SPORTS
By Sandra McKee | May 5, 2007
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- With 100,075 fans jamming into Churchill Downs yesterday, Rags to Riches sat off the pace in the Grade I, $500,000 Kentucky Oaks, waiting to make her point. Rags to Riches, the California filly who has been criticized for building her resume against less than the strongest contenders, shut everyone up with her charge down the stretch to victory. With mud flying, the A.P. Indy 3-year-old drew away from the field and beat Octave to the finish by 4 1/4 lengths. "She hadn't been in these conditions before and to be between horses was a concern, but we know she's a very good filly and we were hopeful," said owner Michael Tabor, who won the Kentucky Derby with Thunder Gulch in 1995.
SPORTS
By Sandra McKee | January 23, 2007
Invasor was named 2006 Horse of the Year at last night's 36th Eclipse Awards ceremony in Beverly Hills, Calif. Preakness winner Bernardini won 3-Year-Old Male of the Year. Roy and Gretchen Jackson of Lael Stables, who campaigned 2006 Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro, shared Owner of the Year honors with Darley Stable, which owns Bernardini. Edgar Prado, who spent most of his career riding in Maryland before moving to New York in 1999, earned the Eclipse as the top jockey. Prado, 39, rode Barbaro and is credited with helping to save the horse's life when Barbaro took a catastrophic misstep and broke his leg in the early moments of the Preakness.
SPORTS
By Sandra McKee | May 7, 2007
LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Trainer Carl Nafzger said he was going to "sleep in" the morning after his 3-year-old charge, Street Sense, had won the Kentucky Derby. But Nafzger couldn't sleep and was at his Churchill Downs barn early serving coffee and doughnuts before 7 a.m. "You never get tired of winning the Kentucky Derby," he said. "You never get tired of reaching the higher pinnacle. In life it's hard to do and you never get tired of it." More Inside How the Preakness field is shaping up. PG 5D
SPORTS
By Sandra McKee | March 13, 2007
Gretchen Jackson said yesterday that she and her husband, Roy, have yet to make a decision about the future resting place for late Kentucky Derby winner Barbaro. "We just haven't, for some reason, come up with where we want him to be," said Gretchen Jackson, who declined to say where Barbaro's ashes are now. Shortly after Barbaro was euthanized Jan. 29 after an 8 1/2 -month battle to recover from multiple breaks in his right rear leg suffered during the Preakness and the ensuing complication of laminitis in his left foot, both the Kentucky Derby Museum and the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington offered grave sites at their facilities.
SPORTS
By Sandra McKee | April 6, 2007
Gretchen Jackson was just about to go out and help trim the hooves on some of her cows at Lael Farm yesterday afternoon when the telephone rang. It was the Kennett Square Florist saying it was about to deliver 178 Easter baskets to the New Bolton Center, where her late Kentucky Derby winner, Barbaro, had lived the last eight months of his life. "All those gifts are from Barbaro fans," said Jackson, who owned Barbaro with her husband, Roy. "The florist wanted me to come over, but I just can't.
SPORTS
By Sandra McKee | March 29, 2007
HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- Anyone training a top 3-year-old looking for a "good" spot, someplace his horse can win or at least hit the scoreboard, might think twice about Saturday's $1 million, Grade I Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park. But trainer Bill Currin, who sends Stormello, the second choice in the morning-line odds at 3-1, said coming to the Florida Derby was an easy choice. "I'm not looking to duck anyone," he said. "I [have] one objective, and that is to win the Kentucky Derby, and you're not going to win the Kentucky Derby by picking and choosing soft spots.
NEWS
By Frederick N. Rasmussen | May 19, 2007
It used to be that the arrival of mint in the Maryland spring brought julep season, which was reinforced by the Maryland Hunt Cup and picked up steam with the running of the Kentucky Derby and Preakness. And with the big race today at Pimlico, I wonder how many folks will be holding a chilled silver cup from Stieff or Kirk, loaded with rye or bourbon, as the horses barrel around the clubhouse turn. This is a drink that seems to have a lot of adherents, but I wonder how many folks who say they enjoy juleps actually drink or bother to make them.
SPORTS
By Sandra McKee | June 9, 2007
BELMONT, N.Y. -- The last time a horse who was unraced as a 2-year-old won the Belmont Stakes was 1918. You can look it up. But Johren, who won that day, could have company by tonight if Curlin can stand up to the punishing, 1 1/2 -mile "Test of the Champion." Curlin's trainer, Steve Asmussen, took his colt to the main Belmont Park track at 6:30 a.m. yesterday for his last warm-up for the Grade I, $1 million endurance test. Then, with prayer beads attached, but hidden from view on his belt, he told a large crowd of reporters that he's taking nothing for granted.
SPORTS
By Tom Keyser | May 12, 1999
The bird pooped on Arthur Hancock III in the paddock at Keeneland. It was a big load, splattering on Hancock's shoulder.This was two days before the Blue Grass Stakes, the race in which Menifee, whom Hancock bred and co-owns, would prove whether he belonged in the Kentucky Derby. Hancock's aunt had always said that a bird pooping on you meant good luck."I thought, `Well, that's interesting,' " Hancock said yesterday in his Kentucky drawl. " `Maybe we'll be lucky in the Blue Grass.' "About 30 minutes later, back in his seat at Keeneland, Hancock heard a startled voice in the next box: "Oh my God, will you look at that."
SPORTS
By Tom Keyser | April 2, 1999
ARCADIA, Calif. -- Lisa Lewis spotted the penny in the dirt and considered picking it up. But first, she wanted to know, was it heads or tails?When you've done the best you can with the first good 3-year-old you've ever had, you resort at last to superstition.That's where Lewis, a 29-year-old native of Maryland, finds herself on the eve of the Santa Anita Derby. And that's exactly where she wants to be."This is what you want all the time, the 3-year-old going to the big races," Lewis said outside her barn at Santa Anita Park.