PYRO : Louisiana Derby winner set to retire to Darley Stud

Pyro (Lou Hodges)A day after Pyro (Pulpit/Wild Vision, by Wild Again) cemented his position as early favorite for the Kentucky Derby with a win in the Gr2 Louisiana Derby, it was announced yesterday that the three-year-old colt will stand at Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Darley in Lexington at the conclusion of his career.

Click here to watch the Gr2 Louisiana Derby 2008.

Pyro launched himself to the front of the sophomore division with a visually impressive win in the February 9 Gr2 Risen Star Stakes. “His turn of foot in the Risen Star was just so visually impressive,” said Dan Pride, COO of Darley America. “Add to that his assertive victory in the Louisiana Derby and we feel extremely excited and privileged to have him coming to Darley. He has all the ingredients to be a superstar on the racetrack and at stud.”

Pyro, a Winchell Thoroughbreds homebred, was also second in last year’s Gr1 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and Gr1 Champagne Stakes. “To have our homebred Pyro retiring to Darley is extremely exciting,” said Ron Winchell. “Although we’re certainly a bit prejudiced about him, I really do think that the success he has shown on the track will follow him to the stallion barn.”

Pyro is expected to race in the Winchell Thoroughbreds colors through this year’s Breeders’ Cup.

Extract from Thoroughbred Daily News

The Breeders' Cup World Championship of Racing: A bit of a damp squib

                                                            Curlin (Charles Pravata-Horsephotos)

Bucketing rain turned the racing surface for the Breeder’s Cup Championship event at Monmouth Park into something resembling more of a swimming pool than a racetrack, and the results unfortunately reflected the lack of predictability that inevitably emerges in these conditions.

The first major upsets occurred when Dylan Thomas, a four-time Group 1 winner this season, and the outstanding Champion of Europe, failed to get a place in the major Turf event, while the Classic itself, billed as one of the races of the decade, turned into very much a procession for CURLIN, who obviously adapted best to the conditions, but who had been comfortably bested by the likes of Street Sense and Any Given Saturday in earlier encounters.

Watch the Breeder’s Cup Classic (Gr1) 2007.

Get a spectator’s view from Monmouth Park grandstand.

Breeder's Cup Update (this Sturday, Monmouth Park, USA)

The story may be apocryphal, but that’s no reason to keep it out of the public eye, for it’s a good one – especially if it’s true.

Excellent Art (Julian Herbert-Getty)Excellent Art, the likely favourite for the Oct.27 NetJets Breeders’ Cup Mile (Gr. 1T), is well–established now as an inmate of the Ballydoyle yard from where Aidan O’Brien has sent out three Breeders’ Cup winners since 2001. But he is an unusual inmate in that he came not from the blue-blooded ranks of the affiliate Coolmore Stud or the sales ring, but was bought out of another stable, the Newmarket yard of Neville Callaghan.

Michael Tabor (Julian Herbert/Allsport)Callaghan trains for Ballydoyle patron Michael Tabor, so it was not unusual to find agent Demi O’Byrne looking at horses there. But in this case, it seems O’Byrne’s skills really do allow him to spot a champion out of the corner of his eye. Callaghan, knowing the ability of both O’Byrne and Excellent Art, is rumoured to have instructed that the latter stayed firmly in his box, out of sight of the former.

The plan, unfortunately, didn’t work out, and O’Byrne is said to have been so taken with Excellent Art that he recommended a bid from the Coolmore clan.

Solario (Sir Alfred Munnings)Owner Matthew Green had little hesitation in selling, though he has kept a share in the St James’ Palace Stakes (Eng-1) winner, “I believe that if you are to be a successful owner, you have got to be willing to trade,” Green said. “With prize money so poor, you have got to approach ownership as a business.”

In which case Green is certainly a successful owner, having earlier sold Art Trader, a $130,000 foal, to Hong Kong for $800,000.

Molly Long Legs (George Stubbs)The family name is even better known in the art world than it is in racing. Richard Green, the company, has three galleries in swanky parts of central London, specialising in early 17^th century works through to the modern day.

Perhaps inevitably, father and sons deal extensively in the great equine art painters such as George Stubbs, John Frederick Herring, and Sir Alfred Munnings, for whom Mathew Green’s grandfather acted as agent.

Extract by Richard Griffiths from BloodHorseNOW.com

Ex KZN Commentator to Call Breeders Cup

SAHorseracing.com reports “South African born and bred, Trevor Denman, will replace Tom Durkin as the race announcer for the Breeders’ Cup World Championships card on November 4 at Churchill Downs. Durkin was not contracted to call the race as the coverage had changed networks.

Ex Kwazulu Natal commentator, Denman is the track announcer at Santa Anita Park, Del Mar, and Fairplex Park. He previously worked on Breeders’ Cup broadcasts as an analyst.

Born in Johannesburg and bred in Kwazulu-Natal, this legend of the sport started calling races at the Greyville, Clairwood and Scottsville in the late 60’s. He was offered a plum position at a leading racing track in the United States in 1983 and has been there ever since.”