photo by: Tom Keyser |
If sheer confidence by itself could somehow directly influence the numbers on the odds board, then Ria Antonia would have been a rather short 3-2 in the Breeders’ Cup Juvenile Fillies instead of a big longshot.
Wise Dan was named 2012's Horse of the Year at the 42nd annual Eclipse Awards on Saturday night at Gulfstream Park after earning titles as champion older male and champion turf male earlier in the evening.
The Wiseman's Ferry gelding, who races for breeder Morton Fink, is the first homebred to be named Horse of the Year since Ghostzapper in 2004.
In-depth pedigree profiles of the 2012 Eclipse Award champions:
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. – Wise Dan became the first horse since John Henry in 1981 to win three Eclipse Awards in the same year, including Horse of the Year, at the 42nd annual Eclipse Awards on Saturday night at Gulfstream Park.
He was announced as Horse of the Year at the end of the evening after having earlier won divisional titles as both champion male turf horse and champion older male. His three awards are the exact same three that went to John Henry in 1981.
If money truly talks, what could it tell us about Royal Delta, a $3.7 million earner and $8.5 million auction purchase? It would probably say that she is the best racemare of her generation and the second-hottest broodmare prospect in the history of Thoroughbred breeding (behind only $9-million dual champion Ashado). But we knew that anyway.
courtesy Three Chimneys Farm
I’ll Have Another’s rapid rise to national prominence last spring elevated the profile of his young sire, 2005 Travers Stakes winner Flower Alley, just as Three Chimneys Farm was dealing with the loss of their signature stallion Dynaformer, who passed away several days before the Kentucky Derby.
courtesy of McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds, Louise Reinagel photo
Trinniberg, the successful result of a speed-on-speed mating, got his young sire Teuflesberg off to a good start and transformed his dam from an obscurely bred runner to a $460,000 broodmare.
Heading into autumn 2012, it appeared that the final chapters on Green Tune’s legacy as a sire were close to completion, as far as the accomplishments of his leading runners are concerned. The late son of Green Dancer, a classic winner in France and one of that country’s leading sires, still had numerous horses racing across Europe, but no standouts. His best performer in training was a competitive 5-year-old mare who had annexed two Group 3 races in France before shipping to the U.S. and winning the Grade 1 Diana Stakes in 2011.