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Joe Clancy 
Originally published in the April 2025 Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred magazine. The interview always resonates. It’s one I recollect with ease and quote regularly – no, not verbatim. I can’t find the notes file, which may have been typed into software that no longer exists – or perhaps scribbled into a notepad. If the computer I wrote … Read more
The homemade ice cream might lure you in, the Medaglia d’Oro filly could catch your eye, but the conversation with ice-cream scooper/equine photographer Louise Reinagel will make you glad you stopped by Northview Stallion Station’s consignment at Fasig-Tipton Saratoga. The Florida resident went to the Maryland farm to photograph Hip 169 for some promotional material … Read more
Somebody wore a Bob Kelly jersey to the Hall of Fame ceremony? Yes, that’s how big a Philadelphia Flyers fan I am – or was in the 1970s. I stepped into the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion Friday morning and saw a guy in the front section, stage right, in what used to be the home white jersey … Read more
Hay nets hang. Fans buzz and blow. Sponges sploosh and splash. Sweat scrapers scrape. Horses head to the track as riders adjust tack. Grooms speak in English and Spanish. Over there, a goat wanders everywhere she’s not supposed to. And one hurt horse points his hip at his webbing and dozes. Sporting a cast/pressure bandage … Read more
Testing, testing, testing, is this thing on? Technical difficulties. This is a test of the emergency handicapping system. At the tone . . . Had this been a real emergency, you would have been instructed to try the harness track. Happy Independence Day to you and yours. Team Special wound up a little too dependent … Read more
When I heard of Christophe Clement’s passing Sunday morning, my immediate thoughts went to his wife Valerie, children Miguel and Charlotte and extended family at the barn and beyond. Then I replayed various moments from my job trying to interview him about horses and his job training horses. He once took me to his “favorite … Read more
Column from the May edition of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred magazine. You can read the whole edition here. The gentle rise from the stable-area horsepath to the track near the quarter pole, where you can hear the infield chaos and see the first glimpse of the Preakness Day crowd in the Pimlico Race Course grandstand. In 2014, … Read more
The week between the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes might be a good chance for racing people to catch their breath. Or inhale and go again. Steeplechasers go to work in Nashville Saturday for the Iroquois Steeplechase at Percy Warner Park. The richest stop on the National Steeplechase Association’s spring circuit puts up $575,000 … Read more
Veritable cornucopia. I remember those two words like Chuck Stone said them yesterday. I was in a feature/column writing class at the University of Delaware in, oh 1986 or ’87, and Stone was my professor. No doubt dressed in a bow tie and a suit, he used those two words to emphasize the point that … Read more
Easter Weekend means eggs, bunnies, basket, bonnets and – at least this year – a tripleheader of steeplechase action in Maryland and Virginia. Saturday showcases Maryland timber horses at the Grand National and major hurdle players in a deep card at Glenwood Park in Middleburg, Va. Sunday heads to Morven Park in Leesburg, Va., for … Read more
