Northern Dancer Blog: May 2011

Saturday, May 21, 2011

Shackleford Wins 2011 Preakness

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A lathered up Shackleford managed to hang on to win the 2011 Preakness after a blistering first half. It was a 1-2 finish for the grandkids. Shackleford is a great great grandson through his sire Forestry a son of Storm Cat and of course Animal Kingdom winner of the Derby is a descendant through his Brazilian sire Leroidesanimaux - Candy Stripes - Bubble Company - Lyphard. The 3rd place finisher Astrology is not a descendant of Northern dancer.

Image above from Getty.

NBC video of race

http://bayarea.sbnation.com/2011/5/21/2183439/preakness-2011-results-video-youtube-shackleford-pimlico-winner-animal-kingdom-nbc

Saturday, May 7, 2011

Animal Kingdon wins 137th Kentucky Derby

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It was a 1-3 finish for descendants of Northern Dancer in this year's Derby. You can read about Animal Kingdom's sire and his dam and granddam (the amazing Bubble Company) in my Chapter 14 post in 2009.

1) Animal Kingdom Great Great Great Grandson X2
2) Nehro - no relationship
3) Mucho Macho Man Great Great Great grandson

Images from AP.

Chapter 14 Post
http://northerndancerblog.blogspot.com/2009/12/chapter-14.html

Video of race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQsMgu9rr1k

Reason for the Blog

I thought it was time to extend the story I started in 2005. This will be a busy week in November 2009 for thoroughbred racing and something tells me my little hero will have played a significant role by the end of the week.

I wrote that on November 2, 2009 and I would say that the Dancer is still playing a significant role. I am trying to update the status of Northern Dancer's legacy using excerpts from my book which was completed in 2007 and published in 2008 along with today's thoroughbred racing news. If you are confused it may be because in addition to inserting the latest (2009) news I also decided to shift around my chapter flow from the original book which also featured many time shifted chapters to begin with. I am confusing myself just trying to describe it. Back to the future - it is Nov 12, 2009 for another 5 minutes.

Quotes describing Northern Dancer from the CBC Life and Times Biography

"They say the north wind was tangled in his mane"

"The pony from Canada"

"The little dancer"

"The little horse with a big heart"

"He gave you more resasons to love him"

"You can see the soul of an animal through his eye and Northern Dancer had a particularly deep eye, it was as if you could see forever in there"

"What he represented to us was the heroic"

"Little guy ... big heart, trying his best, never gave up ... it was heroic"

on his relationship with E.P. Taylor - "It was alchemy, they transformed each other"

"He became a Canadian hero"