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Last summer, the sports world was dragged--nauseatingly and unrelentingly--through the most high profile free agent process in the history of professional sports during the LeBron James saga. When James finally announced ''The Decision'' to play for the Miami Heat to millions on national television, most of us were happier to finally have it over ...

 (Originally published in the April 2, 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 TwitterThe National Thoroughbred Racing Association is caught in a vicious cycle. Racetracks’ and horsemen’s associations are ...

 1 Uncle Mo Todd Pletcher Indian Charlie—Playa Maya, by Arch Breezed an easy half in :49 2/5, working behind horses. Looks like his main threat in the Wood will be Jaycito. The more competition the better. Can’t emphasize enough how much he needs to get something out of this race. From this work, the obvious intention is for him to ...

Looking for a potential Derby contender coming out of this weekend’s races? You might want to look outside the winner’s circle.It is difficult finding fault with the winning performances of Pants on Fire in the Louisiana Derby (gr. II), Animal Kingdom in the Vinery Racing Spiral Stakes (gr. III), Twice the Appeal in the Sunland Park Derby (gr. ...

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Canonero II’s incredible Triple Crown odyssey; a story that still stands alone in the annals of the Turf. On this occasion, I am reprinting in its entirety, with some additions, the two-part story I wrote several years ago. Be forewarned, it is over 5,000 words. But the real story of Canonero cannot be told ...

Soldat, a Triple Crown nominee who captured the Fasig-Tipton Fountain of Youth Stakes (gr. II) Feb. 26 and the With Anticipation Stakes (gr. III) last year, is a $180,000 graduate of the 2009 Keeneland September yearling sale, where thousands of young horses were offered. Steve Shahinian, agent, purchased the dark bay or brown son of War Front ...

As our TrueNicks tour continues, Byron and I traveled north out of the Waikato region to Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand. Here we visited Russell Warwick at Westbury Stud and Shannon Taylor at Haunui. The Westbury stallions have now joined TrueNicks for the first time, and Haunui – a longtime TrueNicks supporter – announced Showcasing, ...

Rachel Alexandra fan day finally arrived! Fans like me had signed up on Facebook in February to visit the Horse of the Year during one of four sessions planned for March 25, 2011. Rachel Alexandra, owned by Jess Jackson and Barbara Banke, now resides on their Stonestreet Farm near Lexington, Ky. The Stonestreet staff was organized, friendly and ...

Considering we’re some way up the road to the Triple Crown, a surprising proportion of this weekend’s graded stakes activity was for older mares. Among that group, none were more impressive than Hilda’s Passion, who led throughout the Inside Information Stakes (gr. II, video below) at Gulfstream Park, to score by 5¼ lengths, while setting a new ...

There are three Kentucky Derby preps on the calendar this weekend, as well as the Dubai World Cup. Plenty of good betting opportunities all around, so let's get right into it. Louisiana Derby What was rumored to be a short field only about a week before entries turned into a full field of 13. Mucho Macho Man is the 9-5 morning-line choice after ...