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Originally published in the August 28, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)   By Evan Hammonds  Earlier this summer, during the Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit, the racing community discovered that not enough data have ...

By Patrick Patten, Handride I have been mulling this over in my head for months now, but with Ed DeRosa's recent post I figured I'd add my .02 cents into what I'm looking for with social interaction from any horse racing website.  First, as fans we deserve more than we are getting.  I understand signing into websites, but I have no idea ...

We mentioned in an earlier post that the crack two-year-old and sprinter Oasis Dream has several talented middle-distance runners, including top four-year-old filly Midday. However, he can still get the kind of two-year-old that his race record and pedigree would lead one to expect, and he had a pair of juvenile stakes winners last week in Approve ...

Life really was sweet when I recently visited Lane’s End Farm near Versailles, Ky. Their staff was wonderful about accommodating my photo requests.  My plan was to photograph Life is Sweet as requested by a few of the readers here at Through the Lens. I had photographed Life is Sweet winning the 2009 Breeders’ Cup Ladies Classic.Order this ...

There’s not much of the Saratoga experience left when non-stop rain ruins the picnicking and the racing is hit hard by scratches. The epitome of a let-down occurred when Sunday’s featured $150,000 stakes went forth with only three horses. But with 28 horses taken out and 61 left in, Monday’s card was prolonged agony. Turf racing was cancelled. The ...

There is nothing blind or lucky about Blind Luck. When it comes to seeing the finish line she has 20/20 vision, and despite her running style, she makes her own luck. In Blind Luck and her California compatriot, Evening Jewel, respective winners of the grade I Alabama and Del Mar Oaks, you have a pair of fierce fillies with a flair for ...

The recent decision by the Ocala Breeders' Sales Co. not to conduct a February select sale of 2-year-olds in training (or combine it with the March select auction, however you wish to word it) in 2011 didn't come as a surprise. The sale had been on the endangered list for a quite a while. The catalogs had gotten smaller over time and when only 66 ...

After a deliberately low-key start to a season timed to peak for late summer and fall, Rip Van Winkle returned to his best to win a very strong renewal of the Juddmonte International (gr. I) over the title sponsor’s duo of Twice Over and Byword. Off the board behind Goldikova on his seasonal debut in the Queen Anne Stakes (gr. I), Rip Van Winkle ...

TrueNicks community user russf posted a comment under the recent blog post Updated Cross Notations for TrueNicks which we thought warranted a closer look at the logic flow behind the TrueNicks algorithm. russf commented: Congrats on these updated cross notations, this is helpful. But please help me understand how the algorithm decides which ...

Back when Saratoga raced 24 days, each of its four weekend Saturdays was marked by a Grade 1 stakes race.  Sundays were dark days. The Whitney came first, then the Alabama, followed by the Travers and, ultimately, the Hopeful.  For many horse racing fans, the Alabama Stakes was as meaningful as the Midsummer Derby.What was great about ...