How do I love thee, New York Showcase Day? Let me count the ways! Tomorrow at Belmont Park is all about New York, on and off the track. And having spent all but 10 years of my life here, I am rather an unabashed cheerleader for all things Empire State. (OK, maybe not all things.…
Charities of various flavors take advantage of the throngs that descend on Saratoga during racing season: every week, even every night, events both modest and elaborate take place across the Spa City. The terrific spirits shop Crush and Cask supported a number of charities with Tuesday night wine tastings, and Chianti Il Ristorante offers diners…
My autumn tracks are Belmont and Keeneland, both of which are beautiful in the fall. Both tracks race in the spring, too, but they seem somehow made for colorful foliage, for chilly temperatures, for bridging the transition from tank tops to sweaters. Saratoga is all about the summer, but it, too, is resplendent in the…
A quick check-in before heading upstate to see the family, catch the last of the fall foliage along the Taconic, and squeeze in one more visit to the Oklahoma before training there comes to an end next month. Bennett Liebman has provided some further information and stories on the Saratoga saddling area, this one from…
Ah, holiday weekends! Not sure what the justification is behind making Columbus Day a major holiday, but given the chance at a three-day weekend…I’ll take it. As usual, I spent Saturday at Belmont, where there were three Grade 1 races on tap: the Jamaica, the Frizette, and the Champagne. On Sunday I headed for points…
What a fun week it’s been! E-mails and Facebook comments and phone calls and website comments, all dropping nuggets of information about when the paddock at Saratoga changed. The saddling area under the trees at Saratoga is so iconic, and Saratoga itself so steeped in history, and Saratoga fans so aware of that history, that…
I haven’t yet seen Secretariat, though what I’ve heard about it suggests that perhaps it will be a Netflix or pay-per-view rental, instead of a $12.75/ticket night out in New York City. The absence of Riva Ridge – in even so much as a mention – from the movie has raised the ire of a…
Last week a Twitter follower asked me, in service of settling a bet, if I knew when the saddling area at Saratoga moved from under the backyard trees to its current location. I’ve asked: Andy Serling. Nick Zito. Allen Jerkens. Marshall Cassidy. My brother. Steve Crist. And so far, folks, we’ve got about a ten-year…
I watched the Jockey Club Gold Cup from the winner’s circle at Belmont Park on Saturday. It’s an ideal spot for about five seconds, the last five seconds of the race. The race started on the clubhouse turn, so most of us had to rely on the infield screen to see what was happening. I…
I didn’t think that I would write about Rachel Alexandra’s retirement. What was I going to say? That I was surprised? (I wasn’t.) That I found it odd? (I didn’t.) That I disagree with the decision? (I don’t.) That I’m disappointed? (I’m not.) Panegyrics have appropriately flooded the media, lauding the first three-year-old filly Horse…
Brooklyn Backstretch 