If there is anyone who has worried about the health of our industry more than I have the past 20 years, I feel sorry for that person. Always, it seems, there is bad news: declining attendance, declining handle, offshore wagering issues, drug positives, reduced field size, aging fan base, high-profile breakdowns, diminished soundness of the breed....
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I don't gamble. Shoot, I don't even fill out a March Madness bracket. I do follow the games to see how the seedings play out. The win-or-go-home format makes irrelevant that great artifice of the gambler--the point-spread....
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Why do racing fans coalesce around one horse and not another? Favorability can be as simple as a catchy name (Smarty Jones) or backing an underdog (Funny Cide). ...
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It's amazing that six weeks can go by so quickly, yet also seem like an eternity. Was it just last month, or was it last year when we saw Big Brown bound past us on the Churchill Downs backstretch during a chilly morning in Louisville?...
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No matter what happens in the June 7 Belmont Stakes (gr. I), the 2008 Triple Crown season will always be defined by the triumph and tragedy of the heir apparent crown prince, Big Brown, and the fallen heroine, Eight Belles....
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As a Thoroughbred owner, I stand on the shoulders of giants. Horse racing's tradition and history are like no other. However, in the past 30 years, we've been surpassed by the major sports leagues....
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Recently as I re-read some of the late humorist Frank Sullivan's pieces, I thought what a shame it was that this gifted writer never turned his sights on horse racing, a sport he loved. ...
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Bay Meadows, California's pioneering racetrack, has been this aging fan's delight for nearly my entire lifetime. Now, barring an unlikely last-minute reprieve, it is marching inexorably toward May 11, the final day of its final meeting....
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Stepping down from his Windfields jet, E.P. Taylor bounded across the tarmac into the terminal building, where he pulled up short in front of a vending machine.
"Help me, Joe. I don't have any U.S. change."...
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