Arnold Kirkpatrick Articles

Accentuate the Positive

 I woke up today with the lyrics from an old Johnny Mercer song running through my head: You've got to ac-cent-tchu-ate the positive, E-liminate the negative, Latch on to the affirmative, Don't mess with Mr. In-Between.

Heading in the right direction

 It was a dreary ol’ winter in the country, with snow piled derrière-deep on a giraffe throughout most of the country, while the rest of the Northern Hemisphere was suffering from floods, mudslides, etc., as if the snow weren’t bad enough.

If I Were Czar – Part 2

The Chicken Little Syndrome

“Once upon a time, a tiny chicken named Chicken Little was walking in the woods when – KERPLUNK– an acorn fell on her head.
“‘Oh my goodness!’ said Chicken Little. ‘The sky is falling! I must go and tell the king.’”

If I Were Czar – Part 1

Last time I looked, the good ol’ U. S. of A. was not only a democracy but was trying to export democracy to a number of places, several of which didn’t seem overly enthused about having it.
 

Strike Two

Bill Young Jr. is a nice man – quiet, smart, private to the point of being very shy, honest and practical. On June 9, he shocked the Thoroughbred world with the announcement that he was dispersing almost all of the horses who are owned by Overbrook Farm, which had become one of the major success stories in the U.S. Thoroughbred business over the past quarter century. 

The AAEP

As long as I’ve been involved in the Thoroughbred business, which is getting to be a helluva long time now, I have always had an admiration and affinity for veterinarians and the American Association of Equine Practitioners.
 

A Point In Time

 Happy New Year.  2008 is gone and thank God for that! 
Last fall, we were ravaged by a perfect storm of a justifiable collapse of confidence in the US economy, accompanied by atrocious results at our major sales, compounded by the anticipation of sales in 2009, where breeders will be selling yearlings and weanlings conceived and born at 2007 and 2008 prices.
 

8 Deadly Sins

When Pope Gregory I consolidated the eight “evil thoughts” of the 4^th Century Christian monk Evagrius Ponticus into the Seven Deadly Sins, he perpetuated what I believe may be one of the classic errors of all times by excluding “Arrogance” from the list.

Drugs in racing - should there be federal regulation?

The Members of Congress were clearly bored and frustrated.
One commented, “The six members of this panel can’t even agree on what to do; why should you expect us to believe that racing can handle this problem on its own?” 
Another yawned. 

The Names (And Times) They Are A-Changin'

 It was just a small item buried in the middle of the Thoroughbred Times TODAY, last November 19, but it aroused in me a deep sense of foreboding as an omen of a dark future for racing:
  “Mountaineer Race Track, the Chester, West Virginia, track officially has changed its name from Mountaineer Race Track and Gaming Resort to Mountaineer Casino Resort and Racetrack."

Farewell Friends - John Henry and Tony Ryan

Among the myriad of adages that aficionados of the Thoroughbred game have devised over the years in an attempt to explain our complex and often perverse sport, one of the most enduring is: “It’s not the size of the horse that’s important; it’s the size of the heart in the horse.”

Sales Transparency - an invaluable development

As this issue of Trainer reaches its readers, the Thoroughbred industry will be approaching its single most important day of the year—not January 1, not Derby Day, not Breeders’ Cup Day—I’m talking about the beginning of the major yearling sales season.

A Lesson In Loyalty, Etc.

I’ve been to the Kentucky Derby  27 times—16 as a member of the press as part of a team of writers and photographers who covered it for the Thoroughbred Record, and the others in every capacity from a drunk in the infield to the ultra-exclusive box reserved for heads of state and some of the biggest bigwigs invited to the race.

Artificial Panacea?

Pan•a•ce•a [pànnə sée ə] (plural pan•a•ce•as) noun.  supposed cure-all: a supposed cure for all diseases or problems.

Winter 2006

It ain’t gonna happen—not in this country, not now. . .and, most likely, never.