Scribbling Sarah

Our business already includes one John whose namesake signed the Declaration of Independence. (Good day to you, Mr. Penn.) But now we have another, this time on four legs, bidding to confirm that Constitution--if not a founding father--is certainly a patriarch in the making. Yet if the Sam F. Davis Stakes winner were to carve his "John Hancock" on the GI Kentucky Derby roll of honor, he would only be further magnifying two names whose Churchill achievements are already outsized. One is that of his dam Scribbling Sarah (Freud), who...

For Gail Rice, the way luck and judgement play out with Thoroughbreds is sooner a matter of faith than mere fate. "God tries to make you make the right decisions," she declares. But then she gives a delighted, self-deprecating laugh and adds: "Apparently for once I listened properly!" Yes she did. Because you would have had to strain your ears pretty hard to catch the hint, the time Rice saw a young New York-bred mare by Freud in the back ring at the 2015 Fasig-Tipton February Sale. Scribbling Sarah had...