Hints for Finding Horses
I probably get "How can I find out where Old Dobbin is now and maybe his lifetime past performances?" more than any other question. That is why I did this page the the associated page of links, to help people find and perhaps keep track of a specific horse. If you don't want to read the hints below, you may jump straight to the links here.
First, unless the horse you seek is a Thoroughbred currently racing in stakes company at one of the few tracks that give free past performance for their stakes races, you will not get free PPs online anywhere. There are some pay services that offer past performances for Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds but no free ones.
Thoroughbreds are the easiest to find. There is much more info out on the web about them and more services for getting PPs and pedigrees. Standardbreds are not quite as easy but there are several resources for them as well. Quarter horses and Arabians each only have one place for finding information and they are both dial-up only services. Of course you can always make a post to my bulletin board and hope a fellow reader has information on where they are.
Thoroughbreds
If you are looking for a specific horse you know is still racing, your first step should be to register for Stable Mail and put him/her on your list. This is a free service from the Daily Racing Form which will e-mail you whenever the horse is entered in a race in the US. If the horse is no longer racing, your task will be much harder. If the horse has gone on to be a sire, you should be able to find him in one of the online stallion registers. If it is a mare, you will have to get very lucky searching the sales to find her if you don't want to pay for a broodmare report on her. Retired geldings are next to impossible if the horse was not sold with papers to make the ownership info available via the Jockey Club for a fee.Standardbreds
Alas there is no equivalent to Stable Mail for the standardbreds. There is a list of all current entries by horse name for the US which can help. There is no online stallion register either. There are limited online pedigree references which may help, but for stallion or mare information you will most likely have to use the USTA's dial-up service.Well, that should give you somewhere to start from, so happy hunting!
