However poignant the cue, our collective reflections on the legacy of D. Wayne Lukas will discover much comfort not only in his vital embrace of every moment of a long, fulfilling life but also in the benedictions we can take forward with us. These range from the example he has set us all, in passionate [...]

Helping to create what he now calls “a monster” weighs heavily with Dr. Chris Cahill. Actually, he has a way to put it back in the cage. But let's not get ahead of ourselves; let's first remind ourselves how it all happened. Cahill came to Lexington from Texas for the 1974 breeding season as a [...]

Feel free to make plans, working with Thoroughbreds–just don't be deceived that it'll ever be you who decides how far they work out. With a young son to raise, Becky Maker had quit the rootless life of a trainer and taken a role on the pre-training team at WinStar. “Just to stay in one place, [...]

While it is neither the habit nor the place of this column to cite scripture, words that some of you may have heard last Sunday should resonate with everyone in this game: “Endurance produces character, and character produces hope.” Certainly we wouldn't have much of a business if the reverses we endure could not be [...]

There's nothing a horse can tell Bob Duncan about the terrors of a confined space. He was already on the gate crew, back in 1968, when he went to visit his parents at Laurel, where his dad was training a small string. After an evening at a nearby bar, his buddy threw him the keys. [...]

First and foremost, let's salute Journalism (Curlin) and his connections for confirming that only feebleness in horsemen, not horses, menaces the Triple Crown schedule. In last weekend replicating his Churchill challenge to crop leader Sovereignty (Into Mischief), moreover actually moving up his numbers, the only horse to contest all three legs demonstrated precisely the prowess [...]

“The first big firework that's gone off since I got here,” acknowledges Jacob West. “And I will say this: I think it'll put the other farms on notice. I think people are going to say, `woah, they're back. Not exactly a new shooter, obviously–but reloaded.'” The new stallion seasons and bloodstock manager at Claiborne Farm [...]

In approaching a Saturday that threatens to restore the Triple Crown viability of the American Thoroughbred-between Journalism (Curlin) here, and a son of Justify at Epsom-it feels timely to consider a horse often viewed as typifying the precarious compromise between size and speed, on the one hand, and soundness on the other. The double-edged reputation [...]

Too much of a good thing? Not when it comes to maintaining the gold standard. For if we have only recently celebrated the way Medaglia d'Oro is confounding the self-fulfilling prejudice against aging stallions by continuing to produce runners like Good Cheer and East Avenue, then he now demands a sequel addressing his equal prowess [...]

Bill duPont's program today is much smaller than it was back in the 1980s, when he stood 15 stallions across three continents. Nonetheless all his experience keeps telling in a fashion very hard to emulate for anyone now trying to fill that kind of space. Under the banner of Pillar Properties Services Inc., duPont bred [...]

They had grown up together, the boy and his horse. Their bond was innate. In fact, he has been told that his mother was on horseback when her waters broke. That was how it was, up in the mountains. Most people couldn't afford cars, certainly not the type that might cope with those roads. “We [...]

No doubt about it, the folks at Hagyards seem to have found themselves a promising intern. Still early days, mind. Richard Holder has only been there 53 years. In fact, Dr. Holder believes himself the first beneficiary of an official internship at the storied Lexington firm, founded in 1876, albeit Dr. William McGee himself was [...]