By Brian Brady
At the June 24 meeting of the Retired Men’s Association Charlie Adams introduced Michael Batcheller, who was born in Buffalo and grew up in Manhattan. He has an M.A. in Teaching, served 1968-70 in the Peace Corps in Tunisia, and ultimately joined the faculty of Greenwich High School serving for 40 years as a teacher and administrator. He is the author of the book “Forging the Triple Crown: The Early History of Horse Racing’s Signature Series, 1918-1948.”
Batcheller began with thanks to several members and the entire RMA for inviting him to speak to us. He gave a reflective presentation, recounting how, as a nine-year-old boy in 1953, he sat mesmerized by the flickering black-and-white images of the “Gray Ghost,” Native Dancer, dashing across the screen. That horse’s surprising loss to Dark Star in the Kentucky Derby provided Batcheller with his first significant heartache, but it also began a lifelong obsession with the equine athletes who chase the American Triple Crown.
Batcheller’s talk centered on his research into the three-decade span between 1918 and 1948, a period when the Triple Crown was forged into the signature series of American sport. He reminded the audience that the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness Stakes, and the Belmont Stakes were never intended to be a collective; they were founded in the inverse order of their modern schedule and functioned as self-standing events until historical circumstances— and a few extraordinary horses— intertwined them.
He spent time detailing the “equine heroes” who served as the links in this chain. He introduced the audience to Sir Barton, the 1919 champion who became the first horse to sweep all three races. At the time, the feat garnered little media attention, but Batcheller highlighted the ingenuity of Sir Barton’s trainer, Harvey Guy Bedwell, a veteran horseman who discovered the horse had brittle feet that made running on dirt agonizing. To save the horse’s career, Bedwell cushioned his hooves with piano felt, a bit of “horse whispering” that allowed the stallion to gallop into history.
Batcheller also brought to life the legendary Samuel D. Riddle, a staunch traditionalist and owner of the great Man o’ War. Riddle’s refusal to run “Big Red” in the 1920 Kentucky Derby—believing a mile-anda-quarter was too taxing for a three-year-old in early May—is one of racing’s great “what ifs.” It wasn’t until 1930, when Gallant Fox swept the series, that the term “Triple Crown” truly entered the American lexicon. Batcheller credited Bryan Field, a turf writer for The New York Times, and Charles Hatton of the Daily Racing Form with popularizing the name, overcoming the scoffs of traditionalists who felt Americans were merely “imitating” the British.
The latter half of Batcheller’s presentation shifted to the modern era, drawing a direct line from the “Golden Age” champions to the “fragile” athletes of the 21st century. He noted that while the 1940s saw five Triple Crown winners—including the “ugly duckling” Assault, who overcame a permanent limp caused by stepping on a surveyor’s stake— the sport has since entered a period of deep structural crisis. Batcheller was particularly focused on what he called the “hot button issue” of race spacing. He pointed out that the current schedule of the Derby, Preakness, and Belmont (run over five weeks) was only standardized in 1960. This tradition is now considered by many to be the sport’s greatest “weakness.” He cited the recent 2026 Kentucky Derby, won by Golden Tempo— the first Derby winner in history to be trained by a woman, Cherie DeVoe. Following the lead of the 2025 winner, Sovereign, DeVoe chose to bypass the Preakness entirely, claiming the two-week turnaround was “not good for my horse.” This trend of skipping the “middle jewel” has prompted unprecedented political intervention. Batcheller detailed the recent actions of Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who, just last week, invoked a “right of first refusal” to protect the Preakness. The state offered $85 million to purchase the intellectual property of the race from its current owners to ensure Maryland can “shape its horse racing destiny” by potentially altering the race’s date or distance to attract top-tier colts back to Baltimore. Batcheller offered three different scenarios for revised scheduling/spacing between the three Triple Crown races, one of which he expects is highly likely to be selected as early as 2027.
The presentation concluded with a candid discussion of the sport’s changing economics. Batcheller explained that because top-tier horses are now worth millions in future stud fees, owners are loath to risk them in a grueling three-race schedule. He touched upon the tarnished reputation of modern trainers like Bob Baffert, whose legal battles over medication violations led to the creation of the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Act in 2020—a desperate attempt to standardize a once “anythinggoes” industry.
Batcheller left the audience with a blessing borrowed from the late racing broadcaster Harvey Pack: “May the horse be with you.”
The talk can be viewed by going to the RMA website at https://greenwichrma.org, clicking on “Speakers,” then “Past Speakers,” and then “RMA Vimeo Library.”
The RMA’s next presentation, “Why The United States Would Be Safer With a Smaller Military,” by Jennifer Kavanagh, PhD is scheduled for 11 AM on Wednesday, July 8, 2026. RMA presentations are held at Christ Church Greenwich, Parish Hall, 254 E. Putnam Avenue, Greenwich, CT 06830.
Jennifer Kavanagh is a Senior Fellow and Director of Military Analysis at Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank that studies military affairs. A political scientist by training, Kavanagh has spent her career studying U.S. national security and defense policy. Her research focuses on U.S. military strategy, force structure, defense budgeting, the defense industrial base including U.S. military deployments and interventions.
Previously, Kavanagh was a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. She also worked as a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, where she led projects for defense and national security clients. She served for three years as director of RAND’s Army Strategy program.
She is co-author of the book Truth Decay, and her work has been published in Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, Foreign Policy, Journal of Conflict Resolution, The Washington Quarterly, Lawfare, and The Los Angeles Times, among other outlets. She has been interviewed on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Bloomberg News, C-SPAN’s
Kavanagh received an AB in Government from Harvard University and a PhD in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of Michigan. She is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and an Adjunct Professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University.
To stream the presentation by Jennifer Kavanagh at 11 AM on Wednesday, July 8, click on https://bit.ly/30IBj21. This presentation will also be available on local public access TV channels, Verizon FIOS channel 24 and Optimum channel 79.
Note: The views expressed in these presentations are those of the speakers. They are not intended to represent the views of the RMA or its members.
RMA speaker presentations are presented as a community service at no cost to in-person or Zoom attendees, regardless of gender. Any member of the public who would like to receive a weekly email announcement of future speakers should send a request to members@greenwichrma.org. The RMA urges all eligible individuals to consider becoming a member of our great organization, and thereby enjoy all the available fellowship, volunteer, and community service opportunities which the RMA offers to its members. For further information, go to https://greenwichrma.org/, or contact info@greenwichrma.org.
