Thanks to the folks at The Rail, for featuring this post along with those of other TBA bloggers in today’s Blog Roll feature.

Today’s feature at Belmont is the Sands Point, upgraded to a Grade II this year, at a mile and an eighth on the turf for three year old fillies. Sands Point is also the location of the BEST (Backstretch Employees Service Team) event I attended on Wednesday evening at Hempstead House, an estate that is now part of the Sands Point Preserve on Long Island. This article from Newsday details the history of the estate, which was originally owned by the Gould family and sold to Daniel Guggenheim in 1917.

No one has lived there since 1930, and it’s changed hands a number of times, serving a variety of functions, including a movie set (The Godfather, among others), and a US Navy test lab. The Preserve and its mansions are open to the public; more info at the Sands Point Preserve website. The place is magnificent—both the land and the houses—and worth a visit.

Like many of their social set, the Guggenheims were active in the equine world. This 1917 New York Times article reports on the Piping Rock Horse Show, at which Mrs. Daniel Guggenheim won the Piping Rock Challenge Cup with “the best saddle horse in the show.” When Daniel’s son Harry got married, his father gave him ninety acres of the Sands Point estate as a wedding present, and in addition to pursuits in other industries, Harry was a leading figure in New York racing in the early part of the twentieth century.

Harry’s Cain Hoy stable raced a number of notable horses, achieving its greatest victory in the 1953 Kentucky Derby with Dark Star, who handed the great Native Dancer his only defeat. Guggenheim also bred and owned Ack Ack, 1971 Horse of the Year and 1986 Hall of Fame inductee. In 1955, Guggenheim helped to found the New York Racing Association, which replaced the state’s Jockey Club and consolidated leadership of the state’s four racetracks (Saratoga, Belmont, Aqueduct, Jamaica).

The first running of the Sands Point was in 1995, making it an infant on the New York racing calendar, but its brief history has yielded an impressive roster of winners:

2002: Riskaverse
2005: Melhor Ainda
2006: Wait a While
2007: Bit of Whimsy/Rutherienne (dead heat—register for free and watch it at Cal Racing—June 2nd, 2007, race 8—Rutherienne flies at the finish)

Today’s renewal features one stakes winner, Shadwell and McLaughlin’s Alwajeeha, and a filly who’s twice broken her maiden, Darley and Albertrani’s Raw Silk. She won at Aqueduct in her third try in November, but was placed second through disqualification. After taking the winter off, she came back to Aqueduct in April, winning easily in her first start off the layoff.

I’d love to head out to Belmont to catch this race, but unfortunately, it’s prom night for Brooklyn Backstretch. You know those nightmares where you find yourself back in high school? Yeah, well, my chosen profession means that tonight will mark my eleventh senior prom. As we say about the races, here’s to a good start for them all, and may they come home safely…