Congratulations to Todd Pletcher for getting off the Derby schneid. Pletcher and his wife Tracy have been major supporters of the Belmont Child Care Association, and two years ago they were honored for their work on behalf of the children of Anna House. And now we can, happily, stop hearing about his winless streak. Pletcher’s kind of like the…
We finally made it. After all the preps, it comes down to the 136th Run for the Roses. This year’s Kentucky Derby once again drew an oversubscribed field that was filed down to 20 3-year-olds Wednesday morning. They’ll head to the post at or around 6:24 PM Saturday evening, and some 2 minutes later, one…
It’s here. It’s Derby weekend. For weeks the prognostications have been coming; handicappers, analysts, turf writers have weighed in, posited picks, watched workouts. It’s time to make the call. Later today, Brian will be here with some serious handicapping; but first, here are the third annual Backstretch Derby picks, by the letters. For the poetically inclined,…
So here we are, April 29th. Two days to the Kentucky Derby; two days to the end of the Road to the Roses Backstretch Charity League; two days until the end of the Thoroughbred Retirement Foundation hay drive. Our league table is posted below, and it appears that HoosYourDaddy is going to wire the field…
It starts in the late spring and early summer. You look at the two-year-olds racing in Kentucky and New York. You examine pedigree and performance. You hope that by the following spring, you’ll have found your Derby horse. But sometimes, your Derby horse finds you. Bud Perrone grew up in Louisville, going to “the Downs”…
Over the weekend, I wrote about the withering of the Withers, about the loss of the historical and contemporary significance of the race: no big-name horses; a short field; an abiding lack of interest from the greater racing world. Just another minor, meaningless, low-level stakes race at a largely-empty racetrack. Ho-hum. Check, please. And then…
Withers: “The high part of the back of a horse or similar animal, located between the shoulder blades.” (American Heritage Dictionary, via Wordnik) Well, that’s certainly appropriate. Withers: Mr. David Dunham Withers, member of the American Jockey Club and one of the founders of Jerome Park (via NYRA). He was also instrumental in the re-opening…
It’s Sunday morning in Lexington, Kentucky. Sundays are meant to be a day of rest…but there’s much, much too much to do to rest. On the road to Keeneland for workouts, we end up behind a horse van, and we wonder which Kitten might be inside. If the race card holds any hints, we are…
Monday morning, April 19th: It’s been quiet for a little while, but at about 8:25, the stirrings begin. The clockers resume their places: binoculars are raised, stopwatches poised. After a morning of commonplace workouts—oh, except for that bullet that Rachel Alexandra fired at 6:30—the Churchill Downs track is about to become something of a private playground. Under…
It’s Sunday morning, and I confirm that yes, mass will be celebrated on the grounds at Keeneland at 10 am. “I call it ‘Our Lady of the Sales Pavilion,’” quips a local acquaintance. The little room off the main sales area is packed, with barn workers and racing fans, Keeneland employees and families. Out the…
Brooklyn Backstretch 