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I just returned from a tour at WinStar Farm, and I can still feel grainy bits of Polytrack from their new training track between my toes. It’s been a good day. I’m currently working on a piece on WinStar for our Breeders’ Cup magazine, and I realized that I had never ventured out to the gorgeous Versailles, Ky. operation off Pisgah Pike, nor seen ...

Leading Second Crop Sire Afleet Alex (TrueNicks,SRO) moved further clear of the chasing pack – headed by Florida’s Wildcat Heir (TrueNicks,SRO) and Blind Luck’s sire Pollard’s Vison – at the weekend with a pair of stakes winners, headed by Afleet Express, who timed his bob of the head to take the Travers Stakes (gr. I) from Fly Down (by ...

Keeneland has cataloged 4,857 horses for its 2010 September Yearling Sale to be held Sunday, September 12 through Sunday, September 26 in Lexington, Kentucky. 81% of Keeneland September yearlings are sired by TrueNicks subscribed stallions, and complimentary reports are available for these yearlings. Follow the links below for each book to view a ...

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 ...

By William Shanklin  The word “great” is a recurring exaggeration in the current media age. Athletes, entertainers, and pedestrian successes are so routinely referred to with this superlative that the potency of the word has been diluted. An illustrious blue-blooded racehorse from Virginia and a famous blue-collar professional football ...

Originally published in the September 4, 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  Once we can find the glass, we’d like to see it as half full heading into Keeneland’s September yearling sale—the largest sale of its ...

Dada, dada, dadaa, da, da, daa….Who's the horse with hot three-year-old crop? Shaft! Mine Shaft!. With due apologies to the late Isaac Hayes, we think there are plenty of reasons to be ''talkin' 'bout'' Mineshaft (TrueNicks,SRO), who missed an historic double at Saratoga on Saturday by about an inch. The only Horse of the Year by A.P. Indy ...

With only six days of racing to go, a Wall Street operative named Bill Taylor heads the five public handicappers that select horses each morning for The Saratogian’s Pink Sheet.  These last couple cards have proved hard for the lot. Taylor has picked but two winners from 21 and his closest competitor, a guy by the name of Daniel Feiss, could ...

It didn’t take long for the “Retire Rachel” cries to be heard. I can’t really criticize those who believe Rachel’s reputation has suffered, and feel each race compromises her legacy. If you are of the opinion that every defeat to lesser opponents dims Rachel’s remarkable accomplishments last year, it shows more than anything you are a fan and ...

Last week, it was my pleasure to participate in The Jockey Club’s annual Round Table Conference in Saratoga Springs, New York.  They asked me to present to the conference concerning the role that the NTRA is playing through our Safety & Integrity Alliance to help bring about the considerable progress that the Thoroughbred racing industry ...