Iroquois: Demonstrative gets year started
The big horse in Richard Valentine’s barn lives in the first stall on the left, always has. Until now. Demonstrative is several stalls down, where he’s been since he arrived three years ago.
Lasting Tribute: Arcadius statue honors Iroquois champ
Sculptor Alexa King works in the visual, the tactile, the tangible, the real. But she aims for much more, especially with a memorial along the lines of a bronze statue of 2012 Iroquois Steeplechase winner Arcadius which will be officially dedicated Friday at the race course in Nashville, Tenn.
Easy Read: Jock’s Room
This Is Horse Racing is pleased to occasionally showcase works of fiction and non-fiction about the world of racing. The following fiction piece by R. C. Lages was printed in The College Voice, the award-winning student newspaper of Mercer County Community College in New Jersey. The Voice publishes 2,300 copies of each monthly print edition and the publication’s online edition averages more than 3,000 reads per month.
Grinding Speed completes rare double for Beecher
For the record, the inside of Mark Beecher’s calves hurt. The jockey paid a bit of a price for riding part of the Maryland Hunt Cup without stirrups, but a week later turned a rare double by winning the Virginia Gold Cup.
Flat Out a true throwback
Art Preston put it simply and succinctly to his longtime advisor Rich Decker when discussing the future of two-time Jockey Club Gold Cup and recent Westchester Stakes winner Flat Out sometime late last year.
Derby Diary: Salute to deserving winner
The day of the 139th Kentucky Derby seemed to begin as a rather subdued affair, due to near-constant rain, but no force of nature stops the excitement of this day.
Grinding Speed takes Gold Cup
Grinding Speed evidently didn’t mind falling on his face at My Lady’s Manor as the timber veteran got off the deck to win his next race, Saturday’s Virginia Gold Cup, in a romp at Great Meadow Race Course in The Plains, Va.
Orb’s Greatest Hits
Too much Orb? Not enough Orb? Just the right amount Orb? When you run a racing website with just three writers, you ask about the formula – all the time.
‘Seems like yesterday’
The clock stopped at one minute, 59 and 2/5 seconds when Secretariat crossed the finish of the 1973 Kentucky Derby. Two weeks later the red chestnut won the Preakness Stakes and three weeks after that he romped in the Belmont Stakes to sweep the Triple Crown. Ron Turcotte was in the saddle each time and even though it’s been 40 years, he remembers it like it was yesterday.
Derby day card always irresistible
Everywhere you turn today and tomorrow everybody will offer up an opinion on the Kentucky Derby. The race and its supporting program didn’t become the biggest handle day of the year on the American racing calendar by chance, so the trio of handicappers from This Is Horse Racing will take a dip into the pool and offer up their picks for Saturday’s stakes at Churchill Downs. We won’t count these against the overall standings, but bragging rights will of course be in the line.
