Tom Law

The Far Hills Races in New Jersey annually bring together the best of the best in American jump racing and 2014 is no exception.

Barn 42 at Belmont Park will be bustling with activity and few people – riders, trainers, racing officials and heck, even fans, mutuel clerks and outriders – figure to be as busy as Rick Schosberg during Saturday’s Empire Showcase card.

Many of the country’s state-bred breeding programs put on a standalone day of racing to put the spotlight on the state’s product. A handful might put on two. The very rare few feature three.

Things are starting to sound like a broken record in many parts of the country these days. It sounds a little something like this, “Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?”

Wise Dan amazed and delivered, Carpe Diem lived up to his lofty price tag and Don’t Tell Sophia again outran hers as the Keeneland Race Course fall meeting opened and the serious countdown to the Breeders’ Cup became less than a month.

The $150,000 Woodford Stakes at Keeneland Race Course is not part of the “Win and You’re In” program with an automatic berth to next month’s Breeders’ Cup Turf Sprint and Bruce Brown is taking his own approach to the race with Spring to the Sky.

Wise Dan gave a lot of weight, dug down deep and ran one of the fastest 1 1/16 miles on the turf in the storied history of Saratoga Race Course so his narrow win in the Grade 2 Bernard Baruch Handicap had to knock him out a bit, right? Wrong.

It was around mid-May 2011 when veteran trainer Gary “Red Dog” Hartlage took Kentucky Derby Museum tour guide Barry Northern through his stable at Churchill Downs. Hartlage’s horses aren’t known for racking up stakes wins like some of the other trainers on Churchill’s backside, but there was one unraced filly that Hartlage believed could be an exception.