Daily Racing Form

Daily Racing Form
Owner(s)Affinity Interactive
Founder(s)Frank Brunell
Founded1894
LanguageEnglish
HeadquartersNew York City, New York
Websitewww.drf.com

The Daily Racing Form (DRF) (referred to as the Racing Form or "Form" and sometimes "telegraph" or "telly") is a tabloid newspaper founded in 1894 in Chicago, Illinois, by Frank Brunell. The paper publishes the past performances of racehorses as a statistical service for bettors covering horse racing in North America.[1]

The first edition of the DRF was published in Chicago in November 1894[2] and publishes up to 35 regional editions every day but Christmas.[3]

In cooperation with the National Thoroughbred Racing Association and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association, the Daily Racing Form selects the winners of the annual Eclipse Awards.

In 1922, the DRF publishing company was sold to Moses Annenberg's Triangle Publications, which would eventually be owned by Walter Annenberg.

In 2007, the Wicks Group sold DRF to Arlington Capital Partners for nearly $200 million.[4][5] Arlington sold the DRF's parent company, Sports Information Group (SIG), to Z Capital Partners in 2017 for less than $100 million.[6] In 2021, Z Capital merged SIG into a sister company, Affinity Gaming, to form Affinity Interactive.[7] In 2021, DRF released the DRF Sport website in September, and in October released the DRF Cash Grab free-to-plat sports prediction app. Together with Affinity Interactive, DRF released its first online sports book. The DRF Bets sports went live in Iowa in January 2022.[8]

  1. ^ "Corporate history at the Daily Racing Form official website". Archived from the original on 2006-09-02. Retrieved 2006-09-12.
  2. ^ "117 Years Of Race Stats Put To Pasture At The Track". NPR.org. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  3. ^ Lambert, Craig (2010-03-01). "Horseplayer Extraordinaire". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 2022-10-26.
  4. ^ Claire Crosby (October 19, 2007). "Racing Form sold to Washington, D.C. company". The Blood-Horse. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  5. ^ Dylan Stableford (August 23, 2007). "Bet on it: Wicks to sell Daily Racing Form for $200M". Folio Magazine. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  6. ^ Frank Angst (July 27, 2017). "Z Capital Partners bets on DRF". The Blood-Horse. Retrieved 2021-08-03.
  7. ^ "ZCG announces completion of merger creating Affinity Interactive" (Press release). Z Capital Group. July 6, 2021. Retrieved 2021-08-03 – via PR Newswire.
  8. ^ "Affinity Interactive's Daily Racing Form launches first sportsbook in Iowa". Gaming Intelligence. 2022-01-27. Retrieved 2022-10-31.