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(Originally published in the June 22, 2013 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.) By Evan Hammonds - @BH_EHammonds on Twitter Close your eyes, click your heels together three times, and repeat after me: There’s no place like Santa Anita, there’s no place ...

Through the remainder of the year, I am going to recount some of my most memorable experiences/moments in racing over the past 40 years. Some will be recycled from past columns (at least 3 years old for those who didn’t read them the first time) with new material added. Some, such as this, will be long, but that should be expected from this often ...

I’ll never forget the night my father walked into my bedroom and asked me a question that would change my life forever. I had left Wall Street and had been out of work for nine months. My mother no longer was speaking to me, and my father finally came in and asked me point blank what I wanted to do with my life. “What are you interested in; ...

(By Avalyn Hunter) Forty years ago, Secretariat blazed his way to one of the milestone performances of American Thoroughbred racing. Those who watched his breathtaking run in the 1973 Belmont Stakes (gr. I), whether live or on TV, could only marvel as the big red horse thundered home all alone. Even on a day on which the track had been playing ...

(Originally published in the June 15, 2013 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.) By Eric Mitchell - @BH_EMitchell on Twitter Breaking the 35-year Triple Crown drought would have been special, no doubt, but the Thoroughbred racing community still got a deeply ...

Photo: Anne M. Eberhardt Sir Henry Cecil, one of the most prominent international horse trainers over the last four decades, left behind a stellar legacy when he died June 11 at age 70. The self-effacing Cecil was respected by his peers and well-liked by the racing public. As a tribute to Cecil, BloodHorse.com is offering ...

If this year’s Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands and Preakness Stakes taught us anything it is that Thoroughbred racing has its own unique way of transporting the past into the present, recycling great achievements and sometimes surpassing them.In the Derby and Preakness, we saw how names like Phipps, Janney, and McGaughey, and Lukas and ...

While he is now considered an ''elder statesman'' of the Coolmore Australia stallion roster, there can be no doubt that Encosta de Lago (AUS) (TrueNicks,SRO) is one of the premier stallions standing in Australia this year. The son of Fairy King has amassed a sensational record at stud with 6.3% stakes winners to foals and 7.6% stakes winners to ...

Let’s try and get through this with as little pain as possible. If you think you can nail this year’s Belmont Stakes winner through conventional handicapping methods you’re most likely in for a rude awakening. But in our case the alternative is a blank space where the Friday column should be.You can decipher all this in whatever manner you choose, ...