One of Webster’s many descriptions of the word “whip” reads: “An instrument, either a flexible rod or a flexible thong or lash attached to a handle, used for driving animals or administering corporal punishment.”

Contemporary horseracing news has identified a small medical trend in which assumedly disease-free racehorses are suddenly expiring before their time

Most experienced trainers will know from bitter experience that a seemingly tiny wound can have a big impact if a horse is unlucky enough to sustain a penetrating injury right over a critical structure like a joint capsule or tendon sheath. Collectively, joints and tendon sheaths are called synovial structures,  and synovial infection is a serious, potentially career-ending and sometimes life-threatening problem.

Nature’s basket offers a rich source of beneficial nutrients, including phytonutrients.  Horse owners and trainers have always been interested in what these sometimes relatively un-researched ingredients can offer for the health and performance of horses in training.  In this article, I explore three ingredients that have become popular components of supplements and also as stand-alone products.

   Barbara Borden, 55, spent her childhood in the Cleveland suburb of Mentor, Ohio, participating in 4-H and showing horses with her sister, Deb. Her brother, Dave Borden, was a jockey. He introduced his sisters to the racetrack at Thistledown. Both were hotwalkers and grooms. Barb ponied horses and then became an exercise rider. Later, she was a chart-taker for the Daily Racing Form, worked in the licensing office and test barn, and eventually became horse identifier at Turfway Park. She was an associate steward at Ellis Park in Henderson, Kentucky, and a steward at Bluegrass Downs in Paducah before being appointed Kentucky's chief state steward in 2012.

    The only bad news with a great opening act is that it’s a tough act to follow. And by any judgment, from vastly different perspectives, the first Thoroughbred OwnerView Conference at Keeneland in October, 2014, wasn’t just a home run, but a grand slam. How do you top that?

Joel H. Marr upgrades racehorse training facility with fabric structures from Legacy Building Solutions.

 Rick Violette Jr. thought about becoming a lawyer or entering politics when he was a student at Lowell University in his native Massachusetts. When he wasn't studying or attending class, he showed hunters and jumpers for a client who also owned racehorses. That was how his romance with the racetrack began.

Bill Hartack didn’t suffer fools well. And he hated to be called Willie. Legend has it that it was because he was no fan of his contemporary, the great Willie Shoemaker.

A six-foot tall Kentucky-bred racetracker, J. Larry Jones is easy to spot in the mornings, his long legs dangling in long stirrups, straddling one of his Thoroughbreds in training, or supervising his stable from a Western saddle on the back of one of his Quarter Horse ponies.