When the Yankees take to the field tonight to try to keep their series alive, Alex Rodriguez will once again be watching from the dugout. And while the one-time superstar might be smarting from such an ignominious end to the season, he might take heart from knowing that another New York A Rod has got…
I was standing on the apron at Keeneland on a recent, raw Sunday morning when my phone buzzed with a text message. I looked, and this face appeared. I’m not one for recognizing out-of-context equine faces, but that distinct, funny blaze, along with the sender’s name, clued even me in. But that wasn’t a Saratoga…
It’s Sunday morning at Belmont Park, and Jimmy Toner’s phone is acting up. “I was watching the race last night and I got so excited I must have hit it or something,” he says with a rueful grin. “It stopped working right.” “The race” was the G3 Hawthorne Derby, and Toner was so excited because…
It’s a few minutes past 7 a.m. on a Saturday morning in Lexington, Kentucky; it’s still pretty much dark out, and the temperature is a few ticks north of 40 degrees. But it’s opening weekend at Keeneland Race Course, and the ground floor of the grandstand is bustling. The horses have been on the track…
TAA press release New York, N.Y. – October 11, 2012 – The Thoroughbred Aftercare Alliance (TAA) announced today that several industry groups, including 13 prominent breeding farms in Kentucky, The Jockey Club, two racetracks of the Stronach Group, the California Retirement Management Account (CARMA), Keeneland Association, Fasig-Tipton, Barretts Equine Limited and Ocala Breeders’ Sales Company…
Two years ago, a yearling bay filly went through the sales ring at Keeneland. Her sire, Empire Maker, won the Florida Derby, Wood Memorial, and Belmont Stakes, and he finished second in the Kentucky Derby. Still, no one was much interested in the filly; bidding reached $22,000, less than her reserve, and she left the…
When Emma’s Encore walks onto the track at Keeneland this afternoon for the Grade II Thoroughbred Club of America, she will, in a sense, be coming home. She was sold for $22,000 at the Keeneland September sale in 2010; she ran here as a two-year-old; and her owners both live in the Bluegrass. Their proximity…
In the five months since the first target date for the Aqueduct injury report came and went, rumors and questions abounded about its contents and the process by which it was compiled. Through much of the Saratoga meet, whispers of new release dates circulated weekly, with no official information coming from either the governor’s office…
The last time Barry K. Schwartz, former CEO and co-founder of Calvin Klein Inc., won a Grade 1 race was in 1999. His trainer, Michael Hushion, had never won one. On Saturday at Belmont Park, Schwartz had two rooting and one betting interest in the Grade 1 Vosburgh Invitational Stakes. A three-year-old colt that he…
On Sunday at Belmont, the Matron will be run for the 106th time – inaugurated in 1892, it was open to both fillies and colts until 1902. That year, it was run in two divisions: one for the colts, one for the fillies. The purse for the race was divided among them, if not exactly…
Brooklyn Backstretch 