Sid Fernando

Robert John Lothenbach, a Thoroughbred owner and breeder who was a passionate booster of horse racing in his home state of Minnesota and also enjoyed success in the sport on the national level, has died unexpectedly. He was 64. The Minnesota chapter of the Horsemen's Benevolent and Protective Association (MHBPA) announced his passing late on Monday. The cause of Lothenbach's death has yet to be publicly disclosed, and funeral arrangements are pending. Shortly after Canterbury Park first opened in 1985, Lothenbach and three friends each put up $1,000 to claim...

Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher is on fire, unveiling one promising colt or filly after another in maiden, allowance, and stakes races it seems. Last month, Pletcher won his eighth Eclipse Award as North America's leading trainer. Not only that, but three horses trained by Pletcher also won Eclipses: Forte (Violence), champion 2-year-old colt; Nest (Curlin), champion 3-year-old filly; and Malathaat (Curlin), champion older female. Like Pletcher, Curlin shone at the Eclipses. Aside from Nest and Malathaat, his Elite Power was named champion sprinter of 2022, giving the Hill 'n'...

A few weeks ago, I was a guest on the weekly Going In Circles podcast, which is hosted by Chuck Simon, the former trainer who's also a top-notch writer at his blog, and Barry "The Sniper" Spears, an excellent handicapper and well-known figure on Twitter. Simon asked for my opinion on which stallion I'd consider to be the most influential of the past 50 years. You can listen to a nine-minute clip of the conversation here. My answer? Claiborne's iconic Mr. Prospector, of course. The clip generated quite a bit...

Charles Fipke's Grade I winner and 'TDN Rising Star' Shirl's Speight (Speightstown) will become the first foreign horse to ever run in Japan's G1 February S., Fipke's advisor Sid Fernando confirmed to the TDN Thursday afternoon. Set for Feb. 19, the race is over a mile on the dirt, and trainer Roger Attfield and Fipke are both set to travel to the Tokyo showpiece. "He's going," Fernando said of the 2022 GI Maker's Mark Mile hero. "He's doing well with Roger Attfield down in Florida." The February S. is one...

Sergio Leone's 1966 masterpiece, "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," was the last and best of a trilogy of Leone spaghetti westerns that upended the traditional genre. Before Leone and other Italian directors like Sergio Corbucci set about redefining the Old West in Europe, traditional domestic westerns featured clean-cut leads like John Wayne, Alan Ladd, Gregory Peck, Gary Cooper, and Jimmy Stewart in films by directors like John Ford and Howard Hawks that clearly delineated the good from the bad and ugly. Not so Leone, who made the genre...

There's a lot that can be gleaned from the freshman sires and leading sires of 2-year-olds lists. Last year, Coolmore America's Practical Joke (Into Mischief) was second to Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}) on the freshman sire list by progeny earnings, $2,339,717 to $4,315,980. Those numbers were good enough to make Gun Runner the leading sire of 2-year-olds and Practical Joke third, with leading sire Into Mischief splitting the newcomers with $2,971,018. That Practical Joke tied Gun Runner by number of black-type winners with six, tops among all freshman sires,...

With about a month and a half to go to the end of the year, Coolmore America's Justify (Scat Daddy) is in a three-way battle with Spendthrift's Bolt d'Oro (Medaglia d'Oro) and Hill 'n' Dale's Good Magic (Curlin) for the freshman sire championship, which is measured by progeny earnings. Through Monday, Bolt d'Oro led narrowly with $2,122,968 to Justify's $2,065,556 in second place and Good Magic's $1,984,069 in third. Within striking distance are Hill 'n' Dale's Army Mule (Friesan Fire) in fourth with $1,762,485 and Three Chimneys's Sharp Azteca (Freud)...

by B. Jason Brooks Thoroughbred Daily News columnist and pedigree expert Sid Fernando wrote in July that "through the years there have been many beneficiaries of Phipps breeding... These families have given past and present breeders a deep foundation on which to build upon and create their own top-class horses, and that is one of the important legacies of the Phippses." Fernando was right, and the success of the Phipps female families has continued, as evidenced by graded stakes wins this year, Grade I and Group 1 wins globally, and...

David Ingordo of Lane's End Bloodstock doesn't smile much, and when he does, it's usually a half-smile. But he does have a sense of humor. On Sunday afternoon, he was spotted at Keeneland outside the Lane's End consignment wearing a gray vest with the name "David DeVaux" embroidered on the chest, a nod and a wink to his trainer wife Cherie DeVaux. Ingordo likes to be incognito and shuns the spotlight whenever he can, but he's very much in that spotlight at the moment, thanks to Flightline (Tapit), who first...

Pan the camera away from Saratoga and Del Mar, where the glamorous juveniles debut one after another, and focus for a moment on two lower-profile tracks that hosted two eye-popping performances this weekend. On Saturday at Prairie Meadows, Tyler's Tribe, a 2-year-old Iowa-bred gelding by Sharp Azteca (Freud), won the 5 1/2-furlong Iowa Stallion Futurity by 12 1/2 lengths in 1:04:18 to remain undefeated in three starts. He earned a 90 Beyer Speed Figure--you read that correctly--for the easy score. It wasn't a fluke, either, because in his previous start...

Led by Three Chimneys's Gun Runner (Candy Ride {Arg}), young stallions with either first- or second-crop representatives account for 11 of the 20 leading point getters for the GI Kentucky Derby, and quite a few of these stallions, Gun Runner included, have the top 12 leading points earners for the GI Longines Kentucky Oaks as well. First-Crop 3-year-olds Gun Runner, whose first crop is three, has, incredibly, sired four individual Grade I winners so far, the latest of which is Zedan Racing's remarkable Taiba, who won the GI Runhappy Santa...

Tampa Bay Downs in Oldsmar, Florida, is a gem of a racecourse that doesn't get the accolades it should. Owned by Stella Thayer, president of the track and a member of The Jockey Club, and her brother, Howell Ferguson, Tampa Bay Downs is expertly managed day to day by Peter Berube, vice president and general manager, and Margo Flynn, vice president of marketing. This was obvious on Saturday--"Festival Day 42"--when the track showcased its signature event, the Gll Lambholm South Tampa Bay Derby, one of five black-type events on the...