Still Hot Stuff
“I promise you, Jack, you don’t need to go see him. Save the flight to California. You won’t be disappointed.”
High-dollar colt a source of pride for Florida program
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.
X Marks the Spot
Nobody in racing experienced a wilder week than jockey Xavier Perez. On April 14, the Maryland-based jockey became a Youtube sensation, guiding (?) Spicer Cub through a hole between the outside rail and the gate to just miss in a maiden at Pimlico (it had 98,336 views on Maryland Racing). Six days later, Perez piloted Dance To Bristol to a 9-length score in the Sugar Maple at Charles Town.
Sixteen entered in Maryland Hunt Cup
American steeplechasing’s oldest, greatest race is alive and well. The entry box overflowed with 16 hopefuls for Saturday’s Maryland Hunt Cup, a 4-mile timber test conducted for the 117th time.
Dan and Dan
It was a trick question. The ultimate trick question for a trainer with two horses – two brothers – nominated to the same race. “On their best day, who would win?”
Book excerpt: Never Say Die
This Is Horse Racing and ST Publishing are pleased to present the following excerpt from the recently published book Never Say Die: A Kentucky Colt, the Epsom Derby, and the Rise of the Modern Thoroughbred Industry, by James C. Nicholson.
Decoy Daddy’s still got it
You listening? Reading? Paying attention? Trainer Brianne Slater talked up her stakes veteran Decoy Daddy before Saturday’s Temple Gwathmey at Middleburg, Va. – and the Irish-bred delivered another signature performance.
Time running out to catch a dream at Keeneland
The second day of Keeneland’s spring meet dawned sunny and a little chilly. The equine version of rush hour was in full force, at the height of morning training. Most people in this business probably realized long ago that hope, dreams, possibilities can be as much a part of the fabric of a racetrack as the thunder of hooves and the surface they race across. Yet today, the possibility of these dreams seemed especially evident, more than ever before.
Naylor team wins big
Steeplechase owner Irv Naylor staked his claim to a fourth consecutive steeplechase owners’ championship with five wins at two meets Saturday. The streak included stakes wins by Decoy Daddy in Virginia and Alfa Beat in Maryland to launch Naylor to the top of the standings.
Winning Cause loves it in Lexington
The days of top-class racehorses running back in 14 days seem like a bygone era, but Winning Cause did just that Saturday at Keeneland Race Course and lived up to his name with a victory in the Grade 3 Coolmore Lexington Stakes.
