Bloodhorse.com “Talkin’ Horses” will offer Thoroughbred industry enthusiasts two engaging chat sessions on Thursday, September 13. First, pedigree devotees are invited to join pedigree analyst and award-winning author Avalyn Hunter online at www.bloodhorse.com/talkinhorses at 10 A.M. ET. On the eve of her newest release, Gold Rush: How Mr. Prospector Became Racing's Billion-Dollar Sire, published by Eclipse Press, Hunter joins bloodhorse.com “Talkin’ Horses” for an informative discussion of the impact of Mr. Prospector on the breed. Gold Rush is available for pre-order through ExclusivelyEquine.com.
Next, at 3 P.M. ET, Starlight Racing Team principals Jack Wolf and Donald Lucarelli visit Talkin' Horses "live" from the site of the 2007 Keeneland Yearling Sale as they discuss their current and past on-track successes -- with such noted runners as Harlan's Holiday, Keyed Entry, and Octave -- as well as their activities at the sale, where Starlight will be offering partnerships in the yearlings they acquire for the first time. Both of Thursday's editions of Talkin’ Horses are sponsored by AIRshod.
About Avalyn Hunter:
Hunter began studying pedigrees at age 15, beginning with Sir Charles Leicester’s classic work Bloodstock Breeding, which detailed the pedigrees of winners of the Derby Stakes during the first half of the 20th century. Twenty-five years later, Sir Charles’ book served as a model and inspiration for Hunter’s first book, American Classic Pedigrees 1914-2002. Covering the race records, antecedents, and descendants of the winners of the American Triple Crown races plus the Kentucky Oaks and Coaching Club American Oaks for fillies, the massive work took some two years to write and was released in May 2003 by Eclipse Press.
Since the release of American Classic Pedigrees, Hunter has continued to write extensively about Thoroughbred pedigrees and racing history in trade publications. Her second book, a biography of the great sire Northern Dancer, is titled The Kingmaker: How Northern Dancer Founded a Racing Dynasty and was released in April 2006 also by Eclipse Press. Hunter has hopes of eventually writing a novel and is the author of the short fiction pieces “The Passing of the Torch” and “The Foundation,” both of which were award winners in the Thoroughbred Times Biennial Fiction Contest.
A former Air Force officer, Hunter is a graduate of Vanderbilt University (B.A, psychology) and Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville (M.A., clinical psychology) and has worked as a mental health professional since 1993. She lives in Florida with her husband and two children.
About Starlight Racing Team:
Longtime racing fans Jack and Laurie Wolf founded Starlight Stables in 2000 when they purchased six yearlings at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky July sale. Among the group was a bay colt by Harlan that developed into multiple grade 1 winner Harlan’s Holiday and launched Starlight into racing’s stratosphere.
A native of Louisville, Ky., Jack earned a master’s degree in economics from Murray State University in Kentucky and went on to teach and become a hedge fund manager with Columbus Partners in Atlanta before retiring to concentrate on racing. Born in DeRidder, La., Laurie graduated from McNeese State University with a degree in communications and theater. The couple resides in Louisville and Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
Donald and Barbara Lucarelli live in upstate New York and have spent part of every summer for three decades at Saratoga Race Course, envisioning the day when they might have their own racehorses. When Donald Lucarelli’s family business, Bellevue Builders Supply, was sold in 2004, the couple decided to invest in some runners. They turned to the Wolfs, whom they had met at a party the year before, and immediately scored with grade 2 winner Keyed Entry. In 2006, the Lucarellis were able to enjoy their first Saratoga stakes winner and first Breeders’ Cup starter with Starlight’s Octave, who has blossomed into a multiple grade 1 winner this year.
