Three-year-old horses get to go to the Kentucky Derby if they’re good enough.

I don’t know what three-year-old blogs get to do, other than continue to take up space on the Internet.  This is as good a time as any to find out, though, since Blinkers Off turns three today!

To all of you who have been reading my previews, my recaps, my pieces about Curlin babies, my random asides…thank you so much.

On a writing front, the previous year has featured some change and a lot of adventure.

Along the theme of change, Chicago Railbird wound to a close after the Breeders’ Cup, with the end of ShapperDaCapper.  But, I took a more leading role at Picks and Ponderings, and started writing at The Tournament Edge as well.  I finally launched a Patreon back in June.  I started a newsletter.

During the last year, my adventures led me to Tampa Bay Downs, Indiana Grand, Fairmount Park, Woodbine (twice!), and Keeneland.  (Portland Meadows was also supposed to happen, just a few days ago, but weather got in the way.  Soon!)  I met two of the greatest mares to put on racing plates in recent decades, Tepin and Rachel Alexandra, as well as the sassiest barn cat on Twitter.

What will the next year of Blinkers Off, of my horse racing writing, hold?  Most of it remains to come together, but I do know a few things.

The off-season will be a busy one.  I am taking a writing class through the winter.  I will make my first ever visit to Fair Grounds in a few weeks, and I will return to Tampa for a weekend in February.

Hawthorne starts back up in March, and there will be Chicago racing for the rest of the year.  I will continue to volunteer with CANTER, and hope to have some more stories to tell from that work in addition to the afternoons at the racetrack.

Thank you anyone who has read my writing over the last three years…and I hope you find enough here to stick around for another year or three!