Stud Muffin: Going the Distance

In his six years on the racetrack, Stud Muffin showed a definite predilection for distance: the bulk of his 14 lifetime victories came at a mile and or more, with the gray guy coming from off the pace, often eking out a win, sometimes winning by a length or so. He seldom won by more…

John Hettinger, Akindale Farm, and Callmetony

Dormant for most of the year, the Fasig-Tipton sales grounds spring to life this week, in preparation for the yearling sales on August 6, 7, 11 and 12.  Thoroughbred auctions have been held by Fasig-Tipton at Saratoga since 1917, and next week, sellers and buyers will gather, as they have for nearly a century, in…

The Hettinger Stakes(es)

Some people require more than one monument to do justice to the lives they led, and John Hettinger may be one of them. Hettinger himself was a monument in New York racing. He raced and bred horses in New York; he owned Akindale Farm in Pawling, New York; and according to his 2008 obituary in…