Join The Saratoga Special Readers Club for exclusive access to news, swag, discounts, special events and more
Late in a handicapping seminar at the Keeneland Library this spring – three days before the 150th Kentucky Derby – a hand went up during the allotted question-and-answer session. Seated a couple rows from the front among the 75 or so who turned out for the simply named event, “Handicapping the Derby with Tom Law,” … Read more
Clifford Nass says multitasking is a fallacy. But yet we try. Nothing tests the Stanford professor’s theory like working in racing. And working from home. Still in Virginia, I worked from the home office – the family room couch – Friday. Deadline Friday. It starts early. And will surely end late. I nail Wordle in four … Read more
Saturday, I spent my day with Whitebeam, Mo Plex and a card full of Saratoga stars. Today, I spent it with Kissin Conquest, Just Blue, Apse and Eagle Poise. Two career maidens, a Saratoga hurdle winner and a Grade 3 flat winner. On a farm in Virginia. Our Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation. Bred by John Franks, … Read more
Opinion, The Outside Rail The bay horse stared out the back window of his stall on a hot, muggy afternoon. If he wondered where he was, he didn’t act like it. His mid-July view – for the first time in seven years – featured birdhouses instead of walking rings, trees instead of tractors, deer (if they … Read more
“I thought I was going to die.” Phil Bauer forced those seven words Friday morning when asked about a plane crash on Lizard Island off the northeast coast of Australia Jan. 8. All 10 on the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan thought the same thing, felt the same thing, as the plane’s engine over-torqued early in … Read more
Todd Wyatt was on his way home from the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. The four-day racing festival in June had come and gone. It was everything that was good in racing. Engaged fans. Competitive racing. At a venue that never disappoints. Wyatt, predominately a steeplechase trainer, had come to town with his wife, Blair, their … Read more
Walking through the entrance gates at Churchill Downs Friday felt in stark contrast to what it was like back on May 2, 1998. That day marked Kentucky Derby No. 1 and helped fulfill a personal goal to be on the scene of America’s greatest race. How it came about has been well told, especially so … Read more
Bruce Miller said it so sincerely, like it mattered to him. Lonesome Glory, the trainer’s best horse and America’s top steeplechaser, pulled a muscle in his back days before he was supposed to fly to England for an attempt on the 1998 Cheltenham Gold Cup. “I’m sorry to disappoint a lot of people,” he told … Read more
Four years. Four long years. Different this year. Very different. A tear or two welled into my eyes as I hugged Candida Baker. And then George Baker. Outside Terminal 2 at Heathrow on a beautiful sun-filled Sunday morning. Four beautiful days at Cheltenham in the books (the liver and the bank, too). “You have made … Read more
For this first-time qualifier, the road to the NHC ran through Lexington. Prior to last year, I had never been to Kentucky, but in April I made the first of what would be four trips in 2023. The primary purpose was to conduct interviews for a book I am writing on the Cody Dorman-Cody’s Wish … Read more
