Connections

Some people have a knack for making life look easy. Louisville-based owner and breeder Richard Rigney might be one of them. His early partnerships in racing found quick success, with a filly winning a Grade 1 and taking second at the Breeders’ Cup and a colt coming home fifth in the Kentucky Derby. The beverage […]

Hard Not To Like came to the 2014 Keeneland November sale at age five with 16 starts and two graded stakes wins. The daughter of Hard Spun, many could argue, had filled out her resume at just the right time to retire. But something about the mare caught the eyes of bloodstock agents Marette Farrell […]

Just an hour east of the sprawling metropolis of Dallas, Texas is Diamond D Ranch, a picturesque home for young Thoroughbreds. For more than three decades, the Dodwell family has had a hand in the early training of racehorses, preparing them for what lies ahead. Diamond D’s training program began in 1981, when founders Ed […]

When Effinex and Angel Arroyo crossed the wire first in last month’s Grade 3 Excelsior Stakes at Aqueduct, things seemed to have come full circle for Dr. Russell Cohen. Cohen organizes the horse’s campaign as racing manager for his mother’s Tri-Bone Stables and is also the colt’s breeder and veterinarian. “My feet still haven’t hit […]

Pamela Ziebarth had just gotten into buying her own Thoroughbreds at auction when she spotted one she really liked — a bay daughter of Boston Harbor at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale in 2002. The hammer fell at $100,000 for the filly, and Ziebarth was the top bidder. With the help of Berkey Bloodstock, Ziebarth had […]

Kerwin Clark is having quite a year. The 56-year-old jockey is the first to admit that after four decades in the saddle, his biggest goal was to hit win number 3,000 (he’s close at 2,914), and he assumed his career was over the hill. “Fifteen years ago I had decided I was just going to stay […]

When jockey agent Brian Beach first joined the racing industry, Hall of Fame rider Bill Shoemaker gave him this bit of advice: “Never get too high on the highs and don’t get too low on the lows, and that’s how you survive.” Beach has always taken that sentiment to heart. Now, after years of hard […]

John Terranova, trainer of Zayat Stables’ El Kabeir in this 141st Kentucky Derby, is in love with Thoroughbred racehorses. It’s a love affair that began when he was just a child. Exposed to the horses owned by his father, John Sr., Terranova fell in love with these majestic creatures when he was 9 years old. […]

The philosophy at Stoneway Farm in LaGrange, Ky., is that if you’re breeding the product, you better believe in it. And if you believe in it, you should take the time required to protect your investment. It’s a philosophy honed over the past 16 years by owner Jim Stone and his business and life partner, […]

A few days after Wild in the Saddle’s win in the Dream of Summer Stakes at Santa Anita, Nadine Anderson was running on a few hours’ sleep, but her voice hadn’t lost the glow of an owner’s first stakes win. Anderson is a co-owner and manager at Brazeau Thoroughbred Farm in Hemet, Calif., where she […]