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Column from the May edition of Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred magazine. You can read the whole edition here. The gentle rise from the stable-area horsepath to the track near the quarter pole, where you can hear the infield chaos and see the first glimpse of the Preakness Day crowd in the Pimlico Race Course grandstand. In 2014, … Read more
Veritable cornucopia. I remember those two words like Chuck Stone said them yesterday. I was in a feature/column writing class at the University of Delaware in, oh 1986 or ’87, and Stone was my professor. No doubt dressed in a bow tie and a suit, he used those two words to emphasize the point that … Read more
There are six emails from Ed Bowen in my inbox. First off, the jockeyclub.com address – still in service long after he retired – made me smile every time I saw it. Second, the emails span nearly 10 years. The first came in January 2014, the last in December 2024. I probably deleted a few … Read more
From the Aug. 28, 2024 edition of The Saratoga Special newspaper. Halfway through a six-and-a-half-minute walk up the Saratoga Race Course stretch late Saturday evening, Juan Aguayo and Byron Lopez high-fived each other over Fierceness’ wet neck. In a single moment of peace, joy and pride among near-bedlam, they smiled, laughed, patted their horse and … Read more
From the Aug. 31, 2024 edition of The Saratoga Special newspaper. As a hustling young jockey, Vince Bracciale Jr. made the morning rounds. Some trainers gave him horses to breeze, some booked him for an afternoon mount, others sent him packing. Fifty years ago, Frank Whiteley Jr. put him on a legend. “Every morning when … Read more
Kentucky Derby Day . . . Belmont Stakes Day when a Triple Crown is on the line . . . and Breeders’ Cup Weekend. These are the days – other than those a self-inflicted controversy of some sort – when you feel a little less like a unicorn to be involved in Thoroughbred racing. Your neighbor knows … Read more
Years ago, in the heyday of steeplechase star McDynamo, somebody asked what he meant to the game. Watching McDynamo, I said, felt like going to church. I was back in a pew Saturday. And had company. Snap Decision, the best horse on the National Steeplechase Association circuit for four (maybe five) years, won the Grade … 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
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
There’s nothing like Far Hills mud. After a day like Saturday, you find it everywhere – car tires and floor mats, shoes, pant legs, socks even a splotch on your binoculars. Sticky and reddish-brown, there’s something different about it, and I’m not even a horse. Saturday featured plenty of mud, dampness, rain and wind, even … Read more
