GI Bing Crosby S.

Don Valpredo is to Cal-breds what tungsten is to steel. "I absolutely love the training industry and the breeding industry here," said Vapredo, 85, over the phone from Bakersfield. "In fact, I'm sitting here today with the Stallion Register on my lap, trying to find the right mix for my broodmares." When Valpredo hasn't been producing Cal-breds--along with John Harris, he's responsible for 1994 California Horse of the Year, Soviet Problem--he's sought to popularize them through multiple warmed seats on multiple industry boards over multiple decades. They even named a...

Eclipse Award-winner and GI Breeders' Cup Sprint champion Amazombie (Northern Afleet) was euthanized on Monday, Sept. 18, at Old Friends in Georgetown, KY, due to a fractured ankle. The 16-year old gelding had lived at the retirement facility since 2014 thanks to his owners, trainer Bill Spawr and Thomas Sanford. "Amazombie was a lot of fun," Spawr said. "He was so much fun, you just can't imagine. And, you know, he died doing what he loved to do--run! You guys [at Old Friends] did a great job. We appreciated that."...

The hometown hero got it done. Facing an exceptionally deep field of sprinters in Saturday's 'Win and You're In' GI Bing Crosby S. at Del Mar, it was the California-bred The Chosen Vron (Vronsky) who got the money. He, however, is not nominated to the Breeders' Cup and would have to be supplemented for this fall's GI Breeders' Cup Sprint. With the victory, the 5-year-old gelding matched a bar set earlier in the day by Eclipse champion male sprinter Elite Power (Curlin) with both horses stretching their respective winning streaks...

Equine or human, history is always about the six degrees of someone in racing's world. For instance, at 100-1 Jim Dandy beat Triple Crown champion Gallant Fox in the 1930 edition of the Travers S., which only featured four entries total. The horse who set up the longshot by engaging in a speed duel with the favorite over the mud was Whichone, a colt owned by Harry Payne Whitney (yes, that important family). And what other Thoroughbred did Whitney own? Well, that would be Upset, who did just that, when...