If manufacturers want to stay in business, they don’t pro-duce what they want; they produce what consumers want. Television networks try to act in exactly the same manner. Why else would ESPN need a bracketologist to tell us for weeks who might make the NCAA tournament—and who is or is not a “bubble...

It was a casual introduction, nearly 25 years ago now, at the Fasig-Tipton Kentucky November breeding stock sale. Remember his name, the man said, because you are going to hear a lot from him. We’ve all heard that before; only this time it was true—we have heard a lot from Frank Stronach in the ensuing...

Personality-wise, Jimmy Jerkens and Julio Canani have little in common. But this week the two trainers have one important thing in common: Each has a Derby horse in his barn. Thousands of races will be run at racetracks throughout the land over the next two months, but most of our attention will be focused...

Imagine that you are a patient in a hospital, a prominent Thoroughbred owner and breeder said. The doctor enters the room, takes a vial out of his black bag, and gives you a shot. He then produces a couple of pills, which you take orally. Of course, it doesn’t happen that way anymore. Patients wear identification...

Unless you stand a stallion in Florida, regularly breed and/or race in the state, or stable at Calder Race Course, you probably didn’t pay much attention to a news release regarding juvenile racing at the South Florida track and the Florida Stallion Stakes series. But you should pay attention, because...

Just a few weeks ago, this column opined that some stud fees were coming down in 2009, but it was not enough. They needed to be reduced more. Since then, the Keeneland November sale has come and gone, the nearly 50% drop in gross clearly illustrating the global economic downturn has not only reached...

It takes only a minute or two to sell a horse at public auction. The animal is led into the ring, the announcer makes a few comments, the auctioneer rattles his chant, and the hammer falls. Simple. Easy. Not exactly. In 2002, The Blood-Horse presented “A Day in the Life of a Racetrack,” followed in 2005...

They say actions speak louder than words. The public is taking action by wagering less on horse racing. And those actions are speaking loudly. Data released for the third quarter of 2008 reveals that handle in the United States and Canada dropped sharply, 9.85%, during July, August, and September, and...

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...

Financier Warren Buffett once said there is only one certainty about the stock market: It will fluctuate. In fact, all markets vacillate, and the business trends of buying and selling Thoroughbreds are certainly among them. The difference is the stock market tends to react quickly to news while the Thoroughbred...