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Yes, Virginia, there is still a Derby Dozen, as we have been informed that sponsor Shadwell wants to keep it going right up until the week of the Arkansas Derby, so if anyone has any poems, songs, short stories, or any limericks and one-liners they wish to share, send them in. But seriously, we will try to provide some semblance of a Derby Dozen, ...

Thoroughbred racing is facing a crisis unlike anything it has faced before, and it is something those in high positions cannot see or fathom. The country is in a desperate, bordering on panicky, state right now and it has every right to be, because we are dealing with a faceless enemy whose life span is unknown, as is its power of ...

What can be more surreal to racing fans than the Kentucky Derby (G1) postponed until Labor Day weekend, racetracks throughout America being shut down, and major stakes like the Curlin Florida Derby (G1) run in front of empty grandstands? That is just a minuscule example of how the Coronavirus has affected the entire world, or should I say ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman Few—if any—Road to the Kentucky Derby prep races have been more productive steppingstones toward the Kentucky Derby than the $750,000 Florida Derby (G1) at Gulfstream Park. Since the turn of the century, Monarchos (2001), Barbaro (2006), Big Brown (2008), Orb (2013), Nyquist (2016), ...

Their names echoed throughout Saratoga Springs in the summer of 1978. From the whispers through the elms to the shouting down Broadway and Union Avenue, the Spa pulsated with the names of Affirmed and Alydar. You could even feel it at the National Museum of Racing, the ultimate destination for these two magnificent horses; their Hall of Fame ...

If anyone can tell us what will transpire in the next six months, they’re kidding themselves—and us. That’s one of the many lessons we’ve learned in the last few weeks as our world, sponsored by COVID-19, has turned everything topsy-turvy. As most racing jurisdictions and meets have closed for the time being, and the March 17-18 Ocala Breeders’ ...

Kudos to Oaklawn Park for taking the initiative and making its Derby THE Derby on the first Saturday in May. Provided the Arkansas Derby (G1) goes as scheduled -- racing across the country is fluid amid COVID-19 -- this will be the biggest live sporting event in the country that will have extensive TV coverage. It would seem poised have ...

With the current crisis shaking up the entire world, and with a handful of racetracks still conducting live racing, what better time to focus our writing on nostalgia. In the upcoming weeks I am planning on reprinting and re-working my old Kentucky Derby (G1) recaps, and a few Preakness Stakes (G1) recaps just to keep in the spirit of the ...

History buffs have been quick to point to the post-World War II Kentucky Derby in 1945 as the last time the Run for the Roses wasn’t contested on the first Saturday in May. In early January 1945 War Mobilization director James Byrnes had ordered racing to cease. The ban was lifted May 9, the day after VE Day, or Victory in Europe Day, May 8, ...