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Sean Clancy 
The first gasp. The 2023 Champion Hurdle winner Constitution Hill finally did what he had been threatening to do and stepped long and low at the fourth hurdle, crashing to the ground. His first fall. His first loss. The second gasp. The 2024 Champion Hurdle winner State Man grinding toward the last hurdle, the race … Read more
It’s Cheltenham. Day 1. The beginning of the best week of jump racing. Anytime. Anywhere. Our week kicked off early with a win at Taunton. Hey, who said they didn’t like a five-day Festival… Race 1. 9:20 a.m. ET. The Sky Bet Supreme Novices’ Hurdle. The Michael O’Sullivan Memorial. Grade 1. 2 miles, 87 yards. … Read more
Kenny McPeek jumped up from a front-row box and wound his arm around and around like a hand on a cartoon clock. Todd Pletcher dropped his binoculars, stood up from a fifth-row box, leaned over the ledge and pumped his fist. Two grown men – 119 years, 7,802 wins and 31,365 losses between them – … Read more
Call Charlie Appleby a target trainer. The British-based trainer focused on Godolphin’s Americanoperation more this year than ever before.Target? Appleby has won 11 races from 32 starts in America this year. Along with seven seconds and six thirds, the numbers have been run at the top of the sport. The Grade 1 Maker’s Mark, Grade … Read more
Phil Bauer volunteered Fireball Shot, a maiden with more than $100,000 in earnings at the time, as his horse way back in 2018. Joining perennial little guys Robbie Davis, Kerry Metivier and Eddie Barker in the Little Guys’ Stable Tour, the Kentucky-based trainer had just wrapped up a 0-for-12 record at Saratoga. Fireball Shot had … Read more
Hernandez rolls into Saratoga with sights on another big one Deck height. Dinner plans. To do lists. Life’s choices. That’s what most people think about while mowing grass. For Brian Hernandez Jr., nah, none of those. “You’ll be riding around on the lawnmower and you’re like, ‘Wow, I really did win the Derby,’ ” Hernandez … Read more
Clifford Nass says multitasking is a fallacy. But yet we try. Nothing tests the Stanford professor’s theory like working in racing. And working from home. Still in Virginia, I worked from the home office – the family room couch – Friday. Deadline Friday. It starts early. And will surely end late. I nail Wordle in four … Read more
Whitebeam wires four stablemates and five others in Grade 1 Five became one. The first 49 seconds of the Grade 1 Diana cut Chad Brown’s five-horse arsenal to a one-horse hope at Saratoga Race Course Saturday. Whitebeam loped through the first half-mile in :49.49. The lone leader sunk the four closers. “I had these five … Read more
Saturday, I spent my day with Whitebeam, Mo Plex and a card full of Saratoga stars. Today, I spent it with Kissin Conquest, Just Blue, Apse and Eagle Poise. Two career maidens, a Saratoga hurdle winner and a Grade 3 flat winner. On a farm in Virginia. Our Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. Bred by John Franks, … Read more
“Anytime.” That’s how Cherie DeVaux answered when asked about hosting the Fasig-Tipton Stable Tour. It helps when you’re walking out of the winner’s circle after your second win, just three days into the meet. DeVaux added another win Sunday to make it three. With a gaudy 50 percent strike rate, DeVaux stood even with Chad … Read more
