Sean's Blog

“I thought I was going to die.” Phil Bauer forced those seven words Friday morning when asked about a plane crash on Lizard Island off the northeast coast of Australia Jan. 8.  All 10 on the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan thought the same thing, felt the same thing, as the … Read More

Todd Wyatt was on his way home from the Belmont Stakes at Saratoga. The four-day racing festival in June had come and gone. It was everything that was good in racing. Engaged fans. Competitive racing. At a venue that never disappoints. Wyatt, predominately a steeplechase trainer, had come to town … Read More

On my first assignment out of the steeplechase world, The Blood Horse put me on the 1997 Preakness and the Belmont beat. What a beat – Silver Charm, Free House, Captain Bodgit, Touch Gold… Ah, Touch Gold, the vanquisher. And his trainer, David Hofmans. Late in the week of the Belmont, … Read More

Steeplechase meetings all day. No, not the ones with horses and courses, sport and spectators, hills and thrills. Today’s were the ones in preparation for all those things. Raising purses. Restructuring boards. Figuring out the fields. Working out the cards. Steeplechase lifers trying to figure out the next best step. … Read More

Home. Watching the fifth at Roscommon. Looking at the form for the fifth at Stratford. Checking the scratches for the first at Presque Isle. Waiting for the ninth at Parx where Brie’s Mission makes his debut for Matt Groff and Jack Fisher. A Clancy Bloodstock purchase. Time ticks as Saratoga … Read More

Starting the week at the beach. Although I have yet to see the beach. No waves. No sand. No boardwalk. No Funland. Dad doesn’t do the ocean, the boardwalk, Funland any more. Well, he never did any of them much, certainly not Funland, a beeping, blaring, banging menagerie of games … Read More

Delaware Park hosted a memorial picnic for John Spivey Wednesday. I read about it, made a mental note that I should go to it, lost that mental note and then watched a celebration in the winner’s circle after Mackman won an allowance race going a mile. Spivey galloped horses for … Read More

I’ll take a note from my friend George Baker and talk about the weather. It’s a short conversation. Hot. Dry. Day after day. No rain in memory. No rain in sight. Oh, actually a whopping 30% chance Sunday. That’s it. The grass outside my window on the farm looks like … Read More