Secretariat

EVAN FERRARO, RECRUITING & MARKETING MANAGER, FASIG-TIPTON Favorite: Songbird The two-time Fasig-Tipton sales graduate has been a personal favorite of mine since first seeing her as a yearling. Back in 2014, my friend and Fasig-Tipton colleague Dennis Lynch returned from a yearling inspection trip in California raving about a Medaglia d'Oro filly he had accepted for our Saratoga Sale. Whenever Dennis talks up a horse, you better listen, as he is one of the best judges around. That filly turned out to be Songbird. Songbird was easy to fall for,...

For Christmas 1973, I received a green sports jersey and a pair of white shorts, a white they'd never be again. We lived in Kilmallock and those were the colours of our county, Limerick. My younger brother was far from as fortunate and less than enamoured with his red and white of Cork, our neighbouring county and foe, just a few miles up the road. I'd also got a book, an annual of the sporting year. It was hardback, thick and as big as me. I was six and, by...

After being forced to postpone all farm tours at the historic Claiborne Farm, the top Bluegrass attraction and Thoroughbred fan destination announced that they would be conducting a live virtual stallion tour through Instagram beginning Tuesday, Mar. 17. The idea was a huge success, with over 200 fans tuning in live on Instagram and thousands more watching the recording later on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. The recording has already received 12,000 views and 300 shares on Facebook. (Watch the video of the tour below). [tdn_video service="youtube" videoid= "HHhSx031dKg"] "It's normally...

TDN is proud to partner with the Keeneland Library and the Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky Libraries in a very special collaboration: the Keeneland 'Life's Work' Oral History Project, a series of filmed interviews by TDN columnist Chris McGrath with significant figures in the Thoroughbred industry. The current installment, with Gus Koch of Claiborne Farm, appears here. Legends, to you and me. Immortals, paragons. But to Gus Koch, they were the flesh-and-blood companions of his daily toil: some were cherished friends; others, just a pain...

Amid uncertainty over whether or not the track will be dark in 2020 as negotiations with Churchill Downs continue, the Arlington Racing Department has released the track's 2020 Stakes Schedule. The August 15th $1-million dollar GI Arlington Million is the highlight of the 18-stakes schedule worth $3.65 million. Opening May 1, the highlight of the 68-day race meet is the International Festival of Racing where, in addition to the 1 1/4-mile Million, Arlington also hosts the 1 3/16-mile $600,000 GI Beverly D. Stakes for fillies and mares and the 1-mile $500,000 GI Secretariat Stakes for sophomores. Both the Million and the...

A winner of the GI Breeders' Cup Turf at Santa Anita Nov. 2 and unbeaten in six starts last year, Bricks and Mortar (Giant's Causeway) has been named the winner of the 10th annual Vox Populi Award, which will be presented in a winner's circle ceremony Saturday at Santa Anita Park. Created by the late owner of 1973 Triple Crown hero Secretariat, Penny Chenery, the inaugural Vox Populi (Voice of the People) Award was won by the legendary Zenyatta in 2010. Bricks and Mortar was campaigned for owners Klaravich Stables,...

"Inside the Winner's Circle, Presented by Keeneland" is a series showcasing graduates of the Keeneland September sale who have gone on to achieve success on racing's biggest stages. 'TDN Rising Star' Valid Point (Scat Daddy) isn't exactly following the script his owners envisioned when they bought him as a $140,000 yearling at the 2017 Keeneland September sale. But the improvised rewrite this undefeated colt is orchestrating just might turn out better than the original story line, because the plot thickened considerably last Saturday when Valid Point roared home a length...

Arlington's GI Secretariat S., contested at a mile and a quarter since 1985, has been turned back in distance to a one-mile event this year, and drew a competitive nine-horse field for Saturday's running at the Chicago area oval. True to form, Chad Brown has a pair of imposing runners in Peter Brant's Fog of War (War Front) and e Five Racing Thoroughbreds and Mike Ryan's Valid Point (Scat Daddy). Fog of War, who followed up a debut victory with a popular score in the GI Summer S. at Woodbine,...

For many, the impending return of structured racing to Virginia at Colonial Downs in New Kent evokes stirring memories of a horse culture firmly embedded in the Commonwealth's history. On a personal level, I cannot help but harken back to my days as a track and field athlete at the College of William and Mary in the heart of Colonial Williamsburg, when I would routinely pair 18-mile training days with evening trips to a musty OTB down the road in Hampton to bet Penn National and Charles Town. I'd often...