The combined forces of The Blood-Horse’s writers have done a terrific job of exploring the various issues associated with synthetic track surfaces. As with most issues that can be viewed from multiple perspectives, I suspect that readers will bring their biases (no pun intended) to this issue of the magazine, and that both detractors and…
More Evening Attire news: Steve Crist writes about him in his blog, proving that even handicappers have hearts, and Jenny Kellner wrote a follow-up article on the NYRA website, focusing on Evening Attire’s “grandfather,” Tim Kelly, Hall of Fame trainer; breeder and part owner of Evening Attire; and father of Pat Kelly, Evening Attire’s current…
In today’s Saratogian, Michael Veitch writes about Evening Attire’s victory in the Queens County on Saturday and links it compellingly to the racing franchise debacle, throwing darts squarely at New York State’s three political, ahem, “leaders.” With the clock winding down on the New York Racing Association’s license toconduct racing, Evening Attire was a noble…
At approximately 6:25 this evening, I was jumping up and down in my living room, pumping my fist, and saying, “Come on! Come on! Get up! Get up!” My cats looked at me as if I were crazy, and apparently the Thoroughbred Action replay of the Queens County Handicap heard me, as Evening Attire did…
It’s a little weird to be going to a racetrack and not to the races, but for the second weekend in a row, that’s what I’m doing. Today is the Anna House holiday party, at which the children of the backstretch workers can pick out donated presents to give to their families. The parents wait…
The Race Track Industry Program of the University of Arizona holds annually its Symposium on Racing & Gaming, which is currently taking place in Tucson; much of the news generated about the racing world this week has come from the symposium, and you can see a full list of its programs here. I went in…
It’s late and I’m cranky, because I just gave up a perfectly good evening to watch my beloved Blueshirts embarrass themselves for the second consecutive game, this time against Original Six rival Toronto. It was ugly, folks; it was ugly. The Canadian National Anthem was by far the most pleasant part of the evening. So…
The front page of the NYRA website today has a story on the upcoming Anna House holiday party in which the children will get to choose presents to give to their families. Even better, the story is written by Jenny Kellner, who was a panelist at the women in racing panel at the benefit for…
…the mood inside was indeed delightful. At the end of my last post I wrote about the giddiness friends and I were feeling as we left a dismal Aqueduct on early Sunday afternoon. The brunch to benefit the Backstretch Employees Service Team was held on the fourth floor of the clubhouse, in a private room…
When I woke up this morning and saw the messy weather (which wasn’t supposed to happen until this afternoon—way to go, weather people), I was a little worried that the B.E.S.T. program on Women in Racing would be cancelled. Not only was it not cancelled, but the turnout was pretty impressive for a snowy Sunday…
Brooklyn Backstretch 