NORTH EAST, Md. — Michael Dickinson has an eternal twinkle in his eye. It is there on winter weekends when he participates in fox chases: on foot and alongside 70 horses. It was there a decade ago when he decided thoroughbred racing needed safer racetracks and, after years of experimenting, he came up with a synthetic surface now used throughout the world.
It was there, too, nearly two decades ago when he hired private investigators to monitor what was going on at the barn of a rival on the day that trainer’s horse was favored to win the one of the richest races in the world, the Breeders’ Cup Classic.