Who Was Hollie Hughes?

It was in 2008 that I first made the historical acquaintance of Hollie Hughes, a man who devoted himself to and made a life in horse racing, a man as closely linked to one of racing’s first families as anyone could be. In 2008, I wrote of Hughes and of Sanford Farm, the place where he…

Brian’s Derby Preps: The Southwest

Oaklawn Park: The Grade III, $300,000 Southwest at 1 1/16 miles— by Brian Nadeau of HorsePlayer Now. #2 Tapiture: Improving colt has always been held in high regard by Asmussen and broke his maiden when last seen in Churchill Downs’ GII Kentucky Jockey Club in November, which is no easy task for a juvenile. Of…

NYRA Has Built It. Will They Come?

“The second richest day in North American racing” will come to Belmont Park on June 7. That’s what the New York Racing Association (NYRA, and an occasional freelance client of mine) announced last week, in a reconfiguration of its springs/summer stakes schedule designed to create a blockbuster race card on the day of the Belmont…

Fox Sport 1’s First Broadcast Is A Winner

The days before the first broadcast of Fox Sports 1’s new Thoroughbred racing series were not promising. The network’s Twitter timeline didn’t mention Sunday’s 5 pm show from Gulfstream Park in Florida until about an hour before broadcast, and a promo video offered the sort of sexist, inaccurate images of a day at the races…

Brian’s Derby Preps: The Robert B. Lewis

Santa Anita: The Grade II, $200,000 Robert Lewis at 1 1/16 miles Analysis by Brian Nadeau of Horseplayer Now. #1 Candy Boy: Talented up-and-comer made a stunning, albeit premature, move to the lead in the GI CashCall when last seen over the Cushion surface at Hollywood Park before settling for a well-beaten second to 2yo…

To Vote Or Not To Vote? Sportswriters & Awards

When the Eclipse Award winners were announced a couple of weeks ago, the response to the honorees was largely muted; 2013 was not a year in which the performances on the racetrack were likely to give rise to any controversy, and there was no polarizing Zenyatta/Rachel Alexandra, Zenyatta/Blame debate for Horse of the Year. What…