Birds, potatoes, CA's TB racing, biomechanical analysis capper, nature, humor/shenanigans, & trying to make sense of the world -- especially the TB industry.
Bay Area, California
Joined February 2024
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Yay!
🤩𝗙𝗟𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗘's 𝗔𝗹𝗮 𝗦𝗮𝘄𝗮𝗯 romps to an 8¼-length maiden victory going 6½ f. on the dirt at @DelMarRacing!
🔥Flightline’s 18th winner from 44 starters gives him a win rate of 41%—the highest among first-crop sires standing in Kentucky!
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After a year, this turned out to be an interesting result.
The question is whether the owners now possess evidence showing that the CHRB veterinarian acted independently, or this was primarily a legal decision -- which means that the defendant(s) could be held liable?
Statement from Gary Barber and C2 Racing Stable:
After further careful evaluation, Gary Barber and C2 Racing Stable have concluded that the Breeders' Cup Limited and Del Mar Thoroughbred Club are not the responsible parties for the scratch of White Abarrio from the 2025 Breeders' Cup Dirt Mile, but rather the CHRB is. Accordingly, Gary Barber and C2 Racing Stable have dismissed with prejudice their claims against Breeders' Cup and Del Mar arising from the scratch. The dismissal reflects no admission of fault, liability, or wrongdoing by any party. All parties remain committed to equine safety and the integrity of Thoroughbred racing and look forward to working together to protect those priorities.
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I understand the reasoning to make something quick and easy to feed others. Is it even considered ethical to feed them this Frankengarbage?
Stove Top Turkey Stuffing has more corn syrup than turkey.
The first two ingredients are enriched flour and high fructose corn syrup. The turkey and the turkey broth are both dried, and both come after "contains less than 2% of." Ingredients are listed by weight so the box has more corn syrup than either one.
The savory taste gets a boost from hydrolyzed soy protein. That's soy protein broken down into amino acids, including glutamate. Disodium inosinate and disodium guanylate make the glutamate taste stronger. The added fat is interesterified soybean oil, which has its fatty acids rearranged so it acts like a solid fat without trans fat. BHA and BHT keep it from going rancid. FDA is reassessing the safety of both and hasn't made a finding yet.
A 6 oz box has 2,460 mg of sodium before you add the 4 tablespoons of margarine or butter the directions call for.
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Twenty new stallions in Kentucky for 2027, all arriving as the next great hope for the breed. Funny how most of them were too valuable to keep racing, but in a few years, more than half of them might not be valuable enough to keep. Welcome to the Kentucky stallion version of musical chairs.
You know what is scarier? That whole entire group is genetically concentrated, as it is represented by only THREE sire lines! Uncle Mo, Into Mischief, and Candy Ride (ARG). That is sad stuff. It really is.
BREAKING NEWS: Champion racehorse shows alarming signs of being perfectly willing to continue racing. According to Pletcher's assistant, he ate well, came out of the race great, galloped out ahead of everybody and refused to quit. Industry responds with immediate retirement. Crisis averted. Stud fees secured.
The modern Thoroughbred industry has perfected the art of retiring horses before they have time to disappoint anyone. Except, of course, the racing fans who foolishly thought a champion might actually stick around and race. Silly us. We thought this was a sport, not a stallion prospect infomercial. Does Kentucky really need another Into Mischief son when there are a bazillion of them to choose from already?
📣 Reigning Champion Two-Year-Old Male TED NOFFEY (Into Mischief) will retire to @spendthriftfarm for the 2027 breeding season, standing for a fee of $60,000 S&N.
Spendthrift Farm also confirmed that FURTHER ADO (Gun Runner) will remain in training.
thoroughbreddailynews.com/te…
Imagine an industry so obsessed with speed and stud fees that it treats durability like a genetic defect. We went from breeding iron horses to breeding glass sculptures with pedigrees. But sure, keep calling it progress. Kentucky has a weird love affair for stallions that are built to last as long as chair from Dollar Tree.
🗣️ “Englishman is the fastest horse I've ever worked with.” - @reredevaux
Englishman (Maxfield) has been retired from racing and will take up residence at @LanesEndFarms for the 2027 breeding season.
thoroughbreddailynews.com/mu…
Imagine spending decades genetically engineering a bird that can’t even reproduce naturally, only for the end result to taste like a napkin with gravy.
Nearly every grocery store turkey is one breed, and it can't mate.
The commercial bird is the Broad Breasted White, and it's bred for breast meat. A 2009 Penn State report put it at more than 99% of grocery store turkeys. A USDA research magazine said in 1998 that the size difference between toms and hens makes natural mating difficult and that virtually all hens are artificially inseminated. The Merck Veterinary Manual says large, heavily muscled birds are unable to physically complete mating.
A hen reaches market weight in about 14 weeks at roughly 15 to 17 pounds. A tom takes about 18 weeks and comes in around 38 to 41 pounds. The US raised 194 million turkeys in 2025, according to USDA, and is forecast at about 199 million this year, with Minnesota raising the most.
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Although I have not seen it announced anywhere, but is Forever Young (JPN) going to go for one last race before taking up stud duty? Or was the Breeders' Cup Classic the end of the road?
Hopefully, T O Elvis' 2027 campaign in the Middle East will be a successful bid as he was phenomenal winning the Breeders' Cup Sprint.
Re: 2026 Horse of the Year
If winning just two races is enough to be crowned Horse of the Year, then we've lost sight of what this prestigious award is supposed to represent. Are we celebrating greatness, or simply rewarding horses for doing less?
Don't get me wrong. Sovereignty is an exceptional racehorse. Winning both the Whitney and Breeders' Cup Classic in one season is impressive. But should two victories outweigh an entire season of consistent excellence? It is one thing if Sovereignty capped off an undefeated season, but he didn't. Others accomplished more.
Deterministic won four of five starts, including three G1 races and the Breeders' Cup Mile. Nitrogen won four races in seven starts and even challenged males. Hughes went undefeated in five starts, winning three G1 races. All three of these horses showed up, competed, and delivered. Heck, even Magnitude defeated Sovereignty in a G1 earlier in the year, as well as winning the G1 Dubai World Cup over Forever Young (JPN). Shouldn't he be considered for the same award, or is it because a Breeders' Cup Classic win automatically overlooks everything else?
What message are we sending to owners and trainers when horses that race more frequently, take greater risks, and consistently win are overlooked in favor of a horse with just two victories? Horse of the Year should reward excellence, consistency, and achievement over an entire season, not simply the biggest victories. Otherwise, perhaps we should call it Performance of the Year instead of Horse of the Year?
If Justify, Rachel Alexandra, Mineshaft, and even Point Given can win HOTY without participating in the Breeders' Cup Classic, then there is a chance that Nitrogen, Magnitude, Deterministic, and maybe even Hughes can possibly secure it.
Japan understood something that much of the American breeding industry seems to have forgotten: A great Thoroughbred should be bred to race, not just to sell.
For decades, Kentucky's commercial breeding industry has increasingly rewarded precocious speed, fashionable pedigrees, and stallions whose greatest selling point is how quickly their offspring can win at two. We've reached a point where horses with only a handful of starts, sometimes barely enough to establish their own durability, are rushed off to stud and marketed as the next greatest influence on the breed.
Meanwhile, Japan took American bloodlines, including Sunday Silence, and built a breeding program that places enormous value on stamina, soundness, longevity, and performance over multiple seasons.
When you consistently reward speed over stamina, precocity over durability, and auction prices over racing careers, you shouldn't be surprised when the breed begins reflecting those priorities. Most USA-based breeders have not forgotten how to breed brilliant horses. The question is whether they have become so focused on producing commercially-valuable stallions that they have lost sight of producing durable, exceptional racehorses.
Japan invested in the Thoroughbred as an athlete. Too much of Kentucky has invested in the Thoroughbred as a commodity. And now, we're seeing the consequences...
It is interesting to wake up and read some things here. It varies from Keeneland totally sucks as a BC hosting site, then Del Mar sucks as a BC venue, opinion flip-flops to Santa Anita being a terrible venue. People are still mad that Sovereignty won, complaints that the overall card was too chalky, get rid of the undercard races... Man!
While it is perfectly-fine to be upset about things, the best part of the Keeneland Breeders' Cup is all the horses were able to return back to their stalls. Despite the scratch fest, that is a win in itself. I will be frank that the turf course condition had me the most worried, but I'm glad it somehow miraculously held up with no one getting injured.
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A lot higher than I expected.
🇺🇸 We have announced fees for G1 Breeders’ Cup Classic winner #Sovereignty and G1 Pacific Classic winner #Knightsbridge
🆕 Sovereignty: $150k
🆕 Knightsbridge: $75k
🤩 A lifetime breeding right in each stallion will be offered tomorrow @FasigTiptonCo Night of the Stars!
Read more here 👇
darleyamerica.com/news/fees-…
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I would not be surprised, if they call it a career from here. 17 races, ITM 16 times, 11 different race tracks, participated in three Breeders' Cups, nearly won the Kentucky Derby.... That is some racehorse!
Ryusei Sakai on Forever Young:
“There were parts in training where it seemed to be struggling a bit, or where it felt different from usual… Small signs, how should I put it… It was just a feeling, but something felt a little off.
(When asked if the horse was unsettled in the gate) There was some of that. During saddling or in the gate. There were those small things.
(When asked if the stay and adjustment at the track affected it) I have some ideas in my mind about what it might have been, but I’d like to discuss it with Mr. Yahagi and the stable staff. I don’t have a definitive answer yet.
The pace wasn’t as fast as I expected, so I was able to settle smoothly in second. I didn’t think we’d be able to get that position, so I felt good about it as we went around the first turn. I still haven’t watched the race properly, but it felt similar to last year - the horse’s usual winning pattern, and I think things went very well.
It wasn’t like Dubai (World Cup), where the response disappeared early, so the feeling was that we could win today as well. Up until I asked for the effort, that is. When Sovereignty came… I had already started asking a little before it arrived, hoping we could sprint together, but by the time Sovereignty got to us, the horse had nothing left. It’s not that easy, after all.”
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FinchFries retweeted
Ryusei Sakai on Forever Young:
“There were parts in training where it seemed to be struggling a bit, or where it felt different from usual… Small signs, how should I put it… It was just a feeling, but something felt a little off.
(When asked if the horse was unsettled in the gate) There was some of that. During saddling or in the gate. There were those small things.
(When asked if the stay and adjustment at the track affected it) I have some ideas in my mind about what it might have been, but I’d like to discuss it with Mr. Yahagi and the stable staff. I don’t have a definitive answer yet.
The pace wasn’t as fast as I expected, so I was able to settle smoothly in second. I didn’t think we’d be able to get that position, so I felt good about it as we went around the first turn. I still haven’t watched the race properly, but it felt similar to last year - the horse’s usual winning pattern, and I think things went very well.
It wasn’t like Dubai (World Cup), where the response disappeared early, so the feeling was that we could win today as well. Up until I asked for the effort, that is. When Sovereignty came… I had already started asking a little before it arrived, hoping we could sprint together, but by the time Sovereignty got to us, the horse had nothing left. It’s not that easy, after all.”
Makes you wonder what Sovereignty could have done, if he didn't scratch from last year's Breeders' Cup Classic?
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#5 Powerline watching everyone race before deciding to partake at the last minute. Amazing he was able to overcome that to win.
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