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There have been 22 days of horse racing in Saratoga this summer─two fewer than the 24 mandated by the Harriman Law in 1962 that gave permanency to an exclusive season and 18 shy of the 40 that’ll be run before the leaves turn.   A new round of night life has ushered in the meet’s second half, replacing such tonier musings as black-tie ...

(Originally published in the August 18, 2012 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)  By Eric Mitchell - @BH_EMitchell on Twitter Amidst all the celebration of The Jockey Club’s recent marketing efforts and increased TV exposure for Thoroughbred ...

By Michele MacDonald      If there was a Horse of the World title, Fantastic Light would have earned it twice.      Few racehorses over the span of history have come close to accomplishing what he did during the five years of his racing career. He competed in seven countries and won group/grade I races in ...

In the last several years before he retired from serving as emcee of the Daily Racing Form’s morning handicapping show at Siro’s, Harvey Pack used to retry old gems on pet topics. Regarding The Jockey Club Round Table, Pack would say it’s the same old guys promising change and never delivering it.  Pack’s hackneyed comment might not be true ...

Three of Saratoga’s best five hot dogs are found on or near the racecourse grounds.  The other two are only a short drive away – one to the west of the racecourse at the end of Nelson Avenue and the other in the opposite direction where East Avenue turns into Excelsior. PJ’s Barbecue, now called Bar-B-QSA, abandoned most things Buffalo, N.Y. ...

Mechanicville, N.Y. has 5,000 residents. One in 10 attended Ray Price’s 15th annual “Stakes at Saratoga” party in the backyard of Saratoga Racecourse.   “I started with 10 people,” Price explained. “By the third year I had enough people coming that I began to make tee-shirts.”   Tee-shirts commemorating Ray Price's party hang between ...

The media took about a nanosecond to realize that both trainer Roger Attfield and jockey John Velazquez, who teamed up to win Monday’s feature race with Kissable, were about to enter the Hall of Fame on Friday.  Attfield sent Kissable down from Woodbine for the 1 ½-mile, $100,000 Richmor Aviation Waya Stakes. He proved to be more than a man ...

(Originally published in the August 11, 2012 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.) By Evan Hammonds - @BH_EHammonds on Twitter In this issue Steve Haskin presents his list of the top 10 geldings of the last 75 years. While few could argue about the top ...

(Originally published in the August 11, 2012 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)  If there was a horse-for-the-course in the $200,000 Pennsylvania Governor’s Cup Handicap July 28 at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course, it was Kyma, a 4-year-old ...

by Michele MacDonald    Tucked away on a quiet corner of Shadai Farm on Japan’s island of Hokkaido is a broodmare barn known as “Terry’s Jewel Box.”      When a visitor to Teruya Yoshida’s more than 1,200-acre nursery gets a peek inside this barn, the meaning of the nickname is immediately clear. The mares who live ...