BloodHorse.com

  (Originally published in the October 23, 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 California trainer John Shirreffs looks back at 2009 and believes racing missed a huge opportunity to build up ...

 Now that the preps for the Nov. 5 and 6 Breeders’ Cup have been completed, it is time to go over all the races and see who will be and might be showing up. A number of trainers and owners are uncertain in which races their horses will be participating, so expect to see several prominent hopefuls pre-entered in two races. For a few ...

by Kate Hunter, http://www.keiblog.net/ One of the bi-products of being an American racing fan in Japan is that I get to check in on some of my favorite racers that have been purchased by Japan over the years; as a racing blogger in Japan, I also get asked a lot of questions about US horses who were bought by the Japanese. While I have not been ...

Rob Dyrdek's Mega Heat hit the track over the weekend. It was fun to watch his race, because Mega Heat is no longer a Maiden! Mega Heat Finished first at the Oak Tree meet in Hollywood Park Oct. 10, 2010. (Watch the race!)The Unusual Heat colt is owned by Rob Dyrdek, Frank Alesia and Ciaglia Racing LLC. A 3-year-old whose career has two starts, ...

 This is an exciting weekend for horse racing—not just because of the back-to-back-to-back days of live ESPN coverage from Keeneland starting Friday.  Not just because of the slew of Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In” races at Keeneland, Belmont and Oak Tree at Hollywood Park this weekend.  But because the eagerly ...

  (Originally published in the October 9, 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 TwitterFew issues in horse racing fire up people’s emotions like medication. A couple of years ago the target was anabolic ...

(Originally published in the October 2, 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 The buy-back rate at the recently concluded Keene-land September yearling sale became the sale’s most significant statistic ...

By Patrick Patten, of Handride The people in charge are right (that is the ethereal “they”): this is not the time for big grandiose ideas.  I just think the correct time was 3 years ago and they want to wait another three years,[rimshot].    There was a plan! Right up until someone said ADW. [cue sad horn “waa-waaaaaaaaa”] Do you ...

As of Monday morning, my most recent blog post, entitled ''Zenyatta Wins Again -- This Time With Oprah'' http://www.ntra.com/blog/index/view/MTExOQ , has received more than 6,200 page views and elicited more than 350 comments. I want to thank you for the overwhelming response and for the passionate discussion. Buried within the usual back and ...

 (As an addendum to the Secretariat trilogy, I am linking to my story that has been on Secretariat.com for the past several weeks. While we’re all in a Secretariat frame of mind, ponder this: What if Big Red had been racing in today high-tech age? That is the assignment I was given. So, forget the movie and the 1970s for a few minutes and try ...