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Ron Anderson asked a simple question. “How many of them are easy? I mean, how many do you just sit down and write like nothing.”

I just like the conversations. All morning long. Whether it’s commiserating with Fernando Abreu about tearing his ACL playing softball or getting history lessons from the Chief or debating the latest issues with Rick Violette or talking pressure with Ramon Dominguez, I love the conversations.

Angel Cordero: “Hey, lose my number.”
Mike Gonzalez: “Hey, you lose my number too.”

And so it goes. Backside banter among jockeys turned agents can be a great listen. It’s also a window to racing’s past, present and future.

Because The Edge might be your cab driver. Whenever the topic of Saratoga comes up, I try to explain why Thoroughbred racing’s most important racing season matters.

This horse is definite for that race. That horse is definite for this race. So-and-so will run in some other race. And so it goes.

Vets prescribe two weeks of rest, re-evaluation

Graham Motion goes to Churchill Downs Friday to officially accept the Kentucky Derby trophies and see Animal Kingdom’s display at the Kentucky Derby Museum.

Veteran steeplechase trainer Dorothy “Dot” Smithwick died at her Middleburg farm Thursday morning, June 16. She was 82. Smithwick campaigned horses on the National Steeplechase and Virginia Point-to-Point circuits for decades. She owned Sunny Bank Farm, a 1,650-acre farm that sits adjacent to Glenwood Park in Loudoun County, Va.

Fair Hill Training Center thrives, buzzes, percolates with Thoroughbred activity – just like the backside of a racetrack – with the associated horses, people, stories. ST followed Animal Kingdom and Toby’s Corner around for 60 days, and will keep some focus on the training center this summer.

At least he wasn’t going for the Triple Crown. That’s the only thought I had when Animal Kingdom bobbled, strides out of the gate in the Belmont Stakes Saturday, as I watched John Velazquez catapult up and nearly out of the tack, as I watched Graham Motion throw up his hands and melt in his chair. The Belmont Stakes was over in a matter of strides for Animal Kingdom.

“No drama.” Graham Motion uttered that two-word maxim as Animal Kingdom finished his final major exercise before today’s Belmont Stakes. The trainer has had plenty of drama over this year’s Triple Crown journey, Wood Memorial winner going lame, Derby jockey getting hurt, Derby horse dumping his rider in the morning…but on Friday at Belmont Park, Animal Kingdom had it all under control.