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American Pharoah vs. Beholder! People are already buzzing. Showdowns between males and females have come in many forms over the years, including battles between top 2-year-olds, 3-year-olds, and older horses. Some have decided championships, some were hyped in the press going into the race, some came in Triple Crown and Breeders’ Cup races, ...

With the completion of this year’s Breeders’ Cup Challenge “Win and You’re In,” races for 2015, I thought I'd look at the four horses to win more than one Challenge race this year, Beholder, who won three; and two-time winners Big Blue Kitten, Honor Code, and Wild Dude. Beholder, by Henny Hughes—Leslie’s Lady by Tricky Creek 2015 ...

There are freak racehorses and there are freak pedigrees. They don’t come around very often, and on those rare occasions when they do, they normally defy explanation. Now, when you have a freak of a racehorse who just happens to have a freaky pedigree, then you have found something extra special. And that appears to be the case with ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman Following the epic, non-stop racing action of the last two weekends, things will slow down considerably this Saturday, with only two graded stakes races on the agenda. However, one of those races is the always-exciting $500,000 Queen Elizabeth II Challenge Cup (gr. I) at Keeneland, a ...

The Breeders' Cup's return to Kentucky later this month, and specifically to Keeneland for the first time, reminds me of a famous quote from Kentucky Gov. Albert B. ''Happy'' Chandler Sr.: ''I never met a Kentuckian who wasn't either thinking about going home or actually going home.'' The Oct. 30-31 World Championships figures to be one big ...

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 ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman If you thought last week’s racing action was spectacular, get ready—this week promises to be just as good or better! The second ''Super Saturday'' of Breeders’ Cup prep races will kick off with six graded stakes races at Belmont, including the $1,000,000 Jockey Club Gold Cup (gr. I), in ...

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 ...

When Breeders' Cup and Keeneland officials announced in June 2014 that the Lexington track would host the 2015 edition of the World Championships, most believed that the Dirt Mile (gr. I) race would be offered at two turns and 1 1/16 miles or one-turn on Keeneland's Beard Course, which measures seven furlongs and 184 feet.But thanks to some ...

Efforts by casino operators and lawmakers to back away from the original intent of laws that linked approval for gaming to live pari-mutuel racing—some of the legislation has titles that expressly mention preservation of horse racing and breeding—are nothing new. In some states the pushback began only several years after the laws took ...