Last Wednesday, the children and the teachers at Anna House celebrated Thanksgiving. Taking a break from their usual lessons and activities, they paused to give thanks, the day before most of us celebrated the holiday. And on Thursday morning, as many of us slept late or cooked for our loved ones, Anna House opened at…
When Hollywood Park in Inglewood, California closed forever last December, it left a hole in the Southern California racing calendar. Hollywood’s racing schedule typically ran from April to mid-July, when Thoroughbred racing headed south to Del Mar for the boutique summer meet, then resumed in November and December. And while Del Mar is known for…
A film festival that originated near Chicago will makes its New York City debut at The MIST in Harlem this weekend. Founded by horsewoman Lisa Diersen, the Equus Film Festival began last year with the Festival of the Horse and Drum, a multicultural equine festival with Native American themes that Diersen describes as “kind of…
In the first of a series of quarterly meetings, executives from the New York Racing Association took questions from customers in an hour-long question-and-answer session Nov. 15 at Aqueduct Racetrack. Located in Longshots, the simulcast facility that opened in April, the meeting provided an opportunity for Chris Kay, NYRA president and CEO, to present the…
A grim winter at Aqueduct In late 2011 and early 2012, horses racing at Aqueduct Racetrack in Queens, New York died in alarming numbers: 21 of them between Nov. 30, 2011 and March 18, 2012, nearly double the number that suffered catastrophic injuries in the same period the previous year. It was a time of…
The agenda for the Nov. 12 meeting of the board of the New York Racing Association was short and sweet: to discuss a re-privatization plan for the organization due next spring to the office of New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. And while board chair David Skorton cautioned that no decisions would be made at the…
Aqueduct looks great. I never thought that it looked quite as bad as many people said, but the improvements over the last few years have resulted in a track that is, yes, attractive. The murals on the main floor debuted about a year ago; eye-catching, intriguing, they are ubiquitous, and while the Big A regulars…
At the Keeneland September sale of yearlings in September, Bridlewood Farm’s John Malone set a personal record when he bought a $1.1 million filly, more than he’d ever paid for a Thoroughbred. Bidding again at Keeneland yesterday, he went one better, setting a North American record for a weanling when he went to $3 million…
Before the $5 million Breeders’ Cup Classic at Santa Anita Park on Saturday afternoon, plenty of people thought Bayern could win the race. But when it was over, and he crossed the finished line first, plenty of people thought he shouldn’t have. Breaking from post 7 in a field of 14 horses, Bayern swung sharply…
As an 89-pound high school freshman on the wrestling team, Kelly Breen dreamed about being a jockey. Growing up in Old Bridge, New Jersey, he went to nearby Monmouth Park with his family, and though small and light enough to think he’d have a shot, he realized that he’d unlikely be able to develop the…
Brooklyn Backstretch 