by John Scheinman|07.13.202307.28.2023|12:04pm11:40am Scheinman: With Four Of Five Runners From One Barn, Saratoga’s Diana An Affront To Betting Public This Saturday’s edition of the Diana at Saratoga Race Course, quite simply, is an abomination that never should have been carded. It’s bad enough that racetracks successfully petitioned (owner-stacked) racing boards to allow for uncoupled entries in races, but to allow four of five entrants to come from the same barn, regardless of independent ownership, […]
by John Scheinman|06.01.2023|9:18am Major Dude, Candidate Clash Again In Friday’s Grade 2 Penn Mile Changing approaches to training and the decision often to duck major confrontations until the Breeders’ Cup has sharply reduced the number of major rivalries that create excitement among racing fans. On Friday night, however, Major Dude and Candidate – two of the most promising 3-year-old turf stakes horses in the country – face off for […]
by John Scheinman|05.16.2023|5:17pm Scheinman: The Pimlico Special Contains A Pantheon Of Thoroughbred Immortals At the ripe old age of 23, a horse crazy Alfred Vanderbilt Jr. got it in his head that he could create the definitive championship of thoroughbred horse racing in America. Wealth tends to beget confidence, or hubris, and Vandberbilt certainly had the wealth. His plan was deceptively simple: Invite the best horses in training […]
by John Scheinman|03.12.2023|10:01pm Scheinman: Remembering Hall Of Famer Xtra Heat, Horse Of A Lifetime Xtra Heat was one of the most fun stories of my racing writing career. “Big, old, dumb hillbilly” trainer John Salzman, African American businessman owner Kenny Taylor and partner Harry Deitchman – she was the horse of their lifetimes and one of the greatest sprinters who ever lived. None of them would ever admit they […]
by John Scheinman|05.18.2022|4:25pm Pierre And George Lorillard: Kings Of The Preakness In The Gilded Age In the three decades following the Civil War, rich men with outsized ambitions began to shape the future of America. Captains of industry or robber barons, depending on your perspective, they built a country on industrialization, steel, railroading and untethered capitalism. With all the miserable North-South bloodshed out of the way, the wealthiest Americans got […]
by John Scheinman|06.19.201906.19.2019|5:52pm6:03pm Scheinman: An Everlasting Bond That Ties Horses And Humans Together When I worked at the long-gone Montgomery Journal newspaper in Rockville, Md., having switched over to the copy desk from sports, an old horse trainer named Bernie Bond died in 1993. I had the picture cut out of his obituary in the Daily Racing Form taped to a drawer underneath my desk, and there it […]
by John Scheinman|05.29.201905.29.2019|7:09pm7:23pm Quality Runs Deep In Penn Mile Field; A Thread Of Blue Favored After suffering a heartbreaking loss by less than a length to undefeated Digital Age in the Grade 2 American Turf Stakes at Churchill Downs on Kentucky Derby Day, rising 3-year-old grass star A Thread of Blue will seek to resume his speedy dominance Saturday in the 7th running of the Grade 2, $500,000 Penn Mile at Hollywood […]
by John Scheinman|05.23.201905.24.2019|7:05pm10:48am 241 Horses Nominated To June 1 Penn Mile Day Stakes At Penn National Klaravich Stables, Inc.’s undefeated Digital Age, upset winner of the Grade 2 American Turf Stakes on Kentucky Derby Day at Churchill Downs, headlines an overflowing list of 47 top 3-year-old turf runners nominated to the Grade 2, $500,000 Penn Mile, the marquee race of the year at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course in […]
by John Scheinman|05.30.201805.30.2018|6:21pm7:00pm Rising Turf Star Maraud Among 8 Contesting Penn Mile With three victories in his past four starts, two of them in graded stakes company, Treadway Racing Stable’s Maraud streaks into the sixth running of the Grade 2, $500,000 Penn Mile, for 3-year-olds on the grass this Saturday as one of the leading young turf stars in the country. Conditioned by Todd Pletcher – seven […]
by John Scheinman|05.24.201805.24.2018|5:19pm5:49pm Rushing Fall Nominated to Penn Mile, Penn Oaks At Penn National June 2 eFive Racing Thoroughbreds’ Rushing Fall, runner-up in the 2017 Eclipse Award balloting for champion two-year-old filly honors, headlines a glistening list of 43 nominations for the Grade 2, $500,000 Penn Mile, the richest race of the year at Hollywood Casino at Penn National Race Course. Trained by Chad Brown, runaway Eclipse Award winner as the […]