BloodHorse.com

In the midst of all the major racing this summer at Del Mar and Saratoga, sometimes the hard-knocking veterans of our sport get lost in the shuffle. One of them is remarkable 6-year-old Star Guitar, a Louisiana-bred who won the $125,000 Evangeline Mile Handicap last weekend for the third consecutive year. Trained by Al Stall Jr. and a homebred of ...

Danzig/Secretariat The great Danzig, who would eventually sire 202 stakes winners (18.8% from foals), didn't take long to prove himself when his first runners hit the track in 1984. His daughter Contredance won the Adirondack (gr. II) and Arlington-Washington Lassie (gr. I), and son Stephan's Odyssey took the Hollywood Futurity (gr. I). But the ...

Steve Asmussen, one of the world’s most accomplished Thoroughbred trainers, watched his undefeated filly My Miss Aurelia win the gr. 2 Adirondack Stakes from a spot on the rail among the free tee-shirt people.  It’s not often that fans who take in the races from the grandstand apron see a tall, handsome gentleman dressed in proper-fitting ...

The Arlington Million attracted Gio Ponti and Cape Blanco but another race half its value drew a deeper field.  The grassy, 1-1/2 mile gr. 1 Sword Dancer at Saratoga was won by the favorite Winchester, although handicappers made a case on behalf of at least five of the seven runners.  Emma Wilson dropped down from Woodbine to pilot ...

Humor substituted for humans at the Hall of Fame Induction ceremonies.  Four horses, two dead guys and Jerry Hollendorfer were let in.  Hollendorfer didn’t let on if Blind Luck was coming east for the Personal Ensign or staying out west for a race at Del Mar.  He was a class act delivering his acceptance speech, only choking up once ...

There are big expectations for video lottery terminals at Aqueduct, but racetrack casinos aren’t a novelty in New York. Harness tracks wasted no time jumping in almost 10 years ago, and some folks with Thoroughbred ties are taking advantage of the opportunities. A stop at Vernon Downs Racing & Casino in central upstate New York the evening of ...

This summer marks the third annual “Last year for PJ’s Bar-B-Q.”  Owner PJ Davis has been talking about converting his popular Saratoga Springs roadside food stand into a franchise-ready indoor restaurant for several years.  2011 could be the year he really builds it. You can view the artist’s rendering of Bar-B-QSA - the replacement ...

Wednesday in Saratoga offered up a mixed plate of emotions.  It was the first Foxwoods Mardi Gras Day, a promotion that was pitched as an afternoon on which the racecourse would be turned into New Orleans.  Alas, it seemed like a drummed-up excuse to promote something so that one day didn’t pass without anything. Caption: Renee Spilman ...

By Cal MacWilliam Facing increasing competition from a range of gaming alternatives, racing is being forced to provide a more competitive gaming product. Fortunately, horse racing has a significant comparative advantage over other forms of gambling. It is essentially the only form of gambling in which an individual player has a reasonable chance ...