The upcoming weekend in horse racing is highlighted by an influential prep race for the 2026 Kentucky Derby Presented by Woodford Reserve in California and the opening of one of horse racing’s most popular tracks, Oaklawn Park.
“Someone suggested that there's an incomplete part of our chromosomes that gets repaired or found when we hit New Orleans. Some of us just belong here.”
—actor John Goodman
While the Big Easy is uniquely grand (and boasts Fair Grounds), for many years I have felt this way about Hot Springs, Ark. I relax a bit when we exit I-30 and merge onto the wooded Highway 70, with Spa City 27 miles away. I fully exhale when my feet touch Central Avenue.
Mary Eddy’s career path was determined by geography. Growing up in the small town of Wilton, just outside of Saratoga Springs, N.Y., Eddy was an animal lover of all sorts.
Their names are familiar — Ortíz, Espínoza, Prado, Velázquez — while others may be less so, but all build the backbone of a sport, the men and women whose dedication to the horse make each day at the races possible.
The Keeneland Library’s newest exhibit, “Raíces: The Making of Latino Legacies in Racing,” honors the deep connection between the sport and these Latino professionals who have brought their experience and expertise with equine athletes to the United States for more than a century and helped build racing as we know it.
