Tom Law

Northview Stallion Station‘s Not For Love has been a perennial leading sire for more than a decade and the veteran son of Mr. Prospector showed no signs of slowing down with a stakes trifecta Dec. 6.

Rare is the opportunity for an athlete at the top of their game to go out on top. Leave the game a winner. Quit while they’re ahead.

The signs of winter are everywhere. The snow’s already fallen – some places more than others – in the Northeast. Thanksgiving Day, Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals replaced by countdown clocks showing the number of shopping days to Christmas. Vans and tractor trailers picking up and moving horses, taking them to warmer places this time of year than New York, Maryland, Kentucky and Illinois.

Tapit has been hogging headlines all year, Giant’s Causeway has been especially hot in recent weeks and Unbridled’s Song has emerged as an elite broodmare sire. Those three trends continued over a stakes-packed Thanksgiving weekend in North America.

Most Turf writers would give just about anything to add an Eclipse Award trophy to a collection of keepsakes, a reminder of singular accomplishment for doing the work that you love.

Thanksgiving weekend is in the books and with it the 19 graded stakes races that were run at five tracks from Aqueduct to Del Mar and several points in between.

Bob Baffert watched the race from a suite at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena as he took in a key Pac-12 college football showdown Saturday between two rivals. Across the country in Louisville, co-owner Mike Pegram watched from the stands at Churchill Downs. They both saw the same thing, an improving colt redeem himself at the place many thought he’d be earlier this spring.

Racing fans should give those Thanksgiving leftovers a break and skip that early Christmas shopping at the mall to soak in a day to remember, the last Saturday of November and the last serious day of the year.