It is appropriate in some strange convoluted way that Birdstone is now at Old Friends Thoroughbred Farm in Lexington. The truth is, the little horse with the big heart doesn’t have many old friends. But it is hoped after being placed in the care of the irrepressible and energetic Michael Blowen he will soon have his share of new friends…
Steve Haskin Posting Archive
Can Birdstone Become an Old Friend?
September 21st, 2020Steve Haskin Posting Archive
Derby Recap: Bob and Jill’s Rocky Road to the Roses
September 9th, 2020On March 26, 2012 at 3 a.m., Bob Baffert’s life changed forever. That is when he awoke in his hotel room in Dubai complaining of chest pains. His wife Jill immediately called paramedics who rushed him to City Hospital, where stents were inserted into his blocked arteries…
Steve Haskin Posting Archive
Horse Racing: Where Dreams Meet Reality
September 7th, 2020Consider this a public service column. Just heed my words and you will live a joyous, fulfilling life.
Let’s start with the battle that plagues us all, especially when it comes to the world of Thoroughbred racing. It is a world like no other, comprised of two hemispheres. In one hemisphere exists the stark reality of practicality, if I may use a phrase I just concocted. In the other hemisphere exists the impracticality of romance. Or in other words, one hemisphere is guided by the brain and other by the heart…
Steve Haskin Posting Archive
Derby Rankings Handicapping & Analysis – “Law and Order…Finally”
September 2nd, 2020This column marks the end of the wildest, wackiest, and most perplexing Triple Crown trail ever. Hopefully, next year we will return to a sense of normality. I want to take this time to thank all those who made the transition from Derby Dozen and Hangin’ With Haskin to Secretariat.com and have continued to provide their comments, opinions and in depth analysis. And I want to welcome all the Secretariat fans and followers and newcomers who have joined us in this new endeavor…
Steve Haskin Posting Archive
Derby Rankings – Aug. 31, 2020
August 31st, 2020I hope you enjoy reading my final 2020 Derby Rankings below. Later this week, I will be posting a bonus column handicapping analysis of the race they call the Labor Day Kentucky Derby. It doesn’t matter much this year whether you follow my analysis and overall betting selections or your pet parrot’s if he can read the past performances on the bottom of his cage and tell you who he likes. But at least you’ll have more fun losing with mine. And who knows, maybe we all will stumble upon the winner and cash some nice exotics tickets…
Steve Haskin Posting Archive
Woodward Stakes Returns to its Roots
August 25th, 2020With the Woodward Stakes oddly competing with the Kentucky Derby this year, let’s not forget the major move by NYRA in changing the distance of this historic race back to a mile and a quarter and bringing back the glory days of the race that used to crown champions. Read about the early days of the Woodward and its amazing path to the Hall of Fame…
Steve Haskin Posting Archive
Sackatoga Two and the History of NY-Breds
August 18th, 2020It was a scene right out of a Norman Rockwell painting: a bunch of ordinary guys, friends since childhood, sitting in a backyard in the tiny town of Sackets Harbor, New York, enjoying a Memorial Day picnic. From that picnic would spring an idea that would have a profound effect on Thoroughbred racing and change the face of the New York breeding program…
Steve Haskin Posting Archive
Derby Rankings – Aug. 14, 2020
August 14th, 2020Welcome once again to “Steve Haskin’s Derby Doz”…oops, I mean “Derby Rankings.” Whatever the name it is still the same quest as always — ferreting out that elusive Kentucky Derby winner. After 22 years, the one thing we have learned is that it is the journey that is often more fun and more stimulating than reaching your destination, because for most, the destination ends in disappointment and second-guessing. So, every year we search for that diamond in the rough and hope it ends, not only in financial gain, but bragging rights for an entire year.
Steve Haskin Posting Archive
Sweat Legacy Etched in Stone
August 11th, 2020On a barren-looking tract of land in Rock Hill AME Church Cemetery in Vance, South Carolina, laid a withered slab of unknown material surrounded by dead grass and a tangle of weeds. At its head was a small vase of plastic blue and white flowers that had toppled over. Atop the slab was a plastic miniature horse and a plastic or ceramic miniature cardinal, along with a small faded blue sign attached with two screws with the simple words: “Edward Sweat 1939-1998.”
