New York Times

When Gulfstream Park staged the "Race of the Century" 56 years ago this spring, 17,300 fans packed the grandstand. They stared out onto a horseless track, where an empty starting gate was parked ceremonially at the 1 1/4 miles position. They rooted, cursed and cheered home their picks. Not a single person ended up witnessing the race. Yet those in attendance--and a nation of fans who tuned in via the NBC Radio broadcast or read about the outcome in coast-to-coast newspaper coverage--seemed to be in vehement agreement for weeks afterward...

I first met Drew Mollica in 1988 when I was assigned by the Thoroughbred Record to write a cover story on Chris Antley, for whom Mollica was serving as a jockey agent at the time. I found Mollica hysterically funny and, full disclosure, we have been friends ever since. Having since earned his law degree, Drew now practices what might be called racetrack law, and counts the TDN among his clients. Tuesday night, I attended the opening night of his son, Gabe's, one-man show, Solo, in New York City's East...

The New York Times is reporting that Forte (Violence), the Kentucky Derby favorite who was scratched on the morning of the race with a bruised right front hoof, failed a drug test after his win in last September's Hopeful Stakes at Saratoga. Forte won the Hopeful by three lengths over a muddy track at odds of 6-1. In a story published Tuesday just after 7 p.m., the Times writes, "Shortly after leaving the winner's circle, however, Forte was given a post-race drug test, which he failed but has yet to...

The death of Medina Spirit (Protonico) following a workout Monday at Santa Anita has resulted in a predictable backlash, with at least two media outlets calling for the sport to be banned and readers of some of the nation's most prominent newspapers posting numerous vitriolic comments online. Here is a sampling of what has been written and said about horse racing following Monday's shocking news: The New York Post led the charge with Maureen Callahan writing a column with the headline "Medina Spirit's shocking death is yet another reason we...

Bob Baffert's attorney issued a statement Tuesday saying that New York Times reporter Joe Drape's reporting in 2019 on Justify's scopolamine positive was a "false story and narrative" which "were definitively debunked" in last week's California Horse Racing Board hearing on the matter. The statement from attorney W. Craig Robertson III reads, in full: "On September 11, 2019, Joe Drape of the New York Times published an article concerning trainer Bob Baffert and Triple Crown-winning horse Justify. The article strongly and inaccurately suggested that Mr. Baffert had intentionally doped Justify...

The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission (KHRC) is conducting a follow-up investigation of a class C medication positive detected in a sample returned from Kentucky Oaks day, according to a KHRC statement Thursday. Joe Drape of The New York Times reported in a story published at 6:43 p.m. that it was the Kentucky Oaks third-place finisher Gamine who returned the positive test, citing "two people familiar with the results of the drug test who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the issue publicly." "The Derby day samples were...

A New York Times study published Tuesday reporting where the COVID-19 outbreak is peaking and waning based on per-capita population statistics shows that Grand Island, Nebraska, where Fonner Park is located, is currently second in the nation in terms of news cases reported in the last two weeks. Grand Island has a population of 85,000. The Times reported 764 coronavirus cases there in the last two weeks, meaning the per-thousand infection number is 8.98. Only Marion, Ohio, was higher (32.13) based on per-capita rankings. On Apr. 22, the Nebraska Racing...