by Alan Shuback|04.29.201804.29.2018|4:48pm4:51pm Reinvented Longchamp Enters A Brave New World The long-awaited official opening of the new Longchamp, rebranded in the best marketing sense as ParisLongchamp to remind Parisians that the world’s most elegant racecourse is, indeed, just a few miles from the center of the French capital, went off with only a few hitches on Sunday afternoon as local racegoers and invited guests braved […]
by Alan Shuback|01.02.201801.03.2018|2:01pm8:49am Shuback: Foreign Invasion Creates Troubled Times For French Racing The death last month of the Marquise de Moratalla, for decades one of France’s leading breeder/owners, prompted her longtime trainer, the recently retired Francois Doumen, to remark that “she was the type of owner we don’t have in France anymore.” In fact, Doumen was putting his finger into the wound that has caused much agonizing […]
by Alan Shuback|11.18.201611.18.2016|7:17am7:20am Movie Review: ‘Chasing The Win’ Tracks Ups And Downs Of Kinsale King Trainer O’Callaghan He has slept rough under the Brooklyn Bridge and rubbed elbows with nobility at Royal Ascot. He has trained the cheapest claimers in the game and has won a $2-million race on the richest day of racing in the world. His name is Carl O’Callaghan and his rocky road up the ladder to dizzying heights […]
by Alan Shuback|09.28.2016|10:47pm Rita Hayworth: A Pin-Up Queen’s Flirtation With The French Turf Longchamp will be a lonely place this weekend. With the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and 10 accompanying group races transferred to Chantilly while a new grandstand is being built at Longchamp, the great racecourse on the western edge of Paris will be left to the ghosts of Arcs past. The spectral post parade at […]
by Alan Shuback|07.21.2016|8:00am A Tale Of Two Cities: The Synchronicity Of Saratoga And Deauville August 1864. It was the best of times in France: Napoleon III’s Second Empire was at the height of its glory, enabling prosperous ladies and gentlemen to escape the heat of Paris and head north for the delights of Deauville, the Duc de Morny’s new racecourse on the Normandy coast just a few hundred yards from […]
by Alan Shuback|05.01.201605.03.2016|11:25pm5:50am As Time Goes By: Clocking The Classics In 1964 Northern Dancer won the Kentucky Derby in the then-record time of two minutes flat. Was that the single “most exciting two minutes” in Derby history? Vincent O’Brien and Robert Sangster certainly thought so. The “Dancer” had carved 1.6 seconds off Whirlaway’s 1941 mark, attracting the attention of horsemen the world round. Led by […]