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Willie Mullins won four races at the Cheltenham Festival Thursday, which might be a career to some people rather than simply a day. But win four Mullins did. The Irish trainer sent out Yorkhill, Un De Sceaux, Nichols Canyon and Let’s Dance to victories, erasing a winless two days to start the world’s biggest steeplechase meet.
It certainly wasn’t the first time a Mullins did something improbable in racing, and won’t be the last.
As mid-February rolls around, love is in the air. Heart-shaped chocolate boxes fly off store shelves, oversized teddy bears stuffed into cars, rose petals littering kitchen countertops as the big day commences. For Thoroughbreds, a similar sense of love is in the air, as Feb. 15 marks Opening Day of the breeding season.
Grade 1 stakes winner Giant Oak died last week at Millennium Farm in Lexington. The towering son of Giant’s Causeway came to Saratoga in 2011 where he immediately became a favorite of The Saratoga Special and anyone standing at the Morning Line kitchen as the big chestnut trained every morning.
It doesn’t seem possible that jockey Trevor McCarthy was embarking on his apprentice year just four years ago. For this week’s Throwback Thursday, we bring you Sean Clancy’s profile on McCarthy, which appeared in Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred. McCarthy rides early Kentucky Derby contender El Areeb in the Grade 3 Gotham Stakes at Aqueduct this weekend.
Festivals here, festivals there; we’ve got them all covered for the most part in this week’s edition of Here & There. The Maryland Jockey Club rolled out a spread for its Winter Festival at Laurel Park last weekend, minus the winter of course, and the Cheltenham Festival is closing in quickly.
The two names became forever linked that fateful afternoon, June 5, 1999, at Belmont Park, and ever since it’s impossible to mention one without the other. Charismatic and Chris Antley. Chris Antley and Charismatic.
One of our own, Jonathan Thomas, hit Steeplechase Times as an apprentice jockey when he went on a tear winning six races in 1999 and seven races in 2000. The Virginian’s burgeoning career came to a crashing halt when he fell from Darn Tipalarm at Colonial Downs in 2000.
In celebration of Robby Albarado’s 5,000th career victory (accomplished Jan. 22), we dug around the archives. Here’s the 43-year-old Louisiana native talking about the best and worst losses in his career. Published in The Saratoga Special Aug. 29, 2009.
We don’t know what the weather was like at your place today, but the wind made Fair Hill feel like Mt. Everest today. Katie the Labrador didn’t seem to mind, though she’s sound asleep on the office bed after putting in the miles (see By The Numbers below). As for the team, we rounded up a little of this and a little of that for another installment of Here & There. Enjoy. And Happy Valentine’s Day, from Katie and all of us.
While the sun cherishes its last hour of slumber, Joe McMahon silences his 5:45 a.m. alarm and rolls out of bed, pulling on a green quilted jacket and brown driving cap as he leaves his cozy brick home for a brisk 10-degree Sunday morning at McMahon of Saratoga Thoroughbreds just outside Saratoga Springs.
