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When Gulfstream Park staged the "Race of the Century" 56 years ago this spring, 17,300 fans packed the grandstand. They stared out onto a horseless track, where an empty starting gate was parked ceremonially at the 1 1/4 miles position. They rooted, cursed and cheered home their picks. Not a single person ended up witnessing the race. Yet those in attendance--and a nation of fans who tuned in via the NBC Radio broadcast or read about the outcome in coast-to-coast newspaper coverage--seemed to be in vehement agreement for weeks afterward...

At a time when so many people seem to be allowing a duty of vigilance to crumble into morbid defeatism, it seems a little unfair that our sport should be going through such a hard time even as we approach the 50th anniversary of the most luminous tour de force in the story of the modern breed. Of course, as some powerful evocations of the time have lately reminded us, Secretariat arrived as a sunbeam into a wider world darkened by Vietnam and civic unrest. And nor should we deceive...

Coming from a culture where most wagering stipulates a fixed dividend, in the startling event that your horse happens to see through his part of the deal, I tend to view the morning line on American races as named for the hangover evidently being suffered by its compiler. Certainly by the time the market has been soberly hydrated with dollars and cents, I won't be expecting anything as close to an even play as the 4-5 listed about Forte (Violence) overcoming the wide draw that appears to introduce his only...

There won't be a real GI Kentucky Derby Saturday, but there will be a pretend one--a really interesting pretend one. Working with the firm Inspired Entertainment, Churchill Downs will present the Kentucky Derby Triple Crown Showdown. It's a virtual race that will pit the 13 Triple Crown winners against one another. Data algorithms, including historical handicapping information about each horse, will be used to decide the outcome. The virtual Derby will air on NBC and fans can go online at www.KentuckyDerby.com to submit their picks and make contributions to charities...

Secretariat has been established as the horse to beat in Saturday's Kentucky Derby: Triple Crown Showdown by odds maker Mike Battaglia. The Kentucky Derby: Triple Crown Showdown is an animated race created by Inspired Entertainment Inc. using computer-generated imagery that will feature the 13 past Triple Crown winners in a 1 1/4-mile race at Churchill Downs. The virtual race will air around 5:45 p.m. as part of NBC's broadcast of "The First Saturday In May: American  Pharoah's Run to the Triple Crown" Saturday from 3-6 p.m. Secretariat landed post position...

by Reg Lansberry Tommy Trotter, whose 56-year career encompassed decades as one of the sport's most acclaimed racing secretaries, died Sunday in Aventura, FL, after a brief illness. In addition to his renown as a racing secretary, he was a widely respected handicapper who stamped the immortal careers of Kelso, Forego and other champions by assigning them forbidding amounts of handicap weight that served to certify their greatness. "When I think of Tommy Trotter, I think of Jimmy Kilroe," said Tom Robbins, executive vice president for racing at Del Mar....