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By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman The final Saturday of the 2016 Saratoga meet is a good one, with four graded stakes races on the schedule. By far the biggest in terms of prestige is the $600,000 Woodward Stakes (gr. I), a nine-furlong race that has drawn a competitive field of talented horses with Breeders' Cup ...

Top-level horses and horsemen on the comeback trail were among the big stories the last full week of August, and they found entry to the winner’s circle a little harder than it used to be. While the fairy tales didn’t have happy beginnings, their returns to the spotlight are just the opening pages of the tale. There are plenty of chapters to go to ...

It was 1996 and Bob Baffert, then a relatively unknown trainer, made his first impact on the classic scene when he brought Santa Anita Derby winner Cavonnier to Churchill Downs for the Kentucky Derby. No one knew much about this former Quarter-Horse trainer, except that he generally trained sprinters until Cavonnier came along and he had a ...

Let’s cut right to the chase. Steve Byk, the voice of Thoroughbred racing, is human in flesh and blood, but it would be difficult to convince anyone that he isn’t an android, more simply a robot with human appearance; a mental cyborg. The only other explanation for Byk’s other worldly ability to assimilate information on any subject, ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman On Saturday at Saratoga, a full field of fourteen horse will enter the starting gate for the historic $1,250,000 Travers Stakes (gr. I). The ten-furlong race could not have come up much tougher, for just about every three-year-old colt that has achieved anything this year has been ...

There was a time when seven furlongs in 1:23 to 1:24 was considered pretty decent for allowance and stakes horses, and anything under 1:23 was what the fastest stakes sprinters would run. Today, 1:24 normally would be considered pedestrian, as we consistently see seven-furlong times of 1:20 and change and 1:21 and change in graded stakes. We ...

No one can time the market with any consistency; often one finds himself at the corner of value and opportunity. That was the case just 13 months ago when the Taylor boys—Duncan, Ben, Frank, and Mark—and some of their Taylor Made Stallions clients took a shot by acquiring a 30% stake in California Chrome. California Chrome had been valued ...

Todd Pletcher’s once seemingly powerful army of 3-year-olds has pretty much disbanded, with some of the troops retreating from the battlefield, others spending time in sick bay, and two transferred to another outfit. By mid to late March, Pletcher’s Kentucky Derby hopefuls included Zulu, Outwork, Destin, Gettysburg, Stradivari, Rally Cry, Mo ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman A fantastic summer of racing continues on Saturday with stellar afternoons at Del Mar and Saratoga, including four grade I races. The highlight of the weekend will undoubtedly be the Pacific Classic (gr. I), which has drawn the amazing trio of California Chrome, Beholder, and ...

In James Michener’s epic novel and later TV miniseries “Centennial,” an Arapahoe boy learns that his father had been killed in battle and is told, “Only the rocks live forever.” Well, in Thoroughbred racing, there is one rock that sadly will not live forever. On Aug. 31 Rockingham Park, one of the most charming racetracks in America since ...