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A few months ago we all looked forward to the first weekend in April. Students from the University of Kentucky would have flocked to the opening Saturday of Keeneland and its full slate of graded races, including the Central Bank Ashland Stakes (G1) and Toyota Blue Grass Stakes (G2). Aqueduct had the Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) on tap and Santa ...

With little action to write about in the upcoming weeks, we’re going to focus a little more on speed ratings that we follow to detect patterns that could suggest where these horses might be on the first Saturday in September, which right now seems like an eternity. They also can tell a great deal about a horse’s strengths and weaknesses, and ...

The mid-to-late fifties was a time of peace and tranquility in America; a time when baseball, boxing, and horse racing dominated the sports world. The Dodgers and Giants were gone from New York, Elvis was stationed in Germany, and a new mellow sound of rock and roll was emerging with most of the hit songs being written by Jewish kids from ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman The COVID-19 outbreak has shuttered racing at many tracks throughout North America, which means there isn't a single graded stakes race on the agenda in the U.S. this weekend. But never fear! Even though there isn't much racing action to cover, we can always start planning for ...

(The following is pure fiction and the chances of it actually happening are slim to none, but it does make for compelling thought, especially on April 1st, so let's have some fun with it) I have just written a script. It's not your everyday script. It is futuristic...well, not too far in the future. Some of the names are ...

For centuries the most admirable trait of the Thoroughbred has been speed. Their ability to carry that speed is what separates the good ones from the great ones. As we soldier our way through the COVID-19 pandemic, the skills, talents, and, most of all, patience of everyone in the industry will be asked to stretch out from sprinting to going two ...

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), ...