Runup to 2026 Belmont Stakes Festival At The Spa – Haskin – Reliving The 1996 Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown

May 292026

Friday, June 5, 2026

Saturday, June 6, 2026

2026 Belmont Stakes Racing Festival Schedule

Phil’s reprising Sal:

Sal says that while Phil was able to read and post select writings from the NY Times – The Rail Blog all we’re left with today is the NY Times – Hoppert and Drape – Belmont 2017: Our Predictions to Win, Place and Show.

Sal doesn’t want to shatter your illusions that thoroughbred racing is prospering when the amount of landscape that thoroughbred racing retains in the major and minor newspapers’ sports sections couldn’t grow a handful of radishes.

And in 2022 we may not even see as much as we did in 2017. And much of what we won’t see in 2022 is behind a internet pay wall where you pay with cash or personal information discouraging racing fans both new and old from reading it.

Sal’s reprising, but the message remains the same:

Thoroughbred Racing Commentary – Hayward – This racing industry is worth saving – but it will take a selfless, serious effort to do it

If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.

Charles Darwin

Sal’s not going to feed you any purported Darwin quotes about survival of the fittest, cuz most of what people who’ve never read any Darwin say he said he never said. But Sal says that unless thoroughbred racing evolves, adapts and vigourously competes it will go the way of the Blockbuster store.

Gold Dust Woman

An idea, like a ghost, must be spoken to a little before it will explain itself.

Charles Dickens

Phil has a question:

Did you notice that Phil and Sal were doing it long before Steve Kerr.

Secretariat – Steve Haskin – Reliving The 1996 Kentucky Derby and Triple Crown

Everlong

How can you think and hit at the same time?

Yogi Berra

Empire State Of Mind

I learned to bet the Red Sox, the Celtics, Suffolk Downs. I thought it was a glorious life – pull up to the doughnut shop, spread out, and plan your day.

Alex Rocco

Walk Like An Egyptian

Donut Mill

And the irony is that they wrote better without access to my quotes.

Steve Carlton

I believe more in the scissors than I do in the pencil.

Truman Capote

Phil’s Reprising:

Horse racing has a great opportunity to step up our game and attract new fans. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness ratings showed people are interested in horse racing. Heck, my Gallery Furniture promotion shows that the Kentucky Derby and racing resonate with the guy and gal on the street.

We’ve got to attract younger people. We need to attract the followers of Barstool Sports, Bleacher Report, Action Network. We need to embrace sports-betting content.

There is no easy fix. It takes commitment, effort and ingenuity. But our sport and industry are worth it. Excluding football games, the Kentucky Derby was the third-most watched sporting event since the pandemic hit in March 2020, trailing only the NCAA men’s basketball championship game won by Baylor and Gonzaga’s semifinal victory over UCLA, according to Sports Media Watch. That’s impressive.

The Kentucky Derby, Triple Crown and horse racing are still relevant. But you’ve got to flame the fire–and also be smart about where we bet. Cumulatively, it makes a huge difference.

TDN – Letter to the Editor from James McIngvale: Where You Bet Matters

Paulick Report – McIngvale: Where You Bet Matters

Forever Young

In the misfortunes of our best friends we always find something which is not displeasing to us.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

Sometimes, all you can do is watch things burn, and wait for the ash to settle.

Jodi Picoult

What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?

Henry David Thoreau

Space Oddity

My Back Pages

It is customers that decide if we succeed.

Steve Easterbrook

In a repressive society, a writer can be deeply influential, but in a society that’s filled with glut and repetition and endless consumption, the act of terror may be the only meaningful act.

Don DeLillo

Whatever you do in life, surround yourself with smart people who’ll argue with you.

John Wooden

Take It To The Limit

Shadow Play

Hawkmoon

Cities have sexes: London is a man, Paris a woman, and New York a well-adjusted transsexual.

Angela Carter

Harlem Blues

People in China say: ‘If you love your children, send them to New York. If you hate your children, also send them to New York.

Li Na

The only rule I got is if you slide, get up.

Bill Lee

First We Take Manhattan

The genius of the United States is not best or most in its executives or legislatures, nor in its ambassadors or authors or colleges, or churches, or parlors, nor even in its newspapers or inventors, but always most in the common people.

Walt Whitman

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got was from a horse master. He told me to go slow to go fast. I think that applies to everything in life. We live as though there aren’t enough hours in the day but if we do each thing calmly and carefully we will get it done quicker and with much less stress.

Viggo Mortensen

Avoid fried foods, which angry up the blood.

Satchel Paige

My theory of evolution is that Darwin was adopted.

Steven Wright

End Of The World

You got to have smelt a lot of mule manure before you can sing like a hillbilly.

Hank Williams

Bloodhorse – Byron King – Belmont Stakes May See a Powershift

Paulick Report – Chelsea Hackbarth – Belmont: Todd Pletcher Banking On Contrasting Styles of Renegade, Powershift

Paulick Report – Lillian Davis – ‘Can’t Go Wrong’: John Velazquez Will Ride Commandment In Belmont Stakes

Leaving On A Jet Plane