Mar. 28, 2009 - Poll results!!!
Here are the poll results!!!
Street Cry: 1 vote
Smart Strike: 0 votes
A.P. Indy: 4 votes
And our winner is A.P. Indy!!! And, Dad, I know you posted as Uncle Sam, Jerry Bailey, and Danica P!! Under normal circumstances, I would not count these, but they were so funny I couldn't help it, and A.P. Indy was gonna win anyways.
As before, I'm changing my avatar to a picture of our winner until the next winner is decided.
Thanks for voting!!! I'll see you next week on my next poll, which is "Which sire retired last year has the most potential at stud?".
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Mar. 26, 2009 - Poll
To those of you who HAVE NOT voted yet: There's still time for you to cast your vote!!! Again, this is for most influential sire of recent years. Your choices are:
Street Cry
Smart Strike
A.P. Indy
Currently, A.P. Indy is winning the poll with 2 votes, while the other horses have 0 votes. Remember, YOU CAN STILL VOTE until Saturday, March 28th!!!!! Thanks!!
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Mar. 24, 2009 - Poll update!!
OK, so here's the update on the poll:
Street Cry: 0 votes
Smart Strike: 0 votes
A.P. Indy: 2 votes
Thanks to everyone who has voted so far!! And for those of you who HAVEN'T voted yet, the poll is open for voting until Saturday, March 28th. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE AN HSB USER TO VOTE!! Just please leave your first name and the horse you wish to vote for in a comment. Please remember, these horses are up for most influential sire of recent years. All the horses in this poll are leading sires according to Equibase.com leading sire listings and progeny records. Although they are not necessarily the top ranked sires, I personally went by progeny win records, quality of offspring, frequency of health problems, frequency of progeny health problems/breakdowns, the reason this horse was retired to stud, etc., in my choices for this poll. I tend to lean towards sires whose progeny are strong, healthy, and win; and I also tend to lean toward sires who retired because of age and NOT health reasons. Also, I might lean towards a sire who was retired because there wasn't anything left for him to win, so it was pointless to race him anymore (CURLIN!!).
For my next poll, I am going to do 3 horses who were retired to stud late last year. It will be for the most promising sire. I won't tell you which horses will be up for that, but I do already have them picked out!!
Also, if you have any suggestions for polls/poll contestants, just PM me or comment with your name (or HSB username) and your suggestions. Thanks for reading and don't forget to place your vote by Saturday, March 28th!! God bless!
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Mar. 22, 2009 - Another poll!
OK, people, I have another poll for ya'll!! This time, it will be influential sires of recent years. As before, please comment with your choice and your first name (or your HSB user name). Comments that do not include a vote will be counted as a vote for a randomly selected horse off this poll. Thanks!!
Here's your lineup:
Street Cry: By Machiavellian out of Helen Street. Noteworthy progeny are: Street Sense (m) (who won the 2007 Kentucky Derby), Zenyatta (f), and Street Boss (m).
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Smart Strike: By Mr. Prospector out of Classy 'N Smart. He is half-brother to Canadian Triple Crown winner Dance Smartly. Noteworthy progeny are: Curlin (m) (who won the 2007 Preakness Stakes), English Channel (m), and Soaring Free (m).
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A.P. Indy: By Seattle Slew out of Weekend Surprise. He is winner of the 1992 Belmont Stakes and the Breeders' Cup Classic, to name a few. Noteworthy progeny are: Rags to Riches (f) (who is the winner of the 2007 Belmont Stakes) and Friesan Fire, to name a few.
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OK, so there are your horses!! Just comment with your choice for most influential sire of recent years, and your first name (or your HSB user name).
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Also, if you didn't notice, I did the sires of Street Sense, Curlin, and Rags to Riches. They are, respectively, the winners of the 2007 Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes. And, yes, I planned it that way on purpose.
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Mar. 20, 2009 - Waily waily waily!
Ok, so idk why I called this "waily waily waily" but I did. One of my random moments.
Ok, so my little buddy Dorci left the barn, but I'm over that now. Tomorrow I'm going to a horse show with Jessi, Megan, and Oreo (he's a horse) as a groom. It'll be fun! My darling Bach got a deep puncture wound on his left forearm, on the inside, and it's all swollen. Poor dude. He was really good when Jessi put the blue antiseptic on it, even though it probably stung like all get out. He's taking it like a man, or, should I say, a Hanoverian. Whatever. So anyways, that's pretty much it as far as life.
And I'd really like it if ya'll would comment some more; I know it can be very muddled and confusing, but at least comment to say that it's muddled and confusing! I actually debated seriously over whether or not to delete this blog because I thought no one was reading it, and, although I still don't think anyone is reading it, I did decide NOT to delete it for the time being.
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Mar. 15, 2009 - Friesan Fire and my opinion on genetics
Hi ya'll! If you noticed, I changed my avatar to a picture of Friesan Fire, one of the leading candidates for this year's Triple Crown. In his most recent win, the Louisiana Derby, he sat right behind the pace-setter Papa Clem the whole time and then passed him in the homestretch to win by 7 and 1/2 lengths. He is by A.P. Indy out of Bollinger. I'm currently thinking this guy has it in him to take the Triple Crown, and he looks good enough to go on to a Breeders' Cup Classic win, too. His pedigree is ideal for the Triple Crown, as he has distance on his sire's side (A.P. Indy won the Belmont Stakes, which is a 1 and 1/2 miles, and sired Rags to Riches, who also won the Belmont) and he gets the shorter distances on his dam's side. Interestingly, he has Secretariat (a Triple Crown winner) on both sides. If you get the chance, i would definitely look Friesan Fire up through my side-bar link to Pedigree Query. He has a very good pedigree, and I also admire that Raise a Native is not a part of it going at least 5 generations back.
The reason I'm not big on Raise a Native bloodlines is because he was only ever raced 4 times because of injury, potentially passing on his physical weakness to his progeny. I'm even less a fan of horses who have multiple inbreedings of the Raise a Native line, because they (at least in my opinion) seem to be more prone to injury than those with no Raise a Native lines or few inbreedings. A few people (myself included) have speculated that genetics may be a part of Eight Belles's tragic breakdown. There were 3 inbreedings of the Raise a Native line in her pedigree. Also, if you look at some of the most famous and most successful race horses (i.e., Curlin, Zenyatta, Secretariat, Peppers Pride, Seattle Slew), they tend to have fewer inbreedings. I mean, I'm no scientist (although I did really well on my last science test), but this is what I have observed quite frequently.
I'm sure that was totally confusing and poorly written, and that no one could understand a word I said, but I needed a place to put all those thoughts so I wouldn't lose them, and so my long-suffering little brother wouldn't have to listen to them.
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Mar. 7, 2009 - POLL RESULTS!!!!
OK, here's the final tally for the poll:
Zenyatta: 1 vote
The Pamplemousse: 1 vote
Bsharpsonata: 2 votes
And our winner is Bsharpsonata!! I will change my avatar to a pic of Bsharpsonata until the next poll winners are decided. Now for all the stuff about Bshapsonata.
Bsharpsonata is by Pulpit (A.P. Indy x Preach) and out of Apasionata Sonata (Affirmed x Express Star). To date, she has earned $562,010 and her career record is 14 starts, 7 wins, 1 place, 1 show. She was born January 31st, 2005, although the official "birthday" for all registered TBs is January 1st. Unfortunately, she is 4 years old, thus making her non-eligible for any of the Triple Crown races. She has won stakes races on dirt, turf, and mud, making her very versatile. She is owned by Cloverlead Farm II, Inc., trained by Todd Pletcher, and ridden by Rafafael Bejarano.
A quick tip on my pedigree jabber for those who spend their time on other, smarter hobbies than pedigree surfing: The sire's name is always listed first, so when I list pedigrees like this...
Bsharpsonata (Pulpit x Apasionata Sonata)
...the sire would be Pulpit and the dam would be Apasionata Sonata (the "x: in the middle is just a way to separate the names to avoid confusion). If you are reading a pedigree chart (although Pedigreequery's all color coded blue for sires pink for dams) the sire is always in the upper box, and the dam is always in the lower box. It takes a bit of practice if they aren't color coded. If I just list names, like this...
Bsharpsonata is by Pulpit out of Apasionata Sonata
... the sire's name would still come first. In a lot of cases, only the sire is important, so you might just say "By (sire's name)" or if the dam's name is more important in whatever you're doing, you might just say "Out of (dam's name)." It get pretty complicated sometimes.
Thanks to all of you who participated in my first ever poll, and I hope you'll participate again next week!!
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Mar. 5, 2009 - "My hands are searching for you//My arms are outstretched towards you//I feel you on my fingertips//My tongue dances behind my lips for you" Flyleaf's "All Around Me" (Omygolly this song has THE COOLEST music video EVER)
So the total is now:
Zenyatta: 1 vote
The Pamplemousse: 1 vote
Bsharpsonata: 1 vote
Looks like we've got a 3-way tie!! Whoever wins will be my avatar until the next winner is crowned and you'll get a whole post about the winner, complete with a 3 generation pedigree (unless I get carried away I put more generations in, lol).
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Mar. 4, 2009 - "When I said good morning//I was lying//I was truly thinking of//How I might quit waking up" Flyleaf's "Much Like Falling" and it's like one of my favorite songs ever
So, right now the results for the poll are:
Zenyatta: 1 vote
The Pamplemousse: 1 vote
Bsharpsonata: 0 votes
Oh and there's a random one for Midshipman from Dad calling himself Baffert. Haha, dad. Veeerryyy amusing. And The Pamplemousse got one because mother didn't read the whole entry and just did a normal comment, so I counted it as The Pamplemousse in an effort to be non-biased towards Zenyatta.
To all my faithful readers: I'm truly quite sorry if you find this blog boring. But it is mine, and it is about my life, and horses are most (not all, but a sizeable chunk) of my life, and that's why I write about them so much. It's rather like writing about good friends; and if I'm writing about horse racing, it's my version of writing about my favorite sport, like how if your favorite sport was football, you might write a bit about football from time to time. Only I write about it almost all the time.
Speaking of horse racing, Midshipman is injured and completely out of racing until next year or, at the earliest, late in the season. So he's off the Derby road. Quality Road, much against my predictions, won the Risen Star. Nobody I was pulling for even ran on the board.
That's IT!!! I will explain to you what I mean by each potentially confusing term I spout out in an effort to help you understand my posts better. "Off the board"= did not place 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th. The reason for this wording being that if you aren't first, second, third, or fourth, your name doesn't show up on the first results on the large board at the track. It may show up on the board later after everything is official, but only in the final order. "On the board"= If you do place first, second, third, or fourth. And I already explained this one by explaining the other one.
Was that at all helpful?
If you want to participate in the voting, go to the post in which I begin the voting and place you vote there, please. Also, just leave your first name or your HSB username with your vote, please. Thanks =^)
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Mar. 3, 2009 - "I will break//Into your thoughts//With what's written//On my heart//I will BREAAAAAAKKK!!!! BREAAAKKK!!!" Flyleaf's "I'm So Sick"
OK, so I got a new avatar. It's a fabulous picture of the Queen of the Sport of Kings, Zenyatta!! Although I am rather her biggest fan ever, I still think it's a fair assessment. But Peppers Pride was great, too.
I have decided to do something NEW on my blog in an effort to increase commenting. (Although thank you to my 2 faithful commenters.) Every week, I will post 3 racehorses. You all comment and tell me which one's your favorite, and I'll post it on here and change my a avatar to a picture of that horse.
This week, we have:
Zenyatta (Street Cry x Vertigneux)
The Pamplemousse (Kafwain x Comfort Zone)
Bsharpsonata (Pulpit x Apasionata Sonata)
Pick the one you like best (if you so choose you can even look the horse up on google but you don't have to) and leave a comment with your first name (or, if you have an HSB account, your username) and the horse you liked the best. All the horses this week are fillies or mares and (last time I checked) are still racing. Have fun and please comment back!
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Feb. 27, 2009 - "I used to rule the world// Seas would rise when I gave the word"-Coldplay's Viva La Vida
I got so sick of trying to make up title for new posts that I decided to do the beginning two lines of a song instead. You've gotta admit, it's pretty creative.
Well, since it has been quite a while since I posted on here, I will give basic details. If you want more than basic details on anything, just comment and I'll go into greater detail. Although, knowing me, I'll probably forget the whole "basic detail" thing and post a ton.
First off, my ride on Bachy went quite well. I would post pix if I could but HSB isn't very compatible with Macs so it doesn't work. I did fall off once. I was doing a nice working trot (well, nice speed. Bachy's head was all up like a giraffe's.) and on the short side of the arena he spooked and ducked out to the inside. It was totally my fault because I pinched with my knees when he spooked and I hinged up and fell. Fortunately I landed on my feet. Then I got up and was like "Woo! That was the best involuntary dismount ever!" and got right back on.
As for spanish class, I'm still failing miserably even though I try my best (oh Try My Best is a racehorse name!) and get fabulous grades on homework.
Last Saturday I went to the barn and hung out all day. I got to sit in for a bunch of lessons and I also got to demonstrate a correct posting trot.
Then on Monday I did my work time and got my lesson.
I was going to be at the beach with mom from Wednesday until today, but unfortunately I got sick Wednesday so I had to stay home. I'm feeling better now, though.
Lastly, I am now a Facebooker and I love it. It is so much safer than HSB and really quite fun. I was thrilled to be able to get back in touch with an old friend whom I hadn't been able to talk to in a few years. I've got 45 friends, I think. Maybe 46 now. Oh, bother! But anyways, Facebook is a lot of fun.
I think that's all I have for now. Not much new in the whole horse racing world, so I won't bore you with that, lol.
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Feb. 12, 2009 - If you're tired of reading about horses, this will put you to sleep!
So, just in case you didn't read the subject of this entry, this is another warning. If you're tired of hearing only about horses, this will put you to sleep. I know, I know. You most likely are so tired of hearing about horses and would probably rather hear about school, or something like that. But really, horses are much more interesting than school. Although that might be a rather biased opinion.
So anyways, on my facebook page every status update say basically this:" Jan has only (fill in the blank) days left until I ride Bachy!! (Provided I can even get on)."
First, I will explain who "Bachy" is. Bachy is my affectionate nickname for this horse at the barn. He is a 4 year old, 17.2hh (which is about 5'8" at the shoulders), chestnut American Hanoverian gelding by the Hanoverian Batido out of the Swedish Warmblood Elketra. Since his sire's name starts with a B, his name also had to start with a B. This is the way registered names are for most warmbloods. Back to Bach now. Well, Bach and I got of to a rough start. We truly couldn't stand each other. He would bully me since he was so big, and I would say "NO" and slap him, and so on so on. Then suddenly none of that happened anymore. We had reached a ceasefire. Then I not only stopped disliking him, I actually started liking him. But the bad part is, I knew he was going to be sold someday all along. So I decided that I--a little 5 foot redhead--just had to ride Bach--who is so tall that I have to jump up and down to groom his back. I asked Jessi, and she said I could.
There are a couple complications with me riding him, however, which are A) the fact that I might not be able to even get on him. And B) that my tiny swatch of a saddle might not have long enough billet straps for the girth to even attach. So I might have to use a barn saddle, but it'll be worth it.
Today my facebook says that I have one day left until I ride Bachy. Now my goal is to try to get through today as fast as possible so I can get to 1:00 tomorrow afternoon. I've got to admit, I think it might look kinda stupid-- tiny rider, HUMONGOUS horse. But that's what's so fun about the whole idea, and just that I'll be riding a warmblood for the first time, and that my first time abord a warmblood will be abord my beloved Bach.
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Feb. 8, 2009 - Friesan Fire
So, Friesan Fire (a 3yo) is beating the tar out of all the other 3yos. He won the Lecompte, and now he's got the Risen Star, too. I was sure Uno Mas was going to get it, but no. Here's Friesan Fire's pedigree:
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Feb. 4, 2009 - A tag (yeah)!
Thanks for this tag, SmartyJones! For this tag, I am supposed to use my name or my user name and turn it into an anagram that describes me. However, since both my user name and my real name are very short, I will instead use the name of my favorite racehorse, Zenyatta.
Zippy
Eclectic
Noisy
Yearling (in horse years)
Adventurous
Tough (sometimes)
Talkative
Adolescent (in human years)
I tag daddyszoegirl, pony, and BlondeGirl.
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Feb. 1, 2009 - A tag
Ok, so Curlin won the horse of the year, Zenyatta got older mare, and, no, Eight Belles lost to her stable-mate, Proud Spell. And Conduit's owner is WEIRD!!!!! Ughhh... And Nicanor was 10th of 12 in his maiden. :^(
So anyways, I was tagged by SmartyJones. Unfortunately, none of my photos ever work on HSB, so I can't really do the tag. Bummer. But thanks for thinking of me, SmartyJones!!
If you haven't noticed, I now have a video of Lentenor - Barbaro and Nicanor's youngest full brother, who is reputedly showing more promise than Nicanor, and maybe even Barbaro- and it has some of his workouts, an interview, and a rundown on his daily routine.
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Jan. 26, 2009 - Today is the day!!
Today is the day I have been waiting for!! The Eclipse Awards are finally upon us. Tonight at 7:00pm, I will be -most likely- the only teenage girl on Earth watching them with undivided attention (and probably the only girl watching them at all, to tell you the truth), fervently hoping for anyone but Big Brown of Rick Dutrow to win an award. Go Curlin or Zenyatta! Ok, so that's not the catchiest chant of the year, but I cna't choose between the two. Also, if I read correctly, Eight Belles -the filly who placed second in the KD this year only to break both front ankles in the cool down- is up for an award. But, then again, I might be wrong. It would probably be the first time a dead horse won an award, if she is up for one and if she does win it.
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Jan. 24, 2009 - Yipee! I've reached 100 entries!
Woo! This is my 100th entry!! To celebrate this momentous occasion, I think I shall right some more about horses. Although, that's something I normally do, so really it wouldn't be very momentous now, would it? I shall have to think of something else..... OoOo! I got it! I will write about the Eclipse awards!! But then I'll write about horses=).
Ok, well if you don't know what the Eclipse awards are, I will now explain. You see, in the mid-to-late 1700s there was this amazing racehorse named Eclipse, who could trace his ancestry back to all three of the original founding sires of Thoroughbreds. 38 years ago, someone decided to create an award that would go to the best racehorses, trainer, owners, breeders, writers, and jockeys of Thoroughbred racing. They also announce the Horse of the Year at the ceremony. This year it will be held on the 26th of January at Fontainblue Hotel in Miami, Florida. Curlin, Zenyatta, and Big Brown are up for the horse of the year award. If Zenyatta was to win, she would be the first mare/filly in a VEEERRRYYYY long time to win it. Even the great mare Personal Ensign didn't quite make the cut, despite her "beating the boys" on numerous occasions. However, since Zenyatta has never even raced against the boys, people are speculating whether or not she deserves to win the award. Also, Peppers Pride-the mare who beat a long-standing consecutive win record formerly held by such horses at Cigar and Citation and Affirmed by accumulating 19 straight wins- is not up for any title at all. I don't think that's fair, really. Sure, Zenyatta was undefeated this year, but she only raced 7 times this year, so really, that's not that great compared to Peppers Pride.
Ok, so that was my celebratory chatter about the Eclipse Awards. Oh, and if you want to see them, you can either go there and pay $350 a person or just watch them on TVG at 7:00pm ET, which is what I'm doing. That's all for now.
Lacy
P.s., Oh, and if you want to take ten people with you to the awards, the price for a table of ten is $3500.
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Jan. 22, 2009 - An award from pony!!
Yeah! Pony just awarded me the "Lemonade" award!
Part of this award is to award other people, so here it goes:
SmartyJones
sunflower8
Angelhorse
QuarterHorseCrazy
Doggydiva24
writer4him
Thanks for the award, pony!!
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Jan. 18, 2009 - New Template!!!
How do you like my new template? I just got bored with the old one and decided that it was time for a change. So I just went on thecutestblogontheblock.com and got myself a new template. It's REALLY easy to change your TCBOTB templates around after the initial set up.
As for horse racing news, Chocolate Candy won the California Derby. Here's his pedigree:
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OK, so it's a little bit squished up, but who cares? The white boxes are mares and the gray boxes are stallions, and the name in each box is the mare or stallion's name. Alanesian comes up twice, which is rare, because normally mares do not come up multiple times in a pedigree.
One interesting thing I found in looking at Share The Court's (aka Romi. He's Jessi's horse) is that he has a full brother named Mr. Court, who hasn't seemingly had a lot of success on the track. Romi raced 20 times and won 9, but he was only paying his keep (called a "breadwinner") and not earning anything above that, so they retired him and retrained him.
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Jan. 13, 2009 - Ouch, ouch, OUCH!!!!
Well, yesterday I got my braces back on. They hurt really bad. The colors I did on them are the barn colors, lol. Then I went to drama class and got a whole song as one of my (so far) two solos. The teacher says I do the song very well.
Since I have had A LOT of comments asking me about my template lately, I will now discuss it. The template I have right now is off of thecutestblogontheblock.com. However, the last time I checked, their site was messed up, but that was a while ago, so it might be fixed now. The thing about the CBOTB templates is that they were designed to go on a BlogSpot blog, not an HSB blog, so that makes it a bit difficult to use it on HSB. It is possible, though, once you know what to do. If you want, I can PM you the code so you can use it on your blog with out all the extra work. If you want to do it yourself, it is easiest to make the change if you first change your template to the "Purple Iris" template HSB offers. From there you only need to adjust 2 or 3 things. If you want to save your widgets/clickies, just copy and paste them onto a word document on your desktop, then once you have made the changes copy and paste the codes back into the correct place in your updated HTML. Hope this helps answer you template questions.
I have also been asked where I get all my race horse info. I get the majority of my info off ntra.com (I have a link to this on my side bar), and for pedigrees I get my info off pedigreequery.com (I also have a link to this on my sidebar). Also, my Nicanor and Triple Crown Talk links go to bloodhorse.com, which is also a good source of info if you want to follow a particular horse or topic.
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