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Blog postThis week marked the 153rdanniversary of the death of Major General John Sedgwick, the highest-ranking Union general to be killed during the Civil War. Sedgwick is still remembered in Cornwall, Connecticut, a tiny town in the Northwest Hills of the state. Sedgwick loved Cornwall, which consists of five little Cornwalls—including Cornwall Hollow, the place where Sedgwick was born and was buried.
Sedgwick, who served in the pre-war army in Mexico, Florida, and in the Indian Wars, often said -
Blog postAs I write this, it appears likely that there will be a muddy—or at least wet—track for the May 6 Kentucky Derby. So how much is that going to affect who’s going to win? A lot. The only problem for bettors is that at this point in their careers we don’t have much of an idea of just who benefits and who suffers as a result of the mud. Horses tend to be insecure about footing and very few actually like running on a wet track. But some mi
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Blog postApril and May are the months when horse racing takes center stage (or at least moves out of the shadows) in the sports world and it’s an appropriate time to talk about one of the most intriguing aspects of the story of Stonewall Jackson’s favorite warhorse Little Sorrel. The odd-looking, undersized horse may actually have been a racehorse.
It’s unproven and, at this point in history, probably can’t ever be proven, but there is a modest amount of circumstantial evidence that places him on a -
Blog postGeneral Abner Doubleday had nothing to do with the invention of baseball, even though a hand-picked commission gave him credit for it in 1907. He did, however, have something to do with Stonewall Jackson and his horse Little Sorrel.
Doubleday was a professional soldier, a West Pointer who saw action in the Mexican War and the Seminole War in Florida. His combat experience in the Civil War began just as the conflict did when, as a major and second-in-command of Federal troops at Fort -
Blog postSeven years ago, shortly before the Civil War sesquicentennial, I wrote a book that was eventually published as Connecticut’s Civil War. It was a guidebook to sites in the state related to Civil War people and events. Given the size pf the state. I initially expected it to be a booklet but quit assembling entries after about 250 pages. Even so, I had to leave some things out.
Among the people who did make the cut: Nathaniel Lyon (the first Union general killed in the war), Joseph Mansfield -
Blog postWord came last week of the death 2015 Florida Derby winner Materiality, who went into that year’s Kentucky Derby with plenty of support. He was unbeaten until the first Saturday in May and, after starting poorly, finished well to be sixth. Nobody was likely to beat eventual Triple Crown winner American Pharoah that day, and Materiality left the race still among the best three-year-olds of the season.
Two months later, Materiality ran well in the Belmont Stakes but again, all eyes were on A -
Blog postAs an addendum to a month in upstate New York my husband and I went in search of the birthplace of Mathew Brady, the preeminent photographer of the Civil War. We found it, since it’s well-marked and in a location that doesn’t have to compete with other monuments. Or did we?
The marker is on the south side of NY 28 in Johnsburg, Warren County, a few miles beyond Warrensburg, maybe fifteen miles from Lake George Village. Turn left at the wax museum and you’ll find it. (I made that part -
Blog postWilliam T. Sherman was well into his Carolinas campaign 151 years ago this week as his 60,000 men neared the end of a destructive march through South Carolina. Sherman’s ultimate goal was to destroy the one significant Confederate army still in the field when he got to northern North Carolina. When Sherman met and defeated Joseph Johnston in April the war was essentially over.
Sherman’s guiding principle in the initial march through Georgia during late 1864, and to a lesser extent in the C -
Blog postIn 2015, when American Pharoah ended the long, painful absence of a Triple Crown winner, it seemed possible at last to relax. Nobody was going to fool around with the format of the three preeminent races for three-year-old Thoroughbreds. Nobody was going to advocate that the Preakness be moved be further away from the Kentucky Derby. Nobody was going to suggest that the Belmont Stakes be shortened, since no modern three-year-old could be expected to win at a mile-and-a-half as well as at the sho
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Blog postToday marks another important Civil War anniversary for a son of New England. On January 26. 1863, Joseph Hooker of Hadley, Massachusetts, became commander of the Army of the Potomac. He succeeded Ambrose Burnside, born in Indiana but better known as the Rhode Island manufacturer of the Burnside Carbine. Burnside failed as an arms manufacturer and he also failed with the Army of the Potomac. The disaster at Fredericksburg in December 1862 led to Burnside’s replacement by Hooker.
Joseph Hoo -
Blog postToday marks the 110th anniversary of the death of Connecticut's own Confederate general, Joseph Wheeler. The cavalry commander had a somewhat mixed reputation in the Confederacy, having performed admirably at Chicamauga and during the defense of Atlanta but earning the wrath of civilians in Georgia and the Carolinas for the poor behavior of his troopers while unsuccessfully resisting William T. Sherman's March to the Sea in 1865.
Wheeler was born in Georgia and, when war came, decid -
Blog postOn this Wednesday before the 2015 Kentucky Derby, here’s my secret tip on how to pick a horse who can successfully negotiate 10 furlongs for the first time in his life. Yes, speed is important. And equally important is the breeding to go a distance. Race record is most important of all, especially the proven ability to run a final quarter faster than the other quarters of the race.
But here’s something that experts never talk about. The Kentucky Derby is almost always won by a horse whose -
Blog postFor my money (figure of speech because I rarely bet) the first week in March is the most exciting time of the year in Thoroughbred horse racing, more so than the week leading up to the Kentucky Derby. By Derby Week we may not know who’s going to win the big race, but we generally know who could be great and who will never be. The “could be great” crowd of three-year-olds is pretty small by that week and may be nonexistent after the race.
It’s a much bigger crowd at this point, but it’s pro -
Blog postThe four-plus years of 150th anniversaries of Civil War events are drawing to a close but there a few big ones to go. Today, March 4, is the sesquicentennial of Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address,
It was, of course, one of the great speeches of human history, one in which he acknowledged the horrors of war but offered a roadmap to recovery.
Here are the most famous words of that famous address:
With malice toward none; with charity for all, with firmness in the right, -
Blog postWISE DAN
The announcement earlier this week that two-time defending Horse of the Year Wise Dan had suffered a leg fracture caused a collective gasp throughout the world of Thoroughbred racing. There is no more admired creature—human or animal—in the sport. He’s the subject of a new advertising campaign that identifies him as “the most interesting horse in the world” and few people would disagree with that description.
To be sure, there are those who think Wise Dan doesn’ -
Blog postTHE FIGHTING 14th
October 14th marks the anniversary of the battle of Bristoe Station, the 151st as I write this. The 14th Connecticut saw action in this battle, which, although bloody, was minor by comparison to many of the unit’s other battles.
There was probably no regiment on either side that saw much more significant action than the 14th during its period of service. After mustering in on August 25, 1862, the thousand men of the regiment left immediately for the Vi -
Blog postThe sesquicentennials go on. Last week marked the 150th anniversary of the arrivals of the first prisoners at Camp Sumter at Andersonville, Georgia. Andersonville is one of those iconic names in history that enjoy (or suffer) a meaning wider than their individual realities. A Judas is a betrayer. A Benedict Aernold is a traitor. An Andersonville is a horror among prisons and POW camps. In reality, Andersonville was one of several camps, north and south, that saw thousands of prisoners die, most
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Blog postAbraham Lincoln famously said to Harriet Beecher Stowe upon meeting her during the Civil War, "So you're the little woman who started this great war." To be honest, he may have not actually said this. And to be even more honest, the war would almost certainly have occurred even if Uncle Tom's Cabin had not been published.
But Stowe certainly played a role in giving voice to thoughts and giving courage to people who were thinking them. This year marks an anniversary for Sto -
Blog postThe 77th New England didn’t exist, of course, since Union army volunteer regiments were identified by the states rather than the regions that produced them. The “77th New England” was a nickname for the 7th Connecticut and the 7th New Hampshire, two regiments usually brigaded together during the campaigns of 1862-1865 in the southeast,.
Today, February 20, 2014, is the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Olustee in northern Florida, perhaps the least successful day in the history of -
Blog postWe are well into the Civil War 150th anniversaries. Last year: Chancellorsville and Gettysburg and Chicamauga. This year: the Wilderness and Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor and the seige of Petersburg. But there are other anniversaries to consider this year. This week marks the 160th anniversary of a milestone event, one that played a part in the inevitablity of war. And a man from Connecticut was watching closely to see what happened.
The milestone was the Kansas-Nebraska Act. On January 30, -
Blog postAfter a long break for a harness racing book (The Best There Ever Was: Dan Patch and the Dawn of the American Century) I'm back to my other favorite topic. The Connecticut house of one of the state's Civil War heroes is threatened. First, here's the essay I wrote about him as part of the effort to save the house.
JOSPEH R. HAWLEY (1826-1905)
There was no better-known public figure in Connecticut during the last half of the 19th century than Joseph R. Hawley, crusadin -
Blog postThe popularity of (and critical admiration for) F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby has grown, shrunk, and grown again since its publication in 1925. It was modestly successful at first, then nearly forgotten, then eventually recognized by scholars as one of the great novels of the English language. The book’s revival and survival at the top of American literature is certainly due to Fitzgerald’s skill with words, but it’s also a result of his creation of a character who is particularly compe
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Blog postThe great harness racehorse Dan Patch had three owners during his 20-year lifetime. His first, a small town merchant from Indiana named Dan Messner, was well known locally. His third owner, a patent medicine manufacturer and marketing genius from Minneapolis named Marion Willis Savage, was known nationally, thanks to relentless advertising and promotion. But little was known about Dan Patch’s second owner, and most of what did become public was untrue.Manley Edwin Sturges was described at the ti
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Blog postYou’ve spent time and energy handicapping a race when you see your choice set foot on the racetrack, whether in person on television. To your horror—or puzzlement—your horse sports bandages on his front legs. Does this mean you immediately change your pick? Does it mean proceed with caution? Or does it mean nothing at all? One thing is certain: front bandages mean something, for both Thoroughbred and Standardbred competitors.
It’s not a great problem if you’re looking at rundown bandages. -
Blog postAn increasing number of racetrack programs and past performance charts now add the month and even the specific day a horse was born to the information you can use to handicap a race. In the early days of organized horse racing, both Thoroughbred and Standardbred, the exact foaling date of the participants didn’t much matter, if such information was even available. Owners and trainers picked races according to the racing quality of the competition, not the age or sex of the participants. Th
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Blog postThere’s no such thing as a bad color on a good horse. That’s a favorite saying of horsemen and horseplayers alike, and it’s true. Years ago, before the advent of DNA testing, color only mattered if two chestnut parents produced a gray offspring. You’d then wonder about hanky panky in the breeding shed.
But how about white markings? Do white socks or stockings affect a horse’s ability on the racetrack? The answer is not so simple. Centuries ago, most people thought it was pretty straightfor -
Blog postIn the spring both lovers of Thoroughbred racing and casual fans turn their thoughts to one thing: who’s going to win the Kentucky Derby? In early summer the question expands to: who’s going to win the Belmont Stakes? And in the fall, it’s the Breeders’ Cup Classic that draws the question.
The answer to each of the questions is likely to be the same. It may not be the same horse, but it will be the same kind of horse. Here are the principles, with a couple of caveats. The first is that the -
Blog postThe reigning Thoroughbred Horse of the Year, the five-year-old mare Havre de Grace, has been retired with an ankle injury. If the injury is as bad as her connections announced, they certainly did the right thing. But it does make you wonder if their loud complaints about her modest 123 pound weight assignment for the Apple Blossom at Oaklawn, which they dodged, masked other concerns. Maybe they knew she wasn't the same horse she was last year, in spite of her win in her first start of 2012. The
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Blog postThere was an interesting story in the April 11 New York Times about Hansen's extraordinary color. He's registered as "gray or roan" but to most eyes he's a gray who's turned white unusually early. Grays almost always become white if they live long enough but generally not by the spring of their three-year-old year.
The most famous gray of modern times, Native Dancer, appears no less than six times in Hansen's pedigree, but the color comes from elsewhere. His sire Tapit's dam was -
Blog postAfter this weekend's three-year-old races you could make a strong argument for any of four horses as the likely winner of the 2012 Kentucky Derby. Gemologist and Alpha in the Wood Memorial as well as I'll Have Another and Creative Cause in the Santa Anita Derby were all impressive, with Gemologist the most impressive of all.
In fact, Gemologist ticks all the boxes. He was good at two, better at three, bred on his sire's side at least to get the distance and had his final prep start -
Blog postWhat's happening with all this cancer in good young horses?
Indian Charlie, one of the best of the Thoroughbred crop of 1995, was euthanized last week because of the rapid progression of hemangiosarcoma, a cancer of the blood vessels. He was 16 (yes, that's young. I recently lost my favorite mare at the age of 36 and she had been eating well and getting around easily until about a month before her death). He was already a successful sire with four North American champions including -
Blog postI'm not surprised to see this morning that Uncle Mo has been retired following his 10th place finish in the Breeders Cup Classic on Saturday. Even allowing for the fact that he might not have been able to get 10 furlongs against really good competition even at his best, he was certainly less than his best for at least a week. I'm usually sad to hear about a young horse retiring, but in this case it's surely the right thing to do.
He looked terrible in his Churchill Downs workout ear -
Blog postIt's three and a half hours to the first race in the Breeders Cup 2011 series and that makes a good place to begin this blog. I'm not going to pick winners (I've never been able to adequately separate the horses I think will win from those I'd like to see win, so I tend to hold on to my money).
Mares have taken center stage again this year and people have finally noticed something I've been saying for years: among horses of similar class, there's no automatic superiority of male ove -
Blog postDID ELI WHITNEY CAUSE THE CIVIL WAR?
Having successfully launched my book Connecticut's Civil War: A Guide for Travelers and having completed nearly a dozen speaking engagements I'm enjoying a little mid-winter downtime, with no more appearances scheduled until March. So it's time to get going on this blog which I hope turns into a dialog on my favorite subject.
Here's one to start: how much responsibility should we give Massachusetts-born and Connecticut-educated Eli Whitney
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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Betting on Horses
Sep 19, 1998
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