Should we call him The California Kid? It trips off the tongue, certainly. Like The Great Gambino. Or The Iceman. If Journalism's nickname needs more than just a nice phonetic ring to it, then The Cal...

After well-publicized track management issues last month that saw racing and training suspended for a short period, Thistledown has been back up and running since August 4 with a new track superintend...

At first glance, Jay Hovdey's latest literary output, “The Oak Tree Story: A History of Racing's Most Generous Benefactor,” might seem an exercise in nostalgia only, recounting as it does the origins,...

Jenny Norris, one of the leading consignors in Britain, runs through her draft of 'Donny rockets' The Goffs Premier Yearling Sale is riding the crest of a wave but so too is one of the leading British...

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE — There have been few more rapturous receptions to a winner in the usually reserved enclosure of Deauville than that given to Diego Velazquez on this sweltering Sunday afternoon. Sam...

Legendary BBA Ireland bloodstock agent Adrian Nicoll relives some of his greatest days in the business They say that stories lived are better than stories told. And by God, Adrian Nicoll has lived thr...

Twenty years ago, Dubawi claimed his third Group 1 victory in the Prix Jacques Le Marois. On Sunday, Sajir, his third-generation male-line descendant, claimed his own first top-level win, also in Deau...

“We're enjoying it enormously.” Those are words racing needs to hear from every owner.  In the case of Mick and Janice Mariscotti, who have been in the game long enough to have experienced both good d...

Most racing fans know Gabby Gaudet from her job at FanDuel TV, where she was one of that network's top talent. It sounds like a dream job, but Gaudet has found one that she thinks will be even better....

Dubbed a 'celly' in hockey parlance–short for the celebration that comes after a goal–the Thoroughbred version takes place in the winner's circle where power plays and fist pumps are also welcome. For...

Those old enough to have seen it may well go to the grave thinking they will never witness another race like it. Grundy vs Bustino, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Stakes, 26 July 1975....

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – Howard Read chuckled as he recalled the instructions he gave trainer Jeremiah Englehart, who was shopping for a New York-bred at the 2024 OBS April Sale. “To get somebody we c...

Former D. Wayne Lukas assistant Sebastian 'Bas' Nicholl, who assumed care of the late trainer's stable in late June in a succession plan put in place by Lukas Enterprises, Inc., will no longer serve as a head trainer. The story was first reported by Daily Racing Form. Nicholl told DRF the last horses formerly trained

The early part of last week was spent covering the JRHA Select Sale in Japan, a trip that is always illuminating, to an auction that remains extraordinary. Number one of the list of most surprising th...

Last month, Rhodes College economics professors Marshall Gramm and Nick McKinney published in these pages a study showing the estimated impacts at Aqueduct over the past four winters from CAW players ...

Saturday's card at Monmouth Park features a 14-race card which is highlighted by six stakes–five of them graded–including the Oceanport oval's sophomore showpiece, the GI NYRA Bets Haskell Stakes. Thi...

Think of the West Country and one tends to picture wintry days and the big jumping yards, but amid the rolling hills of Devon sits one of the smaller Flat operations which routinely finds at least one...

Sandra Russell, breeder of Grade I winner Excellent Truth, opens up about the emotion surrounding that top-notch triumph  Much of the attention surrounding Excellent Truth's breakthrough success at th...

HOKKAIDO, Japan — Via a select bunch of his first foals, Equinox made a JRHA Select Sale debut every bit as explosive as his killer turn of foot on the track, with 23 of his youngsters sold for an ave...

Jockey Flavien Prat had himself a year in 2024 on the way to his first Eclipse Award for Outstanding Jockey. How good was he? He set records for Stakes wins (82) and Graded Stakes wins (56). He won th...

Tom Lacy, the renowned breeder of Persian Force who is famed for providing Pat Smullen with his start in racing during his time as a trainer, has died. He was 89.  Lacy rode 50 winners as a jockey and...

In discussing the evolution of his StrideSAFE wearable sensor, Dave Lambert turns to a tufty-haired German philosopher called Arthur Schopenhauer, who described new truths as a play in three parts. “F...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – And now for the main event. With nine days of racing already in the books–a proper warmup by any measure, topped by the GI Belmont Stakes–the 157th season of racing at Saratog...

Unbridled joy was present in bundles at Hamburg on Sunday as recent amateur-turned-apprentice Nina Baltromei urged Hochkonig to victory on the line in the 156th Deutsches Derby, denying the Karl Burke...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, NY – There was far more than a simple change of address for trainer Cherie DeVaux when she was assigned Barn 83–for decades the Saratoga base for legendary D. Wayne Lukas–for this su...

Some of the most influential people in the life of Wayne Lukas-and some of the people for whom he was the most influential–took part in a special TDN Writers' Room podcast in order to pay tribute to `...

Jose Sarinana has checked off a number of firsts with Happy Saver. The longtime assistant manager at Hagyard Farm, Sarinana foaled the future Grade I winner and seven years later was the breeder of th...

On the day that Kevin Prendergast was remembered at the Curragh in the naming of the International Stakes, and a day after Peter Easterby was laid to rest, another great of the training ranks was lost...

THE CURRAGH, Ireland — The sun came out as he came in. Lambourn, a dual Derby winner, just like his sire before him, and his grandsire before that.  He had to work for it, mind. This was no procession...

One of the most iconic personalities in horse racing and a man that helped transform the face of the industry over the past half a century, D. Wayne Lukas passed away at his home in Louisville Saturda...

Though the grandstand remains quiet during the off-season at Keeneland, the racetrack does not, as trainers' barns grow and flourish with the continuous arrival of 2-year-olds ready to take the next s...

Training great Barry Hills, who sent out more than 3,000 winners including five British Classics throughout his storied career, has died aged 88.  Along with those five British Classics, Hills achieve...

The racing Gods looked down and smiled on us at Royal Ascot last week in delivering one of the greatest results imaginable when Joe Murphy and his son – also Joe – landed a breakthrough Group 1 triump...

Helping to create what he now calls “a monster” weighs heavily with Dr. Chris Cahill. Actually, he has a way to put it back in the cage. But let's not get ahead of ourselves; let's first remind oursel...

You don't spend 26 years working as travelling head lad for Aidan O'Brien without becoming one of the most recognisable faces on the racing circuit but, after closing the chapter on his career at Ball...

It has been a strangely discombobulating week in some respects. It started in Westminster last Monday with the All-Party Parliamentary Group issuing its stark warning of the triple threat to the indus...

Feel free to make plans, working with Thoroughbreds–just don't be deceived that it'll ever be you who decides how far they work out. With a young son to raise, Becky Maker had quit the rootless life o...

Gary Carroll has admitted to still being on a high after landing the Coronation Stakes at Royal Ascot aboard Joe Murphy's Cercene (Australia) and revealed that the breakthrough success at the highest ...

Without much notice or attention–the way he prefers it–lifelong racetracker John Pimental is easing back into a sense of shedrow normalcy as spring morphs into summer at Monmouth Park. “It feels good ...

One day after he was released from a federal prison, disgraced trainer Jorge Navarro is now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). He is being detained at an ICE facility in...

ASCOT, UK — If the wait had been a while for Golden Horn to have his first Group 1 winner on the Flat, for the coterie of folk involved with his son Trawlerman it had been a worthwhile one.  “He's jus...

ASCOT, UK — There may be cause for concern when it comes to the tumbling number of foals bred in Britain but, with Ascot festooned with the Union Jack, the first three races represented a terrific res...

1/ST Racing is looking at a lot of scenarios concerning the future of Gulfstream. There's decoupling, selling the property and building a casino. It's anybody's guess what 1/ST will eventually do with...

There's nothing a horse can tell Bob Duncan about the terrors of a confined space. He was already on the gate crew, back in 1968, when he went to visit his parents at Laurel, where his dad was trainin...

The furore surrounding the changes to the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes shows no signs of abating, but for this year at least the six two-year-old races at Royal Ascot remain much as they've always bee...

NEWMARKET, UK — Colin Keane, Juddmonte's newly retained jockey, has wasted no time in familiarising himself with one of his leading mounts for Royal Ascot and was in Newmarket on Wednesday morning to ...

The 2025 Triple Crown season delivered something even more elusive than a sweep of the series by a single horse–a legitimately intriguing rivalry between two talented colts that could end up on par wi...

EPSOM DOWNS, UK — Back in those heady days of the early 1980s, Lord Howard de Walden's Slip Anchor slipped the field under Steve Cauthen to land the Derby by seven lengths and all felt right with the ...

The field for the GI Belmont Stakes, ranked in “likeliest winner” order. 1) JOURNALISM (c, Curlin–Mopotism, by Uncle Mo) O-Eclipse Thoroughbred Partners, Bridlewood Farm, Don Alberto Stable, Robert La...

For so long now we have been used to the Galileo factor at Epsom, and while none of his final small crop of 13 has made the line-up for the Derby or the Oaks, we still find his name all over the place...