Several years ago while researching a story, I called a handful of trainers and asked if they had any clients who were Black. The story was about the history of African-American people in horse racing and I wanted to get their thoughts for it. These trainers had big stables: dozens, if not hundreds, of horses.…
Churchill Downs: The GI, $3 million Kentucky Derby at 1 1/4 miles by Brian Nadeau Brian handicaps at Capital OTB and Horseplayer Now, and he’ll offer analysis and selections of Derby points races, hoping to make us all a little money as we head to the Preakness. Follow him on Twitter here. #1 Finnick the Fierce…
Ellis Park: The $200,000 Ellis Park Derby at 1 1/8 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: (50-20-10-5) by Brian Nadeau Brian handicaps at Capital OTB and Horseplayer Now, and he’ll offer analysis and selections of Derby points races, hoping to make us all a little money as we head to the Belmont Stakes. Follow him on Twitter here. The Kentucky…
If this were an ordinary year, Saturday would not be Travers Day. If this were an ordinary year, hundreds of people would line up outside the gates of Saratoga Race Course in the wee hours of the morning, waiting for the gates to open so that they could charge inside to snag their preferred location,…
Saratoga: The GI, $1 million Travers at 1 ¼ miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 100-40-20-10) by Brian Nadeau Brian handicaps at Capital OTB and Horseplayer Now, and he’ll offer analysis and selections of Derby points races, hoping to make us all a little money as we head to the Belmont Stakes. Follow him on Twitter here. #1 First Line…
There’s never a good time for a crisis, but it’s hard to imagine a less convenient time for Covid-19 to have hit the New York racing and breeding industries than mid-March. Mares were foaling and being bred; high-stakes races were on the calendar at Aqueduct; and the popular sales for two-year-olds in training were hitting…
…the silence was most striking moments later, when track announcer John Imbriale let us know that the stewards were taking a look at the stretch run and that Midnight Bisou’s rider, Ricardo Santana Jr., had lodged an objection against the winner. Ordinarily, we’d have heard cries of disgust from the people holding tickets on,…
Del Mar: The $100,000 Shared Belief at 1 1/16 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 50-20-10-5) Del Mar gets into the Kentucky Derby prep action with the Shared Belief, which is likely to have just four after the expected defections of Uncle Chuck and Anneau d’Or, who are looking out of town for their next starts.…
As I browsed the Saratoga entries for Saturday, July 25, seeking both good betting races and possible story ideas, I did a quick search for maiden special weights, hoping that some promising juvenile(s). One raced turned up, that for New York-bred fillies and mares, 3 years old and up. I thought I must have screwed…
For years, when I would come to Saratoga Springs, New York, a week or two before the summer meeting began, I would wander around the racecourse, marveling at its beauty, soaking in its silence. Saratoga is my hometown, and, for those few days, I felt like the track was all mine. Selfishly, I wondered what…
