Commenter John S. shares with us the origin of the term “hands down,” used to describe Watson’s victory in the first running of the Jerome: It is so common in our language, but who knew it actually is a horse racing termfrom the 1800s, used to describe a jockey loosening the reins and dropping hishands…
Saturday morning was the coldest so far of this early fall; I’d remembered to bring a winter coat and scarf to Saratoga, but neglected gloves, and leaving the house at 7:45 am, I regretted the oversight. The morning was gorgeous: crisp and incredibly blue, throwing the colors in the trees into brighter relief. I couldn’t…
A few notes on Brooklyn Backstretch favorites on this chilly upstate morning… Thorn Song, referred to here as a “treat whore” in August, wired the field in the Shadwell Turf Mile on Saturday at Keeneland. His racing at this level has been disappointing for some time and he clearly didn’t much like Saratoga, but he…
Spectators at Jerome Park, courtesy of the Library of CongressBelmont offers four graded stakes this racing weekend, three today and one tomorrow. Two-year-old fillies and colts compete on the dirt in the Frizette and Champagne, respectively, both Grade I’s; three year olds go over the grass in the Grade II Jamaica; and tomorrow, three-year-olds run…
Updated: This post appears today on website of The Blood-Horse, in the new Thoroughbred Bloggers Alliance “stall” in the Blood-Horse blog stable, and I intended to post a link to the Blood-Horse site, rather than put the piece in both places. The article that I sent to be published was originally formatted in such a…
Just a couple of thoughts before heading to Saratoga for the weekend; the Oklahoma is still open, so I’m hoping to head over there for autumn workouts, which are just as wonderful as summer workouts. I did read recently, though, that repairs on the Oklahoma drainage systems had led to all of the horses being…
I was recently musing about whether there might be some life-sustaining, mortgage-paying way to combine racing and education; while many companies employ educators and establish education programs about their work, my sense has been that most of them don’t pay a lot and don’t provide the same sort of perks (read: vacations) that my current…
Keeping good company, in Meatpacking District destination Pastis… …and courtesy of T.D. Thornton, of Suffolk Downs and Not by a Longshot: A Season at a Hard-Luck Horse Track, from Garrison Savannah Racetrack in Barbados…
Curlin did more than satisfy thousands of racing fans on Saturday afternoon; he also made the lives of the folks on the backstretch in New York a little better. The sale of Curlin T-shirts made $10,500 for Backstretch Employees Service Team, and the future sale of any shirts will also benefit BEST. Thanks to those…
If you haven’t listened to Tom Durkin’s call of Saturday’s Turf Classic, you should. The admiration for Grand Couturier is there in his voice; for a few moments at the end, he sounds more like a fan than a professional race-caller: And Grand Couturier is cut loose! At the top of the stretch! GrandCouturier now…
Brooklyn Backstretch 