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Paul Halloran 
The 12-day-old foal was led out of her stall at Stonerside Farm in Paris, in the heart of Kentucky horse country. Never straying too far from her mother, the broodmare In Step, with a Godolphin Flying Start trainee holding a rope shank, she sized up the 11-year-old girl standing in front of her. Kylie Dorman … Read more
You never know where a story will take you, but when Tom Law sent the assignment to cover the 2022 Forego Stakes at Saratoga Race Course, it would have been unfathomable to envision that leading to a trip see the sea lions in La Jolla Cove two years later. Yet, there we were Thursday morning … Read more
Jeff Matty was only 13 when Smarty Jones captured the collective heart of the horse racing world by coming within a length of winning the Triple Crown in 2004. (Queue Tom Durkin: “And Birdstone wins the Belmont Stakes.”) In his third year as executive director of the Pennsylvania Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association, Matty came up with … Read more
On Friday afternoon in a hotel lobby as legendary trainer D. Wayne Lukas discussed Seize the Grey’s chances in the Grade 1, $1 million betPARX Pennsylvania Derby at Parx Racing, it was suggested to him that it looked like his horse was going to the lead. “If he does, he’s going to be very tough … Read more
For this first-time qualifier, the road to the NHC ran through Lexington. Prior to last year, I had never been to Kentucky, but in April I made the first of what would be four trips in 2023. The primary purpose was to conduct interviews for a book I am writing on the Cody Dorman-Cody’s Wish … Read more
When Cody Dorman got his tablet just before Christmas six years ago, one of the first times he used it to communicate he asked his mother, Leslie, to bring him to the window so he could watch the snow. “Cody loved the snow,” Kelly Dorman said Monday, outside the stallion barn at Jonabell Farm in … Read more
Churchill Downs bugler Steve Buttleman, dressed in his race-day uniform – red jacket, white pants, shiny black boots – stood on the grass at Haven Hill cemetery in Columbia, Ky., Friday, a crisp, fall day on which morning rain had given way to afternoon sunshine and blue skies. Buttleman raised the bugle to his mouth … Read more
The Delta Airlines plane had just pushed away from the gate at LAX Sunday, when the phone buzzed with an incoming call from Kelly Dorman. I figured he and his family had made it to Atlanta, where they would catch a connecting flight back to Lexington, and maybe he was calling to continue to revel … Read more
Cody Dorman woke up at 2:32 a.m. Saturday and asked for the tablet he uses to communicate. He had something to say to his parents, Kelly and Leslie. “He said ‘Thank you for taking me out here,’ ” Kelly Dorman said, standing outside the paddock at Santa Anita Park about an hour before the horse … Read more
To everyone at Saratoga on Whitney weekend: We would like to name each individual we met, but it would be an impossible task. And we apologize for that because all of you mean the world to us. We couldn’t put Saratoga behind us without thanking you all. This place made such an impression on us … Read more
