Good news for fans of New Yorkers Spooky Mulder and Naughty New Yorker.
Though bred in Kentucky, Spooky Mulder’s spent a good deal of his racing life in New York. After being claimed by Scott Lake in February of 2007, Spooky moved to the Mid-Atlantic circuit, but David Jacobson claimed him in his last start, and as I’d hoped, brought the ten-year-old gelding home to New York. He worked out at Aqueduct on Tuesday, breezing three furlongs.
Michael Veitch in the Daily Racing Form reports that Naughty New Yorker was named horse of the year and champion older male for 2007 at the annual New York Thoroughbred Breeders Inc. awards dinner on May 12. The six-year-old horse is a son of Quiet American and Naughty Natisha, who, according to the article, is booked to Empire Maker and about to drop a foal by Bluegrass Cat.
Among Naughty New Yorker’s 2007 achievements are running third behind Daaher and Midnight Lute in the Cigar Mile, and winning stakes races at all three NYRA tracks. He finished on the board in six of eleven starts, and may run second in New Yorkers’ affections only to Evening Attire.
And in other New York bred news, Brooklyn Backstretch favorite Duchess of Rokeby ran fourth on Wednesday in the fifth race. She’s one of the Allen Jerkens-trained, Middleburg Training Center horses of whom I’ve become quite fond since last autumn. I suppose that I should mention that an anonymous commenter felt compelled, in response to yesterday’s post about BEST’s event next week honoring The Chief, to post that Jerkens uses steroids on his horses. I don’t particularly want to acknowledge this anonymous, unsubstantiated claim, but nor does it seem right to ignore it simply because I’m a Jerkens fan. I’m not sure why this person felt obligated to pass on this information—opinion?—especially anonymously (dubious credibility) and without substantiation, but I suppose that as in baseball, the evidence suggests that steroids are widely used and that nearly everybody is under suspicion. I like Jerkens’s horses and I respect him as a trainer, and I guess I hope that it’s not true.
And just to wear this New Yorker theme right down into the ground, herewith are offered three New York hunch bets for Thursday’s Belmont card:
Race 1: Peconic Bay (on Long Island)
Race 4: New York Style
Race 5: City Spirit
Brooklyn Backstretch 
I know that Floyd and Madison don’t play away from home!-but could you get them to put some Fantasy Euros on my friends filly Once Upon a Cat tomorrow in France
Madison and Floyd would loveto, but at the current exchange rates, they’re not sure that their racing budgets can handle it! All the best of feline luck to the filly…
Hate to serve as the human rain cloud, but…http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/28/sports/othersports/28horses.html?fta=y&pagewanted=allJerkens has ‘fessed up to it. Still, I think it’s important to keep in mind that these are legal drugs approved by the FDA for use in horses. This isn’t the same as baseball players going to BALCO to find designer drugs to fly under the radar; these are legal substances widely used in the racing world. Maybe they shouldn’t be, and that seems to be where the tide is going. But in the meantime, it seems a little bit over the top to me (and I’m not suggesting, Teresa, that you’re saying this, but others certainly are) to get down on people who are playing within the rules.
I was asked why I wasn’t writing about Richard Dutrow using Winstrol in Big Brown, and my answer was that it would not be fair to single him out without writing about all the other trainers in the Triple Crown using it — legally. Medication is certainly an important topic that needs to be addressed, not only by the media but the industry, but to single out folks doing something legal and branding them, doesn’t strike me as very sporting or fair-minded. If people want drugs out of the game, they could start by making their use illegal. — John S.
A photo of Brooklyn hugging Spooky has to happen.Screensaver!Agree 100% with John.