As the year winds down, a few closing thoughts on gifts given this year that will continue to bring a smile to my face as long as I live. Feel free to share favorite memories, but please leave your HOY and HOD arguments at home. I want to hear races, from Maiden Claiming to Foreign Allowance races to...

With more than 400 responses on my last blog, and with some of the posters a bit overzealous in expressing their opinions, it is obvious the Horse of the Year debate is going to continue to heat up as we get closer to the Eclipse Awards. I have stated my feelings and have nothing more to say on the matter...

This will be my final thoughts on racing's hottest current debate--Horse of the Year. After this, I'll let everyone else continue to drill on a subject that surely will not go away any time soon. First of all, let me say that I am not in favor of having a separate "both" option on the Horse of the Year...

A short Breeders' Cup story: Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt Stopping to talk with Jerry O'Connell about the Breeders' Cup Classic. I asked Jerry "Having any luck today?" as he responded "no not really" and we began chit chatting. I was definitely curious about who he liked in the Classic and so that was most...

By Alex Waldrop, President and CEO of the NTRA Zenyatta's magnificent performance in this year's BC Classic has done exactly what I (and plenty of others, I'm sure) predicted back in September -- it has provided the one possible roadblock to Rachel Alexandra being crowned the 2009 Horse of the Year....

.commentForm, .postComments, #comments{display:none;} It's the question every Thoroughbred racing fan is talking about - who should be named 2009 Horse of the Year? It's clearly a two horse race: Zenyatta vs. Rachel Alexandra. If you had a vote, how would you cast it?

The ongoing battle for North American Horse of the Year became a little clearer in August. Several of the top contenders started to separate themselves from the pack. Who would you rank as the #1 Thoroughbred in the country? Rank your Top Ten based on how each horse has performed so far this year. writeRanker...

By Alex Waldrop, President and CEO of the NTRA Rachel Alexandra has waged a truly historic campaign this year, and we're not halfway through September. The marvelous 3-year-old filly has taken on the best of her male contemporaries twice and beaten them each time-in the Preakness and in the Haskell....

For racing fans, the stars aligned for Curlin, the 2007 Horse of the Year, to return and race at age 4. Now, for just the sixth time since the Eclipse Awards were first handed out in 1971, a runner has repeated as Horse of the Year. Curlin Slide Show Curlin Had Curlin, a son of Smart Strike, been raced...

Now that the dust has settled on Zenyatta's marvelous Breeders' Cup win, I thought it would be a good time to catch up with her trainer, John Shirreffs, who is one of the nicer guys in racing. Admittedly, my motives were a bit self-serving, as I wanted to inquire about two of the hot-button topics surrounding...