Allen Paulson

It was just another day making sales calls. About eight years ago, I walked into a Farmstead Veterinary clinic in rural Indiana and looked at their wall-mounted cork board--the kind with tacked-up business cards. There was a gleaming picture of a horse with a flaxen mane and tail. I said to Ken Kimmick, DVM, "I know that horse. That's Hap." A stunned Dr. Kimmick replied that was indeed Hap, and the story unfolded. Hap had a royal pedigree and was bred and owned by Allen Paulson. But Hap's recent passing...

Off the top of your head, how many Thoroughbreds can you name who have been immortalized by having their characteristic in-race "move" named after them? Only three leap to mind for me: The "Silky Sullivan move" was coined in the late 1950s in honor of a California fan favorite who made a career out of lagging far behind and closing with a flourish, sometimes from more than 40 lengths off the pace. This phrase made its way into the lexicon of other sports and even American politics to signify an...

Arazi (Blushing Groom {Fr}-Danseur Fabuleux, by Northern Dancer), whose five-length victory in the 1991 GI Breeders' Cup Juvenile at Churchill Downs is regarded as one of the greatest performances ever at the Breeders' Cup, has died at 32 at Stockwell Thoroughbreds in Victoria, Australia. In a feat rarely seen nowadays, Arazi traveled to the Breeders' Cup in 1991 to take on the best American colts on the dirt. The chestnut was favoured even though he had never run on the surface and despite the presence of leading American 2-year-old Bertrando,...

Twenty-five years ago, Cigar put together a perfect 10-for-10 season in the middle of a streak of 16 straight wins. We remember it here. It was the sixth race on an ordinary Friday card in October at Aqueduct some 26 years ago and there was nothing to suggest that the $34,000 allowance event would ever have any relevance. Jose Santos was aboard the favorite, a recent allowance winner who started out at Suffolk Downs named Golden Plover. Julie Krone had the mount for Tom Skiffington on second-choice Taddarruj. The third...

Akiko Gothard, who trained K One King (Apalachee) to an eighth-place effort in the 1999 GI Kentucky Derby and a victory in the 2000 GI Oaklawn H., passed away July 6 in Lexington, the Blood-Horse reported. She was 89 years old. Born Akiko Ozeki, she was married to Don McVarish, an American soldier, in her native Japan, relocating to the United States in 1956. Gothard served as a liaison in helping Japanese buyers at Keeneland. She became a trainer in the 1990s, saddling 347 winners from 2,008 starters for earnings...