Inside BloodHorse.com

Stallion Register Online Adds Video, Other Enhancements

2009-09-09T19:00:00Z

In my The Five-Cross Files blog, I recently wrote about a few Stallion Register Online enhancements that will make the Thoroughbred stallion directory even more useful. Here are the highlights:

Video: If you're interested in a stallion, it's only natural that you'll want to see his top performers. The Stallion Register Online (SRO) now links to free video replays of recent winners and stakes-placed runners for all featured stallions.
More video: For younger stallions, you'll also find videos of their best wins. We currently link to races from 2007 and later -- and we'll add older races soon.
Inbreeding notation: Throughout the SRO and other products from The Blood-Horse, you'll notice that we've standardized our inbreeding style to include "S" (sire) and "D" (dam) notations.
Race purses: You asked for information on purses -- they're often an indicator of race quality -- and we delivered.
Race distances: This is another reader request. We've now standardized our format for displaying race distances. No more "1 1/2 miles" for the Belmont Stakes (gr. I), for example -- it's now "12 furlongs."
Bluebloods partnership: The Blood-Horse is proud to partner with the Australian Thoroughbred stallion directory Bluebloods (stallions.com.au). You'll find a Bluebloods roster on our home page and our search results now include stallions in Australia and New Zealand. Combined with our similar partnership with Europe's Weatherbys Stallion Book, The Stallion Register Online is the best international Thoroughbred stallion reference.

Head over to The Five-Cross Files for more detailed information, or find your favorite Thoroughbred sires at Stallion Register Online.

Twitter is Your Friend!

2009-07-23T17:56:00Z

By Chris Dawahare

When I was first introduced to Twitter several months ago, my initial reaction was "Yawn". After testing the waters for about two weeks, my seconday reaction was an even bigger yawn. Then, just as I was about to put a nail in the Twitter coffin, I discovered Tweet Deck (more on Tweet Deck a little later). I can't take credit for finding Tweet Deck; I'll give those honors to two of our technology leaders: Luther Andal and Courtney Bearse. They forced me to download and install the software, and after two days of using it, I was hooked. I officially became a Twitter geek.

So, what is Twitter and why should you care? According to Tweeternet.com, Twitter can be defined as:

Twitter is a social networking and microblogging service that allows you answer the question, "What are you doing?" by sending short text messages 140 characters in length, called "tweets", to your friends, or "followers."

The short format of the tweet is a defining characteristic of the service, allowing informal collaboration and quick information sharing that provides relief from rising email and IM fatigue. Twittering is also a less gated method of communication: you can share information with people that you wouldn't normally exchange email or IM messages with, opening up your circle of contacts to an ever-growing community of like-minded people.

Your tweets are displayed on your profile page and on the home page of each of your followers.

If you cut through all of the technical jargon, Twitter can basically be defined as a platform for easily gathering and disseminating information. In my experience, Twitter can be a viable resource for every publisher, blogger, or online news outlet. It is a great way for news services to get their information out to the people.

Individuals who are just using Twitter to post updates on their personal lives will eventually go away. In my opinion, Twitter has no future in that regard. However, more and more people are using Twitter to receive the news and information that interests them, and then sharing that information with the rest of their peers. This the way Twitter is supposed to be used, and it's also the reason you should care about it.

At the Blood-Horse, we currently offer a variety of Twitter feeds that may be of interest to Thoroughbred enthusiasts:

www.twitter.com/BloodHorse - Stay up-to-date on all the latest Thoroughbred news.

www.twitter.com/BH_RaceResults - Receive real-time domestic results for maiden, allowance, and stakes races.

www.twitter.com/BH_SaleUpdates - Receive real-time sales updates from Online Editor Ron Mitchell and other TBH staff members.

www.twitter.com/JasonShandler - Blood-Horse Staff Writer Jason Shandler talks racing.

www.twitter.com/lordatwar - The Blood-Horse's Tom Hall keeps you updated on the latest International happenings, including results from major stakes.

www.twitter.com/BH_MaidenWatch - The Maiden Watch blog follows the offspring of selected 1st-crop sires.

www.twitter.com/BH_AdamsTurf - See the industry from the eyes of Adam Spradling, an industry newbie.

If you are following one of the feeds listed above, you can be notified immediately every time a story is posted on BloodHorse.com, a race result is available, or a new sale topper is announced. Twitter allows you to access this content via your desktop, text message, email, or mobile device. Accessing the news and information that you're interested in has never been this convenient.

You can choose to follow as many people on Twitter as you would like, which allows you to aggregate all of your news sources into a single platform.

As mentioned earlier, there are a variety of 3^rd party solutions that make sending and receiving tweets a piece of cake. Here are a few of the most popular:

Tweet Deck - Available for your desktop or iPhone

Seesmic - Available for your desktop

Twhirl - Available for your desktop

Twitter Berry - For Blackberry users

Okay students, this concludes your lesson for today. Unfortunately, you have a homework assignment. You need to give Twitter a try for at least three weeks, and you must follow these three simple instructions:

Step 1: Create a Twitter account. Sign-up at http://www.twitter.com

Step 2: Log-in to Twitter using your username and password. Once you are logged in, you can start selecting people that you want to follow. Since the search function in Twitter is not very user-friendly, I recommend the following -

Copy and paste each of these urls into your browser window and click "Follow" after each page loads.

http://twitter.com/BloodHorse

http://twitter.com/BH_RaceResults (only add this if you are very interested in race results!)

www.twitter.com/lordatwar

http://twitter.com/racingpost

http://twitter.com/equineline

http://twitter.com/BH_MaidenWatch

http://twitter.com/joedrape

http://twitter.com/PedigreeReports

http://twitter.com/TBABlogs

http://twitter.com/NTRA

Step 3: Go to http://www.tweetdeck.com/ or one of the other third party applications mentioned earlier and download their free software. Once the program has installed and launched, it should ask for your Twitter username and password. Enter your information and enjoy the ride.

Just give it two weeks. Who knows, you may turn into a Twitter geek yourself.

Expanded Race Replay Videos at your Fingertips

2009-04-19T17:16:00Z

For those of you who love watching the race replay videos on BloodHorse.com, we have good news for you. The 7 day viewing restriction has been removed; race replay videos will now be available for free viewing at any point in time. In addition, we've greatly expanded the amount of videos being offered on BloodHorse.com. Stakes, Allowance, and Maiden races have all been added to the site.

Also new, every video can be seen in full-screen mode if that's your preference. While watching a video, simply click on the full-screen icon (it's a gray square with four diagonal arrows) and the video player will expand to the full width of your computer screen. Give it a try; we think you'll be pleasantly surprised with the video quality!

You can access all of our race results, along with the replay videos, at the all-new Racing Results page. Just use the tabs to navigate through the various race types.

Triple Crown Talk Goes Live!

2009-03-04T21:42:00Z

This Saturday, March 7th, BloodHorse.com will host its first ever live blog. Join host Jason Shandler for a live version of his Triple Crown Talk blog from noon to 1 p.m. EDT. In this engaging new chat room-style format, comments will be posted instantaneously as fans ask Jason questions and debate the potential outcomes of upcoming Kentucky Derby prep races. Racing enthusiasts are invited to provide their handicapping tips for the the Gotham Stakes (gr. III) from Aqueduct, as well as Big ‘Cap day from Santa Anita Park.

To participate, visit: http://cs.bloodhorse.com/blogs/triplecrowntalk/default.aspx this Saturday at noon.

Live blogging is something you're going to start seeing a lot more of on BloodHorse.com. While regular blogging does provide a communication outlet for our readers and editorial personalities, the live chat aspect takes it to an entirely new level. Jason will host a live blog every Saturday from noon to 1 p.m. during the Triple Crown season. On some days he will be joined by notable professional handicappers as live guests to help fans analyze all of the thrilling racing action.

If there's a guest you would like to see invited to participate in a future live blog, we want to hear about it. Just use the comment form below to submit your suggestion.

Please Excuse our Mess

2009-02-26T10:59:00Z

By Chris Dawahare

Remember the old days when you would arrive at a website only to see an ugly "Under Construction" image? Sometimes I feel like we need to permanently add this icon to BloodHorse.com. You may not have noticed, but our website has undergone some major changes over the past few months. And, there is a lot more to come. Some changes have been obvious, others more subtle, but hopefully they have all been for the better.

Inside BloodHorse.com is a blog intended to educate our readers on how to use some of the new features, and most importantly, a forum for our readers to express their likes and dislikes. If we make a change to BloodHorse.com that you really love - or hate - we want to hear about it.

So, without further ado, here are some of the latest features that we've recently rolled out on BloodHorse.com:

Article Tags - When reading an article on BloodHorse.com, you've probably noticed an area on the sidebar called "Tags". So, what exactly is a tag? I'll leave it up to the Wikipedia experts to explain in detail, but it's basically a way of grouping similar content together. If you click on a tag that you're interested in, you will be taken to a page (view sample) that shows every article on BloodHorse.com that contains that tag ("keyword" is another term you might be familiar with). It's a quick and easy way to access content on a particular topic that you're interested in.

Article Aggregation Pages - We know that a lot of our readers only want to see the news when they come to BloodHorse.com. Time is at a premium these days, and we understand that some of you may want to stop just to see the latest news. In its current format, BloodHorse.com really doesn't lend itself to that sort of browsing behavior. Taking that into consideration, we've created seven new pages that are designed for those individuals who want the news, and nothing but the news.

ALL articles - http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/

Today's Headlines - http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/section/top-headlines

Racing - http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/section/thoroughbred-racing

Auction - http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/section/thoroughbred-sales

Triple Crown Mania - http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/section/triple-crown

Steve Haskin's Kentucky Derby Trail - http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/tag/kentucky-derby-trail

Breeding - http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/section/thoroughbred-breeding

International - http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/articles/section/international

If you like what you see here, there's no need to try and memorize any of these url's. You can simply bookmark these pages or save them as one of your favorites for quick access in the future.

Video Player (launching next week) - With our new video player, content syndication is now an option for most of our videos. If you want to embed a video in your blog post, you can simply get the "embed code" and go. There is also an "Email a Friend" option and a "Get Link" option. Future enhancements are planned, so be sure to keep your eye out for those.

Auctions Database - The all-new Auctions channel provides a faster, more convenient way to get the valuable information you're looking for. We've also given the channel a completely new look -- if you haven't already done so, please take a look and let us know what you think. And, the Auctions channel now features FREE access to the comprehensive Auctions Database.

Equineline Report icon - You may have recently a noticed a tiny little icon next to every stallion name. This denotes an Equineline report; if you click on the icon, you will immediately be taken to the Equineline report page for that particular stallion. In the past, it took three clicks to get from a BloodHorse.com article to an Equineline report. Now, you can get there in just one click.

More changes are on the way, so it's probably a good idea to keep your hard hats on for awhile. We hope you like what we've done thus far, but if you have any suggestions on how we can improve things, please let us know. We would love to hear from you!

Chris Dawahare is the Digital Media Operations Manager for Blood-Horse Publications.