Chris McGrath

So this week it was Not This Time who landed two big punches: a 13th career Grade I scorer, Claret Beret, in the Apple Blossom Handicap; plus the Grade II prize named for his own sire Giant's Causeway, through In Our Time. If Not This Time and Into Mischief are going to slug it out all year long, they will of course be drawing on the same well--each extending a different branch of Storm Cat. How do you trademark that horse's legacy? Well, a couple of years ago we tapped...

It's what keeps everyone going: the chance that somewhere out there may be a single horse capable of transforming your whole career. For most, of course, the quest yields no more than near-misses: horses that don't quite work out, for one reason or another, but that hopefully show enough to get you noticed, keep you in the game. Every now and then, however, somebody turns up a real game-changer. Every now and then, along comes Mage. Before turning up the 2023 GI Kentucky Derby winner, Ramiro Restrepo's eligibility to describe...

Steve Landers knows a salesman when he sees one. And here comes a burly young man, into the paddock at Oaklawn, holding out a hand. "Mr. Landers," he said. "I'm Brad Cox." This was a good decade ago, when Cox was still trying to get established. So he made his pitch. If Landers could keep him in mind for a horse or two, he sure would appreciate it. "Well, I like to see somebody swim out to their ship, instead of waiting on it to come in," Landers says now....

I've never understood this business of Dry January--the one month when those of us who take a glass of cheer are most grateful for a little respite from the dark and cold. Okay, maybe not a problem in California, but those of you battling all that snow and ice will surely see the merit of Dry February instead. It's shorter, for a start; and ends with the days lengthening and spring tangibly in the air. It's perfectly natural, however, for stallions to have a dry January. Certainly nobody will be...

There's a special feel about this place: very different from some of the bigger farms around Lexington, with their miles of fencing leading to wide horizons. Here trees fill the undulations like green mist, and then there's this gem of a house, faithfully reproduced from a much older one in New Hampshire that Dede McGehee came across in a book one day. Hummingbirds flit into the flower baskets on the veranda. Overall, Heaven Trees Farm feels very apt to its name. "Except when I looked into it, it turned out...

Needless to say, some people are always going to chase the fast buck. In the main, however, we all know this to be the longest of games. You can't drive the green from every tee; nor should you panic if your first drive lands in the water. There are 17 more holes to go. For Jane Lyon and her late husband Frank, one of the least fulfilling days in their Turf journey must have been the GI Matron Stakes of 2005. They had just made an expensive gamble to restore...

"I think this filly's cheating on me." Well, if that was the opinion of a Hall of Fame trainer, who could argue? Least of all a woman, in the male-dominated Bluegrass of the mid-1970s. But Headley Bell remembers that when Frank Whiteley Jr. sent Nicosia (Gallant Romeo) home to Mill Ridge, his late mother Alice Chandler was not ready to give up. After all, this was a daughter of Nicoma (Nashua), whose previous foal had just won a Grade I; and Alice's husband, Dr. John Chandler, suggested that maybe the...

The horses, of course, remain just as reticent about discussing their health as 150 years ago. But their beauty and courage are also unchanged, which has always kept veterinarians willing to persevere in a one-sided consultation. Until recently, anyway. People do change, however-and the fact is that an increasingly urbanized society is no longer producing as many young people with a natural affinity for horses. That's a problem for our whole industry, but a quietly developing crisis for its veterinary sector. And, having lasted as long as it has, the...

Sponsored by Pedigrees360. Candidly, it always feels a little cheap to delve into a pedigree once its functionality is established, scrubbing away any genetic mud before triumphantly producing some hidden nugget to explain how it has all come together. "Post rationalization" of this kind is standard in articles like this, and the absolute opposite of the grueling enterprise that has worn out the soles of so many shoes over the past couple of weeks. As ever, Keeneland presented thousands of perfectly plausible pages to measure against the animals paraded before...

When Andrew Schwarz and his sister Wendy Schwarz-Gilder decided to turn their longstanding enthusiasm for the Turf into a deeper commitment, in 2017, the option that best matched their outlook was a modest breeding program. If that meant taking their time, patiently building each page, so be it. All they knew was that they wanted to work with others of a similar disposition: people who gave time to each other, and to their horses. Schwarz, after all, is a real estate developer in New Orleans. "And in real estate, five...

The TDN always strives to remain scrupulously non-partisan and confines its occasional attention to the world of politics to such opportunities and concerns that directly affect the Thoroughbred industry. Recently, for instance, we spent time with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as he stepped in to support the campaign against decoupling in that state. A few days ago, Chris McGrath was given the opportunity to sit down with the Governor of the Bluegrass State itself, Andy Beshear, a figure increasingly on the national radar as a potential White House contender in...

As usual in the TDN, truth is spoken and of course Mr. McGrath has a part in the truth as well though Dr. Cahill, whom I met at Gainesway, a typical Texan straight talker, but oh so clever, and at no time was it fantasy he purported. I am very grateful for this article of TDN on the 24th of June. I wish that everyone in the breeding world would sit up and take notice when a true giant of his profession teaches us what true values are, and how...