Kudos to Chrome

March 31, 2016

While American Pharoah is busy making babies, our old friend California Chrome is busy winning races.

CC – who won the 2014 Kentucky Derby and Preakness – earned the richest prize in horse racing, taking the $6-million Dubai World Cup on March 26. The win makes him the all-time moneymaker at $12.4 million. (And he could add to that by entering January’s $12 million Pegasus Championship, which would alternate between the Santa Anita and Gulfstream parks.)

But the real winner here may be Victor Espinoza, who rode the Pharoah, of course, and rides CC as well. ...

American Pharoah is readers’ ‘Sportsman of the Year’

December 14, 2015

All hail the Pharoah.

American Pharoah has been named Sports Illustrated readers’ “Sportsman of the Year.” The SI staff’s choice will be announced tomorrow on SI.com and NBC’s “Today” show.

AP received 47 percent of the vote. The World Series’ winning Kansas City Royals garnered 29 percent, while soccer star Lionel Messi earned 6 percent. Tennis No. 1 Novak Djokovic finished ninth. ...

American Pharoah: Hail and farewell

November 1, 2015

Maybe now all the naysayers will zip their lips.

Or maybe they will unseal them long enough to say, “All hail, the Pharoah” as he gallops off to retirement, to stud, to immortality.

American Pharoah did it in Hollywood-scripted style – entering and winning the Breeders’ Cup Classic, the first Triple Crown winner to do so, at Keeneland in Lexington on Halloween, a treat for racing fans. But then, AP has been a treat for all those lovers of history who had a Triple Crown winner on their bucket list and thought they would never live to see the day. ...

American Pharoah, Novak Djokovic: What defines greatness?

October 28, 2015

American Pharoah has arrived at Keeneland in Lexington for the Breeders’ Cup Classic Saturday, the final race of his career. He’s going to face an older woman, Beholder; older guys like Tonalist and Honor Code; and old rivals like Frosted and Keen Ice.

But hey, is that any worse than the naysayers, the ones who remark that he’s good but not great – certainly not as great as the greats of the 1970s, Secretariat, Seattle Slew and my beloved Affirmed; and, that if he doesn’t win the Breeders’ Cup, he really won’t be considered great.

This is the same conversation about Novak Djokovic, who will lead the field at the BNP Paribas Masters Paris, which begins also on Saturday and runs through Nov. 8. If he doesn’t repeat in Paris and at the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals in London the following week, he won’t have had a great season.

Let’s review, shall we? ...

American Pharoah, Abstract Expressionist

October 26, 2015

When he’s not busy training for the Breeders’ Cup, which takes place Oct. 31 at Keeneland in Lexington, Ky., American Pharoah has quite the artistic side.

He is among those champions, including Kentucky Derby rival Firing Line and the legendary Cigar, who have done artwork – cleverly called Moneighs – to support After the Finish Line and ReRun Thoroughbred Adoption, which help less fortunate retired racehorses to a new life.

In my guise as editor of WAG magazine, an award-winning lifestyle publication, I had the pleasure of interviewing After the Finish Line President Dawn Mellen, who assists artistes like the Pharoah. ...

Of studs and duds – Loss, American Pharoah & Novak Djokovic

September 1, 2015

After the highs of June (American Pharoah winning the Triple Crown) and July (planet Pluto, Novak Djokovic defending his Wimbledon title), August has been a bit of a dud for me, with AP losing to Keen Ice at the Travers this past Saturday and Nole losing the Rogers Cup (to Andy Murray) and then the Western & Southern Open (to Roger Federer). ...

Breaking news: Eli Manning reacts to Tom Brady’s suspension

May 11, 2015

Eli Manning – the New York Giants’ quarterback and two-time Super Bowl MVP, at Tom Brady’s expense no less – was at Mulino’s restaurant in White Plains, N.Y. May 11, ostensibly to talk about his role as host of next month’s 38th annual Guiding Eyes for the Blind Golf Classic.

But as often happens, there was breaking football news right before the cocktail party-press conference: Tom Brady, quarterback of the New England Patriots, has been suspended four games without pay for his “more probable than not” awareness that two lower-level employees had deflated footballs before the Pats’ AFC championship game against the Indianapolis Colts. The implication being that locker room attendant Jim McNally and equipment assistant John Jastremski doctored the balls according to Brady’s tastes to make them easier to throw and catch, particularly in inclement weather. (The two have since been indefinitely suspended by the team.)

The Patriots were fined $1 million and will lose a first-round draft pick next year and a fourth-round one in 2017. Brady has said he will appeal. ...