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Johnny Murtagh said on Saturday that the Ballydoyle team would “live and learn” as he took a philosophical view on their punishment at Thursday’s team tactics inquiry.

Curlin raced into the history books as America’s first $10-million earner on Saturday, cruising past pacesetter Wanderin Boy in midstretch to win the $750,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup Stakes (G1) by three-quarters of a length at Belmont Park.

The Jockey Club Gold Cup was the 11th win in 15 career starts for Curlin, a four-year-old Smart Strike colt who pushed his lifetime earnings to $10,246,800 to become the all-time leading North American-raced earner. The previous mark of $9,999,815 was established by two-time Horse of the Year and Racing Hall of Famer Cigar, who ran 33 times from 1993 to ‘96.

Trained by Steve Asmussen for majority owner Jess Jackson’s Stonestreet Stables, Curlin also became only the ninth horse to win back-to-back editions of the Jockey Club Gold Cup, joining Mad Hatter (1921-’22), Dark Secret (1933-’34), Nashua (1955-’56), Kelso (1960-’64), Shuvee (1970-’71), Slew o’ Gold (1983-’84), Crème Fraiche (1986-’87), and Skip Away (1996-’97). Firethorn won it in 1935 and as a five-year-old in ‘37.

“It’s amazing,” winning jockey Robby Albarado said. “I’m sure it is not going to hit me for a while. I’m sure this record will be broken one day, but it will take a helluva horse. I had a great trip. It’s really amazing.

“He just ran his race again and gave me that big Curlin move again on the turn. It was tremendous and very emotional. The bar is set against him every time, but he exceeds our expectations every time he runs.”

Sent off as the 2-to-5 favorite in a field reduced to eight with the scratch of Timber Reserve, reigning Horse of the Year Curlin was reserved in midpack under Albarado, his regular rider, while Wanderin Boy and jockey Alan Garcia set moderate fractions of :24.67, :48.79, and 1:13.08 through six furlongs.

Positioned in the clear on the outside by Albarado, Curlin steadily gained on Wanderin Boy and longshot stalker Merchant Marine to move into striking position in early stretch. Curlin gradually wore down a stubborn Wanderin Boy before drawing away late. He completed 1 1/4 miles in 2:01.93 on a sealed sloppy main track.

“It was very emotional for me,” Asmussen said. “I was very excited and very proud of everybody involved. Fifteen races, and he’s won more than $10-million. We had two back-to-back $5-million years. Robby didn’t turn the stick over on him today, and the horse looked [great].”

Third in the wagering at 7.40-to-1, Wanderin Boy ran well for second, while Merchant Marine held on for third, 3 3/4 lengths behind Wanderin Boy.

Curlin is unbeaten this year in five starts on dirt. His lone defeat was to Red Rocks (Ire) in the Man o’ War Stakes (G1) on the Belmont turf on July 12. Curlin rebounded with a workmanlike victory over Past the Point in the $500,000 Woodward Stakes (G1) at Saratoga Race Course on August 30.

Bred by Fares Farm, Curlin is out of the Deputy Minister mare Sherriff’s Deputy. He has won 11 of 15 starts, including seven Grade or Group 1 victories.

Raven’s Pass has been beaten by O’Brien’s colt on three occasions already this season but did get within a head of him in the Sussex Stakes and this son of Elusive Quality gained a well deserved first win of the season in the Gr.2 Celebration Mile at Goodwood.

Courtesy: EBN

Jagdish V Shukla, former Indian Express racing correspondent who was known to racing fraternity as “Ashwamitra”, died in Mumbai after a protracted battle with cancer. He was 82.

Coming from a trade union background where he had worked with stalwarts like Dr Ram Manohar Lohiya, Ashok Mehta and Jayprakash Narayan, Shukla joined Indian Express in 1972 as racing correspondent at Mumbai. Along with Cecil Hendricks (”Pegasus“) and Surendra Dikshit (”Shyamakarna”), he founded the Western India Racing Journalists’ Association (WIRJA), and was associated with it as treasurer until his death. He also served as secretary of the Bookmakers’ Association for over 20 years.

He is survived by three sons and three daughters.

 SALE TOPPER: $3.1-MILLION A.P. INDY FILLY

The 2008 Keeneland September yearling sale came to a close on Tuesday with the fourth-highest total sales in the auction’s history.

Keeneland reported that 3,605 yearlings sold for $327,999,100 during the marathon 15-day sale. Total sales indicate that while there is always a market for quality horses, the Thoroughbred marketplace is not recession proof.

The slumping national economy was a concern heading into the Keeneland September sale, and those fears were realized as total receipts, average price, and median all declined by double digits.

“The downturn was expected to occur last year, but sales were buoyed by the favorable exchange rate that spurred foreign spending,” said Geoffrey Russell, Keeneland’s director of sales. “On the positive side, a reduction in prices should encourage those on the sidelines to become involved in the industry.”

Total sales dipped 14.8% compared with $385,018,600 during the 2007 Keeneland September sale. While total sales finished as the fourth-highest in Keeneland September sale history, the figure also was the lowest since 3,370 yearlings brought $324,904,300 in 2004.

“It’s a question of profitability for breeders, some of whom suffered a painful reality check during this sale,” Russell added. “There are still too many non-commercial horses being offered. This market adjustment will have a positive effect in the reduction of production costs.”

The average price at the 2008 Keeneland sale was $90,984, a 10.2% decline compared with $101,347 in 2007. Median dipped 11.9% from $42,000 in 2007 to $37,000 this year. The buy-back rate rose from 22.5% last year to 24.8%.

“To have the fourth-largest gross in September sale history is a testament to the drawing power of this sale,” Russell said. “There was a diverse group of buyers, both foreign and domestic, in attendance throughout the two weeks.

“We are very pleased that the sale was steady and solid—a reflection of our consignors’ ability to adapt to this market.”

The biggest buzz of the sale was generated when the first foal produced by 2002 Horse of the Year Azeri—a chestnut A.P. Indy colt named Vallenzeri—failed to meet his reserve at $7.7-million.

Michael Paulson set the reserve as the manager of the colt’s breeder, the Allen Paulson Living Trust. John G. Sikura of consignor Hill ‘n’ Dale Sales Agency deferred comment to Paulson.

“The buyers came up a little short,” Paulson said by telephone. “We were hoping that whoever did buy him, we would be able to keep a small percentage in him. This gives us an opportunity to put a group together to race this horse, and we’re hoping that he becomes an excellent runner.

“My wife [Lenora] and I have emotional ties to the horse. We were there the day he was born, and I spent days deciding on the mating plans. We are emotionally tied to the horse.”

 Fillies brought the highest three prices at the 2008 Keeneland sale, topped by an A.P. Indy filly who sold for $3.1-million. John Ferguson, chief bloodstock adviser for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, purchased the sale topper. Consigned by Gainesway, agent for Stonestreet Thoroughbred Holdings, the bay filly is the third foal out of Grade 1-placed Grade 3 winner Chimichurri, by Elusive Quality.

“We’ve been very fortunate in the last few years with A.P. Indy, with Bernardini, Music Note, Little Belle, and we have some very exciting two-year-olds by him now,” Ferguson said. “He’s an absolutely sensational sire and Chimichurri was a very fast mare.”

Jon Kelly went to $1.7-million to purchase an Empire Maker filly out of stakes winner Aurora, by Danzig. A half sister to United Arab Emirates Horse of the Year Festival of Light, the bay filly was consigned by Middlebrook Farm, agent.

An Unbridled’s Song filly out of Canadian champion Silken Cat, by Storm Cat, also brought $1.7-million. A half sister to 2004 champion sprinter Speightstown, the filly was purchased by Ferguson from the consignment of Taylor Made Sales Agency, agent for breeders Aaron and Marie Jones.

Shadwell Estate Co. landed the top-priced colt, an A.P. Indy half brother to Grade 2 winner Classic Elegance, for $1.5-million. Consigned by Mt. Brilliant Farm, the colt is out of the winning Halo mare Taegu.

John Ferguson Bloodstock led all buyers with 27 yearlings purchased for $18,185,000. Taylor Made Sales Agency was the leading consignor by total sales with 374 yearlings reported as sold for $48,929,900.

www.thoroughbredtimes.com 

Racing Hall of Fame jockey Earlie Fires retired on Sunday at Arlington Park following a fifth-place finish with Manchu Prince in the fifth race.

Fires, 61, ended his professional career ranked ninth by career wins among North American jockeys with 6,470 victories during his 43-year career.

 “I wanted to retire on my terms,” Fires said. “I don’t have any regrets. I will miss the Illinois people, especially at Arlington Park. This crowd has always been a good crowd and I love that more than anything in the world. I’m going to travel but I’ll still be around to visit.” Despite not winning a Triple Crown race or a Breeders’ Cup race, Fires earned a reputation as one of the Midwest’s most consistent winners. He was inducted into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2001.

Fires won his first race as a 17-year-old apprentice jockey at Oaklawn Park in 1965. He went on to win 224 races that year and was the nation’s leading apprentice by wins. He subsequently moved his tack north to suburban Chicago, where he still lives today.

Fires was a mainstay at Arlington Park, winning riding titles in 1966, ’69, ’75, ’79, ’83, and ’84. Fires also won riding titles at Hawthorne Race Course, Hialiah Park, Gulfstream Park, Calder Race Course, Churchill Downs, Keeneland Race Course, and Miles Park.

 A tribute to his durability and longevity, Fires won racing titles in four different decades at those various tracks. “I ride as hard as anyone can ride,” Fires said prior to his induction into the Racing Hall of Fame in 2001. “I may not be the best rider, I may not be riding the best horse, and I may not win, but I give that horse every chance to win.”

Fires said the best horse he rode was probably In Reality, who won six stakes as a three-year-old in 1967 but was overshadowed by legendary Hall of Famers Dr. Fager and Damascus. In Reality finished second to Damascus in the 1967 Preakness Stakes and American Derby and was the runner-up to Dr. Fager in the New Hampshire Sweepstakes Classic that year.

 In 1991, Fires won the George Woolf Memorial Jockey Award, which honors a rider whose career and personal character reflect positively on themselves and the sport. He was elected into the Racing Hall of Fame ten years later. Arlington Park chairman emeritus Richard L. Duchossois said the track will hold Earlie Fires Day on May 1, 2009.

Fires was born in Rivervale, Arkansas and is one of 11 children. He has two daughters and one son with his wife of 38 years, Kathy, who died from cancer in October 2005.

Courtesy: www.thoroughbredtimes.com

Europe’s leading sire Galileo suffered a bout of colic on Thursday at Coolmore and was referred to Fethard Equine Hospital for evaluation where he underwent surgery.

Courtesy: EBN

Royal Ascot winner Collection has been privately sold for an undisclosed sum to continue his racing career in Hong Kong. Alastair Donald of Kern Lillingston brokered the sale on behalf of Hong Kong-based trainer John Moore and his owner Mr Wong, and Highclere Thoroughbred Racing.

Collection has provided his owners with a tremendous thrill during his career to date, with his win at this year’s Royal Ascot meeting being an obvious highlight. Everyone involved with him will be sorry to see him leave the Highclere string,  owever we will look forward to following his promising future in Hong Kong”.

Courtesy: EBN

Although the Aidan O’Brien-trained Henrythenavigator has lost his top spot in the Cartier Three-Year-Old Colt listing, it was only to be replaced by Derby hero and last year’s Cartier Two-Year-Old Colt New Approach. The Jim Bolger-trained three-year-old followed up a third to Duke Of Marmalade in last month’s Gr.1 Juddmonte International with a victory in the Gr.1 Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown to move up to 140 points, four ahead of his compatriot who finished fifth on soft ground in the Prix du Moulin the same day.

Raven’s Pass’s victory in the Gr.2 Celebration Mile at Goodwood sees him reach 74 points, two ahead of Gr.1 Prix Jacques le Marois winner Tamayuz. Both may meet at Ascot in the Gr.1 Queen Elizabeth II Stakes on 27th September. Meanwhile, the Sir Michael Stoute-trained Conduit has entered the frame on 64 points after a memorable victory in the St Leger .

Mastercraftsman (80), who has stretched his lead in the Cartier Two-Year-Old Colt rankings following a brave success over Shaweel (36) in the Gr.1 National Stakes.

Again (48), also trained by Wachman, has shot to the head of the Cartier Two-Year-Old Filly Award battle following her taking success in the Gr.1 Moyglare Stud Stakes at the Curragh. Also entering the frame in the latest update is the John Gosden-trained Rainbow View (24), the easy winner of the Gr.2 May Hill Stake at Doncaster.

It has proved to be a difficult month with the abandonment of the York Ebor Festival being the most notable meeting to fall victim of the dreadful weather but decisive action saved the top races. “Possibly the most interesting aspect about the current standings for the Cartier Racing Awards is that each category is being led by horses trained outside Britain. Irish-trained runners have been enjoying a tremendous season and they are at the top of seven of the eight categories, while French-trained sprinting sensation Marchand D’Or is clear in his field.

Courtesy: European Bloodstock News

An Indian-origin researcher at the University of California in Los Angeles says that the age-old problem as to whether talent or experience matters most may be solved by analysing the rise and fall of websites.Vwani Roychowdhury bases his suggestion on the fact that the success or failure of websites depends upon millions of human decisions.

He feels that it may be possible to quantify the balance between talent and experience on the web.

He and his colleagues Joseph Kong and Nima Sarshar from the University of Regina in Canada showed this by using “web crawlers” to visit some 22 million web pages once a month for a year.

Each time the researchers visited a page, they recorded the number of other pages that link to it: its “in-degree”.

The team found that the pages they deemed “winners”, those with an in-degree value more than 1000, were not all old, well-established pages that started the year with a high in-degree and high traffic, as they had expected.

Web pages that had not existed when the year began accounted for just under half of the winners, displacing an equal number of older, more established pages in the process.

That proportion remained the same even when the bar for success was raised, suggesting there is a general tendency for young websites to out-compete established websites half the time.

Roychowdhury said that the new pages could only pull themselves up from nowhere because of the quality of their content.

He said that they were pages with “talent”, able to compete against those with more “experience”.

“Talent versus experience is difficult to document in a society. But what we show is that on the web it can be documented in terms of page popularity - and newborn pages become more popular than older established pages on a regular basis,” New Scientist magazine quoted him as saying.

According to him, the web’s success may be due to the roughly 50:50 balance between experience and talent that allows constant renewal without anarchy.

He even sees similarities in US politics.

“The fact that Obama got the nomination over Clinton is a testimony to the way a society rarely but consistently gives a thumbs up to talent over experience,” he said.

Roychowdhury believes that the new style of analysis may help search engines improve results.

A research article describing the study has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Courtesy: www.yahoo.com