Northern Dancer Blog: June 2013

Saturday, June 8, 2013

New York New York - 2013 Belmont

Well it was 3 separate winners in each leg of the Triple Crown as Palace Malice wins the Belmont with Preakness and Derby winners Oxbow and Orb finishing 2nd and 3rd. All 3 are descendants of Northern Dancer. Palace Malice is the son of Curlin who is a great great grandson of our Dancer through Canadian Hall of Famers - Vice Regent and Deputy Minister.

1) Palace Malice - great great great grandson x2
2) Oxbow - great great grandson x3
3) Orb - great great great grandson

images from AP and Getty

video of race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NnjISHkiHqs

2013 British Triple Crown - Epsom Derby

Ruler of the World wins the second leg of the British Triple Crown - the Epsom Derby. It was the fourth Derby win for trainer Aidan O'Brien and second for jockey Ryan Moore. It was a very rough trip for Guineas winner Dawn Approach but like Dawn Approach, Ruler of the World is a descendant of Northern Dancer's grandson Galileo in fact the top 3 finishers in the Derby were all descendants of the Dancer through Galileo. A brief power outage did slow her Majesty down a bit.

1) Ruler of the World (IRE) - great grandson x2
2) Libertarian (GB) - great great grandson x2
3) Galileo Rock (IRE) - great grandson x2

images from Getty

video of race

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8VNB-2VJFY

2013 British Triple Crown - 2000 Guineas

I had better get these 2 posts done before today's Belmont Stakes. Thanks for the nudge Ian. It was a 1-2-3 finish for descendants of Northern Dancer in the first leg of this year's Triple Crown - the 2000 Guineas. It was undefeated Dawn Approach winning for Godolphin and trainer Jim Bolger. He is a grandson of the Dancer's grandson Galileo through Sadlers Wells.

1) Dawn Approach (IRE)- great great grandson
2) Glory Awaits (IRE) - great great grandson x3
3) Van Der Neer (GB) - great great grandson x3

images from Getty

video of race

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ju8n703ZJ8w

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"