Northern Dancer Blog: November 2015

Sunday, November 29, 2015

Japan Cup 2015

The 575,000,000 Yen ($5M) Japan Cup 2015 is in the books. It was the filly Shonan Pandora nosing out Last Impact with favorite Lovely Day third. All three were Japanese bred and all three were descendants of Northern Dancer.

1) Shonan Pandora - great great great granddaughter x3 through Vice Regent/Northern Taste/Lyphard
2) Last Impact - great grandson x2 through daughter Pacificus and Lyphard
3) Lovely Day - great great great grandson x5 through Nuryev/Nijinsky/Try My Best/Green Desert

image from Japan Racing Association

video of race - click replay on right bottom of screen
http://japanracing.jp/en/information/jai/japan-cup/

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Melbourne Cup 2015

History was made today at Flemington in Australia as longshot Prince of Penzance (NZ) won the $3.6M Melbourne Cup ridden by Michelle Payne, the first female jockey to win the Classic. French bred Max Dynamite was second and Criterion (NZ) was third. All three were descendants of Northern Dancer.

1) Prince of Penzance (NZ) - great grandson x2 through Be My Guest/Nijinsky
2) Max Dynamite (FR) - great great great grandson through Nuryev
3) Criterion (NZ) - great great great grandson through Danzig/Northern Sea(mare)/Fanfreluche(mare)

images from getty/theage/theherald

video of race with call from Greg Miles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO6OzXxiNUA

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"