If you’ve been on the California Chrome bandwagon, there’s no reason to jump off now....
Read More
Steve Haskin shares with us glimpses of his Preakness week. ...
Read More
Steve looks back at California Chrome's journey from the Cal Cup Derby to the Kentucky Derby, revisiting his thoughts and observations in the Derby Dozen. ...
Read More
The Derby was about life and its quirky twists and turns that lead us to places envisioned only in dreams and guided only by fate....
Read More
Dreams come in all shapes and sizes. Some are literal. Some are figurative. Most don't come true. But on rare occasions they do, and that is when fairy tales are born....
Read More
Steve attempts to sort out the puzzle of the remaining Kentucky Derby contenders and names his picks for the run for the roses. ...
Read More
Thoughts from Steve Haskin on the post position draw and the morning activities....
Read More
Steve Haskin shares photos from Wednesday morning at Churchill Downs....
Read More
Mike Maker has been looking forward to working General a Rod since his unexpectedly slow work last week....
Read More
As predicted, California Chrome's arrival yesterday drew a large crowd, as did his first appearance on the track Tuesday morning....
Read More
There are heavy rains, torrential rains, and the rain that all but drowned Churchill Downs Monday morning. The lightning came fast and furious; one bolt knocked out light, and the flooding came just as fast. Some of the thunder claps were so loud and strong, several horses became noticeably spooked. But not at Todd Pletcher's barn, where "spooked" and "upset" are not acceptable words. The serenity of Pletcher's barn supersedes all....
Read More
It sounds as if this could be the last nice morning we get in a while, and fortunately, most of the Derby works have been completed. As typical of Derby works, the good ones drew waves of excitement, while others were overblown as bad works....
Read More
From Kentucky to New York to California to Maryland, there were Kentucky Derby works galore the past two days....
Read More
Welcome to the 2014 Kentucky Derby....
Read More
With California Chrome's trainer Art Sherman being thrust into the Kentucky Derby spotlight at age 77, so too will the great Swaps, as Sherman was the immortal Cal-bred's regular work rider and accompanied the colt cross-country by train to Louisville, Ky. for the Derby, where he slept in the straw next to the horse. ...
Read More
Check off the horses who have shown they want to come from a half-dozen lengths back or farther....
Read More
The Florida Derby was Holy Bull's breakout performance....
Read More
A guest blog from Mandy Haskin responding to the Steve Asmussen-Scott Blasi furor....
Read More
Larry Jones has just about had enough of Todd Pletcher. And if Pocho's Dream Girl had any idea what Pletcher has been doing to her sons, she would be incensed as well....
Read More
A couple of years ago, I wrote the back story of Mine That Bird's amazing Triple Crown journey. Now, with the motion picture '50-1' having its premiere in Albuquerque, N.M. Wednesday, March 19, I have added to it (and it is quite lengthy) in an effort to tell the entire story as I witnessed it....
Read More
"Horseplayers," mainly Team Rotondo (Peter Rotondo Sr. and Jr. and Lew Davis), brings me back to a time long ago in my life; a time of smoke-filled busses and a cacophony of thick Brooklyn accents moaning about the double they almost hit and how "da faw hawse is a lock in da toid." OK, that was a bit exaggerated, but effective nonetheless....
Read More
I was watching American Idol and another hair-brained analogy for a column popped into my head....
Read More
It was 25 years ago this spring. There hadn't been a sweep of the Triple Crown in what then seemed to be an interminable 11 years. Racing fans had been spoiled by the Roaring Seventies when three horses swept the Crown and two others captured the first two legs. And on three other occasions, a horse won either the Derby and Belmont or Preakness and Belmont. So in eight of the 10 years, a horse captured two legs of the Triple Crown....
Read More
A set of yearlings strutting across a grassy field in pairs, as dripping strands of Spanish moss hang over their heads....
Read More
If you can imagine those parental feelings of pride a breeder gets watching their foals develop into tough, finely chiseled athletes, try to take it one step farther and imagine how they feel when one of those foals narrowly escapes death days after being born, becomes a sought after yearling, and eventually matures into one of the leading Kentucky Derby contenders. ...
Read More
