At 5:30 this morning, I was awakened by the wind howling down my block and around my building, fresh off the river. It was still dark out, but the streetlights showed that the snow had mostly stopped. I thought about my 8:30 appointment this morning, the one that I would certainly cancel, heeding the oft-repeated…
It’s 7:30 am, and I’m already behind. Not a single present is wrapped, and in fact, there are a couple still to be purchased…and located, so efficiently did I store the few that I’d purchased early. Christmas cards? Ha! Holiday cards this year – New Year’s, or maybe even Valentine’s Day. But the caponata is…
Ah, library day. After a few days of shopping for Christmas, visiting farms, and seeing friends, Tuesday was the day set aside for spoiling myself at the Keeneland Library, for delving into racing’s past, for exploring the Library’s precious collections, for reading and writing and taking notes. After calling on the unparalleled knowledge of librarian…
The envelope for the key to my room tells me that my hotel “sits on some of Lexington’s oldest thoroughbred farm land. It spans some 1300 acres, and was once an integral part of the Madden Family’s (sic) ‘Hamburg Place Farm.’” John Madden named his farm after his champion two-year-old colt; according to Maryjean Wall,…
My first post on synthetic racing surfaces was on September 26, 2007, nine days after this site was launched. I suppose that I can rightly be called a synthetic skeptic; while heartened at the possibility of a surface that would decrease injuries, I found hasty, and perhaps even dangerous, the quick adoption of synthetics without…
Who says New York racing conversations can’t be interesting in freezing mid-December? Who said anything about the racing doldrums? Maybe we should thank NYC-OTB and our dear elected representatives 200 miles to the north for giving us so much fodder for chatter in this holiday season. The New York Racing Association has been widely pilloried…
On Saturday morning, the immense stillness of Belmont Park in December echoed with sounds of happy children. Having outgrown its usual home at Anna House, the ninth Belmont Child Care Association holiday party took over the Belmont Café, on the ground floor of the clubhouse, so that the children of the backstretch workers could select…
The news from NYRA continues to arrive fast and furious, on matters both OTB and otherwise. In the “let’s get people to bet at NYRA” category, the Association released the following news today: Beginning next Wednesday, customers can sign up instantly for a NYRA Rewards account; members who sign up by December 31 will be…
Certainly, there are a number of variables to consider, but here’s a quick glance at NYRA’s numbers today compared to the last two Wednesdays of racing. There was no racing last Wednesday because of bad weather, and no racing on this day (second Wednesday after Thanksgiving) last year. Attendance Wednesday, 11/17: 2013 Wednesday, 11/24: 2,016…
On Saturday night, after spending the day at Aqueduct, I stumbled across The Rocket, a 2007 Canadian movie about Maurice Richard, who played for the Canadiens from 1942 to 1950 1960. Richard was the first player both to score 500 goals in a career and to score 50 goals in 50 games. One of the…
Brooklyn Backstretch 