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The young passengers aboard America’s Best Racing tour bus look more like they’ve been hand-picked from the clubhouse at Keeneland by a Jockey Club member checking for dirt under fingernails than by a Hollywood promoter trying to bring together a cross-section of mainstream society to form a boys or a girls band.  Regardless, the ...

Building a viewing stand on the sleepy side of Saratoga Racecourse is the same as having a neighbor move in.  That’s exactly, in fact, what has happened.  Beginning Saturday, for the first time in over 10 years, people without backstretch credentials will be permitted at least limited access to see the workouts at Oklahoma.  ...

Given the longstanding trend of small fields in high-priced stakes (it’s been a trend for a decade), Saratoga horse racing fans should be glad that eight horses’ numbers were drawn for Saturday’s Gr. I Whitney Handicap.  The assignments were made in the walking ring at 11:00 am Wednesday.  New York Racing Association odds-maker Eric ...

Trainer Bill Mott turned 60.  And, yes, he won a race on his birthday again – 15 times in the last 19 years, the seventh in the last seven. Take wagers now that he won’t win in 2014. His 61st birthday falls on a dark day. Birthday boy Bill Mott on the heap of history at Saratoga. Winning took him five tries on Monday.  But the ...

Friday’s $100,000 Curlin Stakes was created to serve as a little softer spot than Saturday’s Jim Dandy Stakes (gr.II) for three-year-old horses prepping for the Travers (gr.I).  Transparent’s interference on the turn, and subsequent disqualification, had nothing to do with Darley stablemate Romansh’s inability to beat him to the ...

This is an unconventional way to demonstrate how special a horse Unbridled’s Song was, but it still is my main remembrance of the colt, and how brilliantly fast and courageous he was. Because of soundness problems we never got a chance to see just how great a horse he could have been, but we at least got some inclination by the number of ...

Veteran handicapper Tom Amello understands that it’s easier to attract people to the racetrack by promising them fun than by requiring them to attend some sort of handicapping school in order to feel like they belong. He’s devised a clever simplistic betting system that enables newcomers to make smart selections by reading the odds board. ...

The sloppy main track on which Fort Larned worked on Tuesday in preparation for the Whitney Stakes (gr.I) came up fast for Wednesday’s opener. Much Stronger closed from off the pace like a horse would on a good track but it was impossible to tell if the conditions favored that running style.  The David Jacobson-trained colt that had won ...