Nellie Cashman: Straight and True
The human Nellie Cashman was an independent woman. Her equine namesake might be the same way, with a chart full of comments like drifted, ran out, broke out, brushed, rallied, and so on.
Joe Clancy
Backseat driving with a Hall of Famer
“Joe, you’ll have to jump in the back. This briefcase, I have to prop it open with a piece of wood and keep it balanced just so.”
The briefcase sat on the front seat of trainer Jonathan Sheppard’s Audi wagon Monday morning at Fair Hill. Sheppard was headed from the barn to the track to watch a set of workers. I was tagging along, trying to get some information for an article. And there was no room in the front, not without moving/disturbing that briefcase.
So I jumped in the back.
Sheppard stars work at Fair Hill
At the farm, Jonathan Sheppard’s horses train up Hannum’s Hill, around the Hundred Acre Field and through the Clover Field. No, they’re not honeypot locations for Winnie the Pooh, just three of the options for training racehorses in the farm country of Chester County, Pa.
Good investment: $2,000 buy pays off for Woolley
Owner/trainer Tim Woolley calls Airgead his 401k plan. That’s what happens when you turn a $2,000 investment into $75,000 in a little more than two years.
Steeplechase Preview: Timber stakes on tap at Middleburg.
Rain, steeplechasing could really use some rain. The country’s jump racing courses and training farms are struggling with firm turf and dry fields, which limited lineups for Saturday’s Virginia Fall Races at Glenwood Park in Middleburg, Va.
One Man’s Sale: Motion enjoys return at Fasig-Tipton
He didn’t top the sale, didn’t really help the average all that much, but Andrew Motion left Monday’s Fasig-Tipton Midlantic Fall Yearlings sale in Timonium, Md. with a big smile.
Monday Morning Trainer: Next stop Breeders’ Cup
And that’s the thing about horse racing. You never know what you might get. This weekend, we got upsets, photo finishes, romps, surprises, sure things and thrills. Always thrills.
Super Saturday: Belmont card full of class
It’s not quite the Breeders’ Cup but it does a pretty fair impersonation. Super Saturday at Belmont Park features six graded stakes (five of them Grade 1) and enough big names to warrant a red carpet through the paddock tunnel.
High Flyer: Jump jockey McCarthy wins bareback competition
As an exercise rider at Fair Hill Training Center, Willie McCarthy rides valuable racehorses every day. His other job involves riding steeplechase races, where the purses reach six figures and the potential of a nasty fall lurks every time he gets a leg up in the paddock.
Behind the Trophies: History harmed by museum theft
Nobody will say it, and maybe the case will break, but the five historic trophies stolen from the National Museum of Racing in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Sept. 12 may be long gone – melted and sold for their value in gold and silver.
