all in Legends

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association announced Jan. 19 that Stuart S. Janney III will be honored with the Eclipse Award of Merit at the 53rd Annual Eclipse Awards Dinner and Ceremony at The Breakers Palm Beach in Florida on Thursday, Jan. 25. 

The Eclipse Award of Merit is the Thoroughbred industry’s highest honor, bestowed upon an individual who has displayed a lifetime of achievement in service to the sport. Janney’s decades of involvement and leadership within the sport of Thoroughbred racing has bettered the sport for future generations.

The National Thoroughbred Racing Association, Daily Racing Form, and the National Turf Writers and Broadcasters announced Jan. 18 that Tom Hammond, whose dynamic career of more than 50 years in broadcasting, television production, and numerous contributions to the Thoroughbred industry, will be honored with the Special Eclipse Award for Career Excellence at the 53rd Annual Eclipse Awards Dinner and Ceremony at The Breakers Palm Beach in Florida Jan. 25.

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.

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 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.

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