News

By Sean Clancy

The year was 1970. The Concorde made its first supersonic flight. The voting age was lowered to 18. It cost 6 cents to mail a letter and 36 cents a gallon to fill an AMC Gremlin. The Beatles broke up. The U.S. invaded Cambodia and four students died at Kent State University. The Dow Jones dropped to below 631. All My Children made its debut on ABC. Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin died from drug overdoses. The Chiefs beat the Vikings in Super Bowl IV. Dust Commander won the Kentucky Derby.

For as many twists, turns, peaks, valleys, jumps, starts, stops, miles and more a steeplechase season takes, the NSA owner championship sometimes comes down to the smallest of variables.

By Joe Clancy

Xavier Aizpuru pulled up a chair and talked. Jody Petty offered a handshake. Carl Rafter, a kiss on the cheek. Brian Crowley nodded while putting on a suit after getting out of an ambulance. Bernie Dalton told a story and laughed. Jeff Murphy and Darren Nagle debated the Virginia and Maryland point-to-point circuits. Danielle Hodsdon grabbed a drink out of the cooler.

It’s the bible at any European horses-in-training sale. Timeform. Throw away the catalogue, get the Timeform Bloodstock Sales Guide, with its descriptions of every lot, detailing the horse’s preferred distances, running style, conformation, fortitude and attitude. The book doesn’t lie.

By Sean Clancy

Alan Goldberg and Jack Fisher make good business partners. When the New Jersey-based flat trainer has inventory to sell, the Maryland-based jump trainer buys it. No haggling over price, no dithering over quality.

By Joe Clancy

Doug Fout held the trophy and thought about all that went into it. The horses, the family, the years, the wins, the losses, the races, the decisions, the variables.

By Joe Clancy

Head low, nose out, knees wide, feet stirring decades of shedrow dust, Slip Away pulled M.J. Kirwan around a barn at Springdale Race Course the morning of the Colonial Cup. The gray warrior looked for something – a mint, a blade of grass, some attention, a way to end a six-race losing streak, anything, while killing time before his final start of 2010.

By Joe Clancy

CAMDEN, S.C. – Second at the Iroquois. Third at Saratoga. Second at Monmouth Park. Second again at Far Hills in the Grand National.

Don’t blame me. I voted for Zenyatta last year.

Everywhere I go, people ask. Who’s going to be Horse of the Year? Who are you voting for? Who? Why? Don’t you think Zenyatta deserves it? You’re going to vote for her, right? Blame lost a race by 4 lengths, didn’t he? She’s a better horse, right? She lost that race in the first three-eighths of a mile, she was going to win, he wasn’t going to hold her off, right? Thanksgiving Dinner chat, office conversations, email, texts, bus-stop talk, it all revolves around the vote. My vote, apparently.

Got five minutes? Click the link “Watch Slip Away win again” at the bottom of this page and watch the Colonial Cup on Youtube. It’s amazing.