DRF

Daily Racing Form (DRF) writer Dan Illman has been named recipient of the 2024 Old Hilltop Award for covering Thoroughbred racing with excellence and distinction and will be honored May 16 at Pimlico's Alibi Breakfast in the buildup to the GI Preakness S. "I am very honored to receive the Old Hilltop Award from the Maryland Jockey Club," said Illman, who also serves as executive producer for DRF's video productions. "I fell in love with racing the first time I went to Belmont Park as a child, snuck the Daily...

Gerry McGrath, breeder of Champion Hurdler Jezki (Ire) (Milan {GB}) and high-class performers Jett (Ire) (Flemensfirth), Jered (Ire) (Presenting {GB}), Jetson (Ire) (Oscar {Ire}) and Jenari (Ire) (Milan {GB}) all out of the outstanding broodmare La Noire (Ire) (Phardante {Fr}), has outlined hopes that the legacy can continue with leading Dublin Racing Festival contender Jetara (Ire) (Walk In The Park {Ire}). A granddaughter of La Noire, the mare who was famously gifted to McGrath by his late father in the nineties, Jetara will take on the boys in the G1...

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB) have named dynamic broadcaster Tom Hammond as the recipient of this year's Special Eclipse Award for Career Excellence, the NTRA said in a press release Thursday. Hammond will receive the honor at the 53rd Annual Eclipse Awards Dinner and Ceremony at The Breakers Palm Beach in Florida on Thursday, Jan. 25. A native of Lexington, Kentucky, Hammond has enjoyed a much honored and remarkable career as one of the nation's top broadcasters, most...

Like many TDN readers, I use online betting for playing the races. I had used one online site for a few years and felt that I needed another site that offered more "rewards", thus I signed up for DRF.com bets. Nice rewards and free past performances as you accumulate "points." Imagine my surprise to find out that I cannot place bets at Churchill Downs, Turfway, Fairgrounds and any other track that Churchill owns. And I cannot watch online live video either. Now, I don't know what the squabble is between...

Echo Zulu (Gun Runner--Letgomyecho, by Menifee), the 2021 champion 2-year-old filly and GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies winner who also captured three other Grade I races, including the 2023 Ballerina H., suffered two broken left front sesamoids Friday morning as she was working in company with Gunite, confirmed David Fiske, racing manager for owner Ron Winchell. "Echo Zulu sustained a biaxial sesamoid bone fracture of the left-front fetlock during training this morning at Santa Anita," Fiske texted the TDN. "She has been stabilized in a kimzey splint and will undergo...

Britney Eurton, Acacia Courtney Clement and Nick Luck will co-host the 53rd Annual Eclipse Awards, the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB) said in a release Wednesday. Held on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024 at The Breakers Palm Beach, Caton Bredar will be again serving as the Ceremony Announcer. "We are very excited for this wide range of talent to host this year's Eclipse Awards and for FanDuel TV to bring it live to households across the country," said NTRA President...

It's not hyperbole to call cartoonist Pierre Bellocq a legend. Since he arrived in the U.S. from his native France in the mid-fifties he spent the next 50-plus years making readers of the old Morning Telegraph and the Daily Racing Form laugh. His cartoons were always creative, witty, thought-provoking and, most importantly, fun. Now 96, Peb lives in Princeton, New Jersey and, if you ask him to do so, he'll crank out a cartoon that is every bit as good as anything he's ever done. We brought in Peb and...

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB) today announced the finalists for the 2022 Eclipse Awards, recognizing excellence in Thoroughbred racing. Winners in 17 horse and human categories will be announced on FanDuel TV, and other outlets, during the 52nd annual Eclipse Awards, presented by John Deere, Keeneland, and The Jockey Club,  on Thursday, Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m. ET. The evening will culminate with the announcement of the 2022 Horse of the Year. Of the 258 eligible voters represented by...

Well-known television personalities Britney Eurton, Maggie Wolfendale and Scott Hazelton will co-host the 52nd annual Eclipse Awards to be held Thursday, Jan. 26, 2023, at The Breakers Palm Beach, officials from the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form (DRF) and National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB) announced Monday. Eurton, a fixture on FanDuel TV and NBC Sports and the daughter of California trainer Peter Eurton, returns to the Eclipse Awards in 2023, having co-hosted each of the last three years. Hazelton, whose late father Richard trained some 4,700...