Cigar

Just how deep is Sunday's running of the GI Jockey Club Gold Cup at Saratoga, a 'Win and You're In' qualifier for the GI Breeders' Cup Classic in a little more than two months' time? Well, six of the eight remaining horses--GII Charles Town Classic winner Banishing (Ghostzapper) will be scratched--have recorded at least one Beyer Speed Figure of 104 or higher this year and three of the entrants are already Grade I winners this term. It is the very definition of a hot race. The field is led by...

Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott says he is not all that interesting. We disagree. Mott, who got his first winner when he was still in high school, has never stopped. Through the years, he has had a barn full of high-caliber horses. He talks about some of them; he talks about Sovereignty, who is the best 3-year-old in the country. He talks about training for the late George Steinbrenner. And he remembers a dumb question from a reporter (me). Here is the Saratoga Q&A. TDN: First question. Why is...

In an era when it feels ever harder to trust what you're seeing, how edifying to find something "fake" that actually authenticates a genuine, old-school, artisanal flair. That's not to deny the technological short-cuts nowadays available to John Cox, compared to when he started trading out of his garage back in 1982. But anyone touring the Lexington premises of Thorough-Graphics--this Aladdin's cave, teeming with color and invention, where Cox and his family supply around 70 percent of signage to the local Thoroughbred industry--will unfailingly be drawn to the "antique" signs...

Strangely enough, the beginnings of my horse racing journey are tied to a racing-related contest put on by one of the local grocery chains in suburban Chicago in the 1970s where you'd watch a short clip at 6:57 p.m. and try to match your ticket for a can of Spam or something of the like. A few years later, a neighbor three doors down (kryptonite?) campaigned a mare called Diablo Morn with trainer Jerry McGrath, no great shakes (she finished her career 2-32, I just looked), but it gave me...

Hall of Famer Jerry Bailey has won 15 Breeders' Cup races and has watched hundreds more in person as a commentator for NBC Sports. Always on top of things and not afraid to voice his opinions, Bailey joined the TDN Writers' Room Podcast sponsored by Keeneland to discuss Breeders' Cups past and present. When asked who would most want to ride in this year's Classic if he were to come out of retirement, the answer was somewhat of a surprise. He picked GI Whitney S. winner Arthur's Ride (Tapit), who...

Trainer Ralph Nicks will call it a career Sunday after saddling a horse for the final time at Gulfstream Park. "It's time," Nicks said. "I've been here a long time. It's just the way the business is going, with clients passing away. I've had a lot of years invested. I want to get away and do some things before I get too old and can't." The 57-year-old has saddled 722 winners, including Caledonia Road, the winner of the 2017 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile Fillies at Del Mar who was subsequently...

Named for the owner, an immigrant from Scotland who realized a Carnegie-kind of American Dream, it began as a 12-furlong turf race. Five years later in 1964 it was cut back to nine and moved to the dirt. The roll call of Donn H. winners through 2016 at Gulfstream Park reflects a roster of unique equine and human personalities, which is peppered with some magnificent performances that shouldn't be forgotten. Hall of Fame jockey Braulio Baeza won his first of three victories in 1969 aboard Funny Fellow and took home...

It was a good week to have a Hall of Fame jockey on the TDN Writers' Room, presented by Keeneland, as the Green Group Guest of the Week and especially to have that jockey be Jerry Bailey, who knows a thing or two about analyzing a race for an audience. Bailey pulled no punches when asked about whether or not he felt Forte (Violence) should have been disqualified in the Jim Dandy Saturday at Saratoga. "I thought it was a bad call," said Bailey. "I thought he was the best...

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. - When three veteran turf writers approached him at his Saratoga barn last week, Hall of Fame trainer Bill Mott impishly decided to reverse roles. Before the journalists were able to offer more than a hello, Mott started asking pretty much the same questions he knew were coming his way. For several seconds, the interviewee was the light-hearted interviewer. Mott knows the drill. He has been training horses since he was a teenager in Mobridge, South Dakota, was inducted into the National Museum of Racing's Hall of...

Wild Again's inaugural Classic thriller was among the top 20 moments as Breeders' Cup Limited released the top vote-getters from its 40th running campaign fan poll, an opportunity for fans to choose their favorites from 40 pre-selected moments in Breeders' Cup history. The 40th running campaign--a multi-month celebration that will culminate in the Breeders' Cup World Championships Nov. 3-4 at Santa Anita Park--kicked off June 6 with the poll. Fans chose their top three moments from the 40 presented, spanning from the first running at Hollywood Park to last year's...

Burt Bacharach, a famed music composer and songwriter and a Grade I winning horse owner, passed away Wednesday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 94. The Associated Press reported that he died of natural causes. When not in a music studio, Bacharach could often be found at the racetrack, enjoying a sport he called "exhilarating." According to a 1994 feature in the Los Angeles Times, Bacharach, who was born in Kansas City, became a racing fan while growing up in Queens. He said he would make "mind bets"...

Secretariat vs. Flightline (Tapit): Who was better? "I think Secretariat would have beat him," Secretariat's jockey Ron Turcotte said of a hypothetical match up between the two legendary horses. "That's no knock against the other horse. He's a beautiful horse. Well put together. I can't fault him in any way. But he has hasn't done enough for me to say he is better than Secretariat." That's not to say that Turcotte isn't a Flightline fan. "He's a fabulous horse," he said. "We don't know how fast he could run." Turcotte,...