The legendary writer Damon Runyon was such a big fan of jockey Earl Sande, the nation’s best  jockey of the 1920s and ‘30s, that he often was moved to write poems about him. One of Sande’s rival jockeys commented that it was bad enough getting beaten by Sande all the time, but Runyon made it […]

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LOUISVILLE – During his brief stay at Churchill Downs, the pride of Northern California has been regarded more as a curiosity than a legitimate contender for Saturday’s 135th Kentucky Derby. Everybody thinks it’s, well, sweet that weight-loss magnate Jenny Craig is the owner of a colt named Chocolate Candy. Just the other day a tourist […]

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LOUISVILLE – America needs for General Quarters to win the Kentucky Derby. It’s simple as that. At a time when the nation is suffering in so many ways, when the future is so uncertain, the country needs an old-fashioned feel-good story to remind us that dreams can be made real if you’re willing to work […]

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LOUISVILLE – As I was hanging around Barn 37, waiting for Tom McCarthy to finish grooming General Quarters, Bob Baffert came driving along in a huge SUV. Some of my colleagues waved at him to stop and Baffert obliged. I used the opportunity to walk over and congratulate him for being voted in the Racing […]

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However the Rick Pitino extortion story plays out, the damage already has been done. When sensational allegations make their way into the media, the story takes on a life of its own. Gossip and rumor-mongering  foul  the airwaves and the Internet. The facts, whatever they are, become almost secondary to the perception. The damage to […]

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Mike Casey was one of Coach Adolph Rupp’s favorite University of Kentucky players because he loved to compete, always played hard (in games, at least), and had an innate “feel” for the game that Rupp called “having a nose for the ball.” He meant that somehow Casey always was as the right place at the […]

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Those golf nuts who have been waiting for years to see Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson paired on the final day of a major championship got their wish at the Masters.  The game’s two best players were tied heading into the last round, and, at the end of a spectacular duel that lived up to […]

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The bobbling heads and motor mouths on ESPN determined before the college basketball season that the Big East, top to bottom, was the best conference in the history of the sport. They sold the idea so relentlessly that the viewing audience accepted it as gospel. This turned out to be a godsend for North Carolina, […]

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Given the all the realities and possibilities, John Calipari was the best hire the University of Kentucky could make. He is everything his predecessor wasn’t – and more. He will control the media, charm the fans, get more than his share of the nation’s best recruits, and hang new championship banners in Rupp Arena. And […]

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