Alfred Nuckols Jr.

Canadian champion 2-year-old colt Truth of It All (Proud Truth) died peacefully from natural causes at age 34 on Wednesday, July 24 at Hurstland Farm in Midway, Kentucky, according to a press release from the farm. By Darby Dan stallion Proud Truth, Truth of It All was born at Hurstland to MGSW Cup of Honey (Raise a Cup) Feb. 26, 1990. Trained by Sheldon Wolfe, Truth of It All won the 1993 edition of the GIII Grey Stakes en route to taking home the Sovereign Award for the top juvenile...

He was 12 when he finally convinced his father that he was ready to work with the horses. Previously he had been baling, mowing, weed-hooking, stripping bluegrass. His father agreed, albeit at a cost to his pay from $7 a day to $5. But the company of horses has always been beyond price to Alfred H. Nuckols Jr. Nor, to be fair, was that literal grounding--in the soil and pasture of the historic Hurstland Farm--lost on the youngster. To this day, in his stewardship of the portion that devolved to...

What has happened to this business? Growing up, I admired the participants, the trainers and the horses. There was Kelso, Forego, Typecast and a legion of others who raced and won without the need for modern day pharmacology. There were trainers who trained their horses without medications and honorable owners who only wanted to win at the highest level on a level playing field. You hear stories and rumors of "so and so uses this on their horses" and think that testing procedures will ferret out the cheaters. Then you...