Sean's Blog

Half time at Punchestown today. The third day of the five-day festival. In comparison, probably the weakest card but still stellar. Busselton, one festival too late for me, won the La Touche. Jeriko Du Reponet turned the tables on stablemate Doddiethegreat. Majborough shifted and shimmied left for 2 miles and … Read More

Marine Nationale and Sean Flanagan just backed up their Queen Mother Champion Chase form at Cheltenham winning the Grade 1 William Hill Champion Chase at Punchestown. The 8-year-old trounced five rivals, including Grade 1 winner Fact To File at the final big festival on the National Hunt scene for the … Read More

Vintage Year broke his maiden in style at Foxfield. Cool Jet came back to his best, just missing in the Good Night Shirt handicap at Foxfield. Two nice horses. Two strong efforts. Vintage Year made his hurdle debut at Foxfield in fall 2023, over-jumped and over-reached and hit the sidelines … Read More

This 4 o’clock post time is different. No rush on a Saturday morning. Working through a Riverdee newsletter. Perusing flat form from Laurel Park (go Cooper!) to Aqueduct. Watching the Colorado King Stakes from Turffontein in South Africa. Birds chirping outside the window. A bit of rain falling, we need … Read More

The National Museum of Racing and Hall of Fame welcomed its newest member yesterday. Smarty Jones. The Pennsylvania wunderkind. Moments like this make you wade into the archives, all the way back to his Triple Crown run. Twenty-years ago. The Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred. Trainer John Servis gave Stewart Elliott a leg … Read More

A baseball afternoon. The good news, when your son is the closer, is you can get to the games late, you can get some work done (hey, let’s blog) while sitting in the shade of an oak tree and then wander closer for the seventh inning. That’s our routine. Low-key … Read More

Monday has come and gone. Slowly but surely trying to get back into the groove after a whirlwind weekend. Races and risks. Parties and problems. Horses and hospitals. And hopes. Hopes for the horses and the jockeys. We were content with Palio in the open hurdle and Pietrelcina in the … Read More

Graham Watters won the Middleburg Hunt Cup on Keys Discount. Then he won the Temple Gwathmey on Snap Decision, their fourth together. A horse who transcends the sport, you can say you were there. And then the Irish-born jockey hit the ground in the next, then the air in a … Read More

Jhirsch, Awakened and Zabeel Champion travel to Middleburg. All with bigger objectives ahead. Hoping for solid runs, building blocks. Queens Empire and Potus stay local at the Grand National. Both have chances, would love to win one – or better yet, two – there. Pietrelcina, Palio and King Tsunami venture to … Read More

School conferences. Hair cut. Mid-Atlantic Thoroughbred assignments (Darrel McHargue and Mike Gathagan with Preakness memories). NSA Board Meeting. DocWeek Announcement Party. And Cyber Ninja crammed in there somewhere. Busy Friday. Busier Saturday. Busiest Sunday. Something like that. A runner today. A free day, as we said 10 days ago when … Read More