Change Of Command comes home
I write horses’ stories, watch them race, see them train, maybe get to say hello in the barn or feed them a mint. Some, I’ve forgotten about. Others, I can’t help but remember.
And I remember Change Of Command.
Joe Clancy
Exaggerator, Desormeaux keep it cool in Preakness
Kent Desormeaux shivered and shook, let out a few yelps and then one big “Aaaah” as he sat down in the Pimlico Race Course jocks’ room after the Preakness Saturday.
Here & There – Preakness Day
It’s Preakness morning. It’s raining. It’s 55 degrees. But this is a game played outdoors. Be prepared. Here’s a little this and that from Preakness Week.
Keith Desormeaux & Texas Red
Keith Desormeaux walked out of Thursday’s Alibi Breakfast at Pimlico and – after wondering why the ever-quotable Eric Guillot didn’t attend – started talking horses. “The horse who changed my racing life is Texas Red and there’s nobody even close,” the trainer said. “That horse was a gift from God ever since the hammer dropped at the sale.”
Driving Mr. Lani: Alexander the man for the job
If you’re a steeplechase horseman in Maryland or Pennsylvania, or maybe a show rider from the local private school, you know the van. It’s a silver straight truck with a blue and white stripe around the middle, white International king cab, with a red silhouette of a jumping horse.
A dozen questions after the Iroquois
Twelve questions from the Iroquois…
The horse isn’t the only Nyquist in Baltimore
Nyquist has been to 33 of the last 36 Preaknesses. He’ll make it 34 of 37 Saturday. He’s even been to several runnings of the Belmont Stakes to try (and usually fail) to see history – Big Brown let him down; American Pharoah came through. Nyquist went to a few Breeders’ Cups at Santa Anita and was at Keeneland for Thoroughbred racing’s championship day last year.
Iroquois Undercard: Lune De Caro shines
Just before the start of the second race at the Iroquois Steeplechase in Nashville, Tenn. May 14, Bailey Poorman looked concerned. Her friend and co-worker, 10-pound apprentice Keri Brion, was about to ride Lune De Caro in the handicap hurdle.
“Do you think she can do it?” Poorman asked with equal parts pride and worry. “How cool would it be to win your first race on that horse, and here?”
About six minutes later, Poorman – and everyone else – knew the answer.
How Rawnaq won the Iroquois
Cyril Murphy tightened the girth on Rawnaq and looked over the horse’s withers at Jack Doyle. Saturday’s Iroquois Steeplechase – the year’s first Grade 1, with a $200,000 purse, against Irish raiders Nichols Canyon and Shaneshill – was a half-hour in the future and Murphy wanted to make sure his jockey knew the score.
“Jack, I genuinely believe we can win today.”
Nyquist’s Misty Morn in Baltimore
As the Maryland Jockey Club’s Dave Joseph put it, “Lots of good writing today, right? You’ve got the mist and all that.”
Right. Mist. Atmosphere. And one pretty cool horse.
