Thoroughbred racing sites of interest
31/08/08 05:56 PM Filed in: Thoroughbred
racing
Throughout this blog, I've commented on racetracks
I've visited during the past year. As a fan and
former owner/breeder of thoroughbred racehorses, I've
found a couple of sites on the internet to be of
particular value to me in following specific horses
or checking on the outcome of certain races. While
YouTube has been an invaluable asset in this,
including providing historical footage of past
events, lately the National Thoroughbred Racing
Association has been catching up. Not only
do they have a very informative web page, but
they have also been making use of YouTube and
Facebook. For me, the biggest component of their
site are the archived videos of past Graded
races. A great way to keep up with what is going
on, not just by reading about it, but by
actually being able to watch the races. And
there is more.
For racing in the UK and Ireland, At The Races is a site with very
similar services, so you can watch to see who is
doing what there. Most of the major races in
both countries are archived, although a few
tracks are still missing. A really great
resource though. There is a site with archived
races in France as well, but unfortunately for
me, their system doesn't operate on anything but
a Windows based platform, and I am strictly a
Mac user. That limitation on their part is far
from cutting edge, so I hope they have someone
with the good sense to see to it that it runs on
all platforms in the future. When they do, I'll
certainly post it here.
And, as inquiring minds like to find out as much as possible, I checked out my local track, Assiniboia Downs. And wouldn't you know it - they also have an archive of their stakes races. This let me watch a horse belonging to friends of mine run - a race I had missed before.
Jan/09 Postscript
In returning to some of the past posts I have made, where I had embedded some YouTube videos, I find that several are no longer available on YouTube due to the copyright holder complaining. In the long run, this is detrimental to the racing industry as fans are the base which keeps the industry running. One can only hope that those copyright holders will get their own YouTube accounts and upload the races (as both the NTRA and the Breeder's Cup folks now do), so that both they and the fans will benefit.
And, as inquiring minds like to find out as much as possible, I checked out my local track, Assiniboia Downs. And wouldn't you know it - they also have an archive of their stakes races. This let me watch a horse belonging to friends of mine run - a race I had missed before.
Jan/09 Postscript
In returning to some of the past posts I have made, where I had embedded some YouTube videos, I find that several are no longer available on YouTube due to the copyright holder complaining. In the long run, this is detrimental to the racing industry as fans are the base which keeps the industry running. One can only hope that those copyright holders will get their own YouTube accounts and upload the races (as both the NTRA and the Breeder's Cup folks now do), so that both they and the fans will benefit.