By J. Keeler Johnson ("Keelerman") Twitter: @J_Keelerman Happy New Year, everyone! I hope you didn't blink, or you might have missed the first Road to the Kentucky Derby prep race of 2019—the schedule...
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Another Derby Dozen draws near and that means the same old formulated thinking and same old logic and same old historical perspectives, with only the names of the horses changing. Uh, not so fast. That...
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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...
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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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