Attention All Breeders' Cup Fans

By Alex Waldrop, President and CEO of the NTRA

A new feature you will now find on ntra.com - with a direct link right off our home page - is  our Breeders' Cup Divisional Blogs section.  We have 15 individual contributors-one assigned to each Breeders' Cup race , and one assigned to the international contenders as a whole.  All are members of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance, and I'm sure they will bring fresh perspectives to the Cup .  A couple of our new bloggers - Patrick Patten and Kevin Stafford - also did yeoman's work as part of our NTRA Online Marketing Task Force, and I thank Patrick in particular for helping this new section come to fruition.  Whether you are scoping out longshots to throw into your Breeders' Cup superfectas or just looking to better familiarize yourself with the likely cast of characters on Nov.6-7, I think you'll find the section fun and informative.  Most of the initial blog postings are already up, so check out our chorus of new voices and please do share your thoughts with the bloggers.  As I've come to know and appreciate in the past year, a blog is only as good as the enthusiasm of its readers.   

Another member of our Online Marketing Task Force, Jessica Chapel, has been doing some great things over at Breederscup360.com, a new micro Web site launched just this week. Jessica designed the site, which focuses specifically on the wagering aspects of the Breeders' Cup. Users there can watch videos of key preps, sort through a host of Breeders' Cup statistical information, and read handicapping analysis and commentary from the likes of Dick Jerardi, Jeff Siegel, Randy Moss and Jerry Brown. After failing to cash many tickets at the Breeders' Cup last year, I will definitely pay attention to what those folks have to say this year.

Let me know what you think about the two new sections.  And what have we missed that you might like to see up on either of the two sites?