Drunk Horses, Well Behaved Horses and Horse of the Year!

Flightline Voted 2022 Horse of the Year

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA), Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters (NTWAB) announced that Flightline, who captivated Thoroughbred racing fans with three dominating performances in New York, California, and Kentucky last year, was named the 2022 Horse of the Year at the conclusion of the 52nd Annual Eclipse Awards ceremony, presented by John Deere, Keeneland, and The Jockey Club, at The Breakers Palm Beach.  You can watch the entire awards on Youtube.

The complete list of 2022 Eclipse Awards winners with the horse ages in parenthesis:

• Two-Year-Old Male: Forte

• Two-Year-Old Filly: Wonder Wheel

• Three-Year-Old Male: Epicenter

• Three-Year-Old Filly: Nest

• Older Dirt Male: Flightline (4)

• Older Dirt Female: Malathaat (4)

• Male Sprinter: Elite Power (4)

• Female Sprinter: Goodnight Olive (4)

• Male Turf Horse: Modern Games (IRE) (3)

• Female Turf Horse: Regal Glory (6)

• Steeplechase Horse: Hewick (IRE) (7)

• Owner: Godolphin LLC

• Breeder: Godolphin LLC

• Jockey: Irad Ortiz Jr.

• Apprentice Jockey: Jose Antonio Gomez

• Trainer: Todd Pletcher

• Horse of the Year: Flightline (4)

Did You Partake in the Gulfstream Park P6 Mandatory?

This past Sunday at Gulfstream Park, the popular multi-race P6 wager had gone unsolved for 17 straight racing days, producing a carryover jackpot pool of $828,941.81 heading into Sunday’s mandatory payout, which generated $6,265,823 in handle on the Rainbow 6.But are you curious where most of that pool comes from? - Pat Cummings on Twitter shared a breakdown. There are two pro groups that go by Elite Turf Club and Racing Gaming Services that accounted for almost 43% of the handle, and secured 72.3% of every dollar the track paid out that day.  For anyone not aware, these groups typically are computer-assisted and wager high volume in hopes of making ROI after rebates and other factors.

The Jockey Club in 2018 estimated computer-assisted players accounted for upwards of 19 percent of total North American pari-mutuel handles. That's roughly $2.1 billion of the $11.3 billion wagered in 2018, and there's no reason to believe these players are betting less today than they were then.

Next time you see your 7-1 shot drop to 5/2 at the quarter pole, you know who to thank.

Ever Seen a Horse Behave like this?

2023 40th Tokai TV Cup Tokai Stakes GⅡ - Immediately after the start, the jockey on Vanyard Run stumbled and fell off but that didn't stop Mr. Vanyard from galloping out and even taking himself back to the stable after "winning" the race. How often do you see that?! What a pro!

The Last Week's 20 Fastest Stakes Winners

Horse Racing Nation was kind enough to break down all of the Stakes winners from this past week ranked by Brisnet Speed Ratings, with Beyer Speed Figures from Daily Racing Form and TimeformUS Speed Figures, where available.Our Hot Take: We dunno about our readers out there but we've never been on the right side of Red Knight or Fart, um, we mean Art Collector, so congrats to those who were!

Phillip Burrows Banned for 10 Years after Injecting Horse with Vodka

In a rather bizarre news story, 51-year-old harness trainer Phillip Burrows has been disqualified by New Zealand's Judicial Control Authority after being caught in the act of injecting his horse, Rakero Rebel with 30mls of vodka in an attempt to calm the horses' nerves ahead of a race.

Rakero Rebel was then scratched from race 7, The race’s total stake was $140,000.On Tuesday, the Racing Integrity Board (RIB) disqualified Burrows from racing for 10 years.

We reached out to Rakero Rebel for an interview but he kept on asking what we were wearing.  

Kelsi Harr Is Making Bank and Breaking Records

Based on statistics from Equibase, racing's official data-gathering organization, Kelsi Harr has amassed $2,811,257 in career purse earnings at Oaklawn. Cindy Murphy held the previous Oaklawn record for career purse earnings by a female jockey ($2,792,644).Big congrats to you, Kelsi!

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First, let us just take a moment by thanking our subscribers for reading.  THANK YOU. 

Second, this is our 8th newsletter and while we typically just write whatever we feel like, we're also totally open to suggestions.  Is there something you'd like to see more of, or less of?  Want to tell us we suck?  Or maybe you really like us <3 Whatever it might be, at the end of the day we're horseplayers just like you.  And we'll take tips from anyone.Drop us a line on Twitter or via email: [email protected]