Blazing Through Barriers: Challenge Accepted
Nicolette Merle-Smith stared at her phone, reading and rereading the text message she just received from her father.
“David O’Connor wants to know where are you and why you are not here.”
Al Pike & Beloved By All
Al Pike is riding high these days, not surprising considering he scored a significant pinhooking coup for one of his longtime clients at the Fasig-Tipton Midlantic May 2-year-olds in training sale.
Here & There – Preakness Day
It’s Preakness morning. It’s raining. It’s 55 degrees. But this is a game played outdoors. Be prepared. Here’s a little this and that from Preakness Week.
Keith Desormeaux & Texas Red
Keith Desormeaux walked out of Thursday’s Alibi Breakfast at Pimlico and – after wondering why the ever-quotable Eric Guillot didn’t attend – started talking horses. “The horse who changed my racing life is Texas Red and there’s nobody even close,” the trainer said. “That horse was a gift from God ever since the hammer dropped at the sale.”
Here & There – May 3
Kentucky Derby Week is underway. Technically it started Sunday, like every other week every month, every year. Still, you get the point. It’s Tuesday and it’s Derby Week.
Rolex competitor no longer a Mystery
Boyd Martin laughed at the thought. It was moments after winning the Asheville Regional Airport $75,000 Wellington Eventing Showcase on Blackfoot Mystery in February.
“I feel sorry for the jockeys who have ever ridden him,” Martin said.
There were three.
Here & There – April 22
Spectacular weather met spectacular racing last weekend at Keeneland Race Course as spring really found its stride in the Bluegrass.
Barry Irwin & Political Ambition
The very first horse I syndicated in the first stable I set up to race horses owned by a group of racing partners was Political Ambition, the latest in This Is Horse Racing’s Horse Who Changed Everything feature, presented by EMBRACE THE RACE.
Here & There – Derby Preps
The action came fast and furious for an extended stretch of about three hours Saturday afternoon as graded stakes were run at tracks across North America and Kentucky Derby dreams were realized or crushed. The Wood Memorial, Toyota Blue Grass and Santa Anita Derby were the big ones and they got people talking.
Artie Magnuson & Foolish Pleasure
Say, write or even think the name Foolish Pleasure and it’s a safe bet the first thing that will pop into the mind of a racing person is the name Ruffian. The names are forever linked because of the highly publicized “Great Match” between the two star 3-year-olds of 1975 on that disastrous early July afternoon at Belmont Park.
