This year’s Travers Stakes has attracted a star-studded field of 10 3-year-olds, many of them multiple stakes winners, headlined by Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes winner Golden Tempo. None of those 3-year-olds, accomplished as they are, has three Grade 1 wins to their credit. Missing from the Travers starting gate this weekend at Saratoga Race Course…
In 2015, trainer Bob Baffert sent American Pharoah to run in the Travers Stakes. In what has become the stuff of Saratoga Race Course legend, thousands of people turned out the day before the race to watch the Triple Crown winner gallop during morning workouts. The excitement of seeing the first Triple Crown winner in 37…
The star of the show at Saratoga Race Course on the day of the Belmont Stakes was, understandably, Golden Tempo. He’d won the Kentucky Derby, he was trained by the first woman to win that race, and after facing skepticism about his ability to replicate that historic victory — he was sent to the post in the Belmont…
Getting this up a day late this week, thanks to the dead bat that one of my charming felines deposited in my bedroom sometime early, early Tuesday morning. I drove the deceased to the lab near Albany, and the bat fortunately tested negative rabies, but not until after I drove the resident felines to the…
With great power comes great responsibility, a wise man once told a young, budding superhero — and, just days after the latest Spider-Man movie hit theaters, two great racing powers, the New York Racing Association and Churchill Downs Incorporated announced their bombshell vision of a brand new day in the sport of thoroughbred racing. Advertised as a move…
Being an everyday horse trainer is a full-time job and then some. Being a Kentucky Derby winning trainer adds a whole new set of obligations; throw in making history by being the first woman trainer to win the Kentucky Derby, and let’s just say that if Cherie DeVaux’s responsibilities paid overtime, she’d be a very rich woman. …
How this works: At the top of each week’s list are ongoing or weekly events; following that is a daily rundown of what’s happening at the track and beyond. I’m happy to answer questions (if I can) about anything that’s going on, or at least point you in the right direction. Here we go… Ongoing/weekly…
The results are in. And, from my wholly unscientific, small-sample-size survey, the four-day racing week has a pretty high approval rating, at least from the people most directly involved in the sport. For many years, the New York Racing Association raced six days a week during the summer meet at Saratoga Race Course. Then, in 2019,…
Meredith Krupp already loves Saratoga Springs, N.Y. She loves the town itself; she loves the enthusiasm of the people at the races, and she loves how fully the track is integrated into the community. The evening of Aug. 10 may give her yet another reason to love the upstate New York racing mecca: a horse…
The public library is one of the glories of Saratoga Springs. Back when I was in high school up the street at Spa Catholic, it was housed in the cozy building at the corner of Spring St. and Broadway before it moved to a modern, larger space on Henry St. in 1995, offering local residents…
Brooklyn Backstretch 