Saturday, I spent my day with Whitebeam, Mo Plex and a card full of Saratoga stars. Today, I spent it with Kissin Conquest, Just Blue, Apse and Eagle Poise. Two career maidens, a Saratoga hurdle winner and a Grade 3 flat winner. On a farm in Virginia. Our Thoroughbred Retirement … Read More

“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