Fair Grounds: The Grade II, $750,000 Louisiana Derby at 1 1/8 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points 100-50-20-10) #1 Stanford (5-1): Pletcher invader has the look of a wise guy horse in a race that seemingly is begging for the fresh new face to come take charge and will likely remind more than a few of…
As Leeanne Meadows Ladin and the rest of the staff of The Meadow prepared to throw a party for the 45th anniversary of Secretariat’s birth this weekend, they got a piece of news that gave them even more to celebrate. (And yes, that’s her real name. Nomenclature is destiny?) On March 19, Ladin, who is…
It’s that time: time to try to bolster your lead or make a move on the leader by adding a couple of horses to your charity league stable. Najja and Brian Hoffacker dueled on the front end before ceding the lead to last year’s winner John Perotti and a hard-charging Kay Marie Patterson. Alan Denkenson…
Sunland Park: The Grade III, $800,000 Sunland Derby at 1 1/8 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 50-20-10-5) [Image: 2014 Sunland Derby winner Chitu and jockey Joel Rosario at Santa Anita. Benoit photo] With a boatload of money and 85 Kentucky Derby qualifying points up for grabs, the Sunland Derby has become en vogue in recent…
Turfway Park: The Grade III, $550,000 Spiral at 1 1/8 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 50-20-10-5) While the Spiral runs the risk of being racing’s version of the Edsel, it did draw a solid field this year with runners from name barns like Amoss, Casse, Maker and Pletcher, so there’s some potential here, no doubt.…
The legacy of Allen Jerkens will live on in plenty of official documents. He’s in charts and programs, racing manuals and the Hall of Fame, profiles and race recaps, and record books and photographs. When you train horses for more than 60 years, you leave a pretty long paper trail. But it’s not on paper—or…
Growing up on Long Island, Albert Fried Jr. started riding horses, he says, when he was about 10 years old, in the early 1940s. A talented horseman even at that young age, within a few years he was given an assignment that, if a little hyperbole can be forgiven, may well have changed the course…
Oaklawn Park: The Grade II, $750,000 Rebel at 1 1/16 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points 50-20-10-5) #1 The Truth or Else (4-1): Tricky read woke up in a big way when he added Lasix and was second in the local prep, the GIII Southwest last month, and certainly seems as if he’s turned the corner…
Last Friday morning, the thermometer in Saratoga Springs read -8 degrees. On February 24th, it was -17. In weather like that, most sensible human beings throw another log on the fire or grab another blanket, pour a hot drink, and refuse to leave the house. But not Michele Jennings, who regardless of temperature or precipitation,…
Saturday saw Kentucky Derby Championship Series prep races coast to coast, with 85 points each available in races in New York, Florida, and California, and a Kentucky Oaks prep in Arkansas thrown in for good measure. Under the Kentucky Derby points system instituted in 2012, the 20 horses who earn the most points in a…
Brooklyn Backstretch 