Armen Antonian

Southern California, not known for tradition, has a rich and wonderful history in the world of horse racing. Santa Anita was built in1934 and they got it right. The track embraces the San Gabriel mountains, which loom in the forefront on an incredibly large piece of land by Southern California standards. Bob Baffert has called Santa Anita the most beautiful in the country. From almost any angle, fans get a good view of the horses. Santa Anita is the Wrigley Field of horse racing. Fans can get just feet away...

The just-concluded Santa Anita/Hollywood winter/spring meet with a 99.97% safety record from 6,678 horses racing over the dirt and or turf is truly remarkable. Combine this result with the additional data released by HISA of a fatality rate of .83 per 1000 starts nationally for the first quarter of 2024 and something extraordinary is starting to occur. Thoroughbred racing can and, importantly is, becoming safe with regard to horse fatalities. One would have been hard-pressed to make such a statement in 2019 with the many horse fatalities at Santa Anita....

The Derby is not just any race. It is the pinnacle of American horse racing from virtually every angle: breeding, owning, training, riding and yes, even betting (who doesn't want bragging rights for picking the winner?). And the Derby race/event has grown to such importance for the entire industry (the hoopla around the Derby as an event got bigger in the preceding years even while horse racing has been struggling), that its import flows far beyond the private parameters of ownership of Churchill Downs, Inc. Derby day is an industry-wide...

Handicappers use the term "bounce" to explain a poor performance of a horse or to project a possible poor performance. This handicapping angle is more pronounced in demanding stakes races where a horse will often meet a field where only a top performance will result in a placing. But what does a "'bounce" really mean? It refers to a horse that had a recent fast performance, several tough races in a short period or many races in a racing campaign. The handicapper is implicitly (and unknowingly) using basic biology to...

by Armen Antonian Ph.D As the 2021 Breeders' Cup approaches, there is much for horse racing to celebrate. New procedures put in place at racetracks to prevent horses with pre-existing conditions from racing have reduced fatalities. And the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) will be implemented next year to standardize medication of horses. But from California to Kentucky to New York, horse racing is still under a magnifying glass. In the absence of national leadership, individual racetracks struggle to manage ongoing issues and each, on their own, is responsible...

by Armen Antonian, Ph.D. Horse racing is stuck: stuck in the winter of 2019. Stuck at my home track at Santa Anita. That Santa Anita winter meet saw 37 horses euthanized and the meet stopped for a time due to horse safety concerns. California Senator Dianne Feinstein admonished the track publicly and Governor Gavin Newsom called horse racing "archaic."  There was real fear among Santa Anita officials for the continuation of horse racing in California. The events at Santa Anita were a trauma that reverberated around the U.S. racing world....