Thoroughbred racing has always been confined to its own small world, safe and protected from the tumultuous events that surround it. There have been individual stars that have transcended the sport and reached out to touch mainstream America. But never before had the Sport of Kings been woven into the often tattered fabric of history. ...
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A look at the leading North American sires list shows Tiznow ranked No. 2 and Giant's Causeway No. 3. What else is new? They wouldn't have it any other way....
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It's a little before 6 a.m. Although the sun is beginning to rise back home, Lexington, Ky. is still dark. Outside my window at Old Friends, there is a sprawling network of paddocks, housing a number of top-class stakes winners and champions and some not not-so-well-known horses....
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June 19, 2003 was a warm, humid day in Stockton, California, with a brisk 20 mile-an-hour-wind. The fourth race on the card, a $12,500 maiden claiming race for 2-year-olds, had no particular meaning, and you can bet no one paid any attention whatsoever to the fourth-place finisher -- a 35-1 shot named Lava Man, who was racing for his owner, breeder, and trainer Lonnie Arterburn, along with several partners....
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Actually, I have nothing concrete to back that up other than a line from a movie. And it sounded like a good head. But, really, when Jess Jackson opened the door after the Woodward, saying he's going to have trainers like Dick Mandella keep him informed about the Santa Anita surface, it gave racing fans a ray of hope that maybe it could happen....
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As we approach the seventh anniversary of 9/11, I thought, rather than rehash how one of the most cataclysmic events in American history affected the racing world, I would reprint a story I wrote of my visit to Belmont Park four days later on Sept. 15 in order to recapture the atmosphere and the emotions that prevailed at the time, as well my own observations and feelings....
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