monday. Cataloged as hip 167, the filly is consigned by Pike Racing, agent, and was bred by H. Allen Poindexter. She is out of the winning Sky O'Blue (Henny Hughes) and is a half-sister to two winners from as many to race. "It's not every year in Texas we get a :9 4/5 breeze and she did it the right way," TTA...

The Allen Poindexter owned- and -bred Kauai (Girolamo) has been named the Iowa Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners (ITBOA) Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old male. Trained by Lynn Chleborad, the bay posted a record of 7-3-2-1 in 2019 and earnings of $167,520, with victories in the Iowa Stallion S. and the Iowa Breeders' Derby (each non black-type races). "I was thrilled with his efforts in 2019," said Allen Poindexter. "I expected that he would run better as the distances increased, and that's exactly what happened last season." The other...

The early race card at Santa Anita had a decidedly Midwest flair Saturday as the winners of the first three races of the day were bred by Missouri-resident Allen Poindexter and two of the three winners were Iowa-breds. The streak began with 15-1 shot Posit (Cairo Prince)'s half-length win in an optional claimer; continued with the debut victory of OBS June topper Clivetty (Into Mischief) (video) and concluded with 'TDN Rising Star' Auberge (Palace)'s 2 1/4-length allowance win (video). "I wasn't sure about Posit in the first, but I thought...