Tag: American Horseracing’s Most Magical Places

When you drive through the spectacular countryside of the Worthington Valley, you can’t miss it.  The early style cupolas atop the signature red-roofed barns and miles of white fences dot the Glyndon-Reisterstown, Maryland landscape. Sagamore …

On a beautiful afternoon in the spring of 2006, I walked into the Hall of Champions at the Kentucky Horse Park for the first time. A horse gazed out at me from the first stall …

He was The Grey Ghost.  The Horse of the Century. Across his racing career, he established no fewer than 14 world records. At age seven, he effectively partnered with a female to set two of …

There is no city in America like New Orleans and there is no racetrack like the Fair Grounds. Located two miles from the French Quarter in the heart of the Crescent City, these beloved grounds …

I walked toward the stall and saw six nameplates on the door. The top plate said Alydar. I moved on to the next stall… Whirlaway. And the stall across the way… Citation. For lovers of …

When I stepped foot onto the 6666 Ranch, I gazed up at a big, blue, beautiful Texas sky and couldn’t imagine it any other way — legendary Quarter Horses, a family legacy, superior Black Angus …

“Once upon a time there was a horse named Kelso…but only once.” – Joe Hirsch   With the utmost respect to Secretariat, Man o’ War and Citation, he may have been the greatest of them …

Walk through the doors of the main office at Hermitage Farm in Goshen, Kentucky and, as you approach the front desk, you will see them.  Framed memories. Snapshots in time. Reminders of a heritage which …

It happened here shortly after midnight on March 30, 1970. Outside, it was a cold and rainy early Virginia morning; yet, inside the small wood-frame foaling shed, Meadow Farm manager Howard Gentry, his assistant Raymond …

If you told somebody the story before they read the book or saw the movie, they wouldn’t believe you. They would be skeptical that a beaten-down horse that won less than a quarter of its …

What is most compelling is not the statue, but, rather, what it represents — the fighting spirit of community and the warrior hearts of two racehorses. It is a place where one can stop and …

Walk around this small Indiana town of fewer than 1,200 residents and he is everywhere. He has a small cafe named after him and you will find him on the top of the town’s water …

If Churchill Downs is American thoroughbred horse racing’s cathedral, then its steeple and eternal landmark is the Twin Spires.  These two pinnacles cast a glow up and down Louisville, Kentucky’s Central Avenue and across the …

Of all the great landmarks in American horse racing, perhaps only one is truly alive — and it resides at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York. It has been there to witness 13 horses achieve …

I entered the lobby of the main office at Mt. Brilliant Farm and checked in at the front desk.  The receptionist directed me to drive back out through the farm’s main entrance, turn right on …