As an erstwhile Saratogian, I look forward to the Travers every year, regardless of who’s running. As a turf writer, I hope that the race will play an important role in the sport’s landscape. As a racing historian, I want the Midsummer Derby to yield something noteworthy that future generations of racing fans might read…
Earlier this year, the New York State Racing and Wagering Board launched a public database detailing breakdowns, injuries, and deaths at New York’s racetracks. In June, it was discovered that the database contained erroneous information (I wrote about it here and here), notably that at least two horses that were listed as having been euthanized…
If you think that acrimony, turf wars, and internecine bickering in the racing industry are recent phenomena, a look at the 1877 Saratoga season will quickly disabuse you. While the opening of that meeting was greeted with the usual hyperbole, it was not without its controversy. Several weeks in advance of the July 25 opening…
How can it be Travers week? Wasn’t opening day just last week? We’re down to 12 racing days at the Spa…12! Say it ain’t so. Please. Say it ain’t so. Looks like there’s not going to be a lot of suspense in the jockey and trainer titles this year…Ramon Dominguez leads the jockeys with 47…
You know that horse that crashed into Jackson Bend yesterday, Little Nick? And that horse that won yesterday’s Arlington Million, Little Mike? They’re half-brothers. That little tidbit of trivia comes via trainer Rick Schosberg, passed on to him by his father, Paul, past president and director emeritus of New York Thoroughbred Breeders. Hay Jude, dam…
“The weather was bright and warm, the track fast, and the betting lively.” So the New York Times described Alabama day, 1883. So far, we’re running neck and neck with that day 129 years ago: it’s a glorious, perfect Spa morning, and the track is indeed fast. The betting will, we can assume, be lively—indeed…
Two weeks from today…I head back to Brooklyn for opening of school meetings. How can the meet have progressed this far already? At the end of week three, Ramon Dominguez has ridden 39 winners, nearly double that of the man in second place, Jose Lezcano with 21. Among trainers, Todd Pletcher has 20 victories; Chad…
It’s been quite a summer for Barbara Banke and Stonestreet Farm. On opening day of the Saratoga meeting, they sent out their first 2012 Spa starter in the fifth race. Kauai Katie, named for Banke and Jess Jackson’s daughter who was recently married in Hawaii, won by 12 lengths. Since then, Stonestreet has started five…
A two-year-old owned by a prominent member of the racing community wins a bevy of stakes races. A physical setback keeps him away from the track, and though he returns to the races, he never quite regains his earlier form, and he is retired to stud at the end of his four-year-old season. At six,…
Friday morning, Thoroughbred racing celebrated the best the sport has to offer when this year’s Racing Hall of Fame class was inducted in front of a packed house at the Fasig-Tipton sales pavilion. Scheduled keynote speaker Steven Crist had to cancel due to the death of his mother, film critic Judith Crist, but the presenters…
Brooklyn Backstretch 