Rockingham Park

For the past few weeks, we have been telling you how some of racing's biggest names fell in love with the sport. Now it's our turn. Here are some of the stories behind the bylines you see every day in the TDN. I grew up in Salem, New Hampshire, which decades ago was the home of Rockingham Park. My parents were schoolteachers, and my dad, Paul, was the high school baseball and basketball coach. Everyone in town seemed to have some sort of connection to the track, and my father...

Bill Nader was named President and CEO of the Thoroughbred Owners of California this past June. He worked as a senior executive at the Hong Kong Jockey Club from 2007 until then, and was formerly the Senior Vice President and COO of the New York Racing Association. He began his career at Rockingham Park in his native Salem, New Hampshire in 1979. Most exciting race you watched this year that wasn't Flightline? Jockey Club Mile on Nov. 20 when Golden Sixty ran down California Spangle with a closing quarter in...

When the .69-to-1 favorite returned $3.38 to win at Ellis Park in the first race on July 15, the to-the-penny payoffs represented a massively positive paradigm shift for horseplayers. Under a new Kentucky law that eliminates dime breakage at the state's tracks, bettors will no longer be subject to the disadvantageous, industry-wide practice of down-rounding that, in the above instance, would have sliced the return on that winning $2 wager to $3.20. Yes, penny breakage looks a bit odd to the eye. But getting used to the concept will be...

There's an iconic hairpin turn cut into the side of Spirit Mountain on the Mohawk Trail in the Berkshires of western Massachusetts, and some 50 summers ago this steep, white-knuckle  portion of Route 2 is where my Dad, hauling a one-horse trailer with the family station wagon, had an agitated Thoroughbred kick open the back door and leap to a near-certain death over the edge of the precipice. As dusk and state police cruisers descended upon the scene, my father, Paul, asked a trooper to have the dispatcher phone nearby...

John T. Botty, a retired and well-respected New England trainer known for his attention to detail, patience, and knack for developing young horses, died suddenly Apr. 30 after suffering a stroke. Botty was 65 and lived in Pelham, New Hampshire. He had remained active in the sport as a bloodstock consultant after stepping away from daily work under racetrack shed rows in 2015. For the better part of three decades, Botty, together with his wife of 32 years, Kathleen, ran a successful, mid-sized racing stable based out of Suffolk Downs...