Legends

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Princess Rooney capped her career with a win in the inaugural Breeders' Cup Distaff.

How One Princess Reigned Supreme in the Sport of Kings: Princess Rooney

The career of Princess Rooney was not unlike a sandwich. Hold the laughter – it’s true. During her three seasons on the track, she packaged a thin layer of disappointment between two sensational winning streaks that stamped her as one of the greatest fillies to every grace the sport of kings.

Bred in Kentucky by Ben and Tom Roach, Princess Rooney wasn’t exactly a hot commodity as a yearling. Her pedigree wasn’t the most fashionable; her sire, Verbatim, was a respectable though not outstanding racehorse and stallion, while her dam and damsire both were unraced.

Stars of Yesterday: Looking Back at Best Lecomte Stakes Winners

The Louisiana path to the 2024 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve resumes this Saturday, with the running of the Grade 3 Lecomte Stakes. The Lecomte will be run at its customary 1 1/16-mile distance and will have a purse of $200,000 in 2024.

Allen Jerkens illustrious career spanned more than six decades.

Racing Hall of Fame Trainer Allen Jerkens: The Chief

Allen Jerkens took out his trainer’s license as soon as he turned 21, and he only waited that long because his father forbid him to do so any sooner. He enjoyed solid success almost from the very beginning and won his first stakes race in 1955 with a horse named War Command, whom Jerkens had claimed for $8,000. Seven years later, he agreed to become the private trainer for Jack Dreyfus Jr.’s Hobeau Farm. Though Hobeau Farm didn’t always deal in the most fashionable of pedigrees, it did provide Jerkens with volume. And Jerkens certainly had a knack for getting the most out of his horses.

Swaps: A Speedy, Well-Oiled Machine

Barry Irwin, now the head of Team Valor International, was entering his teenage years in Southern California when Swaps burst onto the scene in 1955.

“He just really excited me and caught my imagination,” Irwin recalled.

Irwin was hardly alone. Swaps’ popularity became so enormous that Union 76 gas stations began distributing posters of him. “I kept pushing my father to get gas there so I could get more pictures,” Irwin said.

Andy Beyer, pictured talking with Andy Serling, revolutionized betting on horse racing.

Picking Winners: How Andy Beyer Revolutionized Betting on Horse Racing

If there was a Mount Rushmore for horse racing handicappers, it’s an odds-on proposition that the first face on it would belong to Andy Beyer.

Some people may have won more money wagering on the races than Beyer, but no other person has enjoyed as profound and prolonged of an impact on the art of handicapping as the 80-year-old graduate of Harvard University.

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