#HORSE RACING
Video Gallery: Saratoga, Graveyard of Champions
On the eve of the “Midsummer Derby” or Travers Stakes, take a video peek at some of the biggest upsets in Saratoga’s history, earning it the nickname “Graveyard of Champions.”
Chrome & Songbird Have Banner Weekends (Again)
Anybody else getting deja vu?
Epic California Chrome vs. Beholder vs. Dortmund Showdown Coming in Saturday’s Pacific Classic
There will be so much star power at Del Mar that we’re not even sure we can handle it.
Watch: California Chrome and Songbird Defeat Rivals
Two much-loved champions took to the tracks this past weekend in a pair of exciting races that culminated in breathtaking nail-biter speed duels: watch California Chrome and Songbird respectively conquer their rivals!
Book Review: ‘Stay the Distance’
A young adult horse racing novel by Mara Dabrishus.
Untangling the Mystery of Maria Borell
Trainer Maria Borell’s past year has been a roller coaster ride of ups and downs, but the latest twist gives her story a dark turn: over 40 horses either owned by Borell or under her care are starving to death in Kentucky.
#TBT: Elite Daily Sends Fake Jockey to Belmont Stakes
And it’s pretty hilarious how many intoxicated racegoers seem to believe that he’s the real deal.
Behind the Scenes of Starlight Racing with Dodge Ram
The official truck of the Kentucky Derby released this series of behind-the-scenes glimpses at the racing industry with Starlight Racing back in 2014 — they’re just as relevant now!
Pegasus World Cup Poised to Take Over as World’s Richest Horse Race
The latest brainchild of Frank Stronach of the Stronach Group, the Pegasus World Cup offers a staggering $12 million purse — and a $1 million buy-in for the mile and an eighth to be held in January of 2017.
Exaggerator Rains on Nyquist’s Perfect Record to Win 2016 Preakness Stakes
Exaggerator, second choice at the betting window, pulled off a textbook come-from-behind victory in the Preakness Stakes, conquering the undefeated favorite Nyquist on a sloppy track.
Raining on the Preakness Parade: 8 Horses Who Foiled the Triple Crown Early
The Belmont Stakes usually gets all the notoriety for where Triple Crown dreams are shattered — but the Preakness Stakes has its own history of heartbreak. Here are 8 historic upsets in Preakness history.
Here’s Lookin’ At You, Nyquist
A camera mounted on the inside of the starting gate gives us a cool new look at Nyquist, winner of the 2016 Kentucky Derby.
Nyquist won the 2016 Kentucky Derby last weekend as the heavy favorite, and there’s little doubt he’ll go into the Preakness Stakes with the same short odds. Trainer Doug O’Neill constantly describes Nyquist as a professional who hits the track for workouts or races with a professional attitude — but it didn’t really hit home what “professionalism” looks like in a racehorse until I saw this video.
This unique camera angle offers us a view that few have ever seen as we watch Nyquist load into the starting gate at Churchill Downs:
Nyquist is clearly on a hair trigger, ready to launch out of that starting gate and thunder his way to victory, and yet he walks politely into the gate and waits, well, as patiently as we can expect. Respect for the assistant starters, who have an often-overlooked but incredibly dangerous job in loading and then standing each horse in close quarters in the starting gates!
Keep it locked on Horse Nation for more updates from the Triple Crown trail!
Go riding!
Cathryn Sophia Wins 2016 Kentucky Oaks
A relatively late decision in mid-April to enter Cathryn Sophia in yesterday’s Kentucky Oaks paid off in spades for her connections, as the filly motored under the wire almost three lengths in front. Check out the replay!
Infographic: Superhero Name or Race Horse Name?
Who knew that it would be so difficult to tell!
The creative minds at Derbycraze.com put together a survey to poll over 3,000 respondents, asking them whether particular names belonged to race horses … or Marvel comic book characters and superheros. As it turns out, even the most diehard sports fans can’t tell the difference some of the time. Check out the results in two different infographics below!
Courtesy of Derbycraze.com
Courtesy of Derbycraze.com
The Kentucky Derby is right around the corner — we’ll bring you a preview of the field next week!
Go riding!
SpectraVET Perf. of the Week: Nyquist vs. Mohaymen
One of the biggest Derby prep races of the spring became a highly-anticipated match race when two undefeated favorites, Nyquist and Mohaymen, went head-to-head in the Florida Derby!
Before the race, it would have been difficult for anyone to call a winner in the Grade I Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park: while Mohaymen was a slight favorite over Nyquist, both three-year-old colts were coming into the gate undefeated, the threat of one or the other (or potentially both) being forced to walk away tarnished looming heavy.
Mohaymen had gone five for five prior to the Florida Derby, including big wins this year in the Holy Bull and the Fountain of Youth. He topped one of the future wager pools for the Kentucky Derby after his dominating performance in the Fountain of Youth. Nyquist, darling of the west coast, arrived in Florida a decorated juvenile champion with a record of six wins in six starts. The Florida Derby, for all intents and purposes, had become a match race between these two.
The undefeated favorites loaded into the starting gate with eight other contenders and the race was on.
While Nyquist undeniably drifted in the stretch after stringing the rest of the field including Mohaymen wide in the turn for home, his streak remains intact. Nyquist now tops the future wager pool for the Derby but Mohaymen still shouldn’t be totally written off just yet, despite his failure to fire in Florida.
The road to the 2016 Kentucky Derby never fails into include numerous twists and turns, so we’ll be following the next round of prep races eagerly to see who rises to the top! For updated Derby news and standings, check out the race website. We’ll also be bringing you our 2o16 Derby Watch soon.
Go riding!
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California Chrome and Victor Espinoza Suffer Potential ‘Oh Crap’ Moment, Win Dubai World Cup Anyway
Slipping saddle? No problem, we’ll just win the richest race in the world, become the highest-earning North American racehorse in history and set a new track record first, and then we’ll deal with it.
California Chrome Poised to Make History in Dubai
Arguably, the big chestnut colt looks better than ever twenty-four hours before his second attempt at the $10 million Dubai World Cup. A win would rank him as the highest-earning racehorse in history outside of Japan.
2016 Cheltenham Festival is Highlight of Jump Racing Season
Get the scoop on the Gold Cup and full festival!
Jockey Wins Race, Stops Runaway Horse
Yet another reminder that jockeys are complete freaks of nature.
Screenshot via Facebook
25-year-old jockey Brenton Avdulla was just doing his job, cruising along to another fabulous win in Sydney, Australia last week when he suddenly catches an unusual sight out of the corner of his eye: a riderless horse. And not just any horse, but in fact the horse that came closest to running him down on Zaralily in the final stretch.
According to the Sydney Morning Herald the fallen rider, Andrew Adkins, had become dehydrated through the course of the day and in his efforts to push his mount Double Bluff past Zaralily for the win, he lost his strength and balance and rolled down the horse’s shoulder to the turf. (He was not seriously injured in the fall.)
Avdulla couldn’t reach back in time to save Adkins, but he was somehow able to slow his winning horse down enough to reach out and take Double Bluff’s reins, and eventually bring both horses to a stop. (Note: must be logged in to Facebook to view.)
Brilliant piece of horsemanship from Brenton Avdulla today at Rosehill Gardens.Booting home the winner and collecting the riderless horse past the post!
Posted by Sky Racing on Tuesday, February 23, 2016
The idea of slowing down one winning racehorse sound rather intimidating, so slowing down two at once is almost unimaginable! For that, we’d like to send you an HN Salute of Insanity, Mr. Avdulla.
If you’d like to learn more about Brenton Avdulla, who is currently the leading jockey in Sydney Australia, we recommend this recent story in Australia’s Daily Telegraph, or you can follow him on Twitter.
Go Riding.
Book Review: ‘Finding Daylight’ by Mara Dabrishus
Young adult fiction for horse racing fans.
California Chrome Wins World Cup Prep
Chromies of the world, rejoice — our boy still has it. Watch the replay of today’s race at Meydan!
After California Chrome blasted through the San Pasqual Stakes at Santa Anita in January, it was clear to the world that despite a series of setbacks in his four-year-old season, Chrome still had a few moves left in him. Team Chrome shipped off around the world to Dubai, seeking the biggest purse in the Dubai World Cup which had evaded the horse’s grasp in early 2015.
And this time, California Chrome seems to be leaving no doubt in anyone’s mind that he’s a bigger, badder version of his former self: while an abscess and bone bruising may have taken him out of contention for big titles in 2015, the big colt has clearly matured in his months of recuperation. He’s all filled-out muscle, and as he strutted around the paddock before the start of today’s Trans Gulf Electromechanical Trophy Handicap, it was clear that he was the horse to watch. (The race took place at 12:55 Eastern time, 9:55 in the evening in Dubai.)
Beautiful trip: nothing like watching this big chestnut just lope home under a hand ride. I don’t think Victor Espinoza even moved during the entire race, gate to wire!
Now, in the defense of the rest of the field, this wasn’t exactly a race stacked with tough competition — but Team Chrome treated this race as a final big prep, a good place to sharpen him up for the biggest challenge of them all: the Dubai World Cup.
As you might recall, Chrome gave the World Cup his all in early 2015, falling just a little bit short after a trans-Atlantic flight from the other side of the world. But after watching the above race, I have to believe that this time he’s as ready as he’ll ever be, poised to become the richest racehorse in the world.
The 2016 World Cup on March 26 will certainly be a more challenging field: traditionally attracting the world’s best racehorses for an incredible $10 million purse, we already know that 2015’s three-year-old stars Frosted and Keen Ice are planning to run. Both colts have been training at Meydan, with Frosted already winning a Grade II in early February. Trainer Todd Pletcher has also mentioned that Donn Handicap winner Mshawish will be making a bid, and there’s always a strong representation from racing nations all over the world.
We’ll be sure to bring you coverage of the Dubai World Cup as the fateful day draws closer, so keep it locked here on Horse Nation! Go Chrome, and go riding!
Number of EHV-1-Positive Horses at New Mexico Racetrack Now at 70 [UPDATED]
Sunland Park Racetrack and Casino has suffered a major outbreak of EHV-1, forcing large-scale quarantine of the entire facility with six horses euthanized so far. We’ve got the details and a timeline.
Tuesday Video: Texas Gem’s Floppy Ears
This filly doesn’t let her unusual-looking ears slow her down!
This video was originally released in November of 2015, but definitely deserves a second look. Meet Texas Gem, a now-three-year-old Thoroughbred filly with an unusual look about her:
Clearly, her floppy ears aren’t slowing Texas Gem down one bit (though you could perhaps argue that the fold-over can’t be very aerodynamic). She broke her maiden in her first start, and then raced again in December for fifth according to her racing records. As stated in the video, the “floppy ears” developed after surgery for cysts.
We’ve covered “floppy ears” before in our “What the Muck” series — learn more about the painless and harmless condition here!
Go Texas Gem and go riding!
Champion TB Mare Beholder Just Being a Horse
“A lot of people don’t understand how important that is — to just leave ’em be, leave ’em in their natural state. Always good for a horse.”
If you imagined that a Breeders’ Cup Distaff winner and earner of over $4 million in purses would be bubble-wrapped and kept in a padded stall on her R&R layoff, we wouldn’t blame you — after all, that’s a big investment. But as this video reveals, the great stakes mare Beholder actually gets to be a horse with all the associated rights and privileges, such as rolling in sand, splashing around in the water trough, and even being ridden.
Much credit should be given to trainer Richard Mandella’s individualized approach to this lovely mare. How cool would it be to throw a leg over Beholder and just go for a ride?
Go Beholder, and go riding!