The Wire

Over the last two decades and counting, trainer Ed Dunlop has won eight races at the coveted Royal Ascot meeting in England. He'll have a couple of chances to add to his tally in 2021....

Richard Hannon has already won half a dozen races at the prestigious Royal Ascot meet, and he's busy readying a strong contingent for this year’s five-day extravaganza....

Overcast. Brisk. Rain-sodden ground. We needed the rain, we got it. Good for the garden. Off the turf for Make A Stand at Pimlico yesterday, off the turf at Delaware today, off the turf around the Mid-Atlantic, it’s the Upperville Horse Show, of course, it rained this week. A timeless...

Jockey Jose Ferrer leads the Monmouth Park jockey standings with nine wins thus far, and spoke this week to Horse Racing Nation about the New Jersey Racing Commission's whip rules. The strictest in the country, the regulations allow jockeys to only utilize the whip for reasons of safety, but to...

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. That seems to be the prevailing attitude toward American horse racing's Triple Crown whenever agents of change suggest tinkering with  the timing or distances of the trio of 3-year-old classics. In an era when trainers are looking for a minimum of four to...

Detailed analysis of the 2021 Mint Julep Stakes field by James Scully of TwinSpires....

With so much attention focused on the drug test that could lead to the disqualification of Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit, there's been barely a peep about how American racing managed to get through a Triple Crown season with all of its participants competing free of race-day furosemide, the anti-bleeding...

Trainer extraordinaire Bob Baffert was inducted into the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in 2009.  His enshrinement certainly won’t be rescinded irrespective of a documented record of equine drug violations, including most notoriously Medina Spirit in the 2021 Kentucky Derby and eventual Triple Crown winner Justify in the...

I watched the U.S. Women's Open in golf this past weekend on and off. I wondered if Lexi Thompson, the front-runner with a 4 shot lead, could battle some demons and get the job done. On Sunday, after she hit her second to six feet on the par five first...

In the Room with Steve Cauthen. Three Eclipse Awards in one season. The Triple Crown. Three-time British Champion jockey. The Hall of Fame. Sports Illustrated’s Sportsman of the Year.  Last week, I had the honor to talk to Hall of Fame jockey Steve Cauthen for In the Room on HRRN. ...

Our wagering game is an incredible mental exercise for many reasons. And one of its characteristics I like best is the variety of thought when it comes to doping out various bets. This includes, for me at least, ticket themes in serial wagers. I was speaking with horseplayer Mike Maloney awhile...

The 153rd Belmont Stakes and the 242nd Epsom Derby were run on June 5, 2021.  Before the day was over, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Godolphin had accomplished an historic first-ever feat:  winning the 1 ½ mile Epsom Derby and the 1 ½ mile Belmont Stakes on the same...

Attorney Bob Heleringer authored the book, Equine Regulatory Law, so there may be no one better to help us understand the legal questions surrounding the potential drug disqualification of this year's Kentucky Derby winner, Medina Spirit, and the two-year suspension of trainer Bob Baffert handed down on Wednesday by Churchill...

There is much to be said for pausing and considering how much the sport and the breed owes to the …Continue reading →...

And it’s over. Miles’ Little League career has come to a close. And what a close.  First playoff game, Tigers vs. Orioles, Wednesday night. Round Hill Center Field #1. We had met the Orioles, the best team in the league, twice this season. Both games were called. The slaughter rule....

Detailed analysis of the 2021 Belmont Stakes field by Keeler Johnson for TwinSpires....

Candy Ride (Arg), by Ride the Rails from Candy Girl (Arg), by Candy Stripes, came from Argentina, where he was a champion miler, and quickly established himself as both a high-class racehorse with a win in the Gl Pacific Classic and as a sire here in a similar way that...

Once a week (or at least that's the goal), we have been producing "In the Room" on HRRN. Mike Penna, a longtime friend/colleague, came up with the idea when his flagship show, the Equine Forum, stretched to three hours every Saturday. It's been a fun, albeit, time consuming, project, interviewing...

Yesterday Old Friends in Kentucky resumed a tradition that has joined us meaningfully each Memorial Day, but which last year was interrupted by the pandemic. Once again we gathered to honor the memories of the horses who have passed. This … Continue reading →...

It's that time of day. When there's still a choice, albeit, a small, sliver of a choice and it won't last long. The clock ticks. The sun wanes. Work more, one last email, one last sales pitch, one last transcription, one last paragraph on a plane that won't land? Go...

Automobile racing is a very male-dominated sport. In 1929, Maude Yagle became the first and still only woman to own the winning car in the Indy 500.  However, she watched from the stands because she was prohibited by track officials from visiting the pit areas and the race program prefaced...

Back in the northern tundra when I was a wee lad we'd get a frequent visit from an old teammate of my pops' named Leo Labine. Mr. Labine had a long NHL career and now retired, he was selling something-or-other as a traveling salesman of sorts (long NHL careers didn't...

Real Writing on Racing 💯...

Becoming the fifth Grade 1 winner by his sire Twirling Candy, Rombauer rocked the racing world back on its heels with …Continue reading →...

I was looking at the Derby Pick 4 a few weeks ago as the board opened for leg one. There were two horses I was looking at - Wesley Ward's and Patrick Biancone's - and both opened completely dead on the board at around 20-1 respectively. The three chalk were...