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They used to be scoffed at. There was a time when you heard the name New York-bred, you thought of second-class citizens not even remotely classy enough to compete with the big-name Kentucky-breds and Florida-breds or even worthy of being mentioned in the same breath. New York-bred races were looked upon as nothing more than claiming races without ...

How does a horse establish a legacy in six starts, only four of them stakes? It’s not easy taking such a dramatic shortcut into history, but you have to give Justify credit. So far, he's done a great job making an abridged version of a classic book an enjoyable, meaningful, and important read. The younger generation won't remember the ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman Action on the road to the Breeders' Cup Classic (gr. I) at Churchill Downs picked up last week with a couple of major races for three-year-olds, and it will continue this Saturday with the prestigious $1,200,000 Whitney Stakes (gr. I) at Saratoga. Over the last dozen years, the ...

There are few secrets in the Thoroughbred game anymore. Regarding Triple Crown winner Justify, rumors swirled several weeks ago about his standing at stud somewhere other than WinStar Farm…and that we’ve seen the last of him on the track. With the press release on the son of Scat Daddy’s retirement, WinStar president Elliott Walden confirmed: ...

What do the 2018 Triple Crown winner, the Kentucky Oaks, Acorn, and Coaching Club American Oaks winner, the Haskell and Blue Grass winner and Kentucky Derby runner-up, the Belmont Derby winner, the Golden Shaheen winner and Met Mile runner-up, three of the leading contenders for the Whitney, and the Curlin Stakes runnerup have in ...

By J. Keeler Johnson (''Keelerman'') Twitter: @J_Keelerman Guess what? I'm picking Golden Brown to win the $1 million Haskell Invitational (gr. I) on Sunday at Monmouth Park. I figured I might as well state that right off the top, since it will probably require the remainder of this blog post to outline my reasoning in a way that will ...

When the “the field is sent on its way to the roar of the Del Mar crowd,” is announced by Trevor Denman, and racing also returns to Saratoga Race Course in upstate New York, the Thoroughbred sport in North America is in its “happy place.” But it wasn’t all that cheerful in the Bluegrass over the weekend as a weather phenomenon best described as a ...

Nick Zito has trained many special horses in his Hall of Fame career, having won all three legs of the Triple Crown, having orchestrated two of the biggest upsets in the history of the Belmont Stakes, and having run 1,2 in the Travers Stakes. He trained Bellamy Road and Commentator, who scored some of the most spectacular victories ever ...

With all the stories regarding Justify's latest status and the pessimism that is building regarding his future, people ask me what I think. Will he ever race again? So to answer everyone at once, I don't give it any thought. I am immune to this repeated scenario that we have gone through so many times with so many shooting stars. If he never ...