Horse Racing News

Big Buck's could be the shortest-priced favourite at next week's Cheltenham Festival when the 2009 World Hurdle winner defends his crown on Wednesday.

This Saturday, in the 25 minutes it takes to put on two races from paddock to finish line, Charles Cella will get the answer he's been looking for.

Binocular will run in the Champion Hurdle next Tuesday, trainer Nicky Henderson confirms, with champion jockey Tony McCoy booked for the ride.

The elusive first stakes win arrived for Striking Dancer in the Grade 2 La Canada Stakes at Santa Anita on Feb. 14.

Interactif, third in the Breeders' Cup Juvenile Turf last November, is among seven 3-year-olds entered in the $150,000 San Felipe Stakes on Saturday.

WinStar Farm has had considerable success over the years using the major 3-year-old races at Tampa Bay Downs as preps on the road to the Kentucky Derby.

Noble's Promise has raced exclusively on synthetic and turf surfaces to this point in his career, but there are reasons to believe that the Grade 1 winner might be an even better horse on dirt.

As any handicapper knows by now, Daily Racing Form keeps detailed trainer statistics. First-time starters, claimers, blinkers on, so on and so forth.

Jockey Sam Thomas will miss the Cheltenham Festival after being airlifted to hospital following an accident on the gallops at Paul Nicholls' yard.

Two-time winner Master Minded is among 14 entries for the Queen Mother Champion Chase at Cheltenham next week.

Uttoxeter Racecourse chief David MacDonald expects a gate of around 15,000 for the Midlands Grand National.

Saturday's $300,000 Gulfstream Park Handicap, on the other hand, drew an evenly matched field of 11 older horses topped by Grasshopper, This Ones for Phil, Harlem Rocker, and Cool Coal Man.

Ernie Paragallo, a onetime leading owner in New York whose racing privileges were revoked last year, was found guilty on 33 counts of animal cruelty by a Greene County district judge on Wednesday.

Aside from the horses and racing, how much do you know about the National Hunt Festival at Cheltenham?

Leading Irish fancy Dunguib is a confirmed entry for the opening race at the Cheltenham Festival, the Supreme Novices' Hurdle.

The champion 2-year-old of 2009, Lookin At Lucky will be adding blinkers Saturday when he makes his first start of the year in the Grade 2, $300,000 Rebel Stakes at Oaklawn Park.

Hollywood Park has made severe cuts to its stakes schedule for the upcoming spring-summer meeting from April 21 to July 18, including reducing the purses of five Grade 1 races.

Leading Flat jockey Kieren Fallon makes a late decision to pull out of an intended ride at the Cheltenham Festival.