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By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman The Ohio Derby at Thistledown has been a significant race for a long time. It was a grade II for more than 30 years and has been won by such notable runners as Skip Away, Broad Brush, Lost Code, King Glorious, and Milwaukee Brew, and although the race has lost some prestige in recent ...

Eva Cassidy had the voice of an angel. Her jazz/blues rendition of “Over the Rainbow” brought people to tears. She never sought fame, and in fact was painfully shy about singing in public. To her, it was all about the music and expressing herself the only way she knew how…with passion. She would sing in small clubs and sold tapes of her music from ...

Racing at Ascot Racecourse began in 1711, and it’s been a pretty big deal ever since with the Royal Ascot meeting rooted in a long-standing British tradition of quality racing with the Royal Family on hand. When thinking of the traditional pageantry and color of Thoroughbred racing, visions of the Queen arriving by Royal procession, men in morning ...

The following was written by my daughter Mandy and first appeared in the May 3, 2010 issue of Stride magazine,, then reprinted on this blog. It is the greatest Father’s Day gift I have ever received and still gets me all choked up, and that is why I am posting it again. It's still ''Hangin' With Haskin,” but this time written by the better ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman The $500,000 Stephen Foster Handicap (gr. I) would be a great race no matter when it's run, but coming one week after the Belmont Stakes and the end of the Triple Crown, the Stephen Foster serves as the unofficial start of the second half of the racing season and marks the beginning ...

To continue the lyrics from Rodgers and Hammerstein’s “A wonderful Guy” from South Pacific: “I expect everyone of my crowd to make fun Of my proud protestations of faith in romance, Loudly I'll sing about flowers in spring, Flatly I'll stand on my little flat feet and say Love is a grand and a beautiful thing! I'm not ashamed to ...

On a day when one wondered if the Longines finish line clock would begin flashing like the radar-equipped highway signs that blink when they detect a speeder, fast horses delivered swift performances on Belmont Park’s grandest card of racing.Those speedy efforts came before Creator rallied in the stretch June 11 to catch Destin for a narrow ...

No one knows how long the 2016 Triple Crown will remain in the public’s memory banks, but for now at least it should be remembered for its eccentricities, following one of the most memorable and emotional Triple Crowns in history. With the Belmont Stakes still fresh in everyone’s mind, let’s start with the closing act and its unconventional story ...

With the connections of American Pharoah participating in a questions and answers Thursday in celebration of the one-year anniversary of their Triple Crown triumph, I thought it was a good time to post some images of that memorable day and the days leading up to it, as well as one personal shot from the Preakness. Jill Baffert photographed yours ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman The Belmont Stakes is a race that is either predictable or inscrutable-it often seems like there's no in between. When you handicap it correctly, it seems like everything comes together and you nail the trifecta. When you handicap it incorrectly, you can be surprised by not only the ...