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...
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By J. Keeler Johnson ("Keelerman") Twitter: @J_Keelerman On this fairly quiet weekend of racing, I imagine that most of us are already looking ahead to the 2019 Kentucky Derby and are busily analyzing...
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There have always been three stages when it comes to the Kentucky Derby trail. But they have changed dramatically over the years. The first stage, and the one that has become antiquated in this era of...
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We have witnessed numerous changes in recent years in how horses are prepared for major races. Three-year-olds race so infrequently now, we hardly know anything about them when they get to Churchill Downs...
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Have we seen the last of Justify? That was a burning question during the week following the July 10 announcement that this year’s unbeaten Triple Crown winner would be “evaluated after some filling in...
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I won’t keep you in suspense, other than to say the premise of this column is a bit offbeat. The greatest horse of all time, if I may take the liberty, is Bob Baffert. Or to put it in equine terms, the...
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Many know the name James “Sunny Jim” Fitzsimmons, but few know the story behind the training legend who spent 78 of his 91 years on the racetrack (see pg. 38). Fitzsimmons was a dominant trainer in New...
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History is a never-ending chain of events, trends, and discoveries that determine how we think and look at the present, and often the future. When history tells us something cannot be accomplished, it...
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In some ways it seemed appropriate that all we saw of Justify in the stretch of the Preakness Stakes was a ghostly shroud, with his white silks and white face, emerging from the murk that had settled on...
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Rick Hammerle has been racing secretary at Santa Anita for 15 years and was stakes coordinator at Monmouth Park for 12 years, and he thought he had heard everything. That is until one day in mid-February...
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