The Kentucky Derby is like a mountain. It never changes and never withers with time. But in some ways it does change, as every year, new climbers gather on its slopes and attempt to reach the summit, disregarding the many perils along the way. There is no greater feeling an owner can have than to see...

This story appeared in the May 22, 2004 issue of Blood-Horse magazine Get the golden coach ready; we're heading to the ball again. After so many failed attempts, maybe this time Smarty Jones can fit into that elusive glass slipper, and Thoroughbred racing and the Visa Triple Crown finally can live happily...

The following story first appeared in the April 28, 2007 issue of Blood-Horse magazine, with a few additions thrown in. This feature, about Team Smarty and what became of everyone, will kick off our “Smarty Jones Tribute Week,” in preparation for his departure for Uruguay next month. Each day we will...

Derby Horse: Cool Blue Red Hot Watch Cool Blue Red Hot's race against Soldat. Review the race results here . Finding the horses that are late bloomers with little hype around them so far, and whom will perform in the Derby, is a lot of fun for me to figure out. Cool Blue Red Hot was able to keep pace...

Steve Haskin's Look Back at the Decade Editors of The Blood-Horse challenged senior correspondent Steve Haskin to fill in the blanks on several “best of” lists for the decade of 2000-2009. While several of them appear in the Dec. 26/Jan. 2 combined issue of the magazine (mailing on Dec. 29), there wasn...

Because the Top 30 list took up a great deal of Monday’s column, we’ll go double duty this week and catch up on some updates and ramblings and look at the Risen Star Stakes . On the pedigree front, are you tired of all the inbreeding in racing, especially through Mr. Prospector and Northern Dancer? Well...

As the Kentucky Derby hoopla began to quiet down, a stunned racing world was still trying to recover from the bombshell that had fallen on Churchill Downs. An obscurely bred, crooked legged, harlequin of a horse from Venezuela, who had been ridiculed by the press and local horsemen, had just concluded...

The 1971 3-year-old crop trilogy concludes appropriately with the remarkable Canonero II, whose story is so improbable it would be scoffed at by any responsible movie producer. Because of that, it must be told in two parts. The second part will follow on Monday. The story begins at the 1967 Keeneland...