pedigrees

This is a story about young friends: some who have become a little less young, but who have kept themselves from growing too old, too soon, by supporting and mentoring the next generation. Poignantly, however, it starts with a man who was himself cruelly denied his share in that gratifying, repeating cycle among horses and horsemen. Because it was his lamented friend Alex Scott who, hearing that Luke Lillingston was off to New York, made an introduction that proved critical to his career. "This was, what, 38 years ago now,"...

The intuitive platform Stallion Match might be based in Australia but their expertise and client list don't emanate from a single national boundary. The site is a dedicated global resource where breeders anywhere can hypothetically mate their mares for free with any stallion on the planet. Matthew Ennis is the managing director and he says that Stallion Match is all about providing fast and practical decision-making support. "Stallion Match was born out of G1 Goldmine," Ennis said. "For more than a decade, we've provided a service where farms can promote...

TB-Ed, a UK Thoroughbred Breeders' Association education and training initiative, was launched by the TBA on Wednesday. The initiative, which offers a range of courses and resources that provide essential knowledge and guidance to new and existing industry participants, has also received financial support from the Racing Foundation, who co-funded the platform development and build with the TBA. Weatherbys is also a headline partner of the TB-Ed platform. Currently, the courses offered by TB-Ed include Understanding Pedigrees delivered by journalist and broadcaster Lydia Hislop, while there is also Nutrition of...

He doesn't need the publicity: as he approaches the evening of his career, his fee is $185,000 and, with his book as wisely controlled as ever, demand should always exceed supply. Nonetheless, there's something highly gratifying about the prospect of Tapit redressing one of the few gaps in a resume that otherwise qualifies him as unmistakably the most accomplished stallion in the land. The horse himself, of course, would remain totally unwitting--just as he was, when his 20th birthday last Saturday was so aptly marked by two sons emphatically confirming...

Maybe he was just born too beautiful, and too rich, to be setting the alarm every single morning and riding the same suburban train to work. He can leave the maximisation of income, the humdrum consistency, to lesser creatures. Like some aristocratic dilettante touched by genius, however, Bernardini (A.P. Indy) remains ever capable of producing a masterpiece. The Darley stallion had lately become so slack--only two graded stakes winners in each of the past two years--that this spring he suffered his third consecutive cut, to just $40,000, having commanded a...