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(Originally published in the February 23, 2013 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.) By Eric Mitchell - @BH_EMitchell on Twitter “If your facility does not meet the standards that (fans) come to expect in their daily lives, they’re not going to come ...

1 Violence Todd Pletcher Medaglia d’Oro—Violent Beauty, by Gone West Finally makes his 3-year-old debut in Fountain of Youth Stakes. Normally, a good second or third would be encouraging enough, but he has a big class edge, with only a few stakes horses entered, and he should win considering how revved up Pletcher’s horses have come out ...

In 1971, when Cot Campbell started the concept of buying horses at auction for the purpose of forming syndicates, he had to watch one of his first rejects, Canonero II, who he turned down for $1,200 because of a crooked leg, win the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. Now that Campbell has announced his retirement from syndicates at age 84 after ...

Editor's Note: Be sure to also read ''Not in the Same Ballpark,'' in the Feb. 23 issue of Blood-Horse. Frank Angst explores how far racetracks have fallen behind other professional sports stadiums and arenas in terms of offering clean, attractive and modern amenities.   By Earl Abraham Ola Before going overseas I learned that while less ...

Por Tom LaMarraTurfway Park ha decidido correr cuatro días adicionales en febrero, lo que significa que habrá continuidad para la duración de su competencia de invierno/primavera.  Turfway estuvo programado para correr sólo los dos primeros fines de semana (viernes y sábados) en febrero, y luego ser oscuro hasta el 1 de marzo.  La ...

Por Personal de Blood-Horse Una revisión reciente por el Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC) revela los registros de violaciones de los nueve estados que redujeron el umbral de fenilbutazona de cinco microgramos por mililitro de plasma, hasta el nivel recomendado por el RMTC de dos microgramos tenían resultados que revelan un menor ...

The charm of horse racing lies primarily in the animals that do it—their beauty, grace, power and their degree of class. But there is an undeniable attraction to the colorful human beings that make it happen. The purpose of this blog is to share my stories about some of these characters. My requisites in the selection: I had dealings with ...

This morning I spoke briefly with Brereton Jones of Airdrie Stud, who alerted me to a homebred filly of his with a very clever name. She is by Airdrie stallion Proud Citizen (TrueNicks,SRO) out of the winning Langfuhr (TrueNicks,SRO) mare Saramar—the exact same cross as Mr. Jones' Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) winner and champion 3-year-old filly Proud ...

Capo Bastone will be the latest horse to run back from the 2012 Breeders' Cup Juvenile (G1) when he goes in race 9, a non-winners allowance, at Gulfstream Park on Saturday. So far the Juvenile runners have a 9:1-2-1 record on the comeback. Dynamic Sky, who finished a troubled 6th in the Juvenile, won the Pasco and finished 2nd in the Sam Davis ...

Patton vs. Rommel! Lee vs. Meade! Washington vs. Cornwallis! Pletcher vs. Baffert? Yes, the armies are massing and they could confront each other on the banks of the Ohio on the first Saturday in May. It could really happen and there’s nothing to stop it. For example, on one expert's poll in the Louisville Courier-Journal, 11 of his top 14 horses ...