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Several years ago during Kentucky Derby week, I wrote a small segment in my column about Iraqi War veteran Chris Simonds and his special Derby dream. To honor Simonds, who was awarded the Purple Heart, and all veterans, I felt this was the perfect time to expand, update and re-tell Simonds’ story, as well as the effect American Pharoah had on him ...

At 2 a.m Sunday morning, America turned the clocks back an hour. Approximately eight hours earlier, the Thoroughbred racing world turned the clocks back 40, 50, 60 years, back to the Golden Era of the sport when there were Triple Crown winners who would go on to earn their place among the truly greats.There have been many great colts and geldings ...

This is going to be short and hopefully sweet Saturday JUVENILE FILLIES – You can either look at this race as Songbird’s to lose or an East-West showdown between Songbird and Rachel’s Valentina. Or there is a third way to look at – more wide-open than most people think. After all, if you like Rachel’s Valentina you have to like Tap to It. If ...

As always, there are a number of solid favorites in this year’s Breeders’ Cup, some of whom are going to be very tough to beat. But as is also the case every year, there will be several longshots that come in, some at huge prices. The toughest past of the Breeders’ Cup is finding them among the morass of top-class horses who will be ...

Now that entries have been drawn, let’s get the final Breeders’ Cup Classic analysis in the books and then go over the rest of the Breeders’ Cup card later in the week and look for longshot specials to keep an eye on. If you’re looking for reasons to bet American Pharoah and Beholder, and even Honor Code, this isn’t the place to come, although ...

It was 15 years ago when Richard Mandella actually thought about leaving California and moving East. Obviously, that didn’t last very long. Mandella actually had those thoughts while in New Jersey prior to winning the 2000 Haskell Invitational with Dixie Union. It was during his brief stay in the Garden State that Mandella heard the call of the ...

He’s reliable, he’s honest, he loves a mile and a quarter, and he consistently runs fast speed figures. But is Tonalist good enough to win the Breeders’ Cup Classic…away from Belmont Park?The main reason for asking that question is, prior to his victory in the Jockey Club Gold Cup, run at his favorite track and over a sloppy surface he relishes, ...

If there is one element of Thoroughbred racing that has always held true it is that the tides of fortune change very quickly. It is the one sport where you can idolize a Babe Ruth as a fan one day and strike him out with the bases loaded the next. Only here can two worlds intermingle, no matter how divergent they may be. Only here can a ...

Well, all the Breeders' Cup preps are over, and now comes the waiting; first for the pre-entries, then the entries to determine the starting fields. The biggest interest in the makeup of the Classic field will be whether Liam’s Map will try to stretch out to 1 1/4 miles or contest the Dirt Mile, which around two turns might as well be a mile and ...

For Bobby Frankel, he was to be the Messiah; the gifted regally bred racing machine that would be racing’s next superstar. He even had the appropriate name – Empire Maker.In the early 2000s, Frankel owned New York racing, winning some 25 grade I stakes at Belmont, Saratoga, and Aqueduct alone. In 2000, Frankel had a classy colt for Juddmonte Farms ...