BloodHorse.com

By Tom Pedulla, USA TODAY LOUISVILLE — Cuban-born Thoroughbred owners Carlos Juelle and Jose Prieto are living the American dream. They left behind heartache and hardship in their native land — including a death sentence against Prieto for anti-communist activities — to find opportunities beyond their wildest imagination. One of those comes ...

By David Geier David “Buc” Geier helps run a tavern in the horse racing hinterland of Kansas City, Mo. I had planned on sparring with my favorite sportswriter, Joe Drape, on our annual disagreement on the East Coast slant to the Derby. Every year, I contend, the media always holds the horses from the Eastern block in an inflated regard. There ...

By Joe Drape, NYTimes.com LOUISVILLE, Ky. - This is a confusing Kentucky Derby, but aren’t they all? It’s draw day here, and we want you to start thinking about how you’re going to pick the winner of the only race in America that bestows bragging rights on the correct prognosticater. So with no further adieu, here’s Dean Keppler, the author ...

By Alex Brown Today marks what would have been Barbaro’s fifth birthday. Fans of Barbaro (FOBs) celebrated Barbaro’s fourth birthday in style, attending racetracks across the country to honor their champion. At Delaware Park, where many of Barbaro’s connections were in attendance, including his owners Roy and Gretchen Jackson, more than 700 ...

By Jim Squires If a filly is to ever again win the Kentucky Derby — which Fox Hill Farm’s Eight Belles will apparently get the opportunity to do come Saturday — nothing could be more fitting than for her to be trained by Larry Jones, the friendly guy with the big hat. Eight Belles at Churchill Downs, with the trainer Larry Jones aboard. (Garry ...

By Joe Drape, NYTimes.com LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Only one horse mattered here this morning, the Big Horse, the Big Bay, the one and only early Derby favorite: Big Brown. He drew a crowd all morning at Barn 22, and there must have been 100 people trailing him as his exercise rider Michelle Nevin navigated him through the backside onto the Churchill ...

''Memory draws from delight, ere it dies, an essence that breathes of it many a year�''    � Irish bard Thomas Moore, 1779-1852 Bay Meadows, California�s pioneering racetrack, has been this aging fan�s delight for nearly my entire lifetime. Now, barring an unlikely last-minute reprieve, it is marching inexorably ...

One night during the 2007 Keeneland November sale, Eoin Harty was enjoying a leisurely dinner when the topic turned to horses, in particular those in his Southern California stable.The trainer got a twinkle in his eye when he began to speak about a colt that had impressively broken his maiden the month before, in his second start, and was ...

A host for HRTV since its inception and a simulcast television commentator from the paddock at Santa Anita and Oak Tree beginning in 1993, Jon White has been involved in racing since he joined the Daily Racing Form in 1974 at Playfair Race Course in his hometown of Spokane, Wash. He also spent three years as a licensed Thoroughbred owner in the ...