Alysheba

Clarence and Dorothy Scharbauer built Valor Farm outside of Dallas 30 years ago after Dorothy and their daughter Pam campaigned Hall of Famer Alysheba in the late 1980s. Their son Doug continues the blue-and-white silk tradition as his unbeaten homebred Closing Act (Munnings) takes on 10 other 2-year-old fillies in Thursday's GIII Schuylerville S. on opening day at Saratoga. The Steve Asmussen trainee, listed at 10-1 on the morning line, is coming off her first stakes win in the Astoria S. June 11 at Belmont Park after breaking her maiden...

Chris McCarron won his first of two Belmont Stakes in 1986 with Danzig Connection (Danzig) at odds of 8-1, unexpectedly defeating that year's Kentucky Derby winner and Preakness runner-up Ferdinand (Nijinsky II) and giving trainer Woody Stephens the last of five consecutive victories in the Test of the Champion. The next year, he found himself on the other side of the fence aboard Alysheba (Alydar). Alysheba and McCarron had won the first two legs of the Triple Crown and were on track to complete the series when, coming around the...

As a multiple Grade I winner with 11 triple-digit Beyer figures to his name, McKinzie (Street Sense) has well established himself as a force in the older male division. But showing a pair of off-the-board finishes in three starts this season, he will be out looking for a bit of redemption when he returns to the site and race that produced his track-record setting performance last spring in Friday's GII Alysheba S. at Churchill Downs. Racking up powerful victories in the GI Pennsylvania Derby and GI Malibu S. as a...

What was the experience that made you fall in love with horse racing? My dad's roommate in college was Tom Durkin, and he was still good friends with my parents when I was a kid. So when I was growing up, horse racing was something that was always on the television at my house and viewed as important. But the first instance I remember being mentally captured by the sport was when I was there for Alysheba winning the Kentucky Derby. Would you commit to creating one new fan this...