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by Vic ZastOnce upon a time, a little racecourse with brown wooden stands, a white linen table-clothed dining room and a winner’s circle drawn in chalk stood among the cooling pines of a quaint Victorian city at the edge of the Adirondacks. The racetrack's red and white trim was added recently, perhaps only 50 years ago.Gentlemen wore suits to ...

(Originally published in the August 24, 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 The peak Ken and Sarah Ramsey found themselves atop Aug. 17 towers remarkably high above the racing landscape. And the plateau ...

by Vic ZastThe annual one-day fly hatching season came to an end with nightfall on Saturday.  Leaving the track was like battling locust.  The critters were pesky as mosquitoes in the Yukon as they flew into your hair and your mouth.  They disoriented you. High clouds through which you could see the sun if you really tried was the ...

Before we get to the Darley duo, we have to begin with a nursery story.Once upon a time, there was a boy (well, a boy in a man’s body) named Ken who had a kitten. As hard as Ken would try to find the kitten a home, no one was willing to take it in. So, Ken decided to keep the kitten and give it a good home. But the kitten grew into a big ferocious ...

by Vic ZastThe thought that horse racing needs to be dragged through the coals again following Saturday’s first race must be rattling about in some people’s minds. Just when New York Racing Association officials must have been feeling pretty good about how things were going with attendance increases, close finishes and weather forecasts, Saratoga ...

There is no use commenting on Wise Dan and the Breeders’ Cup Classic any longer, although there is one final thought mentioned farther down, merely for the sake of history. But although that door has been closed, let’s not forget the Dan No. 2 waiting to charge through Door No. 2. Although Wise Dan’s big brother Successful Dan has barely had his ...

(Originally published in the August 17, 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 The day before Fasig-Tipton’s select yearling sale in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., the auction company’s president Boyd Browning Jr. had ...

by Vic Zast Someone who knows more about epiphanies can perhaps explain why The Jockey Club has risen from its marketing doldrums.  Harvey Pack, the wise-aleck horse racing color man, used to joke that the organization’s Round Table Conference, held on Sunday for the 61st time, was for squares that couldn’t excite coffee. But earlier this ...

The following is a much condensed version of a four-part feature I wrote 28 years ago during my first year as a feature writer for DRF. I reprinted a shortened version of it six years ago, but several people who never read it have expressed an interest in reading it and I felt others who missed it the first time might enjoy taking a peek into ...