Opinion

Guy Raz asks the same question on every edition of my favorite podcast, “How I Built This.”  “How much of your success is because of luck and how much of it is because of hard work and talent?” It’s a simple but brilliant question, asked to entrepreneurs who have made it big. I’ve listened to … Read more

Vinnie Viola flipped his straw hat onto his head.  “I’ll put my hat on in memory of my dad,” Viola said. And, oh what a memory. Moments after winning the Sanford Stakes with Wit at Saratoga Saturday, Viola walked out of the Saratoga grandstand, past the 1863 Club and thought back to the man who … Read more

“It’s good to see you.” You hear it all day, every day. You say it all day, every day.  And then, every once in a while, you really mean it. Like, really mean it. Coming back to Saratoga after missing last summer, yeah, we really mean it.  I heard myself saying it – and meaning it … Read more

Dave Donk looked up from the back page of The Special and laughed. “It isn’t free anymore, buddy.” The veteran trainer stood up from a table outside his barn on the turn of the main track and put his arm around my shoulder, “Brother, I’ve been there.” It was one of those cups of coffee … Read more

“It’s a triangle, like a perferct triangle.” That’s how my friend Jonathan Thorne described the route from Middleburg to Lexington to Saratoga. I had looked at the map, and yes, it’s a perfect triangle. Geometry wasn’t my thing in school (what was?) but he’s right, it looks like a triangle, a perfect triangle. I’m at … Read more

Months…a year…two years…  Back in Kentucky for the first time in…what…months…a year…two years.  Since March, 2020, days have run into weeks and weeks have run into months and months have run into years. Back on the cicuit, the tour. Iroquois a few weeks ago, Kentucky today, Saratoga Wednesday.  Good to be back.  For more from … Read more

Saratoga is looming. Large. Sure beats last year when it was limping. At best.  Six days away. I’m still trying to figure out how to be in Lexington Monday and Tuesday for Fasig Tipton July Sale and Saratoga by Wednesday for the first deadline Wednesday night. As an owner once said to me, “I have … Read more

This is ultimately what has been missing for the last year. Urgency. The sense of urgency when deadlines loom. Travel stress. The sense of pressure right before a trip. I feel both. Working the sales at Arqana, Tattersalls and Fasig Tipton, juggling walking videos, race replays, clients’ wants and needs. Beyond that, the daily rituatls … Read more

Ragged Old Flag I walked through a county courthouse squareOn a park bench an old man was sitting thereI said, your old courthouse is kinda run downHe said, naw, it’ll do for our little townI said, your old flagpole has leaned a little bitAnd that’s a ragged old flag you got hanging on it He … Read more

I’m back after taking a few days off from the tumult of the Iroquois. As Todd Wyatt said early Sunday morning when I was catching a Southwest flight and he was clmbing into his truck for a long, lonely trek home, “That was fun. Kind of.” Racing road trips hinge on winning.  As for Footpad, … Read more