Happy Fourth of July! Across the country, we will spend today grilling; watching baseball; drinking beer; going to the beach; sitting in traffic; watching fireworks. Some of us will be working; some might make it to the racetrack. We’ll see friends and family. If you live in New York, you’ll enjoy the blissful emptiness and…
Sometimes, being third feels like winning the Kentucky Derby. Or so it seemed to me, as I watched the connections of Above All Odds exult when he crossed the wire a nose in front of Crafty CJ, six lengths behind the winner. The people around us (all twelve of them, at Belmont on a Wednesday…
No, that’s not a description of how I’m feeling these days (though this upcoming long weekend is a welcome prospect). No, Lucky To Cope is a six-year-old Florida-bred gelding whose “acquaintance” I made on March 3rd, 2007, courtesy of simulcasting at the Meadowlands. My sister-in-law was throwing a surprise party for my brother there that…
Especially in the aftermath of the Belmont bathroom debacle, NYRA has gotten a lot of criticism about its customer service. Now I recognize that an answered e-mail is not quite the same as a flushing toilet, but I commend the organization for its responsiveness. For the third time, an e-mail that I sent with a…
For my post last week on the Mother Goose, I spent a good deal of time researching and verifying what I was reading about the change in the configuration of the Triple Tiara—I checked multiple and sources, and I felt confident that what I wrote was correct: that currently, the series comprises the Mother Goose,…
Another Grade I at Belmont, another win for the longest shot on the board. Didn’t have this one, unfortunately, though I’m a little mad that I didn’t, as my eyes kept going back to Frost Giant in the program, and I dismissed my interest. Woulda, coulda, shoulda…but not nearly as bad poor Patrick’s day. I…
Today’s 115th running of the Suburban Handicap at Belmont is the last leg of the Handicap Triple Crown, a concept with which I’ve become enamored over the last few months and that is largely ignored by the rest of the racing world. It’s not as if trainers circle the dates of the Handicap Triple Crown…
Last spring, Greg Avioli’s decision to re-name the Distaff and to move all the filly/mare races to Friday occasioned much discussion in the racing press and in blogs. Some of us were even moved to start a petition to express our distress at this move, and to ask that Avioli and the Breeders’ Cup re-consider…
What with the trifecta of bad racing news over the last couple of days, (the Jeremy Rose suspension and the Dutrow/Asmussen violations), I’m going to focus on some good racing news. As both the NY Daily News and Green but Game reported earlier this month, Casino Drive and his connections developed quite a relationship with…
On Tuesday Santa Anita announced that it will completely overhaul its track surface, replacing its current Cushion track with Pro-Ride, the first track in this country, I believe, to use the Pro-Ride surface. The Paulick Report links to the Santa Anita press release and reports its own research (in slightly less detail than I’d like–you…
