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Joe Clancy 
Clearsky Farm’s Barry Robinette called trainer Leah Gyarmati the other day with simple instructions for Wonder Gal, who runs in Saturday’s Grade 2 Barbara Fritchie Handicap at Laurel Park. “Win by 10 again so we can keep her running.”
Thoroughbred owner/breeder June McKnight died peacefully at her home in Kennett Square, Pa. Feb. 14. She was 98 years old.
We don’t know what the weather was like at your place today, but the wind made Fair Hill feel like Mt. Everest today. Katie the Labrador didn’t seem to mind, though she’s sound asleep on the office bed after putting in the miles (see By The Numbers below). As for the team, we rounded up a little of this and a little of that for another installment of Here & There. Enjoy. And Happy Valentine’s Day, from Katie and all of us.
Monday morning, Square Shooter looked and acted like any other horse in the barn at Fair Hill Training Center. He was clean, dry, done up in all fours and munching hay as the barn crew finished leveling off the shedrow from a morning of training. If he cared about anything, it didn’t show.
Cal Lynch might have to rethink his winter vocabulary. Last week, the trainer said he’d rather not talk about a certain race on the first Saturday in May with budding stable star El Areeb. No, Lynch would take it one race at a time with the 3-year-old.
Fair Hill Training Center might be the only Thoroughbred facility in the world where you can be off the dirt and on the turf. That’s the scenario trainer Mike Lerman faced Friday morning, and on a few other frosty mornings this winter, with undefeated 3-year-old Square Shooter.
Cal Lynch liked El Areeb when he first saw him a little more than a year ago. The gray colt, barely a 2-year-old, was training forwardly at Eisaman Equine in Florida and Lynch put the son of Exchange Rate on the list for the coming Ocala Breeders Sale. In March, the trainer spent $340,000 on behalf of client MMG Stable, and added a potential star to the barn at Laurel Park.
Here & There makes its return from an indefinite hiatus. We’ve got quotes, names, a Tweet, a poem and more from around the racing world – or our racing world anyway.
I was in a Starbucks, sipping a too-hot, venti Earl Grey and recovering from a Saturday morning spin class. That’s what we do on Saturdays. Nolan swims, Sam and I spin, go to Starbucks, get him a hot chocolate on the way out and head back to the YMCA in time for the end of swim practice.
You ready for Pegasus World Cup I? The Roman numeral is mine, but if ever a horse race deserved the Super Bowl designation it’s one named after a statue of a mythical winged horse stomping on a fire-breathing dragon. But there’s more to the Pegasus, which is harder to type than I thought, than a gimmick.
