Today's Edition

Henry Ford once said: "My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me." For Andrew Byrd, an 11-year-old from Port St Lucie, FL, his first best friend was a horse named Bridger who came into his life two years ago. Andrew rode Bridger every week at Holly Creek STAR Hippotherapy Center. They rode at a walk and Andrew told Bridger all of his dreams and secrets. When Andrew's parents had to tell him of Bridger's sudden death, they knew he would be devastated. Andrew, who is...

Bob Baffert certainly didn't have much trouble winning the GI Hollywood/Cash Call Futurity at Hollywood Park, taking the trophy home six times. Since that event has moved to Los Alamitos, however, Baffert has been perfect, capturing the new Los Alamitos Futurity four times in four runnings. Saturday, he appears likely to push that record to five-for-five with an imposing duo in the six-horse affair. The most probable winner is, ironically, Improbable (City Zip). Getting up to score by a neck when debuting at 2-5 Sept. 29 at Santa Anita, the...

When asked what brought her to the 2014 yearling sales at Karaka in New Zealand, Kylie Bax had an answer that was succinct and very much to the point. "To buy Beauty Generation!" The international supermodel (once a supermodel, always a supermodel, right?) couldn't possibly have known that nearly five years later, the horse that Bax selected (or the one that picked her, as tells it), would become the world's top-rated galloper over a mile and would be aiming for back-to-back victories in one of the most prestigious races in...

DEAUVILLE, France--The 2018 European breeding stock sales season comes to a close this weekend in Deauville with four days of selling at the Arqana December Breeding Stock Sale. While the seaside town and all its Christmas cheer is an attraction in itself, savvy shoppers will be well aware there are still plenty of gifts of the equine variety up for grabs. While inspections at the Deauville sales grounds were blighted on Friday by periods of heavy rain and wind, buyers from all corners of the globe were still out inspecting...

Since the Eclipse Awards were initiated in 1971 the only rule has been that there are no rules. Want to vote for a $12,500 claimer for Horse of the Year? Well, you'd be making a fool out of yourself, but nowhere does it say you can't do that. For the longest time, there was something almost endearing about a system that was so simple, and, much more often than not, the voters got it right. But this is a far more complicated business than it was 47 years ago and...

It's been 16 years since trainer Ken McPeek had one of those whirlwind seasons where he seems to fire one bullet after another. With the 2-year-old Signalman (General Quarters), the impressive winner of the GII Kentucky Jockey Club S. Nov. 24, McPeek is heading into the winter with the goods to make a run for the GI Kentucky Derby. Signalman, who McPeek picked out as a yearling, has been the highlight of a banner year in which he has scored graded stakes wins with horses like Restless Rider (Distorted Humor),...

HONG KONG--During a Thursday morning press conference, about one hour prior to the barrier draw for Sunday's Longines Hong Kong International Races, trainer John Moore explained how reigning Horse of the Year Beauty Generation (NZ) (Road to Rock {Aus}), once pigeon-holed as a one-dimensional, need-the-lead type galloper, had matured into a more versatile sort. After landing gate 12 in a field of 14 for the G1 Hong Kong Mile, Zac Purton may just have to resort to plans B or perhaps even C from that wide alley. During that presser,...

Historical turnpikes have marked the career of Ronald Rauscher, forged during the 1970s and 1980s in the sacred acreage of Cologne's Gestut Rottgen and Oshawa's Windfields Farm. Present at the latter during the era of Vice Regent, the Canadian-born entrepreneur was carried by a rare wind from the outset. It blew him the way of Co. Kildare's Baronrath Stud in 1985, where he took up a managerial post under Rottgen's owner Maria Mehl-Mulhens and steered the birthplace of The Tetrarch and Dark Ronald which had also recently produced the luminaries...

"Sports betting is an incredible opportunity to diversify your business. The time is now. You have everything in place to move sports betting forward." That's the message that Richard McGuire, Executive Chairman of SportTech PLC, delivered to attendees at the Global Symposium on Racing in Tucson on Wednesday. Although McGuire acknowledges that there has historically been a disconnect between sports betting and horse racing betting, he predicted that there will be a "shared wallet" allowing customers to easily bet sports contests and pari-mutuel horse racing. "The customer will demand it,"...

NEWMARKET, UK—The traditional Wednesday evening slot for the Juddmonte fillies in and out of training delivered exactly what has come to be expected as the December Sale cranked down a notch from the frenetic trade of Tuesday. A pair of 3-year-olds from celebrated families and by top-class sires shared the spotlight when each selling for 400,000gns just four lots apart. A number of the international visitors had disappeared from Park Paddocks by the third session of the sale but still in situ and waiting for the second part of their...

His name runs like a seam of silver through the daily annals of the sport--an understated, patient presence to contrast with the brash, fleeting meteors among rival stables. Last weekend was typical: G. Watts Humphrey Jr. was listed as co-breeder of Dabster (Curlin), who ran Battle Of Midway (Smart Strike) to a neck in the GIII Native Diver S. at Del Mar on Sunday; and as owner of High Regard (Will Take Charge), third in the GII Golden Rod S. at Churchill the previous day. True, the most exciting animal...

HONG KONG--A heavily overcast sky hung over Sha Tin Racecourse and the surrounding mountains and the occasional raindrop fell, but none of that put any sort of damper on a busy window of activity in advance of Sunday's Longines International Hong Kong Races. Thursday is the day that the Japanese raiders typically strut their stuff, but some of the entrants from the island nation put in some impressive fast work Wednesday morning. Lys Gracieux (Jpn) (Heart's Cry {Jpn}) had Joao Moreira in the irons as the last-out winner of the...