When a demagogue overplays his hand and exposes himself as the cheap bully he really is, his supporters begin quietly distancing themselves from him, leaving him to twist slowly in the wind. The more he raves, the more of an embarrassment he becomes until, finally, he leaves the public arena in disgrace.
So it was with […]

[Read more →]

On the morning of Sunday, August 23, 1959, my 16-year-old heart was racing as I grabbed The Lexington Herald-Leader off the front steps at 329 Mentelle Park in Lexington and pulled out the sports section. I hurriedly thumbed through the pages until I found the story headlined, “53 Henry Clay Grid Candidates Prep for Opener.”
It […]

[Read more →]

Churchill Downs’ wildly successful experiment with night racing has provided a huge ray of a hope to an industry that desperately needs every shred of good news it can get. The show now moves to Ellis Park in Henderson, where owner Ron Geary is set to go out of business after the upcoming meet due […]

[Read more →]

On the way to Morehead last weekend, I stopped off to eat in my hometown of Mount Sterling. I bought a copy of the local newspaper, the Advocate, and right there on the front page was the news that a grand jury had been convened to investigate yet another cockfighting ring.
Now fighting roosters isn’t as […]

[Read more →]

The Courier-Journal’s current series about the thoroughbred industry is a triumph of packaging over substance. It’s largely a rehashing of old material done up nicely with dramatic color photos, graphs, and charts. It will play nicely with the judges when it comes to contest time, which, of course, is the point.
But this isn’t to dismiss […]

[Read more →]

We must act now. We no longer have the luxury of time. And we must understand that just because we have squandered advantages and monopolies we enjoyed in the past, it’s not too late to make a comeback

[Read more →]

Sometimes dreams do, indeed, come true, but only if you give yourself a chance

[Read more →]

Strode and his ilk weren’t content merely to snap pictures. They wanted to tell stories through photographic essays that usually required considerably more time, thought, and energy than a routine assignment.

[Read more →]

The injury apparently knocked Valasquez out of the Kentucky Derby on May 6. Even at that, he was lucky

[Read more →]

Once I had stopped bashing myself in the head with my fist, I found something in Sinister Minister’s Blue Grass victory that I liked

[Read more →]