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By Maryjean Wall I’m certain you’ll hear a lot more horse talk in the clouds now, following the recent death of Preston Madden, owner of Hamburg Place and breeder of Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner, Alysheba. Imagine him catching up in heaven with his grandfather, John E. Madden, who died in 1929. John Madden, notorious two-fisted gambler and founder of Hamburg Place in 1898, was called the Wizard of the Turf. He was responsible for six Kentucky Derby and five Belmont Stakes winners. “Presto,” the old Wizard might have said upon greeting his grandson from his own puffy cloud, “I’ve

By Margaret Ransom A field of 11 is set for the $300,000 Shoemaker Mile (G1) at Santa Anita on Monday, including last year’s Preakness (G1) winner War of Will, who hasn’t raced since a ninth-place finish in the Breeders’ Cup Classic (G1) nearly seven months ago. The son of War Front joined stablemate March to the Arch and Chad Brown trainees Raging Bull and Without Parole, and a few others, on the Tex Sutton plane bound for California earlier this week and all will be part of a talent-filled field for Memorial Day feature. The Shoemaker Mile is the first

By Richard Rosenblatt Here we go Maxfield! In his first start in more than seven months, Maxfield made a wide move around the final turn and overtook the leaders in deep stretch to win the $150,000 Matt Winn Stakes (G3) at Churchill Downs on Saturday. The 3-year-old son of Kentucky Derby winner Street Sense is now undefeated in three starts. He was sidelined with an ankle injury that kept him out of the 2019 Breeders’ Cup Juvenile (G1). Trained by Brendan Walsh, the Godolphin-owned colt was sent off as the 6-5 favorite in the 1 1-16-mile Derby qualifier, and earned

By Lynne Snierson Named one of People Magazine’s “100 Most Beautiful People” in 2008, Chantal Sutherland was poised to become racing’s “It Girl.” She subsequently appeared in a four-page spread in Vogue Magazine, along with a feature in Sports Illustrated. She was a regular on the TV series “Jockeys” on Animal Planet and “Luck” on HBO; was the face of a Canadian company’s beauty products line; modeled Esquire watches in TV ads and was the poster girl for Del Mar in the track’s massive marketing campaign. On the southern California jockey circuit, the two-time Sovereign Award winner was in demand

By Margaret Ransom It’s safe to say that anyone involved or interested in horse racing that doesn’t know who Charlie Whittingham was could probably do some extra research. The Hall of Fame trainer, who managed the care of racing legends such as Sunday Silence, Ferdinand, Exceller and hundreds of other stakes winners and champions over a nearly 50-year career, still remains the gold standard — along with a short list of names like Fitzsimmons, Stephens, Nerud, Lukas, Frankel and Baffert — by which all trainers will forever be judged. Known as “The Bald Eagle” for obvious reasons, Whittingham is memorialized

By Mike Farrell We owe a debt of gratitude to Florida, Arkansas and the other states that proved racing could be safely conducted in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to their fortitude and trailblazing protocols, other jurisdictions have loosened the clamps and are allowing the sport to resume, albeit without a live audience. Churchill Downs was among the dormant tracks that have sprung back to life. The impact of the CD shutdown rippled through the entire industry with the most dramatic development the unprecedented rescheduling of the Kentucky Derby (G1) from the first Saturday in May to Labor