by Bob Gates The place? Old Polo Park Racetrack, right here in River City. The date? Thursday, June 16, 1955. The occasion? One of the strangest days in the history of local horse racing. They had finished four of the seven races that were carded for the 11th day of...
by Bob Gates Like a lot of others, jockey Dean W. Kutz got his start at country fairs and riding in the bushes. However, unlike other saddlesmiths, Kutz battled the odds just to get his shot at sitting atop thousand-pound thoroughbreds. Dean was born in Harvey, North...
by Bob Gates The Ragens were a multi-generational horse racing family with its roots in Ireland. Edward Michael Ragen was one of the original grand old men of racing. “Eddie” spent more than 70 years racing thoroughbreds, until an injury from a 1981 fall forced him...
by Bob Gates As the opening passage starts, “In the beginning…” One of the greatest horses in the history of horse racing made his first start on July 4, 1972. In time he would become America’s horse, so how fitting is it that Secretariat would go to post on...
by Bob Gates One of the many rewards of writing the history blog is meeting a lot of good people from the sport we all love. Getting to know Irwin Driedger easily sits near the top of that list. While we never met in person, we spoke several times over the last 10...