Many of you will know Byron Rogers from his 8 years as Stallion Nominations Manager at Arrowfield Stud in the Hunter Valley (or if you missed him there you may have come across him during his various stints in the UK, HK, Ireland - or even a short period at Richmond whilst he worked at The Australian Bloodhorse Review.) Byron and his family now call the USA home after he accepted the role of Director of Stallion Operations at Taylor Made in 2004. Apart from his day job he continues to write for a number of leading thoroughbred publications and as if he didn’t have enough on his plate he recently decided to dip his toe into the blogging waters – the results of which can be seen at the The Pedigree Guru site.

Like Athlone, Pedigree Guru does not allow advertising or accept ‘cash for comment’ (we appear to have started a useful trend). Amusingly perhaps, Byron did hint at the risks of embarking of a project of this nature in an introductory email he sent to readers: “After some consternation regarding the possibility that my ego would be damaged beyond repair if nobody cared to read what I wrote, and some advice from friends and colleagues to the contrary, I have decided to create a weblog, or blog, to discuss my ongoing thoughts on modern thoroughbred pedigrees and other thoroughbred matters”.

Having someone of Byron’s caliber writing a blog will, I expect, do a lot to increase familiarity with this new media medium (most people still look suspicious when the word is mentioned!). I have no doubt that Byron has a filofax that the rest of us would die for, his posts canvass a number of topics that will appeal to a wide audience … and ok, he was also kind enough to throw Athlone a link in his blogroll which was very much appreciated.