The ''Daily Racing Form'' (DRF) (referred to as the ''Racing Form'' or "Form" and sometimes "telegraph" or "telly") is a tabloid

newspaper A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background. Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports a ...

founded in 1894 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, by Frank Brunell. The paper publishes the past performances of racehorses as a statistical service for bettors covering

horse racing Horse racing is an equestrian performance sport, typically involving two or more horses ridden by jockeys (or sometimes driven without riders) over a set distance for competition. It is one of the most ancient of all sports, as its basic p ...

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere and almost entirely within the Western Hemisphere. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South America and the Car ...

. The first edition of the DRF was published in Chicago in November 1894 and publishes up to 35 regional editions every day but Christmas. In cooperation with the

National Thoroughbred Racing Association The National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) is a broad-based coalition of American horse racing interests consisting of leading thoroughbred racetracks, owners, breeders, trainers and affiliated horse racing associations, charged with incr ...

and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters Association, the ''Daily Racing Form'' selects the winners of the annual

Eclipse Award The Eclipse Award is an American Thoroughbred horse racing award named after the 18th-century British racehorse and sire, Eclipse. An Eclipse Award Trophy is presented to the winner in each division that is made by a few small selected American ...

s. In 1922, the ''DRF'' publishing company was sold to

Moses Annenberg Moses Louis Annenberg (February 11, 1877 – July 20, 1942) was an American newspaper publisher, who purchased ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', the third-oldest surviving daily newspaper in the United States in 1936. ''The Inquirer'' has the sixte ...

Triangle Publications Triangle Publications Inc. was an American media group based first in Philadelphia, and later in Radnor, Pennsylvania. It was a privately held corporation, with the majority of its stock owned by Walter Annenberg and his sisters. Its holding ...

, which would eventually be owned by

Walter Annenberg Walter Hubert Annenberg (March 13, 1908 – October 1, 2002) was an American businessman, investor, philanthropist, and diplomat. Annenberg owned and operated Triangle Publications, which included ownership of ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'' ...

. In 2007, the Wicks Group sold ''DRF'' to

Arlington Capital Partners Arlington Capital Partners is a Washington, DC based private equity firm focusing on leveraged buyout and recapitalization investments in middle market companies. Started in 1999, the firm manages $4.0 billion of committed capital out of five i ...

for nearly $200 million. Arlington sold the ''DRFs parent company, Sports Information Group (SIG), to Z Capital Partners in 2017 for less than $100 million. In 2021, Z Capital merged SIG into a sister company,

Affinity Gaming Affinity Interactive, formerly known as Herbst Gaming and Affinity Gaming, is an American private casino and sports betting company based in Paradise, Nevada. It operates eight casinos in Nevada, Missouri, and Iowa, and publishes the ''Daily Racin ...

, to form Affinity Interactive. 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.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.drf.com Affinity Gaming Publications established in 1894 Horse racing in the United States Horse racing mass media Sports mass media in the United States Sports newspapers Sports betting Former News Corporation subsidiaries 1894 establishments in Illinois