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This year's Perfect Trip Award will recognize a Breeders' Cup Challenge race winner from this season's North American races that best exemplifies a ''Perfect Trip''. The winner will be selected from a panel of racing experts and will have the opportunity to experience his or her own ''Perfect Trip'' through Sentient Jet, with ...

 (Originally published in the October 22, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.) By Evan Hammonds   The decade-long ban and $50,000 fine handed down to trainer Rick Dutrow Jr. by the New York State Racing and Wagering Board Oct. 12 ...

(Originally published in the October 22, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.) Carol Holden recalled a fall day in 1986 when she and partner Sam Huff traveled to Laurel Park for the inaugural Maryland Million. The championship day for state-bred racehorses ...

Breeders' Cup pre-entries will be taken next week and final entries will be drawn just two weeks from now. Here's a look at the potential top 5 in some of the major races, with an educated guess at morning-line odds. Classic Havre de Grace and Uncle Mo gave the Classic a much-needed shot in the arm. Havre de Grace (4-1): Might be cross-entered ...

The star of Breakfast with the Works at Keeneland on October 15, 2011, was Lotka, a 28-year-old daughter of Danzig who raced for Henryk de Kwiatkowski and was trained by Woody Stephens. In honor of her 1986 triumph in the now grade I Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup, Lotka was the featured live demonstration on the 25th anniversary of winning the ...

It just doesn’t make sense. Frankel seems an aberration, a contradiction; something that defies all the rules of genetics and racing tradition. At the risk of sounding pompous and disgustingly provincial, Frankel should have American blood coursing through his veins, especially on his sire’s side; a Seattle Slew incarnate let loose over the grassy ...

By Vic Zast [Editor's Note: Vic Zast traveled to Ascot to witness the first British Champions Day. Zast, a BloodHorse.com correspondent, has attended every Breeders' Cup World Championship since its inception in 1984.] (Ascot, England – October 15, 2011)  Horse racing headlines in London’s newspapers this past week were not what the ...

Our Mims Haven is a wonderful Paris, Ky.-based Thoroughbred retirement facility that features a stellar group of mares. This Saturday morning, Oct. 15, the retired multiple graded stakes-winning mare Lotka, an Our Mims resident, will be featured at Keeneland's ''Breakfast with the Works.'' The event begins at 8:45 a.m. in the paddock. Recent ...

It seems a contradiction to the senses to boost the merits of the Breeders’ Futurity, run over Polytrack, and several of its participants. But the feeling here is that we saw a couple of potential stars emerge from the race, whose true talents actually will not be seen until they run on dirt. One of them already has become our live longshot for ...

For many, the highlight of each year’s live racing calendar is the summer season and the annual pilgrimage to Saratoga or Del Mar to enjoy top class racing in a picturesque setting. They are journeys worth taking for a variety of reasons, and I encourage you to do so if you have never been.  But now that Fall weather is here and both Saratoga ...