Articles from the European Trainer Magazine archive - available to read online.
Few horses were ever as animated and filled with a zest for life as the great racehorse and sire, Northern Dancer. Frank Mitchell looks at why this unfashionably bred thoroughbred went from being an unwanted yearling to one of the influential thoroughbreds of all time.
Read MoreCalvin Borel’s portrayal on the mural of Kentucky Derby-winning jockeys at Churchill Downs, painted by the renowned artist Pierre “Peb” Bellocq, had already undergone minor surgery in 2009, when the jockey followed up a 2007 Derby on Street Sense with a win aboard Mine That Bird.
Frances Karon (European Trainer - issue 31 - Autumn 2010)
Mine That Birds victory in the Kentucky Derby confirmed what many already knew – New Mexico produces top quality horses and horsemen.
Larry Bortstein
First Published: (16 July 2009 - Issue Number: 13)
CLICK ON IMAGE TO READ ARTICLE
At
this time of the year when trainers and owners can sometimes be swept
up in an obsession to get a three-year-old with any glimmer of hope to
the Kentucky Derby, trainer Greg Gilchrist remains forever thankful that
he developed immunity to Derby Fever.Relaxing in his home in Castro
Valley in Northern California recently, the veteran conditioner cited
the 2005 tale of Lost in the Fog as a memorial to both the horse and his
owner, Harry Aleo.
Steve Schuelein
(08 April 2009 - Issue Number: 12)
Street Sense's dramatic, decisive victory in last year's Kentucky Derby restructured a lot of perceptions about winning the Run for the Roses. Not only could a Breeders'Cup Juvenile winner return the following spring to capture the first leg of the Triple Crown, but he could make his final prep for Churchill Downs' dirt track on a synthetic one.
Bill Heller (26 June 2008 - Issue Number: 8)
There was always an air of levity at Bob Baffert's barn when Eoin Harty
worked there. Not that the game they played wasn't serious. It was.
Preparing 1,000-pound equine athletes with spindly legs to perform at
their peak on the world's stage is not a job for anyone in short
pants.During the seven years Harty was Baffert's assistant, they won the
Kentucky Derby twice - with Silver Charm in 1997 and Real Quiet in
1998-and missed by a heart-breaking nose with Cavonnier in 1996. But in
between the regimented tedium, there was always time for a good hoot.
Fact is, it was and still is part of Baffert's DNA.
26 June 2008 - Issue Number: 6
Led by Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense, the three-year-old crop of 2007 rearranged a lot of people's thinking on what it takes to succeed on the first Saturday of May and beyond.Street Sense not only became the first colt to win the Breeders' Cup Juvenile and the Run for the Roses the following spring, but along with the Derby's second and third place finishers, Hard Spun and Curlin, thrived later in the year. So did Tiago and Any Given Saturday, who finished seventh and eighth in the Derby and joined the top three in the starting gate for the Breeders' Cup Classic.
Bill Heller (14 February 2008 - Issue Number: 7)
Read MoreSlowly, yet surely, Tampa Bay Downs is evolving from that "other track in Florida" into a viable winter/spring option for good and even great horses and horsemen."We were an afterthought," Tampa Bay Downs Vice-President and General Manager Pete Berube said. "But we've been able to dispel that stigmatism the last few years."
Bill Heller (01 December 2007 - Issue Number: 6)
By participating in the last two runnings of the Kentucky Derby, trainer Kiaran McLaughlin has raised his profile among casual observers of the North American racing scene. But for those who follow the sport regularly, McLaughlin is known as a veteran horseman who has enjoyed international success.
David Grening (European Trainer - issue 14 - Summer 2008)
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