This was the week in which it was learned that the Daily Racing Form laid off four editorial employees, among them the California-based handicapper and reporter Brad Free. The latest layoffs came on the heels of the DRF letting go of another handful of writers, including Matt Hegarty. Free and Hegarty were both excellent at their jobs, and highly respected members of what is a dwindling group of people who call themselves turf writers. The Form never replaced Jay Privman or Marty McGee when they retired and it's highly unlikely that it will bring anyone new on board to replace Mary Rampellini, who passed away in July and handled the duties at Oaklawn Park.All that's left is a skeleton crew that includes Marcus Hersh, Steve Anderson, Mike Welsch, the hardest-working man in horse racing, David Grening, and a few others. But that obviously is not nearly the manpower needed to adequately cover a sport that encompasses major racetracks from New York to California, not to mention the breeding and sales industries and the sort of off-the-track industry news that Hegarty handled so well.The path the DRF is taking is pretty clear. Within a few years, it is entirely possible that the paper/website will have no editorial coverage and exist for the sole purpose of selling past performances and other data.The DRF is owned by Affinity Interactive, which is a portfolio company of the private equity firm Z Capital Group. The current owners bought the paper in 2017. The layoffs don't have to mean that the Form is bleeding red ink. Many companies like Affinity Interactive put the bottom line first and aren't concerned about the welfare of their employees or what might happen to them once they're out of work and left to try to look for employment in a field where finding a well-paying job is very difficult to do. If letting employees go makes the ledger sheet look better, so be it.This is what has been happening to legacy media for years. Hedge funds or private equity firms come in, slash their staffs and don't seem to think it's a problem to put out an inferior product and a paper that consists of 20 pages filled largely by coverage provided by the wire services. These entities aren't stupid. For reasons that are too complicated to go into here, it's usually a winning strategy.It's sad when this happens to any newspaper, but, in this case, particularly sad when you care about this sport and, like so many of us, started reading the Racing Form (or the Morning Telegraph) from an early age.The Daily Racing Form, “America's Turf Authority,” was founded in 1894 by Frank H. Brunell, a former turf writer for the Chicago Tribune. In 1904, the Form started to include past performances, which, today, no horseplayer can do without. Over the years, it employed some of the most influential racing writers in the history of the sport. Charles Hatton all but invented the Triple Crown. Joe Hirsch was the GOAT, a beloved figure in the sport. Steven Crist, Evan Shipman and even Fred Capossela are also among the long list of talented writers who made you want to start every morning by cracking open the pages of the Daily Racing Form. Peb's cartoons were wonderful.The sport is better off with a Racing Form that is what it used to be, a publication that doesn't try to get by with a handful or writers and was serious about providing quality coverage when it comes to the entire industry. That's more important than ever considering that the mainstream media has forgotten that horse racing exists. It's a pipe dream to think that the Racing Form will return to its former glory. There is no white knight who is going to come in and restore its editorial coverage or keep it from going to a pp-only publication. Brad Free, Matt Hegarty, the others, the sport misses you. Can Horses Win Off Short Rest? Of Course They CanHow's Al Today (Munnings) won Wednesday's Kentucky Downs Juvenile Mile just 11 days after his last start. The horse who ran second, Jas (Justify), was also coming back in 11 days. Earlier on the card, Satin Blue (The Factor) won a $190,000 allowance just 10 days after her last start. On Sept. 5, Caroline St. Beat (Tiz the Law) won the GII Nashville Derby Invitational Stakes just seven days after winning an allowance race at Saratoga.Not that any of this should come as a surprise. Because of the stratospheric purses offered at Kentucky Downs, trainers will do things there that they normally wouldn't do anywhere else. With that much money available, the temptation is there to buck the conventional wisdom that says horses need several weeks between starts. Horses winning off short rest at Kentucky Downs is nothing new and is credible evidence that horses can do this…that they don't always need to sit in mothballs for weeks or months between starts.Courtesy of Equibase, we know that there have been a whopping 44 horses that have won at Kentucky Downs since 2020 who were racing back in 14 days or less. The list includes Goliad (War Front), who won a handicap race at Kentucky Downs in 2024 and came back six days later to win the GIII Mint Millions Stakes. Then there's Tiztastic (Tiz the Law), who won the 2024 Juvenile Mile Stakes 10 days after winning a Kentucky Downs allowance race. In 2025, Street Beast (Street Sense) won the same Juvenile Mile Stakes 10 days after he last raced. Paco Lopez's TrifectaWith the conclusion of the 2026 Monmouth meet Sunday, Paco Lopez wrapped up his 13th riding title at the seaside track. That tied him with Joe Bravo for the all-time record. Lopez is controversial and not for everyone, but what he is doing this year is historic. He was also the leading rider at Colonial Downs and is well on his way to winning the title at Delaware Park. Has a jockey ever won three riding titles at different tracks in the same year, let alone at tracks that are basically running at the same time? It's highly unlikely, and this is quite the feat.The post Why Joe Hirsch Is Turning Over in His Grave appeared first on TDN | Thoroughbred Daily News | Horse Racing News, Results and Video | Thoroughbred Breeding and Auctions.