Spring is a time of new beginnings, and some more of our horses are moving to new paddocks. Like the three who moved last week, these horses are all still on the main farm. They’ve just switched paddocks. A few … Continue reading →...

Kurt Becker likes his spring routine. He’s honed it for more than two decades as Keeneland’s track announcer – its only announcer, sans a short stretch early in his tenure – and like everyone across the country saw it thrown off kilter in the midst of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic....

Thoroughbred trainers Jason Servis and Jorge Navarro were among 19 defendants in a Thoroughbred and Standardbred racing doping scandal who pleaded not guilty on federal charges in an arraignment and initial pre-trial conference conducted telephonically on Thursday by District Court Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil in the Southern District of New...

Yesterday, many of you were readying for the Cal Expo racing card, only to learn shortly before post time racing bit the bullet. As reported, the Country Director of Health instructed the track to shut down a few hours before post time.This, to me at least (and from what I...

Kiaran McLaughlin changed direction last week, ending a successful two-plus-decade run as one of the country’s leading trainers to return to work as a jockey’s agent for Luis Saez....

(The following is pure fiction and the chances of it actually happening are slim to none, but it does make for compelling thought, especially on April 1st, so let's have some fun with it)I have just written a script. It's not your everyday script. It is futuristic...well, not too far...

In normal times, life working on the backstretch of an American racetrack is difficult, with long hours for relatively low wages and often few or no benefits.  Additionally, grooms, hot walkers, exercise riders, and others in the largely immigrant labor force struggle with acclimation, including learning a new language and...

Although it feels like months or years since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States, it has been just 18 days since the first racetracks announced they would host racing without spectators and just 16 days since the first racing cancellations. Still, barely two weeks into what...

It’s a wet, cloudy day, just like it was a few days ago when Pollard’s Vision, Touch Gold, and Patch were settling into their new paddocks. I’ve combined the clips I made of them that afternoon into a two-minute video. … Continue reading →...

Yes, Virginia, there is still a Derby Dozen, as we have been informed that sponsor Shadwell wants to keep it going right up until the week of the Arkansas Derby, so if anyone has any poems, songs, short stories, or any limericks and one-liners they wish to share, send them...

The first step in the path that led to Bonny South (by Munnings), the winner of the Grade 2 Fair …Continue reading →...

Thoroughbred racing is facing a crisis unlike anything it has faced before, and it is something those in high positions cannot see or fathom. The country is in a desperate, bordering on panicky, state right now and it has every right to be, because we are dealing with a faceless...

So I've been too busy to write thoughtful blogs the past 6 months, but with far more time at home responsibly playing my role in "physical (not social) distancing," it's time to dust off this hobby and get busy with self-effacing handicapping-contest blunders and unwanted horse racing advice in these...

Self Isolation. Day 9. Monday. Still no symptons. Temperature steady in the 98 range. Back to work. Office work. Well, more like guest-room work. Trying to sell horses and advertising. During a pandemic. It's going well....

Moving day! It happened a few days ago. Pollard’s Vision, Patch and Touch Gold all moved into new paddocks. For each of them it was a move to more desirable real estate. As with humans, what’s more desirable depends on … Continue reading →...

March 28, 2020 To be honest, I feel as though I’m living in a movie these days. When I turn on the TV and see car commercials with families piling up their things in their SUV to go on holiday, or MacDonald’s and Burger King ads with friends standing close...

What can be more surreal to racing fans than the Kentucky Derby (G1) postponed until Labor Day weekend, racetracks throughout America being shut down, and major stakes like the Curlin Florida Derby (G1) run in front of empty grandstands? That is just a minuscule example of how the Coronavirus has...

The coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the daily lives of people around the world and virtually every industry has felt the impact of COVID-19 and the measures taken to combat the deadly outbreak. Thoroughbred bloodstock markets are no exception. Sales of 2-year-olds in training are being rearranged and there is uncertainty...

It’s been 17 years since Funny Cide took Sackatoga Stable, trainer Barclay Tagg, assistant Robin Smullen on a ride of their lives, winning the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and nearly the Triple Crown. The team is back with another chance to get to the Kentucky Derby with Tiz The Law, favorite...

Two weeks ago, the bombshell indictments of trainers Jorge Navarro, Jason Servis, et al., sandwiched between a volatile stock market and the spread of the coronavirus, were the talk of the industry, leading to renewed calls by some for the passage of the Horseracing Integrity Act in Congress. At the...

  I’d like to share this morning at the farm with you. For now the rain has let up, but it’s still muddy and at 7:45, remnants of mist were still hiding the sun. The farm’s early routines were in … Continue reading →...

Though they are a necessary part of the social distancing measures recommended to slow the COVID-19 pandemic, the mandated limits on gatherings and the ensuing closures of racetracks and OTBs around the country has left many of the racing industry's seasonal and hourly employees without their source of income for...

Geroux's successful run continues with Ete Indien. Jay PrivmanMar 25, 2020. Share....

Their names echoed throughout Saratoga Springs in the summer of 1978. From the whispers through the elms to the shouting down Broadway and Union Avenue, the Spa pulsated with the names of Affirmed and Alydar. You could even feel it at the National Museum of Racing, the ultimate destination for...

Editor's Note: With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, the Paulick Report asked our readers for stories of the hope and resilience that run through the Thoroughbred industry, demonstrating that we are all part of one community. The following was submitted by Michael Serio, a Baltimore school teacher whose family...