Top 10 things you’ll never read at This Is Horse Racing
The editors and writers at This Is Horse Racing regret to inform you that if you’re looking for more of the same you are on the wrong website.
Assault’s Assault
Nothing piques my interest more than an email titled, “The Old Training Methods.” Bill Hirsch, grandson of Hall of Fame trainer Max Hirsch who trained Assault, read our quote from Allen Jerkens about the 1946 Triple Crown winner and emailed us the horse’s training regimen. In a word – wow. Take it away, Bill… … Read more
Long live the Strikers
No practices are scheduled. No games are scratched into the small boxes on the calendar. No rosters are floating around in the car.
Katie
It’s 10:13 Monday night and she’s lying next to me, chewing an ice cube. She’s been asleep for hours, which means I probably won’t be. She grumbles, groans, yawns, stretches, rolls on her side, flips on her back, gets up, shakes, scratches, looks for that long-melted ice cube. Clearly bored – and wide awake – she … Read more
From the Couch
Quiet weekend, with just a day trip to Belmont to look at the next champion (he’ll be in Maryland Thursday). Evidently, the last quiet weekend for a long time after I took a Sharpie and crossed out the travel days for March. Uh oh. Traveling for 17 out of 31 days and that doesn’t include St. Patrick’s Day. Spring has sprung. Time to hit the road.
Tales of returnees, non-traditional preps
The weather today in Kentucky feels nothing like it will-or shall we say hopefully will-in about two months time but Turfway Park will have at least a symbolic feel of spring for the John Battaglia Memorial Stakes. A dozen entered the Battaglia, the last serious local prep for the $550,000 Horseshoe Casino Cincinnati Spiral Stakes later this month.
Timing is everything, or is it?
The countdown is on.
After three weeks in Ocala, which dubs itself the Horse Capital of the World, it was time to return to Lexington, which also hails as the Horse Capital of the World. That somewhat comical and sometimes heated debate is a story for another day. Let’s get back to the matter at hand.
The countdown is seriously on.
Fifteen years is a long time
The last race I covered at Saratoga Race Course was a dead heat in the Amsterdam between Mint and Secret Firm. It was 1998, and three days later I started a job as a staff writer at Thoroughbred Times.
Inspiration, from a book
It’s just a book, right? And center field at Fenway Park is just grass. The Kentucky Derby blanket of roses is just a bunch of flowers. The Stanley Cup is just a trophy. This Was Racing, by Joe Palmer, was published in 1953. It’s so good, Red Smith edited it and wrote the foreword. The … Read more
To yell or not to yell
Do you yell at a computer? Watching horses who oftentimes run at places where I can’t attend, I find myself standing in front of a computer, watching, imploring, cajoling and wrestling with the urge to yell. Live, you can’t help it, you jump out of your chair, scream, yell, throw your program, slap your friends … Read more
