We weren’t supposed to be devoting so many words to Marylou Whitney just yet. Sure, she is always present, somehow, when racing season starts, but it’s on Whitney weekend, this year August 3, that we focus on her life and her contributions to Thoroughbred racing and to Saratoga Springs. Instead, racegoers at Saratoga Race Course…
There’s a lot of summer and a lot of racing left, but the early highlight for me came in a Sunday afternoon optional claimer, when T Loves a Fight closed like the fighter he is to win by three-quarters of a length. His young owner/trainer, Orlando Noda, has trained horses to just 16 starts; all…
We’re a bit slow out of the gate this year, so apologies if you missed anything yesterday. But we’re underway at Saratoga Race Course for the 151st racing meeting, and as always, you’ll find a list here of all of the terrific events going on in Saratoga this summer. Our list comprises events relating to…
JIM BOND HAS BEEN TRAINING horses for 40 years. He’s won dozens of graded stakes races, including the Whitney Handicap, the Travers Stakes, the Metropolitan Handicap, and the Donn Handicap. But after his 3-year-old Rinaldi won the New York Stallion Stakes Spectacular Bid Division June 23 at Belmont Park, he declared, “This is the most…
World of Trouble had no problem securing his third consecutive graded stakes win and seventh win in his past eight races, sizzling over a firm Belmont Park Widener turf course June 8 to win the $400,000 Jaipur Invitational Stakes (G1T). Sent to the front by Manny Franco after breaking from post 6, the son of Kantharos cleared the field and dropped…
When I talked to Donna Brothers before this year’s Kentucky Derby, she was well into her preparation for the big race. She has a lifetime’s experience on horseback, she knows the racing industry as well as anyone, and she’s been conducting interviews on horseback during national telecasts for nearly two decades. While certainly not blasé…
Mike McEntire and Kimberly Prickett were not going to attend the Belmont Stakes. They were definitely not going to go. No way. The South Carolina residents had been on the road a lot this spring, attending the Kentucky Derby in Louisville and the Preakness Stakes in Baltimore two weeks later. In late May, they went…
Eleven years ago, Robert LaPenta found himself hoisting, somewhat improbably, the Belmont Stakes (G1) trophy, after his Da’ Tara, at odds of 38.5-1, the longest shot in the field, romped home by 5 1/4 lengths. Big Brown , winner of the Kentucky Derby Presented by Yum! Brands and Preakness Stakes (both G1), was distanced, finishing last. A…
On Thursday afternoon, just about exactly 24 hours before the gate would open for the listed Tremont Stakes, two-year-old Rookie Salsa was happily ensconced in his stall at the receiving barn at Belmont Park. He poked his head out inquisitively. He munched hay. Occasionally, he stamped his foot, as if demanding attention. Then she softened.…
There are a lot of thankless jobs in horse racing—outrider, groom, hotwalker come to mind—but few of them are as open to public scrutiny as the morning-line oddsmaker. The work of the morning-line oddsmaker is visible daily, its correctness able to be assessed by anyone interested enough to pay attention. And while a sharp morning…
Brooklyn Backstretch 