Northern Dancer Blog: June 2014

Saturday, June 7, 2014

Belmont Stakes 2014 - No Triple Chrome

Tonalist wins the 2014 Belmont Stakes denying California Chrome the Triple Crown. Commissioner finished second with Medal Count in third, California Chrome was in a dead heat for fourth. The top three were all descendants of our Northern Dancer.

Tonalist - great great grandson x2 through Topsider and Nijinsky
Commissioner - great great great grandson x2 through Vice Regent/Deputy Minister
Medal Count - great great grandson through daughter Radiant Glow

image from Carlo Allegri Reuters

video of race
http://www.nbcsports.com/horse-racing/tonalist-wins-belmont-stakes-california-chrome-fourth

Epsom Derby 2014 goes to Australia

In the second jewel of Britain's Triple Crown it was favourite Australia "born to win the Derby" over Kingston Hill and Romsdal finishing third. It was the third Epsom Derby in a row for trainer Aidan O'Brien and that's the first time that has happened since 1780 (a bit of history with this Classic Race). All three were descendants of Northern Dancer.

Australia - great grandson x2 through Sadlers Wells/Galileo
Kingston Hill - great great great grandson x3 through Danzig/Danehill
Romsdal - great great great grandson through Nijinski/Sadlers Wells/Danzig

images from BBC

video of race
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDVcFys0F2k

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"