Author Archives: admin

“… Canadians are well known throughout the world as kind and gentle people,” offered US Senator Bernie Sanders when in Canada last fall to explore our health care, “but be a bit louder and stand up and fight for what … Continue reading →

What do Vino Rosso, Good Magic, and Justify have in common?  For starters they all descend from Canada’s ‘Rivers of Gold.’  And last weekend these 3 courageous chestnut colts emerged triumphant in the three significant Kentucky Derby prep-races: the Wood … Continue reading →

Handing over the training of Willie the Kid to Gordon ‘Pete’ McCann didn’t seem a big deal at the time.  Indeed, quite the opposite.  Yet in many ways the experience altered the destiny of Thoroughbred racing, not only in Canada, … Continue reading →

The organizers of my recent talk at the library about Rivers of Gold asked me if I could work in some local history.  And so it was that Mildred Kane, first woman to have her horse win the coveted Kings’ Plate … Continue reading →

The winner, in this instance, is Northern Dancer: the legend and his legacy.  While published two decades ago, the book continues to enchant readers… often readers who have little, if any, interest in horse racing. The catalyst for this blog … Continue reading →

Canada, as I may have mentioned once or a thousand times, has produced some of the most powerful Thoroughbred bloodlines in the world.  Yet Canadians appear reluctant to champion this remarkable achievement. Indeed we might do well to heed the … Continue reading →

It seems somehow appropriate that Rivers of Gold would be launched amid wild weather conditions.  As I delved further and further into researching and writing the story I felt as if I was being carried along by the sheer force … Continue reading →

How exciting to launch Rivers of Gold at the Canadian Horse Racing Hall of Fame this Sunday amid all the installations celebrating Canada’s remarkable horses and their humans… and on Canadian International day. Writing Rivers of Gold was incredibly challenging.  … Continue reading →

One of the many things Eddie Taylor taught me was when you set out on any sort of enterprise, everything will invariably take longer, cost more, and be more frustrating than you imagined. My latest book, Rivers of Gold, is … Continue reading →

Often when mired in indecision I ask myself “what would Eddie Taylor do?”  And am immediately rewarded with memories of the man’s eternal and cheerful optimism. When he set out to breed great horses in Canada his Kentucky friends, to … Continue reading →