Tom Law

Stuart S. Janney III needed convincing at one point in his life whether getting involved in Thoroughbred racing was the right thing to do. He got some advice from one of racing’s most successful and respected individuals who just happened to be his uncle, Ogden Phipps, and got involved.

Charles Cella remembers playing a little hookie from Washington and Lee University in Virginia to make his first trip to Louisville for the Kentucky Derby in the 1950s. He’s made the trip many times since and will make it again this weekend, to not only take in America’s great race but also to watch his Cyber Secret run in the Grade 2 Alysheba Stakes on Friday’s Kentucky Oaks undercard.

Robbie Medina knows for absolute certain he’ll be pumped up as he goes through his normal routine Saturday. Of course Saturday is not a normal day and Medina is no ordinary guy in a run-of-the-mill role.

It’s Kentucky Derby week, but it’s another even older tradition that folks in Saratoga Springs and the surrounding communities are ready to celebrate.

Abstraction continued to show he’s a colt on the rise, Forty Tales bounced back from a disappointing race, and the Preakness Stakes looks like it gained a contender or two from Saturday’s stakes at Pimlico Race Course and Churchill Downs.

The Derby Trial Stakes-with its Derby points and late-evening post as part of the opening Downs After Dark card at Churchill Downs-gets most of the attention this weekend, but five hours earlier and roughly 600 miles away in Baltimore is perhaps the more realistic classic prep of the weekend.

Chris Cooper got the call around 3 a.m. The calls always seem to come around that time at that time of the year. It was foaling season and as everyone in the game knows, broodmares and their soon-to-be born foals are never on the same schedule as the humans that look after them.