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Sean Clancy Happy Thanksgiving. The house is quiet, the only sound coming from water filtering through Charles’ fish tank, the only light emanating from my lap top. Hot tea brewed, steeping next to me. A horse ambles across the front field, I can’t see who it is, doesn’t matter as long as he’s ambling and not running. … Read more
I wrote the following preview before the Colonial Cup. It was meant to be part of a Friday feature. It never saw the light of day, somehow lost between Middleburg and Camden, computer and website. Saturday, a champion will be crowned. Divine Fortune will take them on the same merry dance he took them on … Read more
Off to Camden in a few hours for the Colonial Cup. Prime Prospector runs in the Hobkirk Hill. Promised Destiny runs on the flat. The former aims for his third win of the year, while stepping up against the likes of All Together and other more established horses. The latter aims for his third win … Read more
“What is a horse going to do for me?” That’s what Gordon asks in a recent documentary on Saratoga WarHorse. Great question. I’ve been involved with horses for so long, the question came to my mind as well. What’s a horse going to do for a veteran? Then I met Rob, Sean, Troy, Adam…they talked … Read more
Roald Dahl called himself a disciplined writer, writing every day from a small hut at the bottom of his garden. He sat in his mother’s old armchair, rested his feet on an old leather trunk, slid his legs into a sleeping bag, propped a felt-covered board across the arms of the chair and with paper … Read more
You can see it in her eyes. The pony girl rides back to the tunnel at Santa Anita, shakes her head, you know the fate of Secret Compass before she says a word. John Velazquez doesn’t return. The toteboard hides your view of the five-sixteenths pole, not that you want the view. It’s a bad start to the second day of the Breeders’ Cup.
Mucho Macho Man finally got his big one. Wise Dan did what was Wise does. Mike Smith banked three, Gary Stevens banked two, including the Distaff with Beholder and the Classic with Mucho Macho Man. This is your Here and There from the Breeders’ Cup, Montpelier, Callaway Gardens and Pennsylvania Hunt Cup.
It’s the mountains. Ryan Clancy, 20, on his first trip to Santa Anita walked around the grandstand at Clocker’s Corner and stopped. Part gasp, close to a wow, but not really a word. An audible but indecipherable reaction. Certainly, an un-typable response, as he looked up and saw the San Gabriel Mountains for the first time. Painted with one precise stroke, a perfect swish, across the skyline, they stand ethereal across the sky. Back lit. Looming.
Shug McGaughey knows the exact dates. October 18, 1987. May 15, 1988. The date of the Grade 1 Beldame. The date of the Grade 1 Shuvee. The date of Personal Ensign’s final race as a 3-year-old and her first race as a 4-year-old.
Mike Hushion stood quietly outside the winner’s circle at Saratoga, waiting for Leah Gyarmati to finish being interviewed after her first Grade 1 victory. Jimmy Jerkens waited as well. Ralph Theroux too. Alumni of the H. Allen Jerkens School of Training and Life, they each hugged Gyarmati. They didn’t say much, they never do. Just a heartfelt congratulations, a moment of shared respect.
