Spider Duignan

His friend Spider Duignan knew that the stakes were high. When the horse coasted past the wire in the GII Saratoga Special, Duignan turned and said, "You needed that bad, didn't you?" Deuce Greathouse was candid in his reply. "It was not an option," he said, "for that not to happen." Raised the way he was, Greathouse knows that there are never any guarantees with horses. Since taking his cue that day, indeed, Rhyme Schemes (Ghostzapper) has himself demonstrated as much by coming up with an ankle issue shortly before...

Rhyme Schemes (c, 3, Ghostzapper--Katherine, by Distorted Humor), sidelined since posting a jaw-dropping, 9 1/2-length victory for trainer Norm Casse in last summer's GII Saratoga Special S. Aug. 12, is being aimed at a late spring/early summer return to the races. The Pura Vida Investments LLC colorbearer is currently laid up with Gabriel "Spider" Duignan at Springhouse Farm in Kentucky and could resume light training in March. "He's doing great," Pura Vida's managing partner Deuce Greathouse said. "He wasn't going to make the Derby preps, so we decided to give...

A weanling daughter of Uncle Mo out of MGISW Bellafina (Quality Road) was the first to break the seven-figure threshold--which will no doubt be eclipsed many times once the mare portion starts--at Fasig-Tipton November Sunday, fetching $1.35 million on a winning bid from Gabriel Duignan, who signed as Paramount Bloodstock. Consigned by Eaton Sales as hip 128, the Feb. 11 foal was bred by the Coolmore-connected entities of Orpendale, Chelston and Wynatt and Kaleem Shah. Shah acquired Bellafina for $800,000 at the 2018 Fasig-Tipton Florida sale, and saw her take...

Year after year, the thread of his horsemanship snags another big prize in the web of his many different interests. And this spring Gabriel Duignan is back on the GI Kentucky Derby trail—this time as breeder, his Springhouse Farm near Lexington having started Forbidden Kingdom (American Pharoah) along the road that has already taken in two of the big Californian trials, latterly the GII San Felipe S. at Santa Anita last weekend.  Before you ask: disappointingly, there's no real story behind the nickname. When he started as a kid at...

Fasig-Tipton Senior Account Executive Dennis Lynch, "some kind of special man" according to all who knew him, passed away Friday after long battle with cancer. He was 68. A notice confirming Lynch's death was posted Friday on a blog he had been writing. It read: "Husband, father, brother, uncle and friend he was this to all of us. He was also a man of deep faith in God. 'Let's roll from the quarter pole' is something Dennis said many times when he wanted to get everyone moving in the same...