A photo of Discovery’s grave, on the day of his eponymous race, thanks to reader Joan, who sent it in after reading yesterday’s post. She recently visited Sagamore Farm, home of Discovery and the base of Alfred G. Vanderbilt’s racing and breeding operation.

Both Jerry Bossert in the Daily News and Ed Fountaine in the New York Post report that on Thursday, NYRA president Charlie Hayward made a trip to the press box to quell any rumors of a shortened racing season in New York this year winter. I knew that I shouldn’t have written about it…

From the “man, we’re in trouble” department: I was recently following a thread on the Brooklyn Heights Blog about the possibility of a new middle school in the vicinity; it was surprisingly contentious, and I must say that I could never have foreseen the turn it took:

I’m advocating a school be built. Not a topless bar or a sausage factory or a
race track – a FREAKIN SCHOOL pal.

I know that racetracks have to battle some image problems…but to be in the same league as a topless bar or a sausage factory? Has it really come to this?

Unable to resist, I chimed in about Brooklyn’s glorious racing past, which elicited this response:

…I’ve lived here 25 years and never realized that Belmont was almost next door.
No wonder I can never find any of my friends on the afternoon when the Belmont
Stakes is run.

So I guess the good news is that lots of folks head out on Belmont day; the bad news is that someone’s lived less than twenty miles from Belmont for a quarter of a century and didn’t know it was there.

In very sad racing news, two-time Bernard Baruch winner Shakis was put down after suffering an injury during a workout at Hollywood Park. Here he is, on his way to the track at Saratoga in August, minutes before garnering his second Baruch victory.