By Ray Paulick - Duchossois offers a special brand of hospitality to the racing fans and horsemen.
Monday, August 13, 2007
By Ray Paulick - The only master that should count is the horse and his safety.
Monday, August 06, 2007
By Ray Paulick - Racing has no commissioner, so when a substance, possibly cobra venom, was found in a trainer's barn a month ago, there is no swift and decisive action, only inaction.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
By Ray Paulick - Unlike existing news products delivered once a day, BloodhorseNOW.com will be a vibrant, constantly updated online resource pulling in the latest information from racetracks, auction rings, and breeding sheds.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
By Ray Paulick - Funny Cide was in more living rooms than any other person or animal leading up to the 2003 Belmont Stakes.
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
By Ray Paulick - Included in that "it's not illegal if you can't test for it" category is cobra venom, the use of which has been rumored for years. The substance, believed to be 1,000 times more powerful than morphine, can help a horse run through pain by blocking impulses through the nervous system. Use of the substance in horse racing is illegal. Worse yet, it's cruel to the animal.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
By Ray Paulick - The revolving door at Magna didn't start with Neuman. Since Stronach formed Magna Entertainment in February 2000, there have been six CEOs.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
By Ray Paulick - What fans got this year were three incredible horse races that ended with three very accomplished and deserving winners, punctuated by the history-making performance of Rags to Riches, the first filly winner of the Belmont since Tanya in 1905.
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
By Ray Paulick - There is a touch of irony that Mom's Command will be inducted into the Hall of Fame the same year as the trainer of Forward Pass, Henry Forrest, who was elected by the Historic Review Committee.
Tuesday, June 05, 2007
By Ray Paulick - The Tin Man and John Henry have more in common than grade I victories at the ripe old age of 9.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
By Ray Paulick - The fighting spirit shown by both Curlin and Street Sense in this terrific stretch battle epitomizes what breeding and racing Thoroughbreds is all about.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
By Ray Paulick - Racing has enough problems without a grandstanding politician using his position to wage a personal war with a state regulator.
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
By Ray Paulick - Finally, after 23 years, Breeders' Cup officials can let out a sigh of relief. James Tafel's Street Sense proved that life does exist for a horse after winning the Bessemer Trust Breeders' Cup Juvenile (gr. I).
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
By Ray Paulick - For some, just getting a horse to Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May is the realization of a dream. For others who've been there before, it's about winning -- pure and simple.
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
By Ray Paulick - This year brings us to a couple of tried and tested chapters from the unwritten trainers' manual regarding the Kentucky Derby: the "two-prep" and "unraced juvenile" rules.
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
By Ray Paulick - Conventional wisdom suggests front-running horses have a huge advantage if they are allowed to set the tortoise-like fractions established in this year's Blue Grass. But Polytrack has thrown conventional wisdom out the window.
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
By Ray Paulick - Nobiz Like Shobiz and Tiago have a license to make beautiful music together on the first Saturday in May.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
By Ray Paulick - The CHRB's mandate is not only the right thing to do for the safety of horses, it is a benefit to owners, too, and ultimately for the tracks. Fewer injuries ensures there will be more horses in training, which will lead to larger field sizes, which usually translates to increased pari-mutuel handle. Owners are always happier to have horses racing and training rather than convalescing or recovering.
Tuesday, April 03, 2007
By Ray Paulick - Many state racing commissioners talk about cracking down on cheaters in our sport. Indiana regulators are taking serious action.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
By Ray Paulick - If you're a little confused about the future of racing in New York, join the club. If you're not confused, you're probably not thinking clearly.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
By Ray Paulick -- Twenty years ago, in the infancy of whole-card simulcasting, there were fears that only the so-called "super tracks" would survive -- those offering the highest-quality racing signals to receiving sites around the country.
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
By Ray Paulick -- One of the interesting things about Thoroughbred racing is the penchant so many people have of knocking something into oblivion, and later complaining about the fact it's gone. Take TVG, for example.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
By Ray Paulick - I had to go all the way to Dubai to hear a panel discussion about how racing officials in various American jurisdictions have different interpretations about the most basic rules infraction.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
Horse sale legislation filed Thursday and supported by California winemaker and horseman Jess Jackson would require disclosure of ownership and medical records of horses sold at public auction in Kentucky.
Thursday, February 08, 2007
By Ray Paulick - So many people owe thanks to Jonabell Farm founder John A. Bell III, who served on countless committees with numerous industry organizations for more than a half-century.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
A racetrack operator is calling on tracks to take control of simulcasts, which now produce about 85% of pari-mutuel handle in North America.
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
By Ray Paulick -- While efforts to reform the bloodstock market have been stalled since the introduction of a Code of Ethics in 2004, a rallying cry can be heard from across the ocean as the new president of the Thoroughbred Breeders' Association in England calls for reform.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
By Ray Paulick -- The Jan. 8 announcement of the expansion of the Breeders' Cup to two days, along with the addition of three new $1-million races is symbolic of the organization's dynamic new leadership, one that is willing to take some chances.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
By Ray Paulick - The NTRA's biggest success -- its lobbying efforts -- is reason alone to continue supporting the organization as it embraces change.
Wednesday, January 03, 2007
By Ray Paulick - The gap between purses in Thoroughbred races in the United States and money spent in the American Thoroughbred auction market widened in 2006. While total purses for the year aren't yet known, the projection is that they will be up by a couple of percentage points to just north of $1.1 billion, which would be an all-time record.
Thursday, December 28, 2006
By Ray Paulick - Roy and Gretchen Jackson's beloved colt demonstrated other-worldly intelligence, matched only in size and scope by his courage and heart. Barbaro could play the role of the Cowardly Lion, Scarecrow, and Tin Man -- after they'd been to see the Wizard of Oz. Wouldn't it be nice if some of those attributes gravitated toward Thoroughbred industry leaders?
Tuesday, December 19, 2006
By Ray Paulick - Steroids have been at the center of scandals in numerous sports, particularly track and field and baseball, but the only steroid scandal in racing is that they are legal.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
By Ray Paulick - Russell Baze, unlike former Major League baseball star Rickey Henderson, knows his place in history.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Ray Paulick - It's difficult to get away from talk of synthetic surfaces, whether it concerns racing in North America, Asia, Europe, or Dubai.
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Reigning Japanese Horse of the Year Deep Impact got the redemption his connections desperately wanted when the 4-year-old son of Sunday Silence rallied from last to win the 26th running of the $4.6-million Japan Cup (Jpn-I) at Tokyo Race Course on Sunday.
Sunday, November 26, 2006
Alondite recorded his fifth consecutive victory of 2006 in Saturday's $2.4-million Japan Cup Dirt (Jpn-I), benefiting from a ground-saving ride under Hiroki Goto to win by 1 1/4-lengths over favored Seeking the Dia.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
TVG will offer wagering and dual telecasts of the weekend's two major grade I international races from Japan -- Saturday's Japan Cup Dirt and Sunday's Japan Cup, a mile and one-half turf fixture featuring recent Emirates Airline Breeders' Cup Filly & Mare Turf (gr. IT) winner Ouija Board.
Friday, November 24, 2006
Ed Dunlop, the trainer of British star Ouija Board, got some good news when he talked to the champion mare's regular exercise rider earlier this week while she was preparing for Sunday's Japan Cup (Jpn-I).
Thursday, November 23, 2006
By Ray Paulick - The Society of International Thoroughbred Auctioneers is employing a classic carrot and stick approach with the Japan Racing Association, acknowledging through official recognition of 60 graded stakes that the JRA's racing quality is high, but warning the organization that no further advancements will be recognized until non-Japanese owners are licensed to compete in that country.
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Hollywood Park planned to conduct a full card of racing on its Cushion Track Sunday, one day after jockeys complained late in the day about "waves," or clumps of synthetic material, that a track official said were caused by problems with the equipment used to maintain the new surface.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
By Ray Paulick - The proposed strategic plan that came out of last month's Welfare and Safety of the Racehorse Summit is one of those documents or white papers that most likely will land in one of two places: the Thoroughbred industry's dust-gathering burial ground of so many other good ideas; or the hands of a leader with the energy, influence, and personal commitment to make a difference.
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
Ogden Mills Phipps said the fatal injury suffered by his family stable's Pine Island in the Nov. 4 Emirates Airline Breeders' Cup Distaff (gr. I) only serves to recommit him to additional attention and resources to equine research and organizations such as the Grayson-Jockey Club Research Foundation.
Monday, November 13, 2006
By Ray Paulick - After a rocky year of changes that touched both the board of directors and the organization's top executives, stakeholders in the Breeders' Cup should feel good about its new direction.
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
William S. Farish cited five current developments that give him optimism about the future of the Thoroughbred industry during his remarks as the honor guest at the Thoroughbred Club of America's 75th annual testimonial dinner, held at Keeneland Nov. 2.
Sunday, November 05, 2006
By Ray Paulick - It's too late to change anything for 2007, but California racing will be better served by a serious reduction of racing in 2008 and beyond. It's up to the CHRB to convince the industry it's the right thing to do.
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
The second-highest-priced horse sold at this week's Fasig-Tipton Kentucky fall yearling sale -- a Chief Seattle filly purchased Tuesday for $270,000 by bloodstock agent Buzz Chace -- was bought privately for $29,000 by pinhooker John Brocklebank less than 24 hours earlier and should have been scratched, according to Fasig-Tipton officials.
Thursday, October 26, 2006
By Ray Paulick - This week's issue of
The Blood-Horse takes a trip down memory lane for a look at favorite Breeders' Cup moments. Here are mine.
Tuesday, October 24, 2006
Attorneys for Jess Jackson have filed a motion for summary adjudication in the California winemaker's lawsuit against bloodstock agent Emmanuel de Seroux and his Narvick International agency.
Monday, October 23, 2006
By Ray Paulick - For Thoroughbred trainers driven to succeed, it's all about numbers. That's the way it's been in the Hall of Fame career of D. Wayne Lukas, who virtually rewrote the record books in the 1980s, and that's how it is for his former assistant, Todd Pletcher, who Oct. 14 broke the single-season mark of 92 stakes victories established by Lukas in 1987.
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
By Ray Paulick - If you didn't find something to like at Belmont Park, Keeneland, or the Oak Tree meeting at Santa Anita Park over the weekend of Oct. 7-8, you must not like horse racing.
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
