BloodHorse.com

by Vic ZastIf anyone had doubts about what kind of racing surface awaited the 129 horses listed in the overnights for Saratoga’s final day, those doubts were obliterated at 6:25 AM Monday. A morning storm passed through the region in an hour and a half, but all hell broke loose in the first 15 minutes.  The rain fell so hard it created the ...

by Vic ZastHow will Saratoga’s 150th year of Thoroughbred horse racing be remembered?  Probably not by the cumulative effects of the many minor events that were organized.  But by the few standout days on which something out of the ordinary happened.No doubt this was the summer of Marylou Whitney.  She established her rightful place ...

by Vic ZastOnce upon a time, a little racecourse with brown wooden stands, a white linen table-clothed dining room and a winner’s circle drawn in chalk stood among the cooling pines of a quaint Victorian city at the edge of the Adirondacks. The racetrack's red and white trim was added recently, perhaps only 50 years ago.Gentlemen wore suits to ...

The Grade 1 Spinaway Stakes, Sunday, Saratoga, Two-Year Olds, Main Track, Seven FurlongsScheduled Post Time: 5:45 PM EDT Get free PP's for the Spinaway Five different horses in today's Spinaway have scored wire-to-wire victories at sprint distances shorter than today's seven furlong distance. The ''speed of the speed'' is unquestionably ...

You can turn on your TV as early as 9:00 AM to begin hearing tips from the handicappers.  There are several shows on Channel 12 with two hosts who rarely agree on selections.  Depending on how many horses they choose – three or four, each show is different – you are most likely to collect six or seven names to bet, which is like ...

Pace handicapping is actually a two-step process. The question is not ''How fast will they go,'' but (in the case of front runners), ''How fast can this horse go and still win?'' ''A lot of pace in the race'' doesn't set the race up for a closer if three front runners are gassed after a :22 first quarter and :45 half but a fourth horse is able ...

NYRA held two off-campus gatherings this week – the first which was billed as a public forum and the second a board meeting.  It was the first opportunity for new CEO Chris Kay to present what he’s done in his first 60 days. Despite his non-racing background, Kay seems to indicate that he’s cut from the same cloth as his predecessors, ...

Classic trials apart, in the U.S. the championship-defining contests for straight 3-year-olds are usually the three Triple Crown events plus the Haskell Invitational (gr. I) and the Travers Stakes (gr. I). Prior to the weekend, the first four events had taken place and had been won by four different horses: Orb (Kentucky Derby, gr. I), Oxbow ...

You can go back in history and find a number of trainers who have had spectacular years. D. Wayne Lukas, Todd Pletcher, and Bobby Frankel are just a few of the modern trainers who smashed the record books, saddling dozens of major stakes winners and dominating their sport like few, if any, before them. But when it comes to the greatest year ...

Ideal summer weather greeted fans at the racecourse again.  Despite pop-up showers in the Berkshires and Mohawk Valley, Mother Nature seemed to prefer sun and mid-80s temperatures for Saratoga and, no doubt, so do horsemen. It’s tough to remember a sloppy track or a race that’s been pulled off the turf course.  Owners and ...