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The charm of horse racing lies primarily in the animals that do it—their beauty, grace, power and their degree of class. But there is an undeniable attraction to the colorful human beings that make it happen. The purpose of this blog is to share my stories about some of these characters. My requisites in the selection: I had dealings ...

(Originally published in the April 6, 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 Some American racing fans likely got their backs up as the Australian national anthem played March 30 in honor of Animal Kingdom’s ...

1 Revolutionary Todd Pletcher War Pass—Runup the Colors, by A.P. Indy After several flips of the coin, finally decided to make him No. 1 slightly over Orb, mainly because he was my last No. 1 (Feb. 26) before Itsmyluckyday, and he won having to travel and run over a new track and beating a deeper field. You have to admire his determination ...

While many of the leading 3-year-olds were competing in the warm, sunny climes of Florida and Louisiana, a silent assassin was laying low up in the chilly confines of Belmont Park. His name has barely been mentioned in the past few weeks, but he appears to be well armed to do some damage in the Wood Memorial, and if he gets lucky, even more damage ...

Manuel Ycaza won his second Florida Derby in 1969 with Top Knight (Blood-Horse Archives) I first profiled Hall of Fame jockey Manuel Ycaza in 2009 when Churchill Downs' old website was running a series called ''On The Muscle'' and Ycaza's four victories in the Kentucky Oaks (gr. I) merited a trip down memory lane. A look through the clippings ...

The pressure will be on the favorites in this weekend's major Kentucky Derby preps -- Itsmyluckyday in the Florida Derby (G1) and Revolutionary in the Louisiana Derby (G2) -- to earn their way to Louisville. Although both are consensus top-five three-year-olds, Itsmyluckyday's fleet run in the Holy Bull Stakes (G3) and Revolutionary's ...

Sunland Park's big day turned into a benefit for Bob Baffert and Mike Pegram, who took the Sunland Park Derby (gr. III, VIDEO) with Govenor Charlie (also bred by Pegram) and the Sunland Park Oaks (VIDEO) with Midnight Lucky (owned by Pegram in partnership). The duo—who both scored in track record time—are both from the first crop of the ...

(Originally published in the March 30, 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 For three years the owners of MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J.—home of the New York Giants and New York Jets—have been ...

If you’ve been following this year’s Kentucky Derby trail, you no doubt will recognize the names Verrazano, Orb, Flashback, Will Take Charge, Govenor Charlie, Lines of Battle, Normandy Invasion, Mr. Palmer, Super Ninety Nine, He’s Had Enough, Shakin It Up, Capo Bastone, and My Lute.What they have in common is they all carry the John Nerud ...