"How would you, learned readers, compile a list of the greatest mares of the past 100 years? And which fillies and mares would be on your list? That pair of questions and the technical requirements to answer them are considerations that have been spinning round the gray matter for some time, especially when thinking about our contemporary addition to that list."

"But it was the mighty Kelso who owned the Jockey Club Gold Cup, run at 2 miles in those days. He notched five in a row on his way to five straight Horse of the Year titles from 1960 to 1964. Those triumphs (by a collective 28 lengths) were the equivalent of five consecutive victories in the Breeders' Cup Classic, a feat that surely will never be matched."

Tom Eblen reviews "How Kentucky Became Southern," by Maryjean Wall. "The finished book is a remarkable page-turner that earned glowing cover blurbs from some of the best historians of Kentucky and Thoroughbred racing. The book puts together many pieces of a complicated puzzle, and it is filled with well-documented stories that explain a lot about the evolution of Kentucky society and the horse industry."

"He pulled away from the fast traveling Hoodwink as a great horse should ..." (Lawrence Realization)

"In the desert 100 miles northeast of Los Angeles is a suburb abandoned in advance of itself—the unfinished extension of a place called California City. Visible from above now are a series of badly paved streets carved into the dust and gravel, like some peculiarly American response to the Nazca Lines (or even the labyrinth at Chartres cathedral). The uninhabited street plan has become an abstract geoglyp ..." Intriguing illustrations.

"What last night's anniversary really seemed to commemorate was an era in which the people (for better or for worse) wrought effects upon politics through action in the streets." Melancholy: "You were the people."

"Everyone remembers the iconic images from the dramatic breaching of the Berlin Wall on Nov. 9, 1989. But the groundwork was laid elsewhere. The fate of Germany and the rest of Europe was decided in Warsaw, Budapest and Moscow."

"The year 1989 was one of the best in European history ... the longer-term consequences of [which] are only now beginning to emerge. They, too, belong in the synthetic global history of 1989 that, partly for this reason, could not have been written sooner."

"But the radical left is alive and well in Germany." On re-opening a 1970s murder case.

"From advertisements and political posters to photographs, and even mug shots, these works and images defined their time, evoking the drama of the communist era."

Search scanned DRFs from the 1890s through the 1980s. Partial resource, ongoing project, helpful to racing history buffs. (Via @colinsghost)

No. 1: Regret, a truly sensational horse, winner of the Kentucky Derby in her first start as a 3YO.

"On a cool spring morning in May of 1836 Isaac Michael Dyckman possibly took leave from his family home in Inwood, on the Northern tip of Manhattan, mounted his steed, and rode the muddy trail to the Union Race Course in far off Long Island for what would prove to be one of the most celebrated horse races of the 19th Century ..."

Secret police photo critique: "It seems apparent that color was intentionally omitted, because only black and white reproduction stresses the supposedly gray, bleak and dismal reality of East Berlin."

With more than half of the likely starters bucking at least one historical rule, the answer would seem to be, "Yes."

Profile and photos of Barbara Jo Rubin, the first female jockey to win a race, and the first to ride in New York (headline from March 11, 1969 NYT: "Girl Jockeys Are Invading the Big A"). Rubin won seven of her first 10 races.

Frank Deford on how the Kentucky Derby became Americana.

"This moment of triumph marks the end of such a long period of pain, of indignity and injustice for African-Americans. And for so many others of us, of the trampling and debasing of our most basic ideals.... The election brought the return of a country we’d lost for so long that it was almost forgotten under the accumulated scar tissue of accommodation and acceptance."

"What takes more doing is getting to the grass roots of Russia's thoroughbred industry -- visiting the country's studs." (Whitney Tower, Sports Illustrated, 1972.)

Front pages of newspapers from around the world.

A small selection of marvelous old photos from Aqueduct, Saratoga, and Hialeah.

Marvelous site documenting the history of Narragansett, complete with photos and postcards

Where Curlin ranks on the list of great horses is a matter for debate (a debate we're fortunate to have)