Horse Racing Blog

Insight and commentary on the world of thoroughbred horse racing.

Thoughts and opinions about the fascinating sport of thoroughbred horse racing from a racing insider.

Articles and information about the sport of thoroughbred horse racing.

Any Given Saturday...3 months too late
I have to admit I felt a bit of vindication when Any Given Saturday drew off to win the Haskell Invitational on August 5.
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Helping Their Own
‘Tragic’ is an unfortunate adjective often applied to the game of horse racing. But the racing community just as often rises to the occasion when tragedy does strike, as it has with two of racing’s unsung participants this month...Read More.

The Half-Year Awards
With the year half over and the big summer meets at Del Mar and Saratoga gearing up, I thought it would be fun to vote for the Half-Year Eclipse Awards. Hey if ESPN can make up an awards show, why not me?...Read More

Old-Timers continue to run
In the last edition of the Horse Racing Blog, I lamented the premature losses of Invasor and Scat Daddy. But the last week of stakes racing gave us some fireworks from the equine geriatric set. Three veteran runners in particular gave racing fans everywhere something to cheer about...Read More

Invasor Retires
We horse racing fans were spoiled during the first half of 2007. We witnessed a compelling Triple Crown prep season, with plenty of close finishes between good horses. The Triple Crown itself was even better, especially the epic stretch duels in the Preakness and Belmont Stakes...Read More

Summer Horse Racing
One of the first big showdowns of the summer should come on July 7 at Calder when the top sprinters Smokey Stover and Fabulous Strike square off. Those two own four of the five highest Beyer Speed Figures sprinting this year...Read More

The Small Apple?
What if they threw a Belmont and no one came? As of this writing there are only five three-year-olds considered ‘definite’ for the Belmont Stakes, the oldest and longest of the Triple Crown races. Street Sense, isn’t one of those five. He’s considered only ‘possible’. With Hard Spun and Curlin among the ‘definites’, it sure would be nice if Street Sense showed up and give racing fans the chance to witness another epic battle...Read More

Triple Tough - Attending all the Triple Crown Races
I attended my second Preakness on Saturday and, based on what I’ve seen in my brief history there, I can’t believe I haven’t made the effort to go more often. My first was in 2005 watching the Afleet Alex miracle. And now this year’s battle royale between Curlin and Street Sense...Read More

How many days until the 2008 Kentucky Derby?
I experienced a split second of embarrassment and regret right after Street Sense ran past Hard Spun to win Derby on Saturday. Any Given Saturday was no where to be found and a very logical result was about to be posted...Read More

Final thoughts before the first mint julep
Some final pre-Derby notes from the Trainers Dinner, one last early morning on the backstretch and the post position draw (as seen on TV), all while packing for Derbyville...Read More

The Racing Blog picks the 2007 Kentucky Derby winner
I had my moment of clarity on Derby Monday morning. It came after a weekend of rushing around Keeneland and Churchill Downs trying to see as many Derby horses in the flesh as possible. It came after a weekend of endlessly viewing replays of workouts and pouring over the information stored in my Derby-crazed brain. But thankfully, it came and I can now start thinking about how to bet the race as opposed to who to bet...Read More

Kentucky Derby Workouts
I had hoped to have a little more clarity on this year’s Derby by now. But because I’m a chronically bad morning person and so many Derby horses seem to be doing exceptionally well, I’m probably more confused than ever with only six days to go...Read More

Kentucky Derby pedigrees, who has the right stuff to win the Derby?
There are many things that make the Kentucky Derby a unique race and therefore extremely difficult to handicap. One of the main things that separate the Derby from other American Grade 1 races is the mile and a quarter distance...Read More

The blog ranks the 2007 Derby Contenders
The Kentucky Derby Festival officially kicks off in Louisville with an air show and massive fireworks display over the Ohio River tonight. The Lexington Stakes, the last graded Derby prep will be run at Keeneland this afternoon. The winner of that race will earn a pass into the Derby starting gate, but probably not into true Derby contention. ....Read More

Rules For Picking The Kentucky Derby
When I first started betting the Kentucky Derby in the 1984 the ‘rules’ for selecting a Derby winner were something like this...Read More

A Reported Outbreak of Derby Fever
It hit me today. This morning I woke up with an unmistakable case of Derby Fever. I’ve gotten the sickness every spring for awhile now. I never know exactly when I’ll come down with it, I’m just glad I did. I always get a little afraid that I’ll somehow ‘outgrow’ Derby, the way I outgrew baseball cards and other similar childhood passions. But thankfully, I’m flush with Derby Fever and I can be a little kid again for the next few weeks...Read More

Keeneland - racing as it was meant to be…
It’s officially been spring for a few weeks now, but spring really begins in Central Kentucky today with the opening of Keeneland. After two weeks of summer weather, a drastic cold snap has put a bit of a damper on things, but its still Keeneland (and it’s still four weeks ‘til Oaks Day). That’s enough to get any racing fans heart rate up, even if the thermometer isn’t following suit...Read More

Old Friends trying to "Fly Wallenda Home"
Old Friends, horse retirement farm in Georgetown, Kentucky, has taken up the cause of returning Wallenda from Japan. Such an endeavor has become a bit of specialty for Old Friends operator Michael Blowen... Read More

Old School vs. New School - Can Curlin win the Kentucky Derby?
A coworker of mine, I’ll call him Leif, has been convinced that Curlin is the Kentucky Derby winner ever since the colt broke his maiden first time out by 12 ¾ lengths back in early February... Read More

Churchill Downs before the Derby
It’s only March, but you could smell just a hint of Derby in the air and could feel the grounds beginning to come back to life. Horses are once again stabled at Churchill, after the annual two month winter hiatus for backstretch maintenance... Read More

One Step Back, Two Steps Forward
Pimlico officially announced its 2007 spring/summer stakes schedule on February 20. Now the Pimlico Special is officially dead for 2007, and the races’ absence is yet another sign of the tenuous financial situation at the Maryland Jockey Club...Read More

Horseracing on television
The landscape of televised horse racing has undergone some major changes over the past year. The Breeders’ Cup broadcast moved from NBC to ESPN and the latter network decided to drop its weekly racing recap show. Now comes word that Churchill Downs and its affiliated tracks, namely the Fair Grounds, Calder and Arlington will be phased out of the TVG lineup...Read More

Beware the Derby Fever
The surest sign of the annual Derby Fever epidemic is the sale of promising, yet unproven, three year-olds...Read More

The 2007 racing season begins.
With all the stakes and all the nice horses scheduled to compete, the first Saturday in February will also help move the 2007 racing season out of the shadow of 2006. Some of the stars of yesterday are still around, but there are plenty of other runners, that could well be the talking horses as the year progresses...Read More

Barbaro: Recognizing greatness.
For the last twenty years or so, I’ve spent the winter and early spring months searching for the winner of the Kentucky Derby. In 2006, Barbaro found me. More than once actually...Read More

Fun With Horse Racing Quotes
What the Horse Racing Blog has to say about some recent notable quotes from the racetrack...Read More

Eclipsing The Jacksons
The 2006 Eclipse Awards were announced last night in Beverly Hills and there were a few surprises in the equine categories and a big disappointment on the human side...Read More

Polytrack Racing Surfaces
We’re still in the early stages of the synthetic racetrack revolution in North America. But the anecdotal evidence from trainers has been overwhelmingly positive and vet bills are said to be much lower for horses training over these new surfaces. The cold hard numbers are equally encouraging so far...Read More

It's Derby Time Again
This will be the first in a series of looks at the contenders for Derby immortality. I’ve decided to mention only the three year-old that I think can win going a mile and a quarter on May 5. In the past I’ve been right a few times. Alysheba, Unbridled, Sea Hero, Real Quiet and Barbaro are in my stable of Derby winners (and Grindstone saved me in 1996 when I took Editor’s Note, but I don’t really count that). Go For Gin, Silver Charm, Monarchos and Giacomo are winners that I was on at one point or another prior to their wins...Read More

A Bigger, Better Breeders' Cup
While the Breeders’ Cup will never match the Kentucky Derby in terms of sheer energy and atmosphere, it’s great that they have essentially added an ‘Oaks Day’ to the proceedings. It’s a wonderful thing to walk out of Churchill on the first Friday in May (or last in April sometimes), having had a fantastic time, and knowing that that was just the appetizer...Read More

Every Vote Counts (Even Pretend Ones)
It will be very interesting to see what the voters will do in the three year-old colt division where you basically have two Hall of Fame runners to choose from (and in hindsight maybe a third if Discreet Cat has a big 2007). I’m about as big a Barbaro fan as there is and I don’t think he would have let Bernardini beat him if he had finished the Preakness. But an objective comparison of their 2006 campaigns gives Bernardini a (very) slight edge...Read More

Life is Just A Fantasy
“Someone should get fantasy horse racing going,” I thought. “It’s a perfect way to grow fan interest and it even uses the same skill sets that attract handicappers-gathering information, analyzing it and then making decisions. Maybe the NTRA would run with the idea and do something constructive to promote and market the game.”...Read More

Dead Trainers Make the Best Spokesmen
Now Woody is the star of a Mill Ridge Farm ad campaign for their stallion, and former Stephens trainee, Gone West. Open up a Thanksgiving weekend edition Daily Racing Form, or recent issues of The Blood-Horse and there’s ole Woody, pictured under the headline: “Woody always said he’d be a great stallion”...Read More

The Grinch Who Stole The 2007 Racing Season
The fact that top equine stars tend not to stay around very long, while extremely frustrating, is only one factor in racing’s decline in popularity over the past 30 years. And in the grand scheme of things, it’s probably a rather small one. The shift of American culture to one of immediate gratification is probably the biggest reason there is a growing disinterest in a game that takes time and patience to learn and play...Read More

Matt O'Neil has been a racing enthusiast since the mid-1980's. He is a freelance writer and thoroughbred marketing consultant and editor of the breeding journal Owner-Breeder International. Contact Matt O'Neil