Even though it is only late May, let's take a look at the horses Justify defeated and see how the crop stacks up now compared with a year ago....
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Try to imagine how tough it is to win a Triple Crown race. Then try to imagine winning two of the three legs. Then try to imagine winning two of the three legs with two different horses. In the past half century you can count on one hand the number of times that has been accomplished....
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Photos of great Thoroughbreds in action are pieces of memorabilia that remind us of the exciting moments those horses provided us....
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Despite the controversies and horse racing continually working to reinvent itself with modern technology, the sport’s future will remain bright as long as the Thoroughbred can captivate us like no other animal and inspire deep passion in people starting at a young age. It is the centuries-old love of the horse that will guarantee its preservation....
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Of the first four horses who crossed the finish line at Churchill Downs, not one is back for the Preakness. That leaves us with a wide-open competitive race, including four who survived the muddy mess that was this year's controversial Kentucky Derby....
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Someday, hopefully in the not too distant future, all the anger, pain, frustration, and feuding that resulted from the 2019 Kentucky Derby will at least dissipate to the point where we can all move on. For some, like Gary and Mary West, Jason Servis, Luis Saez and all those who saw their scorching mutuel tickets reduced to ashes right before their eyes, it will be more difficult. But in racing there...
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Every January, well before the roses are in bloom, jockeys and their agents begin the arduous and often times stressful task of finding the Kentucky Derby winner. It is a pressure-packed four months, first finding a horse early on, then hoping he’s good enough to continue on the Derby trail, then hoping he stays sound, then hoping the trainer sticks with them and doesn’t start shopping around for a bigger name jockey....
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Speaking as a writer searching for storylines, if anyone deserved to win the Derby as much as Mott it was Gary and Mary West....
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We have seen the late defections of Kentucky Derby favorites and leading contenders before, but this was the most heartbreaking I can remember. It has created a major void in the race. But it is still the Derby and it is finally time to decipher all the clues we've been given, as puzzling as they may be. One thing is for sure, opinions are scattered all over the place. It is best to break it all down...
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Because there are so many question marks surrounding the quality of the UAE Derby, including how a round trip there and back can affect a horse trying to come back in five weeks in the Kentucky Derby, let us look at Plus Que Parfait and Gray Magician as unknowns, and therefore potential megabomb exotics horses despite their mediocre form in the U.S. before heading to the desert....
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The fall of the year, well before the journey on the Kentucky Derby trail begins, is a very special time in racing. It is during those fall months that we often see the seeds sprout that eventually will blossom into the Kentucky Derby winner. That is when Derby dreams are born. Any one of those seedlings could grow into a magnificent Thoroughbred that will one day make history. At least that is what...
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It was a scene everyone had hoped for and expected. It was a farewell like no other. Tears flowed freely, voices quavered, the words of trainer Chris Waller were difficult to get out. Watching jockey Hugh Bowman being interviewed after the race, I couldn't help having the warped thought of him putting his bloody handkerchief on eBay -.- one final souvenir of the immortal Winx, who provided Bowman with his split lip. Seems like she was the only one at Randwick Race Course who didn't want to be kissed....
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To us folks in the East, Winx, for the past several years has been our Midnight Special. We either set our alarms to watch her or delay our bedtime to watch her. Yes, come midnight on those few nights, an ever-lovin light shines on American horse racing fans that emanates on the other side of the world in Australia. And each time that light grows brighter and brighter. That is the light that radiates from this amazing Thoroughbred, who has now kept us up for a good portion of her 32-race winning streak....
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In horse racing, as in life, timing is everything. When we think of Pioneerof the Nile, it naturally is as the sire of Triple Crown winner American Pharoah. That is enough of a legacy for any horse....
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This is just my way of saying thank you for everything that I am and everything I will ever be....
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With the Derby trail in full swing, the highlight of the week did not take place on the racetrack, but on the internet, and had nothing to do with this year's perplexing Kentucky Derby picture. But it did have something to do with the Derby and the Triple Crown. A visit to Amazon.com revealed the long-awaited news that Lenny Shulman's book on Justify was available for pre-sale. We have seen a number...
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Sir Prize Birthday competed to the age 12 making an astounding 206 starts, running at 20 different racetracks, being ridden by 52 different jockeys, and changing trainers an unbelievable 29 times....
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Racing people to Mike were not just figures to photograph. They were sources of information, which he always wanted to absorb. He wanted to get inside of people and that is why his head shots were so revealing....
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The racing and breeding world was shocked to learn of the death at age 53 of J.B. McKathan, who along with his brother Kevin, helped propel the comet known as Bob Baffert back in 1996, while establishing the McKathan Brothers Farm in Ocala as one of the best classrooms for young 2-year-olds to get their start....
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I just learned of the death of Phyllis Mills Wyeth on Jan. 14 at age 78. Known for her philanthropic endeavors as well as her family history in the Sport of Kings, she had a love affair with her homebred colt Union Rags that has earned a place in the history books, most notably the chapter on the Belmont Stakes....
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Then came a hard-trying, tough as nails colt named Lookin At Lucky, who opened the door for Baffert's "second career," which amazingly has topped his first career....
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Fifty Years. Half a century. A lifetime ago. Seems like yesterday. There is something about anniversaries, excluding weddings and births, that make us remember events we normally don't give that much thought to. When you reach way back and pull out a 50th anniversary, it brings your life into perspective. There is no year in memory that evokes more nostalgia and brings back historical events than 1969...
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When you think of hard-luck horses in the Derby, the first horse that comes to mind is Native Dancer, who was interfered with early and came up a head short of not only winning the Derby but retiring undefeated.
We have had other hard-luck horses in the past 50 years for whatever reason who might have been cost a victory or at least a far better placing. There no doubt are others that I am missing, but here is a list of those who come to mind who had their one chance at Kentucky Derby immortality compromised because of bad luck....
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As I prepare for the latest onslaught of Derby horses and Derby performances and the same old trainer names, I have come to the stark realization that nothing is the same as it was. Gone is the old formulated thinking. Gone is the same old logic. And gone are the same old historical perspectives.
And there is one horse responsible for that. His name is Justify. ...
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Unfortunately, Sam Riddle's recollections of Man o' War's 2-year-old campaign were not among the aforementioned papers discovered in Mary Simon's box of old articles and papers. But what follows is a riveting account of Big Red's three-year-old campaign....
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