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Joe Clancy Well here we are. It’s 8:52 Preakness morning. At the barn, it’s hurry up and wait. Shug McGaughey sits awhile, sweeps, walks around. Jenn Patterson rakes the wood-chip path even though it doesn’t really need it. For the first time all week, signs of stress bounce around. Not worry, just a little stress – which is … Read more
The pony’s name was Sneeze, like Achoo. Got it? If you’re a fan of Preakness favorite Orb, give the old, long-gone pony a God bless you for she was responsible for the early horsemanship of exercise rider/assistant trainer Jenn Patterson.
Robbie Walsh sat atop his horse midway through the Iroquois Steeplechase and said, almost out loud: “I don’t know how well you’re going, but I’m afraid to move.”
On a quiet Tuesday morning at Pimlico, trainer Shug McGaughey looked at Orb, talked about Orb, thought about Orb and kept coming around to the same thing.
Divine Fortune did everything he could do. He saved his energy, cut the corner, got first run, jumped the second-last like an Olympian, kicked up the rise toward the finish.
The last time I was here, I watched a horse die. It still gives me a weird chill when I think about it. Arcadius ran, jumped, won the 2012 Iroquois Steeplechase and then dropped dead on the track. In front of everyone, and about 10 steps from where I was standing. I did my job … Read more
It’s not quite Kentucky Derby Day, but Iroquois Day is a big deal to jump racing thanks to history, prestige, an immaculate race course and all the pageantry that comes with it.
The big horse in Richard Valentine’s barn lives in the first stall on the left, always has. Until now. Demonstrative is several stalls down, where he’s been since he arrived three years ago.
Sculptor Alexa King works in the visual, the tactile, the tangible, the real. But she aims for much more, especially with a memorial along the lines of a bronze statue of 2012 Iroquois Steeplechase winner Arcadius which will be officially dedicated Friday at the race course in Nashville, Tenn.
For the record, the inside of Mark Beecher’s calves hurt. The jockey paid a bit of a price for riding part of the Maryland Hunt Cup without stirrups, but a week later turned a rare double by winning the Virginia Gold Cup.
