Some enterprises of great pitch and moment take years to come to fruition. Some take just a few weeks. The latter scenario is true of the new partnership between bloodstock agent Justin Casse and trainer Joseph O'Brien. When Magnolia Racing Syndicate spent €562,000 at the recent Goffs Orby Sale, the group was built on relationships [...]

The North American registered Thoroughbred foal crop is projected to be 18,700 in 2022, The Jockey Club reported Thursday morning. This represents 500 fewer foals than the 2021 foal crop estimate of 19,200, and, at a decline of 2.6%, represents the sixth straight year of decline and is the lowest figure since 1965, when the [...]

The daily number of U.S. deaths from the COVID-19 virus neared 1,000 per day last week, the highest level the country has seen since February. The seven-day moving average of COVID-19 cases reported by the CDC, is at 149,263, and continues to rise. There are currently four variants circulating in the United States; Alpha, Beta, [...]

Southern California native Kevin Grigsby, the Executive Producer and Senior Vice President of Television at FanDuel Group & TVG, doesn't give a lot of interviews. “It's a personal preference of mine,” says Grigsby. “I love having the network speak for itself, more so than I like to speak for the network.” But when the Del [...]

The federal judge presiding over the Bob Baffert versus the New York Racing Association ban case ruled Thursday that Baffert's affidavit, filed Wednesday as part of a 434-page “reply memorandum of law in further support of motion for preliminary injunction” of NYRA's ban, would not be stricken or disregarded, as NYRA had requested. NYRA's attorney, [...]

They'll run the Belmont Stakes next Saturday, and as we lead up to the event, there will be more conversation about all of the unpleasant things we've been talking about lately: syringes in barns, drugs and bans, guilt or innocence, crime and punishment. We'll be asked to justify our existence, the necessity of our sport [...]

The disqualifications of Charlatan (Speightstown) and Gamine (Into Mischief) from May 2, 2020 wins at Oaklawn Park have been overturned, and Bob Baffert's 15-day suspension has been waived after a two-day hearing in front of the Arkansas Racing Commission. Charlatan was the winner of the GI Arkansas Derby, while Gamine won an allowance race the [...]

Dr. Gary Lavin, one of the Thoroughbred industry's most respected and accomplished veterinarians, passed away Saturday morning at his home in Louisville, Kentucky after a long battle with cancer, according to his family. He was 83 years old. Lavin is a past president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, the Kentucky Thoroughbred Association, Steward [...]

Several major shifts in riding assignments were underway Friday morning after Umberto Rispoli and John Velazquez were not allowed to fly to Saudi Arabia due to a mixup in flight arrangements Wednesday and problems with COVID-19 restrictions Thursday. Ron Anderson, the agent for Velazquez and Rosario, said that Mickael Barzalona would ride Max Player (Honor [...]

When the owners of Fancy Green (Fr) (Muhtathir {GB}-Fancy Stone {Ire}, by Rainbow Quest) decided to enter her and seven others into Keeneland's December Digital Sale, they did so with years of personal experience with the technology and methods that made digital buying and selling possible. “We are international owners,” said Majdolin Shatrit, the Executive [...]

Earlier this year, the son of a longtime family friend called me and said that he had claimed an eight-year-old gelding the previous summer, and he had raced a dozen or so times for him, but now he was nine, and he was worried about him. He wanted to make sure that he retired him [...]

After Uni (GB) (More Than Ready)'s five-year-old campaign which concluded in the Champion Turf Female award, bloodstock advisors suggested to the partners in her ownership group that it might be time to retire and sell her. After all, the owners had probably already gotten more than they had bargained for: they  had campaigned her at [...]