On the day that the Holy Bull Stakes was run at Gulfstream Park, a son of that 1994 Horse of the Year added to his Kentucky Derby points total with a win in the Grade III Withers at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York. Sunny Ridge earned 10 Derby points with his Withers win, adding…
“Originally this race was run over the memorable six-furlong straight course at Morris Park, then the newest and most elaborate of Metropolitan racing plants—which was a bit down grade and for that reason nicknamed the “toboggan slide”. (sic) (Hervey) As racing historian John Hervey notes above, the name of the Toboggan has nothing to do…
“No man in the country was more widely esteemed by racing men.” David Dunham Withers was born in 1822 in New York City; he and his family lived downtown on Greene Street, now in fashionable Soho. When his parents married, the couple was given a cottage by the bride’s father as a wedding present. According…
Gulfstream Park: The GII, $350,000 Holy Bull at 1 1/16 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 10-4-2-1) #1 Perfect Saint (20-1): Romans charge was 5-1 in a local optional claimer 21 days ago but didn’t run an inch behind his impressive stablemate Cherry Wine, who passed on this to await the GII Fountain of Youth here…
Aqueduct: The GIII, $250,000 Withers at 1 1/16 miles (Kentucky Derby qualifying points: 10-4-2-1) #1 Donegal Moon (15-1): It’s rare you get a longshot from Pletcher in a 3yo graded stakes, but this son of Malibu Moon certainly fits the bill, as he was well-beaten by today’s favorite Flexibility in the GII Remsen to end…
When the National Handicapping Championship kicks off later today at Treasure Island in Las Vegas, more than 500 players will take a shot at the $800,000 prize. One of them, Jonathon Kinchen, will be playing for considerably more than that–$2 million more to be exact. The winner of the 2015 National Handicapping Championship tour, Kinchen…
Last November, Ross Peddicord came to New York’s Equus Film Festival as an ambassador for Maryland horse racing. He expected the festival, which was being held for the second consecutive year in Manhattan, to serve as a platform for showcasing Maryland’s myriad equine activities. He didn’t expect to leave the festival wanting to bring a…
Whenever I write about women and racing, I can count on getting at least two reactions. One is the private messages, texts, and phone calls from women, the ones in which women share their experiences (“but please don’t write this … I want to keep working in the industry”) about unequal pay, about harassment, about…
The new year is so far indeed a happy one for 5-year-old Saythreehailmary’s and her connections. On Jan. 10 at Aqueduct Racetrack, the dark bay mare picked up where she left off in 2015, winning her second consecutive stakes race and first in open company when she took the Ladies Handicap by 1 3/4 lengths. On Dec.…
With great pleasure I post the first of Brian Nadeau’s analyses of this year’s Kentucky Derby preps. We started this way back in 2009, and I am thrilled that Brian is back for another year. Brian handicaps at Horseplayer Now, is a regular on Capital OTB TV in upstate New York, and writes a weekly Breeders’ Cup…
Brooklyn Backstretch 