All Equine All The Time

Nearly a decade after her passing, Urban Sea (Miswaki) proved to still be the Queen of the Track at Epsom during Derby weekend. The 1993 Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe winner wasn’t only present in the pedigrees of many horses who won or placed in the three Group 1 races at the track on Friday and Saturday but also those who ran in said races with 15 runners between the Oaks and Derby descending from the mare. Four of the six entries in the Coronation Cup also traced back to the bluehen mare to give her an astounding 70.4 percent of the runners in the Group 1 races at Epsom. Urban Sea's 1993 Arc victory Looking at those numbers, it isn’t surprising that Urban Sea was responsible for the winners of all three races nor that in two of the races she had multiple representation in the top three. Frankel’s Cracksman was nearly beaten by Salouen (Canford Cliffs) in the Coronation Cup on Friday to get the festives started but if he would have failed to get up to the runner-up in t...

Twenty seven starts, 10 wins, and nine other placings for £7,513,355 (€8,544,938.64/$10,066,918.96 on Dec. 12, 2017) in earnings. In very short terms that sums up the career of Highland Reel, Coolmore Ireland’s newest stallion, but misses many details. Highland Reel The son of Galileo has been a literal world traveler, traveling over 110,000 miles and visiting four continents (Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia) to race in seven different countries during his 3 ½ year career. In that time, Highland Reel won nine group stakes races (seven Group 1s) and finished second or third in eight others, including a French classic and the Qatar Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, to become the highest earning Thoroughbred racehorse in European history. Highland Reel’s first success at stakes level came just three starts into his career when he ran in the Group 2 Veuve Clicquot Vintage Stakes, making easy work of the field when winning by 2 ¼ lengths. After a 284 day break, Highland Reel ...