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Mixed Up (right in photo) and Danielle Hodsdon rallied latest of all to nail Red Letter Day (center) inside the final sixteenth of a mile in a dramatic renewal of the Colonial Cup. Give Bill Pape’s homebred the Eclipse Award and chisel another line on Jonathan Sheppard’s Hall of Fame plaque. Tax Ruling (left) ran a blinder to be third.

The Colonial Cup, the greatest rider’s race in America. If I was riding . . .

Before the world changed with 9/11, we started a newspaper. We published six days a week, barely slept, barely made our mortgage payments, barely kept our sanity. Hall of Fame trainer Bobby Frankel, who died this week at 68, was a big part of it with wins in the Whitney, Alabama, Saratoga Breeders' Cup and more.

The circuit’s penultimate weekend lands in South Carolina Saturday where nothing short of a championship will be on the line when the 40th Colonial Cup is run in Camden. The Grade I, $100,000 test anchors a card that features five hurdle races and a training flat totaling $190,000. No fewer than five championship contenders will square off in the 2 3/4-mile Colonial Cup, with the winner almost assured of claiming the Eclipse Award as outstanding steeplechase horse.

Jockey Javier Castellano tightened the strap on his left glove, made sure his fingers fit nice and snug. Did the same to his right. And listened to the workout instructions . . .

Jonathan Sheppard termed it “amazing.” Arch Kingsley still gets goose bumps every time his eye catches Camden’s backstretch.

Saturday’s 40th Colonial Cup marks 10 years to the day when Ninepins, at the ripe age of 12, became the oldest winner ever of Camden’s signature race. No wonder he left such an indelible impression on his connections.

What’s it like? What’s it like to own a horse? It feels something like this. Far Hills, New Jersey. October 17. In the paddock for the Appleton Stakes. Dictina’s Boy making his fall debut after a tough spring, nearly won the novice stakes at Atlanta, then everything went awry, cut a flag at Radnor, worse … Read more

“Describe that”
Part question, part dare.
The text on my phone came over minutes after the Classic, minutes after Zenyatta summed her career in perfect perfection.
The 5-year-old Athena had done it.

Still hours before the first Breeders’ Cup race and there’s the lonely man, the running man, making a long and arduous trip around Santa Anita’s turf course. Johnny Murtagh circles the track, shedding the last few pounds and thinking about what’s in store. Coolmore’s contract jockey, Murtagh, could have a big weekend. He rides Man Of Iron in the Marathon, Lillie Langtry in the Juvenile Fillies Turf, Viscount Nelson in the Juvenile Turf, Alfred Nobel in the Juvenile, Mastercraftsman in the Dirt Mile and Rip Van Winkle in the Classic.

Longtime steeplechase trainer Ridgely White died Monday,Nov. 2 at 82. Based near Middleburg, Va., White trained for Paul Mellon’s famedRokeby Stable for many years, and also picked up major victories for otherclients including a Colonial Cup win with Sailor’s Clue in 1980.