The Wire

The 1921 Kentucky Derby will be the one hundred forty seventh running of the race.  From 1875 through 2020, there were seven jockey objections and/or steward inquiries, with two disqualifications of winners and another disqualification of a fourth-place finisher. Jockey objections/steward inquiries that did not result in disqualification: 2001 Jockey...

 On March 8th 2021, Juddmonte Farms announced that their outstanding broodmare Kind had sadly succumbed to complications following the foaling of a colt by their resident rising star stallion Kingman. This colt was her first live produce since her Galileo filly Chiasma was foaled in 2018. The stakes winning daughter...

Dear horse racing Twitter, and the industry at large: Do better. Stop shooting yourself in the foot. Stop creating division and strife where there is no reason for it; we have enough issues as a sport. Over the weekend, yet another tweet made the rounds mocking a MyRacehorse owner. While...

After last year’s upheaval of the racing calendar due to COVID-19, the Kentucky Derby is back to its rightful date on the first Saturday in May, this year falling on May 1. So let’s talk Derby—the first Kentucky Derby in 1875, which was upstaged by another race held during the...

Last year’s Grade 1 Breeders’ Futurity at Keeneland is looking more and more like a key race for the classics …Continue reading →...

Chris Gracie pulled his tack off Include It after finishing second in the maiden timber at Piedmont in April. “You know, Sean, he’s got gears,” Gracie said after riding the 6-year-old Maryland-bred for trainer Todd Wyatt and Riverdee. A maiden on the flat track for Fitzhugh and Mike Trombetta, a...

Real Writing on Racing 💯...

Racing Weekend. Feels good to print out the form, find the NSA hang tag, the horseman buttons, the binoculars, polish the boots, check the weather forecast, gas up the car and fire up Waze. Limited attendance and definitely a different vibe, but it's a start, a restart of our lives....

My friend Chris Burkhard – who owns the Placers, workforce/staffing/consutling company in Delaware – talks to me about business, frequently. He’s got ideas, opinions, thoughts (really good thoughts) and perspective. I listen, sometimes follow his suggestions and always soak in everything even if some little voice tries to tell me...

Saturday was supposed to be opening day of the Thoroughbred meet at Woodbine racetrack near Toronto in Ontario, Canada. Instead, just as the 2020 season was halted prematurely by government order in the midst of a spike in the coronavirus pandemic, so too is the 2021 opening. Jennifer Morrison, a...

Hammers hammer. Diggers dig. Truckers truck. House renovation. The ultimate personality shaker, relationship tester, is underway.  Today we talked about amps to and from the generator, brush strokes in the fireplace mortar, plastic-sheet walls, gas-line ditches, code and against code, junction box to the switch box to the fuse box....

Author James C. Nicholson’s latest book Racing for America (University Press of Kentucky, 2021) immerses a reader in the “roaring twenties,” a tumultuous decade wedged between the devastation of World War I and the Spanish flu pandemic and the Great Depression of the 1930s.  The twenties were a time for...

Among the undisputed highlights of Brisnet’s 50-year history was the visit from Queen Elizabeth II to its Lexington, Kentucky, offices on Oct. 10, 1984, an event that likely wouldn’t have happened at any other time if not for the mutual connection of Harry Herbert. [...] The post The Queen’s Arrival...

“Imagine if you will” – Rod Serling in The Twilight Zone. I start off with this famous phrase to get people to imagine professional track runners always training by exercising by going left only on the field track. Their competitions are left on the field track, always have been, so...

Trainer Wayne Potts posted the following on Facebook Tuesday evening, after two of his horses tragically perished in a barn fire at Belmont Park: I wanted to take a moment to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who assisted in removing my horses from the fire this evening. Thank you...

Sorry, lost a few days. Just gone. Poof.  Waded into the rest of Loudoun County Sunday for our vaccine. Past an indoor skydiving venue, a two-tiered driving range, past condos and apartments made out of ticky-tacky and organic, farm-raised, free-range sustainable grocery stores, a brewery or four, through roundabouts and...

Superstar stallions have the highest stud fees, not for their good looks, but for the number of their racers who …Continue reading →...

The probable favorite for the 1921 Kentucky Derby is Essential Quality, winner of the 2020 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile and undefeated in five career starts.  In his last start before the Derby, he won the Bluegrass Stakes at Keeneland, although he was challenged to get by second-placed Highly Motivated. A win...

Real Writing on Racing 💯...

Jerry Brown, in an op/ed recently published in the Thoroughbred Daily News, stated his belief that horses running in stakes races were not running true to form possibly because of not running on Lasix in those races. Brown pointed out that these horses may have been scoped post-race, but very...

Slim Shadey 2008-2021 Losing a younger retiree unexpectedly is always an especially hard blow. I say “always,” but you never get used to it because no loss is like another, just as no other horse will ever be Slim Shadey. … Continue reading →...

Road to the 2021 Kentucky Derby: Lexington Stakes analysis. Jay PrivmanApr 11, 2021. Share....

Super Stock had finished fourth last month in the Rebel (https://www.drf.com/news/road-2021-kentucky-derby-rebel-stakes-analysis), which was won ......

Rachael Blackmore, you are as good as I've ever seen. On the back of an imperious Cheltenham Festival, the 31-year-old Irish jump jockey won today's Grand National aboard Minella Times. Tactically brilliant and stylishly strong,  Blackmore has it all. She has earned her accolades, attaining the most coveted attribute of...

As horses ship in for the Arkansas Derby and other horses ship out for the year, I find myself reminiscing on the 2021 meet at Oaklawn Park....