2012—well, late 2011—was supposed to be the start of a new era for New York racing. After a decade of uncertainty, the leadership and financial holes were closed, management stabilized, a positive revenue stream guaranteed by the opening of the Genting Resorts World New York City casino at Aqueduct Racetrack, a percentage of whose profits…
Like those poor refugees in Casablanca, here in New York, we continue to wait…and wait…and wait. We wait for Governor Cuomo’s announcement about the reconfiguration of the NYRA board, the board that will be made up mostly of the governor’s appointees, the board that will graciously allow a horsemen’s representative to attend board meetings but…
Pure Thoughts Horse Rescue is no stranger to adversity. As a non-profit operating on a shoestring in Loxahatchee, Florida, it has faced budget shortfalls and unexpected expenses; it has responded on short notice to requests to save horses. Once, it set out to rescue 25 horses and ended up with nearly seven times that many. But nothing…
I am sleeping, I am told, in John Morrissey’s room. It’s on the second floor of the Adelphi Hotel, opening on one side to the grand Adelphi hallway, on the other to the iconic second floor piazza, three stories high, above street level, overlooking, but unobserved by, Broadway. I am told that Morrissey sat here…
If it weren’t for horse racing, we might not have any hockey at all. On September 2 at Del Mar, Howe Great finished second in the Del Mar Derby; Old Time Hockey was fifth, barely three lengths behind the winner. Last Saturday, Sean Avery made a victorious return to the track after an absence of…
Remember the trees? Remember the grass? Remember how they used to help a tired horseplayer forget about the losers? Remember Belmont? (Cady) In May 1968, Belmont Park re-opened after a nearly six-year renovation. During its absence from the New York racing scene, the horses ran at Aqueduct and Saratoga, the latter retaining its usual summer…
Saying good-bye to Saratoga is never easy. Shakespeare wrote of Cleopatra that “age cannot with her, nor custom stale her infinite variety,” and every summer, every week, those words come to mind as I make my way around the old Spa. She has aged, that is certain; parts of her this year are 148 years…
Once upon a time, there was a horse called Spinaway. She was a chestnut, and she was born in 1878. Pedigree Query says that she raced nine times and won seven races, and that her career ended when she was three, in 1881. That year, someone in Saratoga named after a stakes race for her.…
On Monday afternoon, Allen Jerkens got his second win of the Saratoga meeting. Both victories came in stakes races, both with fillies. In the winner’s circle, he seemed as overwhelmed and touched by winning the Saratoga Dew, an overnight stakes with a purse of $100,000 as he did when he won the Grade 1 Prioress…
Just six more days of racing left, and this afternoon, I head back to Brooklyn for a few days of back-to-school meetings. One of my saddest summer moments is writing about the Saratoga events that I won’t be here for…and noting that our once-long list of things to do here has shrunk. But still…what a…
Brooklyn Backstretch 