Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Cup 2010

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Wow, this year's Cup is in the books and it was a clean sweep for descendants of Northern Dancer taking top 3 honours in all 4 races adding another 60 million HK$'s to the earnings of our little Dancer's offspring.

It was the three-year-old British filly Snow Fairy coming from second to last at the top of the stretch to win over Irian and Packing Winner in the Cup. That meant the four races were won by four different geographic regions Britain, Hong Kong, South Africa and the UAE. What can we say - Northern Dancer got around.

Snow Fairy - great great great granddaughter x2
Irian - great great great great grandson x2
Packing Winner - great great grandson x2

thanks to CXHKIR for the photos and great coverage - click on any of the beautiful photos to enlarge them.

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

Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Mile 2010

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It's been a pretty good day for Northern Dancer descendants with another 1-2-3 finish in the Mile. Favourite Able One was a late scratch but it was another New Zealand bred - the handsome chestnut Beauty Flash winning the Mile with Gerald Bosse aboard.

Beauty Flash - great great great grandson x4
Royal Bench - great great great grandson x2
Sahpresa - great great granddaughter

video of the race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgtEMM4AQzU

Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Vase 2010

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Just another 1-2-3 finish for the Dancer's lines. Frankie Dettori rode the Godolpin Colt Mastery to an easy victory in this year's Vase with Redwood second and Melbourne Cup winner Americain third.

Mastery - great great great grandson x4
Redwood - great grandson x2
Americain - great great great grandson x2

video of the race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ob5kE9kzATE

Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint 2010

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It was a 1-2-3 finish for descendants of Northern Dancer in an exciting Sprint this year featuring the fastest horses on the planet. South African bred JJ The Jet Planet nosed out Rocket Man at the wire with Sacred Kingdom a game third.

JJ The Jet Plane - great great grandson x2
Rocket Man - great great great great grandson
Sacred Kingdom - great grandson

video of the race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-iEyE-odNDQ

Hong Kong Internationals 2010 go Sunday

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Usually great coverage from the Hong Kong Jockey Club. Here is Rocket Man warming up Friday morning. This Australian bred great-great-great-great grandson of Northen Dancer will be running in the Hong Kong Sprint - the first of four classic races.
The top photo is Hong Kong Sprint favourite Sacred Kingdom warming up on Saturday, he is a great grandson of the Dancer. Thanks to Hong Kong Jockey Club for pics. (click on photos to enlarge).

Japan Cup 2010 1-2 or 2-1 finish for the Grandkids

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It was a controversial 30th running of the Japan Cup with descendants of our hero finishing 1-2 (or 2-1 after the stewards ruling). Winner Buena Vista came from way off the pace to clearly win the race but was demoted to second after stewards ruled her jockey interfered with runner-up Rose Kingdom. So Rose Kingdom was handed the 250,000,000 yen first place money.

Rose Kingdom - great great great grandson x3
Buena Vista - great great grandaughter x2
Victoire Pisa

That's the jockey aboard Buena Vista celebrating after the win but before the stewards took him down. Photos from AP and yahoo sports.

English video of the race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6bZphmBBpEU

Breeders Cup 2010 - In the books

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Well the 2010 Breeders Cup is in the books and it was a great 2 days of thoroughbred racing and drama. I am hoping our deer friend Ted Beare made it down to Louisville for his annual adventure. ESPN did an outstanding job with the coverage. There were plenty of highlights you can read about below or on any of the sports pages. Europe and the rest of the world certainly took a back seat to the Americans this year running on the two surfaces at Churchill Downs but once again it didn’t alter the performance of our little Dancer’s descendants. They won over 20 million in purses and had 35 of the 42 top 3 finishers in the 14 races. You can start to see AP Indy and Mr Prospector having a bigger presence but Northern Dancer remains the most influential sire over the past century. His offsprings’ earnings on and off the track are in the billions and all this from the little runt of a thoroughbred nobody wanted in 1962 for $25,000 with his crooked white star, three white legs and oversized heart. I am just as proud of what he has accomplished this weekend as I was that first Saturday in May of 1964. It is getting a little harder to do this research as I had to dig down 7 generations to determine the Juvenile runner-up Boys at Tosconova was a descendant of the Dancer.

The individual race results and video links follow.

That's the climax of the two days with Blame holding off the hard charging Zenyatta in the dramatic Breeders Cup Classic 2010. Thanks to Getty Images, AP and yahoo sports for the images.

Breeders Cup 2010 - Day 2 - The Classic

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What is there left to say, everyones heroine came up a nose short on her bid to end her career undefeated. It was the toughest field of males she had ever faced and she gave them a 20 length head start. She ran out of track (distance and room) or she could have put a punctuation mark on one of the greatest thoroughbred stories of all time. We were all rooting for her (I think even our little hero would have been rooting for her to beat his great-grandson Blame). She gave us a thrill as promised and as always but it wasn't meant to be. She was beaten by a great horse and probable Eclipse winner in Blame (not his fault he was just doing his job) but there were 114,000 sad (not disappointed) people in the stands at Churchill this Saturday evening. From the time she left barn #41 until she came through the tunnel to enter the paddock, thousands of people greeted her while she did her usual Zenyatta dance (what a ham). I think she will miss the stage she has made for herself over the past two years and thoroughbred racing will certainly miss her. Farewell Zenyatta it has been an incredible run.

1) Blame - great-great grandson (x2)
2) Zenyatta
3) Fly Down

No one felt worse than jockey Mike Smith who had been with his best friend for her entire 19-1 career but like he said before the race "she is the only girl in my life who has never disappointed me" and she didn't again Mike. Thanks to Getty Images and yahoo sports for the photo).

Video Link to race
http://www.breederscup.com/content.aspx?id=46152

Breeders Cup 2010 - Day 2 - The Turf

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It was not the European everyone expected to win this race. Behkabad finished third to the upset winner Dangerous Midge with Champ Pegasus wedged between them. All three were great-grandsons of our little Dancer.

1) Dangerous Midge - great-great-great grandson
2) Champ Pegasus - great-great grandson (x2)
3) Behkabad - great-great grandson

That's Lanfranco Dettori in the saddle of Dangerous Midge winning the Breeders Cup Turf (photo from Getty Images and yahoo sports).

Video Link to race
http://www.breederscup.com/content.aspx?id=46153

Breeders Cup 2010 - Day 2 - The Dirt Mile

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Dakota Phone came from far off the pace to just nose out Morning Line to win the dirt mile making it a 1-2 finish for the Dancer's grandsons.

1) Dakota Phone - great-great grandson
2) Morning Line - great-great-fgreat grandson
3) Gayego

That's Dakota Phone on the outside with Joel Rosario in the irons nosing out Morning Line with Javier Castellano up. (thanks to AP and yahoo sports for the image).

Video Link to race
http://www.breederscup.com/content.aspx?id=46151