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By Laura Pugh, of Horsin' Around Well, last blog certainly drew a crowd; let’s see what kind of reviews I get for this one.For this blog I have several things I would like to discuss, so sit back and please try and keep awake. First on the list is the creation of teams. This topic will tie into the rest as the post continues. Every sport has ...

By William Shanklin  Pari-mutuel wagering on U.S. horse racing peaked in 2003 and has been stagnant or deteriorating ever since, with precipitous drops during the economic slowdown of 2008 and 2009. In 2009 pari-mutuel wagering fell by 9.8%, compared with a 5.5% dip for casino gaming. Though the rate of decline has slowed in 2010, the decay ...

The big race on Wednesday, the ten-furlong Prince of Wales’s Stakes (gr. I), saw a Juddmonte one-two, as Byword scored from Twice Over. The result paid a further compliment to Tuesday’s Queen Anne Stakes (gr. I) heroine, Goldikova, who had defeated Byword by a ½ length in the Prix d’Ispahan (gr. I) on her seasonal reappearance. Byword (TrueNicks ...

Since it looks like Blame has edged Quality Road and Battle Plan in our Stallion Pedigree Poll, let's take a look back at Special, Blame's influential third dam. Special (Forli - Thong, by Nantallah) was a full sister to Irish and English Champion Thatch. She made only one racetrack appearance (chart below). On February 24, 1972, at Santa Anita ...

The first day of the Royal Ascot meeting featured five stakes events, four group, and three group I. The highlights were the Queen Anne Stakes (gr. I) for older horses on the straight mile, and the St. James’s Palace Stakes (gr. I) – which our colleague Bill Oppenheim has appropriately called the “European 2,000 Guineas” – for three-year-olds on ...

Four and a half months. Is there any possible way we can make it through that length of time with the nation's top older horses healthy and still racing? Given the fragility of today's Thoroughbreds and the almighty dollar being the ultimate factor in all decisions, the chances of that happening is iffy at best. But if the horse racing Gods let ...

As the sun begins to peek over the Adirondacks, a thin layer of fog still blankets the Oklahoma training track. Cars are pouring into the East Avenue gate to park on the grass near the top of the stretch. Across the street on Union Ave., people have been lined up for hours with their coolers and picnic accessories hoping to get a choice spot, ...

By Alex Waldrop, President and CEO of the NTRA  Sunday night, the NTRA hosted its fifth NTRA Live! broadcast on NTRA.com.  Thousands of people from around the globe tuned in to watch Zenyatta extend her perfect record to 17-0.   Carrying the high weight of 129 lbs., Zenyatta gave everything she had to catch a very game St ...

While the death of Red Ransom was a serious loss to the breeding industry, we take a degree of comfort in his undoubted legacy as a sire of sires and as a broodmare sire. His influence in that first role was underlined over the last two weekends when Snow Fairy, by Red Ransom’s son Intikhab, took the Epsom Oaks, and the rapidly improving Pressday, ...

(Originally published in the June 19, 2010 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)  By Eric Mitchell “If you don’t know where you are going, every road will get you nowhere,” former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Handle is the engine ...