| Recent Podcasts |
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Podcast #46: POINT OF VIEW: Aiken, South Carolina
This year marks the 175th birthday of the town of Aiken, South Carolina. Aiken is where I live, where Dogwood Stable is headquartered.
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Podcast #45: POINT OF VIEW: 2010 Eclipse Awards
As I dictate this I have just cut the television set off after watching the Eclipse Awards. I have some observations. As is always the case, it is a very interesting night in racing and I think generally everyone does a good job.
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Podcast #44: POINT OF VIEW: State of the Industry
The exercise of half-ton animals, with tiny riders on top of them, racing around large ovals, is undoubtedly an entertainment anachronism in this day of instant - and frantic - gratification.
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Podcast #43: POINT OF VIEW: The Arabs
Sheikh Mohammed… Darley… Godolphin… the Arabs in general have been a Godsend to the horse industry. They have bought gazillions in bloodstock, created the greatest racing stables in the history of the game and developed gorgeous breeding farms all over
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Podcast #42: POINT OF VIEW: Aikenite
I am in a strange business - I have a strange life in that my livelihood depends (when greatly over simplified) on the selection and management of large four-legged animals that seek to run faster than some other large four-legged animals.
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Podcast #41: POINT OF VIEW: 2009 Breeders' Cup
Here are some rambling, random thoughts about the Breeders’ Cup. I’m just back from California where we ran Aikenite in the Juvenile race. I’m not a great fan of California, although I like it once I get there...
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Podcast #40: BOOK READING: The Preakness Stakes and Summer Squall
At Preakness time we are inspired to reminisce a little bit and think about the Preakness that we won with Summer Squall in 1990. This is an excerpt from my book Memoirs of a Longshot.
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Podcast #39: POINT OF VIEW: Turf Writers
Racing is losing a lot of its good beat writers, as, alas, so many newspapers are falling by the wayside, and those that remain are not enamored with horse racing, the New York Times, being the worst. It barely covers racing, and seems almost to have a
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Podcast #38: REMINISCING: Cogs in the Wheel
When Dogwood began the partnership concept many, many years ago, we were not greeted with a warm welcome from the old guard traditionalists in the sport, though there did come a thaw fairly early in our history. But given the chilly reception we got early
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Podcast #37: POINT OF VIEW: Partnerships
There are many aspects of the wonderful sport of Thoroughbred horse racing that are in a "blue funk" at the moment, but one that is flourishing is the proliferation of partnerships on the racetrack. I'll bet you close to half the horses racing today are
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Podcast #36: POINT OF VIEW: Two-Year-Old Sales
There exists no braver person in the history of American commerce than the pinhooker of Thoroughbred racehorses. He deals in the worst perishable commodity imaginable. He buys raw material (yearlings or weanlings), seeks to improve them, furnish them out
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Podcast #35: POINT OF VIEW: 2009 Eclipse Awards
Dogwood had a table at the Eclipse Awards bash at the Fontainebleau in Miami Beach in late January, and I was generally impressed with the event. I am not proud of the fact that we have not supported it very much in the past. Dogwood has won two Eclipse A
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Podcast #34: BOOK READING: One Time for the Boys
"Four things greater than all things are-Women and Horses and Power and War."
--Rudyard Kipling, "Ballad of the King's Jest"
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Podcast #33: POINT OF VIEW: The Economy
When a year comes to an end, it brings out everybody and his dog to begin reflecting, reminiscing and prognosticating. So why not me? I am old enough to have seen Man o' War on three different occasions, so surely I, too, am a candidate to reflect and/or
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Podcast #32: POINT OF VIEW: Ray Paulick
I was a reporter on a couple of daily newspapers when I was young, and while I was ill-equipped for the work at first, due to lack of education in some of the more serious aspects of life, I hung on tenaciously and finally got pretty good at it. I hung on
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Podcast #31: REMINISCING: The Fair Grounds
It is good to see the Fair Grounds in New Orleans emerging as perhaps the best winter racetrack in America-at least east of the Mississippi River. Although this status comes with the help of slot machines whose action contributes pleasingly to beefing up
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Podcast #30: BOOK READING: Kelso
This is a reading from my book Rascals and Racehorses. Having always said how fruitless it is to evaluate racehorses, I am now going to evaluate one. His name was Kelso, and he was the best horse that ever looked through a bridle! To me.
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Podcast #29: REMINISCING: Athletes
One of the few advantages of getting long in the tooth is that because I have led a marvelous, adventurous life, I have seen some wonderful things and have a storehouse of delicious memories, which, admittedly, I enjoy visiting.
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Podcast #28: BOOK READING: Pipedreamer
I have known well over one thousand horses. Some I quickly forgot, and they deserved forgetting. You remember well the great ones, and you think of them often. You appreciate their vital role in the development of your career. There were others that were
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Podcast #27: POINT OF VIEW: Dogwood's Old Friends
I'm often asked, "Say, whatever became of old so-and-so"-referring to some long gone Dogwood horse, probably lost in a claiming race. Sometimes I don't know, and I always feel a little guilty when I say that. It doesn't sound good to admit you don't know
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Podcast #26: POINT OF VIEW: Partnerships
Almost forty years ago the first legal racing partnership was formed-by yours truly, operating as Dogwood Stable. It was considered to be pushing the envelope.
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Podcast #25: POINT OF VIEW: The Yearling Sales
This is the season for the major Thoroughbred yearling auction sales-first Fasig-Tipton in Lexington, then Saratoga, then Keeneland, with lots of lesser spots in between.
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Podcast #24: POINT OF VIEW: The Paulick Report
As I utter these words I am pleased to learn that Ellis Park, a modest but colorful and traditional old track near Evansville, Indiana, has ironed out its financial squabble with the horsemen over offsite gambling revenue. After closing for a few days
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Podcast #23: REMINISCING: Royal Ascot
I have attended Royal Ascot a dozen times in my life and in the end I grew weary of what I found to be a staggering number of bona fide fops. But I am reminded now of what a beautiful thing horseracing can be, when conducted in a lovely, manicured setting
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Podcast #22: POINT OF VIEW: Doctors vs. Breeders
One of the brightest, most highly respected Thoroughbred industry figures is the former Farm Manager and President of Three Chimneys Farm-Dan Rosenberg.
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Podcast #21: POINT OF VIEW: Big Brown and the Triple Crown
I love the horse Big Brown. But I do not love the package that Big Brown comes in, nor the blueprint for his future. For that reason I do not see that his winning the Belmont and the Triple Crown (for the first time in thirty years) is going to be a
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Podcast #20: POINT OF VIEW: IEAH Stables
Big Brown, the winner of the Kentucky Derby, is owned by an outfit called IEAH Stables – that’s International Equine Acquisitions Holdings, Inc. Reportedly they paid $3 million for three-fourths of Big Brown.
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Podcast #19: POINT OF VIEW: The Arab Dilemma
I have always been in support of the Arabs, and welcomed their participation in horse racing. I have felt that they (Sheikh Mohammed in particular) loved horses, loved the sport of horse racing, and God knows the money they’ve spent in livestock has been
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Podcast #18: POINT OF VIEW: Gulfstream
...But it is a sorry place now. This season, as a site for the racing of Thoroughbred horses, it has been dismal. I do not think Gulfstream's owners - Magna Entertainment Corporation (Frank Stronach) - have done much for racing. In fact, the Magna
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Podcast #17: POINT OF VIEW: NYRA
I don’t know that the Thoroughbred racing industry is overloaded with great administrative/executive talent. In fact, it is not – which is one reason there are trouble spots throughout the corporate landscape of horse racing.
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Podcast #16: REMINISCING: Where are Racing's Characters?
Racing has become more bottom line oriented in recent years and the "loosey-goosiness" of the old days has diminished. Perhaps this is good. Perhaps it isn't.
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Podcast #15: POINT OF VIEW: Breeders' Cup Purchases
Dogwood Stable has always maintained that a healthy neighborhood in which to buy prospective racehorses is $150,000 to $300,000. I think this position is substantiated by the fact that for the first time in a while, the strength of the Keeneland September
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Podcast #14: POINT OF VIEW: The Age of the Myectomy
Clearly, God was in a whimsical mood when He designed the bodily structure of the Thoroughbred racehorse. He put half a ton of obstreperous muscle mass on relatively frail legs, more suited to supporting a German Police Dog.
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Podcast #13: POINT OF VIEW: Nicknames and Other Musings
Recently, a well known turf writer in California called me because he was doing a column on racetrack characters and their nicknames.
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Podcast #12: POINT OF VIEW: Potpourri
This will be a potpourri of what we laughingly call “Gems of Wisdom.” The only Dogwood accomplishments of Kentucky Derby weekend were that two of the major players – and the winner – got started in horse racing as Dogwood partners.
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Podcast #11: REMINISCING: Wallenda
My story today is a warm, fuzzy tale about a horse named Wallenda. In 1992 I bought a two-year-old by Gulch out of a mare named So Glad, paying $43,000 for him. We named him Wallenda
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Podcast #10: POINT OF VIEW: 2008 Eclipse Awards
The Eclipse Awards - Thoroughbred racing's Oscars - have just concluded. With all due gratitude to TVG for presenting this gala evening on the air, the truth is it was not very gala.
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Podcast #9: POINT OF VIEW: Hooray for Jockeys
When Russell Baze rode his 9,531st winner, breaking Laffit Pincay Jr.'s astounding record, it caused this admirer to reflect on how these remarkable athletes ply their trade.
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Podcast #8: POINT OF VIEW: NYRA
The very heartbeat of American racing resounds loudest in New York. It has always been the bellwether, the glamour spot for the racing of Thoroughbred horses. Therefore, how shocking it is that there is frightening arrhythmia in that heartbeat today. Who
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Podcast #7: POINT OF VIEW: What It's All About
We are entering an especially exciting time in horse racing: the Breeders' Cup approaches, and major prep races around the country bring together our greatest racehorses.
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Podcast #6: POINT OF VIEW: Saratoga vs. Lexington
I am a Director of an outfit called Concerned Citizens for Saratoga Racing. The purpose of this organization is to try to maintain the historic tradition and purity of the wonderful old Saratoga Race Course and its annual seven-week meeting in late summer
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Podcast #5: POINT OF VIEW: Veterinarians
Years ago when I was in the advertising agency business, I remember well the head of a large company saying that once he spent $20 million a year on advertising and half of it was wasted—but the problem was he didn't know which half. Well, I think
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Podcast #4: POINT OF VIEW: Technology and Horse Sense
Years ago I used to make speeches about the charm of the horse business saying that one of the most attractive features was that it did not lend itself to the use of computers. Now admittedly I’m somewhat of a dinosaur.
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Podcast #3: POINT OF VIEW: Jockeys' Guild Thoughts
I am most appreciative of jockeys. The only athletes who have a tougher life than jockeys are steeplechase jockeys. They are insanely brave.
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Podcast #2: POINT OF VIEW: Belmont Stakes Musings
I am just back from Belmont Park where I saw the Belmont Stakes, and I am very disappointed that a lot of good horses didn't run in that race. I have some observations about that and about the fact that we are in an era today in racing where horses don't
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Podcast #1: POINT OF VIEW: Sales Integrity Program
In August of 2004, I was asked to be Chairman of an industry task force made up of leading breeders, consignors, owners, vets, and sales personnel – the purpose was to come up with a Code of Ethics, primarily concerning conduct at Thoroughbred auction
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