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By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman When handicapping major turf races in California, I am usually of the opinion that shippers from the East Coast have an advantage. With the powerful stable of trainer Chad Brown based out east, and with the majority of the richest turf races taking place across the region's numerous ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman On a very quiet weekend of racing with only one graded stakes race on the agenda, the event that Kentucky Derby-minded handicappers will want to keep an eye on is surely the $75,000 Sugar Bowl Stakes at Fair Grounds. The six-furlong sprint for two-year-olds serves as a steppingstone ...

In the winter of 1997, Joe Hirsch began a column in Daily Racing Form: “Pulpit, Pulpit, Pulpit. That’s all people are talking about.” The legendary Turf writer was musing on the buzz in South Florida surrounding Claiborne Farm’s colt as the son of A.P. Indy worked his way along the Triple Crown trail.In 2018 racing people were talking a lot about ...

Unfortunately, Sam Riddle’s recollections of Man o’ War’s 2-year-old campaign were not among the aforementioned papers discovered in Mary Simon’s box of old articles and papers. But what follows is a riveting account of Big Red’s three-year-old campaign. Like with all history, we choose to believe what we want, as there are always different ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman With five wins in the Kentucky Derby (and two sweeps of the Triple Crown) since 1997, it's safe to say that no trainer in recent memory has dominated the spring classics quite as thoroughly as Bob Baffert. Nor does it appear that Baffert's string of success will end anytime soon. In ...

The results of the Dec. 8 Starlet Stakes (G1) had been official for little more than three hours when editorial@bloodhorse.com received an email from Lynn Taylor from Laharape, Ill. There was clearly something on her mind following Chasing Yesterday’s thrilling head score over Enaya Alrabb at Los Alamitos Race Course in Southern California. “Look ...

Mary Simon, three-time Eclipse Award winner and one of the sport’s most noted historians, brought out an old box of papers she hadn’t looked at in many years and placed it on the living room floor. She had no idea what was in there, just basically old papers she had saved. Among the contents, secured by a small rusted paper clip, were a number of ...

A couple of weeks ago the manager of a TrueNicks enrolled stallion called to tell us that a hypothetical mating had generated Dosage Figures that were all zeroes – zeroes for each category in the Dosage Profile; a Dosage Index of zero; and a Center of Distribution of zero. A check confirmed that this was not an error, and nor was it the result of ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman The Road to the Kentucky Derby continues on Saturday with the $300,000 Los Alamitos Futurity (gr. I), a very productive 1 1/16-mile event at Los Alamitos that has been won over the last ten years by such high-class colts as Pennsylvania Derby (gr. I) winner McKinzie, Metropolitan ...