There’s more than one strategy for success in Thoroughbred racing, which means every owner has a chance to win at Churchill Downs.
It’s nearing two o’clock in the afternoon and the SoCal sun is beating down on Santa Anita Park just east of Pasadena. It’s the second day of November—the 30th running of the Breeders’ Cup—and the mercury has reached its zenith for the day. Down by the paddock, the owners and trainers dressed in their race-day best—be it bow ties and fedoras or wide-brimmed hats and form-fitting c…

At the beginning of the 20th century, the maker of the most stylish and practical custom luggage in Paris was not Louis Vuitton or Goyard, but Pauline Moynat. The only prominent female practitioner of the era, Moynat created distinctively curvaceous bags and witty conceptual pieces, such as a round trunk designed to hold a spare tire that could also, in a pinch, be filled with water to serve as a bathtub. She founded her business, Moynat, in 1849, and by 1854 she owned the patent for canvas coated with gutta-p…

Germany’s Lotus Motorcycles has teamed up with the German conceptual-vehicle designer Daniel Simon to create the C-01 motorcycle. While Simon’s best-known work includes the light cycles seen in the 2010 film Tron: Legacy and the bubble copter in the 2013 film Oblivion, he is regarded in the automotive world for his work at Bugatti. The C-01 motorcycle features a 200 hp, four-stroke, 2-cylinder V-twin engine (a modified version of KTM’s 1,195 cc engine), which is draped underneath a carbon-fiber shell and sits …

In less than a decade, the Turin, Italy, custom car builder Studiotorino has developed an impressive stable of revamped automobiles, including ones based on vehicles from Mercedes-Benz, Maserati, and Fiat. It is Porsche, however, that earned the honor of being the first marque to receive the Studiotorino treatment, resulting in the company’s first series of production vehicles. The RK line, which comprised coupe and convertible versions of the 2005 Boxter and Cayman, ended production in 2008. Now, to fill the …

Since introducing its special-edition Airbus EC145 Mercedes-Benz Style twin-engine turbine helicopter in 2010, Airbus has delivered only five of them around the world. This month, the helicopter made its first U.S. appearance, at Heli-Expo in California. The helicopter’s luxury interior, created by the Mercedes-Benz Advanced Design Division in Como, Italy, incorporates fine leather and wood details, an advanced in-flight entertainment system, subtle ambient lighting, and a choice of modular storage cabinets. T…

A mainstay of Monterey Car Week since 1985, the Concorso Italiano gives visitors the opportunity to behold more than 1,000 classic Italian vehicles in one location. This year, it is launching the Desert Concorso, a sibling event in Palm Desert, Calif., with a greatly expanded focus that also includes vehicles from European countries outside of Italy and even a few select examples of noteworthy U.S. hot rods. Maserati, which is celebrating its centennial this year, will be well represented at the Concorso by a …

One does not often mention Canada and supercars in the same breath, but Felino, a new high-performance carmaker based in Montreal, hopes to change that with its first production model, the Felino cB7. Founded by the former Canadian racecar driver Antoine Bessette, Felino has spent more than four years researching and developing the cB7. The latest prototype was shown at the Montreal International Auto Show in January, and the company plans to begin limited production of the supercar next year.
The cB7 is craf…

Power dressing was a prominent style of the 1980s. The era is inspiring a new capsule collection by Oliver Peoples called Sir with three limited-edition styles based on designs from the brand’s eyeglasses collections of the late 1980s. The new editions ($440 to $510) have been modernized in new color combinations and details. “We wanted to revisit this idea of a dream uniform for the modern-day businessman and create intellectual, handcrafted styles that add a sense of polished and tailored sophistication,” sa…

Ben Soleimani, whose family has been in the rug business for four generations, is continuing his collaboration with Restoration Hardware, where he is now the company’s full-time rug designer and collector. The new items will debut online in April as part of the RH spring collection. Soleimani and Restoration Hardware first partnered on a 400-rug collection in 2011, when he was working at the Los Angeles branch of his London-based family’s company, Mansour, but this latest effort will introduce more than 3,500 …

Held annually since 1960, the New York Antiquarian Book Fair has grown into one of the largest events of its kind anywhere in the world. During this span, a number of smaller book-related shows, exhibits, and auctions have sprung up around the fair, which is held during the first week of April. This year, the fair and the events surrounding it will be recognized collectively as the first-annual New York Rare Book Week, taking place from April 1 to 8.
The Antiquarian Book Fair, which will host more than 200 de…