The following is an excerpt from Barbara D. Livingston's upcoming book tentatively titled "Old and New Friends" available this fall from DRF Press.

He’s the country’s oldest classic winner, a stallion so beautiful that, in his racing days, he was dubbed “Handsome Hansel.”

It’s hard to believe Hansel left the track a quarter-century ago. Studying him at his Lazy Lane Farm home in Upperville, Va., his bay coat is rich with dapples, his muscles fit, and his attitude willing – he still looks and acts like a youngster.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Closers don’t win the Belmont Stakes. So goes second-level thinking these days in horse racing’s hive-mind. Like the debunked myth of tight turns at Pimlico in the Preakness, the oversimplified notion suggesting that the 1 1/2-mile Belmont favors late-rallying horses who have run out of ground at shorter distances has been kicked to the curb.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Handicappers will no longer have to guess who will be on the lead early in Saturday’s $1.5 million Belmont Stakes.

Gettysburg, whose best races have come when he was on the lead, was added to the Belmont Stakes field Monday, according to Elliott Walden, president, chief executive, and racing manager for WinStar Farm, which owns Gettysburg. WinStar also owns Creator and holds the breeding rights to Preakness winner Exaggerator, a pair of late runners who are both running in the Belmont.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Trainer Mark Casse said Monday he was satisfied with how Noble Bird came out of his most recent workout and that he will make his next start in Saturday’s Grade 1, $1.25 million Metropolitan Handicap.

Casse said the Met Mile had been a race he thought about for Noble Bird even before his monster 11 1/4-length victory in the Pimlico Special three weeks ago. The other option for Noble Bird would have been the Grade 1 Stephen Foster at Churchill Downs on June 18, a race he won last year.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Seven overseas shippers are set to participate in stakes races at Belmont on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, including a rare European starter in the Metropolitan Handicap.

The 4-year-old Galileo filly Brandybend starts Thursday for trainer Marco Botti in the new Belmont Coronation Invitational for fillies and mares going 1 15/16 miles on turf. Brandybend races with Lasix and might appreciate what ought to be fairly firm ground here. But she has never run beyond 1 1/2 miles and will need a career-best performance to factor.

Requite, Dearest, and Awesome Banner were the three marquee names on Saturday’s Summit of Speed Preview card at Gulfstream Park, and all three delivered in their preps for more significant assignments on the Summit of Speed card July 2.

ELMONT, N.Y. – Exaggerator lost his left hind shoe while galloping on the Belmont Park main track Monday morning, but he was due to be shod before the Belmont Stakes on Saturday, and it just so happened that his blacksmith was due to arrive on Monday, so new plates were to be affixed prior to his scheduled workout Tuesday.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The Single Six jackpot pushed past the half-million-dollar mark last weekend at Churchill as low-priced winners continued to dominate the sequences. The payoff for a winning 20-cent ticket Sunday was just $126.26, the lowest since this iteration of the wager began May 13. The odds on those Sunday winners were 4-5, 7-2, 5-2, 2-5, 3-5, and 1-2.

The Single Six jackpot is paid out when there is a single winning ticket.

Favorites have won at a 36 percent clip (84 for 231) at this spring meet, which began April 30. Field size has averaged 8.02 horses per race.

As far as the ownership team behind Preakness winner and Belmont Stakes favorite Exaggerator is concerned, it’s a case of the more, the merrier.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. – The last four horses whom Al Stall Jr. trained for Claiborne Farm have been shipped out to other trainers, thus ending a lengthy relationship that peaked with their Breeders’ Cup Classic victory with Blame in 2010.