Inside BloodHorse.com

Enhanced National Stakes Conditions Book Coming

aspradling — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 18:41:00 GMT

For at least 18 years The Blood-Horse has been providing the industry with its most comprehensive schedule of stakes races in the National Stakes Conditions Book quarterly supplement.

We've faced challenges for a couple of years now in compiling the NSCB because racetracks have begun waiting closer and closer to the start of their meets to set race schedules and purses. With a quarterly print product, if a racetrack didn't have its schedule locked in by the deadline then another three months had to pass before the information could be incorporated with the rest of the year's stakes schedule. Granted, we have continually add stakes dates to the calendar on BloodHorse.com but it is certainly more convenient for trainers and owners to have the most current information in one place.

Well, a better NSCB is coming soon.

We've created a simple, easy-to-navigate Web-based version of the NSCB. The clean design makes it as easy to use on a mobile device as it will be on a desktop computer. Races will be simple to find by date range, racetrack, age or sex of the runner, distance, or even by racing surface. For trainers in the Mid-Atlantic region who ship to multiple tracks, they can search for upcoming stakes--by their race dates or their nominations closing dates--for the entire region. Special icons let trainers and owners know which races are restricted stakes, races restricted by state-bred status, or are part of the Breeders' Cup Challenge series. An "Edit Search" feature makes it easy to modify any search criteria to find the right races, with the right conditions, at the right time.

Some people may be accustomed to using the PDF version of our NSCB, maybe even prefer this format. We urge everyone to give the online tool a try. We think once you've used it a few times, you'll see the immediate benefits. The biggest benefit is the immediate availablility of the most current information. As soon as we get it, you get it. No more waiting.

Keep visiting BloodHorse.com every day as we'll be announcing soon when this powerful new online service will be available

Once you've tried it, let us know what you think. We recognize that anything can be improved, so we'd love to hear from you.

Good luck and good racing,

Eric Mitchell
Editorial Director

A New, Improved Stallion Register Coming Soon

EJMitchellKy — Sat, 03 Dec 2011 20:32:00 GMT

By now, the The Blood-Horse's online Stallion Register has been updated with stud fees and farm information for the 2012 breeding season. The data "roll-over" as we've come to known it since the digital Stallion Register was launched in 2003 is extremely important to stallion owners and much-anticipated by breeders who rely on it as a valuable research tool.

Timing the roll-over in the recent past has been particularly tricky, as we try to walk the line between when farms are ready to release their information and when breeders need the information. Last year, with so much uncertainty still in the commercial market, farms needed to wait deep into November before setting their stud fees. Meanwhile, breeders were clamoring for information at the beginning of the month.

What the industry now needs, we realized earlier in the year, is a digital Stallion Register that no longer depends on a roll-over, and we dedicated the resources to making it happen. But this feature is only one of many improvement you'll soon see in the new Stallion Register.

Coming soon, you'll be able to view a much easier to read and functional Stallion Register with:

enhanced information for "Current Top Performers Worldwide" and "Recent North American Winners and Stakes Performers." We've added track IDs, race type, purse, date, distance and final times for all race results,
the flexibility to add new stallions at any time of the year and show the most current stud fee whether the fee has been announced in October or December,
improved video access through a built-in player that can handle promotional video from a farm or race replays of a stallion's top performers,
real-time updates on the stallon page headline tool, and
lists by sire of their progeny entered in upcoming sales.

You'll see the classic SRO right now, but start looking soon for a link on the home page that will take you to the new, improved digital Stallion Register. Look around the new site and let us know what you like and whether you see anything that should be added or improved further.

With more video, more information and convenient links to social media outlets Twitter and Facebook, we think you'll like what you see.

Eric Mitchell

Editorial Director

Video Portal Makeover - New Searchable Race Replay Video

aspradling — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 20:15:00 GMT

Video Portal Makeover

BloodHorse.com has released an update to the BloodHorse.com video portal. Upgrades include the ability to search for any Race Replay of your choice and a new tab organization structure. New tabs that have been added include International Video and News Video sections.

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/videos

Other recent additions to the BloodHorse.com video portal include the ability to search all videos and view a video archive listing of all videos posted on BloodHorse.com; listed newest to oldest by posting date.

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/videos/list

Race Replay Tab

Inside the video portal, the very last listing in the gray tabs under “More Video” says “Race Replays.” Click on “Race Replays” to see the race replay search tool entitled “Narrow Results.”

You may manually enter a desired beginning and ending date or choose from the pop-up calendar. Note there is a replay search limit of 30 days. This means if you select over thirty days worth of races, you will be asked to narrow or refine your search.

You may select a race type. Note that our results are limited to races worth $20,000 or more.

You may select a track, track abbreviations are beside the track names.

You may select a state-bred status.

Once all desired information is set, simply click the “Apply” button and your results should display to the right of the “Narrow Results” options.

If you would like to favorite/bookmark our race replays search tool, I would suggest using the following link. This link is a stand alone page for the race replays search tool.

http://www.bloodhorse.com/horse-racing/videos/race-replays

International Video

We have heard your voices and returned with international video content. Features of our favorite international horses, farms, industry members and of course event coverage from races and meets from around the globe.

Events already covered include the Irish Derby and Royal Ascot. With more special features airing monthly.

IMPORTANT Website and Blog Stable Update: FREE Site Registration

aspradling — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 14:51:00 GMT

IMPORTANT Website and Blog Stable Update: FREE Site Registration

BloodHorse.com has launched free site registration to give regular users free unlimited access to hundreds of free reports, race results, webcasts, and more. One of the benefits of a free account is simplified blog commenting. Please take a few minutes to read below to find out how it works and how to set up your free account for easier commenting.

As a member on BloodHorse.com you can:
•   Get unlimited access to hundreds of pages of free reports
•   Get daily race result alerts by email
•   Sign up to receive free daily and weekly newsletters about Thoroughbred racing and breeding
•   View free webcasts about Thoroughbred racing, ownership, and more
•   Share your thoughts with the industry by commenting on blog posts
•   Get full access to thousands of sales results from BloodHorse.com’s online auctions database

How commenting has changed:

Previously, users to did not have to login to comment. Recently, BloodHorse.com implemented free registration on the site, allowing users to create a free account in order to gain unlimited access to hundreds of free reports, receive free race results, and many other free benefits. Free registration makes it easier for you to leave comments on the blogs you visit. Now, instead of signing in each time you want to comment, you can register for a free BloodHorse.com account and stay logged in so you can comment freely.

Your screen name is a unique name you choose to identify yourself on BloodHorse.com to other users. It will appear when commenting on items, like blogs, across the site. Please make sure that you are comfortable with your screen name before you complete registration. If you would like to change your screen name later, you may do so in your account settings.

Registration:

When you do register for your free BloodHorse.com account, be sure to create your account using your own personal email address. A verification email will be sent to the email you provide in order to complete your registration and activate your account. If you don’t click on the activation link in the email you receive, you will not have the ability to comment on blogs.

1. Register/Log-In
2. Visit the desired blog
3. Leave Comment

Below: BloodHorse.com log-in screen

Forgot Your Password?

Click on the "Reset it here" link when prompted to log-in to BloodHorse.com. An email will be sent to the email you registered with, so be sure to double check your email when entering it upon registration.

Newsletters and Alerts:

You can find our many daily, weekly, special newsletters and multiple types of alerts, including NEW racing result options, under "Email Preferences" in your BloodHorse.com account settings.

Below: "My Account" view. Click on "Email Preferences" on this screen.

Below: Newsletter and Alert Sign-up page.
As seen if "Email Preferences" is clicked on above.

Below: What your site registration screen will look like.

Facebook and Blog Changes 3/8/2011

aspradling — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 19:22:00 GMT

By Adam Spradling, Web Producer, Digital Designer and Blogger at The Blood-Horse.

As Facebook is ever evolving, we also need to evolve with Facebook. If you are an active member in our Facebook community, you have already noticed these efforts.

For almost two years we have had 5,000 friends and 1,000+ requests awaiting approval and a continuous stream of requests coming in. These numbers show how many of you want to be involved and are humbling in volume. We value you, so enter the transition...

Our Friend/Personal Profile for Blood-Horse is going away today. Here is the official announcement we have used the past two weeks:

On March 9 we will be disabling this Blood-Horse Publications friend page. This is necessary maintenance as we’ve reached the Facebook limit of 5,000 friends/fans for this type of profile. Please visit our new fan page www.facebook.com/TheBloodHorse and “Like” us. We will keep you updated on all of the latest information in the industry. Thanks everybody! We'll see you at www.facebook.com/TheBloodHorse

We do have two Fan Pages, the "old" fan page is going to now be utilized as our Blood-Horse Publications corporate umbrella, which is named "Blood-Horse Publications" after all =). The content from BloodHorse.com and The Blood-Horse will now be regularly posted at our new fan page, Facebook.com/TheBloodHorse. The Blood-Horse fan page is already rearing to go, it has acquired 2,000+ fans in two weeks! You all rock our socks off!

Please come join the conversations with the racing fans, industry members and other people on our fan page!

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This week will mark a change in our blog stable. The Blood-Horse magazine feature, Final Turn, is being modified into a more profile like feature named The Winner's Circle. Online, Final Turn will be turning a new leaf as we start posting The Winner's Circle as a blog and discontinue Final Turn.

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A shout out to TheHorse.com who recently was voted BEST international use of Twitter in the Equestrian Social Media Awards. Yesterday TheHorse.com also won third place for BEST use of Facebook, international.

Megan Arszman explains,

"What’s great about this was when the ESMAs were first started, Facebook fans nominated their favorites for the different categories. At first it was meant for the UK, but then quickly expanded internationally. The group took the top ten nominees (they have a UK/Ireland category and International category) and then started the voting process, which lasted from mid-January to mid-February. This was all user-generated. We (TH.com) did a little bit of campaigning, but not as much as some of the others, which may be a good testament to our current, and growing, presence in social media."

Researching A Race Horse?

aspradling — Wed, 29 Dec 2010 20:23:00 GMT

By Adam Spradling, Web Producer, Digital Designer and Blogger at The Blood-Horse.

BloodHorse.com offers a deep pool of tools to use if you are trying to research a current race horse. Especially if the horse is in graded stakes competition.

Here is a brief guide to tools on BloodHorse.com that could aide in anything from a school paper to discovering your next claim.

Search: Our search tool is improved, if you type the race name or horse name you are looking for, then articles with those specific words will appear. You can add quotations around words you specifically want to enhance the search even more.

For example type "Rachel" "Alexandra" for those two words to be keyed and bring up articles or media that contains those two specific words mentioned. If you are looking for a specific statement and not individual words, try "Rachel Alexandra" as a phrase in quotations.

Horse Profiles: Horse profiles are neat and robust. By finding an individual horse profile you can see any stories or media related to the desired horse. Included in the profile are the horse's pedigree, auctions history, biography, photos (that you can often order) and in some cases custom tabs.

Once a week we try to highlight an athelete's profile through our newsletters or homepage, so keep an eye out for those. The exclusive weekly pedigree analysis we have on BloodHorse.com tend to also highlight a current race horse and will involve their profile, history and pedigree.
To see a listing of our Pedigree Analyses visit here.

Horse Profile Examples:
Twirling Candy has a bio and pedigree, as well as photos from past races and news articles and multimedia associated with Twirling candy, which appear beneath the bio/pedigree tab. "Related Articles" would be the heading to look for.
Zenyatta and Uncle Mo horse profiles have custom tabs with video race replays.

You can also search alphabetically on the Horse Profiles search page. If the horse has been racing in the past few years there is a good chance that horse has a profile.

Race Profiles: As a companion to our horse profiles, we have race profiles. One set is for entries, the other for results of a race. You can see the order of finish, race details, and the horse names are linked if they have a Horse Profile or are on StallionRegister.com. Often you can find the race replays and payoffs included as a tab on race profile pages.

Race Entries
Race Results
Race Profile Result: La Brea

Racing Leaders: Want to learn who the leading earners are for the year? Here is a link to our tabbed lists of Racing Leaders.

Of course you can always visit our racing page to find a top 10 list of top horse profiles being viewed by our users. Many other tools exist on the racing page for researching race horses.

Our Breeding / Sire Lists and Auctions Lists / Sales topic pages also hold tools for learning of auctions and breeding trends.

Then there is the old reliable database for new and old sires on StallionRegister.com for example Eskendereya. Remember there are no mares in the Stallion Register, such as Zenyatta or Ginger Punch.

At Your Fingertips: Access to more Blood-Horse insight.

aspradling — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 14:16:00 GMT

By Adam Spradling, Web Producer, Digital Designer and Blogger at The Blood-Horse.

Do you know how to follow The Blood-Horse outside of our wonderful website?
The news, features, video, images and blogs do not stop at the article level for us on BloodHorse.com. Our staff allows for further immersion and farther reach into our industry.

Your first stop may want to be our Community page on BloodHorse.com. This is a one stop shop for a quick glance into our website community and social media platforms.

Have you ever wondered why a comment was unapproved or deleted?
Take a look at our Community Policy page.

Follow and learn more everyday with our staff beyond the BloodHorse.com borders.
Listed in alphabetical order.

Adam Spradling: Adam offers a fan vs insider view on the industry.
Blog: Adam's Turf
Twitter: BH_AdamsTurf

Anne Eberhardt: Anne is our photographer and is amazing! She has recently started sharing her passion in exclusive photos in a unique photo blog format.
Blog: Through the Lens

Blood-Horse Staff:
Blog:
- Final Turn
- Industry Voices
- Inside BloodHorse.com
- Maiden Watch
- Market Watch
- TrueNicks
- What's Going on Here
Twitter:
@BloodHorse - News from The Blood-Horse
@BH_RaceResults - Race Results from The Blood-Horse
@BH_MaidenWatch - Follow a select few first year Sires and their offspring. In depth and exciting.
@TrueNicks - TrueNicks is a nicking product that provides very valuable pedigree information.

Dede Biles: Dede covers many auctions around the world and has a deep well of knowledge to pull from.
Blog: Hammer Time

Esther Marr: Esther is a staff writer who loves the athletes in the horse industry and wants to give you behind the scenes access.
Blog: Beyond the Blinkers
Twitter: @EstherMarr

Eric Mitchell: Eric provides excellent industry insight and commentary.
Twitter: @EJMitchellKy

Jason Shandler: Jason is a staff writer who knows the game. He can handicap or provide valuable insight into this fun industry.
Blogs:
- Breeders' Cup Chat
- Triple Crown Talk
Twitter: @JasonShandler

Scot Gillies: Scot is a staff member who is fascinated by pedigrees. Listen to what he has to say when you want your next champion.
Blog: The Five-Cross Files

Stephanie Church: Equine health and welfare will never be the same with her team's coverage.
Twitter: @StephLChurch

Steve Haskin: Steve's knowledge on Thoroughbred racing is as close to as unlimited as you can get.
Blog: Hangin' with Haskin and Steve Haskin's Derby Dozen

Tom Hall: Tom is a staff member who has a data bank of history which he uses to explain our industry. He often follows horse sales from across the globe in his tweets.
Twitter: @lordatwar

Tom Lamarra: Tom enjoys discussion about the state of the industry and those making decisions in it.
Blog: At Large
Twitter: @JerseyTom

We also include thoughts from people around the industry, outside of The Blood-Horse.
Blogs:
- Alex Waldrop Straight Up
- The Racing Hub
- Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance
- Tracking Barbaro's Brothers
- Vic Zast Saratoga Diary

For a full Blog listing, visit here.

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Facebook

The Blood-Horse Page: Come join us on our page! We post special promotions, sometimes unique to Facebook, blogs, video and other content here. We typically do not use our Facebook profile, due to the friend limitations.

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Living a mobile life style? These may help.

Mobile Service
The Blood-Horse Digital Edition
Newsletters
Stallion Register Online
The Blood-Horse Source Online
The Blood-Horse Photo Store

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Slideshows
Videos
Free Exclusive Special Reports

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RSS Feeds: You can plug this feed into your Yahoo or Google accounts to see a stream of our news.

Kentucky Derby Week

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 19:04:00 GMT

The "greatest two minutes in sports" will be preceded by the greatest week in sports at BloodHorse.com. With expanded video segments and our award-winning news, BloodHorse.com has the Kentucky Derby covered! BloodHorse.com starts the week with daily video news reports and features and weaves in throughout the next six days insightful "on-the-spot" analysis, exhaustive "wire-to-wire" news and breaking information, and the best blogs and most memorable photographs in the business.

Highlights of BloodHorse.com's Kentucky Derby week coverage include:

Exclusive Video from Churchill Downs

Get a behind-the-scenes feel for the anticipation and excitement leading up to the Kentucky Derby. Watch candid interviews, analysis, and exclusive video from the morning works, and enjoy a daily news minute with those on the Triple Crown trail. As an added bonus, all Triple Crown video is viewable on your iPhone!

New Episodes of "And They're Off" and "That Handicapping Show"

Special Kentucky Derby editions of "And They're Off" and "That Handicapping Show" deliver more entertaining, engaging, and unmatched coverage of the 136th Kentucky Derby. "And They're Off" is hosted by veteran Blood-Horse turf writers Lenny Shulman and Steve Haskin, who will be reporting from historic Churchill Downs. "That Handicapping Show", hosted by Blood-Horse racing writer Jason Shandler and Blood-Horse news editor Tom LaMarra, will offer a comprehensive preview of the Kentucky Derby.

"Morning Line" Live Blog

A fan-favorite, "The Morning Line" returns, this time as a live blog. Join Jason Shandler and other Blood-Horse staff members on Friday, April 30th and Saturday, May 1st for a live chat from Churchill Downs. Each day's live chat will begin at 12:00 p.m. and will run until 2:00 pm. This is your chance to gear up for the Kentucky Derby and the Kentucky Oaks with the rest of the BloodHorse.com community.

Special Report: Kentucky Derby 136 Contenders - Pedigree Profiles & Sire Analysis

This exclusive BloodHorse.com report takes an in-depth look at the pedigrees of this year's Kentucky Derby. Written by Avalyn Hunter, Alan Porter, Tom Hall, Evan Hammonds, and Scot Gillies the profiles also include a five-cross pedigree chart, TrueNicks ratings, and Brisnet.com Ultimate Past Performances to help you zero in on the winners. This year's package will also include a Leading Sires Report for Churchill Downs, and an exclusive MarketWatch Triple Crown Contenders Report.

Featured Video: Kentucky Derby Winners from the Past

Catch up with some Thoroughbred greats who etched their name in the history books by winning the Kentucky Derby. Fusaichi Pegasus, Thunder Gulch, Smarty Jones, Big Brown, Monarchos, and others!

More Changes to the Homepage

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 22:51:00 GMT

By Chris Dawahare, Operations Manager for BloodHorse.com

Earlier today, we transitioned into a new phase of the BloodHorse.com homepage redesign. You will notice a completely new look for the Racing, Breeding, and Sales sections of the homepage. We've made it easier to access race results, entries, sire lists, and sale results.

In addition, we've added an embedded video player on the homepage that provides quick and easy access to our race replays.

Each section also includes a "Features" box that will include content such as video, blogs, or a special report. The scrolling arrows can be used to quickly browse multiple features that have been assigned to each section. This functionality allows us to feature several pieces of content within a small section of the homepage. Our intention is to remove as much clutter from the old homepage as possible, allowing our readers to quickly access the content they are interested in.

As always, we welcome all feedback and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

Rolling Out a New Homepage

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 18:14:00 GMT

By Chris Dawahare, Operations Manager for BloodHorse.com

Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out a new BloodHorse.com homepage in several phases. Our intention is to test each new segment of the homepage until we get it right. When all is said and done, the BloodHorse.com homepage should be noticeably (but not substantially) different from what you are used to seeing.

Some changes will be obvious, others more subtle, but hopefully they will all be for the better. We invite you to use this blog space to critique the new design, offer up any suggestions that you may have, or to simply ask a question. The BloodHorse.com community will be involved throughout this process, and your commentary is invaluable to us.

In the first phase, there are two substantial changes:

Today's Headlines - 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 by just to see the latest news. Taking that into consideration, we've created a new channel entitled "Today's Headlines" that will always be pinned at the very top of the homepage. Every story that gets posted on BloodHorse.com, no matter what the topic, will appear in this channel.

We've also added two new boxes that will display some of the latest features that have been posted on the site. A feature could be anything - blog, video, poll, special report - that has recently been posted to the site but doesn't qualify as a news item. For example, if you're searching for the latest episode of And They're Off, this would be the place to find it.

Channel Order - Whenever we do a survey of BloodHorse.com readers, we often hear people say they don't like the fact our channel order is constantly changing. One day Racing may be featured at the top of the page, another day it may be Breeding, and so on. We certainly understand why this would be confusing to our readers. With the new homepage, the channel order will not change. Today's Headlines will always be at the top, followed by Racing, then Breeding, and so on. We may move some of the channels around during the redesign process based on your feedback, but once a final order is established, it will be in place for the long haul. We hope this change leads to a more consistent, and enjoyable, browsing experience for our readers.

Phase II is highlighted by redesigned Racing, Breeding, and Sales sections. Some of you may be seeing Phase II right now, while others will need to wait a few weeks (we randomly split our visitors into two groups). In this second phase, we've made it easier to access race results, entries, sire lists, and sale results. In addition, we've added an embedded video player on the homepage that provides quick and easy access to our race replays.

We welcome all feedback and look forward to hearing your thoughts.

New Community and Horse Health Sections

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 19:42:00 GMT

By Chris Dawahare, Operations Manager for BloodHorse.com

In the past week, we've launched two new pages on BloodHorse.com - the Community page and a completely redesigned Horse Health section. We've replaced the Blog Stable link in our main navigation with a link to the Community page. You can access all of the blogs from here, but if you still prefer the old Blog Stable index page, you can go to this page to see it. Also, any new blog post from the previous seven days can be found in the Blog Stable channel on the homepage, which normally appears underneath Today's Headlines.

The Community page is a one-stop shop for BloodHorse.com blogs, polls, Facebook, Twitter, and other interactive features. Even if you're not a member of Twitter, you can use this page to follow the conversations that are going on in the Twitterverse. The Twitter application provides breaking news, the latest race results, and updates from the International racing scene. If you're one of the 20,000 visitors that visited our blog stable or voted in a poll last year, we think you're going to love the new BloodHorse.com Community.

The BloodHorse.com Horse Health channel has a new look and the content has been greatly expanded. Articles, videos, the Horse Health Library, and the "Ask a Vet" feature will help keep your horses healthy and happy. More than 30 topics are covered in the Horse Health Library, ranging from Equine influenza to Ultrasonography in Horses. The new channel is powered by TheHorse.com and will continue to grow in the coming months.

Finally, I wanted to touch on the Rachel Alexandra vs. Zenyatta Horse of the Year poll on BloodHorse.com. At last check, there were nearly 12,000 votes cast with Zenyatta holding a 51% to 49% lead. Zenyatta fans came roaring out of the gate and put Zenyatta way ahead in the early voting, but Rachel's fans aren't going to go down without a fight. Let me emphasize that these results are completely driven by the BloodHorse.com community, and there is nothing "fishy" about the results as some have suggested. Individuals are only allowed to vote once, and this is restricted by both IP address and a cookie on your computer. This one is going down to the wire and may be decided by a hanging chad (at last check, there were more than 400 votes cast from the state of Florida). The Poll closes at 11:59 pm EDT on 11/30/2009, so if you haven't already voted, be sure to do so prior to next Monday!

Stallion Register Online Adds Video, Other Enhancements

sgillies — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 19:00:00 GMT

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!

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 17:56:00 GMT

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

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 17:16:00 GMT

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!

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:42:00 GMT

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

cdawahare@bloodhorse.com — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 10:59:00 GMT

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.