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Society Man, Dragoon Guard Top West Virginia Derby

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2 years ago

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Society Man, Dragoon Guard Top West Virginia Derby


Trainer Danny Gargan, enjoying a career-best year with two grade 1 wins from Dornoch  and stable earnings of more than $3.2 million, can pad that tally when Society Man  races Aug. 4 in the $500,000 West Virginia Derby (G3) at Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort.

The Matt Winn Stakes (G3) winner and Wood Memorial Stakes (G2) runner-up battles Indiana Derby (G3) victor Dragoon Guard , Iowa Derby winner Henro , and six other 3-year-olds in the 1 1/8-mile dirt race. 

Besides being trained by Gargan, Society Man shares other similarities with Dornoch. Both are sons of Good Magic  , though Dornoch is a colt and Society Man a gelding. West Paces Racing is a co-owner in both horses.

Society Man races for Reeves Thoroughbred Racing, West Paces Racing, GMP Stables, and Carl and Yurie Pascarella. West Paces Racing is also an owner in Dornoch, along with R. A. Hill Stable, Belmar Racing and Breeding, Two Eight Racing, and Pine Racing Stables.

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Gargan nominated Society Man to the July 27 Jim Dandy Stakes (G2) at Saratoga Race Course but passed on the race, which reigning 2-year-old male champion Fierceness  won over Kentucky Derby (G1) runner-up Sierra Leone . He told New York Racing Association publicity that he thinks Society Man “fits better in the West Virginia Derby.”

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“I like how the timing sets up. If he could win the West Virginia Derby, we could see him back at Parx,” he said of the Sept. 21 Pennsylvania Derby (G1). “I have him on that route.

“Look, he is a gelding, and he is going to be around for a long time. We are just trying to map out the best route for him to keep him doing well.”

Society Man is 2-1-1 in seven starts with earnings of $437,230. Corey Lanerie, aboard in the Matt Winn, travels to Mountaineer for the return mount Sunday.

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Juddmonte’s Dragoon Guard, a winner of three straight after a debut second last September at Churchill Downs, appears a formidable foe following front-running 2 1/2-length victory in the July 6 Indiana Derby (G3) at Horseshoe Indianapolis.

Florent Geroux comes in for the ride on the Brad Cox-trained Dragoon Guard, a homebred son of Arrogate. Along with Society Man, Dragoon Guard is co-high weight in the field at 120 lbs.

JD Thoroughbreds and Joey Keith Davis’ Henro upset Dragoon Guard’s Cox-trained stablemate Just a Touch  in capturing the Iowa Derby at Prairie Meadows the same day as the Indiana Derby. Routing for the first time, Henro, a Collected   gelding, sat closer than usual to the early pace and came on late to score after tracking the leaders.

Rafael Bejarano returns in the irons for trainer Chris Hartman aboard the diminutive chestnut, who is 3-1-0 in seven starts.

All nine entrants in the West Virginia Derby race with the diuretic Lasix, which is not permitted in graded stakes races across the United States but can be used in West Virginia, which is not operating under the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority. The state won a preliminary injunction two years ago in one of the numerous lawsuits that are contesting HISA’s constitutionality.

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Sunday’s card is a twilight racing program with first post at 5 p.m. ET. The West Virginia Derby is scheduled for 8:15 p.m.

Entries: West Virginia Derby (G3)

Mountaineer Casino Racetrack & Resort, Sunday, August 04, 2024, Race 8

  • Grade III
  • 1 1/8m
  • Dirt
  • $500,000
  • 3 yo
  • 8:15 PM (local)



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West Virginia

3 keys for Kentucky Women’s Basketball to survive West Virginia, and a prediction

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10 hours ago

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March 23, 2026

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3 keys for Kentucky Women’s Basketball to survive West Virginia, and a prediction


The sting of the men’s tournament exit is still fresh. A turnover-fueled, 19-point loss to Iowa State is a tough pill for the Big Blue Nation to swallow. But in March, the page turns quickly. Now, the ladies have everyone’s undivided attention, and they should. They have been tremendous this year.

Kenny Brooks and company are set to take on West Virginia at 5 PM on Monday on ESPN2. The Mountaineers are fast, aggressive, and dangerous. If the Wildcats want to keep their postseason dreams alive and move on to the next round, they have to execute in three critical areas.

Here is the blueprint for a Kentucky victory and a trip to the Sweet 16 for the first time in a decade.

Key #1: Protect the basketball at all costs

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You are probably sick of hearing about turnovers after watching the men struggle with them yesterday, but the reality is that West Virginia is going to try to replicate that exact same nightmare.

The Mountaineers are absolute pests defensively, forcing an average of 22 turnovers per game. Kentucky has shown they can get loose with the ball; it was the defining factor that cost them the game against Vanderbilt at home, and it has haunted them in several other close matchups this season. Looking at the season stats, the Cats average 12.7 turnovers a game, but they have 9 games with 16 or more turnovers. Against West Virginia’s pressure, that number can spiral out of control in a hurry. Job number one is simple: value the basketball, make strong passes, and do not let the Mountaineers speed up the offense. Easier said than done, but it is a key.

Key #2: Dominate the War on the Glass

This is where Kentucky’s size has to neutralize West Virginia’s speed. The Mountaineers average a respectable 36.6 rebounds per game, but Kentucky has the edge on paper, pulling down 40.6 boards a night.

To win this game, that paper advantage has to translate into unrelenting effort on the hardwood. The Cats need their frontcourt to dominate. Clara Strack (10.1 rebounds) and Teonni Key (7.3 rebounds) both need to be hunting double-doubles. Furthermore, Amelia Hassett needs to chip in and do the dirty work in the paint. If Kentucky can outwork West Virginia and finish the game +7 on the boards, they will control the tempo and limit second-chance points. That will offset some of the turnovers that will surely happen.

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Key #3: Find a Spark Off the Bench

Kentucky doesn’t boast the deepest rotation in the tournament, with its core six players chewing up the vast majority of the minutes. But in a high-stakes, high-pressure tournament setting, relying solely on the starters is a recipe for fatigue, and we have seen that already this year in the loss to South Carolina at home.

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The Wildcats desperately need Kaelyn Carroll, Lexi Blue, or Jordan Obi to step up and push into double figures. Obi will get the most minutes, as usual, so she is most likely to do so. More importantly, they need Carroll to provide highly productive minutes just to give the starters a breather without the offense stalling. Blue hasn’t seen the floor much this season (averaging just 6.7 minutes), but if she can come in and provide two to three solid, mistake-free minutes, it would be massive for the rotation.

If Kentucky can squeeze 15 points out of the bench, you have to feel incredibly good about their chances of advancing.

I really believe this team wins this game as long as they don’t turn it over, even on the road.

Prediction Kentucky 77, West Virginia 69



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West Virginia

Sunday Morning Thoughts: West Virginians Deserve to Experience Winning a National Title

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23 hours ago

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March 22, 2026

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Sunday Morning Thoughts: West Virginians Deserve to Experience Winning a National Title


Saturday evening was a night for West Virginia fans to remember.

13,504 folks were in attendance for West Virginia’s opening round victory over Miami (Ohio), in the NCAA tournament, setting a new record for the largest crowd to watch a women’s basketball game inside Hope Coliseum.

There were long lines forming outside of the gates hours before tip-off, and a good portion of the seats were filled with old gold and blue for the first game between Kentucky and James Madison. From pregame warm-ups to the announcement of the starting lineups to the opening tip to the final horn, Mountaineer Nation brought it.

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A case could be made that it was the loudest the Coliseum had been all year, including for any of the men’s basketball games. The women hadn’t hosted an NCAA tournament game in over 30 years, and you could tell how excited everyone was to be there and be a part of history.

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The one thing I took away from that game was just how amazing West Virginia fans truly are and how badly they want to win. Having covered WVU sports for the last 10 years and been born and raised in Wheeling, neither of those two facts is news to me. But it’s in moments like this where you see the support really shine through.

There have been plenty of heartbreaks over the years from the 1988 national championship game in football to being excluded from the 1993 championship game after an undefeated season to that Backyard Brawl loss in 2007 to the loss to Duke in the Final Four in 2010 and even all the way back to Jerry West’s squad falling one bucket shy of winning a national championship in 1959.

Those are some of the ones that stick out like sore thumbs, but they’re also some other gut-wrenching games where WVU had a clear path to either a conference championship or something of similar significance and were unable to get the job done.

Mountaineer fans just want to experience winning a national championship in one of the big sports. Although they don’t have anything directly to do with the team’s success in that quest, West Virginians would feel a sense of accomplishment through the players, the staff, and the administration.

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What makes West Virginia so special is that the people are proud to be from there. It’s rare that the state is in the national spotlight for something good, and when it happens, it’s usually because of WVU’s success in athletics.

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That Flying WV logo doesn’t just represent the university, it represents the state and its people. Winning a national title would allow West Virginians in the Mountain State and those who have moved elsewhere to stick their chest out and feel on top of the world. Through all of the heartache they’ve been through with sports and the hard times they’ve been through in life, just trying to get by, they deserve to have that feeling at least once.

There’s no guarantee that they will beat Kentucky in the second round on Monday night, and I’m also not oblivious to the fact that number one seed Texas is extremely good and very much a national championship contender, but that doesn’t change the point of the story. The fans deserve that magical run, even if it’s just a trip to the Sweet 16 this season, which would be the first time in three decades that they’ve reached that point of March Madness. It would be a step closer to the ultimate goal, just like the baseball program has made significant strides by reaching the super regional in each of the last two seasons.

It may not happen for the women’s basketball team this season, but crazier things have happened. Whenever that national title comes, regardless of the sport, it’s going to be one big celebration that never comes to an end, and West Virginians deserve it.



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West Virginia

5th Annual Spring Battle in the Mountains

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1 day ago

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March 22, 2026

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5th Annual Spring Battle in the Mountains


DUNBAR, W.Va. (WSAZ) – Hundreds of travel football players have descended upon Dunbar, WV this weekend for the 5th Annual Spring Battle in the Mountains.

106 teams from 16 states are at the Shawnee Sports Complex for the largest youth football tournament in the state of West Virginia. There are over 180 games scheduled between Saturday and Sunday.

“It’s different cultures, different walks, different cities. It allows our kids to kind of elevate themselves and it brings them some exposure,” said Mathew Watts, President of West Virginia Mount-Boyz.

Games resume on Sunday at 8:00am.

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