It can happen to you, if you are Shug McGaughey, Dinny Phipps, Stuart Janney III and Joel Rosario, and your horse is Orb. The fairy...

2009 Horse of the Year and Champion 3-year-old Filly, now broodmare, Rachel Alexandra is recuperating after emergency abdominal surgery.

The superstar mare birthed her second foal, a Bernardini filly, in the early hours of Feb. 12, at Stonestreet Farm, in Lexington, Ky. Monitored...

Five-year old American mustang Amado. Photo © Summer Brennan

In the hours post-Winter Storm Nemo, a paddock swathed in knee-deep, fresh powder snow, proved irresistible to American mustangs Amado and Macai. Like children and dogs, horses...

With its 60-second spot "The Brotherhood," Budweiser has scored the first touchdown of Super Bowl XLVII. Tracing the relationship of a Clydesdale foal and his groom/trainer from...

Just three weeks into New York's 2013 legislative session, four bills have been introduced that if they become law could significantly change New York's horse racing industry.

Lasix

A bill that would ban the use of Lasix in race horses has been introduced in the New York State Senate and...

Just like the NFL, the NBA and the PGA, horse racing is seeking a younger, broader audience. Aside from a few marquee races or meets, like the Kentucky Derby, Del Mar or Saratoga, attendance is down and the fan base is aging. In 2011, the Jockey Club commissioned...

More than five months after being formed, the New York Task Force on Racehorse Health and Safety has yet to share its findings concerning the alarming number of racing-related horse deaths (19) over the inner track during Aqueduct's winter race meet.

Akin to slamming the barn door closed...

There's a saying, "A good horse is never a bad color." Good race horses do come in all colors. Man o' War was Big Red, a chestnut. Native...

According to the New York Racing Association, last Saturday's dead-heat between Alpha and Golden Ticket in the 143rd running of the Travers...

With her commanding win of Saratoga's $600,000 Alabama Stakes (G1) on August 18, the Hard Spun filly Questing(GB) has raised the bar for the 2012 crop...

"Lynn, can we please pick up the manure in the mini's paddock?" Three little girls, eight and nine years old,...

August in Saratoga means the highest caliber horse racing and seven-figure yearling sales. If you're following the races, there are any number of offerings available from the complimentary listings at Equibase to the many products both print and online from the Daily Racing Form.

The Saratoga...

The last time a Whitney won the...

On Saturday, eight members of what is left of the precocious 2012 crop of three-year old colts, who battled the likes of I'll...

In 1946 Stymie won the Whitney Handicap at Saratoga Racecourse, Saratoga Springs, NY. During the same summer Natchez won the Travers Stakes and a seventeen-year old H. Allen Jerkens made his first trip to Saratoga for a few days. He was back in 1948...

According to pending New York State legislation, representatives from the New York Thoroughbred Horsemen's Association and New York Thoroughbred Breeders, Inc. will participate on the New York Racing Association's (NYRA) newly configured board of directors as non-voting "ex-officio members to advise on critical economic and equine health concerns of the...

With the addition of a...

The North American roll out of the Breeders' Cup Challenge kicks off on Memorial Day, May 28 2012, with the Metropolitan Handicap at Belmont Park Race Course, Elmont, New York. The winner of the Met Mile, and winners of the 72 other Challenge races, will have...

He's back. That would be Hansen-the-racehorse. Without the Hansenettes, the blue tail drama or Doc Hansen. What we have is the essence of Hansen-the-racehorse. A Mini Hansen, small yet undiminished. A goodwill Hansen, as it were.

I'll Have Another, the first Triple Crown contender in four years is coming to New York to run in the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of the series, on June 9. Having taken both the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes from the favored Bodemeister, I'll Have Another will have three weeks to further hone his lethal homestretch kick.

With both the Derby and the Preakness hard fought races with the same 1-2 outcomes, it's hard not to liken this year's Triple Crown series to that of 1978, when the brilliant Affirmed edged out the valiant Alydar in the Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont, to take the Triple Crown. No Triple Crown has been won since then.

J. Paul Reddam, I'll Have Another's owner, might as well take a patent out on his horse's turbo-kick. Since a five-month break after last year's unfruitful effort in the Three Chimneys Hopeful Stakes -- Gr. 3, the colt has kicked his way to the winner's circle in the Robert B. Lewis Stakes -- Gr. 2, and the Santa Anita Derby -- Gr. 1, as well as the two Triple Crown contests, all under the guiding hand of phenom jockey Mario Gutierrez.

At a post-Preakness press conference, Reddam shared some observations on I'll Have Another's Preakness race:

Well, my first thought before the race was races never go like people think they'll go on paper. So I wasn't really surprised to see the horses stand across the track when they went by the grand stand the first time, because it just sounded too simple to say that Bodemeister would be on the lead and we'd be tracking him.

So going into the clubhouse turn, we were caught wide, and I said oh, oh, I don't like the way this is shaping up. And at the half mile pole we were in the clear, cruising, and in a pretty good spot.

But the horse in the lead was running strong. I could see coming out of the turn that it was going to be a dog fight between I'll Have Another and Bodemeister. We had some ground to make up, and the other horse was not stopping. He ran a very brave, gigantic race. I wasn't sure that we would get there, but I knew that our horse had a lot of heart and a lot of fight. He had been in a dog fight in the Santa Anita Derby, which probably did him well."

Trainer Doug O'Neill's brother Dennis O'Neill bought I'll Have Another for Reddam Racing LLC at the Ocala 2011 Spring Sale of Two-Year-Olds in Training from Eisaman Equine, agents for the seller Victor Davila. O'Neill paid $35,000 for the colt. Previously, I'll Have Another was purchased by Davila at the 2009 Keeneland September Yearling Sale for $11,000. The colt has now earned $2,693,600.

I'll Have Another's sire is Flower Alley, a gritty, dig-in type of race horse that won over $2.5 million, including the 2005 Travers Stakes -- Gr.1. If you want to send a mare to Flower Alley this year, he stands at Three Chimneys Farm for an advertised $7,500. Good luck getting your mare booked to him!

I'll Have Another's dam, Arch's Gal Edith, won her only race, a maiden special weight at Belmont Park. Her Equibase chart-notes for the race describe her as "dug in gamely on the rail in the stretch and reported home under a drive." It would appear that I'll Have Another got his game from both sides of his pedigree.

I'll Have Another will ship directly from Pimlico Racetrack to Belmont Park, to settle and prepare for June 9.

A look at Big Brown's, Smarty Jones' and Funny Cide's Belmont Stakes where they were foiled in their Triple Crown bids.

Looking back, in 2008 Big Brown's Triple Crown campaign brought to the fore how much a horse's connections can overshadow its achievements. A huge stallion syndication deal, run on steroids-no steroids, partnership hype, Hooter's girls, all took the limelight from Big Brown's brilliance. He faltered in the Belmont, eased in the stretch as, Nick Zito trained Da' Tara wired the race. A positive postscript is Big Brown's offspring have been well-received and are anticipated to debut this year.

In 2004 Smarty Jones was in the same spot as I'll Have Another is now. When he won the first two legs, the prospect of him winning the Belmont and the Triple Crown was heady. When Smarty took the lead down the Belmont backstretch, he was hard pressed by Rock Hard Ten and Eddington. Finally Smarty was clear by a length and a half, and looking like a Triple Crown winner to the crowd of 120,000 waiting to see history. It was not to be. Lightly regarded at 36-1, Birdstone ran a tactical race, surged past Smarty Jones in the final yards of the mile-and-a-half race and won by a scant length.

The previous year, 2003, Funny Cide came to the Belmont two-for-two in the Triple Crown races. Anticipation was huge. Funny Cide was owned by a partnership, Sackatoga Stables, made up of a group of high school friends who raced for fun. Their shock and awe at the exploits of Funny Cide's successes brought an ebullience long absent from the Belmont. For the first time, a horse bred in New York, owned by New York guys had the Triple Crown in its sights. Out of the gate, Funny Cide was in the lead, but eventually gave way to Empire Maker and Ten Most Wanted, coming in...