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Courtesy of Becky Johnston Two days and two wins for the Americans.  What a great stroke of public relations on Wesley Ward’s part.  Deciding to take the journey and then travelling to a small track like River Downs to work the horses in between races over a holiday weekend.  Then you have John Velasquez doing a beautiful job of ...

Courtesy of Becky Johnston The monkey is officially off the Americans’ back as Strike The Tiger and John Velasquez carried Wesley Ward’s silks to victory in the Listed Windsor Castle Stakes at 33-1 (18-1 in the U.S.).  Strike The Tiger is a gelding by Tiger Ridge out of the In Excess (IRE) mare R Lucky Strike.  Strike The Tiger won a ...

During an interview just before the calendar flipped to the year 2000, veterinarian Robert Copelan had this to say about W.T. Young: “I often wonder what would have happened had the phone been busy (the first time Young called). Meeting W.T. Young was that bolt of lightning; the most important thing to happen to me in my life.” On June 9, Bill ...

As one final thought regarding Calvin Borel, in my Triple Crown wrapup I said it was learned that Borel attempted to get mounts during Belmont week, but was unable to secure any. I qualified that by adding, “If that is true…” Just for the record, this is what I was told by someone close to Borel. Although, as I also wrote, “It’s hard to believe,” ...

As a tribute to Birdstone’s remarkable feat of siring two different winners of a Triple Crown race in the same year (the first stallion to do so since Count Fleet in 1951), and from his first crop no less, I am re-printing my 2004 Belmont Stakes recap from the Blood-Horse. (Sorry, it’s pretty long). This was to be the year. You could feel it. ...

Is Curlin the best horse to win the Stephen Foster? Rank these winners of this historic race: writeRanker(''http://i.bloodhorse.com/xml/ranking/beststephenfosterwinner.xml''); To participate, use your cursor to drag the selections on the left (currently arranged in chronological order) to the blank placeholders on the right. Once you ...

Another Triple Crown season has come and gone, and as usual it did not disappoint. Many of the happenings would have been impossible to predict, however, such as: • A 50-1 shot winning the May 2 Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I). It looked like Quality Road, The Pamplemousse, and I Want Revenge would all bring solid credentials to ...

One of the strangest Triple Crowns in memory has come to an end, leaving being a flood of memories and wild and wacky moments. Read the full column here.

Courtesy of Rob Fundter, The Amateur Capper CHARITABLE MAN WON’T GIVE AWAY THE FINAL TRIPLE CROWN RACE OF 2009 Unfortunately, there will not be a Triple Crown winner for the 26th consecutive year.  MINE THAT BIRD, the 50-1 longshot winner of the Kentucky Derby, ran bravely down the Pimlico stretch but could not catch the Amazonian filly ...

Courtesy Becky Johnston  Vincent O’Brien was to horse racing what Adolph Rupp was to basketball and what Bear Bryant was to football.   Bryant was asked “How do you want to be remembered?”  He replied, “I want the people to remember me as a winner, ‘cause I ain’t never been nothing but a winner.” The same could be said for ...