(Sierra Leone before Saturday’s G1 Stephen Foster Stakes / All Photos by Holly M. Smith)

Editor’s Note:

Saturday was an eventful day in so many varied ways. It was G1 Stephen Foster Dat at “The Downs,” and the card was an amazing collection of interesting races and amazing horses. It was a day of some rain, and some clouds, and sometimes lightning and thunder. All to serve as simpler drum rolls, mind you, for the next big race approaching. It was a day for our great friend, Holly M. Smith, to discover that she had a balky lens that seemed hell-bent on distraction and disruption. So, as Holly M. Smith has always done, she discovered some new and innovative ways to get the job done. She borrowed a lens. She went online to look at purchasing a new lens. She went to every extreme to focus on those things that needed focusing on. The horse. The time. The job.

Here’s some of her looks from the Saturday card:

Sparkle Blue: 

Breakfast Time…

Spun Candy: 

Gin Gin:

Royal Spa: 

Save Time:

Thorpedo Anna:

Taxed: 

Jockey Flavien Prat:

Breeders’ Cup Hardware…

Thorpedo Anna is back…

Lush Lips: 

Kentucky Oaks Trophy…Presentation Time:

Roll On Big Joe:

Kentucky Derby Trophy…Presentation Time:

Brilliant Berti:

Mindframe:

Sierra Leone:

First Mission: 

Sierra Leone: 

Mystik Dan:

Ashcroft: 

Mindframe Wins the G1 Stephen Foster Stakes…

 

When Push Comes to Shove at the Ole Racetrack…

Minaret Station: 

Native Runner: 

Freedoms Not Free:

Siesta Key: 

Tiztastic: 

Minaret Station: