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Joe Clancy 
There’s never a good time to break your leg – but “December would have been perfect,” according to steeplechase jockey Darren Nagle who will miss at least six weeks of the season with a fractured left tibia.
Like the buds on the trees that might show up someday, the timber horses come out in the spring. Their names are on set lists, among point-to-point entries, on a list of nominees. But they’ve got work to do.
As snow continued to fall from Camden, S.C. – yes Camden had snow – to Unionville, Pa., the steeplechase squad began its annual trek back to fitness, back to the races, back to working weekends.
Duke plays at Cameron Indoor Stadium. The Cubs enjoy the friendly confines of Wrigley Field. The Seahawks come alive at Safeco Field.
Four days old, the foal at the mare’s feet is asleep. The mare nickers a warning. The humans understand, slow their pace and speak a few reassuring words.
March? It’s March? St. Patrick’s Day is Monday so get out your green. Everyone’s Irish, or so it seems sometimes, in horse racing. We’ve got some quotes, some numbers and (which seems far too common lately) some sad news.
The folks at Gallagher’s Stud in Ghent, N.Y., couldn’t be prouder of Icabad Crane. And well they should be. They bred him, his dam Adorahy, and her dam Adorable Micol.
Phillip Dutton was pleased. “Actually I’m ecstatic,” he said when relaying his account of Icabad Crane’s maiden voyage to a horse show last weekend in Aiken, S.C.
Wildcat Red won the Hutcheson. Three weeks later, he won the Fountain of Youth. If the Kentucky Derby were tomorrow, he’d be a major player. Thirteen-hundred miles to the north, his sister awaits a date with Despite The Odds, D’Wildcat, Paynter or some other classy stallion.
Few people know more about Icabad Crane than Adrian Rolls. Assistant to trainer Graham Motion since 1989, Rolls oversaw the horse’s care from his arrival at Herringswell Stables’ Fair Hill barn as a 2-year-old in 2007 until his retirement late last summer.
