Dan Blacker

With active hands-on experience in two arenas in racing--television and presentation as well as horsemanship--Christina Blacker is one of a handful of people in the industry with that variety of perspective. Tuesday morning, the TVG reporter, analyst and host joined the TDN Writers' Room presented by Keeneland for an expansive discussion on growing the sport. Calling in via Zoom as the Green Group Guest of the Week, Blacker also talked about the triumph of her husband Dan's recent first Grade I winner as a trainer and her I Am Horse...

After watching her husband, trainer Dan Blacker, enjoy his first Grade I victory last week, racing analyst and TVG host Christina Blacker joined this week's TDN Writers' Room to talk on marketing racing to a wider audience.

Hit the Road (More Than Ready) struck a blow for the locals, parlaying a perfect trip into a stirring short-neck victory in Saturday's GI Frank E. Kilroe Mile S. at Santa Anita. Drawn in gate two with the visiting Florent Geroux in the irons, Hit the Road found the perfect spot in the box seat, as Flying Scotsman (English Channel) sped across from his outside barrier to supplant favored Smooth Like Strait (Midnight Lute). The pace was sensible through the middle stages, with positions largely unchanged, and Hit the Road...

On Feb. 6, the Oxford-born Dan Blacker celebrated his first graded stakes win as a trainer when Hit The Road (More Than Ready) took Santa Anita's GIII Thunder Road S., unleashing a powerful turn of foot inside the final furlong to win by an eye-catching 3 3/4 lengths. The progressive 4-year-old now has his sights set on Grade I glory in the Frank E. Kilroe Mile over the same course and distance as the Thunder Road on Mar. 6, and a victory there would epitomize everything Blacker has been working...

The financial toll from COVID-19 on the racing industry in California, spurred by the suspension of live Thoroughbred racing, has been sharp and swift. Backstretch healthcare and mental illness services have been pared back, those in charge of other programs reliant on betting revenue are wondering how to bolster coffers if the broader economy nose-dives, while the financial thumb-screws have been further twisted on stretched-thin trainers. What's more, all this is playing out against an economic backdrop that was already shaky. The California Horse Racing Board's (CHRB) latest annual report...