Last year was memorable thanks to so many great performances by brilliant thoroughbreds. There were a number of saddening moments, too. Here's a walk down memory lane in a year that went faster than most, unlike some of my selections.
JANUARY: Equine influenza led to the Villiers Stakes being run at a new distance - 1400 metres - and at a different time, and it became a sensational race with Takeover Target first home but losing to Honor In War in the stewards' room. A fortnight later, Eremein was to have his only race of the year, winning the Festival Stakes at Rosehill, the same day Sebring won on debut after missing the start badly.
FEBRUARY: Nathan Tinkler sets the Karaka Sale ring alight, buying 24 yearlings for $NZ6.4million. He followed on at the Melbourne sales a fortnight later with another 24 yearlings for $3.5m. Reann won the Blue Diamond Stakes, giving owner Sheikh Hamdan his third win in the race. British bloodstock agent Sir Philip Payne-Galway passes away.
MARCH: Bob Ingham sells Woodlands to Sheik Mohammed's Darley operation. Weekend Hussler wins his fourth of six group 1 wins as a three-year-old in the VRC Newmarket and follows with the Randwick Guineas. Tinkler's Patinack Farm splurges $19,005,000 on 59 yearlings at the Magic Millions, and Augusta Proud and Clare Lindop win the two-year-olds' classic at the Gold Coast. Amelia's Dream wins the Silver Slipper, only to be diagnosed with a damaged sesamoid and misses the Golden Slipper. Richard Galpin, a regular at the Australian yearling arenas, passes away in Britain aged 71. Top sire Salieri is put down aged 28.
APRIL: Sebring claims the Golden Slipper after a battle with Von Costa De Hero. Weekend Hussler wins the George Ryder Stakes, and Tuesday Joy romps home in the BMW. The Inglis sales are "on fire" as Darley buys 20 yearlings for $19,005,000, Bob Ingham 24 lots for $18,125,000 and Anthony Cummings, mainly for Patinack, securing 18 lots for $7,635,000. The top-priced lot at the Inglis sales was the Redoute's Choice x Salameh colt, sold for $2.7m to Darley; four yearlings sold for $2m or more. Sebring wins the Sires' Produce Stakes; Kiwi Nom Du Jeu takes out the AJC Derby.
MAY: Two of the world's greatest stallions, Storm Cat and Sadler's Wells, retire from stud duties, while Big Brown captures the imagination of US racegoers with his runaway Kentucky Derby win. Sebring's unbeaten record is brought to a halt by Samantha Miss in the Champagne Stakes, No Wine No Song wins the Sydney Cup, and Racing To Win the All Aged Stakes.
JUNE: Viewed wins the Brisbane Cup run over a reduced distance of 2400m for Bart Cummings while at Royal Ascot Aidan O'Brien wins four of the seven group 1 races there, including Haradasun's win in the Queen Anne Stakes. An Australian record is set at Inglis's Newmarket sales, with Coolmore buying the broodmare Milanova for $5m in foal to Encosta De Lago.
JULY: Encosta De Lago is crowned Australian champion stallion for the first time, beating his star-studded rivals by more than $4m in earnings. More Than Ready wins the 2YO premiership by a big margin thanks to the MM win by Augusta Proud and the Golden Slipper by Sebring.
AUGUST: Overseas, Patinack outlays €770,000 for a Galileo yearling at the Deauville Sales. Anthony Cummings wins the Golden Rose with exciting colt Duporth.
SEPTEMBER: Typhoon Zed wins the group 1 Manikato Stakes for Tim Martin at Moonee Valley, and a week later Weekend Hussler makes it group 1 win No.7 in the Underwood Stakes. Curlin becomes the first US horse to break the $US10m prizemoney barrier, at Belmont Park.
OCTOBER: Sheik Mohammed records his first Australian group 1 winner with the success of Sousa in the Spring Champion Stakes at Randwick, and later Godolphin wins the Caulfield Cup with All The Good. Samantha Miss takes the group 1 Flight Stakes to win all four legs in the Princess series. Kiwi Princess Coup recorded her second success in the $NZ2m Kelt Capital Stakes at Hastings. Mark Kavanagh has a great month with group 1 wins by Whobegotyou (Caulfield Guineas) and Maldivian (Cox Plate), and racing loses one of its best administrators in former STC chairman Graeme Pash.
NOVEMBER: It's Flemington spring carnival time and Rebel Raider wins the Victoria Derby at $101 for Clare Lindop. Northern Meteor gets his first group 1 win in the Coolmore Stud Stakes with the promise of more to come. On the following Tuesday, Bart Cummings does it again with his 12th Melbourne Cup win with Viewed, ridden by Blake Shinn. Aidan O'Brien's three-pronged assault to win the Cup is a major disappointment but the trainer wins 23 group 1 races in Europe for the season. Curlin is retired from racing to stand at Lane's End Farm in Kentucky, and the economic downturn takes its toll on yearling and foal prices at the Goffs, Tattersalls and Kentucky sales.
DECEMBER: Valerie Smith, wife of Tommy Smith and mother of Gai Waterhouse, passes away. The Australian Racing Board reveals that major bloodstock auctions throughout Australia brought in $524m during the year, while at the HK International Sale held at Sha Tin the prices are down but a colt by Redoute's Choice sells for more than $1m. The Villiers, which is the way the year started, is won in the closest of finishes by Chris Munce's mount Something Anything, who beat Hey Elvis.
That was the year that was and what are the horses that Bloodlines expects to capture the headlines this year? Samantha Miss, Whobegotyou, Rebel Raider, Northern Meteor and the Peter Snowden-trained Desuetude are the three-year-olds that should make the Sydney autumn carnival a success; the older brigade include Weekend Hussler, Maldivian, Tuesday Joy, Racing To Win, All Silent, Viewed and the Kiwi stayer Nom Du Jeu. The best two-year-old Bloodlines has seen to date is the Hawkes-trained Real Saga, the Breeders Plate winner, but it is still early days to try to predict the Golden Slipper so far away. However, for the time being, Real Saga will certainly do.
US SUCCESS: Darley's Australian-bred shuttler Exceed And Excel scored his first black-type success in America last weekend with the win by his son Flashman's Papers in the listed Eddie Logan Stakes at Santa Anita.
Exceed and Excel had a superb weekend of racing in three continents, while Flashman's Papers, earlier in the year won as a 100-1 shot at the Royal Ascot meeting, has a record of three wins and two thirds in two continents.
On the home front, Lee Freedman's Exceedingly French made it two out of two when a decisive winner of the listed St Albans Stakes at Moonee Valley last Saturday night and is being tipped as a likely star performer during the autumn. At Southwell in Britain, the two-year-old Hellbender gave Exceed And Excel his 22nd first crop winner of last year, an effort that has cemented his credentials as a stallion in Europe.
HAT-TRICK: Lonhro, a stud-mate of Exceed And Excel at Darley, was another young sire which added to his list of recent winners with another hat-trick during the Christmas holiday weekend.
It began at Randwick on Boxing Day when the Sheik Mohammed-owned Serenissima scored her second successive win in an eye-catching display after being forced to race three wide for most of the trip. Peter Snowden has a high opinion of the filly and she is another which will be given the chance to show her mettle against stronger opposition in the autumn.
Lonhro's two other winners were on Sunday with Chaste, a $100,000 2007 Magic Millions yearling buy, on her debut, at Scone for trainer Greg Bennett, while at Ellerslie in New Zealand Royal Dude broke through for his first win after three successive placings for trainer Steven McKee. He was passed in at the 2007 Inglis sales for $130,000, just $10,000 short of his reserve. Darley stands the leading three second-season sires in the premiership with Reset in advance of Exceed And Excel and Lonhro, with the trio all enjoying marvellous 2008-09 seasons.
FRANKEL'S MILESTONE: Another noteworthy performance at Santa Anita last weekend was by Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, who prepared his 900th winner at the Californian track on Sunday with Proudinsky's victory in the group 2 San Gabriel Handicap. Frankel is a brilliant horseman who has been one of the country's best conditioners for many years.
SAD LOSS: Emirates Park-owned stallion Secret Savings was humanely destroyed after suffering laminitis earlier this week at the age of 16. The 1997 Doncaster Handicap winner enjoyed a highly successful stud career in the Hunter Valley siring top-class performers Shamekha and budding sire prospect Dash For Cash. His current promising gallopers include Caymans, Swiss Ace and Acorns. johnhollysenior@yahoo.com.au