A Celebration of Women in Racing
As a longtime fan of Steve Haskin’s writing and his “Derby Dozen” column that he wrote for Blood-Horse for years I’ve continued to follow him wherever he goes. No, not literally! I’m not a stalker. But, for sure, wherever I can find his writing, I access it. I found this piece on his Facebook page. This homage to women in…
2020 Eclipse Award Voting
My first high-pressure assignment of the New Year: Eclipse Award voting. While it is both an honor and a privilege to have a vote, it’s important to me to get it right. I take none of these categories lightly as an Eclipse Award win (or loss) can mean the world to the people involved. While I try not to be…
ANOTHER NONPROFIT EXPOSED: A READER’S RESPONSE TO MY ARTICLE, PETA IS A BULLY
A Note From Donna: This is an article written by Amy Hoffer, in response to my last blog post “PETA is a Bully” . To be sure, neither Amy nor I are under the illusion that horse racing is perfect. It is not. We can and must do more to protect the horses. However, we are in vehement disagreement with animal rights extremist groups that…
PETA is a Bully
(I owe a debt of gratitude to Dr. Larry Bramlage and Euki Binns for their help in validating research and statistical information for this article, and to @JennyPhoto for the supporting pictures.) I can no longer remain silent about my love for horses and for horse racing for fear of backlash from PETA and other extremist organizations that claim to…
Jockeys are Doing Their Part to Save Horse Racing
Lost in the melee and the aftermath of the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby is the powerful story of how the jockeys have come together to do their part to save horse racing. These same jockeys, during and after the 2019 Kentucky Derby, landed squarely on opposite sides of the fence of what trainer Mark Casse and jockey Tyler…
Thoughts on the 145th Running of the Kentucky Derby
The 145th, known heretofore as the craziest Kentucky Derby ever! I will endeavor to clear up a few questions I’ve been asked, and in the process bust a few myths and opine here and there. I’ll try to go in chronological order. Perhaps John Steinbeck said it best—even back in 1956: “This Kentucky Derby, whatever it is—a race, an emotion, a…
Thoughts on the Santa Anita Crisis
The rash of catastrophic breakdowns that happened in a 6-month period at Santa Anita Park make it seem like racing fatalities are common. They are not. While it is true that there are somewhere around 50-60 training or racing fatalities per month at U.S. tracks (1.68 per 1,000 starts), it’s also true that there are nearly 3,300 human deaths per…
Meditation: a life-changing practice
I’ve had a daily meditation practice for nearly 10 years and, without question, for me it has been life changing. The practice of checking in daily with my inner most being (and, hopefully, with Source) makes it much much easier to access that part of me when life gets crazy—and we all know, life gets crazy sometimes! But when people…
