All Equine All The Time

Sadler's Wells (Coolmore Photo) While it’s not unusual to see Northern Dancer dominating the pedigrees of stakes runners around the world, on Saturday his son Sadler’s Wells follows in his footsteps in two of the most important races for 3-year-olds in Europe – the Investec Derby and Investec Oaks. Sadler’s Wells' sireline is responsible from every runner in the Investec Derby with all but one of those through his son Galileo’s branch. Galileo is the sire of six runners with all but one of them trained by Aidan O’Brien, who is saddling seven Derby runners in the race. O’Brien also has one runner by Galileo’s dual-Derby winning son Australia and is the trainer of the only non-Galileo lined horse in the race in Camelot’s (Montjeu) Sir Dragonet. Galileo son Noble Mission is pulling a double of sorts in this race with his first crop yielding both a Kentucky Derby runner (second placed Code Of Honor) and an Investec Derby runner (John Gosden’s Humanitarian). Nob...

Signalman joins the Triple Crown in Baltimore An eventful Kentucky Derby (G1) has paved the way to what looks to be a competitive 13 runner Preakness Stakes (G1) with many horses jumping on the Triple Crown train here. While four horses will be coming into this race out of the Kentucky Derby, nine new horses are looking for classic success in Baltimore. With that in mind it is a good time to look at the pedigrees of this weekend's Preakness runners. Returning Runners: This year’s Preakness Stakes includes four horses who ran in the Kentucky Derby (G1), the same amount of Derby runners who ran in last year’s Preakness. However, unlike last year – and every year since Grindstone (Unbridled) in 1996 – the Kentucky Derby winner will not be in the race. The highest placed Derby runner in this year’s Preakness will be Improbable (City Zip), who finished fourth in the Kentucky Derby. Birthdays: Early-born foals dominate the Preakness Stakes entries with six of the runn...