Archive for 2005

In case you were out of touch Thanksgiving weekend, Gary Stevens retired from the saddle on the closing day of Churchill Downs’ fall meeting…

Brant Laue has been around quality cattle and Quarter Horses his whole life. A third generation rancher, who is a family partner in Laue Charolais Ranch, a 2000-acre spread in Washington County, Kansas, Laue recalls sitting around the dinner table as kid, discussing the matings of the ranch’s champions…

Don’t wake up yet, the dream is just starting. “I thought he could be third, then I thought he could be second, and by the time he was in midstretch, I realized he could win…

At the very best, Thoroughbred horse trainers and jockeys tolerate one another. Their relationships, based on co-dependency, are often more volatile than a Hollywood marriage…

In March of 2004, a three-year-old gelding by Tinner’s Way from the Black Tie Affair mare Black Tie Dancer, made his racing debut in a $25,000 maiden claiming race at Gulfstream Park. Bred in Kentucky by Richard and Yvette Wira, the chestnut named Lil Red…

Famed California horseman and frozen pie king Elwood Johnston was fond of saying, “The harder I work, the luckier I get.” “Pieman” would have loved John O’Meara…

One cool March morning at Santa Anita’s Clocker’s Corner, Laz Barrera stood at the rail, his gold stopwatch in hand. “I need to fire thees exercice boy, Gordito,” he said to me. “I need to get thees horse to run a mile and a sisteen. Thees water-melon is letting heem run off every morning.”…

For the last two years, I have checked into the Radisson JFK, with prospect of witnessing a Triple Crown winner filling me with anticipation. In 2003, Funny Cide seemed so invincible, and when the track came up gumbo, it made it look even more of a sure thing that history would be made…

What I saw Saturday was the reason my life is intertwined with Thoroughbred racing. A race so spectacular, it had to be seen to be believed…

Finding rock star parking for only $40 on Taylor Street. Women so pretty, their atrocious Tom Petty hats can’t hide their beauty. The weather – 78 with a gentle breeze and no precipitation…