On the Eve of an Anniversary
It was four years ago this month (June 17 to be exact) that Railbird began. As hard as it might be to believe now, when there are more than 35 members of the Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance and dozens of blogs published independently or by the NTRA, Blood-Horse, and DRF, the racing blogosphere was a barren place those days. There was Equidaily, and Oregon Racing News, and trainer Tim Woolley’s infrequently updated original site. It would be five more months before Handride emerged, six months until Left at the Gate, and almost a year to the blog explosion.
I was then midway through a political science degree, undertaken after a stint living abroad and with vague intentions of tweaking my career, which had drifted from newspaper reporting into academic and literary publishing. I had, unexpectedly, gone crazy for racing the summer before, after a long-dormant interest in the sport was revived on a slow, muggy Saturday afternoon at Suffolk Downs, and all I wanted to do was handicap and go to the racetrack. My studies in the exciting field of post-Soviet East European civil society suffered, although I did find uses for the quantitative analysis and statistics work I had slogged through first semester.
Railbird arose from a simple motivation: I set out to create the racing blog I wanted to visit, a site that would point to the important news of the day and the most interesting commentary, and link to surprising and out of the way bits on the web, which is pretty much what the site tried to be through 2004, 2005, and 2006 (thanks to the Wayback Machine for those flashbacks); 2007 brought small changes. I guess a few of you were looking for the same thing, because the response was amazing — traffic was terrific out of the gate and grew phenomenally through June 2006, when I started an interesting interlude at the Daily Racing Form and briefly lost time for posting, and resumed growing when I returned to blogging a few months later and realized how much I’d missed being part of the conversation while I was away. To say that maintaining Railbird has been one of more professionally and personally rewarding experiences I’ve had is an understatement, and I’m grateful for the many wonderful friendships and opportunities that have come about because of this small site, and for the chance to take part in the growth of the smart and passionate community devoted to this most magnificent sport.
I’m at work on something new now, a web site about which I am very excited (more on that in coming weeks), but Railbird, I hope, will go on for another four years. It’s been a lot of fun since that first post, and I credit every reader, friend, and fellow blogger for making that so. Thank you.
Tipping Point
I’ve been thinking about racing media lately — about Maryjean Wall’s retirement, a certain track publicist’s old media conception of “significant coverage,” John’s keen observation that blogs had the edge over mainstream media when it came to Derby coverage, the apparent success of The Rail — and it occurs to me that this is the year turf coverage tips from print to web, when much of the best reporting, commentary, and analysis appears online first, if not exclusively. Of course, I’m biased, given all the time I’ve been devoting to a little project nearing launch, but I believe we’re on the verge of a revived and vibrant racing media scene, thanks to the web …
Blood-Horse Goes Digital
Last month, I wrote about waffling over renewing my Blood-Horse subscription. Too much print, I complained, and wished for an online-only version of the magazine. A few days later, a nice note from Blood-Horse circulation director Marla B. appeared in my inbox. They were working on just such a product, she wrote, and offered access to the beta, which is how I’ve been happily reading the magazine since. The screenshot above gives a sense of what Blood-Horse digital looks like: Basically, the complete contents of the print magazine are loaded into a cool browser-based reader, allowing the viewer to flip through pages, search for text, search archived issues, click on links within articles and ads, and so on. It’s a merger of print and web publishing that works surprisingly well.
Marla emailed last week that the digital edition is launching soon with a special introductory price of $39 for a year (which Railbird readers can get by calling 800-582-5604 and saying they saw it on this site). Blood-Horse readers with an existing subscription can convert to the digital edition with any unused print subscription time applied to the digital.
In case you’re wondering: No, I’m not getting a cut of each subscription or any other payment. This little commercial announcement comes about because I’m a pleased reader who really likes what Blood-Horse is doing online, and this is how I’ll be renewing my subscription …
FSIM Opens Next Friday
Filmmaker Brad Hennegan and the man* who bought the first tickets in New York to the Friday night opening of FSIM.
Don’t forget! “The First Saturday in May,” the feel-good documentary by the Hennegan Brothers that follows six 2006 Kentucky Derby prospects, including Barbaro and Lawyer Ron, from preps to post, opens in theaters across the country beginning April 18. Find a theater near you.
Thumbs up! Both Dana and Teresa have all the details on the New York screening and reviews of the movie. Since I’m an inept critic, I’ll throw you over to Green But Game and Brooklyn Backstretch for much more on this delightful film …
Keeneland Classic Channel
Great idea, oddly executed. “Tune in”? Not online.
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Jessica Chapel writes and edits in Massachusetts. Railbird is a Thoroughbred horse racing blog published from June 2004 to July 2019. More / Contact
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