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I spent a weekend in Aiken, South Carolina with Corinne Ashton and Erica Larson during March 2011. Corinne Ashton is a world class, four-star eventer and now Grand Prix dressage hopeful. Erica Larson worked with Corinne for a year as an assistant. My purpose was to investigate the world of Eventing and Dressage at the three and four-star level, ...

Earlier this week Breeders' Cup announced a new Juvenile Sprint, thereby expanding its suite of races to 15. The $500,000 race will be run at six furlongs on the dirt and is open to colts, geldings, and fillies. I'll admit my first reaction was ''do we really need another Breeders' Cup race?'', but considering the race's potential to identify good ...

Eleven are scheduled to compete in the grade I Stephen Foster. Can you predict the order of finish? Need more information about the Stephen Foster? Read the race preview, or watch That Handicapping Show. writeRanker(''http://i.bloodhorse.com/xml/ranking/2011StephenFosterOrder.xml''); To participate, use your cursor to drag the selections ...

A muddy renewal of the Belmont Stakes (gr. I, video below) always seemed to have the potential to deliver an upset, and so it proved, with the unheralded Ruler On Ice (TrueNicks B+) defeating Stay Thirsty and Brilliant Speed, with the Kentucky Derby (gr. I) and Preakness Stakes (gr. I) winners Animal Kingdom and Shackleford off the board (as an ...

Transcript is now available, read below or Download a PDF document here. Thank you for your time!   Steve Haskin is an award-winning Turf writer renowned for his Kentucky Derby commentary, with weekly articles, Classic Spotlights, and the ''Derby Dozen'' all found on the BloodHorse.com website's special Triple Crown Mania ...

Champagne Glow, dam of Belmont Stakes winner Ruler On Ice, was in her stall when I arrived at Jim and Pam Robinson’s Brandywine Farm near Paris, Ky. I took their portrait with their dogs Tyler and Einstein. Then Pam and I walked to the barn and the afternoon light was shining through on Champagne Glow, highlighting her beautiful coat. Pam ...

Nice to see experiments with reductions in pari-mutuel takeout, but this one really caught my eye. Mardi Gras West Virginia, a Greyhound racetrack and casino near Charleston, received approval recently to lower the takeout rate on win, place, and show bets from 16.3% to 9.4%. In effect, the rate is similar to that of the rate on video lottery ...

Another Triple Crown is in the books and unfortunately, it yielded us no Triple Crown winner. That much is not a total surprise. What is a bit surprising is that with nearly half of the season gone we are no closer to finding out who is the best 3-year-old in the country. You can make a strong argument that Animal Kingdom was the best horse ...

Originally published in the June 18, 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   A soggy Belmont Stakes (gr. I) day and a New Jersey-based longshot winner of the “Test of the Champion” couldn’t dampen the optimism that pervades New ...

 (Originally published in the June 18, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)   When Tizway came charging down the stretch in the Metropolitan Handicap (gr. I), his decisive 21⁄4-length victory was a confirmation for veteran breeder Mandy ...