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(Trainer Jinks Fires saddling a horse at Churchill Downs. Coady Media) Some 30 years ago, Arkansas businessman Bob Yagos asked around about finding a horse trainer after getting into racehorse ownership. The answer over and over: William “Jinks” Fires. “I knew nothing about horse racing,” said Yagos, who in 2011 would team with [...]
A race at Horsemen's Park, the Omaha track owned by the Nebraska horsemen. Photo courtesy Horsemen's Park Artificial intelligence on the track and the emerging threats of prediction markets and wagering are among the salient topics to be discussed at the National HBPA Conference March 3-7 in Hot Springs, Ark., at Oaklawn Racing Casino Resort. [...]
Surprsinglyperfect winning last April 23 at Turf Paradise under Kevin Krigger. (Photo by Coady Media/Shawn Coady) Making his 13th start of the year and 100th of his career, the 11-year-old gelding Surprsinglyperfect has been named the National HBPA’s 2025 National Claiming Horse of the Year. Based at trainer-co-owner Justin Evans’ main bases of [...]
Racing at Gulfstream Park. (Andie Biancone/Coglianese Photography) Feasibility study’s executive summary The Thoroughbred Racing Initiative (TRI) has taken its first big step toward determining the best way to preserve and strengthen Florida’s thoroughbred racing and breeding industry. And if a feasibility study doesn’t sound glamorous or provide immediate answers, it’s the crucial underpinning [...]
The interactive, electronic version of The Horsemen’s Journal’s Winter 2025 issue is now available online. It is an enhanced version of the printed magazine, which is currently being mailed. To view it, click here. Features in the issue include: Firm Footing Perfect weather, big fields and close finishes contribute to a successful 27th Claiming Crown. [...]
The Iowa HBPA is calling out the non-profit Horseracing Integrity & Safety Authority (HISA) for needlessly paying millions of dollars to outside legal counsel for work that is virtually indistinguishable from filings and oral arguments made by the Department of Justice in defending the Federal Trade Commission in litigation challenging HISA’s constitutionality. The Iowa [...]
Photo by Coady Media Parx invader Double Your Money, runner-up in the $200,000 Greenwood Cup (Grade III) in September, emerged as 1 ¼-length winner over Cadet Corps in a wild and competitive stretch run for Saturday’s $224,943 Claiming Crown Jewel at Churchill Downs – the most lucrative of eight starter allowance races on [...]
Owner-trainer Dewaine Loy with Happy Strike at Churchill Downs Happy Strike cost $6,000 as a yearling purchase at Keeneland’s 2022 September sale. At the same auction, Point Dume cost $450,000. The two horses and 12 others square off in Saturday’s $200,000 Jewel, the most lucrative of the eight races comprising the $1.1 million Claiming [...]
Trainer Joe Roberts and apprentice jockey Amanda Poston with Empire's Best at High Pointe Farm & Training Center near LaGrange, Ky. This fall he uprooted his life and downsized his stable to relocate to Kentucky instead of wintering in his native Texas. He’s going into Saturday’s $1.1 million Claiming Crown at Churchill Downs [...]
Photo by Laura Battles Old Friends, the Thoroughbred retirement facility in Georgetown, Ky., is saddened to report that 1997 Belmont Stakes (G1) winner, Touch Gold, has been euthanized at the age of 31 due to the infirmities of old age. The two-time Grade 1 winner had resided at Old Friends since 2015. “Saying [...]