horses - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Is horse racing worth saving?The discussion of the future of horse racing seems to be popping up more regularly these days. The greater regularity of the topic probably started in 2019, when Santa Anita Park in Southern California had an unprecedented rash of horses suffering fatal injuries, with 42 horses dying and shutting do...

Dallas Cowboys show a shocking-yet-predictable level of self-awarenessThe best part about the Dallas Cowboys is making fun of them. Whether it’s Dak Prescott trying his best to follow in the footsteps of Tony Romo as the quarterback most likely to trip before the finish line, or the annual “Zeke Elliot is back story” after he shows up without a visible gut, it’s supre...

Horse racing should be put out of its miseryIn yet another measure of how irrelevant horse racing has gotten, Kentucky Derby “winner” Medina Spirit collapsed and died at Santa Anita yesterday. He had a heart attack after a workout, which 3-year-old horses don’t tend to do. It does happen, though, but is rare. ...

Bob Baffert’s attorney gets eviscerated on CNN

After Kentucky Derby winner* Medina Spirit failed his first drug test, his trainer, Bob Baffert, did the media rounds to blame cancel culture and everybody besides himself for his horse’s unusually high levels of betamethasone....

Bob Baffert cries wolf again

You have to ask if there’s anything left of horse racing to kill. Perhaps it’s entrenched so deeply into irrelevance, outside of four or five days a year, that just about nothing can make it worse. This is an industry basically surviving on the courtesy of state governments, really....

Undefeated favorite Essential Quality has everyone asking: Wait — how many gray horses have won the Kentucky Derby?

There’s this phrase in thoroughbred racing, it goes one of two ways: “always bet the grays” or “never bet the grays.” [Ed. note: My uncles were firmly in the “never” category — R.O.]...

Horse Euthanized At Santa Anita Just Two Days Into Racing Season

Just two days into Santa Anita’s horse racing season, a 3-year-old colt named Emtech had to be euthanized after suffering two broken front forelimbs during the eighth race of the day on Saturday, track officials told KABC. Emtech’s jockey, two-time Kentucky Derby winner Mario Gutierrez, was tossed ...

The Man Who Would Kill Horse Racing

In a garden-variety suburb outside Albany—a recent July morning, but it could have been any morning—Patrick Battuello woke up at five, brewed a cup of coffee, and then sat at his computer to review the previous day’s horse races. He’s done this every day for the last six years. This was a Monday, an...