Thoroughbred racing is really my true passion. I'm living my dream.
My favorite horse was Zenyatta. She got me hooked.
Horse racing is really much more intimidating than anything having to do with literature. When I had horses at the racetrack, I would wake up in terror in a way that I would never wake up while working on a novel.
You can't win the Kentucky Derby unless you're on a thoroughbred.
The Worlds was great, Masters was great, but that was sort of mission accomplished with the Triple Crown.
I love horses. I spent seven years as a racing commissioner on a horse-racing board.
Gamsters and race-horses never last long.
Some kind of pace may be got out of the eeriest jade by the near prospect of oats; but the thoroughbred has the spur in his blood.
Until you go to Kentucky and with your own eyes behold the Derby, you ain't never been nowhere and you ain't seen nothin'!
If you want to win a horse race, you need your horse to be 100%.
I view anything on this farm as model. I actually painted Union Rags as a yearling.
Owning a racehorse is probably the most expensive way of getting on to a racecourse for nothing.
When I was in high school, my uncle, who went to the races quite a bit, got me interested. Then when I went to college at Southern Illinois University, just a few hours from Louisville, we used to go to the Kentucky Derby, and I got to see Secretariat and Riva Ridge win.
The only way you can obtain brood mares on a basis you can afford is to buy two or three yearling fillies every year and race them. The good ones, the ones that show potentialities, you keep, and the others you get rid of. In that way, you have a chance to build up a good brood mare band.
In the 1970s, I bought some cheap horses, then decided that if I was going to be in it, I was going to go big time. So in 2001, Bill Casner, a partner with me in Excel, and I bought a breeding farm, WinStar Farm, together.
I wanted to be a jockey. I'm serious. First time I got on a horse, I loved it. That's what I wanted to be, but my dad asked me to start performing with my family.
It is Australian innocence to love The naturally excessive and be proud Of a thoroughbred gelding who ran fast.
I've never watched a race live from Ascot. I used to make sure I didn't miss Black Caviar run, but that wasn't at Ascot.
