Steve Dennis

Apr 12, 2024 | thoroughbredracing.com | Steve Dennis |Patrick Gilligan

Our acclaimed series celebrating 150 years of America’s greatest race continues with a famous filly who made history at Churchill Downs – thereby putting the Kentucky Derby on the national mapRacing is a sport in which women can do anything men can do – train winners, ride winners, own them, breed them, write about them, broadcast about them, sit in the boardroom, make the rules, govern the industry, anything you like.

Apr 9, 2024 | thoroughbredracing.com | Patrick Gilligan |Steve Dennis |Jay Hovdey

Nicknamed the ‘Indian Horse’ on account of his Native American owner-breeder, Black Gold won the 50th Kentucky Derby in 1924. We celebrate the 100th anniversary of a landmark success with this extract from Came The Dark Horse, a well-received book of collected writings by Patrick Lawrence Gilligan, who visited the horse’s burial site on the infield at Fair Grounds• Originally published February 2020There is a horse buried in the infield at Fair Grounds in New Orleans.

Mar 28, 2024 | thoroughbredracing.com | Steve Dennis |Jay Hovdey

Steve Dennis reaches the halfway point in his series with one of its most notorious renewals of America’s greatest race featuring controversial triumph and horrendous tragedyLegal is not always moral; occasionally the difference between them is reefer-paper thin, but frequently it is a mile wide. The outcome of the 2008 Kentucky Derby would bring that difference into the spotlight’s stark glare, and shake racing’s complacency about its bad old habits until it cracked.

Mar 23, 2024 | thoroughbredracing.com | Jay Hovdey |Steve Dennis |Patrick Gilligan

Continuing his monthly series, our movie correspondent enjoys a German take on a familiar cinematic tropeRock My Heart (2017) directed by Hanno Olderdissen; starring Lena Klenke, Dieter Hallervorden, Milan PeschelFor no particular reason, this series has seemed to avoid one of the most common genres of the racing movie universe. From National Velvet to Dreamer, few themes have played the heartstrings quite like The Girl, Her Horse, and The Big Race they fight long odds to enter and win.

Mar 21, 2024 | thoroughbredracing.com | Ken Snyder |Patrick Gilligan |Chris Smith |Steve Dennis

Ahead of the showpiece Jeff Ruby Steaks card, Ken Snyder enjoys a typical Friday night at the northern Kentucky venue where the grandstand was demolished in 2020 as part of a $226m renovation projectThere are crimes against humanity and then there is the demolition of the old Yankee Stadium. Do you pull down the Statue of Liberty for something more modern? Do you put the wrecking ball to the White House for better digs for the Prez because it’s old?