Archive

After 30 years at the helm of Denali Stud, its founders, Craig and Holly Bandoroff are starting to slow down and hand the reins over to their son, Conrad. Kelsey Riley catches up with the family. The story goes that Bandoroff was bitten by the 'horse bug' after making friends as a kid whose father was a jockey, but he insists he was "born with a gene that I love horses." It is apparent Bandoroff has passed that gene to his 28-year-old son and middle child Conrad who-in the 30th...

In this week's TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland, NYTHA president Joe Appelbaum joined the crew as the Green Group Guest of the Week to talk about when we can expect to see racing again in New York, the efforts to help Belmont backstretch workers, his personal betting strategies and much more. "The situation on the backstretch has improved considerably, not unlike the rest of the situation in New York City," Appelbaum said. "In Nassau County, we're functioning. We have close to 1,500 horses there. They're training six days a...

The TDN Writers' Room podcast presented by Keeneland has transitioned to video over the past two weeks as the hosts record the show from home, and this week they welcomed their first video guest, none other than four-time defending Eclipse Award-winning trainer and future Hall of Famer Chad Brown. In a wide-ranging interview that touched on how the pandemic has affected his horses and family, what he looks for at sales, his feelings on clenbuterol, his thoughts on how to help smaller trainers get a foothold and his memories of...

The challenge was for each horse racing person to post one photo of a racing scene. Thousands of photos later, Katie Ritz reports on how it turned out.

The TDN Writers' Room Podcast is presented by Keeneland. If the Kentucky Derby were going to be held the first Saturday in May, you'd have to say right now the favorite would be Tiz The Law (Constitution). But the first Saturday in September? We talk to Tiz The Law's owner Jack Knowlton. Seventeen years ago, Jack Knowlton's band-of-buddies Sackatoga Stable took the racing world by storm when their "gutsy gelding" Funny Cide (Distorted Humor) upset the GI Kentucky Derby before adding the GI Preakness S. and becoming one of the...

As Will Rogers said, the best doctors in the world are the veterinarians-because their patients can't talk. "And that's true," says Gary Lavin. "But at the same time, they don't lie to you either. So that gives us an advantage right there." His long intimacy with the physical structure of the Thoroughbred has taught Lavin to marvel, above all, at those intangibles housed within. Instructively, in fact, this doyen of racetrack veterinarians has observed a correlation between their performance as athlete and as patient. Ruffian, sadly, was an exception. Otherwise,...

In a year when he has been nominated to the Hall of Fame, Christophe Clement is approaching his 2,000th win as a trainer. But the thing of which he may be most proud is his record of zero medication violations. The son of French trainer Miguel Clement, Clement's passion for racing was stoked in his father's Chantilly yard before branching out to work for the Head family's French operation for a year and a half. Venturing to the U.S. in 1986 to work at Taylor Made Farm, he also served...

During these uncertain times, we are grateful to our stallions, broodmares, young stock and racehorses who are providing us with a bit of normalcy. Although racing has been suspended in Britain, the training of these horses goes on. Today, Alayna Cullen talks to British racehorse trainer Julia Feilden about the situation. Feilden shares her thoughts, "The mood's very quiet. We're all trying to carry on business as normal. But, normally at this time of year we're all talking about our horses and what we're running, and two-year-olds, and how many...

Since fans cannot get to Mill Ridge, Headley Bell has brought Mill Ridge to them in the first of what will be regular virtual tours every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Bell gives viewers a virtual tour of Mill Ridge Farm showing them special locations and memorabilia while telling a condensed history of the sights. We also see the great Oscar Performance and some of his foals as well as other colts and fillies.

Of course, the podcast conversation this week focuses on the doping scandal sweeping racing, and trainer Tom Morley joins the conversation to talk about the trainers whose lives have been affected by those now accused by the U.S. Attorney's Office of doping their horses. It's one for the ages, on the TDN podcast. The TDN Writer's Room podcast, presented each week by Keeneland, pulled no punches as the writers covered all aspects of the indictments for horse doping of 27 people announced Monday by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the...

Terry Finley advocates for change in racing. He sits down with the TDN and reflects on what needs to happen as a result of the indictment of 27 people in the thoroughbred industry including trainers Jorge Navarro and Jason Servis. "You know, you read the indictments and you realize that the core of the case was built around the intelligence that they gathered, via text and, and the cell phone. So I think the big part of it, and a big part of the thing that we're missing internally in...

James Frank has literally come a long way, from his native Zimbabwe to Newmarket, where he has been based for the best part of the last two decades. For the last seven years he has been employed by Anthony Oppenheimer, and the 42-year-old timed his run to perfection when he started his stint working with the yearlings at the farm. Among the first bunch with which Frank was associated was a young colt by Cape Cross (Ire) who would be named Golden Horn (GB) and go on to become champion...