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January is a busy month for the NTRA staff.  The Eclipse Awards and the Daily Racing Form/NTRA National Handicapping Championship – two of our industry’s biggest occasions - both fall in the first month of the year.  Making sure that these important events happen each year in a professional, well publicized way, is one of our top ...

By Bill Pressey Thoroedge Equine Performance Magnificent filly Eight Belles broke down during the gallop-out after the 2008 Kentucky Derby and this was the nationally televised impetus to establish the NTRA Safety and Integrity Alliance. Did anyone blame Churchill Downs or the track surface for the incident?  Of course not, so why are ...

The votes are in and the 2010 Eclipse Award finalists have been named.  The 2010 Eclipse Awards ceremony is now set for January 17 at the Fontainebleau Miami Beach in Miami Beach, Fla.  The list of finalists contains few surprises but sets up some real contests to see who comes out on top.   First and foremost is the race for ...

By Jennifer Wirth, of The Saturday Post On January 1st, an Arkansas-bred filly named Gretl turned three-years-old in her barn at Oaklawn Park.  She didn’t receive any birthday cakes, fancy cards and fans didn’t line up for a photo outside her stall.  January 1st was simply an ordinary day in her life. Gretl didn’t seem to mind one ...

It is now 2011 and that means we have officially embarked on the Kentucky Derby trail. Here in the East it’s been difficult to see even the slightest hint of rose blossoms buried beneath 20-30 inches of snow drifts. But, heck, they’ve already run the first Derby prep (the Count Fleet Stakes at Aqueduct), and Florida and California will soon follow ...

For most of the last half century, one of horse racing’s unsung “heroes” has been the University of Arizona’s Race Track Industry Program.  Virtually every segment of this industry—including the NTRA—has been fortified by the talent, passion and strong education that the RTIP graduates bring to their jobs in racing upon graduation.  The ...

 (Originally published in the December 18, 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 - @EJMitchellKy on Twitter’Tis the season to debate sire lists, and nothing stirs the pot like a close race on the leading general sires’ or ...

Yes, there is room for one final Zenyatta column. Farewells have a way of inspiring them.On Sunday, Hollywood Park will become racing’s mecca, as fans of all ages bow and pray in their own manner to a Thoroughbred that has become goddess-like to her thousands of self-proclaimed subjects. They have worshipped Zenyatta up close and from afar, and it ...