Brian Robin

Muck Rack profile
Tampa Bay Derby winner Helium finished eighth in the Kentucky Derby. He's one of the favorites for Saturday's Grade 3 Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs. (Image: Churchill Downs/Coady Photography)

Do These Two Derby Runners Look Familiar, Matt Winn Bettors?

The natural thing to do looking at the field for Saturday’s Grade 3 Matt Winn Stakes at Churchill Downs is to fix your eyes on two familiar names that leap off the page at you. O Besos and Helium. Look familiar, do they? Well, they should, considering both finished in […]

Sam Houston Race Park officials suspended racing on one of its marquee Quarter Horse races after six of 10 horses tested positive for banned substances. (Image: Sam Houston Race Park)

Sam Houston Bans Wagering on Futurity After Positive Drug Tests

Due to 60% of the field for Friday’s Sam Houston Futurity at Sam Houston Race Park testing positive for either banned substances clenbuterol or albuterol, the track suspended wagering on the Grade 2 Quarter Horse race. The Quarter Horse race for 2-year-olds at the Texas track will run without betting. […]

Fans will be welcomed back to historic Saratoga Race Course this summer. All they have to do is show proof of COVID-19 vaccination to access most of the storied track. (Image: NYRA Photo)

NYRA Giving Vaccinated Fans a Shot to See Racing at Saratoga

The New York Racing Association and the State of New York want to give racing fans seeking a seat at storied Saratoga this summer a literal shot in the arm. All eager fans have to do for a shot at visiting the famed track is to get a COVID-19 shot. […]

The 2020 Royal Ascot Meet ran without fans, pomp or pageantry. The prestigious week off racing will run in front of 12,000 daily fans June 15-19. (Image: Edward Whitaker/Racing Post/Breeders' Cup)

Royal Ascot Meet Returning Some Pomp, Admitting 12K Fans Daily

The Royal Ascot Meet carries a well-earned reputation as one of the biggest parties in world horse racing. And the English racetrack will resume its party host duties this year when it admits 12,000 fans daily to the five-day meet. The British government selected the track as one of its […]

Super Stock seeks a Texas Derby title to go with his Arkansas Derby victory last month. The inaugural Texas Derby is Memorial Day at Lone Star Park. (Image: Coady Photography)

Super Stock Chases Return to Form in Inaugural Texas Derby

We last saw Super Stock finishing a distant 16th in the Kentucky Derby. We’ll next see him back not in the final Triple Crown jewel – the Belmont Stakes – but in the inaugural Texas Derby. The 3-year-old Arkansas Derby winner is one of 10 expected sophomores in the $300,000 […]

Monmouth Park riding legend Joe Bravo won't go for his 14th Monmouth Park riding title this season. He's boycotting the Jersey Shore track over the state's new riding crop law. (Image: Pat Healy Photography)

Monmouth Park Threatens Jockeys with Ban if They Skip Opening Day

Monmouth Park management fired the latest salvo in the New Jersey track’s ongoing battle with its jockeys when it said riders refusing to accept mounts for Friday’s opening day will be forbidden from riding at Monmouth Park for the duration of the meet. This latest salvo, coming hours before Tuesday’s […]

With no Charlatan in the gate, Knicks Go becomes a likely favorite for the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap on the June 5 Belmont Stakes undercard. (Image: Coady Photography)

Cox Calls a New Play for Knicks Go — The Met Mile

Even Brad Cox understands how the avoid Bob Baffert game is played, which explains why he moved his star older horse, Knicks Go, to the Grade 1 Metropolitan Handicap. That June 5 race is the first-among-equals Grade 1 on the Belmont Stakes undercard. Cox originally targeted Knicks Go for the […]

Trainer Leonard Powell, seen here with jockey Rafael Bejarano after the pair won the Cougar II Handicap at Del Mar in 2018, put in a record $150,000 claim for a 3-year-old filly Saturday. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Trainer Powell Puts In Santa Anita Park Record $150K Claim on Filly

Trainer Leonard Powell set a Santa Anita Park claiming record last Saturday when he put in a $150,000 claim for Nimbostratus, a 3-year-old French-bred filly. Powell’s claim destroyed the previous record of $125,000, set in 1997. Santa Anita fielded three $100,000 claims this meet — remarkable numbers, even at one […]

The 153rd Belmont Stakes anchors three of NYRA's six, two-day special wagers Belmont Stakes weekend at Belmont Park. (Image Chelsea Durand/NYRA)

NYRA Offers Wagering Menu Smorgasbord for Belmont Stakes Weekend

The New York Racing Association unveiled its wagering menu for the Belmont Stakes Racing Festival, headlined by a two-day Pick 6 that begins Friday, June 4, and ends with the 153rd Belmont Stakes on Saturday, June 5. The NYRA’s wagering menu includes six, two-day wagers incorporating many of the Belmont […]

With his Kentucky Derby-champion mount Medina Spirit out, John Velazquez will ride Rombauer in the June 5 Belmont Stakes. (Image: AP File Photo)

Velazquez Takes Rombauer’s Reins for the Belmont, No Midnight Bourbon

With no Medina Spirit, Hall of Fame jockey John Velazquez will take Rombauer’s reins for the June 5 Belmont Stakes. The Daily Racing Form reported that trainer Mike McCarthy grabbed Velazquez’s services for the Belmont. He’ll take the reins from Flavien Prat, who returned to the horse he rode in […]

Monmouth Park could offer fixed-odds wagering during its upcoming season if a bill passed in the state assembly makes its way to Gov. Phil Murphy's desk. (Image: Sarah Andrew)

New Jersey Assembly Passes Fixed-Odds Horse Wagering Bill

New Jersey horseplayers tackling the upcoming Monmouth Park season received a gift from the state’s Assembly on Friday when that body voted 74-0-1 to permit fixed-odds wagering at Jersey’s racetracks. That sends the bill to the state senate. Should it clear that body, as expected, it goes to Gov. Phil […]

If Flavien Prat celebrates after the Belmont, he'll do it on a different horse than Preakness winner Rombauer. Prat takes the reins of Hot Charlie for the Belmont Stakes. He rode Hot Rod Charlie in the Kentucky Derby. (Image: Patrick Smith/Getty)

Belmont Musical Jockeys: Prat Trades Rombauer for Hot Rod Charlie

Trainer Doug O’Neill, who proved his nimbleness by quickly securing Flavien Prat’s jockey services for the Kentucky Derby, proved them once again for the Belmont Stakes. He said Prat will ride the Derby’s third-place runner in the June 5 Belmont Stakes. That, of course, means Michael McCarthy needs to find […]

The Woodbine Racetrack gates open June 18. The Canadian track was shuttered due to a provincial COVID-19-related stay-at-home order issued in April. (Image: Woodbine Entertainment)

After Provincial COVID Shutdown, Woodbine Opens its Gates June 18

The resumption of horse racing in Canada has a finish line, with Thursday’s announcement that Woodbine Racetrack will open for Thoroughbred racing on Friday, June 18. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the suburban Toronto track and its Standardbred sister track, Woodbine Mohawk Park, remained shut down under Government of Ontario […]

Charlatan illustrated his breakaway speed in last December's Grade 1 Malibu Stakes at Santa Anita Park. He came out of a bullet workout with a setback that shelves the 4-year-old colt indefinitely. (Image: Benoit Photo)

Charlatan Goes Back on the Shelf With Undisclosed Setback

Charlatan, the dynamic Bob Baffert trainee and multiple Grade 1 winner, suffered an undisclosed setback during a recent workout and will be sidelined indefinitely. The Daily Racing Form reported the news Thursday. They quoted a text from Sol Kumin, one of Charlatan’s owners in the multi-group consortium that owns the […]

Malibu Moon was the grandson of one Kentucky Derby winner and the sire of another. He died of an apparent heart attack Tuesday afternoon. (Image: Spendthrift Farm)

Standout Sire Malibu Moon Dies of Apparent Heart Attack

Malibu Moon, the grandson of a Kentucky Derby winner and the sire of another one, died late Tuesday of an apparent heart attack in his Spendthrift Farm stall. He was 24. The prolific sire of 126 black-type winners and 51 graded stakes winners was one of the most influential sires […]

Malathaat, seen here gaining on her Kentucky Oaks rivals, won't do the same against the boys in the Belmont Stakes. She needs to eat extra oat buckets to gain weight for the summer campaigns. (Image: Churchill Downs/Coady Photography)

Undefeated Malathaat Won’t Tease the Boys in the Belmont Stakes

Without a Triple Crown storyline, race fans were salivating at the prospect of filly Malathaat jumping into the Belmont Stakes pool and tangling with the boys in the final jewel of the Triple Crown. But connections for the undefeated filly said Tuesday she will pass up the Belmont. Instead, the […]

Trainer Bob Baffert's travails continued Monday, when the New York Racing Association suspended him from racing at any of its Thoroughbred tracks. (Image: Luke Sharrett/Getty)

NYRA Temporarily Suspends Trainer Bob Baffert From its Tracks

Adding to the fallout from Kentucky Derby champion Medina Spirit’s post-Derby positive medication test, the New York Racing Association temporarily suspended Hall of Fame trainer Bob Baffert from entering horses for any of the association’s races. The ban extends to Baffert horses occupying stall space at Belmont Park, Aqueduct Racetrack, […]

Midnight Bourbon could be one of only two horses to run all three 2021 Triple Crown races.(Image: AP Photo)

Belmont Stakes Field Remains in Flux as Connections Ponder Options

While the Belmont Stakes field remains an early work in progress, several trainers with possible sights on the final jewel of the Triple Crown have either indicated interest or put their horses through workouts with that June 5 race in mind. The Belmont Stakes field of possibles starts with Kentucky […]

Rombauer trainer Mike McCarthy, jockey Flavien Prat and owners John and Diane Fradkin hoist the Woodlawn Vase replica after Rombauer's Preakness Stakes victory Saturday. The colt heads to Belmont Park for a likely date in the June 5 Belmont Stakes. (Image: AP Photo/Will Newton)

Rombauer Comes out of Preakness Well, Belmont Stakes Likely Next

While Rombauer’s trainer, Mike McCarthy, headed west back to his California base, his newly minted Preakness Stakes champion left Pimlico Race Course early Monday morning for a northerly destination. That destination? New York’s Belmont Park. “We will go ahead and go to Belmont. We will get there and see how […]

Rombauer and Flavien Prat captured the 146th Preakness Stakes with a closing flourish that belied their 11/1 odds. It was Prat's second Triple Crown race victory, following his promoted Kentucky Derby win aboard Country House in 2019. (Image: AP Photo/Julio Cortez)

Improbable Rombauer Turns in a Vintage Preakness Performance

Rombauer, the horse named after a vineyard, now goes by the new name: Preakness Stakes champion. And Rombauer, the horse named after the Napa Valley vineyard, wasn’t supposed to run the Preakness because he wasn’t supposed to run the race that got him into the Preakness. He wasn’t supposed to […]