My autumn tracks are Belmont and Keeneland, both of which are beautiful in the fall. Both tracks race in the spring, too, but they seem somehow made for colorful foliage, for chilly temperatures, for bridging the transition from tank tops to sweaters. Saratoga is all about the summer, but it, too, is resplendent in the…
A quick check-in before heading upstate to see the family, catch the last of the fall foliage along the Taconic, and squeeze in one more visit to the Oklahoma before training there comes to an end next month. Bennett Liebman has provided some further information and stories on the Saratoga saddling area, this one from…
Ah, holiday weekends! Not sure what the justification is behind making Columbus Day a major holiday, but given the chance at a three-day weekend…I’ll take it. As usual, I spent Saturday at Belmont, where there were three Grade 1 races on tap: the Jamaica, the Frizette, and the Champagne. On Sunday I headed for points…
What a fun week it’s been! E-mails and Facebook comments and phone calls and website comments, all dropping nuggets of information about when the paddock at Saratoga changed. The saddling area under the trees at Saratoga is so iconic, and Saratoga itself so steeped in history, and Saratoga fans so aware of that history, that…
I haven’t yet seen Secretariat, though what I’ve heard about it suggests that perhaps it will be a Netflix or pay-per-view rental, instead of a $12.75/ticket night out in New York City. The absence of Riva Ridge – in even so much as a mention – from the movie has raised the ire of a…
Last week a Twitter follower asked me, in service of settling a bet, if I knew when the saddling area at Saratoga moved from under the backyard trees to its current location. I’ve asked: Andy Serling. Nick Zito. Allen Jerkens. Marshall Cassidy. My brother. Steve Crist. And so far, folks, we’ve got about a ten-year…
I watched the Jockey Club Gold Cup from the winner’s circle at Belmont Park on Saturday. It’s an ideal spot for about five seconds, the last five seconds of the race. The race started on the clubhouse turn, so most of us had to rely on the infield screen to see what was happening. I…
I didn’t think that I would write about Rachel Alexandra’s retirement. What was I going to say? That I was surprised? (I wasn’t.) That I found it odd? (I didn’t.) That I disagree with the decision? (I don’t.) That I’m disappointed? (I’m not.) Panegyrics have appropriately flooded the media, lauding the first three-year-old filly Horse…
He worked in New York racing for nearly 60 years. He wrote a seminal book on horse racing, American Racing, 1866-1921. He created the Experimental Free Handicap. But finding information on Walter S. Vosburgh is about as easy as tracking down a race chart from 1953. He’s got his own race, the Vosburgh, run since…
In January of 2007, I went to Philadelphia Park for the first time. I don’t recall that it was particularly cold, but it was gray, and the place had a desolate feel. We sat in the restaurant on the fifth floor; it was perfectly pleasant, but the horses seemed awfully far away: it was tough…
Brooklyn Backstretch 