When my students and I discuss literature, we talk a lot about authorial intent: How do we find out what it is? Does it matter? Is it meaningful/significant if we find meaning/significance in something that the author didn’t intend, or even rejects? Mostly, I tell them to rely on the words of the page, to…
Got an e-mail yesterday from NYRA titled “Ladies Handicap—Sweet Goodbye.” That’s nice, I thought; NYRA recognizes the importance of the race and is going to acknowledge that it may not be run again. Silly me. Sweet Goodbye, trained by Christopher Grove, drew the four hole and will be ridden by Juan Acosta. The good news…
I live in a city that takes unabashed glee in the evisceration of its physical history. Tourist and natives alike are hard-pressed to discover any remnants of the Dutch and British settlements that settled Manhattan; little is left of the glory of the Gilded Age; and even the more recent bohemian period is barely discernible…
Andy Serling of NYRA writes with some updates/info on recent topics. Commenter LJK wrote on Monday to call attention to Conformondi, who went down after winning at Aqueduct last week; he said that it looked “catastrophic,” but Serling tells us that the horse only stumbled, and got up and walked off the track on his…
When last we saw Saratoga Russell, he was struggling home last in the Gotham. He’d gone to the lead and faded badly in the stretch, emerging from the fog to stagger home. He had been so impressive to that point: second in his first start in November 2007 at Aqueduct, setting sizzling fractions before National…
A friend recently told me about a local numbers game in Washington Heights, the neighborhood in northern Manhattan in which he grew up. As a kid, he worked at one of the local bodegas, and folks from the neighborhood would come in daily to lay down a few dollars on that day’s numbers. The winning…
Three horses break down at Aqueduct over the last week, but over two tracks—what does that mean? RIP, Megadiva; Yes She’s a Lady appeared to be OK after unseating Rajiv Maragh in the collision; both he and Winston Thompson were uninjured. Decided in the paddock: put a great sports bar at the Big A. Good…
Visitors to Aqueduct were greeted with this winter wonderland… …and Marines collecting donations for Toys for Tots. (But no menorah?) Snow on the Belmont backstretch this morning… …and around the turf course, rails splintered and on the ground, like so many discarded white matchsticks, waiting to be re-assembled in three months. Five Nine more New…
On July 23rd, 1914, it was good to be James Butler. Six years earlier, he’d finally won his battle with the Jockey Club, and his Empire City race track in Yonkers, NY was given dates on the New York racing calendar. Now, in 1914, his own race track was running a race named after his…
Don’t forget: Toys for Tots at Aqueduct on Saturday! Marines will be on the first floor of the clubhouse accepting unwrapped toys from noon to 2 pm. You can also donate cash; make checks payable to Toys for Tots. And odds be damned, I’ll be rooting for Gary Contessa’s five entries on Saturday, as he’s…
Brooklyn Backstretch 