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Like many, I am looking forward to the Alabama this weekend. Will It's Tricky solidify her place at the top of the division, will Plum Pretty take it away from her, or will another 3-year-old filly jump into the mix? My money will be on Plum Pretty. The race intrigues me, but in a way I just want to get this weekend over with so I can start ...

There may be only 6 fillies running in the 1 1/4 mile Alabama (gr. I), but predicting the complete order of finish in this field will not be easy. Need more information about the Alabama? Read the race preview, or watch That Handicapping Show. writeRanker(''http://i.bloodhorse.com/xml/ranking/2011AlabamaOrder.xml''); To participate, use ...

The full moon occurred nearly five nights ago.  But its effects weren’t felt until Thursday.  On what seemed like a normal weekday, not much of it seemed normal at all.  Even if your taste runs to steeplechases and low level claiming races, the manner in which Thursday’s card played out would have given you fits.  On ...

Photo courtesy Shadwell Stud Distinguished 28-year-old Danzig stallion Green Desert was pensioned earlier this week. Sire of nearly 100 stakes winners, among them 14 group or grade I, he has already made a strong impact as a sire of sires. His best stallion sons include Cape Cross, Oasis Dream, Invicible Spirit, Volksraad, Desert Style, ...

Beau Mistral won the first race at Saratoga for Dave Collins of Lenox, MA.  The two-year-old Irish-bred filly took the opener at Nottingham Racecourse in a simulcasted British maiden race that the fan of international horse racing wouldn’t bet.  “I would never be here if it wasn’t for this,” Collins said about Saratoga Racecourse in ...

No sooner had the Michael Matz-trained Union Rags beat Stat in the Saratoga Special that people started comparing the two-year-old colt to Barbaro.   Matz entered the splendid son of Dixie Union in the grade 2 stakes off one victory in one start, which, in itself, should speak for his respect of the animal’s abilities.  ...

Yearling auctions in upstate New York in early August produced impressive results. Both Fasig-Tipton's Saratoga select sale and New York-bred preferred sale enjoyed gains in their key business figures of gross, average price, and median price. The Saratoga select auction's median of $250,000 equaled the sale record and the New York preferred ...

Blood-Horse Publications and the Thoroughbred industry lost a dear friend this week.If there were a person more open and genuine than Jim Hurst, I haven’t met him or her, and I doubt he or she exists. Jim passed suddenly from this world Aug. 11 and left the staff here at Blood-Horse Publications stunned and saddened. It is hard to wrap one’s mind ...

 After longtime partnership entity Team Valor International won this year’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I), it is no surprise that another owners’ syndicate is making a big splash. Blinkers On Racing Stable, based in Northern California and the brainchild of Bay Area resident Scott Sherwood, has a major star on its hands with ...

             Jack Zaraya retired as the Senior Ceremonial Resolution Writer for the New Jersey Legislature and lives in Freehold, N.J.Beginning in the early 1960s, a year-long handicapping contest known as “Broken Downs” was held in the offices of The Morning Telegraph/Daily Racing Form. ...