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 (Originally published in the May 28, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine. Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column.)  By Eric Mitchell - @EJMitchellKy on Twitter  All American grade school children grow up hearing the story. Anyone with enough drive and ambition can one day be ...

  Jack Zaraya, retired as the Senior Ceremonial Resolution Writer for the New Jersey Legislature, lives in Freehold, NJ.    With a big Memorial Day weekend of racing on tap, I am reminded of a bygone era when both media and horses were treated differently. One of the perks in working for The Morning Telegraph back in the late ...

Two days before the May 21 Preakness Stakes (gr. I), trainer Dale Romans was standing outside the fence by the grazing area telling Shackleford’s co-owners and breeders Mike Lauffer and Bill Cubbedge how revved up their colt was since arriving at Baltimore the day before. As he spoke, Shackleford was in his stall ripping into his hay rack with ...

With the game triumph of Roderic O’Connor in Saturday's Irish 2,000 Guineas (gr. I) following hot-on-the-heels of the smooth victory of Golden Lilac in the Poule d'Essai des Pouliches-French 1,000 Guineas (gr. I) one week ago, and Frankel’s runaway English 2,000 Guineas (gr. I) win three weeks ago, the cross of Galileo and mares by Danehill has ...

The last 10 Preakness winners went on to be named champion 3-year-olds, confirming it as the most formful Triple Crown race over the past decade. But what makes the Preakness such a great race? Click here for complimentary TrueNicks Enhanced Reports for the 2011 Preakness field. YearPreakness WinnerSire 2001Point Given ...

The Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands (gr. I) was supposed to clear up the confusing 3-year-old picture. Well, did it or didn’t it?It all depends on whether Animal Kingdom is as good as he looked in the Run for the Roses and will continue his roll or whether he will “bounce,” as many of the speed pundits believe he will. If it’s the latter, ...

.commentForm, .postComments, #comments{display:none;} <a href=''http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=30a7952c48'' >Preakness Day Special</a>

The 2011 Triple Crown season has been a tough riddle to solve from the very start of the year, and leg two is equally as challenging. The Preakness is normally a more formful race than the Kentucky Derby, but when you have a 20-1 winner and a bizarre pace scenario, it raises major questions about how true the race was--at least for me. The pace ...

.commentForm, .postComments, #comments{display:none;} <a href=''http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=edbf8794fe'' >Triple Crown Talk</a>

With Kentucky Derby (gr. I) winner Animal Kingdom not scheduled to arrive at Pimlico until Saturday, the focus was on…well, everyone else.First, let’s look at the post position draw, which was fairly uneventful. The most interesting aspect of it was the placing of the four speed/pace horses, Flashpoint (post 4), Shackleford (post 5), Midnight ...