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Rachel Alexandra after Personal Ensign - 8/29/10
Barbara D. Livingston
Rachel Alexandra earned a 93 Beyer Figure for her second-place finish in Sunday's Personal Ensign.
No longer the Rachel Alexandra of history
By Andrew Beyer
SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - It was one year ago that Rachel Alexandra beat males in an electrifying Woodward Stakes at Saratoga, completing a historic 8-for-8 campaign and clinching the Horse of the Year title. Since that memorable day, the filly has ...Full Story >>
TODAY 09.03.2010
California board skews takeout tale
By Steven Crist
Raising the takeout always leads to lower handle and unhappy customers and is the last resort for struggling track operators. The increases that the California legislature has approved and that will become effective Dec. 26 once the bill is signed into ...
YESTERDAY 09.02.2010
Football season begins in earnest
By Dave Tuley
LAS VEGAS – Thursday night saw the end of fake football, with all 32 NFL teams wrapping up their exhibition schedule and the kickoff of the college football season. The sports books here are celebrating like it’s a holiday – which we ...
Virgets finds peace, quiet after Katrina
By Jay Hovdey
The ink-stained wretches who pound out the daily product find themselves – ourselves – clinging for moral support to a few rocky crags that never let us down. One of those comes wrapped in the person of Ronnie Virgets, a former writer for ...
09.01.2010
Exchange concept seems foreign
By Jay Hovdey
Let’s say a player figured out somehow that the winner of the Hollywood Gold Cup would finish absolutely last in the Pacific Classic. If there was a bet for that, after what happened to Awesome Gem last Saturday at Del Mar – ca-ching!
08.27.2010
No matter what, Rachel Alexandra's 2009 is set in stone
By Steven Crist
SARATOGA SPRINGS – Rachel Alexandra, America’s reigning Horse of the Year, finally returns to Grade 1 company in Sunday’s Personal Ensign Stakes at Saratoga, nearly a year after the dramatic victory here in the Woodward earned her ...
As usual, O'Brien plays it close to his vest
By Alan Shuback
Sometimes reading the intentions of trainer Aidan O’Brien is like trying to decipher the Rosetta Stone. He will frequently nominate five or six horses to a Group 1 race, then a few days later say that only two of them will run, but that two ...
08.20.2010
Surface switch a relief to many horsemen
By Jay Hovdey
At the end of the ordeal, the exchange that rang most painfully memorable at Thursday’s meeting of the California Horse Racing Board occurred during an impassioned testimony from Dr. Rick Arthur, the state’s equine medical director, who ...
08.19.2010
Football contests galore in Las Vegas at all budget levels
By Dave Tuley
LAS VEGAS – Whether you believe the recession is over or not, the football contest scene here continues to thrive. Sure, there have been some layoffs. For example, the Challenge at Station Casinos, which used to have a $1,000 entry fee and ...
No greener grass than the Million's
By Jay Hovdey
Twenty-nine years ago, as John Henry stood on a pallet at Los Angeles International Airport shooting disgusted glances at the younger Super Moment, his agitated traveling mate, the Arlington Million was nothing more than an idea wrapped in a public ...
08.18.2010
Stevens vows to quit riding after latest injury
By Jay Hovdey
In this week’s installment of “The Fallen,” retired Hall of Famer and all-around guy who should know better Gary Stevens finds himself grinding through a veritable rainbow of pain after sustaining a fracture of his left clavicle, not ...