BloodHorse.com

 I want to talk about National Thoroughbred Racing Association's summer of racing and how they have done PR wise.Let's get down to it. The NTRA is setting out to try and rejuvinate the seemingly screeching slowdown the Thoroughbred industry is headed toward.What is my verdict? I think its effort is okay, but not good enough, and here is ...

Many horses like Wanderin Boy go through their entire career overlooked by the fans and media. They’re always dependable, showing up in many of the grade I stakes, and while they turn in huge efforts at times, they’re just not able to get to the finish line first and make that leap into the big-time.At age 7, Wanderin Boy has made only 24 career ...

Courtesy of Patrick Patten I believe the most pressing issue in the sport is the ADW issue.  And yet when someone talks about it I wonder if it would hurt that bad if I stuck a fork in my ear and twisted.  Talks are again being, well talked, and not much is coming from them accept acrimony.  Shock I know. And who can blame ...

It's no secret that Thoroughbred sales have seen a down market in 2008, and I expect that the autumn breeding stock season will experience a similar trend.  I plan to benefit from the situation by adding to my small broodmare herd this fall -- with the hope of obtaining, at a bargain, a mare that might otherwise be out of my modest price ...

Given that he never raced at 2, Pulpit would seem to be an unlikely influence for precocity, but we are noting that seems to be a trait associated with his stallion sons. A few weeks ago, we mentioned his son Stroll, a middle-distance turf horse, who already has three 2-year-old stakes winners from his first crop. Pulpit has another first-crop ...

The results are in and quite a few astute readers scored perfectly in this round of Name That Thoroughbred! These first two images are from various collections at The Blood-Horse Building:.   When the contest started, the text next to REAL QUIET's image incorrectly asserted that he was Horse of the Year as a 3-year-old  ...

Courtesy of Patrick PattenWhether I was listed as being there or not (Esther what did I say for you to forget me? ;-D ), I was in fact at the NTRA annual marketing meeting.  A group of fans put together what we believe to be an easy first step (NTRA marketing report) in helping our sport become viable in today's ''connected'' ...

Courtesy of Patrick PattenMy name is Patrick, but I'm regularly known by my blog name, Handride.  I am part of a group of Bloggers, the TBA,  that formed around 3 years ago to help themselves generate readers, and to help gain more fans amongst casual watchers.  In the three years since we've climbed to over 40 blogs from ...

At 10 p.m., an exhausted Larry Jones finally fell asleep. Just two and a half hours later, he was back up, making training charts for that day’s sets before loading his trailer to drive from his barn at Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland to Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York.Jones was tired, and not just physically, but emotionally, ...

October is less than two days away, and with the change of month comes the release of the Keeneland November sales catalog.  For a Thoroughbred pedigree geek like me, the autumn breeding stock sales season easily beats the excitement of yearling auctions or horses-in-training sales.  (If pressed, I might even say the ...