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Ron Moquett isn’t concerned with win percentages and makes no bones about it.
He’s concerned with developing the horses in his care and that’s exactly what he hopes to do with his string of 10 bedded down in the Clark Stakes Barn just behind the paddock on Frank Sullivan Place. (Editor’s note: Originally published in July 24 issue of The Saratoga Special.)
Trainer Mark Casse hesitated and then said it. “I think we’ve got about eight millionaires in the barn. Wow. That’s something when you think about it.” Then he started counting. “Kaigun, Dynamic Sky, Lexie Lou, Za Approval – they’re in Canada. And here we’ve got Tepin, Catch A Glimpse and . . . well, maybe there’s only six. I think there’s one more though. That’s going to bother me.” (Editor’s note: Originallay published in July 23 issue of The Saratoga Special.)
Todd Pletcher’s stable is loaded and deep. This is nothing new, at least in recent memory, as Pletcher begins his quest for a seventh straight and 13th career training title when racing begins today at Saratoga Race Course. (Editor’s note: Originally published in July 22 issue of The Saratoga Special.)
“Dad why did I like Fourstardave so much?” Kelly Wheeler asked her father, laughing because she couldn’t quite remember how she got hooked on the big chestnut gelding.
“OK, this is good,” Wheeler, an assistant to Eddie Kenneally, hangs up with her father and begins to recount the story of her Horse Who Changed Everything.
Hannah Ashcroft was standing by the picnic table outside of Graham Motion’s barn at Saratoga Race Course last week, rubbing conditioner into a leather halter with a sponge. From the table you could see horses galloping by on the track, and in the not-so-distant distance, the grandeur of the Saratoga grandstand presided over the entire scene.
The first article in this series about Nicolette Merle-Smith and her OTTB mare, Blazing Beryl, offered hints that their journey to the Retired Racehorse Project’s Thoroughbred Makeover might be a seamless journey sans major challenges.
Inti might not have become Invasor for Shadwell and Kiaran McLaughlin. But, he did become the horse who changed everything for Cyril Murphy.
Another Triple Crown season in the books, Royal Ascot past the halfway point, summer racing underway and a serious countdown to the start of the Saratoga Race Course meeting. If you’re counting – and who isn’t really? – it’s just five weeks away.
Wesley Ward didn’t hesitate when asked about his horse who changed everything.
“Unfinished Symph,” Ward said, a week before his annual assault on Royal Ascot. “He was awesome.”
When my grandfather gave me his car on my 16th birthday it was a boon to my brother Bob and I. Ardent racing fans, we were now able to follow the Southern California circuit from Santa Anita Park to Hollywood Park to Del Mar without restrictions. We were students of the game and especially of trainers. The two we idolized most were Charlie Whittingham and Bobby Frankel.
