Ned Toffey leads Ted Noffey, his spoonerism namesake and a gray/road horse, into the winner's circle at Saratoga Race Course. Riding Ted Noffey is John Velazquez, wearing silks with purple and orange squares.

The best horse missing from the Travers? Meet Ted Noffey, whose 3-year-old season has yet to begin.

This year’s Travers Stakes has attracted a star-studded field of 10 3-year-olds, many of them multiple stakes winners, headlined by Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Golden Tempo. None of those 3-year-olds, accomplished as they are, has three Grade 1 wins to their credit. Missing from the Travers starting gate this weekend at Saratoga Race Course…

Forbes 400’s B. Wayne Hughes Has Another Champion

Forbes 400’s B. Wayne Hughes took home an Eclipse Award for the second straight year when Thoroughbred racing’s highest honors were handed out at Gulfstream Park on Saturday, January 18. Bred in Kentucky by Clarkland Farm, Hughes’ Beholder wrapped up the three-year-old filly championship when she won the Breeders’ Cup Distaff at Santa Anita Park on…

Leslie Combs and Spendthrift Farm

Having grown up in Saratoga, I see racing and history intertwined; my little town (OK, not so little anymore) takes great pride in its 1864 clubhouse, and its status as the oldest sporting venue in the country, home to the oldest sporting event, the Travers Stakes. When my interest in racing was renewed in 2000,…

Snippets on breeding

Over the last week, I’ve been reading Great Breeders and Their Methods: Leslie Combs II and Spendthrift Farm, by Mary Marshall; it’s been sitting on my shelf for about a month as I’ve made my way through other reading, and it’s been interesting reading it now, when discussions of breeding in general, of the bloodlines…