You want Derby works, boy do we have Derby works. A total of eight Derby horses had their final drills Saturday morning, many of them moved back a day due to the impending rain expected later today and tomorrow. Heading the day’s activity was the Todd Squad, which is made up of Verrazano, Revolutionary...

Patton vs. Rommel! Lee vs. Meade! Washington vs. Cornwallis! Pletcher vs. Baffert? Yes, the armies are massing and they could confront each other on the banks of the Ohio on the first Saturday in May. It could really happen and there’s nothing to stop it. For example, on one expert's poll in the Louisville...

Steeplechase racing makes every Thursday special. But this Thursday there were two steeplechase races and at least two other occurrences to make the day extra special. As part of the 11-race card, Saratoga hosted the grade II, $200,000 With Anticipation Stakes and the debut of Archwarrior. Archwarrior...

Nicole Russo, who used to write about 2-year-olds at Saratoga for the Pink Sheet, would advise her readers to keep an eye on those horses that competed but didn’t win in the maiden special weight races. They’re the juveniles that go on to their 3-year-old seasons and become stars, she would write. I...

Anna Ford, racing manager for E. Paul Robsham Stables, had some last minute shopping to do May 3. “We just decided on Sunday (April 29) that we’re going to the (Kentucky) Oaks (gr. I) and I still need to find a dress,” said Ford while standing outside trainer Todd Pletcher’s barn 34 at Churchill Downs...

We all know how quickly things can change on the Derby trail, nobody better than Todd Pletcher. Only a couple short months ago he was loaded with five or six top Derby prospects, many of them with some of the best pedigrees he's had in years. But even during those promising times, Pletcher knew not to...

That’s El, as in El Padrino, and Al, as in Algorithms. When Todd Pletcher sent both these talented Kentucky Derby prospects to the gate in separate races on Jan. 29, no one had more interest in the outcome than Pletcher’s father, J.J., who broke both colts at his 80-acre Payton Training Center in Ocala...

There wasn't a true Kentucky Derby prep run last weekend, but there was still major news on the Triple Crown front. It involved top rider Javier Castellano, who through his agent, Matt Muzikar, announced that Castellano would ride Algorithms and not Union Rags in the key Fountain of Youth Stakes on Feb...

(Originally published in the September 10, 2011 issue of The Blood-Horse magazine . Feel free to share your own thoughts and opinions at the bottom of the column. ) By Lenny Shulman As thousands of visitors from around the continent and the world descend on Kentucky for Keeneland’s September yearling...

The focus of attention at Saratoga was not on the racetrack but in a room at the City Center. CEO Charlie Hayward and Turnberry Consulting’s Paul Roberts, who was hired in 2008 to help NYRA envision the future, laid out several ideas before the public about how capital improvement money could be spent...