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EAGLE FEATHERS FOR BEAR WITNESS
Dedicated to the Kunz family and Susan Watt, Executive Director of Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, with love. Special thanks to Monica Mohr, Steve Leonard and Wayne at the BLM, Canon City CO for...
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“…YOU’RE COMING INTO DREAMWORLD”: SPRINTER SACRE AT CHELTENHAM 2016
This will be one of the top stories in the UK racing world this year. About a horse with a heart murmur and the team that brought him back to Cheltenham — two years later. The eye of a champion. Photo...
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CARL WHEELER AND HIS RAVEN-BACK MARE
Recently, I was asked by The Chateauguay Valley Historical Society to write an article about my grandfather and his champion mare. It was a pleasure to write but also a very intense experience since,...
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BATEAU: MAN O’ WAR’S SPECTACULAR DAUGHTER
Bateau was one of the very best of Man O’ War’s daughters when it came to racing, but she risks being forgotten because of one failure that was completely beyond her control. Hers is also a cautionary...
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FRANKEL’S FIRST: ON AND ON AND ON
It’s early days yet. But the mighty Frankel has already bested the record of first non-stakes winners in their first crop of both his sire, Galileo, and of one of Europe’s most consistent sires, Sea...
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OF NURSERY RHYMES AND GREEK HEROES: MOTHER GOOSE & ALCIBIADES
Inspired by a pair of exceedingly rare photographs and the opening of Saratoga — a place of magic, history and imagining — comes this tale of two great fillies. MOTHER GOOSE wind-up toy by Marx from...
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OLD FRIENDS NEVER DIE, THEY JUST GO TO PASTURE…..
L.S. has been a faithful reader of THE VAULT since we started up, five years ago, in 2011. So it was that when she contacted me to say that she was planning to make her first visit to OLD FRIENDS in...
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C.W. ANDERSON: MEETING AT THE CORNER (FOR J.D.)
As any parent, grandparent, teacher or librarian will tell you, helping a child to become a reader for life starts when they are young. But it’s not just about introducing books an adult thinks a child...
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A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE (ENGLISH) ST. LEGER
It is the oldest classic race in England and, arguably, the most prestigious. The English St Leger Stakes is the classic that marks the end of the British flat racing season and its prestige is...
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JOURNEY OF THE HEART: A VISIT TO THE BLACK HILLS WILD HORSE SANCTUARY
” To be great is to go on, To go on is to be far, To be far is to return.” (Tao Te Ching) Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary: abandoned movie set and a herd of American mustangs. Photo and copyright,...
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A TRAIN, A BOAT & A BICYCLE: JOHNNY, THE COUNT & THE 1943 TRIPLE CROWN
Thanks to your support, messages and enthusiasm, THE VAULT goes into its 7th year in 2017. I can hardly believe it! This article, over two years in the making, is my special Christmas gift to each and...
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THE SECRET (AND NOT SO SECRET) EYE OF MR. W.J. GRAY
This little ditty comes to you, dear reader, at the close of 2016 with my best wishes for a New Year filled with an abundance of lovely surprises, new adventures and discoveries, radiant health and...
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TO CHROME AND HIS TEAM: HOW YOU MADE ME FEEL
(Source: Facebook.) The heart and mind process imminent endings before they actually happen. There are reflections, a fondness for the past tense, a sense of distancing the self from the event,...
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I SPEAK FOR YOU: RYAN AND HIS GLACIAL PRINCESS
Special thanks to Charlotte Farmer, who introduced this great filly to me, and John Engelhardt, Executive Director, Ohio Thoroughbred Breeders and Owners. Without their help, this article would never...
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SOUL STIRRING: SHE IS!
In conformation, she is unmistakably her mother’s daughter. But at this stage of the game, Soul Stirring is also the best of Frankel’s first crop, as well as his first and only G1 winner of 2016. 2014:...
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LET’S HEAR IT FOR THE GIRLS! MY FAVOURITE (KENTUCKY) OAKS HEROINES
Each year that the Oaks is run, it brings with it different stories and contexts. And if we have a “filly favourite” running, we learn their stories by heart. Some of these narratives stay with us....
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ATTY, DICK, STEVE & ME: THE TETRARCH’S STORY
Imagine, if you will, the world of thoroughbred racing without sires like Northern Dancer, Sunday Silence, Halo, Mr. Prospector, Seattle Slew or their descendants: Sadler’s Wells, A.P. Indy, Galileo,...
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LONG & WINDING ROAD: JOHANNESBURG AND SCAT DADDY
By the end of 2017 Royal Ascot, Scat Daddy was back in the news. With four winners over five days, he was the top sire at Ascot. Some of us weren’t surprised. The great Mick Kinane gives JOHANNESBURG...
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“THE DEFINITION OF SUBLIME”: HOLY BULL & CARAVAGGIO
The influence of Holy Bull in Caravaggio’s bloodlines presents an exciting prospect. Coolmore’s gifted three year-old has already flashed brilliance on the turf. But this is just the beginning. The...
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WHEN PENNY BROUGHT SECRETARIAT TO CANADA
Penny Chenery, the owner of The Meadow and of thoroughbred champions, Riva Ridge and Secretariat, died on September 16, 2017 at the age of 95. And for many, Penny’s death was like losing a part of...
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