Bill Casner

Before his Not This Time colt topped the Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale at $3.4 million, Bill Casner had never individually sold a million-dollar horse. And while he suspected this would be the one-his biggest breeding triumph in a long and distinguished history in the game--he wasn't at the sale Monday night. He had, he said, something more important to do. Instead, Casner was 7,300 miles away in Kenya to support the work of his daughter, Kayce Anderson, the founder of For the Good, a charity which helps girls in remote parts...

by Jessica Martini & Christina Bossinakis SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY - The Fasig-Tipton Saratoga Sale, a record-setter during its last two renewals, opened with a power-packed start-to-finish session Monday evening in the Humphrey S. Finney Pavilion. "We won the first half," said Fasig-Tipton President Boyd Browning, Jr. "It was a really strong start to the opening session of the 2024 Saratoga yearling sale. We averaged over $500,000 tonight and the median was $400,000. Our RNA rate at an elite sale at 20% is pretty remarkable. We always aim for zero, but...

Editor's note: Bill Casner, a long-time participant in many facets of racing, is probably best known for founding WinStar Farm with Kenny Troutt and winning the 2010 GI Kentucky Derby with Super Saver. Among Casner's many roles in the sport have been founding director of the Race for Education and Kentucky Equine Education Program (KEEP). He has sold his interest in WinStar to Troutt and currently operates as Casner Racing. Horse racing is in a firestorm. We are at survival tipping point. The decisions that are made in the short...

For all the satchels of research dollars and reams of ink devoted to exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH), it remains a topic Swiss cheese riddled with unknowns. Which means that, as the sport continues to move away from Lasix as a crutch to manage the problem--especially when the federal Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act (HISA) outlines a timeframe for a total race-day Lasix ban--various lines of inquiry beg pursuit. Given the sometimes rundown, poorly ventilated state of racetrack barns around the country, perhaps the most urgent one is this: How much...

by Jessica Martini & Christie DeBernardis LEXINGTON, KY - Demand for horses remained high across the board as the Book 2 section of the Keeneland November Breeding Stock Sale concluded Friday in Lexington. "Today was pretty spectacular from start to finish," Keeneland's Director of Sales Operations Cormac Breathnach said Friday evening. "It was a very strong day all the way through. We sense some frustration on the part of buyers with the momentum from September carrying through to November." A total of 475 head sold during the two Book 2...

Really, nobody can demand respect. It has to be commanded. This business has plenty of people who shout their achievements from the rooftops of social media. They have done their own reckoning, and that doesn't necessarily incline the rest of us to reinforce their self-esteem. How much more impressive, surely, is the understated, week-by-week accretion of laurels by a man like Doug Cauthen. He is always reluctant to "claim" credit for a particular horse, knowing that the fulfilment of its potential is always divided between so many different hands. Even...