#El Gran Senor

Buckpasser's unraced daughter, Sex Appeal, has made her mark on the breed in no uncertain terms and this year is to be found in the pedigrees of top thoroughbreds ranging from US Triple Crown winner American Pharoah (Pioneerof The Nile) and Mecca's Angel (Dark Angel), winner of Friday's Gr1 Nunthorpe Stakes over 1000m. Sex Appeal's name is also…

Pat Eddery, one of the greatest jockeys of the postwar era, with three victories in the Epsom Derby and four in the Arc de Triomphe to his credit, as well as two Breeders' Cup races in the United States, died on Tuesday. He was 63. Teddy Grimthorpe, the European racing manager for Juddmonte Farms, who worked with Eddery for many years, confirmed…

Saturday, Gulfstream Park HERECOMESTHEBRIDE S.-GIII, $125000, Gulfstream, 3-5, 3yo, f, 1mT, 1:34.38, fm. 1- SPENDARELLA, 118, f, 3, by Karakontie (Jpn) 1st Dam: Spanish Bunny, by Unusual Heat 2nd Dam: Spanish Beam, by El Gran Senor 3rd Dam: Solar Beam, by Majestic Light 1ST BLACK TYPE WIN, 1ST GRADED STAKES WIN. ($220000 Ylg'20 KEESEP). O-Gainesway…

Lester Piggott, a jockey whose career haul included nine Derby victories, has died at the age of 86. Unquestionably one of the greatest jockeys of all time, Piggott rode his first winner, The Chase, at Haydock in 1948 when just 12 years of age and his last win came with Palacegate Jack at the same Merseyside track in 1994, a few weeks short of his…

In its enduring 149-year history, the Irish Derby has been synonymous with exceptional racehorses. ften, it has been the race in which greatness is confirmed, a coronation of sorts for the champion that has triumphed in the original at Epsom. That has been especially so since the Curragh Group One gained elite international status in 1962, when its…

Chief Singer won the Coventry Stakes on his debut in 1983 Holloway Boy may have stunned punters with his 40-1 debut success in the Chesham Stakes, but he is not the first two-year-old to defy inexperience and triumph at Royal Ascot first time out. It happened in the same race in 1996 when the late Hamdan Al Maktoum's home-bred colt Shamikh, trained…

Zippy Chippy, the hugely popular gelding who earned national celebrity for his career record of zero wins in 100 starts, died on April 15. Steve Dennis pays tribute to an equine legend - of sorts A wise man once said that it wasn't about the winning, but the taking part. That was the mantra that Zippy Chippy lived by, that his life was reckoned by,…

When Joseph O'Brien won his first Classic as a trainer - the 2018 Irish Derby with Latrobe - the next four home were all trained by his father Aidan. It had been a similar story two years earlier when Joseph's first Group 1 success as a trainer came in the Moyglare Stud Stakes in which Intricately was chased home by a pair of Ballydoyle fillies.…

HORSES go on the trail of greatness in the Classics and there haven't been many I have smacked my lips over more than today's 2000 Guineas at Newmarket. It looks an absolute belter. Of the five British Classics - also made up by the 1000 Guineas, Derby, Oaks and St Leger - the Qipco-sponsored 2000 Guineas is perhaps the one that most excites…

Bloodstock expert Nancy Sexton ranks the stallions who have left the most indelible mark in the last 100 years. Today: the top five Nearctic - Natalma (Native Dancer) Stood: Windfields Farm, Canada; Windfields Farm, Maryland, USA Northern Dancer was a game changer as far as the industry was concerned, and not just in North America but Europe as…