BloodHorse.com

Welcome to another episode of ''Let's Take the Reigning Horse of the Year on the Easiest and Most Bizarre Path Possible.'' It's a never-ending, entertaining show folks. The season-long drama is only half over and there are plenty of interesting episodes to come. You are sure to be disappointed, so get your soft drinks and popcorn, settle in, and ...

Anyone else feeling the post Triple Crown, pre-Saratoga/Del Mar summer doldrums? It's nothing to be ashamed of or feel bad about. It happens every year in late June. We just need to make it through these next few weeks and all will be well in the racing world. By then, the mid-summer classics will be underway, the Breeders' Cup Challenge series ...

Of all the Breeders' Cup divisions, at the moment there may not be a more unsettled one than the Sprint. After 25-1 Dancing in Silks won a four-way photo in the 2009 BC Sprint at Santa Anita last fall, things have gotten even shakier through five and half months of 2010. If you had to pick a leader of the division right now, who would it ...

Believe it or not, guys and gals, there are other Breeders' Cup related things we can talk besides Rachel vs. Zenyatta (although no matter what the new topic is I'm certain it will inevitably come back to that). There are other divisions out there shaping up nicely, including the intriguing older turf females, which has three legitimate ...

Four and a half months. Is there any possible way we can make it through that length of time with the nation's top older horses healthy and still racing? Given the fragility of today's Thoroughbreds and the almighty dollar being the ultimate factor in all decisions, the chances of that happening is iffy at best. But if the horse racing Gods let ...

So let me make sure I have this right: The connections for Rachel Alexandra, the reigning Horse of the Year, have decided to bypass the Stephen Foster for the Fleur de Lis. Both races are the same day at 1 1/8 miles. The grade I Foster includes a solid field of older males, including Blame, Battle Plan, General Quarters, Arson Squad, and last ...

Five-plus months of Triple Crown mania ended Saturday when Drosselmeyer scored the Belmont Stakes in upset fashion. It completed a hard-to-figure 3-year-old series in which we not only had three different winners, but also three different runner-ups. So, what did we learn from the 2010 Triple Crown? Not a whole lot, as far as I can tell. There is ...

For only third time in 40 years, the Belmont will not have a Kentucky Derby or a Preakness winner in the field. That fact alone makes this an intriguing race, and even more than that, a very good betting race. Admittedly, I struggled to handicap this Belmont. I do not believe there is much separating the top six or seven horses in here, and for ...

On Memorial Day, racing fans will watch as Quality Road--perhaps the most talented and exciting horse in the country--returns from a short layoff in the Met Mile at Belmont Park. After dominating wins in the Hal's Hope and Donn Handicap this winter at Gulfstream to begin his 4-year-old season, Quality Road rolls into the Met Mile as the ...

As we touched on in the last blog, without the Derby and Preakness winners involved, the 2010 Belmont Stakes lacks the star power that would attract the casual sports fan. In that respect, the third leg of the Triple Crown won't draw many newspaper or SportsCenter headlines and will likely see TV ratings take a significant dip. The good news for ...