Northern Dancer Blog: October 2011

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Fillies Dominate Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe 2011

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It was a 1-2-3 finish for the girls and they were all descendants of Northern Dancer in this year's exciting Arc. It was an emotional win for the German connections of Danedream who won the classic her great grand sire Nijinsky could not.

1) Danedream (Ger) great great granddaughter x2
2) Shareta (IRE) great great granddaughter x3
3) Snow Fairy (IRE) great great great granddaughter x2

Image from Reuters

Below is a great video of the race.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb9K3oqp7FE

Windfields Farm Group on Facebook

There is a group on facebook that was set up originally for former employees of Windfields to stay in touch and discuss their experiences and how special of a place it was. Lately there has been a lot of discussion about the condition of my little hero's grave along with the other special horses buried there. Some media pressure resulted in some clean up but I think this group would like to see more happen (like a memorial). Have a look and join the group.

http://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/2384512050/?id=10150311408187051¬if_t=group_activity

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"