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(Originally published in the January 26, 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 A filly named Glorious Dancer caused two significant changes in the life of horseplayer Michael Beychok.The first occurred ...

The following stemmed from a morning editorial meeting when the question was asked whether Wise Dan is the first Horse of the Year to have broken his maiden at Turfway Park. (He did so March 27, 2010, as a 3-year-old.) He isn't the only one, however. Alysheba notched his first victory at Turfway (then called Latonia Race Course) in 1986 as a ...

It’s hard to believe 40 years have passed since the winter of 1973. Racing’s two hubs as usual were Hialeah and Gulfstream in Florida and Santa Anita in California. The only sounds that were heard at Aqueduct were the winds howling off Jamaica Bay and the squawking of the seagulls. Soon, track workers would begin preparation for opening day on ...

With everyone talking about undefeated Eblouissante's second career victory, I thought it would be interesting to analyze her from the standpoint of herd dynamics and emotional conformation with help from my friend and cohort Kerry Thomas. For those not familiar with Kerry, he is the founder of The Thomas Herding Technique ...

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 them, ...

(Originally published in the January 19, 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 The Eclipse Awards ceremony has attracted its fair share of criticism over the years due to long speeches and an overall ...

Not everything on the Derby trail is what it seems. There are so many twists and turns it is often futile to plot a course and expect every step to go as planned. This applies to everyone, not just trainers and owners. So, when all the “experts” say a horse can’t go a mile and a quarter or is too slow or is regressing instead of moving ...

Today TrueNicks is pleased to announce the new Key Ancestors Report, a breakthrough report that considers your mare's entire pedigree—all male and female ancestors—and identifies the key ancestors to seek out or avoid in the pedigrees of stallions in prospective matings. TrueNicks' Byron Rogers and Ian Tapp discuss the new report in the video ...