Hats & Horseshoes - the 154th running of the Queen's Plate

It was my first trip to a Queen's Plate since I was a little boy and what a wonderful event it was. Hats off to Woodbine Entertainment for putting on such a great show. It was a gorgeous day until about 3 races before the Plate when the skies opened up. We spent the rest of the time in the shelter of the Paddock area but it didn't dampen our spirits. Of course it was a 1-2-3 finish for descendants of Northern Dancer in the $1M event. The bottom 3 photos are from the Canadian Press. The top few were some of my own from the day.

1) Midnight Aria - great great grandson x2 through Vice Regent

2) Up With the Birds - great great grandson through Storm Cat and Storm Bird

3) Dynamic Sky - great great great grandson through Storm Cat and Danzig

video of race - cbc http://www.cbc.ca/player/Sports/More+Sports+Shows/Queen%27s+Plate/ID/2395963310/

full coverage from cbc http://www.cbc.ca/player/Sports/More+Sports+Shows/Queen's+Plate/ID/2395962840/

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

Oxbow upsets in the 138th Preakness

Gary Stevens leaves the broadcast booth for a front row seat aboard Oxbow to win this year's Preakness. It was another 1-2-3 finish for descendants of the Dancer. Oxbow is the grandson of another Canadian Hall of Famer in Deputy Minister son of Vice Regent another Canadian Hall of Famer.

Oxbow - great great grandson x3
Itsmyluckyday - great great grandson
Mylute - great great great great grandson

images from AP and Getty - that's Oxbow in a morning workout from AP

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

Orb wins 139th Kentucky Derby

It was the first Kentucky Derby for hall of famer Shug McGauhey and another big win for jockey Joel Rosario. It was a 1-2 finish for descendants of Northern Dancer with longshot Golden Soul finishing second and co-favourite Revolutionary third. Orb is a great great great grandson of the Dancer's son Nijinsky and Golden Soul a grandson of Northern Dancer's son Sadlers Wells.

Image from AP

video of race
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70BAs0p9enA

great photo gallery from yahoo sports
http://sports.yahoo.com/photos/2013-kentucky-derby-139th-run-for-the-roses-slideshow/horse-racing-139th-kentucky-derby-photo-232610488--rah.html

Kentucky Derby #139

I know where I will be between 5-6 pm tomorrow. Glued to my TV watching the great grandkids of Northern Dancer compete in the 139th run for the roses. I will be rooting for Verrazano but their are 17 others descended from my little hero.

image of Verrazano from Getty

link to the Derby website
http://www.kentuckyderby.com/

Nelly Retires - will start her new career as a mom

Nelly's groom (strapper) post below describes what it was like to be a groom to such a special horse



Black Caviar is retiring after her perfect racing record of 25 wins. Good Luck Nelly. Here she is with her mates Andy and Billy.

Link to video of the announcement
http://www.racingnetwork.com.au/black-caviar-retired/tabid/83/newsid/12700/default.aspx

Black Caviar bids farewell to her adoring fans at Caulfield
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wufPMgtywe0

Great Blog post by Nelly's groom Donna Fisher
http://www.racingvictoria.net.au/Analysis-and-Opinions/posts/Caviar-my-career-maker.aspx

Black Caviar makes it 25 straight to remain unbeaten

Spectators had to watch from outside the fence at the sold out track



The great great granddaughter of Northern Dancer has done it again, this time from a sold out Randwick track in Sydney. It was standing room only to see this brilliant mare annialate her competition again in yet another Group 1 race. It was another great ride by Luke Nolen.

Photos from the Daily Telegraph

Full video of race - might have to reload a couple of times http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ills6b5a8F8

Link to Herald Sun article http://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/superracing/black-caviar-proves-her-critics-wrong-with-another-whirlwind-success-in-tj-smith/story-fn67tkww-1226619744317

Link to yahoo sports - first 24 wins of the wonder from down under - some great calls
http://au.sports.yahoo.com/videos/watch/80317d81-c89a-3caf-94bc-17ee63af8b45/all-of-black-caviars-24-wins/

Dubai World Cup 2013 - The Cup $10m

click to enlarge photo

Well it was my pre-race favorite Animal Kingdom dominating in the 2013 Dubai World Cup and what a day it was at beautiful Meydan Racecourse in Dubai, UAE. It was a perfect 24 for 24 top 3 finishes for descendants of Northern Dancer taking home over $25 Million in prize money on the day in the 8 featured races. Perhaps the most amazing part is not that they were all descendants of the little Canadian sire nobody wanted for $25,000 as a yearling in 1961 but they were bred in 8 different countries on 5 different continents.

Animal Kingdom (USA) - great great great grandson x2
Red Cadeaux (GB) - great great grandson x2
Planteur (IRE) - great great grandson x2

photos from Andrew Watkins Dubai Racing Club

videos of each race
http://www.dubaiworldcup.com/media/videos/videos